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owl writes:

https://phys.org/news/2023-06-space-tractor-sci-fi.html

NASA estimates that about 23,000 chunks of debris the size of a softball or larger currently swirl through space. All that junk means that another collision like the one that destroyed Iridium 33 becomes increasingly likely every year—only this time, the fallout could be much worse.

"The problem with space debris is that once you have a collision, you're creating even more space debris," said Julian Hammerl, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering sciences at CU Boulder. "You have an increased likelihood of causing another collision, which will create even more debris. There's a cascade effect."

Hammerl and a team led by Professor Hanspeter Schaub have a plan for stopping those cascades before they start. The researchers are drawing on one of the oldest tropes in science fiction: tractor beams like the ones the Starship Enterprise uses to safely move asteroids out of the way.

Imagine this: In the not-so-distant future, a fleet of small spacecraft could whiz around Earth, rendezvousing with dead hunks of metal in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. Then, using devices called "electron beams," these space dumpster trucks would slowly haul that debris to safety without ever having to touch it—all by tapping into the same kind of physics that make your socks stick to your pants in the dryer.

upstart writes:

What Are Chiplets and Why They Are So Important for the Future of Processors:

[Editor's Comment: This a long 'summary' but even so much has been removed from the original to comply with fair use restrictions. If you are interested I recommend reading the entire article. JR]

While chiplets have been in use for decades, they've been employed sparingly and for very specific purposes. Now, they're at the cutting edge of technology, with millions of people worldwide using them in desktop PCs, workstations, and servers.

[...] Chiplets are segmented processors. Instead of consolidating every part into a single chip (known as a monolithic approach), specific sections are manufactured as separate chips. These individual chips are then mounted together into a single package using a complex connection system.

This arrangement allows the parts that can benefit from the latest fabrication methods to be shrunk in size, improving the efficiency of the process and allowing them to fit in more components.

The parts of the chip that can't be significantly reduced or don't require reduction can be produced using older and more economical methods.

While the process of manufacturing such processors is complex, the overall cost is typically lower. Furthermore, it offers processor companies a more manageable pathway to expand their product range.

To fully understand why processor manufacturers have turned to chiplets, we must first delve into how these devices are made. CPUs and GPUs start their life as large discs made of ultra-pure silicon, typically a little under 12 inches (300 mm) in diameter and 0.04 inches (1 mm) thick.

This silicon wafer undergoes a sequence of intricate steps, resulting in multiple layers of different materials – insulators, dielectrics, and metals. These layers' patterns are created through a process called photolithography, where ultraviolet light is shone through an enlarged version of the pattern (a mask), and subsequently shrunk via lenses to the required size.

The pattern gets repeated, at set intervals, across the surface of the wafer and each of these will ultimately become a processor. Since chips are rectangular and wafers are circular, the patterns must overlap the disc's perimeter. These overlapping parts are ultimately discarded as they are non-functional.[...]

upstart writes:

Boeing Starliner's first crewed ISS flight delayed due to technical issues:

Boeing's Starliner was supposed to fly its first crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21st, but a couple of technical issues has kept the company from pushing through with its plan. Together with NASA, the aerospace corporation has announced that it's delaying the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft's Crew Flight Test date yet again to address the risks presented by two new problems Boeing engineers have detected.

The first issue lies with the spacecraft's parachute system. Boeing designed the Starliner capsule to float back down to Earth with the help of three parachutes. According to The New York Times, the company discovered that parts of the lines connecting the system to the capsule don't have the ability to tolerate the spacecraft's load in case only two of the three parachutes are deployed correctly. Since the capsule will be carrying human passengers back to our planet, the company has to look at every aspect of its spacecraft to ensure their safety as much as possible. Boeing expects to do another parachute testing before it schedules another launch attempt.

In addition to its parachute problem, Boeing is also reassessing the use of a certain tape adhesive to wrap hundreds of feet of wiring. Apparently, the tape could be flammable, so engineers are looking to use another kind of wrapping for areas of the spacecraft with the greatest fire risk.

The Crew Flight Test is the last hurdle the company has to overcome to regularly start ferrying astronauts to the ISS. NASA chose Boeing as one of its commercial crew partners along with SpaceX, but it has fallen behind its peer over the years. The Starliner has completed uncrewed flights in the past as part of the tests it has to go through for crewed missions. But SpaceX already has 10 crewed flights under its belt, with the first one taking place way back in 2020. In addition to taking astronauts to the ISS and bringing human spaceflight back to American soil since the last space shuttle launch in 2011, SpaceX has also flown civilians to space.

