Nick @internic@qoto.org

Shimmering in the night of space, a solar sail is pushed by the pressure of photons from the sun as it orbits the earth. It's just a test - it's tumbling, its engines aren't keeping it aligned. But it's a step toward the dream of solar-powered space flight.

This photo is taken from the solar sail itself. It has four black-and-white wide-angle cameras, centrally located aboard the spacecraft. Near the bottom of the photo, the view from one camera shows the reflective sail quadrants supported by booms. At the top of the photo is the back of one of the sail's solar panels. The booms are mounted at right angles, and the solar panel is rectangular, but they're distorted by the wide-angle camera.

The sail is called the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System. In my next post, check out a prettier picture of what it might look like from afar.

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This isn't a knock on the fediverse - I have tremendous respect for the community here, or I wouldn't even post this - but the cratering of social media by oligarchs in the last year or five just makes me so unbelievably sad sometimes. These incredible communities have been destroyed by greed and it makes it so hard to invest emotionally in anything any more. This is particularly hard when you're an introvert & those spaces were a huge support. I wonder how many, like me, just haven't recovered.

Had a crank weigh in on an old blog post I wrote titled "How much does a photon weigh?" and that's as good an excuse as any to share it again: https://skullsinthestars.com/2016/10/01/how-much-does-a-photon-weigh/

I'm happy that the Massachusetts Audubon Society isn't affiliated with the National Audubon Society (in fact MAS was the first audubon society in the country and came into being before NAS), because that means I don't have to stop donating to MAS and cancel my membership because NAS has joined Elon Musk in trying to get the NLRB ruled unconstitutional. Ref: https://cwa-union.org/news/releases/birds-feather-audubon-joins-elon-musk-challenging-constitutionality-labor-law-after
#unions #solidarity #politics #USPol #MassachusettsAudubonSociety

Armed with two rooted Android phones and three Wi-Fi hotspots running cell site simulator detection software developed by EFF, @WIRED conducted a first-of-its-kind wireless survey of the signals around the Democratic National Convention.
https://www.wired.com/story/dnc-hidden-signal-hunt/

Our newest "Change Technically" episode is out, in which @grimalkina and I tackle biological determinism, the truth about ~ gamma and dopamine (IN MICE) ~ , and the ways in which programmers can get involved in neuroscience!

All aboardddddddddd 🚂 🧠

http://changetechnically.fyi/

produced by the wonderful @danilo

I'm tired of invasive subscriptions designed to get worse over time! Our newest video dives into these problematic services and how to navigate them for your sanity, your wallet, and your private data. Watch the video now:
https://youtu.be/agewQEn7MmI

Finally it happened to me as well: developers complaining that the behavior of my OSS libraries does not match what ChatGPT explains to them. 🤦‍♂️

NASA Deploys Sail of Experimental Spacecraft Propelled Purely by Light
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-deploys-sail-of-experimental-spacecraft-propelled-purely-by-light?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Space @space-ScienceAlert

On the path to a new era in science.

In 14 days, we will be celebrating the opening of the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM)!

The MPZPM is an interdisciplinary joint research center of Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Elrangen-Nürnberg & the Uniklinikum Erlangen.

More 👉 https://bit.ly/About-MPZPM

R.I.P., Les Earnest - computing pioneer and curmudgeonly trouble maker (in a good way) https://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/

Absolutely trolling the commenters by guesting on an EDC/gear show and ostentatiously not covering my keys' bittings when showing off what's in my pockets. But it turns out that they're all just common keys like the CH751 & FEOK1 plus a classic KW1 stamped "HOME" cut to a bitting of 42069.

A reporter just sent me a link to this: https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/LmD-lumen-orbit-data-centers-in-space

He wants to interview me about some fucking start-up company's planned 16 km^2 solar panels and fucking *AI data centers in orbit*

I think maybe I'll just walk into the middle of my hayfield and scream for a while instead. @Jason want to join? (Others are welcome too). Screaming begins in 5... 4... 3...

NASA is known for its cool tools, and the space agency has developed another: an autonomous underwater robot. A fleet of these robots will dive deep under Antarctica’s polar ice to help scientists better understand how rapidly the ice is melting due to climate change. Learn more about Project IceNode in this video from CNN: https://flip.it/YJQaRs
#Science #NASA #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Antarctica

The Russia-Tenet overpaid pundit operation reminds me of when a Russian literary agent suggested I could get an $100,000 advance to write a book about Kaspersky. After I explained that the company would not get any say over the content, he disappeared.

Oh here we go, Starfleet has dusted off the old "DOMINION, DOMINION, DOMINION" Playbook. How predictable.

Hey RFK Jr! Kiss my vaxxed butt!

#COVID #Flu

Against my better judgment, I posted something similar on LinkedIn, and OMG the "stay in your lane" responses dominate. It's almost as if half the security professionals in this country see absolutely zero connection between national security and cybersecurity.