A Westjet Miracle

A Canadian Airline, WestJet, has created a number of ads (which are real, by the way) in which they give awesome surprises to their passengers. The airline did this four years ago, and this year the company is doing "the 12 flights of Christmas". Here are some of the things they've done previously.

Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee Wants to Change the Internet

Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, is officially launching his plan to “fix” the internet. The World Wide Web Foundation, a non-profit campaign group set up by Berners-Lee, has secured the backing of tech giants Facebook, Google and Microsoft for the scheme, dubbed the “contract for the web.” The British computer scientist first outlined his vision to overhaul organizations’ approach to the internet at the Web Summit event last year. At the time, he said the web was “at a tipping point.” The contract calls on companies to respect consumers’ data privacy and urges governments to ensure everyone has access to the internet.

One major component of the pledge is the requirement that the web remains an accessible tool for all users. Lovett said that, “despite the progress we’ve seen in getting the world connected, half the world doesn’t have access.” He said the contract comes with nine core principles, while underneath them is a total of 76 clauses. “Not every organization has to abide by all of them,” he insisted. “A good number of those 76 will be relevant.” More recently, social media platforms have been embroiled in controversy over the selling of online political advertising. Twitter took the decision to ban outright political advertisements last week, while Google has said it will end microtargeting for such ads. Facebook, on the other hand, has defended its policy on allowing ads from politicians and parties, even when they include false information.



Credits:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/tim-berners-lee-launches-contract-for-the-web-to-fix-the-internet.html

Livescribe Pen Records as You Take Notes

The human brain can only store so much information. How are you going to remember that perfect cider-to-beer ratio for the post-lecture snakebite if you’re all stuffed up with algebra, hey? Thank God for digital note-taking, then. The Livescribe Aegir ($99.95) is no bog-standard ballpoint pen. The next-gen smartpen can store 1,200 pages of handwritten notes that can then be digitised once synced to a computer. The new Livescribe+ app for mobile and desktop also adds the feature of audio recording, making it perfect for lectures with the ability to tap any part of your scribbles to begin a playback from that exact moment.


The Achilles heel of the Aegir is that it only works with the special paper from Livescribe. Use the pen on normal paper and it won’t record anything. The paper is available in several sizes from sticky notes to 8.5- by 11-inch notepads. It does come with hardcover notepads, which are a good size and weight for coffee shop scribbles or inconspicuous meeting note-taking. Like a Moleskine notebook, they have a tough cover that can stand up to being carried around and shoved in a bag. It is possible to print your own paper, but then the dot patterns are more visible, making it difficult to use. The preprinted pads are the best option.



Credits:
https://store.livescribe.com/by-series/aegir/aegir-smartpen-marlin-edition-teal-colorhtml

Parker Solar Probe Studies Solar

NASA's sun-skimming spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, is surprising scientists with its unprecedented close views of our star. Scientists released the first results from the mission Wednesday. They observed bursts of energetic particles never seen before on such a small scale as well as switchback-like reversals in the out-flowing solar magnetic field that seem to whip up the solar wind. Researchers said they also finally have evidence of a dust-free zone encircling the sun. Farther out, there's so much dust from vaporizing comets and asteroids that one of 80 small viewfinders on one instrument was pierced by a grain earlier this year.

Launched in 2018, Parker has come within 15 million miles (25 million kilometers) of the sun and will get increasingly closer — within 4 million miles (6 million kilometers) — over the next six years. It's completed three of 24 orbits of the sun, dipping well into the corona, or upper atmosphere. The goal of the mission is to shed light on some of the mysteries surrounding the sun. Parker will sweep past Venus on Dec. 26 for the second gravity-assist of the $1.5 billion mission and make its fourth close solar encounter in January. As Parker gets even closer to its target, the sun will go through an active phase “so we can expect even more exciting results soon,” University College London's Daniel Verscharen wrote in an accompanying editorial. Verscharen was not part of the mission.

Credits:
https://katu.com/news/nation-world/surprising-1st-results-from-nasas-sun-skimming-spacecraft-12-05-2019

Don't like the look of CyberTruck? Make your own.

YouTuber Simone Giertz is known as the queen of "s**ty robots," the kind of robots that make a mess of chopping vegetables, serving soup, cutting hair, writing holiday cards, and putting on lipstick. Her inventions are clever, the robots intentionally excessive and comically inept. Hilarity ensues; Giertz curses, to the chagrin of her advertisers. But she keeps churning out machines as well as videos, exploring a variety of building projects in her San Francisco workshop—even as she battles a brain tumor. Which makes Giertz’s newest project even more remarkable—and functional. It marks a kind of turning point for Giertz, who says she’d like to focus more on building cars, and not the bad kind. Last summer, she revealed an electric pickup truck she calls Truckla. It’s a heavily modified Tesla Model 3 and, as Giertz’s stylized promotional video states, it’s available exactly nowhere. While only Giertz drives it, it is indeed drivable. She published a 31-minute video detailing exactly how she built it.




Credits:
https://insideevs.com/news/385216/tesla-truckla-cybertruck-update-video/

Dept of Homeland Security Intends to Use Facial Recognition on US Citizens

Homeland Security wants to expand facial recognition checks for travelers arriving to and departing from the U.S. to also include citizens, which had previously been exempt from the mandatory checks. In a filing, the department has proposed that all travelers, and not just foreign nationals or visitors, will have to complete a facial recognition check before they are allowed to enter the U.S., but also to leave the country. Facial recognition for departing flights has increased in recent years as part of Homeland Security’s efforts to catch visitors and travelers who overstay their visas. The department, whose responsibility is to protect the border and control immigration, has a deadline of 2021 to roll out facial recognition scanners to the largest 20 airports in the United States, despite facing a rash of technical challenges.

But although there may not always be a clear way to opt-out of facial recognition at the airport, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — have been exempt from these checks, the existing rules say. Now, the proposed rule change to include citizens has drawn ire from one of the largest civil liberties groups in the country. “Time and again, the government told the public and members of Congress that U.S. citizens would not be required to submit to this intrusive surveillance technology as a condition of traveling,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union . “This new notice suggests that the government is reneging on what was already an insufficient promise,” he said.

