Science, Technology, and Social Media

The Arabic network Al Jazeera posted a video that questioned the Holocaust, saying “People are divided between those who deny the annihilation, others who think that the outcome was exaggerated, and others yet who accuse the Zionist movement of blowing it out of proportion.” Al Jazeera apologized for the video. But Twitter blocked people from sharing a version of the ...

First Flight on Schedule for 2021 Centennial, Colo., May 20, 2019 – United Launch Alliance leaders and engineers completed an important milestone with the conclusion of the system Critical Design Review (CDR) for the company’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. The system-level CDR is the final review of the design for the overall rocket. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for the ...

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley announced a bill Monday that allows Americans to block tech companies from tracking people’s locations without direct consent. Hawley’s legislation creates a program similar to the national Do Not Call list that gives people the power to prevent online companies from collecting any more data than what is otherwise necessary for the companies’ services. It ...

Google suspends some business with Huawei after President Donald Trump placed restrictions on technologies from foreign adversaries, Reuters reported Sunday, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter. Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company that the United States believes is engaged in foreign espionage, will lose access to updates to the Android operating system, as well as the next version of ...

A lot’s changed on the cyber front in the year since U.S. Cyber Command became a full and independent unified combatant command, and since Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone took over as commander and as director of the National Security Agency. Nakasone and Dana Deasy, the Defense Department’s chief information officer addressed those changes to the cyber security environment and ...

Pro-life group is accusing Instagram of shadow banning their content and removing their hashtags from the platform Let Them Live told The Daily Caller News Foundation that pro-choice activists likely pushed Instagram into shadow banning the group  Let Them Live is planning a rally in June at Instagram’s headquarters to protest what they believe is the company’s decision to suppress ...

Facebook blocked Trump 2020 campaign advisory board member Jenna Ellis Rives from sharing a screenshot of a tweet by citing “hate speech,” but Rives believes this is a part of a deliberate attempt to censor conservative commentary until it is no longer timely. Rives took a screenshot of a tweet from conservative commentator Matt Walsh and attempted to post it ...

San Francisco prohibited city police from using facial recognition technology to identify suspects, and now experts warn that the fledgling big tech tool might not be ready for prime time. Critics believe such technologies carry a huge risk as they are heavily guarded and the companies that deploy them tend to shy away providing too much information about their use. ...

Update: Wednesday night’s planned launch has been postponed. Upper winds over the launch area exceeded safety limits and the launch has been moved to Thursday night. Elon Musk’s private space company, SpaceX, plans to launch a multitude of internet-connectivity satellites from a Falcon 9 spacecraft Wednesday night. SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, May 15 for the launch of 60 Starlink satellites ...

The White House is inviting Americans to share their experiences having their social media accounts banned or suspended for “unclear” reasons through an online tool that launched Wednesday. “Social media platforms should advance freedom of speech. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies,” the webpage reads. “No matter ...

The United States birth rate hit a record low in 2018 with numbers reflecting the lowest birthrates in the past 30 years, reports say. A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that almost every age group of women under 35 showed birth rate declines in 2018. The ...

Ever since the emergence of social media, political activities have never been the same. It has completely changed how political communications take place and especially during elections. Political components such as politicians, political parties or foundations can use social media platforms like Facebook to communicate with voters during elections. Individuals are also able to voice their political opinions and connect ...

Google is locking down internal communications as the Silicon Valley giant works to contain a rash of leaks, BuzzFeed reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources inside the company. Google legal executive Kent Walker sent an email May 9 reminding employees that obtaining documents noted as “need to know” could result in termination, the report noted. Employees reportedly saw it as a ...

By Bob Holmes, Knowable Magazine A sunny disposition isn’t just good for your mental health. It’s good for your body, too. It can even add years to your life. Sarah Pressman, a health psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, has spent her career investigating the link between positive emotions and physical health. In the 2019 Annual Review of Psychology, ...

American diver Victor Vescovo descended nearly 7 miles into the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, breaking the world record for the deepest ocean dive in history. Vescovo, a private equity investor who climbed the world’s highest peaks before taking on the worlds deepest ocean depths, funded the diving expedition into the Mariana Trench himself, according to the BBC. The Mariana Trench ...