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hubie writes:

New Curtin research has provided the strongest evidence yet that Earth's continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts:

Dr Tim Johnson, from Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the idea that the continents originally formed at sites of giant meteorite impacts had been around for decades, but until now there was little solid evidence to support the theory.

"By examining tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in rocks from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which represents Earth's best-preserved remnant of ancient crust, we found evidence of these giant meteorite impacts," Dr Johnson said.

"Studying the composition of oxygen isotopes in these zircon crystals revealed a 'top-down' process starting with the melting of rocks near the surface and progressing deeper, consistent with the geological effect of giant meteorite impacts.

"Our research provides the first solid evidence that the processes that ultimately formed the continents began with giant meteorite impacts, similar to those responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, but which occurred billions of years earlier."

[...] "These mineral deposits are the end result of a process known as crustal differentiation, which began with the formation of the earliest landmasses, of which the Pilbara Craton is just one of many.

Journal Reference:
Johnson, T.E., Kirkland, C.L., Lu, Y. et al. Giant impacts and the origin and evolution of continents. Nature 608, 330–335 (2022). 10.1038/s41586-022-04956-y

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Late one evening in June of 2016, John Barentine stood alone at Mather Point, an iconic and rarely empty overlook at Grand Canyon National Park. The moon slid away, leaving the darkness of a crisp, clear sky. The stars that make up our galaxy seemed to align overhead. The inky chasm of the ancient canyon spread out below, and he marveled at a feeling of being unmoored in time and space.

An astronomer who worked for the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), Barentine had a special reason to revel in the scene. With his help, the park had recently been given provisional status as an International Dark Sky Park, a designation given to public land that exhibits “exceptional” starry nights. Few publicly accessible places on Earth experience this kind of pristine darkness. Indeed, the view is quite different 200 miles away in Tucson. There, photons from the city’s lights scatter in the sky, forming an obscuring dome of light called sky glow—a feature now common to major cities.

Scientists have known for years that such light pollution is growing and can harm both humans and wildlife. In people, increased exposure to light at night disrupts sleep cycles and has been linked to cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to a 2016 report by the American Medical Association. Meanwhile, the ecological impacts of light pollution span the globe. It can affect the reproduction patterns of male crickets, causing them to chirp during the daytime instead of at night, when they typically call mates. Baby sea turtles, which have evolved to evade predators by rushing to the ocean upon hatching, can be disoriented by lights near the shore. Owls lose their stealthy advantage over prey. Even trees can struggle, holding onto leaves longer and budding earlier than they should because the brightness of their surroundings gives them incorrect information on the time of year. 

Astronomers, policymakers, and lighting professionals are all working to find ways to reduce light pollution. Many of them advocate installing light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in outdoor fixtures such as city streetlights. Watt for watt, LED streetlights are now comparable in efficiency to traditional sodium vapor streetlights—and are in some cases more efficient. But the crucial difference is that they are better at directing light to a targeted area, which means less light and energy are needed overall to achieve the desired illumination. 

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Startups are exploring how electric planes could clean up air travel, which accounts for about 3% of worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions. The problem is that today’s electric aircraft could safely carry you and about a dozen fellow passengers only around 30 miles, according to a recent analysis. 

The limiting factor is the battery, in particular the amount of energy that can be stored in a small space. If you’ve folded your legs into a cramped window seat or been charged extra for overweight luggage, you’re probably familiar with the intense space and weight constraints on planes. 

[...] Batteries have been packing more power into smaller spaces for about 30 years, and continuing improvements could help electric planes become a more feasible option for flying. But they’re not there yet, and ultimately, the future of electric planes may depend on the future of progress in battery technology. 

The prospect of electric flight is appealing in many ways. Aviation contributes a growing share of the global greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change, and battery-powered planes could help speed decarbonization in a growing sector. 

hubie writes:

Extraterrestrial cement:

Sustained space exploration will require infrastructure that doesn't currently exist: buildings, housing, rocket landing pads.

[...] "If we're going to live and work on another planet like Mars or the moon, we need to make concrete. But we can't take bags of concrete with us — we need to use local resources," said Norman Wagner, Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware.

Researchers are exploring ways to use clay-like topsoil materials from the moon or Mars as the basis for extraterrestrial cement. To succeed will require a binder to glue the extraterrestrial starting materials together through chemistry. One requirement for this out-of-this-world construction material is that it must be durable enough for the vertical launch pads needed to protect man-made rockets from swirling rocks, dust and other debris during liftoff or landing. Most conventional construction materials, such as ordinary cement, are not suitable under space conditions.

