Climate change has Seville so hot it’s started naming heat waves like hurricanes

The city of Seville is trying something new to raise awareness of climate change and save lives. With oppressive heat waves becoming a fact of life in Europe and other parts of the world, the Spanish metropolis has begun naming them. The first one, Zoe, arrived this week, bringing with it expected daytime highs above 109 degrees Fahrenheit (or 43 degrees Celsius).

As Time points out, there’s no single scientific definition of a heat wave. Most countries use the term to describe periods of temperatures that are higher than the historical and seasonal norms for a particular area. Seville’s new system categorizes those events into three tiers, with names reserved for the most severe ones and an escalating municipal response tied to each level. The city will designate future heat waves in reverse alphabetical order, with Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao and Vega to follow. 

It’s a system akin to ones organizations like the US National Hurricane Center have used for decades to raise awareness of impending tropical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes. The idea is that people are more likely to take a threat seriously and act accordingly when it’s given a name. 

“This new method is intended to build awareness of this deadly impact of climate change and ultimately save lives,” Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, the think tank that helped develop Seville’s system, told Euronews. Naming heat waves could also help some people realize that we’re not dealing with occasional “freak” weather events anymore: they’re the byproduct of a warming planet.

Formula 1 says it’s on schedule to switch to fully sustainable fuel in 2026

Formula 1 is trying to clean up its act and ensure its operations have a net-zero carbon footprint by 2030. An important part of the plan is to use 100 percent sustainable fuel in race cars, and the organization says it’s still on schedule to achieve that by 2026.

It’s currently developing a “drop-in” fully sustainable fuel for use in F1 cars — it claims most road cars would be able to use the fuel too. This season, F1 cars are using E10 fuel, which includes 10 percent ethanol that’s said to be fully renewable. While going from 10 percent renewable fuel to a fully sustainable version in just a few years is challenging, F1 leaders are confident they can reach that goal.

“We’re working on an E fuel where the carbon circle is completely neutral so the carbon utilized to produce that fuel is the same quantity as the carbon emitted from the internal combustion engine,” F1 managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn said in a statement. “It means that the engines do not add anything to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” Brawn noted that making the fuel available more broadly could help reduce emissions around the globe, especially in areas where switching to electric vehicles won’t be feasible for a long time.

F1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds, who is leading the 100 percent sustainable fuel project, said the motorsport is still in good shape to meet the 2026 target. “We’ve been working with Aramco and have now tested 39 surrogate blends of fuels,” Symonds said. “This has helped us understand the effects of the different types of blends that you can use in a sustainable fuel. We’ve been testing those in a single cylinder Formula 1 power unit, so it’s representative testing — and I think that’s helped accelerate our progress.”

USPS will start selling James Webb Space Telescope stamps on August 8th

Want to show your fondness for the James Webb Space Telescope in physical form? The US Postal Service might have what you’re looking for. The mail agency is launching a JWST stamp that will be available to pre-order starting August 28th in sheets of 20. It’s ultimately a digital depiction of the telescope against a galactic backdrop, but that may be all you need to flaunt your space fandom when you send a letter or parcel

The USPS didn’t detail pricing. As a Forever stamp, however, the JWST print will always be worth the First-Class Mail one-ounce price. You won’t have to worry about using extra stamps years down the road, then. Forever 20-stamp sheets typically cost $12.

Yes, there’s a certain irony to celebrating bleeding-edge astronomy using mail stickers invented in the 19th century. You might want to buy a t-shirt or similar merch if you’re interested in visibility. Look at it this way, though: stamps are relatively inexpensive, and they might do the trick if you’re either a collector or just want to add a personal touch to your mail.

USPS will start selling James Webb Space Telescope stamps on August 8th

Want to show your fondness for the James Webb Space Telescope in physical form? The US Postal Service might have what you’re looking for. The mail agency is launching a JWST stamp that will be available to pre-order starting August 28th in sheets of 20. It’s ultimately a digital depiction of the telescope against a galactic backdrop, but that may be all you need to flaunt your space fandom when you send a letter or parcel

The USPS didn’t detail pricing. As a Forever stamp, however, the JWST print will always be worth the First-Class Mail one-ounce price. You won’t have to worry about using extra stamps years down the road, then. Forever 20-stamp sheets typically cost $12.

Yes, there’s a certain irony to celebrating bleeding-edge astronomy using mail stickers invented in the 19th century. You might want to buy a t-shirt or similar merch if you’re interested in visibility. Look at it this way, though: stamps are relatively inexpensive, and they might do the trick if you’re either a collector or just want to add a personal touch to your mail.

