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SpaceX Starlink to go South for first time with planned deployment in Texas:

SpaceX has agreed to provide Internet service to 45 families in a Texas school district in early 2021 and to an additional 90 families later on, the school district announced last week. The announcement by Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) in Odessa said it will be the "first school district to utilize SpaceX satellites to provide Internet for students."

"The project will initially provide free Internet service to 45 families in the Pleasant Farms area of south Ector County," the district said. "As the network capabilities continue to grow, it will expand to serve an additional 90 Ector County families."

The Texas location is notable because the ongoing, limited Starlink beta exists only in the northern US, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said an upcoming public beta will only be for the northern US and "hopefully" southern Canada. SpaceX has over 700 Starlink satellites in orbit, and will be able to expand the service area as it deploys more of the nearly 12,000 it has been authorized to launch. In Washington state, Starlink has been deployed to rural homes, a remote tribe, and emergency responders and families in wildfire-stricken areas.

The ECISD announcement said the service will begin "early in 2021" without saying exactly when, but an article by the Odessa American newspaper said it will be in January. The total project cost is $300,000, half of which is being provided by Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit group for school-district leaders, according to the Odessa American. Families who are selected will get Internet service for free for one year, the report said.

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NASA's Big Moon News: There's Water All Over the Place:

NASA promised some "exciting" news about the Moon today, and we're pleased to report the space agency has delivered. As many of you correctly guessed, the discovery has to do with frozen water on the lunar surface. The new research, in addition to providing the best evidence to date of water ice on the Moon, suggests this valuable resource is scattered across the lunar surface, including in areas exposed to direct sunlight and in tiny pockets cast in permanent shade.

Two papers published today in Nature Astronomy are redefining what we know about the Moon and its ability to stock a precious natural resource: water. Scientists have long suspected that frozen water exists on the Moon, particularly at the poles, but the new research provides the most definitive evidence yet, owing to the detection of actual water molecules on the lunar surface. The new research also identifies a slew of shadowy pockets, known as cold traps, in which much of this frozen water could be hiding.

That water ice exists on the Moon is significant from a purely scientific perspective, but it's also important in terms of how it will influence future missions to the lunar surface. An important goal for the upcoming NASA Artemis missions will be to collect and retrieve water ice from the southern polar regions, which now seems more possible than ever. What's more, the apparent abundance of water on the Moon means it can be sourced locally, which is excellent news for future explorers or colonists.

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Unravelling prehistoric fire use: Variation in fire conditions equals variation in human behavior:

Building a fire involves many variables, such as size, choice of fuel, temperature, and burn time, that affect the way the generated heat can be used, and therefore the potential function of a fire. A group of Leiden archeologists are, together with a team of international colleagues, investigating remains of Paleolithic hearths in order to characterize the use of fire by our distant ancestors. Results of this project, initiated by the late Freek Braadbaart, were recently published in the Journal of Archeological Science. We spoke with one of the authors, ancient fire expert Femke Reidsma.

[...] Eighteen Upper Paleolithic hearths from the famous site of Abri Pataud were analyzed. Abri Pataud is a rock shelter with a well-preserved sequence, located in the Southwest of France. "These prehistoric hearths consist of ashy material, highly fragmented charcoal, and heated bone," Femke Reidsma explains. Using a combination of new techniques and reference data, the researchers explore the remains' clues on the application of the fire. "We can now analyze the materials to get to the heating conditions of former fires."

[...] Summarizing, Reidsma concludes that the main takeaway of this approach is that it is the way forward. "By combining the results from different methods and different materials we got a much clearer and complete picture than we would have gotten if we only looked at the charcoal or the bone. In terms of archeological interpretations, we confirmed suspicions that were already there. The discovery of the dung and the debunking of the bone-as-fuel theory also have implications for other sites."

Journal Reference:
F. Braadbaart, F. H. Reidsma, W. Roebroeks, et al. Heating histories and taphonomy of ancient fireplaces: A multi-proxy case study from the Upper Palaeolithic sequence of Abri Pataud (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France), (DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102468)

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SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral:

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 more Starlink internet relay satellites on Saturday, boosting the total number launched to date to 895 as the company builds out a planned constellation of thousands designed to provide global high-speed broadband service.

Running two days late because of an on-board camera issue, the Falcon 9's twice-flown first stage thundered to life at 11:31 a.m. EDT, pushing the 229-foot-tall rocket away from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was the California rocket builder's 19th launch so far this year and its 15th Starlink flight.

[...] With Saturday's launch, SpaceX has put 895 Starlinks into orbit, 180 of them — more satellites than any other company owns — in less than three weeks.

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Fleadom! Holland releases 5,000 fleas to solve knotweed problem:

Dutch researchers have released thousands of Japanese leaf fleas in hopes of getting a harmful and invasive plant species under control.

Japanese knotweed, also known as Asian knotweed, were first introduced to the Netherlands in the 19th century as an ornamental plant, but the species is now notoriously invasive. Its roots can damage concrete pavements and foundations and it is so proliferous that it chokes out local flora.

