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DannyB writes:

SpaceX’s first astronaut mission could take off in May

SpaceX is getting very close to its goal of flying actual astronauts aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft. After a successful in-flight abort (IFA) test in January, it had basically crossed off all the major milestones needed before flying people, first on a demonstration mission referred to as “Demo-2” by SpaceX and its commercial crew partner NASA.

We now know the working date that SpaceX is aiming for with that crucial mission: May 7. To be clear, that’s very much a working date and the actual mission could slip either later, or even earlier, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger who first reported the timeline.

It will be exciting when the United States regains the capability to send humans to orbit and to the ISS.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Easter Island society did not collapse prior to European contact, new research shows:

Easter Island society did not collapse prior to European contact and its people continued to build its iconic moai statues for much longer than previously believed, according to a team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

The island of Rapa Nui is well-known for its elaborate ritual architecture, particularly its numerous statues (moai) and the monumental platforms that supported them (ahu). A widely-held narrative posits that construction of these monuments ceased sometime around 1600, following a major societal collapse.

"Our research flies in the face of this narrative," said Carl Lipo, an anthropologist at Binghamton University. "We know, of course, that if we are right, we really need to challenge ourselves (and the archaeological record) to validate our arguments. In this case, we thought to look carefully at the tempo of construction events associated with large platforms."

The researchers, led by the University of Oregon's Robert J. DiNapoli, examined radiocarbon dates, relative architectural stratigraphy and ethnohistoric accounts to quantify the onset, rate and end of monument construction as a means of testing the collapse

[...] "What we found is that once people started to build monuments shortly after arrival to the island, they continued this construction well into the period after Europeans arrived," said Lipo. "This would not have been the case had there been some pre-contact "collapse"— indeed, we should have seen all construction stop well before 1722. The lack of such a pattern supports our claims and directly falsifies those who continue to support the 'collapse' account.

spiraldancing writes:

www.phoronix.com

This kernel is simply huge: there is so many new and improved features with this particular release that it's mind-boggling. I'm having difficulty remembering such a time a kernel release was so large.

The quick summary of Linux 5.6 changes include: WireGuard, USB4, open-source NVIDIA RTX 2000 series support, AMD Pollock enablement, lots of new hardware support, a lot of file-system / storage work, multi-path TCP bits are finally going mainline, Year 2038 work beginning to wrap-up for 32-bit systems, the new AMD TEE driver for tapping the Secure Processor, the first signs of AMD Zen 3, better AMD Zen/Zen2 thermal and power reporting under Linux, at long last having an in-kernel SATA drive temperature for HWMON, and a lot of other kernel infrastructure improvements.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

CityU new droplet-based electricity generator: A drop of water lights up 100 small LED bulbs:

A research team led by scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently developed a new form of droplet-based electricity generator (DEG).

[...] The research was led by Professor Wang Zuankai from CityU's Department of Mechanical Engineering; Professor Zeng Xiaocheng from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US; and Professor Wang Zhonglin, Founding Director and Chief Scientist at the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

[...] Professor Wang pointed out that there are two crucial factors for the invention. First, the team found that the continuous droplets impinging on PTFE[*], an electret material with a quasi-permanent electric charge, provides a new route for the accumulation and storage of high-density surface charges. They found that when water droplets continuously hit the surface of PTFE, the surface charge generated will accumulate and gradually reach saturation. This new discovery has helped to overcome the bottleneck of the low-charge density encountered in previous work.

[...] The device consists of an aluminium electrode and an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode with a film of PTFE deposited on it. The PTFE/ITO electrode is responsible for the charge generation, storage, and induction. When a falling water droplet hits and spreads on the PTFE/ITO surface, it naturally "bridges" the aluminium electrode and the PTFE/ITO electrode, translating the original system into a closed-loop electric circuit.

With this special design, a high density of surface charge can be accumulated on the PTFE through continuous droplet impinging. Meanwhile, when the spreading water connects the two electrodes, all the stored charges on the PTFE can be fully released for the generation of electric current. As a result, both the instantaneous power density and energy conversion efficiency are much higher.

