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upstart writes:

Showering before bed is a good way to fall asleep fast:

Studies suggest that taking a shower or bath before bed can help you fall asleep more quickly. And it's not just because it relaxes you, though that plays a part. It has to do with the body's circadian rhythm and thermoregulation process.

[...] Your body relies on thermoregulation to regulate your circadian rhythm, also known as your sleep-wake cycle. Your internal body temperature signals to the brain that it's time to fall asleep. Now, we're not talking about drastic changes in body temperature -- it's only one to two degrees.

Showering helps the process along. While in the warm water, your body temperature rises and your blood flow is stimulated, but the increased blood circulation helps heat escape your body quicker. This allows your temperature to drop after you get out.

Once your body temperature is lowered, it signals to your brain that it's time to hit the sheets. Studies say to keep your water temperature between 104 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit for the best quality sleep. We know that most people can't perfectly regulate their shower temperature. A good rule of thumb is warm water -- not too hot or too cold.

The other part that you should consider is timing. Experts say that 90 minutes before bed is the ideal time to get the most benefits, according to a systematic data analysis of existing research. Your shower should last at least 10 minutes to get the most benefits.

Ten to fifteen minute baths have the same effect.

Journal Reference:
Yoshiaki Tai, Keigo Saeki, Yuki Yamagami, et al. Association between timing of hot water bathing before bedtime and night-/sleep-time blood pressure and dipping in the elderly: a longitudinal analysis for repeated measurements in home settings, Chronobiology International, 2022. (DOI: 10.1080/07420528.2019.1675685)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NASA Live • YouTube

Monday, July 11
5:30 p.m. – White House briefing to preview imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope

Tuesday, July 12
9:45 a.m. (EDT) – Opening remarks: James Webb Space Telescope's first full-color images and data
10:30 a.m. – First full-color images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope
12:30 p.m. – Media briefing: James Webb Space Telescope's first full-color images and data
3 p.m. – Media interviews: James Webb Space Telescope's first full-color images and data

NASA's Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb's First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.

Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb's view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground.

The image.

More images will be released after 10:30 AM EDT tomorrow, from these targets:

upstart writes:

Meraxes gigas' short but burly forelimbs may have helped with mating:

Tyrannosaurus rex's tiny arms have launched a thousand sarcastic memes: I love you this much; can you pass the salt?; row, row, row your ... oh.

But back off, snarky jokesters. A newfound species of big-headed carnivorous dinosaur with tiny forelimbs suggests those arms weren't just an evolutionary punchline. Arm reduction — alongside giant heads — evolved independently in different dinosaur lineages, researchers report July 7 in Current Biology.

Meraxes gigas, named for a dragon in George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series, lived between 100 million and 90 million years ago in what's now Argentina, says Juan Canale, a paleontologist with the country's CONICET research network who is based in Buenos Aires. Despite the resemblance to T. rex, M. gigas wasn't a tyrannosaur; it was a carcharodontosaur — a member of a distantly related, lesser-known group of predatory theropod dinosaurs. M. gigas went extinct nearly 20 million years before T. rex walked on Earth.

[...] But, Canale says, M. gigas' arms were surprisingly muscular, suggesting they were more than just an inconvenient limb. One possibility is that the arms helped lift the animal from a reclining to a standing position. Another is that they aided in mating — perhaps showing a mate some love.

Journal Reference:
Juan I. Canale, Sebastián Apesteguía, Pablo A. Gallina, et al., New giant carnivorous dinosaur reveals convergent evolutionary trends in theropod arm reduction [open], Curr Bio, 2022. (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.057)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The invasion of Ukraine has prompted militaries to update their arsenals—and Silicon Valley stands to capitalize:

Exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alexander Karp, the CEO of data analytics company Palantir, made his pitch to European leaders. With war on their doorstep, Europeans ought to modernize their arsenals with Silicon Valley's help, he argued in an open letter.

[...] Militaries are responding to the call. NATO announced on June 30 that it is creating a $1 billion innovation fund that will invest in early-stage startups and venture capital funds developing "priority" technologies such as artificial intelligence, big-data processing, and automation.

