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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow5743

NASA search-and-rescue technology has been sent to Mexico following the series of earthquakes that shook the country last week. The suitcase-size device, dubbed FINDER, uses radar to detect human heartbeats under rubble.

The device was developed through a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Department of Homeland Security. Two private companies have licensed the technology. As of Thursday, Sept. 21, one of the companies, called SpecOps Group, was in Mexico City participating in rescue operations, NASA officials said in a statement.

The other company, R4, sold FINDER units to Quito, Ecuador's, fire department following an earthquake there last year. That fire department has dispatched these units to Mexico City, according to the NASA statement.

FINDER, which stands for Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response, uses low-power microwave radar to detect small movements, like breathing or heartbeat, beneath rubble. In tests, it can detect a heartbeat through 30 feet of rubble or 20 feet of solid concrete, NASA officials said. The technology was developed from JPL's efforts to design low-cost, small-spacecraft radios, using signal-processing techniques created to measure small changes in spacecraft motion.

Source: https://www.space.com/38290-nasa-rescue-tech-sent-mexico-earthquake.html

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Saudi Arabia will lift its ban on women drivers in June 2018, in a move the interior minister said would "transform traffic safety":

Saudi Arabia's lifting of a much criticized ban on women drivers will reduce the number of car crashes in a country with one of the world's worst traffic-related death rates, its interior minister said on Thursday.

King Salman announced the historic change on Tuesday, ending a conservative tradition which limited women's mobility and was seen by rights activists as an emblem of their suppression in the kingdom where Islam originated.

Saudi Arabia was the only remaining country in the world to bar women from driving, a policy that will officially end in June 2018 after a ministerial committee reports on measures needed for implementation.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, the interior minister who took over from his uncle in June, said security forces were ready to apply traffic laws to men and women, though he did not mention if women would be recruited as traffic police.

"Women driving cars will transform traffic safety into a pedagogical practice which will reduce human and economic losses caused by accidents," he was quoted as saying on the ministry's official Twitter feed. He did not elaborate.

The current King of Saudi Arabia was crowned on January 23, 2015.

Also at the Washington Post. NYT has teaching activities for your students.

Related: Saudi Arabia, UAE to Donate to Women Entrepreneurs Fund
Saudi Arabia to Lift Ban on Online VoIP and Video Calling Services

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takyon writes:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/upending-digital-currency-market-is-next-act-for-ex-virtu-trader

Michael Oved helped Virtu Financial Inc. become the most consistently profitable market maker in the history of electronic trading. Now he has his sights set on revolutionizing how digital currency exchanges operate.

The new company he cofounded, AirSwap, sounds like a contradiction in terms: A decentralized exchange. Made possible by the nascent technology of the ethereum blockchain, there's no central authority around which buyers and sellers gather. Instead, a computer program known as a smart contract lets investors find each other anywhere in the world to trade cryptocurrencies. There are no user accounts and identities are hidden as trading is solely on a peer-to-peer basis.

"What's novel about that is there's no New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq in the middle, setting rules," said Richard Johnson, a market-structure analyst at Greenwich Associates who specializes in blockchain, a system of networked computers that verify transactions in minutes rather than days as in the current banking system and make digital currencies such as bitcoin possible. "That's cool, we haven't seen that before."

The idea goes to the heart of what many blockchain supporters want to accomplish: eliminating middlemen in industries from finance to real estate to health care. It also makes digital currencies immune to recent efforts to control their trading by governments such as China, which is closing cryptocurrency exchanges within its borders. "It's impossible to shut down, and you don't even need an account," Oved said. "People won't even know Chinese traders are on the system."

Previously: It Seems China is Shutting Down its Blockchain Economy

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for guy_

Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies have been given an ultimatum by the European Union: rid your platforms of hate speech or face legal consequences.

European regulators have been pushing social media firms to remove racist and violent posts from their platforms in a timely manner for years. Their patience is running out.

Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Google have all pledged to do more. In May 2016, they promised to review a majority of hate speech flagged by users within 24 hours and to remove any illegal content.

But the European Commission, EU's top regulator, said Thursday they are still failing to act fast enough. It said it would pass laws allowing the EU to impose punishments on companies that fail to act.

"The situation is not sustainable: in more than 28% of cases, it takes more than one week for online platforms to take down illegal content," said Mariya Gabriel, the EU's top official in charge of the digital economy and society.

The Commission said it will consider implementing new laws to tackle the problem if the online platforms fail to "take swift action over the coming months."

