NASA announces its Orion spacecraft has reached the Moon, will now go farther from Earth and return in December
The Orion spacecraft swooped just 130 kilometres above the lunar surface on November 21, the closest a capsule designed to hold people has been to the Moon in half a century. In the lunar darkness the capsule, which launched as part of the Artemis I mission last week, flew directly...
How US churches breach privacy with spyware to force congregants conform to what pastors want
While the accessibility functionalities are meant to help software developers build out features that assist people with disabilities, these apps take advantage of such permissions to either capture screenshots of everything actively being viewed on the internet device or detect the name of apps as they’re being used and record...
Shameware: Evangelical churches in US resort to ‘Covenant Eyes’ spyware to root out porn addiction
Gracepoint is the kind of evangelical Southern Baptist church that’s compelled to publicly enumerate all of the ways it’s not a cult. “We’ll admit that we’re a bit crazy about the Great Commission and sharing the Gospel,” reads an FAQ page titled, “Is Gracepoint a Cult?” So when Grant Hao-Wei...
Scientists develop Artificial Intelligence that can predict a crime a week before it happens
An artificial intelligence can now predict the location and predict rate of crime across a city a week in advance with up to 90 per cent accuracy. Similar systems have been shown to perpetuate racist bias in policing, and the same could be true in this case, but the researchers...
Facebook brand crisis: New name might give the company a facelift, but that doesn’t book a rebrand
When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, in 2004, it was a mere directory of students at Harvard: The Face Book. Two decades, 90 acquisitions and billions of dollars later, Facebook has become a household name. Now it wants a new one. Zuckerberg is expected to announce a new name for the...
Study: Recycled lithium batteries as good as new, raise hope of reduced environmental pollution
Lithium-ion batteries, with their use of riskily mined metals, tarnish the green image of EVs. Recycling to recover those valuable metals would minimise the social and environmental impact of mining, keep millions of tonnes of batteries from landfills, and cut the energy use and emissions created from making batteries. But...
Domestic violence: Virtual reality enables batterers feel what it’s like to be attacked, learn some empathy
“I have to come home every day and look at your shitty face,” the man barks to his partner. “When we married, you were hot. Look at you now. You look like shit.” The man advances, knocking the phone to the ground, until his face looms menacingly close. This harrowing...
AI: Training machines based on earlier examples can embed past prejudices, uphold discrimination
In the past decade, data-driven technologies have transformed the world around us. We’ve seen what’s possible by gathering large amounts of data and training artificial intelligence to interpret it: computers that learn to translate languages, facial recognition systems that unlock our smartphones, algorithms that identify cancers in patients. The possibilities...
Electric cars: Consumers main worry about losing power or being unable to recharge on a long trip
Driving range is important for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Most consumers buy cars on the basis of reach because they worry about losing power or being unable to recharge on a long trip. Yet, most car journeys are short – to the shops or school. In the United...
How safe city tech turned 8 African countries, including Kenya and Senegal, into ‘Chinese data colonies’
Chinese technology firms have been peddling “safe city” and “smart city” packages of technology in Africa for years. Suites of interconnected products and services include surveillance equipment, communications tools and digital municipal management systems. Billed as public safety tools, the programmes are increasingly used to control the population and crack...
