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looorg writes:Sid Meier is apparently summing up his video games career with his memoir to be released in September 2020. Memoir might be a bit of an overstatement though, as it is also supposed to contain his design philosophy and thoughts on Gamers and the gaming industry at large.

hubie writes:Following the denial last December in the EU, the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has rejected the notion that non-humans can apply for patents. The patent office noted that the language in US patent laws and federal regulations assumes an inventor is a person.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:IRS Orders The Dead To Return Stimulus Money:

martyb writes:Zoom Acquires Keybase to Bring End-to-End Encryption to Video Platform:

MrPlow writes:Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Uber lays off 3,700 people as its ride business craters:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:European Authorities Ban Dirty Cookie Practices in GDPR Update:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:Murder hornet munchies: The horrifying insect makes a tasty treat:

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: