June 2021

Microbiota and the Masses: A Love Story" by S.B. Divya

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The short story “Microbiota and the Masses: A Love Story” by S.B. Divya was published for the first time in 2017.

Moena Sivaram lives in an airtight house where she created an isolated domestic biome that allows her to live without having to fear for her health. The price is the considerable difficulty for her in getting out of that house so as not to risk getting sick from some of the pollutants that infest Bangalore.

One day, a malfunction in the windows forces Moena to call a technician to fix the computer system that controls them. Rahul answers the call and, when she discovers that he’s a volunteer with an ecological group, Moena is strongly attracted to him but she knows very well that starting a relationship would mean exposing herself to serious dangers for her health.

Terran Tomorrow by Nancy Kress

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The novel “Terran Tomorrow” by Nancy Kress was published for the first time in 2018. It’s the third book in the Yesterday’s Kin trilogy and follows “If Tomorrow Comes”.

The spaceship Return brings the Earthlings back to their planet along with some inhabitants of World. However, due to the time dilation that happens during the trips, at their arrival, twenty-eight years have passed since their departure. During those years, things on Earth have changed more than the travelers could have imagined.

A bacteriological war waged by ecological extremists caused the death of 96% of human beings. The survivors are still at war and Dr. Marianne Jenner discovers that her grandson Jason Jenner is a colonel in command of one of the rare military bases in what used to be the USA. The arrival of the spaceship could affect an already unstable situation.

Artist's reconstruction of Australotitan cooperensis (Image courtesy Vladislav Konstantinov / Scott Hocknull)

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An article published in the journal “Peer J” reports the identification of the largest dinosaur species that lived in today’s Australia. A team of researchers named Australotitan cooperensis this dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous period, between 92 and 96 million years ago, and included it in the group of titanosaurs, the giant long-necked herbivores that include the largest animals that lived on land. The identification represents the culmination of a long task on the scattered bones of various specimens.

Fastly network's status after being back to normal

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On Tuesday, a lot of websites worldwide suffered malfunctions that led to some parts missing up to being impossible to connect to them. That was due to a serious problem of Fastly, a CDN (Content Delivery Network o Content Distribution Network) supplier, which means a service that normally allows faster access to a website. The problem started when it was night in the USA with consequences all around the world then it was solved about an hour after being recognized at Fastly. The trouble didn’t last long but show how something going bad in the system of a very important Internet operator can have consequences on a lot of websites. In this case, it was a bug introduced in a recent update that was supposed to be discovered before it caused any damage.

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

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The novel “Ancillary Mercy” by Ann Leckie was published for the first time in 2015. It’s the third book in the Imperial Radch series and follows “Ancillary Sword”. It won the Locus Award as the best novel of the year.

The situation seems stable at Athoek Station but Breq knows that things can change quickly. The first unexpected event comes from inside the station with the discovery of what appears to be the ancillary of a starship that hid far beyond the borders of the Radch three millennia earlier. The arrival of Translator Zeiat, a new Presger emissary, brings new risks of instability.

For Breq, the real moment of crisis comes with the part of Anaander Mianaai, the Lord of the Radch, the enemy of the part that sent Breq to the Athoek system. The enemy forces have far superior firepower but Breq doesn’t intend to leave the system’s inhabitants in danger and is forced to improvise a plan to face the Lord of the Radch.