Former White House Chef Found Dead in New Mexico Mountains
June 22nd, 2015Via: CBS:
Searchers have found the body of a former White House chef who had been missing for more than a week after going hiking in the New Mexico mountains, authorities said.
The body of 61-year-old Walter Scheib was found Sunday night near a hiking trail in mountains in the Taos area, the New Mexico State Police said.
“The body was discovered off the immediate trail,” a State Patrol statement said.
Authorities did not provide a cause of death or any other details about the discovery, saying rescuers were still gathering information and more details would be released later.
Scheib was White House chef for 11 years under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and recently moved from Florida to Taos.
Scientists Build Toy Car Propelled by Evaporating Water
June 22nd, 2015The rotor version reminds me of nitinol, which uses a temperature differential instead of evaporation.
Via: Guardian:
Machines that harness the power of evaporating water have been created by scientists in the US.
Researchers at Columbia University in New York have built a miniature car that draws on the process to propel itself along, as well as an evaporation-driven generator that powers a flashing LED lamp.
The inventions pave the way for a new generation of renewable devices that extract energy from natural evaporation and transform it into something useful. Ozgur Sahin, who led the research, said the machines were cheap and could draw energy from water as it evaporates continuously from the surfaces of lakes and oceans.
“Water wants to evaporate. It has a desire to evaporate. If you make a surface wet, it will dry up, that’s the natural course,” Sahin said. “What we did was find a way to channel that desire into doing some useful work.”
Glued to the Screen: A Third Grade Class Where Kids Spend 75% of the Day on iPads
June 19th, 2015Via: Hechinger Report:
When the 24 third-graders in Morgan Mercaldi’s class arrive at the Jackson Avenue School every morning, they take their iPads out of their backpacks and put them on their desks. The tablets will remain there, or in hands and laps, until the children put them in their packs to take them home.
Last year Mercaldi had her students stash the iPads away when they weren’t using them. But she has abandoned that. “Putting them away serves no purpose. We use them constantly,” Mercaldi says.
.mil Follies: How to Blow $6 Billion
June 18th, 2015This is chicken feed compared to the F-35 catastrophe.
Via: Ars Technica:
But the program meant to fix the mess, called the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), instead became a massive 15-year software and hardware development mess of its own, involving five sub-programs and multiple multi-billion dollar contracts. It has been a financial disaster for the DOD. Billions were thrown away on technology that will never see the light of day, despite multiple heroic efforts to pull the project back from the brink of disaster.
JTRS provides a textbook case of what not to do in a technology development program, proving that even a few great ideas can’t save a project that has been over-specified and under-tested, and that remains blinkered to what’s going on in the world around it.
Donald Trump Campaign Paid Actors $50 To Cheer On His Announcement
June 18th, 2015Via: CBS:
The Hollywood Reporter says Donald Trump’s campaign paid actors $50 to cheer at his presidential announcement press conference Tuesday.
The casting notice, obtained by the Reporter, asked actors to wear T-shirts and hold signs for a “big announcement.”
The pay was listed as $50 for fewer than three hours of work.
According to the email, Extra Mile Casting (in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past) was looking for actors “to help cheer him.”
Gotham GR had no comment when reached by the Reporter.
9 Dead in ‘Hate Crime’ Shooting at Historic Charleston African American Church
June 18th, 2015Update: Suspect: Dylann Roof
—
Via: Washington Post:
Police are searching for a gunman who opened fire and killed nine people Wednesday night during a prayer service at a historic African American church in downtown Charleston, S.C., in one of the worst attacks on a place of worship in recent memory.
At least one other person was injured in the assault, which police described as a “hate crime.”
Police launched a manhunt for the gunman, described as a clean-shaven white male in his early 20s, who has sandy blond hair and a small build. Police said he was wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland boots. He is believe to be the only shooter. Police in fatigues, some with K-9 dogs, said they were searching “near and far” for the gunman and pursuing “lots of tips.”
Norval Gun, a AME pastor interviewed near the scene, said the man “walked in, from my understanding, not so much as a participant, but as a brief observer who then stood up and then started shooting.”
Homeland Security to Open Silicon Valley Office
June 17th, 2015Via: USA Today:
The Department of Homeland Security plans to open a satellite office in Silicon Valley, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told a crowded hall at RSA, the world’s largest computer security conference, on Tuesday.
It’s also pushing back against moves by tech companies to digitally encode computer traffic to protect it from prying eyes.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Man Faced 20 Years in Prison For Clearing Web Browser History
June 17th, 2015Via: Alternet:
Khairullozhon Matanov, a former taxi driver, is scheduled to appear in US Federal Court next week to face sentencing on charges of obstruction of justice related to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing.
Matanov did not participate in or have any prior knowledge of the bombings, according to U.S. authorities. However, those facts are irrelevant.
Matanov could be locked in a cage for 20 years because he cleared his browser history in the days following the attacks.
A Grand Jury indictment issued on May 29, 2014, states that Matanov “deleted a large amount of information from his Google Chrome Internet cache” following the bombing, including “references to the video of the suspected bombers [later identified as the Tsarnaevs],” “two of the photographs of the bombers released at approximately the same time,” and “a photograph of Officer Sean Collier, who had been allegedly killed by Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.”
For those who may be unfamiliar, if you browse the web, you have a cache. A cache is a repository for stored data that is used to expedite the process of retrieving data. Caches are used to speed up a process so that data does not have to be recomputed or fetched from its original location and, therefore, saves time.
Because Matanov deleted his cache, he was charged with “Destruction, Alteration, and Falsification of Records, Documents, and a Tangible Object in a Federal Investigation” which could land him in a cell for 20 years.
…
Fakhoury said that the government’s “underlying theory” is this:
“Don’t even think about deleting anything that may be harmful to you, because we may come after you at some point in the future for some unforeseen reason and we want to be able to have access to that data. And if we don’t have access to that data, we’re going to slap an obstruction charge that has as 20-year maximum on you.”
Research Credit: alvinroast, almaverdad2
Milwaukee County Residents Behind on Taxes and Fines Could Owe an Extra 15% to Pay for Sports Arena
June 17th, 2015Via: Journal Sentinel:
Milwaukee County residents behind on their property taxes or court fines would be charged an additional 15% under a proposal to use public money to pay for half the cost of a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Research Credit: bretwalda
GM, Nissan Will Offer Old Electric Car Battery Packs for Stationary Energy Storage
June 17th, 2015The aftermath of the Tesla Powerwall announcement has been pretty hilarious. Now everyone is coming out with stationary batteries for home and business use. However, nobody besides Tesla is willing to say how much their systems will cost.
Via: MIT Technology Review:
The Nissan Leaf went on sale in December 2010, which means that the batteries in the earliest models of the world’s most popular electric vehicle need, or will soon need, to be replaced. Those batteries are not necessarily bound for the recycling bin, though: on Monday Nissan announced the first commercial arrangement to use “second-life batteries,” recovered from EVs, in stationary energy storage systems.
Nissan formed a joint venture with Sumitomo Corp. to develop second-life battery applications not long after the Leaf first appeared. The automaker is working with energy storage supplier Green Charge Networks to redeploy the used batteries in systems for commercial and industrial customers. The announcement from the Japanese automaker came the day before GM unveiled its own battery reuse program: an administration building at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan is now equipped with an energy storage system that uses batteries collected from Chevrolet Volts. GM made its announcement Tuesday at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in Detroit.
