Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 655
April 10, 2021
China fines Alibaba $2.8 billion after antitrust investigation, Kim Lyons
Photo by Fang Dongxu/VCG via Getty ImagesChina has hit Alibaba, one of the country’s biggest online retailers, with a record $2.8 billion (18.2 billion yuan) fine, after an investigation found the ecommerce giant violated China’s anti-monopoly law, The New York Times reported. The fine, which represents 4 percent of Alibaba’s 2019 domestic sales, is three times higher than the $975 billion fine China imposed on US chip company Qualcomm back in 2015.
The Chinese government launched an investigation into Alibaba in December to determine whether the company was preventing merchants from selling their products on other platforms. China’s market regulator found that Alibaba’s practices had a negative effect on online retail competition and innovation. Alibaba used data and…
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China fines Alibaba $2.8 billion after antitrust investigation,
China has hit Alibaba, one of the country’s biggest online retailers, with a record $2.8 billion (18.2 billion yuan) fine, after an investigation found the ecommerce giant violated China’s anti-monopoly law, The New York Times reported. The fine, which represents 4 percent of Alibaba’s 2019 domestic sales, is three times higher than the $975 million fine China imposed on US chip company Qualcomm back in 2015.
The Chinese government launched an investigation into Alibaba in December to determine whether the company was preventing merchants from selling their products on other platforms. China’s market regulator found that Alibaba’s practices had a negative effect on online retail competition and innovation. Alibaba used data and algorithms to strengthen its own position in the marketplace, resulting in an “improper competitive advantage,” China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement. The company will have to reduce its anticompetitive tactics and provide compliance reports to the government for the next three years.
Alibaba said in a statement it accepted the fine and pledged to make improvements to better serve its “responsibility to society.”
“We will further strengthen our focus on customer value creation and customer experience, as well as continuing to introduce measures to lower entry barriers and business costs of operating on our platforms,” the company’s statement reads. “We are committed to ensuring an operating environment for our merchants and partners that is more open, more equitable, more efficient and more inclusive in sharing the fruits of growth.”
The hefty fine is not likely to hurt Alibaba’s bottom line too severely, however; in February, the company reported a third quarter profit — for the final three months of calendar year 2020 alone– of $12 billion.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect figure for the fine China imposed on Qualcomm. It was $975 million. We regret the error.
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A look at Tattle Life, a gossip forum where users dox celebrities and influencers, dissect their personal lives, and target them with vicious comments (Sarah Manavis/New Statesman)
The post A look at Tattle Life, a gossip forum where users dox celebrities and influencers, dissect their personal lives, and target them with vicious comments (Sarah Manavis/New Statesman) appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Platforms like Douyin in China have become live online labs where grassroots nationalists and state media collaborate to harass critics at home and abroad (Zeyi Yang/Protocol)
The post Platforms like Douyin in China have become live online labs where grassroots nationalists and state media collaborate to harass critics at home and abroad (Zeyi Yang/Protocol) appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
April 9, 2021
Researchers say Facebook has known for years about exploits similar to the one that used its “contact importer”, enabling the scraping of 533M users’ data (Lily Hay Newman/Wired)
The post Researchers say Facebook has known for years about exploits similar to the one that used its “contact importer”, enabling the scraping of 533M users’ data (Lily Hay Newman/Wired) appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Logitech to stop making its Harmony line of universal remotes effective immediately, says software and app support will be available for the foreseeable future (Ben Patterson/TechHive)
The post Logitech to stop making its Harmony line of universal remotes effective immediately, says software and app support will be available for the foreseeable future (Ben Patterson/TechHive) appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Analysis finds that an OpenCV-based facial recognition model used by exam monitoring software Proctorio fails to recognize Black faces more than 50% of the time (Todd Feathers/VICE)
The post Analysis finds that an OpenCV-based facial recognition model used by exam monitoring software Proctorio fails to recognize Black faces more than 50% of the time (Todd Feathers/VICE) appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
1,200+ Alphabet employees have signed a letter asking the company to stop protecting harassers, following a NYT op-ed by an ex-employee who alleged harassment (Zoe Schiffer/The Verge)
The post 1,200+ Alphabet employees have signed a letter asking the company to stop protecting harassers, following a NYT op-ed by an ex-employee who alleged harassment (Zoe Schiffer/The Verge) appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Soyuz MS-18 crew launches to space station 60 years after first human spaceflight, ,
A three-person crew embarked for the International Space Station on Friday (April 9), launching just three days shy of the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei lifted off aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft for a three-hour, two-orbit rendezvous with the space station. The Soyuz took flight at 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 GMT or 12:42 p.m. local time) from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, near where cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history by becoming the first person to fly into space on April 12, 1961.
To honor the anniversary, the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft was christened the “Yu.A. Gagarin” and bore the name on its exterior insulation.
Infographic: How the first human spaceflight worked
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Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, the “Yu.A. Gagarin,” launches for the International Space Station from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on April 9, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)“It is a big honor for us to fly and celebrate the anniversary of the first flight into space,” said Novitskiy on Thursday (April 8), addressing the Russian state commission that approved the crew’s launch.
