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Red Tape at Starbase, and more
SpaceX’s Starbase environmental review delayed another month
The FAA says that it will take at least another month to complete a crucial environmental review of orbital Starship launches from SpaceX’s South Texas Starbase facilities.
The agency now expects that Starbase’s Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) will be completed no earlier than March 28th, 2022, delaying the process at least another four weeks on top of an initial delay from December 31st, 2021 to February 28th, 2022. However, while the FAA gained some infamy for repeatedly delay SpaceX Starbase launch operations in late 2020 and early 2021, there is growing evidence that other US government agencies – not the FAA itself – are primarily responsible for most of the review’s delays.
Namely, information acquired through a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request indicates that US Departments of Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and National Parks Services (NPS) are the primary sources of recent delays and the only real sources of discord this late in the process.
[...] It’s difficult to say how many of the concerns raised are actually serious. For example, the point repeatedly made by the DOI, FWS, and NPS is that hypothetical emissions from a natural gas power plant SpaceX proposed to build in its Draft PEA would violate EPA rules.
However, since that draft was published, there is growing evidence that SpaceX is behind a brand new power distribution line set to connect Boca Chica and Brownsville, Texas. The new lines appear to be sized to provide Starbase with enough power to entirely preclude the need for the construction of any dedicated power plants on site. Only a backup power source of some kind would be necessary. Assuming SpaceX is actually behind the development, it’s difficult to believe that the company hasn’t communicated that change of plans to the FAA and other Starbase PEA stakeholders.
They are ramping up operations in Florida as a hedge against something going wrong with the environmental assessment.
Earlier this month, NASA expressed concern over SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's plans to orbit 30,000 more Starlink satellites. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency said that the plan could create "substantial congestion," increase the potential for collisions, and interfere with NASA's missions.
The letter was sent to the FCC because it's reviewing SpaceX's license application for a new generation of satellites, Starlink Gen2. SpaceX received an initial FCC license for 12,000 satellites in 2018.
SpaceX Beats $20 Million Wrongful Death Claim in Texas Crash (archive)
Brownsville activist speaks out after arrest over anti-SpaceX graffiti on Musk-funded mural
It's on, maybe (Russia vs. Ukraine)
Putin orders troops to breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent on Monday and ordered the Russian army to launch what Moscow called a peacekeeping operation into the area, accelerating a crisis the West fears could unleash a major war.
[...] Russian state television showed Putin, joined by Russia-backed separatist leaders, signing a decree recognising the independence of the two Ukrainian breakaway regions -- the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic - along with agreements on cooperation and friendship.
Defying Western warnings against such a move, Putin had announced his decision in phone calls to the leaders of Germany and France earlier, both of whom voiced disappointment, the Kremlin said.
As Putin sends troops into Donbas, White House avoids the 'I' word
As Russian armored columns were seen entering the two areas, it was clear that the order will immediately reconfigure the European security landscape as capitals across the continent scramble to respond to the possibility that has long faced them: a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“This was a speech to the Russian people to justify war,” a senior administration official told reporters Monday.
The official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive issues, wouldn’t call the move an invasion, however, saying “Russian troops moving into Donbas would not itself be a new step. Russia has had forces in the Donbas for the past eight years.”
It’s an important distinction, as an invasion would trigger sanctions on Russia and imperil diplomatic meetings that were set on the condition that Russia not invade Ukraine.
Still, the official said they “strongly suspect sanctions activity” from the Biden administration on Tuesday.
After announcing he would recognize the regions, Putin met with Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, leaders of the Russian-backed rebel forces and signed documents pledging cooperation and aid.
See also: The U.S. warns that Russia has a 'kill list' of Ukrainians to be detained or killed
U.S. sanctions Russia for declaring independence of eastern Ukraine territories
‘Dumb and lazy’: the flawed films of Ukrainian ‘attacks’ made by Russia’s ‘fake factory’
Quadruple Asteroid and Sea Sponges
The First Quadruple Asteroid: Astronomers Spot a Space Rock With 3 Moons
Astronomers had already spotted two other rocks orbiting the asteroid known as 130 Elektra, and think more quadruple systems are out there.
First observation of a quadruple asteroid
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Deep-sea Arctic sponges feed on fossilized organisms to survive
The sponges, some over 300 years old, eat the remains of critters from at least 2,000 years ago
These sponges survive the deep sea by feeding on remains of long-dead animals
Giant sponge grounds of Central Arctic seamounts are associated with extinct seep life
35W Alder Lake Desktop
Intel's 35W 'Alder Lake' T-Series CPUs Sneak into Retail
Intel is now shipping its latest low-power Core i7-12700T and Core i9-12900T processors with a 35W TDP in Europe and Japan, meaning we'll see them on Western shores soon. Aimed at small form-factor and fanless PCs, Intel's hybrid Alder Lake-S CPUs look particularly good for these market segments with their energy-efficient cores. They also appear to have quite reasonable pricing, too.
