As we witness the endless indignities these grieving families have endured in the six decades since the mining disaster, it is impossible not to turn red with rage

‘I’d like to have known her that bit longer, really. Those eight years went very, very quickly. I loved the child. I lost her. And that seemed to me to be the end of everything really, when she’d gone.”

Ray Lee, now 90, lost his daughter Anne on 21 October 1966. It was the day her primary school, along with several surrounding houses, in Aberfan was engulfed by an estimated 100,000 tonnes of slurry from one of the colliery spoil tips that overshadowed the Welsh mining village. Anne was one of 116 children killed, alongside 28 adults.

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Officers responding to an alleged shoplifting call fired into the vehicle of Vellesiya Wiley, killing her son, Kohen

On Monday, the office of the Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, announced that the police shooting of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old, as he sat in his mother’s lap “was justified”. The statement came four months after the baby was killed in Senatobia, Mississippi.

On 14 June, officers in Senatobia, a small city near Memphis, were responding to a shoplifting call alleging Vellesiya Wiley, the baby’s mother, and Latoya Ferrell, a friend, had stolen a pack of diapers. Neither woman has been charged with a crime. Officials have not released any evidence of shoplifting.

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Catherine Breed began unprecedented journey at northern end of state, swimming 10 miles a day to reach other end in less than four months

A 33-year-old ultra-endurance athlete has completed an unprecedented swim down the entire coast of California, finishing the 900-mile journey in less than four months.

Catherine Breed will celebrate the end of her swim at San Diego’s Coronado beach on Monday afternoon, 111 days since she began her journey on 1 July at the northern border of California.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Elon Musk has said he will give every child in America a stake in SpaceX, his $2 trillion aerospace and artificial intelligence company, as tech firms face intensifying scrutiny over their impact on society. "Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America," he wrote on X on Monday. "This will be the first of many."

SpaceX only began trading publicly in June (and after the biggest initial public offering in history). The company's shares were trading for about $146 when the market closed on Friday. Musk's proposal was thin on detail. It is not clear how those shares would be distributed to the tens of millions of American children or whether all of them would even be eligible. According to the United States Census Bureau, there are roughly 73 million people under the age of 18, making Musk's potential giveaway worth about $10.7 billion at SpaceX's current share price. The move came in response to Anthropic's announcement on Sunday that it will commit at least 5% of its shares to a "Public Benefit Fund" that will donate money to social causes. "I recommend giving the shares directly to the public," Musk said in a reply to Anthropic's announcement. "This is what I will be doing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

braart has added a photo to the pool:

Inside the church

TOKIO (ANP) - Een Japanse ruimtesonde is begonnen aan een reis richting Phobos en Deimos, de twee manen van de planeet Mars. Het onbemande vaartuig moet onder meer stof van Phobos ophalen en naar de aarde brengen, zodat wetenschappers dat in laboratoria kunnen bestuderen. Zoiets is nog nooit gedaan.

De sonde Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) werd maandagavond (Nederlandse tijd) gelanceerd vanaf de ruimtebasis Tanegashima. Volgend jaar moet hij aankomen bij Mars en zijn twee manen. Bij twee zachte landingen moet de MMX ongeveer 10 gram aan bodemmateriaal van Phobos halen. Volgens de planning keert de sonde in 2031 terug op aarde.

Phobos is maar ongeveer 20 kilometer in doorsnee. Hij staat zo'n 6000 kilometer afstand van het oppervlak van Mars. Ter vergelijking: de maan staat ongeveer zestig keer zo ver van de aarde. Het onderzoek moet onder meer duidelijk maken hoe de manen van Mars zijn ontstaan. Dat kan misschien ook helpen om duidelijk te maken hoe de aarde miljarden jaren geleden wel levensvatbaar is geworden en Mars niet.

Do you believe in life after death? This is a great interactive piece by Alvin Chang about people’s beliefs about the existence of an afterlife and how those beliefs change over the course of our lifetimes.