Non-IT News Thread
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Alexei Leonov: The Russian who could have been first to the Moon
Pioneering cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov died on Friday in Moscow aged 85. With his passing, the world has lost another direct connection to the Cold War space race of the 1960s and 70s.
Leonov was widely admired by other astronauts and cosmonauts, and his exploits in orbit were legendary. He was also regarded as a man of great compassion, who was deeply affected by the deaths of his colleagues and friends in the ground-breaking but perilous contest in space between the superpowers. Yet his passion for art made him somewhat atypical of the "steely-eyed missile men" who made up the astronaut and cosmonaut corps during the 1960s. His hobby was not always a good fit with the technocratic nature of the Soviet space effort. The head of the USSR's rocket programme in the 1970s, Vasily Mishin, became convinced that a problem with the world's first space station, Salyut-1, had been caused by one Leonov's drawing pencils floating into the ventilation system and getting stuck. A subsequent mission to inspect the station disproved the idea. -
What's in the government's new environment bill?
A bill to tackle environmental priorities is to be published by the government later.
It aims to improve air and water quality, tackle plastic pollution, restore wildlife, and protect the climate. Environmentalists have welcomed several of the proposals, especially on restoring nature. But they say on other green issues ministers are going backwards - and they're anxious to see details of the new policies. Under EU rules, for instance, the government has faced heavy fines for failing to meet air quality standards. With Brexit set to remove the stick of these rules, an independent watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, is being created to hold the government to account. Ministers say the watchdog won't be able to fine the government if it fails to uphold its commitments - but will ensure it is held to account, with the ability to stop projects and hold authorities in contempt of court if they breach environmental standards. -
Man arrested on suspicion of using ‘McLovin’ fake ID to get into bar
Iowa man arrested on suspicion of using ‘McLovin’ fake ID to get into bar
A 20-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of using a fake ID bearing the name “McLovin” to get into an Iowa City bar. Daniel Alfredo Burleson was arrested on Friday night after a police officer spotted him at a local bar allegedly holding an alcoholic beverage. When the officer confronted Burleson, he allegedly admitted that he was drinking a vodka-infused drink but did not provide his identification card. The officer took Burleson out of the bar and that’s when he provided his ID, according to a complaint affidavit. The ID card showed that Burleson was under the legal drinking age and when he was asked to show his fake ID card, he refused. In the complaint, authorities said Burleson pulled out his wallet and shuffled through it. Officers could see the fake Hawaii ID card with the name “McLovin” and a birthdate of June 3, 1981. -
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Bulgaria v England: Police arrest six following racist abuse at Euro qualifier
Bulgarian police have identified 15 fans they suspect are responsible for subjecting black England players to racist abuse and arrested six of them.
The nine not arrested are under police investigation, with three wanted. England's 6-0 Euro 2020 qualifier win over Bulgaria in Sofia was stopped twice in the first half following racist chanting by home supporters. "We do not tolerate such behaviour," Bulgaria Ministry of the Interior commissioner Georgi Hadzhiev said. Bulgaria's football chief Borislav Mikhailov resigned on Tuesday. Bulgaria manager Krasimir Balakov said after the game he "didn't hear" any chanting, having previously accused England of having a bigger racism problem. But Balakov has since posted a statement on Facebook, acknowledging the incidents on Monday and apologising to "English footballers and to all those who felt offended". -
Netflix feels the pressure as competitors circle
As the famed and admired early-mover in the high-quality streaming industry, Netflix has built a formidable business worth in the region of $125bn. In the past three months, it added 6.7million new subscribers, bringing its total userbase to 153million worldwide.
