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New analysis has refuted the claim that dinosaurs were in decline at the time of their extinction. If an asteroid had not hit Earth 66m years ago, dinosaurs might have continued to dominate the planet, according to new research. From a report: A team from the University of Bath and the UK National History Museum has published a study to Royal Society Open Science saying that, contrary to some scientific thinking, dinosaurs were not in a state of decline prior to the mass extinction event. The team collected a set of different dinosaur family trees and used statistical modelling to assess if each of the main dinosaur groups was still able to produce new species at this time. Prior to the asteroid impact during the Late Cretaceous period, dinosaurs were globally widespread and were the dominant form of animal of most terrestrial ecosystems. "Previous studies done by others have used various methods to draw the conclusion that dinosaurs would have died out anyway, as they were in decline towards the end of the Cretaceous period," said first author of the study, Joe Bonsor. "However, we show that if you expand the dataset to include more recent dinosaur family trees and a broader set of dinosaur types, the results don't actually all point to this conclusion -- in fact, only about half of them do." Commenting on the new study, Richard Dawkins tweeted, "An impact as catastrophic as this will happen again. We don't know when. Using existing science, we could develop the technology to detect, intercept, and divert or destroy a large incoming asteroid. No other species could do it. It's our responsibility."

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Amid increased regulatory scrutiny over how it runs its App Store, Apple today announced it will reduce the App Store commissions for smaller businesses. Under the new guidelines of the "App Store Small Business Program," as it's called, developers earning up to $1 million per year will only have to pay a 15% commission on in-app purchases, rather than the standard 30% commission. From a report: The new program will launch on Jan. 1, 2021, and will be based on the business's revenues in the previous calendar year -- meaning 2020. This $1 million threshold will be based on how much existing developers made across all their applications on a post-commission basis, Apple notes. That means the businesses could actually earn up to $1.3 million in gross revenues. The reduced fee will also apply to new developers launching their apps for the first time. If, during the course of the year, the developer's apps surpass the $1 million threshold, they'll be moved to the standard commission rate, generally 30%, for the remainder of the year. They'll also then enter the following year at that standard rate, as well. Depending on the developers' business, however, the "standard" rate may not always be 30%. For developers running an auto-renewing subscription business, for example, the standard commission drops to 15% in year two on a per-user basis, based on Apple's existing guidelines. This will not change.

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The drug maker Pfizer said on Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine was 95 percent effective and had no serious side effects -- the first set of complete results from a late-stage vaccine trial as Covid-19 cases skyrocket around the globe. From a report: The data showed that the vaccine prevented mild and severe forms of Covid-19, the company said. And it was 94 percent effective in older adults, who are more vulnerable to developing severe Covid-19 and who do not respond strongly to some types of vaccines. Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with its partner BioNTech, said the companies planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization "within days," raising hopes that a working vaccine could soon become a reality. The trial results -- less than a year after researchers began working on the vaccine -- shattered all speed records for vaccine development, a process that usually takes years. "The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic," Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chief executive, said in a statement. If the F.D.A. authorizes the two-dose vaccine, Pfizer has said that it could have up to 50 million doses available by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion by the end of next year.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Is one of Tesla's infotainment systems defective by design? That's a question the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hopes to answer. It has started an engineering analysis after hundreds of customer complaints of bricked systems resulted in a preliminary investigation in June. NHTSA thinks it knows what the problem is: an 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory chip with a finite number of write cycles, fitted to its Media Control Unit. The MCU regularly writes logs to this chip and, within three or four years, reaches the lifetime number of cycles. At this point the touchscreen dies, taking with it functions like the car's backup camera, the ability to defog the windows, and also the audible alerts and chimes for the driver aids and turn signals. After the regulator's Office of Defects Investigation received 537 complaints, it asked Tesla if it knew of any more problems with the Nvidia Tegra 3-based system, which is fitted to approximately 158,000 Models S (2012-2018) and X (2016-2018). Tesla did, handing over 2,399 complaints and field reports, 7,777 warranty claims, and 4,746 non-warranty claims. The finite -- and short -- lifespan of these infotainment systems is a relatively well-known problem within the Tesla community. "The automaker told NHTSA that as of firmware 2020.20, each block of NAND flash should only receive 0.7 read/write cycles a day, which would therefore take between 11 and 12 years before the chip reached its end of life," the report adds. "However, owners who use their cars more often could see this time before failure halved." "However, Tesla also told NHTSA that 'the MCU failures are likely to continue to occur in subject vehicles as vehicles continue to operate and use available memory in the 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory until 100 percent of units have failed.'" Ars says an official recall may occur in the coming months.