[...] The relationship between tech and the military wasn't always so amicable. In 2018, following employee protests and outrage, Google pulled out of the Pentagon's Project Maven, an attempt to build image recognition systems to improve drone strikes.The episode caused heated debate about human rights and the morality of developing AI for autonomous weapons.

[...] But four years later, Silicon Valley is closer to the world's militaries than ever. And it's not just big companies, either—startups are finally getting a look in, says Yll Bajraktari, who was previously executive director of the US National Security Commission on AI (NSCAI) and now works for the Special Competitive Studies Project, a group that lobbies for more adoption of AI across the US.

In a piece for Prospect magazine co-written with Lucy Suchman, a sociology professor at Lancaster University, she argued that AI boosters are stoking Cold War rhetoric and trying to create a narrative that positions Big Tech as "critical national infrastructure," too big and important to break up or regulate. They warn that AI adoption by the military is being presented as an inevitability rather than what it really is: an active choice that involves ethical complexities and trade-offs.

upstart writes:

Dark matter: search for the invisible begins in an old gold mine:

Scientists know that it makes up most of the universe's mass, but they don't know what it is ... or exactly how to find it

In a former gold mine a mile underground, inside a titanium tank filled with a rare liquified gas, scientists have begun the search for what so far has been unfindable: dark matter.

Scientists are pretty sure the invisible stuff makes up most of the universe's mass and say we wouldn't be here without it – but they don't know what it is. The race to solve this enormous mystery has brought one team to the depths under Lead, South Dakota.

The question for scientists is basic, said Kevin Lesko, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "What is this great place I live in? Right now, 95% of it is a mystery."

The idea is that a mile of dirt and rock, a giant tank, a second tank and the purest titanium in the world will block nearly all the cosmic rays and particles that zip around and through all of us every day. But dark matter particles, scientists think, can avoid all those obstacles. They hope one will fly into the vat of liquid xenon in the inner tank and smash into a xenon nucleus like two balls in a game of pool, revealing its existence in a flash of light seen by a device called "the time projection chamber".

Scientists announced on Thursday that the five-year, $60m search finally got under way two months ago after a delay caused by the pandemic. So far the device has found ... nothing. At least no dark matter.

upstart writes:

Work from home is now a legal right in Netherlands - World News:

The Netherlands became one of the first countries to make work from home a legal right after the Dutch parliament approved legislation. Work from home, also known as remote work, is an employment arrangement which facilitates the employees to work from anywhere. They do not need to commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, warehouse, retail store, etc.

Work from home became a common practice during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as globally, companies were forced to shut their offices due to lockdowns.

The pandemic has fueled a shift in attitudes about work, with many workers seeking to maintain some of the flexibility they've experienced over the last two years.

Bloomberg reported that work-from-home legislation was approved by the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands on Tuesday (July 5).

Importantly, the legislation now needs a green light from the Dutch senate before its final adoption. As per the law, employers will have to consider employee requests to work from home as long as their professions allow it.

[...] Now, employers are calling their employees back to the offices as the world economy is gradually opening up. For example, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk last month issued an ultimatum for staff at the company to return to the office, or leave.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

A shapeshifting robotic microswarm may one day act as a toothbrush, rinse, and dental floss in one:

The technology, developed by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania, is poised to offer a new and automated way to perform the mundane but critical daily tasks of brushing and flossing. It's a system that could be particularly valuable for those who lack the manual dexterity to clean their teeth effectively themselves.

The building blocks of these microrobots are iron oxide nanoparticles that have both catalytic and magnetic activity. Using a magnetic field, researchers could direct their motion and configuration to form either bristlelike structures that sweep away dental plaque from the broad surfaces of teeth, or elongated strings that can slip between teeth like a length of floss. In both instances, a catalytic reaction drives the nanoparticles to produce antimicrobials that kill harmful oral bacteria on site.

