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An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/

Earlier this week, we received this question from a fan on Facebook who wondered how many decimals of the mathematical constant pi (π) NASA-JPL scientists and engineers use when making calculations:

Does JPL only use 3.14 for its pi calculations? Or do you use more decimals like say: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360

We posed this question to the director and chief engineer for NASA's Dawn mission, Marc Rayman. Here's what he said:

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow6430

Schrödinger's Cat with 20 Qubits

"Qubits in the cat state are considered extremely important for the development of quantum technologies," explains Jian Cui. "The secret of the enormous efficiency and performance expected of future quantum computers is to be found in this superposition of states," says the physicist from the Peter Grünberg Institute at Jülich (PGI-8).

Classical bits in a conventional computer always only have one certain value, which is composed of 0 and 1, for example. Therefore, these values can only be processed bit by bit one after the other. Qubits, which have several states simultaneously due to the superposition principle, can store and process several values in parallel in one step. The number of qubits is crucial here. You don't get far with just a handful of qubits. But with 20 qubits, the number of superimposed states already exceeds one million. And 300 qubits can store more numbers simultaneously than there are particles in the universe.

The new result of 20 qubits now comes a little closer to this value, after the old record of 14 qubits remained unchanged since 2011. For their experiment, the researchers used a programmable quantum simulator based on Rydberg atom arrays. In this approach, individual atoms, in this case rubidium atoms, are captured by laser beams and held in place side by side in a row. The technique is also known as optical tweezers. An additional laser excites the atoms until they reach the Rydberg state, in which the electrons are located far beyond the nucleus.

This process is rather complicated and usually takes too much time, such that the delicate cat state is destroyed before it can even be measured. The group in Jülich contributed their expertise in Quantum Optimal Control to solve this issue. By cleverly switching the lasers off and on at the right rate, they achieved a speed up in the preparation process which made this new record possible.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A[...] recent study showed that termite activity in the soils of wetlands can help improve soil structure and nutrient content.

To study this question, Deborah S. Page-Dumroese and her colleagues researched various types of bedding systems in eastern South Carolina. "Microorganisms and termites are the primary wood decay agents in forests of southeastern United States," says Page-Dumroese. Previous research showed that raised planting beds on poorly-drained soils greatly improve the survival and growth of planted seedlings. Page-Dumroese's research team showed that bedding in wetlands could be a good management practice, too.

[...] The decay of dead trees (and any plant product) produces organic matter. And, this organic matter can increase crucial soil carbon content. All living things are made of carbon, and it is important to keep carbon in the soil (carbon sequestration) because it helps hold and filter water, reduces nutrient leaching, and improves forest health.

Researchers created beds in the study area using tractors. This mixed surface organic debris from the wetland floor with the mineral soil. They created beds of various height for study. Raised planting beds improve soil aeration, raise soil temperature, and increase nutrient availability.

To measure the activity of microbes and termites, the team placed wooden stakes into various sized beds. They chose stakes made of aspen as well as loblolly pine, both prevalent trees in eastern South Carolina. They compared the decomposition of the stakes over 23 months, in beds that ranged from flat to about 30 cm (12 inches).

Indeed, the team found many differences in decomposition between stake species and bedding height. Termites damaged or consumed 45% of aspen stakes in double height beds. This is compared to only 11% of the loblolly pine stakes. Microbial decay of both types of stakes increased with greater bedding heights.

Effects of Bed Height and Termite Activity on Wood Decomposition, Soil Science Society of America (DOI: 10.2136/sssaj2018.12.0492)

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Reportedly a girl earned a phone confiscation from her mother by watching YouTube while the stove caught fire. There were so many opportunities around their house to circumvent being grounded that it only slowed down her access to the source of her addiction, earning some attention around the net:

In her recounting over Twitter DM, Dorothy told me that her mom took away her phone after she "was boiling rice and was too busy on phone and stove burst into flames." She was watching YouTube at the time.

After her phone was confiscated, she began desperately searching for other ways to tweet. "I've been bored all summer and twitter passes the time for me," she said. She also worried that if she stayed off the platform too long, she'd lose her mutuals — internet shorthand for users who follow each other.

