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Thursday, April 16, 2026
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Adélie Penguins In Antarctica Endangered by Climate Change

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adelie penguins

A new climate study has more bad news to deliver on the front of global warming and its bad influence on the populations of Adélie penguins in Antarctica.

The ice-free and rocky land is favored by these tuxedo-clad birds for breeding. As glaciers have melted gradually over the centuries, Adélie penguins seemed to thrive in the once icebound land.

However, it seems that the Antarctic climate has reached a tipping point, and researchers claim that future warming will likely contribute to the further decline of Adélie colonies.

“It is only in recent decades that we know Adélie penguins population declines are associated with warming, which suggests that many regions of Antarctica have warmed too much and that further warming is no longer positive for the species,” explained Megan Cimino, a researcher at the University of Delaware in the College of Earth, Ocean and the Environment.

Cimino, who’s one of the study’s co-authors, added that Adélie penguins live in colonies all along the Antarctic, and prefer rocky patches of ground for breeding from October through February. This is one of the traits that differentiate them from emperor penguins, which have no trouble breeding on ice.

Previous studies had already found serious declines in the populations of Adélie penguins in particular regions of Antarctica (West Antarctica was the worst affected).

In order to determine the impact of climate on the future of bird populations, Cimino’s team analyzed head counts from real colonies, in addition to satellite imagery and temperature data of vast regions of Antarctica that are either ice-bound or ice-free.

Thanks to high-resolution satellite imagery, the researchers were also able to accurately estimate the penguin colony size. After cross-referencing this data with unusual climate patterns between 1981 and 2010, Cimino combined the results with climate models to predict future sea ice and temperature, and its impact on future penguin populations.

Some of the Adélie penguins will have it rough: the models show that by 2060, roughly 30 percent of the colonies will have suffered a drop in numbers, while another 60 percent of colonies will be in serious decline by the end of this century.

According to the report in the journal Scientific Reports, at least half of the Adélie penguins could disappear by 2099. Colonies in the West Antarctic Peninsula are the most prone to face declining penguin populations.
Image Source: Flickr

Going Live: Google’s Undersea Cable Between US and Japan

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google undersea cables

Telecom company officials pour champagne on one end of the transpacific FASTER cable

It was back in 2008 when Google started investing in undersea cables in several locations on the planet. Maybe its biggest bet was on the $300 million FASTER cable that was supposed to connect Japan and the U.S. West Coast.

Google was not on its own, however. In 2014, the tech giant joined other six companies in a powerful consortium. China Telecom, China Mobile, NEC, KDDI, and Global Transit also pledged to create a better connection between the two countries.

Now it’s time to reap what the sow. Google announced the cable is going live tonight, June 30, 2016. Up to 60 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth will be delivered through the impressive 9,000km six-fiber pair cable.

According to Urs Holzle, SVP of Technical Infrastructure at Google, that’s “about 10 million times faster than your cable modem.”

The pair of cables connecting Shiman and Chikura in Japan to Bandon, Oregon, is slated to offer Google dedicated access to 10 Tbps per second traveling thousands of miles under the immense pressure of the sea.

In other news, Google has also announced it plans to release its Google Cloud Platform East Asia region in Tokyo sometime this year.

With the help of this dedicated bandwidth for its intercontinental operations, the result will be “faster data transfers and reduced latency as GCP customers deliver their applications and information to customers around the globe.”

There’s no way to steal the thunder from Google’s announcement about the connection between the U.S. and Japan. However, it’s noteworthy that the FASTER network provides a second connection from Japan to Taiwan, with two other fiber pairs offering a bandwidth of 20 Tbps.

Unlike the Japan-U.S. extension, the one between Taiwan and the two sites in Japan is Google-owned 100 percent, thanks to its Google Cable Bermuda subsidiary.

This is not the end-all for Google as the company plans to make other investments in undersea connection cables. A recent announcement revealed a new partnership with Facebook to better connect the U.S. East Coast and Europe.

The result will offer the fastest trans-Atlantic undersea cable that has been developed so far, with a bandwidth capacity of 160 Tbps.

Image Source: IT World

Evernote Increases Price for Premium and Plus Packages

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evernote premium

If you’ve been a faithful user of Evernote, the popular note-taking app, you might want to hear the news. According to a recent announcement, there will be some price changes for the Premium and Plus packages – and not for the cheaper.

There are also new limitations for the free Basic package that will restrict users to only devices. Evernote sent an email to Basic users who use the app on more than two devices, warning them about the changes and saying they have 30 days to adjust and comply.

They were also reminded of the possibility of switching to Plus or Premium accounts that will maintain their unlimited status for the number of supported devices.

