Billions of tonnes of meltwater flowing into the world’s oceans from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could boost extreme weather and destabilise regional climate in a matter of decades, researchers said.
The melting ice giants, especially the one atop Greenland, are poised to further weaken the ocean currents that move cold water south along the Atlantic Ocean’s floor, while pushing tropical waters northward closer to the surface, scientists reported in the journal, Nature.
Known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), this liquid conveyor belt plays a crucial role in Earth’s climate system and helps ensure the relative warmth of the Northern Hemisphere.
“According to our models, this meltwater will cause significant disruptions to ocean currents and change levels of warming around the world,” said lead author Nicholas Golledge, an associate professor at the Antarctic Research Centre of New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington.
The Antarctic ice sheet’s loss of mass, meanwhile, traps warmer water below the surface, eroding glaciers from underneath in a vicious circle of accelerated melting that contributes to sea level rise.
Most studies on ice sheets have focused on how quickly they might shrink from climate change and how much global temperatures can rise before their disintegration becomes inevitable, a threshold known as a “tipping point”.
But far less research has been done on how the meltwater might affect the climate system itself.
More extreme weather
“The large-scale changes we see in our simulations are conducive to a more chaotic climate with more extreme weather events and more intense and frequent heat waves,” said co-author Natalya Gomez, a researcher in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University in Canada.
Researchers concluded that, by mid-century, meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet will noticeably disrupt AMOC, which has already shown signs of slowing down.
This is a “much shorter timescale than expected”, noted Helene Seroussi, a researcher in the Sea Level and Ice Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, who was not involved in the study.
The findings were based on highly detailed simulations combined with satellite observations of changes to the ice sheets since 2010.
One likely result of the weakened current in the Atlantic will be warmer air temperatures in the high Arctic, eastern Canada and Central America, and cooler temperatures over northwestern Europe.
The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, up to 3km thick, contain more than two-thirds of the planet’s fresh water, enough to raise global oceans 58 and 7 metres, respectively, were they to melt completely.
Off the ice cliff
Besides Greenland, the regions most vulnerable to global warming are West Antarctica and several huge glaciers in East Antarctica, which is far larger and more stable.
In a second study published Wednesday in Nature, some of the same scientists offered new projections of how much Antarctica will contribute to sea level rise by 2100 – a hotly debated topic.
A controversial 2016 study suggested the continent’s ice cliffs – exposed by the disintegration of ice shelves that jut out from glaciers over ocean water – were highly vulnerable to collapse, and could lead to sea level rise of a metre by century’s end.
That would be enough to displace up to 187 million people around the world, especially in populous, low-lying river deltas in Asia and Africa, research has shown.
But the new study challenges those findings.
“Unstable ice-cliffs were proposed as a cause of unstoppable collapse of large parts of the ice sheet,” said lead author Tamsin Edwards, a lecturer in geography at King’s College London.
“But we’ve re-analysed the data and found this isn’t the case.”
Both of the new studies, Edwards said “predict a most likely Antarctic contribution of 15 centimetres” by 2100, with an upward limit of about 40cm.
A special report on oceans by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), due out in September, will offer a much-anticipated estimate of sea level rise.
The IPCC’s last major assessment in 2013 did not take ice sheets, today seen as the major contributor, ahead of thermal expansion and glaciers, into account because of a lack of data.
“This new Select Committee will spearhead Democrats’ work to develop innovative, effective solutions to prevent and reverse the climate crisis,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Speaker Nancy Pelosi built out the Democratic roster for her special select panel on climate change Thursday, pulling from a mix of old and new lawmakers but leaving off the highest profile freshmen like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
The announcement, on the same day that the proposal for the lofty Green New Deal lands on Capitol Hill and one day after the first climate change hearings in years, gives a further boost to Democratic efforts to bring the issue to the forefront of their agenda.
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“I want everybody to be in on the act because this is deadly serious,” Pelosi said in an interview Wednesday, adding that the panel will focus on global warming “from the standpoint of health, security, economics and morality.”
The new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will be led by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), and raising public awareness of the issue will be a top priority; just 35 percent of Americans consider climate change an imminent threat.
