VTV News

27/08/2020

What Is ‘Panspermia?’ New Evidence For The Wild Theory That Says We Could All Be Space Aliens
Imagine if NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover—now on its way to the red planet—discovered microbial life there.

It would change everything we know about life in the Solar System and far beyond.

Or would it? What if we accidentally transported life to Mars on a spacecraft? And what if that is how life moves around the Universe?

A new paper published this week in Frontiers in Microbiology explores the possibility that microbes and extremophiles may migrate between planets and distribute life around the Universe—and that includes on spacecraft sent from Earth to Mars.

This is the controversial theory of “panspermia.”
What is ‘panspermia?’
It’s an untested, unproven and rather wild theory regarding the interplanetary transfer of life. It theorizes that microscopic life-forms, such as bacteria, can be transported through space and land on another planet. Thus sparking life elsewhere.

It could happen by accident—such as on spacecraft—via comets and asteroids in the Solar System, and perhaps even between star systems on interstellar objects like ʻOumuamua.

However, for “panspermia” to have any credence requires proof that bacteria could survive a long journey through the vacuum, temperature fluctuations, and intense UV radiation in outer space.

Cue the “Tanpopo” project.

26/08/2020

New ‘Continuation’ Classic Cars Can Finally Be Made Street Legal - Here’s How
Newly-built classic cars from the Fifties and Sixties are all the rage right now, thanks to the likes of Jaguar and Aston Martin revisiting their back catalogue to sell so-called ‘Continuations’.

Icons like the Steve McQueen-owned Jaguar XKSS, Le Mans-winning D-Type, and even James Bond’s gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5 can all be bought as brand-new cars, assembled from scratch by their respective manufacturers.

But there has always been a problem. Because these cars are technically brand new, yet adhere to safety and emissions regulations of the Fifties and Sixties, they aren’t road legal. Instead they are sold as track-only cars, or for use strictly on their multimillionaire owner’s private land.

Thankfully, R-Reforged has come up with a solution. The British/Swiss firm now offers an ‘Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) compliance’ service which applies all the necessary changes to make these continuation cars street-legal in the UK. R-Reforged says the service will be offered for “all continuation series, limited production and one-off vehicles, as well as electrified classic and performance cars.”

Taking the £1.5m ($2m) Aston Martin DB4 GT Continuation as an example, R-Reforged says it has already converted seven of the 19 cars built, fitting a fully-reversible kit of parts that incorporates over 60 changes. Modifications include a smoother octagonal wheel nut, street-regulation E-marked side and rear windows, new trim parts with smoother radii to minimize sharp edges, and upgraded lighting, including additional side repeaters and a retractable fog lamp.
To meet pedestrian safety requirements, R-Reforged has replaced the diagonally-cut exhaust tips of the DBT GT Continuation with rolled versions (thus reducing sharp edges at the car’s extremities), and removed the front fog lamps. Inside, changes have been made to the instrumentation and steering wheel, while an immobilizer has been fitted, along with a leather cover for the roll cage.

As well as driver and pedestrian safety, IVA compliance includes meeting modern emissions standards. To achieve this, R-Reforged fits the Fifties-spec Aston Martin with a custom-made integrated silencer and catalyst system. The company states: “Combined with engine tuning and changes to the fueling system, converted Aston Martin DB4 GT Continuations now meet UK emissions standards, enabling them to be enjoyed on the road.”

The conversion kit, which costs in the region of £75,000 plus local taxes, also includes number plates, and the removed components are stored in a tailored wooden ‘campaign case’. The parts can be stored there, then fitted back onto the car whenever the owner wishes, although doing so will void the car’s street legality. Conversion to meet IVA compliance takes up to 10 weeks, so switching a vehicle between street-legal and original specification certainly isn’t a weekend project.
New parts fitted by R-Reforged also include wing mirrors (which are mounted without the need to drill holes in the body), custom Smiths instrument gauges, engine bay panels to prevent dirt ingress, and a bespoke overlay wiring loom.

R-Reforged admits that meeting modern emissions standards could have an effect on performance, but the goal here is to make the car road legal, not to set lap times.

25/08/2020

Corporate America looks to hire more Black people
24 August 2020 - Black professional groups say they've received 'dozens' more calls in recent weeks from companies eager to diversify their staffs. An influx of inquiries has been coming from companies eager to fill positions with Black employees, according to professional groups, while companies are making promises to build staffs whose demographics reflect the population. The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA), and Blacks In Technology all said calls from companies looking to hire their members have 'tripled' in recent weeks.

