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bugamn writes:

This article provides an interesting take on Star Wars as a ring composition. It claims that all the movies, including the prequels, interact in a way to weave a complex pattern. This pattern is marked by repetition across a border, like an image against a mirror. It compares the composition of the movies to that of of a song, with lyrics which repeat themselves, similar but different. The article is long and full of references and well worth a read, even if you didn't like the prequel trilogy.

The Buffalo News Police Blotter reports that a pair of thieves stole Xbox wireless controllers and police tracked them down by contacting the manufacturer. Maybe this is standard operating procedure for the cops, but it was new to this submitter. Any idea of the mechanism(s) involved?

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/police-blotter/manufacturer-helps-track-suspected-xbox-devices-thieves-20150813

No explicit mention of Microsoft — perhaps these controllers were made by a third party to work with Xbox.

Phoenix666 writes:

When HBO decided to take the Internet seriously, it was only a matter of time before it started getting interested in your kids. The deal for rights to premiere the next five seasons of Sesame Street on HBO's cable channel and streaming services, alongside other Sesame Network content produced exclusively for HBO, shows just how important children's programming has become to anyone who wants to build and maintain a massive subscriber base in a marketplace being reshaped by cord-cutting behavior. To prove the point: Both Amazon and Netflix are launching new kids' shows today.
...
The battle for kids, at bottom, is about keeping their parents around even when a favorite show about a murderous politician is on hiatus. Streaming services are far easier to cancel and resubscribe than cable-TV, notes Rich Greenfield of BTIG, so the goal is to make that decision harder. "Remember when Netflix launched House of Cards, dropping all episodes at once, and investors feared consumers would sign up for three days, binge the entire series, and then disconnect?" he observed recently. "Netflix combated this risk by adding a significant amount of content that targeted all members of the family, with children's content a critical 'glue' to its offering."

HBO didn’t have to worry much about using kids shows to retain customers until recently. Its streaming service doesn't even include Fraggle Rock, which premiered on the cable network in the 1980s, even though rival streaming services currently offer the old episodes. Cable channels are offered as part of larger bundles of channels and within other services, such as broadband and phone service. Getting rid of your HBO just because the latest season of Game of Thrones ended is, to most subscribers, probably more trouble than it's worth. But appointment viewing keeps people loyal to only a certain extent. It makes more sense to be all things to all people when your subscription service is an easily eliminated line item in the household budget.

Do you keep Netflix, Hulu, etc. for the kids?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Apple is building a self-driving car in Silicon Valley, and is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test it, the Guardian has learned. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected.

In May, engineers from Apple’s secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles.

In correspondence obtained by the Guardian under a public records act request, Apple engineer Frank Fearon wrote: “We would ... like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it].”

Automobile manufacturing is a radical departure from Apple's core business. Can they pull it off?

takyon writes:

Back in May, UC Berkeley scientists reported using genetically modified yeast to "brew" morphine. Now Stanford University scientists have created strains of yeast that can make other opiate painkillers:

A strain of yeast engineered in a lab was able to transform sugar into a pain-killing drug — called hydrocodone — for the first time. And a second strain was able to produce thebaine, an opiate precursor that drug companies use to make oxycodone. The findings, published in Science, could completely change the way drug companies make pain-relieving medicine. Unfortunately, it may also open the door to less positive outcomes, like "home-brewed" heroin.

[...] In the short term, yeast-made opiates might lead to cheaper drugs. But the true excitement is farther down the road: scientists may be able to use this technology to make more effective pain-killers. "We're not just limited to what happens in nature or what the poppies make," Smolke says. "We can begin to modify these compounds in ways that will, for example, reduce the negative side effects that are associated with these medicines, but still keep the pain relieving properties." The two yeast strains aren't anywhere near ready for commercial use. Right now, they make such small quantities of drugs that it would take about 4,400 gallons of engineered yeast to make a single dose of standard pain-relieving medicine. So the next step for researchers is boosting the drug yields — which could take years. And for once, that might actually be a good thing; health officials and scientists will need that time to figure out how to keep these strains from being used to fuel the illegal drug market.

