Welcome to the fourth issue of Tech Tuesdays!
Here’s what I found interesting this week:
Study finds that by age 3 kids prefer nature's fractal patterns
Despite the fact that most are raised in manmade structures with Euclidean geometry, suggesting that this may be something innate, and may explain how viewing nature’s fractals reduces stress and refreshes mental fatigue.
Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, and other Google services hit by massive outage
Multiple Google services and websites including YouTube, Gmail, Google Assistant, and Google Docs were down for around an hour on Monday morning after being hit with a widespread outage. Google acknowledged the issues with Gmail, affecting both its business and personal services, at 6:55AM ET, and said the problem was fixed for the “vast majority” of users at 7:52AM ET. Identical notices were posted across the status pages for the rest of Google’s services.
FTC Sues Facebook for Illegal Monopolization
The Federal Trade Commission sued Facebook, alleging that the company is illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.
YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud
“Our main goal going into the election season was to make sure we’re connecting people with authoritative information, while also limiting the reach of misinformation and removing harmful content. The work here is ongoing and we wanted to provide an update.”
Hyundai to acquire Boston Dynamics
The acquisition will be finalized at Hyundai’s December 10 board meeting. News about the deal was first reported by The Korea Economic Daily, which said the deal is for $921 million (1 trillion won). The Robot Report has also confirmed the news with a source familiar with the deal. The source said the acquisition is for about $1 billion.
It’s too dark, too contrasty, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.
EU countries team up for semiconductor push
Germany, France, Spain, and ten other EU countries have joined forces to invest in processors and semiconductor technologies, the key to internet-connected devices and data processing, in a push to catch up with the United States and Asia.
With a net worth of $134.7B, Musk recently surpassed Bill Gates as the second-richest person in the world, and he's on track to earn more than $50 billion in stock options. If he remained in California, he’d be facing income taxes on the profits when he exercises them. In Texas, there is no income tax.
Privacy matters even if “you have nothing to hide”
Our privacy is eroding. As a society, we are beginning to accept this lack of privacy to be normal – and this is extremely dangerous. Privacy provides a place for us to be ourselves, to express ourselves in new ways without fear of being judged by preying eyes. If we lose privacy then we lose this ability to experiment, and, more importantly, we lose our power.
SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
Now that the first test flight is out of the way, SpaceX engineers have a wealth of data that will help them figure out how to stick the landing and push Starship to higher altitudes. While its first jaunts to orbit will be uncrewed, Starship is destined to carry astronauts beyond low earth orbit.
Wall Street Begins Trading Water Futures as a Commodity
“What this represents is a cynical attempt at setting up what’s almost like a betting casino so some people can make money from others suffering,” Basav Sen, climate justice project director at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Pornhub just purged all unverified content from the platform
This announcement comes after a series of events last week that left the porn industry shaken: On Monday, following a piece in the New York Times Opinion section that followed the lives of child sexual abuse victims whose videos were uploaded to the platform, Mastercard and Visa began an investigation into unlawful material on Pornhub.
Apple M1 vs. Ryzen 3900X vs. Intel I9 in Software Development
It is very impressive to see the performance of Apple's M1 Chip. It performs better than the existing x86 does in such real-world benchmarks.
Amazon controls more than $2B worth of IPv4 addresses
This makes up more than 2.5% of the total IPv4 addresses.
MDMA-assisted couples therapy investigated in pilot trial
A larger Phase 2 randomized controlled trial is currently being prepared by the research team. The next steps will be to better explore the safety and efficacy of MDMA-facilitated CBCT for PTSD in a diverse set of participants with a variety of relationship distresses.
Young adults who increased social media use were more likely to develop depression
Those using more than 300 min/day were 2.8 times as likely to become depressed within 6 months. Initial social media use led to increased depression, but initial depression did not lead to change in social media use.
A healthy gut microbiome contributes to normal brain function
Scientists recently discovered that a change to the gut microbiota brought about by chronic stress can lead to depressive-like behaviors in mice, by causing a reduction in endogenous cannabinoids.
EU leaders agree to cut emissions by at least 55% by end of decade
Many big economies have come forward with long-term goals to reach net-zero emissions around the middle of the century. China will reach carbon neutrality by 2060, while the EU, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and a host of smaller economies will do the same by 2050.
Europe's Biggest Vertical Farm Will Be Powered by Wind and Planted by Robots
The facility plans to start producing in the first quarter of next year and expects to be profitable next year too, reaching its full 1,000-ton capacity by the end of 2021.
Google is getting left behind due to horrible UI/UX
Nobody seems to be able to find the button that upgrades to Google Analytics v4. I’m not joking.
Are people with dark personality traits more likely to succeed?
Experimental studies support the idea of a ‘successful’ dark personality, but only up to a point. One study found that people with psychopathic personality traits win more points on a negotiation task where they are required to compete with a partner, but fewer points on a task that involves cooperation.
How the novel coronavirus has evolved
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has so far mutated slowly, allowing scientists and policymakers to keep on top of its progress. Still, scientists have been divided on the implications of some of the mutations. Some experts have reported that the D614G variation has made the virus more transmissible, however other studies have contradicted that.
Thanks for reading!
If you got any comments or just want to brainstorm, email me at jacob@unhype.com.