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hubie writes:

Sharing on Social Media Makes Us Overconfident in Our Knowledge:

Sharing news articles with friends and followers on social media can prompt people to think they know more about the articles' topics than they actually do, according to a new study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Social media sharers believe that they are knowledgeable about the content they share, even if they have not read it or have only glanced at a headline. Sharing can create this rise in confidence because by putting information online, sharers publicly commit to an expert identity. Doing so shapes their sense of self, helping them to feel just as knowledgeable as their post makes them seem.

This is especially true when sharing with close friends, according to a new paper from Susan M. Broniarczyk, professor of marketing, and Adrian Ward, assistant professor of marketing, at UT's McCombs School of Business.

[...] The research also suggests there's merit to social media companies that have piloted ways to encourage people to read articles before sharing.

"If people feel more knowledgeable on a topic, they also feel they maybe don't need to read or learn additional information on that topic," Broniarczyk said. "This miscalibrated sense of knowledge can be hard to correct."

For more details about this research, read the McCombs Big Ideas feature story and watch the video explaining Broniarczyk and Ward's work.

Journal Reference:
Adrian F. Ward, Jianqing (Frank) Zheng, Susan M. Broniarczyk, I share, therefore I know? Sharing online content - even without reading it - inflates subjective knowledge, J Con Psych, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1321

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Nearly 100 million miles from Earth, on the red and dusty surface of Mars, an instrument the size of a lunchbox is proving it can reliably do the work of a small tree.

The MIT-led Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successfully producing oxygen from the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere since April 2021. That was about two months after it touched down on the Martian surface as part of NASA’s Perseverance rover and Mars 2020 mission.

In a study published today (August 31, 2022) in the journal Science Advances, researchers report that, by the end of 2021, MOXIE was able to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs. These were performed in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the day and night, and through different Martian seasons. In each experimental run, the instrument reached its target of producing six grams of oxygen per hour. This is about the rate of a modest tree on Earth.

Scientists envision that a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission, where it could continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees. At that capacity, the system should produce enough oxygen to sustain humans after they arrive, and also fuel a rocket for returning astronauts back to Earth.

MOXIE’s consistent production so far is a promising first step toward that goal.

fliptop writes:

From the Associated Press:

Local law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, at times without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people's movements months back in time, according to public records and internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Police have used "Fog Reveal" to search hundreds of billions of records from 250 million mobile devices, and harnessed the data to create location analyses known among law enforcement as "patterns of life," according to thousands of pages of records about the company.

Sold by Virginia-based Fog Data Science LLC, Fog Reveal has been used since at least 2018 in criminal investigations ranging from the murder of a nurse in Arkansas to tracing the movements of a potential participant in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The tool is rarely, if ever, mentioned in court records, something that defense attorneys say makes it harder for them to properly defend their clients in cases in which the technology was used.

[...] "It's sort of a mass surveillance program on a budget," said Bennett Cyphers, a special adviser at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy rights advocacy group.

[...] The documents and emails were obtained by EFF through Freedom of Information Act requests. The group shared the files with The AP, which independently found that Fog sold its software in about 40 contracts to nearly two dozen agencies, according to GovSpend, a company that keeps tabs on government spending. The records and AP's reporting provide the first public account of the extensive use of Fog Reveal by local police, according to analysts and legal experts who scrutinize such technologies.

The EFF's Web page has an inside look at Fog Data Science and also a guided tour on how authorities easily browse your location data.

Also at Chron and Apple Insider.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

An analysis shows that routine manual skills increases productivity and earnings in early career stages, while structured training and cognitive abstract skills have long-term effects:

A new study by Jeroma Adda (Department of Economics) finds that the acquisition of skills is the main contributor to higher salaries for workers, with the magnitude of the effect differing according to the type of skill and the career stage of the worker. Although workers can acquire skills on the job, those who undergo training before entering the job market generally obtain greater wages and are in unemployment less often.

To unpack their findings, it is first important to understand that research on labor markets distinguishes the tasks workers perform into two categories: routine-manual (RM) tasks, which follow well-defined and repetitive procedures that require a modest amount of training; and cognitive-abstract (CA) tasks, which require more technical and creative capabilities. [...] Their results indicate that the accumulation of RM and CA skills over the course of an individual's career is the most important driver of wage growth. RM skills contribute more significantly to increases in worker productivity and earnings in the first years of their careers, but once a set of basic skills has been acquired their contribution to wage growth reduces to zero. On the other hand, CA skills take a longer time to be accumulated, and thus take longer to affect earnings, but have a longer-lasting impact, sustained throughout the individuals' career. These differential returns translate to workers in the CA sector earning, on average, higher wages than those in predominantly RM sectors.

