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☆ Astronomers say we may live at the center of a cosmic void 2 billion light-years wide that defies the laws of cosmology
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Jessica Orwig | Ellyn Lapointe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But the kicker is that this giant void shouldn't exist in the first place. For example, some people have correctly argued that such a void shouldn't exist in the standard model, which is true. Cosmologists have a value, called the Hubble constant, which they use to help describe how fast the universe's expansion is accelerating. The Hubble constant should be the same value wherever you look, whether it's close by or very far away. NASA/JPL-CaltechAstronomers can't agree on what's causing this discrepancy in the Hubble constant, and the contention has become known as the Hubble tension.

Persons: —, we're, Claire Lamman, Indranil, Andrews, Hubble, Brian Keating, Keating, Banik Organizations: Service, Business, Harvard, Smithsonian Center, Astrophysics, Indranil Banik, University of St, Banik, Royal Astronomical Society, KBC, Hubble, NASA, JPL, Caltech, ESA, Palomar, Sky, UC San Diego, Sky Survey

☆ A guide to the most important characters in Sarah J. Maas' 'Crescent City' series
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Samantha Grindell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The "Crescent City" series has a massive cast of characters that can be hard to keep track of. On January 30, Sarah J. Maas will release "House of Flame and Shadow," the third book in her best-selling "Crescent City" series. "Crescent City" has a huge cast of characters, most of which are magical creatures referred to as Vanir. To help prepare you for the third book, Business Insider created a guide to some of the most important characters in the "Crescent City" universe. AdvertisementThe rest of this article contains major spoilers for the "Crescent City" and "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series.

Persons: Sarah J, Maas, —, Bryce Quinlan, Hunt Athalar, Ruhn Danaan, Bryce, Ember Quinlan, Randall Silago, Einar Danaan, Einar, Prince, Ruhn, Danika Fendyr, Orion, Hunt, Bryce's, Danika, Sofie Renast, Baxian Argos, Baxian, Asteri, Connor Holstrom, Bryce ., Archangel Micah, Connor, Luna's Horn, Micah, Declan Emmet, Tristan Flynn, Declan, Flynn, Fury, Juniper, Holstrom, Tharion, Sofie Renast's, Emile, Sabine Fendyr, Ithan, Sabine, Lidia Cervos, Hypaxia Enador, Enador, Celestina, Crescent, Lidia, Sandriel, Pollux Antonius, It's, Hel, Aidas, they're, Rigelus, Bryce doesn't, Feyre Archeron, Nesta, Amren, Cassian, Rhysand, Teller, Gwydion Organizations: Service, Business, 33rd Legion, Alpha, Bloomsbury, of, Sirius, Court, Wings Locations: Lunathion, Crescent, Bloomsbury, Midgard, Crescent City, Valbara, Hel, Ruhn, Nesta

☆ Q+A What is known about the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Nerijus Adomaitis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

This is what we know so far:WHAT ARE NORD STREAM PIPELINES? The multibillion-dollar infrastructure project was built by Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) in two stages - Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Gazprom owns 51% of Nord Stream 1, while Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE) and Wintershall Dea (WINT.UL) have 15.5% each, while French Engie (ENGIE.PA) and Dutch Gasunie (GSUNI.UL) hold 9% each in Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream 2, fully owned by Gazprom and operated by Nord Stream 2 AG, was completed in September 2021 at a cost of $11 billion, but was never put into operation because Germany had cancelled Nord Stream 2's certification days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The Nord Stream pipelines have been a flashpoint in an energy dispute between Europe and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Persons: Pipes, Fabian Bimmer, Wintershall, OMV, Peter Frank, Die, Seymour Hersh, Mats Ljungqvist, Der Spiegel, Der Siegel, BfV, Nerijus Adomaitis, Christoph Steitz, Nina Chestney, Ros Russell Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Gazprom, Nord, E.ON, Shell, . Security, WHO, Washington Post, Die Welt, . Security Council, Reuters, Street, ZDF, Kyiv, CIA, NDR, WDR, German Federal Intelligence Service, Thomson Locations: Baltic, Mukran, Germany, Rights OSLO, Russia, Swedish, Bornholm, Sweden, Denmark, Nord, Ukraine, Uniper, Washington, NATO, Moscow, Kaliningrad, Russian, Britain ., U.S, Norway, China, Brazil, Rostock, Wiek, Rugen, Danish, Christianso, Kolobrzeg, Poland, Europe, United States, Oslo, Frankfurt

