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A year ago 47 people, mostly tourists, were on Whakaari / White Island when the volcano erupted killing 22 people and injuring most of the rest. Today New Zealand authorities filed 13 safety violation charges against 10 organizations and three individuals. Each of the organizations faces a maximum fine of NZ$1.5 million (US$1.1 million). Each individual charged faces a maximum fine of NZ$300,000 (US$211,000).
posted by Mitheral at 2:53 PM PST - 25 comments

Ben Bova, six-time Hugo-Award-winning editor and author of 140 futurist fiction and non-fiction works has died. [more inside]
posted by mhoye at 2:47 PM PST - 58 comments

From the Adult Swim Festival 2020, a remarkable performance by saxophone player Colin Stetson, which includes two unreleased tracks, "The love it took to leave you" and "Strike your forge and grin." [more inside]
posted by yasaman at 1:59 PM PST - 27 comments

These pages attempt to show the first uses of various words used in mathematics. Research for these pages is ongoing, and a citation should not be assumed to be the earliest use unless it is indicated as such. Mathematical Words: Origins and Sources by John Aldrich is an excellent article and companion to this web site.
posted by smcg at 12:41 PM PST - 7 comments

Gretchen McCulloch explores the rapidly-growing world of proximity-based chat platforms (Wired) like Gather, CozyRoom, Spatial.Chat and Rambly. "What makes a party feel like a party, I've concluded, is that there are multiple conversational options that you can move between." Previously.
posted by adrianhon at 11:24 AM PST - 24 comments

94 years ago in May, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its 1927 pro-eugenics 8–1 decision Buck v. Bell, which found that, if it is in the compelling interests of the state, governments may involuntary sterilize “unfit” people who “sap the strength of the State”—that this is in keeping with the United States Constitution and other United States law. The SCOTUS ruling would be cited at the Nuremburg Tribunals by a fugitive Nazi party official charged with war crimes in his defense. It has never been overturned. [more inside]
posted by XMLicious at 11:23 AM PST - 17 comments

AlphaFold: a solution to a 50-year-old grand challenge in biology : "This will change medicine. It will change research. It will change bioengineering. It will change everything"
posted by gwint at 8:55 AM PST - 38 comments

Seven out of 50 video clusters the researchers identified are deemed "situational" music. This designation doesn't operate under the standard concept of genres but rather the context in which the music takes place. This includes relaxation music like "Ambient/Chillout," "Sounds of Nature," and the ASMR-affiliated "Hair Dryer Sound." The paper concludes that situational music, sometimes deemed trivial by musicologists, is growing in popularity. They also found a cluster of "Ethiopia/South Sudan Music," suggesting the context of a local scene comparable to '80s Japanese ambient music. 2800 words from Catherine Sinow on YouTubecore for Ars Technica.
posted by cgc373 at 8:18 AM PST - 23 comments

'One of the world’s largest collections of prehistoric rock art has been discovered in the Amazonian rainforest' writes Dalya Alberge at The Guardian. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 6:46 AM PST - 11 comments

This tree from Nova Scotia is now in Boston Common. The Nova Scotians send one every year. Why? [Twitter][Threadreader] [more inside]
posted by jazon at 6:39 AM PST - 15 comments

The National Museum of Ireland - Natural History in Dublin (known affectionately as the Dead Zoo) needs a renewal of its leaky roof. However, accessing the roof means first de-installing two whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling. Updates of the ongoing work are being reported on Twitter under the hashtag #DeadZooDiary. [more inside]
posted by scorbet at 6:28 AM PST - 7 comments