Technology

Facebook research into “vaccine-hesitant” beliefs has found that a small group of users is driving many of the discussions that may sow doubt or discouragement about taking a vaccine, The Washington Post reported. Vaccine hesitancy predates both social media and COVID-19, as the World Health Organization reports, and can derail progress in eradicating vaccine-preventable diseases. The WHO points out that vaccine hesitancy may not be wholly responsible for an the 30 percent increase in measles cases around the world over the past several years, but it played a role in measles’ resurgence. Facebook banned false and misleading ads about vaccines back in October, weeks before the first coronavirus vaccines were even available. In December, Facebook announced it would remove false claims about ...

So I typically save my binge-watching for after dinner, and usually put something on to unwind before bed. Based on this routine, you can probably surmise that it was a very poor decision to try to get back into Hannibal— an excellent show, truly, but not “just before bedtime” fare. Eek. But I can’t stop watching, and the chances I may get up earlier to watch before work— haha I couldn’t even finish that sentence. I just can’t do it. My other current show, Servant, has its season 2 finale this week and honestly, I have no idea what’s going to happen but Lauren Ambrose is absolutely doing work above and beyond what the show’s uneven writing gives her. This week’s trailers are kind of a mish-mash, or in more positive terms, there’s something for everyone! [embedded content] The Falcon and Th...

The middle eastern country of Oman has blocked the Clubhouse voice chat app saying it lacked the proper permit to operate, as some activists raised concerns that it was an act of censorship, Reuters reported. The Omani Telecommunications Regulatory Authority told news site WAF that communications applications operating in the country must get a permit from the authority. According to WAF, Oman “prohibits the use of several encrypted VoIP applications without an official license.” The Omani Association for Human Rights said in a statement that Oman’s government views “the authoritarian government of China as a role model,” and has banned the app even though it’s used by many Omanis “as a space to express their opinions freely without government censorship.” China blocked access to Clubhouse...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the latest batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit Sunday, and returned to Earth successfully, landing on its Of Course I Still Love You drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, the company announced. Sunday’s mission marked a record ninth flight and landing for this Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX said, which was part of five earlier Starlink launches and the DM-1 mission for its Crew Dragon capsule. The satellites are part of growing Starlink constellation, which SpaceX is building to provide internet connectivity to rural areas on Earth. The company has permission to launch 12,000 satellites as part of the project, and has more than 1,000 in orbit so far. Starlink also has some 10,000 users in the beta program it launched last year. The Starlink kit, which comes w...

During Clubhouse’s weekly town hall on Sunday, CEO Paul Davison announced the voice-chat app’s first creators program. Clubhouse Creator First will help aspiring hosts and creators on the platform build their audiences, connect with brands, and perhaps most importantly, monetize their shows. The accelerator will accept 20 creators, and Clubhouse is taking applications through March 31st. Today’s Town Hall Updates:We are launching our first creator accelerator program, Clubhouse Creator First. We are looking to support and equip 20 creators w/ resources they need to bring their ideas and creativity to life. Details and application here: https://t.co/kmKjQvoUBK — Clubhouse (@joinClubhouse) March 14, 2021 Clubhouse celebrates its first anniversary on March 17th, and has had quite the inaugura...

After the success of its Disney Plus series WandaVision, Marvel has gone back to press for new print runs of several WandaVision-related titles, Entertainment Weekly reported. Scarlet Witch by James Robinson; Steve Englehart’s Vision and Scarlet Witch, and Vision, by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta are all on the list. Marvel also will be increasing its stock of print issues of House of M, which EW says ran out “almost overnight” after the show debuted in January. Fans of the show and comics will appreciate the connections; even though the show didn’t hew exclusively to the plot lines in the comics, there were numerous references in WandaVision to themes in House of M and the other comics listed above. As part of our series on getting into comics, The Verge’s Chaim Gartenberg wrote a ...

Epic Games and Brazilian soccer player Neymar are teasing a likely appearance by the star athlete in Fortnite on March 16th, with clues coming via a couple of tweets. Eurogamer first reported the news, including a video tweeted from the Epic Games account showing Neymar’s No. 10 jersey. Neymar retweeted the video with the “eyes” emoji— not exactly confirmation, but another clue that something is brewing. So details about how exactly Neymar might appear in Fortnite are still scarce, but as Engadget points out, it’s coming at the same time the Zero Crisis Finale single-player mission— which is the focus of the video teaser— launches. Neymar himself hasn’t played in a soccer (or football, take your pick) game since being injured several months ago. Live events in Fortnite have proven hugely p...

It’s Pi Day, the nerdiest of holidays because it’s all about a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter (yes, sometimes writing majors do pay attention in geometry class). March 14th has become known as Pi Day because it’s written numerically as 3.14 and pi starts at 3.14 … and goes on indefinitely. Irrational number, indeed. In case you’ve forgotten the digits of pi, Google is celebrating (marking? observing? idk, choose the term that feels right to you) the day with an Easter egg game hidden in its calculator (also: TIL Google will bring up a calculator if you search for “calculator”). The pi symbol in the upper left corner of the calculator should have some twinkling stars around it, and when you click on it, the calculator will s...

The 63rd Grammy Awards ceremony will be held Sunday March 14th, as awards show season continues apace despite the coronavirus pandemic. The show will honor the best music of 2020 and all the performers, producers, and behind-the-scenes people who made it happen. As with most of this year’s awards shows, the Grammys look a bit different this year, broadcasting from “in and around” the Los Angeles Convention Center, but without a live audience. As is usually the case with awards ceremonies, there’s some controversy around this year’s Grammys. The Weeknd, whose song Blinding Lights topped music charts around the world in 2020, received zero nominations — the consensus seems to be it had something to do with the anonymous expert committees who get final say in which artists make the cut. The W...

Honda has announced it will sell two electric SUVs in the US in the 2024 model year, and plans to introduce hybrid gas-electric versions of its best-selling models. It’s the second Japanese automaker that has recently announced a future EV in the United States; last month Toyota said it plans its first mass-market electric vehicle by the end of 2021. Dave Gardner, the head of sales for Honda of America, said last week one of the EVs will be an Acura, and the other will be a Honda brand, according to the Associated Press. He said more details would be coming later in 2021. Japanese automakers— and Toyota in particular— once were the leaders in hybrid vehicles, but have lagged American companies in the all-electric vehicle market in recent years. But with California banning sales of new inte...

A judge in California ruled Friday that Google has to face a class action lawsuit that claims the search giant secretly collects data from users even when they’re using its private “Incognito” mode, Bloomberg reported. Three users filed a complaint last June alleging Google has a “pervasive data tracking business,” and its tracking persists even if users take steps to protect their private information, such as using incognito mode in Chrome, or private browsing in Safari and other browsers. The lawsuit seeks at least $5 billion. Google had sought to have the case thrown out, but US District Judge Lucy Koh wrote in her ruling that the company “did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode.” The company said in a court fili...

Free streaming platform Tubi has plans to branch out into original programming, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the company’s plans. The streamer will likely start with original movies, but is also exploring episodic TV shows, and is speaking with potential advertisers about partnerships, the report states. Fox Corp. acquired Tubi for $440 million last March, in an attempt to get in on the streaming wars. Before the acquisition, Fox didn’t have its own streaming offering. Fox said at the time it planned to offer a large number of its older shows and movies to Tubi subscribers for free, as well as some sports programming. There was no talk at that time of Tubi creating original content to try to compete with the likes of established, paid streaming platforms like Netflix and...