The Washington Street Journal

29/09/2020

There's an election scenario that is giving social media company bosses nightmares.
The period between the polls closing and the declared result usually takes a few hours.
But this time it's likely to take days - perhaps even weeks. Millions of postal votes will take time to process.
Social media companies believe this period - of claim and counterclaim - could push the US over the edge.
If both Donald Trump and Joe Biden declare themselves the winner, there are fears of violence between the already polarised communities of the US.
And all of this could be played out on social media.

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Potential election chaos will play out on social media, and Big Tech is worried.

29/09/2020

A California judge says it should be for the people to decide whether Epic's claims about Apple's alleged anti-competitive behavior have substance.

Apple and Epic met in a virtual court hearing on Monday to debate whether Fortnite should be allowed to remain in Apple's App Store while the two fight an even bigger battle over whether Apple is violating federal antitrust law. California Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers didn't issue an update to her previous ruling, which upheld Apple's ban on Fortnite while the antitrust case is ongoing. Instead she said the companies should expect to hear from her in writing.

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A California judge says it should be for the people to decide whether Epic's claims about Apple's alleged anti-competitive behavior have substance.

16/09/2020

When Lisa Robertson sought coronavirus testing for her college athlete daughter, a pediatrician recommended a small, independent pharmacy in Arlington, Virginia.

Preston’s Pharmacy charged $35 to take a nasal swab specimen and sent it off to a lab, Principle Diagnostics, for quick results. The lab billed her insurance company $864 – more than eight times than what the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reimburses for COVID-19 tests.

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Some out-of-network hospitals and labs have charged thousands of dollars for routine COVID-19 tests. A Congressional committee wants answers.

15/09/2020

More than 400,000 people have registered to vote on Snapchat as of Monday, Axios reported on Tuesday.

Last week, Snapchat rolled out a slate of voting tools, including a feature for users to register to vote directly in the popular messaging app. Axios reported that 407,024 users registered to vote in the app by Monday evening. Snapchat has previously included in-app voter registration tools, and more than half of the users who registered through the service actually voted in 2018.

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Barack Obama is expected to appear in Snapchat promos.

15/09/2020

After months of speculating whether or not we'll get an iPhone 12 and Apple Watch 6 in the same timeframe as previous years, Apple has confirmed it will host a launch event later today -- virtually, of course. The Apple Store is down and the company last week sent out an invite for Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. UK). It can be accessed via Apple's website, its YouTube channel or through the events app on Apple TV. Any other year, the headliner would be obvious: a shiny new iPhone. But the mess that is 2020 has likely forced some changes to the lineup.

Though Apple hasn't released an official statement about what we can expect, the company did warn investors in July that the next iPhone would be delayed by "a few weeks." A number of outlets, including CNET and Bloomberg, have also suggested we won't see an iPhone 12 until at least mid-October.

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The hardware, software and services we're expecting to see at Apple's virtual event.

14/09/2020

Microsoft has said that its offer to buy the US operations of hugely popular video-sharing app TikTok has been rejected, paving the way for Oracle to make a last-minute bid.

US President Donald Trump gave a 15 September deadline for the Chinese-owned app to sell or shut down.

The Trump administration claims TikTok and other Chinese apps are national security threats.

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Oracle is now the favourite to take over US operations of the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

14/09/2020

The twisting patterns created by the multiple spiral arms of NGC 2835 create the illusion of an eye. This is a fitting description, as this magnificent galaxy resides near the head of the southern constellation of Hydra, the water snake. This stunning barred spiral galaxy, with a width of just over half that of the Milky Way, is brilliantly featured in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Although it cannot be seen in this image, a supermassive black hole with a mass millions of times that of our Sun is known to nestle in the very center of NGC 2835.

This galaxy was imaged as part of PHANGS-HST, a large galaxy survey with Hubble that aims to study the connections between cold gas and young stars in a variety of galaxies in the local Universe. Within NGC 2835, this cold, dense gas produces large numbers of young stars within large star formation regions. The bright blue areas, commonly observed in the outer spiral arms of many galaxies, show where near-ultraviolet light is being emitted more strongly, indicating recent or ongoing star formation.