☆ A 7-year journey to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth will soon end in Utah
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The cargo van-size spacecraft arrived in orbit around the asteroid Bennu in December 2018, providing detailed views of the spinning top-shaped space rock. Other worldsA training model of the OSIRIS-REx mission's sample return capsule was released from an aircraft in August, simulating the upcoming recovery operations. Keegan Barber/NASAThe OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will fly by Earth this weekend and drop off its precious sample from Bennu. Watch as the sample capsule is set to plunge through Earth’s atmosphere and land in the Utah desert, with NASA’s live coverage beginning at 10 a.m. As the capsule parachutes down, OSIRIS-REx will keep going, embarking on a new adventure to explore the asteroid Apophis.

Persons: CNN —, REx, NASA’s, Keegan Barber, ”, Deutsches, Monopoly, you’re, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Rice University in Texas, Mechanical, Zimbabwe, Bochum, Iron, Swedish Museum of, Publishing, Andromeda Galaxy, CNN Space, Science Locations: Utah, Dürrnberg, Austria, Austrian, Zambia, Tasmania, Stockholm, Western Australia

☆ Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2023: Stunning shot of giant plasma arc scoops top prize
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Amarachi Orie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A photograph of a huge plasma arc next to the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, has won the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition for a team of amateur astronomers. A team of amateur astronomers, led by Marcel Drechsler from Germany and Xavier Strottner from France, discovered a previously unknown galactic nebula. Marcel DrechslerScientists are now investigating the large object, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Andromeda Galaxy, in a transnational collaboration, according to the observatory. The nebula is located in the Centaurus constellation, about 6,000 lights year away from Earth, according to the release. Two 14-year-old boys from China won Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year for their image of The Running Chicken Nebula.

Persons: Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner, Yann Sainty, ”, astrophotographer, —, Runwei Xu, Binyu Wang, Yuri Beletsky, Monika Deviat, Ethan Chappel, Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, John White, Chandra, Katherine Gazzard Organizations: CNN, Andromeda, Observatory Greenwich, Young, China, Young Astronomy, Sun, Perseus, Art, Royal Museums Greenwich, Maritime Museum Locations: Germany, France, China

☆ Elon Musk and Grimes thought of changing the name of their daughter to Andromeda Synthesis Story Musk but just ended up calling her Y
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk and Grimes cycled through multiple names for their daughter, per Musk's new biography. Both wanted to call her Sailor Mars, after the anime character, before settling on Exa Dark Sideræl. But they contemplated changing her name to Andromeda Synthesis Story Musk earlier this year. Musk shares three children with Grimes — elder son X Æ A-Xii, known as X; daughter Exa Dark Sideræl, known as Y; and younger son Techno Mechanicus , known as Tau. Besides his Grimes' children, the billionaire has twins with Neuralink director Shivon Zilis , and five older children with his ex-wife, Justine Musk .

Persons: Elon Musk, Grimes, Mars, Elon, Grimes —, Techno, Walter Isaacson, Sailor Mars, Isaacson, Musk, Shivon Zilis, Justine Musk Organizations: Service, Musk Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ UAE's G42 launches open source Arabic language AI model
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Max A. Cherney | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Startup Cerebras System's new AI supercomputer Andromeda is seen at a data center in Santa Clara, California, U.S. October 2022. Rebecca Lewington/Cerebras Systems/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 30 (Reuters) - A group of engineers, researchers and a Silicon Valley-based chip company collaborated to release advanced Arabic language software that can power generative AI applications. The new large language model called Jais contains 13 billion parameters that was made from a big batch of data combining Arabic and English, a portion of which is from computer code. The new language model was created with the help of supercomputers produced by the Silicon Valley-based Cerebras Systems, which designs dinner plate-sized chips that compete with Nvidia's (NVDA.O) powerful AI hardware. The group trained the Jais model on a Cerebras' supercomputer called a Condor Galaxy.

Persons: Rebecca Lewington, Cerebras, Mohamed bin, Timothy Baldwin, Baldwin, Max A, Josie Kao Organizations: Cerebras, REUTERS, Systems, United Arab Emirates, University of Artificial Intelligence, Reuters, Condor Galaxy, Thomson Locations: Santa Clara , California, U.S, University, Abu Dhabi, San Francisco

☆ 8 of the world’s best new theme parks
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Kate Springer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

Peppa Pig Theme Park, FloridaFlorida's Peppa Pig Theme Park opened in 2022. Peppa Pig Theme ParkThe world’s first Peppa Pig Theme Park opened last year in Winter Haven, Florida, and has been delighting children with wholesome fun ever since. Look out for another Peppa Pig Theme Park, opening in Dallas, Texas, next year. Peppa Pig Theme Park. Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park, MalaysiaMalaysia's Genting SkyWorlds Theme Park offers 26 attractions across nine themed areas.

Persons: we’re, Katmandu, Kilgore Goode, Kyle Grillot, Peach’s, Mount Beanpole, Mario, Bowser, Bowser Jr, Tomohiro Ohsumi, Miyazaki’s, There’s, LEGOLAND, gil, Aquaverse, there’s, Chang, Potato’s, Grandad, Wynter, ” Organizations: CNN, Northern, Columbia Pictures, Super Nintendo, California Mario Kart, Universal Studios Hollywood, Bloomberg, Universal Studios Japan, Mushroom Kingdom, Toadstool, Nintendo, Universal City Plaza, Universal, Ghibli, Ghibli Park, South Korea LEGOLAND, LEGOLAND, Thailand Columbia Pictures, Columbia, Lotte, Adventure, South Korea Lotte, Adventure Busan Lotte, Tinker, Potato’s Showtime, Genting, Andromeda Base, Plaza, Genting SkyWorlds Locations: Japan, Thailand, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Caribbean, Nepal, Av, Alemania, California, Bowser’s, Mount, Universal City , CA, Nagoya, Nagakute, Aichi, Korea, South Korea, York, Legoland, LEGOLAND Korea, Chuncheon, Seoul, Gangwon, Asia, Pattaya, Bangkok, Transylvania, Chon, Adventure Busan, Tinker Falls, “ Queen, “, Busan, Florida, Winter Haven , Florida, Dallas , Texas, Wynter Haven , Florida, Malaysia, Resorts, Kuala Lumpur, Rio, Liberty Lane, Central Park, Genting, Genting Highlands, Pahang

☆ Webb telescope spots cosmic question mark in space
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Kristen Rogers | Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A cosmic object in the shape of a glowing question mark has photobombed one of the latest images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — and scientists think they know what it might be. The two have been observed and studied by space and ground-based telescopes since the 1950s, but the highly sensitive Webb telescope allowed for the highest-resolution and most detailed image yet. NASA/ESA/CSA/Joseph DePasquale (STScI)The Webb telescope illuminates information about the origins of our universe, but the appearance of this mysterious object in the background of this image leaves more questions than answers. The cosmic question mark hasn’t been closely observed or studied, so scientists aren’t exactly sure about the object’s origins and makeup. The question mark shape could also be “indicative of a merger where these two galaxies are interacting gravitationally,” Britt said.

