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hubie writes:Last year NASA said it would allow two private astronaut missions a year. Now NASA apparently said it is working with Tom Cruise about filming a movie on the ISS.Unless they want to go for that Blair Witch cinematography effect, given the limited volume to move around in the ISS — and the need for a small film crew — I wonder if this would be a case where you'd actually prefer a green screen instead.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:US Space Force debuts first recruitment ad and previously secret spacecraft:

MrPlow writes:Submitted via IRC for guy_

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for TurkeyWaddle:Hacker buys old Tesla parts on eBay, finds them full of user data:

Florian Schneider, Kraftwerk Co-Founder, Dies Aged 73An Anonymous Coward writes:

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Phoenix666 writes:Ancient river systems on Mars seen in unparalleled detail:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AndyTheAbsurd:Fossil fuel-free jet propulsion with air plasmas:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

martyb writes:Elon Musk shares photo of newborn son

takyon writes:The Half-Life effect on PC-VR is the biggest Steam has ever seen

NASA will pay a staggering $146 million for each SLS rocket engine:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

An Anonymous Coward writes:OK, so you've air-gapped that PC. Cut the speakers. Covered the LEDs. Disconnected the monitor. Now, about the data-leaking power supply unit...

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:Virgin Galactic's spaceship flies from its new home base for the first time:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:Woman Who Sold Access to Pirated Books on Dropbox Handed Suspended Sentence:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:Frontier, amid bankruptcy, is suspected of lying about broadband expansion:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Hertz Seeking to Avoid Bankruptcy After Missing Lease Payment, Report Says:

calmond writes:Scientists have discovered a microbe that completely protects mosquitoes from being infected with malaria.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Oil Wells Done Rube-Goldberg Style: Flatrods And Jerk Lines:

Kitsune008 writes:One of the issues involving nuclear power has been what to do with the waste materials. What if there was a way to not only convert the problematic materials into a safer storage form, but also enable that same storage form to be used as fuel in newer nuclear power generators? Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Why are we all forgetting what day it is?:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

martyb writes:Recent Salt Vulnerabilities Exploited to Hack LineageOS, Ghost, DigiCert Servers

takyon writes:Here's how to listen as the Supreme Court broadcasts oral arguments for first time ever

hubie writes:Thunderstorms produce quick bursts of energetic gamma rays. These Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) were first discovered in 1992 by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. These bursts are unpredictable and last less than a millisecond and as such it is very hard to locate them with any decent precision. They are some of the highest energy photons produced in nature, but how they are produced is not known. Some models assume they result from charged particle acceleration in the high electric field region concentrated at the tips of lightning leaders, while other models assume particle acceleration occurs in large-scale thundercloud electric fields.Fairly recently it was noticed that TGFs were often associated with Electro-Magnetic Pulses (EMPs) in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) region. However, it isn't known whether the EMPs are signatures of the lightning that "triggers" the TGFs, or whether they are the RF signatures of the TGFs themselves. Figuring that out requires being able to pinpoint where in the thunderstorm the TGFs originate.A collaborative group of researchers analyzed a five-year data set where TGF signatures were simultaneously measured using space- and ground-based detectors. They were able to show in a paper published in Scientific Reports that the EMPs and TGFs are produced by the same phenomenon, rather than the EMPs being from "regular" lightning in TGF-producing thunderstorms. A popular explanation for the TGF source is the Relativistic Runaway Electron Avalanche (RREA) process where high electric fields accelerate electrons, which collide and knock out more electrons that are accelerated resulting in an avalanche of runaway electrons. When the electrons finally decelerate in the thunderstorm electric field, they produce bremsstrahlung photons, which is what gets detected.Reference:

martyb writes:2020-05-03 Roundup of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus) Storiestotal_count3,565,120total_deaths248,245total_recovered1,153,956active_count2,162,919active_mild_count2,112,878(98%)active_serious_count50,041(2%)closed_outcome1,402,201closed_deaths_count248,245(18%)closed_recovered_count1,153,956(82%)Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

hubie writes:In face-to-face communication the speaker's meaning is conveyed not only with the words that are used, but also with the assistance of visual and verbal cues. If you asked someone what they thought of your new hairstyle, their reply of "I think it looks great" has a lot different meaning if it is delivered with a broad smile and enthusiasm, or with eye-darting after some hemming and hawing. What is more challenging is when communication is performed only through the message without these cues. A sarcastic comments takes on a whole different negative tone without these cues.Over the years various conventions arose to add contextual meaning to a message. Long before people were LOL-ing, amateur radio operators would send "HIHI" over morse code. In the early 80s emoticons were created to add additional meaning to the various interchanges happening on Usenet. And of course, these have evolved into the ubiquitous emoji that we all know and love.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Preserving Optionality: Preparing for the Unknown:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

An Anonymous Coward writes:SeaMonkey version 2.53.2 has been released.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:Raspberry Pi launches camera with interchangeable lens system for $50:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Florida sheriff refuses to stop Americans from witnessing historic manned space launch as NASA urges everyone to watch it online:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:YouTube Rippers and Record Labels Clash in US Appeals Court:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Tracking the 'Murder Hornet': A Deadly Pest Has Reached North America:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Tiny Hero shrews have the most extreme spine in nature:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Chesterton's Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking:

takyon writes:Pirated 'DVD Screeners' Will be History After Next Year's Oscars

takyon writes:SpaceX's next Falcon Heavy launch could expend (destroy) the first stage center core, while landing the two side boosters on separate drone ships. This configuration could carry almost as much mass as a launch using a fully expendable Falcon Heavy:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Gravitational waves could prove the existence of the quark-gluon plasma: Computer models of merging neutron stars predicts how to tell when this happens:

stormwyrm writes:With a major pandemic sweeping the world, the standard process of clinical trials for drug approval has come under criticism as a needless source of bureaucracy and delay. Drug discovery chemist Derek Lowe in a blog post explains how clinical trials for drug approval work and the reasons behind the various requirements that the FDA and equivalent organisations around the world generally put in place before approving a new drug. He explains how most of these apparently pointless bureaucratic hurdles are actually there to help protect the integrity of the scientific process and ensure that the human subjects undergoing the trials are treated ethically. While a case can be made for relaxing some of these safeguards, especially in this time of pandemic, it is probably not a good idea to do so without at least understanding what these safeguards are for.Determining how much of a pharmaceutical is needed to prepare for the trial. Ensuring your are actually preparing just that drug and not a polymorph. Proper laboratory and manufacturing practices to ensure the desired drug is actually prepared without impurities and contaminants. Preparing a plan for a drug trial. Demographics — age, gender, weight, current medications being taken. Getting a representative distribution of these as participants. And there's much more.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.