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takyon writes:

SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy (formerly Big Falcon Spaceship and Big Falcon Booster, or Big Falcon Rocket) have undergone further changes following a "final" iteration of the design in September. Elon Musk also said that a downscaled Starship hopper (for vertical takeoffs and landings) will "hopefully" be tested starting in March or April 2019, which is months sooner than a "late 2019" estimate made by SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell in September.

Recent photos taken of SpaceX's operation in Boca Chica, Texas have shown a stainless steel nose cone being built. The new stainless steel design was confirmed by Elon Musk, along with numerous other details. Musk said that stainless steel can beat carbon fiber composites due to its superior strength-to-mass ratio and "mirror-like" thermal reflectivity. SpaceX is using an on-site foundry to create its own steel "superalloy", although some steel parts will be made by a supplier. Finally, the test hopper will feature three "radically redesigned" Raptor engines while being slightly shorter than the full-scale Starship, although it will share the same 9-meter diameter:

While the suggestion that Raptor's turbopumps (basically fuel pumps) would need at least 100,000 HP per engine seems to indicate that the flight design's thrust has been appreciably uprated, a past figure of ~2000 kN (450,000 lbf) per engine suggests that Starship V0.1 could weigh as much as an entire Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket (~1.2 million pounds, 550,000 kg) and still having a solid 80-100% of Falcon 9's liftoff thrust. Put simply, the rocket that appears to be coming together in the boonies of South Texas could rival almost any other liquid fuel rocket booster in service, while still being the testbed for BFR's upper stage alone.

While it's ambiguous if several additional comments applied to the Starship prototype, the final product, or both, Musk also indicated that some of the biggest benefits of a shift away from carbon composites to stainless steel would be relative ease with which the material handles extreme heating. Thanks to the fact that stainless steel can ultimately be polished to mirror-like levels of reflectivity and that mirrors are some of the most efficient reflectors of thermal energy (heat), shiny and unpainted steel would ultimately perform far better than carbon composites and could end up requiring "much less" heat shielding for the same performance.

Perhaps most unintuitive is the fact that steel can apparently beat carbon composites when it comes to usable strength-to-weight ratios at supercool temperatures. According to Musk, steel also performs "vastly better" at high temperatures and appreciably better at room temperatures. A comment made on Saturday may lend additional credence to what seems at face value to contradict basic material intuition – at least some of the stainless steel SpaceX is examing would be a special (presumably SpaceX-engineered) alloy that has undergone what is known as cryogenic treatment, in which metals are subjected to extremely cold conditions to create some seriously unintuitive properties. Ultimately, cold-formed/worked or cryo-treated steel can be dramatically lighter and more wear-resistant than traditional hot-rolled steel.

Elon Musk hinted at a "delightfully counter-intuitive" redesign in November, which was almost certainly a reference to the use of stainless steel instead of carbon fiber composites. Here's a video (10m14s) which offers some speculation about how a steel Starship could effectively conduct and radiate away heat.

Also at Business Insider.

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RandomFactor writes:

Mankind has a history of long term projects. The Pyramids, Stonehenge, The Great Wall, getting Mickey Mouse into the Public Domain...

Some of these projects took multiple centuries of effort. Not a single person present at the start of those saw them completed. This is made worse when you consider lifespans that were half or less what they are currently.

But what was the LAST project that spanned lifetimes? Do you know of any going on today?

The Great Wall was started in 300 B.C. and completed some 1900 years later.

As humanity considers things like colonizing other planets and space megastructures we are talking about activities that will take centuries of effort. This turns into millennia as we look at things like terraforming and actually spreading humanity beyond our own star.

Does humanity in the current instant gratification social media quarterly results era have the appetite for projects that our grandchildren won't see completed?

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takyon writes:

Japan suffers biggest natural population decline ever in 2018

Japan suffered its biggest natural population decline ever this year, government statistics show.

The fast-graying nation also posted a record-low birthrate, as the estimated number of babies born in 2018 dipped to 921,000 -- the lowest since records began in 1899 -- according to a report published Friday by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The number of newborns is estimated to have shrunk by 25,000 from 2017, and the figure remains under the 1 million mark for the third year running.

Deaths in 2018 also hit a postwar record high of 1.369 million, with a natural population decline of 448,000 -- the highest ever.