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New submitter dskoll shares a report from CBC.ca: New privacy legislation has been submitted to the Canadian parliament that could fine companies up to 5% of global revenue or $25 million, whichever is greater, for violating Canada's privacy laws. According to Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, The Digital Charter Implementation Act provides for the heaviest fines among the G7 nations' privacy laws. "The fines are there to provide accountability," Bains said. The legislation also would give the federal privacy commissioner order-making powers, including the ability to force an organization to comply and to order a company to stop collecting data or using personal information. "Bains said the commissioner also would be able to recommend fines to a new Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal, which would levy administrative monetary penalties and hear appeals of orders issued under the new law," adds CBC.ca. "According to the wording of a government press release, the legislation also would give Canadians the option of demanding that their personal online information be 'destroyed.'"

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A group of astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin has revived an idea shelved by NASA to build a lunar liquid-mirror telescope on the moon to study the first stars in the universe. "The team, led by NASA Hubble Fellow Anna Schauer, will publish their results in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal," reports Phys.Org. From the report: These first stars formed about 13 billion years ago. They are unique, born out of a mix of hydrogen and helium gasses, and likely tens or 100 times larger than the Sun. New calculations by Schauer show that a previously proposed facility, a liquid mirror telescope that would operate from the surface of the Moon, could study these stars. Proposed in 2008 by a team led by Roger Angel of The University of Arizona, this facility was called the Lunar Liquid-Mirror Telescope (LLMT). NASA had done an analysis on this proposed facility a decade ago, but decided not to pursue the project. According to Niv Drory, a senior research scientist with UT Austin's McDonald Observatory, the supporting science on the earliest stars did not exist at that point. "This telescope is perfect for that problem," he said. The proposed lunar liquid-mirror telescope, which Schauer has nicknamed the "Ultimately Large Telescope," would have a mirror 100 meters in diameter. It would operate autonomously from the lunar surface, receiving power from a solar power collection station on the Moon, and relaying data to satellite in lunar orbit. Rather than coated glass, the telescope's mirror would be made of liquid, as it's lighter, and thus cheaper, to transport to the Moon. The telescope's mirror would be a spinning vat of liquid, topped by a metallic -- and thus reflective -- liquid. (Previous liquid mirror telescopes have used mercury.) The vat would spin continuously, to keep the surface of the liquid in the correct paraboloid shape to work as a mirror. The telescope would be stationary, situated inside a crater at the Moon's north or south pole. To study the first stars, it would stare at the same patch of sky continuously, to collect as much light from them as possible. The team is proposing that the astronomical community revisit the shelved plan for a lunar liquid-mirror telescope, as a way to study these first stars in the universe.

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phalse phace shares a report from NPR: Christopher Krebs, the Department of Homeland Security director who had spearheaded a campaign to counter rumors about voter fraud, has been fired, President Trump tweeted on Tuesday. Trump, in two misleading tweets about the security of the U.S. election, said Krebs' termination was "effective immediately." The CISA campaign, led by Krebs, was originally intended to target foreign interference. However, as the president continued to repeat dangerously misleading information about the security of the election, the agency's focus turned to rebutting many of the rumors and baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that Trump had promoted from the White House. In response, Krebs tweeted, "Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure [Tomorrow]." As NPR points out, Krebs' firing came after his agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), last week released a statement calling the 2020 election "the most secure in American history." Trump's full tweet reads: "The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud -- including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, 'glitches' in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency."