"Our research shows that a drop of 100 microlitres [1 microlitre = one-millionth litre] of water released from a height of 15 cm can generate a voltage of over 140V, and the power generated can light up 100 small LED lights," said Professor Wang.

[*] PTFE - Polytetrafluoroethylene, also known as Teflon®

The report contains a link to a small video showing the device at work.

Journal Reference:
Wanghuai Xu, et al. A droplet-based electricity generator with high instantaneous power density. Nature, 2020; (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-1985-6)

Original Submission

[Update: 20200210_181822 UTC] The original source of the story reported the cost of the yacht to be £500; there were conversion errors in the stories quoted here. Click the spoiler for the details:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

The Telegraph (a UK publication):

• Reports the price was: £500m

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

• Referred to The Telegraph as its source.
• Apparently gets the value wrong and thinks the £500m was $US500.
• Then converts the $US500 to Australian dollars.
• Being an Australian publication, it converts the $US to $AUS.
• reports it as (local $AUS) as: "$747 Million".

BBC then steps in and reports:

• that there was no such deal
• and states the amounts to be: £500m ($644m)

According to https://www.x-rates.com/, the current exchange rates are:

• 1.00 GBP = 1.291 USD
• 1.00 USD = 1.498 AUD
• 1.00 GBP = 1.935 AUD

Which then gives us:

• 500 GBP = (500 * 1.291 USD) = $646 USD
• 500 USD = (500 * 1.498 AUD) = $750 AUD

[The original, unmodified, story appears below.]

gawdonblue writes:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-10/bill-gates-drops-24500-million-on-hydrogen-powered-superyacht/11949380

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is one of the world's richest men, so it's no surprise that he can afford to splash out on luxury items every now and then. But, even for him, $US500 million [$747 million] is a large chunk of money.

And what has he spent it on? A hydrogen-powered superyacht, that he won't take possession of until the year 2024.

The yacht, designed by Dutch company Sinot, will be 112 metres long and run on liquid hydrogen.

It will feature an infinity pool, helipad and spa and will have room for up to 14 guests.

The yacht was first revealed in Monaco in 2019 and advertised as being suitable for a "forward-looking" owner.

"For the development of Aqua we took inspiration from the lifestyle of a discerning, forward-looking owner, the fluid versatility of water and cutting-edge technology, to combine this in a superyacht with truly innovative features," marine designer Sander Sinot said at the time.

But Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story reported by the BBC:

Billionaire Bill Gates has not commissioned a hydrogen-powered superyacht from designer Sinot, the firm has told the BBC.

It has been widely reported that Mr Gates ordered a £500m ($644m) luxury vessel, based on the concept which was displayed in Monaco in 2019.

Sinot said it had "no business relationship" with Bill Gates. It added that that the concept yacht, called Aqua, was "not linked" to either him or any of his representatives. "Aqua is a concept under development and has not been sold to Mr Gates," a spokeswoman said. She added that it was shown "in Monaco [and] meant to build a better future, and inspire clients and the industry."

Bill Gates has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

Also at:
https://nypost.com/2020/02/10/bill-gates-orders-644-million-hydrogen-powered-superyacht-with-gym-helipad-infinity-pool/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/09/bill-gates-orders-500m-hydrogen-powered-superyacht

Meanwhile escquireme.com is supporting the BBC story and reporting that this is not true.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Genetic ancestry tests are a multi-billion dollar industry. In exchange for a sample of genetic material, one receives charts and figures mapping them onto popular concepts of race. The problem with this approach is that although there are minor genetic differences that allow geneticists to trace population migrations, these differences don't support the idea that one can sort races on genetic differences alone. Social scientists have argued that given how race definitions have changed over time and place, that race classifications are more a social construct defined more in terms of geographic proximity and cultural norms than they are based on genetics. At the other end of the spectrum is the concept of genetic essentialism. This views the concept of race as being exclusively defined in terms of genetic makeup and how these differences imbue different races with different inherent abilities or liabilities. Genetic essentialist views promote the concept of genetic exclusivity and reinforces racial stereotypes, underpinning negative policies such as eugenics and apartheid.

