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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Engineer Creates Real-Life 'Star Wars' Lightsaber That Can Slice Through Metal:

Engineer and YouTube personality James Hobson has finally done what so many movie nerds before him have dreamed about: He created a functional — and potentially deadly — lightsaber fit for a real Jedi.

[...] "Well, theories say that plasma is best held in a beam by a magnetic field, which, scientifically, checks out," he continues. "The issue is producing a strong enough electromagnetic field to contain a blade, well the lightsaber would have to be quite literally built inside a box coated in electromagnets, which turns it into a kind of useless science project."

In order to capture a beam of plasma, Hobson and his teammates, Dave Bonhoff, Ian Hillier and Darryl Sherk, employed the principle of "laminar flow" — combining liquified petroleum gas, or propane, with oxygen and sending them through "laminar nozzles," a specialized tool for engineers, which generates a highly concentrated flow of gas to create a plasma beam, according to Hobson.

[...] The result is a near-replica of a lightsaber that projects and retracts on command, and burns at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to slice through steel.

[...] And it's got a price tag to match its heat level: Just one of those laminar nozzles can cost some $4,000.

Just wait until Elon Not-A-Flamethrower Musk tries to out-do this!

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Eel effects: fears after release of exotic species into New York lake:

New York state and city wildlife officials say it is too soon to know what effect a dump of exotic eels into a lake in a park in Brooklyn last month will have on local species – but it could become a major problem.

[...] The illegal release became a curiosity on social media, but the dumping of exotic animals in urban parks is nothing new. Across the US, non-native birds, turtles, fish and lizards have settled into, and often disturbed, local ecosystems. New Yorkers free thousands of non-native animals every year. Many abandoned pets quickly die but others can survive, reproduce and cause lasting harm.

Based on photos taken by bystanders, officials identified the eels in Prospect Park as swamp eels native to south-east Asia, which have been found in at least eight US states. Once introduced, often after being purchased at live fish markets, the eels eat almost anything including plants, insects, crustaceans, frogs, turtles and other fish. In Brooklyn, they could prey upon or compete with the park's native species for however long they survive, said Katrina Toal, deputy director of the New York City parks department's wildlife unit.

But there are no plans to eradicate the eels, which are nocturnal and spend most of their time burrowed in the sediment of lakes, rivers and marshes.

"This kind of species is a little tricky. They're well hidden," Toal said. "We're not going to go out there and try to trap any of them."

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://9to5linux.com/systemrescuecd-changes-its-name-to-systemrescue-after-more-than-16-years

Due to the name change, SystemRescue now also has a new website address at https://www.system-rescue.org, where you can learn everything there is to know about this distro and also to download the latest release.

The full list of packages included in version 7.00 can be found here. The system rescue and recovery distro remains based on the famous Arch Linux distribution, it's available for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and ships with the latest Xfce 4.14 desktop environment by default.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

This is what "war in space" probably would look like in the near future:

The creation of the US Space Force has conjured up all manner of fanciful notions about combat in space. Will military satellites act like X-wings and Tie Fighters, zipping around and shooting at one another? Or perhaps will larger ships akin to the USS Enterprise fire photon torpedoes at enemy warbirds?

Hardly. But even those with more realistic expectations for what could happen if nations went to war in space—perhaps satellites using orbital kinetic weapons to attack other satellites?—may not fully appreciate the physics of space combat. That's the conclusion of a new report that investigates what is physically and practically possible when it comes to space combat.

Published by The Aerospace Corporation, The Physics of Space War: How Orbital Dynamics Constrain Space-to-Space Engagements lays out several basic concepts that are likely to govern any space combat for the foreseeable future. All of the physical constraints suggest battles will need to be planned far in advance.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

The USDA Should Let People Plant Blight-Resistant American Chestnut Trees:

For more than 30 years, the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) has been engaged in a privately financed program in which its geneticists have been crossbreeding American chestnuts with blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts. The goal is to produce an American chestnut tree that retains essentially only the blight resistance genes from the Chinese chestnut tree.

More recently, the ACF has been collaborating with researchers at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) to use modern biotechnology to endow American chestnut trees with blight resistance. To that end, the researchers have added a gene from wheat that produces the enzyme oxalate oxidase that breaks down the oxalic acid the fungus uses to attack chestnut trees. It works; the added gene does indeed protect American chestnuts from the blight.

Now the ACF and ESF researchers are officially petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to give their blight-resistant American chestnut "nonregulated status" which would allow the blight-tolerant bioengineered trees to be planted without restriction as part of restoration programs.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

NASA just gave Nokia millions of dollars to upgrade the moon's cell service:

Much like Gru, Nokia has always been obsessed with stealing the moon. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but the company has taken a very keen interest in developing technology for lunar missions. Back in 2018, Nokia was working on a system that would bring LTE connectivity to everyone's favorite lumpy gray rock. Now NASA has agreed to hand over 14.1 million dollars to help make Nokia's dream a reality.

