Having an asteroid slam into Earth was catastrophic for the dinosaurs, but the season of the strike may have substantially ramped up extinction rates for others species, research suggests. From a report: Scientists have found evidence that the devastating impact 66m years ago, which wiped out three-quarters of Earth's species and created the Chicxulub crater in modern-day Mexico, happened in the spring in the northern hemisphere. The timing means that many animals north of the equator would have been particularly vulnerable to the intense heatwave unleashed by the collision, having just emerged from the harsh months of winter. Other animals in the south may have fared better given that it was autumn, especially if they were hunkering down in burrows. The direct hit from the asteroid triggered an extreme global heatwave that proved lethal for many exposed animals. In the aftermath, temperatures are thought to have plummeted in a nuclear winter that drove many more species to extinction.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea risks reverberating across the global chip industry and exacerbating current supply-chain constraints. Reuters Breakingviews: Ukraine is a major producer of neon gas critical for lasers used in chipmaking and supplies more than 90% of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon, according to estimates from research firm Techcet. About 35% of palladium, a rare metal also used for semiconductors, is sourced from Russia. A full-scale conflict disrupting exports of these elements might hit players like Intel, which gets about 50% of its neon from Eastern Europe, according to JPMorgan. ASML, which supplies machines to semiconductor makers, sources less than 20% of the gases it uses from the crisis-hit countries.

Sea ice around Antarctica has reached a record low in four decades of observations, a new analysis of satellite images shows. From a report: As of Tuesday, ice covered 750,000 square miles around the Antarctic coast, below the previous record low of 815,000 square miles in early March 2017, according to the analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "It's really unprecedented," said Marilyn N. Raphael, a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Antarctic sea ice. Warmer ocean temperatures may have played a role, she said, "but there are other factors that we will be working on finding out in the next months." Antarctic sea ice extent is highly variable from year to year, but overall has increased very slightly, on average, since the late 1970s, when satellite observations began. By contrast, sea ice extent in the Arctic, which is warming about three times as fast as other regions, has decreased by more than 10 percent a decade over the same period.

The two regions are very different. The Arctic Ocean covers high latitudes, including the North Pole itself, and is hemmed in by land masses. In the Southern Hemisphere, Antarctica covers the pole. The Southern Ocean, which surrounds the continent, begins at much lower latitudes and is open to the north. While rapid warming in the Arctic is largely responsible for the shrinking of sea ice there, the effect of climate change on Antarctic sea ice is far less clear. Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, a climate scientist at the University of Washington, said that many scientists expect that global warming will eventually lead to declines in Antarctic sea ice. But right now, he said, "it's really hard to connect the two, especially in terms of single events like this one." Instead, a complex group of factors is at play when it come to Antarctic sea ice. Large-scale atmospheric patterns, often occurring far from the continent, as well as local ocean currents and winds can all increase or reduce sea-ice coverage.

joshuark writes: FreeDOS has put out release 1.3, the latest release in 6-years. Some of the improvements since the 1.2 release, include: new FreeCOM 0.85a, new Kernel 2043 and an 8086 version with FAT32 support, floppy edition now uses compression...let's party like it's 1994.

More specifics can be found at the SourceForge project page.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has given employees a frank appraisal of why he believes the company could be better off ending its 30-year relationship with FIFA. From a report: In his most revealing comments yet on the status of licence negotiations with the footballing body, Wilson told staff in an internal company meeting in November that the FIFA license had been "an impediment" to EA's ambitions for the game series. In comments provided anonymously to VGC, Wilson claimed that FIFA had precluded EA from expanding its games into modes beyond traditional 11v11, or "broader digital ecosystems," and suggested that the only value EA got from the licence in a non-World Cup year was "four letters on the front of the box." EA and FIFA were engaged in a surprising series of back-and-forth statements last year, which started when the video games publisher decided to make public that it was considering ending its relationship with the footballing body.

