WHO Says Europe Is Headed Into Another Potential Pandemic Crisis

Experts say that “pandemic fatigue” is causing numbers of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to surge in parts of Europe, CNBC reports. Numbers are rising in both France and Spain. In some instances, the number of new cases is outpacing peak numbers back in April. Both countries even surpassed the per capita-adjusted numbers in the US. Officials suspect...

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Ford VP Disses Cybertruck, Calling Electric F-150 a “Real” Work Truck

The Shade A Ford executive just threw some serious shade at the automaker’s competition. During a media briefing this Wednesday, Ford’s president of the Americas and international markets Kumar Galhotra said that Ford’s upcoming all-electric F-150 pickup truck will be a “real” work truck” — not a “lifestyle” truck like Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck...

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Tesla Competitor Lucid Beats Model S Prototype Record on Racetrack

Record Breakers About a year ago, Tesla’s Model S set the “record for fastest 4 door ever at Laguna Seca” in California, according to CEO Elon Musk. The move was likely intended to throw the gauntlet at Porsche’s feet, as the record was set mere days after the German carmaker’s announcement of the Taycan — which turned out to be a worthy competitor....

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China Planning to Launch Lunar Sample Return Mission in November

Preparing for Liftoff According to satellite imagery and ship tracking data, China is preparing to launch its Chang’e-5 sample return mission to the Moon, SpaceNews reports. The mission will attempt to return around two kilograms of samples — the first lunar sample mission launched by any country since the early 1970s. Components of the Long March...

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Trump Admin to Shut Down TikTok App Downloads on Sunday

App Store Ban The Trump Administration is officially barring Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from US app stores starting Sunday, The New York Times reports. Critics say it’ll strike a grave blow to Americans’ free speech rights and set a worrying precedent. The move also follows a lengthy back and forth between the president and TikTok,...

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Hubble Catches Massive New Storm Brewing on Jupiter

Jupiter Storm Last month, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took a gorgeous new close-up image of Jupiter some 406 million miles from Earth, with the planet’s icy moon Europa pictured off to the left. In addition to the iconic Great Red Spot region, scientists were able to spot a brand new storm brewing — and it’s a big one. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI...

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Tesla Driver Pulled Over Going 93 MPH While Completely Asleep

Catching Zs Canadian cops say they pulled over a Tesla that was traveling at 93 miles per hour — while the driver was completely asleep, with the seat pulled down like a bed. “The officer was able to obtain radar readings on the vehicle, confirming that it had automatically accelerated up to exactly 150 km/h [93 mph],” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police...

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Reality TV Show Says It Will Send Contestant to International Space Station

Who Wants to Be an Astronaut? Space Hero, a US-based production outfit that claims to be the “first space media company,” says it has secured a spot on a 2023 SpaceX mission to the International Space Station, Deadline reports. Its genius plan: turn it into a reality TV series and have contestants from all over the globe vie for a ticket into space....

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Scientists: We Could Build Mars Shelters Out of Insect Polymers and Martian Soil

Bioinspired Manufacturing A team of researchers are suggesting we could use one of the most common organic polymers on Earth to construct shelters on Mars. The material, called chitin, is produced and metabolized by most biological organisms and makes up the bulk of the cell walls in fungi, insect exoskeletons, and fish scales. The team, led by Javier...

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Oculus CTO Says He’s “Embarrassed” by Facebook’s Handling of VR

Hurt Me Plenty John Carmack, the legendary game developer behind titles including “Doom” and “Quake,” bet big on virtual reality when he became the chief technology officer of Oculus in 2013. Last year — and after Facebook bought the VR starup — he took a step back when he partially left the company to pursue AI research, downgrading his position...

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