[More after the break.]

miljo writes:

Reuters has run a story claiming that Eugene Kaspersky directed developers at Kaspersky Lab to modify shared anti-virus definitions in order make other antivirus programs flag benign system files as malicious.

The attacks allegedly targeted rivals Microsoft, AVG, and AVAST who Kaspersky felt were stealing.

Microsoft, AVG and Avast indicated that they had found attempts to introduce false positives as detailed in a 2013 presentation by Dennis Batchelder from Microsoft.

Kaspersky denies the allegations and tweeted this as the story broke.

Read the full story here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/14/us-kaspersky-rivals-idUSKCN0QJ1CR20150814

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The woman, 40-year-old Jo Rogers, may have been bitten by a tick while on vacation in Grand Lake, Oklahoma, in early July. Four days after her trip, she experienced flulike symptoms, and was hospitalized a day later, according to CNN.

Doctors tested her for West Nile virus, meningitis and other infections before finally diagnosing her with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is caused by the bacteria Rickettsia rickettsia and transmitted by ticks. Rogers' limbs turned black and blue, and doctors amputated her arms and legs below the knees and elbows, CNN said.

Although it happens rarely, amputation can be necessary in cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever if a patient is not treated early enough, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security. The antibiotic used to treat the infection works best if it's started before the fifth day of a person's illness, according to the Centers for [Disease] Control and Prevention.

The bacteria attacks the cells lining the blood vessels and provokes an immune response that leads to septic shock. A sobering reminder to outdoorsmen to check for ticks when returning.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Paul Duffy, an attorney for the Prenda Law, died on Monday, a Cook County Medical Examiner spokesperson said, adding that the cause of death is still pending and could take up to three months to confirm. The Madison Recorder noted that Duffy died at a Chicago hospital. He was 55.

Prenda made millions by suing Internet users for allegedly downloading porn illegally, banking on the fact that most of the people receiving its lawsuit threats would choose to settle rather than endure the cost and embarrassment of a lawsuit—even if they did nothing wrong. Duffy was considered a principal for Prenda Law, but he also worked closely with John Steele and Paul Hansemeier, who were affiliated with Prenda's litigation.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

From NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

A piece of tape can only be used a few times before the adhesion wears off and it can no longer hold two surfaces together. But researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are working on the ultimate system of stickiness, inspired by geckos. Thanks to tiny hairs on the bottom of geckos' feet, these lizards can cling to walls with ease, and their stickiness doesn't wear off with repeated usage. JPL engineer Aaron Parness and colleagues used that concept to create a material with synthetic hairs that are much thinner than a human hair. When a force is applied to make the tiny hairs bend, that makes the material stick to a desired surface.

"This is how the gecko does it, by weighting its feet," Parness said. Behind this phenomenon is a concept called van der Waals forces. A slight electrical field is created because electrons orbiting the nuclei of atoms are not evenly spaced, so there are positive and negative sides to a neutral molecule. The positively charged part of a molecule attracts the negatively charged part of its neighbor, resulting in "stickiness." Even in extreme temperature, pressure and radiation conditions, these forces persist.

"The grippers don't leave any residue and don't require a mating surface on the wall the way Velcro would," Parness said. The newest generation of grippers can support more than 150 Newtons of force, the equivalent of 35 pounds (16 kilograms).

Previously: Gecko Grippers get a Microgravity Test Flight

tt4122068 writes:

Tyler Cowen reviews Geoff Calvin's new book Humans are Underrated in an article at the Washington Post:

"Humans Are Underrated" serves up two different books in one, each interesting in its own right. The first offers an overview of recent developments in smart software and artificial intelligence. The reader learns about the bright future of driverless cars; IBM's Watson and its skills at "Jeopardy" and medical diagnosis; and the software of Narrative Science, which can write up stories and, in some cases, cover events as well as a human journalist. The overall message is a sobering one: The machines are now able to copy or even improve on a lot of human skills, and thus they are encroaching on jobs. We won't all have to join the bread line, but not everyone will prosper in this new world. That material is well argued, and those stories are becoming increasingly familiar ground.

