Humanoid Robot Prototype Capable of Heavy Labor
November 16th, 2018Via: PhysOrg:
Researchers have developed a humanoid robot prototype, HRP-5P, intended to autonomously perform heavy labor or work in hazardous environments.
As a 182 cm, 101 kg humanoid robot, HRP-5P was built on HRP series technologies by incorporating new hardware technologies. Within the series, it has unsurpassed physical capabilities. Its robot intelligence comprises environmental measurement and object recognition, full-body motion planning and control, task description and execution management, and highly reliable systemization technologies. Housing the intelligence in this body has enabled autonomous gypsum board installation by the robot, which is a typical example of heavy labor at construction sites. The use of HRP-5P, as a development platform, in collaboration between industry and academia promises to accelerate R&D toward practical application of humanoid robots at building construction sites and in assembly of large structures such as aircraft and ships.
Pentagon Fails Its First-Ever Audit
November 16th, 2018Shocker.
Via: Reuters:
The Pentagon has failed what is being called its first-ever comprehensive audit, a senior official said on Thursday, finding U.S. Defense Department accounting discrepancies that could take years to resolve.
Results of the inspection – conducted by some 1,200 auditors and examining financial accounting on a wide range of spending including on weapons systems, military personnel and property – were expected to be completed later in the day.
“We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters, adding that the findings showed the need for greater discipline in financial matters within the Pentagon.
“It was an audit on a $2.7 trillion dollar organization, so the fact that we did the audit is substantial,” Shanahan added.
Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely on a CPAP Machine Hacker
November 16th, 2018Via: Vice:
An Australian hacker has spent thousands of hours hacking the DRM that medical device manufacturers put on CPAP machines to create a free tool that lets patients modify their treatment.
The U.S. Military Testing Stratospheric Balloons That Never Have to Come Down
November 15th, 2018Via: MIT Technology Review:
DARPA, the US military’s research arm, thinks it may have cracked the problem. It is currently testing a wind sensor that could allow devices in its Adaptable Lighter-Than-Air (ALTA) balloon program to spot wind speed and direction from a great distance and then make the necessary adjustments to stay in one spot. DARPA has been working on ALTA for some time, but its existence was only revealed in September.
“By flying higher we hope to take advantage of a larger range of winds,” says ALTA project manager Alex Walan. ALTA will operate even higher than Loon at 75,000 to 90,000 feet (22,900 to 27,400 meters or 14 to 17 miles), where the winds are less predictable. That shouldn’t be a problem if the balloon can see exactly where the favorable winds are.
The wind sensor, called Strat-OAWL (short for “stratospheric optical autocovariance wind lidar”), is a new version of one originally designed for NASA satellites. Made by Ball Aerospace, OAWL shines pulses of laser light into the air. A small fraction of the beam is reflected back, and the reflected laser light is gathered by a telescope. The wavelength of the reflected light is changed slightly depending on how fast the air it bounced back from is moving, a change known as doppler shift. By analyzing this shift, OAWL can determine the speed and direction of the wind.
FCC Approves SpaceX Application for Massive Satellite Constellation
November 15th, 2018Via: Ars Technica:
SpaceX today received US approval to deploy 7,518 broadband satellites, in addition to the 4,425 satellites that were approved eight months ago.
The Federal Communications Commission voted to let SpaceX launch 4,425 low-Earth orbit satellites in March of this year. SpaceX separately sought approval for 7,518 satellites operating even closer to the ground, saying that these will boost capacity and reduce latency in heavily populated areas. That amounts to 11,943 satellites in total for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service.
SpaceX “proposes to add a very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) NGSO [non-geostationary satellite orbit] constellation, consisting of 7,518 satellites operating at altitudes from 335km to 346km,” the FCC said in the draft of the order that it approved unanimously today. The newly approved satellites would use frequencies between 37.5 and 42GHz for space-to-Earth transmissions and frequencies between 47.2 and 51.4GHz for Earth-to-space transmissions, the FCC said.
