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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:

Rocket Report: NASA's stunning Falcon 9 bargain, Ariane 6 delayed:

Ars Technica routinely runs an infodump about all things rocket-related. Of note in this edition are details regarding the Falcon 9 and the Ariane 6, but many others are covered as well.

Welcome to Edition 2.45 of the Rocket Report! We're looking ahead to a monumental week of rocket launches with the first LauncherOne mission potentially taking flight on Sunday and the possible launch of Crew Dragon next Wednesday.

[...] NASA got a stunning value in the Falcon 9. With the first flight of humans atop a Falcon 9 rocket coming as early as next Wednesday, Ars takes a look back at the origins of NASA's commercial crew and cargo programs. As part of its initial investment of $396 million into SpaceX, NASA got development of the Cargo Dragon, Falcon 9, and a launch site at Cape Canaveral.

A cost of 50 times more ... At the same time, NASA was developing the Ares I rocket to fly crew into low Earth orbit. Independent estimates placed the cost of Ares I at about $20 billion. President Obama ultimately canceled the Ares I, projected to have a similar lift capacity to the modern Falcon 9 booster, because it was behind schedule and over budget. The agency, in turn, got a bargain.

Ariane 6 inaugural launch likely delayed until 2021. The first launch of Europe's next-generation large rocket appears all but certain to slip into 2021 because of development delays the European Space Agency and the rocket's manufacturer ArianeGroup attribute to the coronavirus pandemic, SpaceNews reports. Before the crisis, Arianespace had planned on Ariane 6 making its debut between October and December.

More clarity will come ... "ESA is working intensely, and very closely with all actors involved, industry and CNES, to stabilize and consolidate the planning," Daniel Neuenschwander, the director of space transportation at the European Space Agency, told the publication. "Today we are daily addressing the preliminary impacts and preparing to return to a stable level of activity. We will fully consolidate the planning and assess the full impact of COVID-19 on Ariane 6 once we have more clarity on how the European economy will be able to function in the coming months." (submitted by JohnCarter17, Ken the Bin, and platykurtic)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

The US Government Just Invested Big in Small-Scale Nuclear Power:

Amid the coronavirus lockdowns around the world, one of few positive pieces of news we've heard is that carbon emissions have dropped dramatically. The clearer skies and cleaner air have led to a renewed vigor behind calls for retiring fossil fuels and investing more heavily in renewable energy. Proponents of renewables tend to focus on solar and wind as the best green energy sources, leaving out a lingeringly controversial yet crucial player: nuclear power.

Last week, the US Department of Energy (DOE) shone a light on nuclear's potential in the most effective possible way: by dumping a bunch of money on it. The DOE launched its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to the tune of $230 million. That sum is broken down into $160 million for scientists currently working on nuclear reactors that could be operational in 5 to 7 years, and another $70 million for additional research and development down the road.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Millions of cicadas to emerge after living underground for 17 years:

If you'd rather not think about murder hornets ruining your summer, you can always worry about swarms of cicadas invading the outdoors with their deafening buzz and molted brown husks.

This year, 1.5 million cicadas per acre will be popping up in parts of Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, according to scientists at Virginia Tech University. People who live in these areas will see a unique natural phenomenon that hasn't happened since 2004.

Depending on the species, cicadas either show up every year, or periodically (every 13 or 17 years). These particular periodical cicadas belong to a group called Brood IX.

"The timing of a 13- or 17-year cycle is one of the great mysteries of the insect world," scientists said in a Virginia Tech statement.

[...] "Communities and farms with large numbers of cicadas emerging at once may have a substantial noise issue," predicts Eric Day, an entomologist at Virginia Tech. "Hopefully, any annoyance at the disturbance is tempered by just how infrequent -- and amazing -- this event is."

Luckily, cicada broods tend to have short lifespans. They have four-to-six weeks of activity before they start dying off. So the cicadas' symphony of noise shouldn't last for the entire summer.

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martyb writes:

Revelations about Rembrandt's masterpiece captured on camera:

At 9am on Tuesday the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam posted an image of Rembrandt's The Night Watch (1642) on its website. Nothing particularly unusual about that, you might think. After all, the museum frequently uploads pictures of its masterpieces from Dutch Golden Age. But there was something about this particular photo that made it stand out just like the little girl in a gold dress in Rembrandt's famous group portrait of local civic guardsmen.

