President Joe Biden has just announced that he will replace the entire US federal fleet with electric vehicles made in the US. The US federal fleet consists of over 645,000 vehicles, according to the latest Federal Fleet Report. This includes 245k civilian vehicles, 173k military vehicles, and 225k post office vehicles. Biden talked a lot about American-made electric vehicles during the campaign, so an announcement to this effect is not unexpected, but campaign promises do not always translate to real action. Read full story here: President Biden Will Make Entire…
Read MoreMonth: January 2021
More Than 200K Small Businesses Could Close Permanently Amid Pandemic: CFIB | Global News
More than 200,000 Canadian small businesses could shut their doors permanently due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, jeopardizing close to three million private-sector jobs in the worst-case scenario, according to a recent survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). The organization estimates 181,000 small entrepreneurs are seriously considering closing down their businesses after a spike in case counts prompted a new wave of government lockdowns and restrictions. Read full story here: More Than 200K Small Businesses Could Close Permanently Amid Pandemic: CFIB | Global News
Read MoreHow Law Enforcement Gets Around Your Smartphone’s Encryption | Ars Technica
Lawmakers and law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have increasingly called for backdoors in the encryption schemes that protect your data, arguing that national security is at stake. But new research indicates governments already have methods and tools that, for better or worse, let them access locked smartphones thanks to weaknesses in the security schemes of Android and iOS. Read full story here: How Law Enforcement Gets Around Your Smartphone’s Encryption | Ars Technica
Read MoreStressed Out? Blame Bad Technology, New Study Suggests | CTV News
NEW YORK — There is no question that we are all more dependent on technology than ever. So what happens when that tech does not work? In the past, Emily Dreyfuss used an old-school strategy: She yelled. When Amazon’s Alexa spat out wrong answers or misunderstood questions, Dreyfuss let the virtual assistant have it. “I used her as a scapegoat for my feelings,” said Dreyfuss, a writer and editor for Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “When you have a non-sentient and annoying device in your home, who isn’t doing what you want,…
Read MoreCanada Lags Far Behind Pioneering Norway In Phasing-out Gasoline Vehicles | Global News
More often than not, Norway finds itself at, or near, the top of all the good lists — perhaps most notably as number 1 on the United Nations Human Development Index. It has now secured its place at the top of another list: the 21st century race to make zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) the norm. In 2020, Norway became the first country where the majority of passenger vehicle sales were ZEVs, specifically battery electric vehicles (BEV). Data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) shows that 54.3 per cent of all new…
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