Google has threatened to close its search engine in Australia — as it dials up its lobbying against draft legislation that is intended to force it to pay news publishers for reuse of their content. Facebook would also be subject to the law. And has previously said it would ban news from being shared on its products owing if the law was brought in, as well as claiming it’s reduced its investment in the country as a result of……
This unassuming, but attractive brick building happens to be the birthplace of several devices and technologies that changed the world. In 1869, the first monkey wrench was crafted inside this building. This was also the same location that Thomas A. Watson answered the first phone call made over a line. Edwin Land and Polaroid laboratories also called the building home. Two plaques located on the side of the building commemorate its history. It’s appropriate that this building is now……
BERLIN — Germany’s health minister says the plan is to keep the original timeframe between doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Jens Spahn is signaling his country won’t follow Britain in delaying second doses of coronavirus vaccines in a bid to get more people inoculated. Germany is dealing with a slow start to vaccinations after they were launched nearly a month ago. Spahn asked a commission of scientists that advises authorities on vaccinations to consider the merits of delaying a…
A string of recent events in China’s payments industry suggests the duopoly comprising Ant Group and Tencent may be getting a shakeup. Following the abrupt call-off of Ant’s public sale and a government directive to reform the firm’s business, the Chinese authorities sent another message this week signaling its plan to curb concentration in the flourishing digital payments industry. The set of draft rules, designed to regulate non-bank payments and released by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) this……
Chess has a long history at MIT that began decades before 62 million households tuned in to Netflix’s miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit.” Though the show ranked as Netflix’s No. 1 in 63 countries within its first month, and sparked a global surge in the sale of chess sets and books, several members of MIT’s chess club say, with a laugh, that they haven’t seen it yet. Tyrone Davis III, a junior computer science major, a U.S. National Chess Master,……
Most Metro stations and bridges leading into Washington reopened Thursday following an extensive security shutdown for the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The U.S. Secret Service said the National Special Security Event that had been issued for the inauguration ended at noon Thursday. The District is gradually winding down security measures, though some Metro and road closures are likely to persist for the rest of the workweek. D.C.’s public safety officials said at a…
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico posted new one-day highs for the pandemic Thursday, with 22,339 newly confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,803 deaths from COVID-19 recorded for the previous 24 hours. The recent surge in cases has swamped hospitals. Mexico City is the country’s epicenter of the pandemic, and its hospitals are at 89% capacity, while nationwide 61% of hospital beds are filled. The difficulty in finding space in hospitals has led many families to try to treat their relatives…
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea is reporting its smallest daily increase in coronavirus infections in two months as officials express cautious hope that the country is beginning to wiggle out from its worst wave of the pandemic. The 346 new cases reported Friday brought the national caseload to 74,262. There have been 1,328 deaths related to COVID-19. Health authorities have clamped down on private social gatherings since late December, including setting fines for restaurants if they accept groups…
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week we — Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace — had more than a little to noodle over, but not so much that we blocked out a second episode. We try to stick to our current format, but, may do more shows in the future. Have a thought about that? equitypod@techcrunch.com is your friend and we are listening. Now! We took a broad approach this week, so……
A new report suggests there’s a pricey Apple VR headset in the works, Facebook’s Oversight Board will examine one of the social network’s most consequential decisions and we review the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. This is your Daily Crunch for January 21, 2021. The big story: Apple might be working on a VR headset Apple is developing a standalone virtual reality headset that could debut in 2022, according to Bloomberg. The headset is supposed to include a processor more……
Four MIT scientists are among the 20 recipients of the 2021 Academy Honors for major contributions to science, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced at its annual meeting. The individuals are recognized for their “extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, social, and medical sciences.” The awards recognize: Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, for contributions to the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology through his discovery of correlated insulator behavior and unconventional superconductivity in magic-angle graphene……
This white, gabled KFC could be mistaken for a particularly good-looking roadside fast-food restaurant, were it not for the fact that it’s on the National Register of Historic Places. This building was the first place to sell what would become known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, and a yellow neon sign with the restaurant’s original name, the Sanders Cafe, still retains pride of place. To be fair, the first place where Colonel Harland Sanders served food to customers was across……
A 3D-printed thruster that emits a stream of pure ions could be a low-cost, extremely efficient propulsion source for miniature satellites. The nanosatellite thruster created by MIT researchers is the first of its kind to be entirely additively manufactured, using a combination of 3D printing and hydrothermal growth of zinc oxide nanowires. It is also the first thruster of this type to produce pure ions from the ionic liquids used to generate propulsion. The pure ions make the thruster……
Like most things this year, the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ Reclamation exhibition did not go as initially planned. Curator and director of public programs Melani N. Douglass wanted to treat kitchen labor—the often-invisible daily work that disproportionately falls on women and feminine people—as high art. She envisioned an exhibition centered around kitchen-like spaces physically installed at the D.C. museum. When the pandemic struck, however, the museum moved the show online. The result is a digital exhibition……
As part of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future’s series of research briefs, Professor Thomas Malone, Professor Daniela Rus, and Robert Laubacher collaborated on “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work,” a brief that provides a comprehensive overview of AI today and what lies at the AI frontier. The authors delve into the question of how work will change with AI and provide policy prescriptions that speak to different parts of society. Thomas Malone is……