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The twisting patterns created by the multiple spiral arms of NGC 2835 create the illusion of an eye. This is a fitting description, as this magnificent galaxy resides near the head of the southern constellation of Hydra, the water snake. This stunning barred spiral galaxy, with a width of just over

05/09/2020

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04/09/2020

When the invitation came to drive the Polestar 2, the new luxury electric vehicle from Volvo, I jumped at the chance. The drive would be about 120 miles roundtrip from the company’s new pop-up spot in Midtown Manhattan to Storm King, a vast sculpture garden about an hour north of the city along the Hudson River. What better way to shake off my COVID-19 cabin fever than carving up one of the most scenic drives in New York State in a brand new electric car?

But the Polestar 2 is not just any EV. It’s the first electric car — or really the first of any kind of car — to have a brain exclusively powered by Google. This native Android Automotive operating system controls everything from the radio to heating and air conditioning to navigation. You can even use Google Assistant to turn on the seat-heaters: “Hey Google, my butt is cold.”

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We took Volvo’s new premium electric car with native Android Auto for a spin.

04/09/2020

In a show that is primarily set aboard a fictional spacecraft flying through simulated space, there is a scene in the new Netflix Mars mission series, "Away," that looks particularly close to the real thing — and that is because it is.

Towards the end of the one the 10 episodes that began streaming Friday (Sept. 4), astronauts Emma Green and Matt Logan, played by actors Hilary Swank and Josh Charles, are seen getting ready to train using NASA T-38 jets. The aircraft are emblazoned with NASA's iconic insignia and for those in the know, the setting may look familiar.

The scene was filmed on location at Ellington Airport (formerly Ellington Field) in Houston, home to NASA's flight operations and its fleet of astronaut training jets.

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One scene looks like it's ripped from reality. Because it is.

04/09/2020

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04/09/2020

Two-thirds of U.S. voters say they won't try to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as it becomes available and one in four say they don't want to get it ever, according to a new USA TODAY/Suffolk poll released the same week that the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 6 million.

“I don’t plan on being anyone’s guinea pig,” Ebony Dew, an independent from Capitol Heights, Maryland, said. “I don’t plan on getting it at all.”

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Two-thirds of U.S. voters say they won't try to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as it becomes available, according to a new USA TODAY/Suffolk poll.

31/08/2020

Images of packed beaches, lakes and bars have made the rounds on traditional and social media for much of the summer, drawing scorn from those concerned about the coronavirus spreading among those crowds.

Less prominent but also troubling are the growing instances of case clusters arising from smaller gatherings.

Contact tracing yields information about the sources of infections as the USA, by far the world leader in total COVID-19 cases and deaths, grapples with how to keep its population safe while propping up a flagging economy. More than 182,000 Americans have been killed by the disease.

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Limited get-togethers of family and friends are emerging as sources of coronavirus infections, according to contract tracers.

31/08/2020

Authorities have found 39 missing children in Georgia during a two-week effort to rescue endangered minors.

The US Marshals Service Missing Child Unit led the search, dubbed "Operation Not Forgotten." It collaborated with the agency's Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and state and local agencies.

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Authorities found 39 missing children in Georgia as part of an operation to rescue endangered missing children.

26/08/2020

Samsung went all-out for the Note 20 Ultra, putting a powerful camera and gorgeous screen in its most premium design yet with what Samsung claims is the strongest glass ever used on a phone. It's the first phone, and the only one of Samsung's new line-up to have the latest Gorilla Glass Victus on both the front and back which is more resistant against both scratches and drops, according to Corning. The regular Note 20 has Gorilla Glass 5 (now two generations old) on the front, and plastic on the back, but it costs almost $300 less than the $1,300 (£1,180, AU$1,890) Ultra.

To test this claim, we had to subject the new Note 20 Ultra to our own scratch and drop tests.

Samsung's new Note 20 Ultra is the first phone covered in the new Gorilla Glass Victus. Here's how it held up to our scratch and drop tests.

26/08/2020

A US judge has ruled that, for now, Apple can continue to block the video game Fortnite from its App Store.

However the tech giant cannot terminate Epic Games' developer accounts or compromise its graphics tool Unreal Engine, which is used by many third-party game creators.

This is until a full hearing can take place on 28 September.

The ruling, which protects Epic's Unreal Engine tool, holds until a full hearing on 28 September.

26/08/2020

COVID-19 proliferates through a receptor present in most of the human body; but if the receptor is so pervasive, why does the virus seem to target only specific organs?

In severe cases of COVID-19, damage can spread beyond the lungs and into other organs, such as the heart, liver, kidney and parts of the neurological system. Beyond these specific sets of organs, however, the virus seems to lack impact.

