Spatial analysis by Esri UK has found that most pavements around the country are less than 3 metres wide, making it difficult for pedestrians to remain 2 metres apart and follow government guidelines for social distancing. Using measurements from Ordnance Survey, Esri UK has created a map of all pavement widths, discovering that only 30% of Great Britain’s pavements are at least 3 metres wide, 36% are between 2 and 3 metres and 34% are less than 2 metres wide
Continue reading...Category Archives: Technology
SpaceX successfully launches Nasa astronauts into orbit
- Donald Trump and Mike Pence witness launch in Florida
- First attempt was cancelled minutes from blast-off
A rocketship named Dragon breathed new fire into America’s human spaceflight programme on Saturday, carrying two astronauts on a much-anticipated adventure.
Related: Trump wants America looking at the stars as he drags it through the gutter
Continue reading...Microsoft sacks journalists to replace them with robots
Users of the homepages of the MSN website and Edge browser will now see news stories generated by AI
Dozens of journalists have been sacked after Microsoft decided to replace them with artificial intelligence software.
Staff who maintain the news homepages on Microsoft’s MSN website and its Edge browser – used by millions of Britons every day – have been told that they will be no longer be required because robots can now do their jobs.
Continue reading...Trump signs executive order to narrow protections for social media platforms
Move comes amid president’s feud with Twitter after it fact-checked him for the first time
Donald Trump has fired a shot across the bows of “big tech” companies by signing an executive order that aims to narrow their protections from liability over the content posted on their services.
The move came as the US president stepped up his attacks against social media giants after Twitter fact-checked him for the first time over a false assertion that mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud.
Continue reading...Most online grooming offences in UK committed on Facebook-owned apps
Data shows 55% of offences where the means of communication was given involved firm’s apps
More than half of online grooming offences recorded under a law that made it illegal to send sexual messages to children were committed on Facebook-owned apps, figures reveal.
The data, obtained by the NSPCC under freedom of information laws, show 10,019 offences of sexual communication with a child were recorded since the legislation was introduced in April 2017.
Continue reading...Trump expected to sign executive order in bid to target Twitter and Facebook
- Move could erode legal protections for social media platforms
- Twitter placed warning on Trump tweets that spread falsehoods
Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that could erode legal protections for social media companies for content posted on their platforms, potentially opening them to liability claims over controversial content.
Continue reading...Zuckerberg says Facebook won’t be ‘arbiters of truth’ after Trump threat
President announced plan to strip social media companies of liability protections after Twitter factchecked his tweets
Two years after admitting under political pressure that Facebook must do more to prevent disinformation campaigns on its platform, founder Mark Zuckerberg told Fox News on Thursday that the company should step away from regulating online speech.
Related: Trump expected to sign executive order in bid to target Twitter and Facebook
Continue reading...‘You lot can’t rattle me’: John Boyega defends explicit anti-racism posts in wake of George Floyd death
The Star Wars actor expanded on his defiance of racist social media users in an Instagram Live video
John Boyega has been praised for a series of uncompromising social media posts speaking out about racism in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.
Boyega’s initial Tweet, “I really fucking hate racists”, currently has 1.3m likes, but came in for criticism for his hard-hitting tone and use of an expletive.
Continue reading...SpaceX-Nasa launch scrubbed due to poor weather
The first crewed flight from US soil since 2011 was called off 16 minutes before lift off; the next opportunity is on Saturday
The United States’ long-anticipated return to human spaceflight will have to wait a few more days after poor weather forced mission managers to scrub Wednesday’s planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.
The first crewed flight from US soil since 2011 was called off 16min 53sec before the scheduled 4.33pm lift-off time, with SpaceX and Nasa officials blaming “strength of electric fields in the atmosphere”, translating to lightning near the launchpad.
Continue reading...Trump threatens social media after Twitter puts warning on his false claims
- Twitter added warning on tweets that spread falsehoods
- President vows to ‘strongly regulate … or close them down’
Donald Trump has threatened to “strongly regulate” or close down social media platforms that do not meet his standards for ideological balance, a day after Twitter, for the first time, slapped a warning label on a pair of Trump tweets spreading lies about mail-in voting.
Related: George Floyd killing: sister says police officers should be charged with murder
Continue reading...YouTube investigates automatic deletion of comments criticising China Communist party
Video platform blames deletion of criticisms on an error in its automated systems
YouTube is investigating the apparently automatic removal of comments critical of the Chinese Communist party amid complaints of censorship.
