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bob_super writes:

China's president has opened the World's longest sea bridge. The giant infrastructure is 55km total, including 3 suspension bridges, a causeway, a 6.7km undersea tunnel between two artificial islands, and another 1km tunnel, all designed at great cost to resist the local typhoons and earthquakes. It links Macau and ZhuHai (Guangdong province) on one side of the Pearl River, to Hong-Kong new airport on the other.

President Xi Jinping opened the long-delayed and over-budget Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge on Tuesday, billed as a major step forward in China's plan to turn the Pearl River Delta into a technology hub to rival Silicon Valley.

But critics worry the 55km-long bridge connecting the mainland city of Zhuhai with the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau is as much about politics as it is business.

Hong-Kong independentists see the $2.2B investment as another sign of progressive assimilation into the mainland, with the 45 minute link replacing the 4-hour ferry commute.

China is stepping up initiatives to increase trade across the region and at home - the opening of the mega-bridge comes a month after a new high-speed rail link started carrying passengers from Hong Kong to the mainland.

Perhaps tellingly, cars will drive on the right on the 6-lane bridge, as in China, and switch to the left when entering Macau or HK.

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Mainframe Bloke writes:

Quality never goes out of style...The Curiosity Show, a 70s and 80s TV show from Oz that introduced kids to basic science, is enjoying a YouTube-based revival.

Thankfully, the creators got control of the content and have put their work up on YouTube.

The story at ABC.

Highly entertaining, and better yet, engaging curious young minds in the possibilities of the world around them. They even have some episodes in German, which I never knew. Generally aimed at the pre-high-school age, just using basic household props mainly. Puzzles, illusions, basic household chemistry and physics, etc.

Their YouTube channel is here if you've got some kids or are just curious yourself.

To kick off the discussion: what are some other similar shows that should be revived?

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

In the wake of recent changes to NZ law to allow the NZ government to demand traveller's pass codes to their devices when they cross NZ borders, the Australian government is stepping up its plan to snoop on user communications by introducing a systematic weakness or vulnerability to products and systems including ISPs. While being very loose on details and unclear exactly how this would work the so called 'decryption bill' while claiming that "The protections provided in this bill are actually greater than what presently exists in the physical world.” Meanwhile, not one single person has provided concrete information about the practical real world implications of this bill.

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Phoenix666 writes:

CNet:

British tech company Dyson announced on Tuesday its plans to build an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Singapore, as part of its plans to expand into automotive.

The company is best known for making vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and hairdryers, but in 2017 it revealed it had starting working on an electric vehicle. In August of this year it announced the opening of an electric car test center at one of its existing sites in the UK. The factory where the cars will be built in Singapore is due to be completed in 2020, keeping the company on track for its scheduled 2021 automotive launch.

"Dyson's growing automotive team is making excellent progress from the state-of-the-art hangars at Hullavington Airfield in Wiltshire where we are investing £200m," said Dyson CEO Jim Rowan in a letter to employees. "Clearly we now need to move quickly towards manufacturing and assembly."

Will the cars suck, or blow past the competition?

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Phoenix666 writes:

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft:

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz have now developed a method that can objectively evaluate the age at which children and adolescents can safely watch a movie. They measured the composition of air in cinemas as well as levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during 135 screenings of eleven different movies. Over 13,000 audience members were involved. For a variety of film genres and age groups, the researchers found that isoprene levels reliably correlate with the age rating of a film. "Isoprene appears to be a good indicator of emotional tension within a group," says Jonathan Williams, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. "Our approach could therefore provide an objective criterion for deciding how movies should be classified."

They couldn't already objectively measure fear by the amount of urine-soaked seat cushions?

C. Stönner, A. Edtbauer, B. Derstroff, E. Bourtsoukidis, T. Klüpfel, J. Wicker, J. Williams. Proof of concept study: Testing human volatile organic compounds as tools for age classification of films. PLOS ONE, 2018; 13 (10): e0203044 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203044

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takyon writes:

Three Explosive Devices Sent to Clintons, Obama and CNN Offices

Explosive devices were sent to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as to CNN's offices in New York, sparking an intense investigation on Wednesday into whether a bomber is going after targets that have often been the subject of right-wing ire.

A law enforcement official said the three devices were similar to one found Monday at the home of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor.

[...] The device sent to CNN was contained in a manila envelope addressed to John Brennan, who was the C.I.A. director in the Obama administration and is a harsh critic of Mr. Trump. The president revoked Mr. Brennan's security clearance in what was seen as an act of retribution. The return address bore the name of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman who formerly headed the Democratic National Committee.

In a statement, the White House condemned "the attempted violent attacks."

Update 1: The explosive devices have been described as pipe bombs. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says that a device was also sent to his office.

Update 2:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's spokesman has identified the device sent to his office, originally believed to be suspicious, as a thumb drive containing files on the far right group Proud Boys. It does not appear to be related to the explosive devices.

[...] Another suspicious package has been intercepted at a Congressional mail screening facility in Capitol Heights, Maryland, according to CNN. [...] ABC News reported the package was addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat.

