"Edmund M. Clarke, the FORE Systems Professor of Computer Science Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University, has died of Covid-19," writes Slashdot reader McGruber. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Professor Clarke was best known for his work in model checking, an automated method for detecting design errors in computer hardware and software. CMU president Farnam Jahanian said the world had "lost a giant in computer science" with Mr. Clarke's death. "Ed's pioneering work in model checking applied formal computational methods to the ultimate challenge: computers checking their own correctness," Mr. Jahanian said in a statement. "As systems become ever more complex, we are just beginning to see the wide-reaching and long-term benefits of Ed's insights, which will continue to inspire researchers and practitioners for years to come." In the early 1980s, Mr. Clarke and his Harvard University graduate student, E. Allen Emerson — as well as Joseph Sifakis of the University of Grenoble, who was working separately — developed model checking, which has helped to improve the reliability of complex computer chips, systems and networks. For their work, the Association for Computing Machinery gave the three scientists the prestigious A.M. Turing Award — computer science's Nobel Prize — in 2007. Mr. Clark's citation on the Turing Award website said Microsoft and Intel and other companies use model checking to verify designs for computer networks and software. "It is becoming particularly important in the verification of software designed for recent generations of integrated circuits, which feature multiple processors running simultaneously," the citation page said. "Model checking has substantially improved the reliability and safety of the systems upon which modern life depends."

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In October, Edward Snowden was granted permanent residency in Russia. A new web page by the EFF applauds his past activities as a U.S. whistleblower. "His revelations about secret surveillance programs opened the world's eyes to a new level of government misconduct, and reinvigorated EFF's continuing work in the courts and with lawmakers to end unlawful mass spying." And then they shared this fund-raising pitch written by Edward Snowden: Seven years ago I did something that would change my life and alter the world's relationship to surveillance forever. When journalists revealed the truth about state deception and illegal conduct against citizens, it was human rights and civil liberties groups like EFF — backed by people around the world just like you — that seized the opportunity to hold authority to account. Surveillance quiets resistance and takes away our choices. It robs us of private space, eroding our dignity and the things that make us human. When you're secure from the spectre of judgement, you have room to think, to feel, and to make mistakes as your authentic self. That's where you test your notions of what's right. That's when you question the things that are wrong. By sounding the alarm and shining a light on mass surveillance, we force governments around the world to confront their wrongdoing. Slowly, but surely, grassroots work is changing the future. Laws like the USA Freedom Act have just begun to rein in excesses of government surveillance. Network operators and engineers are triumphantly "encrypting all the things" to harden the Internet against spying. Policymakers began holding digital privacy up to the light of human rights law. And we're all beginning to understand the power of our voices online. This is how we can fix a broken system. But it only works with your help. For 30 years, EFF members have joined forces to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people. It takes unique expertise in the courts, with policymakers, and on technology to fight digital authoritarianism, and thankfully EFF brings all of those skills to the fight. EFF relies on participation from you to keep pushing the digital rights movement forward . Each of us plays a crucial role in advancing democracy for ourselves, our neighbors, and our children. I hope you'll answer the call by joining EFF to build a better digital future together. Sincerely, Edward Snowden

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Mashable reports: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency showed off a collection of samples from the asteroid Ryugu on Thursday following the return of the Hayabusa2 probe. The black, gravelly samples from Ryugu contain a whole bunch of small chips collected from the asteroid's subsurface... Normally, space rocks like these are collected after they enter Earth's atmosphere at surface-scorching speeds. These samples from Ryugu are the first ever that can be examined without being damaged during entry, which is key to getting a clear look at and better understanding these celestial rocks, according to a report from NPR.

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Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot summarizes an article from LiveScience: There's a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth. The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the planet well before impact, and researchers showed up in the Sudanese desert to collect an unusually rich haul of remains. Now, a new study of one of those meteorites suggests that the meteor may have broken off of a giant asteroid — one more or less the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt — that formed in the presence of water under intermediate temperatures and pressures. The mineral makeup of these space rocks offers clues about the "parent asteroid" that birthed a given meteor, researchers said in a statement.

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When you write an outline on paper, if you feel the need to reorganize, you have to write the whole thing over. This makes the initial structure something you resist deciding on, so you never get started. Doing an outline on a computer is different. Since you have commands to reorganize the outline, you can use any structure that supports your list-making. Because you can always regroup things, or ungroup them., Whatever works for you, over time.