Credits:
https://apnews.com/acf6bab1f5ab4bc59284985a3babdca4/Face-scans-for-US-citizens-flying-abroad-stir-privacy-issues

Thanksgiving on the ISS

While you prepare for turkey and mashed potatoes down on earth, astronauts on the International Space Station are preparing for a slightly stranger meal. The meal is prepared not by spending hours in the oven or on the stove like on Earth, however. The process begins in Houston, where scientists prepare the meal and then dehydrate, radiate or thermostabilize (similar to canning) it to prevent it from spoiling, according to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Scientists put it in individual vacuum-sealed bags, which are carried into orbit and kept safe in a locker until Thanksgiving. The food is prepared on the ISS by adding hot water or putting it in a small warming oven.

Astronauts will eat together and call their families to wish them a happy holiday or just to chat. The people on the ISS have been working hard to unload the 7,400 pounds of materials that reached the space station from Wallops Flight Facility early this week. The Saturday launch brought food, hygiene products and science experiments on board. It was the second delivery in a short period of time. Wallops officials delayed the launch from Nov. 15 to Nov. 17, meaning the Cygnus spacecraft carrying materials arrived shortly after a Russian spacecraft also carrying supplies that launched the day before.

Click here for the video.

Credits:

Super Guppy Transports Orion for Testing

NASA is designing the Orion spacecraft that will return man to the Moon, and then beyond to Mars. NASA has been building the spacecraft but now need to test it in the vacuum of space. In order to transport the spacecraft from Florida to Ohio, where the worlds largest vacuum chamber exists, NASA flew Orion in "The super guppy" During this phase, the spacecraft will be subjected to extreme temperatures, ranging from -250 to 300-degrees Fahrenheit, to replicate flying in-and-out of sunlight and shadow in space. The second phase is an electromagnetic interference and compatibility test, lasting about 14 days. This testing will ensure the spacecraft’s electronics work properly when operated at the same time.

NASA’s Orion crew and service modules are being prepared for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But before they hitch a ride to deep space, they are being prepared for a different kind of flight. Soon, the joined modules will be readied for a trip aboard NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft from Kennedy to the agency’s Glenn Research Center Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio, for thermal vacuum and electromagnetic interference and compatibility testing. In this unique facility, which houses the world’s largest space simulation chamber, Orion will be put through extensive testing to ensure it can survive and operate in the harsh environment of deep space.

Credits:

GPS Trackers Give Peace of Mind for Parents

GPS trackers are for people who want to be tracked. Fortunately, small children generally do: Kids under the age of 10 don't want to get lost, and when they're lost, they want to be found. For pure tracking, as opposed to voice communication, the Jiobit is the best product we've seen so far. Jiobit is an American startup, run by ex-Motorola employees. That's relevant because the company has very responsive customer support, and the fit and finish on its product speaks of years in the wireless industry. The Jiobit tracker ($149.99; $99.99 with a one-year contract) is small, affordable, and convenient, with an innovative Bluetooth leash feature. It's effective for kids and potentially wandering elderly people.

The Jiobit itself is a rubbery teardrop, about as long as your pinky finger at 1.45 by 1.97 by 0.47 inches. It's gray on the front and white on the back. At 0.77-ounce, it's almost unnoticeably light. Two holes on the back can take a standard lanyard loop or an included belt clip, which clips securely to clothing. The device also comes with a charging cradle. It's relatively rugged, and IP68 waterproof. Dumping it in a bucket of water for half an hour caused no issues. The company provides a bunch of other examples of how to wear the tracker. It can be tied into shoelaces, for instance, or threaded through a hair band. And the Jiobit is a quiet, low-key design, so kids won't be broadcasting, "I'm wearing a tracking device," to everyone around them.



Credits:
https://www.pcmag.com/review/361871/jiobit

Platooning Trucks -- Not Completely Driverless, but Close

Truck platooning is discern as the future of the transportation industry. In a truck platoon, multiple trucks travel at an aerodynamically efficient distance and drive cooperatively by maintaining the distance. A truck platoon is similar to a train’s compartment like arrangement but with physical disconnects. If truck platoons are permitted to operate exclusively on truck-only highways, it is likely to lead to an integrated business model between the infrastructure service provider and transportation service provider. It may also result in several public-private partnerships for financing the concept of truck platooning.

Furthermore, several taxi platoons or several cars traversing the same route can enter the platoon mode for a more relaxed driving experience and, thus, leverage the benefits that stem from platooning. The advent of new businesses is expected to steer this market’s growth over the forecast period. With Europe holding a clear vision for truck platooning by 2025, this market is anticipated to have a positive outlook in the coming years. Furthermore, the Infrastructure and Environment Ministry of Europe affirmed plans to harmonize rules to facilitate large-scale, cross-border transportation through truck platooning. Additionally, several states in the US such as Texas, Florida, and California are processing applicable legislation and are also getting ready for pilot testing, which will propel the growth for truck platooning system market during the forecast period.



Credits:
https://montana-ledger.com/truck-platooning-system-market-research-key-players-industry-overview-and-forecasts-to-2025/263569/

SpaceX Starlink Satellites Ruin Astronomy

Elon Musk's SpaceX wants to provide worldwide broadband. To do this, they plan to launch a total of 42,000 satellites. That's a lot. There are currently 2,000 operational satellites orbiting earth. The company has permission from FCC to launch 12,000 satellites. Last week, SpaceX has launched 60 satellites which use large solar arrays to generate power. There are a couple of problems with this. First, that's a lot of objects in low earth orbit, and the possibility for collisions with other man-made objects is significantly greater. The second reason is that it makes the work of astronomers a lot harder.

Credits:
https://www.sciencealert.com/starlink-is-being-an-absolute-nuisance-to-astronomers

NASA confirms that water vapor is present on Europa.

Forty years ago, a Voyager spacecraft snapped the first closeup images of Europa, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. These revealed brownish cracks slicing the moon’s icy surface, which give Europa the look of a veiny eyeball. Missions to the outer solar system in the decades since have amassed enough additional information about Europa to make it a high-priority target of investigation in NASA’s search for life. What makes this moon so alluring is the possibility that it may possess all of the ingredients necessary for life. Scientists have evidence that one of these ingredients, liquid water, is present under the icy surface and may sometimes erupt into space in huge geysers. But no one has been able to confirm the presence of water in these plumes by directly measuring the water molecule itself. Now, an international research team led out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has detected the water vapor for the first time above Europa’s surface. The team measured the vapor by peering at Europa through one of the world’s biggest telescopes in Hawaii.

Confirming that water vapor is present above Europa helps scientists better understand the inner workings of the moon. For example, it helps support an idea, of which scientists are confident, that there’s a liquid water ocean, possibly twice as big as Earth’s, sloshing beneath this moon’s miles-thick ice shell. Another source of water for the plumes, some scientists suspect, could be shallow reservoirs of melted water ice not far below Europa’s surface. It’s also possible that Jupiter’s strong radiation field is stripping water particles from Europa’s ice shell, though the recent investigation argued against this mechanism as the source of the observed water.



