An anonymous reader shares a report: Some diamonds were formed billions of years ago in space as the carbon-rich atmospheres of dying stars expanded and cooled. In our own planet’s lifetime, high-temperatures and pressures in the mantle produced the diamonds that are familiar to us as gems. 5,000 years ago, a large meteorite that struck a carbon-rich sediment on Earth produced…
Tag: carol
Python’s Steering Council Assesses the After-Guido Era
47 of Python’s core developers participated in this year’s Core Development Sprint, according to this report — “but what’s more important is the very real and necessary community building that seemed to have taken place…” It’s an especially critical time for Python, which switched to a steering council model in February of 2019, after Guido van Rossum had stepped down as…
Ceres’ bright spots come from salty water below
The mysterious bright spots on Ceres caused a sensation when the Dawn spacecraft first spied them in 2015. Now, they’re known to be salt deposits from a recent or ongoing percolation of briny water from a large reservoir in Ceres’ interior. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/bright-areas-dwarf-planet-ceres-salty-water-below…
Boston Votes To Ban Government Use of Facial Recognition
Boston is now the largest city on the East Coast to ban facial recognition technology for municipal use. They join cities like San Francisco, Oakland, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. CNET reports: The ordinance passed unanimously and will prevent the capital city from using facial recognition technology or obtaining software for conducting surveillance using the technology. “Boston should not be using racially…
Young moon below Venus after sunset March 25-27
Depending on where you live worldwide, you might – or might not – catch the young moon after sunset March 25, 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/young-moon-beneath-venus-after-sunset-march-25-27…
Do We Need To Talk About ‘Cloud Neutrality’?
“A multibillion-dollar, privately-owned infrastructure is now essential to the modern internet economy,” writes Wired. And if you care about net neutrality, “That should freak you out.” [T]here’s an even bigger issue brewing, and it’s time to start talking about it: cloud neutrality. “While its name sounds soft and fluffy,” Microsoft president and general counsel Brad Smith and coauthor Carol Ann Browne…
Zodiacal light is a glowing pyramid after dark
From the Northern Hemisphere, look after true darkness falls for the elusive zodiacal light. It appears as a hazy pyramid of light extending up from the sunset point. Southern Hemisphere? Look before dawn! Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/zodiacal-light-is-glowing-pyramid-in-west-after-dark…
Department of Interior Grounds Its Drones Amid Cybersecurity Concerns
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. Department of the Interior has confirmed it has grounded its fleet of non-emergency drones amid concerns over cybersecurity. In a brief statement, the department said the move will help to ensure that “the technology used for these operations is such that it will not compromise our national security interests.” Interior spokesperson…