Persons: NASA’s James Webb, Joseph DePasquale, ”, Matt Caplan, Caplan, it’s, Christopher Britt, Webb, ” Britt, Britt, ” Caplan, —, “ Nobody’s, George Washington, ’ ” Caplan Organizations: CNN, NASA, ESA, CSA, Illinois State University, “, Telescope Science Institute

☆ Germany tells UN: Nord Stream inquiry found subsea explosive traces on yacht
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] The 50-feet-long charter yacht "Andromeda", which German prosecutors had searched believed to be used for the blasts of the Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 is seen in a dry dock in Dranske at Ruegen island, Germany, March 14, 2023. A series of unexplained explosions hit the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea last September in the exclusive economic zones of Germany, Sweden and Denmark. "It is suspected that the boat in question may have been used to transport the explosives that exploded at the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines," the letter said of Germany's inquiry. "According to expert assessments, it is possible that trained divers could have attached explosives at the points where damage occurred to the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, which are laid on the seabed at a depth of approx. Russia failed in March to get the U.N. Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into the Nord Stream blasts.

Persons: Oliver Denzer, Michelle Nichols, Stephen Coates Organizations: Nord, REUTERS, UNITED NATIONS, . Security, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Baltic, Dranske, Ruegen, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian

☆ Smaller valuations and a lack of ego helped Spain's startup scene avoid some of Europe's shocking collapse in VC funding, investors say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Spain's startup scene has evaded some of the collapse in VC funding that has rocked Europe in 2023. Smaller check sizes and a lack of "ego" has somewhat protected the ecosystem, investors say. Smaller valuations, check sizes, and a distinct lack of ego helped Spain's startup scene evade some of the shocking collapse in venture capital funding that has rocked Europe so far this year. Smaller rounds give Spain's startups an edge in the downturnWhat correction was felt was eased by the fact there is less "ego" in Spain's ecosystem, according to Max Bray, an investor at early-stage firm K Fund. As well as the birth of local growth funds, investors see corporations playing a role in closing the funding gap.

Persons: SoftBank, Catalyst, Pablo Pedrejón, Max Bray, Dalia Silberstein, Pedro Arribas Gridilla, Juliette Simonin, Margarita Albors, Tasmin Lockwood, Bray, Marc Sabas, Fund's Bray, Wallbox cofounders Enric Asunción, Eduard Castañeda, Glovo, Wallbox, Oscar Pierre, Ship2B's Sabas, Danae Vara, Danae Vara Ship2B, hasn't, Sabas, CVCs, There's, Félix Ortega, K Fund's Bray, Sérgio Massano Organizations: Accel, Pedrejón, Venture, Fund, Esade Center, Social, Foundation, Spanish, K Fund, Investors, Danae Vara Ship2B Ventures, Investment, Corporations, Barcelona Activa, Telefónica, BBVA, Proeduca Locations: Europe, Spain, Madrid, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Seaya, Bray, Vara, Barcelona, Silicon, London

☆ Poland was not hub for Nord Stream sabotage, prosecutors say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WARSAW, June 22 (Reuters) - There is no evidence to suggest that Poland was used as a hub for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, Polish prosecutors said on Thursday, rejecting a report that a team that blew up the pipelines may have used Poland as an operating base. The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported this month that German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as its base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September. "The statement that 'Poland was a logistics hub for the operation of blowing up Nord Stream' is completely untrue and is not supported by the evidence of the investigation," the Polish National Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. Citing people familiar with the voyage, it said the sabotage crew placed deep-sea explosives on Nord Stream 1 before they setting the vessel on a course towards Poland. Polish prosecutors said that the Andromeda had sailed to Poland from the German island of Ruegen and spent 12 hours in a Polish port.

Persons: Alan Charlish Organizations: WARSAW, Street Journal, National Prosecutor's, Rzeczpospolita, Thomson Locations: Poland, Nord, Baltic, Ruegen, Polish

☆ Nvidia GPUs are so hard to get that rich venture capitalists are buying them for the startups they invest in
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nvidia GPUs are essential for training the big models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. That gives big tech companies an advantage over smaller startups. Nvidia GPUs are the water that feeds today's flourishing AI ecosystem. This is giving Big Tech companies another huge advantage over smaller upstarts. Many startups can't afford that, or they just can't get hold of the chips.

