The EU plans to cut 30 percent of its energy usage by 2030

Even if the forthcoming Trump administration doesn’t take climate change seriously, the European Union plans to slash its energy usage by nearly a third by the year 2030. By the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement, the EU already planned to cut carb…

Source: Engadget – The EU plans to cut 30 percent of its energy usage by 2030

Conor McGregor, Who Is Definitely Serious And Not Trolling The UFC, Registers To Fight As A Boxer

Conor McGregor was the champion of two UFC weight classes for all of two weeks until the UFC stripped him of the featherweight title last weekend. He hasn’t fought as a welterweight in almost a year, and the UFC vacated his title in part to spice up UFC 206’s new main event and make it a title fight. McGregor hasn’t…

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Source: Kotaku – Conor McGregor, Who Is Definitely Serious And Not Trolling The UFC, Registers To Fight As A Boxer

“OK Google” support finally comes to Android Auto

Android Auto’s cards view. (credit: Megan Geuss)

Android Auto is finally adding support for the “Ok Google” hotword. Auto launched nearly two years ago with a decent baseline of functionality, but it felt like a “beta” product thanks to a few missing features. The biggest was the absence of Google’s ubiquitous “Ok Google” hotword, which is present on Nexus and Pixel devices, Android Wear watches, Google’s Android and iOS apps, and the Google Home voice appliance. As a product designed to not distract you while you drive, the lack of a hands-free voice option was a big omission. Previously, you had to press a button on the screen or the steering wheel.

We haven’t seen an official announcement from Google, but the feature is starting to pop up for some users. Reddit user neo5468 was the first to spot the change and was nice enough to post a screenshot of the hotword’s new settings.

Android Auto “OK Google” support actually shows up in the Google app—not the Android Auto app—where under the “while driving” option you’ll see a new description that reads “Works in Google Maps and Android Auto.” The checkbox isn’t new, but the “Android Auto” mention is. The newest version of the Android Auto app, version 2.0.6427, seems to be a prerequisite for enabling the feature, but it’s not the only prerequisite. It seems there’s a server side component that needs to get enabled too. So if the hotword doesn’t work for you immediately, there isn’t much you can do other than wait for support to roll out to your account.

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Source: Ars Technica – “OK Google” support finally comes to Android Auto

Google Earth's Timelapses Offer a 32-Year Look At Earth's Changing Surface

Google has partnered with TIME to release an improved version of Google Earth Timelapse that provides animated satellite imagery covering the past 32 years, from 1984 to 2016. In 2013, Google and TIME launched Timelapse with a time-lapse from 1984 to 2012. However, this time around the project uses the higher-resolution maps introduced back in June to provide a look that’s more detailed and more seamless than in the past. ZDNet reports: The 10-second snapshots of Earth from space over 32 years captures urban sprawl, deforestation and reforestation, receding glaciers, and major engineering feats, such as the Oresund Bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden, or the spread of the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada. Google Earth engine program manager, Chris Herwig says it created the new “annual mosaics” by stitching together 33 images of the Earth, each representing one year. Each image contains 3.95 trillion pixels, cherry-picked from an original set of three quadrillion pixels. “Using Google Earth Engine, we sifted through about three quadrillion pixels, that’s three followed by 15 zeroes, from more than 5,000,000 satellite images,” Herwig said. “We took the best of all those pixels to create 33 images of the entire planet, one for each year. We then encoded these new 3.95-terapixel global images into just over 25,000,000 overlapping multi-resolution video tiles, made interactively explorable by Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab’s Time Machine library, a technology for creating and viewing zoomable and pannable time-lapses over space and time.” The satellite images come from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and US Geological Survey. Since 2015, they also contain some data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Program and its Sentinel-2A satellite.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Google Earth’s Timelapses Offer a 32-Year Look At Earth’s Changing Surface

Bitcoin Exchange Ordered to Give IRS Years of Data on Millions of Users

On Wednesday, a federal judge authorized a summons requiring Coinbase, America’s largest Bitcoin service, to provide the IRS with the records of every user who traded on the site between 2014 and 2015. Covering the identities and transaction histories of millions of costumers, the request is believed to be the largest…

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Source: Gizmodo – Bitcoin Exchange Ordered to Give IRS Years of Data on Millions of Users

Watch Chernobyl's Huge Radiation Shield Slide in and Enclose the Damaged Nuclear Reactor

We already saw how the new $1.6 billion sarcophagus—the 843-foot wide, 354-foot tall steel shield that entombs the radioactive material leaking from the damaged nuclear reactor left over from the Chernobyl disaster—was going to be put in place to replace the old concrete structure that enclosed the damaged reactor…

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Source: io9 – Watch Chernobyl’s Huge Radiation Shield Slide in and Enclose the Damaged Nuclear Reactor

Watch Chernobyl's Huge Radiation Shield Slide in and Enclose the Damaged Nuclear Reactor

We already saw how the new $1.6 billion sarcophagus—the 843-foot wide, 354-foot tall steel shield that entombs the radioactive material leaking from the damaged nuclear reactor left over from the Chernobyl disaster—was going to be put in place to replace the old concrete structure that enclosed the damaged reactor…

