For a brief time in 1976, it seemed as if NASA’s Viking landers had found microbes on Mars! Those results have been soundly disputed in the years since, but the original experiment’s principal investigator, Gilbert Levin, still maintains they really did detect Martian microbes. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/viking-lander-life-on-mars-gilbert-levin…
Tag: failure
Canonical Releases Ubuntu Linux 19.10 Eoan Ermine with GNOME 3.34, Light Theme, and Raspberry Pi 4 Support
Following the beta period, one of the best and most popular Linux-based desktop operating systems reaches a major milestone — you can now download Ubuntu 19.10! Code-named “Eoan Ermine”, the distro is better and faster then ever. From a report: By default, Ubuntu 19.10 comes with one of the greatest desktop environments — GNOME 3.34. In addition, users will be delighted…
Watch 1st all-female spacewalk
Watch 2 NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) make history by performing the 1st ever all-female spacewalk on Friday. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/1st-all-female-spacewalk-iss-oct2019…
NASA moves up 1st all-female spacewalk to fix power unit
NASA is moving up the first all-female spacewalk to this week because of a power system failure at the International Space Station. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-10-nasa-1st-all-female-spacewalk-power.html…
Giant boom traps plastic waste from the oceans for the first time
Boyan Slat of The Ocean Cleanup says that after a failure last year, his giant v-shaped boom system is now collecting plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2218857-giant-boom-traps-plastic-waste-from-the-oceans-for-the-first-time/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
New York Sues Dunkin’ Donuts Over Hack Affecting Thousands of People
Dunkin’ Donuts is facing a lawsuit from the New York attorney general over its failure to disclose a data breach affecting nearly 20,000 people. The hack affected thousands of people signed up for the company’s “DD Perks” loyalty program. From a report: The lawsuit alleges that Dunkin’ Donuts failed to protect its customers, and knew about the cyberattacks for years before…
GNU’s Former Kernel Maintainer Shares ‘A Reflection on the Departure of Richard Stallman’
Thomas Bushnell, BSG, founded GNU’s official kernel project, GNU Hurd, and maintained it from 1990 through 2003. This week on Medium he posted “a reflection on the departure of RMS.” There has been some bad reporting, and that’s a problem. While I have not waded through the entire email thread Selam G. has posted, my reaction was that RMS did not…
United States Files Civil Lawsuit Against Edward Snowden
The United States today filed a lawsuit against Edward Snowden, a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), who published a book entitled Permanent Record in violation of the non-disclosure agreements he signed with both CIA and NSA. From a report: The lawsuit alleges that Snowden published his book without submitting it…
SoftBank Backers Rethink Role in Next Vision Fund on WeWork
The biggest backers of SoftBank’s gargantuan Vision Fund are reconsidering how much to commit to its next investment vehicle as an oversized bet on flexible workspace provider WeWork sours. From a report: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which contributed $45 billion to the $100 billion Vision Fund, is now only planning to reinvest profits from that vehicle into its successor, according…
Firefox Will Soon Encrypt DNS Requests By Default
This month Firefox will make DNS over encrypted HTTPS the default for the U.S., with a gradual roll-out starting in late September, reports Engadget: Your online habits should be that much more private and secure, with fewer chances for DNS hijacking and activity monitoring. Not every request will use HTTPS. Mozilla is relying on a “fallback” method that will revert to…