NASA Crew Start 45 Day Simulated Trip to Mars

Four volunteer crew members have embarked on a simulated journey to Mars inside a ground-based habitat at NASA to study the isolation and confinement of exploration missions. The simulated journey to Mars' moon Phobos began on Friday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and will last for 45 days. The volunteer crew, which includes Jared Broddrick, Pietro Di Tillio, Dragos Michael Popescu and Patrick Ridgley, entered a structure called the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, which is "designed to serve as an analog for the rigors of real space exploration missions," NASA said in a statement. In a video posted to NASA's Johnson Space Center Twitter account, the four men were seen entering the HERA structure before the hatch was officially closed and will not be opened until March 14.

While inside the HERA structure, the men will experience up to five minutes of delayed communication with the rest of the world, the agency said. The goal, according to NASA, is to help train the crew and NASA coordinators to practice communicating under these circumstances while ensuring a smooth operation. This is the second of four "Campaign 6" missions conducted by HERA to facilitate research into the "behavioral and team performance of longer duration missions," NASA's website says. The final mission as part of the campaign is scheduled for Sept. 12, 2022. To qualify for the missions, individuals must be healthy non-smokers between the ages of 30 and 55. Applicants to be part of the HERA crew submit their resumes to Johnson Space Center's Test Subject Screening group and must pass a physical and psychological test to b

Click here for the video

Credits:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/29/us/nasa-mars-study-isolation-confinement-scn/index.html

Elon Asks College Student to Remove Tracker App

Earlier this week, 19-year-old Jack Sweeney won a bit of internet fame when Protocol published a story about one of his Twitter bots. The college student maintains ElonJet, a tracker that tweets out when Elon Musk’s private jet takes off and lands. Sweeney has several other such bots that use publicly available air traffic data to follow the private planes of celebrities like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. However, with 180,000 followers and counting, the ElonJet account is by far Sweeney’s most famous creation. And it’s that popularity that attracted none other than Elon Musk to the bot. Last fall, the entrepreneur contacted Sweeney about ElonJet. “Can you take this down? It is a security risk,” he said, according to Protocol. Musk told Sweeney he would give him $5,000 to delete the account and keep “crazy people” from finding out his whereabouts. Sweeney made a counteroffer. “Any chance to up that to $50k? It would be great support in college and would possibly allow me to get a car maybe even a Model 3.”

Musk told him he would think about it, but the two haven’t spoken since. At the time, Sweeney told Protocol he wasn’t bothered by Musk ghosting him. His work on ElonJet had taught him how to code and landed him a part-time job with a company called UberJets. Plus, as a self-proclaimed fan, he got to share a conversation with one of his idols. Now the teen seems to have changed his tune. In a new interview with Business Insider, he said he decided to go public with Musk’s offer after the billionaire seemingly lost interest in cutting a deal. "He went the opposite way of me, so why wouldn't I go the opposite way of him?" he asked the publication. "I've done a lot of work on this and $5,000 is not enough," Sweeney said. He told Business Insider the initial offer wouldn’t replace the “fun” he’s had working on the bot.

ElonJet    Jack Sweeney

Credits:
https://www.engadget.com/elon-musk-elonjet-twitter-bot-221826608.html?src=rss

FCC to Post "Nutrition Labels" about Costs

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously Thursday to proceed with a proposal that would require internet service providers to display certain cost and service information in easy-to-understand labels for consumers. The FCC was directed to take action on a “Broadband Nutrition Label” as part of the infrastructure law signed in November. The label is modeled after the Food and Drug Administration's nutrition labels for food products and aims to help consumers compare options for better deals and boost competition.

New America’s Open Technology Institute, which first suggested the broadband labels in 2009, cheered the FCC’s vote. “The broadband nutrition label cuts through this confusion by clearly disclosing the cost and terms of service in a simple, consumer-friendly format. It’s a common sense idea that we look forward to working with the Commission to implement. People deserve to know what they are paying for,” Open Technology Institute Deputy Director Joshua Stager said in a statement. The infrastructure law requires the rules be finalized by November.



Credits:
https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/fcc-nutrition-labels-internet-services

how nasa talks with stuff

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1486048414626365456?t=Pml6egI69A3lS_Io0nYG3g&s=19

Wordle Bot Banned by Twitter

Twitter has banned @wordlinator, a bot that replied to people’s Wordle posts with rude messages that include spoilers for the next day’s game. The account’s spoilers appeared to be accurate (the key is easily accessible in the game’s code, so it’s not necessarily a surprise), which could end up ruining the game for anyone who sees them. For anyone who’s managed to avoid it, Wordle is a game where you get six chances to guess a five-letter word — if you’re interested, you can learn how to play it here. The answer is the same for everyone playing, and it only changes once a day. The game also has an interesting sharing mechanic, where you can copy and paste a series of emoji to let people know how easy or hard it was for you to guess the word of the day. If you’ve seen a ton of yellow, gray, and green squares on Twitter, they’re probably either Wordle results or a joke about Wordle.

Given that the game is about guessing a word, knowing what the next one will be can ruin the entire point. It’s also one of those things that’s almost impossible to put out of your head — when you’ve seen what the next word is, you probably won’t be able to forget it no matter how hard you try. While this particular bot is gone, Twitter could become a dangerous place for people who want to post their Wordle results — the internet has already figured out how to predict what the next word will be, and someone else could make another bot to do the same thing as Wordlinator. (If you do end up seeing a new version of the bot, it’s best to block it to keep it from spoiling you and your followers.) Before Wordlinator was banned, The Verge reached out to Twitter to ask if it was in violation of the platform’s rules. The company didn’t immediately reply, but the bot seemed to break at least one of the standards laid out on Twitter’s Automation Rules page. Under the word “Don’t!” it lists “spam or bother users, or otherwise send them unsolicited messages.”



Credits:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/24/22899339/wordle-twitter-spoilers-banned-word-puzzle-answers

IRS to Use Facial Recognition to Access Records

The Internal Revenue Service will require people who access and pay their taxes online to enroll in a third-party facial recognition company starting this summer (h/t Krebs on Security). Even those who have already registered on IRS.gov with a username and password will have to provide a government ID, a copy of a utility bill, and a selfie to ID.me, the Virginia-based identity verification company. You’ll take a video selfie with whatever webcam or mobile device you’re using to sign up, which seems likely to cause problems for people with older hardware or who don’t have access to one. According to the IRS, ID.me is a “trusted technology provider” of identity verification services. Anyone who already has an ID.me account from another government agency can sign in with those credentials. Brian Krebs created a new ID.me account and wrote in his post that the sign-up process was time-consuming and glitchy. He got stuck about halfway through the process and had to start again from the beginning, then was prompted to join a video call with an ID.me representative — with a wait time of nearly three and a half hours.

In its “privacy bill of rights,” ID.me says it doesn’t “sell, lead, or trade biometric data to any third parties or derive any profit from the sale, lease or trade of biometric data.” It can share information with its partners with users’ explicit permission, according to its website, and when you register for an ID.me account, you have to accept the company’s biometric consent policy. The company collects facial and voice biometrics to verify identity and protect against fraudulent behavior and to “comply with a request from law enforcement or government entities where not prohibited by law.” And even if you delete your ID.me account, the company may retain your biometric data for several years, depending on “the nature of the data and relevant legal or operational retention needs.” More than two dozen states use the company to verify people applying for unemployment benefits. Motherboard reported in June 2021 that ID.me failed to identify some applicants and that they had difficulty reaching anyone at the company to remedy their problem.



Credits:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/20/22893057/irs-facial-recognition-taxes-online-idme-identity

Sucking CO2 Direcrly out if the air

Imagine 1 million particles of "air." The vast majority of these particles are nitrogen and, to a lesser extent, oxygen. Only about 412 particles are carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse gas. This is a simplistic view of air, but it helps describe the complex task a DAC machine has to carry out -- taking in millions and millions of particles of air and sifting through them to grab carbon dioxide. To do so, DAC facilities use a series of huge fans to suck in ambient air and push it through a filter laced with chemicals that carbon dioxide reacts with and sticks to. Think of it as a specialized kind of flypaper. The CO2 gets trapped, while the other components of air pass right through.

Once Orca removes CO2 from the air, a nearby facility, run by Icelandic company Carbfix, injects it into this basalt layer. Within two years, the CO2 turns to stone and can be locked away for millennia. It's important to note here that DAC is different from other carbon capture technologies, often referred to under the umbrella of "carbon capture, utilization and storage," or CCUS. These technologies have been developed and touted by fossil fuel industries as a way to try to capture carbon dioxide during burning of oil and gas -- that's a whole other issue covered very well by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Sometimes, DAC has been tarred with the same brush.



