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liar writes:

California is expected to vote on Thursday to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

"The climate crisis is solvable if we focus on the big, bold steps necessary to stem the tide of carbon pollution," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The landmark move toward electric vehicles would be phased in over several years, with a target of 35 percent of new vehicles that don't emit fossil fuels being set for 2026, a target of 51 percent for 2028, 68 percent for 2030, and finally a target of 100 percent for 2035.

The California Air Resource Board will vote to implement the measure on Thursday, with board member Daniel Sperling telling CNN that he is "99.9 percent" confident that it will pass. "This is monumental," Sperling added. "This is the most important thing that CARB has done in the last 30 years. It's important not just for California, but it's important for the country and the world."

https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/California-Is-Banning-the-Sale-of-Gas-Cars-17395622.php

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The big catch is that it has to be at roughly the boiling point of water to work:

There's a classic irony with new technology, that adopters are forced to limit themselves to two of the three things everyone wants: fast, cheap, and good. When the tech is batteries, adoption is even more challenging. Cheap and fast (charging) still matter, but "good" can mean different things, such as light weight, low volume, or long life span, depending on your needs. Still, the same sorts of trade-offs are involved. If you want really fast charging, you'll probably have to give up some capacity.

Those trade-offs keep research into alternate battery chemistries going despite the massive lead lithium has in terms of technology and manufacturing capabilities—there's still the hope that some other chemistry could provide a big drop in price or a big boost in some measure of performance.

[...] People have been pondering batteries based on aluminum for a while, drawn by their high theoretical capacity. While each aluminum atom is a bit heavier than lithium, aluminum atoms and ions are physically smaller, as the higher positive charge of the nucleus pulls in the electrons a bit. Plus, aluminum will readily give up as many as three electrons per atom, meaning you can shift lots of charge for each ion involved.

[...] At slow rates of discharge, the aluminum sulfur cells had a charge capacity per weight that was over three times that of lithium-ion batteries. That figure went down as the rate of charge/discharge went up, but performance remained excellent. If the cell was discharged over two hours and charged in just six minutes, it still had a charge capacity per weight that was 25 percent higher than lithium-ion batteries and retained roughly 80 percent of that capacity after 500 cycles—well beyond what you'd see with most lithium chemistries.

upstart writes:

Leaked TSMC Slide Shows N3E Yields Progressing Ahead of Plan:

What appears to be an internal TSMC slide charting the development progress of the N3E process has been shared by tech enthusiast HS Kuo (opens in new tab) on Twitter. Recently, we heard from Taiwan's business media that N3 was going to hit mass production come September, but we haven't had much information about the progress of N3E since back in March.

To quickly recap, TSMC N3E is an 'Enhanced' version of the N3 process, which was initially scheduled (opens in new tab) (PDF) for mass production a year after N3. However, the new but undated slide (please add a pinch of salt) from Mr. Kuo indicates that the development of N3E is progressing well and is even "ahead of plan."

The chart suggests N3E SRAM yields are tracking significantly above N3, starting about six months ahead of risk production. Currently, the average 256Mb SRAM yield is about 80%, it is claimed. Also impressive is that Mobile and HPC test chips yield about 80%. Lastly, yield-proven ring oscillator performance is better than 92%.

We aren't surprised by previous reports into N3E that it is progressing so well. TSMC designed N3E with an improved process window, with slightly lower transistor density, which naturally comes with the benefit of better yields. Other touted benefits of N3E are better clock speeds and lower power usage.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Microsoft details critical vulnerability in ChromeOS:

Microsoft finds critical hole in operating system that for once isn't Windows Oh wow, get a load of Google using strcpy() all wrong – strcpy! Haha, you'll never ever catch us doing that

Microsoft has described a severe ChromeOS security vulnerability that one of its researchers reported to Google in late April.

The bug was promptly fixed and, about a month later, merged in ChromeOS code then released on June 15, 2022 and detailed by Redmond in a report released on Friday.

Microsoft's write-up is noteworthy both for the severity (9.8 out of 10) of the bug and for flipping of the script – it has tended to be Google, particularly its Project Zero group, that calls attention to bugs in Microsoft software.

At least as far back as 2010, Google security researchers made a habit of disclosing bugs in software from Microsoft and other vendors after typically 90 days – even if a patch had not been released – in the interest of forcing companies to respond to security flaws more quickly.

upstart writes:

Victory! Federal Court Upholds First Amendment Protections for Student's Off-Campus Social Media Post:

Students should not have to fear expulsion for expressing themselves on social media after school and off-campus, but that is just what happened to the plaintiff in C1.G v. Siegfried. Last month, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the student's expulsion violated his First Amendment rights. The court's opinion affirms what we argued in an amicus brief last year.