The problem with genetic ancestry testing, apart from the privacy issues that we typically see stories about here, is the inconsistency of analysis and popular misconceptions of what the results mean. With tens of millions of people taking these tests every year, an open question has been what effect these results have on people's concepts of race. Some have argued that they are likely to reinforce a genetic essentialist view of race because the results are broken down into distinct groups and people interpret the results as being objective and authoritative. Others have argued the opposite in that people have a more social construct idea of race when the results do not confirm their experience ("All my life I thought I was German, but I found out I'm actually Italian!").

Researchers from the University of British Columbia attempted to answer this question with a paper published in the open access journal Plos One. They conducted a randomized controlled trial where they assembled a group of people who were willing to take a genetic ancestry test and provided half of them with a test. The group was then evaluated to gauge the extent that they supported genetic essentialism ideas. In addition, at the outset the group was also quizzed on their general knowledge of genetics. What the researchers found was that, on average, getting these test results did not change one's views on genetic essentialism; however, when considering a person's overall level of genetics understanding, they found that genetic essentialism ideas were strengthened in people who had lower knowledge of genetics after they received their ancestry test results. "Taking a test thus has a polarizing effect, magnifying differences in essentialist beliefs even further between those with weaker and stronger understandings of the science behind them."

Roth WD, Yaylacı Ş, Jaffe K, Richardson L. (2020) Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0227399. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227399

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

The presentations from FOSDEM 2020 are online. FOSDEM is an annual, non-commercial conference for Free and Open Source software developers and takes place for two days every year in Brussels, Belgium. This year it was the first weekend in February, Saturday the 1^st and Sunday the 2^nd. It is organized by volunteers and aims to promote the use of free and open source software. One beneficial aspect is the many developer rooms where various projects can meet and exchange ideas, plan, discuss, and hack. Participation is free of charge.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Who would have thought that providing good service at a reasonable price could be good for business?

T-Mobile continues to rack up customers:

As T-Mobile waits to hear whether it'll be able to consummate its marriage with Sprint, the company is still racking up new customers. T-Mobile also beat analysts' expectations for revenue and profit when it reported quarterly earnings Thursday.

The third-largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers said it added 1 million new postpaid customers, or customers who pay their bills at the end of the month. Such customers are considered valuable in the wireless industry. The figure was in line with estimates from research firm FactSet.

[...] T-Mobile's strong growth is in stark contrast to that of Sprint, which has been limping along, losing customers and generating less revenue than analysts had expected. During the fourth quarter, Sprint reported it had [lost] 115,000 postpaid phone subscribers.

T-Mobile's subscriber growth in the fourth quarter is also outpacing that of rivals AT&T and Verizon. Last week, AT&T said it had added 229,000 postpaid mobile phone subscribers during the fourth quarter. Verizon added 790,000 new postpaid phone subscribers in the fourth quarter.

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

The sheer expense of blasting things to orbit necessitates that we learn to do automated manufacture and assembly in space if humanity wants to truly become a space faring species. NASA is planning to show it can be done.

the Space Infrastructure Dexterous Robot (SPIDER), a technology-demonstrator that will be going to space as part of NASA's Restore-L spacecraft, which is designed to service and refuel a satellite in low-Earth orbit. Once deployed, the SPIDER will assemble a communications antenna and composite beam to demonstrate that space-based construction is possible.

Formerly known as "Dragonfly", the SPIDER is the result of NASA's Tipping Point program, a partnership between the space agency and 22 U.S. companies to develop technologies essential for human and robotic space exploration. Developed by California-based Space Systems Loral (SSL) – which has since been acquired by Maxar Technologies – this robot is basically a lightweight 5-meter (16-foot) robotic arm.

The Restore-L mission is currently scheduled for the mid 2020s.

As part of a $142 million contract signed with NASA, SPIDER will assemble seven elements to form a 3-meter (9-foot) communications antenna that will communicate with ground stations in the Ka-band. It will also construct a 10-meter (32-foot) lightweight composite spacecraft beam – using technology developed by Washington-based aerospace company Tethers Unlimited – to demonstrate that structures can be built in space.

