Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Print news is alive. 

After California’s violent Carr Fire jumped over the Sacramento River Thursday night and entered the west part of Redding, home to over 90,000 inhabitants, the tempestuous fire took out a significant portion’s of the city’s electrical grid — even toppling transmission towers. 

But the local newspaper, the Redding Record Searchlight, was able to get its paper out — amid approaching flames and without power. 

“I think what they did was hugely heroic,” David Little, editor of the Chico-Enterprise Record which ended up printing the paper, said in an interview. “They knew they couldn’t deliver to half their readership, and knew homes were burning down and roads were closed.”  Read more…

More about Science, California, Global Warming, Climate Change, and Local News

Twitter’s live video-streaming app Periscope is about to become a much less appealing place for trolls to ply their hate.

In a new Medium post bearing the title “A Safer Conversation,” the Periscope Trust & Safety Team pledges to more actively root out problematic commenters starting on Aug. 10. Accounts that repeatedly violate the service’s community guidelines will be suspended.

“The Periscope Community Guidelines apply to all broadcasts on both Periscope and Twitter,” the post reads. “As part of our ongoing effort to build a safer service, we are launching more aggressive enforcement of our guidelines related to chats sent during live broadcasts.” Read more…

More about Tech, Twitter, Periscope, Trolling, and Social Media Companies

It’s been said many times before that what looks cool in the comics doesn’t always translate on film. Here today with an object lesson in that idea is Netflix’s latest teaser for Iron Fist Season 2, which also confirms (again) that the Marvel series will return on Sept. 7.

Brace yourself. Here it is.

Just for the sake of comparison, the comic book version looks like this. So as you can see, the Netflix version isn’t too far off, style-wise. But it also reads very differently here.

Iron Fist returns on Sept. 7, and for all the time we spent razzing Danny Rand during Season 1, there’s reason to suspect that this second season will fare much better. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Tv, Netflix, Iron Fist, and Entertainment

Wild critters are having a rough time under the Trump Administration.

After the administration proposed dramatic changes to the decades-old Endangered Species Act last week, on Friday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) canceled an Obama-era rule that made industries pay for damages inflicted onto refuge lands. 

In short, the “Mitigation Policy” allowed a company, say a mining operation, to damage certain resources as long as the company committed to improving nearby land — to compensate for the damages done. 

More about Science, Conservation, Trump Administration, Fish And Wildlife Service, and Interior Department

Congress wants to spend $95 million to study how gadgets and social media affects children. 

The proposal for the Children and Media Research Advancement Act, or CAMRA Act, was introduced Thursday in the U.S. Senate. A bipartisan group is behind the bill, so it might actually have a chance of passing. 

The bill is not new. Back in 2004, then-Sen. Joseph Lieberman wanted to study the effects of electronic media on the youth. It fizzled out. The same thing happened when a version of the bill was introduced again in 2007 — just a few months before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.  Read more…

More about Children, Congress, Social Media, Devices, and Tech Addiction

At this point, the sexual harassment allegations against CBS head Les Moonves sound sickeningly, depressingly familiar.

Four women who spoke with The New Yorker‘s Ronan Farrow, including actress/writer Ileana Douglas, writer Janet Jones, and producer Christine Peters, recounted Moonves touching or kissing them without their consent during work meetings. 

Two more, including writer Dinah Kirgo, said they verbally rebuffed his advances, only to see their careers suffer as a result. The six incidents detailed in the piece span from the 1980s to the early 2000s.

More about Cbs, Les Moonves, Entertainment, Discrimination, and Movies Tv Shows

One thing we know: the Star Wars must end. Well, the Star Wars as we know them, at least. 

Buried in the official announcement of the Star Wars Episode IX cast — masked by fan euphoria over the confirmed return of Mark Hamill (presumably as Luke Skywalker’s Force ghost) and Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, behind the heart-rending detail that unseen footage of Carrie Fisher will be used to help send off General Leia Organa — was this all-important detail. 

The Skywalker saga, that episodic tale blasted onto screens around the world since 1977, will cease with this movie’s release in 2019.  Read more…

More about Star Wars, Last Jedi, Star Wars Episode Ix, Entertainment, and Star Wars

Southwest and ride-hailing app Lyft inked a deal last month, but after the airline put out an email Friday about the partnership, people seemed confused about what it entails.

Instead of a mile-earning opportunity, the partnership just means you can order Lyft rides in the Southwest mobile app — if you keep location services on.

More about Air Travel, Lyft, Ride Hailing Apps, Apps And Software, and Southwest Airlines

Politico caught Donald Trump Jr. and Robert Mueller very awkwardly hanging out at the same airport gate in Washington D.C. on Friday. 

In the photo, Don Jr. — or as he likes to call himself in his gym selfies, Donald Pump — leans against the back wall talking on the phone. Despite his camouflage hat, he fails to blend into the airport’s stark gray wall because he’s wearing an unreasonably bright teal shirt. He’s doing what we’ve all done before when we run into someone we really don’t want to make small talk with: chilling on his phone. 

More about Investigation, Awkward, Trump Administration, Culture, and Web Culture

Earth’s night-light, aka the moon, is pretty awesome. The U.S. was able to land on it in 1969, plant its flag, and take a picture for the memories. That means the moon belongs to the United States, right? We talked to a space lawyer to find out. Read more…

More about Space, Nasa, Moon, Mashable Video, and Space Is Weird