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DannyB writes:

Shameful: Insteon looks dead—just like its users' smart homes

The app and servers are dead. The CEO scrubbed his LinkedIn page. No one is responding.

The entire company seems to have abruptly shut down just before the weekend, breaking users' cloud-dependent smart-home setups without warning. Users say the service has been down for three days now despite the company status page saying, "All Services Online." The company forums are down, and no one is replying to users on social media.

[....] Insteon is (or, more likely, "was") a smart home company that produced a variety of Internet-connected lights, thermostats, plugs, sensors, and of course, the Insteon Hub. At the core of the company was Insteon's propriety networking protocol, which was a competitor to more popular and licensable alternatives like Z-Wave and Zigbee.

[....] With its servers down, the Insteon app appears worthless, and users' automations and schedules have stopped working. Many of Insteon's wall switches were actual electrical switches, so the worst that will ever happen is that they become dumb switches.

Every dark internet cloud has a cat 6 lining. This isn't as bad as cloud connected pet feed fooders no longer working. Or cloud connected exercise machines not working or restricting features with new pay walls. Or Smart TVs spying on you and displaying ads during a live sporting event.

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hubie writes:

The Central Valley of California makes up only 1% of U.S. farmland, but produces 40% of the nation's produce despite only receiving 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters) of rainfall a year. That kind of productivity is due to massive pumping of groundwater for irrigation. After decades of pumping, parts of California are literally sinking and water is getting harder to get at (wells in the Tulare Basin have to be drilled a kilometer deep).

Groundwater in this region comes from two sources that are separated by a dense layer of clay. The water on top of the clay resides in loose soil and this water gets replenished with rainfall and snowmelt runoff. The water below the clay is the aquifer and this is not replenished. A major problem is that nobody knows where the pumped water is being pulled from, nor how much of it remains.

A research team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory came up with a new method to monitor changes between the two water sources.

They attacked the problem by combining data on water loss from U.S.-European Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On satellites with data on ground-level changes from a[sic] ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-1 satellite. Ground-level changes in this region are often related to water loss because when ground is drained of water, it eventually slumps together and sinks into the spaces where water used to be – a process called subsidence.

[...] The researchers created a simple numerical model of these two layers of soils in the Tulare Basin. By removing the long-term subsidence trend from the ground-level-change data, they produced a dataset of only the month-to-month variations. Their model revealed that on this time scale, virtually all of the ground-level change can be explained by changes in aquifers, not in the water table.

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upstart writes:

Microplastics permeate seafood across southern Australia:

Plastic rubbish is everywhere and now broken-down microplastics have been found in variable concentrations in blue mussels and water within the intertidal zone at some of southern Australia's most popular and more remote beaches.

Flinders University researchers warn that this means microplastics are now finding their way into human food supplies—including wild-caught and ocean-farmed fish and seafood sourced from the once pristine Southern Ocean and gulf waters of South Australia.

[...] Trillions of microplastic particles exist in the world's oceans, with the highest concentrations recently found in the shallow sea floor sediment off Naifaru in the Maldives (at 278 particles kg-1) and lowest reported in the surface waters of the Antarctic Southern Ocean (3.1 x 10-2 particles per m3).

For the first time, the new Flinders University study measured the presence of microplastics in South Australia's coastline, in areas important both for shipping, fishing and tourism, along with other industries and local communities.

upstart writes:

A new membrane material could make purification of gases significantly more efficient, potentially helping to reduce carbon emissions.:

Industrial processes for chemical separations, including natural gas purification and the production of oxygen and nitrogen for medical or industrial uses, are collectively responsible for about 15 percent of the world’s energy use. They also contribute a corresponding amount to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Now, researchers at MIT and Stanford University have developed a new kind of membrane for carrying out these separation processes with roughly 1/10 the energy use and emissions.

Using membranes for separation of chemicals is known to be much more efficient than processes such as distillation or absorption, but there has always been a tradeoff between permeability — how fast gases can penetrate through the material — and selectivity — the ability to let the desired molecules pass through while blocking all others. The new family of membrane materials, based on “hydrocarbon ladder” polymers, overcomes that tradeoff, providing both high permeability and extremely good selectivity, the researchers say.