Orbital manufacture and assembly has implications for "telecommunications, orbital debris mitigation, [...] the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit (LEO), [...] construction of large space telescopes, spacecraft, and even planetary defense"

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

US agencies using phone location data for immigration enforcement, report says:

The Trump administration has reportedly acquired access to a commercial database that tracks the movements of millions of cellphones in the US. The data is being used for immigration and border enforcement, according to sources and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The data is reportedly collected from apps for gaming, weather and shopping that ask users to grant them location access. The Journal's Friday report said the Department of Homeland Security uses the information to detect undocumented immigrants and people who may be entering the US illegally.

Separately, US gov't using phone location data to track migrants: Report:

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has purchased commercial databases and software that tracks millions of mobile phones and used the information to crack down on undocumented immigrants in the US, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter and documents it has seen, the WSJ reported that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has made arrests based on the data, which helped identify the movement and location of undocumented migrants.

[...]According to the report, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began purchasing location data back in 2017 from Venntel, a Virginia-based company, which declined to comment. The data is gathered through smartphone applications after users grant access to their locations.

The DHS and its agencies acknowledged buying access to the data, but did not discuss details about how they are using it in law-enforcement operations. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has said it has privacy protections in place and limits on how it uses location data. The agency says that it accesses only a small amount of the information, which is anonymised to protect the privacy of Americans.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Yarn created from skin cells can be woven into human textiles:

Medical textiles are materials that can be used to heal skin and other body parts. They can also replace parts of damaged organs. But not all patients have the same reactions to all textiles, because the materials are often treated as foreign agents by the immune system. So scientists continue to look for ways to create textiles that the human body will accept. In this new effort, the researchers have created textiles out of human fibroblasts—cells that normally assist with the production of collagen and other fibers. The body will not reject them because they are natural human cells.

The researchers have created a variety of textiles out of the material for use in a wide variety of applications. The researchers first grew skin cell fibroblasts into sheets of material. The sheets were then fashioned into desired shapes. In many instances, they were cut into strings for applications such as suturing wounds. The strings could also be twisted or knotted to create braids or used like yarn for knitting or crochet applications.

I can well imagine how useful this would be for people recovering from a traumatic injury or burn.

Laure Magnan et al. Human Textiles: a cell-synthesized yarn as a truly "bio" material for tissue engineering applications., Acta Biomaterialia (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2020.01.037

Original Submission

kreuzfeld writes:

Readers here include many avid JRR Tolkien fans. Now, coming not long after the death of Christopher Tolkien (JRR's prolific son) comes a new fatality, Orson Bean:

Born July 22, 1928, Bean was a star of the small and big screen. [...] He is also one of the first actors to portray a hobbit, as he voiced both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the Rankin/Bass animated TV films The Hobbit and The Return of the King in the late 1970s. Before Elijah Wood or Martin Freeman, Tolkien fans had Bean as the voice in their head while re-reading the novels.

Here are his entries on IMDb and Wikipedia.

Love them or hate them, the Rankin/Bass films & Bean's key roles in them defined the Tolkien experience for a generation of viewers.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

AMD's 64-core, 128-thread processor for workstation/"prosumer"/enthusiast users has been reviewed:

• The 64 Core Threadripper 3990X CPU Review: In The Midst Of Chaos, AMD Seeks Opportunity
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X Offers Incredible Linux Performance
• System76 Launches Impressive Line Of Thelio Major Linux Workstations Powered By AMD Ryzen Threadripper - Including The 3990X
• CPUs From 2004 Against AMD's New 64-Core Threadripper 3990X + Tests Against FX-9590
• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X 64 Core, The Ultimate HEDT CPU For $4000 US Unleashed – MSI, ASRock & ASUS Break Several World-Records
• Review: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X - 64 processor cores and 128 threads in one CPU package

In summary, it's fast and power efficient. Many applications won't benefit from more than 32 cores, and different versions of Windows 10 handle 128 threads differently.

Linus Torvalds Just Made A Big Optimization To Help Code Compilation Times On Big CPUs

For those using GNU Make in particular as their build system, the parallel build times are about to be a lot faster beginning with Linux 5.6 for large core count systems. This landing just after the AMD Threadripper 3990X 64-core / 128-thread CPU launch is one example of systems to benefit from this kernel change when compiling a lot of code and making use of many GNU Make jobs.

