Mammatus clouds can appear ominous. But, in a way that’s so common in nature, their dangerous aspect goes hand in hand with a magnificent beauty. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/amazing-photos-of-mammatus-clouds…
Tag: myth
If Robots Steal So Many Jobs, Why Aren’t They Saving Us Now?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Modern capitalism has never seen anything quite like the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In a matter of months, the deadly contagious bug has spread around the world, hobbling any economy in its path. […] This economic catastrophe is blowing up the myth of the worker robot and AI takeover. We’ve been led to believe…
The coronavirus did not escape from a lab. Here’s how we know.
A persistent coronavirus myth that this virus, called SARS-CoV-2, was made by scientists and escaped from a lab in Wuhan is completely unfounded. Here’s how we know. Source: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-not-human-made-in-lab.html
Why vitamin C won’t ‘boost’ your immune system against the coronavirus
It poses little risk but is very unlikely to help. Source: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-vitamin-c-myth.html
First official names given to features on asteroid Bennu
Asteroid Bennu’s most prominent boulder, a rock chunk jutting out 71 ft (21.7 m) from the asteroid’s southern hemisphere, finally has a name. The boulder—which is so large that it was initially detected from Earth—is officially designated Benben Saxum after the primordial hill that first arose from the dark waters in an ancient Egyptian creation myth. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-features-asteroid-bennu.html…
Gemini? Here’s your constellation
The constellation Gemini, with its two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux, shines prominently in winter and spring night skies of the Northern Hemisphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/gemini-heres-your-constellation…
Programmer Moneyball: Challenging the Myth of Individual Programmer Productivity
Slashdot reader jbmartin6 summarizes a new article from Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute:
An academic study challenges the notion that “some programmers are much, much better than others (the times-10, or x10, programmer), and that the skills, abilities, and talents of these programmers exert an outsized influence on that organization’s success or failure.” Instead, the author shows productivity variation is often a…
Chinese New Year 2020 falls on January 25
Chinese New Year 2020 falls on January 25 in Asia (January 24 in the west), beginning the Year of the Rat. China’s public holiday will be January 24-30. In Beijing this week, Chinese health officials expressed concerns about a coronavirus now spreading during this heavy travel season in Asia. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/chinese-new-year-lunar-new-year…
Meet the narwhal, ‘unicorn of the sea’
This Arctic whale has the only spiral tooth found in nature. But there’s more to the narwhal than its unique tusk. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/narwhal-unicorn-of-sea-arctic-whale…
Aldebaran is the Bull’s fiery eye
Aldebaran – brightest star in Taurus the Bull – is easy to spot at one tip of a V-shaped pattern of stars. If this star replaced our sun, its surface would extend almost to the orbit of Mercury. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/aldebaran-is-taurus-bloodshot-eye…