The other Democratic members of the panel are Reps. Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.), Julia Brownley (Calif.), Sean Casten (Ill.), Jared Huffman (Calif.), Mike Levin (Calif.), Donald McEachin (Va.) and Joe Neguse (Colo.).
Casten, Levin and Neguse are freshmen.
Pelosi — who described climate change as her “flagship” political issue before health care — saw Democrats try and fail to pass a sweeping environmental law during the Obama administration. The next attempt, she said, will need broader support.
“This time it has to be Congress-wide,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi is bringing back a committee that she created back in 2007, when she first became speaker. Republicans disbanded the group when they regained control in 2011.
The committee’s scope will be limited: It can hold hearings and plan fact-finding trips, but not compel testimony — a structure that has aggravated many progressives. Still, it will stand in stark contrast to an administration hostile to action on climate change, which President Donald Trump has described as a Chinese hoax.
Pelosi said the committee was not tasked specifically with crafting the progressives‘ “Green New Deal,” as Ocasio-Cortez had initially sought. The California Democrat called that proposal “a suggestion.”
“It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive,” Pelosi said. “The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is but they’re for it right?”
In her first term as speaker, the California Democrat helped muscle through a major energy bill in 2007, which then-President George W. Bush praised for “confronting global climate change.”
Think your relationship is solid? Is it Vogue cover-solid? It looks like newlyweds Justin and Hailey Bieber‘s pairing is, as the lovebirds have cuddled up for a gorgeous photoshoot and tell-all for the iconic magazine.
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the pair look dazzling, but it’s what they share within the issue that’s the most intriguing. The couple, who married in a quiet courthouse ceremony back in September 2018, are featured in the March 2019 issue of Vogue discussing how they first met, the trials and tribulations of marriage, and how they’re acclimating to life together as husband and wife. The gist of it? It’s not as easy as you might think.
“It’s really effing hard,” said the newly minted Mrs. Bieber (née Baldwin), discussing how she originally met husband Justin through her uncle, Alec Baldwin. The originally crossed paths to Justin’s 2009 Today appearance, though they wouldn’t connect romantically until years later, eventually entering something of a serious relationship after a brief meeting during a church conference.
When Justin and Hailey met, Justin had previously been over a year into a self-imposed celibate period, imposed in an effort to combat his “legitimate problem with sex.” He believed not having sex was a way for him to reconnect with God, as he explained in a very spiritual manner as part of the interview.
“I wanted to rededicate myself to God in that way because I really felt it was better for the condition of my soul. And I believe that God blessed me with Hailey as a result. There are perks. You get rewarded for good behavior.”
With this in mind, Justin shot down rumors that the pair married quickly because of a pregnancy or other myriad reasons. He did admit that being able to have sex was part of the reason they rushed to get married, but not the only one – it was also, indeed, the “positive impact” Hailey made on his life.
A larger wedding celebration is currently in the works for the pair, and throughout all the planning for a more luxurious affair, Justin and Hailey are working through the early kinks in their marriage, as all young couples do.
“We’re two young people who are learning as we go,” Hailey shared. “I’m not going to sit here and lie and say it’s all a magical fantasy. It’s always going to be hard. It’s a choice. You don’t feel it every single day. You don’t wake up every day saying, ‘I’m absolutely so in love and you are perfect.’ That’s not what being married is. But there’s something beautiful about it anyway — about wanting to fight for something, commit to building with someone.”
“We’ve been working through stuff. And it’s great, right?” Justin said. He also referred to himself as “the emotionally unstable one.”
“I struggle with finding peace. I just feel like I care so much and I want things to be so good and I want people to like me,” he continued. “Hailey’s very logical and structured, which I need. I’ve always wanted security — with my dad being gone sometimes when I was a kid, with being on the road. With the lifestyle I live, everything is so uncertain. I need one thing that’s certain.”
The entirety of the interview is available in the March issue of Vogue. Honestly, we can’t wait to see this marriage blossom into something even more beautiful, and we couldn’t be more supportive of the happy couple.
In our Love App-tually series, Mashable shines a light into the foggy world of online dating. Just in time for cuffing season.
Let’s be real: Ain’t nobody got time to waste on online dating. Yet for busy single people, dating apps and websites feel like a necessary evil to meeting people. How else are you going to do it?