Danish brewer Carlsberg and a Coca-Cola bottler shut their plants in Ukraine on Thursday following Russia's invasion while firms making goods from jet engines to semiconductors warned that supplies of key raw materials could suffer. From a report: Carlsberg, which has a 31% share of Ukraine's beer market, halted production at all three of its breweries in the country, while Coca-Cola said it had triggered its contingency plans which included shutting its bottling plant. Britain's biggest domestic bank Lloyds, meanwhile, warned that it was on heightened alert for cyberattacks from Russia while companies operating in Ukraine were looking at how to shield their staff from the conflict. Russian forces invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea on Thursday, confirming the worst fears of the West with the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two. Many companies with significant exposure to Russia said they were still waiting to see the full force of Western sanctions before deciding on any action, although backers of the suspended Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline were already taking a hit. Washington imposed sanctions on the company behind Nord Stream 2 on Wednesday and European Union leaders are meeting later on Thursday to decide what punitive measures they will impose as retribution for Russia's attack

The hottest spot in crypto right now is coins with prices that don't move. From a report: Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies which peg their value to assets such as the U.S. dollar, have ballooned in size over the past few months as Bitcoin and other coins whipsaw. The total market capitalization of stablecoins currently stands around $180 billion, up from roughly $38 billion a year ago, Coin Metrics data compiled by The Block show. By comparison, the total crypto universe is largely stagnant over the past year. The surge in market value shows that crypto traders are effectively moving their holdings to cash, according to James Malcolm of UBS. Bitcoin prices have collapsed by about 50% since mid-November, with many smaller coins posting even bigger declines. Rather than moving money off crypto-trading exchanges by converting back into fiat currencies -- a cumbersome and potentially costly process -- it's easier for investors to simply wait out the volatility in stablecoins, Malcolm said.

An anonymous reader writes: An object hidden below ground has been located using quantum technology -- a long-awaited milestone with profound implications for industry, human knowledge and national security. University of Birmingham researchers from the UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Timing have reported their achievement in Nature. It is the first in the world for a quantum gravity gradiometer outside of laboratory conditions. The quantum gravity gradiometer, which was developed under a contract for the Ministry of Defense and in the UKRI-funded Gravity Pioneer project, was used to find a tunnel buried outdoors in real-world conditions one meter below the ground surface. It wins an international race to take the technology outside. The sensor works by detecting variations in microgravity using the principles of quantum physics, which is based on manipulating nature at the sub-molecular level. The success opens a commercial path to significantly improved mapping of what exists below ground level.

Professor Kai Bongs, head of cold atom physics at the University of Birmingham and principal investigator of the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, said: "This is an 'Edison moment' in sensing that will transform society, human understanding and economies. "With this breakthrough we have the potential to end reliance on poor records and luck as we explore, build and repair. In addition, an underground map of what is currently invisible is now a significant step closer, ending a situation where we know more about Antarctica than what lies a few feet below our streets." [...] This breakthrough will allow future gravity surveys to be cheaper, more reliable and delivered 10 times faster, reducing the time needed for surveys from a month to a few days. It has the potential to open a range of new applications for gravity survey, providing a new lens into the underground.

Virgin Hyperloop recently fired half of its workforce as the company is shifting its focus from transporting passengers to cargo, Financial Times reported. Interesting Engineering reports: Services of a total of 111 members of its staff were terminated in what was an unanticipated move according to the employees. A company spokesperson told FT that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed many things and the company was shifting focus to address the needs of the global supply chain. With a leaner staff setup, the company was hopeful of becoming more agile and cost-efficient as it focused on the cargo segment. DP World, a state-owned logistics group that holds a 76 percent stake in Virgin Hyperloop, told FT that 15 of its potential customers were interested in moving cargo through its infrastructure rather than humans since it involved less risk and required less regulatory approvals.

According to a Fortune report though, the company has found only one potential client in its lifetime, Saudi Arabia which is now keen on building a hyperloop cargo link between its port city of Jeddah and capital city of Riyadh. DP World spokesperson also told FT that profits from the project could be reinvested in building the human-compatible Virgin Hyperloop in the future.

India's teen chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 16, just become the youngest person to defeat Magnus Carlsen (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), 31, since he became world champion in 2013. The New York Times reports: While his defeat of Carlsen, who has been struggling from the aftereffects of a Covid-19 infection, does not affect the International Chess Federation world title, it nevertheless stunned the chess world and elated people in India. [...] Praggnanandhaa orchestrated his defeat over Carlsen in 39 moves. It was all the more remarkable because he was playing with the black pieces, moving second, with the disadvantages that entails, particularly in elite chess. "He controlled the game, it felt, from start to finish, which is what Magnus does to people," said Levy Rozman, an international master who recaps tournaments and discusses strategy on his YouTube channel, GothamChess, which has more than 1.4 million subscribers.