The web image presents the painting unframed on a dark grey background. It looks sharp and well-lit but not exceptional in terms of photography.

Until, that is, you click on it, at which point you're zoomed in a bit closer.

Click again and you're propelled towards the outstretched hand of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. Another click, and you're face-to-face with the leader of this group of not-so-merry-men.

Once more, and you can see the glint in his eye and the texture of his ginger beard.

At no point does the image start to pixelate or distort, it's pin-sharp throughout.

And it remains so as you continue to click, getting further and further into the painting until the Captain's paint-cracked eyeball is the size of a fist, and you realise that tiny glint you first saw isn't the result of one dab of Rembrandt's brush, but four separate applications, each loaded with a slightly different shade of paint.

And then you stop and think: Crikey, Rembrandt actually used four different colours to paint a minuscule light effect in the eye of one of the many life-sized protagonists featured in this group portrait, which probably wouldn't be seen by anybody anyway.

Or, maybe, this visionary 17th Century Dutchman foresaw a future where the early experiments with camera obscura techniques, in which he might have dabbled, would eventually lead to a photographic technology capable of recording a visual representation of his giant canvas to a level of detail beyond the eyesight of even the artist himself!

It is, quite frankly, amazing.

For instance, I've always liked the ghostly dog that turns and snarls at the drummer situated at the edge of the painting. I'd assumed the hound was unfinished and therefore unloved by Rembrandt, but now I can see by zooming in that the artist not only gave the dog a stylish collar, but also added a gold pendant with a tiny flash of red paint to echo the colour of the trousers worn by the drummer.

The story notes the painting is so large that the people in it are basically life-sized.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Microsoft Has Now Open-Source Their BASIC Code From 1983 - Phoronix:

Microsoft GW-BASIC is now open-source following their prior open-sourcing of older MS-DOS versions. This original Microsoft BASIC version being open-sourced is from 1983 and is simply being open-sourced for historical purposes.

This Microsoft BASIC interpreter is written in Assembly, to no surprise considering the ivntage[sic] of the software. But Microsoft did push this code through a translator in order to make use of newer x86 ISA capabilities. As such, the code being open-sourced is that derived from their original source code.

More details on this Microsoft BASIC open-sourcing via their dev blog while the code is on GW-BASIC via GitHub.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Virgin Orbit schedules its first orbital test launch this weekend – Spaceflight Now:

The first orbital test flight of Virgin Orbit's privately-developed air-launched rocket is scheduled as soon as Sunday off the coast of Southern California, the company said Wednesday.

Designed to deliver small satellites into orbit, the LauncherOne vehicle has a four-hour window Sunday opening at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT; 1700 GMT) to head into space after release from the belly of Virgin Orbit's Boeing 747 carrier aircraft. A backup launch opportunity is available at the same time Monday.

"We will only proceed with the mission if all conditions for launch are nominal," Virgin Orbit said in a press kit for the demonstration flight. "Although air-launched systems like ours are less vulnerable to bad weather than fixed ground-launch systems, we'll be watching the weather closely and being cautious for this maiden flight."

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/13/health/japan-black-light-experiment-coronavirus-trnd-wellness/index.html

The video shows 10 people coming into the restaurant, with one singled out as an "infected" person. A fluorescent substance only visible under black light is applied onto that person's hands, representing germs from a cough or a sneeze. Each participant then goes about the buffet as they normally would, not considering a potential contamination.

At the end of the video, the participants are cast under black lights illuminating where the "infection" has spread.

The substance, used to signify the germs, can be seen on food, serving utensils and platters, and even on the faces of some of the participants.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used state-of-the-art atomic clocks, advanced light detectors, and a measurement tool called a frequency comb to boost the stability of microwave signals 100-fold. This marks a giant step toward better electronics to enable more accurate time dissemination, improved navigation, more reliable communications and higher-resolution imaging for radar and astronomy. Improving the microwave signal's consistency over a specific time period helps ensure reliable operation of a device or system.

[...] In their setup, the researchers used the "ticking" of two of NIST's ytterbium lattice clocks to generate light pulses, as well as frequency combs serving as gears to translate the higher-frequency optical pulses accurately into lower-frequency microwave signals. Advanced photodiodes converted light pulses into electrical currents, which in turn generated a 10 gigahertz (GHz, or a billion cycles per second) microwave signal that tracked the clocks' ticking exactly, with an error of just one part in a quintillion (1 followed by 18 zeros).This performance level is on par with that of both optical clocks and 100 times more stable than the best microwave sources.

