12 Year Old Charged With Threatening Emojis

The smiley face, heart, praying hands and other “emoji” have become the way millions of Internet users playfully punctuate their texts, posts and messages, but for one middle schooler the icons brought the police to her door.The 12-year-old from Fairfax, Va., has been charged with threatening her school after police said she posted a message on Instagram in December laden with gun, bomb and knife emojis. It read in part:

Killing 🔫 “meet me in the library Tuesday” 🔫 🔪 💣

A grand jury in New York City recently had to decide whether 👮 🔫 represented a true threat to police officers. A Michigan judge was asked to interpret the meaning of a face with a tongue sticking out: :P. Emoji even took a turn in the Supreme Court last year in a high-profile case over what constitutes a threat. Such thorny questions are likely to only increase with the recent announcement that Facebook was rolling out a series of five face emoji users can select to react to posts in lieu of its ubiquitous “like” button.

Scott Kelly Returns to Earth on March 1st.

Just over a year ago, astronaut Scott Kelly left Earth to spend a year at the International Space Station. He returns late Tuesday night. Kelly shared one of his last sunrises Saturday morning, claiming it to be one of the best— and that's saying a lot since the International Space Station goes around the Earth so quickly that day and night come every 92 minutes, Kelly tweeted in September.

It will take Kelly and Russian colleague Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov less than 3 1/2 hours to return in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Kelly will then take a charter flight from Kazakhstan to Houston. Doctors will be examining Kelly to see what effect his time 240 miles above the Earth has had on his physiological state. They'll compare and contrast his condition to his twin brother, former astronaut Mark Kelly.

Some facts about his trip:

• 340 days (not quite a full year)
• 10,944 sun rises and sunsets.
• 143,846,525 miles
• 648 miles run on a treadmill
• 400 Experiments
• 713 photos tweeted from space

Band OKGO Creates a video in Zero Gravity

Since “Here It Goes Again,” OK Go videos are always hotly anticipated for their unique combination of creativity and innovation. Their new video, “Upside Down & Inside Out,” is no exception. This time, though, they’ve gone bigger and arguably crazier than ever, creating the first video shot entirely in zero gravity. It's completely mind-blowing, and in true OK Go form, they didn't rely on wires or green screens to make it.

The result of months of planning and sponsored by Russia’s S7 Airlines, the video features the familiar ingredients of an OK Go shoot like intricate choreography, bright splashes of color, and a trippy visual twist. That twist this time is the result of filming inside a plane flying parabolic maneuvers, climbing and diving at such high speeds that guitarist Andy Ross says at certain points the occupants stop moving relative to the plane, creating brief periods of weightlessness.

Apple and the DOJ Collide over Privacy

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a subpoena to Apple, Inc to "unlock" a phone belonging to one of the terrorists who killed 15 people in San Bernadino last month. Apple has refused, citing privacy concerns as the reason. This has put Apple front and center in the middle of a huge debate. The FBI is concerned that the phone has been set to erase all data if the number of attempts to hack the phone exceeds 10. To override this, the FBI is asking Apple to write a new iOS specifically for this one device. This new operating system will have the capability to "unlock" the phone for investigators to examine the data that is on it. This is known as a "back door".

So far, this seems pretty straight forward. The FBI isn't asking that all future iPhones have a back doors; instead they are asking Apple to create software that will be used on just this phone. Apple believes that writing the code that could be downloaded onto this phone is the equivalent of opening Pandora's box. Once the software is written, others could use this software for other searches. As Apple makes this argument, skeptics believe that Apple's true motivation may be that such software will make the iPhone significantly less secure and vulnerable in the future. So the staunch decision is more about business than privacy itself. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle.

In the republican "Town Hall" last week, Ted Cruz said regarding this issue that "we can walk and chew gum at the same time." As the debate continues, many people jump to conclusions without really understanding the ramifications and impact of the perspective. The "walk and chew gum" line is rather simplistic. At the same time, There are benefits and pitfalls to both sides of this issue. Below are two articles that address a perspective

The DOJ's court motion to compel Apple to comply with the court order.

Apple Computer's answer to customers

Why apple should comply with the FBI

Why the Apple Hack is a bad idea

Credits:

http://www.wired.com/2016/02/doj-files-motion-to-compel-apple-to-cooperate-in-san-bernardino-case/

LA Hospital Gets Hit with Ransomware

The CEO of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center says the hospital decided to pay ransom to hackers who were holding its computer network hostage because that was the "quickest and most efficient way" to regain control of the system. The hospital paid the ransom using the digital currency bitcoins, in an amount worth about $17,000, after falling victim to what's commonly called "ransomware" - where hackers seize control of a computer system and threaten to misuse or destroy data if they're not paid. In this case, the hackers encrypted the hospital's data and demanded payment in exchange for a digital key to unlock it.

