Box: Projection-Mapping Onto Moving Surfaces
October 2nd, 2013Via: Bot & Dolly on Vimeo:
Box explores the synthesis of real and digital space through projection-mapping onto moving surfaces. The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera.
Box from Bot & Dolly on Vimeo.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
Jellyfish Force Nuclear Plant Shutdown in Sweden
October 2nd, 2013Via: AP:
It wasn’t a tsunami but it had the same effect: A huge cluster of jellyfish forced one of the world’s largest nuclear reactors to shut down — a phenomenon that marine biologists say could become more common.
Operators of the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in southeastern Sweden had to scramble reactor number three on Sunday after tonnes of jellyfish clogged the pipes that bring in cool water to the plant’s turbines.
By Tuesday, the pipes had been cleaned of the jellyfish and engineers were preparing to restart the reactor, which at 1,400 megawatts of output is the largest boiling-water reactor in the world, said Anders Osterberg, a spokesman for OKG, the plant operator.
All three Oskharshamn reactors are boiling-water types, the same technology at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant that suffered a catastrophic failure in 2011 after a tsunami breached the facility’s walls and flooded its equipment.
Jellyfish are not a new problem for nuclear power plants. Last year the California-based Diablo Canyon facility had to shut its reactor two after gobs of sea salp — a gelatinous, jellyfish-like organism — clogged intake pipes. In 2005, the first unit at Oskarshamn was temporarily turned off due to a sudden jellyfish influx.
Recovery: More Americans Are Struggling to Afford Food
October 2nd, 2013Via: Gallup:
More Americans are struggling to afford food — nearly as many as did during the recent recession. The 20.0% who reported in August that they have, at times, lacked enough money to buy the food that they or their families needed during the past year, is up from 17.7% in June, and is the highest percentage recorded since October 2011. The percentage who struggle to afford food now is close to the peak of 20.4% measured in November 2008, as the global economic crisis unfolded.
How a Purse Snatching Led to the Legal Justification for NSA Domestic Spying
October 2nd, 2013Via: Wired:
It began as an ordinary purse snatching. On an early Baltimore morning in 1976, a local street thug crouched alongside his green Monte Carlo, pretending to change a flat, biding his time. Finally, a young woman passed by walking alone to her suburban home. Smith wrenched her handbag from her grasp, jumped into his car and tore off down the street before the young victim could glimpse his license plate.
The perp, Michael Lee Smith, was apprehended weeks later, thanks in part to the police department’s use of a machine known as a “pen register” to track the threatening phone calls the assailant had started making to his victim. The court wrangling that followed, however, would continue for three years, and eventually land on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1979 the court upheld Smith’s conviction, and his 10-year prison term.
Almost 35 years later, the court’s decision — in a case involving the recording of a single individual’s phone records — turns out to be the basis for a legal rationale justifying governmental spying on virtually all Americans. Smith v. Maryland, as the case is titled, set the binding precedent for what we now call metadata surveillance. That, in turn, has recently been revealed to be the keystone of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of U.S. telephone data, in which the government chronicles every phone call originating or terminating in the United States, all in the name of the war on terror.
“When they started quoting Smith in the NSA investigation and inquiry, I was flabbergasted,” says James Gitomer, who was one of Smith’s two lawyers at the Supreme Court. ”I don’t think this case should be used as the foundation to justify the NSA. It doesn’t apply.”
Japan: New Robot Picks Ripe Strawberries While Farmers Sleep
October 2nd, 2013Via: AFP:
A robot that picks ripe strawberries while farmers sleep has been unveiled with claims it could cut workloads by two-thirds.
The device, unveiled Wednesday, can pick a piece of fruit every eight seconds by using three cameras to determine which strawberries are ready to pick. A mechanized arm then darts out to snip each one free and place it into its basket.
The 2-meter robot moves on rails between rows of strawberries, which in Japan are usually grown in elevated greenhouse planters.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
PCIe Flash Storage on Laptops
October 1st, 2013A friend of mine showed me his brand new Apple Macbook Air.
That thing is very fast.
There are many articles out there about how Apple used PCIe based flash storage to achieve that incredible throughput—but you sorta need to have the jarring experience of running applications on that machine for those numbers to hit home. I found my head involuntarily jerking backward a lot and my jaw hanging slack. Oh yeah, the machine weighs less than 3 pounds.
