“Universities have been conscripted as the arbiters of opportunity, as the dispensers of the credentials, as the sorting machine,” warns a Harvard political philosopher, in a new interview in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “The Insufferable Hubris of the Well-Credentialed.” The meritocratic hubris of elites is the conviction by those who land on top that their success is their own…
Tag: Gateway
The Gateway PC Brand Returns With New Laptops
On Wednesday, Acer and Walmart announced they were reviving the Gateway brand to sell affordable Windows 10 notebooks and laptop convertibles from $179 and up. PCMag reports: Gateway was once a major PC vendor in the US, especially during the 1990s when it famously sold computers packaged in cow spotted boxes. However, the company’s fortunes began to falter in the 2000s,…
The launch and landing of China’s reusable spacecraft
Although few details are known, and no images have been released, the Chinese did apparently launch a reusable spacecraft on September 4, 2020. It appears to have deployed a satellite to orbit and then returned to Earth safely 2 days later. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/china-reusable-spacecraft-mission-sept-2020…
SpaceX Starting On ‘Super Heavy’ Rocket Booster To Power Mars Trip
The latest prototype of Elon Musk’s Starship prototype has only flown about 500 feet (150 meters) in the air, but the SpaceX CEO said Monday his rocket company may begin construction of a booster prototype to pair with Starship as soon as this week. CNET reports: Starship is SpaceX’s platform for taking humans to the moon, Mars and beyond, but to…
Hoax That Fooled Armed Protesters Was Created By a Socialist Troll on Food Stamps
Remember that anonymous online hoaxster who urged hundreds of armed protesters to counter a non-existent flag-burning event at America’s historic Civil War battefield at Gettysburg? An investigation by the Washington Post reveals that the hoaxster had in fact been a “lifelong Democrat” before instead registering in 2015 with the Socialist Party — and that he now collects food stamps:
Adam Rahuba, a…
Why do rockets launch from Florida?
Today, Cape Canaveral is America’s gateway to the cosmos, but it wasn’t the first place from which rockets were launched. Source: https://www.livescience.com/32721-why-are-rockets-launched-from-florida.html
College-Bound Students To Miss Out on Billions in Financial Aid Due To Pandemic
This year, students may need extra help to make college a reality. From a report: Amid the coronavirus crisis and sky-high unemployment rates, less than half of families feel confident in their ability to meet the costs of higher education, according to education lender Sallie Mae. About 69% of parents and 55% of students entering college in the fall said Covid-19…
You Can Now Check If Your ISP Uses Basic Security Measures
“Is BGP Safe Yet” is a new site that names and shames internet service providers that don’t tend to their routing. From a report: For more than an hour at the beginning of April, major sites like Google and Facebook sputtered for large swaths of people. The culprit wasn’t a hack or a bug. It was problems with the internet data…
NASA Picks SpaceX To Fly Cargo To Moon-Orbiting Gateway Space Station
NASA has awarded SpaceX with a contract to supply Gateway, the moon-orbiting space station that the agency aims to start building in 2022, agency officials announced Friday. Space.com reports: Gateway is a key part of NASA’s Artemis exploration program, which seeks to establish a sustainable, long-term human presence on and around the moon by the late 2020s. The small space station…
European Gateway experiment will monitor radiation in deep space
The first science experiments that will be hosted on the Gateway, the international research outpost orbiting the moon, have been selected by ESA and NASA. Europe’s contribution will monitor radiation to gain a complete understanding of cosmic and solar rays in unexplored areas as the orbital outpost is assembled around the moon. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-european-gateway-deep-space.html…