SoylentNews

China Has 'Too Many' Electric Vehicle Companies, Minister Says

upstart writes:

China has 'too many' electric vehicle companies, minister says:

China has "too many" electric vehicle (EV) makers and the government will encourage consolidation, Industry and Information Technology Minister Xiao Yaqing said on Monday.

The minister also said China would improve its charging network and develop EV sales in rural markets.

The government's promotion of greener vehicles to cut pollution has prompted electric car makers such as Nio, XPeng and BYD to expand manufacturing capacity in China.

Chinese Tech, EV Stocks Fall on Regulatory Fears; Property Developer Soho China Drops 35% on Failed

upstart writes:

Chinese tech, EV stocks fall on regulatory fears; property developer Soho China drops 35% on failed deal:

Chinese electric vehicle stocks also fell after the country's industry minister said consolidation in the sector is needed as there are "too many" EV makers in China.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

upstart writes:

Astronomers solve 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding Chinese supernova of 1181AD:

A 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding the origins of a famous supernova first spotted over China in 1181 AD has finally been solved, according to an international team of astronomers.

New research published today (September 15, 2021) says that a faint, fast expanding cloud (or nebula), called Pa30, surrounding one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way, known as Parker's Star, fits the profile, location and age of the historic supernova.

There have only been five bright supernovae in the Milky Way in the last millennium (starting in 1006). Of these, the Chinese supernova, which is also known as the "Chinese Guest Star" of 1181 AD has remained a mystery. It was originally seen and documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the 12th century who said it was as bright as the planet Saturn and remained visible for six months. They also recorded an approximate location in the sky of the sighting, but no confirmed remnant of the explosion has even been identified by modern astronomers. The other four supernovae are all now well known to modern day science and include the famous Crab nebula.

The source of this 12th century explosion remained a mystery until this latest discovery made by a team of international astronomers from Hong Kong, the UK, Spain, Hungary and France, including Professor Albert Zijlstra from The University of Manchester. In the new paper, the astronomers found that the Pa 30 nebula is expanding at an extreme velocity of more than 1,100 km per second (at this speed, traveling from the Earth to the moon would take only five minutes). They use this velocity to derive an age at around 1,000 years, which would coincide with the events of 1181 AD.

Journal Reference:
Andreas Ritter, Quentin A. Parker, Foteini Lykou, et al. The Remnant and Origin of the Historical Supernova 1181 AD - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac2253)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

'Dramatically more powerful': world's first battery-electric freight train unveiled:

The world's first battery-electric freight train was unveiled at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday, amid a fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport in order to address the climate crisis.

Wabtec, the Pittsburgh-based rail freight company, showed off its locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a new venture between the two organizations to develop zero emissions technology to help move the 1.7bn tons of goods that are shipped on American railroads each year.

Perched upon a strip of rail at Carnegie Mellon's technology campus on the banks of the Monongahela River, the cherry red, 75ft-long train provided a striking background to politicians, rail executives and academics who urged a swifter industry transition away from fossil fuels. Dignitaries were allowed to clamber up a vertiginous ladder on to the train to inspect its confines, which included a small driver's cabin in front of 500 lithium-ion battery modules, arrayed in stacks in the heart of the vehicle.

The new train, known as the FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive, underwent successful trials in California earlier this year where it was found to have cut fuel consumption by 11%, which meant reducing the amount of diesel used by 6,200 gallons. Wabtec said that the next iteration of the locomotive, to be rolled out within two years, will be able to cut the consumption of diesel, the fossil fuel traditionally used in freight rail, by nearly a third.

The company also said emissions will be entirely eliminated through the development of accompanying hydrogen fuel cells. If the technology is used worldwide, Wabtec estimates planet-heating emissions could be cut by 300m tons a year, with nearly half of those saved emissions occurring in the US.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Influenza cases hit an all-time low in Australia in 2021:

If you have been thinking the flu has virtually disappeared from our lives, you are not wrong.

In 2020, there were more than 20,000 notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) and 37 deaths.

This year, to August 29, just 484 cases were recorded and zero deaths.

Perhaps surprisingly, almost half of those were in Queensland, with 235 cases, but experts do not have an answer as to why.

Victoria recorded just 75 cases, New South Wales recorded 61 and the next highest was just 31 in the Northern Territory.

WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza's deputy director, Professor Ian Barr, said the majority of the cases were detected in quarantine, coming in from overseas, particularly from India.

