The polar vortex is an enormous, 3-dimensional ring of winds that surrounds the North and South poles during each hemisphere’s winter. The polar vortex influences the jet stream, which can bring cold winter weather to the U.S. and Europe. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-the-polar-vortex…
Tag: dice
Why Do We Assume Extraterrestrials Might Want To Visit Us?
Avi Loeb, former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and who chairs the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies, writing at Scientific American: It is presumptuous to assume that we are worthy of special attention from advanced species in the Milky Way. We may be a phenomenon as uninteresting to them as ants are to us;…
Nearby red dwarf star not so quiet and life-friendly after all
Astronomers say the nearby red dwarf star Gliese 887 appears to have more dangerous flare activity than first believed. This could make life tough – but maybe not impossible – on its family of super-Earth planets. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/red-dwarf-gliese-887-flares-in-ultraviolet-light…
Coronavirus may dice heart muscle fibers into tiny snippets, remove cells’ DNA
The finding is unlike anything researchers have seen before. Source: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-may-dice-heart-muscle-fibers-cells.html
‘DiceKeys’ Creates a Master Password For Life With One Roll
Stuart Schechter, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, is launching DiceKeys, a simple kit for physically generating a single super-secure key that can serve as the basis for creating all the most important passwords in your life for years or even decades to come. Wired reports: With little more than a plastic contraption that looks a bit like…
Apple Launches Public Beta of macOS Big Sur, Its Biggest Desktop OS Update in Years
The public beta of macOS Big Sur, the next major release of Apple’s Mac operating system, is now available. From a report: The new update brings a big visual overhaul to macOS while also adding a number of brand-new enhancements. If you’re thinking about installing the macOS Big Sur public beta, be warned that it’s still, well, a beta. That means…
Ancient Roman dice unearthed in cremation pit in Norway
On a cliff overlooking a narrow strait in western Norway, archaeologists have discovered rare game pieces. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-game-pieces.html
Java Programming Language Celebrates Its 25th Birthday. What’s Next?
May 23rd marks the 25th anniversary of the day Sun Microsystems introduced Java to the world, notes InfoWorld. Looking at both the present and the future, they write that currently Java remains popular “with enterprises even as a slew of rival languages, such as Python and Go, now compete for the hearts and minds of software developers.” Java continues to rank…
Are We on the Cusp of a Metaverse, the Next Version of the Internet?
The Washington Post describes it as “the next internet.” Wikipedia defines it as “a collective virtual shared space…including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet.” But it was Neal Stephenson who named it “the metaverse” in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. Are we closer to seeing it happen? The Washington Post reports:
In the past month,…
Coursera para Todos: Aprendizaje gratuito en línea durante COVID-19
Por Giovanni Dubois, Christian Angulo, y Mario Chamorro – parte del equipo de Iberoamérica en Coursera Mientras cada uno de nosotros hemos sido impactados por el COVID-19, esperamos que puedan encontrar ánimos en la comunidad de Coursera. Queremos que sepan que no están solos, y estamos aquí para ayudarles en todo lo que podamos. Durante […]
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