• Rent Too High? Blame AI, New Report Finds
    futurism.com
    It's costing tenants billions of dollars every year.Landlord LiAIsonIt turns out that many of the country's landlords are using the same artificial intelligence tool to jack up your rent.Packaged as part of the popular property management software RealPage, the AI is nominally intended to give rent price recommendations to landlords.But as we've seen elsewhere, the catch-all term of "AI" can be used to obfuscate what's really going on under the hood. According to a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) and covered by Popular Information, the AI tool, called "AI Revenue Management," is being used to facilitate collusion between these proprietors, allowing them to inflate rental prices by a total of more than $3.8 billion every year.This, the CEA arguesin its report, and the Department of Justice alleges in its lawsuit against RealPage, is a form of "price coordination" which is illegal.Joint EffortAccording to the CEA report, nearly 1 in every 4 multifamily rental properties use a RealPage pricing algorithm.In some municipalities like Atlanta and Denver, that proportion is higher than 50 percent, where the price increase caused by landlords using the RealPage AI is as high as $181 per month.When competitors in a market explicitly agree to set a price for a type of good or service, that's price fixing. The practice is federally outlawed by the Sherman Act, because it's considered an anti-competitive move that leads to higher costs for consumers.The RealPages AI works as a price fixer for "landlords collectively," the CEA argues, because its algorithm "will recommend prices that are higher than the profit-maximizing price each landlord would set independently."In effect, the AI lets landlords act as a cartel without ever needing to directly communicate, thus making price-fixing difficult to prove.House Always WinsAs Popular Information notes, RealPages argued in response to the DOJ lawsuit that it can't be accused of facilitating price coordination because customers "always have 100 percent discretion to accept or reject software price recommendations."A separate class action suit against the software maker, however, presents evidence that RealPage and its landlord clients "have established a rigorous monitoring and compliance system to ensure cartel members adhere to RealPage [AI-optimized] pricing," as quoted by Popular Information.The CEA report concludes that the true cost of the AI-set rent prices is likely much higher than the $3.8 billion figure, because its calculations only accounted for the inflated costs by landlords that directly used RealPage's tool. Other landlords not part of the group using the AI recommendations could raise their prices in response to their competitors."Regardless, our estimate indicates that eliminating this cost would meaningfully decrease price mark-ups for rental housing across the country," the report reads.Share This Article
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  • Matt Reeves Wont Rule out DC Universe Switch for His Batman
    screencrush.com
    Matt Reeves isn't ruling out the possibility of Robert Pattinsons Batman joining the DC Universe.The studios co-chief James Gunn recently revealed that he has contemplated bringing Pattinsons Caped Crusader into his superhero universe and Reeves is open to the move as long as it makes sense.Speaking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast at the Golden Globes, the 58-year-old filmmaker said: It really comes down to whether it makes sense ... There was a story I wanted to tell. The epic crime saga. It's been important to me to play that out and James and Peter (Safran) have been really great about that. They are letting us do that.What the future brings, I can't really tell you. I have no idea. My head is down right now on getting The Batman Part II shooting, which is the most important thing.Warner Bros.Warner Bros.loading...READ MORE: Every DCEU Movie, Ranked From Worst to BestPattinsons version of the hero currently exists outside the DC Universe but Gunn admits that he had talked about bringing him in.The 58-year-old director said: I've contemplated it, yeah. I contemplate everything. I talk about everything.The sequel to Reeves 2022 flick The Batman isn't scheduled for release until 2027 but Gunn defended the decision to delay the picture last month as it's fairly common to have lengthy gaps between big-budget blockbuster titles.He wrote on the social media platform Threads: To be fair, a 5 year gap or more is fairly common in sequels.7 years between Alien and Aliens. 14 years between Incredibles. 7 years between the first two Terminators. 13 years between Avatars. 36 years between Top Guns. And, of course, 6 years between Guardians Vol. 2 and Vol. 3.Gunn also explained that the picture had been delayed because a "full script" hadn't been completed. The 'Superman' filmmaker has a rule in place where no project at DC Studios can start production until a script is finished.He wrote: Matt is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write.Once there is a finished script, there is around two years for pre-production, shooting and post-production on big films.Reeves recently revealed that he had hopes that audiences will be surprised by The Batman Part II, although he is reluctant to share too much information about the film.He told Deadline: Were doing something where the story continues from, but I hope that people will be surprised.Despite the flick's 2027 release date,Reeves has confirmed that the project will begin shooting this year.Get our free mobile appThe Worst Movies of 2024ScreenCrushs editor and critic picks the 12 worst films he saw in 2024.
