Plugging In: Energy Briefs For Friday, April 28, 2017

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | PA Thompson) The US Supreme Court yesterday denied a request to block a Texas law that requires age-verification systems on porn websites. The Supreme Court denial leaves in place, at least for now, an appeals court ruling that said Texas can enforce the law. "The application for stay presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied," the one-sentence order issued yesterday said. Pornhub disabled its website in Texas after the appeals court ruling in March.

Enlarge / Part of the cover illustration from "The Applesoft Tutorial" BASIC manual that shipped with the Apple II computer starting in 1981. (credit: Apple, Inc.) Sixty years ago, on May 1, 1964, at 4 am in the morning, a quiet revolution in computing began at Dartmouth College. That's when mathematicians John G.

Enlarge (credit: Apple) If you've ever sent an iPhone in for repair, you might be familiar with the dance Apple asks you to do if your device still powers on: back up your data, then either erase the phone or disable the Find My feature so your phone can easily be serviced (or, if it's being exchanged for a new one, refurbished and resold).

Enlarge / EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton wants Europe to have its own secure satellite communications network. (credit: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images) It has been 18 months since the European Union announced its intent to develop an independent satellite Internet constellation, and the plans appear to be heading into troubled waters. In that time, a single bid—from a consortium of multinational companies that includes Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space, and Arianespace—has emerged to build the network of a few hundred satellites.

Enlarge (credit: FT) OpenAI has been showcasing Sora, its artificial intelligence video-generation model, to media industry executives in recent weeks to drum up enthusiasm and ease concerns about the potential for the technology to disrupt specific sectors. The Financial Times wanted to put Sora to the test, alongside the systems of rival AI video generation companies Runway and Pika. We asked executives in advertising, animation, and real estate to write prompts to generate videos they might use in their work.

Enlarge / The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. (credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Misselt (University of Arizona) and A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS)) Welcome to the Daily Telescope. There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science.