[...] "Crew safety remains the highest priority for NASA and its industry providers, and emerging issues are not uncommon in human spaceflight especially during development. If you look back two months ago at the work we had ahead of us, it's almost all complete. The combined team is resilient and resolute in their goal of flying crew on Starliner as soon as it is safe to do so. If a schedule adjustment needs to be made in the future, then we will certainly do that as we have done before. We will only fly when we are ready."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Arizona limits building as groundwater dries up:

New houses that rely on dwindling groundwater supplies around one of the United States' biggest cities are to be banned, officials said Thursday, in a sign of the strains that drought and climate change are causing across the US west.

Water managers in Arizona say there is a significant shortfall in the Phoenix area, and that any more development in the fast-growing city must rely on other sources of water—such as under-strain rivers.

"Over a period of 100 years, the Phoenix (area) will experience 4.86 million acre-feet of unmet demand for groundwater supplies," the Arizona Department of Water Resources said.

An acre-foot is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre with a foot of water—around 326,000 gallons (1.23 million liters)—and is equivalent to around half an Olympic-size swimming pool.

"The term 'unmet demand' refers to the amount of groundwater usage that is simulated to remain unfulfilled as a result of wells running dry."

The western United States is in the grip of a more-than two- decade drought and a long-term aridification, which scientists say is being exacerbated by human-caused climate change.

Major rivers that cross the region, among them the Colorado River, have long been over-exploited, with far more water removed every year than falls as rain or snow.

This has led to shrinking reservoirs, including the enormous Lake Mead, which last year dropped to just a quarter of its capacity, threatening "deadpool"—the point where the river downstream dries up and hydroelectric power production ceases.

With rivers under pressure, fast-growing population centers have long tapped groundwater to provide water for homes and agriculture, in the form of wells.

But this source is easily over-exploited and can in some cases take thousands of years to be replenished.

State officials said permits already issued for developments in Maricopa County, in which Phoenix sits, will not be rescinded, but developers will have to prove any new applications have a sustainable water source other than groundwater.

[...] Scientists say a wet winter in the US West has alleviated some pressure on the system, but this is only a temporary reprieve as human-caused climate change continues to exacerbate a long-term drying trend.

Original Submission

coolgopher writes:

In what can probably best be described as the beginning of a Terminator prequel movie, an article in The Guardian outlines what one might've hoped to be obviously foreseeable consequences:

In a simulated test staged by the US military, an air force drone controlled by AI killed its operator to prevent it from interfering with its efforts to achieve its mission, an official said last month.

AI used "highly unexpected strategies to achieve its goal" in the simulated test, said Col Tucker 'Cinco' Hamilton, the chief of AI test and operations with the US air force, during the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit in London in May.

Hamilton described a simulated test in which a drone powered by artificial intelligence was advised to destroy enemy's air defense systems, and attacked anyone who interfered with that order.

"The system started realising that while they did identify the threat, at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective"

Some 12 hours later after this was first reported, the incident has been denied by the USAF: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65789916?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

upstart writes:

GM's Cruise aims to turn self-driving into a billion-dollar business:

Seven years ago, hype about self-driving cars was off the charts. It wasn't just Tesla CEO Elon Musk—who has been making outlandish predictions about self-driving technology since 2015. In 2016, Ford set a goal to start selling cars without steering wheels by 2021. The same year, Lyft predicted that a majority of rides on its network would be autonomous by 2021.

None of that happened. Instead, the last few years have seen brutal consolidation. Uber sold off its self-driving project in 2020, and Lyft shut down its effort in 2021. Then, last October, Ford and Volkswagen announced they were shutting down their self-driving joint venture called Argo AI.

Today, a lot of people view self-driving technology as an expensive failure whose moment has passed. The Wall Street Journal's Chris Mims argued in 2021 that self-driving cars "could be decades away." Last year, Bloomberg's Max Chafkin declared that "self-driving cars are going nowhere."

But a handful of well-funded projects have continued to plug away at the problem. The leaders are Waymo—formerly the Google self-driving car project—and Cruise, a startup that is majority-owned by GM.

