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upstart writes:

Babylonian Tablet Trigonometry:

Contrary to what generations of pupils have learned in high school geometry, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras did not come up with this foundational theorem [(a² + b² = c²)] first. The proof lies in an ancient artifact that dates back to the Old Babylonian (OB) period: 1900 to 1600 B.C.

In 1894, Father Jean-Vincent Scheil excavated a clay tablet at an archaeological expedition at Sippar, southwest of Baghdad. "But its significance was not understood at the time," Daniel Mansfield—lead author of the new research and a mathematician at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia—writes in The Conversation.

The tablet, known as Si.427, is "the only known example of a cadastral document from the OB period, which is a plan used by surveyors to define land boundaries," according to Mansfield. On the front of the artifact is an inscription showing a diagram of a field. The surveyors drew a series of perpendicular lines, using Pythagorean triples to create precise right angles so that the fields' boundaries were as square as possible.

There's evidence of triangles drawn around the periphery of the field documented on the tablet, but if that's not enough proof, consider the back of the clay tablet. On it, cuneiform text describes the opposite side, including details about the sizes of the fields.

[...] Surveyors used Pythagorean triples to measure fields and draw accurate maps, but some numbers that make up Pythagorean triples aren't regular, and don't make sense to try to scale up to fit any field. Plimpton 322 lists a bunch of Pythagorean triples and notes which of their three values is regular, helping ancient Babylonian surveyors to quickly "do the math," so to speak.

Journal Reference:
Mansfield, Daniel F.. Plimpton 322: A Study of Rectangles [open], Foundations of Science (DOI: 10.1007/s10699-021-09806-0)

Original Submission

Elon Musk Reveals Plans to Unleash a Humanoid Tesla Bot

upstart writes:

Elon Musk reveals plans to unleash a humanoid Tesla Bot:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended a deeply technical AI Day event [(3h3m21s)] with a head-turning announcement: a humanoid robot.

After a dancing human dressed as a robot moved off stage at Thursday's invitation-only event in Palo Alto, California, Musk introduced Tesla Bot. It will be based on Tesla's Autopilot system and is essentially a humanoid form of the car. Musk considers the electric vehicles "fully sentient robots on wheels." So might as well make it a human-like bot!

The bot looks like a human with two arms (and two hands with five fingers) and two legs. It'll stand at 5 feet 8 inches and weigh 125 pounds. It can only run 5 mph, which Musk assured was slow enough for most people to escape if something goes wrong: "If you can run faster than that it’ll be fine."

Most importantly, Musk said it would be friendly ("of course") and operate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks as it "navigates a world built for humans."

Musk repeated that the humanoid would have a screen on its head and eight cameras, like on Tesla cars that can drive with assistance from Autopilot. "It's all the same tools we see in the car," he said.

Elon Musk Reveals Tesla Bot, a Humanoid Robot Utilizing Tesla's Vehicle AI

upstart writes:

The story continues at c|net:

Elon Musk reveals Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot utilizing Tesla's vehicle AI:

Three slides detailed the robot's proposed specifications and Musk made sure he pointed out you could both outrun the Tesla Bot and "overpower" it. He has, in the past, rallied against the use of robots as weapons and warned of the risks AI might pose -- once calling it the "biggest risk we face as a civilization." I guess if they're your incredibly slow, easy-to-overpower robots, the dangers are reduced.

One particular slide said they would eliminate "dangerous, repititive, boring tasks" and Musk provided an example suggesting the robot could be told to "go to the store and get ... the following groceries."

A prototype would likely be ready next year, he said.

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upstart writes:

Google Has Been Paying Wireless Carriers Billions To Not Develop Competing App Stores:

To be clear, wireless carrier app stores have always kind of sucked. Verizon's efforts to create its own app store were shut down in 2012, after underwhelming consumers for years. At the time, the narrative was that Verizon just didn't find it worth the trouble in the face of Google domination and innovation. And while that's still largely true (wireless carriers are utterly unfamiliar with competition and therefore historically suck at innovation and adaptation), it turns out there was another reason.

Namely, that Google was paying Verizon and other major wireless companies a big chunk of money to not compete with the Android marketplace. And they were paying smartphone manufacturers to ship devices without competing app stores installed. Both nuggets were buried in a freshly unredacted copy of Epic's antitrust complaint (pdf) against Google, first spotted by Jeremy Owens:

Man, I love when the redactions come off and there are fascinating numbers underneath.

