Number 280
== seen this idea before
Could We Fight Global Warming With A Giant Umbrella in Outer Space?
A potential fix for global warming being proiposed by “a small but growing number of astronomers and physicists”.
Police Departments Are Turning To AI To Sift Through Unreviewed Body-Cam Footage
Body camera video equivalent to 25 million copies of “Barbie” is collected but rarely reviewed. Some cities are looking to new technology to examine this stockpile of footage to identify problematic officers and patterns of behavior.
Mathematicians Finally Solved Feynman’s ‘Reverse Sprinkler’ Problem
We might not need to “unwater” our lawns, but results could help control fluid flows.
== yjc
Fans Preserve and Emulate Sega’s Extremely Rare ’80s ‘AI Computer’
Prolog-based Japanese education hardware sported an early touch-panel, speech synthesizer.
Coral reef monitor adds new alert levels to keep up with soaring ocean temperatures
Alert Level 5 means ‘risk of near-complete mortality’ from coral bleaching, says Coral Reef Watch.
Craig Wright Claims He’s Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Can He Prove It in Court?
A judge will determine whether computer scientist Craig Wright is the inventor of Bitcoin. The network’s future may hang in the balance.
Weird ancient tree from before dinosaurs found in Canadian quarry
Before age of dinosaurs, plants experimented with bizarre forms, discovery shows.
Conservationists building beaver dams to help restore B.C.’s drying Columbia Wetlands
Dams help maintain wetland but beavers have vacated certain areas, contributing to loss of important habitat.
Cloudflare Hacked By Suspected State-Sponsored Threat Actor
A nation-state threat actor accessed internal Cloudflare systems using credentials stolen during the Okta hack.
== yjc
Should You Flush With Toilet Lid Up Or Down?
Time to stock up on toilet tank disinfectant dispensers?
A Shape-Shifting Plastic With a Flexible Future
Researchers have created a new type of plastic with properties that can be set with heat and then locked in with rapid cooling. Unlike classic plastics, the material retains this stiffness when returned to room temperature.
New planets have flattened shapes, study finds
New planets formed around stars have flattened shapes “similar to Smarties”, scientists have found.
== yjc
International Garden Photographer of the Year competition 2024
An abstract photograph by June Sharpe has won this year’s International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.
== British perspective, but I expect it is the same in most of the world
Toxic run-off from roads not monitored, BBC finds
A toxic mix of oil, chemicals and bits of tyre from roads is polluting English waterways and no-one is regularly monitoring it.
1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime, WHO agency estimates
Different types of cancer increasingly affecting populations as lifestyles change
== worth a read m’thinks, but lengthy
Could our Universe be a simulation? How would we even tell?
Simulations all the way down—the philosophical debate on the nature of our Universe.
The sun’s poles are about to flip. It’s awesome — and slightly terrifying.
The sun is growing feistier. Great news for aurora watchers. Bad news for communication satellites.
== a touch surprising
Microsoft Seeks Rust Developers To Rewrite Core C# Code
Embrace, extend, and … port?
SpaceX’s Starship To Launch ‘Starlab’ Private Space Station In Late 2020s
The giant rocket will loft Starlab in a single launch.
Fiber Optics Bring You Internet. Now They’re Also Listening To Trains.
“Distributed acoustic sensing” looks for disturbances in fiber to detect earthquakes and even insects. Can it also improve rail safety?
FBI Director Warns Chinese Hackers Aim To ‘Wreak Havoc’ On US Critical Infrastructure
Christopher Wray, who has sounded the alarm about national security threats China poses to the U.S., appeared before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Tesla sued by 25 California counties for allegedly mishandling hazardous waste
It’s accused of improperly labeling and disposing batteries, paints, brake fluid and more.
== fup, I think they got off too cheaply
Tesla settles California hazardous waste lawsuit for $1.5 million
Authorities will also be keeping a close eye on the automaker’s trash over the next five years.
== yjc, the bulk of my immediate family is in Alberta, most of it Calgary and south
‘A societal issue’: Drought-plagued Alberta braces for even worse conditions
Province will push ‘water sharing.’ Cities will restrict usage. This year could get drastic.
