Disposable Drones

When most people hear the word “drone” they either think of uncrewed military aircraft or those multi-rotor mini-copters that could one day deliver packages to your doorstep. But what if the package is the plane? That’s the idea behind the Aerial Platform Supporting Autonomous Resupply Actions drone, a cardboard glider that carries about two pounds of cargo.

Cardboard is the first step on the path toward drones that degrade quickly and completely. The Apsara’s final design actually calls for a mushroom-based material called mycelium, which Simpson says should decompose in a matter of days, not months. The next trick: Make the drone’s electronics disappear. Today, the Apsara uses a GPS unit and two wing-flap motors to bring it within 50 feet of a preprogrammed landing spot, but Darpa has another project devoted to ephemeral electronics that could soon allow it to leave almost no trace.

That’s important. The Apsara is designed to be deployed by the hundreds or thousands, to deliver supplies during a humanitarian crisis, or in a battle’s aftermath. For security and ecological reasons alike, the last thing anyone wants is a landscape covered in drone bits.

Credits:
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/brilliant-drone-thatll-deliver-medicine-rot-away/?mbid=social_twitter

NASA Finds 7 Earths Orbiting a distant Star

During a news conference in Washington DC Wednesday, NASA revealed that, using the Spitzer Space Telescope, they've found seven new Earth-sized planets orbiting a star just 40 light years away from us. What's more, three of those exist within the "Goldilocks zone" which could be habitable for life. This is the first time that astronomers have discovered another solar system with seven planets roughly the same size as ours. Even more importantly, NASA figures that with the right atmospheric conditions, all seven could contain liquid surface water -- though the chances of that are highest of that on the three Goldilocks. And, should further observations uncover oxygen, methane, ozone and carbon dioxide in their atmospheres, it "would tell us there is life with 99 percent confidence," Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey said during the event.

"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, said during the press conference. This newly discovered Trappist-1 group lies in the Aquarius system just about 235 trillion miles from our own. All seven planets are thought to be terrestrial planets like ours, rather than gas giants like Jupiter or icey dwarfs like Ceres.



Credits:
https://www.engadget.com/2017/02/22/nasa-we-found-7-earth-sized-planets-just-40-light-years-away/?utm_campaign=crowdfire&utm_content=crowdfire&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter#2558988457-tw#1487886084611

Wanna Help NASA Find Planet 9?

https://www.google.com/amp/gizmodo.com/planet-nine-just-got-an-unexpected-new-team-of-hunters-1792431951/amp

EHang 184 Drone to Fly Humans this Summer

The single-rider, human-sized quadcopter that whipped CES 2016 into a frenzy could be carrying passengers as early as this summer. As the head of Dubai's Roads and Transportation Agency announced at the World Government summit today, the Chinese EHang 184 passenger drone will begin "regular operations" around the futuristic city in July of 2017.

In fact, as the Associated Press reports, the EHang 184 has already been zipping around Dubai's Burj Al-Arab skyscraper, which happens to have a helipad floating a dizzying 689 feet off the ground. "This is not only a model," Roads and Transportation chief Mattar al-Tayer said. "We have actually experimented with this vehicle flying in Dubai's skies."

President Trump Uses an Unsecured Phone

Donald Trump's phone use is raising security concerns. The Secret Service issued Trump a secured phone for his inauguration, but the president has since reportedly used an unsecured Android phone to tweet from the White House while watching television. Trump's use of an unsecured phone comes after an election filled with hacks of the personal communications of Democratic political figures and organizations. Individual phones are easy to hack for anyone motivated enough, security experts say.

The headlining concern around Trump using Android is that he’s likely not protected against phishing attacks or malware. All it takes is clicking on one malicious link or opening one untoward attachment—either of which can appear as though it were sent from a trusted source—to compromise the device. From there, the phone could be infected with malware that spies on the network the device is connected to, logs keystrokes, takes over the camera and microphone for surreptitious recording, and more.

