Now you won't be late to 1st period: Flying cars

Flying cars, that perennial dream for futurists that always seem to be at least five years away, may be a little closer to reality than we realize. A lot of prototypes have been showcased recently, and a lot of money is being tossed around. More people than ever seem to buy into the crazy notion that in the near future we’ll be buzzing between rooftops in private, autonomous drones. Today, Munich-based Lilium Aviation announced an important milestone: the first test flight of its all-electric, two-seater, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype.

During the tests, the jet was piloted remotely, but its operators say their first manned flight is close-at-hand. And Lilium claims that its electric battery “consumes around 90 percent less energy than drone-style aircraft,” enabling the aircraft to achieve a range of 300 kilometers (183 miles) with a maximum cruising speed of 300 kph (183 mph). In many ways, electric-powered aviation is still in its infancy. Electric cars with thousand-pound batteries generally max out at 300 miles per charge. The most sophisticated electric aircraft today can barely muster an hour aloft at 99 mph — and that’s without vertical take-off and landing. But Patrick Nathen, co-founder of Lilium Jet and the startup’s head of calculation and design, said their battery technology will get the job done.




Credits:
http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/20/15369850/lilium-jet-flying-car-first-flight-vtol-aviation-munich

New News -- WikiTribune

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is launching a new online publication which will aim to fight fake news by pairing professional journalists with an army of volunteer community contributors. Wikitribune plans to pay for the reporters by raising money from a crowdfunding campaign. Wales intends to cover general issues, such as US and UK politics, through to specialist science and technology.

Describing Wikitribune as “news by the people and for the people,” Wales said: “This will be the first time that professional journalists and citizen journalists will work side-by-side as equals writing stories as they happen, editing them live as they develop, and at all times backed by a community checking and rechecking all facts.” Although the site is launching at the beginning of the UK general election campaign, Wales said the impetus for the project came from the US. Like Wikipedia, Wales’s new project will be free to access. The publication is launching on Tuesday 25 April with a crowdfunding campaign pre-selling monthly “support packages” to fund the initial journalists. The first issue will follow soon after.

Credits: 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-to-fight-fake-news-with-new-wikitribune-site

Peggy Witson Breaks Records in Space

President Trump called the International Space Station Monday for a videochat watched by thousands of school kids, congratulating commander Peggy Whitson on becoming America’s most experienced astronaut and jokingly promising to get Americans to Mars “during my first term or, at worst, during my second term.” Joined by astronaut Kate Rubins and daughter Ivanka Trump at the White House, the president said Whitson’s record marked “a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight.”
Whitson, making her third spaceflight and second as commander of the space station, said it was “an honor for me to represent all the folks at NASA who make spaceflight possible and who make me setting this record feasible.” On Monday, around 1:27 a.m. EDT (GMT-5), Whitson became America’s most experienced astronaut when her total time in space moved past Jeff Williams’ mark of 534 days two hours and 48 minutes. When she returns to Earth Sept. 3, her total time in space will stand at 666 days, moving her up to eighth in the world.
Click here for the video.
Credits: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-calls-space-station-astronaut-peggy-whitson-sets-record/

March for Science -- Silicon Valley

Saturday was Earth Day. It was also March for Science. Here are some signs from the Silicon Valley march.

Science in America

https://youtu.be/8MqTOEospfo

Robert Taylor, Computer and Internet Pioneer, Dies

Robert Taylor, a computer scientist who was instrumental in the creation of the internet and modern computer, has died. He was 85. While many people played a role in building the internet, few made as many contributions as Taylor. As a researcher for the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1966, Taylor was frustrated that he had to use three separate terminals to communicate with researchers through incompatible computer systems. His solution was Arpanet, a single computer network to link each project with the others that would evolve into what we now know as the internet. Taylor correctly predicted the network would one day become an efficient and necessary utility for the public.

In 1970, Taylor moved on to Xerox's famous Palo Alto Research Center, where he oversaw design and creation of the Alto, considered a pioneer in personal computers. The Alto was the first computer designed to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface, a concept to be copied by the operating systems that would follow.

	ARPANET -- The first network of computers able to communicate across phone lines.
	The Mouse -- Prior to its use, all action on a computer were done by typing. Steve Jobs and Apple computer used this innovation in their Macintosh computer in 1984.
	Graphical User Interface -- Along with the mouse came a new operating system that utilized GUI. This OS allowed users to click on images to select and open them.
	WYSIWYG -- The Bravo word processing programming language was the first to appear on the screen precisely as the document would be printed. As obvious as this seems today, this was a major evolution in computing.

Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/computer-and-internet-pioneer-robert-taylor-dies-at-85/

Hacker Turns On All 156 Tornado Sirens in Dallas

Dallas residents were jolted out of bed recenyly after a hacker triggered all the city's emergency sirens, setting off a wave of panic and confusion. All 156 emergency sirens were activated around 11:40 p.m. in what appeared to be a hacking incident that "woke up a lot of people," Sana Syed, managing director of public information for the city of Dallas, said at a news conference on Saturday.

