53997001
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Ready to launch in 2015, California-based Moon Express unveiled its MX-1 lunar lander on Thursday in Las Vegas, at the Autodesk University conference. The MX-1's main rocket engine will burn hydrogen peroxide, though it also relies on kerosene as an afterburner to accelerate out of Earth orbit. To reduce mass, engineers used composite materials and eliminated the structure that supports most spacecraft. Instead, the MX-1's fuel tanks serve as the structure. The lander is designed for delivering 132 pounds (60 kilograms) of payload to the lunar surface.
53790331
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
In the "I Feel Better Already Dept." we find this item:
"...During the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes." Yes. You may read that again, to be sure of what it says. Missiles "in the U.S. that had been fitted with the devices, such as ones in the Minuteman Silos, were installed under the close scrutiny of Robert McNamara, JFK’s Secretary of Defence. However, The Strategic Air Command greatly resented McNamara’s presence and almost as soon as he left, the code to launch the missile’s, all 50 of them, was set to 00000000. Oh, and in case you actually did forget the code, it was handily written down on a checklist handed out to the soldiers."
52073403
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
From the "What's-Up-Doc?" Dept.
NASA first started sending jellyfish to space aboard the Columbia space shuttle during the early '90s to test how space flight would affect their development. Under the fantastic headline "Space-Born Jellyfish Hate Life On Earth" Popular Science notes that jellyfish babies, born in microgravity environments, "have to deal with massive vertigo on Earth after spending their first few days in space". There's a possibility for future generations of space-born human children, who might never be acclimatised to a terrestrial environment, and in fact could be incapacitated by gravity forces approaching "normal". Jellyfish tell up from down through calcium sulfate crystals that ring the bottom edge of their mushroom-like bodies. Humans sense gravity and acceleration through calcium crystals in the inner ear — similar to jellyfish — moving sensitive hair cells that signal our brains on direction of gravitation.
51976421
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Upon revelation of the extent of US foreign intelligence surveillance, through efforts by Edward Snowden and LavaBit founder Ladar Levison, an increasing number of nation's have expressed official dismay and concern over the US dominance in managing the infrastructure for request and transit of information on the Internet. In the past, ICANN challenges have been secondary to efforts in the UN ITU — until now. Yesterday at a summit in Uruguay, every major Internet governing body pledged to free themselves of the influence of the US government. "The directors of ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society and all five of the regional Internet address registries have vowed to break their associations with the US government. The group called for "accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing". Any doubt about the reason or timing of this statement is dispelled with the inclusion: "the group 'expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance'."
The US argument for maintaining governance has been the need to maintain "a free and open Internet" versus interests of authoritarian societies. Has recent understanding of the wholesale surveillance of telecommunications by the NSA completely ruined the US reputation as the just custodian of that mission?
51859057
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Rapture of the Nerds co-author Charlie Stross hates Microsoft Word, worse than you do. Best of all, he can articulate the many structural faults of Word that make his loathing both understandable and contagious. "Steve Jobs approached Bill Gates... to organize the first true WYSIWYG word processor for a personal computer -- ...should it use control codes, or hierarchical style sheets? In the end, the decree went out: Word should implement both formatting paradigms. Even though they're fundamentally incompatible... Word was in fact broken by design, from the outset — and it only got worse from there."
Can Free Software do any better, than to imitate the broken Microsoft model? Does document formatting even matter this much, versus content?
51678161
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
BIG BOTHER IS WATCHING DEPT:
If you share something publicly on social media, "you should expect the world to read it," said Andy Sellars, a staff attorney at the Digital Media Law Project. "And you should expect that world to include law enforcement."
At the low price of 150 dollars for a month, per user, BlueJay is a tool for law enforcement that should only increase those expectations. Big Brother's Ministry of Love has SaaS: The BlueJay Law Enforcement Twitter "Crime Scanner" matches the Twitter "firehose" to Internet mapping data, with big-data techniques for keyword analytics and semantic-relevance. BlueJay "has no IT requirements," explains the sales literature. "All you need is Internet and a browser." "Monitor large public events, social unrest, gang communications and criminally predicated individuals, Identify potential witnesses and indicators for evidence."