While Evernote Basic remains free of charge, the company has increased the price of the Plus package; the new price is $3.99 a month (or $34.99 a year). Plus users are able to take their notebooks offline on a mobile device and are offered 1GB of upload space each month.

On the other hand, users of the Premium package will pay $7.99 a month (or $69.99 a year), to access 10GB of space; it also comes with the ability to turn business cards into phone contacts and annotate PDF documents. Evernote has also announced that a formerly paid feature, Passcode lock, is now available for free in the Basic package.

More updates will be rolled out this year, as the company said its goal is “investing in our core products to make them more powerful and intuitive while also delivering often-requested new features.”

Evernote is a really useful app that stays at the core of many users’ “paperless” efforts. However, the news is not likely to sit well with a lot of them, especially considering that this isn’t the first time the company has made some questionable decisions.

That said, there’s hope that CEO Chris O’Neill can find the balance between focusing on the bread and butter of the company while also making sure its customers are satisfied.

Do you use Evernote, and if you do, what’s your reaction to these changes? Are you considering a downgrade from a Premium or a Plus subscription or will you keep paying the price?
Image Source: YouTube

Pinterest Camera Search Allows Online Shopping for Real-Life Items

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pinterest camera search

Pinterest is a content sharing website in its own league, attracting users from all demographics to pin images on virtual boards in the hope they will one day use the craft ideas in real-life.

In recent months, however, the service has taken a more direct approach to shopping, allowing users to access online stores for the items they liked and pinned. Now, Pinterest has announced a new feature.

Soon, users will be able to snap pictures of real-life objects and shop for the desired items online. Filed under ‘camera search,’ the tool is only one of the many shopping options that Pinterest has revealed on Tuesday at its San Francisco headquarters.

According to Pinterest’s president Tim Kendall, this new search feature is meant to allow pinners act on their offline shopping urges with an online tool.

Available in the coming months, the camera search will allow users to snap a picture of an item they see in real-life (like that crazy pair of shoes you saw this morning on the subway) and find similar products on Pinterest that you can buy.

The service has an extra offering for its iOS pinners called ‘visual search’ which is a part of automatic object detection. This tool allows people to use photos as search queries by identifying products within a pin’s image.

To use the option, just tap on the search icon located on the upper-right corner of a pin, which opens a browsing window for detected items. You can also manually drag a rectangular cropper if you want to make a more specific search.

Automatic detection has begun rolling out to iOS users today and the gradual launch will reach all pinners within the next few weeks.

“Shopping with Pinterest is meant to be that bridge between getting inspiration and making it part of your real life,” said Ben Silbermann, CEO of Pinterest.

That gap has been infamously recognized by users who have thousands of clothes items in their virtual closet but who have rarely thought of buying them in real-life.

With more than 100 million monthly active users, Pinterest reported about $100 million in revenue in 2015. The company’s employee count is also on the rise, with about 800 workers in Paris, London, Tokyo, Berlin, and Sao Paulo, in addition to the Pinterest’s San Francisco headquarters.
Image Source: CNET

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Was Hacked by OurMine

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Sundar Pichai

It’s not a good week start for Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google. No-one wants to wake up to a hacking of their online accounts, but the trouble is even bigger when you’re one of the leaders of the tech world.

It appears that Pichai’s Quora account was hacked by OurMine, the group responsible for previously breaking into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter account earlier in June,

Formed of three hackers, the outfit has made their presence known on Pichai’s account by posting several messages. Because the Quora page was also connected to Google’s CEO Twitter account, OurMine publicized their hack to no less than 508,000 followers.

Pichai regained access to his account and the tweets were subsequently deleted; however, there are screenshots to prove that the leader of Google has been hacked.

Several major tech executives have been targeted by OurMine of late, and not even Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek was overlooked. It’s unclear still how the group is able to gain access to these accounts, but it probably has nothing to do with potential system breaches of the social networks they have hacked into.

OurMine has claimed that was not the case, and that they were able to get into these celebrities’ accounts by pulling passwords from their browsers (this claim has yet to be confirmed by any of the affected leaders). This was allegedly possible by using various exploits of the browsers their targets use.

At the same time, OurMine justified the hacks as a rebranding method to become a reliable security firm, claiming that they’re offering their services to all of the targets that have been affected by their malicious activities.

Even though it’s definitely an unorthodox way to gain the trust of potential customers, it also seems to be OurMine’s way of doing business. The group also explained the choice of hacking top users of social networks and leaders of the tech industry as a way of conducting a test.

“We are just testing people security (sic), we never change their passwords, we did it because there is other hackers can hack them and change everything,” OurMine said.

