Misinformation fears after Facebook blacks out news in Australia

Facebook's news blackout in Australia has raised fears misinformation could come to dominate the platform in the country, with fake news and conspiracy theories left untouched while credible sources have been cut off.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-misinformation-facebook-blacks-news-australia.html

Why the world is watching Australia's tussle with Big Tech

Facebook's decision to pull news from its platform in Australia comes in response to legislation that would force tech giants to pay for sharing news content.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-world-australia-tussle-big-tech.html

Behind the power crisis in petroleum center Texas

Some 2.7 million households in Texas were still without power as of Wednesday morning in the wake of extremely cold weather buffeting the region.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-power-crisis-petroleum-center-texas.html

At the foot of the Pyrenees planes put out to pasture

Under the snow-capped Pyrenees, dozens of planes are lined up like toys on a shelf, at one of several airports in southern Europe where parking planes has become big business thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-foot-pyrenees-planes-pasture.html

Learning lifeline for London kids struggling to do online lessons

In a community centre in a deprived London suburb—surrounded by old computers and tangled leads—volunteers take their screwdrivers to the piles of donated equipment.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-lifeline-london-kids-struggling-online.html

In shock move, Facebook blocks news access in Australia

In a shocking act of retaliation Thursday, Facebook blocked Australians from sharing news, a milestone in the increasingly frantic jockeying between governments, media and powerful tech companies.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-facebook-blocks-news-access-australia.html

'7 minutes of terror': Perserverance rover's nail-biting landing phase

Seven months after blast-off, NASA's Mars 2020 mission will have to negotiate its shortest and most intense phase on Thursday: the "seven minutes of terror" it takes to slam the brakes and land the Perseverance rover on a narrow target on the planet's surface.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-minutes-terror-perserverance-rover-nail-biting.html

Was there ever life on Mars? NASA's Perseverance rover wants to find out

Seven months in space, a mission that was decades in the making and cost billions of dollars, all to answer the question: was there ever life on Mars?

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-life-mars-nasa-perseverance-rover.html

Pandemic savages airline sector

Dizzying losses, the looming threat of bankruptcies and tens of thousands of people thrown out of work: the aviation industry has been devastated by COVID-19 and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. The sector may be unrecognisable when it finally emerges.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-pandemic-savages-airline-sector.html

Cost controls, luxury sales help Daimler weather pandemic

Car and truck maker Daimler AG increased its profits by 48% to 4.0 billion euros ($4.8 billion euros) in 2020 thanks to extensive cost-cutting and a sales recovery in the second half for its highly profitable Merecedes-Benz luxury cars and sport-utility vehicles.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-luxury-sales-daimler-weather-pandemic.html

Frigid temperatures, power outages lead to water problems

About 7 million people in Texas—a quarter of the nation's second-most populous state—were told to boil their water or stop using it entirely as homeowners, hospitals, and businesses grappled with broken water mains and burst pipes, many in areas unaccustomed to dealing with sustained frigid temperatures.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-frigid-temperatures-power-outages-problems.html

Waymo brings robo-taxis to San Francisco in new test

Waymo, the autonomous driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, said Wednesday it would begin testing its driverless ride-hailing service on the streets of San Francisco.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-waymo-robo-taxis-san-francisco.html

Air pollution caused 160,000 deaths in big cities last year: NGO

Serious pollution caused around 160,000 premature deaths in the world's five most populous cities last year, even as air quality improved in some places due to coronavirus lockdowns, an environmental group said Thursday.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-air-pollution-deaths-big-cities.html

Pandemic pushes Air France-KLM deep into red in 2020

Air France-KLM said Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic "severely impacted" its earnings in 2020, pushing it deep into a net loss of 7.1 billion euros ($8.6 billion).

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-pandemic-air-france-klm-deep-red.html

'Perfect storm': phones, consoles could get pricier as chip crisis bites

Prices of popular gadgets such as PlayStations and iPhones could rise because of microchip shortages caused by a "perfect storm" of coronavirus-driven demand, supply chain disruptions and trade war stockpiling, experts warn.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-storm-consoles-pricier-chip-crisis.html

EXPLAINER: What's up between Google, Facebook and Australia?

For two decades, global news outlets have complained internet companies are getting rich at their expense, selling advertising linked to their reports without sharing revenue.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-google-facebook-australia.html

Power outages linger for millions as another icy storm looms

Utility crews raced Wednesday to restore power to nearly 3.4 million customers around the U.S. who were still without electricity or heat in the aftermath of a deadly winter storm while another blast of ice and snow threatened to sow more chaos.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-power-outages-linger-millions-icy.html

NASA rover streaks toward a landing on Mars

A NASA rover streaked toward a landing on Mars on Thursday in the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-nasa-rover-streaks-mars.html

Facebook blocks Australians from accessing news on platform

Facebook announced Thursday it has blocked Australians from viewing and sharing news on the platform because of proposed laws in the country to make digital giants pay for journalism.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-facebook-blocks-australians-accessing-news.html

Study finds no gender discrimination when leaders use confident language

People tend to listen to big talkers, whether they are women or men. Still, more women prefer not to use assertive language, according to a new study led by Washington State University economist Shanthi Manian.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-gender-discrimination-leaders-confident-language.html

Oil spill has long-term immunological effects in dolphins

A study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry has found long-term impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico on bottlenose dolphins' immune function.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-oil-long-term-immunological-effects-dolphins.html

How likely are consumers to adopt artificial intelligence for banking advice?

A new study published in Economic Inquiry is the first to assess the willingness of consumers to adopt advisory services in the banking sector that are based on artificial intelligence (AI). Investigators examined whether the likelihood that consumers adopt AI in banking services depends on tastes for human interaction across different cultures.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-consumers-artificial-intelligence-banking-advice.html

AI may mistake chess discussions as racist talk

"The Queen's Gambit," the recent TV mini-series about a chess master, may have stirred increased interest in chess, but a word to the wise: social media talk about game-piece colors could lead to misunderstandings, at least for hate-speech detection software.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-02-ai-chess-discussions-racist.html