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  • Manual: Backend Typescript Engineer
    weworkremotely.com
    Time zones: EST (UTC -5), CST (UTC -6), MST (UTC -7), PST (UTC -8)MANUAL is a digital personal development and mental wellness platform designed to inspire young men to become the best versions of themselves. Today, male students are far less likely to be enrolled, retained, and graduate from higher education institutions, and this is especially true for young men of color. Their mental health outcomes are rapidly worsening, with young men dying by suicide and overdose at alarming rates.MANUAL works with high schools, universities, and fraternities across the country including the University of Mississippi, Morgan State University, and MSU-Denver to solve this challenge, bringing high-quality men's success and mental health programming to tens of thousands of students. MANUAL has raised capital from Expanse Venture Partners, 12-48, the Inner Foundation, and angel investors from companies like Maven Clinic, McKinsey & Company, Eleanor Health, and more. MANUALs evidence-based approach has been proven to enroll young men who are not currently being reached by existing services, and users report significant levels of trust towards the service.Are you passionate about crafting efficient and scalable applications? Do you want to use your skills to help thousands of young men around the country? If you're enthusiastic about full stack Typescript, and love the thrill of a startup, wed love to talk to you!Who We're Looking For:Typescript EnthusiastsProblem SolversTeam PlayersLifelong LearnersWhat You Won't Need:A specific number of years of experience. Your ability to apply what you've learned to new challenges is what truly matters to us. We're not in a position to provide the support and mentorship a junior developer needs (ex. fresh out of college or dev bootcamp), so you should have experience shipping production code.A formal education in computer science. We recognize the value of diverse educational backgrounds and learning paths. Our head of engineering, for example, doesn't have a computer science degree.What Youll Do:Lead the development of our RedwoodJS backend, which provides APIs for our NextJS and React Native apps. Most of your time will be spent working on our APIs - adding new features, improving tests, optimizing performance, etc.Assist in the management of our Postgres database and backend infrastructure.Engage in user feedback sessions to directly learn from our users and adapt our solutions to better meet their needs.Be involved in the hiring process for future engineering team members, helping us grow our team with talented individuals.Play a pivotal role in defining our engineering processes and culture.Collaborate closely with our head of engineering and other team members on a variety of backend and frontend projects, contributing your unique skills and perspectives.Important DetailsJob Type: Full-time, remote work environment with occasional optional travel for team get-togethers.Compensation structure: We are considering engineers with a range of experience and skill for this role, and will make cash offers of $125k-$150k per year.Benefits: Fully covered (no employee contribution) Health, Dental, and Vision insurance. Unlimited PTO.Hiring ProcessYou submit your application, if we select you for an interview well reach out to schedule30 minute intro call with Karl Morand, our head of engineering. This call will be focused on getting to know you, your background, experience, and answering any questions you have about MANUAL or the role. We wont get into anything super technical (no live coding or anything like that). A list of some topics/questions will be provided to you before the interview - the goal is to see you at your best, not test your ability to remember anecdotes from your past under pressure.Take home project is the next step. You will have at least 5 days to complete the project. The goal of the project isnt to nitpick your code, but rather to give us a starting point to discuss how you approach solving problems with code.45 minute technical call with Karl Morand, our head of engineering. In this call well use your take home project as the basis of our discussion on how you approach solving problems. All candidates who complete the take home project will advance to this stage. This call will include a more detailed discussion of your technical experience and knowledge. Specific topics of interest will be provided to the candidate when the interview is scheduled. While this call is more technical in nature, there is still no live coding. Candidates who successfully complete this stage advance to30 minute teammate interview with 1-2 other members of the MANUAL team. Youll be working closely with everyone on our small team, so its important for you and us to feel confident that well make a great team. Youll receive information about the interviewers and topics when the call is scheduled. Candidates who successfully complete this stage advance toJob Offer! Related Jobs See more Back-End Programming jobs
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  • ZHA and Bureau Cube Partners win Nikola Tesla museum competition
    www.bdonline.co.uk