Credits:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-scientists-confirm-water-vapor-on-europa

Who is Jenny B, and why does she think I'm pregnant?

Women across the country are receiving cards signed by “Jenny B” congratulating them on their pregnancy. Many of the women say the problem is that they’re not pregnant. The congratulatory card comes with several gift cards and coupons totaling what seems like $250 for various motherhood related websites. Each of the gift cards is for a website affiliated with a company called Mother’s Lounge LLC. The company has a Better Business Bureau grade of F. assumed the mailer to be a scam. The mailer is considered to be a scam. However the gift cards, while they do give a discount, actually increase the shipping costs, making the "gift" essentially zero.

According to the BBB:
“On November 7th 2019, BBB contacted Mothers Lounge requesting modification or discontinuation of certain practices of the company. The practices questioned were: 1. Business is sending out “gift cards” from their different online businesses, including Carseat Canopy. These gift cards are sent in an envelope which appears to have lost its return label, when in reality that is a marketing tactic - to make the person wonder who sent the card inside. The card is signed by a “Jen” which is leading consumers to wonder who of their friends is named Jen that could’ve sent this card. BBB believes that the use of these marketing scenarios is questionable. The business also has other businesses include a sheet of the “gift cards” in their mailings. 2. When using the discount on the card for example, carseatcanopy.com, shopping for a product that is $49.95, BBB noted that if you do not use a $49.95 “gift card” the economy shipping is free. However, if the gift card is inserted, then the economy shipping increases to $11.97 (because the dollar amount for “free” shipping has not been met to get “free” shipping). BBB’s Code of Advertising, “Free” section 14 specifically under 14.1.2 states that the price should not be increased, if offering a discount. If the price is increased there is no discount, therefore the shipping is not “free,” nor is the “gift card. 3. BBB also asked that the business include information in their mailing regarding where the business is located - for instance a return name and address on the envelope or include in the information in the envelope. To date, the company has not provided a response to modify or discontinue these concerns.”

Click here for the video.

Credits:
https://www.fox19.com/2019/10/24/who-is-jenny-b-why-does-she-think-im-pregnant/

Mars Rover Discovers Oxygen on Mars

Curiosity, NASA's SUV-sized roaming laboratory working on Mars, has been at the center of a number of Martian mysteries during its seven-year stint on the red planet. In June, its Sample Analysis at Mars instrument detected a surprising spike in methane gas that puzzled NASA scientists. The mystery of Mars methane has been partly resolved, but now Curiosity has uncovered another baffling Martian puzzle: Oxygen is acting strangely and scientists don't really understand why.

The SAM instrument is able to analyze what molecules make up the Martian atmosphere. The atmosphere on the red planet is mostly made up of carbon dioxide (CO2), but during winter, CO2 freezes over the poles, which lowers air pressure across the planet. During the thaw, in summer and spring, the CO2 raises air pressure. Researchers see molecules like nitrogen and argon change in concentration according to the season, too. But oxygen acted differently. It only makes up a tiny amount of the Martian atmosphere (around 0.16%), but it doesn't follow the expected rises and falls. During spring and summer, the concentration of oxygen was much higher than expected. In fall, it dropped back to predicted levels. Then in winter, it fell below predicted levels.

Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/nasas-curiosity-rover-makes-a-baffling-oxygen-discovery-on-mars/

Google Is Capturing Health Data of 50 Million

The multi-billion-dollar health care industry has long been on the radar for Google – and now the tech behemoth is in it in a big way. As first reported in the Wall Street Journal, Ascension is sharing information with Google. In the program called "Project Nightingale," Ascension, a health system that includes over 2,600 hospitals and health care centers in 21 states, is reportedly providing patient names and dates of birth, as well as lab results, hospitalizations and diagnosis to Google. Patients and doctors were apparently not notified.

Google is using the information, in part, to help Ascension centralize its patient database as well as design new software that will use artificial intelligence to predict or identify medical conditions, reports CBS News medical contributor Dr. Tara Narula. Pam Dixon with the World Privacy Forum said digital records are necessary, and so is knowing exactly what companies are doing with such personal and private information and how they are protecting it.

Click here for the video.

Credits:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-ascension-project-nightingale-mining-personal-health-data-privacy-concerns/

The Transit of Mercury

On Monday, Mercury crossed in front of the sun, as seen from Earth, a process known as a transit. Although the last transit of Mercury occurred only three years ago, the next won't happen until 2032 and won't be visible from North America. These rare events provide the opportunity for scientists to gather both new scientific observations and re-creations of historical ones. On Monday, scientists were able to replicate Sir Edmund Halley's experiment, using Mercury instead of Venus. Volunteers, mostly students spread across more than a dozen sites in the U.S., will equipment identical to each other to take simultaneous images of the transit, allowing them to replicate the historical experiment.

Mercury's transit also provides an opportunity to probe the thin atmosphere of the planet. When Mercury is in front of the sun, scientists can study the exosphere close to the planet. Sodium in the exosphere absorbs and re-emits a yellow-orange color from sunlight, and by measuring that absorption, we can learn about the density of gas there. In fact, the transit itself echoes how many of today’s exoplanets are found. Instruments like NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, which discovered thousands of exoplanets, are based on the technique of transits. Kepler detected a dip the star’s brightness as an exoplanet transits, much as Mercury slightly dims the sun as it passes between it and the Earth. So transits of Mercury and Venus provided a foothold into the widespread hunt for other worlds.

Credits:
https://www.space.com/mercury-transit-2019-science.html

Teen wins $25,000 for "Blindspot" removal device

A 14-year-old girl from Chester County has been awarded $25,000 for a science and engineering project that may provide a solution to the danger of blindspot-related car accidents. Alaina Gassler is an eighth grade student at Avon Grove Charter School in West Grove, where she developed a method for projecting a live image of the view obstructed by the portion of a vehicle's frame, commonly known as a driver's blindspot. The image of what is behind the blindspot is projected onto the blindspot, itself, creating the illusion that the car's frame is invisible.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates about 840,000 blindspot accidents occur in the United States each year, resulting in about 300 deaths. The system Gassler developed uses an exterior-mounted camera on the car's structural pillar that relays images onto a custom-fitted projection inside the car. She explains the project, called “Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots," in the video below.

