Microsoft-owned GitHub has finally moved its snapshot of all active public repositories on the site to a vault in Norway. ZDNet reports: GiHub announced the archiving plan last November and on February 20 followed through with the 21 terabyte snapshot written to 186 reels of film. GitHub cancelled plans for a team to “personally escort the world’s open-source code to the…
Tag: chamber
Image: Place for space testing
ESA’s Compact Antenna Test Range at its ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This anechoic chamber is used to test space antennas of 1 m across or less, or else entire small satellites. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-image-space.html…
House Democrats Pass DC Statehood Bill
House Democrats approved a bill to admit Washington, DC, as a state on Friday, marking the first time either chamber of Congress has advanced a DC statehood measure. From a report: The bill, introduced by DC’s nonvoting House member, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, would shrink the federal capital to a small area encompassing the White House, Capitol building, Supreme Court, and…
Acura Invents Airbag That Works Like a Catcher’s Mitt
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Cars, trucks, and SUVs are safer today than they’ve ever been, but with 22,891 recorded U.S. passenger vehicle fatalities in 2018, it’s obvious we still have some way to go. That’s where today’s invention comes in — it’s a new kind of airbag developed by Acura, designed to reduce brain injuries in…
Scientists Have Made Bose-Einstein Condensates in Space for the First Time
On board the International Space Station since May 2018 is a mini-fridge-size facility called the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), capable of chilling atoms in a vacuum down to temperatures one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero. It is, for all intents and purposes, one of the coldest spots in the known universe. And according to a new study published…
The European Space Agency is Funding Its Own Reusable Rocket
“SpaceX may be best known for revolutionizing rocket launches with its reusable rockets…” writes Digital Trends, but now, “Europe wants to get in on the action.” The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it is developing its own reusable rocket engine…with the aim of making rocket launches considerably cheaper. The ESA described its planned engine as “the precursor of ultra-low-cost rocket…
On Mars, mud flows like lava
Scientists in Europe have found that some features on Mars that were thought to be lava flows may actually have been flows of muddy water. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-lava-mud-mud-volcanoes…
Is Mars still volcanically active? New study says maybe
Scientists studying the ancient Martian Tissint meteorite say they’ve found new evidence that Mars was volcanically active a few hundred million years ago … and may still be today. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/is-mars-still-volcanically-active-tissint-meteorite…
France Passes Law Forcing Online Platforms To Delete Hate-Speech Content Within 24 Hours
France’s lower chamber has passed a controversial law that will require social networks and online platforms remove flagged hate speech within 24 hours. If companies do not comply, they will have to pay hefty fines every time they infringe the law. Other more extreme content, such as terrorist content and child pornography, will require online platforms react within an hour. TechCrunch…
Quebec’s Government Urges Online Shoppers To Local Retailers Instead of Amazon
“The coronavirus crisis is giving Quebec’s nationalist government an excuse to attempt what may be impossible,” reports Bloomberg. “The Canadian province is embarking on an uphill battle to chip away at Amazon’s position.” Reckoning that weeks of confinement will permanently accelerate the growth of online shopping, Premier Francois Legault wants to boost Quebec retailers’ digital sales, and is urging the population…