Month: August 2019

Enlarge / BUTEMBO, CONGO - JULY 27: A healthcare member inoculates a man for Ebola suspicion to take precautions against the disease in Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (credit: Getty | Anadolu Agency)

For the first time, preliminary clinical-trial results suggest that two experimental Ebola drugs can lower the death toll of the deadly virus, health officials announced Monday.

Two other experimental drugs used in the trial were less effective and will be abandoned.

The data comes from the PALM trial, which is short for the Swahili phrase Pamoja Tulinde Maisha, meaning Together Save Lives. The trial began in late 2018 amid the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is still ongoing and is now the second-largest outbreak on record. Ebola responders in the DRC aimed to enroll 725 patients, but they only used data from 499 for the preliminary analysis of the results.

Enlarge / Jeff Bezos (right), the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon.com, and Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance, display the BE-4 rocket engine during a press conference in 2014. (credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Monday marked the deadline for four US rocket companies to submit bids for Air Force contracts, encompassing all national security launches from 2022 to 2026. This is a hugely consequential and much-contested bid process that has implications for the American aerospace industry for the next decade and beyond.

The Air Force is seeking two providers for about two dozen launches. The prime contractor will receive 60% of the launches while the secondary contractor claims the remaining 40%. As the US military pays a premium for launch contracts to its nine reference orbits, this guaranteed revenue is extremely valuable to US companies aspiring to run a profitable launch business.

The lead-up to Monday's deadline has included heavy political lobbying from the four companies: United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Northrop Grumman. As a result of this, Congress is considering some changes to the Air Force's procurement policy, including an on-ramp for a third provider during the 2022 to 2026 period. But so far, the Air Force is resisting this.

Enlarge / Russian President Vladimir Putin said on August 5, 2019 that Russia would be "forced" to develop new missiles if the US does the same, after Washington pulled out of a Cold War-era nuclear arms deal. Now one of those weapons has caused a nuclear accident. (credit: Getty Images / Mikhail Klimentyev)

On August 8, during testing aboard a barge in the White Sea near Nyonoksa, Russia, the nuclear engine of an experimental nuclear-armed cruise missile exploded, killing two technicians and injuring six others. On August 11, officials of the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom acknowledged that five employees had died in the explosion of what they described as "an isotopic power source for a liquid engine installation." The head of the nuclear research center, Valentin Kostyukov, called the five "national heroes."

As of today, it is believed that the death toll has risen to seven. The victims were described as suffering from burns, and most were thrown into the sea by the explosion; they all likely suffered from radiation burns.

The nuclear-powered cruise-missile program was announced by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin on March 1, 2018, during an address to the Federal Assembly. Putin described the weapon as a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile with essentially unlimited range, intended to defeat any ballistic missile defenses deployed by the United States.

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  The Cayenne S Turbo E-Hybrid has a top speed of 183mph. [credit: Porsche Cars North America, Inc. ]

Porsche provided air travel from Chicago, to Eugene, Oregon and two nights in a hotel for this story

When we went out to the beautiful Willamette Valley of Oregon to put the plug-in hybrid Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid through its paces last month, there was a bonus SUV waiting for us: the all-new 2020 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid. Porsche has officially taken the wraps off this $161,000 V8 PHEV, along with a pair of coupes: the V6 Cayenne E-Hybrid Coupe and the V8 Turbo S E-Hybrid Coupe.

The Turbo S E-Hybrid is Porsche's most-powerful SUV, capable of 670hp (493kW) and 663lb-ft (899Nm) of torque. Most of the power comes courtesy of the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, which spits out 541hp (404kW), with the rest produced by a 134hp (100kW) electric motor mounted between the internal-combustion engine and an eight-speed Tiptronic S transmission. Like the base Cayenne hybrid, drivers can select from a handful of drive modes to dial in the preferred balance of performance and economy. In Sport+ mode, the S Turbo constantly charges the battery enough so you can always get that extra oomph from the motor-engine combo. It's the same powertrain as you'll find in the Panamera.

Enlarge / Police SWAT Team at work. (credit: Onfokus | Getty Images)

Yet another armed police force has been called in on yet another unsuspecting victim, as the recently crowned Fortnite world champion took a break from a livestream to deal with a swatting incident at his own front door.

Kotaku reports that Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was streaming a Fortnite game late Sunday when he abruptly left his desk and abandoned the game with the livestream still running. The cause? His father coming to tell him that armed police were at the front door.

Fortunately, Bugha returned unharmed to the stream several minutes later. "That was definitely a new one," he can be heard saying on a recording of the stream. "I got swatted."

Enlarge / Microsoft at a trade show. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan)

Another one bites the dust. Microsoft has been shifting much of its software to a subscription model, and the latest Office 2019 news heralds another change on that front.

The suite of Microsoft programs had been available for purchase as one-off perpetual licenses through the company’s Home Use Program. HUP lets select businesses offer employees discounted rates on the software from their workplaces to use at home.

Both Office Professional Plus 2019 and Office Home and Business 2019 have been removed as options for one-off licenses under the program. Instead, HUP will give a 30% discount on annual subscriptions to Office software. Office 365 Personal will run HUP members $48.99 a year, and Office 365 Home will cost them $69.99 annually. The feature sets of the two subscriptions are the same, including premium versions of Microsoft programs, 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage, and OneDrive ransomware detection. The Home version supports up to six people, and Personal is for an individual.

Enlarge / The Tumblr application on an Asus Zenfone 2. (credit: Getty Images | kasinv)

Verizon has agreed to sell Tumblr to Automattic Inc., the owner of WordPress.com, Verizon announced today.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In addition to Tumblr, Automattic will "take on about 200 staffers" from Verizon, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Verizon-imposed porn ban will stay in place at Tumblr after the deal is completed, the Journal wrote.

It's not clear when the deal will be completed. The companies' announcement said the deal is "subject to customary closing conditions."