The useless information thread

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  • silvermouse
    silvermouse Posts: 25,331 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A teaspoon of neutron-star material weighs roughly a billion tonnes.

    Source: Space https://share.google/ZZ84qECeeeB6u7WWU

  • silvermouse
    silvermouse Posts: 25,331 ✭✭✭✭✭

    soulless

    Just today, we published a startling scoop about Meta. WIRED journalists Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron revealed that the company quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into associated software that’s already been downloaded on millions of phones—all while Meta said it was still “thinking through” adding the feature. Dhruv and Dell are clever reporters, and technically proficient: To get this scoop, they closely scrutinized the app’s code base to determine what Meta has embedded and how it would work, then consulted independent researchers to confirm the findings.

    In sum: Meta’s technology can convert faces captured by its smart glasses into unique biometric signatures, checking each one against a database of faceprints. The product would then alert users when a face is recognized. “Despite the billions of reasons not to, Meta seems to have created the capacity to turn their customers into a distributed surveillance machine,” Cooper Quintin, security researcher and senior public interest technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Threat Lab, tells Dhruv and Dell.

  • silvermouse
    silvermouse Posts: 25,331 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Lol

    Free to a good home: The Cape Cod bridges are up for "adoption." After more than 90 years of bridge parenting, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is making the Sagamore and Bourne bridges available to the public, as the project to replace them nears on the horizon. But this isn't like your local adopt-a-highway program. WBUR's Dan Guzman spoke to the Army Corps about what a potential bridge adoption entails.

    What it means: Put simply, "they will have to take the entire bridge," Army Corps spokesperson Sheandra Sterling told Dan. That means physically dismantling the massive steel-and-concrete spans and moving them somewhere else. Sterling said applicants will need a relocation plan and to show they have the money to maintain the historic structures. "Then they'll have to demonstrate the ability to handle the environmental compliance because these are old bridges from the 1930s, so they will have lead paint and things like that," she added.
    Who adopts a bridge? The offer is open to any public and private entity. Sterling said there are people out there who are "very interested" in historic preservation. "They see them as historical pieces that they want to keep or use parts from them to repurpose for whatever reason," she said. Perhaps the most famous example is when an American businessman bought the soon-to-be-replaced London Bridge; over the course of over two years, it was then taken apart and shipped piece by piece across the Atlantic Ocean and through the Panama Canal to Arizona, where it was rebuilt by Lake Havasu.
    Why are they up for adoption? It's actually required by federal law. A 1966 law mandates the Army Corps put old infrastructure, like the bridges, up for grabs before replacing them. However, according to Sterling, actual adoption isn't something that happens with much, if any, frequency. If there are no takers, the Army Corp's plan calls for the Cape bridges to be demolished after their replacements open.
    What's next? The deadline for bridge adoption applications is soon: June 26. So far, Sterling said the Corps haven't heard from anyone interested.

  • Rdp77
    Rdp77 Posts: 8,677 ✭✭✭✭✭

    So if they’re “adopted “, the adoptee must maintain the historic structures.
    If they’re not…they’ll just be demolished
    Makes sense lol

    If it don’t bother me, it don’t bother me. Just leave me alone.

  • silvermouse
    silvermouse Posts: 25,331 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Pretty much it. Rusty. I doubt anyone would go to the expense of taking them for scrap. But rules are rules for us nongovernmental commoners.

  • ShawnOL
    ShawnOL Posts: 15,472 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I prefer the term "peasant ".

    Trapped in the People's Communist Republic of Massachusetts.

  • dirtdude
    dirtdude Posts: 6,755 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The London Bridge at Lake Havasu was moved in the '60s so it can be done. It's the 2nd largest tourist attraction in AZ. There was nothing there when the guy put it there in the middle of all that desert he had bought up.

    A little dirt never hurt
  • Yakster
    Yakster Posts: 33,694 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Friends of the family had a vacation house and ski boat in Parker. Had fun there, even sailed my little Hobie 12 on the river, but I don't think we ever went to see London Bridge.

    Join us on Zoom vHerf (Meeting # 2619860114 Password vHerf2020 )
  • silvermouse
    silvermouse Posts: 25,331 ✭✭✭✭✭

    These Are The Feet Of An Ostrich Just In Case Anyone Was Wondering Where The Dinosaurs Went

    .

  • edz
    edz Posts: 717 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @silvermouse said:

    These Are The Feet Of An Ostrich Just In Case Anyone Was Wondering Where The Dinosaurs Went

    .

    And they are killer. Raised emu for awhile, cute when they are young.

  • Rdp77
    Rdp77 Posts: 8,677 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Don’t forget the Cassowary…

    If it don’t bother me, it don’t bother me. Just leave me alone.

  • silvermouse
    silvermouse Posts: 25,331 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @edz said:

    @silvermouse said:

    These Are The Feet Of An Ostrich Just In Case Anyone Was Wondering Where The Dinosaurs Went

    And they are killer. Raised emu for awhile, cute when they are young.

    And when they stop being cute? Are they good to eat?

  • Rdp77
    Rdp77 Posts: 8,677 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yes, it’s actually very good.

    If it don’t bother me, it don’t bother me. Just leave me alone.

  • ShawnOL
    ShawnOL Posts: 15,472 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The drumsticks must be huge.

    Trapped in the People's Communist Republic of Massachusetts.

  • Olekingcole
    Olekingcole Posts: 1,740 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm ignorant to this, what's the purpose of having them? Are they bred to provide some sort of use like keeps snakes away, for eating them or are the feathers in demand? Are you plucking ostriches over there? I need to know

    I don't have problems, just more work to do.