The Mine Kafon
November 20th, 2012Via: Massoud Hassani:
Research Credit: HPLovecraft666
‘Something Wonderful’ Happened in the World of Space Sim Video Games
November 20th, 2012This is really Off Topic, but I thought that some of you would enjoy the bird-flipping audacity of this project.
Chris Roberts, a veteran game designer, wanted to make a game that no venture capitalists were interested in backing.
So he raised $6.2 million from individuals, which is the largest amount ever raised for a crowdfunded videogame, to make it happen.
Via: Star Citizen:
The traditional publishers don’t believe in PC or Space Sims. Venture Capitalists only want to back mobile or social gaming startups.
I say they’re wrong. I say that there is a large audience of PC gamers that want sophisticated games built for their platform. And inside this audience, a significant group of people that have always loved space games, and if given a quality one again will be happy to play it.
Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now
November 20th, 2012Via: NPR:
Scientists working on NASA’s six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it’s a good problem.
They have some exciting new results from one of the rover’s instruments. On the one hand, they’d like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.
It’s a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results. At the same time, they’re cautious because no one likes to make a big announcement and then have to say “never mind.”
The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. “We’re getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting,” John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That’s where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. “The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down,” says Grotzinger.
SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.
Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” he says.
Grotzinger can see the pained look on my face as I wait, hoping he’ll tell me what the heck he’s found, but he’s not providing any more information.
“No country on Earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” Says Man Who Regularly Bombs Pakistan and Yemen
November 20th, 2012Via: Reason:
Speaking in Thailand Sunday, President Obama defended Israel’s counter-assault on Hamas in the Gaza Strip by saying, “There’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.” More from MSNBC:
“Let’s understand what the precipitating event here that’s causing the current crisis and that was an ever-escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in Israeli territory but in areas that are populated, and there’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” Obama said at press conference in Thailand at the start of a three-nation tour in Asia.
“So we are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians.”
“Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory.”
That is a very interesting thing to say at a time when the U.S. is regularly raining missiles down on Pakistan and Yemen.
Stanford Researchers Advance Performance of Thought-Controlled Computer Cursors
November 20th, 2012Via: Stanford University:
Stanford researchers have designed the fastest, most accurate mathematical algorithm yet for brain-implantable prosthetic systems that can help disabled people maneuver computer cursors with their thoughts. The algorithm’s speed, accuracy and natural movement approach those of a real arm.
Homeland Security Spent $430-Million To Tune Its Radios To A New Frequency, And Failed
November 20th, 2012Via: TechDirt:
Of 479 radio users the DHS inspector general tested, only one knew how to tune into the common channel, the report stated. Personnel either were unaware the channel existed, could not find it, or switched to an outdated channel inherited from the Treasury Department.
“Personnel do not have interoperable communications that they can rely on during daily operations, planned events and emergencies,” acting IG Charles K. Edwards wrote in the report.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots
November 19th, 2012Via: Human Rights Watch:
Governments should pre-emptively ban fully autonomous weapons because of the danger they pose to civilians in armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These future weapons, sometimes called “killer robots,” would be able to choose and fire on targets without human intervention.
The 50-page report, “Losing Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots,” outlines concerns about these fully autonomous weapons, which would inherently lack human qualities that provide legal and non-legal checks on the killing of civilians. In addition, the obstacles to holding anyone accountable for harm caused by the weapons would weaken the law’s power to deter future violations.
“Giving machines the power to decide who lives and dies on the battlefield would take technology too far,” said Steve Goose, Arms Division director at Human Rights Watch. “Human control of robotic warfare is essential to minimizing civilian deaths and injuries.”
“Losing Humanity” is the first major publication about fully autonomous weapons by a nongovernmental organization and is based on extensive research into the law, technology, and ethics of these proposed weapons. It is jointly published by Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic.
14 Year Old Girl Invents New Solar Water Purification System
November 18th, 2012Her presentation describes how it works:
Via: Good News Network:
A 14-year-old New York student was named “America’s Top Young Scientist” for inventing a solar-powered water jug that changes dirty water into purified drinking water.
Deepika Kurup not only surpassed 9 finalists with her science and math skills to win $25,000 from Discovery Education and 3M, she persuaded the judges with a dynamic five-minute LIVE presentation about the plight of a billion poor people who have no access to clean drinking water.
The cost effective and sustainable water-purification system, which harnesses solar energy to disinfect contaminated water uses her own innovative process designed to overcome current problems with portable purification. Her process can kill many types of bacteria in a fraction of the time of other methods.
Research Credit: Eileen
Photo Gallery: Hurricane Sandy: The Long Recovery
November 18th, 2012Via: The Atlantic:
Sixteen days after the landfall of superstorm Sandy, much recovery work remains to be done. After Katrina in 2005, Sandy is the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States, and New York and New Jersey have suffered most of the estimated $50 billion in damages. Most who lost power have had it restored by now, but many still remain without electricity or heat. Thousands of residents are still unable to return to their homes, and a lack of temporary shelter is making problems worse. More than two weeks after disaster struck, the long journey to full recovery has only just started.
Research Credit: Eileen
You Might Be a Terrorist If… (Your Watch Looks Weird Edition)
November 18th, 2012Via: AP:
A Southern California man was arrested at Oakland International Airport after security officers found him wearing an unusual watch they said could be used to make a timing device for a bomb, authorities said Friday.
Geoffrey McGann, 49, of Rancho Palos Verdes was taken into custody Thursday night after he tried to pass through airport security with an ornate watch that had switches, wires and fuses, according to Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.
A bomb squad arrived within five minutes and determined there were no explosive materials in the watch, Nelson said. The checkpoint was closed while officers secured the area.
McGann was taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin where he was charged with possessing materials to make an explosive device, sheriff’s officials said. He was still in custody Friday night and could not be reached for comment.
McGann told Transportation Security Administration officers that he’s an artist and the watch is art, Nelson said.
