Mars has not always been a seemingly lifeless red desert. We have evidence that billions of years ago it had a warm, habitable climate with liquid water in lakes and flowing rivers, which is somewhat confusing, given that Mars is much farther from the Sun than the Earth and that the Sun was much less bright back then. “In order for Mars to be warm enough to host liquid water, there must have been a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” says Benjamin Tutolo, a researcher at the University of Calgary. “The question we’ve been asking for at least 30 years was where the record of all this carbon is.”

Tutolo led a new study of rock samples collected by the Curiosity rover that might have answered this question.

The tallest sediment stack

The mystery of Mars’ missing carbon stems from two seemingly conflicting results. On the one hand, we have already found dried riverbeds and lakes on the surface of Mars, so we know there must have been liquid water on its surface at some point. To account for the presence of this water, every Martian climate model we have run indicates that huge amounts of atmospheric carbon were needed to provide a sufficient greenhouse effect to keep the surface temperature above freezing. But the data we were getting from satellite observations of Mars found much less carbon in the Martian soil than those climate models would suggest. “So, either the models were incorrect—and there’s no good reason to believe that—or there really was lots of carbon in the Martian atmosphere,” Tutolo says.

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A communication error between GoDaddy Registry and Markmonitor took Zoom’s services offline for almost two hours on Wednesday when GoDaddy mistakenly blocked the zoom.us domain. The outage affected all services dependent on the zoom.us domain.

GoDaddy’s block prevented top-level domain nameservers from maintaining proper DNS records for zoom.us. This created a classic domain resolution failure — when users attempted to connect to any zoom.us address, their requests couldn’t be routed to Zoom’s servers because the domain effectively disappeared from the internet’s addressing system.

Video meetings abruptly terminated mid-session with browser errors indicating the domain couldn’t be found. Zoom’s status page (status.zoom.us) went offline, hampering communication efforts. Even Zoom’s main website at zoom.com failed as the content delivery network couldn’t reach backend services hosted on zoom.us servers. Customer support capabilities collapsed when account managers using Zoom’s VoIP phones lost connectivity.

Resolution required coordinated effort between Zoom, Markmonitor, and GoDaddy to identify and remove the block. After service restoration, users needed to manually flush their DNS caches using command line instructions (including the sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder command for Mac users).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There are so many factors that can influence how we perceive others, which in turn can determine the people we choose as platonic friends or romantic mates. We certainly make snap judgments based on physical appearance, but scent can have a powerful influence, too. According to a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, two heterosexual women meeting for the first time rely partly on scent to judge whether they want to be friends with each other, deciding within minutes—practically at first whiff—whether there is friendship potential.

Social olfactory research largely stems from evolutionary psychology, specifically the work of Swiss biologist Claus Wedekind in 1995. Subtle chemical signals from pheromones are known to play a role in attraction in many species. Scientists had already found evidence in fish and mice that the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, which are critical for immune system function (and useful in determining tissue compatibility for transplants, for instance)—showed a marked preference for sexual partners with different MHC genes, perhaps as a way of keeping the gene pool well-mixed and protecting against inbreeding.

Wedekind introduced the so-called “sweaty T-shirt” method to study the possible role of MHC in mate preferences in humans. Male participants wore the same T-shirt for two days, which were then placed in identical boxes. Women participants then smelled each shirt and indicated which ones they found most sexually attractive. Wedekind found that the women overwhelmingly preferred the T-shirt smells of men who had the most dissimilar MHCs to their own. The only caveat: The preference was reversed in women who were taking oral birth control.

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Tesla is facing a proposed class action suit over allegations that it has been speeding up odometers so its vehicles will fall out of warranty faster, according to a report by Reuters. This would make it easier for the company to get out of paying for repairs.

Nyree Hinton, the plaintiff in the case, alleges that Tesla odometer readers are designed to change with energy consumption, driver behavior and mysterious predictive algorithms, and not actual mileage driven. He said that the odometer on the 2020 Model Y he bought in December 2022 had 36,772 miles on the clock at the time of purchase.

Hinton alleges that the odometer went up by 72 miles each day, when he only drove around 20. He made comparisons to his other vehicles and concluded that the odometer ran, at the minimum, 15 percent fast. This caused his 50,000-mile basic warranty to expire ahead of schedule, which forced him to pay a $10,000 suspension repair bill out of pocket.