This unredacted graf shows that telcos get up to 25% of Google's app sales to keep them from developing rival app stores on the smartphones they sell and service. pic.twitter.com/Vx6p1YBU6S

This agreement to start paying wireless carriers 20-25% of app sales was occurring right around the time that Google brass was visibly starting to wimp out on consumer-centric issues like net neutrality. That involved working closely with Verizon to push the FCC toward flimsy, loophole-filled, "compromise" 2010 net neutrality rules that excluded wireless entirely. Verizon proceeded to then successfully sue the FCC to have those repealed anyway, leading to better rules in 2015 that were also dismantled a few years, later, albeit thanks to lobbying, not the courtroom.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

UCLA-led study could clarify how microbes can exacerbate cognitive decline:

In the experiment, which was conducted with mice, researchers found that gut microbes can exacerbate the effects of cognitive impairment because of how they affect the hippocampus, the region of the brain that is critical for memory and learning. They found that the concentration of one group of bacteria called Bilophila increased dramatically in the gut microbiota of mice that were fed a ketogenic diet — high in fat, and low in carbohydrates — and were intermittently deprived of oxygen, creating a condition called hypoxia.

The scientists also found that a ketogenic diet, hypoxia and treatment with a species of Bilophila called Bilophila wadsworthia impaired the hippocampus, leading to reduced cognitive ability in mice.

The researchers gave several mice a ketogenic diet and others a standard diet. Then, all of the mice received reduced levels of oxygen for five consecutive days and then were given four days to recover. Depriving the animals of some oxygen was a way for the scientists to cause cognitive impairment, in order to mimic the cognitive impairment in humans that can be caused by neurological diseases or aging.

Next, the scientists observed their ability to navigate a maze. When trying to find their way out of a maze, mice on the ketogenic diet made an average of 30% more errors than mice given the standard diet. (The range of difference between the two groups was 25% to 75%.)

DannyB writes:

Windows 11 Is Making It Absurdly Difficult to Change Browsers
In a page ripped right out of the '90s, Microsoft reminds us that it's still engaging in the browser wars.

[....] there have been plenty of chances to dive into the OS to see what's next from Microsoft. And there's evidence of the same old story. Namely, Microsoft wants to make it hard for you to use a browser that isn't Edge.

The Verge reports on how convoluted the new process is to change the default browser in Windows 11. Like in Windows 10, you'll get a prompt when you click on a web link asking you to choose an app. But unless you specifically tell the system that you'd like to switch browsers, it will assume you're okay with Microsoft Edge as the default.

[....] It gets worse: if you don't remember on the initial pop-up, you'll have to dig into the settings to change the default app for every specific file type. This can get tedious! It means you'll have to tell Windows which app should open an HTM, HTML, PDF, SVG, and XHTML file—and that's only a sampling of the file types that a browser can open. Additional screenshots show Windows 11 still nags the user to try Microsoft Edge when switching browsers.

From the same people who brought us IE 6, the bane of web developers everywhere, now comes Edge — the browser with the swirl toilet flushing icon.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Milestone #1:
First off, please join me in congratulating janrinok in posting his 5,400th story! I can attest that it represents a tremendous commitment of time and effort, all freely given to the community. Thanks JR!

Milestone #2:
Secondly, we are a few days away from our team reaching 2.8 billion points towards Folding at Home. Official Team Stats and a more informative summary. As I write this, our team is currently ranked #392 in the world. Please be aware we are up against teams such as AWS, Google, Apple, Facebook, SAP, IBM, Dell, Oracle... you get the idea. Our top contributor is Runaway1956 who has been contributing about 2.5 million points per day. Barring any surprises, he is on track to reach 1 billion points by month's end. Way to go!

Moderation:
Lastly, I need to call the community's attention to some problems with moderations.

For the most part, things have been working out well! Considering the diverse viewpoints — and strong feelings about them — I'd say things are working amazingly well. There are some, however, who are prolific, vocal, strong-willed, and are trying to push their own agenda. They are likely to be unhappy with these changes. Until notified otherwise, feel free to moderate complaints about moderation as "-1 Offtopic" and just move on.

Effective Immediately:
For the benefit of the community who have been acting in good faith all along, staff will commence issuing moderation bans on accounts that have been acting unfairly. Each ban will have been discussed among staff and no unilateral action will be taken. If you receive a ban, it's because a majority of staff are in agreement that unfair moderations have been performed and needed to be dealt with.

upstart writes:

'Green steel': Swedish company ships first batch made without using coal:

The world's first customer delivery of "green steel" produced without using coal is taking place in Sweden, according to its manufacturer.

The Swedish venture Hybrit said it was delivering the steel to truck-maker Volvo AB as a trial run before full commercial production in 2026. Volvo has said it will start production in 2021 of prototype vehicles and components from the green steel.