Credits:
https://www.phillyvoice.com/car-blindspot-camera-west-grove-teen-alaina-gassler-broadcom-masters-competition-2019/

Voyager 2

NASA's Voyager 2 probe exited our solar system nearly a year ago, becoming the second spacecraft to ever enter interstellar space. On Monday, Voyager 2 completed the set of data, which indicates that there are mysterious extra layers between our solar system's bubble and interstellar space. Voyager 2 detected solar winds — flows of charged gas particles that come from the sun — leaking from the solar system. Just beyond the solar system's edge, these solar winds interact with interstellar winds: gas, dust, and charged particles flowing through space from supernova explosions millions of years ago.

Now the new measurements from Voyager 2 indicate that the boundaries between our solar system and interstellar space may not be as simple as scientists once thought. The data indicates that there's a previously unknown boundary layer just beyond the heliopause. In that area, solar winds leak into space and interact with interstellar winds. The intensity of cosmic rays there was just 90% of their intensity farther out.



Credits:
https://buff.ly/34yppGT

Twitter Cancels All Political Ads

Adding fuel to the fire in the highly controversial debate over free speech and politics on social media, the CEO of President Donald Trump's preferred outlet says the company will no longer accept political ads. "We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, in a tweetstorm Wednesday. "A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people. We believe this decision should not be compromised by money," Dorsey continued. The ban will go into place in November.

Twitter's recent decision differentiates itself from other companies that have resisted the push to stop taking political ads. Facebook is currently in a debate over the spread of misinformation through ads from political campaigns. The social media company has reiterated it does not think it should be the gatekeeper of political speech. Several hundred Facebook employees have noted their disagreement with the decision in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Dorsey clarified details about Twitter's thoughts behind the decision, stating that the company "considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too."


Credits:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/10/30/twitter-announces-ban-political-advertisements/4101824002/

Self-transforming robot blocks

Swarms of simple, interacting robots have the potential to unlock stealthy abilities for accomplishing complex tasks. Getting these robots to achieve a true hive-like mind of coordination, though, has proved to be a hurdle. In an effort to change this, a team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) came up with a surprisingly simple scheme: self-assembling robotic cubes that can climb over and around one another, leap through the air, and roll across the ground. Six years after the project’s first iteration, the robots can now “communicate” with each other using a barcode-like system on each face of the block that allows the modules to identify each other. The autonomous fleet of 16 blocks can now accomplish simple tasks or behaviors, such as forming a line, following arrows, or tracking light.

Inside each modular “M-Block” is a flywheel that moves at 20,000 revolutions per minute, using angular momentum when the flywheel is braked. On each edge and every face are permanent magnets that let any two cubes attach to each other. While the cubes can’t be manipulated quite as easily as, say, those from the video game "Minecraft," the team envisions strong applications in inspection, and eventually disaster response. Imagine a burning building where a staircase has disappeared. In the future, you can envision simply throwing M-Blocks on the ground, and watching them build out a temporary staircase for climbing up to the roof, or down to the basement to rescue victims. “M stands for motion, magnet, and magic,” says MIT Professor and CSAIL Director Daniela Rus. “'Motion,' because the cubes can move by jumping. 'Magnet,' because the cubes can connect to other cubes using magnets, and once connected they can move together and connect to assemble structures. 'Magic,' because we don’t see any moving parts, and the cube appears to be driven by magic.”

Credits:
sdx

Happy 50th Birthday to the Internet ... Sort of

On October 29, 1969, at 10:30pm Pacific Time, the first two letters were transmitted over Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, ARPANET. And then it crashed. About an hour later, after some debugging, the first actual remote connection between two computers was established over what would someday evolve into the modern Internet. Rather than being directly connected, the computers were connected via Interface Message Processors (IMPs), which were the first network routers. This would allow additional systems to be added as nodes to the network at each site as it evolved and grew. This idea came from physicist Wesley Clark, who is also credited with designing the LINC, the world's first personal computer.

The first letters transmitted, sent from UCLA to Stanford by UCLA student programmer Charley Kline, were "l" and "o." On the second attempt, the full message text, login, went through from the Sigma 7 to the 940. So, the first three characters ever transmitted over the precursor to the Internet were L, O, and L. By the time I was first exposed to ARPANET, it had grown significantly, but it was still primarily a connection between researchers and military organizations. ARPANET was operated by the military until 1990, and until then, using the network for anything other than government-related business and research was illegal.



Credits:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/50-years-ago-today-the-internet-was-born-sort-of/

Amazon Unveils Solar and Wind Projects to Meet Paris Climate Accord

Amazon on Wednesday unveiled three new renewable energy projects in the US and UK, its first new set of green developments since CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled his ambitious Climate Pledge last month. In the US, Amazon will have solar farms in Warren County, North Carolina, and Price George County, Virginia, with the farms totaling 215 megawatts of power. A wind farm in Scotland will provide 50 MW. All three projects are expected to come online in 2021. Amazon has also launched a new sustainability site to allow the public to track its progress in reducing its carbon footprint.

These projects are a continuation of Amazon's years of work to build up wind and solar energy to power its operations and Amazon Web Services cloud-computing division. The announcement also comes just weeks after Bezos unveiled his company's Climate Pledge, with a commitment to make Amazon carbon neutral by 2040, so these new projects may be a sign the company will be ramping up these kinds of deals in the near future. To reach the carbon-neutral goal, Bezos last month announced a new $100 million reforestation plan and a new order for 100,000 electric delivery vans to move away from diesel vehicles. Amazon also pledged to power its global infrastructure with 80% renewable energy by 2024 and 100% by 2030 -- up from the 40% renewable energy it uses today.



Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-announces-three-more-renewable-energy-projects/

Google Achieves Quantum Computing Success

On Wednesday, Google published a scientific paper in the journal Nature detailing how its quantum computer vastly outpaced a conventional machine, an idea called quantum supremacy. Powered by a Google-designed quantum processor called Sycamore, it completed a task in 200 seconds that, by Google's estimate, would take 10,000 years on the world's fastest supercomputer. Google's success at achieving quantum supremacy sounds like a momentous victory. But really, it's just the first step in making this radical new type of computing useful.

