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.

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