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An Anonymous Coward writes:

It's that time of year again where the good folks of Gavle, Sweden build a gigantic goat and the bad folks of Gavle try to burn it down. For five decades, Gavle has built a Gavlebocken, a large scale Yule Goat made out of straw. For decades Santa will be putting coal in their stocking for trying to destroy the gigantic goat. In its 52nd year, technology and goat protection methods have improved including fireproofing and a live web cam. Only 15 out of 51 goats built were not destroyed in years past. Let's hope this one survives.

[The linked story has incorrect spelling of the name of the town in Sweden and goat — it should be Gävle and Gävlebocken, respectively. --martyb]

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for takyon

How Google software won 2018

But it's not just what's outside that matters. When it comes to Google's products, software can not only make up for lackluster hardware, but even give the company's devices an edge over competing gadgets. This year, Google delivered thoughtful software and truly helpful AI that made some of its otherwise mediocre devices surprisingly compelling.

The Pixel 3 is the best example. Physically, the phone is a more premium version of the Pixel 2. It also comes in a really nice "Not Pink" color. But aside from that, nothing about the Pixel 3's design makes me yearn for the phone. In fact, the 3 XL even has one of the biggest screen notches in the market, which some people find hideous. And yet, the Pixel 3s were still one of our favorite phones of the year, and ended up on our best gadgets list.

But if you can stomach the notch, or don't mind using the smaller phone, then boy, will you be blown away by Google's software. Let's start with my favorite -- Call Screening.

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

3D-printed robot hand plays the piano

The robot hand, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, was made by 3D-printing soft and rigid materials together to replicate of all the bones and ligaments -- but not the muscles or tendons -- in a human hand. Even though this limited the robot hand's range of motion compared to a human hand, the researchers found that a surprisingly wide range of movement was still possible by relying on the hand's mechanical design.

Using this 'passive' movement -- in which the fingers cannot move independently -- the robot was able to mimic different styles of piano playing without changing the material or mechanical properties of the hand. The results, reported in the journal Science Robotics, could help inform the design of robots that are capable of more natural movement with minimal energy use.

Complex movement in animals and machines results from the interplay between the brain (or controller), the environment and the mechanical body. The mechanical properties and design of systems are important for intelligent functioning, and help both animals and machines to move in complex ways without expending unnecessary amounts of energy.

"We can use passivity to achieve a wide range of movement in robots: walking, swimming or flying, for example," said Josie Hughes from Cambridge's Department of Engineering, the paper's first author. "Smart mechanical design enables us to achieve the maximum range of movement with minimal control costs: we wanted to see just how much movement we could get with mechanics alone."

[...] The researchers programmed the robot to play a number of short musical phrases with clipped (staccato) or smooth (legato) notes, achieved through the movement of the wrist. "It's just the basics at this point, but even with this single movement, we can still get quite complex and nuanced behaviour," said Hughes.

Despite the limitations of the robot hand, the researchers say their approach will drive further research into the underlying principles of skeletal dynamics to achieve complex movement tasks, as well as learning where the limitations for passive movement systems lie.

"This approach to mechanical design can change how we build robotics," said Iida. "The fabrication approach allows us to design mechanically intelligent structures in a way that is highly scalable."

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=XDgffOW6ZzQ

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Electrons are not just little spheres, bouncing through a material like a rubber ball. The laws of quantum physics tell us that electrons behave like waves. In some materials, these electron waves can take on rather complicated shapes. The so-called "topological materials" produce electron states that can be very interesting for technical applications, but it is extremely difficult to identify these materials and their associated electronic states.

TU Wien (Vienna) and several research groups from China have now developed new ideas and implemented them in an experiment. A "crystal " made of light waves is created to hold atoms in a very special geometric pattern. These "light crystals," which have been used in different ways for the manipulation of atoms, can now be used to deliberately drive the system out of equilibrium. By switching between simple and complicated states, the system reveals whether or not it has topologically interesting states. These findings have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Journal Reference:
Wei Sun, Chang-Rui Yi, Bao-Zong Wang, et al. Uncover Topology by Quantum Quench Dynamics. Physical Review Letters, 2018; 121 (25) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.250403

Source: https://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/news/news_detail/article/126435/

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

50 years ago, 'Earthrise' inspired the environmental movement.

The 1968 Apollo 8 mission was crucial in the race to get a man on the moon. It was the first manned launch of the colossal Saturn V rocket, which had only flown twice before in unmanned test missions. It was also the first manned spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity, reach another celestial body, and orbit it. It took nearly three days for the crew to reach the moon, and after a tense four minute engine burn -- which could have flung them into space or crashed them onto the Moon's surface --they successfully entered orbit.

The astronauts were equipped with a highly modified Hasselblad 500 EL with the reflex viewfinder replaced by a mechanical sighting ring. They were fully trained in its use and in photography principles and had access to both 70mm color and black and white film. Commander Frank Borman happened to be turning the command module when it came around on its fourth orbit on December 24th, and the Earth appeared as a blue jewel against the Moon's drab monochrome surface.

Borman reportedly took a black and white photo of the Earth in a slightly lower position next to the moon, but Anders thought the shot would be worthy of color. The conversation among the crew at that moment was famously recorded for posterity (above), and reveals what happened next.

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takyon writes:

Viewpoint: Black Hole Evolution Traced Out with Loop Quantum Gravity

[Pennsylvania State University researchers] have shown that loop quantum gravity—a candidate theory for providing a quantum-mechanical description of gravity—predicts that spacetime continues across the center of the hole into a new region that exists in the future and has the geometry of the interior of a white hole. A white hole is the time-reversed image of a black hole: in it, matter can only move outwards. The passage "across the center" into a future region is counterintuitive; it is possible thanks to the strong distortion of the spacetime geometry inside the hole that is allowed by general relativity. This result supports a hypothesis under investigation by numerous research groups: the future of all black holes may be to convert into a real white hole, from which the matter that has fallen inside can bounce out. However, existing theories have not been able to fully show a way for this bounce to happen. That loop quantum gravity manages to do it is an indication that this theory has ripened enough to tackle real-world situations.

