HackerNews Summary (2023-04-26 07AM)

Source: SpaceX Starship Grounded Indefinitely By FAA

Summary
Following an explosion in Starship’s test flight, investigations have resulted in the FAA grounding the project temporarily. Although no injuries were reported, environmental groups are holding judgment until a full investigation looks into potential hazards, including unsafe particulate emissions, noise pollution, and environmental impacts on endangered species. The debris field spans about 700 acres.

Fact

💥 Debris, ash-like particulate matter, and broken windows were reported in nearby towns, and scientists express concern about the impact on the environment and wildlife due to debris and noise pollution.

🚀 The FAA has grounded Starship as it conducts an investigation into the incident. No injury or public property damage has been reported.

🌱The area around the launchpad is home to several endangered species, posing additional risks with the blast.

🧪 Environmental groups are holding judgment until the investigation is complete, and tests can confirm whether particulate emissions from the explosion are safe to touch or breathe in.

---

Source: Long Before Trees Overtook the Land, Earth Was Covered by Giant Mushrooms

Summary
Giant creatures called Prototaxites, that boasted trunks up to 24ft high and as wide as three feet were a mystery to scientists for nearly 150 years. Even though the spire-like mushrooms that dominated the ancient Earth are long gone and scientists aren’t sure what they were, the largest organism on Earth is a huge fungal mat, a single organism spread over 2,200 acres of forest in eastern Oregon.

Fact

🍄 Prototaxites were a fungus and resembled a gigantic early mushroom.

🌲 For around 130 years, scientists called Prototaxites a lichen, others a fungus, and still others clung to the notion that it was some kind of tree.

🧫The largest organism on Earth is a huge fungal mat, a single organism spread over 2,200 acres of forest in eastern Oregon.

---

Source: bradleyboy/tuql: Automatically create a GraphQL server from a SQLite database or a SQL file

Summary
tuql is a tool that creates a GraphQL endpoint from a SQLite database. It supports relationships between objects and generates basic mutations for creating, updating, and deleting objects, as well as associating many-to-many relationships.

Fact

💻 tuql is installed using npm with ‘npm install -g tuql’.

🗄️ It can use an existing SQLite file as the database or build an in-memory database using a SQL file.

📝 tuql can print the generated schema or save it to a file by running ‘tuql –db path/to/database.sqlite –schema > schema.graphql’.

---

Source: Stanford, Harvard revise high school math curriculum recommendations, exclude data science

Summary
Stanford Undergraduate Admissions Office and Harvard have changed their recommendations for high school math curriculums for prospective students by emphasizing conceptual math courses like algebra and geometry over applied alternatives, like data science and statistics. The latest version of Harvard and Stanford’s math recommendations no longer include data science as a recommended area of study, which has resulted in concerns about the consequences for college admissions.

Fact

🎓 High school math curriculum recommendations have changed emphasizing conceptual rather than applied math; there is now no mention of data science in Stanford and Harvard’s latest recommendations.

🎓 Universities are not rejecting applied math courses but are only reiterating the importance of fundamentals in math education.

🎓 Stanford and Harvard’s math recommendation expected to influence more universities to change their stance on applied math courses.

---

Source: Mastodon Is Doomed

Summary
Mastodon, a decentralized and ad-free microblogging software, may not be as successful as people hope due to the high costs and responsibilities associated with running personal servers or community servers. Additionally, the legal responsibility of hosting others on your server can be daunting, and the lack of moderation tools puts users at risk.

Facts

🔒 Running your own instance is time-consuming, complicated, and securing and scaling it can be expensive.

💭 Choosing a server and community can be difficult and keep many people away from Mastodon.

💻 Even well-run instances like hachyderm.io struggled to scale and had to migrate to keep afloat, costing over $1000/mo.

🚫 Mastodon has no plans for better moderation tools, which can be risky if an instance is compromised or shut down.

👥 Administrators are not paid for their work, and very few instances have plans for continuity if someone leaves or loses interest.

---

Source: 3Blue1Brown

Summary
Join the contributing members to support free, sponsor-free lessons with exclusive benefits.

Fact

💪 Early access to new videos

🎬 Your name in the video credits

💰 Lessons remain free from brand integrations and sponsor messages

🚫 No paywalls

---

Source: WWW Error Blocked Diagnostic

Summary
Temporary access to NCBI website blocked due to possible misuse/abuse of the site by user.

Fact

🔒 Access to NCBI website has been temporarily blocked due to possible misuse/abuse.

💻 It could be a simple error or an issue with the user’s interaction with the site.

📚 The user can learn to use E-utilities more efficiently to prevent further blocks.

📧 The system administrator can contact info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov to restore access.

---