On Wednesday, Google published a scientific paper in the journal Nature detailing how its quantum computer vastly outpaced a conventional machine, an idea called quantum supremacy. Powered by a Google-designed quantum processor called Sycamore, it completed a task in 200 seconds that, by Google's estimate, would take 10,000 years on the world's fastest supercomputer. Quantum computers work by embracing the strange nature of particles at the atomic scale. Where classical computers store data as bits that are either a one or a zero, the quantum computing equivalent, called a qubit, can store information that's part one and part zero. Next, a quantum computer gangs multiple qubits together, dramatically increasing the number of possible states they can record. Last, processing those qubits lets researchers explore countless possible solutions to a problem simultaneously instead of evaluating them one at a time. It's lousy for adding two and two, but potentially great for some problems classical computers just can't cope with.


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Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/google-quantum-supremacy-only-first-taste-of-computing-revolution/

Mite-killing Robot

ROCKUBOT is a pocket-sized robot that can help with this problem. The little thing rolls along surfaces and attacks bacteria, germs, and mites with UV-C light and ultrasonic wave technology. According to its Kickstarter page, ROCKUBOT can kill 99.99% bacteria, germs and mites in just seconds. In terms of hardware, the gizmo comes with 4 UV-C lights, ultrasonic wave technology and 24 AI sensors. There’s also a wireless charging and a 5200 mAh power bank for times when you are on the go.

The UV-C light is a chemically-free method of killing or disabling the growth of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. It works in parallel with ultrasonic waves which combat mites and germs. The Ultrasonic waves emit a frequency above 20,000 Hz so are inaudible to humans and pets but repel insects. The multiple sensors along the thing allow it to navigate, avoid obstacles and falls. There’s an automatic and manual mode to choose from. The first works like a smart vacuum finding its way around a surface. The second is useful for disinfecting items such as TV remote controls, cell phones, keyboards, children’s toys and more.



Credits:
https://gadgetsandwearables.com/2019/09/24/rockubot/

Facebook Deletes 50 Accounts Tied to Russia

People linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, are laying the groundwork to do the same in 2020, new information released by Facebook on Monday suggests. Profiles originating in Russia had since the beginning of this year been building a network of accounts on Instagram designed to look like groups in swing states, the company said. Instagram is owned by Facebook. The accounts Facebook revealed Monday, 50 of which were on Instagram and one of which was on Facebook, were designed to look like they were advocating on a broad range of issues across American life.

Although the accounts posed as Americans from all sides of the political spectrum, many were united in their opposition to the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to Graphika, a social media investigations company that Facebook asked to analyze the accounts. The Russian trolls who used social media to interfere in the 2016 election employed a similar tactic, going after Hillary Clinton from the right and also trying to spread a perception on the left that Clinton was not liberal enough and that liberals and African Americans especially shouldn't bother voting for her.

Click here for the video.

Credits:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/21/tech/russia-instagram-accounts-2020-election/index.html

Google Home 3rd Party Apps Listen For Passwords

The privacy threats posed by Amazon Alexa and Google Home are common knowledge. Workers for both companies routinely listen to audio of users—recordings of which can be kept forever—and the sounds the devices capture can be used in criminal trials. Now, there's a new concern: malicious apps developed by third parties and hosted by Amazon or Google. The threat isn't just theoretical. Whitehat hackers at Germany's Security Research Labs developed eight apps—four Alexa "skills" and four Google Home "actions"—that all passed Amazon or Google security-vetting processes. The skills or actions posed as simple apps for checking horoscopes, with the exception of one, which masqueraded as a random-number generator. Behind the scenes, these "smart spies," as the researchers call them, surreptitiously eavesdropped on users and phished for their passwords.

The malicious apps had different names and slightly different ways of working, but they all followed similar flows. A user would say a phrase such as: "Hey Alexa, ask My Lucky Horoscope to give me the horoscope for Taurus." The eavesdropping apps responded with the requested information while the phishing apps gave a fake error message. Then the apps gave the impression they were no longer running when they, in fact, silently waited for the next phase of the attack. As the following video shows, the eavesdropping apps gave the expected responses and then went silent. In one case, an app went silent because the task was completed, and, in another instance, an app went silent because the user gave the command "stop," which Alexa uses to terminate apps. But the apps quietly logged all conversations within earshot of the device and sent a copy to a developer-designated server.



Credits:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/alexa-and-google-home-abused-to-eavesdrop-and-phish-passwords/

LA Fire to Increase Drones

As it looks to modernize its operations, the Los Angeles Fire Department is turning to a number of new technologies including expanding its fleet of drones for a slew of new deployments. One of the largest fire departments in the U.S. next to New York and Chicago, the LAFD has a budget of roughly $691 million, employs over 3,500, and responded to 492,717 calls in 2018. The department already has a fleet of 11 drones to compliment its fleet of 258 fire engines, ambulances, and helicopters. However, Battalion Chief Richard Fields, the head of the department’s Unmanned Aerial Systems program would like to see that number increase significantly.

The technology demands of the fire department extend beyond the drone itself. There are a lot of technologies that allows us to make the drone more versatile… the most valuable tool isn’t the drone; it’s the sensor. So far, the most useful application has been using infrared technologies to balance what’s visible and combine it with the heat signatures the sensors pick up. Training to become a drone pilot for the LAFD is particularly intense, Fields says. The typical pilot will get up to eighty hours of training. For now, the entire LAFD fleet is composed of DJI drones, something which has given military and civilian officials pause in the past few years.


Credits:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/20/the-los-angeles-fire-department-wants-more-drones/

20 (!) New Moons around Saturn Discovered

Move over Jupiter; Saturn is the new moon king. A team led by Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard has found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. This brings the ringed planet’s total number of moons to 82, surpassing Jupiter, which has 79. The discovery was announced Monday by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. Each of the newly discovered moons is about five kilometers, or three miles, in diameter. Seventeen of them orbit the planet backwards, or in a retrograde direction, meaning their movement is opposite of the planet’s rotation around its axis. The other three moons orbit in the prograde—the same direction as Saturn rotates.

The outer moons of Saturn appear to be grouped into three different clusters in terms of the inclinations of the angles at which they are orbiting around the planet. Two of the newly discovered prograde moons fit into a group of outer moons with inclinations of about 46 degrees called the Inuit group, as they are named after Inuit mythology. These moons may have once comprised a larger moon that was broken apart in the distant past. Likewise, the newly announced retrograde moons have similar inclinations to other previously known retrograde Saturnian moons, indicating that they are also likely fragments from a once-larger parent moon that was broken apart. These retrograde moons are in the Norse group, with names coming from Norse mythology. One of the newly discovered retrograde moons is the farthest known moon around Saturn.