[...] Optical waves have shorter, faster cycles than microwaves do, so they have different shapes. In converting stable optical waves to microwaves, the researchers tracked the phase—the exact timing of the waves—to ensure they were identical, and not shifted relative to one another. The experiment tracked phase changes with a resolution corresponding to just one millionth of a cycle.

"This is a field where just doubling microwave stability can take years or decades to achieve," group leader Chris Oates said. "A hundred times better is almost unfathomable."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Four states warn unemployment benefits applicants about data leaks:

The breaches stem from two incidents in which states hired contractors to quickly implement the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA, a version of unemployment insurance for Americans who don't qualify for conventional unemployment benefits but are otherwise unable to work because of the pandemic.

[...] The first incident stems from Arkansas, which launched its PUA website May 5. A week and a half later, it was forced to temporarily take the website down and alert 33,000 initial applicants that they had been exposed to a "data security incident," said Alisha Curtis, a spokesperson for the state Commerce Department.

[...] According to The Arkansas Times, the state took those steps only after a programmer trying to file for unemployment noticed a vulnerability that exposed the Social Security numbers and banking information of people who had applied for the program.

A contract acquired by KATV-TV of Little Rock showed that the state had paid a local company, Protech Solutions, $3 million to create its PUA website in a span of three weeks. Protech didn't respond to a request for comment.

[...] The second incident stems from one vendor. Colorado, Illinois and Ohio all hired the international consulting company Deloitte to build their PUA websites, each of which launched last week. The states have since alerted residents of a potential data leak.

According to a video that Illinois state Rep. Terri Bryant posted to Facebook, a constituent who tried to register for PUA benefits stumbled across "multiple peoples' names, full Social Security numbers, addresses," physical addresses and correspondence with the state Employment Security Department.

[...] The states said Deloitte told each of them about a bug that gave some claimants access to others' personal information and said it fixed the issue within an hour. The company told Ohio that about two dozen of its residents were given such access, and it told Colorado that about six were, according to representatives of the states' labor departments.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe.

The newly named Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope—or Roman Space Telescope, for short—is set to launch in the mid-2020s. It will investigate long-standing astronomical mysteries, such as the force behind the universe's expansion, and search for distant planets beyond our solar system.

Considered the "mother" of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which launched 30 years ago, Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when she died in 2018.

"It is because of Nancy Grace Roman's leadership and vision that NASA became a pioneer in astrophysics and launched Hubble, the world's most powerful and productive space telescope," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "I can think of no better name for WFIRST, which will be the successor to NASA's Hubble and Webb Telescopes."

[...] Roman came to NASA in 1959, just six months after the agency had been established. At that time, she served as the chief of astronomy and relativity in the Office of Space Science, managing astronomy-related programs and grants.

"I knew that taking on this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge of formulating a program from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy for decades to come was too great to resist," she said in a NASA interview.

[...] Above all, Roman is credited with making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

[NB: Athlone is a town of over 20,000 located on the banks of the River Shannon in County Westmeath, Ireland. ]

https://www.westmeathindependent.ie/news/roundup/articles/2020/05/18/4189375-video-athlone-mans-beehive-made-out-of-lego-/

He said he now has approximately 30,000 native Irish black bees in the lego hive, and this will increase to between 50,000 and 60,000 at the peak of the summer.

"The bees seem happy out, even though they weren't too sure about it at the start!" he laughed.

Ruairi said the hive is made entirely of lego, and no glue was used in it.

"What the bees will do, given enough time, is they will propolise the whole thing. Propolis is a kind of glue that the bees get from trees, and with any gaps in a beehive, with any wind or air getting through, they will basically put their 'glue' in between to seal it up."

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looorg writes:

PAC-MAN was first publicly tested on May 22, 1980 and — now at 40 years old — is middle-age today. Celebrate with his wife and offspring:

https://www.pacman.com/en/:

Born on May 22, 1980, PAC-MAN immediately rose to meteoric popularity, first in video game arcades, then through an array of branding and entertainment appearances. With a brand recognition rate of 90% around the world, PAC-MAN's image is one of the most recognized on the planet and is as strong as ever as he enters his 40th year of entertaining fans of all ages.