The second and more original message is a take on which human abilities will remain important in light of growing computer efficacy. In a nutshell, those abilities are empathy, interpersonal skills and who we are rather than what we do. This is ultimately a book about how human beings can make a difference and how that capability will never go away. It's both a description of the likely future and a prescription for how you or your children will be able to stand out in the world to come.

Here is another bit from the review:

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A new British bar fills its air with a mist of alcohol and aromatics:

For the past six years, Bompas and Harry Parr have been working with scientists to perfect getting drunk on vapor. They recently opened a pop-up in London where you can—you guessed it—inhale your intoxicant.
...
As they enter, imbibers don a plastic poncho and enter a misting chamber. Bompas & Parr's mixture isn't a gin and tonic, really. It's a mix of gin—alcohol, water, and aromatic molecules from botanicals like juniper—and a bit of quinine, the bitter part of tonic water. (Tonic's other ingredients didn't make the cut—sugar's too sticky and citrus had, Bompas says, too many allergens.) As bar-goers lounge about, they're encouraged to breathe deeply, drawing in the smoky taste of the frankincense-infused gin.

The air inside Alcoholic Architecture is at 140 percent humidity; the booze droplets waft around in a dense fog. Visibility is less than three feet. "It's a little like a masquerade," Bompas says. "It's also great for hooking up."

The article does not mention any provision for designated drivers.

Original Submission

kurenai.tsubasa writes:

According to the BBC, the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) in Chile has discovered an alien gas giant, 51 Eridani b, about 97 light years away. An article in Science reports that the GPI is “an instrument designed for direct imaging.”

From the BBC:

The W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii reports that they have “confirmed the discovery.” More from the article:

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Everyone may be a critic, but now Penn State researchers are paving a way for machines to get in on the act. However, the researchers add that their photo-analysis algorithm is designed to offer constructive feedback, not to replace photographers.

The researchers have developed an algorithm that analyses the arrangement of visual elements—the composition—of digital photographs. It also offers feedback about the perceived composition of the photograph and provides examples of similarly composed pictures of high aesthetic value, said James Wang, professor of information sciences and technology. Wang and colleagues recently received a patent for the system. "If you think about aesthetics, everything is about composition," said Wang. "You can look into colours, or textures, or shapes, but, if you boil it down, you eventually have to consider all of these elements as part of composition."

Training a machine to become an art critic is not easy, according to the researchers. A machine must be trained with examples of highly regarded photographs in order to recognize good compositional elements, said Jia Li, professor of statistics, who worked with Wang.

The original article can be found at Phys.org.

The original source can be found at Penn State University.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

From Phys.org, copied from EPFL:

Graphene is the stuff of science fiction: the strongest material known, it also has exceptional – if not exotic – electrical properties, and possibly even beyond that. As for perovskites, their ability to convert light into electrical current has firmly placed them among the best materials for efficient solar panels.

To create such sensitive systems, Bonvin first developed a method to grow perovskite from a solution into thin nanowires directly on top of graphene sheets. This step is crucial, as the light sensitivity of the devices depends on the way the nanowires are structured; the architecture is the key to optimal photodetection.

Nonetheless, doing this is a challenge. In developing his own method, Bonvin drew from the lab's expertise in microfabrication of nanowires. The process involved high-precision machines and a lot of trial-and-error, but in the end, Bonvin saw his graphene-perovskite nanowires growing in beautiful straight lines. "The growth method is controllable, reproducible, cheap and scalable," he says excitedly. "It is ideal for large-scale processing."

Such ultra-sensitive photodetectors have multiple applications. These include night-vision systems, CT scanners, detectors used in particle accelerator experiments and even light-based quantum computing systems, which require detection of single photons. "I think our detectors can actually achieve that," says Bonvin.

Even more exotically, the detectors can be used in space telescopes, which detect weak signals from distant galaxies across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Original Submission

AndyTheAbsurd writes:

More at kurzweilai.net

Full research article: Morphological Evolution of Physical Robots through Model-Free Phenotype Development

Original Submission