LOW SPACE RUNNING
Elon Musk aims to place 42,000 Starlink satellites in low orbit, with the aim of bringing Internet to the most remote places in the world. As of last April, the company had nearly 5,900 devices in space. But a Chinese company is giving it a hard time: the Shanghai Lanjian Hongquing Technology Company, affiliated with the rocket manufacturer Landscape, filed an application for a network of 10,000 satellites with the International Telecommunications Union on May 24. No timetable has been communicated for the launch of the satellites.
Source: Interesting Engineering
50,000
That’s how many paid trips robotaxi company Waymo reports it now takes each week in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Waymo attributes its success to a “safe and deliberate approach” to increasing ridership: “We see people from all walks of life using our service to travel worry-free, gain independence, travel recovery and more,” Waymo said. company in a press release. But that doesn’t mean driverless taxis aren’t free from negative headlines. Six Waymo taxis blocked traffic on a San Francisco freeway ramp in April, and in early 2024, two of the company’s cars crashed due to a software malfunction.
Source: Engadget
FACE TIME
It turns out that parrots could benefit from technology to improve their social lives. A study from the University of Glasgow and Northeastern University looked at parrots’ reactions to recorded videos of other birds versus live video conversations and found that the highly social animals preferred real-time conversations. Parrot keepers reported that during FaceTime conversations, their birds were more engaged than during pre-recorded sessions. They spent a total of 561 minutes chatting on live video versus just 142 minutes watching recordings.
Source: Engadget
$250 billion
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab have found that U.S. investments in renewable energy are paying off. By replacing fossil fuels, wind and solar energy save more than $100 per megawatt hour produced in terms of health and climate, a total of $250 billion saved over the past four years. That’s far more than the cost of government subsidies used to build renewable energy infrastructure.
Source: Ars Technica
