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Category: futurism – Page 478

Boeing Becomes Sole Owner of Air Taxi Manufacturer Wisk Aero

As it contends with a slowdown in 737 Max deliveries at present, Boeing also has its eye on the future.

According to reports this week, the aerospace powerhouse is now the sole owner of Wisk Aero, the self-flying air taxi manufacturer it has been backing since 2019, alongside Google co-founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk Corp. Kitty Hawk ceased operations last year but continued to invest in the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer.

Now, Boeing has reportedly acquired Kitty Hawk’s shares in Wisk, making it a wholly owned subsidiary, though Wisk CEO Brian Yutko said the air taxi enterprise will retain its independence. Yutko did not disclose the terms of the agreement.

Possible Life-Supporting Planet Found Orbiting Dying Star

The existence of life on planets orbiting stars akin to our sun doesn’t necessarily require these stars to be exceptionally powerful.

Scientists have uncovered a possible “giant planet” orbiting a dying star, which could potentially support life in the future.

Researchers from University College London made the “startling” discovery while studying a white dwarf, the glowing remnants of a star that exhausted its hydrogen fuel. Located about 117 light-years away, this star, known as WD1054-226, features a ring of planetary debris in its habitable zone, or Goldilocks zone, where temperatures might allow liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface.

A developer says Reddit could charge him $20 million a year to keep his app working

‘I don’t see how this pricing is anything based in reality or remotely reasonable.’

Apollo, the popular Reddit app for iOS, could face millions of dollars in fees as a result of Reddit’s new paid API model. According to an update posted by developer.

Reddit announced changes to its API policy in April, which allows the platform to put limits on the number of API requests made by a third-party client like Apollo. But now, we have more details on what exactly this means: Selig says Reddit plans on charging about $12,000 per 50 million requests.

The future of Apollo on Reddit isn’t clear.

New York City Sinking Under Weight of Skyscrapers

New York City is sinking under the weight of its massive buildings, leaving it more vulnerable to rising seas, a new study finds.

Most coastal cities are slowly sinking as the earth beneath them settles and groundwater is drained away. In some metropolises, the weight of large, concrete-and-steel skyscrapers may be hastening this slump, but experts rarely, if ever, account for the mass of large buildings in projections of future sinking.

For the new study, scientists tallied the weight of every building in New York, which they put at 842 million tons, and estimated the downward force of these structures across the city. They found that buildings are leaving a bigger imprint in areas rich in clay than in areas where sand or bedrock predominate.

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