If you’re a Quora user, the company recommends that you change your password right away; make sure you don’t use the same code across multiple services.
Image Source: Wikimedia

Microsoft’s Surface 3 Tablet No Longer Available for Purchase

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surface 3 tablet

If you wanted to purchase Microsoft’s Surface 3 tablet, we’re sorry to announce that ship has sailed. The tech company has made it official: the production and sales of this device from the Surface series is winding down, set to be ceased completely by December 2016.

For those browsing through Microsoft Store recently, this is probably not news anymore. Only one product is currently still available, and it comes with 64GB of storage, 2GB of memory, Wi-Fi and 4G LTE capabilities (for the price of $500).

Next to any other version of the Surface 3 tablet, the availability listing says “Email me when available” for those trying to order the device online, but don’t hold your breath waiting for those.

But what prompted Microsoft to make this decision?

“Since launching Surface 3 over a year ago, we have seen strong demand and satisfaction amongst our customers. Inventory is now limited and by the end of December 2016, we will no longer manufacture Surface 3 devices,” reads a statement from the tech company.

So what’s the future of Microsoft’s entry-level tablet? The firm has yet to unveil if it has any plans for a Surface 4, as there are no signs yet. While the next gen of Surface would make a good counterbalance for Surface Pro 4, such a move would jeopardize the fate of Surface Pro 3.

Microsoft sources revealed that the company is apparently uncertain about what to do next. If it decides for a successor to the Surface 3 tablet, the hardware would probably hit the market in the spring of 2017, once Windows 10 Redstone 2 is unveiled.

It makes sense that Microsoft would want to have a combined launch for the next major update for the OS and the new Windows 10 hybrid tablet/laptops (matching hardware for the next generation of software).

It’s also possible that an entry-level tablet cannot find a place in the future of the Surface brand, particularly because these products are meant to be a combination of the benefits of having a good laptop (and tablet) and the sleek elegance of an Apple device.

Some of the Surface 3 specs were not well received by critics, including the average battery life and the slower Intel Atom processor; the two-in-one device was best used for lighter Windows tasks.
Image Source: YouTube

Macaques Become More Socially Selective As They Age

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Barbary macaques

As humans get older, they become increasingly selective in terms of how they spend their time and with whom. However, it turns out we’re not the only ones who do that, as researchers note a similar behavior in aging Barbary macaques.

Published in the journal Current Biology, a new research has found this type of selective attitude-behavior in monkeys in an enclosure, for which they conducted behavioral and experimental studies.

While focusing on this particular species of monkeys, the team hoped to find an explanation for the very similar human behavior that occurs as they age.

According to leading researcher, Laura Almeling of the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany, previous theories stated that humans reduce their social circle as they age because they want to cherish the limited time remaining and spend it only with loved ones.

But this hypothesis cannot be applied to macaques, as they have no knowledge of their limited time as they age. Therefore, the increased selectivity might be caused by certain psychological changes.

For the experiments, the team devised various scenarios that would help them determine the Barbary macaques’ social and environmental selectivity at different ages. The sample of more than 100 monkeys was kept in an enclosure where the researchers placed different objects.

Younger animals showed higher interest in new animal toys or treats, while the adult macaques were pretty “meh” when it came to playing with them. A food tube was also placed in their enclosure and it was the only object that was interesting enough for all age groups.

Gauging their curiosity was only one of the experiments. The team was also curious how the monkeys interacted with each other after seeing pictures of newborn macaques and after hearing recordings of “friends” screaming for help.

Older female monkeys were the pickiest in terms of whom they interacted with, even when other members of the community were interested in engaging and maintaining relationships with them.

“With increasing age, the monkeys became more selective in their social interactions,” noted Dr. Almeling. “Interestingly, however, they were still interested in what was going on in their social world.”

Image Source: Wikimedia

South Korea Tests Warning Traffic Signs for Smartphone Users

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traffic signs to warn smartphone users

Smartphones pose a certain danger to their owners – and it’s not just because they could potentially cause cancer. It’s also because you could be hit by a car because you’re not paying attention to the world around you.

To a certain extent, we’re all familiar with seeing people on the street with their faces glued to their smartphones’ screens, but how many of us have thought of the danger this type of behavior implies?

In an attempt of keeping pedestrians safe in traffic, South Korea’s Metropolitan Government has partnered with the National Police Agency, Seoul, and came up with a series of preventive measures.

As part of a pilot initiative, the Seoul government has unveiled two new warning signs; they are meant to raise aware of this modern problem. One of them reads, “Warning: Using Smartphone while Walking,” and it will be placed near street crossings, cautioning pedestrians of the dangers of getting hit by a car while texting.