"They have been having ongoing influenza circulation for the last three or four months," he said.

"It's not surprising we're picking up a few coming from quarantine."

Mal Greig is the treasurer of the Windsor Bowls Club — a place normally impacted by severe influenza seasons — and said the flu was a "non-existent issue" this year.

"The flu used to impact the club and attendances at the club quite dramatically," Mr Greig said.

Now, he said, it was not even spoken about.

[...] "This is the time we should be seeing not a few hundred, a few thousands cases per state, with tens of thousands of cases overall throughout Australia.

Original Submission

LOLIN S2 Pico – A compact ESP32-S2 board with an OLED display

takyon writes:

LOLIN S2 Pico – A compact ESP32-S2 board with an OLED display

If you're into small MCU boards with an integrated display, you're in luck as LOLIN launched the S2 Pico board with ESP32-S2 and an OLED display about at the time same as LILYGO T-Display RP2040 board we covered yesterday.

Wemos/LOLIN S2 Pico board offers WiFi connectivity, a 128×32 OLED display, USB Type-C port for power and programming, as well as the usual GPIO headers in a compact 50×23 mm form factor.

$10 Raspberry Pi Pico Alternative Comes With LCD Screen

DannyB writes:

Tom's HARDWARE: $10 Raspberry Pi Pico Alternative Comes With LCD Screen

Microcontroller boards based on the RP2040 chipset, the same SoC that powers the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico are becoming very popular among makers. Newer boards are popping up with extra features appearing on them, such as this 1.14 inch color display, the $10 LILYGO T-Display spotted by CNX Software.

It's not the first such board, of course, with the Arducam Pico4ML pulling a similar trick - and with a resolution of 240×135 pixels it's hardly HD - but it comes in at just under $10 with the RP2040 board attached. Along with the ST7789V SPI controller needed to run the screen, you get all the usual Pico accoutrements such as the dual-core Cortex M0+ processor, 2 x UART , 2 x SPI and 2 x I2C connections, along with a generous 4MB of flash storage. Power and data connectivity is via USB-C, a good choice of connector as it is now becoming the norm on maker boards. Where the LILYGO T-Display falls short is the GPIO. The board looks to be wider and a different pin layout to the traditional Raspberry Pi Pico, so creative hacking is required to connect accessories designed for the Pico.

Sadly, a major drawback is that it cannot run Windows 11.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

upstart writes:

LG's outrageous direct-view LED TV tops out at 335 inches, $1.7 million:

[...] Direct View LED is a refreshingly self-explanatory name. You're directly viewing LEDs. It sounds similar to MicroLED, although when we asked whether DVLED actually is MicroLED, LG's reply was somewhat vague (we're seeking clarification and we'll update this article when we get it).

Generally "micro" LEDs are in the range of 0.1mm, often smaller. All LG is discussing is the pixel pitch, which is the distance from the center of one pixel to the next, which includes the size of the pixel but also the space between. The smallest version of LG's DVLED has a pixel pitch of 0.9mm. There are also models with 1.2mm and 1.5mm pixel pitches. So they're small, that's for sure, but perhaps not small enough to qualify as MicroLED.

Why these numbers are important is because of a counterintuitive characteristic of all direct-view LED tech: There's a lower limit to sizes of direct view LED displays. There's a limit to how close they can currently get the pixels, and this is true with LG's DVLED, as well as Samsung and Sony's tech. That's the reason these TVs are all wall-size, at least for now.

owl writes:

Science News link: https://science-news.co/scientists-create-matter-from-pure-light-proving-the-breit-wheeler-effect/

Archive link: https://archive.is/AeYlu

The Breit-Wheeler effect, postulated as early as 1934, describes the conversion of light into matter. With the theory physicists Gregory Breit and John Wheeler were able to prove that when two high-energy photons collide, a positron and an electron arise, i.e. matter is formed. An experiment has now proven this theory for the first time. In the context of his special theory of relativity, Einstein described the natural law of the equivalence of mass and energy (E = mc²) as early as 1905. According to this, energy and matter are equivalent and can be converted into one another. One direction of matter and energy is omnipresent. It takes place permanently in the sun, for example when atomic nuclei fuse and energy is given off in the form of radiation.

