A backpack fitted with shock absorbers that react to the wearer’s movement makes it feel easier to carry while also generating enough electricity to power LEDs Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2266518-bouncing-backpack-is-easier-to-carry-and-generates-electricity/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: react
The Ethical Source Movement Launches a New Kind of Open-Source Organization
ZDNet takes a look at a new nonprofit group called the Organization for Ethical Source (OES): The OES is devoted to the idea that the free software and open-source concept of “Freedom Zero” are outdated. Freedom Zero is “the freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.” It’s fundamental to how open-source software is made and used… They…
Is a solar flare the same thing as a CME?
Solar Cycle 25 is here, and that means – in the years ahead – more solar flares and more coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. People sometimes use the words interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. Here’s the difference. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/is-a-solar-flare-the-same-thing-as-a-cme…
Are We Experiencing a Great Software Stagnation?
Long-time programmer/researcher/former MIT research fellow Jonathan Edwards writes a blog called “Alarming Development: Dispatches from the User Liberation Front.” He began the new year by arguing that software “is eating the world. But progress in software technology itself largely stalled around 1996.” Slashdot reader tonique summarizes Edwards’ argument:
In 1996 there were “LISP, Algol, Basic, APL, Unix, C, Oracle, Smalltalk, Windows, C++,…
The Geeky Advent Calendar Tradition Continues in 2020
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Advent of Code isn’t the only geeky tradition that’s continuing in 2020. “This is going to be the first full year with Raku being called Raku,” notes the site raku-advent.blog. “However, it’s going to be the 12th year (after this first article) in a row with a Perl 6 or Raku calendar, previously published in the…
JavaScript Turns 25
The programming language JavaScript emerged 25 years ago and has grown to become one of the most important pieces of the web and browser applications we use today. From a report: JavaScript is the go-to language for front-end development and has spawned Microsoft’s Typescript, a superset of JavaScript with a stronger optional type system for developers that compiles to JavaScript when…
Does Europa glow in the dark?
The icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may glow on its nightside, the side facing away from the sun. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/jupiter-moon-europa-glows-radiation…
The small satellite that’s paying big dividends
Think of the International Space Station, and most likely you imagine an orbiting laboratory, where scientists observe how plants, materials, and humans react to microgravity conditions. But during the past decade, the station has also served a very different role—that of being a business incubator. And this is one of its star products—the CubeSat. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-11-small-satellite-big-dividends.html…
Be mindful: Study shows mindfulness might not work as you expect
If dispositional mindfulness can teach us anything about how we react to stress, it might be an unexpected lesson on its ineffectiveness at managing stress as it’s happening, according to new research. When the goal is ‘not to sweat the small stuff,’ mindfulness appears to offer little toward achieving that end. Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201113141820.htm
The Arctic hasn’t been this warm for 3 million years
The last time CO2 concentrations reached today’s level was 3 million years ago, during the Pliocene Epoch. Hear from geoscientists who see evolving conditions in the Arctic as an indicator of how climate change could transform the planet. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/arctic-warmest-3-million-years…