For the first time, the Dutch government issued an exemption on a nationwide ban on introducing an alien species to the Netherlands in order to combat the plant. 5,000 of the insects will be released on three field locations initially, to determine if they will survive the winter and establish themselves through the new year.

The leaf flea, also known as the Japanese knotweed psyllid (Aphalara itadori), is a natural predator of knotweed. It feeds on young shoots of knotweed plants and can slow down or even stop its growth by sucking on the nutritious sap of the plant.

Researchers from the Institute of Biology in Leiden, where Japanese knotweed was first brought into the Netherlands, started field experiments this week to use the psyllid as a "weapon" against the incendiary plant.

[...] As to whether the psyllid could turn the tables and cause widespread damage to other plants, Ms Lommen said: "There are very reliable methods to determine this. For example, extensive risk analyses have been performed for plant species in North America, England and Northwestern Europe.

[...] Japanese Knotweed is is classified as an invasive and destructive species in several countries

Aphalara itadori

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Deezer Knows People Are Pirating Its Service But Says It Won't Stop Them * TorrentFreak:

Today's legal music streaming services are providing a service that would've been unimaginable 15 years ago.

Not only do they provide access to tens of millions of tracks, they do so conveniently, on multiple platforms, and at a fair price. In fact, streaming services like Spotify and Deezer go a step further by offering a free-tier that costs nothing.

In many respects and for most people, it's the often-mentioned piracy-busting formula made reality. Of course, there are some outliers.

[...] This week, a number of people using modified Deezer clients received an interesting email directly from the 'Deezer Security Team'. At least one user posted a copy to Reddit, with others confirming they'd received the same communication.

"We see you," the email begins, with a small pirate flag waving alongside.

"We know that you're not using the official version of Deezer, and we're not going to stop you."

As disarming sentences go, this is a pretty big one when it comes to piracy. While Deezer knows that these specific users are pirating its service, has their email addresses (and probably all of their IP addresses too), and could instantly ban them or worse, it says it will do absolutely nothing. Not even the threat of a ban makes it to the email.

Deezer

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Crews vacuum 'murder hornets' out of Washington nest:

The state Agriculture Department had spent weeks searching, trapping and using dental floss to tie tracking devices to Asian giant hornets, which can deliver painful stings to people and spit venom but are the biggest threat to honeybees that farmers depend on to pollinate crops.

The nest found in the city of Blaine near the Canadian border is about the size of a basketball and contained an estimated 100 to 200 hornets, according to scientists who announced the find Friday.

Crews wearing thick protective suits vacuumed the invasive insects from the cavity of a tree into large canisters Saturday. The suits prevent the hornets' 6-millimeter-long stingers from hurting workers, who also wore face shields because the trapped hornets can spit a painful venom into their eyes.

[...] The nest was found after the state Agriculture Department trapped some hornets this week and used dental floss to attach radio trackers to some of them.

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Facebook May Face Federal, State Antitrust Charges as Soon as November:

State and federal investigators are planning to slap Facebook with antitrust charges as soon as November, four people familiar with the matter told the Washington Post. Such a lawsuit would mark the government's latest crackdown on the biggest names in the tech industry, including Apple, Google, and Amazon, for holding monopolies on their respective markets.

[...] Sources said that state officials are "in the late stages of preparing their complaint" per the Post. A fifth person familiar with the matter told the outlet that investigators expect to have "an initial roster of participants" by Friday.

[...] Unrelated to these antitrust charges, Facebook is also facing increased government scrutiny over its moderation practices in the wake of rampant misinformation about the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election on its platform. The Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas this week for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg along with another social media big wig, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, to testify about the platforms' moderation policies as well as their alleged anti-conservative bias and censorship.

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How to Clean Up Your Digital History:

Once you post something to the internet, it's there forever unless you take steps to remove it (and even then, you may not be successful.) While keeping your digital history around in perpetuity can have its advantages—digging out those tax emails from 2006, looking back on vacations from half a decade ago—it's also worth keeping some parts of our online trails as short as we can.

First, it means nothing from our past can come back and embarrass us. Second, it makes it harder for advertising companies to keep track of what we're up to online. And third (in the case of files and emails at least), it frees up space for new stuff.

If you've decided that you'd rather not have decades worth of tweets and emails hanging around, there are ways to put limits on your digital baggage. Note this is slightly different to stopping sites and networks from tracking you as you make your way around the web, though the two are definitely linked.

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Russian Scientists discover 5,000-year-old skull of failed brain surgery patient in Crimea - World News , Firstpost:

Russian scientists have discovered a 5,000-year-old skull of a man who had undergone ancient brain surgery and most probably died from it.

According to a report in Times Now, researchers have shown incredible 3D images from Crimea which show proof of trepanation surgery (practice of drilling a hole in the skull of the patient) on the Bronze Age man who was in his 20s. The researchers said that the surgery was not successful and the "unlucky" patient did not survive for long after undergoing a stone 'scalpel'.