The company said the filtering appeared to be “an error” amid a greater reliance on automated systems during the coronavirus pandemic because its human reviewers have been sent home.
Continue reading...Twitter labels Trump’s false claims with warning for first time
President rails against decision after his tweets on mail-in voting are marked with message: ‘Get the facts’
Twitter for the first time took action against a series of tweets by Donald Trump, labeling them with a warning sign and providing a link to further information.
Since ascending to the US presidency, Trump has used his Twitter account to threaten a world leader with war, amplify racist misinformation by British hate figures and, as recently as Tuesday morning, spread a lie about the 2001 death of a congressional aide in order to smear a cable news pundit. Throughout it all, Twitter has remained steadfast in its refusal to censor the head of state, even going so far as to write a new policy to allow itself to leave up tweets by “world leaders” that violate its rules.
Continue reading...First iPhone jailbreak in four years released
Newly discovered vulnerability allows users to bypass limitations built in by Apple
A newly discovered vulnerability in iPhones allows users to bypass Apple’s built-in limitations – known as “jailbreaking” – for the first time in four years.
The release of a functional jailbreak for iOS 13.5, the latest version of the iPhone operating system, represents a breakthrough for the small community of users who rely on jailbreaks for everything from serious security research to simply running games and software that Apple does not allow on iPhones.
Continue reading...‘The big show’: US poised to return to human spaceflight with historic launch
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in partnership with Nasa, to launch Falcon 9 rocket from Florida carrying two American astronauts
In a historic moment a decade in the making, the skies above Florida will light up on Wednesday when the launch of a rocket born from a groundbreaking public-private partnership returns the United States to the business of human spaceflight.
Not since the retirement of Nasa’s space shuttle fleet in 2011 has the US possessed the capability to send its own astronauts into orbit, and the success of this week’s mission, formally known as SpaceX Demo-2, is likely to shape the direction of the space agency’s near-Earth ambitions for a generation.
Continue reading...Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch first astronauts from US soil since 2011
Falcon 9 rocket to make history as billionaire seeks to commercialise space travel
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company hopes to make history on Wednesday by launching the first astronauts into space from US soil in nine years, as the billionaire takes the next step in his dream to commercialise space travel.
Donald Trump will be among the spectators at Kennedy space centre in Florida to witness the launch, which has been given the green light despite the coronavirus lockdown.
Continue reading...Spotify podcast deal could make Joe Rogan world’s highest paid broadcaster
Streaming service must convince podcast listeners to switch from their favourite app
Joe Rogan, the comedian, MMA commentator and podcaster, may seem an unlikely prospect for becoming the world’s highest paid broadcaster. But after signing an exclusive deal with Spotify, that is what he may have become, marking a new era for podcasting in the process.
To much of the world, Rogan’s name is most associated with the periodic furores that erupt from the marathon interviews around which his podcast is structured.
Continue reading...Indonesia investigates leak of more than two million voters’ personal information
Data breach included names, home addresses and national identification numbers
Indonesia is investigating how 2.3 million voters’ personal information was leaked online, the election commission said.
The data breach, which included names, home addresses and national identification numbers, appeared to be from the 2014 election voter list, the General Election Commission revealed on Friday.
Continue reading...Apple whistleblower goes public over ‘lack of action’
Thomas le Bonniec says firm violating rights and continues massive collection of data
A former Apple contractor who helped blow the whistle on the company’s programme to listen to users’ Siri recordings has decided to go public, in protest at the lack of action taken as a result of the disclosures.
In a letter announcing his decision, sent to all European data protection regulators, Thomas le Bonniec said: “It is worrying that Apple (and undoubtedly not just Apple) keeps ignoring and violating fundamental rights and continues their massive collection of data.
Continue reading...Covid-19’s unlikely victim: new emojis
The pandemic has forced the Unicode Consortium to delay new emojis in 2021 – but remixes of existing ones could be on their way
Covid-19 has taken so much from us, but now it’s come for our emojis too.
Related: Coronavirus US live: Trump claims to take hydroxychloroquine and threatens to withdraw US from WHO
Continue reading...EasyJet reveals cyber-attack exposed 9m customers’ details
Airline apologises after credit card details of about 2,200 passengers were stolen
EasyJet has revealed that the personal information of 9 million customers was accessed in a “highly sophisticated” cyber-attack on the airline.
The company said on Tuesday that email addresses and travel details were accessed and it would contact the customers affected.
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