[...] The new type of polymers, developed over the last several years by the Xia lab, are referred to as ladder polymers because they are formed from double strands connected by rung-like bonds, and these linkages provide a high degree of rigidity and stability to the polymer material. [...] The sizes of the resulting pores can be tuned through the choice of the specific hydrocarbon starting compounds. “This chemistry and choice of chemical building blocks allowed us to make very rigid ladder polymers with different configurations,” Xia says.

upstart writes:

Vintage Computer Festival East Is This Weekend:

This weekend the InfoAge Science and History Museum in Wall, New Jersey will once again play host to the Vintage Computer Festival East — the annual can't-miss event for anyone who has even a passing interest in the weird and wonderful machines that paved the way for the supercomputers we now all carry around in our pockets. Ticket holders will have access to a program absolutely jam packed with workshops, talks, and exhibits that center around the dual themes of "Women in Computing" and "Computers for the Masses", plus a consignment and vendor area that almost guarantees you'll be going home a little poorer than when you got there. But hey, at least you'll have some new toys to play with.

For those that can't make the pilgrimage to the tropical wonderland that is the Jersey Shore in April, all three days of the Festival will be live-streamed to the VCF YouTube page. There's even an official Discord server where you can chat with other remote attendees.

What is Discord?

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upstart writes:

'Jack Dorsey's First Tweet' NFT Went on Sale for $48M. It Ended With a Top Bid of Just $280:

A non-fungible token (NFT) of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's first-ever tweet could sell for just under $280. The current owner of the NFT listed it for $48 million last week.

Iranian-born crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi purchased the NFT for $2.9 million in March 2021. Last Thursday, he announced on Twitter that he wished to sell the NFT, and pledged 50% of its proceeds (which he thought would exceed $25 million) to charity. The auction closed Wednesday, with just seven total offers ranging from 0.09 ETH ($277 at current prices) to 0.0019 ETH (almost $6).

"The deadline I set was over, but if I get a good offer, I might accept it, I might never sell it," Estavi told CoinDesk via a WhatsApp message on Wednesday.

Estavi has two days to accept the bid, or it will expire.

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upstart writes:

Green eggs and scam: Cuckoo finch's long con may be up:

For two million years African cuckoo finches have been tricking other birds into raising their young by mimicking the colour of their eggs, but new research suggests the tables may be turning in this evolutionary scam.

The cute yellow appearance of the cuckoo finch belies its nefarious nature: it smuggles its forged eggs into foreign nests, where unwitting foster parents treat them like their very own.

The cuckoo finch eggs then hatch a little earlier than the others in the nest, allowing them to grow quicker and beg more loudly for food than the host chicks—which starve to death as their confused parents prioritise the imposter.

Aiming to save their young from this grisly fate, birds like the African tawny-flanked prinia, a common victim of the ruse, have evolved ever more colourful and elaborate patterns for their eggs to avoid falling for counterfeits.

But the wily cuckoo finch has responded in kind, evolving the ability to copy a variety of egg colours and signatures of several different bird species.

upstart writes:

California eyes four-day workweek for larger firms:

A four-day workweek could be mandated for some California employees should a proposed bill be passed by the state's legislature.

The bill, introduced by two Assembly members, Cristina Garcia (D-Dist.58) and Evan Low (D-Dist. 28), would amend existing legislation in the state and reduce the typical workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours.

Work in excess of 32 hours would be paid at a rate of at least one-and-a-half regular pay, and, most significantly, the Assembly Bill 2932 would require employers to pay employees the same amount for 32 hours as they would for 40. This would enable staff to work the equivalent of four eight-hour days, rather than five.

The change would apply to businesses with more than 500 workers, with certain exemptions, including having a collective bargaining agreement with a union.

Similar rules have been proposed at the federal level by US Rep. Mark Takano, (D-CA.), who last year proposed legislation that would also shorten the workweek from 40 to 32 hours.

