SoylentNews

fliptop writes:

In January, Target collaborated with global design firm IDEO and MIT Media Lab, spawning their Food + Future coLab to explore such topics as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health. "We're working at a pace we could only achieve by putting all the right people in one room — from retail experts to bioengineers — and then giving them the freedom, autonomy and resources to make things happen," said Target's chief strategy and innovation officer Casey Carl.

The first of the two ideas developed by the team focused on food labeling. The line, Good & Gather, displays ingredients on the front of packaging rather than in fine print on the back.

The second, aimed at providing real time nutritional information, allows people to scan fruits and vegetables, learn the exact nutritional value and then pay based on freshness.

[...] Other projects that the Food + Future coLab is working on:

• City farming "across multiple scales of an open platform" is being explored in partnership with MIT Media Lab's Open Agriculture Initiative;
• With the assistance of spectroscopy experts at Ocean Optics, a platform is being built that can "see" inside food to evaluate everything from nutrient levels to contaminants

Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

Matthias Gafni writes in the San Jose Mercury News that the engineers who built BART, the rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area that started operation in 1972, used principles developed for the aerospace industry rather than tried-and-true rail standards. And that's the trouble. "Back when BART was created, (the designers) were absolutely determined to establish a new product, and they intended to export it around the world," says Rod Diridon. "They may have gotten a little ahead of themselves using new technology. Although it worked, it was extremely complex for the time period, and they never did export the equipment because it was so difficult for other countries to install and maintain." The Space Age innovations have made it more challenging for the transit agency to maintain the BART system from the beginning. Plus, the aging system was designed to move 100,000 people per week and now carries 430,000 a day, so the loss of even a single car gets magnified with crowded commutes, delays and bus bridges. For example, rather than stick to the standard rail track width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches, BART engineers debuted a 5-foot, 6-inch width track, a gauge that remains to this day almost exclusive to the system. Industry experts say the unique track width necessitates custom-made wheel sets, brake assemblies and track repair vehicles.

Another problem is the dearth of readily available replacement parts for BART's one-of-a-kind systems. Maintenance crews often scavenge parts from old, out-of-service cars to avoid lengthy waits for orders to come in; sometimes mechanics are forced to manufacture the equipment themselves. "Imagine a computer produced in 1972," says David Hardt. "No one is supporting that old equipment any longer, but those same microprocessors are what we have controlling our logic systems." Right now BART needs 100 thyristors at a total cost of $100,000. BART engineers said it could take 22 weeks to ship them to the San Francisco Bay Area to replace in BART's "C" cars, which make up the older cars in the fleet. Right now, the agency has none. Nick Josefowitz says it makes no sense to dwell on design decisions made a half-century ago. "I think we need to use what we have today and build off that, rather than fantasize what could have been done in the past. The BART system was state of the art when it was built, and now it's technologically obsolete and coming to the end of its useful life."

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

If you had the opportunity to vote for a politician you totally trusted, who you were sure had no hidden agendas and who would truly represent the electorate's views, you would, right? What if that politician was a robot? Not a human with a robotic personality but a real artificially intelligent robot.

Futures like this have been the stuff of science fiction for decades. But can it be done? And, if so, should we pursue this?

http://theconversation.com/can-we-replace-politicians-with-robots-56683

Considering the US election process, what do Soylentils think ?

Original Submission

jbWolf writes:

Planetary scientists examined NASA data concerning the moon's north and south poles. Hydrogen ice (hidden from the sun in craters), boils off when exposed to the sun. An odd offset of the ice from the moon's current north and south poles prompted a closer look at the data. Statistical analysis and modeling revealed the ice is offset at each pole by the same distance, but in exactly opposite directions. This precise opposition indicates the moon's axis—the imaginary pole that runs north to south through it's middle, and around which the moon rotates—shifted at least six degrees, likely over the course of 1 billion years starting 3 billion years ago. Ancient volcanic activity some 3.5 billion years ago probably melted a portion of the moon's mantle, causing it to bubble up toward its surface and causing an internal shift of the moon's mass.

