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RandomFactor writes:The Orionid meteor shower peaks this week! Here's what to expect.This year,

An Anonymous Coward writes:Engineer Creates Real-Life 'Star Wars' Lightsaber That Can Slice Through Metal:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Eel effects: fears after release of exotic species into New York lake:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://9to5linux.com/systemrescuecd-changes-its-name-to-systemrescue-after-more-than-16-years

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:This is what "war in space" probably would look like in the near future:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:The USDA Should Let People Plant Blight-Resistant American Chestnut Trees:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:NASA just gave Nokia millions of dollars to upgrade the moon's cell service:

takyon writes:Sony's $5,000 3D display (probably) isn't for you

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:The Good and Not So Good of the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 - Security Boulevard:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:NASA's Next Moonsuit Is Going to Be Damned Impressive:

RandomFactor writes:Etching a Simple Pattern on Solar Panels Boosts Light Absorption by 125%, Study Shows

NotSanguine writes:Pro Publica has released a new report on the CDC's response to the SARS-Cov2 virus. The report provides a fascinating look into the workings of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tracking the agency from the first hint of the new virus until very recently, as they worked to understand the new virus, respond to the dangers it presented to the US and the world and desperately tried to limit the spread of the virus.From the report:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:Research demonstrates a molecular dance that keeps your heart beating:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Education Groups Drop Their Lawsuit Against Public.Resource.Org, Give Up Their Quest to Paywall the Law:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:Elon Musk's Las Vegas Loop might only carry a fraction of the passengers it promised – TechCrunch:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:AI localization tool claims to translate your words in your voice:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:Cosmonauts patch small air leak on International Space Station:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:Dickey's PoS Breach Could Hit Three Million Cards:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:The current state of space debris:

An Anonymous Coward writes:Tab, Coca-Cola's Diet-Soda Pioneer and a '70s Icon, Is Going Away (Pay-walled; (archive link):

BleedingToothMojibake Tengu writes:BleedingTooth: Linux Bluetooth Zero-Click Remote Code ExecutionThis one will be big. More links in the linkhttps://twitter.com/theflow0/status/1316071793707364353?BleedingTooth: critical kernel Bluetooth vulnerabilityAn Anonymous Coward writes:

Phoenix666 writes:US lockdowns cut personal noise exposure by nearly half, study finds:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Google contractor accused of offshoring jobs in retaliation for union campaign:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Early human species likely driven to extinction by climate change:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:The rise of 'zoom towns' in the rural west:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Oxygen supply fails on Russian segment of ISS, crew not in danger:

martyb writes:We had an outage this morning -- "Internal Server Error" would appear when trying to load the main site.I noticed this at about 0945 UTC from my mobile phone and immediately TXTed a message to "The Mighty Buzzard" (aka TMB) alerting him of the situation. Of course, it being 0545 EDT, he was sound asleep like any sane person would be.I then booted up my computer and accessed "#Soylent" on IRC; discovered others were already aware. It appears to have been first noted at 05:42:57 UTC by "SoyCow8732". That was followed not long after by "c0lo" and "lld". Soon after, "chromas" was on the scene and tried bouncing the front ends, but no joy. He sleuthed around and concluded it was likely a mysql error, but our configuration is... interesting and it was non-obvious on how to restart things.My hands were mostly tied as only a few days ago I managed to mess up Windows on my main system and would get a BSOD whenver I tried to boot it. I looked on from a system booted from a Ubuntu Live CD (well actually, a USB stick).Eventually, TMB appeared, took stock of the situation, and was able to get things running again in pretty short order. Thanks Buzz!Synopsis (AIUI) our installation of Mysql is setup so that there are redundant copies of the DB running on two different servers. The intent is to provide redundancy so that if one instance goes down, the other can take over and carry things along until the failing system is recovered. That's great in theory, but not so good in practice. Thankfully, it does [mostly] work. We are continuing to monitor the situation. Be assured this is working its way of the priority queue! I mean, who likes to wake up and debug server issues before their first cup of coffee?So, that's my take on it. I'll leave it to TMB to add details/corrections should he deem it necessary.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Zoom finally rolls out end-to-end encryption, but you have to enable it:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Woman dies after catching COVID-19 a second time:

Phoenix666 writes:Phys.org:

Phoenix666 writes:BBC:

Phoenix666 writes:Phys.org:

Phoenix666 writes:California heat wave prompts power shutdowns, fire danger:

martyb writes:Death by black hole: Astronomers spot flare from "spaghettification" of star:

takyon writes:SpaceX gets FCC approval to bid in $16 billion rural-broadband auction

takyon writes:Scientists Synthesize Jawbones From Pig Fat (archive)

takyon writes:NASA is awarding 14 companies over $370 million to develop space and lunar exploration technologies. The bulk of the awards concern in-orbit refueling:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:How brain-like circuits could push computing power to the next level:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for aristarchus:Scientists Used AI to Create a Hyper Detailed 3D Map of Stars, Galaxies, and Quasars:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:cracks diamondsRoom-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First Time:

AnonTechie writes:Nobel Peace Prize: UN World Food Programme wins for efforts to combat hunger:

takyon writes:https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/environment/airbus-plans-hydrogenpowered-carbonneutral-planes-by-2035-can-they-work

aristarchus writes:Interesting review of a subreddit, wait, no, it's actually fairly good, from a philosophical point of view, over at The Ringer: How "Am I the Asshole?" Created a Medium Place on the Internet. Perhaps all we Soylentils could ask together?

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:U.S. Army to start testing high-tech combat goggles:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for aristarchus:Nobel Prize winner says the universe has gone through multiple Big Bangs:

DannyB writes:Final Nail in the Coffin for Yahoo Groups Lands Dec. 15

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Soycow_Lover:Minimally invasive procedure may free Type 2 diabetics from insulin:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/10/feds-to-investigate-the-chevrolet-bolt-ev-after-three-fires/

takyon writes:Blue Origin tests NASA landing system hardware on latest New Shepard flight

takyon writes:BBC micro:bit v2 board Unveiled with Nordic nRF52833 SoC, Microphone and Speaker