Persons: TSMC, OpenAI, Bing, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, That's, Friedman, Gross, Jack Clark Organizations: Nvidia, Big Tech, Microsoft, Google

☆ Nord Stream sabotage probe turns to clues inside Poland- WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 10 (Reuters) - German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. German investigators have fully reconstructed the two-week voyage of the "Andromeda", a 50-foot (15-metre) white pleasure yacht suspected of being involved in the sabotage of the pipelines that supply Russian gas to Europe, the newspaper said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday told German media that Ukraine did not attack Nord Stream pipelines. German media in March identified the possible involvement of a yacht from a Poland-based company owned by Ukrainian citizens in the attack. The Journal cited people familiar with the Andromeda’s voyage as indicating the sabotage crew had finished half their job, laying deep-sea explosives on Nord Stream 1, before they set their Bavaria 50 Cruiser on a course away from their target, toward Poland.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Shivani Tanna, William Mallard Organizations: Wall Street, Germany's Federal Criminal Police, Poland's, Washington Post, Wednesday, Wall Street Journal, Bavaria, Thomson Locations: Poland, Baltic, Europe, Germany, Germany's, Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark, Ukrainian, Bengaluru

☆ Nord Stream sabotage probe turns to clues inside Poland, Wall Street Journal reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 10 (Reuters) - German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The investigators have reconstructed the two-week voyage of the "Andromeda", a 50-foot (15-metre) yacht suspected of being involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the newspaper said. The Journal cited people familiar with the voyage as indicating the sabotage crew had placed deep-sea explosives on Nord Stream 1, before they set the vessel on a course towards Poland. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines hastened the region's switch to other energy suppliers. Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Germany.

Persons: Stanislaw Zaryn, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Shivani Tanna, Karol Badohal, William Mallard, Helen Popper Our Organizations: Wall Street, Germany's Federal Criminal Police, Polish, Special Services, Twitter, Nord, Gazprom, Washington Post, Wednesday, Thomson Locations: Poland, Baltic, Germany, Germany's, Russian, Warsaw, Kiev, Ukraine, Nord, Sweden, Denmark, Ukrainian, Bengaluru

☆ Temple University now offers a porn-studies course. In the class, students talk about things they 'don't even discuss with their closest friends.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Annalise Mabe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Temple University started its first porn-studies course this semester. Pollitt hopes the course will help students understand sex and sexuality better. Professor Jennifer Pollitt, the assistant director of gender, sexuality, and women's studies at Temple University, teaches the class, which garnered a lot of attention from students. The class often has deep discussions about sensitive material that students "sometimes don't even discuss with their closest friends," Pollitt said. Evelyn Andromeda, a third-year undergraduate student at Temple University, said she went into this class not really knowing what to expect.

☆ Opinion | The Hollywood Writers’ Strike Isn’t About Money, It’s About Survival
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Zack Stentz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Continuing to succeed consistently over the course of a career can often seem next to impossible. But after three seasons of steady television work and a screenplay credit on the hit movie “Agent Cody Banks,” my luck finally ran out. The W.G.A.’s members make on average around $250,000 a year — and that’s before taxes, union dues and commissions to agents, managers and lawyers. The reality is that the seemingly big paychecks of Hollywood have to last through the lean periods that nearly every writer experiences. The formulas used to calculate the money owed for various forms of reuse are complicated and vary widely across platforms.

☆ Solving the mystery of the most powerful objects in the universe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Astronomers first discovered quasars, considered to be the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe, 60 years ago — but they didn’t understand their origin. Now, scientists think they have unlocked the mystery behind what ignites these celestial objects. Astronomers observed 48 different galaxies that contain quasars and compared them to more than 100 galaxies without them. When two galaxies merge, massive amounts of gas are pushed toward the supermassive black holes located at their centers. “Quasars play a key role in our understanding of the history of the Universe, and possibly also the future of the Milky Way.”

☆ Economists and policymakers were fretting about a wage-price spiral. Not any more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The experts were worried about a so-called wage-price spiral. Businesses' revenues "have risen faster than costs, and so margins have room to absorb rising labor costs." "It's not that a wage-price spiral couldn't happen, but it's low on the list of concerns versus the factors we know are problematic," she said. A key mechanism that would fuel a wage-price spiral, workers' bargaining power, has been weakened because unions have less power than in the 1970s, Makszin added. "But if you let interest rates go down against inflation and in effect weaken, you have an inflation spiral.