Meta will raise Quest 2 price to $400 on August 1st

Prices normally drop as devices get older, but that’s not the case for the Meta Quest 2. UploadVRreports Meta will raise the price of the Quest 2 from $299 to $400 for the base 128GB version on August 1st, and from $399 to $500 for the 256GB model. You can still find the VR headset for $299 on Amazon as we write this, but you may want to act quickly when supplies could easily run out.

Refurbished Quest 2 prices are jumping to a respective $349 and $429 for 128GB and 256GB headsets. You can also expect higher accessory prices. Meta will partly offset the increases by offering free copies of Beat Saber to new buyers between August 1st and December 31st, but that’s not much consolation if the previous price was the chief draw.

The company pinned the increase on higher manufacturing and shipping costs. The Quest 2 price hike will let Meta “grow [its] investment” in research and development for VR products, according to a blog post. Meta pointed to the high-end Project Cambria headset as an example, and emphasized that “new generations” of Quest were in the pipeline.

The Quest 2 is still one of the more affordable entry points for VR (you don’t require a PC, after all). That doesn’t make the higher minimum outlay any easier, however, and it potentially opens the door to Pico and other companies that might try to compete on price.

Netflix’s ‘The Gray Man’ is getting a sequel and a spin-off

It’s only been a few days since Netflix started streaming The Gray Man, its most expensive film to date, but the company has already announced plans to turn it into a major franchise. A sequel is in the works with star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo returning. Netflix didn’t say when the follow-up is expected to arrive.

A spin-off from Zombieland and Deadpool screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese is in development too. Netflix says that movie will explore a different aspect of The Gray Man universe, but it’s keeping quiet on the details for now.

While critics by and large had a lukewarm reaction to The Gray Man, the film appears to be a hit with viewers. It has a 91 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It debuted as the number one movie on Netflix in 92 countries when it was released last Friday. By Sunday, viewers had collectively streamed 88.55 million hours of the movie, Netflix said.

Whether that apparent success translates into helping Netflix retain subscribers and attract new ones remains to be seen. The company lost almost a million subscribers last quarter, though the attrition wasn’t as bad as Netflix feared.

Netflix spent a reported $200 million to make The Gray Man. So, along with moves the company is making elsewhere, it’s not a huge shock that Netflix is turning it into a franchise. Sequels to other Netflix blockbusters are in the pipeline, including follow-ups to Extraction and Army of the Dead. Netflix also snapped up the sequels to the terrific murder mystery film Knives Out.

In case it’s not clear, Netflix is very eager to build beloved franchises of its own. “We want to have our version of Star Wars or our version of Harry Potter, and we’re working very hard to build that,” the company’s vice president of original series Matthew Thunell told Reuters last week.

Netflix does have a few hit franchises already. A Stranger Things spin-off series and stage play are in development. The company has made a Korean version of La Casa de Papel and is working on a spin-off. It’s expanding Squid Game, Bridgerton and The Witcher beyond the core shows as well.

Update 7/26 3:43PM ET: Added first-weekend viewership figures for The Gray Man.

Meta is shutting down its couples messaging app you didn’t know existed

We hope you weren’t using Meta’s experimental Tuned app to keep your relationship fires burning. Gizmodoreports Meta is shutting down Tuned on September 19th, and that sign-up attempts for the couple-oriented app now produce errors. The company wasn’t shy about its reasons for the move. In a statement to Engadget, a spokesperson said Meta’s New Product Experimentation team winds down apps if they “aren’t sticking.”

Meta’s (then Facebook’s) NPE Team launched Tuned in April 2020 to give partners a “private space” where they could share feelings, love notes, challenges and music streams. The timing was apt (if unintentional) given the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In theory, this helped distant couples cement their bonds when they couldn’t connect in person.

It’s not certain how many people used the app, though. While Meta brought the initially iOS-only software to Android and said there were “many couples” who used Tuned to get closer, there’s little doubt Tuned remained a niche product compared to the likes of Facebook or Instagram. There’s a good chance you’re hearing about this app for the first time, after all. We’d add that there wasn’t much point when you could text, video chat or otherwise use existing services to accomplish many of the same goals.

You might have seen this coming. Meta has routinely shut down experimental apps, and has even axed higher-profile apps when they didn’t gain traction. These closures help the company save resources and focus on more popular platforms. As it stands, Tuned was increasingly an outlier for a tech giant shifting its attention from social networking to the metaverse.