The article can be found here.

Lunar true polar wander inferred from polar hydrogen (DOI: 10.1038/nature17166)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Utah has launched a new type of crime registry:

Utah has launched an online-offender registry that's being called the first of its kind in the nation. Unlike other registries, this one targets white-collar criminals.

Utah's "White Collar Crime Offender Registry" contains mugshots, names, birthdates and aliases for people convicted of crimes like fraud, theft by deception and money laundering. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes says the purpose is to help consumers avoid financial predators. "This is public information already," said Reyes, "but it's very difficult for the average person to access. So we're really just streamlining that process and making it user-friendly."

In order for someone convicted of a serious white-collar crime to get off of the list — or avoid being put on it in the first place — they must pay restitution to their victims. Getting restitution payments is a challenge for lawmakers all over the country.

Original Submission

Runaway1956 writes:

Google users had previously received only a one-line warning, which appeared on a bar at the top of the Gmail page, reading: "We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer."

Activists, journalists, and policy-makers are most likely to fall prey to government-initiated cyber-attacks, but only 0.1 percent of Gmail users become victims of such attempts, according to the company's assessment.

Last month, Google started notifying Gmail users if a message they send or receive is unencrypted, meaning they could be intercepted by third parties relatively easily. A broken red lock icon will appear next to an email address if a message is not encrypted, and a question mark instead of a profile photo if it cannot be authenticated. The novelty has increased the number of encrypted emails by 25 percent, according to the company.

In explaining the reason for its enhanced warnings, Google cited several high-profile computer security scandals, including Edward Snowden's revelations and the current showdown between Apple and the FBI. The federal law enforcement agency has been waging a legal war on Apple in an attempt to coerce the tech giant into unlocking a cellphone that had belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the attackers in last December's San Bernardino shooting, which claimed the lives of 16 people.

First spotted this story on https://www.rt.com/usa/337331-google-warning-state-attack/
Quick search gave me 47.5 million hits on the subject - most of them quite old articles. Switch from the whole web to "news", I only get 18.3 million hits.

http://www.neowin.net/news/google-will-make-it-clearer-if-youre-being-attacked-by-a-state-sponsored-hacker
http://m.androidcentral.com/google-now-clearly-alerts-you-when-governments-could-be-hacking-your-account
http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/24/gmail-security-new-warning-systems-hacking/

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

ZDnet reports that, concurrent with the release of version 2.2 of its implementation of the Swift programming language, Apple Inc. has made available a port of the compiler, standard libraries, debugger and REPL (a CLI) to the Ubuntu operating system. The port does not include the core libraries, which the company says are not suitable for production use. The language is frequently used in software intended to run under Apple's OS X and iOS operating systems.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

Congressperson Jackie Speier is a Democrat representing the 14th congressional district in California, which encompasses San Francisco and portions of San Mateo county. She has introduced a bill, the Closing the Pre-Paid Mobile Device Security Gap Act of 2016. If enacted, it would require "authorized resellers" of prepaid mobile handsets or SIM cards to collect the names, addresses, and birth dates of purchasers. Identifying documents would be required. Purchasers who give "false or misleading information" could be imprisoned for up to five years, or up to eight years for purchasers who are terrorists. If someone who is not an "authorized reseller" were to sell a handset or SIM card, that person could be imprisoned for two years, and fined. Authorized resellers who fail in their duties could be fined $50 per violation.

An article about it is on Gizmodo.

Speier press release.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A "complex quantum logic operation" has been simplified and implemented using entangled photons:

Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland have overcome one of the key challenges to quantum computing by simplifying a complex quantum logic operation. They demonstrated this by experimentally realising a challenging circuit -- the quantum Fredkin gate -- for the first time.

[...] The main stumbling block to actually creating a quantum computer has been in minimising the number of resources needed to efficiently implement processing circuits. "Similar to building a huge wall out lots of small bricks, large quantum circuits require very many logic gates to function. However, if larger bricks are used the same wall could be built with far fewer bricks," said Dr Patel. "We demonstrate in our experiment how one can build larger quantum circuits in a more direct way without using small logic gates."