Carlsen, who was also a top player as a teenager, opened with the Queen's Gambit, moving his queen's pawn to d4. Praggnanandhaa declined the gambit. (Replay the game at Chess24.) In the early and middle stages of the game, Rozman said, Carlsen played a precise game, successfully gaining a pawn, and then another, putting him at an advantage, but Praggnanandhaa compensated by keeping the pieces he still had on the board active and swarming Carlsen's king. "He used what was remaining on the board to launch a devastating counterattack," Rozman said.

The game turned definitively at the 32nd move, when Carlsen made a move with his knight that was later viewed as an error. The decision prompted David Howell, a British grandmaster and a commentator on the chess streaming platform Chess24, to ask, "Is this clever, or is this madness?" The answer was soon clear. Praggnanandhaa quickened his pace and Carlsen appeared visibly frustrated. Seven moves and about 10 minutes later, it was over. After Praggnanandhaa's win, Kaja Snare, a commentator for Chess24, asked him how he would celebrate. "I think it's about just going to bed, because I don't think I will have dinner at 2:30 in the morning," Praggnanandhaa said.

Russia President Vladimir V. Putin declared the start of a "special military operation" in Ukraine on Thursday, after months of speculation about Russia's intentions as it massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border. The New York Times: Addressing his nation in a televised speech broadcast just before 6 a.m. Thursday, Mr. Putin said his goal was to "demilitarize" but not occupy the country. Minutes later, large explosions were visible near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and blasts were reported in Kyiv, the capital, and other parts of the country. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said that Russian troops had landed in Odessa and were crossing the border. "The invasion has begun," the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Twitter that Mr. Putin had "started a full-scale war against Ukraine" and had begun shelling civilian cities. "This is a war of aggression," he wrote on Twitter. "Ukraine will defend itself and win. The world must act and stop Putin. It is time to act -- immediately." Evoking the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Mr. Putin cast his action as a long-overdue strike against an American-led world order that he described as an "empire of lies." Even as he spoke, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting imploring him not to invade. In bellicose language, Putin also issued what appeared to be a warning to other countries: "Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country and our people, must know that Russia's response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history. We are ready for any turn of events." More coverage: NBC News, The Guardian and The Moscow Times.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: As Russian troops and armored vehicles begin moving into Ukrainian territory, social media accounts sharing images and videos from the eastern Donbas and Luhansk regions have been a crucial source of information, sharing footage of Russian helicopters heading toward Crimea or tank divisions moving to the border. But as the conflict intensifies, many researchers sharing this primary material taken from social media -- commonly known as open-source intelligence or OSINT -- have found their Twitter accounts unexpectedly suspended.

On the night of February 22nd, OSINT researcher Kyle Glen was locked out of his account for 12 hours, according to tweets from Glen and a post shared by another OSINT organization. Security analyst Oliver Alexander also claimed to have been locked out of his account twice in 24 hours. Outside of the Anglosphere, the French-language OSINT account Neurone Intelligence, Spanish-language account Mundo en Conflicto, and Brazilian OSINT account Noticias e Guerras were also affected. A Twitter thread compiled by Nick Waters, an analyst at the pioneering OSINT organization Bellingcat, lists more account suspensions. In a tweet, Alexander shared a screenshot with a message stating that the account had been locked for violating Twitter rules, though the exact rule violation was not specified.

Researchers raised concerns that the account suspension could have been part of a mass reporting campaign intended to disable OSINT accounts during a Russian invasion. In a statement, Twitter spokesperson Elizabeth Busby said that action had been taken against these accounts in error and was not part of a coordinated campaign. "We've been proactively monitoring for emerging narratives that are violative of our policies, and, in this instance, we took enforcement action on a number of accounts in error," Busby said. "We're expeditiously reviewing these actions and have already proactively reinstated access to a number of affected accounts. The claims that the errors were a coordinated bot campaign or the result of mass reporting is inaccurate." When asked what content policies the suspended accounts were believed to have violated, Busby pointed The Verge to Twitter's synthetic and manipulated media policy, which deals with the sharing of misinformation on the platform. For those interested in a live map showing the current areas of conflict in Ukraine with corresponding social media posts/media, check out Liveuamap.

