2015

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The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) asked the Obama administration an opinion about the case of Oracle vs. Google in the case which for years has seen the two giants in a lawsuit about the use of the Java language in Android. The dispute began in 2010 after Oracle bought Sun, the company that developed Java, and claimed that Google violates copyright and patents related to Java. This isn’t one of the many clashes between companies regarding software patents but a special case where the final decision may have a significant influence on the future of software development.

Demon by John Varley (Italian edition)

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The novel “Demon” by John Varley was published for the first time in 1984. It’s the third novel in the trilogy of Gaea and is the sequel to “Wizard”.

In the years after leaving Gaea’s service, Cirocco Jones started organizing resistance against the dominator of the artificial habitat. Some of the species that inhabit it allied with Cirocco but must they also face new creatures because Gaea, who in the meantime created a new avatar that looks like Marilyn Monroe, has her plans.

On Earth, World War V started, a nuclear war that quickly caused the deaths of billions of people. Those events have their weight also in the clash between Cirocco Jones and Gaea. The day of reckoning is approaching and Robin returns to the habitat to be reunited with Cirocco. She brrings with her two children: Nova, which now is 19, and the newborn Adam, a very special child and a male, not accepted in Robin’s community of feminist extremist. Among the new Cirocco’s allies there’s also Conal, a descendant of one of the crew of Cirocco’s starship.

The most promising exoplanet found with the Kepler Space Telescope with their size proportional to that of the Earth (Image NASA)

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At the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society there was the announce of the identification of the 1000th exoplanet verified using observations of the Kepler space telescope. That’s become a routine but the interesting thing is that among the verified planets there are eight that have a size less than twice the Earth and are in the habitable zone of their star.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifting off atop a Falcon 9 rocket in its CRS-5 mission (Photo NASA)

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A little while ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blasted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-5 (Cargo Resupply Service 5) mission, also referred to as SPX-5. This is the fifth of 12 missions that for the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with a cargo and its return to Earth, again with a cargo.