SoylentNews

Aug. 13: SpaceX settles on Friday for Starhopper’s next flight test milestone, FAA permitting

Aug. 15: SpaceX’s next Starhopper flight needs more analysis for FAA go-ahead, says Elon Musk

Aug. 20: SpaceX’s next major Starhopper flight test still awaiting FAA approval, says Elon Musk

News of the next hop test’s additional delays comes some four days before Elon Musk had planned to present an updated overview of Starship and Super Heavy in Boca Chica, Texas, and it seems that both events may have to wait.

[...] According to Musk, either or both of those orbital-class prototypes could be ready for their inaugural flight tests as early as mid-September, perhaps just 1-2 months from now. Given that Starships Mk1 and Mk2 are significantly higher fidelity than Starhopper, the ungainly testbed will likely become redundant the moment that its successors are ready for flight. In other words, Starhopper is fast approaching the end of its useful life, and SpaceX’s fight for a 200m hop-test permit could ultimately be a waste of time, effort, and money if said permit doesn’t also cover Starship Mk1.

Very annoying, but hopefully the presentation on the 24th goes ahead anyway. That will be more interesting than a second hop.

There are a lot of topics that could be addressed, such as the current plan for heat shield(s), amount of engines that will be used (at least initially) on the spaceship and the booster, the type of engines (sea level, vacuum), and updated figures for tons of cargo to LEO, as well as other destinations without an in-orbit refuel. How many tons can it get to geostationary orbit without a refuel (cheaper, less complicated)?

I've seen so many stories posted here and elsewhere in the past couple years about the new beef alternatives like the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger. I've heard the Beyond Burger is less meat-like, so I've waited to hear of an easy way to try the Impossible Burger. With Burger King making a big launch of it earlier this month, I finally decided to give it a shot today.

I ordered the Impossible Whopper, and (because I don't really know that I could remember what a regular Whopper tasted like) I ordered a regular Whopper beside it for comparison. I've read a lot of reviews, and I was interested in trying the Impossible Burger as many reviews claim it's enough like real meat that you might eat one unknowingly and not realize it wasn't meat.

Let me also clarify that I don't eat a lot of burgers (maybe once or twice per month), but when I do, I like real beefy burgers. I almost never order them out, because I'm almost always disappointed. I'm the guy who has experimented with grinding his own meat and blending different cuts together to make a better burger. I usually don't go to that trouble, but I do like grinding fresh to my liking and cooking real beef. I prepare burgers generally with a minimum of spices and filler to let the meat flavor come through. I know what real beef tastes like in a burger.

And the Impossible Whopper tastes nothing like real meat. It wouldn't fool me for a second. Now, I'll grant you that the actual "regular" Whopper also barely tastes like real meat to me, but it's still quite recognizable as a variant on those awful frozen burgers that family member you don't like buys a giant box of and feeds you on the Fourth of July or whatever. (Everybody knows those cheap frozen burgers, right?)

What does the Impossible Whopper taste like? I don't know, but it definitely has a sort of "essence of veggie burger" quality about it. Don't get me wrong: I actually like veggie burgers sometimes and occasionally order black bean burgers too. I have nothing against the veggie burger. Nor do I have anything against vegetarians -- I don't eat meat a lot of days and occasionally go for weeks or longer without eating significant meat (sometimes only used in small quantities for flavor or something). But the Impossible Whopper tastes like a veggie burger. Texture is more meat-like, I suppose, and it had a nice char (which is difficult on some kinds of veggie burgers), but the flavor was unmistakably "not meat."

Here's the weirdest thing I noticed, though -- I expected the loads of toppings on a Whopper to hide the taste of the burger. (Some reviews I've read said this explicitly.) But I found the best "meat-like" bites I had from the burger were when I tasted the patty by itself. Some of it was the char on some bits, but somehow the burger by itself -- while still not quite "meat" -- tasted much more "neutral" and less "veggie" when I tasted it by itself. When combined with all the rest of the toppings though, for some reason the flavor immediately screamed out to me as "does NOT taste like beef!"

