Peter Grünberg, 78, Winner of an ‘iPod Nobel,’ Is Dead

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Peter Grünberg, 78, Winner of an ‘iPod Nobel,’ Is Dead Photo Peter Grünberg in his laboratory at a research institute in Jüelich, Germany, in 2007. His prize-winning discovery enabled the era of big data to dawn. Credit Volker Hartmann/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Peter Grünberg, a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist who discovered how to store vast amounts of data by manipulating the magnetic and electrical fields of thin layers of atoms, making possible devices like the iPad and the smartphone, has died at 78.
His death was announced by the Juelich Research Center in Juelich, Germany, where he was a longtime researcher. The center did not provide any other details.
Dr. Grünberg shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007 with Albert Fert of the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay. They had independently made the same discovery — of an effect known as giant magnetoresistance, in which tiny changes in a magnetic field can result in huge changes in electrical resistance.
The effect is at the h..

A California Housing Fight, Waged With Pen and Walking Shoes

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A California Housing Fight, Waged With Pen and Walking Shoes SACRAMENTO — How do you get a landlord to endorse a proposal to limit rent increases?
Yong Her, a 39-year-old bookkeeper, was one of 40 or so organizers who considered the question on a recent afternoon. The group had gathered in a conference room here to discuss strategies for getting people of various backgrounds, incomes and occupations to sign a petition to put a rent-control measure before Sacramento’s voters.
It was one small scene in what is shaping up as an epic battle on the state and city levels to combat California’s affordable-housing crisis. Pitting a rising tenants rights’ movement against apartment owners, the fight will consume tens of millions of dollars’ worth of organizing effort and political advertising before the November election.
If the Sacramento initiative were to make the ballot and ultimately pass, rent increases would be capped at 5 percent a year. That kind of law is a fairly easy sell in higher-..

Attack on Skripals Shows Russia Is ‘Reckless,’ U.K. Says

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Attack on Skripals Shows Russia Is ‘Reckless,’ U.K. Says Photo A photograph of Yulia S. Skipal from her Facebook account. Credit via Associated Press LONDON — The nerve agent attack on two people in England “demonstrates how reckless Russia is prepared to be, how little the Kremlin cares for the international rules-based order,” one of Britain’s intelligence chiefs said on Thursday, in an unusually public and scathing commentary on a foreign power.
In his first speech after a year as director of the Government Communications Headquarters, the British equivalent of the National Security Agency, Jeremy Fleming said the threat from Russia had “never gone away,” but had become impossible to ignore after the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter, cyberattacks on Ukranian infrastructure and other actions.
“They’re not playing to the same rules,” he said at a cybersecurity conference in Manchester, England. “They’re blurring the boundaries between criminal and state activity.”
Ru..

Senators Had a Lot to Say About Facebook. That Hasn’t Stopped Them From Using It.

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Senators Had a Lot to Say About Facebook. That Hasn’t Stopped Them From Using It. Photo From left, Senators Cory Gardner, Shelley Moore Capito and Todd Young listening to Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony at a congressional hearing on Tuesday. Credit Lawrence Jackson for The New York Times With respect to Facebook, United States senators don’t seem to be too different from many of us: They don’t necessarily trust it, but they’re not ready to quit it.
Even as the members of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees were questioning Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, during a nearly five-hour hearing on Tuesday, many of them were feeding content back into the site.
The most active, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, posted more than 20 times during Mr. Zuckerberg’s two days on Capitol Hill.
All 44 of the senators who questioned Mr. Zuckerberg on Tuesday have pages on the platform he built. At least 35 of them have two Facebook pages, with many using one page for official Senate communicat..

2 Days, 10 Hours, 600 Questions: What Happened When Mark Zuckerberg Went to Washington

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2 Days, 10 Hours, 600 Questions: What Happened When Mark Zuckerberg Went to Washington

Video

Zuckerberg’s Testimony, Explained

Senator John Kennedy told Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, that his company’s user agreement “sucks.” Our reporter Sheera Frenkel explains the senator’s questions, Mr. Zuckerberg’s answers and what they really mean.

By SHEERA FRENKEL and GRANT GOLD on Publish Date April 11, 2018.

Photo by Tom Brenner/The New York Times.

Watch in Times Video »

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Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, endured a rite of passage this week that other powerful executives have gone through before: a public grilling before Congress.
Over two days, nearly 100 lawmakers in the House and Senate interrogated Mr. Zuckerberg about the company’s handling of user information. He faced almost 600 questions, including whether the company should be more heavily regulated, whether it intentionally censors conservative content and how much Russians may have meddled..

Independent coffee shops call for major chains to offer more sustainable cups

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A group of independent coffee shops has called on major chains to offer more sustainable cups.
To mark the start of London Coffee Festival, nine companies have signed an open letter in which they described the need for coffee giants like Starbucks to lead the way in the fight against plastic waste.
The move comes after Waitrose announced it would phase out disposable coffee cups in stores by autumn, and new figures revealed that NHS trusts in England get through millions of cups every year.
Read more Starbucks: Bring in fully recyclable takeaway cups London shops including Timberyard Seven Dials, Chief Coffee and Stir have called on their major rivals to step up their game and help combat plastic pollution.
“As members of the coffee retail community, we want to tackle this crisis,” they wrote.
“Until the major players in our market invest in more sustainable solutions, there will be little systemic change.”
Ways to reduce your single-use plastic 6 show all Ways to reduce yo..