[...] But I think the pendulum of public opinion has now swung too far in the pessimistic direction. Self-driving technology has steadily improved over the last few years, and there's every reason to expect that progress to continue.

"It's definitely happening a lot slower than people anticipated back in 2017," industry analyst Sam Abuelsamid told me. "But that doesn't mean that there isn't progress being made."

"I would not be surprised if by the end of 2025, each of those companies is operating in 10 to 12 cities across the US to varying degrees of scale," Abuelsamid added.

upstart writes:

Evidence of potential human rights abuses may be lost after being deleted by tech companies, the BBC has found:

Platforms remove graphic videos, often using artificial intelligence - but footage that may help prosecutions can be taken down without being archived. Meta and YouTube say they aim to balance their duties to bear witness and protect users from harmful content.

But Alan Rusbridger, who sits on Meta's Oversight Board, says the industry has been "overcautious" in its moderation.

The platforms say they do have exemptions for graphic material when it is in the public interest - but when the BBC attempted to upload footage documenting attacks on civilians in Ukraine, it was swiftly deleted. Artificial intelligence (AI) can remove harmful and illegal content at scale. When it comes to moderating violent images from wars, however, machines lack the nuance to identify human rights violations.

Human rights groups say there is an urgent need for social media companies to prevent this information from vanishing. "You can see why they have developed and train their machines to, the moment they see something that looks difficult or traumatic, to take it down," Mr Rusbridger told the BBC. The Meta Oversight Board that he sits on was set up by Mark Zuckerberg and is known as a kind of independent "supreme court" for the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

"I think the next question for them is how do we develop the machinery, whether that's human or AI, to then make more reasonable decisions," Mr Rusbridger, a former editor-in-chief of the Guardian, adds.

[...] Human rights campaigners say there is an urgent need for a formal system to gather and safely store deleted content. This would include preserving metadata to help verify the content and prove it hasn't been tampered with.

Ms Van Schaak, the US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice, says: "We need to create a mechanism whereby that information can be preserved for potential future accountability exercises. Social media platforms should be willing to make arrangements with accountability mechanisms around the world."

Original Submission

hubie writes:

A URL on the license plates of 800,000 Maryland cars now redirects to an online casino based in the Philippines:

Roughly 800,000 Maryland drivers with license plates designed to commemorate the War of 1812 are now inadvertently advertising a website for an online casino based in the Philippines.

In 2012, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, Maryland redesigned its standard license plate to read "MARYLAND WAR OF 1812." The license plates, which were the default between 2012 and 2016, have the URL www.starspangled200.org printed at the bottom.

Sometime within the last year, www.starspangled200.org stopped telling people about how Marylander Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the national anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" after watching British ships bombard Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812 and started instead redirecting to a site called globeinternational.info, in which a blinking, bikini-clad woman advertises "Philippines Best Betting Site, Deposit 100 Receive 250."

[...] "The website printed on the plates is not owned by the Motor Vehicle Administration. The plates' design and content originated from the War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission created in 2007. Star-Spangled 200, Inc. is the nonprofit entity affiliated with the Commission that led the efforts to raise funds for bicentennial projects and events," they said. "The MVA does not endorse the views or content on the current website using that URL, and is working with the agency's IT department to identify options to resolve the current issue."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Aiming to get a RISE out of processor architecture as tech giants commit engineering talent:

Linux Foundation Europe and a number of big names in tech have banded together to drive development of a comprehensive software ecosystem that supports the open standard RISC-V processor architecture.

Dubbed RISE, which is intended to be an acronym for RISC-V Software Ecosystem, the project brings together vendors that agreed to make more software available for RISC-V hardware across a range of industry sectors – including mobile, datacenter and automotive.

Developing a software ecosystem with all the necessary tools and libraries, as well as applications and operating systems, may prove to be a bigger task than anticipated. It took Arm a decade or more to build up enough support around its architecture to make it a datacenter challenger for x86 systems, for example.

Arm itself dismissed RISC-V last year, with a spokesperson saying the company didn't see it as a significant competitor in the datacenter space, and better suited to "niche or specialized applications."

But the attraction of RISC-V is that it is not only royalty-free, but also under the governance of its member organizations rather than a single proprietor. RISC-V International says on its website that it "does not take a political position on behalf of any geography," and that it welcomes organizations from around the world.

This has made it popular in areas such as China, which has been looking for ways around the US crackdown on supplying advanced technologies to the country. RISC-V provides a solution without Chinese companies having to go to the lengths of developing their own architecture, as The Register reported last year.

Qualcomm, already a member of RISC-V International, has also hinted that it sees this as an alternative to the Arm architecture for future products. This may have something to do with the legal action Arm has filed against Qualcomm over its Arm-based Nuvia CPU cores.

"RISC-V's flexible, scalable, and open architecture enables benefits across the entire value chain – from silicon vendors to OEM manufacturers to end consumers," said Qualcomm senior director of Technical Standards Larry Wikelius.

The broad number of companies that have some kind of interest in RISC-V can be seen from the RISE Project Governing Board, which from the off includes Google, Intel, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Red Hat, Samsung, SiFive, and Ventana Micro Systems.

upstart writes:

Hidden code in many Gigabyte motherboards invisibly and insecurely downloads programs:

Hiding malicious programs in a computer's UEFI firmware, the deep-seated code that tells a PC how to load its operating system, has become an insidious trick in the toolkit of stealthy hackers. But when a motherboard manufacturer installs its own hidden backdoor in the firmware of millions of computers—and doesn't even put a proper lock on that hidden back entrance—they're practically doing hackers' work for them.

Researchers at firmware-focused cybersecurity company Eclypsium revealed today that they've discovered a hidden mechanism in the firmware of motherboards sold by the Taiwanese manufacturer Gigabyte, whose components are commonly used in gaming PCs and other high-performance computers. Whenever a computer with the affected Gigabyte motherboard restarts, Eclypsium found, code within the motherboard's firmware invisibly initiates an updater program that runs on the computer and in turn downloads and executes another piece of software.

While Eclypsium says the hidden code is meant to be an innocuous tool to keep the motherboard's firmware updated, researchers found that it's implemented insecurely, potentially allowing the mechanism to be hijacked and used to install malware instead of Gigabyte's intended program. And because the updater program is triggered from the computer's firmware, outside its operating system, it's tough for users to remove or even discover.

"If you have one of these machines, you have to worry about the fact that it's basically grabbing something from the Internet and running it without you being involved, and hasn't done any of this securely," says John Loucaides, who leads strategy and research at Eclypsium. "The concept of going underneath the end user and taking over their machine doesn't sit well with most people."

In its blog post about the research, Eclypsium lists 271 models of Gigabyte motherboards that researchers say are affected. Loucaides adds that users who want to see which motherboard their computer uses can check by going to "Start" in Windows and then "System Information."

From my understanding of the problem it appears to affect Windows OS, but any insecurity in the UEFI firmware is a major cause for concern [JR]

[Edited to remove duplicate paragraph-JR 2023-06-02 16:46:23Z]

Original Submission

upstart writes:

'How do we know what we don't know?': Scientists completely define the process of methylation:

UNSW Sydney researchers, for the first time, have completely defined the essential cellular process known as methylation. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the landmark study emphasizes the essential role methylation plays in the creation of proteins.

Methylation is a chemical reaction where a small molecule—known as a methyl group—gets added to, or 'tags', DNA, proteins, or other molecules. The process of methylation can affect how a cell behaves, for example by driving the development and differentiation of stem cells.

[...] "There are some aspects of the cell that have been comprehensively understood for a while now, such as the DNA sequence of many genomes," says Dr. Hamey, lead author on the study. However, other systems, such as the cell's chemical tagging of proteins, are almost never systematically understood.

"We've used a formal method to find out exactly what we don't know about methylation," says Dr. Hamey. Through a review of all the existing literature on methylation, the duo have come to the conclusion that we do in fact know the vast majority of this process, and there's very little left to be discovered.

"We've proposed a near-complete picture of this system," says Dr. Hamey. "And while it implies that there's not more detail to be discovered in this area, it opens up exciting new questions about the system as a whole and what this methylation tag actually does."

"Our work is about trying to understand how cells manage information and make decisions," says Prof. Wilkins. "This is important as cells make decisions all the time to adapt to changes in environment, to change what they do, to keep on growing or to die."