[...] A team led by Zhangbu Xu from the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has now experimentally tested the almost hundred-year-old theory using the STAR detector on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). According to their publication in the Physical Review Letters, they collided gold nuclei accelerated to 99.99 percent of the speed of light. They examined the released decay products for pairs of electrons and positrons whose mass distribution, energy and quantum states corresponded to those of the Breit-Wheeler effect. In total, the physicists were able to find 6,085 electron-positron pairs with the appropriate features. In an additional experiment, the scientists also checked whether the photons generated during the collision had the characteristics of normal light particles, which was also confirmed.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Microsoft remote work study: Average length of workweek has increased 10% during pandemic:

A Microsoft study examining technology usage by its employees has revealed a decrease in cross-company communication, and sparked a lively discussion about the long-term impact of remote work on collaboration, productivity, and innovation.

But the peer-reviewed study, published last week in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, includes another notable finding that could also resonate beyond Microsoft's virtual walls: The length of the average workweek inside the company increased by about 10% after the shift to remote work.

However, the researchers say that doesn't necessarily mean employees are working more hours within the span of that longer workweek.

They explain, "The increase in workweek hours could be an indication that employees were less productive and required more time to complete their work, or that they replaced some of their commuting time with work time; however, as we are able to measure only the time between the first and last work activity in a day, it could also be that the same amount of working time is spread across a greater share of the calendar day due to breaks or interruptions for non-work activities."

Journal Reference:
Yang, Longqi, Holtz, David, Jaffe, Sonia, et al. The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers [open], Nature Human Behaviour (DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01196-4)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Apple and John Deere Shareholder Resolutions Demand They Explain Their Bad Repair Policies - iFixit:

Apple and John Deere, primary antagonists of the Right to Repair movement, may soon have to explain their domineering repair programs to one of their most demanding audiences: their shareholders.

U.S. PIRG, working with its affiliated socially responsible mutual fund company, Green Century Funds, has filed shareholder resolutions with both Apple and John Deere, asking them to account for “anti-competitive repair policies." Both resolutions admonish the companies for fighting independent repair and ignoring the broad political shift toward Right to Repair laws.

Touch ID stops working if you replace the fingerprint sensor on your iPhone. This used to brick iPhones; now it’s just the sad reality of iPhone repair.

Green Century’s Apple resolution says that the company “risks losing its reputation as a climate leader if it does not cease its anti-repair practices.” Noting that internet-connected devices will account for 14% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, Green Century’s resolution demands the company reverse course to “mitigate regulatory and reputational risks and bolster the company's ambitious climate commitments.”

[...] The John Deere resolution calls out the company’s broken promise to make crucial repair software available to farmers. "Company representatives are quick to point out that less than 2% of all repairs require a software update," Green Capital Funds notes. "However, Deere does not disclose what percentage of the repair sales the 2% represents."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Rerun of supernova blast expected to appear in 2037:

[...] looking far beyond the solar system, astronomers have added a solid prediction of an event happening deep in intergalactic space: an image of an exploding star, dubbed Supernova Requiem, which will appear around the year 2037. Although this rebroadcast will not be visible to the naked eye, some future telescopes should be able to spot it.

It turns out that this future appearance will be the fourth-known view of the same supernova, magnified, brightened, and split into separate images by a massive foreground cluster of galaxies acting like a cosmic zoom lens. Three images of the supernova were first found from archival data taken in 2016 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The multiple images are produced by the monster galaxy cluster's powerful gravity, which distorts and magnifies the light from the supernova far behind it, an effect called gravitational lensing. First predicted by Albert Einstein, this effect is similar to a glass lens bending light to magnify the image of a distant object.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/the-stormy-relationship-between-solar-power-and-the-weather/

Solar panels have a love-hate relationship with nature.They need to be placed in exposed locations that get a lot of sunlight, but cloudy weather obviously reduces their production. Less obviously, more extreme weather—from snowstorms to hurricanes—can damage or even break solar hardware altogether. New research performed by Sandia National Laboratories and published in Applied Energy showcases how weather events can reduce the amount of energy produced by the United States' solar farms.

[...] Unpublished NREL research also suggests ways in which solar panels can better withstand extreme weather, Walker said. Methods include water-tight enclosures, modules mounted on three rails (rather than two), thicker glass, wind-calming fences, marine-grade steel, and through-bolting (rather than clamps). "It turns out that clamps are the smoking gun in a lot of module liberations, as it's called when a [photovoltaic] module blows off a rack," he said.