But if you’re not careful, finding suitable partners (whether for the long- or short-term) in an endless sea of digital fish can turn into a full-time job. And if you’re already working a 9-5 (or worse), you’ll quickly want to give up.
Take it from an accidental expert: There are plenty of tips and tricks to better navigate the potentially time-sucking world of online dating.
Our advice comes with a caveat, though. Ultimately, there’s no definitive rule book for online dating. Above all, it’s about learning what works for you. Here are 10 ways you can start:
1. Know which app will fulfill your specific dating needs
Sounds basic, but this is essential stuff: There are so many options on the market right now, and each has a different vibe and purpose that attracts a different crowd — from DTF hookups on Tinder to the more longterm aspirations of OkCupid.
We won’t go into the subcultures of each dating app here, especially since they often change over time. But do some research to determine which is best suited for what you want out of dating.
2. Don’t put too much stock (or time or effort) into online chemistry
It’s tempting to get your hopes up when you start chatting with a match and find a text-message-meet-cute straight out of a rom-com. But here’s the cold, hard truth: Online chemistry often has zero correlation to IRL chemistry.
There’s a whole host of factors that lead you to be attracted to someone that you cannot gleam from text exchanges. You could waste days or even weeks getting to know someone online, then be devastated to realize within a minute of meeting IRL that the spark just isn’t there.
On top of all that, if you spend too much time getting to know each other before meeting up, you’ve likely built expectations and a concept of this person that can’t live up to the real thing.
Of course, you don’t want to go in blind. So to actually see if an IRL date will be worth your time, we suggest you …
Who even has time to keep texting someone they don’t know?
Image: vicky leta / mashable
3. Request a quick video chat before meeting up
I know, gross — actual human interaction?
To millennials who have panic attacks at even the idea of a phone call (hi, it me), this sounds like an impossible task. But actually, an awkward three-minute video chat is much better than sinking hours into an awkward real-life date.
A lot of factors go into attraction that you can’t pick up on through photos or even texting. So be bold; ask if they’re up for a quick video chat to see if you’re both into taking the IRL plunge.
Don’t be a creep about the way you ask, like suggesting it as a way to avoid getting catfished. Just acknowledge it may be a bit awk but — hey — you read online that it’s a good first step! So why not give it a shot?
Also, if you’re worried about giving out your actual phone number or Skype info to strangers, use apps like Kik or WhatsApp.
4. For icebreakers, try one of the famed 36 questions
Regardless of whether it happens on video or IRL, the pressure of trying to make meaningful conversation happen between two strangers is real. So why not start with one (or many) of these 36 questions scientifically designed to help strangers get to know each other quickly?
These questions come from a psychological study by Dr. Arthur Aron, made famous by the New York Times‘ Modern Love column. And wouldn’t ya know, they actually kind of really work.
We know what you’re thinking. Isn’t it a little summer camp counselor to ask a list of getting to know you questions? It doesn’t have to feel that way. If you have chemistry, the questions will only serve as jumping off points for more natural conversation. If you don’t, well, better to find it out sooner rather than later.
Just float the idea casually. You can even use it as a way to acknowledge the inherent weirdness and awkwardness of first dates, so why not test this thing you read in the New York Times?
Worst case scenario, your date is impressed that you read the New York Times. Best case scenario, you get to know each other fast and learn whether or not you’re a good match.
Repeat after us: Profiles are not people.
Image: vicky leta / Mashable
5. Many people who make bad profiles are actually awesome dates
There’s a tendency to make quick judgements based on a person’s profile, and that can feel like a time saver. But actually, your assumptions can lead you to miss out on matches that are worthwhile.
People aren’t profiles. And profiles that come across as trying too hard, or seeming cheesy, or arrogant, or just not that interesting, can be indicative of someone who’s simply new to online dating.
In reality, those who are bad at branding themselves for an online dating service can absolutely still make for great dates. If anything, you should be more suspect of someone with a perfectly curated online dating persona.
So be lenient when it comes to minor faux pas, like mirror selfies or the dreaded fish pic. It’s most important to trust your gut and at least give ’em a chance to impress in other ways. There are better ways of determining if someone will be worth your time, like …
6. Do your research
It can’t hurt to know more about your date than what they are willing to put on their profile. So there’s no shame in doing a quick Google search before committing any more of your time.
