Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Air Force proposes $3-Billion Plan to Vastly Expand Its Drone Program
December 14th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times: The Air Force wants to vastly expand its drone program over the next five years by doubling the number of pilots and deploying them to bases in California and elsewhere to give commanders better intelligence and more firepower.
Disney’s ‘FaceDirector’ Software
December 14th, 2015Via: Engadget: The new tool out of Disney Research’s labs could turn an ingénue’s semi-decent attempt into a finely nuanced performance. This software called FaceDirector has the capability to merge together separate frames from different takes to create the perfect scene. It does that by analyzing both the actor’s face and audio cues to identify […]
LG Chem Quietly Surges in Battery Race
December 14th, 2015Via: Automotive News: Three years ago, LG Chem’s $303 million battery plant garnered unwanted attention when news reports revealed workers were watching movies and playing cards rather than building batteries. As the facility sat idle, LG Chem was shipping lithium ion batteries from South Korea to power General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt — an embarrassment since […]
Autonomous System Aborts Takeoff of Qatar Airways Airbus A350 Rolling Down Runway at Full Throttle
December 13th, 2015Via: Daily Mail: It was meant to celebrate an aircraft model’s first-ever journey from the US, but this Qatar Airways charter flight carrying journalists and staff didn’t go as planned. Nerve-wracking footage shows the moment the Airbus A350-900 XWB abandoned its takeoff attempt as it sped along a runway at New York’s JFK Airport and […]
Tokyo Police Launch Drone Designed To Take Down Other Drones
December 13th, 2015Via: NPR: In Tokyo, police will soon deploy a drone designed to take out suspicious drones or drones that enter into restricted airspace.
Daimler Is Reusing Electric Vehicle Batteries to Store Renewable Energy
December 10th, 2015Via: Ars Technica: When electric vehicle batteries get long in the tooth, they have to be replaced because they’ll start experiencing power loss—which will mean reduced vehicle performance. But what happens to those old batteries after they’re replaced is important if you’re judging a car on how environmentally friendly it is. To this end, automaker […]
Ford to Spend $4.5 Billion by 2020 on Electric Vehicles
December 10th, 2015Via: Detroit Free Press: Ford announced its largest five-year investment ever in electrified vehicles, with a pledge to spend $4.5 billion and introduce 13 new models by 2020, CEO Mark Fields announced today. Fields said 40% of nameplates globally will be electrified by the end of the decade, up from 13% now. They will be […]
Will Your Driverless Car Kill You So Others May Live?
December 10th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times: It’s 2025. You and your daughter are riding in a driverless car along the Pacific Coast Highway. The autonomous vehicle rounds a corner and detects a crosswalk full of children. It brakes, but your lane is unexpectedly full of sand from a recent rock slide. It can’t get traction. Your car […]
Australian Police Raid Sydney Home of Reported Bitcoin Creator
December 9th, 2015Via: Reuters: Australian police raided the Sydney home and office on Wednesday of a man named by Wired magazine as the probable creator of bitcoin and holder of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency, Reuters witnesses said. More than a dozen federal police officers entered a house registered on the electoral roll […]
France Looking at Banning Tor, Blocking Public Wi-Fi
December 7th, 2015Via: Ars Technica: According to leaked documents from the Ministry of Interior the French government is considering two new pieces of legislation: a ban on free and shared Wi-Fi connections during a state of emergency, and measures to block Tor being used inside France. The documents were seen by the French newspaper Le Monde. According […]