Anyway, as far as I’ve been able to see, none of Apple’s competitors are offering any laptops that use PCIe flash storage—even in a heavier and uglier package. Is that right? Is the new Macbook Air the only machine that uses PCIe storage?
Update: Sony Vaio Pro Has PCIe Storage
VAIO Pro 13 includes a high speed PCIe SSD drive standard on all models.
Update: Be Careful with the Sony
GP writes:
I ran across this today. Apparently, anyone buying a Sony for the PCIe SSD has to be very careful to get one that makes full use of the PCIe SSD:
“…Something not many people are aware of is that there are actually two physically different Sony VAIO Pro 13 ultrabook configurations being distributed, those that have been constructed for pre-configured sales and those for custom build. Pre-configured configurations may use a SATA based PCIe SSD, while all custom builds use a much higher performing native PCIe SSD. We were a bit confused as Sony was clearly advertising ‘PCIe solid state drive’ in its configurations worldwide, and even stating that the PCIe ‘booted-up faster, launched apps at lightning speeds and enjoy snappier overall performance capabilities versus a traditional mSATA SSD drive’ In the case of pre-configured SATA PCIe SSD systems, this marketing is incorrect….’
http://www.thessdreview.com/hardware/notebooks/sony-vaio-pro-13-ultrabook-review/
Is Saddam Hussein’s Fortune in a Warehouse in Moscow?
October 1st, 2013Via: Daily Mail:
A cargo of 20 billion euros in cash (£16.75billion) has lain unclaimed at a Moscow airport for six years amid allegations it could be the secret fortune of Saddam Hussein.
The stash, now under high security in a cargo depot, is held on 200 wooden pallets each worth 100 million euros, enough to keep the entire NHS going for almost two months.
Russian customs have demanded the real owner of the booty “presents himself” to claim the fortune, but while a number of bogus and unconvincing attempts have been made to obtain it, no-one has satisfied the authorities that they are the rightful recipient.
‘It is possible that this is the money of Saddam Hussein,’ an anonymous intelligence source told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
The cash mountain, all in 100 euro notes, was flown to Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow from Frankfurt on 7 August 2007 and it has remained frozen there ever since.
Russian sources say the authorities have failed to untangle the identity of the ultimate owner of the money, which – strangely – arrived at the airport without a specified recipient on the consignment.
Research Credit: afterhours
The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act
October 1st, 2013Via: Vote Hemp:
Vote Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), the nation’s leading hemp grassroots advocacy organization and industry trade group, respectively, each working to revitalize industrial hemp production and processing in the U.S., are excited to report that Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB 566, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act. After moving smoothly through the California legislature with strong bi-partisan support, this landmark legislation has now become California law.
Introduced by Senator Mark Leno earlier this year, SB 566 ensures that California is prepared to begin registering hemp farmers once the federal government has given states the green light. The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act will establish a framework for farming the oilseed and fiber varieties of the plant, which are used in a myriad of everyday consumer products, including food, body care, clothing, paper, auto parts, composites, building materials, and bio-fuels. Enforcement and oversight of hemp production would be conducted in concert with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and county agricultural commissioners, as is done with other crops.
“SB 566 demonstrates the real momentum behind the national movement to legalize industrial hemp,” said Eric Steenstra, Executive Director of the Hemp Industries Association. “With Congressional bills to legalize hemp currently in both the House and Senate, California is on the cutting edge, pushing forward with an industrial hemp law that would not only stimulate much needed growth in local business and farming sectors, but ultimately lead the nation toward a federal policy change that would open hemp cultivation to hemp farmers around the country. This will lower our dependence on Canada and China for hemp imports, and empower our agrarian and manufacturing economies to finally tap into one of the fastest growing natural products in the market.”
Mystery Parachuters Dressed in Black Land in Lower Manhattan
October 1st, 2013[???]
Via: NBC:
Police are looking for a pair of parachuters wearing black suits and helmets who landed near the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan early Monday, Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
The parachuters landed on the sidewalk at about 3 a.m. near the Goldman Sachs building on West Street, Kelly said.
It’s not clear what they were doing or where they came from. The FAA is looking into the matter.
Student Loan Defaults Hit Highest Default Rate Level Since 1995
October 1st, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
About one in seven borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans, showing how former students are buckling under higher-education costs in a weak economy.
The default rate, for the first three years that students are required to make payments, was 14.7 percent, up from 13.4 percent the year before, the U.S. Education Department said today. Based on a related measure, defaults are at the highest level since 1995.