A recent study found that 76 percent of people spend around 15 minutes on pre-date research. You might want to do a Google image search on their pictures to make sure they are who they say they are (or if their name is too common for a regular search).
It’s not creeping if it’s about staying safe and knowing what you’re getting into!
However, take most of what you learn with a grain of salt, because (again) the people we are online are often vastly different to who we are in person.
7. Don’t be afraid to ask to meet up IRL early on
A lot of online dating interactions die on the vine of people being too scared to make the first move to suggest a next step, whether that’s a video chat or real-life date.
If you’re a person with limited time and energy to spend on the whole online dating thing, it’s even more likely for conversation to peter out. What could’ve been a great date that’d save you from spending more time on these awful apps is instead a total waste of your already limited resources.
There are no set rules of engagement, so don’t get stuck in that limbo. Just go for it when it feels appropriate. And if you’re worried about seeming creepy or overeager, explain how you’re bad at keeping up with the app and prefer to make concrete plans.
Usually your potential date will feel relieved that someone’s taking charge in the uncertain world of online dating. Just make sure you don’t frame the suggestion in a way that makes them feel pressured or rushed.
Take online dating offline as soon as possible.
Image: bob al-greenE / Mashable
8. Pick a go-to spot near you for quick first meet-ups
Do not — I repeat, do not — commit to a full dinner date the first time you’re meeting a stranger.
For all the reasons listed above, it’s pretty impossible to know whether someone you met online will work out, no matter how much you vet or research ahead of time. And, boy, there’s nothing more painful than sitting through a full-course meal out of politeness.
Instead, have a streamlined process for quick IRL meet-and-greets. Pick a bar or coffee shop near you as a go-to first date suggestion. Aside from saving time, it’s also comforting to meet a complete stranger on your turf.
Before meeting, you can even slip in the set up for an excuse to cut things short if it’s going nowhere fast. We’ve found luck with claims of a busy work week, or a pet or friend who hasn’t been feeling well.
Make sure your go-to spot is conducive to getting to know each other: Choose bars that aren’t too loud or have open tables. Certain places can even make for good ice breakers. A go-to with eclectic art decor, for example, is a perfect way to start a conversation about your date’s taste.
9. Dating is not necessarily a numbers game, but practice helps
By now we’re familiar with the cold calculation that dating (especially of the online variety) is a numbers game. You have a statistically better chance of finding what you want by going on as many dates as possible.
That’s a double-edged sword, though, because going on a bunch of lousy dates will likely only lead to fatigue and an existential crisis. However, it is true that dating is a skill that takes practice.
So don’t treat people like numbers. But do view every date as a potential learning experience. Sure, putting yourself out there more means a higher risk of bad dates. But that’s exactly how you learn what you like and don’t like, and how to avoid it next time.
Bad dates help you recognize dealbreakers. For example, you might find that people who describe themselves as “entrepreneurs” tend to use that as a fancy way of saying “unemployed and living off my parents’ money.”
Next time, it’s a hard swipe left.
10. Be clear and upfront about what you’re on the market for
This one applies to all dating, whether on- or offline. It’s also one of the hardest rules to follow.
We cannot stress enough how much time you save by establishing early on what you’re looking for. That doesn’t mean you have to declare you’re on the hunt for a FWB or life partner (please don’t do that). Just frame the subject in terms of mutual respect and open communication.
When you broach the subject, stress that you’re bringing it up to make sure you’re both on the same page, rather than trying to pressure them into committing or keeping it casual. Even choosing the right platform (see point #1) can help do a lot of this work for you.
This puppy petting machine is perfect for any good boy … well almost any.
This first dog in this videos seems to be enjoying the elaborate back scratcher, getting so relaxed they even let out a yawn. But the smaller pup needed one more hand than this machine could provide. Perhaps the owners should have made a sign that reads, “you must be at least 22-inches to go on this ride.”
Nicki Minaj remains one of the hottest rappers in the industry right now, but she continues to show that she’s hungry to be even bigger. Out of nowhere, Nicki has dropped her own version of viral rap sensation Blueface‘s single “Thotiana.” Listen to Nicki’s version – christened “Bust Down Barbiana” – below.