“By tying warranty limits and lease mileage caps to inflated ‘odometer’ readings, Tesla increases repair revenue, reduces warranty obligations, and compels consumers to purchase extended warranties prematurely,” the complaint said.

Hinton is seeking compensatory damage for himself, but also punitive damages for all Tesla drivers in California. This encompasses over one million vehicles, according to court papers. Tesla has denied all allegations in the lawsuit. EV forums and related subreddits, however, are filled with odometer complaints involving the company.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Tesla has been charged with fibbing about mileage data. The automaker has faced litigation that accused it of inflating vehicle driving ranges. It has also been accused of forming a secret “Diversion Team” that would cancel range-related service appointments.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/tesla-accused-of-messing-with-odometers-to-get-out-of-repair-bills-165625372.html?src=rss

The European Commission (EC) reportedly delayed regulatory penalty announcements against Apple and Meta this week as it accelerates its push for a trade deal with the US. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal said the move led to concern from European Parliament lawmakers that political factors are influencing the body’s regulatory decisions.

The EU is said to have initially planned to announce cease-and-desist orders against Apple and Meta on Tuesday and reportedly told at least one of the companies about the timing in advance. The WSJ says the decision to postpone the announcement came shortly before EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič met with US officials in Washington on Monday, the official’s first in-person talks with the US since President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff pause.

On Tuesday, an EC spokesperson said technical work had been completed on the cases, but no dates had been announced. “We’re currently working on the adoption of final decisions in the short term,” the spokesman reportedly said.

Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images

The European Commission’s penalties stem from the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to level the playing field for smaller companies competing with Big Tech behemoths. The EC probed Meta for its scheme that lets users opt out of personalized ads, for a price. Meanwhile, Apple’s case relates to the company’s rules that limit developers’ ability to steer consumers to transactions outside the App Store. The EC opened the probes in March 2024.

Under the DMA, companies could be fined up to 10 percent of their global annual revenue. However, the WSJ reports that the financial penalties would be much lower than that, and the cease-and-desist orders would be much more impactful.

Earlier this month, EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera told lawmakers that the EC wouldn’t meet her March deadline to issue a decision on Apple and Meta. That statement was on April 8, a day before Trump officials announced a pause on the “Liberation Day” tariffs.

The WSJ reports that the regulatory decisions are still expected to advance, but it isn’t clear how long their announcement will be delayed. The European Commission has previously claimed it would fight to defend its “regulatory autonomy” despite pressure from Trump and his Big Tech backers to neuter the bloc’s restrictions on American businesses.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/eu-regulators-reportedly-delayed-apple-and-meta-penalty-announcements-ahead-of-us-trade-talks-164644661.html?src=rss

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Apple users have Apple Watches, but it’s not so simple for Android users. Depending if you have a Pixel or a Samsung phone, there’s a smartwatch that will work seamlessly better with your phone. If you have a Samsung, there’s no doubt that a Samsung Galaxy Watch is the option. For most people, that watch is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 (and yes, it works with any Android phone). Right now, you can get it for $289.99 (originally $379.99), the lowest price it has been according to price tracking tools.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7

$289.99
at Amazon

$379.99
Save $90.00

$289.99
at Amazon

$379.99
Save $90.00

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 came out in 2024 to an “excellent” review from PCMag for its incredibly accurate heart rate measurement, detailed sleep monitoring data tracking, AI health insights, and overall smooth user experience.

You get a Super AMOLED screen of 44 mm or 40mm, the latter running for $259.99 (originally $349.99) right now. This LTE version means you’re not dependent on wifi to use the internet and can receive calls or listen to music without depending on your phone.

The main downside you’ll see with this smartwatch (and most Galaxy watches) is the short battery life. It lasts about 22 hours, depending on use, according to PCMag’s tests (it can last up to 28 hours if you don’t use the GPS). This means you’ll likely need to charge it overnight or during the day, making the sleep tracking hard to use. However, the watch does charge pretty quickly, reaching max battery in 88 minutes.

If you care about fitness and sleep tracking, it’s hard to beat the Wear OS, especially at its current price. You can have metrics from its Heart Rate Monitor, Blood Oxygen Monitor, Pedometer, Barometer, Temperature Sensor, Gyroscope, and others, and they’re accurate. However, if you can’t get over the short battery, consider the ONEPLUS Watch 2 for $245.34.