UD's Wagner and colleagues are working on this problem and successfully converted simulated lunar and Martian soils into geopolymer cement, which is considered a good substitute for conventional cement. [...]

Geopolymers are inorganic polymers formed from aluminosilicate minerals found in common clays everywhere from Newark, Delaware's White Clay Creek to Africa. When mixed with a solvent that has a high pH, such as sodium silicate, the clay can be dissolved, freeing the aluminum and silicon inside to react with other materials and form new structures — like cement.

upstart writes:

Judge orders Twitter to give Elon Musk former executive's documents:

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N)needs to give Elon Musk documents from a former Twitter executive who Musk said was a key figure in calculating the amount of fake accounts on the platform, according to a Monday court order.

Bot and spam accounts on Twitter have become a central issue in the legal fight over whether Musk, who is Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O) chief executive, must complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.

Twitter was ordered to collect, review and produce documents from former General Manager of Consumer Product Kayvon Beykpour, according to the order from Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery.

[...] Beykpour, who left Twitter after the social media company agreed in April to be acquired by Musk, was described in Musk's court filings as one of the executives "most intimately involved with" determining the amount of spam accounts.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Military Satellites Will Now Be Operated by the Space Force:

The U.S. Army transferred its satellite ground stations to the Space Force on Monday as the latest step in establishing the sixth branch of the U.S. military devoted to demonstrating national dominance in space.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced the transfer last year, which took effect on August 15. All in all, 15 global units with 319 military and 259 civilian personnel from the Army and Navy will transfer to the Space Force's Space Delta 8, the unit responsible for satellite communications, as stated in the announcement. Space Delta 8 is now in charge of the Wideband Global Satcom and Defense Satellite Communications System, a constellation of military communication satellites, as well as the Global Positioning System constellation for both military and civilian users, among other communication satellites, according to Space News. These satellites were originally built by the U.S. Air Force, and later operated by the military for decades.

In addition to the satellites, the U.S. Army also transferred $78 million to the Space Force's budget to cover their costs.

[...] But other branches of the military aren't totally out of the satellite game just yet. DARPA, part of the department of defense for military research, recently announced that it's working on a plan to standardize communication between satellites in Earth orbit (including civil, government, and military satellites). The U.S. Army is also looking into ways to use space technology for nontraditional warfare.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Def Con hacker shows John Deere's tractors can run Doom:

A security researcher at the Def Con hacking conference got a modified version of Doom running on a John Deere tractor.

The internet has shown us that Doom can run on everything from a cardboard box to a Roomba and even a single keyboard key, but now we can add a John Deere tractor to that list. Security researcher Sick Codes worked with Doom modder Skelegant to get the game running on a John Deere tractor display and showed off some gameplay at the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas.

In the video posted by Sick Codes, you can see how the game plays as a sort of transparent overlay on top of the John Deere user interface (UI). Sick Codes says the whole process took months and involved jailbreaking the Linux system used by the John Deere 4240 tractor. This version of Doom has, naturally, been modified to take place in a corn field, where the player mows down enemies on a tractor.

But Sick Codes isn't just jailbreaking tractors to get them to run Doom. According to a report from Wired, he also devised and presented a new jailbreak that gave him root access to the tractor's system. This exploit could potentially help farmers bypass software blocks that prevent them from repairing the tractor themselves, something John Deere has come under fire for in the past.

As noted by Wired, Sick Codes was able to obtain "1.5 GB worth of logs" that dealers could use to identify and diagnose problems. But he also found a way to gain root access by soldering controllers directly to the tractor's circuit board. Unfortunately, gaining root access isn't all that simple without the right equipment, but Sick Codes told Wired "it would be possible to develop a tool based on the vulnerabilities to more easily execute the jailbreak."

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Developer Poul-Henning Kamp (PHK) has written a brief post in the July issue of Communications of the ACM about the cost of surveillance having become negligible. Furthermore, in many cases that surveillance is actually required either by large governments or by large corporations, thus making it cheaper to go with the flow and track people and their online activities very closely as it becomes more and more expensive for programmers and developers to even try to avoid tracking people and their online activities.

During his keynote address, risk management specialist Dan Geer asked the 2014 Black Hat audience a question: "What if surveillance is too cheap to meter?"

As is the case with electricity from nuclear power, technology has little to do with it: This is a question about economy, specifically the economy of the path of least resistance.

Surveillance is ridiculously cheap for governments. Many have passed laws that obligate the surveillance industry—most notably, the mobile network operators—to share their take "at cost," and we know law enforcement uses it a lot.

So why is so much cheap surveillance available for purchase?

upstart writes:

We haven't had official Xbox One sales figures for 7 years:

Official Xbox One sales have largely been a mystery, but now Microsoft is finally admitting the obvious: the PS4 outsold the Xbox One — by a lot.

Microsoft stopped reporting its Xbox One sales figures at the beginning of its 2016 financial year, focusing instead on Xbox Live numbers. The change meant we've never officially known how well Xbox One was holding up compared to the PS4 after the Xbox One's troubled launch. Analyst estimates have consistently put Microsoft in third place behind Sony and Nintendo, and now documents (Word doc) submitted to Brazil's national competition regulator (spotted by Game Luster) finally shed some light on how the Xbox One generation went.

[...] The Xbox One might not have sold well, but Microsoft's work on the Xbox One generation laid some important groundwork for the Xbox Series S / X. Microsoft transitioned into the Xbox Series X with 1440p support, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and lots of 120Hz games all at launch thanks to testing these features on previous Xbox One consoles.

Microsoft's admission of weak Xbox One sales come as part of a broader debate between Sony and Microsoft over the Xbox maker's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Sony and Microsoft are both arguing over Call of Duty, game subscriptions, and much more as Microsoft attempts to clear its acquisition in Brazil. Microsoft has also claimed in documents submitted to Brazil's regulator that Sony pays for "blocking rights" to prevent developers adding their content to Xbox Game Pass.

What is the reason for going to 120 Hz or higher? [hubie]

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A startup wants to democratize the tech behind DALL-E 2, consequences be damned – TechCrunch:

DALL-E 2, OpenAI's powerful text-to-image AI system, can create photos in the style of cartoonists, 19th century daguerreotypists, stop-motion animators and more. But it has an important, artificial limitation: a filter that prevents it from creating images depicting public figures and content deemed too toxic.

Now an open source alternative to DALL-E 2 is on the cusp of being released, and it'll have few — if any — such content filters.

London- and Los Altos-based startup Stability AI this week announced the release of a DALL-E 2-like system, Stable Diffusion, to just over a thousand researchers ahead of a public launch in the coming weeks. A collaboration between Stability AI, media creation company RunwayML, Heidelberg University researchers and the research groups EleutherAI and LAION, Stable Diffusion is designed to run on most high-end consumer hardware, generating 512×512-pixel images in just a few seconds given any text prompt.

"Stable Diffusion will allow both researchers and soon the public to run this under a range of conditions, democratizing image generation," Stability AI CEO and founder Emad Mostaque wrote in a blog post. "We look forward to the open ecosystem that will emerge around this and further models to truly explore the boundaries of latent space."

But Stable Diffusion's lack of safeguards compared to systems like DALL-E 2 poses tricky ethical questions for the AI community. Even if the results aren't perfectly convincing yet, making fake images of public figures opens a large can of worms. And making the raw components of the system freely available leaves the door open to bad actors who could train them on subjectively inappropriate content, like pornography and graphic violence.

hubie writes:

Employees are motivated by rewards that are perceived as distinct from salary:

Tangible rewards motivate employees when they're easy to use, pleasurable, unexpected, and distinct from salary, a new study found.

A recent survey of firms in the United States revealed that 84 per cent spent more than $90 billion annually on tangible employee rewards, such as gift cards, recreation trips and merchandise in hopes of increasing productivity.

[...] Presslee and his co-author, University of Wisconsin-Madison's Willie Choi, used four experiments to investigate the factors driving the preference between cash and tangible rewards. The attributes examined include ease of use of the reward (fungibility), hedonic nature of the reward (want vs. need), the novelty of the reward, and how the reward is presented.

"Rewards are constellations of attributes, and firms should focus more on the motivational effects of the attributes associated with a reward rather than the reward type itself," Presslee said. "Results confirmed that each of these attributes – individually and in combination – increases employee effort and performance."

The researchers recommend managers interested in motivating employees using tangible rewards would be best served to offer tangible rewards that incorporate these four attributes.

It would not surprise me if the effect was the same for cash, provided that the cash was handed directly to the employee instead of being added to their paycheck.