For AC who was asking about the 35W chips. But they can still go up to 106W lol.
Radxa Zero 2: 6 cores in Pi Zero Form Factor
Radxa Preps a Compact Six-Core Answer to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: The Radxa Zero 2
I was going to wait until a CNX Software story popped up about this, but I guess they are waiting on more information.
Take the form factor of the Raspberry Pi Zero, and stuff in a 6-core that is faster than the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B:
Radxa Zero 2 is a low profile single board computer with a small form factor. Powered by Amlogic A311D SoC, it can run Android and selected Linux distributions.
Radxa Zero 2 features a hexa-core 64-bit ARM processor, 4GB 32bit LPDDR4 memory, HDMI output up to 4K60p, onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, USB 3.0, and 40-pin GPIO header. Additionally, the power port can also be used as a USB 2.0 OTG port to connect more peripheral.
GPU performance should be way up, going from Mali-G31 MP2 to Mali-G52 MP4. It also gains a 5 trillion operations per second (TOPS) NPU.
Both the S905Y2 and the A311D are Amlogic SoCs on a "12nm" process node, but you would wonder about heat issues from running 4x Cortex-A73 and 2x Cortex-A53.
I think the ROCK5 Model B with the RK3588 is more interesting than this constrained device which seems like a knee-jerk reaction to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, but it's still funny to see what can be done at this small size.
Obligatory I can't buy this, it doesn't exist.
See also:
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W vs Radxa Zero – Features and benchmarks comparison
A bunch of gameplay tests and other videos about the Radxa Zero
VR Boots
Solving VR’s ‘infinite walking’ problem with moon boots
Ever wonder how it’s possible to create a convincing VR scenario that lets you, say, trek through the Sahara Desert without the painful, immersion-breaking experience of colliding with a wall in your apartment? Ekto VR believes it has the answer: Slip on a pair of the company’s simulator boots over your regular shoes, don a VR headset, and you’re able to experience walking through virtual environments that are far, far larger than the physical space you’re contained within.
Ekto VR’s boots work by using an array of motorized wheels on their underside, which spin counter to the speed that the user is walking in. In order to avoid motion sickness, the boots allow the wearer to initially take several steps forward. This is done to provide the necessary vestibular inner-ear cues to tell their bodies that they are accelerating forward. However, after a few steps, the boots automatically glide the wearer back to the center of the room so that they appear to be walking on the spot, as if on a treadmill. Meanwhile, the user believes they are continuing to make forward progress — and, based on the VR scene they’re experiencing, they are.
But can I double jump?
Sci-Hub Injector Extension Swiftly Killed
I was going to make a submission about this earlier, but the add-on has already been wiped off of Mozilla and GitHub, seemingly "voluntarily" by its creator. So there may be more to the story.
Browser Extension Adds Sci-Hub Download Links to Publishers’ Websites
As scientists and academics of all kinds turn to Sci-Hub to freely access scientific papers, a new browser tool aims to make access even more straightforward. Currently available from the Mozilla addon store but also compatible with Chrome, 'Sci-Hub Injector' embeds Sci-Hub download links into popular publishers' websites.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29954046
Sci Hub Injector
SciHub Injector is currently offline.
I will keep the paragraph below.
Important legal notice
I don't recommend doing things that go against whatever laws that apply where you are. I condemn illegal activities. This is the user's reponsibility. SciHub is not affiliated in any way with this project.
Replicating this yourself should be relatively easy. Grabbing the DOI should be trivial, and then maybe you want to find the best places to slap a Sci-Hub button on each major publisher's website. Insert a link or button anywhere a valid DOI is found as a fallback. Inline SVG could be used to replicate the raven logo.
The True Budget GPU
We Finally Have Our First GeForce GT 1010 GPU Benchmark
NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 1010 Is So Slow That Even Intel’s Iris Xe Integrated GPUs Can Outperform It
This would be weaker than the Vega 6 graphics in the Ryzen 3 5300G (the OEM-only Cezanne quad-core desktop APU).
Android Desktop Mode (Motorola "Ready For")
Turn An Android Phone Into A Desktop PC! Motorola’s New Desktop Mode! Moto Edge X30 (10m28s video)
The Motorola Moto G100 shows why we might no longer need a PC soon (May 2021)
https://nexdock.com/compatible-smartphones/
Samsung, Motorola, Huawei, and Xiaomi all have their own desktop modes.
Know any good internet radio stations?
I prefer direct URLs which can be loaded by an <audio> element. In some cases you have to inspect a web page to find a URL, but they may be dynamic and stop working after some time. Others will work indefinitely.
Two places to look: the Icecast directory and Radio Garden.
I'm also looking for the minimum amount of JavaScript necessary to extract the currently playing song/show without knowing about the type of stream loaded. I might end up using this:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/icecast-metadata-js
https://eshaz.github.io/icecast-metadata-js/
Check the 90.9 Jazzy rádió - Jazzy Cool example, and it clearly captures the song title metadata.