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The capacity of the EU's offshore windfarms in the North Sea, the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea will be increased by 250% under a draft plan drawn up by the European commission. The Guardian reports: The total energy generating capacity in Europe's seas stands at 23 gigawatts (GW), from 5,047 grid-connected wind turbines across 12 countries, including the UK. Under a European commission strategy, the 27 EU member states alone would achieve a capacity of 60GW by 2030 and 300GW by 2050, with Germany set to hugely increase its investment in the sector. According to the leaked paper, the commission "estimates that an installed capacity of 300GW of offshore wind [and around 60GW of ocean energies] by 2050 would be needed in the integrated, greener and climate neutral energy system of 2050." The commission writes: "This is feasible for a sector where Europe has gained unrivalled technological, scientific and industrial experience and where strong capacity exists already across the supply chain, from manufacturing to shipping and installation. Nonetheless, it is a very challenging horizon. It means that offshore renewable energy capacity should be multiplied by 25 times by 2050. The investment needed is estimated up to 789 billion pounds." The UK, which left the EU in January, has the largest amount of offshore wind capacity in Europe, with 45% of all installations. Germany is second with 34%, followed by Denmark (8%), Belgium (7%) and the Netherlands (5%). Over the summer, the German government said it would also increase its current 7.5GW of capacity to 20GW by 2030, with a target of 40GW by 2040. But the European commission has called for a more "resolute" approach across the bloc. According to a leak of the strategy obtained by the Euractiv news website, the "very challenging" target for new windfarms would come with an expected price tag of 789 billion pounds, creating 62,000 jobs in the offshore wind industry.

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Twitter said on Tuesday it was globally launching tweets that disappear after 24 hours, similar to the stories feature that is popular on Snapchat and Facebook's photo-sharing app Instagram. Reuters reports: Twitter has previously announced its plan for these ephemeral tweets, dubbed "fleets," and tested the feature in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea. "Some of you tell us that Tweeting is uncomfortable because it feels so public, so permanent, and like there's so much pressure to rack up Retweets and Likes," design director Joshua Harris and product manager Sam Haveson said in a blog post. "Because they disappear from view after a day, Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings," they added. Fleets, which include text, photos and videos, will be available at the top of users' home timelines on Twitter and on the sender's profile. Twitter also confirmed it was working on a live audio feature, dubbed 'Spaces,' that it aims to test later this year. The feature will allow users to talk in public, group conversations. It has similarities with Clubhouse, a social platform in which users are invited to talk in voice chat rooms. "Given all of the potential for abuse within audio spaces, we are going to be making it available first to women and historically marginalized communities," said Twitter's Kelley.

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Two of China's top companies have joined forces to design, develop, and build an electric car for the express purpose of ride-hailing. The Verge reports: The vehicle is an adorable green hatchback called the D1, and it was developed by Didi Chuxing, the top ride-hailing company in China that notoriously defeated Uber in 2016, and BYD, one of the leading electric vehicle manufacturers. The D1 will have a range of 418 km (260 miles) as judged by NEDC (New European Driving Cycle). They also explained some of the more interesting design touches that make this vehicle particularly well-suited for app-based ride-hailing. There is a medium-sized screen on the dashboard as well as two more touchscreens on the back of both headrests for passengers to access navigation and other information. There is one more smaller screen behind the steering wheel that serves as an instrument cluster. The car comes with sliding doors to prevent riders from accidentally hitting passengers or cyclists. The driver's seat is extra comfy for extended use, and there's added legroom in the back seat. The paint job is described as "avocado green," which is similar to Didi's shared bikes. The D1 will come with a Level 2 driver assistance system that includes lane-departure warning, automatic braking, and pedestrian collision warning. There will also be a driver monitoring system to ensure that drivers keep their hands on the wheel and stay focused on the road. Didi says it used data gathered from its 550 million registered passengers and 31 million drivers to design the D1.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to Bloomberg, EQT is planning an IPO for German Linux and enterprise software company SUSE. EQT is a Swedish-based private equity firm with 50 billion euros in raised capital. SUSE is the leading European Union (EU) Linux distributor. Over the years, SUSE has changed owners several times. First, it was acquired by Novell in 2004. Then, Attachmate, with some Microsoft funding, bought Novell and SUSE in 2010. This was followed in 2014 when Micro Focus purchased Attachmate and SUSE was spun off as an independent division. Then, EQT purchased SUSE from Micro Focus for $2.5 billion in March 2019. With an IPO of approximately $6 billion, EQT would do very well for itself in very little time. Bloomberg states that the IPO talks are in a very preliminary stage. Nothing may yet come of these conversations. As for SUSE, a company representative said, "As a company, we are constantly exploring ways to grow. But as a matter of corporate policy, we do not comment on rumor or speculation in the market."