A Utah newstation interviewed the men claiming responsibility for removing the original monolith in Utah, who reveal where, why, and how they took it: Homer Manson described how they brought tools, but in the end they were able to simply push the monolith over and it fell on the ground... "We actually passed another crew on the way out, they were going in to destroy it," Any Lewis recounted... "That's exactly what we didn't want to happen, is somebody of that mentality to get a hold of it and completely lose the message behind it," Sylvan Christensen relayed. The monolith was in pieces, but the three men talked about how they rebuilt it. They described how it took a few weeks between consulting with lawyers and speaking with the BLM [America's federal-lands administrating Bureau of Land Management], to bring the monument back to the agency. Lewis posted a video on his Instagram, showing the monolith standing tall in a yard. Just this last Friday [the 18th], they said they drove the monument on a trailer with a tarp to conceal it to deliver it to the BLM. Lewis explained that they donated it back to the BLM in good faith, to help with the investigation. It's their understanding, they indicated, that the monolith will end up on display again. "That's kind of the discussion," Christensen said. "It's ultimately up to the BLM as to where they put it, but that was kind of the gentleman's agreement is that it would get put at Red Butte Garden." If and when this international monolith of mystery ends up back in the public eye — perhaps, according to the guys, at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City — they explained how they want it to spark discussion about art on public lands, and responsible land use. Lewis said he wants to use this as a "togetherness moment," where people can come together to make a proposal to the BLM and have a public decision on if there should be a place where people can place art on public lands, and figure out if that's a proper use of art space. He said it would be nice to use the Utah Monolith to present this as a positive story, and show people how to display this art... The BLM said it is still investigating the illegal installation along with the San Juan County Sheriff's Office. The BLM "doesn't want to set a precedent that people can just go out onto public lands and take things away," according to a report from Outside magazine. But Sylvan Christensen points out to the magazine that "We didn't destroy the art. We kind of changed its direction and made it a bigger thing that surrounds environmental awareness and ethical land recreation."

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One thing worth mentioning is we may have entered a new era of movie-watching. A major Pixar movie, a Christmas movie, opened without theaters being an important consideration. If you had predicted that just a year ago, people would have thought you're crazy. Things are changing quickly now.

I saw Soul. I say meh. What a mess. I paid close attention because Pixar produces good movies. But this one was not good. I know lots of other people say they love it, including AO Scott at the NYT. It got a 85 on Metacritic, very high must-see. One thing I did like is how they portrayed NYC. That was a technical achievement. Maybe they should do movies like that. Star a real-life place. Have normal people just doing stuff there. More mundane. Boy meets girl, perhaps. Pixar movies these days seem to have to bite off so much. Toy Story was nice. I liked the story of the old man, a kid, a dog and a balloon, and the one about the robot who has to deal with post-apocalyptic Earth. Those are simpler themes. Trying to make a story about the before-life and after-life? Hmm. That requires a bit less Hallmark and more math, imho.

FrankOVD shares this report from CNET: The people were really into the GMC Hummer EV when the brand finally ripped the cloak off the electric pickup truck earlier this year. So much so that the Hummer EV Edition 1 trim sold out in 10 minutes. Now, GMC is reportedly thinking about building more of them due to overwhelming response. According to dealer sources that spoke to the Detroit Free Press in a report last Tuesday, the brand told its dealer body it could make more of the Edition 1 trucks available... Prices for the Edition 1 trim start at a whopping $112,595 including destination, which makes it the most expensive GM vehicle the automaker sells. Going down the trim lineup, the EV3X [in 2022] will start at $99,995, the EV2X [in 2023] will ring in at $89,995 and the base model [in 2024] will launch with a $79,995 price tag. Performance and capability notch a rung down with each trim, but that's to be expected. Those that pony up six figures for the Edition 1 will be the owners of a 1,000-horsepower supertruck of sorts with an estimated range of 350 miles to a single charge. The Detroit Free Press notes the Hummer 1 "already has 10,000 pre-orders" — and that GMC "promises to have more EVs in the lineup beyond the Hummer pickup, including a Hummer SUV version that GM will officially reveal early next year..."

