Month: August 2019

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  On Tuesday evening, Starhopper launched from South Texas. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann for Ars ]

On Tuesday evening, in South Texas, SpaceX launched its Starhopper test vehicle for the second time. During this test, it flew much higher than last month, nearly straight up to 150 meters. Then, under the power of a single Raptor engine, the vehicle smoothly moved laterally for about 100 meters before a controlled descent and touchdown in the center of a landing pad.

From a technical standpoint, the test was impressive, demonstrating the thrust and vector control of the new Raptor engine. This was the first time a large rocket engine burning liquid-methane propellant made a significant flight, and it appeared to be mostly, if not entirely, successful. SpaceX engineers can take confidence from this test as they move into finishing their builds of Starship orbital prototypes in Texas and Florida later this year.

The test may have had more political significance, however. SpaceX seeks to demonstrate that Starship is a viable vehicle for NASA to consider flying astronauts to and from the Moon and other destinations. Visually, the flight of the stubby Starhopper was arresting: it took off in a cloud of smoke and landed in the reddish—almost Mars-red—dust it kicked up at the landing site.

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  The 2019, 7th generation Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 1. [credit: Lenovo ]

Today, Lenovo announced launch plans for the seventh generation of its critically acclaimed ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop. A number of modest changes improve on an already strong business laptop line, with the most notable being 10th-generation Intel Carbon Lake CPUs.

We've previously reviewed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and found it to be one of the strongest business laptops on the market thanks to good performance, strong battery life, and an outstanding keyboard. One of our chief complaints with last year's model—the lack of a 4K option—has been addressed this year. So you can now get the laptop in both FullHD or 4K variants, as well as WQHD. The 4K variant offers a carbon-weave-material option for the lid, giving it a more "premium" look. Or so Lenovo suggests.

As noted, we already liked the performance and battery life in this line, but those are really the two main areas of improvement with this release. The 10th-gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs (there's a six-core configuration at the high end) bring with them greater power efficiency and a promise of up to 18.5 hours of battery life in the FHD configuration. The 14-inch display peaks at 400 nits of brightness (for the FHD version) or 500 nits with HDR support (for the 4K version).

Enlarge / Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and its owners, the Sackler family, are facing hundreds of lawsuits across the country for the company's alleged role in the opioid epidemic. (credit: Getty | Drew Angerer)

OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, offered a $10 billion to $12 billion deal to settle around 2,000 opioid lawsuits, according to a report by NBC News citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Purdue and the Sacklers reportedly made the offer in a confidential meeting last week in Cleveland, where a federal judge has consolidated lawsuits claiming that Purdue and other drug makers ignited the opioid crisis by aggressively marketing their drugs while downplaying their addictiveness. The claims largely come from states, cities, and counties. Lawyers for the plaintiffs and at least 10 state attorneys general were reportedly present at the meeting.

According to NBC’s sources, both Purdue and the Sacklers would contribute to the $10 billion to $12 billion settlement plan.

Enlarge / Lloyd's of London. (credit: Mark Towning / Flickr)

On June 24, the mayor and council of Lake City, Fla., gathered in an emergency session to decide how to resolve a ransomware attack that had locked the city's computer files for the preceding fortnight. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, Mayor Stephen Witt led an invocation. "Our heavenly father," Witt said, "we ask for your guidance today, that we do what's best for our city and our community."

Witt and the council members also sought guidance from City Manager Joseph Helfenberger. He recommended that the city allow its cyber insurer, Beazley, an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, to pay the ransom of 42 bitcoin, then worth about $460,000. Lake City, which was covered for ransomware under its cyber-insurance policy, would only be responsible for a $10,000 deductible. In exchange for the ransom, the hacker would provide a key to unlock the files.

"If this process works, it would save the city substantially in both time and money," Helfenberger told them.