Tesla Orders Battery-Making Machines on Road to Building Its Own Cells
May 6th, 2020Tesla is weeks away from significant announcements related to cell manufacturing and improvements.
Via: Electrek:
Tesla has placed an order for battery-making machines with Korea’s Hanwha on the road to building its own battery cells.
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We previously reported on Tesla’s secret Roadrunner project, which consists of Tesla developing its own battery cell production with the goal to bring the cost below $100 per kWh on a massive scale.
The plan is expected to be announced in a few weeks at Tesla’s Battery Day event.
Last week, Musk hinted at Tesla announcing a ‘Terafactory’ for terawatt-hours of battery production.
It’s unclear where the production would happen.
Tanzania: A Papaya, a Quail and a Goat Test Positive for Covid19, According to President
May 6th, 2020Via: Al Jazeera:
Tanzania has suspended the head of its national health laboratory in charge of coronavirus testing, a day after President John Magufuli questioned the accuracy of the tests.
Magufuli, who has consistently downplayed the effect of the virus, said on Sunday he had secretly had animals, fruits and vehicle oil tested at the laboratory. A papaya, a quail and a goat had been found to be positive, according to the president.
He cast doubt on the credibility of laboratory equipment and technicians and questioned official data on the pandemic.
The president called for an investigation in what he suspected is a “dirty game” in the laboratory, but did not say where the kits had been imported from.
Researcher ‘On Verge of Making Very Significant’ Coronavirus Findings Shot to Death
May 5th, 2020Via: Today:
A medical researcher said to be on the “verge of making very significant” coronavirus findings was found shot to death over the weekend in Pennsylvania, officials said.
Bing Liu, 37, a researcher for the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was found dead Saturday inside a home in Ross Township, north of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner said.
He had been shot in the head and neck, the agency said.
An hour after Liu’s body was discovered, a second person, Hao Gu, 46, was found dead inside a car less than a mile away, the agency said.
Ross Township Police Detective Sgt. Brian Kohlhepp told the Associated Press that the men “appeared to be connected beyond their proximity to each other.” A motive for the killings remained unknown, and the relationship between the men was also unclear.
A Neuroscience Startup Uses Helmets to Measure Brain Activity
May 5th, 2020Via: Bloomberg:
Kernel had initially planned to develop implants, since they provide direct access to neurons, aka brain cells, and deliver the clearest signals. But Johnson has doubts as to how many people want to surgically add a computer chip in their head. This led Kernel to focus on developing a removable helmet.
The team built a system dubbed Flux, which measures electromagnetic activity, and another called Flow that pulses the brain with light to gauge blood movement. Engineers spent years perfecting hardware that blocks outside interference, as well as custom microchips for processing signals and software algorithms that analyze brain activity. Bit by bit, Kernel took things that started out as room-size contraptions and shrank them to the size of bicycle helmets covered in sensors. It also found ways to let people move and act more naturally while they’re being monitored, instead of being strapped to a machine and forced to sit still. “What is revolutionary here is not the fact that you can do it, but how quickly and inexpensively it can be done—and with so few constraints,” says Koch. “It lets people do experiments vastly easier and gets you much more direct access to the brain.”
Quantum Computer with 1 Million Qubits Within “A Handful of Years” [???]
May 5th, 2020Via: Bloomberg:
PsiQuantum, a 5-year-old startup based in Palo Alto, Calif., says it’s well on its way to creating a commercial quantum machine, the boldest claim to date among a legion of hopefuls in the field. It has raised $215 million to build a computer with 1 million qubits, or quantum bits, within “a handful of years,” co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy O’Brien tells Bloomberg Businessweek. While the qubit figure will mean little to people outside the industry, it’s considered the breakthrough point for making a true, general-purpose quantum computer that would be broadly useful to businesses.
“Big Doctor”: Fever-Reading Drones Just The Beginning
May 4th, 2020Via: Miami Herald:
Last month, police departments in Daytona Beach and Connecticut unveiled what was initially touted as a potential new tool against a pandemic: drones capable of taking a person’s temperature from 300 feet in the air.
Both agencies quickly backtracked on using the machines to track the novel coronavirus after backlash from civil liberty groups warning about the implications of a “Big Doctor” in the sky singling out people simply for running a fever, when it might be nothing more than a more common and less deadly flu.
They raised other concerns as well: Are cops supposed to be monitoring health information that is private under federal law? Are drone readings, even with sophisticated infrared sensors, a trustworthy way to protect public health without violating individual rights?
“It collects data and information on everybody without guaranteeing it’s accurate,” said Kara Gross, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. “Not only that, the other people around the person may have COVID. So the information could be bad and inaccurate.”
The drones are just one example of what some civil rights advocates fear could be a looming wave of intrusive technology and constitutionally questionable measures pushed by governments — from local to state to federal — under the mission of protecting a fearful community.
Facing Meat Shortages, Some Americans Turn to Hunting During Pandemic
May 4th, 2020Via: Reuters:
Game and fish agencies from Minnesota to New Mexico have reported an increase in either hunting license sales, permit applications, or both this spring.
Indiana saw a 28% jump in turkey license sales during the first week of the season as hunters likely had more time to get out into the woods, said Marty Benson, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Firearm manufacturers have reported sales increases, and the FBI carried out 3.74 million background checks in March, a record for any month.
That followed a decline of 255,000 in the number of hunters between 2016 and 2020, based on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service license data, a 2% fall, as fewer young people took up the activity, hunting advocates say.
Hank Forester of Quality Deer Management Association expects a resurgence after many Americans saw empty meat shelves at the grocery store for the first time during March and April.
“People are starting to consider self-reliance and where their food comes from,” said Forester of the hunter research and training group. “We’re all born hunters.”
Nurse in New York Thinks Cases of Medical Incompetence She’s Witnessing Amount to Murder
May 4th, 2020Update: Copy on LBRY
Videos on LBRY might struggle with buffering when there aren’t enough peers, but there is a download link for this.
Via: LBRY:
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Update: Video Removed from Facebook
Someone copied it to YouTube, from where it will probably be removed soon.
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This won’t be up for long.
Via: Nicole Sirotek – Facebook:
Coronavirus Health Passports for UK ‘Possible in Months’
May 3rd, 2020Here we go.
Via: Guardian:
Tech firms are in talks with ministers about creating health passports to help Britons return safely to work using coronavirus testing and facial recognition.
Facial biometrics could be used to help provide a digital certificate – sometimes known as an immunity passport – proving which workers have had Covid-19, as a possible way of easing the impact on the economy and businesses from ongoing physical distancing even after current lockdown measures are eased.
The UK-based firm Onfido, which specialises in verifying people’s identities using facial biometrics, has delivered detailed plans to the government and is involved in a number of conversations about what could be rolled out across the country, it is understood.
The Models, the Tests and Now the Consequences
May 3rd, 2020Related: Corbett Report:
Via: William Engdahl:
Two major models are being used in the West since the alleged spread of coronavirus to Europe and USA to “predict” and respond to the spread of COVID-19 illness. One was developed at Imperial College of London. The second was developed, with emphasis on USA effects, by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle, near the home of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. What few know is that both groups owe their existence to generous funding by a tax exempt foundation that stands to make literally billions on purported vaccines and other drugs to treat coronavirus—The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