Beijing eyes two-child policy U-turn, but 'lonely generation' has moved on

For nearly 40 years, the Chinese government harshly restricted childbearing through the one-child rule in order to control population growth. That may soon change. Beijing appears to be on the cusp of abolishing all of its family planning rules — and is even encouraging young couples to have more children as a matter of patriotic urgency.

But attitudes toward parenthood have changed. Even though there is a two-child policy in place now, many Chinese still don't want to have more than one child — or any at all. "I think having one child is enough," said Chen Yiwen, a 25-year-old accountant and newlywed. "I won't be tempted to have more — even if the family planning policy is abolished." [...] "Besides, we already have two little babies — a poodle and a corgi," she said.

Related (JP): Japan Has Aged Out of its Economic Miracle
Toyota's $392 Robot Baby for Japanese People Without Companions
Gatebox: Your New Holographic AI Assistant "Waifu"
Japan's Fertility Crisis is Creating Economic and Social Woes Never Seen Before
Japan Has 1.48 Jobs for Every Applicant
Why a Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

Related (CN): China's 'Missing Girls' Theory Likely Far Overblown, Study Shows
China "Three-Child Policy" Hinted by Stamp Design?

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

NASA's InSight lander has deployed its first instrument onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone. New images from the lander show the seismometer on the ground, its copper-colored covering faintly illuminated in the Martian dusk. It looks as if all is calm and all is bright for InSight, heading into the end of the year.

"InSight's timetable of activities on Mars has gone better than we hoped," said InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman, who is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Getting the seismometer safely on the ground is an awesome Christmas present."

The InSight team has been working carefully toward deploying its two dedicated science instruments onto Martian soil since landing on Mars on Nov. 26. Meanwhile, the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE), which does not have its own separate instrument, has already begun using InSight's radio connection with Earth to collect preliminary data on the planet's core. Not enough time has elapsed for scientists to deduce what they want to know -- scientists estimate they might have some results starting in about a year.

[...] On Tuesday, Dec. 18, InSight engineers sent up the commands to the spacecraft. On Wednesday, Dec. 19, the seismometer was gently placed onto the ground directly in front of the lander, about as far away as the arm can reach -- 5.367 feet, or 1.636 meters, away).

"Seismometer deployment is as important as landing InSight on Mars," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt, also based at JPL. "The seismometer is the highest-priority instrument on InSight: We need it in order to complete about three-quarters of our science objectives."

The seismometer allows scientists to peer into the Martian interior by studying ground motion -- also known as marsquakes. Each marsquake acts as a kind of flashbulb that illuminates the structure of the planet's interior. By analyzing how seismic waves pass through the layers of the planet, scientists can deduce the depth and composition of these layers.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181221161601.htm

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

SpaceX completes its last mission of 2018 with the launch of a military GPS satellite

SpaceX successfully launched the United States Air Force's first Global Positioning System  (GPS) III satellite, nicknamed Vespucci, from Cape Canaveral, Florida this morning in what was the aerospace company’s first U.S. national security mission to date.

The company had planned to complete the launch, its last of the year, earlier this week but heavy winds imposed delays.

SpaceX won the National Security Space (NSS) contract with the Air Force in 2016 and intends to launch an additional four GPS III missions on Falcon 9, a two-stage rocket manufactured by the company.

The GPS is owned by the U.S. military and operated by the Air Force. Built during the Cold War, it’s been used for commercial purposes since the mid-2000s. The new GPS satellites, built by Lockheed Martin, will provide three-times better accuracy than the current system of GPS and will be eight times better at anti-jamming, according to SpaceX.

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RandomFactor writes:

A photo released by the ESA Thursday shows a 51 mile wide flat circle of water-ice on Mars in the mile deep Korolev crater that resembles an alien ice skating rink

The water is frozen in a location that allows it to remain perpetually frozen and consists of 531 cubic miles of ice.

The photo was stitched together from five images captured by a high-resolution camera aboard the [Mars Orbiter Express], which has been circling the Red Planet for the past 15 years. Each of the five "strips" used to create the composite image was taken during a separate orbit.

The article notes that

"This particular crater is very close to the polar ice cap, and the inside of the crater is at a lower elevation and more shadowed, so it creates a cold trap where the ice is stable"

This is reminiscent of the Lunar ice containing cold traps that may be used for oxygen, water, and fuel by future moon installations.