    Belgrades Milan Vapa Paper Mill to be transformed into museum celebrating the Serbian-American inventors legacyAtrium entranceSource: NorviskaGalleriesSource: NorviskaNorth facadeSource: Zaha Hadid ArchitectsTesla Coil RoomSource: Xuniverse1/4show captionZaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), in collaboration with Bureau Cube Partners of Serbia, has been selected as the winner of an anonymous design competition for the new Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.The project seeks to transform the historic Milan Vapa Paper Mill into a cultural destination, celebrating Teslas contributions to science and technology while preserving the buildings architectural heritage.The museums design takes inspiration from Teslas research into magnetic fields and wireless energy transfer, and incorporates elliptical curves radiating from the factorys chimney, a key feature of the site.A new circular opening in the western faade will serve as the main public entrance, leading to a triple-height central atrium dominated by the chimney.The museums interior will feature openings carved into the walls, creating interconnected voids that extend visitors views from the entrance through the atrium to the Tesla memorial at the eastern end of the site.Source: NorviskaAerial viewThe 13,400-square-metre museum will include permanent galleries showcasing Teslas historical artefacts, interactive displays, and immersive presentations, alongside temporary exhibition spaces for temporary exhibitions.Additional facilities include a caf, a multipurpose hall, and a rooftop restaurant with views of the Sava River.The museums surroundings will feature Nikola Tesla Square, a new public space designed with gardens and plazas inspired by electromagnetic fields. The square seeks to enhance accessibility and integrate the museum with the Belgrade Waterfront and the citys transport network.The paper mill, constructed in 1924 as the nations first modern factory, was decommissioned several decades ago and had been used as a storage facility before being abandoned. The Belgrade Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments has protected the building for its cultural importance, and its adaptive reuse is funded by Belgrade Waterfront.
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  • Revealed: Populous leading on Saudi World Cup stadium at NEOMs the Line
    www.architectsjournal.co.uk
    Although it is understood Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) delivered an earlier concept, it is unclear whether the Danish heavyweight continues to be involved.The NEOM stadium is one of 11 proposed new-build venues for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, which footballs world governing body controversially awarded to Saudi Arabia last month. The country was the sole candidate in the running to host the tournament.Located in the Hidden Marina the initial 2.3km-long section of the Line overseen by Austrian practice Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) the NEOM stadium would sit 350m above ground and be used for group stage matches and the quarter-finals, according to the Saudi World Cup bid.AdvertisementMore on this topicWe need to talk about Saudi ArabiaPopulous is behindat least four more of the tournaments stadiums: the planned 92,000-seat King Salman Stadium, which will host the final of the 2034 tournament, next to a new Foster + Partners' airport in Riyadh; the King Fahad Stadium, also in Riyadh; the under-construction Dammam Aramaco Stadium, which is due to feature games for the 2027 Asian Cup; and the Qiddiya stadium, which was unveiled in February last year as the first proposed 2034 World Cup venue.The concept for Populous's Dammam stadium was drawn up by Foster + Partners, which also worked with Populous on the Lusail stadium in Qatar, the venue for the final match of the 2022 World Cup.Other British names involved in the Saudi World Cup include Manchester-based AFL Architects. The practice said last month that it had been commissioned to design the 47,500-capacity King Abdullah Economic City Stadium in Jeddah on the Red Sea.Arup is understood to be working on the planned New Murabba Stadium,the AJ reported last August. The 46,000-seat arena, located north-west of central Riyadh, would host group and second-round games.Arup is also refurbishing the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, in Jeddah. The 58,400-seat venue would host quarter-final games in 2034. The 15-stadium tournament includes just four refurbished stadiums a decrease from earlier FIFA tournaments.AdvertisementLast summer, the AJ also reported on BIGs involvement with the Saudi World Cup but the practice has not responded to a request for comment on the NEOM stadium.Seven new stadiums were built for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, which was criticisedfor underplaying the tournaments environmental impact.Qatar also came under intense scrutiny over deaths and poor treatment of workers in the construction of stadiums for the tournament. A report by theGuardian in 2021 put the total number deaths of migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at 6,5000 far exceeding the three deaths admitted to by Qatar officials.Practices accepting work in Saudi Arabia continue to provoke debate. The country has come under scrutiny for its human- rights record, including its treatment of women, restriction of free speech, and treatment of the LGBTQ community and other minorities.In November, architect Duncan Baker-Brown wrote in the AJ that working on Saudi giga-projects such as NEOM was incompatible with being an ethical professional and being a member of the RIBA. The same month, Gensler's European headquarters in London, DMAA and Mott MacDonald were announced as the 'core' design team for the Line's first phase.The AJ understands that architects on common design elements on The Line also known as vertical neighbourhoods are due to be announced in early 2025.The Saudi 2034 bid said holding the tournament would be an opportunity to showcase the countrys commitment to environmental sustainability.Populous declined to comment.