Such skills can also be accumulated through a training period that takes place before labor market entry, and the authors estimate the impact of undertaking such a program. When compared to untrained workers, trained individuals are able to accumulate more CA experience, which besides the direct wage benefits, also improves other aspects of job matching: trained workers become unemployed less often and receive competing job offers at a higher rate. [...]

The authors also find that mobility of workers across the labor market contributes to higher salaries. Switching between different jobs generates a significant increase in earnings, but this is concentrated in the early years of the worker's career, namely the first job move. Though this change produces large gains, these quickly decline and additional mobility does not seem to contribute to larger returns. However, the authors also observe the existence of lock-in effects: workers are initially allocated to a sector for which they are not the most suited, but the accumulation of experience specific to that sector disincentivizes them from moving to jobs in other sectors.

Journal Reference:
Jerome Adda and Christian Dustmann, Sources of Wage Growth, J Pol Econ, 2022. DOI: 10.1086/721657

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Japan's Digital Minister 'Declares a War' on Floppy Disks:

Japan, a country known for advancing some of the world's most innovative and quirky tech, is preparing to launch an all out "war" against the humble floppy disk.

Taro Kono, the country's newly appointed Digital Minister, bellowed out his battle cry on Tuesday, via Twitter. According to Kono, floppy disks—along with other dated tech like CDs and MiniDiscs —are still required for around 1,900 government procedures.

Kono's vow to purge the government of the 50 plus year old floppy tech comes amid a broader effort to modernize the way people in Japan submit applications and other forms. The digital minister said his crusade has the backing of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, according to a press conference viewed by Bloomberg.

This isn't the first time Kono's lashed out at perceived inefficiencies weighing down Japan's government bureaucracy. He's previously taken aim at fax machines and traditional hanko carved stamps.

"I'm looking to get rid of the fax machine, and I still plan to do that," Kono said.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Multiple publishers are reporting that Micky Dolenz, the last surviving member of the made-for-tv band, The Monkees, is suing the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. He aims to get as much of the FBI's file on The Monkees as possible with the goal of uncovering what they may have on higher priority surveillance targets of the era, such as John Lennon or the MC5. According to a limited file release from 2011, The Monkees are only mentioned in two FBI documents, one of which remains fully redacted.

The Monkees may not be seem like the kind of band that would attract the FBI's attention, especially during a time when groups like Country Joe and the Fish and the MC5 were leading the movement against the Vietnam War. But the Monkees were one of the most popular bands in America in 1966 and 1967, and they sprinkled anti-war sentiments into songs like "Ditty Diego-War Chant" and even "Last Train to Clarksville," a song about a man headed off to war that fears he'll never see his love again.

"The Monkees reflected, especially in their later years with projects like [their 1968 art house movie] Head, a counterculture from what institutional authority was at the time," Zaid tells Rolling Stone. "And [J. Edgar] Hoover's FBI, in the Sixties in particular, was infamous for monitoring the counterculture, whether they committed unlawful actions or not."

-- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-monkees-micky-dolenz-fbi-1234584299/

In the intervening decades, making and distributing music has become highly centralized and corporate.

Covered at:
BBC: Micky Dolenz: Last living Monkees member sues FBI for secret files on band
Bloomberg: Last of the Monkees Wants Their FBI Records Turned Over
The Los Angeles Times: The FBI had a file on the Monkees, and now Micky Dolenz is suing to find out why
TMZ: Micky Dolenz Demanding FBI File on The Monkees!!! (Yes, There Actually Is One)
Rolling Stone: The Monkees' Micky Dolenz Would Like a Word With the FBI
NBC: Surviving Monkees member Micky Dolenz sues the FBI, asks for files on him and his bandmates

Previously:
(2019) The FBI "Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny" That It Monitors Your Social Media Posts
(2019) U.S. Government Using Secretive FISA Rules to Spy on Journalists
(2017) EFF Sues FBI to Obtain Records About Geek Squad/Best Buy Surveillance
(2016) Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal
(2014) Already a Winner in EFF's "Most Outrageous Response to a FOIA Request" Contest?

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/01/california_ev_heatwave/

One week after announcing plans to phase out autos powered by gasoline, California energy authorities are facing a heat wave so severe residents are being asked not to charge their electric vehicles during "flex alerts" designed to reduce stress on the grid.

According to a heat bulletin [PDF; 134kB] issued by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), temperatures across the state are expected to be 10 to 20 degrees warmer than typical between August 30 and September 6. Load on the electrical grid peaks between 4-9 pm, during which time CAISO said it may issue flex alerts urging Californians to reduce their electricity consumption.

