Global Groundwater Extraction a “Ticking Time Bomb”
October 4th, 2019Via: Cosmos Magazine:
A glimpse into the sustainability of global groundwater extraction for rivers, streams and lakes in the next few decades has revealed a worrying picture.
The hydrological model, published in the journal Nature, shows that in nearly 20% of regions that pump groundwater, rivers are already flowing too low to maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems.
By 2050, more than half those localities will have surpassed their environmental flow limits, or streamflow critical point.
The most striking finding, says lead author Inge de Graaf from the University of Freiburg in Germany, is that just one small drop in groundwater level will create these critically low river flows.
“This shows that riverine water freshwater ecosystems are extremely sensitive to water decline,” she adds.
And in contrast to surface-water use, which has immediate impacts on streamflow, it can take decades for groundwater extraction to show a noticeable reduction of groundwater influx.
“Groundwater pumping can thus be considered a ticking time bomb whose ecological effects become visible only years later,” says de Graaf.
Paralyzed Man Controls Exoskeleton Through Brain Computer Interface
October 4th, 2019Via: BBC:
A man has been able to move all four of his paralysed limbs with a mind-controlled exoskeleton suit, French researchers report.
Thibault, 30, said taking his first steps in the suit felt like being the “first man on the Moon”.
His movements, particularly walking, are far from perfect and the robo-suit is being used only in the lab.
But researchers say the approach could one day improve patients’ quality of life.
Woman Pushed Emergency Alert Button On Police Robot, It Told Her To Step Out Of The Way
October 4th, 2019An absolute classic.
Via: NBC:
When a fight broke out recently in the parking lot of Salt Lake Park, a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles, Cogo Guebara did what seemed the most practical thing at the time: she ran over to the park’s police robot to push its emergency alert button.
“I was pushing the button but it said, ‘step out of the way,’” Guebara said. “It just kept ringing and ringing, and I kept pushing and pushing.”
She thought maybe the robot, which stands about 5 feet tall and has “POLICE” emblazoned on its egg-shaped body, wanted a visual of her face, so she crouched down for the camera. It still didn’t work.
Without a response, Rudy Espericuta, who was with Guebara and her children at the time, dialed 911. About 15 minutes later, after the fight had ended, a woman was rolled out on a stretcher and into an ambulance, her head bleeding from a cut suffered during the altercation.
Amid the scene, the robot continued to glide along its pre-programmed route, humming an intergalactic tune that could have been ripped from any low-budget sci-fi film. The almost 400-pound robot followed the park’s winding concrete from the basketball courts to the children’s splash zone, pausing every so often to tell visitors to “please keep the park clean.”
How the Taycan is Made
October 3rd, 2019Via: Porsche:
China: Face Scan Required to Use Internet
October 3rd, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
China has stepped up its internet censorship by demanding its citizens pass a facial-recognition test to be able to use web services.
People who want to have the internet installed at home or on their phones must have their faces scanned by the Chinese authority to prove their identities, according to a new regulation.
The rule, which will take effect on December 1, is said to be part of the social credit system which rates the Chinese citizens based on their daily behaviour.
At present, a Chinese citizen will need to show his or her ID card while applying for a landline or the internet.
The facial-recognition test is set to verify that the ID card belongs to the applicant.
The directive was issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology late last month.
The Ministry claimed the move would help improve the country’s internet security and combat terrorism.
Boeing ‘Whistleblower’ Says Company Focused On Profit Over Safety Of Doomed 737 Max
October 2nd, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
The New York Times has published a bombshell report about a new complaint filed against Boeing by a senior engineer, alleging the aircraft maker concentrated on prioritizing profits over the safety of the 737 Max airliner.
The Times learned about the new development from a source who requested anonymity, said the Boeing engineer filed the complaint after the two crashes (Lion Air accident in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines accident in March 2019).
Curtis Ewbank, the senior Boeing engineer who filed the complaint, called out top executives for publicly misrepresenting the safety of the plane.
Ewbank designed the 737 Max cockpit systems that pilots use to monitor and control the airplane.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt On Biology: “Something That Can Be Digitally Manipulated”
October 2nd, 2019It’s easy to laugh at the barking insanity of these monsters, but at the same time, you probably know someone who spent their hard earned money to buy a “smart speaker” surveillance platform for their home.
Via: CNBC:
Brain inserts and carbon-absorbing bacteria aren’t just the fantasies of Silicon Valley’s richest executives, they’re also a part of a larger hope to advance artificial intelligence and computing efforts.
“Biology will undoubtedly fuel computing” in coming years, former Google CEO and current technical advisor Eric Schmidt said at a conference called SynBioBeta in San Francisco Monday. “Taking biology, which I’d always viewed as squishy and analog, and turning it into something that can be digitally manipulated, is an enormous accelerator.”
Schmidt’s comments come as Silicon Valley’s seeming obsession with biology attempts to move beyond fascinating projects and into more serious investments that could help modernize tech processes.
…
“It’s easy to come up with movie recommendations or YouTube recommendations, because we have millions of data points of people like you,” Schmidt said. “We don’t have an analogous amount of data in biology yet.”
Gait Analysis (and Correlation to Video) of Individuals Possible Through Wi-Fi
October 2nd, 2019This is very bad.
Via: TechXplore:
Researchers in the lab of UC Santa Barbara professor Yasamin Mostofi have enabled, for the first time, determining whether the person behind a wall is the same individual who appears in given video footage, using only a pair of WiFi transceivers outside.
This novel video-WiFi cross-modal gait-based person identification system, which they refer to as XModal-ID (pronounced Cross-Modal-ID), could have a variety of applications, from surveillance and security to smart homes. For instance, consider a scenario in which law enforcement has a video footage of a robbery. They suspect that the robber is hiding inside a house. Can a pair of WiFi transceivers outside the house determine if the person inside the house is the same as the one in the robbery video? Questions such as this have motivated this new technology.
More: XModal-ID: Using WiFi for Through-Wall Person Identification from Candidate Video Footage
FAA Allows UPS to Expand Drone Deliveries in U.S.
October 2nd, 2019Via: CBS:
UPS won government approval to operate a nationwide fleet of drones, which will allow the company to expand deliveries on hospital campuses and move it one step closer to making deliveries to consumers.
Many regulatory obstacles remain, however, before UPS — or other operators who are testing drones — can fill the sky over cities and suburbs with drones carrying goods to people’s doorsteps.
United Parcel Service said Tuesday that its drone subsidiary was awarded an airline certificate last week by the Federal Aviation Administration, the first U.S. company to get such a broad approval.
China Displays New Hypersonic Nuclear Missile on 70th Anniversary
October 2nd, 2019Via: Al Jazeera:
China’s military has shown off a new hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile believed capable of breaching all existing anti-missile shields deployed by the United States and its allies.
The vehicle-mounted DF-17 was among weapons displayed on Tuesday in a large military parade led by President Xi Jinping to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