Nicki’s rendition of Blueface’s jam gets imaginative with its wordplay. Throughout its two-minute runtime, Nicki creates a plethora of words such as “Cockiana,” which means cocky; “Topiana,” which means top; and “Sloppiana,” which means sloppy. She name drops the “Thank U, Next” sensation Ariana Grande (“Thank you next, Ariana”), gives a verbal head nod to Teyana Taylor (“Flow tailor-made, like Teyana”), and shouts out Yves Saint Laurent (“Then shut down Yves Saint, Lauriana”), all in the name of rhyming.
Nicki is getting ready to head on out a European tour with Juice WRLD in March. Her last studio album, Queen, came out in August. Last Friday, she released a spooky video for one of the album’s cuts, “Hard White.”
As for Blueface’s “Thotiana,” get prepared to hear more of it. YG just hopped on the remix, and Cardi B was recently filmed in the studio laying down some raps over the instrumental. Who knows who else will put their spin on it.
My advice for friends and family looking to buy a new phone used to be simple: Stay away from budget phones unless you want a significantly inferior mobile experience.
It used to the case that you couldn’t expect much from a $200 phone — you get what you pay for! But that’s not true anymore. Motorola’s three new Moto G7 phones, which start at $199 and top out at $299, are budget-priced phones that defy the definition of cheap.
Phone fanatics won’t need any introduction to the Moto G series. Launched in 2013, the phone series has become synonymous with high-quality phones at really low prices starting around the $200 price point.
I’ve reviewed nearly all of Motorola’s G phones and each year Motorola adds more and makes them harder to ignore for people on a tight budget.
The new G7 Play ($199), G7 Power ($249), and G7 ($299) raise the bar for budget phones with premium features such as edge-to-edge displays with notches (you like notches, right?) you expect to find on phones at least twice as expensive.
Moto G7 Play
The $199 Moto G7 Play has the largest notch of all three G7 phones.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The G7 Play is the new entry-level phone in the G series. $199 gets you phone made of plastic. But just because it’s plastic and not glass doesn’t mean it’s garbage. The backside has a high-quality sheen and subtle, ribbed texture that makes it grippy in the hand.
The 5.7-inch screen’s nice and large with a 1,520 x 720 resolution, but like the iPhone XR, the lower-than-1080p-HD screen is not really an issue. It’s large and bright and though there is a little bit of a “chin” bezel below the screen, it’s also not like other Android phones don’t have one either.
Inside, the G7 Play’s packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chip, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage (expandable up to 512GB via microSD card), and a 3,000 mAh battery.
All Moto G7 phones run Android 9 Pie, which is better than most flagship Android phones.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Android 9 Pie would run a little faster with an extra gigabyte or two of RAM, but for $199, it’s good enough. Fortunately, Motorola’s software is pretty darn close to stock and doesn’t contain the kind of heavy resource-guzzling skin or bloatware apps found on other budget phones.
The G7 Play has a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture and an 8-megapixel f/2.2 camera on the front for selfies. The front and rear cameras are capable of portrait-style photos that blur the background without a secondary camera.
The back’s made of plastic, but it still feels really durable.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Additionally, the G7 Play also has a “High-res Zoom” feature that shoots photos at 2x digital zoom, but with much sharper details than normal. It’s similar to the Google Pixel 3 camera’s “Super Res Zoom” that enhances digitally-zoomed shots. Another new camera feature is called “auto smile camera,” which only takes a selfie when it detects everyone in a shot (up to five people) are smiling and have stopped moving. Motorola’s also added the popular “cinemagraph,” “spot color” features from its flagship Moto Z phones to the G7 Play’s camera.
Below the camera is a physical fingerprint reader. There’s also a headphone jack and USB-C port for charging.
If you want to pay the least amount for a new phone that’s still up-to-date, the $199 G7 Play is solid. Some people will complain about the large notch, but it’s really a non-issue in 2019.
Moto G7 Power
Get the G7 Power if you want the longest battery life.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
Stepping up from the G7 is the $249 G7 Power, which as its name implies is built to last. The most notable difference is its massive 5,000 mAh battery. The huge battery can also be fast charged unlike the G7.
The screen’s larger at 6.2-inches with the same resolution, but with a smaller notch. The body’s also made of a slightly more premium glossy polymer plastic that looks and feels like glass.
