Three new scientific papers provide a fascinating and comprehensive analysis of the genomes of 777 humans who lived from the Neolithic period (about 10,000 years ago) to the Ottoman period (around 1700 CE). Altogether, the research adds nuance to the story of human dispersal and connection since the dawn of…
Fewer people commuting due to the COVID-19 pandemic means fewer people in need of carpools. That’s the reason Google-owned Waze has decided to shutter its six-year-old Carpool app, which matches riders and drivers headed in the same direction, reportedThe Verge. The company will begin shutting down the feature this September in the US, Brazil and Israel.
Waze’s Carpool app primarily was popular with commuters — the service offered a partner program so companies could offer it as a transportation alternative to workers. Waze Carpool drivers would get reimbursed (up to 54 cents per mile) in order to pick up passengers who lived on their way to work. Rather than a way to make extra bucks, most Carpool drivers saw it as a way to save on gas.
“While Waze was predominantly a commuting app pre-COVID, today the proportion of errands and travel drives have surpassed commutes,” Waze said in a statement given to The Verge.
The rise of telework and safety precautions during the pandemic has made carpools a lot less popular. Although more people are returning to the office this year, interest in carpools and public transportation ridership has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, the Washington Postnoted. More people are working hybrid work schedules or only stopping by the office for meetings or other events, which make make coordinating carpools or vanpools less convenient. As a result, more people are driving to work alone.
A redacted version of the affidavit justifying the FBI’s extraordinary actions at Mar-a-Lago has been released to the public after an order from a federal magistrate Judge. It contains multiple references to suspicion that Trump potentially had information in his residence that is specially compartmentalized to…
The state law prohibits 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying a handgun outside the home.
The Ford Thunderbird debuted in the 1950s, sporting an iconic design that would continue off and on for decades. But in 2005, it was discontinued. Here’s why.
Moderna and Pfizer are set to wage legal battle over the technology that led to their respective covid-19 vaccines. Moderna is now suing Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for the alleged infringement of patents related to the development of a viable mRNA vaccine platform that Moderna claims to have pioneered.…
Movies are made by the quality of their supporting characters. Oh sure, the leads are the people that drive the story, but if they don’t have quirky best friends to bounce off, what’s the point? And if the characters who appear in only a scene or two are equally as memorable? That’s even better.
Texas is standing up to bullies—big banks that bully oil and gas, that is. This week, the Texas’s comptroller’s office released a list of financial firms and funds it has determined are “boycotting” the oil and gas industry, directing pensions and other state funds to divest from these entities in accordance with…
The James Webb Space Telescope can do much more than produce astonishingimages of the universe. The observatory has, for the first time, found clear evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet that’s not in our solar system. It detected the gas on WASP-39 b, a gas giant that’s orbiting a star some 700 light years away.
The Hubble and Spitzer telescopes previously detected water vapor, sodium and potassium in the planet’s atmosphere. But JWST has more powerful and sensitive infrared capabilities and was able to pick up the signature of carbon dioxide as well.
Catch your breath — Webb has captured the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system! WASP-39 B is a gas giant closely orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light years away: https://t.co/FenLqV6HSopic.twitter.com/abJvqxfLdG
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 25, 2022
“Understanding the composition of a planet’s atmosphere can help us learn more about its origin and evolution,” an official JWST Twitter account notes. “Webb’s success here offers evidence that it could also be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets in the future.”
NASA previously released spectroscopic data JWST captured from WASP-96 b, a gas exoplanet that’s approximately 1,150 light years away. The observatory detected “the unambiguous signature of water,” along with haze and clouds, which were not previously believed to exist on WASP-96 b.
Also this week, researchers announced the discovery of an exoplanet that’s around 100 light years away. It was detected with the help of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and ground-based telescopes rather than JWST, but it might merit a closer look from the latter. Researchers believe that water could make up as much as 30 percent of the mass of TOI-1452 b, which has been deemed a “super-Earth.” It’s around 70 percent larger than Earth and it may have a “very deep ocean.”
Life happens, and it’ll be a while before I have a full assessment of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5. But so far, I’m pleased with what I’ve been wearing. As I’ve been working on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 reviews—the former of which is ready to read if you are—I’ve been testing the Galaxy Watch 5 to figure out what…
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