Supreme Court decision may derail Obama’s emissions pledge

At the Paris climate talks, President Obama pledged that America, historically the world’s biggest polluter, would reduce its carbon emissions 32 percent by 2030. However, the Supreme Court has ruled that it will not enforce his Clean Power Plan, now under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The court voted along party lines, with the five conservative judges ruling that states don’t have to start making emissions cuts until lower courts rule on pending challenges.

A lawyer for the coal utilities backing the challenge said the Supreme Court has never thwarted an EPA ruling before: “To say [the decision is] unusual is a bit of an understatement.” A representative for the 29 states backing the plan, led by Texas and Oklahoma, called the decision a “historic and unprecedented victory.” On the opposition side, California governor Jerry Brown tweeted that “As the world gets hotter, these justices appear tone-deaf as they fiddle with procedural niceties.” The White House released a statement saying that “we disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the Clean Power Plan … [but] we remain confident that we will prevail on the merits.”

To say [the decision is] unusual is a bit of an understatement.

The decision won’t necessarily kill the Clean Power Plan. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear the legal challenge on June 2 and decide whether it’s lawful. The same court declined to block the deal in the first place, which is why it went to the Supreme Court. However, the decision could take months, and if the DC court rules against the states and power utilities, they’ll no doubt appeal. It would again go to the Supreme Court, resulting in further delays. As a result, the EPA won’t be able to force states to start enacting the pledge by June, as Barack Obama promised at the Paris talks. In a worst-case scenario, the Supreme Court could strike down the Clean Power Plan altogether.

The court didn’t issue a reason for the ruling. However, Scotusblog pointed out that “Justice Scalia is a particularly strong critic of the EPA … [and] arguments put before the Court by the twenty-nine states probably attracted the support of Justice Kennedy, a champion of the dignity of state governments.” Coal operators argued that Obama’s commitments didn’t give them enough time to create new infrastructure plans, while the 29 states said that the Clean Power Plan was an intrusion into their right to make their own energy production decisions.

As the world gets hotter, these justices appear tone-deaf as they fiddle w/procedural niceties: https://t.co/L4xojTvMpn #CleanPowerPlan

— Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) February 10, 2016

The commitment does have the backing of 12 states and the National League of Cities, which represents 19,000 US cities. Though the Supreme Court knocked the teeth out of any EPA enforcement, states can still implement plans to cut emissions, of course. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling could have a chilling effect on the ceremonial signing of the Paris accord, set to take place on April 22nd. Without a legally-backed commitment from the US, other large polluters like China may delay their own plans. And by all accounts, our rapidly warming planet doesn’t have that kind of time.

Via: Reuters

Source: The White House

Verizon wants the NFL to hand over more content, TNF on the table

In 2016, the biggest companies in the world of technology became fiercely competitive in picking up streaming rights to games from the National Football League. Both Google and Apple engaged in discussions with the league at the start of the year regarding streaming rights for just the international games, but many other companies joined in when the NFL started shopping streaming rights for the entire Thursday Night Football package. The group of companies interested in streaming Thursday Night Football for at least the next year or two includes Google, Apple, Amazon, and Verizon. Bloomberg reports that AT&T, Facebook, and Yahoo were also interested in placing a bid at some point but might have moved on, likely due to the NFL’s high price tag.

Verizon is considered a frontrunner because of its existing deal with the NFL, one that allows the carrier stream each and every game exclusively to customers using a phone on its network. The existing deal, which is valued at $1 billion, expires after next year’s Super Bowl and so Verizon will need to work to negotiate a renewal while deepening the strength of the partnership with more content. Big Red wants to go beyond streaming Sunday, Monday, and Thursday games to phones.

Sources tell the New York Post that Verizon is hesitant on renewing its sponsorship and streaming rights deal with the NFL because of the league’s asking price; therefore, Verizon is trying to get more content to make the amount of money spent worth every penny. Where would “more content” come from? That Thursday Night Football package, of course.

If Verizon does score Thursday Night Football games, it’s widely believed the content would be funneled into Go90. The millennial-targeted video streaming service is the current home to a catalog that includes the NBA and other younger-skewing programming. The NFL attracts millions of eyeballs on a weekly basis, and Verizon would be smart to put Thursday Night Football on Go90 to make advertisers dump money into it (and eventually generate a profit). It would also become likely that Go90 becomes available on media players in order to serve people not wanting to stream football games on their phones.

Even if Verizon doesn’t want to pay big bucks for everything the NFL has to offer, the carrier will likely write a check anyways. Other companies would jump on what Verizon has with the NFL in the blink of an eye. For example, Amazon is reportedly interested in the NFL Sunday Ticket deal controlled by DirecTV through the next six seasons. See? It’s never too early to think about signing a deal with the NFL. The league is a cash cow showing no signs of slowing down.

Source: New York Post, Bloomberg

Come comment on this article: Verizon wants the NFL to hand over more content, TNF on the table

That insanely-expensive hoverboard is now $5,000 cheaper

Did you take a look at Arca Space’s honest-to-goodness actual hoverboard and think that $19,900 was a bit too much? That’s excellent, because the firm has revealed that its canny business deals have lowered the price down to just $14,900. It’s a fact that should please all none of its pre-order customers, which can expect the extra $5,000 to be reimbursed. For that money, buyers will get a slab that, thanks to 36 electric fans kicking out upthrust, will keep you floating, a bit, above the ground, for, uh, six minutes. Which is perfect if your morning commute takes five minutes.