Credits:
https://scitechdaily.com/20-new-moons-discovered-orbiting-saturn-you-can-help-name-them-video/

NASA Prepares for 1st All Women Spacewalk

The first spacewalk to be conducted entirely by women is scheduled for Oct. 21, NASA announced, nearly seven months after an all-female spacewalk was canceled because two properly fitted spacesuits were not readily available. Christina Koch and Anne McClain, the two astronauts who were scheduled to conduct the spacewalk in March, both needed a medium-size torso component, but only one was available. The spacewalk did take place — it just wasn’t all-female. Ms. Koch conducted the six-hour mission with fellow astronaut Nick Hague.

Ms. Koch will now set out with astronaut Jessica Meir this month on the first women-only venture outside of the International Space Station. They are set to install lithium-ion batteries to better serve the station’s power supply. It will be the fourth of 10 spacewalks scheduled for the next three months, which might set a record pace of complex spacewalks since the space station was completed in 2011, NASA said. “I think it’s important because of the historical nature of what we’re doing and in the past, women haven’t always been at the table,” Ms. Koch said on NASA TV. “And it’s wonderful to be contributing to the human spaceflight program at a time when all contributions are being accepted.”

Credits:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/05/science/NASA-female-spacewalk.html

Amazon Echo Frames

Amazon is entering into the eyewear business. At the company's annual event today, it announced its first-ever pair of smart glasses, called the Echo Frames. There's no AR here, so don't expect floating images; they're not anything like the North Focals. Instead, think of them as an Alexa-powered speaker that you put on your face. They're designed to look and feel like a regular pair of glasses. They really do look like a normal pair of frames.

To use them, all you have to say is "Alexa" followed by a command. So saying "Alexa, what's the weather" will trigger the glasses to tell you the weather. The audio comes out of two little speakers on either side of the glasses. Amazon says it has an "Open Ear" direct speaker technology where only the wearer can hear the audio but people around cannot. If you tap and hold the temple, that'll trigger the voice assistant in your phone, such as Google Assistant. You can also swipe either forwards or backwards on the temple to scroll through your notifications. Speaking of which, you can also set up a VIP List so that only your more important notifications come through the glasses.




Credits:
https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/25/echo-frames-hands-on/

Summoned Tesla Gets Pulled Over in Driverless Mode

In lots of ways, Tesla’s new Smart Summon feature is classic Tesla. Rolled out last week as part of an extensive software update—which also included updates for Automatic Lane Change; an in-car, 360-degree view while behind the wheel; a new game dashboard to use while waiting for the car to charge; and something called Caraoke—Smart Summon does what it sounds like. If you’re in a private parking lot or driveway and no more than 200 feet away from your car, you can pull out your phone, navigate through the Tesla app, and press COME TO ME. The car will, hopefully, come to you. Like many of Tesla’s products and features, Smart Summon is fun, cool, delayed by a few months.



Credits:
 https://electrek.co/2019/10/03/tesla-driverless-pulled-over-police-on-smart-summon/

Court Issues Mixed Ruling on Net Neutrality

A federal appeals court on Tuesday issued a mixed ruling on the Federal Communications Commission repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules. The court upheld the FCC's repeal of the rules, but struck down a key provision that blocked states from passing their own net neutrality protections. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals also remanded another piece of the order back to the FCC and told the agency to take into consideration other issues, like the effect that the repeal of protections will have on public safety. Net neutrality supporters sued the FCC in 2018, saying that the agency's repeal were "arbitrary" and "capricious," especially when it came to changing its mind on how to classify broadband.

Mozilla argued in its court filing that the FCC "fundamentally mischaracterizes how internet access works." It also argued that the FCC's order to repeal the net neutrality rules was illegal because it "completely renounces its enforcement ability" and "tries to delegate" its authority for regulating telecommunications services to the FTC. The FCC has defended itself against these claims, saying that its enhanced transparency rule (which requires internet providers to explain how they manage their networks), antitrust law and the FTC's regulations on anticompetitive behavior are sufficient in protecting the internet. The court upheld this rule in its decision.

Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/net-neutrality-court-ruling-states-can-set-own-rules/

Levi's Jacket Now Uses Google Technology

Levi’s is announcing new jackets with Google’s Project Jacquard technology, which turns a portion of the fabric on the sleeve into a touch-sensitive remote control for phones. The Jacquard by Google tag, about the size of a stick of gum, tucks into the jacket sleeve and connects to your device wirelessly via Bluetooth. The My Day feature triggers the time, weather, traffic conditions and your calendar. Always Together will let you know if you left your phone behind. It's easy to take a picture with the Camera feature's visual and haptic countdown. Wearers stay connected with simple hand gestures like swiping, touching and tapping the jacket cuff. Controlling music, calling, messaging, navigation and ride hailing apps is all in the wrist. It's also easy to talk to Google Assistant.

You can program up to four different swipes and taps to do a dozen or so different actions, like play/pause music, silence your phone, drop a pin on a map, or set your phone to read off the time or your appointments. You can also use it to have your phone give you details about your Uber or toggle noise cancellation on headphones. The Trucker and Sherpa Trucker jackets with the tag, for both men and women, will start rolling out Thursday in select Levi's stores in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. You can also find them online at Levi.com. The classic Trucker will cost $198.



Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/levis-accessorizes-new-smart-jackets-with-googles-jacquard-tag/

Something or Nothing: Rocketbook Ink and notebook

A paper notebook review on a site about gadgets and living the digital lifestyle? Even with the prevalence of smartphones, the Internet, and computers in general, there is a growing “counter-culture” that advocates the benefits of paper or, at the very least, writing things by hand. Rather than take one side to the detriment of the other, the folks at Rocketbook got their heads together to develop solutions, not compromises, that bridge the analog and digital in ways you may never have thought of before. Besides, the Rocketbook Everlast paper isn’t really paper anyway.

What do you do when walls of text fill every page of your notebook to the borders? Simple: Microwave it! For $27, the Rocketbook Wave offers microwave erase functionality and cloud services that let you easily share and save your notes instantly. Every scribble or musing is captured with the Rocket-Book app, which allows you to customize your file destinations as well as the quality and format of each photo. As long as you can get over its limits on reusability (up to five times), not to mention the ugly pen, the Rocketbook Wave is incredibly useful and affordable. To microwave erase, you put the notebook in a microwave with a rotating glass turntable. Then, you place a coffee mug filled three-quarters of the way with water onto the wave symbol and wait for it to disappear. Finally, you wait for it to cool, and then flip it over and repeat the same process. The Rocket-Book app is simple to set up and use. Once you select a destination and fill in the appropriate bubble on the page, just align the camera with the page, and it will automatically capture it.


