Original Content podcast: We can’t resist the thoughtful glamour of ‘The Crown’

We weren’t expecting to like “The Crown.”

Yes, there are talented actors and fancy costumes on-screen, and yes, there’s an acclaimed writer at the helm who specializes in dramatizing real history. But did we really need to watch another 20 hours of serious, scripted drama about England’s royal family?

Well, we were convinced to give the show a shot after it took home multiple awards at this year’s Emmys, and we were absolutely won over. It turns out that some of the questions that made us uncertain about the concept (such as: What’s the point of a monarchy in modern society?) are exactly what the show is trying to explore.

And it would be hard to overpraise those actors — not just Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, but also Matt Smith as her husband Prince Philip, Vanessa Kirby as Pricness Margaret, John Lithgow as Winston Churchill and Jared Harris as Elizabeth’s father, King George VI.

On the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, we’re joined by Catherine Shu to discuss the first two seasons of “The Crown,” and what we’re hoping to see in season three (with Foy and Smith replaced by older actors to play Elizabeth and Philip in middle age). We also discuss recently-revealed details about the upcoming Star Wars streaming series “The Mandalorian” and plans for an interactive episode of “Black Mirror.”

You can listen in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You also can send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

Distributed kitchen service Pilotworks is shutting down

Pilotworks, the distributed kitchen service which raised $13 million in venture funding from investors including Campbell’s Soup Co.’s investment arm, is shutting down.

The company issued a brief statement on its website yesterday with the news

It is with a heavy heart that after failing to raise the necessary capital to continue operations, Pilotworks will cease operations on October 13th, 2018. We realize the shock of this news and the disruption it causes for the independent food community we were so honored to serve.

This is a sad outcome for Pilotworks, the makers in our kitchens, and independent food in general. We wish there was another option to continue operating. Sadly, there was not. The work the independent food community is doing is amazing and inspiring. We know it will live on and we are deeply sorry it will not be with Pilotworks.

Questions can directed to questions@pilotworks.com and we will make every attempt to answer them the best we can.

Regretfully,
Pilotworks

Even as Pilotworks closes its doors. Other startups are ramping up distributed kitchens to appeal to established chains and new food concepts.

The next big restaurant chain may not own any kitchens

It seems that by focusing on new food entrepreneurs rather than reaching out to established chains, Pilotworks wasn’t able to reach the scale that its investors had hoped for.

In June, Pilotworks co-founder and chief executive Nick Devane stepped down from the CEO role and was replaced by company chief operating officer, Zach Ware, according to a report in The Spoon. 

Over a month later the company began retrenching and shuttering locations in Providence, R.I. and Portland, Maine where the company had set up locations.

 

At what point do we admit that geoengineering is an option?

In 1883, Krakatoa erupted, spewing volcanic ash and gas into the stratosphere, making clouds more reflective and cooling the entire planet by roughly 1° C that year. In 2018, the UN reported that human activity has already raised Earth’s temperature by 1°, and if we don’t do something drastic soon, the results will be catastrophic.

The optimal solution is staring us in the face, of course; reduce carbon emissions. Unfortunately this optimal solution is politically untenable and extremely expensive. A decade ago McKinsey estimated it would cost $1 trillion just to halve the growth of carbon emissions … in India alone. That’s still less than the cost of doing nothing — estimated at $20 trillion by Nature, which doesn’t include its toll on human lives — but it’s a cost which seems to make the necessary political decisions impossible.

The analysts … concluded that it was just human nature and you couldn’t fix it, and so they went for a quick cheap technical fix

• Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

There is another option. The root problem we face is not carbon concentrations but atmospheric temperature. There are other negative side effects of carbon emissions, like ocean acidification, but the temperature is the big one. We already know how to cool the planet without reducing carbon. The solution is so simple it’s almost laughable: just make our clouds a little more reflective, so they reflect more of the sun’s light, and thus reduce our heat. Volcanoes like Krakatoa do it all the time:

When Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815 and spewed sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, farmers in New England recorded a summer so chilly that their fields frosted over in July. The Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in 1991 cooled global temperatures by about half a degree Celsius for the next few years. A sulfur-aerosol project could produce a Pinatubo of sulfur dioxide every four years. The aerosol plan is also cheap—so cheap that it completely overturns conventional analysis of how to mitigate climate change.

Now, is this a good idea? Probably not. In the case of sulfur dioxide, definitely not; it will come back down as acid rain. But it’s worth noting that this solution is so (relatively) cheap, estimated at less than a billion dollars a year, that an individual nation — or, heck, even an individual; that’s less than Jeff Bezos spends on Blue Origin each year — could make it happen. The classic example is the low-lying, high-population nation of Bangladesh. At some point, it will become cheaper for Bangladesh to singlehandedly cool down the world with sulfur dioxide than to pay for the costs of climate change. Why would they not choose to do so?

There are better geoengineering solutions. Simple seawater could brighten marine clouds with the same effect … for more money. But in general, is geoengineering a good idea? Again, probably not. Proponents of cloud seeding say it will easily cool the earth back down to “normal” levels. Skeptics armed with climate models say it’s much more complicated than that; the atmosphere is a chaotic system, and the results will be localized, regional, and disruptive.

(Using iron fertilisation to generate plankton blooms that siphon carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has also been suggested, but it should go without saying that messing with the global oceanic ecosystem is also likely to have, at best, emergent properties.)

People do generally concede that cloud manipulation is a better idea than doing nothing at all, in that at least it would buy us 25 years or more in which to build (waves hands furiously) some kind of biotech carbon sink — with the caveat that, once we start seeding clouds, we can’t stop, because if we do, all the global warming we’ve been fending off will hit at once, in a huge hurry. Numbers like “a rate of up to 4°C per decade, or 20 times faster than at present” are bandied about. Needless to say this would be beyond catastrophic. If we were to start geoengineering, we couldn’t stop.

And yet. I keep seeing thoughtful, intelligent people talking about it as not so much an option but an inevitability. Matt Ocko. Matt Bruenig. Other people not named Matt. I heartily recommend this excellent Gizmodo column by Dave Levitan for more on the subject:

The latest IPCC report found that the world could reach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2030. Keeping it from soaring beyond that level and into the realm of the catastrophic “would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” Does that sound like something humans are remotely planning on doing, given what we have seen to this point? I hate to borrow from a fictional version of Mark Zuckerberg, but if we were going to solve climate change, we would have solved climate change.

He’s right. Doing nothing is not an option, or, at least, for nations like Bangladesh, it’s not going to stay an option for long. Doing the right thing as a species appears not to be an option either. That leaves us with this ugly hack. Sorry. On behalf of engineers everywhere, I apologize. But sometimes our managers leave us with no other choice.

An 'Apple' a day may keep eating disorders away

The researchers will use the Recovery Record app on iPhone to record the participants' mood, food and goals for 30 days. https://ift.tt/2ykK03y

WhatsApp is changing 'Delete For Everyone' feature; here's what this change means

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has updated the 'Recipient limit' of its 'delete for everyone' feature. https://ift.tt/2NHEMUz

DoT limits subscriber enrolment during network test to 5%

The telecom operator will need to submit details of network capacity to the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India at least 15 days before commencing enrolment of test subscribers. https://ift.tt/2yEODoE

Airtel, Vodafone-Idea may see three more quarters of losses: COAI

The telecom sector is likely to experience three more quarters of losses, hurt by high levies and "unsustainable tariffs", a top official of industry body COAI has said. https://ift.tt/2ylHnOW

Passengers will soon be able to file FIRs from on board trains with an app

Soon, passengers on board trains can lodge complain through a mobile app and it will be registered as 'Zero FIR and immediately investigated by the RPF, a senior official of the force has said. https://ift.tt/2Oq0zoT

Amazon, Flipkart & Paytm get massive traction from tier II, III cities during festive offers

Arch-rival Flipkart said it has seen record-breaking numbers across categories, including mobile phones, large appliances, and private labels from across the country. https://ift.tt/2PCYAdD

Last day of Amazon sale: Smartphones available at lowest-ever prices

https://ift.tt/2CL8QNV

Google reportedly testing new user interface on Android

This new user interface can be accessed on Android by enabling an experimental flag. https://ift.tt/2Eo9hzl

Here’s how your Facebook browsing governs Instagram post rankings

Facebook is already sitting on several million monthly active users at today’s date and so is it’s photo-sharing platform Instagram. Most of us who are on Facebook also tend to have an account on Instagram if not more. But if you have noticed, there are posts by friends that show up on your Instagram feed. Although you may not have thought about it before, Instagram product leads have revealed what actually makes you watch those posts first and others later. And one of the reasons is the way you browse on Facebook. https://ift.tt/2NJwoDQ

Top 10 trending games of the week (October 8 to October 14)

Several gaming titled get added to Google Play Store every week. Out of these, there are always a few of that get more attention from users. More often than not, these game end up among the most trending games of the week. Since many of them are free, they perhaps deserve a try. Here is a list of top 10 trending games of the week, according to Google Play Store https://ift.tt/2P3leyM