Linus Torvalds himself changed around the kernel's pipe code to use exclusive waits when reading or writing. While this doesn't mean much for traditional/common piping of data, the GNU Make job-server is a big benefactor as it relies upon a pipe for limiting the parallelism. This technique though employed by the GNU Make job server is inefficient with today's high core count CPUs as all of the spawned processes are woken up rather than a single reader to be woken upon a writer's release.

Previously:
AMD Announces Ryzen 4000-Series Mobile Chips, 64-Core Threadripper Release Date, and More
AMD's Threadripper 3960X and 3970X Reviewed; 64-core 3990X Confirmed
AMD Announces 3rd-Generation Threadripper CPUs, Ryzen 9 3950X available on November 25th, and More
64-Core AMD Threadripper CPUs Suggested by Release of Cooler

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Iran satellite launch fails, in blow to space programme

On Sunday, [Iran] launched the Zafar satellite at 7:15 pm (1545 GMT) but it fell short of reaching orbit, the defence ministry said.

A ministry spokesman said initially that the satellite was "successfully" launched and went "90 percent of the way", reaching an altitude of 540 kilometres (335 miles).

"The Simorgh (rocket) successfully propelled the Zafar satellite into space," said Ahmad Hosseini of the ministry's space unit.

"Unfortunately, in the final moments the carrier did not reach the required speed" to put it into orbit, he told state television.

Solar Orbiter: Watch live as NASA, ESA launch new mission to the sun:

The European Space Agency, in collaboration with NASA, is scheduled to launch a pioneering new spacecraft to the sun: Solar Orbiter. The spacecraft will observe the star with a suite of hardy instruments and high-resolution telescopes. It will be steered further out of the ecliptic until it can, for the first time, image the sun's poles. It's currently slated to launch on Feb. 9 from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

If you're keen to see the momentous launch, you can follow along with NASA's broadcast tonight[*].

As it awaits lift-off, the Solar Orbiter is tucked away inside a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The two-stage rocket was developed by Lockheed Martin and has ferried a number of important missions to space, including NASA's famed New Horizons mission to Pluto and the recent Boeing Starliner test.

[...] Launch is currently slated for 11:03 p.m. ET (8:03 p.m. PT). The forecast, provided by the 45th Weather Squadron, suggests weather will be good for launch, noting a 20% probability of violating constraints.

[*] Launch will be live streamed on YouTube with coverage scheduled to begin on Sunday at 10:30 PM ET, (Monday 2020-02-10 at 0330 UTC).

ESA will also have a live stream broadcast at http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/ESA_Web_TV. Additionally, as seen at https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Watch_Solar_Orbiter_launch_live we have:

Key moments:
03:30 GMT – Broadcast starts
04:03 GMT – Liftoff
04:55 GMT – Solar Orbiter spacecraft separation
04:59 GMT – Earliest signal acquisition opportunity
05:19 GMT – Expected solar array deployment
05:20 GMT – Official speeches

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

NASA's Christina Koch returned to Earth safely on Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for female astronauts with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station.

Koch touched down at 0912 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency.

[...] Koch, a 41-year-old Michigan-born engineer, on December 28 last year beat the previous record for a single spaceflight by a woman of 289 days, set by NASA veteran Peggy Whitson in 2016-17.

[...] Koch also made history as one half of the first-ever all-woman spacewalk along with NASA counterpart Jessica Meir—her classmate from NASA training—in October last year.

[...] She will now head to NASA headquarters in Houston, via the Kazakh city of Karaganda and Cologne in Germany, where she will undergo medical testing.

Koch's medical data will be especially valuable to NASA scientists as the agency draws up plans for a long-duration manned mission to Mars.

[...] The first woman in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova whose spaceflight in 1963 is still the only solo mission carried out by a woman.

Russia has sent only one woman to the ISS since expeditions began in 2000—Yelena Serova whose mission launched in 2014.

Both Tereshkova and Serova are now lawmakers in the Russian parliament, where they represent the ruling United Russia party.

[...] Four male cosmonauts have spent a year or longer in space as part of a single mission with Russian Valery Polyakov's 437 days the overall record.

[...] Scott Kelly holds the record for a NASA astronaut, posting 340 days at the ISS before he returned home in 2016.

Original Submission