SoylentNews

martyb writes:Thank You!On the occasion of the site's sixth anniversary, I thought it fitting to mention some of the many ways that fellow Soylentils contribute to our community. This also seems like a good opportunity to mention some of the site's history, relate some staffing changes, mention other contributions by the SoylentNews community, and to wrap things up with some site statistics.Please accept our thanks:These thanks go out to all of you: my fellow members of the SoylentNews community.To the Anonymous Cowards who post comments to our site (be they inciteful or insightful). To our registered users who not only post comments, but are also the only members who can moderate comments. No matter how long you have been here; whether you have just arrived (Welcome!) or have been with us from the very start... Thank You!Speaking of which, thanks go to our staff who bludgeoned and duct-taped an ancient unmaintained open-sourced version of the code underpinning slashdot into some sort of basic functionality, and who have since made it the site you are enjoying today. Thanks, too, to our behind-the-scenes staff members, who keep the underlying services we depend on, running 24/7. Other staff members are more visible, like the editorial team who spend several hours every single day processing the stories that get posted to the site.And let's not forget the members of the community who purchase subscriptions and thereby fund the operations of this site. We do have real world expenses: paying for our servers, domain registrations, and paying a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to do our taxes.Read on past the fold for all the rest!Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

martyb writes:Thank You!On the occasion of the site's sixth anniversary, I thought it fitting to mention some of the many ways that fellow Soylentils contribute to our community. This also seems like a good opportunity to mention some of the site's history, relate some staffing changes, mention other contributions by the SoylentNews community, and to wrap things up with some site statistics.Please accept our thanks:These thanks go out to all of you: my fellow members of the SoylentNews community.To the Anonymous Cowards who post comments to our site (be they inciteful or insightful). To our registered users who not only post comments, but are also the only members who can moderate comments. No matter how long you have been here; whether you have just arrived (Welcome!) or have been with us from the very start... Thank You!Speaking of which, thanks go to our staff who bludgeoned and duct-taped an ancient unmaintained open-sourced version of the code underpinning slashdot into some sort of basic functionality, and who have since made it the site you are enjoying today. Thanks, too, to our behind-the-scenes staff members, who keep the underlying services we depend on, running 24/7. Other staff members are more visible, like the editorial team who spend several hours every single day processing the stories that get posted to the site.And let's not forget the members of the community who purchase subscriptions and thereby fund the operations of this site. We do have real world expenses: paying for our servers, domain registrations, and paying a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) to do our taxes.Read on past the fold for all the rest!Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:Amazon wins court injunction on controversial JEDI contract:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.itwire.com/open-source/linux-kernel-patch-maker-says-court-case-was-only-way-out.html

martyb writes in with an IRC submission:Automated system can rewrite outdated sentences in Wikipedia articles

martyb writes in with an IRC submission:Registrars raise alarm over proposal for big .com fee hikes:

martyb writes:Preclinical Study Links Human Gene Variant to THC Reward:

Coward, Anonymous writes:According to Bloomberg:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Fires contained in hard-hit Australia state, but now floods threaten:

A weekly financial newsletter included this link, https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/lifestyle/50-cognitive-biases-to-be-aware-of-so-you-can-be-the-very-best-version-of-you/. A cute graphical "flash card" version of the same list is available at https://www.visualcapitalist.com/50-cognitive-biases-in-the-modern-world/ Each "card" includes a short example that I found helpful in understanding the definitions.Along with the ever-popular Dunning-Kruger Effect, the list had some eye openers for me. Here are the first ten. As a mental exercise, think about how many more you are aware of...before going to either of the links for a peek:

Voyager 1's Pale Blue Dot (1990)martyb writes in with several IRC submissions:Voyager 1's Pale Blue Dot (1990):

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

martyb writes:Watch the winner of this year's 'Dance Your Ph.D.' contest:

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/14/silly_police_infosec_parental_advice_poster/

DannyB writes:The US is charging Huawei with racketeering

Modern Machine Shop ran an interesting piece recently under the title, "Why Is It Okay to Fire a Customer?" https://www.mmsonline.com/blog/post/why-is-it-okay-to-fire-a-customer. Here are a few clippings for your interest:

Phoenix666 writes:Transparent human organs allow 3D maps at the cellular level:[Ed note: the organs being discussed "were obtained post mortem from Prof. Ingo Bechmann's lab at the University of Leipzig."]

