information | Common News Update

Mar262021 by adminNo Comments

30 million people may receive $1,400 stimulus checks after Social Security Administration provides payment information to IRS

Finance

zimmytws | iStock | Getty ImagesThe Social Security Administration has sent information to the IRS that will help clear the way for almost 30 million people to receive their $ 1,400 stimulus checks, lawmakers said on Thursday.The development comes after Democratic leaders on the House Ways and Means Committee gave the agency 24 hours to turn over the payment information so that the IRS could process the payments.In a statement, the lawmakers, led by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal, D-Mass., blamed Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul for the delays, which "defied congressional intent and imposed needless anxiety and pain on taxpayers."In response, Saul released a statement on Thursday strongly denying those claims.Saul said the Social Security Administration was init...

Dec162020 by adminNo Comments

Quantum insulators could improve speed, efficiency of digital information transfer

Science

Dec. 16 (UPI) -- The phenomenon known as the quantum anomalous Hall effect describes the ability of electrons to move freely along at the outer edges of materials. Electrons propelled by the QAH effect can travel at high speeds without losing energy. For the first time, researchers have generated the QAH effect in a multilayered insulator, creating a kind of multilane highway, across which electrons can travel. Advertisement The breakthrough, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, could be used to build more energy efficient electronic devices. "Increasing the number of electrons in most metals results in a sort of traffic jam because electrons moving in different directions get scattered and repel each other," lead researcher Cui-Zu Chang said in a news release. "But in QAH insulato...

Aug192020 by adminNo Comments

Navy’s information warfare research effort gets $400M in new funding

Business

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A new U.S. Navy information warfare project received a two-year extension and $ 400 million in new funding, the Navy announced. James Guerts, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, approved a funding ceiling increase and extension for the Information Warfare Research Project of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. Advertisement The project now has a $ 500 million ceiling and a five-year performance period, the San Diego-based The Naval Information Warfare Systems Command [NAVWAR] said on Tuesday. IWRP began in 2018 and uses a consortium-based approach in offering an alternative acquisition method called an Other Transaction Authority to streamline the acquisition process, rapidly develop prototypes and provide advanced technol...

Jun22020 by adminNo Comments

Leaked WHO files show China ‘delayed releasing important information’ about virus

World

China delayed releasing important coronavirus information during the early days of the outbreak, according to leaked WHO documents and recordings of WHO meetings obtained by the Associated Press (AP).The delay led to frustration for officials in the World Health Organisation (WHO), even as they publicly praised China for its transparency. The country waited more than one week before publishing the genome of the novel coronavirus on 11 January, despite the fact three different government labs had fully sequenced the genetic code. Image: The outbreak began in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province. File pic "Tight controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were to blame, according to dozens of inte...

Apr32019 by adminNo Comments

India election body struggles with scale of fake information

Technology

When India's Election Commission announced last month that its code of conduct would have to be followed by social media companies as well as political parties, some analysts scoffed, saying it lacked the capacity and speed required to check the spread of fake news ahead of a multi-phase general election that begins April 11. Just weeks later, the commission is indeed struggling to cope with the fake news swirling on Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter and other platforms, and even for its staff to spot it before it has spread across India, observers said Tuesday. "Millions of voters are waking up to fake news, propaganda and hate speech inciting violence against Muslims and other minorities every day. But all the commission can do is monitor it," said Apar Gupta, a lawyer and executive ...