A cutdown in high-altitude balloon (HAB) parlance refers to detaching a payload, and can refer to the act of severing a line or to the mechanism itself. How is this done? The most common way is the “hot wire” method: a segment of wire is heated rapidly with a high current, causing it to melt…

“When Luke Stark sought money from Google in November he had no idea he’d be turning down $60,000 from the tech giant in March,” reports CNN: Stark, an assistant professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada, studies the social and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence. In late November, he applied for a Google Research Scholar…

It all began when a CEO and founder “was thinking about identity and the peppy phrases that female professionals use to describe themselves online: ‘girl bosses’ and the like,” reports the New York Times: “I worry about the negative impact of that,” Ashley Sumner, 32, said. “I worry that it allows investors to see founders…

March Madness continues this weekend on CBS and TBS. …read more Source:: CNet

Lawyers hope to recover repair cost shelled out by insurer A defective iPad sparked a house fire this time last year, a lawsuit filed against Apple has claimed.… …read more Source:: TheRegister

Medium’s tech site OneZero reports on “Rest of World” [dot org], which they call “a news site dedicated to telling technology stories about what’s happening outside of North America and Europe,” but founded as a nonprofit by the daughter of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: Sophie Schmidt: We have big intractable problems in the tech…

I was absolutely struck by a hack this week — [Adam Bäckström]’s amazing robot arm built with modified hobby servos. Basically, he’s taken apart and re-built some affordable off-the-shelf servo motors, and like the 6-Million-Dollar Man, he’s rebuilt them better, stronger, faster. OK, and smoother. We have the technology. The results are undeniably fantastic, and…

Nix under-eye circles, bags, and fine lines with these best-selling products recommended by experts. …read more Source:: CNet

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: In a ruling issued on Thursday, the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concluded that Tesla violated federal labor law in its efforts to discourage workers from unionizing. It directed the company to cease various anti-union actions and policies like claiming workers would lose benefits if…

Having trouble finding a PS5? Here are all the links to all the stores selling the console. …read more Source:: CNet