There's no way I'd mistake this for beef, and there's no way if someone handed me a burger that tasted like this, I'd just assume it was beef. Maybe, just maybe, I could buy the idea that this was someone's strange excessive spice/additive concoction that transformed a beef patty into something that tasted less meaty, but there is something unmistakably "off" about the Impossible Burger.

I'm not saying I didn't like it, mind you. I'm saying it didn't taste like meat. The actual "regular" Whopper patty was relatively flavorless, so I wouldn't rate that high either. And if you asked me to choose which one had the better flavor, I'd have to say it was pretty close to a toss-up (with the "real" one barely winning out) -- but that's because I actually don't mind eating the occasional veggie burger and don't mind the "off" flavor.

What I'm struggling to understand is the market for this stuff. I've had other types of veggie burgers I've liked at least as much as this burger -- they're less meat-like in texture and flavor, but they have good flavor too. But most people I know who are vegetarian/vegan for ethical reasons likely won't step foot into a Burger King, because of its huge connection to factory farms and meat/beef (which is environmentally costly), even if Burger King could grill the burger separately. And the other people I know who eat veggie burgers and such on occasion usually do so for health reasons to avoid so much red meat, but the Impossible Burger has nutritional facts that basically make it as "bad for you" as a typical fast food burger, along with some questionable new additives that are barely FDA approved.

Who is eating this thing? Why? For those people who may have had an Impossible Burger experience better than I am likely to have had at Burger King, would you suggest that I try it elsewhere? Or do you agree with this assessment?

I've been learning to sail dinghies. I live a very long way from the sea so I sail on the local pond. It's been staring me in the face for years and a few months ago, missing the sea and boats in general, I decided to sign up for some courses.

I am fairly used to motor boats and have sailed aboard small yachts very occasionally a long time ago, but I figured I'd give it a try on my own as skipper.

I have a certificate now that means I can be let loose on the village pond in the company of a safety boat (captained by a young whipper-snapper shouting at me when I sit on the wrong side of the boat etc). Sailing a dinghy is very undignified. They tend to capsize, and it happens even to the best of us. What's more the pond water is green. It's not healthy like the sea.

Still, I went sailing on the sea with my dad again recently, and for once I was able to advise him about the trim of his sails.

A couple of queries on the moderatorlog table. Make of them what you will.

Most upmods received:
+--------------------+-----------------+
| nickname           | upmods received |
+--------------------+-----------------+
| Anonymous Coward   |          160701 |
| Runaway1956        |           10069 |
| takyon             |            8339 |
| frojack            |            7302 |
| c0lo               |            7062 |
| The Mighty Buzzard |            6845 |
| Thexalon           |            6787 |
| VLM                |            6682 |
| bob_super          |            5399 |
| aristarchus        |            5051 |
| Azuma Hazuki       |            4661 |
| Ethanol-fueled     |            4615 |
| Phoenix666         |            4160 |
| khallow            |            3978 |
| DeathMonkey        |            3916 |
| jmorris            |            3810 |
| DannyB             |            3733 |
| maxwell demon      |            3340 |
| edIII              |            3271 |
| bradley13          |            3262 |
+--------------------+-----------------+

Most upmods performed:
+----------------+------------------+
| nickname       | upmods performed |
+----------------+------------------+
| AnonTechie     |            10712 |
| HiThere        |             9504 |
| anubi          |             7578 |
| turgid         |             6837 |
| rts008         |             6564 |
| jelizondo      |             6275 |
| takyon         |             5764 |
| aristarchus    |             5724 |
| Freeman        |             5228 |
| Unixnut        |             5018 |
| DeathMonkey    |             4943 |
| acid andy      |             4782 |
| Sulla          |             4746 |
| Bloopie        |             4680 |
| PartTimeZombie |             4456 |
| canopic jug    |             4161 |
| dg             |             3987 |
| SomeGuy        |             3818 |
| Geezer         |             3798 |
| tonyPick       |             3775 |
+----------------+------------------+

I inadvertently excluded AC posts on my previous journal post. Apologies. And I don't think I can change comment options on an existing post. So I'm making another post in case others want to comment here. (And folks: let's keep the nonsense out of here, please. I'm opening comments up for discussion about the good of this site.)