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I turned on NBA TV last night and watched a bit of the Knicks v 76ers. A message appeared after a while saying that the game was blacked out where I live. Presumably because they want me to pay for something that provides a way to watch the game on local TV. Except since i cut the cord with Spectrum earlier this year, and went with YouTube TV for local stations, I can't get MSG which broadcasts the Knicks locally. I can swith to Fubo, which has MSG, but it's the same price as YouTube TV, and I have no idea what it is. So where I'm at now is paying $65 a month for YTTV and only watching MSNBC and CNN there. Seems pretty steep. Also if I get NBA League Pass, which I'm considering, I'm pretty sure they'd black out access for me for Knicks games too, even though I'd be paying $200 for the season. I remember when watching local sports was free, Not that long ago. What might be the smartest move, pay Spectrum, become a wire-splicer. What a mess.

Basecamp's David Heinemeier Hansson (the creator of Ruby on Rails) announced on Twitter this week that "all the tricks and tooling we used to build the front-end for Hey.com" have now been released as Hotwire (also known as New Magic), "an alternative approach to building modern web applications without using much JavaScript by sending HTML instead of JSON over the wire." This includes our brand-new Turbo framework...a set of complimentary techniques for speeding up page changes and form submissions, dividing complex pages into components, and stream partial page updates over WebSocket. All without writing any JavaScript at all... Hotwire's web page argues HTML over the wire "makes for fast first-load pages, keeps template rendering on the server, and allows for a simpler, more productive development experience in any programming language, without sacrificing any of the speed or responsiveness associated with a traditional single-page application." On Twitter, Hansson called it "a refinement of years of research, experimentation, and SHIPPING HTML AT THE CENTER. It's been a revelation for us. Both for the web, and for our native apps." He shared a 13-minute video demonstration — then added a thoughtful comment about the state of web development today. "Really curious to continue pushing the ECMAScript 6 + ES Modules approach in the browser. This isn't strictly related to Hotwire, but it's part of deconstructing the overly complicated mess we've all made of frontend development. One brick at the time!"

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Two online acquaintances who share many of my values who I consider friends say something horribly negative about the US, a feature of Republican depravity, which I vote against every chance I get. I feel we’re on the same side, but I don’t like them making such sweeping statements about my country, which due to poor Constitutional design, has these awful features such as inadequate health care, or unregulated gun violence. One of these fellows is British and the other is an American expat living in Germany. I could respond by blaming the British fellow for Rupert Murdoch, who is enforcing Republican lunacy in the US and elsewhere. I suppose technically he’s Australian, but who cares. Or remind my German friend that Germany is where the Nazis came from, the same ones who menace my country now. He might say he’s really American so it’s not his fault. i won’t do it. But i liked saying it out loud just for a moment.

Electrek reports that 2021 will bring one of Tesla's fast-charging Supercharger to a state that's never had one before: Lanai Island, a former pineapple plantation that was almost entirely (98%) purchased by Oracle founder and Tesla board member Larry Ellison for $300 million in 2012, is the first in Hawaii to see a Supercharger permit filed by Tesla... The 145-square-mile island doesn't have any traffic lights, only 30ish miles of paved roads and the 3,400 person population lives almost exclusively in the small Lana'i City. This would seem to indicate that the chargers would be of the Urban Supercharger variety and in likely service of Larry Ellison's Four Seasons Hotels, which rely on Model X vehicles to shuttle guests to and from the airport and around the island's luxury amenities. Ellison plans to convert the island's power from diesel to solar/battery, and obviously Tesla's expertise here is likely to be tapped... Hawaii in general has been massively moving from its diesel generating past to solar power and plans to be 100% renewable before 2040.

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The Guardian reports: The mass die-off of thousands of songbirds in south-western U.S. was caused by long-term starvation, made worse by unseasonably cold weather probably linked to the climate crisis, scientists have said. Flycatchers, swallows and warblers were among the migratory birds "falling out of the sky" in September, with carcasses found in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Nebraska. A USGS National Wildlife Health Center necropsy has found 80% of specimens showed typical signs of starvation... The remaining 20% were not in good enough condition to carry out proper tests. Nearly 10,000 dead birds were reported to the wildlife mortality database by citizens, and previous estimates suggest hundreds of thousands may have died... "It looks like the immediate cause of death in these birds was emaciation as a result of starvation," said Jonathan Sleeman, director of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, which received 170 bird carcasses and did necropsies on 40 of them. "It's really hard to attribute direct causation, but given the close correlation of the weather event with the death of these birds, we think that either the weather event forced these birds to migrate prior to being ready, or maybe impacted their access to food sources during their migration...." Most deaths happened around 9 and 10 September during a bout of cold weather that probably meant food was particularly scarce...

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