Under the hood is pretty much the same, save for a few differences. The G7 Power is powered by the same Snapdragon 632 chip and has 32GB of storage (also expandable via microSD up to 512GB). Compared to the G7, it does come with 3GB of RAM, which I noticed helped with keeping animations fluid within the multi-task view of Android 9 Pie.
The plastic looks and feels like glass.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The rear camera’s a lower resolution 12-megapixel shooter with f/2.0 aperture, but the front-facing camera is the same 8-megapixel camera as the G7 Play. It comes with the all of the same camera features in the G7 Play including the software-based portrait mode.
The G7 Power also has a fingerprint reader and headphone jack — so, no, Motorola’s not charging more and stripping away features.
If you value long battery over all else, the G7 Power’s the way to go. The smaller notch and prettier construction are just nice extras.
Moto G7
The plain ol’ Moto G7 has the smallest notch with highest resolution screen.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
And rounding out the new G7 family is, well, the G7. At $299, it’s the most expensive of Motorola’s new phones, but it also comes with a considerable number of upgrades that are worth the extra dollars.
The 6.2-inch screen has the highest resolution compared to the other two with 2,270 x 1,080 resolution and the smallest notch, too. It’s got the same processor, but there’s 4GB of RAM and the internal storage is double with 64GB (expandable with microSD up to 512GB, of course).
The G7 feels better as well with its glass back. It’s more slippery and attracts fingerprints like crazy, but so does every other phone made of glass.
The back’s made of glass and like the other G7 phones has a fingerprint reader on the back.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The 3,000 mAh battery seems a bit inadequate, but it does support fast charging, so quickly “topping off” your phone with a midday charge should be easy enough.
Where the G7 really differentiates itself between the G7 Play and G7 Power is its rear camera system. The round bump has a 12-megapixel f/1.8 main camera and a second 5-megapixel camera for depth detection. This dual camera system allows the phone to shoot more professional-looking portrait mode photos with noticeably better background blur.
The dual cameras take the best portrait mode photos compared to the G7 Play and G7 Power.
Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE
The more advanced camera also shoots 4K video compared to the other two G7 phones’ max 1080p-resolution video capture.
Even at $300, the G7 is a relative bargain compared to phones like the OnePlus 6T, which starts at $530. Sure, it doesn’t have the faster Snapdragon 845 chip, but it still offers a lot of value.
More for less
Flagship phones keep adding more features, but their prices also climb to match. Motorola’s Moto G7’s provide more for a lot less.
The phones are sleeker with almost bezel-less displays, the cameras take noticeably better photos, the Android software is up-to-date unlike on many other more expensive Android phones, and battery life has improved.
Motorola’s phones don’t have the same prestige as an iPhone or Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy, but that’s fine because they’re not in the same league. But they are closing the gap and bringing many of the features found in these phones down to the masses who can’t afford to drop $1,000 on a slab of glass.
Every product here is independently selected by Mashable journalists. If you buy something featured, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps support our work.
Some iPhone apps are hungrier for your data than others.
The apps and online services you use sometimes gather your data and use it for analytics or advertising purposes. There’s no question about that. It’s a fact of life at this point. And it’s only a matter of whether you’ve been asked permission, whether your data is used fairly and in accordance with the law, and whether it’s transferred and stored securely.
But a recent report by TechCrunch claims some popular iPhone apps fail on at least two counts. Apps from companies like Air Canada, Hollister, Expedia and Hotels.com record everything you do on your phone’s screen while you use them — often without asking for permission.
These apps, TechCrunch has found (with the help of analytics company App Analyst), use technology from a company called Glassbox, which creates so called “session replays,” letting app owners see exactly how their customers behave while using the app.
App Analyst’s experts took a peak at how some of these apps are sending this data, and found that not all of them properly masked sensitive data such as passwords. In the case of Air Canada’s app, there was an instance in which the app sent the customer’s credit card information completely unencrypted. TechCrunch says none of these apps ever warned the user it’s even recording their actions in the first place, nor do they mention it in their privacy policies.
Glassbox doesn’t exactly hide what it does. The company’s Twitter bio states the following: “Imagine if your website or mobile app could see exactly what your customers do in real time, and why they did it? This is Glassbox.”
