Lifeboat Foundation

Google surreptitiously amasses billions of bits of information —every day — about internet users even if they opt out of sharing their information, three consumers alleged in a proposed class action lawsuit.

“Google tracks and collects consumer browsing history and other web activity data no matter what safeguards consumers undertake to protect their data privacy,” according to the complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California.

The lawsuit argues that while Google lets users turn off data collection when using its Chrome web browser, other Google tools used by websites themselves scoop up their data anyways. The suit includes claims for invasion of privacy and violations of federal wiretapping law.

Researchers at Los Alamos discover neural network reaps benefits ‘equivalent to a good night’s rest’.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A re-energized Tropical Storm Cristobal advanced toward the U.S. Gulf Coast on Saturday, spawning a tornado in Florida and bringing the heavy rains that already caused flooding and mudslides in Mexico and Central America.

After weakening to a tropical depression while moving over land in Mexico’s Gulf coast, Cristobal headed back into the southern Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Peninsula on Friday and powered back up into a tropical storm. Forecasters said it would arrive on U.S. soil late Sunday but was not expected to grow into a hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was expected to slowly strengthen until making landfall Sunday night along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Scientists create smallest semiconductor laser that works in visible range at room temperature.

An international team of researchers led by researchers from ITMO University announced the development of the world’s most compact semiconductor laser that works in the visible range at room temperature. According to the authors of the research, the laser is a nanoparticle of only 310 nanometers in size (which is 3,000 times less than a millimeter) that can produce green coherent light at room temperature. The research article was published in ACS Nano.

This year, the international community of optical physicists celebrates the anniversary of a milestone event: 60 years ago, in the middle of May, American physicist Theodor Maiman demonstrated the operation of the first optical quantum generator — a laser. Now, Sixty years later, an international team of scientists published a work where they demonstrated experimentally the world’s most compact semiconductor laser that operates in the visible range at room temperature. This means that the coherent green light that it produces can be easily registered and even seen by a naked eye using a standard optical microscope.

An aerial view of the ancient Maya Aguada Fenix site in Mexico’s Tabasco state, with causeways and reservoirs in the front and the Main Plateau in the back, is seen in this image released on June 3, 2020.(Handout via REUTERS/Takeshi Inomata)

For the first time, Italian scientists have been able to identify the genetic and molecular basis of this susceptibility to infection as well as to the possibility of contracting a more severe form of the disease. The research will be presented to the 53rd annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics, being held entirely on-line due to the Covid-19 pandemic, today [Saturday].

Construction is one of the oldest professions as people have been building shelters and structures for millennia. However the industry has evolved quite a bit in the way they design, plan, and build structures. For decades, technology has been used in the construction industry to make jobs more efficient and construction projects and structures safer.

In recent years, construction companies have increasingly started using AI in a range of ways to make construction more efficient and innovative. From optimizing work schedules to improving workplace safety to keeping a secure watch on construction facilities, https://www.cognilytica.com/2019/06/26/ai-today-podcast-95-a…struction/ href=https://www.cognilytica.com/2019/06/26/ai-today-podcast-95-ai-use-case-series-ai-in-construction/ rel=“nofollow noopener noreferrer” target=_blank title=https://www.cognilytica.com/2019/06/26/ai-today-podcast-95-ai-use-case-series-ai-in-construction/>AI in the construction industry is already proving its value.

Astronomers don’t know exactly when the first stars formed in the Universe because they haven’t been observed yet. And now, new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest the first stars and galaxies may have formed even earlier than previously estimated.

Why? We *still* haven’t seen them, even with the best telescope we’ve got, pushed to its limits.

A group of researchers used Hubble to look back in time (and space) as far as it could see, hoping to study these first generation of stars of the early Universe, which are called Population III stars. Hubble peered and squinted back to when the Universe was just 500 million years old – which is thought to be Hubble’s limit — and found no evidence of these very first stars.

As we head into summer, it’s hard not to think about traveling. Not only it is the traditional season for vacations, but we’ve also been cooped up inside for months and most of us are probably itching to explore something new. Of course, given that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic where travel—especially by plane—isn’t a great idea, planning a trip may be more fantasy than reality these days. Either way, you may be curious about which countries have opened up to tourists. If so, an interactive map put out by the International Airline Transportation Association is a great tool.