== opinion piece
Cory Doctorow has a plan to wipe away the enshittification of tech
t’s not just you – things really are getting worse.
California And Big Oil Are Splitting After Century-Long Affair
State policies favoring clean-energy have oil companies fuming.
Hungry, hungry otters may help marshes with climate change
They eat a lot of crabs.
Starlink’s Laser System Is Beaming 42 Million GB of Data Per Day
A SpaceX engineer details how the company is using a fleet of 9,000 lasers over the Starlink constellation to deliver high-speed internet across the globe.
== I enjoy nigiri, but have never tried unagi nigiri
First Lab-Grown Eel Meat Revealed
Wild freshwater eels are at risk of extinction due to overfishing but their meat can now be cultivated from cells.
The European Space Agency will test 3D printing metal on the ISS
It could be a real game changer for manufacturing in space and future missions to the Moon or Mars.
== yjc, we’re a cat family
Here’s how your cat experiences the world
Cats use the same five senses as humans, but they view the world differently. Understanding them could make us better cat parents.
New GitHub Copilot Research Finds ‘Downward Pressure On Code Quality’
ode churn – the percentage of lines that are reverted or updated less than two weeks after being authored – is projected to double in 2024 compared to its 2021, pre-AI baseline.
Scientists discover weird virus-like ‘obelisks’ in the human gut and mouth
We don’t know what they do, but they like to hang out inside bacteria.
Semron wants to replace chip transistors with ‘memcapacitors’
“Computing resources will become the ‘oil’ of the 21st century.”
== yjc
England’s hedges would go around Earth ten times
The South West has the biggest share of hedgerows.
== I made a similar mistake when I first started using Git and GitHub
Mistakenly Published Password Exposes Mercedes-Benz Source Code
The company “revoked the respective API token and removed the public repository immediately.”
There was something odd about these Alzheimer’s cases.
== couldn’t resist, I still have the odd floppy kicking about the office, but haven’t had a floppy drive in a pc for decade or two
Japan will no longer require floppy disks for submitting some official documents
Businesses can at long last submit digital docs to government agencies.
James Webb telescope captures luminous images of 19 spiral galaxies
Astronomer says ‘stunning’ photos reveal more about star formation.
Divers involved in Franklin expedition say the 2023 season ‘highly productive’
Archaeologists recover artifacts from seaman’s chest in latest dives.
== yjc, we make pizza pretty regularly, but nothing like this, don’t imagine many people buy a whole pizza
Saskatchewan’s homegrown pizza style is so distinctive this chef keeps his secret spices under lock and key
New podcast Good Question, Saskatchewan sinks its teeth into how unique Regina-style pizza is.
Japan’s Slim reactivates and gets to work
As the Japanese Space Agency put it: “Operations resumed!”
Has great white shark newborn been caught on film for the first time?
The gap in our knowledge of great white sharks may have just been narrowed thanks to a YouTuber.
Playing a musical instrument good for brain health in later life - study
Playing a musical instrument or singing could help keep the brain healthy in older age, UK researchers suggest.
Office Mandates Don’t Help Companies Make More Money, Study Finds
It’s official: being back in the office doesn’t increase value or productivity, according to a recent study.
== yjc
This B.C. beekeeper sold a $15 jar of honey for over $800 at a special auction
Creston, B.C., apiary recently bagged top prizes at North American honey events
== paywall ??
‘Massive Amounts’ of Carbon Sequestered for Centuries Released By Clearing Indonesia’s Peatland
Indonesia is clearing vast peatlands to grow food. Climate costs are dire.
== yjc
Famed Financial Analyst’s Final Forecast? ‘The Dollar is Finished’ as World Reserve Currency
Over his 54 years as a financial analyst, Richard X. Bove perfected the art of grabbing attention.
Did a Lake on Mars Once Contain Life?
New research published Friday offers hope that the Perseverance rover’s confirmation of that lake could mean sediment samples from the lake’s crater might reveal whether life ever existed on Mars.
== paywall ??
Snail mucus is a skin care phenomenon—but does it really work?
Commonly used to repair damaged skin, products containing snail mucus go back much further than the social media era—and may have potential beyond cosmetics.
And I thank you for those items that you sent me
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practiced every night, now I'm ready