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 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.”

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.

Volkswagen has begun producing its all-electric ID.4 crossover SUV in the United States. The automaker announced on Tuesday that it plans to scale production of the ID.4 at its Chattanooga, Tennessee factory to 7,000 vehicles per month by the end of 2022 before further increasing output throughout 2023.

According to Volkswagen, customers can expect deliveries to begin by October, starting with both rear- and all-wheel-drive variants of the 82kWh model. Later this year, the facility will begin manufacturing the more affordable 62kWh variant as well. To date, the automaker says it has delivered more than 190,000 ID.4 units globally since it launched the crossover last year.

Volkswagen credits this week’s milestone to an $800 million investment the company made to electrify its Chattanooga factory. With today’s announcement, the facility is now one of six sites worldwide where Volkswagen is producing electric vehicles. In March, the automaker said it would spend $7.1 billion over the next five years to increase its North American EV production capacity. By 2030, Volkswagen plans for electric vehicles to account for about 55 percent of its sales in the US.

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.

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. Netflix hasn't revealed more specific viewership data as yet.

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.

While we’ve seen scientists find novel ways to use insects after they’re dead, it’s hard to imagine any group of researchers topping the work of a team from Rice University that turned lifeless wolf spiders into “necrobotic” grippers. Yes, you read that right – and, no, you’re not the only one with a sudden phantom itch.

How did we get here? Well, I’m glad you asked. Let’s start with an anatomy lesson. Unlike human beings, spiders don’t have antagonistic muscle pairs to move their limbs. Instead, they rely on blood pressure and flexor muscles that allow their legs to curl inward. A chamber in their head contracts to send blood outward, and that hydraulic pressure allows a spider to extend their legs. It’s for that reason that arachnids curl up when they die. Their heart stops beating, and they lose the ability to pressurize their bodies.

Incidentally, the sight of a dead spider inspired the team from Rice University to start exploring the possibility of using one as a gripper, and they’ve been working on the project since 2019. “This area of soft robotics is a lot of fun because we get to use previously untapped types of actuation and materials,” said Assistant Professor of Engineering Daniel Preston. “The spider falls into this line of inquiry. It’s something that hasn’t been used before but has a lot of potential.”

Once Professor Preston’s team understood how spiders move their legs, turning them into robots that could lift more than their own body weight was straightforward. The procedure involved tapping a needle into the arachnid’s prosoma chamber and securing it with a dab of superglue. A handheld syringe or lab equipment attached to the other end allowed the researchers to deliver a small amount of air to the cavity, which in turn would cause the dead spider to extend their legs instantly. The resulting mechanism was suitable for about 1,000 open and close cycles.

According to Preston, potential use cases include microelectronics assembly and insect capture. As TechCrunch points out, it’s hard to imagine anyone selling necrobotic wolf spiders at scale. But if nothing else comes out of the project, you at least know how spiders move their limbs. The next time you see a dead one, you can tell a friend or family member this fun fact. I know I will.

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.

Internet satellite operators OneWeb and Eutelsat are planning to merge in the hopes of becoming a stronger rival to SpaceX's Starlink. The merger, which is subject to approval from regulators and Eutelsat shareholders, is expected to close by mid-2023 and it values OneWeb at $3.4 billion. Shareholders of OneWeb and Eutelsat will each own half of the combined company.

Eutelsat has a fleet of 36 geostationary orbit satellites. These will be combined with OneWeb's cluster of low-earth orbit satellites, which can provide internet access from the skies. OneWeb currently has 428 satellites in orbit of a planned 648 in its first-generation network.

OneWeb and Eutelsat expect to have combined revenues of €1.2 billion ($1.56 billion) in the 2022-23 fiscal year. Eutelsat chair Dominique D’Hinnin and CEO Eva Berneke will remain in those positions in the merged entity. OneWeb investor Sunil Bharti Mittal will become co-chairman.

The merger comes after OneWeb stumbled in its bid to become a viable competitor to Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper. OneWeb filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2020 as it sought a buyer. The UK government and Mittal's Bharti Global each paid $500 million for a 45 percent stake in OneWeb. The company secured additional funding in early 2021 to launch hundreds of satellites.

More recently, OneWeb was caught in the crossfire between Russia and the West following the former's invasion of Ukraine. UK sanctions prompted Russia to block launches of OneWeb satellites — it demanded that the UK sell its stake in OneWeb and wanted assurances the satellites wouldn't be used for military purposes. OneWeb ended up turning to its rival SpaceX to launch the remainder of its first-gen satellites.

After the expected merger, the UK will retain a "special share" in OneWeb as well as exclusive rights over the company. These grant the government a significant say in national security controls over the network and veto rights over certain decisions, such as the location of OneWeb's headquarters.

You're not alone if you think Instagram's TikTok-like test feed is undercooked, but don't expect it to go away completely. As CNBCnotes, social network head Adam Mosseri has posted a Twitter clip acknowledging that the video-focused trial feed is "not yet good," and would need to be improved before it reached all Instagram users. However, he maintained that Instagram would invariably become more video-centric over time as that's the content people were sharing. Get used to seeing more clips, in other words.

Mosseri also defended the rise of recommended posts in users' feeds. He contended they were the "most effective and important" ways for creators to grow their audiences. Users could pause all recommendations for a month if they weren't interested, he said.

The Twitter post is effectively Instagram's response to a mounting backlash against the video feed and recommendation efforts. High-profile users like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian recently blasted Instagram for "trying to be TikTok," while posts and petitions have increasingly called on the social media site to "make Instagram Instagram again" by returning its attention to photos.

While Mosseri asked for feedback, there's no guarantee Instagram will change course. Meta has a long history of duplicating features from social networks that pose a competitive threat, including TikTok and Snapchat. The test feed and recommendations are clearly meant to keep Instagram users from drifting toward TikTok, and Meta is trying a similarly overt strategy with Facebook. So long as Meta is worried that rivals might take its user base, it's unlikely to completely scrap features like these.