Innehållsförteckning för #487 från AppleMagazine

The recent stock market mania over the video game company GameStop, which this week was scrutinized by Congress, has provided a teachable moment for kids. The press talked to a few parents and financial experts for their tips on talking with kids about investing and the often confusing behavior of financial markets. Here’s a summary of what they had to say. KEEP IT SIMPLE Parents should make sure kids understand money basics before they try to conquer investing. Once they’re ready, don’t overwhelm kids with too much information at once — you risk them missing the lesson and losing interest. Kids need to understand what stocks are, why people invest and how the markets work before they can understand investing. “The best way to get kids interested in investing is…

An autonomous vehicle company has been testing its cars in Las Vegas without a human backup driver ready to take control in an emergency. The company Motional, a joint venture between between Hyundai and Aptiv, an auto tech company, announced it has been testing its driverless cars in Las Vegas in February. The company, which has an agreement with ridesharing company Lyft to operate a fullydriverless service in 2023, received permission in November from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to begin the tests without a backup driver. Nevada in 2011 passed the nation’s first law to permit testing of driverless cars but backup drivers were required until 2017. That year, a fully driverless shuttle was tested in downtown Las Vegas, offering a dozen passengers a ride on a short…

Facebook announced that it would lift a ban on Australians viewing and sharing news on its platform after it struck a deal with the government on proposed legislation that would make digital giants pay for journalism. The social media company caused alarm with its sudden decision last week to block news on its platform across Australia after the House of Representatives passed the draft law. Initially, the blackout also cut access — at least temporarily — to government pandemic, public health and emergency services, fueling outrage. Facebook’s cooperation is a major victory in Australia’s efforts to make two major gateways to the internet, Google and Facebook, pay for the journalism that they use — a faceoff that governments and tech companies the world over have watched closely. Google also had…

Monster Hunter A sudden sandstorm takes United States Army Captain Natalie Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her squad from our world and into a new world inhabited by huge, dangerous monsters immune to the soldiers’ firepower – leaving the unit to fight desperately for survival. FIVE FACTS: 1. This film is adapted from the videogame franchise of the same name. 2. The film is directed by Jovovich’s husband Paul W. S. Anderson. 3. Anderson was previously heavily involved as a director and writer in the Residential Evil film series that ran from 2002 to 2016 and also starred Jovovich. 4. Monster Hunter’s cast also includes Tony Jaa as Hunter and Ron Perlman as the Admiral. 5. Perlman portrayed the title character in the 2004 and 2008 Hellboy films, while Jovovich played…

“Resident Alien,” a new Syfy series that caught the attention of veteran TV critic Rob Owen and approving viewers, is evidence that inventive shows exist outside premium cable and streaming services. “It’s been a while since there’s been a cable show, a basic cable show on USA or Syfy or another one of those channels, that’s struck me as something I would go back and give another look,” Owen, a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist, said of the comic book-inspired series that arrived in January. An hour-long dramady about an extraterrestrial being stuck in a small town, “Resident Alien” gained early traction in the ratings. It pulled in a bigger audience for its second episode than its first, a rarity in the peak-TV era of dizzying decisions about what’s worth your time…

After beating bone cancer, Hayley Arceneaux figures rocketing into orbit on SpaceX’s first private flight should be a piece of cosmic cake. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced that the 29-year-old physician assistant — a former patient hired last spring — will launch later this year alongside a billionaire who’s using his purchased spaceflight as a charitable fundraiser. Arceneaux will become the youngest American in space — beating NASA record-holder Sally Ride by over two years — when she blasts off this fall with entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and two yet-to-be-chosen contest winners. She’ll also be the first to launch with a prosthesis. When she was 10, she had surgery at St. Jude to replace her knee and get a titanium rod in her left thigh bone. She still limps and…

Britain plans to use its presidency of the Group of Seven economic powers to push for an internationally recognized system of vaccine passports that could allow world travel to resume, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged this week that the idea raises “complex” ethical issues. The British government previously said it was not considering issuing vaccine passports to people who had been inoculated. But it has now set up a review into “COVID status certification” that will examine ways people can prove they don’t have the coronavirus, either through vaccination or by showing a negative test result. The government said it would “look to introduce a system to allow vaccinated individuals to travel more freely internationally.” It added it would work with other countries through the World Health Organization, the…