Amazon Festival Sale: Accessories round-up on last day

Make the most of the last day of the Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale. Check these essential accessories out because you never know when you might need a spare charging cable or a travel mouse. We’ve handpicked some deals for you because we feel they’re the best prices for each product. Check them out: Get the AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Micro B Charging Cable here You may have a smartphone that uses either USB-C or Apple’s Lightning port, but chances are you’ll still need one of these for charging other accessories like wireless headphones and portable speakers. There’s no harm getting one when it’s on sale. This one is nearly a metre in length. Market Retail Price: Rs 425 Effective Sale Price: Rs 199 Savings: Rs 226 Get the AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable here Lost the charging cable you got with your iPhone? Worse, damaged it? Here’s a good replacement or spare iPhone charging cable by AmazonBasics. It’s essential for juicing your Apple portable device up and connecting to your computer when iTunes demands it. This one’s a little less than a metre in length. Market Retail Price: Rs 1,295 Effective Sale Price: Rs 499 Savings: Rs 796 Get the AmazonBasics USB Type C to USB A 2.0 Male Cable here With more and more devices now incorporating USB-C for charging and data transfer, one can only expect the associated cables to get cheaper. Smartphones as affordable as the Nokia 5.1 Plus now employ USB-C. It’s definitely a good idea to get a spare cable for travel and work. This one’s almost a metre in length. Market Retail Price: Rs 845 Effective Sale Price: Rs 299 Savings: Rs 546 Get the Logitech K230 Wireless Keyboard here If you’re scurrying constantly between your computers at home and work and need a lightweight keyboard to carry around in your bag, this is it. The Logitech K230 Wireless Keyboard has a dongle you can just pull out and connect easily on a Windows computer. It’s 36 percent smaller in size than regular keyboards and takes two AAA batteries to work. Market Retail Price: Rs 995 Effective Sale Price: Rs 649 Savings: Rs 346 Get the Logitech B170 Wireless Mouse here You may have a precision touchpad on your laptop but sometimes you just want a traditional mouse to gain control over that tiny mouse pointer. But you don’t want your mouse to be so traditional that it has a long, messy wire. What then? Get the Logitech B170 Wireless Mouse. It works with Windows, MacOS, and Chrome OS. It takes one AA battery to function. Market Retail Price: Rs 795 Effective Sale Price: Rs 499 Savings: Rs 296 https://ift.tt/2RPSAzp

Facebook promises to share details of stolen account information with 30 million affected users in coming days

Facebook has issued an update on the previously reported hack in which the company had estimated that accounts of nearly 50 million people were compromised after cybercriminals used a flaw in the platform’s ‘View As’ feature. According to an official statement from Facebook, tokens of about 30 million people were actually stolen. The company also shared the details of the attack that exploited user data. “We have been working around the clock to investigate the security issue we discovered and fixed two weeks ago so we can help people understand what information the attackers may have accessed. Today, we’re sharing details about the attack we’ve found that exploited this vulnerability. We now know that fewer people were impacted than we originally thought. Of the 50 million people whose access tokens we believed were affected, about 30 million actually had their tokens stolen,” Guy Rosen, Vice President of Product Management, said in a blog post. Facebook also said that the attack did not include Messenger, Messenger Kids, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Workplace, Pages, payments, third-party apps, or advertising or developer accounts. The company also said that in the coming days, it will send customised messages to the 30 million people affected to explain what information the attackers might have accessed, as well as steps they can take to help protect themselves, including from suspicious emails, text messages, or calls. According to Facebook, attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that existed between July 2017 and September 2018. The vulnerability was the result of a complex interaction of three distinct software bugs and it impacted “View As,” a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. It allowed attackers to steal Facebook access tokens, which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. (Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged into Facebook so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app.) Facebook said that it saw an unusual spike of activity that began on September 14, 2018 and on September 25, it determined that the activity was actually an attack. The company claims that it identified the vulnerability and within two days, it closed the vulnerability, stopped the attack, and secured people’s accounts by resetting the access tokens for people who were potentially exposed. In a precautionary move, the social media platform also turned off “View As.” How hackers executed the attack Facebook claims that the attackers already controlled a set of accounts which were connected to Facebook friends. They used an automated technique to move from account to account so they could steal the access tokens of those friends, and for friends of those friends, and so on, totaling about 400,000 people. In the process, however, this technique automatically loaded those accounts’ Facebook profiles, mirroring what these 400,000 people would have seen when looking at their own profiles. “If a person in this (compromised) group was a Page admin whose Page had received a message from someone on Facebook, the content of that message was available to the attackers. The attackers used a portion of these 400,000 people’s lists of friends to steal access tokens for about 30 million people. For 15 million people, attackers accessed two sets of information – name and contact details. For 14 million people, the attackers accessed the same two sets of information, as well as other details people had on their profiles,” Rosen explained in the blog. The ‘other details’ included username, gender, locale/language, relationship status, religion, hometown, self-reported current city, birthdate, device types used to access Facebook, education, work, the last 10 places they checked into or were tagged in, website, people or Pages they follow, and the 15 most recent searches. For 1 million people, the attackers did not access any information. The update comes a few days after the company disclosed that a Facebook bug had erased Live videos of some of the platform’s users. The glitch deleted some users’ Live videos if they tried to post them to their Story and the News Feed after finishing their broadcast. The company later patched the bug, but said that it could only restore some of the deleted videos and was seen issuing an apology notifying the affected users that their Live videos have been deleted permanently. Cover Image: Facebook https://ift.tt/2RNoiNP