TLDR 2018-10-09

Facebook came out with it's own smart home device, it's sort of a tablet with a speaker attached to the base. It's called Facebook Portal, and it comes in two sizes, a 15-inch display for $349 and a 10-inch display for $199. You can sync your Facebook account to it and make video calls through Facebook Messenger. It also has a "AI-powered Smart Camera", which means that the camera swivels and follows you as you move around the room, so you can stay in the video. Portal comes with Amazon Alexa integration built in, and is available for pre-order today (the first units ship in November).

Google is shutting down Google+ over the course of the next 10 months due to low engagement (90% of user sessions last less than 5 seconds). Only the consumer version is being shut down, there is an enterprise version that is being kept open.They also announced that there was an undisclosed security flaw that was fixed back in March, it's unrelated to the shutdown.

This newsletter is full of off-the-beaten path stories about technology and media. Basically anything interesting on the internet is fair game. It's also curated by a husband and wife team (both internet entrepreneurs), which I really love!

Google is having its big annual event tomorrow where it will announce the new Google Pixel, Google Home, and more. This Youtube live stream will start at 11am ET, 5 hours after you receive this email.

Jupiter's moon Europa is about the size of Earth and completely covered in ice. Scientists think that Europa has saltwater oceans, which is exciting because this means that it is a good candidate for finding alien life. However, new computer models based on the cold, dry climate in Chile's Atacama Desert predict that the equator of Europa is covered in jagged ice spikes up to fifty feet tall. Scientists believe that these ice spikes, called penitentes, may appear on Pluto as well.

A UN climate change panel found that the climate change crisis is worse than we previously thought, and we could be looking at worsening food shortages, wildfires, and mass coral reef die offs by 2040. We previously thought that we wouldn't see terrible things happen until global temperatures were 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels, but it turns out that we will see terrible things happen at just 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels (which is what we're on track to be at in 2040). They estimate that we will cause $54 trillion in damages. There is still time to stop this, but the scientists concede that the required measures (like heavy taxes/penalties on CO2 emissions) are politically unlikely.

This is an application for a challenge that will award up to $750,000 to a range of projects at the intersection of AI and the news. Projects should seek to solve one of four problems: ensuring transparency in platform governance, stopping bad actors from spreading disinformation, empowering journalists, and reimagining AI and the news. Individual grants will be between $75,000 and $200,000 and projects should last about a year.