In The News

NASA’s Discovery: Why Finding Water on Mars Matters

Prakash Chandra September 30, 2015
Science, literature and art stir the imagination and, in turn, innovation. Water still flows on Mars with seasonal patterns, reports the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration: “Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter identified waterlogged salt molecules in the long ‘streaks’ seen flowing downhill on Mars,” reports Prakash Chandra for the Hindustan Times. “The presence of so much water (...

VW's Emissions Cheating Found by Curious Clean-Air Group

Jeff Plungis and Dana Hull September 25, 2015
A university lab in West Virginia, a state known for coal-mining and rejecting clean-air regulations, conducted exhaust tests that have rattled Volkswagen and a marketing strategy on “clean” diesel. Volkswagen is based in Germany, a country that promotes policies to protect the environment and stem climate change. The International Council on Clean Transportation had wanted to show European...

Student's Creative Clock Draws Police – And White House Invitation

John Bacon and Jason Whitely September 16, 2015
Authorities urge citizens to speak up when they see possible terrorist threats and rightfully so. But over-reactions could send the wrong messages to children about how to get attention. A Texas student was arrested for bringing a homemade digital clock to his high school. He showed his engineering teacher without incident, but an English teacher expressed alarm about a possible bomb after the...

Should Governments Be Able to Look at Your Data When It’s Abroad?

September 9, 2015
Nation’s legal systems struggle to keep up with the internet’s borderless development – just how, where and when law enforcement agencies should access stored data. An article in the Economist explains that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation expects to access Microsoft messages stored in a data center based in Ireland with US warrants: “at the core of the case is one of the most knotty legal...

Islamic State: The Dutch Teen Who Maps the Jihadists

Katrin Kuntz August 25, 2015
Thomas van Linge, 19, monitors the movements of jihadist groups in the Middle East and northern Africa, including the Islamic State, from his home in Amsterdam and creates maps used by news media around the globe: “he already knows better than most people where the Jihadists are heading, which areas they are occupying and where they've been beaten back,” reports Katrin Kuntz for Spiegel...

Want To Be The Next Amazon? Go Cross-Border From Day One

Hans Tung July 23, 2015
E-commerce is slowly shifting from a national to an international model. “Advances in logistics, shipping and global smartphone penetration have created a perfect storm where e-commerce companies can thrive internationally,” writes Hans Tung for Tech Crunch. He explains that consumers want to buy direct for the best prices; shipping companies have improved international service; and smartphones...

Out of the Shadows, China Hackers Turn Cyber Gatekeepers

Paul Carsten and Gerry Shih July 20, 2015
Hackers roam the internet, searching for vulnerabilities. Governments and businesses anywhere in the world that don’t secure computer networks can anticipate intrusions. Under President Xi Jinping, China has made cybersecurity a priority and also monitors forums, media reports and communications passing within its borders. “As Chinese companies grapple with a sharp increase in the number of...