Friday, February 14, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for February 15, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 15, 2020 is Roger B. Chaffee.
Roger B. Chaffee (February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967) was an American naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, and astronaut in the Apollo program. He died in a fire along with Gus Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for Apollo 1. Before joining NASA, Chaffee obtained his private pilot's license and graduated from Purdue University in 1957. Joining the U.S. Navy as an ensign, he trained to fly the T-34, T-28, and A3D. Serving as quality and safety control officer for Heavy Photographic Squadron 62, he took crucial photos of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, earning him the Air Medal. He joined NASA's Astronaut Group 3 in 1963 and served as capsule communicator at Mission Control Center in Houston for the Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 missions. He was given his first spaceflight assignment in 1966 as the third-ranking pilot on Apollo 1 and was promoted soon after to lieutenant commander in the Navy. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and a second Air Medal.

Activate This ‘Bracelet of Silence,’ and Alexa Can’t Eavesdrop


By BY KASHMIR HILL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/38F2GuU

The Week in Tech: Are Smartphones Interesting Again?


By BY DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/37rmwZp

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for February 14, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 14, 2020 is Love It to Death.
Love It to Death is the third studio album by the American rock band Alice Cooper (pictured), released in March 1971. The band took the name Alice Cooper in 1968 and became known for its outrageous theatrical live shows, but its first two albums failed to find an audience. In 1970 the band's single "I'm Eighteen" achieved top-forty success, peaking at No. 21 in the US and No. 7 in Canada. This convinced Warner Bros. that Alice Cooper had the commercial potential to release an album. Love It to Death reached No. 35 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and has since been certified platinum. In addition to "I'm Eighteen", a second track from the album, "Caught in a Dream", was released as a single and charted at No. 94 in the US. The album is seen as a foundational influence on hard rock, punk, and heavy metal. Several tracks have become live Alice Cooper standards and are frequently covered by other bands.

Siding With Amazon, Judge Halts Work on Microsoft’s JEDI Contract


By BY KATE CONGER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2UNCgTJ

U.S. Charges Huawei With Racketeering


By BY DAVID MCCABE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2OPvLvO

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Wikipedia article of the day for February 13, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for February 13, 2020 is The Unconquered (1940 play).
The Unconquered is a three-act play written by Russian-American author Ayn Rand as an adaptation of her 1936 novel We the Living. Producer George Abbott staged the play on Broadway in February 1940, featuring Helen Craig (pictured) as Kira Argounova, a young woman living in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Her lover Leo Kovalensky develops tuberculosis. To get money for his treatment, Kira has an affair with a Communist official, Andrei Taganov. After Leo recovers from his illness, he becomes involved with black market food sales that Andrei is investigating. When Andrei realizes that Kira loves Leo, he helps his rival avoid prosecution, then commits suicide. Leo leaves Kira, who decides to risk her life escaping the country. The production was troubled by problems with the script and the cast. When the play opened at the Biltmore Theatre, it was a critical and financial failure, and closed in less than a week. It was the last of Rand's plays produced during her lifetime.