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Try your hand at being an operator at the Roseville Telephone Museum

I don't know about you, but I marvel that, with a tiny device in my pocket, I can instantly hear the voice of any of my loved ones, any time, essentially for free.

Of course, this wasn't always the case. I'm old enough (nearly 37!) to remember when the phone would ring from overseas relatives and my parents would remind us to hurry to the phone: IT'S LONG DISTANCE! And yes, my parents used to pick up the phone and disrupt my dial-up Internet escapades.

But our contemporary landscape, replete with theoretically smart handputers, has an amazing past that extends well beyond my lifetime.

So, if you want to be dazzled at a free museum located just outside Sacramento, may I present to you what might be the nerdiest and most obscure free museum in Northern California: the Roseville Telephone Museum. It claims to have "one of the most extensive collections of antique telephones and memorabilia in the nation."

[...] I was grateful for the docents who meandered about and were all too happy to not only answer all my dumb questions, but they were even enthusiastic about giving live demos of a more-than-century-old magneto switchboard.

Simply by plugging in a cable, an old phone just a few feet away would ring. There was even a mid-20th century automated mechanical switching box, which had replaced live human operators.

I could have spent hours in that little museum, but I'd arrived not too long before closing time. Maybe because I'd shown such interest in the museum, I was handed a large hardback volume from 1995: History of the Roseville Telephone Company. (I hadn't mentioned to anyone that I was a reporter, I swear!)

[...] Just bear in mind, the museum will next be open on Saturday, January 5, 2019, from 10am until 2pm. Mark your calendars.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

ACLU to feds: Your "hacking presents a unique threat to individual privacy"

The American Civil Liberties Union, along with Privacy International, a similar organization based in the United Kingdom, have now sued 11 federal agencies, demanding records about how those agencies engage in what is often called "lawful hacking."

The activist groups filed Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and nine others. None responded in a substantive way.

"Law enforcement use of hacking presents a unique threat to individual privacy," the ACLU argues in its lawsuit, which was filed Friday in federal court in New York state.

"Hacking can be used to obtain volumes of personal information about individuals that would never previously have been available to law enforcement."

[...] The FBI did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Researchers from UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Stanford have demonstrated a computer system that can discover and identify the real-world objects it "sees" based on the same method of visual learning that humans use.

The system is an advance in a type of technology called "computer vision," which enables computers to read and identify visual images. It is an important step toward general artificial intelligence systems -- computers that learn on their own, are intuitive, make decisions based on reasoning and interact with humans in a more human-like way. Although current AI computer vision systems are increasingly powerful and capable, they are task-specific, meaning their ability to identify what they see is limited by how much they have been trained and programmed by humans.

[...] The engineers' new method, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows a way around these shortcomings.

The approach is made up of three broad steps. First, the system breaks up an image into small chunks, which the researchers call "viewlets." Second, the computer learns how these viewlets fit together to form the object in question. And finally, it looks at what other objects are in the surrounding area, and whether or not information about those objects is relevant to describing and identifying the primary object.

To help the new system "learn" more like humans, the engineers decided to immerse it in an internet replica of the environment humans live in.

Lichao Chen, Sudhir Singh, Thomas Kailath, Vwani Roychowdhury. Brain-inspired automated visual object discovery and detection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018; 201802103 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1802103115

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181220163210.htm

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

There's a lot you can make with a 3D printer: prosthetics, corneas, firearms — even an Olympic-standard luge.

You can even 3D-print a life-size replica of a human head — and not just for Hollywood. Forbes reporter Thomas Brewster commissioned a 3D-printed model of his own head to test the face unlocking systems on a range of phones — four Android models and an iPhone X.

Bad news if you're an Android user: only the iPhone X defended against the attack.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/16/3d-printed-heads-unlock-cops-hackers/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Gatwick drones pair 'no longer suspects'

A man and woman arrested in connection with drone sightings that grounded flights at Gatwick Airport have been released without charge. The 47-year-old man and 54-year-old woman, from Crawley, West Sussex, had been arrested on Friday night.

Sussex Police said there had been 67 reports of drone sightings - having earlier cast doubt on "genuine drove activity". Det Ch Supt Jason Tingley said no footage of a drone had been obtained. And he said there was "always a possibility" the reported sightings of drones were mistaken. However, he later confirmed the reported sightings made by the public, police and airport staff from December 19 to 21 were being "actively investigated".