[...] During the last few years, a number of research groups have applied loop theory to explore the evolution of black holes. These efforts are building a compelling picture based on a black-to-white-hole transition scenario, which can be summarized as follows. At the center of the black hole, space and time do not end in a singularity, but continue across a short transition region where the Einstein equations are violated by quantum effects. From this region, space and time emerge with the structure of a white hole interior, a possibility suggested in the 1930s by physicist John Lighton Synge. As the hole's center evolves, its external surface, or "horizon," slowly shrinks because of the emission of radiation—a phenomenon first described by Stephen Hawking. This shrinkage continues until the horizon reaches the Planck size (the characteristic scale of quantum gravity) or earlier, at which point a quantum transition ("quantum tunneling") happens at the horizon, turning it into the horizon of a white hole. Thanks to the peculiar distorted relativistic geometry, the white hole interior born at the center joins the white horizon, completing the formation of the white hole.

If true, it would still be difficult to exploit this transition for time travel since you would likely be destroyed by tidal forces.

Quantum Transfiguration of Kruskal Black Holes (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.241301) (DX)

Quantum extension of the Kruskal spacetime (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.126003) (DX)

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for takyon

IBM to use Samsung 7nm EUV for Next-Gen POWER and z CPUs

IBM has announced it has signed an agreement with Samsung Foundry to produce its next-generation processors. This includes processors for IBM Power Systems, IBM z, and LinuxONE systems, all using Samsung’s 7 nm fabrication process that uses extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). The decision comes as no surprise as GlobalFoundries, IBM’s manufacturing partner for CPUs, decided to abandon development of 7 nm and more advanced technologies. IBM and Globalfroundies manufacturing agreement, whereby fabs, IP, and $$ were given to GlobalFoundries to make IBM's CPUs, ends this month.

IBM and Samsung have collaborated for 15 years researching and developing various semiconductor production materials and technologies as part of IBM’s Research Alliance. Considering the fact that Samsung’s and GlobalFoundries’ fabrication processes rely on R&D conducted internally and as part of IBM’s Research Alliance, IBM developers know what to expect from these technologies. IBM said that under the current agreement, the two companies will expand and extend the strategic partnership, but did not elaborate whether this means development of a custom version of Samsung’s 7LPP manufacturing process for IBM. At present, the companies call the tech to be used for IBM’s chips as “7 nm EUV”.

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

New York sets tougher standards for marketing internet speeds

New York isn't just asking Charter to clean up its act. The state has reached a settlement with Altice (Optimum's owner), Frontier, RCN and Engadget parent company Verizon that will have them adhere to stricter standards for advertising internet speeds. They'll have to back up their claims with regular speed testing, ensure they have enough network capacity to handle advertised third-party services and make clear that speeds on WiFi won't be the same as with a wired connection.

The companies will also have to make "direct financial commitments" to both improve their networks and offer compensation for some customers. These include a $25 million investment on Frontier's part to boost its upstate capacity, while Altice will pay $5 million to subscribers who didn't get equipment capable of fulfilling expected speeds. All of the providers will have to ensure they provide modems and routers that can handle advertised speeds, including free replacements.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

The story of the game Star Citizen and Cloud Imperium, the company developing it, is almost too ludicrous to believe: a crowdfunding effort to create a space sim of unparalleled size and realism, raising hundreds of millions, with backers paying thousands for ships and gear in a game that's years from release. Yet it's real enough that it just pulled in $42 million in private funding to help bring it closer to release.

[...] A huge amount of work has been done on the game, so this isn't just a colossal con, though there are plenty who think the game, and its first-person shooter counterpart Squadron 42, can't possibly ever fulfill its ambitions and justify the money people have put into it.

That doesn't seem to be the opinion of Clive Calder, founder of Zomba and producer in a variety of entertainment formats, whom Roberts met during a clandestine campaign to solicit funding.

[...] Calder's family office agreed to invest $46 million for a 10 percent stake in Cloud Imperium, which all told puts it near a half-billion valuation. One may very well question the sanity of such a valuation for a company that has not yet shipped an actual product — working prototypes, sure, but not a completed game — but hell, at least they're making something people are excited about. That's got to be worth a couple bucks.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/21/crowdfunded-developer-of-space-sim-star-citizen-takes-on-46m-in-funding-at-nearly-500m-valuation/

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takyon writes:

The 5 Years That Changed Dating

On the 20th anniversary of The New York Times' popular Vows column, a weekly feature on notable weddings and engagements launched in 1992, its longtime editor wrote that Vows was meant to be more than just a news notice about society events. It aimed to give readers the backstory on marrying couples and, in the meantime, to explore how romance was changing with the times. "Twenty years ago, as now, most couples told us they'd met through their friends or family, or in college," wrote the editor, Bob Woletz, in 2012. "For a period that ran into the late 1990s, a number said, often sheepishly, that they had met through personal advertisements."

But in 2018, seven of the 53 couples profiled in the Vows column met on dating apps. And in the Times' more populous Wedding Announcements section, 93 out of some 1,000 couples profiled this year met on dating apps—Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Coffee Meets Bagel, Happn, and other specialized dating apps designed for smaller communities, like JSwipe for Jewish singles and MuzMatch for Muslims. The year before, 71 couples whose weddings were announced by the Times met on dating apps.

See also: Tinder and Bumble Are Hungry for Your Love

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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?

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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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