Former lobbyist/political advisor Joel Kaplan joined Facebook in 2011 to lead its Washington D.C. outreach, reports BuzzFeed news. But some employees said they were very unhappy with decisions made by both Kaplan and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: In April 2019, Facebook was preparing to ban one of the internet’s most notorious spreaders of misinformation and hate, Infowars founder Alex Jones. Then…
Tag: farewell
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx to fly a farewell tour of Bennu
On April 7, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission will give asteroid Bennu one last glance before saying farewell. Before departing for Earth on May 10, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will perform a final flyby of Bennu—capturing its last images of sample collection site Nightingale to look for transformations on Bennu’s surface after the Oct. 20, 2020, sample collection event. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-nasa-osiris-rex-farewell-bennu.html…
Earth is about to lose its second moon, forever
Minimoon SO 2020, a rocket booster that has been orbiting Earth for about 60 years, will drift off forever next month. Source: https://www.livescience.com/farewell-minimoon-so-2020.html
SpaceX Cargo Dragon succeeds in 1st autonomous undocking
SpaceX’s CRS-21 Cargo Dragon undocked from the International Space Station’s Harmony module on January 12, 2021, succeeding in the world’s first-ever autonomous undocking and testing of several new vehicle upgrades. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/space-x-cargo-dragon-1st-autonomous-undocking-jan-2021…
Key People Are Leaving Facebook and Torching the Company In Departure Notes
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: On Wednesday, a Facebook data scientist departed the social networking company after a two-year stint, leaving a farewell note for their colleagues to ponder. As part of a team focused on “Violence and Incitement,” they had dealt with some of the worst content on Facebook, and they were proud of their work…
Adobe Releases the Last Flash Update Ever
Adobe has released the final scheduled update to its Flash Player plugin, weeks before Flash’s official retirement. The Verge reports: As noted on Adobe’s site, yesterday marked the last update for Flash outside mainland China, which has a separate version of the software. Adobe will stop supporting Flash on December 31st, 2020, and it will block Flash content from running on…
SEOSAT-Ingenio sealed from view
As preparations for the launch of SEOSAT-Ingenio continue on schedule, the team at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou have bid farewell to the satellite as it was sealed inside the rocket fairing. The spacecraft is currently scheduled to launch on the evening of Monday 16 November/morning of Tuesday 17 November. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-seosat-ingenio-view.html…
‘Wakaresaseya’: Private Agents Hired To End Relationships
Christine Ro from the BBC writes about the private agents in Japan, called “wakaresaseya,” that you can hire to seduce your spouse or their partner. From the report: The industry is still serving a niche market. One survey showed around 270 wakaresaseya agencies advertising online. Many are attached to private-detective firms, similar to private investigators in other countries (who can also…
Young moon, Venus, Mercury on May 23, 24 and 25
On the evenings of May 23, 24 and 25, 2020, watch the great drama in your western twilight sky, as the young moon meets Mercury and Venus. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/young-moon-2-planets-may-23-24-and-25…
Python 2’s Core Devs Say ‘Fond Farewell’ While Releasing Its Final Version
This week Python’s core developer blog announced the very last production release of Python 2.7. Hackaday reports:
The intention was for it to coincide with PyCon 2020, but just like so many of the events planned for the first half of the year, the in-person conference had to be canceled in favor of a virtual one due to the COVID-19 epidemic. That…