Category: Technology

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Stratolaunch Systems announces world’s largest plane is close to flying – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

Stratolaunch Systems, the space launch venture backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is planning to conduct the maiden flight of its giant carrier aircraft within the next few months. The six-engine, twin-fuselage aircraft, built by California-based Scaled Composites, is designed to carry rockets up to high altitude and launch them to space from there. The alternative to conventional rocket launches could provide an affordable and efficient way to place satellites in orbit. The aircraft has been through two taxi tests so far at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. If three more tests go smoothly, Stratolaunch will move … Continue reading Stratolaunch Systems announces world’s largest plane is close to flying – an annotated infographic

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Investors nervous about #Apple after #iPhoneX tanks – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

A sharp slowdown in production by Apple’s five largest device manufacturers suggests demand for the iPhone X is fading. The graphic below shows how Apple’s revenue growth is directly linked to its assemblers’ monthly sales growth, with insights into the buying patterns of iPhone customers. Click on the graphic for an expanded view. Continue reading Investors nervous about #Apple after #iPhoneX tanks – an annotated infographic

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

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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

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

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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

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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

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Greenpeace finds coral reef in Total’s Amazon drilling area – an annotated infographic

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Scientists aboard a Greenpeace ship have discovered that a massive coral reef near the mouth of the Amazon extends further than thought, overlapping areas where French company Total plans to drill for oil. The research could further complicate plans by oil companies to explore an area that some geologists say could hold up to 14 billion barrels of petroleum – more than the entire proven reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2013, Total led a group including Britain’s BP Plc and Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras in buying five exploration blocks in the Foz do Amazonas basin, but the … Continue reading Greenpeace finds coral reef in Total’s Amazon drilling area – an annotated infographic

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#Syria’s improvised chemical rockets – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are due to start work in Douma, outside the Syrian capital, Damascus. The alleged chemical attack on April 7 2018 is the sixth chemical attack in Douma in 2018. Munitions recovered from previous attacks show they are modified Iranian 107mm rockets. In addition to collecting samples, OPCW inspectors will be looking for other clues to confirm the alleged use of banned toxins in the attack on April 7. Analysis of the samples will take place at the OPCW’s central laboratory in the Netherlands. The evidence is split and sent … Continue reading #Syria’s improvised chemical rockets – an annotated infographic

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India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft’s tricky mission to #Moon’s south pole

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India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will attempt to land a briefcase-sized rover onto the Moon’s surface, 600km from the lunar south pole, while an orbiter above searches for water – vital to future manned missions. Click on the graphic for an expanded view.   Continue reading India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft’s tricky mission to #Moon’s south pole

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Zuckerberg apologises for #Facebook #Cambridge Analytica scandal in written testimony

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Before his much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has provided written testimony to Congress in which he apologises for failing to prevent the collection of tens of millions of users’ personal data by a data analytics company. Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before a joint US congressional hearing after admitting that up to 87 million users may have had their data improperly utilised by Cambridge Analytica to build election voter profiles. The data-mining scandal is exacerbated by the vast amounts of money Facebook is making from its billions of users around the world. The public … Continue reading Zuckerberg apologises for #Facebook #Cambridge Analytica scandal in written testimony

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How #Facebook was weaponised by #CambridgeAnalytica – an annotated infographic

E&T magazine

How Facebook was weaponised The surveillance scandal of Cambridge Analytica use of Facebook data to help the Donald Trump campaign win in the 2016 election began three years earlier with a scientific paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study by Michal Kosinski of Stanford, David Stillwell of the University of Cambridge and colleagues involved 58,466 adult American users of Facebook. Subjects provided information about themselves and took a standard test to classify their personalities in five broad categories: degree of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism or OCEAN. The researchers then correlated the “big … Continue reading How #Facebook was weaponised by #CambridgeAnalytica – an annotated infographic