"After two years of being in the pandemic, we've had over 47 million employees leave their job looking for better opportunities," Garcia said in an interview with CBS News. "They're sending a clear message they want a better work-life balance — they want better emotional and mental health, and this is part of that discussion."

The California Chamber of Commerce opposes the new measure on the grounds that it imposes "a tremendous cost on employers and includes provisions that are impossible to comply with," exposing businesses to litigation under the Private Attorneys General Act. The bill would also "discourage job growth in the state and likely reduce opportunities for workers," said Ashley Hoffman, policy advocate at the California Chamber of Commerce, in a letter to Low.

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takyon writes:

NASA to roll back its mega rocket after failing to complete countdown test

After three attempts to complete a critical fueling test of the Space Launch System rocket, NASA has decided to take a break.

On Saturday night the space agency announced plans to roll the large SLS rocket from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center to the Vehicle Assembly Building in the coming days. This marks a notable step back for the program, which has tried since April 1 to complete a "wet dress rehearsal" test, during which the rocket is fueled and brought to within 10 seconds of launch.

The decision comes after three tries during the last two weeks. Each fueling attempt was scuttled by one or more technical issues with the rocket, its mobile launch tower, or ground systems that supply propellants and gases. During the most recent attempt, on Thursday April 14, NASA succeeded in loading 49 percent of the core-stage liquid oxygen fuel tank and 5 percent of the liquid hydrogen tank.

While this represents progress, it did not include the most dynamic portion of the test, during which the rocket is fully fueled and pressurized; and it, the ground systems, and computer systems are put into a terminal countdown when every variable is closely monitored. NASA had hoped to complete this wet dress rehearsal test to work out the kinks in the complicated launch system so that, when the rocket is rolled out later this year for its actual launch, the countdown will proceed fairly smoothly.

Also at Spaceflight Now.

Previously: Artemis I Wet Dress Rehearsal Now Scheduled to Begin April 12

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upstart writes:

Single-molecule experiments reveal force capability of artificial molecular motors:

National University of Singapore physicists have shown that a single man-made molecular motor can exhibit a force similar to naturally occurring ones that power human muscles. Their results are published in Nanoscale.

Molecular motors are a class of machines with nanoscale dimensions that are essential agents of movement in living organisms. They harness various energy sources within the body to generate mechanical motion. A key characteristic is the force generated by a single motor during its self-propelled motion. This force generation capability allows the molecular motor to deliver mechanical work and is a measure of its energy conversion efficiency, which influences its use in potential applications.

[...] The research team successfully applied their method to an autonomous DNA molecular motor (previously developed by Prof. Wang's lab). This bipedal molecular motor is able to "walk" consecutively on its own with a stride length of about 16 nm between each step, providing a maximum force output of around 2 to 3 pN. This measured force output is at a level which is near to naturally occurring molecular motors powering human muscles, indicating a reasonably efficient conversion of chemical energy to mechanical motion.

Prof. Wang said, "This study paves the way for the development of applications associated with translational artificial molecular motors which require the generation of forces. Examples include molecular robots and biomimicking artificial muscles. Separately, the single-molecule method established in this work is applicable to force measurement of many other artificial molecular motors with soft tracks."

Journal Reference:
Xinpeng Hu, Xiaodan Zhao, Iong Ying Loh, et al. Single-molecule mechanical study of an autonomous artificial translational molecular motor beyond bridge-burning design, Nanoscale (DOI: 10.1039/D1NR02296B)

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upstart writes:

China's 'space dream': A Long March to the Moon and beyond:

The return to Earth of three astronauts on Saturday after six months at China's new space station marks a landmark step in the country's space ambitions, ending its longest crewed mission ever.

The world's second-largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of eventually sending humans to the Moon.

[...] Besides a space station, China is also planning to build a base on the Moon, and the country's National Space Administration said it aims to launch a crewed lunar mission by 2029.

upstart writes:

Apple store workers at Grand Central Terminal start collecting signatures to form a union:

Retail Apple employees at a New York City store in Grand Central Terminal have started collecting signatures to form a union, according to a report from The Washington Post.