The second one, which portrays a pedestrian with a smartphone in his hand, is designed to discourage people from using their phones – and getting lost in their digital activity – while they’re walking in public spaces. This one reads, “Walk Safely.”

To begin with, the authorities will test the program in five districts of Seoul (City Hall, Hongdae, Gangnam Station, Yonsei University, and Jamsil Station). These areas have been identified as reporting high levels of smartphone-related accidents among citizens between 10 and 30 years old.

Some people consider these preventive measures as silly, but they are meant to save the lives of people absorbed by their smartphones. However, it’s not the first time we see this kind of warning signs installed in cities.

In the town of Augsburg, Germany, authorities have implemented a similar program which included the installment of luminous traffic lights at the floor level. These were designed to catch the attention of smartphone users who did not look up before crossing the street.

Another pilot program was tested in a theme park in Chongqing, China, a few years ago, as well as in parts of Washington DC. Both cities had created walking lanes for people who texted.
Image Source: Mashable

Who Should Self-Driving Cars Save in Case of Imminent Collisions?

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self-driving moral dilemma

There’s a moral dilemma regarding self-driving cars that people want to know the answer to before this new technology goes into mass production.

What does the autonomous vehicle choose when it has to decide whether to save the life of the passengers inside or the lives of the pedestrians it is about to crash into? It’s a scary thought, but according to a new survey, people want to know the answer.

Surprisingly, the majority of respondents said they do want the car to be equipped with a mechanism to reduce the number of casualties that result from a collision. If this technology is implemented, it would mean that the car will have to decide whether its passengers live or die.

The mechanism would be able to choose between crashing into a group of pedestrians – potentially killing at least some of them – and swerving off the road and crashing into a tree – potentially killing at least some of the passengers inside.

Evidently, people are scared at the thought of riding in such cars. According to study co-author Iyad Rahwan, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, self-driving technology could avoid almost 90 percent of car collisions.

The remaining 10 percent are caused by things we have little or no control over, such as bad weather conditions, random freak accidents that cannot be computed, or mechanical failures.

And this minority of accidents is where the tradeoffs get involved. Part of a serious moral debate, these scenarios have got developers thinking of possible solutions and rules for their autonomous technology.

What is the self-driving car supposed to do when a collision is unavoidable? Whether it’s the pedestrians’ or the passengers’ lives that will be saved, respondents of the survey agreed that riding in cars with a moral compass sounds dangerous.

A vast majority of them want to live in a world where cars can minimize the number of casualties, but at the same time, everyone wants their car to protect their lives, if it comes to that.

This dilemma just goes to show how paradoxical people are in nature; humans don’t really know what they want until they put themselves in the situation they’re considering.
Image Source: Today

Strange Watermelon Snow Phenomenon Spreads in the Arctic

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pink snow

The watermelon is one of the favorite fruits of the summer season and everyone wants a piece of it. However, there’s a different kind of “watermelon” that can be experienced only by going outside in snowy places.

Known as ‘watermelon snow,’ this phenomenon takes place the summer heat melts the snowy leftovers of winter. The pinkish nuance of the snow is caused by the sun, which leads to algal blooms that thrive in liquid water and freezing temperatures.

It’s a vicious cycle: firstly, the green organisms flourish under the hot sun, creating a sort of natural sunscreen to color the snowy slopes in pink and sometimes bright red. On the other hand, adding color darkens the snow, which leads to a quicker and faster paced meltdown.

According to Stefanie Lutz, a geobiologist working with the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences and the lead study author, there’s a similarity between this phenomenon and what happens when we wear only black T-shirts instead of white ones.

Besides the fact that it feels much hotter than it is, this heat causes extra melting in the snow. Dr. Lutz and colleagues from several institutions, including the University of Leeds, have published a study on the matter in the journal Nature Communications.

As they analyzed the microbes that thrive in the summer snow, the international team noticed that even though these bacterial communities vary widely from place to place, they are an important factor in climate change.

So important, in fact, that the team has requested that watermelon snow be taken into consideration when experts create climate models to predict the downward direction of the environment.

Even though researchers are still trying to determine just how large the pink blooms can get, Dr. Lutz believes that they can spread all over the Arctic during summertime.

“Based on personal observations, a conservative estimate would be 50 percent of the snow surface on a glacier at the end of a melt season,” she wrote in an email. “But this can potentially be even higher.”

There’s a long list of factors that are turning the Arctic in a giant popsicle that’s rapidly melting down and the red snow algae is one of the many that’s still unaccounted for.
Image Source: Science Alert

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