Looking for good news about the planet’s future on Earth Day—an occasion often marked mainly by greenwashing corporate PR—can feel as doomed as fishing in the filthy, sometimes flammable rivers that spurred the first Earth Day in 1970. But if you may please pause your doomscrolling for a moment, cause for cautious optimism shouldn’t be far below the surface. American-made offshore wind power U.S. renewable energy adoption has lagged most visibly in offshore wind power
There’s nothing the video game world loves more than a good argument, and the rumored rise in interest in in-game ads on the PlayStation (and maybe Xbox) could be the industry’s next tempest in a teapot. Sony is reportedly working on a plan to put ads into titles on its platform, borrowing heavily from the model that has been so successful in the mobile gaming world. The goal of the initiative, reports Insider, is for the ads to be integrated into the games, such as appearing
Israel is one of the tiniest countries on Earth, but go hundreds of miles up and things look a bit different. Thanks to its homegrown orbital rocket, it is now the smallest of 16 countries with its own launch capability; a technology that was put on full display with the Beresheet mission of 2019, which made Israel just the fourth country to attempt a moon landing. (The attempt, which was partly privately funded, ultimately crashed into the lunar surface, but a second mission is planned for 2024
In January 2021, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez took to Twitter to declare his city the new cryptocurrency mecca. “The City of Miami believes in #Bitcoin,” he tweeted, “and I’m working day and night to turn Miami into a hub for crypto innovation.” Those weren’t just empty words: That same year, Suarez launched MiamiCoin, a crypto coin for the city that generated $5 million for the city since its launch. And with no state income tax and a corporate tax rate o
Kristine sat in a reclining chair, cocooned in an eyeshade and headphones, with a weighted blanket covering her lap. Incense burned in the background. She felt a pinch in her arm. “Okay,” the nurse said. “Have a nice trip!” Kristine peeled back her eye mask. “How long does it take to kick in?” she asked. “About 45 to 60 seconds,” the nurse said. “Okay, then. I’ll see you later,” Kristine said, bringing the mask back dow
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Like anyone, Mayuko Inoue craved a stable career, which she found working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. She also found burnout. So, after nearly six years working for Intuit, Patreon, and Netflix, Inoue decided to become a full-time YouTuber in 2020. It’s certainly not lost on her that she essentially hopped out of the fire of
For decades, robots have worked alongside humans. In the auto industry, for example, they’ve long been the most precise and reliable welders and painters. Sitting in place and doing the same job, over and over, has historically been automation’s sweet spot. But, with the explosion in artificial intelligence, robots are coming to understand more complex, nuanced tasks. And they are increasingly able to navigate, both inside and outside. In agriculture, robots are not only plowing fi
Netflix is entering uncharted territory as it tries to turn password sharers into paying customers. After a historically rough quarter in which the streaming giant lost 200,000 subscribers—and forecasted losing 2 million more in the quarter ahead—the company says it will crack down on users who share their accounts with people outside their homes. The company has been testing “Extra Member” plans in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and it now aims to bring similar initiat
Brave, the maker of a privacy-centric web browser and search engine, is addressing a big blind spot in its quest to take on Google by piping in search results from Reddit and other forums. Those forum threads will appear in a new “Discussions” breakout box whenever Brave’s search algorithm deems them relevant. These threads will appear inside the main search results page and will come from Reddit and Stack Exchange to start, with more sources to follow. Brave sees the new fe
In late 2019 then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that his company would look for ways to decentralize its social network to give users more control over their tweets and other content, and to rely less on Twitter itself to dictate what could and couldn’t be said on the platform. The idea was to use the blockchain, or something like it, to make Twitter more like email, where users can choose a “client”—that is, a software program or web program that acts like a fron