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Submission + - So many birds are migrating that they're appearing on weather radar (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Between 2010 and 2013, the radars were upgraded with technology that allows both horizontal and vertical pulses of energy to be emitted. By comparing the returned signals, meteorologists can determine the shape of whatever is in the sky. Raindrops are a bit wider than they are tall, and shaped like hamburger buns; snowflakes are — obviously — flaky; but lofted tornado debris is spiked or jagged.
Birds, meanwhile, appear as somewhat spiked objects, as do insects. But insects appear a bit more round and uniform on radar, and are also lightweight enough to become caught up in the wind. Birds travel higher than most bugs, and also can fly against or perpendicular to the wind. After all, they have places to go — southward. Meteorologists can also determine their direction of motion through their analyses.

Submission + - How USB-C Ended the Great Connector Wars (itbrew.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's easy to forget the dark ages of peripheral connectivity. A twisted nest of proprietary connectors was the norm. Then, in 2014, a hero emerged: USB-C. It promised a reversible connector, high-speed data transfer, and enough power to charge a laptop. It was a revolution. This article from IT Brew breaks down the three waves of USB-C adoption, from its humble beginnings in the PC industry to its EU-mandated takeover of the mobile world. It's how a single connector brought order to the chaos and became the undisputed king of the hardware industry.

Comment Re:Food education sucks (Score 2) 76

by buchner.johannes (#65640092) Attached to: Ultra-Processed Foods - It's Time For an Improved Definition

There are two pieces of nutrition health advice that have stood the test of time:

1. don't eat too much.
2. have a varied diet.

One incarnation of the first one is to eat until 80% full. Or to chew slowly, so your stomach (which is slow to realise) can properly indicate fullness.
One incarnation of the second is the food pyramid, another easy to remember one is 5 fruits and vegetables of different color per day.

If you come across advice of the form "you need this one thing in your diet", it's rubbish (see point 2). Similarly, "the most healthy" - does not make sense. There are many ways to create a varied diet.

Also, food has cultural and social aspects.

Comment Grey bans (Score 2) 105

by buchner.johannes (#65627734) Attached to: What Made Meta Suddenly Ban Tens of Thousands of Accounts?

It seems part of Meta's issue is that they only have "ban" or "no ban" in their toolbox. Wrongdoing complaints have to be thoroughly investigated, and they err on one side or the other. Why not create more options, like:

* tarpit ban: require logging in again after each action - people can still use their account somewhat, for attackers it becomes annoying, rate-limit how many followers can see new posts (first 10 after 1 hour, first 100 after 2 hours, etc).
* hidden ban: hide all activity of a user to non-friends, unless it receives one like from a friend, shadow-ban messaging to non-friends.
* ...

Submission + - 3 decades of satellite data confirm predictions of early sea level rise models (wiley.com)

Submitted by Mr. Dollar Ton
Mr. Dollar Ton writes: Three decades of satellite-based measurements of global sea-level change enable a comparison of models and reality and show that early IPCC climate projections were remarkably accurate. Predictions of glacier mass loss and thermal expansion of seawater were comparatively successful, but the ice-sheet contributions were underestimated. The findings provide confidence in model-based climate projections.

Key findings:

* IPCC projections in the mid-1990s of global sea-level change over the next 30 years were remarkably robust

* The largest disparities between projections and observations were due to underestimated dynamic mass loss of ice sheets

* Comparison of past projections with subsequent observations gives confidence in future climate projections

Submission + - Recreating a Rare Mutation Could Grant Almost Universal Virus Immunity For Days (sciencealert.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: The mutation, a deficiency in interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), causes a mild yet persistent inflammation across the body. Examining patients' immune cells revealed they'd had the usual run of encounters with flu, measles, chickenpox, and mumps, yet they'd never reported feeling particularly ill as a result.

Further investigation revealed their body's virus-fighting proteins were constantly on a low level alert, never really put away for later like in most people.

Submission + - New Zealand Air Traffic Control failure likely caused by data transfer issue

Submitted by twosat
twosat writes: The air traffic control failure that disrupted transtasman flights at the weekend was caused by an issue with the cross-system transfer of flight information data, says Airways New Zealand’s boss. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/...

New Zealand’s oceanic air traffic control system was disrupted by a technical fault in Airways’ main Operational Control System (OCS) platform on Saturday night.

The fault closed oceanic airspace, forcing five Australia-bound flights to circle off New Zealand’s coast, and delaying planes in both countries.

Submission + - By learning to harness light like nature, we're launching a new era of green che (phys.org)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: In the Polyzos research group at the School of Chemistry, we have developed a new class of photocatalysts that, like plants, can absorb energy from multiple photons.

This breakthrough allows us to harness light energy more effectively, driving challenging and energy-demanding chemical reactions.

Submission + - In Barcelona, certain buses run on biomethane produced from human waste (lemonde.fr)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: Odorless, quiet, sustainable. On the last day of July, passengers boarded Barcelona's V3 bus line with no idea where its fuel came from. Written in large letters on the bus façade, just below its name "Nimbus," a sign clearly stated: "This bus runs on biomethane produced from eco-factory sludge." Still, the explanation was likely too vague for most to grasp its full meaning. The moist matter from wastewater treated at the Baix Llobregat treatment plant was used to produce the biomethane. In other words: the human waste of more than 1.5 million residents of the Catalan city.

Submission + - AI Is Talking Behind Our Backs About Glue-Eating and Killing Us All (vice.com)

Submitted by fjo3
fjo3 writes: A study released July 20 on arXiv by Anthropic and Truthful AI shows that large language models can slip subliminal messages to one another. They don’t need to literally spell things out. A string of numbers or lines of code is enough to pass along biases, preferences, and some disturbingly violent suggestions.

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