[...] "Nanoparticles can be shaped and controlled with magnetic fields in surprising ways," says Edward Steager, a senior research investigator in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-corresponding author. "We form bristles that can extend, sweep, and even transfer back and forth across a space, much like flossing. The way it works is similar to how a robotic arm might reach out and clean a surface. The system can be programmed to do the nanoparticle assembly and motion control automatically."

[...] "It doesn't matter if you have straight teeth or misaligned teeth, it will adapt to different surfaces," says Koo. "The system can adjust to all the nooks and crannies in the oral cavity."

[...] Indeed, the system is fully programmable; the team's roboticists and engineers used variations in the magnetic field to precisely tune the motions of the microrobots as well as control bristle stiffness and length. The researchers found that the tips of the bristles could be made firm enough to remove biofilms but soft enough to avoid damage to the gums.

Would you consider an iron oxide nanoparticle moving in an external magnetic field a "microrobot"?

Journal Reference:
Min Jun Oh, Alaa Babeer, Yuan Liu, et al., Surface Topography-Adaptive Robotic Superstructures for Biofilm Removal and Pathogen Detection on Human Teeth [open], ACS Nano, 2022. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c01950

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Why Walking on Legos Hurts More Than Walking on Fire or Ice:

In 2006, Scott Bell earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-ever barefoot walk over hot coals—250 feet of glowing hot embers, at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Eight months later, he smashed that record with another fire-walk, this time 326 feet.

Now, he runs an events company in the United Kingdom. guiding other people over hot coals and the occasional bed of broken glass as part of corporate team-building exercises and charity events. But walking just six-and-a-half feet over 2,000 Lego pieces? Bell usually gets someone else on his team to do it.

"Out of the three that I do on a regular basis, it's before I step on the Lego that I think 'Oh, this is going to be a bit uncomfortable,'" he says, laughing.

Lego walking is increasingly popular at charity events, Lego-themed events, team-building workshops, on YouTube, and even in cabaret sideshow acts. It is exactly what it sounds like: stepping barefoot on a pile or path of Legos, usually of all different sizes. But unlike fire-walking or even glass-walking, walking over a bunch of Legos actually does hurt. Why? And an even better question—what do we get out of it?

[...] But the first intentional Lego walks started to pop up on YouTube about four years ago. In June 2014, a Portland, Maine, video store ran a promotion: Brave the 12-foot-long "Lego Firewalk" and get The Lego Movie at half-price. The promotion lasted only an hour and a few dozen people, including kids, did it, but Star Trek's George Takei posted a picture of the Firewalk and a link to the store, Bull Moose, on his Facebook page. Within a few days, the picture had earned more than 186,000 likes and was shared more than 76,600 times (four years later, that figure had ballooned to 257,000 likes and 150,000 shares).

upstart writes:

Bees' 'waggle dance' may revolutionize how robots talk to each other in disaster zones:

Where are those flowers and how far away are they? This is the crux of the "waggle dance" performed by honeybees to alert others to the location of nectar-rich flowers. A new study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI has taken inspiration from this technique to devise a way for robots to communicate.

The first robot traces a shape on the floor, and the shape's orientation and the time it takes to trace it tell the second robot the required direction and distance of travel. The technique could prove invaluable in situations where robot labor is required but network communications are unreliable, such as in a disaster zone or in space.

[...] This ingenious method of communication inspired the researchers behind this latest study to apply it to the world of robotics. Robot cooperation allows multiple robots to coordinate and complete complex tasks. Typically, robots communicate using digital networks, but what happens when these are unreliable, such as during an emergency or in remote locations? Moreover, how can humans communicate with robots in such a scenario?

To address this, the researchers designed a visual communication system for robots with on-board cameras, using algorithms that allow the robots to interpret what they see. They tested the system using a simple task, where a package in a warehouse needs to be moved. The system allows a human to communicate with a "messenger robot," which supervises and instructs a "handling robot" that performs the task.

[...] "This technique could be useful in places where communication network coverage is insufficient and intermittent, such as robot search-and-rescue operations in disaster zones or in robots that undertake space walks," said Prof Abhra Roy Chowdhury of the Indian Institute of Science, senior author on the study.

Video included with robot narrator.

Journal Reference:
Joshi, Kaustubh, Roy Chowdhury, Abhra. Bio-Inspired Vision and Gesture-Based Robot-Robot Interaction for Human-Cooperative Package Delivery, Frontiers in Robotics and AI (DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2022.915884)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

AMD Ryzen PRO 6860Z powered Lenovo Z13 notebook with Microsoft Pluton co-processor can't boot Linux operating systems

Phoronix reports that AMD powered ThinkPad Z13 laptop featuring Ryzen 6000 PRO Zen3+ series has problem booting Linux operating systems. This has been discovered by Matthew Garrett who shared the news on his website.

This laptop is equipped with Lenovo exclusive AMD Ryzen PRO 6860Z processor with built-in Microsoft Pluton security co-processors. This is a dedicated chip that is supposed to increase security for Windows systems by verifying UEFI certificate keys. The problem is that it only trusts Microsoft's key, not any 3rd party UEFI keys that are used by various Linux distributions.

This essentially means that Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 simply cannot run any Linux system. This laptop ships with Windows 11 by default and while there is no mention of Linux support anywhere, one could also argue that nowhere does it say it cannot boot Linux (and yes we have checked various official specs and press releases).

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

They say it's because of audio quality, but it isn't that simple:

It's easy to take for granted amenities in our cars like air conditioning and the radio, which have been standard equipment for longer than many of us have been alive. But the rise of electric vehicles is giving the auto industry the chance to rethink norms and jettison ideas that belong in the past. One of those ideas may be AM radios, which some carmakers say they won't include on future EVs, and which are already unavailable on a few. Car companies blame interference from EVs' drivetrains, but the answer isn't that simple—not by a long shot.

[....] EVs from Audi, BMW, Porsche, Tesla, and Volvo are sold without AM radios, and it's been that way for years.

[....] So are highly complex EVs incompatible with one of the oldest, simplest electronics? BMW and Volvo told me it was due to audio quality problems rooted in electromagnetic interference, of which EVs' drivetrains produce a significant amount. Cars' engines and other complex electronics have always made EM interference, but low-wattage static is relatively easy to shield against. It's not as simple with EVs that may pull hundreds of watts from their batteries

[....] But it's hard to take them at their word when EVs are built with AM radios and in no small numbers. Detroit's Three—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—have produced or currently make EVs that include AM radio

Can radio be an addiction? I suppose it depends on the frequency.

Will the FCC cry foul if there is interference? Only if the batter hinders the catcher after a third strike.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

International Space Station has new way to dispose of trash:

Even astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have to take out the trash. Traditionally, garbage from the space station has been loaded into the cargo spacecraft that bring supplies to the station and stay docked there. Then the cargo ship is released to burn up in the atmosphere, with the trash inside. But now, the station has a new method for getting rid of trash — by shooting it out of an airlock.

The new trash disposal system makes use of an airlock called Bishop, part of a commercial module added to the station in 2020. The company Nanoracks which built the module, along with Thales Alenia Space, and Boeing, oversaw the release of trash from the airlock for the first time last weekend, on Saturday, July 2.

When the trash leaves the airlock it will burn up in the atmosphere, so it won't add to the problem of space debris. The trash is put into a special waste container that can hold up to 600 pounds of garbage, and which is mounted in the airlock. The test performed last week was recorded in video footage and shared by Nanoracks, and you can see the trash floating away from various views below:

"Waste collection in space has been a long standing, yet not as publicly discussed, challenge aboard the ISS," said Cooper Read, Bishop Airlock program manager at Nanoracks, in a statement. "Four astronauts can generate up to 2,500 kg of trash per year, or about two trash cans per week. As we move into a time with more people living and working in space, this is a critical function just like it is for everyone at home."