As a customer, I’m not sure I’d ever sign up for this.
Image: Glassbox/Twitter
In a recent tweet, Glassbox boasts about signing a deal with Air Canada, one of the apps TechCrunch has found to be among the worst offenders.
Air Canada told TechCrunch that it is indeed collecting “user information entered in, and collected on, the Air Canada mobile app.” The company does this, its spokesperson said, to “ensure we can support their travel needs and to ensure we can resolve any issues that may affect their trips.”
A Glassbox spokesperson pointed out to TechCrunch that it “cannot break the boundary of the app,” but it did say it has a “unique capability to reconstruct the mobile application view in a visual format,” which it calls “another view of analytics.”
It’s not the first nor the only company to provide a similar service; Android-focused Appsee does something similar. and it, too, was found to be used in a way that’s not always transparent for users.
Most companies will say, when asked, that they’re only using your data to improve your experience. But even if their intentions are pure, they should still disclose exactly what they’re doing and take every measure to protect your data. This does not appear to be the case here.
In early 2017, the Trump Administration tried to ax NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3. It didn’t work. Then, again in 2018, the White House sought to terminate the earth science instrument.
Again, the refrigerator-sized space machine persisted.
Now, SpaceX is set to launch OCO-3 to the International Space Station in the coming months, as early as April 25. Using a long robotic arm, astronauts will attach OCO-3 to the edge of the space station, allowing the instrument to peer down upon Earth and measure the planet’s amassing concentrations of carbon dioxide — a potent greenhouse gas.
“Carbon dioxide is the most important gas humans are emitting into the atmosphere,” Annmarie Eldering, the project scientist for OCO-3 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in an interview. “Understanding how it will play out in the future is critical.”
Carbon dioxide concentrations are now the highest they’ve been on Earth in some 15 million years, and they’ve likely driven up Earth’s temperature to its warmest point in 120,000 years. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have confirmed that 18 of the last 19 years are now the warmest on record.
So, knowing exactly where carbon is being emitted, and where the Earth is naturally absorbing some of these emissions, is vital to understanding the planet’s fate.
“The really good news about OCO-3 is there will be a continuation of carbon dioxide measurements,” Pontus Olofsson, an associate research professor at Boston University who uses satellites to research Earth’s carbon cycle, said in an interview.
“The longer the records grow, the more important they come,” added Olofsson, who is not part of the OCO-3 team. “It’s like an exponential increase in importance.”
But OCO-3 almost didn’t make it to space.
OCO-3 will be attached to the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM-EF).
Image: NASA
“We heard OCO-3 was not going to go,” Britton Stephens, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who works on the OCO-3 science team, said in an interview. “There’s been lots of ups and downs in the project.”
In 2017, the Trump White House released its budget plans for 2018. It called for “terminating” five earth sciences missions, including OCO-3. In fact, the White House wanted to cut NASA’s entire Carbon Monitoring System, and the same situation arose in 2018. But budgetary haggling between congressional lawmakers (who live in districts that support NASA’s missions) and advocacy from NASA leaders — almost certainly kept NASA’s carbon observing programs alive.
OCO-3 also had a key negotiating benefit: As far as space missions go, it’s pretty low-budget. It was built using “spare parts” from its aging predecessor, OCO-2 (currently in space). Critically, OCO-2 is its own free-flying and maneuvering satellite, hurtling around Earth. OCO-3, rather, will be attached to the massive orbiting space station.
“You don’t need your own spacecraft,” said NASA’s Eldering.
Carbon emissions have skyrocketed in the last century.
Image: nasa
In 2017, the Space Technology and Policy Group concluded that OCO-3 cost “relatively small amounts of money.” For reference, the total proposed cuts for the five earth sciences missions in 2017 came to $167 million. Overall, NASA’s science budget came to $5.7 billion, with an overall agency budget of over $19 billion.
Although the instrument’s funding was in limbo at times, Eldering said her science team kept charging ahead to complete OCO-3, despite the noise. The completed instrument is now sitting at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, waiting to be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
“It’s awesome to have gotten to this point.”
“We’ve got engineering and science work to do — so we focused on that,” said Eldering, who sounded pretty cool and composed about the long, unsteady process. “We know projects can go up and down.”
