United

Elon Musk co-authored a COVID-19 antibody study of SpaceX workers

More that 4,300 SpaceX employees volunteered to be part of a COVID-19 antibody study co-authored by CEO Elon Musk in 2020. The study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Communications, shows evidence that infected people who exhibited milder symptoms developed less of an immunity to COVID-19 than those who got sicker from the… Read more

Dish is confident in its plan to offer 5G in its first major cities by end of Q3 2021

Dish Network co-founder and chairman Charlie Ergen underscored the company’s commitment to building a 5G wireless network on today’s Q4 2020 earnings call. He restated the intention to bring 5G online in its first major cities by the end of Q3 2021 — that’s the period running from July through September — and was bullish… Read more

Malaysian news site fined $124,000 for five reader comments

A Malaysian news site was fined the equivalent of nearly $124,000 for five comments below an article. News outlet Malaysiakini has raised money to cover the fee of 500,000 ringgit, but human rights advocates say it was targeted for its reporting on government corruption, and they worry that the case could chill political speech online…. Read more

Dozens of Boeing 777 planes grounded in US and Japan after engine failure

Airlines in Japan and the US have grounded dozens of Boeing 777 aircraft after the dramatic engine failure that United Airlines flight 328 experienced over Denver this weekend. According to the National Transportation Safety Board’s ongoing investigation, two fan blades on the plane’s number 2 engine had developed fractures. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an… Read more

United Airlines flight safely lands after dramatic engine failure caught on camera

A United Airlines flight experienced a dramatic-looking engine failure just after takeoff from Denver International Airport on Saturday afternoon. UA328, originally headed to Honolulu, quickly circled back to the airport and made a safe landing after the pilots calmly made a “mayday” call to air traffic control. There were no injuries among the 231 passengers… Read more

COVID-19 vaccines are starting to work in the US

If you know where to look, you can see COVID-19 vaccines starting to save lives in the United States. It’s not in the overall case numbers, though those have been steadily dropping across the United States for weeks. Epidemiologists say there could be a few reasons for that decline: we’re past the holiday seasons surge… Read more

Disney Plus went down for some subscribers right when WandaVision’s new episode hit

Some Disney Plus users trying to watch WandaVision the minute it landed were met with loading issues as outage problems affected the streaming platform. A number of accounts mostly located on the West Coast of the United States were affected by a surge in traffic on the platform that caused an outage of roughly 10… Read more

NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully lands on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully touched down on the surface of Mars after surviving a blazing seven-minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere. The rover’s clean landing sets the stage for a years-long journey to scour the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater for ancient signs of life. Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California confirmed… Read more

NASA is set for its most daring attempt to land on Mars in a search for ancient life

On February 18th, NASA will make a daring attempt to land a car-sized rover on Mars in its most complex mission yet to hunt for ancient extraterrestrial life. If it survives the plunge through the Red Planet’s atmosphere, the Perseverance rover will kick off the first leg of a grand relay race to capture humanity’s… Read more

The Mac mini with the M1 processor is discounted at several retailers

Apple’s new Mac mini with the M1 chip is on sale at select retailers. If you are looking to buy the base configuration, which has 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage, you can grab it for as low as $600 at Costco, but please note membership is required. If you don’t want a… Read more

Finicky COVID-19 vaccines raise the stakes of power outages

Winter storms paralyzing the United States have left millions without power and sent health officials scrambling to protect freezers full of COVID-19 vaccines, which have to be kept at extremely low temperatures or risk going bad. Rolling blackouts through Texas took out at least one set of freezers full of the Moderna vaccine; 5,000 doses… Read more

What did we learn from the GameStop mess?

On this week’s Decoder, I sat down with CNBC anchor Jon Fortt to talk about GameStop, how the media covered it, what happens next for the market, and what — if anything — we learned from it all. We also talked about his new online course, The Black Experience in America. This transcript has been… Read more

Biden to Address Chip Shortages, Semiconductor Supply Chains

Home News (Image credit: TSMC) Update: Clarified specifics pertaining to the industry letter. If you’re still disappointed at not being able to buy a Ryzen 5000 series chip yet, you’ve apparently got some friends in high places. President Biden is just as annoyed as you, according to a new statement from White House Press Secretary… Read more

Biden to Address Chip Shortage After Lobbying From Intel, AMD

Home News (Image credit: TSMC) If you’re still disappointed at not being able to buy a Ryzen 5000 series chip yet, you’ve apparently got some friends in high places. President Biden is just as annoyed as you, according to a new statement from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, and is working to bring the… Read more

See how libraries are meeting ebook demand for the NYT Best Sellers list with this visualization

Fiction author, sourdough bread lover, and former Twitter executive Robin Sloan is answering a question you may have never thought to ask: which New York Times Best Sellers list ebooks are in the highest demand in the US public library system? Sloan created an interactive visualization that lets you see how many people are on… Read more