Live updates at The Guardian.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Singularity Hub:

Novak is among a small group of "de-extinction" engineers, a relatively fringe group of scientists that hope to use genetic engineering to protect or revive iconic animal species ravaged by human activity.

To some, de-extinction is an ecological-sized guilt trip, a species-wide Pet Cemetery horror story ripe for disaster. Yes, biodiversity is important; but who is to say that an extinct species can adapt and survive in an ecological system that's moved on since its passing? Or perhaps more importantly, what if newly-revived animals—a true "invasive species" for Earth—cause more damage than good to our fragile ecosystem?

"Why go through the trouble" is something his team gets asked, said Novak. For passenger pigeons, the answer is simple: recently, almost a millennium [century] after their man-driven extinction, we finally understand the critical role they played in shaping the eastern North American ecosphere.

The passenger pigeon isn't extinct -- it's merely resting.

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Phoenix666 writes:

CNet:

When a Jedi becomes one with the Force -- as Luke Skywalker did in Star Wars: The Last Jedi -- the theory is that a Jedi isn't dying but is actually starting a bigger spiritual journey.

However, what if becoming part of the Force really means a Jedi has overdosed on its power like it's a drug?

On Monday, Star Wars actor Mark Hamill tweeted images from The Last Jedi comic book adaptation of the film, commenting on that theory.

"The Force killed Luke," Hamill tweeted Monday. "You have to acknowledge the irony in his fate. Almost like an addict that kicked his habit cold-turkey, remained clean for decades, only to re-use just once and then, tragically, overdoses. #SadSkywalker #ForceFatality #JediJunkie."

Mystical energy to Midichlorians to Drug.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

The study of two potential plume sites on Jupiter's moon Europa has shown a lack of expected hotspot signatures, unlike Enceladus where plumes have a very clear and obvious temperature signature, research by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Julie Rathbun shows.

"We searched through the available Galileo thermal data at the locations proposed as the sites of potential plumes. Reanalysis of temperature data from the Galileo mission does not show anything special in the locations where plumes have possibly been observed. There are no hotspot signatures at either of the sites," Rathbun said. "This is surprising because the Enceladus plumes have a clear thermal signature at their site of origin, so this suggests that either the Europa plumes are very different, or the plumes are only occasional, or that they don't exist, or that their thermal signature is too small to have been detected by current data."

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Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

The docks are eerily quiet at Cologne's main port on the mighty River Rhine, with hundreds of containers piled up and awaiting their journey north on one of Europe's busiest commercial arteries.

Months of scarce rainfall and hot sunny weather drove water levels on the Rhine to a record low, forcing ship operators to suspend services to keep vessels from running aground.

"We haven't had any new ships in Cologne since last week—they stop in Duisburg" 80 kilometres (50 miles) north, Oliver Grossmann, head of shipping company CTS, told AFP.

He said that under normal conditions, "three or four" of his big vessels would stop each day in the city known for its Gothic cathedral.

The few barges still chugging along the river have had to drastically reduce their cargo to stay afloat.

They should ship the containers by zeppelins instead.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Slate:

In November, the European TV channel Arte aired an hourlong documentary, Demain, tous crétins?—Tomorrow, everyone’s an idiot?—on a topic that would seem to be of great importance. It starts with a London-based researcher, Edward Dutton, who has documented decades-long declines in average IQs across several Western countries, including France and Germany. “We are becoming stupider,” announces Dutton at the program’s start. “This is happening. It’s not going to go away, and we have to try to think about what we’re going to do about it.”

[...] It’s wrong to hint that scores on tests of memory and abstract thinking have been falling everywhere, and in a simple way. But at least in certain countries—notably in Northern Europe—the IQ drops seem very real. Using data from Finland, for example, where men are almost always drafted into military service, whereupon they’re tested for intelligence, Dutton showed that scores began to slide in 1997, a trend that has continued ever since. Similar trends have been documented using data from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. At some point in the mid-1990s, IQ scores in these countries tipped into decay, losing roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of a point per year. While there isn’t any sign of this effect on U.S. test results (a fact that surely bears on our indifference to the topic), researchers have found hints of something similar in Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Are we becoming dumber, as in losing cognitive function, or merely less-well read?

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takyon writes:

NASA chief says agency plans to launch crew on Soyuz in December

Less than two weeks ago, a Soyuz rocket took off with a Russian cosmonaut and a NASA astronaut riding in a Soyuz capsule. The launch proceeded normally for about two minutes until the rocket experienced a problem, and one of the Soyuz's emergency escape systems fired automatically and pulled the crew vehicle away from the booster. After a few seconds of rapid acceleration, the crew capsule carrying Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague made a relatively normal, safe return to Earth.

[...] On Tuesday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine felt confident enough in the Russian investigation to declare that the next crewed Soyuz launch will occur in December. "We're fully anticipating" putting a crew on that rocket, he said at a meeting of the National Space Council. Investigators have a "really, really good idea" about what occurred during the errant launch earlier this month, he said.