CEO Allen Stefanek issued a statement about the incident, saying: "The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key. In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this." Stefanek said the infiltration at Hollywood Presbyterian was first noticed on Feb. 5, and that its system was fully functioning again by Monday, 10 days later.

View More: Live News|More News Videos

Credits: 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hospital-explains-decision-to-pay-ransom-to-hackers/

Nike Uses Science To Design Shoes

Nike's sport research lab is a destination for athletes when they visit Nike’s Oregon campus. We might solve a problem they have or help with a performance issue, but the really cool thing is making them part of the process. They contribute performance insights through testing and data, and provide verbal feedback that actually drives our product forward. Generally, what we learn from working with elite athletes, can be used to make better product for everybody. In cases where considerations for elite athlete don’t apply to everyday athlete, we make sure that we are also working with athletes of all skills and abilities.

By eliminating excess fabric, Nike's scientists can give athletes the freedom of movement they need without the extra weight of fabric. From here, the prototype center just outside crafts garments used for testing. A materials library allows designers to experiment with fabrics as they create new products for testing.

Credits:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/g808/a-look-inside-the-nike-sports-research-lab/?

Super Security

Super Bowl 50 wasn't just the biggest sports event of the year - it was also one of the largest security events. Everywhere throughout the San Francisco Bay area Sunday, there was a massive security presence, from the water to land, and even in the air. The Bay Area is already home to a state-of-the-art surveillance infrastructure, with license plate readers and controversial cell phone trackers that could let police monitor your phone.

Since the Super Bowl occurred in the heart of Silicon Valley, some agencies tried out new technologies, including a data collection program that gives law enforcement a more complete picture of what's happening all over the Bay Area by integrating video feeds with agency cell phone and radio communications. Outside Levi's stadium, Customs and Border Protection agencies screen all cargo going into the venue with giant X-ray machines that can detect radioactive material.

Computerized Boats use Swarming techniques

Robots may be the wave of the future, but it will be a pretty chaotic future if they don't learn to work together. This cooperative approach is known as swarm roboticsand in a first in the field, a team of engineers has demonstrated a swarm of intelligent aquatic surface robots that can operate together in a real-world environment. Using "Darwinian" learning, the robots are designed to teach themselves how to cooperate in carrying out a task.

According to the team, the clever bit about the swarm is that, like schools of fish or flocks of birds, none of the robots know of or "care" about the other robots beyond their immediate neighbors. Instead, they react to what their immediate neighbors do as they determine the best way to fulfill their mission objectives such as area monitoring, navigation to waypoint, aggregation, and dispersion. In a sense, they learn to cooperate with one another.

The team is currently working on the next generation of aquatic robots with more advanced sensors and the ability to handle longer missions. Eventually, they could be used in swarms numbering hundreds or thousands of robots for environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and maritime surveillance.

https://youtu.be/JBrkszUnms8

http://www.gizmag.com/swarm-nautical-robots/41607/

The Cloud Goes Underwater

The future of the internet could be under the sea. Recently Microsoft tested its new system off the coast of San Luis Obispo. The company has been testing a prototype data center that can operate hundreds of feet below the ocean surface. The company hopes this will help speed up everything from browsing the internet to downloading music.The company claims going under water could solve several problems.

• Cooling is an important aspect of datacenters, which normally run up substantial costs operating chiller plants and the like to keep the computers inside from overheating. The cold environment of the deep seas automatically makes data centers less costly and more energy efficient.
• Using the hydrokinetic energy from waves or tides for computing power could also make centers more energy efficient. This means datacenters could work independently of existing energy sources, located closer to coastal cities, powered by renewable ocean energy.
• Placing computing power near users lowers the delay people experience when using the internet, which means faster browsing and download speeds. Half of the world's population lives within 120 miles of the sea, which makes it an appealing option.

Credits:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3426977/The-internet-set-UNDERWATER-Microsoft-reveals-seabed-server-says-eco-friendly.html

College Students Owns Google.com Domain ... for a Minute

The Boston Globe reported that Babson College MBA candidate Sanmay Ved believed he bought the Internet domain Google.com for $12 when he was using the Google Domains website registration service last fall. The former Google employee documented his improbable path to purchasing the domain name. His order was verified, his credit card was charged and he received email confirmation.

A minute later, however, Ved received word that his order was canceled. Google revealed that the company gave Ved $6,006.13 — "Google" spelled numerically — for discovering the bug. Google doubled it after learning Ved had donated his reward to charity.

Google is rewarding a man who found a bug in their system

Google's AI beats Humans at Go

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/why-its-a-big-deal-that-google-beat-a-human-at-go/