As noted there, I have made a new donation (in addition to my previous subscription) of $200, and I've pledged to donate $100 more if we can get at least up to our semi-annual goal of $2000 by the end of August. See that linked journal entry for more thoughts on why we should do this.

Sulla has said there may be some Blackberry prizes available for those who donate, and he has donated $100 himself (as well as asking for someone to match him).

Will others join us? Challenge others? Pledge a match if we meet the goal?

[EDIT: Please continue discussion on this topic at this new journal entry. I inadvertently excluded AC comments here, and I don't think I can modify this post's comment policy.]

I've reflected a bit on a significant event that happened this week. To me, it was a really extraordinary thing. This week, SoylentNews went down for a while. I noticed something was weird when I looked at it in the morning, but by the time I had any opportunity to spend time on the site, it was live again.

A site like this that's powered entirely by volunteers experienced a significant hiccup, various solutions were tried, and it was resolved and restored as best as possible within a matter of several hours. That's really something.

And given that there seem to be questions about Slashdot's commitment even to anonymous posting and free speech anymore (let alone all the various complaints many of us left there for years ago), SN serves as an important place on the internet.

Because of that, I just made a donation of $200. I am already a subscriber to this site, but I donated again today. I'm NOT looking for any applause for doing so -- if anything, I'm hoping to encourage others to do the same. Perhaps even shame those who have never subscribed into doing so.

To that end, I will make a further pledge: IF OTHER DONORS CAN GET US UP TO OUR $2000 FUNDING GOAL BY AUGUST 31ST (roughly 2 weeks from now), I WILL DONATE AN ADDITIONAL $100 to SN.

The minimum subscription for a year is $20. That's less than 6 cents per day. Even if you look at this site once per week, that's 39 cents per week. Do you get any information or entertainment or other value out of this site? Why do you come back? If you do, please hit "Subscribe." I know from things said in comments here that many people make a lot more money than I do. If you can give $100/year, that's 28 cents per day. Think about how much you may pay for coffee or lunch out a few times per week or whatever, and ask yourself what value this site gives you. If you have some flexible spending money, give up a nice dinner out or two this month, and make a donation to SN.

Nobody asked me to do this. As many people know, I've had issues with this community at times. But the editors and the submitters and those who maintain the code and servers here -- they deserve our applause. And they need money to keep things going. Our Founders (according to the site info) incurred significant expenses to set this site up and have never been repaid properly. They deserve to. And the maintainers here deserve to have some extra cash in reserve in case things don't always go so well one year or something.

What did those guys who got our site back up the other night ask for? Nothing. In the long comment thread linked above, an AC made a comment suggesting a donation, and MartyB replied. Most other people just said "thanks."

But I see many usernames who said "thank you" who don't have a subscriber star next to their name. I know you can voluntarily hide it, but I wear it not to brag, but instead to shame others into thinking about subscribing. I realize some people may not be able to afford much or even anything. I know for some people even $20 out of their annual budget may be a significant expense to worry about. I want those people to be welcome here too. But consider -- even if you can only pay $5, that's something. That helps keep the site going.

(An aside: I also think it should be possible to "earn" a subscription to this site through volunteer work. If you are a site admin or editor and put in at least, say, X hours/year on this site, I think you automatically deserve to be identified as contributing to the community too. I would even be in favor of a special badge for that, but I also appreciate the egalitarian approach here -- so you guys at least deserve an automatic star next to your name, assuming you want to wear it.)

Also, lastly, I want to put out a call to the ACs of the world. Slashdot seems to be saying it doesn't want you. Most of the internet is saying it doesn't want you. SN welcomes you. Consider taking a moment and donating. I don't know if you can make an anonymous donation or not, or how that works, but I hope you consider doing so.

If you're already a subscriber, consider doing as I have done, and make an extra donation now. Give up a few lattes or pack a lunch a few times in the next few weeks, and give another $20.