Ernesto Estrada, from the University of Zaragoza and Agencia Aragonesa para la Investigación Foundation in Spain, aimed to uncover an explanation as to how it is possible for these damages to propagate selectively rather than affecting the entire body. He discusses his findings in the journal Chaos, from AIP Publishing.

COVID-19 proliferates through a receptor present in most of the human body; but if the receptor is so pervasive, why does the virus seem to target only specific organs? In severe cases of COVID-19, damage can spread beyond the lungs and into other organs, such as the heart, liver, kidney and part

19/08/2020

Portland riots night 83: breaking windows and setting fire to the Multnomah building

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19/08/2020

If 9-year-old Jordan could be anywhere in the world, he'd be at an adoption party celebrating with a forever family of his own.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services says it's gotten more than 10,000 adoption requests from people hoping to make his dream come true since his story was shared last week by CNN affiliate KFOR.
"I hope one of y'all pick me," he told KFOR. "I would just like to have a family to call mom and dad, or just mom, or just dad. I don't really care."

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If 9-year-old Jordan could be anywhere in the world, he'd be at an adoption party celebrating with a forever family of his own.

19/08/2020

For the first time in history, the roll call for delegates at a party's presidential convention was made virtually.

And despite the unconventional way votes were counted Tuesday night, the roll call at the Democratic National Convention was widely applauded online as a breath of fresh air compared to years past, with viewers calling it more entertaining and a better reflection of the states.

The DNC had been set for Milwaukee but was moved to a virtual format amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Vice President Joe Biden formally secured enough Democratic delegates to become the party's nominee Tuesday to challenge President Donald Trump.

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19/08/2020

BLM leader says looting is reparations and rioters can steal whatever they want without consequences

Do you agree?

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19/08/2020

More than 50 million people from southern Arizona to northern Montana were under heat alerts Tuesday as relentless heat continued across the western United States.

For some areas — including Death Valley, Phoenix and Las Vegas — temperatures could reach 110-130 degrees.

During the recent heat wave, which has lingered for nearly a week, more than 700 daily record highs have been set, most of them west of the Rocky Mountains.

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The hot temperatures combined with low humidity and gusty winds over 50 mph will make conditions favorable for fire ignition and spread.

18/08/2020

President Donald Trump has said he will issue a posthumous pardon for women's voting rights pioneer Susan B Anthony.

Making the announcement on Tuesday - the centennial anniversary of the 19th amendment, which granted US women the right to vote - Mr Trump said: "She was never pardoned. What took so long?"

Anthony was arrested in 1872 after illegally casting her vote.

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The famous Suffragette was convicted by an all-male jury of illegally voting when women were barred.

18/08/2020

Belarus state TV showing coverage of the revolution.

We are not like Belarus state TV

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18/08/2020

A new Dolly Parton mural popped up in Nashville, honoring the singer and her thoughts on Black Lives Matter

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18/08/2020

Paul Manafort's role as chairman of the Trump campaign, his longstanding ties to people affiliated with Russian intelligence services, and his willingness to share information with them "represented a grave counterintelligence threat" during the 2016 presidential race, according to a new report from the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"The Committee found that Manafort's presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump campaign," according to the voluminous report released Tuesday.

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Paul Manafort's "proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump campaign."

17/08/2020

People having being nostalgic & fun playing hopscotch

Have a good week!

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17/08/2020

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney on Friday cast doubt on President Donald Trump's baseless claim that universal vote by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.

"I don't know of any evidence that voting by mail would increase voter fraud," the Utah Republican said during an online interview with the conservative think tank Sutherland Institute.

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Republican Sen. Mitt Romney on Friday cast doubt on President Donald Trump's baseless claim that universal vote by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.

17/08/2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling on House lawmakers to return this week to vote on a bill that would block the changes that the Trump administration has made to the U.S. Postal Service.

Pelosi and other Democrats say the changes will cause a slowing of the flow of mail and potentially jeopardize the November election. Pelosi's request comes after a testy few days over the Postal Service and whether it's up to handling an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots this year because of increased vote-by-mail eligibility amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, public health officials are urging the public to get flu vaccines, saying they're even more important than ever because of COVID-19.

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LA schools launch testing and tracing program. New Zealand delays election. Report says Trump wants FDA to OK oleander COVID cure. Latest news.

17/08/2020

The biggest protest in the history of Belarus in Minsk

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