TECHNOLOGY OF THE FUTURE

T-Mobile unveils Revvl, its own ‘budget-friendly’ smartphone for $0 down and $5 per month T-Mobile is targeting budget-conscious customers with its own branded smartphone. Called Revvl, the new Android device — manufactured by Alcatel — is a mid-range smartphone with features like a 5.5-inch HD screen, a 13-megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a fingerprint sensor, and more. It’s available starting August 10 for $0 down and $5 per month on T-Mobile’s JUMP on demand plan. In a blog post, T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert said the company is catering to customers who want the latest smartphone technology but can’t afford to pay for high-end devices that are now topping $1,000 or more. He said the Revvl was built specifically for T-Mobile customers who, according to the company, use more data and upgrade their phones faster than those with other carriers. “You won’t find a phone anywhere with better features for the price,” Sievert wrote. T-Mobile also today added to its J

Similarities to Missoula megaflood seen on Mars, elsewhere on Earth NASA officials didn’t disguise their excitement last week in describing the 600-mile-wide flood scar they’ve mapped on the surface of Mars. Here in Missoula, we can casually reply: Live here, seen that. And there it was in the NASA news release: The Martian flood channel was “comparable with the depth of incision of the largest known megaflood on Earth, the Missoula floods, responsible for carving the Channeled Scabland of the northwestern United States.” Members of the Glacial Lake Missoula Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute have seen that coming since the Viking Lander touched down on Mars back in 1976. “It’s frightening to think how long we’ve been at this,” said Norm Smyers, a retired U.S. Forest Service geologist and member of the Glacial Lake Missoula chapter. NASA suspected the Marte Vallis region of Mars was a megaflood zone back when it was planning the Viking missions. And thanks to what was

Stocks fall amid U.S.-North Korea tensions; Disney and Netflix slide U.S. stocks headed lower in early trading Wednesday as investors eyed the growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. A batch of disappointing company earnings also weighed on the market, with consumer-focused companies and technology stocks among the biggest decliners. Wall Street's downbeat start followed a slide in major stock indexes in Europe and Asia. Gold and bond prices rose. KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 7 points, or 0.3%, to 2,467 as of 10:19 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 64 points, or 0.3%, to 22,020. The Nasdaq composite slid 40 points, or 0.6%, to 6,329. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks declined 9 points, or 0.7%, to 1,400. KOREA JITTERS: With President Trump warning North Korea of “fire and fury,” investors have become concerned that the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang could spiral out of contr

A team of women are unearthing the forgotten legacy of Harvard’s women ‘computers’  © Alex Newman/PRI In a cramped Harvard University sub-basement, a team of women is working to document the rich history of their predecessors. More than 40 years before women gained the right to vote, women labored in the Harvard College Observatory as “computers” — astronomy’s version of NASA’s “Hidden Figures” mathematicians. Between 1885 and 1927, the observatory employed about 80 women who studied glass plate photographs of the stars, many of whom made major discoveries. They found galaxies and nebulas and created methods to measure distance in space. In the late 1800s, they were famous: newspapers wrote about them and they published scientific papers under their own names, only to be virtually forgotten during the next century. But a recent discovery of thousands of pages of their calculations by a modern group of women working in the very same space has spurred new interest in their legac

CAC Moves Higher as Markets Eye Mario & Co. The CAC index has posted slight gains in the Thursday session. Currently, the index is trading at 5229.75, up 0.26% on the day. In economic news, today’s highlight is the monthly ECB policy meeting. There was positive news from German and eurozone indicators. German PPI improved to 0.0%, above the estimate of -0.1%. The eurozone current surplus jumped to EUR 30.1 billion, well above the estimate of EUR 23.3 billion. On Tuesday, the CAC suffered its worst day this month, dropping 0.8 percent. French stock markets were down in response to soft investor confidence surveys in Germany and the eurozone. The ZEW Economic Sentiment surveys gauge the optimism of institutional investors and analysts. Both surveys indicated that investor confidence in June had weakened compare to the May readings. With the eurozone economy improving, analysts attributed the dip in investor confidence as due to the stronger euro, which is making European export

Wall Street is at war with itself over the future of stocks A debate is raging on Wall Street, sometimes within the same firm. AP / Richard Drew JPMorgan strategists Marko Kolanovic and Dubravkos Lakos-Bujas have conflicting views over the future of the stock market. It's a microcosm of the split that is emerging on Wall Street, with some experts — from strategists to hedge fund managers — sounding the alarm over unsustainable market conditions. Wall Street equity strategists, on the other hand, still see stocks climbing into year-end. JPMorgan is a house divided ... by the stock market, that is. In one corner stands Dubravkos Lakos-Bujas, the firm's chief US equity strategist. Weighing in with a steadfast focus on rapidly growing corporate earnings, he sees the S&P 500 finishing the year at 2,550, roughly 3% higher than the benchmark's close on Monday. In the other corner is Marko Kolanovic, JPMorgan's global head of quantitative and derivatives strate