OAKLAND, California, March 28 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence chip startup Cerebras Systems on Tuesday said it released open source ChatGPT-like models for the research and business community to use for free in an effort to foster more collaboration. Silicon Valley-based Cerebras released seven models all trained on its AI supercomputer called Andromeda, including smaller 111 million parameter language models to a larger 13 billion parameter model. Cerebras said the smaller models can be deployed on phones or smart speakers while the bigger ones run on PCs or servers, although complex tasks like large passage summarization require larger models. Most of the AI models today are trained on Nvidia Corp's (NVDA.O) chips, but more and more startups like Cerebras are trying to take share in that market. The models trained on Cerebras machines can also be used on Nvidia systems for further training or customization, said Feldman.

ROSTOCK, Germany—The small marina on the edge of this north German city is a popular summertime spot for recreational sailors. German intelligence believes it was also the jumping-off point for the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, an assault on Europe’s civilian energy infrastructure unprecedented since World War II. On Sept. 6, a small group set out from Rostock aboard a rented yacht, the Andromeda, a slender 50-foot-long, single-masted sloop, ostensibly on a pleasure cruise around Baltic Sea ports. Within two weeks, the group returned the boat and disappeared.

☆ Investigators Puzzle Over Yacht’s Possible Role in Nord Stream Blast
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Bojan Pancevski | Sune Engel Rasmussen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Nordstream gas pipeline, which runs between Russia and Germany, was damaged in September by what prosecutors said were planted explosives. Andromeda, a slender, 50-foot-long sailing yacht with a teak deck, has become a key piece of the puzzle that international investigators are trying to solve as they probe the blasts that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines off Germany’s northern coast. German prosecutors said this week investigators had searched a boat in January they believed could have been used in relation to the bombings.

☆ Nord Stream mystery: the tanker Minerva Julie spent 7 days idling near the attack site
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Days before the explosions, a tanker called the Minerva Julie was drifting nearby in the Baltic Sea. He discovered that the Minerva Julie, a 600-foot Greek-flagged tanker, was headed east from Rotterdam when, on September 6, it came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the Baltic Sea. From September 6 through September 13, the Minerva Julie drifted near the site of the September 26 explosions, AIS data show. The Minerva Julie stayed there, alternately idling and crossing a roughly 200-square-nautical-mile area above the two natural-gas pipelines, for seven days, from September 6 until September 12. The Minerva Julie, a 600-foot oil and chemical tanker, near the port of Rotterdam in 2020.

☆ This graphic shows how many more stars you can see under truly dark skies vs. city, suburban, and rural areas
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Astronomers classify night skies from dark to bright using the Bortle Scale, ranked from one to nine. Light pollution is when artificial light washes out the night sky and makes it hard to see stars. While it might not be as potentially harmful as other kinds of pollution, light pollution can affect human health. Level four classifies the transition from suburban to rural areas, where you can see the Milky Way. The night sky is brimming with stars, making it harder to parse out faint constellations.

☆ Silicon Valley chip startup Cerebras unveils AI supercomputer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Startup Cerebras System's new AI supercomputer Andromeda is seen at a data center in Santa Clara, California, U.S. October 2022. Rebecca Lewington/Cerebras Systems/Handout via REUTERSOAKLAND, Calif. Nov 14(Reuters) - Silicon Valley startup Cerebras Systems, known in the industry for its dinner plate-sized chip made for artificial intelligence work, on Monday unveiled its AI supercomputer called Andromeda, which is now available for commercial and academic research. Andromeda is built by linking up 16 Cerebras CS-2 systems, the company's latest AI computer built around the over-sized chip called the Wafer-Scale Engine 2. This is less than $35 million,” said Andrew Feldman, founder and CEO of Cerebras when asked about the Frontier supercomputer. Feldman said Andromeda is owned by Cerebras and built at a high performance data center in Santa Clara, California called Colovore.

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