"The top three conservation actions are to set thermostats to 78 degrees [25˚C] or higher, avoid using large appliances and charging electric vehicles, and turn off unnecessary lights," CAISO said, noting that voluntary reduction in energy consumption could "prevent more drastic measures, including rotating power outages."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

NASA fixed the glitch that caused Voyager 1 to send back jumbled data:

Back in May, NASA reported that the Voyager 1 space probe was sending back jumbled or inaccurate telemetry data. The probe itself seemed to be in good shape, with a signal that's still strong enough to beam back information, and nothing was triggering its fault protection systems that would put it in "safe mode." According to NASA, the Voyager team has not only figured the problem out since then — it has also solved the issue.

Turns out we're getting jumbled data here on Earth, because the probe's attitude articulation and control system (AACS) has been sending back information through an onboard computer that had stopped working years ago. The computer was corrupting the data before it even went out. Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said that when her team suspected that this was the issue, they implemented a low-risk fix: They commanded the AACS to send its data through the probe's working computer again.

Previously:
Engineers Investigating NASA's Voyager 1 Telemetry Data

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://singularityhub.com/2022/08/31/robots-chop-a-few-bucks-off-the-price-of-lunch-at-this-fully-automated-restaurant/

Even before labor shortages and supply chain issues began plaguing the economy, the food service industry was bringing in robots. From flipping burgers to making pizzas, automation has been taking over a variety of food preparation tasks. A San Francisco restaurant has now taken it to the next level, opening what it claims is the world's first fully autonomous restaurant this past weekend (though the "world's first" title is likely not accurate; Pazzi Pizzeria in Paris, for one, has been serving up robot-made pies for just over a year).

The restaurant is located in an outdoor food court in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood, alongside similar businesses. The similar businesses are namely food trucks, which is probably a more accurate label for Mezli than "restaurant," except for the important detail that it's not a truck. It is a lot like a shipping container in shape and size, though.

[...] To be fair, Mezli can only be called "fully automated" because the food served there is prepared by humans in a commercial kitchen then transferred to the robo-restaurant; machines aren't cooking food so much as selecting and mixing it.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A recent study has found an association between the legalization of marijuana and an increased occurrence of car accidents.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, states that legalized recreational marijuana had an increase in traffic crashes and deaths.

“The legalization of marijuana doesn’t come without a cost,” says lead researcher Charles M. Farmer, Ph.D., of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Ruckersville, Va.

After legalization and the launch of retail sales, there was a 5.8% rise in the incidence of traffic collision injuries and a 4.1% increase in the rate of fatal crashes, according to Farmer and colleagues’ analysis of five states that permit people age 21 and older to consume marijuana recreationally. In a comparative group of states without marijuana legalization, the researchers did not see any rise during the same period.

Overall, the first increase in the injury crash rate occurred after legalization but before retail sales began. Injury rates from car accidents increased 6.5% following legalization, however, they marginally declined (-0.7%) after retail sales started. However, fatal accident rates climbed both after legalization (+2.3%) and after retail sales were legalized (+1.8%).

“Legalization removes the stigma of marijuana use, while the onset of retail sales merely increases access,” says Farmer. “But access to marijuana isn’t difficult, even in places without retail sales. Users who previously avoided driving high may feel that it’s okay after legalization.”

hubie writes:

The combination of green and "gray" spaces in cities, along with the variability of growing modes, means some city crops — like cucumbers, potatoes and lettuces — yield at least twice as much as their rural counterparts:

As urban populations boom, urban agriculture is increasingly looked to as a local food source and a way to help combat inequitable food access. But little is known about how productive urban agriculture is compared to conventional, rural farming. A new study digs in, finding urban gardeners and hydroponics can meet and sometimes exceed the yields of rural farms.

"Despite its growing popularity, there's still quite a lot we don't know about urban agriculture, like whether the yields are similar to conventional agriculture, or even what crops are commonly grown," says Florian Payen, an environmental scientist at Lancaster University and lead author of the study, published today in AGU's journal Earth's Future.

The new study compiles studies on urban agriculture from 53 countries to find out which crops grow well in cities, what growing methods are most effective, and what spaces can be utilized for growing. [...]

"Surprisingly, there were few differences between overall yields in indoor spaces and outdoor green spaces, but there were clear differences in the suitability of crop types to different gray spaces," Payen says. Certain crops like lettuces, kale and broccoli are more naturally suited to be grown vertically in indoor spaces than others. "You can't exactly stack up apple trees in a five- or ten-layer high growth chamber," he says, "though we did find one study that managed to grow wheat stacked up like that."

Other crops, like watery vegetables (e.g., tomatoes) and leafy greens, performed well in hydroponic environments. And crops grown in fully controlled environments can be grown throughout the year, allowing harvests to happen more times per year than in open-air environments, which leads to higher annual yields. But scientists will need to keep studying these systems to plan cost-effective agriculture solutions.

[...] It remains to be seen whether growing food in cities has a smaller or larger overall carbon footprint than conventional agriculture; the answer likely varies. Researchers are also studying how foods grown in cities might be impacted by pollution. And some crops included in the study's literature review lacked the numbers to be included in statistical analyses, pointing to a need for more research on urban crops like fruits and cereals.