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  • Turn Up the Music With a Pair of AirPods Max While They're Down to $400
    www.cnet.com
    Ready to upgrade your audio? The stylish AirPods Max are a great choice and one of the best headphonesoptions on the market. Right now Best Buy has knocked the Lightening model down to just $400, which is a whopping $150 discount. While we've seen them drop as low as $380 before, this is still a massive discount worth taking advantage of before it ends. Just note that some colors have already sold out, so be quick if you want to score a pair at this price.See at Best BuyApple's AirPods Max have active noise cancellation, which lets you tune out the world when you need to focus on work, calls or other important tasks. Transparency mode lets you listen to your favorite media while remaining aware of what's going on around you. You can also use features like personalized audio for sound that's customized to your ear shape, as well as dynamic head tracking that makes spatial audio feel like it's coming from all around you.Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.These over-ear wireless headphones are equipped with an Apple H1 chip, which enables some neat features, such as a one-tap pairing process with your iPhone, iPad or Mac. The AirPods Max can also automatically switch between your Apple devices, so you can listen to music from your MacBookand easily take a call on your iPhone without having to fuss with Bluetooth settings.If you're looking for headphones but the AirPods Max are still a bit too rich for your blood, be sure to check out our full roundup of all thebest headphone dealsfor even more last-minute bargains. Top deals available today, according to CNET's shopping experts Curated discounts worth shopping while they last Apple AirTag, 4-pack: $70 (save $29)Costco 1-year Gold Star membership + $20 gift card: $65 (save $20)Anker 20-watt USB-C charger, 2-pack: $12 (save $7)Levoit LVAC-200 cordless vacuum: $160 (save $40)Peloton Bike: $1,145 (save $300) Why this deal mattersApple's AirPods Max are already one of thebest pairs of headphoneson the market right now. While we've seen these headphones go for $20 less than this during holiday sales, a $150 discount is still a substantial deal. It's likely the best deal we'll see on this pair of headphones until another major shopping event rolls around, so if you're interested, be sure to snag them now before this offer ends.Though these are the Lightning-equipped version, basically nothing but the charging connector changed when Apple introduced the USB-C versionin 2024, so you're not sacrificing much by going for the older model.
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  • 'Abbott Elementary' and 'Always Sunny' Crossover: Release Date, How to Watch
    www.cnet.com
    Table of Contents On Wednesday, you have not one, but two hilarious reasons to turn on your TV, as the casts of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Abbott Elementary will deliver their highly anticipated first crossover episode.Season 4, episode 9 of Abbott Elementary, titled Volunteers, will blend the Philadelphia-set sit-coms and be followed by a second crossover during Sunny's forthcoming 17th season. The initial episode will see Abbott's principal Ava announce "the school district is sending a group of volunteers to help out," per a synopsis, readying two tonally different comedic worlds to collide.It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Dennis, Dee, Charlie, Mac and Frank will all feature in the Abbott installment. If you want to catch what will surely be a chaotic episode of the ABC workplace comedy, here's how to tune in to Volunteers.When to watch the crossover episode on HuluSeason 4, episode 9 of Abbott Elementary -- the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover -- is set to air on ABC on Jan. 8 at 8:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. CT, and is scheduled to streamJan. 9 on Hulu.Hulu starts at $10 per month, or $100 per year, for the ad-supported version. If you don't want to watch commercials, the ad-free version is $19 per month with no annual payment option. James Martin/CNET Looking for a deal on Hulu? Bundles ofHulu, Disney Plus and Maxor Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus offer savings over getting the services separately. You may also be able to score a Hulu free trial,student discountor get the streamer as a perk with a specific T-Mobile plan. See at Hulu How to watch ABC without cableAlive TV streaming servicethat includesABC in its channel lineupwill do the trick. Hulu Plus Live TV and YouTube TV are among the options -- both start at $83 per month -- and you can stream the Abbott Elementary episode with Sling Blue if you'rein a select city.