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hey! writes: Pfizer's BNT162b2 vaccine must be stored at a constant -100F/-70C temperature, presenting a logistical nightmare for hospitals, which don't normally have freezers that go that low. This is because it is an mRNA vaccine, and mRNA is unstable unless stored at extremely low temperatures. Pfizer will distribute doses in dry-ice packed "suitcase" shipping containers containing 1,000-5000 doses, but these cases only work for ten days, during which they may be opened only twice a day, each time for less than three minutes. This will pose a special challenge for rural hospitals, who can't afford specialized freezers; they'll be forced to distribute hundreds of doses a day from the dry ice packed shipping crates to avoid their stocks going bad. Rural vaccination is further complicated by the fact that the vaccine must be given in two doses spaced three weeks apart. The Moderna MRNA-1273 vaccine candidate is also an mRNA vaccine, but can be stored at -4F/-20C. This is because Moderna has experience in stabilizing mRNA. MRNA-1273 can be stored in a regular hospital freezer, making it a better candidate for smaller hospitals and clinics, although nationwide distribution in the volumes of doses needed is still going to take an unprecedented effort. If both vaccines are approved at the same time, we'll likely see both rolled out in parallel, with smaller hospitals and clinics getting the Moderna vaccine and higher volume facilities getting the Pfizer vaccine.

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Reviews are starting to pour in of Apple's MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini featuring the new M1 ARM-based processor -- and they're overwhelmingly positive. "As with the Air, the Pro's performance exceeds expectations," writes Nilay Patel via The Verge. "Apple's next chapter offers strong performance gains, great battery and starts at $999," says Brian Heater via TechCrunch. "When Apple said it would start producing Macs with its own system-on-chip processors, custom CPU and GPU silicon (and a bunch of other stuff) to replace parts from Intel and AMD, we figured it would be good. I never expected it would be this good," says Jason Cross in his review of the MacBook Air M1. "The M1 is a serious, serious contender for one of the all-time most efficient and highest-performing architectures we've ever seen deploy," says ExtremeTech's Joel Hruska. "Spending a few days with the 2020 Mac mini has shown me that it's a barnburner of a miniature desktop PC," writes Chris Welch via The Verge. "It outperforms most Intel Macs in several benchmarks, runs apps reliably, and offers a fantastic day-to-day experience whether you're using it for web browsing and email or for creative editing and professional work. That potential will only grow when Apple inevitably raises the RAM ceiling and (hopefully) brings back those missing USB ports..." "Quibbling about massively parallel workloads -- which the M1 wasn't designed for -- aside, Apple has clearly broken the ice on high-performance ARM desktop and laptop designs," writes Jim Salter via Ars Technica. "Yes, you can build an ARM system that competes strongly with x86, even at very high performance levels." "The M1-equipped MacBook Air now packs far better performance than its predecessors, rivaling at times the M1-based MacBook Pro. At $999, it's the best value among macOS laptops," concludes PCMag. "For developers, the Apple Silicon Macs also represent the very first full-fledged Arm machines on the market that have few-to-no compromises. This is a massive boost not just for Apple, but for the larger Arm ecosystem and the growing Arm cloud-computing business," writes Andrei Frumusanu via AnandTech. "Overall, Apple hit it out of the park with the M1."