24/08/2020

Microsoft Resets Android Expectations With Surface Duo
Sometimes, it’s the message hidden behind the headlines that has the biggest impact in the long run.

Such is the case with today’s official debut of the Microsoft Surface Duo mobile device—or what a lot of people will likely call the Surface phone. Yes, there are important details in today’s news that many have been eagerly awaiting since the company first announced the phone’s existence back in October of last year. But beyond the specs, prices, availability (pre-orders today, full availability September 10), and even unique workflow concepts that the Surface Duo enables, there’s something that could prove to be even more influential: the Microsoft influence on Android.

Before I explain what I mean, let’s cover the basics. The $1,399 starting price for a Surface Duo is definitely on the high side, particularly during the middle of a pandemic, and undoubtedly, some will be disappointed by that. Yes, there will always be a market for high-end phones, but it’s getting pretty crowded up there these days. Plus, we’ve yet to see the forthcoming 5G iPhones.

From a purely technical perspective, there’s a lot to like in the Surface Duo, as well as a number of things to justify that price point. Most notably, the two high-resolution (1,800 x 1,350) Corning Gorilla Glass covered 5.6” AMOLED displays that fold out into an impressive 8.1”, 401 dpi screen definitely look to be a sight to behold. There’s also a great deal of custom engineering that went into the Surface Duo’s 360-degree hinge design, as well as the internal components (including custom antennas and wiring) needed to make the device work.

At the same time, as often seems to be the case with early generation Surface devices in new categories, there are some frustrating technical limitations as well—at least for these price points. For example, while the Surface Duo is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon SOC, it’s the previous generation 855, instead of the 865 that most new high-end phones are likely to have. In addition, it’s a 4G phone with only WiFi 5 (instead of WiFi 6) support, and the single camera’s resolution is a tad low at 11 MP.

Now, to be fair to Microsoft’s Surface (and now Windows) lead, Panos Panay, and team, most of these details probably don’t matter to the Surface fans and dedicated Microsoft 365 users that they’re targeting with this product. Plus, none of these spec details are visible in the sleek, less than 5 mm thin, foldable two-screen design and user experience that they’ve created with Surface Duo.

Of course, to fans of the Surface Duo concept, that’s the real point of this device. It’s an effort to rethink how we use and think about mobile devices. In fact, that’s arguably the biggest reason why Microsoft isn’t calling the Surface Duo a smartphone. (Though it does kind of walk and quack like a duck, so….)

The real goal is to create a mobile, multi-screen device that will allow people to be as productive as possible, regardless of where they are. Equally important, it’s meant to be a great companion device to a Windows 10 PC (Surface or not), via the Windows Your Phone app, and a great Microsoft 365 client with native local apps, all while providing access to the full range of millions of Android mobile applications. That’s a big challenge to tackle, and without being able to try the device yet, it’s impossible to determine whether they’ve succeeded or not.

What is very clear, though, even now, is that with the Surface Duo, Microsoft is starting to influence the look, feel, and functional capabilities of Android in a very positive way. Fans of Microsoft’s Launcher Android app/UI may recognize that much of the clean design that Microsoft is showing with the Surface Duo has some heritage there. To have the native experience of an Android device reflect a Microsoft design aesthetic from the moment it’s turned on, however, is very new and, to my mind, very interesting. It also reflects the degree to which Google was willing to let Microsoft adjust its user experience, which is intriguing as well.

Having said that, there’s still plenty of Google’s influence in the Surface Duo, including the Google search bar widget on the home screen and the default usage of Google Assistant. In fact, it’s arguably a “best of” combination, with different elements from the different companies contributing to the overall experience.

What’s even more interesting is the extensions that Microsoft has been working on for the Surface Duo that fully leverage the multiple screens within the regular Android experience. Microsoft argues that their dual-screen approach is more cognitively effective than even a single larger screen. And, in fact, a few of the demos they have on the Surface Duo certainly show some compelling cases. From previewing individual emails in Outlook to launching and then simultaneously viewing links from within a text message or other app without losing sight of where you started, the new workflows enabled by the Surface Duo design definitely look to be a more compelling option than the single-screen experience to which we’re all accustomed.