Steel production using coal accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Hybrit started test operations at its pilot plant for green free steel in Lulea, northern Sweden, a year ago. It aims to replace coking coal, traditionally needed for ore-based steel making, with renewable electricity and hydrogen. Hydrogen is a key part of the EU's plan to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Japan developing AI, satellite system to track foreign ships in its waters:

Japan is developing a maritime surveillance system that will use artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced satellite technologies to identify and track foreign ships operating suspiciously close to its waters or that intrude into its territory.

The government is earmarking an initial 450 million yen (US$4.1 million) for the project under the third supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, with technology companies being invited to submit proposals for the system.

An analyst said Tokyo is finding it difficult to keep track of the vessels illegally entering its vast ocean territories.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

No preloading. No promises what's next.

Samsung says it will stop loading its $1,000 smartphones with ads:

Samsung says it will cut down on the ads it shows on its smartphones. The announcement was first reported by Korean news agency Yonhap and was later confirmed by Samsung in a statement to The Verge. The official line from the industry giant is "Samsung has made a decision to cease the advertisement on proprietary apps, including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme." The company added, "The update will be ready by later this year."

Samsung ships Android on all its smartphones, but it changes the experience with a "One UI" skin and includes several Samsung-developed packed-in apps. Many of these apps—like Bixby, Samsung Health, and Weather—contain big banner ads, sometimes right at the top of the app, where you would normally expect to find an app logo or navigation information. The worst offenders are notification ads—a Samsung app will spawn a notification to entice you to buy a new gadget or install a new app.

[...] A "later this year" launch date would mean that the first new ad-free Samsung phone will be the Galaxy S22.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

S. Korea develops technique to recycle discarded solar panels into high-performance solar cells:

Researchers have developed a non-destructive technique to recycle discarded solar panels to create high-performance solar cells. The technique will become crucial in a few decades when solar panels that are currently being used are discarded after their operational life of about 20 years.

A solar panel is a photovoltaic module made of materials such as glass, aluminum, silicon and copper. It uses sunlight as a source of energy to generate direct current electricity. A solar cell is a black mirror-like electrical device that is the key component of a solar panel. Techniques have been researched to maximize the efficiency of recycling solar panels.

The state-run Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) said in a statement on August 19 that a technique developed by its research team led by Lee Jin-seok enables the recycling of solar panels. The institute said the new technique can recycle both undamaged and damaged panels to achieve up to 100 percent retrieval rate of glass components. About 80 percent of other materials can be retrieved and recycled into high-performance solar cells.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

‘They said we were eccentrics’: the UK team developing clean aviation fuel:

“Anyone passing would have wondered why these people were staring at a pipe and whooping and laughing,” says Bobby Sethi, associate professor of gas turbine combustion at Cranfield University. “But we were almost certainly the only people in the world right then burning anything without producing CO2.”

[...] “We were able to demonstrate successful ignition and safe combustion of pure hydrogen and air at high temperature and pressure – producing no carbon emissions,” he says. Even if, he adds, the passing layperson would have only seen a pipe and some steam.

[...] Sethi recalls the scepticism of even five years ago, when he was pursuing funding for the hydrogen research project, known as Enable H2: “They said we were eccentrics. Now they’re queueing up to be on our advisory board.”

There are broadly three strands of work that the aviation industry is frantically investigating for an environmentally acceptable future. One is to create greener fuels for the large aircraft currently in service. A second is electric flight, which appears feasible for smaller aircraft and short-haul hops. And a third is hydrogen.

Two projects pioneered at Cranfield are using hydrogen in the form of fuel cells to power electric motors and propel planes: ZeroAvia flew a six-seater from here last September, and hopes to scale up the technology for commercial short-haul flights in the coming decades. Another, Project Fresson, is planning to use fuel cells for a green, short-hop passenger service around the Orkney islands as soon as 2023.

But the ambitions for direct combustion of hydrogen are on a bigger scale; whether a radically different plane and propulsion system could replace the modern, paraffin-fuelled passenger jet. Which is where Sethi’s research comes in.

Nothing yet in the sheds looks anything like a plane. The rig here is a unique facility, Sethi says, assembled to show that hydrogen can be clean, safe and efficient for aviation, and produce data showing the optimum temperature and pressure to minimise other harmful emissions such as nitrogen oxides or NOx, a family of highly poisonous gases.

Not the only scientists looking for controlled ignition of hydrogen. What's described still seems a long way away from something that produces thrust, which is the ultimate need. However, technology usually advances in small steps, and that's fine as long as there's an ultimately reachable goal.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Drone Delivery Is Live Today, And It's 90% Cheaper Than Car-Based Services:

Amazon may be failing to deliver on its promises of drone delivery programs. But a home-grown Irish company is running live autonomous drone delivery right now in Galway, Ireland, has licenses to take it across the European Union, and is poised to — at the right moment — take its tech and knowhow across the Atlantic.

To Canada, at least.

Regulation in the U.S. is too far behind the times.