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Google was sued last week for allegedly stealing Android users' cellular data allowances through unapproved, undisclosed transmissions to the web giant's servers. The lawsuit, Taylor et al v. Google, was filed in a US federal district court in San Jose on behalf of four plaintiffs based in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin in the hope the case will be certified by a judge as a class action. The complaint contends that Google is using Android users' limited cellular data allowances without permission to transmit information about those individuals that's unrelated to their use of Google services. Data sent over Wi-Fi is not at issue, nor is data sent over a cellular connection in the absence of Wi-Fi when an Android user has chosen to use a network-connected application. What concerns the plaintiffs is data sent to Google's servers that isn't the result of deliberate interaction with a mobile device -- we're talking passive or background data transfers via cell network, here. "Google designed and implemented its Android operating system and apps to extract and transmit large volumes of information between Plaintiffs' cellular devices and Google using Plaintiffs' cellular data allowances," the complaint claims. "Google's misappropriation of Plaintiffs' cellular data allowances through passive transfers occurs in the background, does not result from Plaintiffs' direct engagement with Google's apps and properties on their devices, and happens without Plaintiffs' consent." The allegation: "The device, stationary, with all apps closed, transferred data to Google about 16 times an hour, or about 389 times in 24 hours. Assuming even half of that data is outgoing, Google would receive about 4.4MB per day or 130MB per month in this manner per device subject to the same test conditions."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Bay-area based startup Profitboss is pitching itself as the "easiest, fastest, and most convenient system to get back your customers from third party [services]." Free to restaurants, the service (which launched in 2018) lets restaurants open their own digital storefront. Profitboss CEO Adam Guild likes to compare his service to Shopify and the terms of agreement thread the same point: Profitboss, or "Placebull" deems itself a "virtual marketplace" that connects users to local restaurants. The way it breaks down is this: The service is free for restaurants for pickup orders, and users are charged a $1.50 fee which Profitboss takes as a cut. For delivery orders, Profitboss sends orders to the API of apps such as DoorDash and charges restaurants a $7 fee, which works out to be cheaper than delivery apps' usual fee and can be split with the customer. The idea is that both the restaurant and the customer end up saving money in fees. Uber Eats, for example, charges users at least $5 in fees (and sometimes more) on top of the food itself being charged at a premium to cover Uber's 30 percent commission. Profitboss isn't a panacea for all the gig economy's ills, however. While it seeks to cut gig companies out of one part of the equation and help restaurants, it also uses gig workers from Postmates and Doordash to actually deliver orders, Guild said. "In the world of e-commerce, Shopify has millions of merchants but most orders are actually fulfilled by Amazon fulfillment centers," Guild told Motherboard. "In the same sense that Amazon fulfills Shopify orders, DoorDash fulfills our orders but it's just a flat fee so there's a higher profit margin there." Guild said Profitboss can reduce the amount of time drivers spend waiting for orders while increasing their tips and overall earnings because, he claims, "customers are more willing to be generous with a gratuity and we're able to pass that entire tip to the driver."

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Late Monday night, a European rocket carrying two satellites failed during flight, leading to the loss of the payloads on board. It was the second major failure of this particular type of rocket within the last two years. From a report: The rocket that failed is called Vega, one of the primary rockets developed by European launch provider Arianespace. The vehicle took off last night from Europe's primary spaceport in French Guiana. On board the rocket was a Spanish Earth-imaging satellite called SEOSat-Ingenio, which would have been operated by the European Space Agency, and another imaging satellite from France called TARANIS. At about eight minutes into the flight, the engine on Vega's upper stage ignited. Right after that occurred, the rocket started to veer off course, and its altitude began dropping. After noticing the deviation, Arianespace tried to establish a signal with the rocket but ultimately couldn't connect, indicating that Vega had fallen out of orbit, destroying the two payloads on board. After looking over the data, the company believes that there was an issue with the system that activates the upper stage engine.

