[Makestreme] had always wanted to own a nice telescope, but found that budget would not stretch to anything above a cheap model with a limited 50 mm aperture. Wanting a better view of the heavens, the way forward was obvious—it was time to build a better telescope, instead!

The build is based around a 114 mm diameter mirror sourced from Amazon. It’s assembled inside a length of 5-inch PVC pipe of just under a meter to suit the 900 mm focal length of the concave reflector. 3D printed components are used to mount the mirror and control its position for proper focus and collimation. Traditionally, a reflector based telescope would use a mirror and eyepiece to provide a view to the user. However, [Makestreme] built this as a smart telescope, instead integrating a…

Like many of us, [Austin] finds writing code satisfying — especially if it is challenging. His latest challenge: shoehorn something that looks like Python into 512 bytes. Ok, that didn’t work out, but would you believe 1024 bytes of source code?

The goal was to properly execute a fizzbuzz program using a decidedly Python-like syntax. Since he is only interpreting Python, some things were simplified. In addition, he tried hard to minimize things like whitespace and variable names. Still, there were other things to do, and he borrowed from tips for code golfing.

The resulting code is essentially illegible, but it handles integer variables and literals, assignment, arithmetic, many control structures, functions, and even print. Not bad for 1 K.

Despite being tiny, the parser does a lot, but it does cut corners. No bytecode, no syntax tree, and no error handling. Variables have to be a single lowercase letter. So, ok, it isn’t really Python. But it is something.

Naturally, this reminded us of the obfuscated C code contest. If you really want to go small, we appreciate small Forth.

The final frontier has entered the kitchen.

[Gadget Industry] bills it as “a PC inside a Mouse“, but that depends on your definition of a “PC”. This is a Personal Computer inside a mouse, yes, but there’s nothing IBM-compatible about the tiny ARM board he squeezes inside what’s normally a peripheral — it actually started life as a smartphone, which only takes this build up a notch compared to starting with a single-board computer like a Pi.

Specifically, he starts with a Galaxy S21 5G. Starting with a Samsung means he can leave the stock Android alone and just take advantage of Samsung’s DeX desktop mode, rather than layer a Linux environment on top or replace the operating system entirely with something like Postmarket OS, which are both viable options.

With the battery compartment removed, the phone guts fit with shocking ease in the once-wireless mouse. Of course that’s not a great thermal environment, but that’s what the brass is for. It acts as a heat spreader, which is about as much thermal management as the phone had from the get-go, so it should work well enough. It seems to in the video, certainly. If thermal throttling is a concern, while it’d be hard to fit in a mouse, there’s no beating liquid cooling.

The United Nations has an announcement. "The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to encourage governments, schools and tech companies worldwide to stop using maps that make Africa look far smaller than it really is." By 164 votes to one, Member States on Friday endorsed a resolution promoting map projections that more accurately reflect the true size of continents — the culmination of an African-led campaign against the 16th-century Mercator projection, still the most widely used map…

California's Project Nexus bolted solar arrays over 1,400 feet of irrigation canals in Stanislaus County and measured a 70% drop in evaporation and an 85%

Source: ecoportal.net

Shared by

Dans la Central Valley en Californie, deux canaux d’irrigation ont été équipés de panneaux solaires : l’évaporation a été réduite de 70% et la propagation des végétaux et algues de 85%.

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/solar-panels-built-working-irrigation-canals/33890/

- Joachim (@joachim) Sep 02, 2026

Solar panels bolted over 2 working irrigation canals in California's Central Valley cut evaporation beneath them by as much as 70 percent, and the aquatic weed that fouls those channels dropped by about 85 percent https://www.ecoportal.net/en/solar-panels-built-working-irrigation-canals/33890/

- Fediverse Top Stories (@topstories) Sep 03, 2026

🔁 @MorpheusB:

#sustainability

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/solar-panels-built-working-irrigation-canals/33890/

- WearyBonnie (@3TomatoesShort) Sep 03, 2026

🔁 @shonin:

#Solar panels bolted over 2 working irrigation canals in California's Central Valley cut evaporation beneath them by as much as 70 percent, and the aquatic weed that fouls those channels dropped by about 85 percent

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/solar-panels-built-working-irrigation-canals/33890/

- Witchzilla (@msbw) Sep 02, 2026

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For those wondering how beloved entertainer “Weird Al” Yankovic can continue to exist as the shining beacon of integrity, good vibes, and enduringly catchy parody songs about food, ponder no longer. Yankovic announced today that he’s finally cut through the no-doubt tangled red tape surrounding the release of Al’s Brain, an 11-minute educational short film he made in 2009. 