Phoenix666 writes:Meet the community still obsessing over Mass Effect 2 10 years later:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Cowardly_Anonymizer:US DOJ Calls Bitcoin Mixing 'a Crime' in Arrest of Software Developer - CoinDesk:

Phoenix666 writes:ArsTechnica:

martyb writes:New research finds Earth's oldest-known asteroid strike linked to 'big thaw' - News and Events:

martyb writes:Apple must pay store employees for bag-search time, court rules

Coward, Anonymous writes:Our solar system is thought to have begun billions of years ago as a protoplanetary disk. Over time, gravity caused this matter to clump together and eventually form planets. There is debate over the process and its duration, with previous studies suggesting several ten million years until the initially dry Earth was formed. Water was delivered at the end of this period.A new article in Science Advances (open) describes Iron isotope evidence for very rapid accretion and differentiation of the proto-Earth.

canopic jug writes:Debian developerJonathan Carter was recently given a MIPS64-based motherboard which he ran through its paces. The board has a Loongson processor which is intended for both general purpose and embedded processing.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

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:With MWC 2020 canceled, most new Android phones face a tough debut:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story.

martyb writes:How bird flocks with multiple species behave like K-pop groups:

takyon writes:Threadripper 3990x brings more CPU threads than Windows Pro can handle

Arthur T Knackerbrackethas found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Igor Sfiligoi sent in a story submission which was the inspiration for:Second GPU Cloudburst Experiment Yields New Findings

Coward, Anonymous writes:Facebook starts fact-checking partnership with Reuters:

DannyB wrote in with a story which was the foundation for:South Korea's government explores move from Windows to Linux desktop

Nuke writes:The construction of HS2, a high speed rail link between London and the north of England, has been approved. The announcement was made by Boris Johnson yesterday. Phase 1, due for completion in 2028 at the earliest, will be between London and Birmingham; Phase 2, due in 2035 at the earliest, will be two separate lines onwards to Manchester and Leeds.The trains will travel at up to 250 mph. They will otherwise be conventional, and will take electrical power from overhead catenary. The line will have connections with existing ones, enabling some trains to continue at lower speeds to further destinations, such as Liverpool and Scotland.The routes will be broadly parallel with existing ones, which are generally running at full capacity. Rail passenger travel in the UK has greatly increased in recent years and this, rather than the reduction in journey times, is the main driver for the project.Note : It is called HS2 because it is the second high speed line in the UK, HS1 being the link from St. Pancras International railway station in central London to the Channel Tunnel.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

FatPhil writes:http://www.ajudaily.com/view/20200207175148638Video discussed in the story is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oglnV2P_QBI (in Korean).

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Cascade:People Are Jailbreaking Used Teslas to Get the Features They Expect:

martyb writes:SpaceX brings on NASA's former top spaceflight official as it prepares to launch first astronauts:

martyb writes:Each year, the GSMA (GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) Association) holds three MWC (Mobile World Congress) events. The next is MWC Barcelona and is scheduled for 24-27 February 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. The next event scheduled for this year is MWC Shanghai 2020, scheduled for 30 June - 2 July 2020 in Shanghai, China. And rounding out 2020 is the last event, MWC Los Angeles, California on 28-30 October 2020.Since 2011, MWC Barcelona has been known as the GSMA Mobile World Capital. It is the oldest and largest of the MWC series, so some of the largest mobile product announcements occur at this event. The 2018 event attracted attendees around the world. Approximately half of the attendees hold senior positions in their firms. In other words, in the mobile market, MWC Barcelona is a "Really Big Deal."That was all history. The recent outbreak of the 2019-nCoV Coronovirus has made quite a stir worldwide. Major players in the mobile arena are concerned about sending their representatives to a venue with approximately 100,000 attendees drawn from all around the world.Major companies in the mobile space have recently announced plans to either skip MWC Barcelona entirely or, in some cases, make presentations remotely. These include: including Intel, TCL, Sony, Amazon, Samsung, Nvidia, Ericsson Vivo, and MediaTek among many others.[...] It will be "interesting" to see what the follow-on effects will be from the reduced attendance. The June MWC is scheduled for Shanghai (a major city in China - the country that is the apparent source of the 2019-nCov coronoavirus and imposing major quarantines trying to stem its spread). Thus, unless 2019-nCoV is brought under control in record time, things do not look good for those who were diverted from Barcelona to look forward to making up the difference 4 months later. That leaves waiting for MWC LA at the end of October, or making more one-on-one connections to work out buying and selling decisions.[Editors' Note: The World Health Organisation has formally renamed the virus to COVID-19]Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

quietus writes:Germany's economy nowadays emits as much carbon dioxide as it did in the 1950s, when it was 10 times smaller.According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), carbon dioxide emissions trends for 2019 suggest clean energy transitions are underway. Global power sector emissions declined by some 170 Mt, or 1.2%, with the biggest falls taking place in the advanced economies of the European Union, Japan and the United States. There, CO2 emissions are now at levels not seen since the late 1980s, when electricity demand was one-third lower.In these advanced economies, the average CO2 emissions intensity of electricity generation declined by nearly 6.5% in 2019. This is a rate three times faster than the average over the past decade.This decline is driven by a switch from coal to natural gas, a rise in nuclear power and weaker electricity demand, combined with the seemingly unstoppable growth in renewables. These now constitute over 40% of the energy mix in Germany (wind power +11%) and the United Kingdom, where rapid expansion in offshore wind power generation is happening.The bummer lies with the rest of the world.There emissions continue to expand with close to 400 Mt last year. About 80% of that increase is happening in Asia. Coal demand here continues to expand, accounting for over 50% of energy use.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

martyb writes:Windows 7 will not go gentle into that good night: Ageing OS refuses to shut down: