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upstart writes:

Even young babies are aware of the basic physics of everyday objects:

Inspired by research into how infants learn, computer scientists have created a program that can pick up simple physical rules about the behaviour of objects — and express surprise when they seem to violate those rules. The results were published on 11 July in Nature Human Behaviour.

Developmental psychologists test how babies understand the motion of objects by tracking their gaze. When shown a video of, for example, a ball that suddenly disappears, the children express surprise, which researchers quantify by measuring how long the infants stare in a particular direction.

Luis Piloto, a computer scientist at Google-owned company DeepMind in London, and his collaborators wanted to develop a similar test for artificial intelligence (AI). The team trained a neural network — a software system that learns by spotting patterns in large amounts of data — with animated videos of simple objects such as cubes and balls.

[...] Developmental psychologists test how babies understand the motion of objects by tracking their gaze. When shown a video of, for example, a ball that suddenly disappears, the children express surprise, which researchers quantify by measuring how long the infants stare in a particular direction.

Luis Piloto, a computer scientist at Google-owned company DeepMind in London, and his collaborators wanted to develop a similar test for artificial intelligence (AI). The team trained a neural network — a software system that learns by spotting patterns in large amounts of data — with animated videos of simple objects such as cubes and balls.

Journal Reference:
Piloto, Luis S., Weinstein, Ari, Battaglia, Peter, et al. Intuitive physics learning in a deep-learning model inspired by developmental psychology [open], Nature Human Behaviour (DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01394-8)

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A restaurant in southwestern China was discovered to be harboring ancient history, as dinosaur footprints—dating back 100 million years—were found in the establishment's outdoor courtyard.

Footprints of two sauropods, a type of dinosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous period, were found along several stones in the outdoor courtyard at the restaurant in Leshan, Sichuan province according to paleontologists. The restaurant previously had been a farm and the footprints had been buried by layers of dirt to shield them from weather damage.

[...] Sauropods' species include the popularized brontosaurus and were known for their long necks and tails. They're considered to be the largest animals ever to walk the Earth—extending the length of three school buses—according to research by the University of California, Berkeley. Xing noted that the footprints of the dinosaurs that roamed the Earth found in the restaurant measured around 26 feet in body length.

The find in Sichuan is also rare because it dates back to the Cretaceous period, believed to be a glory era for the dinosaurs by many paleontologists.

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upstart writes:

Nikon is reportedly halting DSLR camera development:

Nikon will stop developing new single lens reflex (SLR) cameras and focus exclusively on mirrorless models, according to a report from Nikkei. The news marks the end of an era and essentially confirms what most observers already expected, as the Japanese company hasn't released a new digital SLR (DSLR) camera since the D6 came out in June of 2020. While it reportedly won't design any more new models, Nikon will continue to produce and distribute existing DSLRs like the D6 and D3500 (above).

Nikon released its first single-lens reflex film camera, the Nikon F, back in 1959. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its time, thanks to features like a large bayonet mount, depth-of-field preview button, titanium focal-plane shutter, modular design and more. The company's first true professional digital SLR was the 2.7-megapixel D1, launched in 1999.

SLR cameras use a mirror and prism to give the user a direct optical view through the camera lens, with the mirror moving out of the way when the photo is taken. Mirrorless cameras, by contrast, take light directly from the lens to the sensor and give the user a view via an electronic viewfinder or rear display. Mirrorless cameras, as we discussed in our explainer and video below, allow for more compact bodies, advanced AI subject recognition, improved video features and more.

[...] Update 7/12/2022 9:57 AM ET: Update gave the following statement on its website: "There was a media article regarding Nikon's withdrawal of SLR development. This media article is only speculation and Nikon has made no announcement in this regards. Nikon is continuing the production, sales and service of digital SLR. Nikon appreciate your continuous support."

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takyon writes:

Google Engineers Lift The Lid On Carbon - A Hopeful Successor To C++

In addition to Dart, Golang, and being involved with other programming language initiatives over the years, [Google's] latest effort that was made public on Tuesday is Carbon. The Carbon programming language hopes to be the gradual successor to C++ and makes for an easy transition path moving forward.

The hope is that Carbon is a more natural migration path to C++ than the popular Rust programming language. Carbon aims for performance that matches C++, seamless bidirectional interoperability with C++, a easier learning curve for C++ developers, comparable expressivity, and scalable migration.

Carbon Language on GitHub.

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hubie writes:

Professional Athletes Perform Better against Former Clubs, According to Research:

A team of Russian researchers affiliated with the HSE University, RANEPA, and NES found professional athletes to perform better against their former clubs. At least in some circumstances, emotions seem to have a greater effect on their performance than knowledge of the opponent's tactics. The study's findings are published in the Journal of Behavioural and Experimental Economics and may be useful for coaches, sports managers, and bookmakers.

By hiring a competitor's former employee, companies bring in their social capital, knowledge and skills, potentially weakening the competition. Since measuring employee performance may be difficult in a typical business environment, this study examined the sphere of professional sports, where such data is abundant, to track changes in athletes' performance against their former teams.

The study used econometric models on game data of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Hockey League (NHL), and six major European football leagues, available from the NBA.com, Hockey-Reference and Understat. The authors examined player performance data over time, taking into account history of transactions and players' matches against their former clubs. The variables included the dates and venues of the games, players' home and opposing teams, playing time, basic individual game statistics, and several more advanced performance indicators.

[...] The researchers assumed that the knowledge of opponents' tactics and the additional motivation both contributed to athletes' better performance against former clubs. While these two factors are likely to complement each other, the researchers ultimately found emotions to prevail over a better understanding of the other team's game.

upstart writes:

Imagine that you built something that even the most optimistic person thought would last 4-5 years, and yet almost 45 years later it is still carrying out the task of discovering the secrets of our solar system and beyond. And they, for there are two of them, are not quite finished yet. This is a remarkable story. [JR]

Record-Breaking Voyager Spacecraft Begin to Power Down:

If the stars hadn't aligned, two of the most remarkable spacecraft ever launched never would have gotten off the ground. In this case, the stars were actually planets—the four largest in the solar system. Some 60 years ago they were slowly wheeling into an array that had last occurred during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson in the early years of the 19th century. For a while the rare planetary set piece unfolded largely unnoticed. The first person to call attention to it was an aeronautics doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology named Gary Flandro.

It was 1965, and the era of space exploration was barely underway—the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, only eight years earlier. Flandro, who was working part-time at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., had been tasked with finding the most efficient way to send a space probe to Jupiter or perhaps even out to Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. Using a favorite precision tool of 20th-century engineers—a pencil—he charted the orbital paths of those giant planets and discovered something intriguing: in the late 1970s and early 1980s, all four would be strung like pearls on a celestial necklace in a long arc with Earth.

This coincidence meant that a space vehicle could get a speed boost from the gravitational pull of each giant planet it passed, as if being tugged along by an invisible cord that snapped at the last second, flinging the probe on its way. Flandro calculated that the repeated gravity assists, as they are called, would cut the flight time between Earth and Neptune from 30 years to 12. There was just one catch: the alignment happened only once every 176 years. To reach the planets while the lineup lasted, a spacecraft would have to be launched by the mid-1970s.

As it turned out, NASA would build two space vehicles to take advantage of that once-in-more-than-a-lifetime opportunity. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, identical in every detail, were launched within 15 days of each other in the summer of 1977. After nearly 45 years in space, they are still functioning, sending data back to Earth every day from beyond the solar system's most distant known planets. They have traveled farther and lasted longer than any other spacecraft in history. And they have crossed into interstellar space, according to our best understanding of the boundary between the sun's sphere of influence and the rest of the galaxy. They are the first human-made objects to do so, a distinction they will hold for at least another few decades. Not a bad record, all in all, considering that the Voyager missions were originally planned to last just four years.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The sword was found in three pieces by two metal detector enthusiasts, independent of each other, in the Jåttå/Gausel area in Stavanger, already renowned for the grave of the so-called Gausel queen. Found in 1883, it is considered to be one of the richest women's graves from the Viking Age.

Like the women buried in the Oseberg ship, the Gausel queen had rich artifacts from the British Isles with her in her grave.

The sword would have been one of the most spectacularly ornamented and heaviest types of swords from the Viking Age. The blade is missing, but the hilt has unique details in gold and silver, and exquisite details not previously known.

[...] "The décor suggests that the sword was made in France or England, and that it can be dated to the early 800s, like the sword found on the island Eigg," Glørstad says.

It has previously been speculated whether the Jåttå/Gausel-area was the starting point for extensive alliances and looting.

"The location of the find, close to the Gausel queen, means that we have to take a new look at the entire Jåttå/Gausel area," says Håkon Reiersen, researcher at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger.

"The outstanding collection of imported spectacular finds connected to both men and women in this area shows that this has been an important hub for the contact across the North Sea," he says.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A new ransomware family dubbed Luna can be used to encrypt devices running several operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and ESXi systems.

Discovered by Kaspersky security researchers via a dark web ransomware forum ad spotted by the company's Darknet Threat Intelligence active monitoring system, Luna ransomware appears to be specifically tailored to be used only by Russian-speaking threat actors.

"The advertisement states that Luna only works with Russian-speaking affiliates. Also, the ransom note hardcoded inside the binary contains spelling mistakes. For example, it says 'a little team' instead of 'a small team'," Kaspersky said.

[...] The group behind this new ransomware developed this new strain in Rust and took advantage of its platform-agnostic nature to port it to multiple platforms with very few changes to the source code.

Using a cross-platform language also enables Luna ransomware to evade automated static code analysis attempts.

"Both the Linux and ESXi samples are compiled using the same source code with some minor changes from the Windows version. The rest of the code has no significant changes from the Windows version," the researchers added.

Luna further confirms the latest trend adopted by cybercrime gangs developing cross-platform ransomware that use languages like Rust and Golang to create malware capable of targeting multiple operating systems with little to no changes.

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upstart writes:

The all-private mission aims to launch a Mars-bound spacecraft and lander atop a 3D-printed rocket:

Private space companies Impulse Space and Relativity Space have announced an ambitious joint venture poised to be the first commercial mission to Mars, which will feature the launch of a payload as soon as 2024.

A revived interest in space has private companies shifting their attention to Mars, and a new collaboration announced Tuesday between Impulse Space and Relativity Space could be the first commercial landing on the red planet. Impulse Space is a company founded by Tom Mueller, a SpaceX alum, that specializes in getting payloads into and around space. Relativity Space, meanwhile, focuses on the production of spacecrafts using 3D metal printing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous robotics. Impulse will contribute their Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander to Relativity's Terran R, which is a completely 3D printed launch vehicle. The launch will occur from Florida's Cape Canaveral as early as 2024, and the companies have an exclusive agreement to launch there until 2029.

The companies say that the Mars lander will support the research and development of future planetary settlements, but additional details on how the lander will do that specifically are thin. [...] In other words, Relativity as a company hasn't even launched a rocket yet, and Impulse Space has not yet tested one of their payloads in orbit, according to Eric Berger from Ars Technica.

The first step on any successful journey is to create a slick concept video.

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Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/07/netflix-loses-970000-subscribers-says-ads-and-new-fees-are-key-to-recovery/

Netflix yesterday reported a loss of 970,000 paid streaming subscribers in its Q2 earnings after having lost 200,000 customers in the first quarter of 2022. The company's worldwide paid memberships decreased from 221.64 million to 220.67 million in Q2, and revenue growth has slowed dramatically.

It's the first time in Netflix's history that the company reported consecutive quarters of subscriber losses, The Wall Street Journal wrote. But the result was better than forecasted, as Netflix had told investors to expect a second-quarter loss of 2 million subscribers.

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upstart writes:

MIT Engineers Find a Way To Save Energy and Make Water Boil More Efficiently:

At the heart of a wide range of industrial processes, including most electricity generating plants, many chemical production systems, and even cooling systems for electronics, is an energy-intensive step with the boiling of water or other fluids.

They could significantly reduce their energy use by improving the efficiency of systems that heat and evaporate water. [R]esearchers have now found a way to do just that, with a specially designed surface treatment for the materials used in these systems.

Three different kinds of surface modifications, at different size scales, together account for the increased efficiency. The new findings are described in a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials by recent MIT graduate Youngsup Song PhD '21, Ford Professor of Engineering Evelyn Wang, and four others at MIT. The scientists caution that this initial finding is still at a laboratory scale, and more effort is required to develop a practical, industrial-scale process.

High-speed video of the researchers' test setup shows water boiling on a specially treated surface, which causes bubbles to form at specific separate points rather than spreading out in a film across the surface, thus leading to more efficient boiling. The video has been slowed down by 100 times to show more detail.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A routine cataloging procedure of a painting by Vincent van Gogh at the National Galleries in Scotland yielded an unexpected discovery: a hidden self-portrait on the back of the canvas. The portrait was revealed while conservationists were conducting an X-ray analysis of Head of a Peasant Woman as part of a cataloging exercise in preparation for an upcoming exhibition. Once the exhibit opens, visitors can view the X-ray image through a specially crafted lightbox at the center of the display.

[...] Last year, we reported that researchers used infrared reflectography to peer through the upper layers of paint of the famous 1788 portrait, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, of the 18h century French chemist Antoine Lavoisier and his wife, Marie-Anne, by Jaques-Louis David. The resulting reflectogram showed evidence of a carbon-based black underdrawing and dark, unclear shapes hinting at possible significant compositional changes. The team also used macro X-ray fluorescence imaging to map out the distribution of elements in the paint pigments—including the paint used below the surface—to create detailed elemental maps for further study.

Nor is this the first time a Van Gogh painting has been subjected to X-ray analysis. Back in 2008, European scientists used synchrotron radiation to reconstruct the hidden portrait of a peasant woman painted by Van Gogh. The artist, known for reusing his canvases, had painted over it when he created 1887's Patch of Grass. The synchrotron radiation excites the atoms on the canvas, which then emit X-rays of their own that a fluorescence detector can pick up. Each element in the painting has its own X-ray signature, so scientists can identify the distribution of each in the many layers of paint.

[...] The Edinburgh painting is not van Gogh’s only double-sided painting with reused canvas. In 1929, the Dutch conservator Jan Cornelius Traas removed cardboard backing from three Nuenen paintings, revealing hidden portraits on the reverse. And we can report that it has long been suspected that there could be something on the hidden side of Head of a Peasant Woman.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Russia’s Gazprom has told customers in Europe that it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of “extraordinary” circumstances, according to a letter seen by the Reuters news agency, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian state gas monopoly said in a letter dated July 14 that it was retroactively declaring force majeure on supplies from June 14. The news comes as Nord Stream 1 (NS1), the key pipeline delivering Russian gas to Germany and beyond, is undergoing 10 days of annual maintenance scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

The letter added to fears in Europe that Moscow may not restart the pipeline at the end of the maintenance period in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine, heightening an energy crisis that risks tipping the region into recession.

Known as an “act of God” clause, force majeure is standard in business contracts and defines extreme circumstances that release a party from their legal obligations. The declaration does not necessarily mean that Gazprom will stop deliveries, rather that it should not be held responsible if it fails to meet contract terms.

[...] Russian gas supplies have been declining via major routes for some months, including via Ukraine and Belarus as well as through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

[...] The grace period for payments on two of Gazprom’s international bonds expires on July 19, and if foreign creditors are not paid by then the company will be technically in default.

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fliptop writes:

The emails, memos and strategy documents were provided to POLITICO by the House Judiciary Committee.

Internal documents from Google and Amazon provided to POLITICO show new examples of how the companies favor their own products over competitors' — adding ammunition to the push for Congress to toughen antitrust laws.

The documents — which include emails, memos and strategy papers — were shared by the House Judiciary committee, which obtained them as part of its long-running antitrust investigation of Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta that wrapped in October 2020 with a 450-page staff report. The documents were cited in the report, but had not previously been made available.

[...] Heavily redacted internal Google documents appear to show, for example, how Google pressured mobile phone makers including Samsung to prioritize its own apps on their devices.

[...] The newly released material, which also include emails and other documents from Amazon and Meta-owned Facebook, arrives as pressure is building on Congress, and in particular Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass a bill that would block the internet giants from favoring their own products and services over those of competitors who rely on their platforms.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

AI is great for rich and powerful people and for tech giants trying to boost profits. Otherwise, artificial intelligence and the automation it enables can be harmful, nonprofit Mozilla concluded in a report published Monday.

"In real life, over and over, the harms of AI disproportionately affect people who are not advantaged by global systems of power," Mozilla researchers conclude in the 2022 Internet Health Report. "Amid the global rush to automate, we see grave dangers of discrimination and surveillance. We see an absence of transparency and accountability, and an overreliance on automation for decisions of huge consequence."

[...] But Mozilla doesn't like the fact that Big Tech funds a lot of academic research and that relatively few papers -- especially among those most widely cited -- focus on AI's social problems or risks.

Among Mozilla's suggestions are new laws. "Regulation can help set guardrails for innovation that diminish harm and enforce data privacy, user rights, and more," Mozilla said. Also on Monday, Mozilla released a five-part podcast on its concerns about AI.

Reference: 2022 Internet Health Report

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