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/28/technology/hate-speech-facebook-twitter-europe/index.html

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/28/554340059/faa-restricts-drones-over-major-u-s-landmarks

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new regulation restricting unauthorized drone operations over 10 Department of Interior sites, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.

[...] The announcement says the action comes at "the request of U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies." It says it marks the first time the FAA has restricted drone flights over Interior Department landmarks, although many of the sites were covered by a National Park Service ban on drones issued in 2014.

But that ban pertained to "launching, landing or operating unmanned aircraft" in national parks. The FAA's announcement includes the airspace above parks and landmarks.

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

DirecTV is allowing at least some customers to cancel subscriptions to its Sunday Ticket package of NFL games and obtain refunds, if they cite players' national anthem protests as the reason for discontinuing service, customer service representatives said Tuesday.

Under Sunday Ticket's regular policy, refunds are not to be given once the season is underway. But the representatives said they are making exceptions this season -- which began in September -- because of the controversy over the protests, in which players kneel or link arms during the national anthem.

Spokesmen for DirecTV-parent AT&T Inc. (T) and the National Football League declined to comment.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/26/directv-allows-some-nfl-refunds-after-anthem-controversy.html

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Robots are generally designed to perform a single, specific task. But now a team from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), led by CSAIL director Daniela Rus and former CSAIL postdoc Shuhei Miyashita, is developing a system that allows a "Primer" robot to don various exoskeletons to give it different capabilities.

The core of the origami-inspired system is the Primer robot, which is a cubical robot that is controlled by magnets and can move about by shaking and buzzing. To carry out more complex tasks, including walking, rolling, sailing, or gliding, the Primer can hop onto a flat sheet of plastic that folds into specific shapes when heated, providing the Primer with a self-donning robotic wardrobe. When finished with its job, the Primer can then hop into a dish of water to dissolve the exoskeleton.

Currently, the Primer has the following exoskeletons on hand,

        -Walk-bot, which allows the Primer to walk about
        -Wheel-bot that allows Primer to move about twice as fast as the Walk-bot
        -Boat-bot, which can float on water and carry a payload twice its weight
        -Glider-bot that allows the Primer to, well, glide through the air

Which exoskeletons should follow?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google and Levi's have designed a "smart jacket" with a touch-sensitive cuff that can control a smartphone:

More than a year after it was announced and two years after we first saw a demonstration of touch-sensitive fabric, the Levi's jacket with a smart sleeve is finally going on sale. I've been wearing this Levi's Commuter Trucker jacket for a few days now and it's very nice. It fits well and looks great. And by swiping or tapping the fabric on the left cuff, I have been able to control my smartphone.

Whether those things add up to a $350 value — the price of this jacket — is entirely a different question. It's targeted at people who commute by bike, and I think the only people beyond that target market are going to be a few techies and people who just really like jean jackets. It works with both Android and iPhone, by the way. A standard Levi's trucker jacket costs $148, though Levi's has been quick to point out that designer denim jackets can run well over $400. I'm no fashion critic, but I can tell you I'm impressed with the fit and look of this one.

When you talk to both Levi's and Google, they're very eager to tell a design story about this jacket, not just a technology story. It comes out of a partnership between the clothing company and a small division of Google dedicated to experimentation. We've seen lots of weird projects inside Google's ATAP, but most of them (like the ill-fated Project Ara) have ended up getting scuttled.

According to Google, the jacket can only be washed "up to" ten times:

takyon writes:

Ikea has acquired TaskRabbit to gain an army of people that can assemble other people's furniture:

Ikea, the Swedish home goods retailer, said on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire TaskRabbit, a company known for, among other things, sending tool-wielding workers to rescue customers befuddled by build-it-yourself furniture kits.

Ikea said that it had signed an agreement to acquire the privately held TaskRabbit but declined to say how much it would pay. TaskRabbit will continue to operate independently once the deal closes, expected in October.

TaskRabbit uses its online marketplace to connect 60,000 freelance workers, or "taskers," with people looking to hire someone to do chores like furniture assembly, moving and handyman fixes. In their listings, workers specify their hourly rates.

"In a fast-changing retail environment, we continuously strive to develop new and improved products and services to make our customers' lives a little bit easier," said Jesper Brodin, chief executive of Ikea. "Entering the on-demand, sharing economy enables us to support that."

Also at CBS and Newsweek.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A recently published study estimates that up to 70 percent of the United States' electricity needs could be met through a newly devised system that harvests power from evaporation. This novel renewable power source uses bacterial spores to generate electricity and can sit on top of lakes and reservoirs.

