Medium Investigates The Secret Supply Chain Behind AmazonBasics

“I heard the ‘pop!’ from my living room as a brand-new pack of Amazon batteries spontaneously exploded on the kitchen counter, oozing a gritty black substance in fits and spurts,” reports the staff writer for Medium’s new tech site, OneZero. But that was just the beginning of a larger mystery, according to their article (shared by Slashdot reader peterthegreat321): The small,…

Astronomers catch wind rushing out of galaxy

Exploring the influence of galactic winds from a distant galaxy called Makani, UC San Diego’s Alison Coil, Rhodes College’s David Rupke and a group of collaborators from around the world made a novel discovery. Published in Nature, their study’s findings provide direct evidence for the first time of the role of galactic winds—ejections of gas from galaxies—in creating the circumgalactic medium…

Putting the ‘bang’ in Big Bang

Physicists have pondered how the cold, uniform matter of the inflationary early universe became the ultrahot, complex mixture of matter, space and time that led to the universe we know. New work simulates a bridge between cosmic inflation and … everything else. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/big-bang-simulation-inflation-reheating-period…

Stars pollute, but galaxies recycle

Galaxies were once thought of as lonely islands in the universe: clumps of matter floating through otherwise empty space. We now know they are surrounded by a much larger, yet nearly invisible cloud of dust and gas. Astronomers call it the circumgalactic medium, or CGM. The CGM acts as a giant recycling plant, absorbing matter ejected by the galaxy and later…

Is Microsoft Being Weighed Down By the Ghosts of Its Past?

“The Microsoft of the future is being weighed down by the ghosts of its past,” argues former Microsoft engineer James Whittaker, in a new essay at Medium’s new tech site, OneZero: The Microsoft of the ’90s, with Bill Gates calling the shots, was a technology-forward company, fast-paced, ambitious, and unapologetically capitalistic. .. The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was…

Orionid meteors late night until dawn

A bright moon interferes for much of the night for 2018’s Orionid meteor shower. Watch shortly before dawn, after moonset. Try watching on the mornings of October 20, 21 and 22. A dark sky is always best. Have fun! Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/radiant-point-for-orionid-meteor-shower…

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…

NVIDIA’s Job Listings Reveal ‘Game Remastering’ Studio, New Interest In RISC-V

An anonymous reader quotes Forbes: Nvidia has a lot riding on the success of its GeForce RTX cards. The Santa Clara, California company is beating the real-time ray tracing drum loudly, adamant on being known as a champion of the technology before AMD steals some of its thunder next year with the PlayStation 5 and its own inevitable release of ray-tracing…

The First All-Female Spacewalk Is Scheduled For This Month

After the first all-female spacewalk was scrapped in March, NASA has now scheduled another attempt with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir for October 21. CNN reports: For the intended spacewalk in March, Koch was going to be paired with astronaut Anne McClain, who has since returned to Earth. In March, NASA cited spacesuit availability as the reason for scrapping the…

Scientists start mapping universe’s hidden web

Maps of the long filaments of gas that hold the universe together might one day help trace and unveil dark matter. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/map-universe-hidden-web-dark-matter…