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – Watch Chernobyl’s Huge Radiation Shield Slide in and Enclose the Damaged Nuclear Reactor

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader run community: Hot Take: Pokémon Sun & Moon (

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader run community: Hot Take: Pokémon Sun & Moon (3DS) Thoughts on Tales of the Abyss On The Subject Of Pokémon

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Source: Kotaku – Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader run community: Hot Take: Pokémon Sun & Moon (

British Film Institute To Digitize 100,000 Old TV Shows Before They Disappear

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: Thousands of British TV programs are to be digitized before they are lost forever, the British Film Institute says. Anarchic children’s show Tiswas and The Basil Brush Show are among the programs in line for preservation. The initiative was announced as part of the BFI’s five-year strategy for 2017-2022. “Material from the 70s and early 80s is at risk,” said Heather Stewart, the BFI’s creative director. “It has a five or six-year shelf life and if we don’t do something about it will just go, no matter how great the environment is we keep it in. “Our job is make sure that things are there in 200 years’ time.” The BFI has budgeted $14.3 million of Lottery funding towards its goal of making the UK’s entire screen heritage digitally accessible. This includes an estimated 100,000 of the “most at-risk” British TV episodes and clips held on obsolete video formats. The list includes “early children’s programming, little-seen dramas, regional programs and the beginnings of breakfast television.” The issue for the BFI, Ms Stewart added, was also to do with freeing up storage space. “We have a whole vault which is wall-to-wall video. If we digitized it, it would be in a robot about the size of a wardrobe,” she said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – British Film Institute To Digitize 100,000 Old TV Shows Before They Disappear

The recent changes made to Pokémon Go’s ‘Nearby’ feature, originally only live in certain areas of t

The recent changes made to Pokémon Go’s ‘Nearby’ feature, originally only live in certain areas of the US, Canada and Australia, are now rolling out to “the rest of the continental United States and large parts of Europe”.

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Source: Kotaku – The recent changes made to Pokémon Go’s ‘Nearby’ feature, originally only live in certain areas of t

Twitters Says It Will Ban Trump If He Breaks Hate-Speech Rules

Twitter has made a serious effort as of late to limit hate speech on its social media site, especially after Election Day where “biased graffiti, assaults and other incidents have been reported in the news.” The company now faces President-elect Donald Trump, who has used Twitter for the past 18 months as a megaphone for his views and rants, which many would consider as “hate speech.” According to the American Bar Association, hate speech is “speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or other traits.” Quartz reports: While Trump’s deceptive tweets may not violate Twitter’s rules against harassment, threats and “hateful conduct,” Twitter is still keeping an eye on his account for more egregious offenses. This week, the company told Slate it would consider banning key government officials, even the president, if its rules against hate speech or other language were violated. “The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies,” a spokesperson wrote. Twitter confirmed with Quartz that everyone, including government officials, were subject to the policy: “The Twitter Rules apply to all accounts,” a spokesman wrote. Trump may not have crossed that line yet, but he hasn’t exactly refrained from making incendiary claims. Most recently, he claimed that Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who allegedly carried out an attack injuring 11 students at Ohio State University, “should not have been in our country.” Artan was a legal permanent U.S. resident, whose family had fled Somalia for Pakistan in 2007. He arrived in the States in 2014.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Twitters Says It Will Ban Trump If He Breaks Hate-Speech Rules

The Highlands Desktop

This landscape may look like it’s steaming or on fire, but it’s just bright, rich colors of the time of day the photo was shot—and it makes for a beautiful wallpaper. Add a little customization, and Nicolas has a great desktop worth sitting down at every day. Here’s how it’s all set up.

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Source: LifeHacker – The Highlands Desktop

America's fourth-largest cable co. will offer 10Gbps fiber

Altice USA may not be the most recognized ISP name out there, but the country’s fourth-largest provider is about to get a big upgrade over the next five years or so. According to the company’s roadmap, Altice plans to bring high-speed, 10 Gbps fiber…

Source: Engadget – America’s fourth-largest cable co. will offer 10Gbps fiber

This Sweeping Footage of a Drone Flying Through the Beach Is Wonderful

Seeing this drone fly through Venice Beach in Robert McIntosh’s Fresh Squeeze in what looks like a perfectly planned flight is just lovely. The drone zips through a bicycle, seamlessly slips inside handrails, pops into holes, and cuts through structures so seamlessly that it feels like the world is unfolding before…

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Source: Gizmodo – This Sweeping Footage of a Drone Flying Through the Beach Is Wonderful

The Procedure Is Three Short Minutes of White-Hot, Stinky Terror

A man is snatched from a parking lot and strapped down on a table in an empty room, where he’s confronted with something hilariously perilous (and definitely NSFW). That’s the set-up for Calvin Reeder’s non sequitur of a film, The Procedure, which won the Sundance Short Film Jury Award for U.S Fiction.

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Source: io9 – The Procedure Is Three Short Minutes of White-Hot, Stinky Terror