In her search for other posting methods, Dorothy came up with increasingly elaborate ways to daisy-chain systems not designed for tweeting. In her first post, she managed to send a tweet from her Nintendo 3DS, a video-game console with a rudimentary camera and web browser. [...]

She also allegedly used a Nintendo Wii U before settling on the family LG Smart Refrigerator.

Whether this is a gag or not, there are several important issues rasied here regarding both addiction and the proliferation of poorly secured comsumer grade devices.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The periodic table has been a vital foundational tool for material research since it was first created 150 years ago. Now, Martin Rahm from Chalmers University of Technology presents a new article which adds an entirely new dimension to the table, offering a new set of principles for material research. The article is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The study maps how both the electronegativity and the electron configuration of elements change under pressure. These findings offer materials researchers an entirely new set of tools. Primarily, it means it is now possible to make quick predictions about how certain elements will behave at different pressures, without requiring experimental testing or computationally expensive quantum mechanical calculations.

"Currently, searching for those interesting compounds which appear at high pressure requires a large investment of time and resources, both computationally and experimentally. As a consequence, only a tiny fraction of all possible compounds has been investigated. The work we are presenting can act as a guide to help explain what to look for and which compounds to expect when materials are placed under high pressure," says Martin Rahm, Assistant Professor in Chemistry at Chalmers, who led the study.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Leaked Draft of Trump Executive Order to 'Censor the Internet' Denounced as Dangerous, Unconstitutional Edict

It would give these bureaucratic government agencies unprecedented control over how Internet platforms moderate speech by allowing them to revoke the essential protections Congress laid out in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). CDA 230 is the basic law that makes it possible for online platforms to let users post our own content, and to make basic decisions about what types of content they as private entities want to host. Every meme, every social media post, every blog and user-created video on the Internet has been made possible by this crucial free speech protection.

In practice, this executive order would mean that whichever political party is in power could dictate what speech is allowed on the Internet. If the government doesn't like the way a private company is moderating content, they can shut their entire website down.

From https://www.salon.com/2019/08/12/leaked-draft-of-trump-executive-order-deemed-unconstitutional_partner/ we get the following:

According to CNN, which obtained a copy of the draft, the new rule "calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms. Although still in its early stages and subject to change, the Trump administration's draft order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies."

While Politico was the first to report how the draft was being circulated by the White House, CNN notes that if put into effect, "the order would reflect a significant escalation by President Trump in his frequent attacks against social media companies over an alleged but unproven systemic bias against conservatives by technology platforms. And it could lead to a significant reinterpretation of a law that, its authors have insisted, was meant to give tech companies broad freedom to handle content as they see fit."

"[...] It's hard to put into words how mind bogglingly absurd this executive order is," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, in a tweet. "In the name of defending free speech it would allow mass government censorship of online content. In practice, it means whichever party is in power can decide what speech is allowed on the internet."

This authoritarian legislation is being pushed by claiming it will do the opposite of censorship by giving the federal government even more broad power. Reminds me of the following quote, "I like taking guns away early," Trump said. "Take the guns first, go through due process second."

See also:

• https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/leaked-draft-of-trump-executive-order-to-censor-the-internet-denounced-as-dangerous-unconstitutional-edict/
• https://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2019/08/13/the-trump-administration-drafted-an-executive-order-to-censor-the-internet/
• http://dctribune.org/trumps-executive-order-to-censor-the-internet-leaked-could-allow-mass-government-censorship/
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20669477

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

It has been coming for some time, but now the major breach of a biometric database has actually been reported—facial recognition records, fingerprints, log data and personal information has all been found on "a publicly accessible database." The damage is not yet clear, but the report claims that actual fingerprints and facial recognition records for millions of people have been exposed.

The issue with biometric data being stored in this way is that, unlike usernames and passwords, it cannot be changed. Once it’s compromised, it’s compromised. And for that reason this breach report will sound all kinds of alarms.

The report published by security researches Noam Rotem and Ran Loca at Vpnmentor relates to Suprema, a company describing itself as a "global Powerhouse in biometrics, security and identity solutions," with a product range that "includes biometric access control systems, time and attendance solutions, fingerprint live scanners, mobile authentication solutions and embedded fingerprint modules."