"We're delivering coffees," Manna CEO Bobby Healy told me in a recent episode of the TechFirst podcast. "We're delivering burgers and fries. We're delivering ice cream, broccoli, melon, you name it, we're delivering it. And it arrives perfect, you know, piping hot coffee, foam intact, little design on top of the foam still intact."

Manna is doing 2,000 to 3,000 flights a day using fully autonomous suitcase-sized drones that fly at 50 miles an hour — that's 80 km/hour in Ireland — at an altitude of 150 to 200 feet. Near your home, it'll scan the area with lidar and radar to find a safe spot, descend, drop off your delivery, and whiz back for its next pick-up.

upstart writes:

Hoo’s there? Citizen scientists needed to identify Australian owl calls:

Data from 263,000 hours of continuous recording of sounds of the night from throughout Australia will be available to citizen scientists to listen to and identify the calls of five native owls, and other wildlife, during ABC’s Science Week interactive project, Hoot Detective, from August 14 to 22.

The data made available will contain night-time environmental sounds selected by artificial intelligence as having ‘sounds of interest’ for citizen scientists. They will then identify sounds in the audio clip from a short list of, for example, owls, frogs, or crickets.

QUT [Queensland University of Technology] Australian Acoustic Observatory director Professor Paul Roe, from QUT School of Computer Science, said it was vital to engage the community in conservation of our native wildlife.

[...] “We’ve become quite disconnected from our natural environment, and we know that connection with the natural environment is beneficial to our health and wellbeing,” Professor Roe said.

“In terms of citizen science, we have plenty of data from the observatory, far too much for any one person to listen to or to analyse, which is why we need the help of citizen scientists.”

“We also need help to refine and hone our automatic call recognisers, for this we need test data for training hence the need for annotated data sets and citizen scientists can help with this. “

The five feathered creatures of the night whose calls might be identified are the powerful owl, the barking owl, the boobook owl, the barn owl and the masked owl.

JoeMerchant writes:

Scientists Are Proposing a Radical New Framework to Redefine Life:

Biologist Chris Kempes and complex systems researcher David Krakauer from Sante Fe Institute in New Mexico have posed the idea that our focus on evolution as a driving force of life may have "blinded us to additional general principles of life".

To explore this, the researchers broaden the definition of "life" to the union of two energetic and informatic processes that can encode and pass on adaptive information forward through time.

Using this definition vastly increases what can be seen as life, to include concepts such as culture, forests, and the economy. A more traditional definition might consider these as products of life, rather than life itself.

[...] Kempes and Krakauer call for researchers to consider, first, the full space of materials in which life could be possible; second, the constraints that limit the universe of possible life; and, third, the optimization processes that drive adaptation. In general, the framework considers life as adaptive information and adopts the analogy of computation to capture the processes central to life.

Several significant possibilities emerge when we consider life within the new framework. First, life originates multiple times — some apparent adaptations are actually “a new form of life, not just an adaptation,” explains Krakauer — and it takes a far broader range of forms than conventional definitions allow.

Culture, computation, and forests are all forms of life in this frame. As Kempes explains, “human culture lives on the material of minds, much like multicellular organisms live on the material of single-celled organisms.”

So, next can we get a definition of sentient life which deserves the rights afforded to (most) h. sapiens today?

Journal Reference:
Kempes, Christopher P., Krakauer, David C.. The Multiple Paths to Multiple Life [open], Journal of Molecular Evolution (DOI: 10.1007/s00239-021-10016-2)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The hacker who stole and gave back $600M has been offered a job and reward from the company he stole from:

In yet another bizarre twist to this story, Poly Network announced today in a Medium post that it has maintained daily contact with the hacker referred to as Mr White Hat. Poly Network claims that the hacker shared his concerns about "Poly Network’s security and overall development strategy" in the post.

Poly Network then offered Mr. White Hat a job as Chief Security Advisor of Poly Network. It's not uncommon for hackers to make living testing out the digital defense of large companies for a fee. The idea is: Who better to run your security than the person who robbed you?

#PolyNetwork has no intention of holding #mrwhitehat legally responsible and cordially invites him to be our Chief Security Advisor. $500,000 bounty is on the way. Whatever #mrwhitehat chooses to do with the bounty in the end, we have no objections. https://t.co/4IaZvyWRGz href="https://twitter.com/PolyNetwork2/status/1427574236483231749">August 17, 2021

[...] And if you're still keeping count, as of Friday, $340M was returned along with $238M to a multi-signature wallet with a remainder of $33M that's currently waiting to be unfrozen. Poly Network also took this moment to turn lemons into lemonade and announce the launch of a bug bounty program. Discovering vulnerabilities on their platform can score you up to $100,000.

Original Submission