We strongly support the Tenth Circuit's holding that schools cannot regulate how students use social media off campus, even to spread "offensive, controversial speech," unless they target members of the school community with "vulgar or abusive language."

The case arose when the student and his friends visited a thrift shop on a Friday night. There, they posted a picture on Snapchat with an offensive joke about violence against Jews. He deleted the post and shared an apology just a few hours later, but the school suspended and eventually expelled him.

[...] The Tenth Circuit held the First Amendment protected the student's speech because "it does not constitute a true threat, fighting words, or obscenity." The "post did not include weapons, specific threats, or speech directed toward the school or its students." While the post spread widely and the school principal received emails about it, the court correctly held that this did not amount to "a reasonable forecast of substantial disruption" that would allow regulation of protected speech.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

VW strikes a deal with Canada to build EV batteries in North America:

Volkswagen signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian government to "explore opportunities" to bring some of its electric vehicle battery manufacturing to the country.

The move is seen as an effort to ensure that the automaker's plug-in vehicles qualify for the US's revamped EV tax credits, which place stricter requirements on where battery and vehicle manufacturing can be done.

VW says it plans to build a "dedicated Gigafactory" somewhere in North America, and today's agreement most likely increases Canada's chances of being selected as the location.

The automaker is tasking its battery supply management company, Power Co, with spearheading the site search as well as sourcing key ingredients for EV batteries, like nickel, cobalt, and lithium. Power Co will also play a key role in cathode production in North America, VW says.

Last year, VW unveiled plans to build six battery cell production plants in Europe by 2030, including the facility in Salzgitter, Germany, and one in Skellefteå, Sweden. A third plant will be established in Valencia, Spain, and the fourth factory will be based in Eastern Europe. The plants will eventually have a production capacity of 240 gigawatt-hours a year.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

And why engineers say the moon-bound Alexa can't become 2001's HAL:

Captain Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Star Trek gang were in constant dialogue with the onboard Enterprise computer, asking it questions about the starship and their alien environments.

[...] When Lockheed Martin, the company that built the new Orion spacecraft for NASA, first dreamed up the talking computer, engineers figured they'd just throw an Amazon Echo Dot on the dashboard with a laptop and call it a day. But it wasn't nearly that simple, said Rob Chambers, Lockheed's director of commercial civil space strategy.

[...] An experiment to test the technology will ride along with Artemis on its first spaceflight, which could launch as early as Aug. 29. The project, named Callisto after one of Artemis' favorite hunting companions in Greek mythology, is programmed to give crew live answers about the spacecraft's flight status and other data, such as water supply and battery levels. The technology is being paid for by the companies — not NASA.

A custom Alexa system built specifically for the spacecraft will have access to some 120,000 data readouts — more than astronauts have had before, with some bonus information previously only available within Houston's mission control.

[...] For the most part, the virtual assistant will be answering queries, like "Alexa, how fast is Orion traveling?" and "Alexa, what's the temperature in the cabin?" The only thing the system can actually control are the lights, said Justin Nikolaus, an Alexa voice designer on the project.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

When it comes to health issues, not all forms of being sedentary are equal:

Standing desks—and even biking desks—are a response to a growing body of studies showing that a sedentary lifestyle creates many health risks. Regular physical activity appears to confer a degree of protection from various problems, both physical and mental, and many results indicate that this doesn't have to be Olympic-level training. Simply walking around the apartment a few times a day appears to help.

Now, a team of researchers has looked at the opposite question: Are all forms of inactivity equal? The answer is probably not. While the details depend on the health issues involved, there's likely to be some good news for people reading this, in that computer use appears to be somewhat protective against dementia.

[...] Before we get into the results, a small reminder: The work focused on the influence of sedentary behavior on mental issues. Physical health issues weren't examined—it's possible for something that looks relatively good in this analysis to be an overall negative once physical issues are factored in.

That out of the way, what did they see? With age and gender controlled for, time spent watching TV was associated with an increased risk of dementia (a hazard ratio of 1.3, meaning they were 1.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with indications of dementia). Physical activity lowered the risks very slightly. In contrast, computer use lowered the risk by quite a bit more, dropping the hazard ratio to 0.8.

upstart writes:

3 reasons cloud computing doesn't save money:

I found this article interesting, especially the statement, "Over the past decade, cloud adoption has become the rule, not the exception. And yet, many companies that have embraced the cloud are feeling the acute burden of a spike in spending. In other words, cloud usage costs may be costing many businesses more than they are actually saving."