“For me,” added Dubrov, “it is a special honor to have my first flight on such an important date when we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first flight into space.”
That the crew included an American underscored one of the key advancements made since Gagarin’s one-orbit Vostok mission, said Vande Hei.
“Of course, when we started, we were competing with each other and that was one of the reasons we were so successful at the beginning of human spaceflight,” he said. “As time went on, we realized that by working together we could achieve even more, and that continues today, and I hope will continue into the future.”
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Soyuz MS-18 commander Oleg Novitskiy (at bottom) and flight engineers Mark Vande Hei (center) and Pyotr Dubrov wave from the launch pad prior to boarding their spacecraft at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 9, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)At present, Vande Hei is the last U.S. astronaut scheduled to fly on a Russian Soyuz, after 26 years of joint missions. Vande Hei’s place on the Soyuz MS-18 mission came as the result of a barter between NASA, the U.S. space services company Axiom Space and Roscosmos.
It is expected that joint flights will resume once an agreement can be worked out for Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S. commercial crew vehicles, including SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, but when that will occur is not yet known.
Novitskiy, Dubrov and Vande Hei arrived at the space station at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT) on Friday, docking their Soyuz to Russia’s Rassvet module. Their arrival will briefly increase the orbiting laboratory’s complement to 10 crew members, including Expedition 64 commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Sergey Kud-Sverchkov also of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Soyuz spacecraft: Backbone of the Russian space program
Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins are scheduled to return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-17 on April 16, beginning Expedition 65 aboard the station.
Hopkins, Glover, Walker and Noguchi are scheduled to depart aboard on April 28, six days after the arrival of SpaceX’s Crew-2 on the Dragon “Endeavour,” which will carry up NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Thomas Pesquet with the European Space Agency (ESA) and JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide.
Novitskiy, Dubrov and Vande Hei are scheduled to stay aboard the space station through at least October. Dubrov and Vande Hei’s stay may be extended out to a year depending on if Russia proceeds with its plans to launch a Russian filmmaker and an actress on a short-stay mission to film a movie aboard the space station in September. If the film crew launches, they will return to Earth with Novitskiy, filling Dubrov’s and Vande Hei’s seats aboard Soyuz MS-18.
“For me, it’s just an opportunity for a new life experience,” said Vande Hei in March when the prospect of the longer stay first became public. “I’ve never been in space longer than about six months, so if someone tells me I got to stay in space for a year, I’ll find out what that feels like. I’m really enthusiastic about it.”
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The Soyuz MS-18 crew mission patch. (Image credit: Roscosmos/spacepatches.nl)Within their first six months together in space, Novitskiy, Dubrov and Vande Hei are expected to help perform over 260 experiments, with more than 40 taking place for the first time during Expedition 65. All three are also expected to conduct spacewalks for the purpose of extending the capabilities of the space station.
Vande Hei may assist with the installation of new solar arrays to increase the available power supply for expanded commercial activities on the orbital complex. Novitskiy and Dubrov are scheduled to prepare for and begin the integration of a new Russian multipurpose laboratory module, “Nauka,” slated for launch in July.
The launch of Soyuz MS-18 marks Novitskiy’s third mission to the space station, Vande Hei’s second and Dubrov’s first.
A 49-year-old former Russian Air Force pilot, Novitskiy previously served as a member of the Expedition 33/34 and Expedition 50/51 crews in 2012 and 2017, respectively, logging 340 days in space.
Dubrov, 43, was working as a software engineer when he was selected to train as a cosmonaut in 2012.
Vande Hei, 54, was previously a member of the space station’s Expedition 53/54 crew in 2017. A retired colonel in the U.S. Army, he has already logged 168 days in space, including 26 hours and 42 minutes on four spacewalks.
Soyuz MS-18 “Yu.A. Gagarin” is Russia’s 64th Soyuz spacecraft to launch for the International Space Station since 2000 and the 147th to fly since 1967.
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On This Day in Space! April 9, 1959: NASA introduces the ‘Mercury 7’ astronauts, ,
On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its very first astronaut class. This dashing group of young men is known as the Mercury 7.
They were all military test pilots before they were chosen for the job, and they had all “the right stuff” to take on such risky missions. But in a way, they essentially became guinea pigs for NASA’s new human spaceflight program, because they didn’t get to do much piloting inside the Mercury spacecraft.
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The seven Mercury astronauts were (from left) Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Gordon Cooper and Scott Carpenter. (Image credit: NASA)Some of the pilots weren’t too happy about this. But the rest of the country paid no attention to that, and the Mercury 7 instantly became national heroes. In 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly to space, followed by Gus Grissom. Then in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
After that, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper all completed orbital missions as well. Deke Slayton, the only Mercury 7 astronaut not to fly a Mercury mission, later flew on the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission, the first joint flight by two countries: the United States and Soviet Union.
Catch up on our entire “On This Day In Space” series on YouTube with this playlist.
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