The project, which involves Nokia building a 4G cellular communication network on the moon, is part of a series of new contracts NASA is awarding for lunar surface research missions. In total, $370 million is being awarded to companies like SpaceX and United Launch Alliance with the goal of making the moon a place that astronauts will want to call home by 2028.

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takyon writes:

Sony's $5,000 3D display (probably) isn't for you

Sony just announced a $5,000 3D display, but odds are it's probably not for you. Primarily known for its consumer goods, the company is targeting creative professionals with the Spatial Reality Display — more specifically, those working in fields like computer graphics and visual effects for films. Basically it's a way for artists to view their 3D creations without having to wear a VR headset.

The company's not the first to offer up this kind of technology for a fairly niche audience. The Looking Glass display is probably the best-known offering in the space up to this point. But unlike that massive 8K screen, Sony's product is actually designed for a single user — specifically as a screen for their desktop PC. Also, it kind of looks like an Amazon Echo Show.

The big differentiator between the product and existing devices is the inclusion of a sensor that determines the user's viewing position, including vertical and horizontal access, along with distance, and tailors the image to that specific angle, adjusting within the millisecond.

Also at Road to VR and Guru3D.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

The Good and Not So Good of the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 - Security Boulevard:

In September, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring that all internet of things (IoT) devices purchased by the government meet minimum security requirements.

H.R. 1668 has the potential to improve the security of the IoT for two high-level reasons. Any activity that places cybersecurity front and center of IoT conversations is a good thing. This bill could and should create demand for higher quality devices, which incentivizes the supply chain to build platforms. This is different from other (market "push") security initiatives and standards such as Arm's Platform Security Architecture, in which it is a technology company proposing something. Here it is an end customer stipulating requirement that creates market "pull."

The bill also outlines key themes that should be addressed rather than getting caught up in specific technologies.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

NASA's Next Moonsuit Is Going to Be Damned Impressive:

"The xEMU [Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit] has been designed from the very beginning to be safer and have fewer catastrophic failure modes than any of its predecessors," Chris Hansen, the EVA Office manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, explained in an email. (EVA stands for extravehicular activity, which is NASA-speak for anything done outside of a vehicle, whether that's in Earth's orbit or on the surface of another planet.)

Space is a dangerous place at the best of times, but the Moon presents some added challenges.

"Going outside of low-Earth orbit and to the surface of the Moon, the suits will be subjected to higher radiation levels and temperature extremes than our current [ISS] suit," said Hansen. "The new suits have more complex avionics [electronics] than the Apollo suits, so we have to be very careful to select parts that are radiation hardened and designed to operate in that environment."

[...] Hansen said he's particularly excited about two new technologies in the xEMU that have never been incorporated into a suit design before.

"One is our new cooling system called the SWME—we pronounce it 'swimmy'—which is the Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator," he said. "The SWME uses water evaporation to cool the suits and their astronauts, rather than the process of sublimating ice, which is used by all previous suit designs. This system is much more robust than current sublimators used on the EMU."

The second new piece of technology is called "Rapid Amine," or RCA, which is a new type of carbon dioxide scrubber.

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RandomFactor writes:

Etching a Simple Pattern on Solar Panels Boosts Light Absorption by 125%, Study Shows

In a new study, a team of scientists from the UK, Portugal, and Brazil discovered that etching a shallow pattern of grating lines in a checkerboard design on solar cells can enhance the current generated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) by as much as 125 percent.

"We found a simple trick for boosting the absorption of slim solar cells," explains photovoltaics researcher Christian Schuster from the University of York.

"Our investigations show that our idea actually rivals the absorption enhancement of more sophisticated designs – while also absorbing more light deep in the plane and less light near the surface structure itself."

According to the authors of the study, "This design offers potential to further integrate solar cells into thinner, flexible materials and therefore create more opportunity to use solar power in more products."

Journal Reference:
Kezheng Li, Sirazul Haque, Augusto Martins, et al. Light trapping in solar cells: simple design rules to maximize absorption [open], Optica (DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.394885)

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NotSanguine writes:

Pro Publica has released a new report on the CDC's response to the SARS-Cov2 virus. The report provides a fascinating look into the workings of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tracking the agency from the first hint of the new virus until very recently, as they worked to understand the new virus, respond to the dangers it presented to the US and the world and desperately tried to limit the spread of the virus.

From the report:

At 7:47 a.m. on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Dr. Jay Butler pounded out a grim email to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Butler, then the head of the agency's coronavirus response, and his team had been trying to craft guidance to help Americans return safely to worship amid worries that two of its greatest comforts — the chanting of prayers and singing of hymns — could launch a deadly virus into the air with each breath.

