Day: April 30, 2018

Engineering, TechnologyLeave a comment

Facebook’s money machine posts $4.99bn profits – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

While #DeleteFacebook has been trending strongly on the internet for a couple of weeks since the Cambridge Analytica personal data-raping scandal broke, the ensuing fallout doesn’t appear to have immediately impacted upon Facebook’s bottom line. The social media piranha/pariah has reported a gargantuan 63 per cent increase in profits in the first quarter of 2018, with 2.2 billion monthly active users – up 13 per cent year on year. The improper handling of data of 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica did nothing to stop the social media site posting $4.99 billion in quarterly net income on sales of … Continue reading Facebook’s money machine posts $4.99bn profits – an annotated infographic

Engineering, TechnologyLeave a comment

Kerch Strait bridge linking Crimea to Russia opens ahead of schedule – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

The bridge linking Crimea to Russia over the Kerch Strait across the Black Sea has opened six months ahead of schedule. The 19km road-and-rail bridge is a flagship political project for Russia, as it seeks to cement its hold on Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014 after an unrecognised referendum on unification with Russia. The bridge, which some Russians have dubbed “Putin’s bridge”, will be the longest dual-purpose span in Europe. For the bridge to overcome treacherous conditions in the region, thousands of pylons have been driven into the seabed for stability, with space in between to allow strong currents … Continue reading Kerch Strait bridge linking Crimea to Russia opens ahead of schedule – an annotated infographic

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InSight spacecraft to study interior of Mars – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

Nasa’s robotic Mars lander, InSight, will study the interior structure of the Red Planet to answer questions about the early formation of the inner planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – 4.5 billion years ago. InSight -short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport – is scheduled to launch atop an Atlas V-401 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. InSight is due to land at Mars’ Elysium Planitia on November 4. The mission’s launch period is from May 5 through to June 8 2018. InSight is the first mission ever dedicated to the Red … Continue reading InSight spacecraft to study interior of Mars – an annotated infographic