Applied Energy, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117508 (About DOIs)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Storage galore: New PS5 update finally lets users add more space for games:

Players will be able to add specific M.2 SSDs to the PS5 with a new system update rolling out [...], two months after a beta that featured the option was made available to users who signed up.

As detailed in a post on the PlayStation Blog, the update gives users the option to increase the PS5's overall storage capacity by installing a PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD (ranging from 250GB to 4TB) that fits certain technical and dimensional requirements. Once the M.2 drive is installed, the new storage space can be used to copy, download, update, and play PS4 and PS5 games as well as media applications. The result will essentially add a second, fully functional internal drive to the console.

This is a big step up over the "cold-storage" solution that was added to the system in April, which allowed last-gen games to run straight from a standard platter-based external hard drive or SSD via USB—and notably kept players from doing the same for PS5 games. As a result, the feature did little more than let players free up space for PS5 games by storing PS4 games on an external drive... or just letting PS5 downloads collect dust in storage, which Sony said still allowed for faster transfers back to internal storage than redownloading from scratch. For PS5 players, this did little to alleviate problems with the console's internal 667GB of available space.

martyb writes:

Late last night (~10 PM UTC), the security certificates for SoylentNews.org expired. (Out-of-date certs result in nasty warning messages being displayed by your browser.)

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience the outage caused.

Unfortunately, that was after I (and others on staff who could do anything about it) had gone to bed.

I had personally updated the certs in the past, but the last time was years ago. (TheMightyBuzzard had previously — and subsequently — handled getting and applying updated certs.) It had been so long that I could not find my notes on the process. (Note to self: it helps to look in the correct directory tree!)

Thankfully, audioguy appeared and was able to get things updated.

Please join me in thanking him for getting things straightened out!

P.S. The current certs are due to expire December 14, 2021, Please feel free to remind us as that date approaches!

P.P.S. The technical staff is aware of various automated solutions to renewals but made a conscious decision to do them manually. Remember that people make mistakes but to really foul things up use a computer!

Original Submission

owl writes:

NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/science/kea-beak-tools.html

Archive Link: https://archive.is/rwG10

Many animals are known to use tools, but a bird named Bruce may be one of the most ingenious nonhuman tool inventors of all: He is a disabled parrot who has designed and uses his own prosthetic beak

Bruce is a kea, a species of parrot found only in New Zealand. He is about 9 years old, and when wildlife researchers found him as a baby, he was missing his upper beak, probably because it had been caught in a trap made for rats and other invasive mammals the country was trying to eliminate. This is a severe disability, as kea use their dramatically long and curved upper beaks for preening their feathers to get rid of parasites and to remove dirt and grime.

But Bruce found a solution: He has taught himself to pick up pebbles of just the right size, hold them between his tongue and his lower beak, and comb through his plumage with the tip of the stone. Other animals use tools, but Bruce's invention of his own prosthetic is unique.

Researchers published their findings Friday in the journal Scientific Reports. Studies of animal behavior are tricky — the researchers have to make careful, objective observations and always be wary of bias caused by anthropomorphizing, or erroneously attributing human characteristics to animals.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Will it be safe for humans to fly to Mars?

Sending human travelers to Mars would require scientists and engineers to overcome a range of technological and safety obstacles. One of them is the grave risk posed by particle radiation from the sun, distant stars and galaxies.

Answering two key questions would go a long way toward overcoming that hurdle: Would particle radiation pose too grave a threat to human life throughout a round trip to the red planet? And, could the very timing of a mission to Mars help shield astronauts and the spacecraft from the radiation?

In a new article published in the peer-reviewed journal Space Weather, an international team of space scientists, including researchers from UCLA, answers those two questions with a "no" and a "yes."

That is, humans should be able to safely travel to and from Mars, provided that the spacecraft has sufficient shielding and the round trip is shorter than approximately four years. And the timing of a human mission to Mars would indeed make a difference: The scientists determined that the best time for a flight to leave Earth would be when solar activity is at its peak, known as the solar maximum.

The scientists' calculations demonstrate that it would be possible to shield a Mars-bound spacecraft from energetic particles from the sun because, during solar maximum, the most dangerous and energetic particles from distant galaxies are deflected by the enhanced solar activity.

Journal Reference:
M. I. Dobynde, Y. Y. Shprits, A. Y. Drozdov, et al. Beating 1 Sievert: Optimal Radiation Shielding of Astronauts on a Mission to Mars [open], Space Weather (DOI: 10.1029/2021SW002749)

Original Submission