The news of the breach was first published by Wednesday’s Guardian newspaper in the U.K., which highlighted the use of Suprema solutions by the "Metropolitan Police, defence contractors and banks." The breach, though, is international, with Suprema's Biostar 2 biometric identity SDK integrated into the AEOS access control system "used by 5,700 organisations in 83 countries, including governments, banks and the police."

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Hong Kong Airport Paralysed for a Second Day by Protesters:

The US is claiming its naval ships have been denied entry to Hong Kong, as Donald Trump suggests troops are “moving towards the border”.

A US Commander has confirmed China has blocked the Pacific Fleet’s naval ships from entering ports in Hong Kong.

Two US naval ships due to visit Hong Kong have been denied scheduled access to the city’s ports by China, the US Pacific Fleet confirmed today.

A US Navy spokesman today said two vessels had been blocked from entering the port, hours after President Donald Trump said China was moving its troops towards the border.

The president’s claims were made without specific evidence, according to The Australian

Commander Nate Christensen, the deputy spokesman for the United States Pacific Fleet, confirmed this morning the two US ships, USS Green Bay and USS Lake Erie, had been barred from entering the port. The first vessel, an amphibious dock landing ship, was due to stop in Hong Kong on Saturday, and the second was due in the city next month.

The last time the US Navy visited Hong Kong was in April.

Our Intelligence has informed us that the Chinese Government is moving troops to the Border with Hong Kong. Everyone should be calm and safe!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2019

[...]Hong Kong’s 10-week political crisis, in which millions of people have taken to the streets calling for a halt to sliding freedoms, was already the biggest challenge to Chinese rule of the semi-autonomous city since its 1997 handover from Britain.

But two days of protests at the airport have again raised the stakes for the financial hub.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

As severe thunderstorms continue to hit parts of Europe, the results can be dramatic.

[A] tornado struck the communities of Pettingen and Kaerjengin, near the border with France and Belgium, leaving a path of destruction that destroyed some 100 houses.

[...] A spokesperson for Luxembourg police reported a "swath of desolation" spanning up to six kilometres. The country's rescue centre said cleanup would take days. Emergency shelters have been set up for those who lost their homes.

On the same day, a tornado swept through Amsterdam's Oosterdok Basin, in the Netherlands, as storms hit the region. No injuries were reported and the damage was minimal.

Tornadoes are less common in Europe than in the United States, where Tornado Alley in the Midwest experiences hundreds every year. So far this year, there have been 1,300 confirmed tornadoes in the US. While Europe's tornado touchdowns are not as frequent, every year between 200 and 400 occurrences are reported. Italy and Greece see more tornado activity, as the warm, moist Mediterranean air clashes with the cool, dryer air over the mountains.

[...] The United Kingdom also sees a high number of tornadoes, averaging between 30 and 50 each year. That is more tornadoes average land area than anywhere in the world, apart from the Netherlands.

[...] Most tornadoes that develop across Europe have much less damaging effect than those in the US, but Luxembourg on Friday was one exception, as was the case in 2005 in Birmingham in the UK. The 2005 tornado lasted for approximately 10 minutes, with wind speeds up to 233km/h. It uprooted about 1,000 trees, injured 19 people and caused damage of around 40 million British pounds ($49m).

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

With each news cycle, the false-information system grows more efficient.

Even on an internet bursting at the seams with conspiracy theories and hyperpartisanship, Saturday marked a new chapter in our post-truth, “choose your own reality” crisis story.

It began early Saturday morning, when news broke that the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein had apparently hanged himself in a Manhattan jail. Mr. Epstein’s death, coming just one day after court documents from one of his alleged victims were unsealed, sparked immediate suspicion from journalists, politicians and the usual online fringes.

Within minutes, Trump appointees, Fox Business hosts and Twitter pundits revived a decades old conspiracy theory, linking the Clinton family to supposedly suspicious deaths. #ClintonBodyCount and #ClintonCrimeFamily trended on Twitter. Around the same time, an opposite hashtag — #TrumpBodyCount — emerged, focused on President Trump’s decades-old ties to Mr. Epstein. Each hashtag was accompanied by GIFs and memes picturing Mr. Epstein with the Clintons or with Mr. Trump to serve as a viral accusation of foul play.