submitted by Pudutr0n to programming
493 points | 100 comments
https://files.catbox.moe/8rz9m7.mp4

Daddy needs a new pair of RAM!

edit: the fps are way better in smaller terminal windows with lower character count but then it’s hard to make out the dice. D:

edit2: code here (expires in 2 weeks)

submitted by alessandro to pcgaming
15 points | 0 comments
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/dwarf-fortress-creator-says-the-industrys-in-shambles-over-ai-and-layoff-happy-ceos-everyone-i-know-their-bosses-are-slowly-getting-psychosis/

The original design by Sébastien Esnault, aka Pidelium, won the Grand Prize in a Lego Ideas '90s throwback challenge.

submitted by Canconda to electricvehicles
263 points | 35 comments
https://youtu.be/aP6572zNPf0

Determinants of electric vehicle emissions savings and costs across locations and individuals Marco Miotti and Jessika E Trancik*

Following is in video description by @MoneyShift

The most common argument against electric cars is that once you factor in battery manufacturing and lithium mining, they aren’t actually cleaner. MIT tested that directly, and the answer is no longer ambiguous.

Researchers Marco Miotti and Jessika Trancik built a lifecycle model covering thousands of US zip codes, drilling down to individual driver behavior rather than comparing broad regions. They accounted for battery and vehicle manufacturing, fuel extraction and refining, regional electricity mix, local meteorological data, traffic density, trip length and duration, acceleration patterns, gas and electricity prices, and state fees. The study appears in Environmental Research Letters.

The concession first: building a battery is dirtier than building a comparable gas car, and an EV starts life with a larger manufacturing footprint. MIT states that plainly rather than working around it.

The findings: in most US locations, a battery electric vehicle reduces lifetime greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 60 percent compared to a similar gas vehicle, with larger reductions in urban areas. On cold weather, MIT found that in a climate like North Dakota, efficiency can drop as much as 50 percent on a particularly frigid night, but the effect on annual emissions benefits is minimal. Miotti’s own conclusion was that even in the most unfavorable conditions, EVs still reduce emissions…

submitted by LadyButterfly to NiceMemes
170 points | 6 comments

submitted by TheImpressiveX to startrek
16 points | 4 comments
https://i.postimg.cc/BQ9vNjbX/combined-image.jpg

More than 750 theaters across the U.S. will screen restored 4K presentations of classic Star Trek films paired with episodes of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES making their theatrical debut, from Sept. 4-8. Fans attending will also have the first opportunity to purchase limited-edition Star Trek “Enterprise” popcorn vessels and commemorative drink cups at participating theaters, while supplies last.

• Friday, September 4: Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition + S02E03 "The Changeling"
• Saturday, September 5: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Director’s Cut) + S01E22 "Space Seed"
• Sunday, September 6: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock + S02E01 "Amok Time"
• Monday, September 7: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home + S01E28 "The City on the Edge of Forever"
• Tuesday, September 8: Star Trek: The Genesis Trilogy (TWoK, TSFS, TVH)

AMC and Regal will also be selling popcorn buckets to commemorate the occasion:

submitted by LadyButterfly to historymemes
1199 points | 232 comments

An anonymous reader quotes a report fro SFGATE: From "rizz" to "meat proxy," words and phrases have fallen in and out of favor for centuries. Culture, politics and technological development have long influenced these trends, and now, new research shows that ChatGPT is beginning to influence how humans communicate. The findings from a team at the Pew Research Center show how, in a short time since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022 and other chatbots followed, the use of certain words and…

The sci-fi franchise celebrates its 60th anniversary September 8 with screenings and special events.

The Honda Goldwing is one of the more famous motorcycles ever produced. It’s known for its reliability and comfort, but also for being one of the first motorcycles Honda rolls out new technology with. It was the first to have a factory-installed airbag as well as integrated GPS, and is now largely associated for being a sort of two-wheeled RV with how many creature comforts it supports for long-distance riders. [Matt] has a Goldwing of his own, and is taking that RV-like feeling to the extreme with a rooftop camper for this motorcycle.

Of course, motorcycles don’t have roofs, but if this Goldwing had one this camper would definitely be above that. Goldwings are already heavy enough without an enormous weight dramatically increasing the center of gravity, and [Matt] certainly had his problems with that along the way. But before this adventure he had modified it into a hill climber, removing a lot of the extraneous equipment from it. Attaching some metal frame and a lightweight camper shell to it didn’t seem like too much of a…

Stop what you're doing and check out Drop Loot, which takes the basic idea of Tetris block-dropping and mashes it into a cool dungeon crawler.

Read the full article on GamingOnLinux.

Every NFL team has been assigned a Disney character for a new merchandise collection and it's wild.