Moreover, Bridenstine praised the reaction of the Soyuz capsule to the rocket error and its life-saving features that protected the crew members on board. "While this was a failed launch, it was probably the single most successful failed launch we could have imagined," Bridenstine said.

Three unmanned flights of the Soyuz will occur before the planned crewed launch to the ISS.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. did not try to obscure the reasons why on Tuesday. MoviePass has become a burden.

MoviePass drew in millions of subscribers, luring them with a $10 monthly rate. But that proved costly. Because MoviePass typically pays theaters the full cost of tickets—$15 or more in big cities—a single movie can put the service in the red. At one point Helios and Matheson had to take out a $5 million emergency loan to pay its payment processors after missed payments resulted in service outages.

Then, last week, the company acknowledged that it is being investigated by the New York Attorney General on allegations that it misled investors.

Moviepass's mistake was choosing the color red for their cards, instead of black.

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MichaelDavidCrawford writes:

Trump to Pull US Out of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the US is pulling out of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, a decades-old agreement that has drawn the ire of the President.

[...] The treaty forced both countries to eliminate ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between approximately 300 and 3,400 miles. It offered a blanket of protection to the United States' European allies and marked a watershed agreement between two nations at the center of the arms race during the Cold War.

Former State Department spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby, a CNN military and diplomatic analyst, explained that the treaty "wasn't designed to solve all of our problems with the Soviet Union," but was "designed to provide a measure of some strategic stability on the continent of Europe."

"It's the dirt that does it."

takyon writes:

Donald Trump: US will build up nuclear arsenal

President Donald Trump has warned that the US will bolster its nuclear arsenal to put pressure on Russia and China. Speaking to reporters, he repeated his belief that Russia has violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which he has threatened to leave. Russia denies this.

The Cold War-era treaty banned medium-range missiles, reducing the perceived Soviet threat to European nations.

Russia has warned it will respond in kind if the US develops more weapons. Mr Trump said the US would build up its arsenal "until people come to their senses".

[...] Meanwhile, US National Security Adviser John Bolton has been holding talks in Moscow after Russia condemned the US plan to quit the deal. Mr Bolton was told that the US withdrawal would be a "serious blow" to the non-proliferation regime.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers at Michigan State University report — Don't offer co-workers help unless asked:

If you thought that proactively offering help to your co-workers was a good thing, think again. New workplace research from Michigan State University found that when it comes to offering your expertise, it's better to keep to yourself or wait until you're asked.

[...] "What we found was that on the helper side, when people engage in proactive help, they often don't have a clear understanding of recipients' problems and issues, thus they receive less gratitude for it," Johnson said. "On the recipient side, if people are constantly coming up to me at work and asking if I want their help, it could have an impact on my esteem and become frustrating. I'm not going to feel inclined to thank the person who tried to help me because I didn't ask for it."

In a strange sort of symmetry, it's also better to not proactively sabotage your co-workers, either; wait until they ask for it.

Journal Reference:
Hun Whee Lee, Jacob Bradburn, Russell E. Johnson, Szu-Han (Joanna) Lin, Chu-Hsiang (Daisy) Chang. The benefits of receiving gratitude for helpers: A daily investigation of proactive and reactive helping at work.. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2018; DOI: 10.1037/apl0000346

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takyon writes:

Nanosized ferroelectrics become a reality

Using ferroelectricity instead of magnetism in computer memory saves energy. If ferroelectric bits were nanosized, this would also save space. But conventional wisdom dictates that ferroelectric properties disappear when the bits are made smaller. Reports that hafnium oxide can be used to make a nanoscale ferroelectric have not yet convinced the field. University of Groningen (UG) physicists have now gathered evidence that could persuade the skeptics. It was published in Nature Materials on 22 October.

[...] 'Reducing the size of ferroelectric materials has been a research topic for more than 20 years', says UG Professor of Functional Nanomaterials, Beatriz Noheda. Some eight years ago, a breakthrough was announced by the Nanoelectronic Materials Laboratory in Dresden, Germany. They claimed that hafnium oxide thin films were ferroelectric when thinner than ten nanometres and that thicker films actually lost their ferroelectric properties. Noheda: 'This went against everything we knew, so most scientists were skeptical, including me.' Some of the skepticism was because the ferroelectric hafnium samples used in these studies were polycrystalline and showed multiple phases, obscuring any clear fundamental understanding of such an unconventional phenomenon.

Noheda and her group decided to investigate. They wanted to study these crystals by growing clean (single-phase) films on a substrate. Using X-ray scattering and high-resolution electron microscopy techniques, they observed that very thin films (under ten nanometres) grow in an entirely unexpected and previously unknown polar structure, which is necessary for ferroelectricity. Combining these observations with meticulous transport measurements, they confirmed that the material was indeed ferroelectric. 'In the substrate that we used, the atoms were a little bit closer than those in hafnium oxide, so the hafnium crystals would be a little strained', Noheda explains.

A rhombohedral ferroelectric phase in epitaxially strained Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ thin films (DOI: 10.1038/s41563-018-0196-0) (DX)

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