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  • This 10-Piece Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware Set Is a Delicious 50% Off Right Now
    www.cnet.com
    The right cookware can make a difference in your kitchen game. Whether youre cooking for yourself or looking to experiment with new recipes, having high-quality pots and pans is essential. Right now this 10-piece stainless steel cookware set from Calphalon has been slashed by 50% at SideDeal, which means you'll pay just $170 instead of the usual $340. But there's more, you can get free shipping when you use the coupon code FSDEALS at checkout.See at SideDealThis Calphalon set includes a sauce pan, saut pan, two fry pans, a dutch oven and four tempered glass lids so you can make a wide variety of dishes. Calphalon cookware is compatible with gas, electric, induction and glass stoves. Even better, every piece of this cookware set includes ergonomic silicone handles that allow for safe handling. Have limited space? This cookware set was designed to be easy to stack in any order for easy storage.Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.Every piece of this cookware set was designed to be oven-safe in temperatures of up to 400F for any dishes that need to be finished in the oven. Cooking can take up a lot of your energy, but this set is dishwasher safe for effortless cleaning. SideDeal doesn't mention a specific deadline for this deal, but we suggest acting fast to nab this discount and the corresponding free shipping. If you've been looking for kitchen upgrades but aren't sure if this deal is for you, check out our list of the best cookware sets. Top deals available today, according to CNET's shopping experts Curated discounts worth shopping while they last Apple AirTag, 4-pack: $70 (save $29)Costco 1-year Gold Star membership + $20 gift card: $65 (save $20)Anker 20-watt USB-C charger, 2-pack: $12 (save $7)Levoit LVAC-200 cordless vacuum: $160 (save $40)Peloton Bike: $1,145 (save $300) Why this deal mattersCalphalon cookware is made of high-quality stainless steel that lets home cooks easily transfer their dishes to the oven if needed. This 10-piece set typically costs $340, but it's now half off, which brings it down to $170 and rivals deals from past holiday shopping sales. The coupon code FSDEALS also lets shoppers get free shipping, which makes now a great time to consider this deal.
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  • Pluto May Have Won Its Moon Charon with a Kiss
    www.scientificamerican.com
    January 8, 20255 min readPluto May Have Won Its Moon Charon with a KissPluto and its largest moon Charon could have come together via a 10-hour kiss-and-capture encounter after a grazing collisionBy Robert Lea & SPACE.com A composite enhanced-color image of Pluto (right) and Charon (left) as seen by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft as it passed by in 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research InstituteNew research suggests that billions of years ago, Pluto may have captured its largest moon, Charon, with a very brief icy "kiss." The theory could explain how the dwarf planet (yeah, we wish Pluto was still a planet, too) could snare a moon that is around half its size.The team behind this research thinks that two frigid worlds located in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy bodies located far from the sun at the edge of the solar system, collided together billions of years ago. Rather than mutually obliterating each other, the two bodies were united as a spinning "cosmic snowman." These bodies separated relatively quickly but remained orbitally linked to create the Pluto/Charon system we see today.This "kiss and capture" process represents a new theory of moon capture and cosmic collision. It could also help scientists better investigate the structural strength of frigid, icy worlds in the Kuiper Belt.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today."We've found that if we assume that Pluto and Charon are bodies with material strength, Pluto can indeed capture Charon from a giant impact," team leader and University of Arizona lunar and planetary researcher Adeene Denton told Space.com. "The process of this collisional capture is called 'kiss-and-capture' because Pluto and Charon briefly merge, the 'kiss' element, before separating to form two independent bodies."Most planetary collision scenarios are classified as "hit and run" or "graze and merge," meaning this "kiss and capture" scenario is something entirely new."We were definitely surprised by the 'kiss' part of kiss-and-capture," Denton continued. "There hasn't really been a kind of impact before where the two bodies only temporarily merge before re-separating!"The team's research was published on Monday (Jan. 6) in the journal Nature Geoscience.Pluto won Charon over with a 10 hour kissThe reason Pluto's relationship with Charon has been challenging to scientists is because of the relatively small difference in size and mass between the two icy bodies."Charon is HUGE relative to Pluto, to the point where they are actually a binary," Denton