2021

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.

Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction

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The short story “The Man Without Quintessence” by Anil Menon was published for the first time in 2020 by Future Fiction within the anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction”.

Ringo Singh Mann achieves some visibility only after his death. That’s because he was in the completely anomalous situation of being without quintessence, a unique signature in the iris of his eyes. For this reason, he lived a life of anonymity, a situation in which he was out of any form of surveillance and at the same time couldn’t use automated commercial services.

High Vacuum by Charles Eric Maine (Italian edition)

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The novel “High Vacuum” by Charles Eric Maine was published for the first time in 1956.

The Alpha rocket has reached the Moon with the first astronauts but something goes wrong with the engine burn that is supposed to start the braking, and the landing is too violent. Of the four astronauts on board, one dies and another is seriously injured.

Surviving until help arrives is the only priority but the situation is at the limit of the impossible. Repairing the radio will allow the survivors to ask for help but, even in the best-case scenario, it will take who knows how long for a rescue expedition to reach the Moon. The main problem is the available oxygen, and the situation turns out to be even worse than expected when the astronauts discover the presence on board of a stowaway, a woman.