But the next three months will prove to be its most challenging yet. Soon, Netflix will be competing with Disney+, HBO Max and Apple+ - all companies with enormous brand recognition and a strong desire to take their own slice of streaming’s riches. On Wednesday, Netflix wrote to investors to tell them that competition would be a good thing. The rising tide of streaming services would just tempt more people away from “linear TV”, as they term it, and into streaming services. “Just like the evolution from broadcast TV to cable, these once-in-a-generation changes are very large and open up big, new opportunities for many players,” the company told investors. -
El Chapo: Mexican police free drug lord's son as Culiacán battle erupts
Heavy fighting broke out in northern Mexico on Thursday after security forces detained a son of the jailed drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
Fighting raged for several hours after Ovidio Guzmán López was found during a routine patrol in the city of Culiacán. Footage showed heavily-armed men firing on police, with cars, bodies and burning barricades strewn in the road. Police withdrew without Mr Guzmán in their custody to avoid further violence, officials said. Mexico's security minister, Alfonso Durazo, told Reuters news agency that a patrol of National Guard militarised police came under intense fire from outside the house where they had located Mr Guzmán, forcing them to retreat from the building for their own safety and "to recover calm in the city". -
BBC News - Boeing staff texted about 737 Max issue in 2016
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50101766 -
BBC News - Chile protests: Unrest in Santiago over metro fare increase
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-50106743 -
BBC News - Brexit: Commons set for knife-edge votes on deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50104789 -
BBC News - Brexit: Johnson vows to press on despite defeat over deal delay
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50110601 -
This is interesting. I already knew about Aluminum Air Fuel cells, but I had no idea someone had worked out a, reportedly, non-toxc version that makes it cost effective.
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Tornados here in Dallas. We had to take shelter for one of them (so far.)
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Drugs firms reach $260m opioid settlement
Four drugs companies have reached a $260m (£200m) deal over their role in fuelling the US opioid crisis.
The agreement means that a nine-week trial, which had been scheduled to start in Cleveland, has been avoided. It settles accusations by two counties against Israel-based drugmaker Teva and drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. A trial for Walgreens Boots Alliance, which had also been accused, will be rescheduled. The last-minute deal with Summit and Cuyahoga counties was announced on Monday by the judge overseeing the trial in Ohio. It had been closely watched as the first of thousands of similar cases to go forward. -
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@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/10/happily-never-after-heres-why-disney-doesnt-support-linux
The top respondents are people who are suggesting you steal the content you want. . . doesn't really solve the issue, if anything is just makes it worse because Disney may never see the number of people that are subscribed and unable to use their service and cancel it.
Getting them to change.
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@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/10/happily-never-after-heres-why-disney-doesnt-support-linux
The top respondents are people who are suggesting you steal the content you want. . . doesn't really solve the issue, if anything is just makes it worse because Disney may never see the number of people that are subscribed and unable to use their service and cancel it.
Getting them to change.
Simply refusing to be customers is something that they will never see, either.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/10/happily-never-after-heres-why-disney-doesnt-support-linux
The top respondents are people who are suggesting you steal the content you want. . . doesn't really solve the issue, if anything is just makes it worse because Disney may never see the number of people that are subscribed and unable to use their service and cancel it.
Getting them to change.
Simply refusing to be customers is something that they will never see, either.
But if you are a customer, who has a device that runs linux, and can't use it. Presumably if you cancelled your service (as apposed to using another device) you'd state why you were cancelling the service.
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@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
@DustinB3403 said in Non-IT News Thread:
@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/10/happily-never-after-heres-why-disney-doesnt-support-linux
The top respondents are people who are suggesting you steal the content you want. . . doesn't really solve the issue, if anything is just makes it worse because Disney may never see the number of people that are subscribed and unable to use their service and cancel it.
Getting them to change.
Simply refusing to be customers is something that they will never see, either.
But if you are a customer, who has a device that runs linux, and can't use it. Presumably if you cancelled your service (as apposed to using another device) you'd state why you were cancelling the service.
Not likely. Because if you were smart enough to do so, you'd almost be smart enough to not have subscribed in the first place. And second, almost no service gets canceled with information as to why it is canceled. And third, most places that get information as to why things are canceled have a department that removes "answers they don't like" before it gets to anyone in charge so that what customers are actually experiencing is hidden from the organization.
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This was on August 2019.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/19/20811513/disney-plus-launch-devices-iphone-ipad-apple-tv-roku-android-subscription
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