explained. "It's half Pluto's size and 12% of its mass, which makes it much more similar to the Earth's moon than any other moon in the solar system."For comparison, our moon is just a quarter of the size of Earth, while the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede, is around 1/28 the size of its parent planet, Jupiter.The University of Arizona researcher, who is also a NASA postdoctoral fellow, added that it's hard to get such a relatively big moon in a "normal" way. ("Normal" being the gravitational capture of moons like Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos and the moons of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.)That means that the prevailing theory of the formation of the Pluto and Charon system is based on the collisional capture idea, similar to how a massive body is believed to have slammed into Earth to launch out material that our planet captured to birth our moon."Something big hits Pluto, and you get Charon, but like with the Earth-moon system, we don't fully know how that works and the conditions under which that occurs," Denton said. "It's a pretty big question since a bunch of other large Kuiper Belt Objects also have large moons, so it seems like this is something that happens in the Kuiper Belt with some frequency, but we don't know how or why."A screenshot shows the Pluto/Charon system during its linked snowman phase.Robert Melikyan and Adeene DentonDuring a standard "collision capture," a massive collision occurs, and the two bodies stretch and deform in a fluid-like way. This process explains the creation of the Earth/moon system well because the intense heat generated in the clash and the greater mass of the bodies involved causes them to act in a fluid way.When considering Pluto and Charon in a collision capture process, there is an extra factor to consider: the structural strength of the colder icy and rocky bodies. This is something that has been neglected in the past when researchers considered the collisional creation of Charon.To factor this into simulations, the team turned to the University of Arizona's high-performance computing cluster. When Denton and colleagues accounted for the strength of these materials in their simulation, something completely unexpected emerged."Because both bodies have material strength, Charon did not penetrate deep enough into Pluto to merge with it; this isn't true when the bodies are fluids," Denton explained. "For the same impact conditions, if we assume Pluto and Charon to be strengthless, they do merge into one large body, and Charon is absorbed. With strength, however, Pluto and Charon remain structurally intact during their brief merger."Because Charon couldn't sink into Pluto in this scenario, it remained beyond the so-called "co-rotation radius" of both bodies. As a result, it could not rotate as fast as Pluto, which meant the two bodies could not stay merged. As they separated and this icy kiss ended, the team thinks that Pluto would have torqued Charon into a close, higher circular orbit from which the moon would have migrated outward."The 'kiss' in this kiss-and-capture, the merger is very brief, geologically speaking, lasting for 10 to 15 hours before both bodies separate again," Denton said. "Charon then begins its slow outward migration towards its current position."The team thinks the initial collision happened very early in solar system history, probably tens of millions of years after the solar system formed, which would be billions of years ago."Typical large collisions are straightforward mergers, where the bodies combine, or both bodies remain independent," Denton said. "So this was very new to us. It also raised a lot of interesting geological questions that we'd like to test, because whether kiss-and-capture works depends on the thermal state of Pluto, which we can then tie to Pluto's contemporary geology to test."I'd really like to determine how the initial Pluto-Charon impact can influence whether and how Pluto and Charon develop oceans."Denton explained that there are two avenues the team can follow to build upon this development."The first is looking at how this applies to the other large Kuiper Belt Objects with large moons, like Eris and Dysnomia, Orcus and Vanth, and the others," Denton explained. "Our initial analysis suggests that kiss-and-capture can also be the source of these other systems, but since they're all different in their compositions and mass, it's critical to learn how kiss-and-capture may have operated across the Kuiper Belt."The second avenue the team intends to follow involves looking at the long-term tidal evolution of Charon to confirm their formation theory."To really be sure that this is the process that formed Pluto and Charon, we need to make sure that Charon migrates to its current location at around 8 times the width of Pluto away," Denton said. "However, that's a process that occurs over much longer timescales than the initial collision, so our models aren't well-suited to track it."We're planning to have a much closer look at this in the future to determine which conditions not only reproduce Pluto and Charon as bodies but also put Charon in the right spot, where it is today."Copyright 2025 Space.com, a Future company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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  • What the End of U.S. Net Neutrality Means