Journal Reference:
Florian Thomas Payen, Daniel L. Evans, Natalia Falagán, et al., How Much Food Can We Grow in Urban Areas? Food Production and Crop Yields of Urban Agriculture: A Meta-Analysis [open], Earth's Future, 2022. DOI: 10.1029/2022EF002748

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

Chinese molten-salt reactor cleared for start up

In January 2011, CAS launched a CNY3 billion (USD444 million) R&D programme on liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTRs), known there as the thorium-breeding molten-salt reactor (Th-MSR or TMSR), and claimed to have the world's largest national effort on it, hoping to obtain full intellectual property rights on the technology. This is also known as the fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR). The TMSR Centre at SINAP at Jiading, Shanghai, is responsible.

Construction of the 2 MWt TMSR-LF1 reactor began in September 2018 and was reportedly completed in August 2021. The prototype was scheduled to be completed in 2024, but work was accelerated.

"According to the relevant provisions of the Nuclear Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Safety Supervision and Administration of Civilian Nuclear Facilities, our bureau has conducted a technical review of the application documents you submitted, and believes that your 2 MWt liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor commissioning plan (Version V1.3) is acceptable and is hereby approved," the Ministry of Ecology and Environment told SINAP on 2 August.

It added: "During the commissioning process of your 2 MWt liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor, you should strictly implement this plan to ensure the effectiveness of the implementation of the plan and ensure the safety and quality of debugging. If any major abnormality occurs during the commissioning process, it should be reported to our bureau and the Northwest Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision Station in time."

Original Submission

US Chip Makers Hit by New China Export Rule

upstart writes:

US chip makers hit by new China export rule:

Nvidia says the US government requires a new licence, effective immediately, to address the risk of chips being "used in, or diverted to a 'military end use'... in China and Russia".

There are fears the rule could lead to millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Shares of both chipmakers slipped in after-hours trading in New York.

Nvidia's shares were down by 6.6% while AMD slipped 3.7%.

[...] In a statement, Beijing said "The US side should immediately stop its wrongdoing, treat companies from all over the world including Chinese companies fairly, and do more things that are conducive to the stability of the world economy."

No GPUs for You: US Blocks Sales of AI Chips to China and Russia

upstart writes:

No GPUs for you: US blocks sales of AI chips to China and Russia:

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last Friday, Nvidia reported that US government officials have ordered restrictions on sales of its top AI chips to China and Russia. The new restrictions (in the form of licensing requirements, subject to approval by the US government) include the powerful A100 Tensor Core GPU, the upcoming H100, and any chips of equivalent power or systems that incorporate them. The goal is to "address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a 'military end use' or 'military end user' in China and Russia," according to Nvidia, which notes that the firm already does not sell products to customers in Russia.

Reuters reports that the Department of Commerce intends for the new policy to "keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands." China isn't happy about the restrictions, calling the move part of a "tech blockade." The US has also restricted sales of AMD's MI250 Accelerator AI chip to China. Whether this effort will have any effect on China's AI capability in the long term remains to be seen, as Chinese firms have begun developing their own GPUs for graphics and AI use.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

upstart writes:

NASA Will Re-Attempt a Launch of the Artemis 1 Mission on Saturday:

The two-hour launch window starts at 2:17 p.m. ET (6:17 p.m. UTC) on September 3. The rocket's Monday launch was scrubbed due to temperature sensor problems.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The recent release of 2021 Census data revealed a shocking "1 million homes were unoccupied."

This statistic sent housing commentators, government agencies and policymakers into a spin. At a time of significant housing shortages, this extra million homes would surely make a big difference. They could provide housing for some homeless, ease the rental affordability crisis, and get first-home owners into their first home.

There has been a great deal of speculation about how this has happened. Has it been caused by overseas millionaires buying up housing and leaving it as an empty investment? Is it Airbnb taking up homes that could be used for families? Or are cashed-up Gen-Xers double-consuming by living in one house while renovating another?

In fact, we've got a pretty good idea of what's going on. First, it's not a new phenomenon. When we compare 2021 with previous censuses, a slightly smaller percentage of our private dwelling stock was classified as unoccupied—just under 10%, compared with nearly 11% at the previous census in 2016.

Since the release of the data, many journalists have pointed to this startling number of empty homes, portraying them as abandoned or left empty. There is almost certainly a much more ordinary and less startling story to tell. [...]

A big part of the story is how the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) determines whether a dwelling is occupied or not. In short, it does its best by using a variety of methods, but, for the majority of dwellings, occupancy "is determined by the returned census form." If a form was not returned, and the ABS had no further information, the dwelling was often deemed to be unoccupied.