I don't know if others have responded to MartyB's post, but the current ticker I see for funding says ~$210 out of $2000 for the second half of 2019. But that amount hasn't been updated since the site went down. I've already pledged $200 more toward that funding goal, and I hope others have too.

Again, I'll make another $100 donation if we can get to that goal by the end of the month. It's not a lot of money, but considering the time and effort put in by our admins to keep things running, it's well deserved. I hope others will step up and perhaps also offer a bonus donation. If we reach our goal quickly, I might consider an additional incentive for a stretch goal.

Hong Kong protesters call for 'Mulan' boycott after star went public in support of police

Even Mulan is getting political. Liu Yifei, the Chinese-born actress starring in Disney's upcoming live-action "Mulan" remake, waded into the Hong Kong protest controversy on Thursday by expressing support for the city's police, who anti-government demonstrators accuse of using excessive force to quell unrest. "I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong," she posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social media platform.

Immediately, people began posting #BoycottMulan on Twitter -- which is banned in China. Hours later, the hashtag was trending in Hong Kong and the United States with 37,700 tweets posted at time of writing. Twitter users accused the actress of supporting police brutality, and called out the fact that she's an American citizen. "Liu is a naturalized American citizen. It must be nice. Meanwhile she pisses on people fighting for democracy," one person tweeted.

On the flip side, she also received plenty of praise on Weibo, the dominant platform in China. Nearly all the comments on her post echoed support for the Hong Kong police and Beijing.

I'll make a man out of you.

Also at NYT and Deadline.

SMART Modular Shows Off 256 GB Gen-Z Memory Module

SMART Modular this month demonstrated one of the industry’s first prototypes of a EDSFF 3-inch DDR4 Gen-Z memory module. The ZMM supports advanced functionality enabled by the new interface and offers throughput akin to that offered by today’s DDR4-4000 memory modules.

SMART Modular’s 256 GB ZMM uses Samsung’s 32 Gb 4-high DDR4 DRAM devices as well as IntelliProp’s Gen-Z Mamba memory controller ASSP, which supports multiple access semantics, including byte and block addressable DRAM access, in-band configuration, and access key/region key memory isolation opcodes in a bid to simplify memory access needed to handle emerging data-centric workloads. The controller features 16 Gen-Z lanes with 25 Gbps PHY as well as 400 Gbps aggregate performance. The chip requires up to 20 W of power, so it needs proper cooling.

Gen-Z.

Trump official revises Statue of Liberty poem to defend migrant rule change

A top US immigration official has revised a quote inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in defence of a new policy that denies food aid to legal migrants.

The head of Citizenship and Immigration Services tweaked the passage: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".

The official added the words "who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge".

It comes as Trump officials debuted a regulation that denies aid to migrants.

Ken Cuccinelli, the Trump administration's acting head of Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced on Monday a new "public charge" requirement that limits legal migrants from seeking certain public benefits such as public housing or food aid, or are considered likely to do so in the future.

Missouri Walmart panic caused by armed man testing gun rights

A man who sparked panic by walking into a Walmart with a rifle and body armour told police he was testing his right to bear arms in public.

Dmitriy Andreychenko entered the shop heavily armed, days after a mass shooting at another of Walmart's stores. "I wanted to know if that Walmart honoured the second amendment," the 20-year-old told police after his arrest.

Prosecutors have charged him with making a terrorist threat. If found guilty, the charge could result in a four-year prison sentence and a fine of $10,000 (£8,300), Greene County prosecutor Dan Patterson said in a statement.

On 8 August, Mr Andreychenko entered the store "armed with an AR style rifle slung across his chest", police said, wearing a ballistic vest and recording himself. Both the rifle and a handgun he carried were loaded.

He told police he did not expect the reaction his walk generated. "This is Missouri, I understand if we were somewhere else like New York or California, people would freak out," he said, according to police filings. Days before, 20 people had been killed in a Walmart in El Paso by a gunman carrying an automatic rifle.

Also at CBS.