    www.scientificamerican.com
    January 8, 20257 min readWhat the End of U.S. Net Neutrality MeansA federal courts decision deals a legal blow to the open InternetBy Ben Guarino edited by Dean Visser Imaginima/Getty ImagesThe sun has setagainon U.S. net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Last week a federal appeals court panel ruled that the Federal Communications Commission cannot classify Internet service providers, or ISPs, in a way that would prevent them from favoring certain content over others. Without net neutrality, providers would be able to slow down, or throttle, traffic to competitors websites. Or ISPs could demand payment for speedy connections to specific Internet destinations.The new ruling, made by a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, spells the apparent end of FCC enforcement of net neutrality, which began in 2015 when the agency adopted the Obama-era Open Internet Order. That order defined ISPs as telecommunications providers, requiring them to act in the public interest under FCC supervision. Two years later that order was killed by the Trump administrations FCC, only to be revived under President Joe Biden, by FCC vote, in April 2024.Net neutrality advocates include consumer watchdog and free speech groups, as well as World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee. The Web is yours, he wrote in Scientific American in 2010. It is a public resource on which you, your business, your community and your government depend. Netflix, YouTube and other video-streaming giants have also supported net neutrality; they benefit when they dont have to pay extra for their content to load quickly. (Estimates vary, but streaming probably accounts for at least two thirds of all Internet traffic.)On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Internet operators that manage the Webs cell towers and cables, however, strongly oppose net neutralityand they celebrated Thursdays ruling. In the decision, the judges cited Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court case that overturned the so-called Chevron deference in June; this means courts no longer need to heed expertise at the FCC or other federal agencies to interpret ambiguity in laws.The FCC now says net neutralitys fate ultimately lies with Congress. Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a news release. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.Net neutrality may now appear well beyond FCC controlbut that does not mean this principle is dead, says computer scientist David Choffnes, who directs the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University. We can always keep collecting data, keep observing whats happening, go to our representatives, tell them that this matters and find a solution, he says. For a start, Choffnes and some of his colleagues have created an app named Wehe, which anyone can download to test for net neutrality breaches. It has been used to perform more than 2.5 million tests since 2017. Choffnes says Wehe has detected traffic throttling in the U.S. and censorship in a handful of nations elsewherecensorship being throttling to a bandwidth of zero, he explains. Choffnes spoke with Scientific American about the consequences of the courts decision.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]Net neutrality can mean different things to different people: it has been described in mechanical terms as the practice of blocking or throttling speeds to certain websites or the policy of treating the Internet like a public utilityor, to take the free-market view of someone such as Ajit Pai, former FCC chairman under President Donald Trump, the use of ISP restrictions that are unnecessary and stifling. How would you define it?By and large, the idea is that your network providers arent going to treat your Netflix traffic differently than Hulu traffic or differently than Facebook or TikTok. All Internet traffic is treated the same. And its that principle, this idea of openness and neutrality, that was a large contributor to why the Internet has been so successful.How does Wehe work?When your apps send network traffic, they dont declare themselves as Netflix or YouTube or Hulu. Its just Internet traffic. Its data going to some server thats given a name, which is a number. And those numbers, those servers, these IP addresses are reused by lots of services. So how do [network providers] know that its Netflix and not Hulu or Peacock?We found that the answer was that they were looking for certain parts of the network traffic where the domain name was revealed. Think netflix.com for Netflix, as an example. [ISPs] have these devices in their networks that would look for this text..., and if they found this match in your network traffic in the first few [data] packets, then theyd say, Oh, I have decided this is now YouTube trafficand Im going to slow it down.Because