Month: June 2022

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | artas)

People who buy or sell guns on Facebook can violate the social network's ban on gun purchases 10 times before they're kicked off the service, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Facebook's 10-strikes rule is detailed in "internal guidance obtained by The Washington Post," the article said:

The policy, which has not previously been reported, is much more lenient than for users who post child pornography, which is illegal, or a terrorist image on Facebook, which prompts immediate removal from the platform.

A separate five-strikes policy extends even to gun sellers and purchasers who actively call for violence or praise a known dangerous organization, according to the documents.

The policy apparently used to be even more lenient. "Until 2020, the strike threshold for guns was more than 10," the Post wrote, citing anonymous sources. "That threshold seemed 'too high' to many employees, who argued to reduce it to 10 strikes or lower."

Facebook banned gun sales in 2016. Its gun policy says the "purchase, sale, or trade of firearms, ammunition, and explosives between private individuals isn't allowed on Facebook."

Enlarge / A comparison of the initial variant of the Space Launch System rocket (left), with the upgraded variant, as well as the original and new mobile launch towers. (credit: NASA OIG)

Three years ago, NASA awarded a cost-plus contract to the engineering firm Bechtel for the design and construction of a large, mobile launch tower. The 118-meter tower will support the fueling and liftoff of a larger and more capable version of NASA's Space Launch System rocket that may make its debut during the second half of this decade.

When Bechtel won the contract for this mobile launcher, named ML-2, it was supposed to cost $383 million. But according to a scathing new report by NASA's inspector general, the project is already running years behind schedule, the launcher weighs too much, and the whole thing is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. The new cost estimate for the project is $960 million.

"We found Bechtel's poor performance is the main reason for the significant projected cost increases," the report, signed by Inspector General Paul Martin, states. The report finds that Bechtel underestimated the project's scope and complexity. In turn, Bechtel officials sought to blame some of the project's cost increases on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enlarge / Windows 11 running on an old Windows 7-era HP laptop. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Microsoft began offering the Windows 11 22H2 update to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview channel earlier this week. But the update didn't just go to people who were supposed to get it—it was also released to many PCs that don't meet Windows 11's stringent new system requirements.

As reported by Neowin, users on Reddit and Twitter whose unsupported Windows 10 PCs were signed up for the Release Preview channel were shown notifications that the Windows 11 22H2 update was available and that their PCs suddenly met the requirements to install it. This raised the possibility that Microsoft could be relaxing the system requirements for Windows 11, but the Windows Insider Program Twitter account confirmed Wednesday that the notifications were due to a bug and that the requirements were not changing.

Windows 11 generally requires an 8th-generation Intel Core CPU or AMD Ryzen 3000-series CPU or better, as well as Secure Boot support and TPM 2.0 for handling disk encryption and other security functions. PCs made and sold in late 2017 into 2018 can usually run the OS, while older PCs generally can't. Microsoft argues that these newer PCs will run Windows 11 more reliably and that they support security features that older PCs don't, though the cutoffs are still somewhat arbitrary.

Enlarge (credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

California's ability to regulate its own air quality is being defended by five automakers this week. BMW, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo have filed a motion to defend the Golden State's waiver, issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency, that allows the state to limit the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by vehicles sold within its borders.

As a result of severe air pollution in the 1960s, then-California Governor and future Republican hero Ronald Reagan created the California Air Resources Board to set a statewide approach to managing air quality. But in recent years, the party of Reagan has been working double-time to undo the move.

Former President Donald Trump was determined to prevent CARB from regulating California's air. In September 2019, Trump revoked California's waiver under the clean air act, with the intention of bringing it under an Environmental Protection Agency that had been weakened by executive branch edict. Trump's attack on California's air was backed by automakers like Toyota and GM, who have sought to water down fuel efficiency standards.