At present, even small and medium scale quantum computer circuits cannot be produced because of the requirement to integrate so many of these gates into the circuits. One example is the Fredkin (controlled-SWAP) gate. This is a gate where two qubits are swapped depending on the value of the third. Usually the Fredkin gate requires implementing a circuit of five logic operations. The research team used the quantum entanglement of photons -- particles of light -- to implement the controlled-SWAP operation directly. There are quantum computing algorithms, such as Shor's algorithm for factorising prime numbers, that require the controlled-SWAP operation.

[...] "What is exciting about our scheme is that it is not limited to just controlling whether qubits are swapped, but can be applied to a variety of different operations opening up ways to control larger circuits efficiently," said Professor Pryde. "This could unleash applications that have so far been out of reach."

A quantum Fredkin gate (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501531)  

 [Continues...]

takyon writes:

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has lost contact with the Hitomi X-ray space observatory, which was launched on February 17th. JAXA engineers are still trying to contact the satellite. The US Joint Space Operations Center spotted five pieces of space debris near the satellite around the time contact was lost:

The space debris could indicate some minor pieces blowing off Hitomi as opposed to complete destruction, says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and space analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hitomi, which was known before launch as ASTRO-H, is designed to study X-rays streaming from cosmic phenomena such as black holes, galaxy clusters and dark matter. It carries a high-resolution spectrometer to measure X-ray wavelengths in exquisite detail. Earlier versions of the same instrument have twice met a grim fate on JAXA missions: in 2000, the ASTRO-E telescope crashed on launch, and in 2005 a helium leak aboard the Suzaku satellite crippled its spectrometer within weeks of launch.

JAXA lost contact with Hitomi at 4:40 p.m. Japan time on 26 March. "The cause of the communication failure is under investigation," the agency said. It has, however, received at least one short signal from the satellite since then, and is working on possible ways to start talking to it again.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A deal has been reached that would gradually raise California's minimum wage to $15 per hour. The deal would avoid the prospect of putting the question to voters in a similar ballot initiative this November:

Lawmakers and labor unions in California have reached a deal to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour. The tentative agreement would end a lengthy dispute between California Gov. Jerry Brown and unions, Danielle Karson reports for NPR. Under the new deal — which still needs to go before the state legislature — the minimum wage would increase gradually over the next six years.

California's minimum wage had risen to $10 this January under legislation passed in 2013.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Snapchat is reportedly acquiring the maker of a cartoon "emoji" app for $100 million:

Messaging startup Snapchat Inc. has agreed to pay more than $100 million in cash and stock to acquire Bitstrips Inc., the maker of popular virtual-sticker application Bitmoji, according to two people familiar with the deal.

The Bitmoji app lets users create customized cartoon avatars that look like them, and then send them using a special smartphone keyboard. The app, initially launched in October 2014, has surged in popularity, never falling out of the coveted rankings of the top 100 apps in Apple Inc.'s app store at any point this year, according to App Annie. Several celebrities such as actors Seth Rogen and Lena Dunham use the app.

Snapchat, which rarely makes acquisitions, may be stepping up its deal making to compete with Facebook Inc., a growing rival in the fun and funky world of filters and add-ons for mobile messaging. Facebook earlier this month acquired Masquerade Technologies Inc., the maker of an app that lets users enhance videos through filters and the ability to "swap" faces with others in the picture.

Also at LA Times, TechCrunch.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Facebook's Safety Check feature went above and beyond the call of duty after a deadly bombing in Pakistan:

A Facebook Inc. function designed to let people tell friends and family they are safe after a disaster mistakenly asked users far from Sunday's deadly explosion in Pakistan if they were in harm's way.

The messages resulted from a bug in Facebook's "safety check" feature, which, when activated, allows Facebook users to mark themselves as safe on their profiles if they are near a natural disaster or bombing. The errant messages on Sunday reached some Facebook users in places as far away as New York and Washington, D.C. with texts and notifications asking if they were harmed by the explosion in Lahore, Pakistan, which killed at least 65 people.

