Musk tells Tesla staff he must approve all hiring- memo
Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk has said that the company can make no new hires unless he personally
2023-05-16 14:51
Flooding the Sahara desert proposed as radical climate change solution
It might sound more like the kind of idle daydream billionaires like Elon Musk would have, but could flooding the Sahara actually be the best way of tackling climate change in the future? The idea of creating a new “sea” in Africa is being discussed, and it’s not the first time that the notion of a great oasis in the Sahara has been discussed among the scientific community. As the ongoing climate crisis continues to worsen, the notion of flooding vast areas of the desert is being returned to once again [via IFL Science]. A new “sea” was first proposed following the study of the Messinian salinity crisis – which saw a dried-out area of the Mediterranean rejuvenated by the Zanclean flood, reconnecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean around 5.33 million years ago. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Given how the Mediterranean was transformed by the flood, the idea of flooding the Sahara to achieve similar results has been thrown around in the scientific community as far back as 1877, the Scottish engineer Donald McKenzie suggested flooding the El Djouf basin in Western Africa. The idea is now returning to popularity as the world looks for solutions to the climate crisis. One proposal centres on the Middle East’s Dead Sea and flooding the area using water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea Depression. A vast sea in Africa could represent a hugely innovative step towards tackling climate change and fostering a new hub of life – but even the people suggesting work such a project acknowledge just how expensive and dangerous it is. Even Y Combinator is a US startup accelerator who has described “desert flooding” as “risky, unproven, even unlikely to work”. Only time will tell whether the notion of a new sea in the Sahara coud ever work, or whether it’ll remain the stuff of dreams. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-05-16 14:29
Cryptoverse: Every frog has its day as pepe pops 7,000%
By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh Move over dogecoin? "Memecoins" - a hyper-speculative, ultra-volatile and somewhat peculiar
2023-05-16 14:18
Microsoft’s Activision Deal Gets Sliver of Hope as EU Defies UK
Microsoft Corp.’s $69 billion takeover bid for games developer Activision Blizzard Inc. came back from the brink after
2023-05-16 11:25
US Virgin Islands seeks to subpoena Elon Musk in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit
The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands is asking a federal judge to help it serve billionaire Elon Musk with a subpoena for documents in its lawsuit seeking to hold JPMorgan Chase liable for sex trafficking acts committed by businessman Jeffrey Epstein
2023-05-16 09:47
Alibaba Vows ‘Historic’ Investment in Taobao and Content
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s e-commerce division will make “huge” investments in its Taobao shopping app, as the newly
2023-05-16 09:25
Google Billionaire Sergey Brin Gifts $600 Million in Surging Shares
Google co-founder Sergey Brin gifted Alphabet Inc. shares worth roughly $600 million on Thursday during a week that
2023-05-16 08:48
WhatsApp offers new password protected feature to hide messages
WhatsApp users will be able to guard their “most intimate conversations” with a new password protected feature to hide messages, parent company Meta has said. Chat Lock will allow individuals to “lock and hide” private exchanges by removing them from the main inbox into a folder only accessible by password or biometric security, such as a fingerprint. Meta announced the development on Monday as the global launch began. Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post: “New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private. “They’re hidden in a password protected folder and notifications won’t show sender or message content.” However the new privacy measures may intensify the stand-off between Meta and the UK government over the Online Safety Bill. In April, Meta protested against the legislation, which it said would undermine the end-to-end encryption used by WhatsApp where only the sender and intended recipient of a message are able to read it. The Government has denied the Bill would outlaw encrypted messaging, saying it aims to target child abuse content while retaining privacy online. Tech companies who refuse to comply with the Government’s demands to identify and remove such content from their platforms could face large fines. In response to this, Meta threatened to withdraw WhatsApp from the UK last March rather than submit to the proposed policies. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live
2023-05-16 06:18
Adobe Photoshop Review
Photoshop started the digital image manipulation revolution more than 30 years ago, and Adobe's groundbreaking
2023-05-16 05:26
WhatsApp unveils new feature to protect ‘your most intimate conversations’
WhatsApp has announced a new feature that it says will “protect your most intimate conversations”. Chat Lock will allow users of the messaging app to take a chat thread from their inbox and put it in a new folder that can only be accessed by a password or biometric information, such as a fingerprint. Meta, the company’s owner, on Monday, said this would keep users’ conversations behind “one more layer of security” and has already started rolling it out. The content of messages in notifications will also be automatically hidden, the tech behemoth said. In a press release, Meta said: “We believe this feature will be great for people who share their phones from time to time with a family member, or in moments where someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra-special chat arrives. “You can lock a chat by tapping the name of a one-to-one or group and selecting the lock option. To reveal these chats, slowly pull down on your inbox and enter your password or biometric.” It comes after warnings from WhatsApp that it could face being banned in the UK under the government’s online safety bill. Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp parent company Meta, said in late March that the upcoming legislation could weaken the end-to-end encryption that secures messages on the service. He added that if the government told the company to weaken any security features it would resist, leading to the possibility it could be banned in the UK." width="500"> Just last month it signed an open letter with its competitors, including Signal, arguing that the bill poses “an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen”. The row is over end-to-end encryption, used by WhatsApp, which allows only the sender and recipient to access the contents of a message. However, police and law enforcement agencies argue this feature makes it harder to uncover serious wrongdoing, such as child sexual abuse, and want to weaken the feature. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Meta, said in a statement on Facebook: “New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private. “They’re hidden in a password-protected folder and notifications won’t show sender or message content.” Read More Creepy WhatsApp update sparks fears users are being listened to through their phone Government faces years of strike action from nurses, warns RCN chief Creepy WhatsApp update sparks fears users are being listened to through their phone WhatsApp just fixed two of its most glaring quirks Scientist spends 74 days underwater and expects to lose an inch in height
2023-05-16 05:21
Adobe Lightroom Classic Review
Adobe's Lightroom is unquestionably the leading professional photo-workflow software. But which Lightroom should you use?
2023-05-16 05:18
LNG Exporters Eye New Australia Growth as Profit Boom Fades
Liquefied natural gas exporters aim to advance multibillion-dollar projects and revive the sector’s growth in Australia, arguing additional
2023-05-16 05:16