Credits:

Man's iphone Watch Calls 911 after Crash

It has been well documented how the Apple Watch has often warned users about potential health issues which allowed them to get treatment in time. Now, we are also seeing the Fall Detection feature play its part in saving lives. Over the weekend, a man from Spokane, Washington posted on social media the details of how an Apple Watch saved his father’s life. Gabe Burdett says the father and son duo were supposed to meet up at a pre-designated location for some mountain biking at the Riverside State Park. At some point while waiting for his father, Bob Burdett, he received a text on his phone from his father’s Apple Watch, which said that a hard fall had been detected along with a map to his present location. At the same time, the Watch also notified the emergency services who responded immediately.

His Apple Watch had called 911 through the fall-detection feature, which sends out an alert if the wearer is immobile for 60 seconds after a fall. His watch messaged emergency medical services at 12:02 p.m., and an ambulance was there within a minute. “I think it’s just another opportunity for the fire service to leverage technology and use it to improve people’s lives,” Police chief Schaeffer said. As opposed to social media or GPS tracking apps, Schaeffer said the Apple Watch fall-detection feature offers extra reassurance by not relying on a person to alert first responders.

Credits:
https://www.news18.com/news/tech/an-apple-watch-saved-this-mans-life-by-calling-for-help-after-a-bad-fall-2319149.html

NASA to Use 3D Printers to Establish Habitats on the Moon and Mars

If the United States is to return to the moon for a prolonged period of time, then supplies will need to be created at the lunar surface. It would be seriously expensive to take all of the material to the moon, so this is where 3D printing could come in, allowing astronauts to construct whatever their lunar colony needed from raw materials. Much of the excitement around 3D printing in space has focused on using it to construct buildings from lunar rock.

3D printing also has the added benefit of working with minimal human involvement. You can just set it to print and wait for the finished product. This means it can even be operated remotely. In theory, you could send a 3D printer to the moon (or any other space destination) ahead of a human crew and it could start manufacturing structures before the astronauts even arrived. The moon is covered in regolith, a loose, powdery material formed from millions of years of meteors bombarding the moon’s surface. This has slowly transformed the top layers of bedrock into a soil-like material made from grains less than a few millimetres across. This material could be used as the material to use in a 3D printer.

Click here for a video.

Credits:
https://www.space.com/return-to-the-moon-3d-printing-with-moondust.html

Lowe's & Home Depot

Home improvement retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s have become the latest big companies to get swiped by class action lawsuits under Illinois’ biometrics privacy law, as a group of plaintiffs have sought to extend the reach of the law’s potentially big financial awards to those stores’ anti-theft surveillance systems. According to the law suit, the retailers have “augmented (their) in-store security cameras with software that track individuals’ movements throughout the store using a unique scan of face geometry,” the lawsuit said. “Put simply, Defendants surreptitiously attempt to collect the faceprint of every person who appears in front of one of their facial-recognition cameras.”

The two retail giants say they use the security cameras to prevent in store theft. The lawsuit claims the stores do not inform customers of the cameras use. It further argues that the stores track customers as they move throughout the store and also tracks an individual if they visit subsequent stores. While the suit does not list malicious use of the videos, however it does acknowledge the companies do not identify how long the retailers might keep the data. But the lawsuit does claim Home Depot and Lowe’s have shared the facial scan information of its customers with others. The complaint does not assert who those others may be, naming only “John Doe” as a co-defendant. The state of Illinois does have a Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) which requires companies that record images of the public follow certain procedures. The suit charges that the companies have not followed the guidelines outlined in these laws.

Credits:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7486615/Home-Depot-Lowes-secretly-using-facial-recognition-cameras-track-customers-say-lawsuits.html

Robotic fish Scare Invasive Species

Invasive species control is notoriously challenging, especially in lakes and rivers where native fish and other wildlife have limited options for escape. Soaring mosquitofish populations in freshwater lakes and rivers worldwide have decimated native fish and amphibian populations, and attempts to control the species through toxicants or trapping often fail or cause harm to local wildlife. Researchers have published the first experiments to gauge the ability of a biologically inspired robotic fish to induce fear-related changes in mosquitofish. Their findings indicate that even brief exposure to a robotic replica of the mosquitofish’s primary predator—the largemouth bass—can provoke meaningful stress responses in mosquitofish, triggering avoidance behaviors and physiological changes associated with the loss of energy reserves, potentially translating into lower rates of reproduction.

The team exposed groups of mosquitofish to a robotic largemouth bass for one 15-minute session per week for six consecutive weeks. The robot’s behavior varied between trials, spanning several degrees of biomimicry. Notably, in some trials, the researchers programmed the robot to incorporate real-time feedback based on interactions with live mosquitofish and to exhibit “attacks” typical of predatory behavior—a rapid increase in swimming speed. Researchers tracked interactions between the live fish and the replica in real time and analyzed them to reveal correlations between the degree of biomimicry in the robot and the level of stress response the live fish exhibited. Fear-related behaviors in mosquitofish include freezing (not swimming), hesitancy in exploring open spaces that are unfamiliar, and potentially dangerous, and erratic swimming patterns.

Credits:
https://www.futurity.org/invasive-species-robot-fish-2161452/

Community Protests against San Diego's "Smart Lamps"

The city of San Diego has installed 3,200 sensors in street lights all over San Diego that monitors pedestrian traffic, among other movements. This is part of an effort to make San Diego a so-called “smart city,” and last week, city officials met with members of the public for the first time to quell fears about privacy given the rise of facial-recognition technology and license-plate scanners. Some sensors gather atmospheric data, but they are also equipped with video cameras and audio capabilities. The metadata gathered by these sensors will connect to General Electric’s “CityIQ” cloud database, which includes data like “the number of persons who passed a location during a particular time” but would not include “personally identifiable information about those persons.”

But now, a coalition of more than a dozen community groups gathered Tuesday outside San Diego City Hall to call for a moratorium on “smart streetlights” until concerns about privacy and surveillance are addressed. City officials said they can use the data to improve pedestrian safety, optimize mobility planning, help first responders during emergencies and provide other benefits to the community. The smart technology does not have facial recognition, does not read license plates or show private property. All data is overwritten after five days unless police download it, according to the city. Some data can be kept up to seven years.



