Featured Links - June 3, 2024

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

A peaceful place

Updated Formula on Alien Intelligence Suggests We Really Are Alone in the Galaxy. "An adjustment to the famous Drake Equation could radically refine estimates of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy."

What’s the best way to fight viral disinformation? Look to South Florida? (gift link) "Latinos are using personal credibility to fight online rumors."

Fighting, Fleeing and Living on Iceland’s Erupting Volcano. "Residents of Grindavík hope hastily constructed walls of old volcanic rock will divert hot lava streaming from fissures in the ground beneath them."

Tonga’s volcanic eruption could cause unusual weather for the rest of the decade, new study shows. "Our findings show the volcano can explain last year’s extraordinarily large ozone hole, as well as the much wetter than expected summer of 2024. The eruption could have lingering effects on our winter weather for years to come."

Cleaning Crew Discovers One of the World’s Oldest Surviving Desktop Computers. "The 1972 Q1 microcomputer could fetch $60,000 at auction."

Computer Scientists Invent an Efficient New Way to Count. "By making use of randomness, a team has created a simple algorithm for estimating large numbers of distinct objects in a stream of data."

Will Musk’s Starlink satellites lead to Kessler syndrome? "Space weather poses a tremendous threat to all satellites, knocking all computer systems offline. Is that a recipe for Kessler syndrome?" I am beginning to think that we should not be allowing these huge satellite constellations. 

Google won’t comment on a potentially massive leak of its search algorithm documentation. "A purported leak of 2,500 pages of internal documentation from Google sheds light on how Search, the most powerful arbiter of the internet, operates."