Credita:
https://www.cnet.com/news/machines-that-suck-co2-out-of-the-air-promise-to-reverse-emissions-will-they-work/

The Jetson One is Available ... for a Price

Startup Jetson says it's not trying to revolutionize transportation, or solve the climate crisis. It just wants you to have fun with its electric personal flying vehicle, which looks like something a Star Wars stormtrooper might use. Founders Peter Ternström and Tomasz Patan first started posting videos of their Jetson One to YouTube in 2019, two years after development started. But it wasn't until they posted their official launch video late last year that people started to notice. In an interview with CNET, Ternström said that since launch, they've taken 163 preorders for the $92,000 vehicle.

According to Jetson the vehicle gets 20 minutes of flight time, powered by eight electric motors. Ternström says no flight experience is required. "We are confident that we can put anyone in the Jetson and we can teach them to fly in five minutes," he said. "And they will have fun." Under Federal Aviation Administration rules no pilot's license is required to fly the Jetson, because it weighs less than 250 pounds and has a top speed of less than 55 nautical miles per hour. For more on the Jetson One and how it works, watch the above video. Jetson says it expects to being delivery of the Jetson One in 2023.



Credits: 

https://www.cnet.com/news/the-jetson-one-could-be-flying-on-the-forest-moon-of-endor

Albuquerque School Closed Due to Cyber Attack

Schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico remained closed Friday, as officials continued to investigate a cyberattack that shut down critical computer systems. The school district originally canceled school Thursday after the attack compromised the student information system used to take attendance, contact families in emergencies and assure that students are picked up from school by authorized adults. Later on Thursday, the district said it needed more time for its investigation. Albuquerque schools, which were previously scheduled to be closed Monday for Martin Luther King Day, are now expected to reopen on Tuesday. According to the superintendent of Albuquerque schools, the district is now focused on returning students to class as soon as possible and is working to identify the problem, determine the extent of exposure, put fixes in place, reinforce safety protocols and increase the level of monitoring to prevent future attacks.

Schools districts have become a popular target for cyber attacks, particularly ransomware, in recent years due to the fact that many are running outdated computer systems and don't have the same financial resources or manpower for cybersecurity that many private sector companies do. At the same time, like hospitals and critical infrastructure, schools can't afford to be shutdown for long, making it more likely that they will pay ransoms to get their systems unlocked. The pandemic and reliance on online learning has only boosted the stakes. According to the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, which tracks cyberattacks against schools, there were just over 400 publicly disclosed cyberattacks against schools in 2020, the most recent data available.



Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/albuquerque-schools-remain-closed-after-cyberattack/

BMW Reveals a Car that can Change Color"

CES 2022 brought in groundbreaking innovations but one that really stood out was German carmaker’s BMW iX Flow Color Changing Car. BMW is terming it as the global first and revealed how they have employed the “Electronic Ink (E-Ink) Technology” for the vehicle. This Color Changing Car can switch exterior from shades of grey to white, and more colors will be added soon. You can trigger the change in pattern using an application. The futuristic E-Ink tech is used for the first time in an automobile. BMW says the “innovations combine creativity and digitization to produce great moments for the driver and passengers.” Alongside Flow iX, the German car company also unveiled BMW iX M60, which is a 620hp range-topping EV from the M performance division.

The driver or the passenger can change the color of the car with the tap of a button on an app. BMW unveiled it at the CES 2022 event held in Las Vegas last week. However, they have also mentioned that you won’t find iX Flow at your local BMW dealership anytime soon. The best thing about this new BMW Color Changing Car is that it is also energy efficient. Stella Clarke, a BMW Research Engineer, claims that “This is really energy-efficient color change using the technology E Ink. So we took this material – it’s kind of a thick paper – and our challenge was to get this on a 3D object like our cars.” As of now, BMW iX Flow can change its color to only the shades of grey, white, and black. But, more colors will be added soon as the project progresses in development.



Credits:
https://www.thetealmango.com/automobiles/ev/bmw-color-changing-car-ix-flow/

FCC Poised to Over Turn Net Neutrality Ruling

A new chapter in the ongoing saga of net neutrality and who governs the internet will take shape over the next year thanks to another shift in power at the Federal Communications Commission. With new appointees from President Joe Biden firming up a Democratic majority at the agency, reinstating Obama-era net neutrality rules thrown out under the Trump administration will be a top priority for the FCC. In late 2021, Biden named Jessica Rosenworcel the permanent chair of the FCC. Biden's other nominee for the FCC, Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], had her Senate confirmation hearing in December and now awaits votes from the committee and full Senate. If Sohn makes it through the confirmation process, Democrats will have the necessary 3-2 majority to lead the agency.