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SpaceX’s initial 4,425 satellites are expected to orbit at altitudes of 1,110km to 1,325km, a fraction of the altitude of traditional broadband satellites. Because of the low orbits, SpaceX says its broadband network will have latencies as low as 25ms, similar to cable or fiber systems. SpaceX has also said it will provide gigabit speeds and that it will provide broadband access worldwide.
FCC rules require the launch of 50 percent of satellites within six years of authorization and all of them within nine years unless a waiver is granted.
Japan’s Cyber-Security Minister Has ‘Never Used a Computer’
November 15th, 2018Via: BBC:
Japan’s new cyber-security minister has dumbfounded his country by saying he has never used a computer.
Yoshitaka Sakurada made the admission to a committee of lawmakers.
“Since I was 25 years old and independent I have instructed my staff and secretaries. I have never used a computer in my life,” he said, according to a translation by the Kyodo news agency.
The 68-year-old was appointed to his post last month.
His duties include overseeing cyber-defence preparations for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
A politician from the opposition Democratic Party, Masato Imai, whose question had prompted the admission, expressed surprise.
“I find it unbelievable that someone who is responsible for cyber-security measures has never used a computer,” he said.
U.S. Has Spent Nearly $6 Trillion on War Since 9/11
November 14th, 2018WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
—War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler
In other news, U.S. Government Can’t Account for $21 Trillion Since 1998.
Via: The Hill:
The United States is on track to have spent nearly $6 trillion on war since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a report released Wednesday.
The annual analysis from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University far exceeds Pentagon estimates because it looks at all war-related costs — including the Pentagon’s war fund, related spending at the State Department, veterans care and interest payments — for military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
“We were told to expect wars that would be quick, cheap, effective and beneficial to the U.S. interest,” study author Neta Crawford said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “Because we finance these wars on a credit card, the costs of the wars themselves pose a national security challenge.”
The study estimates that war-related spending through fiscal 2019 will total $4.9 trillion. Another projected $1 trillion for veterans care through fiscal 2059 brings the total to $5.9 trillion, according to the study.
Should the wars continue through fiscal 2023, total costs will be more than $6.7 trillion, the study added, citing the Pentagon’s projected future years’ spending and likely needs for veterans.
“It’s important for the American people to understand the true costs of war, both the moral and monetary costs,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement. “Our nation continues to finance wars and military operations through borrowing, rather than asking people to contribute to the national defense directly, and the result is a serious fiscal drag that we’re not really accounting for or factoring into deliberations about fiscal policy or military policy.”
Volkswagen to Devote 3 German Plants to Electric Car Push
November 14th, 2018Via: AP:
German automaker Volkswagen will convert three factories in Germany to manufacture electric cars, ramping up production of zero-local emission cars ahead of tougher European emissions standards, the company said Wednesday.
Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen said Wednesday that it would begin local production of electric-powered vehicles at its facilities in Emden and Hannover in 2022. A plant in Zwickau was designated previously for e-car production.
How ZTE Helps Venezuela Create China-Style Social Control
November 14th, 2018Via: Reuters:
Chinese telecoms giant ZTE is helping Venezuela build a system that monitors citizen behavior through a new identification card. The “fatherland card,” already used by the government to track voting, worries many in Venezuela and beyond.
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The card is increasingly linked by the government to subsidized food, health and other social programs most Venezuelans rely on to survive.
NGO Teaching Migrants to Lie to Border Guards
November 13th, 2018Via: Russia Today:
A group that helped over 15,000 refugees and migrants to get into Europe has been caught on tape admitting to systematically training asylum seekers to exploit screening interviews by feigning trauma and persecution.
Ariel Ricker, the executive director of Advocates Abroad, a major non-profit NGO which provides legal aid to migrants, has been caught on tape openly discussing how she teaches refugees to lie to border agents. The video was released by Canadian right-wing activist, author and internet personality, Lauren Southern, and will be a part of her new documentary film project ‘Borderless,’ which takes on the European migration crisis.
In the footage, Ricker describes how the organization provides training sessions for migrants seeking entry into Europe, in which they are taught how to act during interviews with border agents:
“I tell them this is acting, all of this is acting… for them to get through, they must act their part in the theater.”
