GoKawiil
Tech News
A number of first-time candidates elected in this week's US midterm elections came from careers outside politics, including a firefighter and a reconstructive surgeon. The results also included several historic firsts for diversity among elected officials, according to reports on the outcomes.
3M has agreed to a settlement worth up to $7.35 billion covering roughly 120,000 plaintiffs who alleged the company's PFAS chemicals contaminated groundwater. Under the deal, plaintiffs get $50 million this year, followed by annual payments exceeding $1 billion from 2028 through 2033, with additional payouts tied to how many people join the class action. 3M retains the right to halt payments and keep litigating if too few plaintiffs participate.
San Bernardino County Fire Protection District has contracted Seneca Systems to supply a fleet of five autonomous drones, a mobile operations base, and autonomy software that lets one pilot oversee the whole team. The drones can jointly deliver more than 500 gallons of firefighting foam and are built to operate at night and in hard-to-reach terrain. The system is expected to be operational before the 2027 wildfire season.
The XPRIZE Wildfire competition concluded without awarding either of its two $11 million grand prizes, though finalists were recognized for progress in space-based fire detection and autonomous firefighting drones. One track required teams to detect all fires across a wide area of Australia within 10 minutes, while another challenged autonomous systems to locate and extinguish a target fire in rural Alaska within the same timeframe, avoiding decoy fires. Program director Andrea Santy said the competition drew hundreds of teams proposing solutions ranging from sound-based suppression to robotic dogs and lasers before judges narrowed the field to more practical detection and response systems.
ProPublica reporter Sharon Lerner uncovered internal 3M records showing the company knew as early as the 1970s that PFAS compounds used in nonstick coatings, food packaging and stain-resistant products had entered people's bloodstreams worldwide. Rather than disclosing this, 3M kept the findings confidential for decades, according to a former company scientist who spoke with Lerner.