Month: May 2020

Here’s how Apple and Google’s Exposure Notification API works while securing privacy

Apple officially released iOS 13.5 to the public this week. The update includes changes such as Face ID improvements for masks, new Apple Music features, and more. Perhaps most importantly, however, the update brings the first version of the Exposure Notification API developed by Apple and Google. Here’s how that feature works, while also preserving your privacy.

Coronavirus: Car rental firm Hertz files for bankruptcy

Car rental company Hertz has filed for bankruptcy despite being allowed to stay open during the pandemic.

The firm closed most of its branches in the UK and Ireland when COVID-19 hit despite being classed as an essential service. It cut 12,000 jobs worldwide and put 4,000 workers on furlough.

The Definitive Superfood Ranking

Food marketers know that if they call their product a superfood, it’s sure to sell. Take quinoa, for example. In the early aughts, when the ancient grain first became trendy, quinoa prices tripled in the span of five years. (Many Bolivians, who had relied on it as a food staple for centuries, were soon priced out of the market.) The moral here: it’s important to question anything knighted with the superlative.

Does the Trolley Problem Have a Problem?

Picture the following situation: You are taking a freshman-level philosophy class in college, and your professor has just asked you to imagine a runaway trolley barreling down a track toward a group of five people. The only way to save them from being killed, the professor says, is to hit a switch that will turn the trolley onto an alternate set of tracks where it will kill one person instead of five. Now you must decide: Would the mulling over of this dilemma enlighten you in any way?