Journal Reference:
Jongwoon (Willie)Choia and AdamPresslee, When and why tangible rewards can motivate greater effort than cash rewards: An analysis of four attribute differences [open], Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2022.101389

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Uber to sunset free loyalty program in favor of subscription membership – TechCrunch:

Ride-hailing giant Uber is shutting down its free loyalty program, Uber Rewards, so it can focus on its subscription-based Uber One membership.

Uber first launched the rewards program in 2018 as a sort of frequent flyer scheme that allowed riders to earn points for every dollar spent on rides or Uber Eats deliveries. Those points could then be used to get discounts on future rides or deliveries. In November 2021, Uber began introducing Uber One, which, for $9.99 per month or $99.99 annually, allows members perks like 5% off certain rides or delivery orders and unlimited $0 delivery fees on food orders of over $15 and grocery orders of over $30.

In an email sent to customers that was picked up by The Verge, Uber said users can still earn points via the legacy rewards program until the end of August, and that they can redeem those points until October 31. Uber Rewards will officially shut down on November 1, 2022, according to an update posted by the company.

[...] Uber did not respond immediately for clarity as to why it is shutting down the Rewards program in favor of the Uber One membership. Perhaps the company did not see the returns and user loyalty that it would have expected from the program and thinks a subscription offering will provide better returns.

Original Submission

All Systems Go In Houston As Nasa Prepares Return To Moon

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Rick LaBrode has worked at NASA for 37 years, but he says the American quest to return to the Moon is by far the crowning moment of his career.

LaBrode is the lead flight director for Artemis 1, set to take off later this month—the first time a capsule that can carry humans will be sent to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

"This is more exciting than really anything I've ever been a part of," LaBrode told journalists at the US space agency's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.

The 60-year-old confided to AFP that the eve of the launch is likely to be a long night of anticipation—and little rest.

"I'm going to be so excited. I won't be able to sleep too much, I'm sure of that," he said, in front of Mission Control's iconic giant bank of screens.

Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight, will feature the first blastoff of the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will be the most powerful in the world when it goes into operation.

It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.

[...] Korth, who has worked on Orion for more than a decade, said everyone in Houston is excited for the return to the Moon and for NASA's future.

"Definitely, I feel like it is like a new golden age," she said.

upstart writes:

Irish researchers develop new model to help treat heart failure:

Developed at RCSI, the new 'mock circulatory loop' model can mimic both a healthy heart and a heart in failure to help device testing.

Researchers in Ireland have reached a milestone in heart health research with a new lab-based model to test devices that treat patients with an increasingly common form of heart failure.

There are two common types of heart failure in humans: one with preserved ejection fraction and the other with reduced ejection fraction. Ejection fraction is the measurement used to determine the heart's ability to pump oxygen-rich blood through the body.

In recent years, heart failure with preserved or normal ejection fraction has become more common among patients, likely due to an increase in the prevalence of common risk factors such as old age, high blood pressure and obesity. Women are at great risk of it than men.

Developed at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in collaboration with the National College of Art and Design, the new model called 'mock circulatory loop' mimic both a healthy heart and a heart in failure with preserved ejection fraction.

The model enables potential heart failure treatment devices to be examined in terms of their effect on both chambers in the left side of the heart.

It can test devices to examine the left atrium, the top chamber responsible for receiving oxygen-rich blood from the lungs, as well as the left ventricle, the lower chamber responsible for pumping the oxygen-rich blood around the body.

The research was published in the Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine journal last month.

Journal Reference:
Malone, Andrew, Gallagher, Sean, Saidi, Jemil, et al. In vitro benchtop mock circulatory loop for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction emulation, Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine (DOI: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.910120)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory made its 1 millionth car:

Plant closures and other challenges didn't keep Tesla's Chinese factory from crossing a key milestone. As Electrek notes, company chief Elon Musk has revealed that Gigafactory Shanghai recently produced its 1 millionth car. As mentioned earlier in August, Musk noted that Tesla has made a total of 3 million electric vehicles to date.

The facility has quickly become a cornerstone of Tesla's manufacturing strategy. It started production in late 2019, but ramped up to the point where it became the largest EV factory on the planet. Its annual production rate topped 800,000 by the end of 2021, making it crucial to Tesla's record-setting year. Gigafactory Shanghai is now the company's main export hub, delivering cars to Europe and other key markets in addition to China.

The Shanghai factory is gradually becoming just one piece in a larger puzzle. The newly opened Gigafactories in Berlin and Texas will drive at least some near-term growth, and Tesla is exploring the potential for factories in places like Canada.

Original Submission