"We are interviewing those who have reported these sightings, are carrying out extensive house-to-house inquiries, and carrying out a forensic examination of a damaged drone found near the perimeter of the airport." Det Ch Supt Tingley said it was "a working assumption" the device could be connected to their investigation, but officers were keeping "an open mind".

Sounds like they're about ready to blame aliens, the original drone champions.

Previously: Army Called in Amid UK Drone Chaos (Updated)
Two People Arrested for Gatwick Airport Drone Incident

Original Submission

Runaway1956 writes:

Study: Neck Braces Significantly Reduce Severe Injury/Death

A midwest ambulance service has released its collected statistics on the results of wearing or not wearing a neck brack in motorcycle competition. Great Lakes EMS serves amateur competitions for AMA in five states. For the last 10 years, they have accumulated data associated with injuries received in motorcycle competition.

Study: 10 Years Of Data
Great Lakes EMS says it collected its data from January 2009 through October 2018. Included in the data are a total of 9,430 patients, with 8,529 where their use or non-use of a neck brace was documented. The 901 patients not included in the study data pre-date documentation of whether the patient was or was not wearing a neck brace and are excluded from the study.

Injury rates and types
Great Lake EMS's findings are as follows:

A critical cervical spine injury is 89% more likely without a neck brace.
Death is 69%+ more likely (due to cervical spine injury) without a neck brace.
A non-critical cervical spine injury is 75% more likely without a neck brace.
A clavicle (collarbone) fracture is 45% more likely without a neck brace.
Cervical spine injuries sustained without a neck brace are more severe, require greater care.
Cervical spine injury of any kind is 82% more likely without a brace.
Based on the above statistics Great Lakes EMS concludes that neck braces provide an exponential improvement in rider safety. Additionally, they say that they will continue to record the above data for many years to come.

RandomFactor writes:

Telesur has an article up on a 1 ton ambush predator Saltriovenator zanellai unearthed in Italy.

Saltriovenator is dated 25 million years further into the past than previous large predators. The team lists off various attributes of the eight-meter-long ceratosaurus including

80-centimeter skull, dagger-sharp teeth, steel-strong claws and two-legged hunting and ambush specialty.

Unearthing, assembling, and interpreting the remains from the Saltrio marble quarry, located some 50 miles north of Milan, took scientists over two decades to complete. According to Dal Sasso of Milan's Natural History Museum

"Not all fragments match, but many are adjacent and allow us to virtually reconstruct the shape of whole bones," Dal Sasso said in the statement. "To complete the puzzle we also used a 3-D printer: part of the left scapula was turned into the right one thanks to a 'mirroring printing' which gave us a more complete scapula."

Other dinosaurs that terrorized prehistoric Italy are listed here

Original Submission

karthikaqpt writes:

Diabetes treatment has changed considerably over the years with the development of new medical technologies. Here are seven recent innovations:

1. Encapsulated pancreatic cells offer possible new diabetes treatment
2. Glucosense ends finger pricking for people with Diabetes
3. Smartphones can detect Diabetes, Pregnancy and Hazardous Gases using SPR Sensor
4. 'Smart' insulin for better diabetes control
5. Google's Smart Contact Lens for measuring Glucose levels of Diabetes Patients
6. Delivering Insulin in a Pill for Diabetics
7. 3D‑printed Glucose Biosensor for Painless Diabetes Monitoring

https://www.rtoz.org/2018/12/21/7-ways-technology-will-help-diabetes-patients/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Where are you? That's not just a metaphysical question, but increasingly a geopolitical challenge that is putting tech giants like Apple and Alphabet in a tough position.

Countries around the world, including China, Japan, India and the United Kingdom plus the European Union are exploring, testing and deploying satellites to build out their own positioning capabilities.

That's a massive change for the United States, which for decades has had a practical monopoly on determining the location of objects through its Global Positioning System (GPS), a military service of the Air Force built during the Cold War that has allowed commercial uses since mid-2000 (for a short history of GPS, check out this article, or for the comprehensive history, here's the book-length treatment).

[...] Now, a number of other countries want to reduce their dependency on the U.S. and get those economic benefits. Perhaps no where is that more obvious than with China, which has made building out a global alternative to GPS a top national priority. Its Beidou (北斗 – "Big Dipper") navigation system has been slowly building up since 2000, mostly focused on providing service in Asia.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/21/the-gps-wars-have-begun/

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