● [Tech] Apple Maps: Grand plan to fix iPhone Maps app. ︴ ︴

▼If you’ve ever used Apple Maps to get around, you’ll know it often falls short of rival apps. So the company has now announced it will rebuild its Maps data using a fleet of specially-designed vans. It will also use data gathered from iPhones to power traffic information. The move is a necessary step if Apple is to have stronger data about the world around us, analysts say. In an interview with technology news website Techcrunch, Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue said the company would be “building all of our own map data from the ground up”. To do this, the company has been driving sensor-packed vans around the US for the past few years. The vehicles collect GPS information, but also capture scans of areas using Lidar, the technology typically associated with self-driving cars. Gradual roll-out (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Tech] Tech Tent: Facebook's drone falls to earth. ︴ ︴

▼ Two years ago I took a trip to a warehouse in Bridgwater in Somerset to visit a somewhat unlikely outpost of the Facebook empire. Inside the warehouse was a giant wing - a solar-powered dronedesigned to stay airborne for three months, beaming an internet connection to people in remote places. Facebook had snapped up a tiny British firm specialising in solar-powered aircraft a couple of years earlier and that firm was now at the heart of Project Aquila - Facebook's mission to bring the miracle of connectivity to people in developing countries. The social network's head of engineering Jay Parikh had flown over from California to explain the extent of his firm's ambitions, telling us "our mission is to connect everyone on the planet". The future? (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] Bacterial Infections Can Cause Powerful Odor, As Happened to Plane Passenger. ︴ ︴

▼ Last month, a Transavia Airlines flight from the Canary Islands bound for the Netherlands had to reroute to Portugal after a man's overwhelming odor caused some passengers to vomit. Credit: Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Last month, a Transavia Airlines flight had to reroute after a man's overpowering odor caused some passengers to vomit. It turned out, that pungent smell was caused by an infection that was rotting his insides. The 58-year-old man died less than a month later, on Monday (June 25), after his organs failed. Andrey Suchilin, a Russian guitarist, was on vacation in the Canary Islands of Spain when he contracted the infection. Before heading back, he visited a doctor, who told him it was a typical beach infection and gave him some antibiotics, CBS Newsreported. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] Crow vending machine skills 'redefine intelligence'. ︴ ︴

▼ A small South Pacific island is home to a crow with remarkable abilities that have scientists hooked. New Caledonian crows make and use tools - including a kind of fishing hook. They can solve complex problems and have even been recorded capturing grubs by repeatedly poking them with a stick until they are so agitated, they bite. Now, an experiment using a vending machine specifically designed for crows has revealed something about how intelligence evolves. The "vending experiment" is the latest in an ongoing investigation into these birds' abilities. They are so remarkable that scientists have a special aviary in New Caledonia, where they can keep wild birds for only a few days and test their problem-solving prowess, before releasing them back into the forest. How on Earth do you design a vending machine for crows? (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] If we don’t want to run out of water, we should look to the sun Next generation solar technology could drive down the cost of scrubbing salt from seawater. ︴ ︴

▼ From salty to fresh, new research seeks to drive down the cost of solar thermal desalination. Pexels Awinter of exceptionally meager snowfallhas revived California’s water woes. Snowpacktypically supplies the state with much of its water during the spring and summer, but this year, snow is in short supply, spurring Gov. Jerry Brown to instatepermanent conservation measures. Thanks to climate change, the problem is only going to get worse, leaving officials worried about the future of water in the Golden State. Huntington Beach, a seaside Southern California city, is taking the long view, investing in a new desalination plantthat will turn seawater into clean, drinkable H20. While the plant’s supporters say it’s necessary to guard against worsening water shortages, critics say the plant is a waste of ratepayer money, urging officials to manage water more efficiently instead. As temperatures rise and droughts worsen, this conflict is likely to play out in more and more coastal cities. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] The 'Decapitated' Pompeii Man Wasn't Decapitated After All. ︴ ︴

▼ Remember back in May when archaeologists unearthed the body of a man who appeared to have been decapitatedby a huge falling stone during the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that wiped out Pompeii? Well, now there's an update to the story: The same archaeologists found his skull intact and now believe he wasn't decapitated at all. Huh? But look at this photo of a clearly decapitated man! Here's the deal: Scientists had already figured out, as Live Science reported at the time, that the "decapitated" Pompeii man likely wasn't killed by the big rock that eventually became his de-facto (ahem) headstone. Instead, like most of the thousands killed at Pompeii, he probably died from the volcano's pyrocastic flow: a surge of thick, scalding ash that can emerge during a volcanic eruption. The dust from that pyroclasticflow eventually set in place as a loose cement would, and is the reason Pompeii is so well-preserved. Here's a more recent example in action: (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [Science] The potential for habitability on these exoplanets is tilting in the right direction Life needs a stable climate. ︴ ︴