The week before, the CDC had published its investigation of an outbreak at an Arkansas church that had resulted in four deaths. The agency's scientific journal recently had detailed a superspreader event in which 52 of the 61 singers at a 2½-hour choir practice developed COVID-19. Two died.

Butler, an infectious disease specialist with more than three decades of experience, seemed the ideal person to lead the effort. Trained as one of the CDC's elite disease detectives, he'd helped the FBI investigate the anthrax attacks, and he'd led the distribution of vaccines during the H1N1 flu pandemic when demand far outstripped supply.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

Research demonstrates a molecular dance that keeps your heart beating:

Filament-like proteins in heart muscle cells have to be exactly the same length so that they can coordinate perfectly to make the heart beat.

Another protein decides when the filament is the right size and puts a wee little cap on it. But, if that protein makes a mistake and puts the cap on too early, another protein, leiomodin, comes along and knocks the cap out of the way.

This little dance at the molecular scale might sound insignificant, but it plays a critical role in the development of healthy heart and other muscles. Reporting in the journal, Plos Biology, a WSU research team has proven for the first time how the mechanism works.

[...] "It's beautifully designed," said Kostyukova, whose research is focused on understanding protein structures.

And, tightly regulated.

[...] "The probability of being able to show this mechanism was not high, but the impact of the discovery is," said Tolkatchev, an expert in nuclear magnetic resonance. "This was a very important problem to study and could have a significant impact in the field of muscle mechanics."

Journal Reference:
Dmitri Tolkatchev, Garry E. Smith Jr., Lauren E. Schultz, et al. Leiomodin creates a leaky cap at the pointed end of actin-thin filaments, PLOS Biology (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000848)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Education Groups Drop Their Lawsuit Against Public.Resource.Org, Give Up Their Quest to Paywall the Law:

This week, open and equitable access to the law got a bit closer. For many years, EFF has defended Public.Resource.Org in its quest to improve public access to the law — including standards, like the National Electrical Code, that legislators and agencies have made into binding regulations. In two companion lawsuits, six standards development organizations sued Public Resource in 2013 for posting standards online. They accused Public Resource of copyright infringement and demanded the right to keep the law behind paywalls.

Yesterday, three of those organizations dropped their suit. The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), and the American Psychological Association (APA) publish a standard for writing and administering tests. The standard is widely used in education and employment contexts, and several U.S. federal and state government agencies have incorporated it into their laws.

[...] Three other standards development groups (the American Society for Testing and Materials, the National Fire Protection Association, and the American Society for Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers) continue to pursue their suit against Public Resource. We're confident that the court will rule that laws are free for all to read, speak, and share with the world.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

Elon Musk's Las Vegas Loop might only carry a fraction of the passengers it promised – TechCrunch:

In pandemic-free years, America's biggest trade show, CES, attracts more than 170,000 attendees, bringing traffic that jams surrounding roads day and night. To help absorb at least some of the congestion, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) last year planned a people-mover to serve an expanded campus. The LVCC wanted transit that could move up to 4,400 attendees every hour between exhibition halls and parking lots.

It considered traditional light rail that could shuttle hundreds of attendees per train, but settled on an underground system from Elon Musk's The Boring Company (TBC) instead — largely because Musk's bid was tens of millions of dollars cheaper. The LVCC Loop would transport attendees through two 0.8-mile underground tunnels in Tesla vehicles, four or five at a time.

But planning files reviewed by TechCrunch seem to show that the Loop system will not be able to move anywhere near the number of people LVCC wants, and that TBC agreed to.

Fire regulations peg the occupant capacity in the load and unload zones of one of the Loop's three stations at just 800 passengers an hour. If the other stations have similar limitations, the system might only be able to transport 1,200 people an hour — around a quarter of its promised capacity.

If TBC misses its performance target by such a margin, Musk's company will not receive more than $13 million of its construction budget — and will face millions more in penalty charges once the system becomes operational.

Neither TBC nor LVCVA responded to multiple requests for comment.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

AI localization tool claims to translate your words in your voice:

Localization is a tricky issue for all content creators. It can take significant time and resources to make their work fully accessible to folks who speak different languages. One company thinks it has cracked part of that code with an artificial intelligence system that automatically translates speech into other languages in the same speaker's voice.

Resemble AI says its Localize tool can keep voices consistent in various languages in movies, games, audiobooks, corporate videos and other formats. Google is working on similar tech, but we haven't heard much about that since it published a paper on the Translatotron system last year.

[...] For now, Localize can translate speech between English, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. There are plans to add Korean, Japanese and Mandarin to the mix in the near future.

Resemble AI says Localize can translate recordings in a way that accurately reflects the speaker's words and meanings. The system, it claims, can turn the original audio into speech that uses colloquialisms and grammar structures of a certain region and language.

No mention is made about trying to lip-synch the vocalizations.

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