The final piece of this influence puzzle is the critical point that the changes that Microsoft is working on are not a unique fork of Android that will only appear on the Surface Duo. Instead, these contributions are being given back to the Android core code. In conjunction with other APIs and work that Google has already done for foldable and dual-screen devices, this combination should provide important potential benefits for many more phone OEMs to use. Given Microsoft’s recent announcements with Samsung at last week’s Unpacked event for software extensions on the new Samsung phones, I’m particularly intrigued to see if we will see similar capabilities on the second-generation Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable device, the final details for which are scheduled to be revealed on September 1. After all, if you can use these software extensions to turn a single larger screen into two smaller virtual screens, you should theoretically be able to create a similar experience to the Surface Duo, with the added benefit of not having a physical seam between the two displays when you want a single screen experience.

Regardless, it’s definitely exciting to see multiple tech players coming together in interesting ways to better leverage these innovative foldable form factors. Fans of Microsoft’s Surface designs will likely find the Surface Duo to be an intriguing new addition, but I’m hoping Microsoft’s contributions and influence on Android have an even wider-reaching impact.

24/08/2020

The Inside Story Of Robinhood’s Billionaire Founders, Option Kid Cowboys And The Wall Street Sharks That Feed On Them
The perfect stock trading app for the videogame generation was supposed to “democratize finance” with zero-commission trades. But the primary plan was to get rich by selling customer trades to the market’s most notorious operators.

By Jeff Kauflin, Antoine Gara and Sergei Klebnikov

It’s just after midnight on Friday, July 31, and the Todd Capital Options Community, a $20-per-month subscription Slack channel favored by thousands of novice options traders, is buzzing with life. Unemployment is soaring and governments worldwide are desperately trying to fend off economic collapse. But members of this online enclave are partying, quite literally, like it’s 1999—the infamously frothy day-trading year before the dot-com bubble burst in March 2000.

Despite the pandemic, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have just released jaw-dropping financial results, a staggering $205 billion in combined quarterly sales and $34 billion in earnings during a stretch when U.S. gross domestic product plunged at an annualized rate of 33%. For weeks, the club’s youthful members have been loading up on speculative call options using the mobile trading app Robinhood. Now they’re ready to cash in.

“Literally, NOTHING will make me sell my AMZN 10/16 calls tomorrow. I don’t care what happens. . . . I’m holding everything. Keep ya boi in your prayers,” says one user named JG. As dawn approaches, “NBA Young Bull” announces: “Good morning future millionaires . . . is it 9:30 yet?”

For these speculators, the adrenaline rush turned to euphoria after Apple not only beat earnings expectations but announced a 4-for-1 stock split, luring more small investors to the iPhone maker’s stock party. At 9:30 a.m. Friday, when trading begins, the call options on Apple and Amazon held by many of these market newbies pay out like Las Vegas slot machines hitting 7-7-7 as both tech giants gain a collective quarter-trillion dollars in market value. Throughout the day and over the weekend, a stream of posts scroll by from exuberant Robinhood traders going by screen names like “See Profit Take Profit” and “My Options Give Me Options.” On Monday, August 3, the Nasdaq index sets a new record high. (see Robinhood Returns below)
Welcome to the stock market, Robinhood-style. Since February, as the global economy collapsed under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of novices, armed with $1,200 stimulus checks and nothing much to do, have begun trading via Silicon Valley upstart Robinhood—the phone-friendly discount brokerage founded in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev, 33, and Baiju Bhatt, 35.

The young entrepreneurs built their rocketship by applying the formula Facebook made famous: Their app was free, easy to use and addictive. And Robinhood—named for the legendary medieval outlaw who took from the rich and gave to the poor—had a mission even the most woke, capitalism-weary Millennial could get behind: to “democratize finance for all.”

Covid-19 and the flow of government handouts have been manna from heaven for Robinhood. The firm has added more than 3 million accounts since January, a 30% rise, and it expects revenue to hit $700 million this year, a 250% spike from 2019, according to a person familiar with the private company’s finances. Not since May Day 1975, when the SEC deregulated brokerage commissions, giving rise to discount brokerages like Charles Schwab, has there been a more disruptive force in the retail stock market. Robinhood’s commission-free trading is now standard at firms including TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard and Merrill Lynch.

And Robinhood’s merry traders are moving markets: Certain stocks—Elon Musk’s Tesla, ma*****na conglomerate Cronos, casino operator Penn National Gaming and even bankrupt car-rental company Hertz—have become favorites, swinging wildly on a daily basis. For the first time ever, according to Goldman Sachs, options speculators like the ones Robinhood has cultivated have caused single-stock option-trading volumes to eclipse common-stock trading volumes, surging an unprecedented 129% this year.

21/08/2020