At stake in this shift is whether the FCC will regain its authority to police the internet to ensure that broadband companies aren't abusing their power as gatekeepers. Bringing back the 2015 rules would reestablish the FCC's oversight over broadband, giving the agency the authority to crack down on broadband abuses, such as weak privacy practices or fraudulent billing. Additionally, the authority, which under the old rules was established by reclassifying broadband as a Title II service under the Communications Act, would give the FCC solid footing to step in during an emergency like a pandemic to ensure consumers aren't cut off from broadband service. Since that Trump's FCC Chair, Ajit Pai repealed net neutrality, Republicans have argued that doomsday predictions that broadband providers would abuse their power haven't come to fruition and that investment in broadband is up. Democrats and supporters of the old rules, however, dispute these claims.

Click here for a video





Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/net-neutrality-will-make-a-comeback-again-in-2022/

HR Monitoring Light Bulb

In the last few years, advanced medical tools such as ECG monitors, have made their way into all sorts of personal accessories. But if the early days of CES 2022 are any indication, there’s much more yet to come. At CES 2022, smart home device maker, Sengled has offered a glimpse into an upcoming light bulb that can track your sleep and heart rate with radar waves.

Sengled’s new bulb looks like any traditional lightbulb, but under the hood, it houses a compact radar technology that’s designed to measure several vital signs of anyone within range — including sleep quality stats, heart rate, and body temperature. Once the bulb spots any of these vital signs going out of the healthy range, it can update its light’s colors to instantly notify the patient or the people around them.

In addition, owners can install and pair multiple such bulbs to form a virtual map that can detect “human behavior.” One of the use cases Sengled highlighted is that the bulbs can determine if someone has fallen within the room and the bulbs can automatically call for help.

The way Sengled’s health-monitoring bulb works is that it uses a range of radar sensors to detect the most minute changes in a person’s respiratory and heartbeat signals. It’s a method that’s being actively explored in the healthcare industry mainly because it allows appliances to monitor the health of more than one person concurrently. Sengled pairs the data these sensors collect with its own A.I. algorithms to keep users informed of their health.

Credits:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/sengled-health-monitoring-smart-bulb/

John Deere's Self Driving Tractor

Tractors that steer themselves are nothing new to Minnesota farmer Doug Nimz. But then four years ago, John Deere brought a whole new kind of machine to his 2,000-acre corn and soybean farm. That tractor could not only steer itself but also didn't even need a farmer in the cab to operate it. It turns out the 44,000-pound machine was John Deere's first fully autonomous tractor, and Nimz was one of the first people in the world to try it out. His farm served as a testing ground that allowed John Deere's engineers to make continuous changes and improvements over the last few years. On Tuesday, the rest of the world got to see the finished tractor as the centerpiece of the company's CES 2022 press conference.

John Deere isn't the first agriculture equipment maker to develop an autonomous tractor. But as the world's No. 2 maker of agricultural equipment, it's one of the most notable. Its signature green tractors are ubiquitous across farm country, and the company has won over young fans with its apparel and toy tractor lines. CES 2022 marks John Deere's fourth year at the Las Vegas tech show, an effort by the company to show off the advanced technology in its machines to a new audience. Rather than creating a brand-new machine, the company unveiled equipment that can be added to its popular 8R 410 tractors for full autonomy. Two boxes -- one on the front and the other in the back -- contain a total of 12 stereo cameras and an Nvidia GPU that let a farmer control the machine from a smartphone, starting it with a swipe of a button and watching live video as the machine moves across a field.



Credits:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/john-deere-breaks-new-ground-with-self-driving-tractors-you-can-control-from-a-phone/

James Webb Telescope Launched over Break

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the agency's successor to the famous Hubble telescope, launched on Dec. 25, 2021 on a mission to study the earliest stars and peer back farther into the universe's past than ever before. Webb is currently on a 29-day trip to its observing spot, Lagrange point 2 (L2), nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km). It is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is in good health and will begin tensioning its huge sunshield today, its mission team said today. In a media teleconference, NASA officials said Webb will begin tightening the tension on the 1st layer of the five-layer sunshield on Webb today after two days of rest and power system optimization. Two issues occurred over the New Year's Day holiday weekend.

First, Webb's solar arrays were not generating as much power as they could due to their factory settings. At no point was the space telescope in need of power, but NASA rebalanced the arrays so that they can now work at their peak efficiency. Second, the motors used to tension Webb's sunshield were not staying cool enough as flight controllers preferred. They commanded Webb to change its orientation in space in a way that will keep its motors cooler during the deployment phase. With both of those fixes in, Webb appears to be doing well in its deployment. The tensioning process for Webb's sunshield should take at least three days, NASA officials said.



Credits:
https://www.space.com/news/live/james-webb-space-telescope-updates