Struggling under U.S. sanctions, Huawei unveiled a folding smartphone with an 8-inch (20-centimeter) -wide screen Monday to show off its tech prowess but said it will be sold only in China. The Mate X2 highlights the challenges for Huawei Technologies Ltd. after Washington cut off access to U.S. processor chips and Google services. Last year, Huawei fell from the top-selling global smartphone brand to sixth place. Huawei says the Mate X2, its third folding phone, has crisper visuals and better sound for movies and games. It runs on Huawei’s most advanced processor chip, the Kirin 9000. The phone offers “a truly immersive experience,” the president of Huawei’s consumer unit, Richard Yu, said at a launch event broadcast online. Huawei, China’s first global tech brand, was battered by being put on…

With more than 47 million Twitter followers, Elon Musk holds a great deal of influence in the world of tech and cryptocurrency, proven by Dogecoin’s meteoric growth in recent weeks. A single tweet from Musk sparked overnight interest in the currency, first released in 2013, and now has investors taking it seriously. The payment system, developed by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, reached a market capitalization of $5,382,875,000 in January, and with its value growing rapidly, it’s a genuine Bitcoin alternative. Now could be the time to invest… THE CHANGING CONSUMER LANDSCAPE In early February, SpaceX founder Elon Musk sent out one tweet to his millions of followers, asking “Who let the Doge Out?” - it amassed almost 800,000 likes and changed the fortunes of the cryptocurrency overnight, not only…

The viral pandemic has triggered a cascade of price hikes throughout America’s auto industry — a surge that has made both new and used vehicles unaffordable for many. Prices of new vehicles far outpaced overall consumer inflation over the past year. In response, many buyers who were priced out of that market turned to used vehicles. Yet their demand proved so potent that used-vehicle prices soared even more than new ones did. The price of an average new vehicle jumped 6% between January of last year, before the coronavirus erupted in the United States, and December to a record $40,578. Yet that increase was nothing next to what happened in the used market. The average price of a used vehicle surged nearly 14% — roughly 10 times the rate of…

As the Love Continues Mogwai The Scottish post-rock band Mogwai, long renowned for the dynamic contrast and melodic bass guitar lines that permeate their lengthy instrumental pieces, have brought out their 10th studio album 25 years to the day since releasing their very first single, “Tuner/Lower”. FIVE FACTS: 1. Mogwai’s line-up currently consists of guitarist and vocalist Stuart Braithwaite, guitarist and pianist Barry Burns, bassist Dominic Aitchison and drummer Martin Bulloch. 2. Braithwaite and Aitchison met in April 1991 before, four years later, forming Mogwai with Bulloch, an old friend from school. 3. The band’s name is derived from that of the creatures in the 1984 comedy horror film Gremlins. 4. Nonetheless, Braithwaite has insisted that the band name “has no significant meaning and we always intended on getting a…

As airlines slashed flights and furloughs appeared inevitable in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Mike Catania sensed there would be little need for a service that helped airline crews find short-term housing. So, Catania and his fellow owners shut down Padloop in early March, even though the nearly year-old company had just broken even. Catania started looking at how life was changing amid the pandemic and came up with the idea for his next business: Locaris, a website to help apartment renters connect with prospective neighbors to get the scoop on buildings and landlords. Because the pandemic limited people’s ability to meet in person, Locaris enabled renters to get the lowdown on a building safely. “I tried to focus on, what is COVID a catalyst for? What trends…

The U.S. Department of Defense has launched an aerospace education center of excellence at Tuskegee University in Alabama. The Aerospace Education Research and Innovation Center will support undergraduate research in materials and aerospace sciences relevant to the department and the aerospace industry, a news release said. “The establishment of centers of excellence plays a vital role in our defense enterprise by stimulating research and innovation for the next generation of STEM leaders,” said Dr. Jagadeesh Pamulapati, director of the Pentagon’s Office of Research, Technology, and Laboratories. The school was the home of the Tuskegee Airmen. It is now the nation’s top producer of Black aerospace engineers, the news release said. The new program will support two-year research projects in fatigue damage tolerance, experimental aerodynamics, and the performance of materials and…

Leading technology companies said that a monthslong breach of corporate and government networks was so sophisticated, focused and labor-intensive that a nation had to be behind it, with all the evidence pointing to Russia. In the first congressional hearing on the breach, representatives of technology companies involved in the response described a hack of almost breathtaking precision, ambition and scope. The perpetrators stealthily scooped up specific emails and documents on a target list from the U.S. and other countries. “We haven’t seen this kind of sophistication matched with this kind of scale,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told the Senate Intelligence Committee. Smith said investigators estimate at least 1,000 highly skilled engineers would have been required to develop the code that hijacked widely used network software from Texas-based SolarWinds to deploy…