Google is diligent about Android security, releasing monthly updates that patch known flaws. The problem, though, is that those updates are only available to a handful of devices at first, including those in Google’s own Nexus line. Android phones have notoriously uneven security because the operating system is open source, allowing manufacturers and third-parties to put modified versions, or “forks,” of Android onto devices before selling them.



Credits:
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/trump-android-phone-security-threat/

VIZO to pay $2million for tracking the shows you watch

Last week, Vizio, which makes popular, high-quality, affordable TV sets, agreed to pay a $2.2 million fine to the FTC. As it turns out, those same TVs were also busily tracking what their owners were watching, and shuttling that data back to the company’s servers, where it would be sold to eager advertisers.

That’s every bit as gross as it sounds, but Vizio’s offense was one of degree, not of kind. While other smart TV platforms don’t sell your viewing data at the IP level to the highest bidder without consent, like Vizio did, many do track your habits on at least some level. And even the companies that have moved on from ACR—like LG when it embraced webOS—have older models that liberally snoop.



Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/vizio-tvs-data-tracking-ftc-federal-trade-commission-new-jersey/

DHS May Require Visitors to Social Media Passwords

To better vet foreign travelers, the U.S. might demand that some visa applicants hand over the passwords to their social media accounts, a proposal that’s alarming privacy experts. “If they don’t want to give us the information, then they don’t come,” said John Kelly, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, on Tuesday.

Kelly mentioned the proposal in a congressional hearing when he was asked what his department was doing to look at visa applicants’ social media activity. He said it was “very hard to truly vet” the visa applicants from the seven Muslim-majority countries covered by the Trump administration's travel ban, which is now in legal limbo. Many of the countries are failed states with little internal infrastructure, he said.

Tesla Batteries Now Power Homes

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/6/14523196/tesla-battery-powerpack-los-angeles-electricity

A machine can now sort your Skittles

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/06/this-candy-sorting-machine-isnt-the-hero-the-world-wants-but-its-the-hero-the-world-needs/

Solar Panels on Roadways (or at least sidewalks)

One of the most famous roads from America's past could help set the stage for the highway of the future, at least if a project launched by the Missouri Department of Transportation pans out. MoDOT, as its locally known, plans to become the first public highway department to test out a new type of pavement that not only replaces conventional concrete and asphalt but that also can generate electricity through built-in solar panels. The technology was developed by an Idaho-based start-up called Solar Roadways, and is the brainchild of Scott Brusaw.

Noting that there are about 29,000 square miles of paved roads in the U.S., Scott Brusaw said he believes a significant chunk of the nation's growing energy demands could eventually be generated by switching to solar blocks. For those good at math, there are about 27.8 million square feet per square mile of road, equal to 6.32 million of the blocks. At 44 watts, one square mile would be able to generate a maximum of about 278 megawatts — at least, theoretically. By comparison, U.S. nuclear plants produce anywhere from 479 megawatts to 3.8 gigawatts of power over a 24-hour period, according to the Energy Information Administration.

There are many critics of solar roadways, including the Department of Transportation. The Idaho company is run out of the Brusaw home, and the feasibility of the project -- particularly on a large scale -- have yet to be proved.




Credits:
Carson Coppinger &
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/1/12077414/solar-panel-roadway-public-test-route-66

Robots let you sleep more

How many times did you hit the snooze button on the alarm clock today? Getting yourself out of bed and into work can feel like one of the toughest parts of the day. One firm claims to have found the perfect solution, albeit a very Silicon Valley one. At the Beam shop in downtown Palo Alto, California, the employees come from all over the world, including Bermuda and Kansas City, but face none of the normal commuting grumbles.

But Scott Hassan, founder of Suitable Technologies, which makes the Beam robot, says in his company - where staff can work remotely - they're now used so frequently no-one bats an eyelid. Mr Hassan has even devised his own lingo for the situation, calling people physically present "meat bodies" to distinguish them from the robots. "This is sort of futuristic for a lot of people [so] they probably don't understand what that would feel like. But once you know somebody and work with them, just because they're on a Beam doesn't affect it. It's just as if they're there," he says.

Credits: 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38824568