[Ed addition: NVidia has taken this occasion to reveal it trained an AI with 50,000 hours of Pac-Man play. Not necessarily to play it, but instead to create a playable clone that was pretty close to the original.]

So take this opportunity to share some of your Pacman-memories?

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aristarchus writes:

Just a reminder of Amazing Astronomical Discoveries from Ancient Greece.

The Histories by Herodotus (484BC to 425BC) offers a remarkable window into the world as it was known to the ancient Greeks in the mid fifth century BC. Almost as interesting as what they knew, however, is what they did not know. This sets the baseline for the remarkable advances in their understanding over the next few centuries – simply relying on what they could observe with their own eyes.

Herodotus claimed that Africa was surrounded almost entirely by sea. How did he know this? He recounts the story of Phoenician sailors who were dispatched by King Neco II of Egypt (about 600BC), to sail around continental Africa, in a clockwise fashion, starting in the Red Sea. This story, if true, recounts the earliest known circumnavigation of Africa, but also contains an interesting insight into the astronomical knowledge of the ancient world.

The voyage took several years. Having rounded the southern tip of Africa, and following a westerly course, the sailors observed the Sun as being on their right hand side, above the northern horizon. This observation simply did not make sense at the time because they didn't yet know that the Earth has a spherical shape, and that there is a southern hemisphere.

[...] Sadly, the vast majority of these works were lost to history and our scientific awakening was delayed by millennia. As a tool for introducing scientific measurement, the techniques of Eratosthenes are relatively easy to perform and require no special equipment, allowing those just beginning their interest in science to understand by doing, experimenting and, ultimately, following in the foot steps some of the first scientists.

One can but speculate where our civilisation might be now if this ancient science had continued unabated.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Virtual cybersecurity school teaches kids to fix security flaws and hunt down hackers:

When Christopher Boddy was 14 years old, he'd log onto his computer after school to spend hours playing a game that taught him the basics of digital forensics, ethical hacking and cryptography.

It may not have been a typical after-school activity, but it was just what the UK government hoped for when it launched its Cyber Discovery program three years ago: It inspired Boddy, now 17, to consider a career in cybersecurity.

"I originally learned about it in school, but then I'd get stuck on problems that I needed to find the answer to," said Boddy, who lives outside London with his parents. "I'd stay up way later than I should have and postponed homework to get a challenge done."

What started as a school-based program to teach kids a new skill is extending into a virtual cyber school. It's filled with lessons and games to teach users how to fix security flaws on webpages, uncover trails left by cybercriminals and decrypt codes used by hackers. The program is now available online for any student ages 13 - 18 for free in the UK, and $100 a year in the US.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

NASA's OSIRIS-REx Ready for Touchdown on Asteroid Bennu:

​NASA's first asteroid sample return mission is officially prepared for its long-awaited touchdown on asteroid Bennu's surface. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has targeted Oct. 20 for its first sample collection attempt.

[...] From discovering Bennu's surprisingly rugged and active surface, to entering the closest-ever orbit around a planetary body, OSIRIS-REx has overcome several challenges since arriving at the asteroid in December 2018. Last month, the mission brought the spacecraft 213 ft (65 m) from the asteroid's surface during its first sample collection rehearsal — successfully completing a practice run of the activities leading up to the sampling event.

[...] The mission had originally planned to perform the first Touch-and-Go (TAG) sample collection event on Aug. 25 after completing a second rehearsal in June. This rehearsal, now scheduled for Aug. 11, will bring the spacecraft through the first three maneuvers of the sample collection sequence to an approximate altitude of 131 ft (40 m) over the surface of Bennu. The first sample collection attempt is now scheduled for Oct. 20, during which the spacecraft will descend to Bennu's surface and collect material from sample site Nightingale.

[...] During the TAG event, OSIRIS-REx's sampling mechanism will touch Bennu's surface for approximately five seconds, fire a charge of pressurized nitrogen to disturb the surface, and collect a sample before the spacecraft backs away. The mission has resources onboard for three sample collection opportunities. If the spacecraft successfully collects a sufficient sample on Oct. 20, no additional sampling attempts will be made. The spacecraft is scheduled to depart Bennu in mid-2021, and will return the sample to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023.

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