Month: June 2018

Enlarge / Exxon Mobil oil-processing towers and gas-processing infrastructure. (credit: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

An economic downturn on the level of the 2008 recession is coming if we keep investing in fossil fuels, researchers say. If fossil fuel-producing countries like the US, Canada, and Russia don't guide their economies away from oil, gas, and coal, then low-carbon technology could render at least some of those investments worthless. According to a paper in Nature Climate Change, approximately $1 trillion to $4 trillion could be lost from the global economy, even taking into account the fact that the Trump administration has hit the brakes on a lot of climate change policy in the US.

With or without the US federal government, countries and regions around the world (including US states) are pursuing policies to meet the 2°C climate change goals from the Paris Agreement. At the same time, investment in fossil fuel assets continues. These assets, like drill rigs and pipelines, generally have long lifetimes, so as the world moves to low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies, we can expect that some fossil fuel assets will become valueless before the end of their projected lifetimes. Investors call these valueless assets "stranded."

"Irrespective of whether or not new climate policies are adopted, global demand growth for fossil fuels is already slowing in the current technological transition," the researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands write. "The question then is whether, under the current pace of low-carbon technology diffusion, fossil fuel assets are bound to become stranded due to the trajectories in renewable-energy deployment, transport fuel efficiency, and transport electrification."

Lenovo

22 days ago, Lenovo started hyping the upcoming launch for its Z5 smartphone. Lenovo VP Chang Cheng shared the above images of an all-screen smartphone on China's Weibo social network. Cheng said the device was a technical breakthrough and that it would have 95-percent screen-to-body ratio. Three weeks later, neither of those claims appears to be accurate—if they ever were.

Lenovo has now made the Z5 available for pre-purchase in China, and the device on Lenovo's site differs significantly from the pre-release hype. Instead of the promised "all-screen" smartphone—which was shown in previous images to be notch-free—we're getting a device with a notch and a sizable bottom bezel. The "95-percent screen-to-body ratio" is now only claimed to be 90 percent.

Enlarge / David Hogg shakes hands with police before participating in a "die-in" protest in a Publix supermarket on May 25, 2018 in Coral Springs, Florida. (credit: Getty Images | Joe Raedle )

A hoax emergency call falsely claimed there was a hostage situation at the Florida home of gun-control activist David Hogg, leading to a search of the property this morning.

A Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) SWAT team responded to the house but found no one there.

"According to BSO, deputies received a call at around 8:30 am, saying someone broke into Hogg's home with an AR-15 rifle and was holding the family hostage," WSVN reported. "Deputies determined that no one was home at the time and that the call was unfounded."

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our friends at TechBargains, we have another round of deals to share.

While Apple and its WWDC event are dominating the tech world's headlines this week, Google seems to be fighting for the Dealmaster's attention. A number of the Android-maker's devices have gone on sale at various retailers this week, with discounts on the Pixelbook laptop, Home Mini smart speakers, and Daydream View virtual reality headset all happening simultaneously.

The Pixelbook discount is particularly notable, as it's one of the biggest sales we've seen on Google's flagship Chromebook. While the $750 deal price is still a good chunk of change to drop on a Chrome OS laptop, it's much better than the premium-feeling notebook's usual $1,000 price tag.

Enlarge / Get used to never seeing this Guitar Hero TV screen (or any like it) starting in December.

In an unceremonious blog post this weekend, publisher Activision announced it will be shutting down the servers for Guitar Hero Live's "Guitar Hero TV" mode effective December 1. The move will effectively end access to hundreds of playable songs available only in that server-streamed mode.

The retail version of Guitar Hero Live also includes a 42-song "on-disc" soundtrack on consoles, and those songs will still be playable following the server shutdown (an iOS version, which has already been removed from the App Store, will no longer be usable at all as of December). But the game eschews the usual option of purchasing additional songs as downloadable content.

Instead, Guitar Hero Live players have free access to the few songs being streamed live at that moment on a handful of curated, rotating Guitar Hero TV channels. Players can also use in-game rewards or microtransaction purchases to essentially rent access to those online songs on-demand, including a "party pass" that gave time-limited access to all available songs. Both of these options will be cut off in December, and the in-game microtransaction purchases that help power those on-demand plays have already been shut off.