Google has fired a leader of its artificial intelligence ethics team in the fallout from the recent departure of another former employee involved in the same field. The internet company confirmed the firing after Margaret Mitchell announced her ouster on Twitter. The firing comes a month after Mitchell also vented on Twitter about the handling of her former colleague, Timnit Gebru, who parted ways with Google late last year. Gebru, a Black woman, said she was fired in a dispute over a research paper, while Google said it had accepted her resignation. Hundreds of Google employees have signed an online petition protested Gebru’s departure. Mitchell, though, was even more outspoken in a Jan. 19 tweet t hat insinuated that a meeting company CEO Sundar Pichai had scheduled with the leaders…

U.S. consumer confidence rose again in February as an accelerating COVID-19 vaccine push provides hope for Americans who have lived through a year of unprecedented restrictions. The Conference Board reported this week that its consumer confidence index rose to 91.3, up from 88.9 in January. However, despite the improved vaccination rollout, consumers are more optimistic about current conditions than they are about the near future. The present situation index, which is based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions, rose to 92 from 85.5 last month. But the expectations index — based on consumers’ near-term outlook for income, business, and labor conditions — ticked down slightly to 90.8 this month from 91.2 in January. That’s somewhat surprising to economists as many experts have predicted that widespread vaccinations…

Isaac Asimov is probably the most famous name when it comes to science-fiction literature and he is considered – by many – to be the most important and influential science-fiction writer ever. His opus includes over 500 books and, in that aspect, he is certainly one of the most prolific writers in the history of the genre. Among his works, the Foundation series (actually hepatology) is by far the most important and most influential. The Foundation consists of seven books in total – Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation’s Edge, and Foundation and Earth – and tells the story of scientist Hari Seldon who, during the waning days of the Galactic Empire, predicts its downfall and a 30,000-year-long dark age and then uses…

An air of mystery surrounded Rosamund Pike in “Gone Girl” but there’s no mistaking her in “I Care a Lot.” Sporting designer suits and a bob cut so sharp that you tremble for her stylist, Pike’s Marla Grayson is ruthlessly imperious from head to toe. The title of J Blakeson’s sleekly sinister neo-noir is tongue and cheek. Marla, a shark on par with Gordon Gekko or Jaws, doesn’t care even a little. She’s a legal guardian to dozens of elderly people whom she bilks for everything they’re worth. A wall of their faces and names adorns her Boston office the way stock portfolios might a financier. “Playing fair is a joke invented by rich people to keep the rest of us poor,” she intones in the movie’s opening voice over.…

A federal judge this week ruled that California can for the first time enforce its tough net neutrality law, clearing the way for the state to ban internet providers from slowing down or blocking access to websites and applications that don’t pay for premium service. Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill in 2018, making California the first state to pass a net neutrality law. Open internet advocates hoped the law would spur Congress and other states to follow suit. The Trump administration quickly sued to block the law, which prevented it from taking effect for years while the case was tied up in court. The Biden administration dropped that lawsuit earlier this month. But in a separate lawsuit, the telecom industry asked a federal judge to keep blocking the…

The investigation into an engine explosion on a jetliner taking off from Denver is focusing on a fan blade that appeared to be weakened by wear and tear, a development reminiscent of a fatal failure on board another plane in 2018. These and other recent engine failures raise questions over long-held assumptions about how long fan blades last and whether they are being inspected often enough. A Boeing 777 operated by United Airlines had to make an emergency landing in Denver after one of its engines blew apart, spewing huge chunks of wreckage that landed in neighborhoods and sports fields. Passengers captured video of the crippled engine, wobbling and still on fire, as pilots made a safe return to the airport minutes after the plane bound for Hawaii took off.…

Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report says. Unlike past U.N. reports that focused on one issue and avoided telling leaders actions to take, the report combines three intertwined environment crises and tells the world what’s got to change. It calls for changing what governments tax, how nations value economic output, how power is generated, the way people get around, fish and farm, as well as what they eat. “Without nature’s help, we will not thrive or even survive,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “For too long, we have been waging a senseless and suicidal war on nature. The result is three interlinked…