Month: February 2019

Enlarge (credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge to hold Tesla boss Elon Musk in contempt for tweeting last Tuesday that "Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019." In reality, Tesla only expects to produce 400,000 cars in 2019. And the SEC argues the tweet ran afoul of an October settlement requiring Musk to seek pre-approval from Tesla lawyers before tweeting out potentially market-moving information.

Musk agreed to this restriction to settle an SEC lawsuit over a previous tweet in which Musk claimed that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 per share. The public soon discovered that Musk had not actually secured funding for such a transaction, and federal securities laws make it illegal for the CEO of a publicly-traded company to publish misleading market-moving information.

In his settlement with the SEC, Musk agreed to pay a $20 million fine and give up his position as the chairman of Tesla's board. And to make sure Musk didn't mislead investors again, the SEC required Tesla to develop a process for pre-approving all Musk tweets that contain potentially market-moving information.

Enlarge (credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge to hold Tesla boss Elon Musk in contempt for tweeting last Tuesday that "Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019." In reality, Tesla only expects to produce 400,000 cars in 2019. And the SEC argues the tweet ran afoul of an October settlement requiring Musk to seek pre-approval from Tesla lawyers before tweeting out potentially market-moving information.

Musk agreed to this restriction to settle an SEC lawsuit over a previous tweet in which Musk claimed that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 per share. The public soon discovered that Musk had not actually secured funding for such a transaction, and federal securities laws make it illegal for the CEO of a publicly-traded company to publish misleading market-moving information.

In his settlement with the SEC, Musk agreed to pay a $20 million fine and give up his position as the chairman of Tesla's board. And to make sure Musk didn't mislead investors again, the SEC required Tesla to develop a process for pre-approving all Musk tweets that contain potentially market-moving information.

Enlarge / An Airbus SE A380 aircraft operated by Qantas Airways Ltd. approaches to land at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019. (credit: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Air travel is a major source of carbon pollution, and currently, there's no real way to stop it (short of grounding flights). Jet fuel made from oil is extremely energy-dense, and while many attempts have been made to blend jet fuel with biofuel, that solution is often prohibitively expensive and hardly carbon-neutral, to boot.

The Paris Agreement didn't set limits for carbon emissions from the aviation industry, but the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)—an agency of the United Nations that works with the aviation industry in 144 countries—attempted to take up that mantle. The ICAO agreed in 2016 that airlines would be required to buy carbon offsets for every ton of carbon that they emit over and above 2020 emissions projections.

A letter published in Nature Climate Change today suggests that this requirement from the ICAO is not sufficient to mitigate the effects of the aviation industry's increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Instead, the authors of the letter say the ICAO needs to mandate that the credits that airlines buy meet a specific set of criteria, to ensure that the aviation industry is actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Enlarge / Xbox One X. But what good is a monolithic box without some software to test on it? (credit: Microsoft)

The last few Windows 10 preview builds have included some vague instructions from Microsoft to install a special edition of a game, State of Decay, and report any problems with the process. There are no problems with playing the game but, rather, problems with installing and launching it. The instructions didn't give any indication as to why or what to look for.

Naturally, people have been taking a closer look to see what's special about State of Decay and figure out why Microsoft is having Windows Insiders test it. Nazmus Khandaker, Rafael Rivera, and the pseudonymous WalkingCat have been poking around both the special edition of State of Decay and a helper application called Microsoft Gaming Services that insider machines are running. Brad Sams wrote up his findings.

Ever since the first Xbox was released, an obvious question has been hanging in the air: Microsoft already owns one of the premier gaming platforms, the PC, and both the original Xbox and the current Xbox One are more or less PCs anyway, so when is Microsoft going to bring the two together and let us play Xbox games on Windows? With the new Windows 10 builds, it looks like the company is taking some big steps in that direction.

Enlarge / Xbox One X. But what good is a monolithic box without some software to test on it? (credit: Microsoft)

The last few Windows 10 preview builds have included some vague instructions from Microsoft to install a special edition of a game, State of Decay, and report any problems with the process. There are no problems with playing the game but, rather, problems with installing and launching it. The instructions didn't give any indication as to why or what to look for.

Naturally, people have been taking a closer look to see what's special about State of Decay and figure out why Microsoft is having Windows Insiders test it. Nazmus Khandaker, Rafael Rivera, and the pseudonymous WalkingCat have been poking around both the special edition of State of Decay and a helper application called Microsoft Gaming Services that insider machines are running. Brad Sams wrote up his findings.

Ever since the first Xbox was released, an obvious question has been hanging in the air: Microsoft already owns one of the premier gaming platforms, the PC, and both the original Xbox and the current Xbox One are more or less PCs anyway, so when is Microsoft going to bring the two together and let us play Xbox games on Windows? With the new Windows 10 builds, it looks like the company is taking some big steps in that direction.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | FuzzMartin)

Windstream—an Internet service provider in mainly rural areas—today filed for bankruptcy.

The bankruptcy was spurred by a court ruling from February 15 that could cost Windstream hundreds of millions of dollars. The company said the bankruptcy will help prevent negative impacts on customers.

Windstream filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Windstream considered other options, including appealing the court ruling, but company management and the board of directors "determined that filing for voluntary Chapter 11 protection is a necessary step to address the financial impact of Judge [Jesse] Furman's decision and the impact it would have on consumers and businesses across the states in which we operate," Windstream CEO Tony Thomas said in the bankruptcy announcement.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | FuzzMartin)

Windstream—an Internet service provider in mainly rural areas—today filed for bankruptcy.

The bankruptcy was spurred by a court ruling from February 15 that could cost Windstream hundreds of millions of dollars. The company said the bankruptcy will help prevent negative impacts on customers.

Windstream filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Windstream considered other options, including appealing the court ruling, but company management and the board of directors "determined that filing for voluntary Chapter 11 protection is a necessary step to address the financial impact of Judge [Jesse] Furman's decision and the impact it would have on consumers and businesses across the states in which we operate," Windstream CEO Tony Thomas said in the bankruptcy announcement.