Texts from Facebook asked: "Have you been affected by the explosion?" according to screenshots posted by users on Twitter. While Facebook smartphone notifications referenced Lahore, at least some text messages it sent didn't specify where the explosion took place, prompting momentary alarm for some users. One Twitter user wrote: "Thankfully I'm nowhere near the #Lahore bombing. Facebook Safety Check gave me a fright for sec making me think something nearby happened."

At least 65 people were killed on Sunday after an apparent suicide bombing at a public park in Lahore, Pakistan. The attack appeared to have occurred near the main gate of the park, where cars were parked and and a short distance from children's swings:

In the wake of the attack, the hashtag #LahoreBlast was trending on Twitter. Some tweets said hospitals in Lahore were running low on blood, and exhorted residents of Lahore to donate if they could. Many expressed sorrow and anger at the blasts. "It's a park for gods sake!! Children on swings!! How can anybody even have the heart to do this," tweeted Pakistani actress Mahira Khan.

Update: A faction of the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack:

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group said the attack had deliberately targeted Christians celebrating Easter Day. [...] A spokesman for Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said the group wanted to send a message to [Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif] that they "have entered Lahore", and threatened further attacks.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Imagine an aircraft that could alter its wing shape in midflight and, like a pelican, dive into the water before morphing into a submarine.

The key to making this Transformer-like fantasy a reality is a hybrid material featuring stiff metal and soft, porous rubber foam that combines the best properties of both: stiffness when it's called for, and elasticity when a change of shape is required.

The material also has the ability to self-heal following damage.

"It's sort of like us—we have a skeleton, plus soft muscles and skin," says Rob Shepherd, a Cornell University engineering professor. "Unfortunately, that skeleton limits our ability to change shape—unlike an octopus, which does not have a skeleton."
...
This hybrid material combines a soft alloy called Field's metal with a porous silicone foam. In addition to its low melting point of 144 degrees Fahrenheit, Field's metal was chosen because, unlike similar alloys, it contains no lead.
...
The elastomer foam is dipped into the molten metal, then placed in a vacuum so that the air in the foam's pores is removed and replaced by the alloy. The foam had pore sizes of about 2 millimeters; that can be tuned to create a stiffer or a more flexible material.

In testing of its strength and elasticity, the material showed an ability to deform when heated above 144 degrees, regain rigidity when cooled, then return to its original shape and strength when reheated.

Original Study: Morphing Metal and Elastomer Bicontinuous Foams for Reversible Stiffness, Shape Memory, and Self-Healing Soft Machines (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201505991)

Dunno about the aerodynamic vagaries of changing shape on the fly at speed, but it might be fun to re-tune the skin of a craft to reflect different wavelengths of light on demand.

Original Submission

Via exec on IRC, runaway1956 submitted a link to this story:

Techdirt is reporting that, once again, the Brussels attacks were an intelligence community failure and not an encryption problem:

After the Paris attacks late last year, we noted that it was clear that they were evidence of an intelligence community failure, rather than an "encryption" problem -- which kind of explained why the intelligence community quickly tried to blame encryption. But, as we noted, most of the attackers were already known to the intelligence community and law enforcement -- and there's still little evidence that they used any encryption.

It's looking like the Brussels attacks are showing the same pattern. First, there were reports that Belgian law enforcement was well aware of the attackers and their connections.

In Brussels, one of two brothers who took part in Tuesday's attacks on Zaventem airport and a subway train, which killed 31 people and injured hundreds more, had already been suspected of helping the Paris attackers, the federal prosecutors' office said.

And another report noted that one of the brothers had been deported from Turkey a few months ago, and that Turkish officials had warned Belgium about his ties to terrorist groups.

Meanwhile, a more recent report says that US intelligence agencies were even more aware of the attackers:

[...] NBC News quoted U.S. officials who said that Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were known to U.S. counterterrorism authorities before Tuesday morning, when the pair and a third man detonated theor[sic] bombs at the airport and a train station.

Original Submission