Video 1
Video 2

Didn't Heinlein predict this?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

It is investing $20.4 billion between now and 2030 for a capacity of 240 GWh/year:

Volkswagen Group announced on Thursday that it is consolidating its battery development and production in a new project called Mission SalzGiga. The name refers to Salzgitter in Germany, where VW has built more than 63 million internal combustion engines—it has now broken ground on a massive new battery factory at the site, the first of six planned for Europe. Each plant should be able to accommodate an annual production capacity of 40 GWh, sufficient to power 500,000 electric vehicles.

To that end, the company has set up a new Salzgitter-based business unit called PowerCo that will cover all of the automaker's global battery activities. VW says it will require more than $20.4 billion (20 billion euros) in investment between now and 2030 but with an equal potential in revenue, plus the addition of 20,000 new jobs.

"In building our first in-house cell factory, we are consistently implementing our technology roadmap," said Thomas Schmall, VW board member in charge of technology. "PowerCo will become a global battery player. The company's major strength will be vertical integration from raw materials and the cell right through to recycling. In future, we will handle all the relevant activities in-house and will gain a strategic competitive advantage in the race to take the lead in e-mobility."

[...] VW wants to scale up rapidly, so it has standardized the design of the battery factories, which will use green electricity to operate, incorporating the ability to move to closed-loop recycling once the supply of old EV batteries makes that possible. The Salzgitter site will also have facilities for battery research and development in addition to large-scale production and recycling.

It seems calling a factory that makes batteries a "battery factory" doesn't cut it these days.

Original Submission

upstart writes with a story about how to avoid back pain if you spend a lot of time sitting for your job:

Simple stretches and strengthening exercises can leave you less stiff:

I am sure you've been told you should stand up and move away from your work stations or use a standing desk where possible. One of the major benefits of doing this is to activate and stretch the hip flexor area.

[...] Hip flexors are the powerful muscles located at the front of your hip. [...] Hip flexors are activated when you draw your knee towards your chest. They are important for walking and running.

Weak hip flexors may make climbing stairs, running or even walking on a flat surface difficult or painful. It can also can cause other muscles in the area to work hard to compensate. This changes your gait (the way you walk).

Tight hip flexors can make walking and standing difficult because they pull your spine down. This makes you lean forward, which puts strain on your lower back muscles (which work in opposition to keep you upright).

An imbalance between the hip flexors and the opposing muscles pulling your torso in the opposite direction can lead to lower back pain.

[...] As with all muscles, hip flexors lose strength and mass through lack of exercise.

Another contributing factor is sitting for long periods, which keeps the psoas muscles relaxed in a shortened position for a long time.

This is particularly important for those of us who spend long periods seated at a work desk, and is why many health-care professionals advise taking a break from sitting or opting for a standing desk.

[...] Failure to look after your hip flexors can lead to an altered gait, posture problems, injury and back pain.

Original Submission

Three submitted stories on different aspects of the breakdown of the Musk/Twitter tale.

upstart writes first about the forming storm clouds:

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in peril:

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in serious jeopardy, three people familiar with the matter say, as Musk's camp concluded that Twitter's figures on spam accounts are not verifiable.

[...] The spam accounts are not the only reason Musk might try to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter's share price has fallen dramatically since his takeover bid in April, leading to the impression that he is overpaying. And Musk also runs two other major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, along with some start-ups.

[...] Musk likely grasps the difficulty of backing out at this stage, prompting him to find legal reasons to justify an exit, according to Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond.

After raising the bot issue, for example, Musk said Twitter's figures could constitute a "material adverse misstatement," a likely reference to a contractual clause that gives him the ability to back out of the deal in the event of a significant event that fundamentally changes the business.

"I think it's an excuse," Tobias said. "It doesn't seem to me that a court would find that persuasive." Tobias cited Musk's own waiving of due diligence in his hasty acceptance of the deal. "It does seem to me that it undercuts a lot of arguments he could try to make otherwise," he said.

upstart then writes about the storm:

Musk cancels Twitter deal:

Elon Musk has notified Twitter the $44 billion buyout is off, citing "false and misleading representations"