Nobody Cares! (Science & Tech Edition)

[Free]

 

[danielravennest]

But what is the anomaly it shows? I just see it sitting there and then boom.

The eight "Super Draco" engines near the bottom of the capsule are intended to pull it safely away from a problem with the rocket it is riding on to orbit. Their fuels are di-Nitrogen Tetroxide and monomethyl- Hydrazine. These are nasty chemicals, but they have the advantages of being liquid at room temperature and "hypergolic", meaning they burn on contact with each other. This eliminates the need for an igniter, like a spark plug. That's one less part to go wrong in an emergency.

To push the fuels into the rocket engines, they use "carbon overwrapped pressure vessels" (COPV) holding helium under high pressure. One such vessel exploded during a tanking test of a Falcon 9 a few years ago. My suspicion is this happened again. The exploding pressure tank was like a hand grenade, and fragments would then puncture the two fuel tanks. Being hypergolic, they immediately caught fire. The reddish smoke observed after the explosion is characteristic of Nitrogen Dioxide, which is a decomposition product of di-Nitrogen Tetroxide (basically splitting the molecule in two). NO2 is also a major component of smog from vehicles, which is why the sky turns brown. So that indicates the tanks had fuel in them, and they were preparing for some kind of test of the capsule.

This capsule flew to the Space Station and back without incident, but it landed in the ocean, so the parts were exposed to salt water. Salt could have gotten to the pressure tank, causing shifting of the carbon fiber overwrap, or corrosion of the metal liner. Other parts of the capsule could also have suffered water damage or corrosion. There would be many paths then that could lead to an explosion. But I suspect the COPV, because it has failed in the past.

There may be another cause, but that's the most likely failure modes, based on what I have seen, and what I know of the Dragon 2 capsule.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I suspect it was taken from at least a mile away, at a high zoom level.

But what is the anomaly it shows? I just see it sitting there and then boom.

In space talk, "anomaly" means, "JFC. The damn thing done blowed all the hell up."

 

[Tigar]

In space talk, "anomaly" means, "JFC. The damn thing done blowed all the hell up."

Lol I read that in Foghorn Leghorns voice!

 

[Stora]

McDonald's plastic straw petition: Call to ditch paper straws

McDonald's is being called on to stop its roll out of paper straws in the UK and Ireland, amid claims that they "dissolve" in drinks.

The fast food giant is switching from plastic to paper straws at their 1,361 restaurants after customer pressure.

An online petition calling for a return to plastic straws has so far garnered more than 35,000 signatures.

like "drinking a milkshake through an empty toilet roll tube"

 

[danielravennest]

McDonald's plastic straw petition: Call to ditch paper straws



like "drinking a milkshake through an empty toilet roll tube"

I've been using the same plastic drink straw for a couple of years now at home. So long as you rinse it out, and you are the only user, there aren't any health hazards. This is one of the Wendy's shake straws, which are fat and sturdy to withstand the suction from a thick shake. So just bring your own.

 

[Ashiri]

I've been using the same plastic drink straw for a couple of years now at home. So long as you rinse it out, and you are the only user, there aren't any health hazards. This is one of the Wendy's shake straws, which are fat and sturdy to withstand the suction from a thick shake. So just bring your own.

That works because you plan ahead. A lot of people won't (or can't) do that. They are the sort who continue getting new bags for grocery shopping instead of reusing.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

When I was a kid, paper straws were standard. Can't ever remember any dissolving.

 

[danielravennest]

In weird and wonderful technology news Solar Cells Work Better With Coffee

 

[Govi]

Dammit, that pot of coffee was for solar array 2. Its Wattmeter was showing it to be a bit down today. Please make another and I'll pour.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

In weird and wonderful technology news Solar Cells Work Better With Coffee

Makes as much sense as anything else going on these days.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

The other term is "spontaneous rapid disassembly" or variants of that.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

 

[Porsupah Ree]

Hands up all those who didn't see this coming..

Verizon is looking to sell Tumblr after squandering its potential

Where will Tumblr land next?

www.theverge.com

Verizon is seeking a buyer for Tumblr, the blogging platform it acquired along with other Yahoo assets in 2017. The Wall Street Journal reports that Verizon has approached other companies in recent weeks that could be potential new homes for Tumblr.

Will it survive? I'm not sure who'd be eager to pick it up - even it were all Pence-safe, you're looking at a fair few staff plus huge traffic costs without any means of sustaining it other than ads and user data being sold to some 300 vendors. (Literally. When GDPR first became a thing, Yahoo offered a control panel, with one option being disabling each vendor in turn. Just for fun, I did so, and copied & pasted each pageful as I went)

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Pornhub could buy it.

 

[Porsupah Ree]

Pornhub could buy it.

From your mouth to the CEO's ears..

Pornhub Is "Extremely Interested" In Acquiring Tumblr

Pornhub confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it is interested in acquiring Tumblr after news broke that Verizon is looking to sell the blogging platform.

www.buzzfeednews.com

Pornhub Vice President Corey Price said in an email to BuzzFeed News that the porn-streaming giant is extremely interested in buying Tumblr, the once uniquely horny hub for young women and queer people that banned adult content last December to the disappointment of many of its users.

Price said that restoring Tumblr's NSFW edge would be central to their acquisition of it, were it to actually happen.

 

[Ellie]

This just happened to me
Firefox Disabled All My Extentions | Hacker News

[QUOTE

I opened Firefox and all of my extensions are disabled saying One or more installed add-ons cannot be verified and have been disabled. Is anyone else experiencing this?

QUOTE]

Any help much appreciated. Just when I though it was safe to watch Downton Abbey again...sigh.

ETA Update Unable to download any add-ons · Issue #978 · mozilla/addons

OK folks, I see (in IRC) that a Product Manager is aware of the wide impact… it's being handled quickly

I certainly hope so.

ETA disabled signature checking in about:config xpinstall.signatures.required, set extensions.legacy.enabled to true, closed FF and then was prompted to update my addons, got em all back, phew!

 

[Clara D.]

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware

To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.

Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform "unauthorized" repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware

A dive into the thriving black market of John Deere tractor hacking.

motherboard.vice.com

 

[Clara D.]

This just happened to me
Firefox Disabled All My Extentions | Hacker News

[QUOTE

I opened Firefox and all of my extensions are disabled saying One or more installed add-ons cannot be verified and have been disabled. Is anyone else experiencing this?

QUOTE]

Any help much appreciated. Just when I though it was safe to watch Downton Abbey again...sigh.

ETA Update Unable to download any add-ons · Issue #978 · mozilla/addons



I certainly hope so.

ETA disabled signature checking in about:config xpinstall.signatures.required, set extensions.legacy.enabled to true, closed FF and then was prompted to update my addons, got em all back, phew!

OMG thanks, I just disabled automatic updates for the time being.

Fonts are too hard to read in Chrome for reasons that elude me.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

This was caused by a certificate expiring. To fix it you need to enable studies, which lets Mozilla push live code down to you any time they want (I had it disabled of course).

As it turns out I don't have any add-ons anyway.

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05/04/update-regarding-add-ons-in-firefox/