Why Apple’s New Phone Doesn’t Matter

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Apple, in a Virtual Unveiling, Introduces a $399 iPhone

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The Virus Revealed Our Essential Tech (and Weeded Out the Excess)

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Wikipedia article of the day for April 15, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for April 15, 2020 is Circumstellar habitable zone.
Horologium is a constellation of six faintly visible stars in the southern celestial hemisphere. It was first described by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1756 and visualized by him as a clock with a pendulum and a second hand. The boundaries of Horologium (literally 'an instrument for telling the hour') were specified in 1922 by the International Astronomical Union, and it has since been one of their designated constellations. All parts of the constellation are visible to observers south of 23°N. The constellation's brightest star – and the only one brighter than an apparent magnitude of 4 – is Alpha Horologii (at 3.85), an ageing orange giant star that has swollen to around 11 times the diameter of the Sun. The long-period variable-brightness star, R Horologii (4.7 to 14.3), has one of the largest variations in brightness known for stars in the night sky visible to the unaided eye. Four star systems in the constellation are known to have exoplanets; one – Gliese 1061 – contains an exoplanet in its habitable zone.

Even Google and Facebook May be Facing an Ad Slump

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‘We Can Do Better’: One Plan to Erase America’s Digital Divide

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Wikipedia article of the day for April 14, 2020

The Wikipedia article of the day for April 14, 2020 is Razing of Friesoythe.
The Razing of Friesoythe took place on 14 April 1945 towards the end of World War II. The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division, advancing into north-west Germany, attacked the German-held town of Friesoythe. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada captured the town. During the fighting the battalion's commander was killed by a German soldier, but it was reported that he had been killed by a civilian. The division's commander, Major-General Christopher Vokes, ordered that the town be razed in retaliation, and it was substantially destroyed. Twenty German civilians died in Friesoythe during the fighting. The rubble of the town was used to fill craters in local roads to make them passable for the division's tanks and heavy vehicles. Little official notice was taken of the incident and the Canadian Army official history glosses over it. Forty years later, Vokes wrote in his autobiography that he had "no great remorse over the elimination of Friesoythe".