The dueling hashtags and their attendant toxicity are a grim testament to our deeply poisoned information ecosystem — one that’s built for speed and designed to reward the most incendiary impulses of its worst actors. It has ushered in a parallel reality unrooted in fact and helped to push conspiratorial thinking into the cultural mainstream. And with each news cycle, the system grows more efficient, entrenching its opposing camps. The poison spreads.

martyb writes:

FAA Prohibits Recalled MacBook Pros from Flights:

Some Macbook Pros have been banned from flights by US aviation safety regulators. The move comes less than two months after Apple recalled the older laptops over a risk of battery fire.

The Federal Aviation Administration, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg, said it was "aware of the recalled batteries that are used in some Apple MacBook Pro laptops" and in July had alerted major US airlines of the recall. It also reminded carriers that rules issued in 2016 prohibit transporting products that have been the subject of a safety recall either in the cabin or as cargo until they have been repaired of[sic] replaced.

Apple initiated the voluntary recall in June, warning that 15-inch Pros sold between September 2015 and February 2017 "contain a battery that may overheat and pose a safety risk." The company also asked customers to stop using the affected units.

B-b-b-but it hasn't blown up yet!

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (archive)

Can a human touch make Silicon Valley's biggest discussion forum a more thoughtful place?

[...] At first, the site attracted about sixteen hundred daily visitors, and [venture capitalist Paul] Graham moderated and maintained it himself. Today, around five million people read Hacker News each month, and it's grown more difficult to moderate. The technical discussions remain varied and can be insightful. But social, cultural, and political conversations, which, despite the guidelines, have proliferated, tend to devolve. A recent comment thread about a Times article, "YouTube to Remove Thousands of Videos Pushing Extreme Views," yielded a response likening journalism and propaganda; a muddled juxtaposition of pornography and Holocaust denial; a vague side conversation about the average I.Q. of Hacker News commenters; and confused analogies between white supremacists and Black Lives Matter activists. In April, when a story about Katie Bouman, an M.I.T. researcher who helped develop a technology that captured the first photo of a black hole, rose to the front page, users combed through her code on GitHub in an effort to undermine the weight of her contributions.

[...] Picturing the moderators responsible for steering conversation on Hacker News, I imagined a team of men who proudly self-identify as neoliberals and are active in the effective-altruism movement. (I assumed they'd be white men; it never occurred to me that women, or people of color, could be behind the site.) Meeting them, I feared, would be like participating in a live-action comment thread about the merits of Amazon Web Services or whether women should be referred to as "females." "Debate us!" I imagined them saying, in unison, from their Aeron chairs.

The site's real-life moderators are Daniel Gackle and Scott Bell, two wildly polite old friends. On Facebook and YouTube, moderation is often done reactively and anonymously, by teams of overworked contractors; on Reddit, teams of employees purge whole user communities like surgeons removing tumors. Gackle and Bell, by contrast, practice a personal, focussed, and slow approach to moderation, which they see as a conversational act. They treat their community like an encounter group or Esalen workshop; often, they correspond with individual Hacker News readers over e-mail, coaching and encouraging them in long, heartfelt exchanges.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for Carny.

Don't Forget That The Recent Russian Nuclear Accident Happened While Developing A Truly Insane Weapon

A few days ago, on August 8, there was an explosion on a barge in the White Sea near Nyonoksa, Russia. That explosion tragically killed seven people, nuclear engineers and technicians working on a project. The project was described as "an isotopic power source for a liquid engine installation," but let's be completely clear here: they were developing the nuclear propulsion system for a genuinely brutal and terrible weapon.

That weapon is known as 9M730 Burevestnik, known to NATO as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall, but is perhaps best understood as a modern rebirth of a terrifying American weapon concept from the 1960s known as the Flying Crowbar.

The Flying Crowbar was a nuclear-powered scramjet missile, capable of flying at hypersonic speeds with an almost indefinite range, spewing extremely radioactive exhaust and nuclear bombs all over the place.

[...] While this accident is absolutely a tragedy because of the loss of life and the significant radiation exposure in the area, the blow to the development of the 9M730 Burevestnik missile is not the tragic part.

The Burevestnik is not a defensive weapon; it's a weapon to attack at long range and spread death and destruction all along its path, even over people that have no involvement in whatever bullshit reason this thing was launched for.

