Ever heard of Sputnik? Well, it’s for sale. Even if you’ve heard of Elon Musk, you may not know that his mom, Maye Musk, just landed a new job. And though you might recall learning about Paul Revere in history class, you might not have expected his name to make headlines in this century. All this and five more that you may have missed this week.
1. This fan is so anxious for the next Game of Thrones book that he engineered his own type of AI that would generate a rendition of the pending novel. The fan inputted the existing 5,376 pages that make up the GoT series—and the machine produced a sequel. Though the AI’s version is only a prediction, it’s thorough enough to tide some fans over until the actual release scheduled for 2019
2. A 6,598 km (roughly 4,100 miles) cable now lies across the Atlantic Ocean. Microsoft and Facebook partnered with a Spanish telecom infrastructure company to lay the cable 17,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. It can supposedly transmit 160 terabits of data per second—if you don’t speak tech, that means that the cable has the internet capacity to stream 71 million HD videos at once. This is a critical step to meet demand, as transatlantic data flows are higher than ever and are only expected to increase.
3. Paul Allen, Microsoft’s co-founder, is donating $40 million to fighting illegal fishing. True to form, he wants to create a multi-layered technology called Skylight, which will use satellite imagery and data-analysis software to help countries monitor and enforce fishing laws. Illegal fishing can cost up to $23.5 billion a year and leads to overfishing, the ramifications of which are not insignificant.
4. For fast-food chains like McDonalds, sales are on an uptick in states where cannabis has been legalized. According to a survey, the munchies drove 43% of legal users to a McDonalds location in the past month—and countless other fast-food chains claim to experience the same trend.
5. Speaking of food, the EU is taking a serious interest in quality control. This week, the European Commission announced a crack-down on companies whose products’ quality varies drastically from region to region, all while using the same packaging. Apparently one of the biggest hurdles to controlling the issue has been coordinating across borders. So now, the EU is taking it into their own hands.