Something that has been known for some time is that within a cell, proteins can be tagged with small molecules, which serve as units of information or data. But until now we have never known, for any cell, just how many of any type of protein tag the cell has and what machinery the cell uses to put them there.

upstart writes:

Google Nixes 'Downloader' App From Store After DMCA Says Its Browser Can Get To Piracy Sites:

As anyone who reads this site regularly will know, DMCA abuse happens all the time. Typically you see this sort of thing resulting from clear attempts to hobble a competitor, or to silence content someone doesn't want to see, or pure trolling for the purposes of producing mayhem. But we also see this kind of "abuse" stemming from entities, foreign and domestic, that simply don't know the strictures under which DMCA and copyright law actually operate.

A potential example of this would be what just happened to an app called "Downloader," which was bounced from the Google Play store after a DMCA notice from a law firm representing several Israeli television organizations. The app's creator, Elias Saba, shared the details of the notice Google sent to him, as well as his confusion over why any of this is happening, given what his app actually is and does.

"You can see in the DMCA description portion that the only reason given is the app being able to load a website," Saba told Ars. "My app is a utility app that combines a basic file manager and a basic web browser. There is no way to view content in the app other than to use the web browser to navigate to a website. The app also doesn't present or direct users to any website, other than my blog at www.aftvnews.com, which loads as the default homepage in the web browser."

upstart writes:

The International Energy Agency just released its annual investment report. Here's where the money is going:

Money makes the world go round. And when it comes to energy, we're seeing more investment than ever: companies, research institutions, and governments are all pouring money into technologies that could help power our world in the future.

The International Energy Agency just published its annual report on global investment in energy, where it tallies up all that cash. The world saw about $2.8 trillion of investments in energy in 2022, with about $1.7 trillion of that going into clean energy.

That's the biggest single-year investment in clean energy ever, and where it's all going is pretty interesting. I have some good news, some bad news, and a couple of surprising tidbits to share. So grab some popcorn and let's dive into the data.

Let's start with what I consider to be good news: there's a lot of money going into clean energy—including renewables, nuclear, and things that help cut emissions, like EVs and heat pumps. And not only is it a lot of money, but it's more than the amount going toward fossil fuels. In 2022, for every dollar spent on fossil fuels, $1.70 went to clean energy. Just five years ago, it was dead even.

[...] Within clean energy, the vast majority of spending is going into renewables like wind and solar, grid upgrades, and efforts to improve energy efficiency.

But smaller sectors are growing quickly, especially when you look at projections for this year. I'm really excited to see how fast money is moving into electric vehicles: spending went from $29 billion as recently as 2020 to an expected $129 billion in 2023. And spending on batteries for energy storage is set to double between 2022 and 2023.

upstart writes:

Biodegradable plastic in clothing doesn't break down nearly as quickly as hoped:

Plastic pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. Over 100 million tons of plastic enters the environment each year, with more than 10 million tons ending up in our oceans. These plastics break down into harmful microplastic particles so small they can be consumed by wildlife.

We all recognize discarded bottles and bags as plastic waste. But the synthetic fibers that are woven into our clothing—polyester, nylon, acrylic and others—are equally problematic. Every year, more than 60 million tons of plastic fabric is produced, a considerable amount of which ultimately finds it way to landfill.

One promising approach to tackle this crisis is the use of "biodegradable" plastics. These plastics are designed to break down naturally into gases and water, which are then released back into the environment without causing long-lasting damage.

But the reality of biodegradable plastic (or "bioplastic") falls short of meeting our expectations. New research, led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, has found that a popular bioplastic material called polylactic acid does not break down in the environment nearly as quickly as hoped.

[...] The plastic pollution that stems from clothing is a particularly tricky area. Clothes are often not recycled or even recyclable, and they release tiny plastic fibers into the environment through gradual wear and tear.

[...] No matter how the plastic enters the environment, solutions are needed to tackle plastic pollution. Biodegradable plastics are one potential option, but only if they are made from materials that are truly able to break down quickly in the natural environment. They would reduce the time in which plastic materials spend in the environment.

RunningWithWind writes:

AI used by Delhi Police to post an AI altered image of 'smiling' Vinesh & Sangeeta Phogat after wrestling protests. Good article by Altnews with images to show the before and after.

"After the wrestlers were taken into custody, a selfie of Vinesh Phogat, Sangeeta Phogat and others apparently clicked in a police vehicle started circulating on social media, with the claim that the wrestlers were seen smiling even after being detained by the police." - Altnews

https://www.altnews.in/wrestlers-detained-in-delhi-ai-image-of-smiling-vinesh-sangeeta-phogat-viral/

Original Submission