Wikipedia entries on 9M730 Burevestnik and Flying Crowbar (aka Supersonic Low Altitude Missile).

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Anti-natalists: The people who want you to stop having babies

They believe humans shouldn't have children. Who are the anti-natalists - and how far are they willing to push their ideas?

"Wouldn't it just be better to blow a hole in the side of the earth and just have done with everything?" Thomas, 29, lives in the east of England, and although his idea of blowing up the world is something of a thought experiment, he is certain about one thing - humans should not have babies, and our species should gradually go extinct.

It's a philosophy called anti-natalism. While the idea dates back to ancient Greece, it has recently been given a huge boost by social media. On Facebook and Reddit, there are dozens of anti-natalist groups, some with thousands of members. On Reddit, r/antinatalism has nearly 35,000 members, while just one of the dozens of Facebook groups with an anti-natalist theme has more than 6,000.

They are scattered around the world and have a variety of reasons for their beliefs. Among them are concerns about genetic inheritance, not wanting children to suffer, the concept of consent, and worries about overpopulation and the environment. But they are united in their desire to stop human procreation. And although they are a fringe movement, some of their views, particularly on the state of the earth, are increasingly creeping into mainstream discussion. While not an anti-natalist, the Duke of Sussex recently said he and his wife were planning to have a maximum of two children, because of environmental concerns.

Original Submission

stretch611 writes:

I would like to ask my fellow soylentists... What do you do for an email solution?

For almost 20 years, I have had my own personal domains along with corresponding websites, email, and any other needed service. As I am older now, I no longer need any of the visibility of my own website; I do not need it for getting new jobs, or to host any application or service. However, I still need email. My current ISP has annoyed me with rising fees and a lack of any service (not surprisingly, it went downhill really fast once their business was merged with another.)

So, I am looking to drop everything except the actual domains and the email, (not to mention change providers.) What solutions does everyone else use? Are you happy with your provider?

The biggest feature I am looking for is some type of "catchall" email address. While I realize this means a lot more spam, I am already filtering the 99% of that out. For years, I have created many single use email addresses for various websites. (e.g. keyword@mydomain.xxx ) IMO, this creates better security, because anyone trying to access my accounts need to know the email address I used as well as the password, and I also find out which websites sell my email address to others or get breached. It seems that the majority of sites do not have this simple feature anymore.

Due to my multiple handles, most of the simple email sites will not work for me. Not to mention sites that charge per email handle are not very good either. While I can consolidate with a catch-all address, this is not a preferred method.

I prefer POP3 so that I can have multiple devices access my email and webmail is a plus but not required.

So does anyone know of a email site that will fit my needs? Or is my best chance to create my own email server on a linode VPS? (Though I would prefer a simple premade solution instead of maintaining my own server at this point.)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Methane can be produced over time through both geological and biological routes and since its first detection in the Martian atmosphere in 2003, there has been intense speculation about the source of the gas and the possibility that it could signal life on the planet.

Previous studies have suggested the methane may not be evenly distributed in the atmosphere around Mars, but instead appear in localised and very temporary pockets on the planet's surface. And the previous discovery of methane 'spikes' in the Martian atmosphere has further fuelled the debate.

Now research led by Newcastle University, UK, and published in Scientific Reports, has ruled out the possibility that the levels of methane detected could be produced by the wind erosion of rocks, releasing trapped methane from fluid inclusions and fractures on the planets' surface.

Principal Investigator Dr Jon Telling, a geochemist based in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University, said:

"The questions are -- where is this methane coming from, and is the source biological? That's a massive question and to get to the answer we need to rule out lots of other factors first.

"We realised one potential source of the methane that people hadn't really looked at in any detail before was wind erosion, releasing gases trapped within rocks. High resolution imagery from orbit over the last decade have shown that winds on Mars can drive much higher local rates of sand movement, and hence potential rates of sand erosion, than previously recognised.

"In fact, in a few cases, the rate of erosion is estimated to be comparable to those of cold and arid sand dune fields on Earth.

"Using the data available, we estimated rates of erosion on the surface of Mars and how important it could be in releasing methane.

"And taking all that into account we found it was very unlikely to be the source.

"What's important about this is that it strengthens the argument that the methane must be coming from a different source. Whether or not that's biological, we still don't know."

Original Submission