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Unity Technologies hopes to groom 80,000 people for game jobs over three years with an education initiative aimed at helping people learn how to program and develop games. From a report: Unity is paying for this program with help from its initial public offering, in which it raised $1.3 billion at a $13.6 billion valuation in September. At the time, it set aside 750,000 shares for the Unity Social Impact fund. That is valued at $83.6 million today, and part of it will be used for the education goal. I think of this as enlightened self-interest. By training people how to use its tools, Unity creates new customers for its game engine, which is the most popular tool for building games. Unity's Jessica Lindl said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company will create learning experiences to help people create a game portfolio, get Unity Certified, and prepare for a new job. "We've formalized a long company philosophy that the world is a better place with more creators in it," Lindl said. "This strategy is around how we are empowering our employees and our creators to foster a more inclusive and sustainable world." The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global recession that has left millions of people around the world out of work. So Unity hopes to address that with an alternative, no-cost path to employment with the launch of "career pathways."

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YouTube claims to be the world's biggest jukebox -- and now it wants to wring more ad dollars from the platform's music fans. From a report: The video giant is launching 15-second audio ads, the first format designed to reach YouTube users who listen to music or podcasts ambiently (i.e., in the background). YouTube also is introducing the ability for advertisers make buys across dynamic music lineups, including the Top 100 charts by country and collections of channels in popular genres such as Latin, K-pop, country, rap and hip-hop. Marketers also can buy ads targeted by moods or interests like fitness or relaxation/meditation. YouTube expects the moves to boost ad revenue it generates from music on the platform, which includes over 70 million official tracks plus remixes, live performances, covers and other music content. And it stands to put YouTube in more head-to-head competition with Spotify, which has been selling audio-only ads and offering targeting by music genres for years. Lyor Cohen, global head of music for YouTube, positioned the new ad push as "trying to help artists in the industry earn more revenue from ads -- period." YouTube's focus on increasing advertising revenue for music content ultimately benefits its record label partners and their artists, he said. "Subscription revenue is important, and now [music companies] understand the advertising opportunity," said Cohen. "They love that we're building muscle on both sides."

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Jeff Bezos has named 16 environmental organizations that will get the first chunk of his $10 billion fund for climate action. From a report: Collectively, they'll get $791 million from the richest man on Earth, although Bezos did not specify how much would go to each group. "I've spent the past several months learning from a group of incredibly smart people who've made it their life's work to fight climate change and its impact on communities around the world," Bezos said. "I'm inspired by what they're doing, and excited to help them scale." The Amazon CEO announced the creation of his personal $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund in February. His fund is equivalent to more than 7 percent of his net worth. It's also 10 times as much as philanthropic foundations gave globally in 2018 to efforts to slow climate change. For his first round of funding, Bezos chose to back a handful of legacy organizations with an established history of advocacy on behalf of the planet. His choice in recipients so far signals support for mainstream environmental groups rallying for new policies and research on climate change. The full list of grantees are a mix of big name NGOs, labs, reforestation and climate justice groups. They include: The Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, Eden Reforestation Projects, Energy Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, NDN Collective, Rocky Mountain Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Solutions Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute and World Wildlife Fund.

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Google has released today version 87 of its Chrome browser, a release that comes with a security fix for the NAT Slipstream attack technique and a broader deprecation of the FTP protocol. From a report: Todays' release is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iOS. Users can update to the new version via Chrome's built-in update utility. While in previous versions, Google has shipped some changes to Chrome settings and UI elements, almost all the major new Chrome 87 features are aimed at web developers. In Chrome 87, we have new APIs and updates to Chrome's built-in Developer Tools, such as: Support for the new Cookie Store API; new features to allow easier modification of web fonts via CSS; a new feature to let websites enumerate all the locally installed fonts; support for pan, tilt, and zoom controls on webcam streams; and, support for debugging WebAuthn operations via the Chrome DevTools.

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