TLDR 2021-10-29

Facebook has rebranded as Meta. The announcement was made during the company's virtual reality labs Connect event. A new high-end headset, fitness-focused accessories, and a VR remake of GTA: San Andreas were also announced at the event. The Oculus name will be replaced with the new company branding. Facebook has changed its iconic sign at HQ to reflect the rebrand.

SpaceX flexed the 'Chopsticks' arm of its Mechazilla tower for the first time recently at the company's testing facilities in South Texas. The tower is designed to catch Starship and its accompanying Super Heavy booster to ensure a soft landing. SpaceX successfully completed a static fire test on a Starship prototype last week, indicating that the company may soon be ready for its first orbital test launch. A link to an animation showing how Mechazilla will likely work is available in the article.

The Super Sub is a high-performance cruiser from U-Boat Worx that was designed to keep up with large marine life. The 17-foot submersible is equipped with a propulsion system that is capable of churning out 60 kW, allowing it to hit speeds of up to 8 knots. It is two knots faster than a bottlenose dolphin and adept at navigating the world beneath the waves. The Super Sub can dive to depths of nearly 1,000 feet at angles up to 30-degrees steep. Renders of the submersible are available in the article.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has revealed that Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot extends hundreds of miles into the planet. The storm's diameter is about 10,000 miles wide and between 186 and 310 miles deep. It is so large that the Juno spacecraft was able to measure the small perturbations in gravity produced by the storm as it passed over. These gravity signals were combined with previous microwave measurements to calculate the depth of the storm. While the storm is deep, it is not nearly as deep as some of the surrounding jet streams which extend up to 1,800 miles into the planet.

Modern.js is a meta-framework suite for frontend-focused modern web development. It can be used to develop mobile and desktop websites, desktop apps, micro-front ends, API services, UI components, and more. The documentation is only in Chinese for now, but English versions will be added soon.

Arco Design is a React UI components library with more than 60 crafted components based on the Arco Design system. All components are written in TypeScript. The design tokens can be altered to build custom themes. A market is available for materials management.

Writing a book to teach others a few things can be a rewarding experience on many levels. This article discusses publishing and whether one should self-publish or find a publisher. It covers topics such as royalty rates, rights, cover design, copyright, and much more.

Humans have been digging into the ground for millennia, and when the materials from these quarries are depleted, they often end up abandoned. Quarries are usually located near cities, which makes them ideal spots for redevelopment. This article looks at 12 of the most interesting abandoned quarry redevelopment projects around the world.