It looks like the markets are heading for another week of losses, due in large measure to anxiety over continuing geopolitical instability.
“U.S. stock indexes were mixed Friday morning after Wall Street stayed focused on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average eased about 60 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 ticked up 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.2%,” writes Hannah Miao and Yun Li of CNBC. “Wall Street is coming off a steep sell-off, with the Dow posting its biggest daily drop since the end of November.”
Google Plans to Tighten Privacy on Android Devices
There’s been a new development in the ongoing privacy wars between tech makers and social media companies.
“Google plans to develop new privacy measures that remove the ability to track users across apps on Android devices, potentially rattling digital advertising-based businesses like Facebook that have already been disrupted by app tracking changes introduced by Apple last year,” writes Clare Duffy of CNN Business. “Google said Wednesday that it is launching a multi-year effort to build privacy-focused advertising solutions that will limit the sharing of user data with third parties. These solutions will operate without the individual identifiers that allow developers to track user activity across various mobile apps and enable them to create ads targeted to a user’s behavior and interests. Google said it is also exploring technologies that would reduce the potential for a user’s data to be collected without their knowledge.”
Private Astronaut to Attempt Spacewalk
Not content to merely serve as passengers, a group of private astronauts have set their sights on walking in space – one of the riskiest activities in space travel.
“As soon as the end of this year, four private astronauts, including Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who chartered SpaceX’s first space tourist mission last year, could launch to space aboard the company’s Crew Dragon capsule. At some point during their five days circling Earth, at least one of the crew members will exit the spacecraft for what would be the first spacewalk conducted by a nongovernment astronaut,” writes Joey Roulette of The New York Times.
AI Will Help Fusion Research
The quest for practical fusion systems got a boost recently when a team of researchers applied AI to manage the plasma required to keep the reaction going.
“A research group has taught AI to magnetically wrangle a high-powered stream of plasma used for fusion research — but wait! Put away your EMPs and screwdrivers, this is definitely a good thing, not a terrifying weapon for use against humanity in the coming robocalypse,” writes Devin Coldewey in TechCrunch. “The project is a collaboration between Google’s DeepMind and l’École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) started years ago when AI researchers from the former and fusion researchers from the latter met at a London hackathon.”