Back in 2015, Ozgur Sahin and a team of scientists from Columbia University revealed an exciting new potential source of renewable energy. The team had created a way to generate energy from the natural process of evaporation using a certain type of bacterial spore. These spores expand and contract as they absorb evaporating moisture, and this oscillating motion could be harnessed to generate a small amount of power.

Where will we water ski?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

ESkate consists of a motorized wheel with a solid rubber tread, which a foot platform folds down from the inside of – that platform has three smaller unpowered stability wheels of its own. Users strap their feet in, wearing pretty much any type of shoe, then go.

There are actually three models to choose from, which have different battery capacities and motor sizes. The top-of-the-line Blizwheel Pro can go up to 15 mph (24 km/h) and has a maximum range of 15 miles per charge. It weighs 13 lb (6 kg) a pair.

Depending on the model, speed is wirelessly controlled via either a Bluetooth handheld remote, or a finger control in which bending the finger causes the rider to accelerate, and straightening it causes them to slow down. There's also a bracelet-style "dashboard" device that displays data such as current speed, mileage and remaining battery life.

Two words: electric disco.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

While a number of inventors have brought the idea of a jetpack closer to reality, with one even flying around the Statue of Liberty in a demonstration, the idea of personal flight remains a pipe dream for most of us. Boeing has had enough of the dreaming, and is putting up US$2 million in prize money to encourage bright ideas around building and designing an easy-to-use personal flying device.

The GoFly prize follows a similar blueprint to the XPrize competitions and the Hyperloop Global Challenge, in that it tasks anyone who is willing and able to come up with technological concepts that would move humanity forward in a big way. But rather than moon landings, artificial intelligence or pods that travel at the speed of sound, Boeing is chasing a dream that has crossed most minds at some point – the ability to fly from point A to point B entirely on your own.

Why not a lighter-than-air solution? A lot less risk of catastrophic failure.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

As part of Linode's migration of servers to a new Data Center in Dallas, two of our servers were scheduled for migration at 10pm EDT on September 29, 2017. NCommander happened to be around when I sent out a reminder I'd received from Linode, so he 'hit the button' at 9:30pm tonight (Sept. 28) and did a manual migration ahead of time.

Unless you were on our IRC server (Internet Relay Chat) at the time, you probably didn't even notice... and even then, it was unavailable for only about 15-20 minutes. Redundancy for the win!

That leaves us with a single server, sodium, to migrate. It is currently scheduled for migration on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 10:00pm EDT. Since sodium is one of two front-end proxies for us (the other is magnesium which has already been migrated), I expect we'll be able to perform that migration without any site interruption.

Separately, and in parallel, we are slowly moving our servers from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to Gentoo.

To the community, thank you for your patience as we work our way through this process. And, for those of you who may have been with us from the outset, and when up-time was measured in hours, please join me in congratulating the team for their dedication and hard work which has facilitated such an uneventful migration!

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Mysterious metal towers are popping up at local [NYC] tunnels, and soon they'll start appearing at bridges, too.

But even people on the MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] board in charge of the towers can't say why they're being used or what's in them, CBS2's Dave Carlin reports.

Jose Lugo said the tall metal towers quickly appeared up after the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel tolls[sic] booths came down.

"We don't really know what's the purpose of this," he told Carlin.

It's a $100 million MTA project shrouded in secrecy, with 18 of them for tunnels and bridges. So what are they exactly?

[...] [MTA Chairman] Lhota: "The base of these new pieces that are going up include whatever fiber optics are necessary for those Homeland Security items."

Z backscatter arrays?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A sex doll was so heavily molested by eager men it broke before anyone could actually use it. Or use it privately, anyway.

We're not entirely sure what happened to 'Samantha'. But its owner complained that the £3,000 robot was left "heavily soiled" after being exhibited at a tech fair.

Developer Sergi Santos, from Barcelona, Spain, says visitors to the Arts Electronica Festival in Linz treated the 'intelligent' sex doll "like barbarians", and added that two fingers were broken in the melee.

"The people mounted Samantha's breasts, her legs and arms," Sergi said. "Two fingers were broken. She was heavily soiled."

Sergi added that the robot had to be sent back in a parcel to Barcelona for repairs and cleaning after being left so filthy and broken by the never-ending male attention.

But said: "Samantha can endure a lot, she will pull through."

Not sure I could get a 3,000 pound robot up to my 3rd floor walk-up...

Original Submission