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Submission + - EU abandons promise to end use of problem chemicals (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: Whilst the ignorant are hyperventilating about the release of marginally radioactive contaminated water from Japan, the EU is walking back its commitment to control the use of certain chemicals.

'The European Commission is poised to break a promise to outlaw all but the most essential of Europe’s hazardous chemicals, leaked documents show.

'The pledge to “ban the most harmful chemicals in consumer products, allowing their use only where essential” was a flagship component of the European green deal when it was launched in 2020.

'It was expected that between 7,000 and 12,000 hazardous substances would be prohibited from use in all saleable products in an update to the EU’s Reach regulation, including many “forever chemicals” – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – which accumulate in nature and human bodies, and have been linked to various hormonal, reproductive and carcinogenic illnesses.'

Submission + - Australia Urged To Ban Online Gambling Ads To Curb Growing Addiction (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Australia should phase out advertising for online gambling in three years, a parliamentary committee of inquiry recommended on Wednesday as it looked to limit the "havoc" it caused in one of the world's biggest betting market. The committee made 31 recommendations on how online gambling, which it said was changing the culture of sport, should be regulated and how Australians struggling with addiction should be supported. Australians outspend the citizens of every other country on online gambling, Peta Murphy, chair of the committee said in the report titled "You win some, you lose more."

"This is wreaking havoc in our communities," Murphy said. Murphy said online gambling companies advertise deliberately and strategically alongside sport, which has normalized it as fun and harmless and sociable activity. A generation of young Australians views gambling and sport as inextricably linked, Murphy said, adding that it was changing the culture of sport. "Australia would be diminished if sport was to be so captured by gambling revenue that providing an opportunity for betting came to be seen as its primary purpose," Murphy said.

A phased, comprehensive ban on all gambling advertising on all media, broadcast and online, that left no room for circumvention, was needed, the panel said. It recommended the ban be phased in over three years so sporting bodies and broadcasters had enough time to find alternative sources of advertising revenue. [...] Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would consider the recommendations. "We need to deal with online issues, we need to deal with social media issues, we need to deal with it comprehensively across the board," Albanese said on ABC Gold Coast radio.

Submission + - NASA kills its X-57 electric plane before it ever flies (popsci.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: NASA said today in a conference call with reporters that it would not ever be flying its experimental electric aircraft, the X-57, citing safety concerns that are insurmountable with the time and budget they have for the project. The X-57 program will wind down without the aircraft ever going up into the sky.

The project had previously seen challenges. For example, transistor modules in the electrical inverters kept failing and “blowing up” in testing, Sean Clark, the project’s principal investigator told Popular Science in January. That problem was solved, Clark said.

The problem that led them to scrap the plan to fly the aircraft stemmed from motors that power the propellers. Clark said today that analysis of the issue is ongoing. “As we got into the detailed analysis and airworthiness assessment of the motors themselves, we found that there were some potential failure modes with the motors mechanically, under flight loads, that we hadn’t seen on the ground,” he said. “We’ve got a great design in progress to fix it, it’s just [that] it would take too long for us to go through and implement that.”

NASA said that the reason behind permanently scrubbing the flight is safety and time. “Unfortunately, we recently discovered a potential failure mode in the propulsion system that we determined to pose an unacceptable risk to the pilot’s safety, and the safety of personnel on the ground, during ground tests,” Bradley Flick, the director of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, said in the call. “Mitigation of that failure would take the project well beyond its planned end at the end of this fiscal year, so NASA has decided to end the project on time without taking the vehicle to flight.”

Comment Re:Contradictions in the Postmaster's position (Score 4, Insightful) 94

by davmoo (#59930308) Attached to: Postal Service Warns of $22 Billion Hole From Coronavirus

He or she asked the wrong question. It's not a matter of who could. It's a matter of who the hell would want to. I'm sure other delivery services are just lining up and chomping at the bit to deliver a letter from Point Arena, California to West Quoddy Head, Maine, all for just 55 cents US. And that's just sticking to the continental US. Besides having a law that says only USPS can deliver certain things, there is also a law that says USPS *MUST* deliver those certain things to any legitimate address in the US or its territories. And I guess you've not noticed how UPS, Fed Ex, etc passes the buck now by letting USPS handle that "last mile" part of the service on many of their residential deliveries. I'm sure UPS etc own more than a few congressmen of their own. If they wanted the business, they would have already paid to have the law changed.

Comment Slip Sliding Away (Score 1) 105

by davmoo (#59563196) Attached to: Do you have a case on your cell phone?

I have a Moto X (4). The thing was so damned slippery that it was sliding all over desks and tables. And out of my hands. So I put on a cheap-ass silicon case that was on clearance at Best Buy for $5. Originally it was clear, but now it's slightly yellowed. Remember, cheap. It might add a whole 16th of an inch to the phone thickness, and it doesn't slide. The only phone I've ever rendered unusable, either with or without a case, was a phone about 10 years ago that I slammed in a car door. Surprisingly that only broke the touch screen, not the underlying LCD itself. You never realize how much you need a touch screen until it don't work with touch ;)

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