According to Head of the Laboratory of Contextual Anthropology Dr Maria Dobrovolskaya, this is evident from the absence of obvious traces of healing since traces of trepanation are otherwise clearly visible on the surface of the bone.

According to a report in Daily mail, scientists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow said that the ancient doctor most definitely possessed a surgical set of stone tools.

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Boston Dynamics' dog-like robot spotted in Chernobyl:

According to multiple reports, on October 22, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was visited by the engineers of the University of Bristol. Their task was to test the robots under Exclusion Zone conditions, and one of such robots was a world-famous Spot, a four-legged drone, developed by Boston Dynamics.

The Spot is an agile mobile robot that navigates the terrain with unprecedented mobility, allowing you to automate routine inspection tasks and data capture safely, accurately, and frequently.

The robot explored the surroundings in the zone and also under the New Safe Confinement, which was designed to prevent the release of radioactive contaminants, protect the reactor from external influence, facilitate the disassembly and decommissioning of the reactor, and prevent water intrusion.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow0495:

Timekeeping theory combines quantum clocks and Einstein's relativity:

A phenomenon of quantum mechanics known as superposition can impact timekeeping in high-precision clocks, according to a theoretical study from Dartmouth College, Saint Anselm College and Santa Clara University.

Research describing the effect shows that superposition—the ability of an atom to exist in more than one state at the same time—leads to a correction in atomic clocks known as "quantum time dilation."

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, takes into account quantum effects beyond Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to make a new prediction about the nature of time.

"Whenever we have developed better clocks, we've learned something new about the world," said Alexander Smith, an assistant professor of physics at Saint Anselm College and adjunct assistant professor at Dartmouth College, who led the research as a junior fellow in Dartmouth's Society of Fellows. "Quantum time dilation is a consequence of both quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity, and thus offers a new possibility to test fundamental physics at their intersection."

Journal Reference:
Alexander R. H. Smith, Mehdi Ahmadi. Quantum clocks observe classical and quantum time dilation [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18264-4)

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Judge again blocks Trump administration push to ban WeChat in the US:

A judge in California has rejected a request from the Department of Justice to reverse a previous decision allowing WeChat to remain active in US app stores. US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said new evidence the government presented did not change her opinion about the messaging app, owned by Chinese company Tencent app.[sic] WeChat will remain active in US app stores for the time being.

"The record does not support the conclusion that the government has 'narrowly tailored' the prohibited transactions to protect its national-security interests," Beeler wrote in her decision. The evidence "supports the conclusion that the restrictions 'burden substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government's legitimate interests.'" President Trump issued an executive order in August to ban WeChat, invoking the Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act.

[...] Beeler's earlier order blocked the Commerce Department ban of US transactions on WeChat. And while the government claimed it has identified "significant" threats to national security, Beeler did not appear persuaded. She said in her September 20th order that a group of WeChat users calling themselves the WeChat Alliance had demonstrated there were "serious questions" about whether the ban would potentially violate their First Amendment rights.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Chemists develop new material for the separation of carbon dioxide from industrial waste gases:

Chemists at the University of Bayreuth have developed a material that could well make an important contribution to climate protection and sustainable industrial production. With this material, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂) can be specifically separated from industrial waste gases, natural gas, or biogas, and thereby made available for recycling. The separation process is both energy efficient and cost-effective. In the journal Cell Reports Physical Science the researchers present the structure and function of the material.

[...] "Our research team has succeeded in designing a material that fulfils two tasks at the same time. On the one hand, the physical interactions with CO₂ are strong enough to free and retain this greenhouse gas from a gas mixture. On the other hand, however, they are weak enough to allow the release of CO₂ from the material with only a small amount of energy," says Martin Rieß M.Sc., first author of the new publication and doctoral researcher at the Inorganic Chemistry I research group at the University of Bayreuth.

Journal Reference::
Martin Rieß, Renée Siegel, Jürgen Senker, Josef Breu. Diammonium-Pillared MOPS with Dynamic CO2 Selectivity, (CC BY 4.0) Cell Reports Physical Science (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100210

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Facebook Aims to Muzzle NYU Research Into Its Political Ad Targeting:

Facebook's trying to muzzle a group of academic researchers working to shine a light on the company's notoriously opaque political-ad targeting practices. It's threatened the team with "enforcement action" if they don't pull the plug on the project and wipe all data gathered so far, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Researchers with New York University's engineering school launched the NYU Ad Observatory project in September, an initiative that uses a custom-built browser to gather data from more than 6,500 volunteers on what kind of political ads Facebook shows them. Facebook contends that this violates its terms of service banning automated data collection. Per the Journal, Facebook's director of privacy and data policy Allison Hendrix sent a letter on Oct. 16 warning the researchers that they "may be subject to additional enforcement action" if the university doesn't shut down the project immediately and delete any data it has collected.

"Scraping tools, no matter how well-intentioned, are not a permissible means of collecting information from us," she wrote.

Also at: CTV News.

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