Other recent articles and studies say the same thing. The initial perception that cloud computing would lead to operational cost savings did not pan out for many Global 2000 companies.

[...] First, there is little or no monitoring. A common problem is enterprises have ineffective or no cloud cost management operations, also known as cloud finops (financial operations). Finops should include cloud cost observability systems that report what's spent where, by whom, and for what purpose, as well as the root cause of the spending.

[...] Second, there is no discipline or accountability. A lack of cloud cost monitoring means we can't see what we're spending. The other side of this coin is a lack of accountability. Even when a business monitors cloud spending, that data is useless if everyone knows there are no penalties. Why should people change their behavior? They need known incentives to conserve cloud computing resources as well as known consequences.

[...] Third, the business can't or won't optimize cloud resources. One of the core goals of a sound finops program is to optimize cloud spending. Finops will report the measured value of all money spent on cloud-based resources that's returned to the business. The overall objective is to have more business value from fewer cloud computing dollars.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Airlines are trying to resurrect the Concorde era:

American Airlines on Tuesday announced that it would purchase a fleet of 20 planes from Boom Supersonic, a startup building aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound. The order came after United Airlines announced last year that it would buy 15 of the company's Overture planes. Passenger flights aren't expected until the end of the decade, but if everything goes according to plan, commercial supersonic flight could return for the first time since the age of the Concorde.

Boom says its planes are designed to go at speeds twice as fast as a typical flight. That would be fast enough to get someone from Newark to London in just three and a half hours, and from Los Angeles to Honolulu in just three hours. The first of these flights is scheduled for 2026, and the company plans to start carrying passengers by 2029. If all works out, United has the option to buy at least 35 more planes from the startup; American has the option to buy another 40.

But there's another twist. Boom also wants to make these flights environmentally friendly, promising that these planes will be "net-zero carbon from day one," and rely completely on sustainable aviation fuel, which is repurposed from waste or organic sources.

NotSanguine writes:

Ars Technica is reporting on a recent (22 August 2022) ruling from an Ohio Federal Court that "room scans" prior to testing is considered an impermissible search under the Fourth Amendment.

As the pandemic unfolded in spring 2020, an Educause survey found that an increasing number of students—who had very little choice but to take tests remotely—were increasingly putting up with potential privacy invasions from schools. Two years later, for example, it's considered a common practice that some schools record students throughout remote tests to prevent cheating, while others conduct room scans when the test begins.

Now—in an apparent privacy win for students everywhere—an Ohio judge has ruled[PDF] that the latter practice of scanning rooms is not only an invasion of privacy but a violation of the Fourth Amendment's guaranteed protection against unlawful searches in American homes.

The decision came after a Cleveland State University student, Aaron Ogletree, agreed to a room scan before a chemistry exam, even though his teacher had changed their policy, and he did not expect it to happen before the test. Because there were others in his home, he took the test in his bedroom, where he says he had sensitive tax documents spread out on a surface. These confidential documents, he claimed, could not be moved before the test and were visible in the room scan recording—which was shared with other students.

After the test, Ogletree sued Cleveland State for violating his Fourth Amendment rights, and Ohio judge J. Philip Calabrese decided yesterday that Ogletree was right: Room scans are unconstitutional.

hubie writes:

Your next wooden chair could arrive flat, then dry into a 3D shape (video):

Wooden objects are usually made by sawing, carving, bending or pressing. That's so old school! Today, scientists will describe how flat wooden shapes extruded by a 3D printer can be programmed to self-morph into complex 3D shapes. In the future, this technique could be used to make furniture or other wooden products that could be shipped flat to a destination and then dried to form the desired final shape.

[...] A few years ago, the team developed an environmentally friendly water-based ink composed of wood-waste microparticles known as "wood flour" mixed with cellulose nanocrystals and xyloglucan, which are natural binders extracted from plants. The researchers then began using the ink in a 3D printer. They recently discovered that the way the ink is laid down, or the "pathway," dictates the morphing behavior as the moisture content evaporates from the printed piece. For instance, a flat disk printed as a series of concentric circles dries and shrinks to form a saddle-like structure reminiscent of a Pringles® potato chip, and a disk printed as a series of rays emanating from a central point turns into a dome or cone-like structure.

The ultimate shape of the object can also be controlled by adjusting print speed, the team found. That's because shrinkage occurs perpendicular to the wood fibers in the ink, and print speed changes the degree of alignment of those fibers. A slower rate leaves the particles more randomly oriented, so shrinkage occurs in all directions. Faster printing aligns the fibers with one another, so shrinkage is more directional.

