Month: September 2020

Enlarge / A truck loaded with coal is viewed at the Eagle Butte Coal Mine, which is operated by Alpha Coal, on Monday May 08, 2017, in Gillette, Wyoming. (credit: Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

On Monday, the EPA issued updated rules on pollution limits that haven't been updated in over 30 years. The rules cover water pollution that results from burning coal for power, pollution that can place a variety of toxic metals into the nation's waterways. The 2020 regulations replace an Obama-era attempt to set more stringent rules to limit pollution, with the changes motivated in part by the EPA's decision to avoid having the added costs of control measures push any coal plants out of business.

From fossil fuels to water

Coal is the dirtiest form of electricity generation, with a lot of its problems caused by the release into the air of particulates, toxic metals like mercury, and harmful environmental chemicals like sulfates. But, somewhat ironically, controlling these pollutants creates its own set of problems. Many of processes that remove these chemicals from coal plant exhaust end up with some of the exhaust components dissolved in water.

In addition, the byproduct of coal production, the coal ash, is often cooled and moved out of the plant using water, producing even more contaminated material. The list of toxic materials in this water is extensive—arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, chromium, and cadmium. These materials have a variety of health effects, and many can persist in the environment for decades or longer. The EPA has estimated that this contaminated water accounts for about 30 percent of all of the toxic pollutants releases in the United States.

Enlarge / A medical worker holds a bottle of a candidate COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University that is being tested in a trial in Soweto, South Africa. (credit: Getty | Gallo Images)

The Trump administration will not take part in a global effort to help develop and equitably distribute a COVID-19 vaccine—a decision experts called “shortsighted” and “self-defeating”—according to a report by The Washington Post.

The White House cited the involvement of the World Health Organization in its decision to shun the effort. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the WHO for being soft on China during the global health crisis, despite the fact that Trump himself repeatedly praised China for its “transparency” and response to the pandemic in January and February. At the end of May, Trump abruptly announced that he was “terminating our relationship” with the WHO, a move that alarmed public health experts.

White House spokesperson Judd Deere told the Post that “The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China.”

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  Exposure notifications in iOS and Android. [credit: Apple ]

Today brought a surprise update for iOS 13: iOS 13.7 adds Exposure Notifications Express, the next phase of Apple and Google's collaboration to aid local, regional, and national governments in tracking COVID-19 exposure and isolating those infected. iOS 13.7 adds a few additional minor features, and it is joined by iPadOS 13.7, which mostly includes bug fixes. Google will launch its own version of Exposure Notifications Express on Android later this month.

Back in April, Apple and Google announced a joint plan to develop a system that would use the Bluetooth hardware in iPhones and Android phones to assist in contact tracing amidst the pandemic. "Exposure Notifications Express" is the moniker for the second phase of this rollout—the first phase began with software updates in May that included an API to help public health authorities develop their own apps for this purpose. Now, with this update, those authorities can gain the benefits of high-tech exposure tracking without developing their own apps.

In Apple's implementation for iOS, users who are in participating states are prompted to opt in to receive notifications if the contact-tracing data indicates they may have been exposed. The user is then advised on next steps to take, which are defined by the user's local public health authority. Public health authorities define when and under what circumstances notifications are sent as well as what guidance is provided to those who may have been exposed.

Enlarge / Acoustic research using a scale model 1/12th the size of Stonehenge finds that the completed monument would have magnified speech and improved musical sounds, but only for those inside the stone circle. (credit: Acoustics Research Centre/University of Salford )

Scientists built a scale model of Stonehenge, the famous megalithic structure of stones in Wiltshire, England, and used it to recreate how sound would have been reflected off the surfaces of the stones. They found that the arrangement of the stones likely would have amplified speech and enhanced music but only if one was within the circle, according to a recent study in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Dubbed "Stonehenge Lego," the scale model is the work of acoustical engineer Trevor Cox of the University of Salford in England and several colleagues. (Fun fact: way back in 2007/2008, Cox conducted a yearlong study to identify the top 10 worst sounds. The sound of someone vomiting topped the list, followed by microphone feedback, wailing babies, and a train scraping along the track rails.) This latest paper builds on their preliminary findings last year. They've since been working on testing the acoustics of different configurations of the stones that would have existed at different times in the monument's long history.

Recreating historical "soundscapes" is part of a relatively young field known as acoustic archaeology (or archaeoacoustics). For instance, researchers have sought to understand how acoustics may have influenced the outcome of key Civil War battles, like the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862. Another effect of interest to acoustic archaeologists is the chirping sound—reminiscent of the call of the quetzal, a brightly colored exotic bird native to the region—when you clap your hands at the bottom of one of the massive staircases of the Mayan Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza in central Mexico.

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  A Biden Harris yard sign designed for Animal Crossing. Players can use the QR codes to easily insert signs in their copy of the game. [credit: Joe Biden for America ]

Joe Biden's presidential campaign is rolling out a series of official virtual yard signs designed for display on islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch.

As first reported by The Verge, the four virtual sign designs squeeze supportive messages for the Democratic candidate into a 32 x 32 pixel, 16-color custom pattern square, suitable for displaying on a sign in front of your virtual house. In addition to the standard "Biden Harris" and "Team Joe" designs, the campaign has also released a version with a rainbow pride logo integrated into the "JOE" branding and a design featuring Biden's signature aviator sunglasses in red, white, and blue.

In the course of normal gameplay, an Animal Crossing yard sign will only be directly visible to the few players who actively decide to visit the island where they're displayed. But to get the designs out there, The Verge reports, the campaign is sharing the designs with a handful of influencers who will feature them in gameplay streams throughout the day starting today.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by the return of a nice $10 discount on Roku's Streaming Stick+, which is currently down to $39 at multiple retailers. While we saw Roku's 4K- and HDR-ready media streamer drop as low as $29 around Black Friday last year, this deal matches the best price we've seen outside of special events like that.

We've highlighted the Streaming Stick+ and its primary competitor, Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K, a few times in the past. Though the former has been on the market for a couple years now, it remains a dependable way to stream a massive library of apps, in 4K HDR quality, through an interface that's much simpler to navigate than Amazon's rival. That UI could probably use an aesthetic overhaul, there's no Dolby Vision HDR support, and Roku's status as a "neutral" platform has come into question after recent disputes have prevented users from accessing official versions of newer apps like HBO Max and Peacock (though the Fire TV Stick 4K is missing those, too). It's also worth noting that Google is expected to launch an affordable Android TV dongle of its own in the near future. But for now, if you're a cord-cutter who wants more than the apps built into your 4K TV can provide, the Streaming Stick+ is still speedy, intuitive, and a good value.

If you don't need for a new streamer, though, we also have deals on Razer mice and laptops, Samsung microSD cards, the AirPods Pro, and more. Have a look at our full rundown below.