▼ The artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f. NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle Why do we have seasonson Earth? The planet’s axial tilt, of course. But the tilt does more than just push us from spring, to summer, to fall, to winter. It’s also an important stabilizing force for our atmosphere—without which life on Earth would be almost assuredly impossible. And so it stands to reason that tilt might play an important role in fostering life on other worldsas well. That brings us to some new findings, published in The Astronomical Journal, that suggest a pair of potentially habitable exoplanets possess stable tilts, which bolster the chances they are more Earth-like than we imagined. Those planets are Kepler-186f and Kepler-62f, 550 and 990 light years from Earth, respectively. The former, whose discovery was first announced in 2014, was actually the first Earth-sized exoplanetfound in the habitable zone of its star; the latter has a mass 2.8 times that of Earth (making a super-Earth). “It was already known that these two exoplanets are likely rocky, and they reside in the habitable region, where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planets,” says study author Gongjie Li, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech. “We are seeking to constrain the habitability of these planets further, to know better how likely these two planets could host life.” (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [International News] India's huge solar ambitions could push coal further into shade Foreshadowed 100 gigawatt tender is off the scale of country’s energy needs but represents ‘brilliant statement of intent’, analysts say. ︴ ︴

▼ India’s solar aspirations raise questions about the future of major coal projects such as the Indian-owned Carmichael mine in Australia. Photograph: Adani/Supplied Indiasays it intends to launch a tender for 100 gigawatts of solar power, 10 times the size of the current largest solar tender in the world – another Indian project scheduled to open for bids next month. But analysts have said the country has neither the infrastructure nor the energy demand to warrant installing so much solar capacity in one go, saying the announcement reflects the scale of India’s ambition to become a renewable energy leader. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [International News] Mexico and South Korea World Cup celebrations soured by racist gestures. ︴ ︴

▼ Two hosts on US Spanish-language network Telemundo have been suspended after making racist gestures while celebrating South Korea's win over Germany. The win meant that Mexico was cleared to advance in the tournament. During a celebratory dance on set, the two presenters were seen pulling their eyes to look slanted. The same gesture was posted by several Mexican fans on Twitter in an attempt to thank South Korea. Social media users condemned the instances as racist and many Mexicans have since apologised. South Korea's win over Germany at the Fifa World Cup meant Mexico edged into second place in their group, hence will advance into the knock-out stages. South Korea, despite its win, failed to progress to the next stage, but its fans united with Mexican supporters around the globe to celebrate. In Mexico City, hundreds of fans rushed to the South Korean embassy to party with the staff and consul general. Some of South Korea's enthusiasm, however, turned bitter as Mexican fans "thanked" Koreans by posting pictures of themselves pulling their eyes to the side, which is considered a racist gesture. Korean fans soon began using the hashtag #racialdiscrimination to express their frustration. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [International News] India child rape: Huge protests in Madhya Pradesh. ︴ ︴

▼ Two men have been arrested over the brutal rape of a seven-year-old girl in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh amid massive public anger. Hundreds of people have been out on the roads demanding justice for the victim, who is still in hospital with grievous injuries including stab wounds. The child was abducted outside her school on Tuesday, police said. People, including the chief minister of the state have demanded the death penalty for the rapists. Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters that the "beasts" committing such heinous crimes were a "burden on the earth" and did not "deserve to live". (▪ ▪ ▪)

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● [International News] Indian state cuts internet after lynchings over online rumours Mobs beat three people to death in three separate incidents in state of Tripura. ︴ ︴

▼ A vehicle damaged when an angry mob lynched one person and injured others in Mohanpur. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Authorities in north-eastern Indiahave cut internet access after mobs beat three people to death in lynchings sparked by rumours spread on smartphones, officials have said. They were the latest in a string of more than 25 similar killings in recent months across India, according to press reports, which have been carried out iafter false information was spread on the messaging service WhatsApp. “The administration has decided to cut off the internet and mobile messaging services for the next 48 hours ... to stop rumour-mongering,” said Smriti Ranjan Das, a police spokesman in the tribal-dominated state of Tripura. The latest victims, one of whom was tasked by authorities with warning people against hoaxes, died in three separate incidents on Thursday in Tripura. Locals in Sabroom, about 80 miles from the state capital, Agartala, attacked “rumour buster” Sukanta Chakraborty with sticks and bricks as he was warning people on a megaphone against erroneous rumours. (▪ ▪ ▪)

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