Famous Earthrise photo taken on Christmas Eve

A Christmas Eve photograph showed humans their home world from a whole new perspective. This is the photo that’s said to have launched the environmental movement. It’s “Earthrise,” the iconic photo taken by astronaut William Anders on the 4th orbit of the moon aboard Apollo 8 on December 24, 1968. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/apollo-8-earthrise-december-24-1968-new-simulation…

Its Official: America’s Space Force is Better than Its Other Military Branches at ‘Call of Duty’

The military news site Task and Purpose reports:
The U.S. military’s youngest branch, the Space Force, just trounced its sibling services, as well the United Kingdom’s military, in the second annual Call of Duty Endowment Bowl. The transatlantic Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War tournament pit eight teams from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Marine Corps, along…

John le Carre, Author of Spy Novels, Dies at Age 89

“This terrible year has claimed a literary giant and a humanitarian spirit,” tweeted novelist Stephen King, adding later that “The Little Drummer Girl was one of the best novels I’ve ever read.” Margaret Atwood tweeted “His Smiley novels are key to understanding the mid-20th century.” And the Associated Press tells the story of how spy-novel writer John le Carré was “drawn…

Why Players Blame Skill-Based Matchmaking For Losing In Call of Duty

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Two months ago, esports pro Seth “Scump” Abner logged into the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer alpha and found himself struggling. Not because of any major gameplay changes developer Treyarch had made, Cold War plays like any other Call of Duty from the past decade, but rather because of the…

No, the New MacBook Air is Not Faster Than 98% of PC Laptops

Gordon Mah Ung, writing at PC World: Let me just say it outloud, OK? Apple is full of it. I’m referring to Apple’s claim that its fanless, Arm-based MacBook Air is “faster than 98 percent of PC laptops.” Yes, you read that correctly: Apple officials literally claimed that the new MacBook Air using Apple’s custom M1 chip is faster than 98…

Was the Dome of Light a secret Soviet weapon ?

New details have emerged of a peculiar Cold War-era phenomenon associated with Soviet missile launches. During the 1980s, US intelligence analysts str… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/340538/was-the-dome-of-light-a-secret-soviet-weapon…

How big data helped elect President Kennedy during the cold war

Big data’s power is revealed by two books covering a cold-war version of Cambridge Analytica that helped John F. Kennedy get elected-and how modern social media can rig votes today Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833050-300-how-big-data-helped-elect-president-kennedy-during-the-cold-war/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

US Appeals Injunction Against TikTok Ban

The federal government on Thursday appealed a judge’s ruling that prevented the Trump administration from imposing a ban on TikTok, the viral video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The New York Times reports: In a filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Justice Department argued that a preliminary injunction issued last month by Judge…

Astronomers Discover Possible 60s-Era Moon Rocket Booster Heading Back To Earth

An anonymous reader quotes Teslarati:
On August 19th this year, astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System observatory in Hawaii spotted an object destined to enter Earth orbit this fall. Designated as object 2020 SO, the item is now believed to be a rocket booster from NASA’s Surveyor 2 mission which crash landed on the Moon in 1966 during…

‘The Largest Nuclear Bomb Ever Detonated’ Explored in Declassified Russian Footage

“The blast was over 3,000 times bigger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima,” reports Smithsonian magazine: Hydrogen bombs are so destructive, their impact has been described as unthinkable throughout history. Recently declassified Russian footage of the 1961 Tsar Bomba hydrogen bomb test shows why. The 40-minute documentary, which was posted on YouTube on August 20, shows footage of the largest bomb…