Credits:
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-09-17/protesters-call-for-san-diego-to-suspend-smart-streetlight-technology-ci-privacy-concerns

Last Pass Password Manager Vulnerable

The developers behind popular password manager LastPass have patched a loophole that exposed your last used password. Originally discovered in August by Tavis Ormandy, a researcher from Google’s Project Zero, the security flaw allowed malicious websites to trick the browser extension into giving away credentials you entered on a previous site. LastPass says it rolled out an update for the browser add-on on September 13th, two weeks after the vulnerability was first reported by Ormandy.

While the circumstances for the bug’s misuse are limited, these activities are common on the internet and even if they affected a fraction of LastPass’ user base, it would have cost thousands of users their sensitive data. “We quickly worked to develop a fix and verified the solution was comprehensive with Tavis. We have now resolved this bug; no user action is required and your LastPass browser extension will update automatically,” the company added in a blog post.

Credits:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/lastpass-password-manager-security-bug-update-credentials/

Seals tell Scientists how deep

Enormous holes in the Antarctic winter ice pack have popped up sporadically since the 1970s, but the reason for their formation has been largely mysterious. Scientists, with the help of floating robots and tech-equipped seals, may now have the answer: The so-called polynyas (Russian for "open water") seem to be the result of storms and salt, new research finds.

Campbell and his team drew data from two robotic, human-size floats that were deployed in the Weddell Sea by the National Science Foundation-funded Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project (SOCCOM). The floats drift in the currents about a mile below the ocean's surface, Campbell said, collecting data about water temperature, salinity and carbon content. For comparison purposes, the researchers also used year-round observations from Antarctic research vessels and even scientific seals — wild pinnipeds fitted with small instruments to collect ocean data as the animals conduct their usual travels.

Credits:
https://www.livescience.com/65693-mysterious-antarctic-ice-holes-explained.html

Calif Legislature Moves to Ban Facial Recognition

Facial recognition’s first blanket ban arrived in May, when San Francisco became the only city in the nation to bar police and other agencies from using the technology. Now the powerful software, which uses machine learning algorithms to automatically track human faces in digital footage and match them to names, is facing a broader moratorium. State lawmakers just passed regulation barring all California law enforcement officers from running facial recognition programs on body cameras. Other Bay Area cities such as Berkeley and Oakland are considering following San Francisco’s lead in banning all applications for local police. And federal legislators — from both sides of the aisle — are holding hearings on Capitol Hill to examine how federal agencies are using the technology, and whether it deserves more scrutiny and stricter controls.

From social media to smart speakers, technological innovations have upended entire industries and changed the fabric of everyday life, with minimal public debate beforehand and sometimes significant unintended consequences. What makes facial recognition different is an emerging consensus that it poses a unique and alarming threat to basic civil liberties — and once it becomes widespread, it may be too late to stop it. The bill states biometric surveillance is the “functional equivalent of requiring every person to show a personal photo identification card at all times in violation of recognized constitutional rights,” regardless of consent. It runs the risk of creating massive, unregulated databases about Californians never suspected of committing a crime, and “may chill the exercise of free speech in public places” as the identities of anyone in a crowd could be immediately discerned.



Credits: 

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-face-recognition-ban-california-police-body-camera-20190607-story.html

Twitter's CEO has his Account Hacked

A hacker has compromised Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account. A stream of rogue tweets — including racial slurs — were posted to the Twitter chief executive’s own Twitter account just after 3:30pm ET. One of the tweets posted a Twitter handle for someone who purported to take credit for the account takeover. That account was quickly suspended. Dorsey has more than 4.21 million followers. Twitter spokesperson Ebony Turner said the company was investigating. The company also tweeted about the incident:

It’s not immediately known how the account was compromised. However, the rogue tweets were sent via Cloudhopper, a service Twitter bought in 2010 to improve its SMS service, suggesting Dorsey’s account may have been compromised by an authorized third-party app rather than obtaining Dorsey’s account password. It’s not the first time Twitter had to clean up after a high-profile account was hacked. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg once had his Twitter account hacked because his account didn’t use two-factor authentication. He also had a ridiculously easy-to-guess password. Twitter later said it secured Dorsey’s account.



Credits:

India's Lunar Lander Loses Contact With Earth

India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter found the nation’s lost Vikram lander on the moon’s surface, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials. The Vikram lander, which attempted to touchdown on the lunar surface on September 6, is still not providing a signal at this time, Space.com reported. ISRO chairman K. Sivan announced that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter spotted the missing Vikram lander on Sunday and efforts to re-establish contact with the spacecraft will continue for at least two weeks, the Times of India noted in a report.

The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface. All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander,” the ISRO said in a press statement. “[To] date 90 to 95 percent of the mission objectives have been accomplished and will continue contributing to Lunar science, notwithstanding the loss of communication with the Lander.”

Credits:
https://www.geek.com/news/india-finds-missing-vikram-lander-on-moons-surface-1803329/

The rotation of the Earth

Photographer Aryeh Nirenberg made this 55-second time-lapse video that visualizes Earth’s rotation by fixing the Milky Way as the point of reference and having the landscape spin instead. Nirenberg shot the photos a couple of years ago over a span of a few hours using a Sony a7S II and a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 on an equatorial tracking mount. He shot 1,100 separate 10-second exposures (at f/2.8 and ISO 1600) with 12 seconds between each shot. It took him 37 minutes of shooting to get 1100 images. This animation is made with 20 images per second, so each image only appears for 5/100s of a second.



Credits:
https://petapixel.com/2019/08/24/a-timelapse-of-earth-rotating-around-the-milky-way/

MIT builds a Snake Robot

In the long list of creatures I'd like crawling inside the crevices of my brain, snakes probably rank somewhere near the bottom. Possibly dead last next to spiders and cockroaches. But that hasn't stopped researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) creating a device in the snake's image. A robot snake, if you will, designed to treat the immediate symptoms of strokes and aneurysms. It's a robotic device, in the shape of a thread, controlled with magnets. The idea: use this terrifying snake-thread to clear the blood clots in the brain that often manifest in the aftermath of a stroke or an aneurysm.

Currently, this sort of surgery is done using catheters manually threaded by surgeons. This snake-like device could be a pathway to a more efficient form of treatment because with this sort of operation time is of the essence. "Stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States," explained Xuanhe Zhao, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and of civil and environmental engineering at MIT. "If acute stroke can be treated within the first 90 minutes or so, patients' survival rates could increase significantly. "If we could design a device to reverse blood vessel blockage within this 'golden hour,' we could potentially avoid permanent brain damage. That's our hope."



Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/mit-built-a-snake-robot-that-slithers-inside-your-brain/?__twitter_impression=true