“It’s awesome to have gotten to this point,” she added.
On top of OCO-3’s bargain price, scientists already know that carbon sleuthing technology works exquisitely. OCO-3 is essentially a discount model of OCO-2 — and OCO-2 can detect the amount of carbon in the atmosphere within a range of less than one part per million.
“In terms of precision, it’s incredible,” said Stephens. “It’s really an amazing feat that it can do that from space.”
Detecting the invisible
To see how much carbon is saturating Earth’s atmosphere, OCO-3 will rely on sunlight. Specifically, the instrument will look at how much sunlight reflects off of carbon dioxide molecules.
Every type of molecule reacts to light in a different way, explained Eldering. OCO-3 will look at light that doesn’t get absorbed by carbon dioxide and instead gets reflected back into space. The more carbon dioxide in the air, the less light will come back to the cameras.
Flying over land and oceans, OCO-3 will peer down at strips of Earth about 8.5 miles wide (14 kilometers), measuring carbon over disparate cities, oceans, and forests. This will be especially useful for seeing how well cities — and even power plants — are reining in, or mitigating, their carbon emissions.
“It turns out a huge percentage of carbon dioxide is coming from urban areas,” said Stephens. “So if you can quantify the carbon dioxide emissions in Los Angeles, Seattle, or New York City, that would actually be a really useful number to verify our mitigation efforts.”
The same thing can be done over forests. Forests are a critical part of Earth’s carbon cycle, as they suck loads of carbon dioxide out of the air and store the molecules in trees and soil (that’s why forests are known as carbon “sinks”). Though, it’s challenging to know how much carbon is released when millions of acres of Amazonian rainforest are razed to the ground. It’s equally difficult to know how much carbon gets absorbed back into Earth when forests regrow.
The carbon cycle in North America
Image: USGCRP 2018, ADAPTED FROM CIAIS ET AL., 2013; COPYRIGHT IPCC, USED WITH PERMISSION
“It’s proven hard to estimate such things,” said Olofsson.
“You need to observe things over and over and over again to really determine what is going on,” he added, citing the importance of OCO-3 following OCO-2.
Today, about half of the carbon humanity emits into the atmosphere gets absorbed into the oceans and forests. “This is a great benefit for society,” noted Stephens.
But as the planet warms, the carbon-absorbing abilities of these natural sinks could very well change as more carbon saturates the skies and the planet continues its accelerated warming trend, he said. So these places need to be watched, from above.
NASA 2018 global temperature is finally out! Never mind the little wiggles from year to year – the trend is going relentlessly up, and it will continue to do so as long as we add more CO2 to the atmosphere. Those who still live in denial of this fact are in denial of physics. pic.twitter.com/NqlYFtDr30
One of the greatest benefits of OCO fleet is that its continued, precise measurements can be used in concert with carbon measurements on the ground and other earth-observing satellites, like NASA’s recently launched, laser-shooting GEDI satellite (it measures the biomass of forests).
This is how scientists gain a confident understanding of the big picture.
“In combination with those instruments [OCO-3] becomes very important,” said Olofsson.
In a few weeks, LG will introduce its new flagship smartphone, the LG G8.
As is customary, though, the company is already trickling out information about the new phone. On Thursday, LG announced it has partnered with Infineon to build an advanced, infrared 3D camera on the G8.
LG and Infineon are using technology called Time-of-Flight (ToF) to deliver “more accurate measurements by emitting and capturing infrared light as it is reflected off the subject,” the company said in a press release.
LG G8 ThinQ’s 3D, front-facing camera will be powered by Infineon’s Real3 image sensor chip.
Image: LG
The result should be quick and accurate face recognition in all conditions. Apple’s iPhone X pioneered the 3D front-facing camera for the company’s Face ID technology, and while it works quite well in most scenarios, bright sunlight can easily confuse it.
Additionally, the 3D camera should help the phone’s selfie camera take better photos, and will have a role in AR and VR applications.
LG previously said it would announce a 5G phone with a vapor chamber cooling system, though it’s unclear whether that’s the G8, a variant of the G8, or another phone entirely. There’s also a rumor that LG is working on a phone with a detachable, secondary screen. The company will launch the phone(s) at a Barcelona event on Feb. 24, and we’ll be there to bring you the news.
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