New submitter Klaxton shares an excerpt from a new report released today by the International Energy Agency (IEA): Global methane emissions from the energy sector are about 70% greater than the amount national governments have officially reported, according to new IEA analysis released today, underlining the urgent need for enhanced monitoring efforts and stronger policy action to drive down emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. Methane is responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, and quick and sustained emission reductions are key to limiting near-term warming and improving air quality. Methane dissipates faster than carbon dioxide (CO2) but is a much more powerful greenhouse gas during its short lifespan, meaning that cutting methane emissions would have a rapid effect on limiting global warming.

The energy sector accounts for around 40% of methane emissions from human activity, and this year's expanded edition of the IEA's Global Methane Tracker includes country-by-country emissions from coal mines and bioenergy for the first time, in addition to continued detailed coverage of oil and natural gas operations. Methane emissions from the energy sector grew by just under 5% last year. This did not bring them back to their 2019 levels and slightly lagged the rise in overall energy use, indicating that some efforts to limit emissions may already be paying off. "At today's elevated natural gas prices, nearly all of the methane emissions from oil and gas operations worldwide could be avoided at no net cost," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. "The International Energy Agency has been a longstanding champion of stronger action to cut methane emissions. A vital part of those efforts is transparency on the size and location of the emissions, which is why the massive underreporting revealed by our Global Methane Tracker is so alarming."

If all methane leaks from fossil fuel operations in 2021 had been captured and sold, then natural gas markets would have been supplied with an additional 180 billion cubic meters of natural gas. That is equivalent to all the gas used in Europe's power sector and more than enough to ease today's market tightness. The intensity of methane emissions from fossil fuel operations range widely from country to country: the best performing countries and companies are over 100 times better than the worst. Global methane emissions from oil and gas operations would fall by more than 90% if all producing countries matched Norway's emissions intensity, the lowest worldwide.

Hmmmmmm shares a report from Yahoo Finance: AMD's market cap currently stands at $188 billion after shares rose nearly 2% in Tuesday's session. Intel's market cap is $182 billion. That marks the second time in a week AMD's market value has climbed above Intel -- the first time it happened was a week ago. Followers of this battle may not be surprised to see this one happen (and seeing it continue from here) for several reasons. First, AMD has been winning the battle on Wall Street for sexier investment thesis. AMD last week closed on its $35 billion acquisition for Xilinx. Secondarily, AMD has flat out posted better financials than Intel (for some time) as it has gained market share in key areas (notably in servers). AMD's sales and profits rose 68% and 117%, respectively in 2021. The company outlined 31% revenue growth for 2022 and gross profit margins of 51%. Intel's 2021 sales and earnings increased 2% and 7%, respectively. The company sees sales in 2022 rising about 2%. Profits are expected to drop 36% as Intel further builds out its chip-making capacity.

DidgetMaster writes: Hard drive costs now hover around $20 per terabyte (TB). Drives bigger than 20TB are now available. Fast SSDs are more expensive, but the average user can now afford these in TB capacities as well. Yet, we are still using antiquated file systems that were designed decades ago when the biggest drives were much less than a single gigabyte (GB). Their oversized file records and slow directory traversal search algorithms make finding files on volumes that can hold more than 100 million files a nightmare. Rather than flexible tagging systems that could make searches quick and easy, they have things like "extended attributes" that are painfully slow to search on. Indexing services can be built on top of them, but these are not an integral part of the file system so they can be bypassed and become out of sync with the file system itself.

It is time to replace file systems with something better. A local object store that can effectively manage hundreds of millions of files and find things in seconds based on file type and/or tags attached is possible. File systems are usually free and come with your operating system, so there seems to be little incentive for someone to build a new system from scratch, but just like we needed the internet to come along and change everything we need a better data storage manager.

See Didgets for an example of what is possible. In a Substack article, Didgets developer Andy Lawrence argues his system solves many of the problems associated with the antiquated file systems still in use today. "With Didgets, each record is only 64 bytes which means a table with 200 million records is less than 13GB total, which is much more manageable," writes Lawrence. Didgets also has "a small field in its metadata record that tells whether the file is a photo or a document or a video or some other type," helping to dramatically speed up searches.

Do you think it's time to replace file systems with an alternative system, such as Didgets? Why or why not?