The organizers, who go by Fruit Stand Workers United, announced in an update on its website that they voted to affiliate themselves with the Workers United labor union on February 21st, 2022. Workers United is the same group backing recent unionization efforts at Starbucks stores across the country.

As noted by The Post, organizers at the Grand Central location are currently handing out signature cards so employees can express interest in forming a union. If at least 30 percent of workers sign off on it, organizers can file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union election. So far, there hasn't been an Apple store that has successfully formed a union.

"Grand Central is an extraordinary store with unique working conditions that make a union necessary to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living in what have proven to be extraordinary times," the organizers' website reads, citing inflation rates and pandemic-related store closures.

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takyon writes:

Russian Government's New Semiconductor Plan: Local 28nm by 2030

As it's being ostracized and sanctioned by much of the world for its war against Ukraine, Russia is building up plans to revive its ailing local manufacturing of semiconductors, since it cannot get chips from the usual suppliers. The country's new chip plan involves a rather massive investment over the next eight years, the goals don't exactly sound ambitious. For example, while TSMC plans to hit 2nm by 2026, Russia wants 28nm local chip manufacturing by 2030.

Russia's government has developed a preliminary version of its new microelectronics development plan that requires investments of around ₽3.19 trillion ($38.43 billion) by 2030. The money will be spent on the development of local semiconductor production technologies, domestic chip development, datacenter infrastructure, developing of local talents, and marketing of homebrew chips and solutions, reports Cnews.

On the semiconductor manufacturing side of matters, the country plans to spend ₽420 billion ($5 billion) on new fabrication technologies and their ramp-up. One of the short-term goals is to ramp up local chip production using a 90nm fabrication technology by the end of the year. A longer-term goal is to establish manufacturing using a 28nm node by 2030, something TSMC did in 2011.

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upstart writes:

Changing Vegetation a Key Driver of Global Temperatures Over Last 10,000 Years:

Alexander Thompson, a postdoctoral research associate in earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, updated simulations from an important climate model to reflect the role of changing vegetation as a key driver of global temperatures over the last 10,000 years.

Thompson had long been troubled by a problem with models of Earth's atmospheric temperatures since the last ice age. Too many of these simulations showed temperatures warming consistently over time.

But climate proxy records tell a different story. Many of those sources indicate a marked peak in global temperatures that occurred between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago.

Thompson had a hunch that the models could be overlooking the role of changes in vegetation in favor of impacts from atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations or ice cover.

upstart writes:

NASA Mars Perseverance Rover: Digging Into Drill Data:

You probably think that the drill being employed on Perseverance Rover is bound to be special, but do you know just how clever it is? The problem that the drill has to balance is getting maximum life from the drill bit itself while achieving the job of collecting samples of rock and sediment.

One of the first things we look at is how difficult it was for the drill to make progress through the rock. The rover has a rotary percussive drill, which means the drill bit pushes against the rock while spinning and hammering. When we are coring or abrading, an algorithm controls the amount of force and percussion. We call this algorithm "prodapt," short for proprioceptive adaptive, because the drill adjusts its settings by sensing and assessing its own performance in real-time. The goal is to try and maintain a certain rate of progress into the rock that isn't too slow or too fast. The rate we aim for keeps our drill bits healthy and creates high-quality cores and abrasions for the scientists.

The prodapt algorithm can range from level 0 to level 20. Levels 0 through 2 have no percussion at all, which we call rotary only drilling. (We never do rotary only abrading, so these low levels are only used while coring.) Level 3 has light percussion, and the percussion and force increase all the way up to the most force and the most percussion at level 20.

If the drill senses that it is not making fast enough progress through a rock, it will increase the prodapt level. If it senses that it is making progress too quickly, it will decrease the level. One note: although hard rocks often require higher levels, the interaction between the drill and the rock is complex, so prodapt level doesn't always match up with rock strength. A rock might require high drill levels but break easily if a different type of tool was used.

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