The company has also sought to head-off snarky tech writers looking to complain about the craft’s implausibly short range. Today’s announcement also includes the news that Arca Space is building replacement battery packs that you can swap in to prolong your flight time. According to the release, it’ll take just a single minute for you to replace a dead power pack with a fresh one, extending your range to a staggering 12 minutes. If you’re curious to watch this thing in flight, check out this new video of company CEO Dumitru Popescu noodling around a runway and try to convince you this isn’t just for people with too much money.

Via: GizMag

Source: Arca Space (.PDF)

Iranians are using crowdsourcing to avoid ‘morality police’

In spite of their overbearing government, the people of Iran remain culturally liberal. And now a new app named Gershad aims to help young Iranians avoid Ershad, the country’s infamous “morality police.”

Ershad agents are tasked with ensuring Iranians follow strict rules on clothing and conduct. Part of this includes setting up checkpoints around town and randomly inspecting vehicles driving by. Should someone be found violating regulations, they could be warned, prosecuted or forced to write a letter of repentance saying they will never break the rules again. These checkpoints typically consist of a van with a few agents, and can move around town at will. Gershad wants to help people avoid them.

The app is simple in its construction. First it asks users to report whenever they encounter Ershad. This data is then added to a database and placed on a map. The more reports in one place, the bolder the warning on the map. Users can then, it’s hoped, avoid the agents and have a regular evening. Think of it like the popular mapping app Waze, but with harsher penalties than a traffic jam if you don’t use it.

Released this week, the app (just like Waze) will live and die on the number of people using it. With thousands of reporting users, though, it could be a very useful tool. Early signs suggest it’s beginning to take hold — local BBC presenter Nima Akbarpour tweeted an image filled with Ershad warnings last night.

A screenshot. Couple of minutes ago.#Gershad#گرشاد pic.twitter.com/cAzIlQFzW0

— Nima Akbarpour (@nima) February 9, 2016

Via: BBC News

Source: Gershad (Google Play)

Chinese companies want to buy Opera for $1.2 billion

You might think of Opera as a forgotten browser from the pre-Chrome era that you haven’t used in years. But a group of Chinese companies value it highly enough to put a whopping $1.2 billion buyout offer on the table. The Norwegian company has confirmed that it has recently received an acquisition offer from Kunlun Tech and Qihoo 360, backed by Golden Brick Silk Road and Yonglian investment firms. Kunlun Tech is a gaming company that bought a majority stake in gay dating app Grindr in January, while Qihoo is an antivirus- and browser-maker.

By offering to buy Opera for $1.2 billion or 10.3 billion Norwegian Kroner, the group is essentially valuing the company at around NOK71 per share. That’s 53 or so percent higher than Opera’s closing price on February 4th, before rumors of a buyout started going around. Oslo’s stock exchange stopped trading its shares a couple of days ago, and the company has postponed its earnings calls scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Opera’s response to the offer? Well, Recode says its board is “unanimously recommending shareholders [to] approve the takeover.” Its chief executive Lars Boilesen said in a statement:

There is strong strategic and industrial logic to the acquisition of Opera by the Consortium. We believe that the Consortium, with its breadth of expertise and strong market position in emerging markets, will be a strong owner of Opera. The Consortium’s ownership will strengthen Opera’s position to serve our users and partners with even greater innovation, and to accelerate our plans of expansion and growth.

Opera’s willingness to approve the buyout doesn’t come as a surprise, considering it’s been actively looking for a buyer since 2015. Besides its desktop browser, it’s also known for its mobile browsers that compress websites and videos before delivering them, as well as its mobile advertising business.

[Image credit: dismappa verona/Flickr (from Puccini’s opera Turandot, set in China)]

Source: Recode, Financial Times

Robotic system can lead to faster medicine development

A robotic system developed by a group of Carnegie Mellon scientists could make the drug development process faster, cheaper and more efficient. See, drug discovery, which identifies potential new medicine, entails loads of lab testing to determine the effects of different drugs on their target proteins. So many, in fact, that scientists typically have to choose the experiments to run, else they might never be done.

The study’s lead author Armaghan Naik said it can be tough for humans to pick the right experiments: they have to guess the hypothetical outcomes for each one to be able to choose. For their study that used 96 drugs and 96 cells, for instance, there were 9,216 possible experiments. Imagine having to conjure up a hypothetical result for each and every one of those.

Now, here’s where the team’s algorithm comes in. During their tests, the machine chose a few experiments to run, which were then conducted using liquid-handling robots and automated microscopes. It learned more about the drugs, the cells and how they interact after each round of testing. The AI then used what it learned from the past round to choose what to run in the next. In the end, the machine performed 2,697 out of the 9,216 possible experiments after 30 rounds. The team says the algorithm was “able to learn a 92 percent accurate model for how the 96 drugs affected the 96 proteins” by conducting only 29 percent of the almost 10,000 possible experiments.

The video below shows the tests chosen by the AI each round. But if you’re ready and able to grapple with scientific terms and the nitty-gritty of the study, you can check out CMU’s longer write up or the paper itself on eLIFE.

Source: Carnegie Mellon University