Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the “right stuff” when in 1947 he became the first person to fly faster than sound, has died. He was 97. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-12-chuck-yeager-1st-barrier-dies.html…

China’s Chang’e 5 mission is orbiting the moon!

China’s robotic Chang’e 5 will be the 1st sample-return from the moon since the 1970s. It launched successfully last week atop a Chinese Long March 5 rocket. Now it’s reported to have entered orbit around the moon. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-moon-mission-change-5-sample-return…

How Stijn landed his new job after completing the IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate

Meet Stijn, a project assistant from Brussels, Belgium. He recently earned his IBM Applied AI Professional Certificate and it opened new career opportunities and helped him build the skills and confidence to ace his job interviews. He shares his story below and offers his insights about the program as well as some valuable advice on […]
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Are the Best Star Wars Stories Now in Games Like ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’?

A game critic for the Los Angeles Times remembers his reaction to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. “What a disappointment — if only it had been built for video game consoles.” This leads to this epiphany:
For all the deserved attention “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+ has received, the just-released game “Star Wars: Squadrons” reminds us that some of the best…

A Supercomputer Analyzed COVID-19, and an Interesting New Hypothesis Has Emerged

Thelasko shares a report from Medium: Earlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took…

AI Claims ‘Flawless Victory’ Going Undefeated In Digital Dogfight With Human Fighter Pilot

“A simulated F-16 Viper fighter jet with an artificial intelligence-driven ‘pilot’ went undefeated in five rounds of mock air combat against an actual top Air Force fighter jockey today,” reports The Drive in an update to a story shared by Slashdot reader schwit1. From the report: The event was the culmination of an effort that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency…

Emergency Preparedness: How Much Food & Water Per Person

Dr. Michael Beach is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, who teaches and practices disaster preparation and response. He’s a member of disaster medical assistance teams and has helped respond to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti—and most recently, those on cruise ships during the COVID-19 […]
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Coursera Appoints ACE President Ted Mitchell to Board of Directors

Today, we proudly welcome Ted Mitchell, a leading voice in higher education and former federal policymaker, as a director on the Coursera board. Ted currently serves as president of the American Council on Education (ACE), the country’s largest higher education association, whose mission is to shape effective public policy and foster innovative, high-quality practice. Previously, […]
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New ‘Spectra’ Attack Breaks the Separation Between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Academics from Germany and Italy say they developed a new practical attack that breaks the separation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies running on the same device, such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Called Spectra, this attack works against “combo chips,” specialized chips that handle multiple types of radio wave-based wireless communications, such as…

Elon Musk Hints at Tesla’s Secret Project ‘Dojo’ Making the Difference in Race To Full Self-Driving

Elon Musk set an aggressive deadline for Tesla to achieve full self-driving capability, but the electric automaker might have an ace up its sleeve that mostly went under the radar: project ‘Dojo.’ Electrek: Over the weekend, Musk hinted that it could make the difference. During Tesla’s Autonomy Day earlier this year, Musk and other Tesla executives gave presentations about what the…