we know these devices are not looking at the IP addressesthey are just looking for text in the network traffic itselfwe record everything that is sent between a real app like Netflix and its servers. We then load up our app and our own servers with that information.Our app will send exactly what the Netflix app sent, and our server will respond exactly with what the Netflix server responded. From the perspective of these devices in the cell networks that are doing this kind of application detection, our network traffic looks exactly like Netflix.Then, back-to-back, we repeat the experiment again, except we flip all the 0s and 1s. The way things are represented in Internet traffic is, at a very basic level, 0s and 1s. We just flip them. Its the most efficient way to undo any patterns, anything [an ISP] might be looking for.Lo and behold, if one of these networks is, say, targeting Netflix and slowing it down, youll see that when our network traffic looks like Netflix, you get a certain throughput. And when it doesnt, you usually get a much higher throughput.Then we run some statistical analysis to come up with a reliable, validated way of saying, Yeah, this was a big difference. This wasnt just, you know, random chance that you saw this big difference. Well say this is, in a technical term, differentiation. But the more popular term is net neutrality violation.A paper you presented at an August 2019 conference analyzed measurements from more than 126,000 people who used Wehe from January 2018 to January 2019. In it, you and your colleagues identified 30 ISPs in seven countries, including the U.S., that throttled streaming at popular websites such as YouTube. But that was out of a total of 144 ISPs, and you wrote that major broadband providers in the U.S. (Comcast, for instance) do not differentiate traffic based on content. What else have you found?Weve had 2.5 million tests since we started this thing, covering a lot of countries. Nevertheless, the high-level takeaways from that snapshot six years ago are mostly the same as what they are today.What we see in the U.S. is not censorship, [but] every wireless provider, and by that I mean either cell provider or long-range wireless or satellite wireless, they all have at least one subscription plan where we have users who run tests, and they see differentiation. They see some video streaming apps are slowed down. We found fixed-line providers are not doing this.Would you have any insight into why throttling doesnt seem to be the case for broadband providers, but it does for the wireless ones?All I can do is speculate. I think for broadband, thats clear that the bandwidth is not very scarce.On the wireless side, traditionally, the issue has been that spectrum is scarce. (And spectrum is just a stand-in for bandwidth.)Historically, maybe it made sense to try to limit how much video streaming bandwidth was being used. At a certain time, it would make sense that this was a strain on their networks.Today you go to mobile providers websites, and theyll tell you about their fast 5G networks and how much bandwidth they have. I dont think its scarce anymore. That was the whole point of these evolutions of our cellular technologies: to remove that bandwidth limitation. Im not convinced that thats still a problem.Your Wehe project has continued, and it now tracks traffic to apps like Zoom. Have you seen any changes after state net neutrality laws went into effect? (States with such laws include California, Oregon and Washington State.)The answer is no. No matter what rules were passed, at the federal or state level, we have found no evidence that theres any change in behavior in these networks.I think the states have passed these laws probably havent done anything because theyre waiting to see what happensif this decision really is the death knell for FCC rules.How is last Thursdays decision going to affect Internet traffic?In the short term, I dont expect there to be any change because network providers never change their behavior in response to any laws or rules that weve seen passed since weve been collecting data.Are you invigorated to continue your work? Or do you feel like you have an additional burden to shoulder?Ill preface this by saying of this has all happened before. The research [behind this project] was started before the 2015 Open Internet Order. And weve had the Wehe app out in the world since 2017, so Ive seen net neutrality rules created, rescinded, challenged in court, put on hold. Ive seen it all at this point.... [My response is] more ... Im tired of this being how things are going.My sense of this project has always been that we need to have this transparency. When things are opaque, when nobody can check on what companies are doing, what we tend to find is that theyre doing something that is not in the interest of the consumers who use them. Im not saying all companies are evil, and Im not saying that when they do bad things that they did it with malicious intent. But the important fact is that bad stuff happens, and if you dont know about it, you cant fix it.
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