[...] Further refinement will allow the team to combine the saddles, domes, helices and other design motifs to produce objects with complicated final shapes, such as a chair. Ultimately, it could be possible to make wood products that are shipped flat to the end user, which could reduce shipping volume and costs, Kam says. "Then, at the destination, the object could warp into the structure you want." Eventually, it might be feasible to license the technology for home use so consumers could design and print their own wooden objects with a regular 3D printer, Sharon says.

Action video

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple employee charged by the FBI in 2018 for stealing trade secrets about Apple's autonomous vehicle project, has pleaded guilty in a federal court in San Jose on Monday.

Zhang stole the trade secrets while preparing to work for Chinese electric vehicle startup Xiaopeng Motors, also known as XPeng. The FBI arrested Zhang at San Jose airport, California, on 7 July, while he was en route to China. 

Zhang was hired by Apple in 2015 where he would eventually work on hardware for Apple's secretive autonomous vehicle project. 

[...] After Zhang told Apple he planned to work for Xmotors, the iPhone-maker cut off his network access. A subsequent investigation by Apple found he'd downloaded documents and information from Apple databases.   

Besides downloading trade secret intellectual property, he also took a circuit board and server from Apple's car labs.  But the key documents, which formed the basis of the charge he pleaded guilty to, was a 25-page PDF file containing highly sensitive electrical schematics of circuit boards.

Zhang now faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the charge of theft of trade secrets.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

How do we know that time exists?

The alarm goes off in the morning. You catch your morning train to the office. You take a lunch break. You catch your evening train back. You go for an hour’s run. Eat dinner. Go to bed. Repeat. Birthdays are celebrated, anniversaries chronicled, deaths commemorated. New countries are born, empires rise and fall.

The whole of human existence is bound to the passage of time. However, we can’t see it and we can’t touch it. So, how do we know that it’s really there?

“In physics, we have what we call the idea of ‘absolute time’ and it’s used to describe different changes as a sequence of events,” Koyama begins. “We use Newtonian physics to describe how things move, and time is an essential element of this.” Koyama is a Professor of Cosmology in the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth.

To this day, classic Newtonian thought on time – where time is constant throughout the universe – is still a good approximation of how humans experience time in their daily lives. We all experience time in the same way and we all synchronize our clocks in the same way, no matter where we are in the world, whether that be London, Tokyo, New York, or Buenos Aires.

Physicists though have discovered that time can actually behave differently and is not as consistent as Newton thought.

“When we speak of time, we need to think of space as well – they come in a package together,” Koyama says. “We cannot disconnect the two, and the way that an object moves through space determines how it experiences time.”

In short, the time you experience depends on your velocity through space as the observer. This works as outlined through Einstein’s special relativity, a theory of how speed impacts mass, time, and space. Additionally, according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the gravity of a massive object can impact how quickly time passes. Many experiments have been undertaken that have since proven this to be true.

Physicists have even found that black holes warp the immediate space-time around them due to their immense gravitational fields. Supported by the European Research Council, Koyama continues to investigate this theory.

upstart writes:

The solutions to Einstein's equations that describe a spinning black hole won't blow up, even when poked or prodded:

In 1963, the mathematician Roy Kerr found a solution to Einstein's equations that precisely described the spacetime outside what we now call a rotating black hole. (The term wouldn't be coined for a few more years.) In the nearly six decades since his achievement, researchers have tried to show that these so-called Kerr black holes are stable. What that means, explained Jérémie Szeftel, a mathematician at Sorbonne University, "is that if I start with something that looks like a Kerr black hole and give it a little bump"—by throwing some gravitational waves at it, for instance—"what you expect, far into the future, is that everything will settle down, and it will once again look exactly like a Kerr solution."

The opposite situation—a mathematical instability—"would have posed a deep conundrum to theoretical physicists and would have suggested the need to modify, at some fundamental level, Einstein's theory of gravitation," said Thibault Damour, a physicist at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in France.

In a 912-page paper posted online on May 30, Szeftel, Elena Giorgi of Columbia University and Sergiu Klainerman of Princeton University have proved that slowly rotating Kerr black holes are indeed stable. The work is the product of a multiyear effort. The entire proof—consisting of the new work, an 800-page paper by Klainerman and Szeftel from 2021, plus three background papers that established various mathematical tools—totals roughly 2,100 pages in all.

The new result "does indeed constitute a milestone in the mathematical development of general relativity," said Demetrios Christodoulou, a mathematician at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.