As the sirens blared, frightened residents called emergency services and took to social media to voice concern and learn what had happened. Emergency dispatchers received around 4,400 calls between 11:40 and 3:00 a.m., Syed said. The rush of inquiries caused a backlog, forcing some callers to wait up to six minutes to speak with emergency personnel. In response to the deluge of inquiries, the city's FBI office posted a tweet informing residents there was "no active emergency."

Credits:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/08/us/dallas-alarm-hack/

Marine Biology Insprires Robotics Team

Last week at Soft Robotics in Cambridge, Mass. a staff member places heart-shaped marshmallow Peeps on a conveyor belt. A mechanical arm snatches them up, one by one, setting them gently in a nearby box. It isn’t much of a celebration, really. But it is a triumph of sorts. Soft Robotics’ RL7 and other grippers can reliably perform some of the physical tasks we do countless times a day but have learned to take for granted. They can pick up a pliable object and put it where it needs to go, all without having to identify the object with computer vision systems, or any kind of pre-programming.

Besides the pink Peeps, the startup’s lab is littered with a bizarre array of objects. There are bags of peanuts and various types of produce on one side, a knockoff Furby and plastic Frozen toys across the room. The lab has the makings of a terrible dollar store, each object chosen for its inconsistency of shape, Soft Robotics CEO Carl Vause acknowledges. But the inventory represents a good cross-section of real-world products, he explained. Founded in 2013, Soft Robotics’ grippers are already being used by manufacturers and retailers to pick and pack everything from chocolates to injection-molded parts to uncooked pizza dough. The grippers don’t look like a human hand. Instead, they are comprised of a cartoonish quartet of rubbery, bright blue fingers that snap onto their target like an octopus clutching its prey.


Credits:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/01/soft-robotics-grippers/

3D Printed Prosthetics Help Kids

They've printed 3D models of everything from their own heads to heel fractures, and now a group at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) is using their lab to create prosthetic hands for children and young adults in Zimbabwe. "There is a great need for this. Statistically in Zimbabwe seven per cent of the population has some form of disability," said Bo Simango, the assistive technology and outreach lead with MUN Med 3D. "And that amounts to 900,000 people."

The group was started about a year ago by two medical students — Michael Bartellas and Stephen Ryan — with a $25,000 grant and an interest in applying 3D printing technology to the medical field. Now they're planning to create hand prosthetics for 15 young people at the Jairos Jiri Southerton Children's Centre in Harare. The hands are made from polylactic acid plastic, and it only takes about seven dollars worth of the material to make a child-sized prosthetic.


Credits:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/3d-printer-prosthetic-hands-1.4052760

Circle by Disney

Circle with Disney, a device that helps parents manage their home’s internet rules and restrictions, wants to be more than just a modern-day net nanny. Already, it had differentiated itself from competing software solutions, by offering a licensed selection of Disney content – like games, videos, trailers and more – to make its service more appealing. Today, it’s taking a step at becoming a more expansive “smart family” platform, through a series of integrations that let Circle work with services that reward kids for chores or meeting activity goals, those that limit distracted driving, those that filter social media, and more.

Amazon Alexa will also work with Circle, allowing parents to ask questions about their kid’s screen time usage. And kids can ask Alexa about their own time limits, as well. The feature is called “Circle Connections,” but it’s not fully live at this time. Instead, the company is the unveiling its larger roadmap of integrations planned for the upcoming year. Today, only the first integration – with FamilyTech apps – is actually available. FamilyTech has a number of apps, including MotherShp, ChoreMonster, and Landra, which help kids earn rewards by performing chores around the house. With Circle, those rewards can now be added screen time or later bedtimes, at parents’ discretion.



Credits: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/08/parental-control-service-circle-with-disney-to-help-with-distracted-driving-social-media-kids-chores-more/

I'm feeling Woof

OK, Google, who's a good boy? For its April Fools' prank this year, Google unveiled apps for your cats and dogs for both iOS and Android, giving the internet to our furry friends. After countless cute photos and memes of puppies and kittens, it's only fair we let them browse through it, too. Welcome to the internet, cats and dogs, please don't dig through my Twitter history. The search engine giant has built a reputation out of April Fools' Day, tricking visitors each year. Last year's "Drop the Mic" joke backfired when it got rid of a feature that people actually use on Gmail. As part of its long-standing April 1 tradition, the company has also hinted at Pokemon Go two years before it actually came out, declared an end to YouTube and announced the Google Nose wearable.

"Wouldn't it be great to keep them occupied when we're not around?" asks the Google commercial for the April Fool's gag as the camera pans to an expectant-looking cat sitting in a suitcase, staring up at its soon-to-be-leaving owner. For most pet parents, the answer is obviously yes. It'd be nice to know that your dog has sometime else to do other than sleep, stare out the window, eat your shows, or bark at the neighbors. Or something that might entertain your cat enough to discourage him/her from plotting your ultimate downfall. The "I'm Feeling Woof" (or "meow") options on your devices would not only allow your pets to stimulate themselves mentally, but would also lower your guilt for most likely making their existences revolve around being scratched behind the ears and waiting to be taken outside when you're in the mood.



Credits:
https://www.blog.google/products/search/throwing-your-dog-bone-google-now-works-purr-fectly-your-furry-friends/