Month: October 2020

Enlarge / This is Soletair's demonstration unit. Air goes in, fuel comes out. (Espresso machine optional.) (credit: Soletair Power)

At Ars, we get a lot of pitches from start-ups that want to talk about their products. At least for this science reporter, the feeling is rarely mutual. But once in a while, something piques my curiosity. Something like… carbon capture for an office HVAC system.

Over a video call, Finnish start-up Soletair Power recently showed off a unit operating in its office. It had been built for the 2020 World Expo in Dubai, but, well, you know what has happened to expos. Instead of powering an expo booth, there was a gas-powered espresso maker bolted onto the unit—since this machine turns CO₂ into methane fuel.

The value proposition for the first part of the device is pretty straightforward. Carbon dioxide accumulates in buildings full of people, and higher CO₂ concentrations may impact your ability to think clearly. The usual way to manage that is to introduce more outside air (which may need to be heated/cooled). Another could be to selectively filter out CO₂. This device could do the latter for you.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | ljhimages)

If you live in an area where AT&T has taken government funds in exchange for deploying broadband, there's a chance you won't be able to get the service—even if AT&T initially tells you it's available.

AT&T's Mississippi division has received over $283 million from the Federal Communications Commission's Connect America Fund since 2015 and in exchange is required to extend home-Internet service to over 133,000 potential customer locations. As we previously reported, the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) accused AT&T of submitting false coverage data to the FCC program. As evidence, Mississippi said its "investigation found concrete, specific examples that show AT&T Mississippi has reported location addresses... as being served when, in fact, the addresses are without service."

AT&T has since provided an explanation that confirms it submitted false data on the serviceability of some addresses but says it will still meet the overall requirement of serving over 133,000 new customer locations. The problem is in how AT&T determines whether its wireless home-Internet service can reach individual homes and businesses. AT&T uses propagation modeling software to map out coverage areas, but the software isn't always accurate. This wouldn't be a problem if AT&T deployed fiber-to-the-home or fiber-to-the-node in these areas, but the company is meeting its obligations with wireless service.

Enlarge / Here's hoping Nintendo doesn't also consider those tattoos an infringement on its intellectual property. (credit: DigitalPrincess/Tiktok)

Nintendo has issued a cease-and-desist order against a popular social media influencer for using Pokémon branding and imagery in her handle and products. But while the influencer formerly known as "Pokeprincxss" acknowledges her legal mistakes, she also feels she has been targeted by Nintendo for a very specific reason.

"Nintendo doesn't want people to think I'm in any way, shape or form affiliated with them or that I have a partnership with them, and it all comes down to me being an adult entertainer," the now-renamed "Digitalprincxss" says in a recent YouTube video addressing the issue. "Even though there are other people with 'Poke' in their name and they make money off it... I think it just literally has to do with me being an adult entertainer because they aren't adult entertainers."

Digitalprincxss boasts 1.9 million followers on Tiktok and significant followings on other public social media accounts. But she also hosts a subscription-based OnlyFans page, which charges $17 a month and promises "access to all my NSFW photos/videos that I post daily" and "uncensored content that I usually tease you with both on Instagram/Twitter."

Enlarge / While this may look like a set of iridescent satin ribbons, it's actually the scales on the wing of a butterfly. (credit: Don Komarechka)

I don't know how many years I've been putting together image galleries of the Nikon Small World Microscopy contest, but it has been quite a few now, and it is hard not to feel like I'm repeating the same things when I introduce a selection of the images from it: that nature's beauty isn't limited to grand landscapes or charismatic megafauna. That serious science can co-exist with amazing aesthetics. That some of the best scientists also have an eye for the artistic and the desire to capture the worlds they study in compelling ways. That technology and software have revolutionized a technology—the microscope—that has been around for hundreds of years.

All of those things are still true, which is why I keep emphasizing them. But words are just a distraction from the pure artistry of this year's contest winners. So I'll shut up and let you enjoy them.

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  This is a chameleon embryo, which is late enough in development to look a lot like a mature chameleon. Note the loop behind its head is the tip of its tail. [credit: Dr. Allan Carrillo-Baltodano & David Salamanca ]

Enlarge / Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan participate in a groundbreaking for a Foxconn facility in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin in 2018. Foxconn has hired significantly fewer people than it claimed it would do at the time of the company's 2017 development deal with the state. (credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The state of Wisconsin was supposed to provide Foxconn with $3 billion in subsidies over the next few years to support the construction of a massive LCD display factory in the state. The deal was negotiated in 2017 by Gov. Scott Walker and announced by Donald Trump at a White House event. It was part of Trump's strategy to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

In a Monday letter, the state informed Foxconn that the company wouldn't get the first installment of the $3 billion because Foxconn wasn't holding up its end of the deal. Under Foxconn's 2017 agreement with the state, Foxconn would be eligible for the first round of subsidies if it hired at least 520 full-time employees to work on the LCD panel factory by the end of 2019. Foxconn claimed that it had cleared this bar by hiring 550 employees in the state. But Wisconsin found that Foxconn had only 281 employees who counted toward the requirement.

Foxconn was supposed to spend $3.3 billion on the project by the end of 2019. Instead, Foxconn had only spent around $300 million by the end of the year.