Sigh…craft brewers are worried that an EPA rule change could dismantle the Clean Water Act, undermining water systems across the United States — as well as their beer. Sixty craft breweries from across the country filed a brief in July in support of environmental advocates who are fighting the deregulation attempt in a case before…
Author: Agitator!!
Milky Way is ‘shaped like a Pringle’
New research shows our home galaxy is warped and twisted. A new study of the Milky Way shows that our home galaxy is significantly warped. Instead of forming a relatively flat disk, the hundreds of billions of stars that make up the Milky Way form a disk that’s noticeably twisted at the edges, a bit…
NASA just received a major data dump from Sun mission
The success of the Parker Solar Probe will ultimately depend on the data it sends back. The good news is that the probe’s communication system is performing well, and actually exceeding the expectations set during pre-launch testing. Because of that, the probe has managed to transfer a whopping 22 GB worth of data from its…
How to delete Siri, Alexa and Google recordings
It should come as no surprise, but Voice assistants are listening to you. USA Today tells you how to delete those recordings. Amazon and Google came under fire earlier this year for similar reasons when it was discovered workers were listening to the recordings the Echo and Google Assistant collected. Although smart speakers are only supposed to…
Mysterious release of radioactive material uncovered
Radiation leaks are never a good thing, no matter how small they may be. It was the most serious release of radioactive material since Fukushima 2011, but the public took little notice of it: In September 2017, a slightly radioactive cloud moved across Europe. Now, a study has been published, analyzing more than 1300 measurements…
A ‘super-Earth’ discovered just 31 light-years away
A potentially habitable ‘super-Earth’ has been discovered just 31 light-years away from our solar system, astronomers announced Wednesday. The planet, named GJ 357 d, is about six times larger than Earth and orbits a dwarf sun GJ 357, much smaller than our own, every 55.7 days. The international team of astronomers that discovered the planet…
‘Missing Link’ Planets Discovered Nearby
TESS discovers three new planets nearby, including temperate ‘sub-Neptune’. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, has discovered three new worlds that are among the smallest, nearest exoplanets known to date. The planets orbit a star just 73 light years away and include a small, rocky super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes — planets about half the…
Massive Capital One data breach
Capital One’s massive data breach may affect more than 100 million customers. On Monday, Capital One announced a massive breach involving more than 100 million customers, compromising information such as Social Security numbers, credit scores and credit card transaction data. For more, check out this USA Today story.
Device could automatically deliver drug to reverse opioid overdose
Purdue University researchers are developing a device that would automatically detect an overdose and deliver naloxone, a drug known to reverse deadly effects. For more, check out this Purdue.edu story.
SpaceX’s Mars rocket prototype takes its first flight
The brief flight was a key step in the development of a rocket that the company hopes will take people to Mars. The [Starhopper] rocket is the prototype for SpaceX’s vehicle called Starship. The company is building the enormous rocket to achieve its goal of transporting up to 100 people in the space flights. For…