"We could stop bad things from happening if we install cameras in everyone’s bedroom in America," Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told NBC News. "Which trade-off are we willing to accept?
Instead of that one guy getting busted for a lame joke misinterpreted as a real threat, we may face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal "Game of Thrones" downloads, and insurance companies seek non-smokers confessing to lapsing back into the habit.
50868551
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
NSA surveillance of private financial activity is a big story in Europe, co-authored by Laura Poitras, the filmmaker who was first contacted by Edward Snowden for the release of his information. "Classified documents show that the intelligence agency has several means of accessing the internal data traffic of SWIFT, used by more than 8,000 banks worldwide for their international transactions. The NSA specifically targets other institutes on an individual basis. A document from the year 2011 clearly designates the SWIFT computer network as a "target." Late last week, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs said that the Americans should "immediately and precisely tell us what has happened, and put all the cards on the table." If it's true "that they share information with other agencies for purposes other than those outlined in the agreement we will have to consider ending the agreement."" NSA also has in-depth knowledge of the internal processes of credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard — as well the Internet currency Bitcoin.
49868047
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
“The scariest movie I’ve seen this year, a horror tale that would have been science fiction had it been made in the 1990s.” These are not words to describe the latest zombie or slasher flick, but the description by G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle, in describing Terms and Conditions May Apply", a new documentary about Internet privacy and the use of consumer information platforms like Facebook and Google for government surveillance. Included are a range of discussions from personalities as diverse as Raymond Kurzweil, Moby and Mark Zuckerberg. The preview trailer at on the film's website is a great 2 minute primer on the subject, for general audiences, and the film's producers provide links to privacy tools, including instructions for leaving Facebook and removing Google personalization.
49702709
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Comedy gold, as US House members sellout to the copyright industry. Watch two Congressional Representatives ask identical leading questions, framed for them by entertainment industry lobbyists, word-for-word. No pause, one right after the other. Ultimately, its the voter/taxpayer/consumer who is both paying for this directly and subsidizing it, while subject to the restraints that are being demanded.
49062173
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
According to a number of entertainment related sources, the US Dept of Homeland Security is attempting federal-level enforcement for a ban of unapproved live music performances. The wording is unclear, but the DHS seems to be leveraging its influence on State Fire Marshalls, and the their funding connection as "first responders".
"The Department of Homeland Security... is now demanding through enforcement from The State Fire Marshalls that all live music played in the United States must have a permit from the Department of Homeland Security."
49031917
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
After signing a $30 million iPad deal with Apple in June, the Los Angeles School Board of Education has revealed the full extent of the program that will provide tablets to all students in the district. CiteWorld reports that the first phase of the program will see pupils receive 31,000 iPads this school year, rising to 640,000 Apple tablets by the end of 2014. Apple previously announced that the initiative would include 47 campuses and commence in the fall.
48914739
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Slate has an article: The Eye of Sauron Is the Modern Surveillance State . Although the insights provided are not necessarily unique, and echo the observations of some like Bruce Schneier, Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hedges, they do illustrate them nicely, through an unexpected allegorical reading of Tolkien's familiar epic. The gist is that unlike most dystopian fantasy — especially the explicitly political variety — Tolkien understood that the minions of absolute power were untrusted by that power, itself. It's also worth reading for the defense of the fantasy-epic genre, which offered Tolkien the opportunity to explore themes like the "distinction between omnipotence and omniscience," that were under-examined in modern idioms, but relevant to Tolkien from a theological interest and connected to the experience under tyranny.
46890209
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Do you remember McCoy's Medical Tricorder from classic 'Trek? The capability of this device is rapidly approaching reality, via a research team at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Using a cradle and app for the iPhone, they've developed a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules. The wedge-shaped cradle contains a series of optical components, similar to those in larger and more expensive laboratory devices. The cradle is able to utilize the phone’s built-in camera and processing power as a platform to replace the benchtop equipment. "We’re interested in biodetection that needs to be performed outside of the laboratory," said team leader Brian Cunningham, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering at the U. of I. The team demonstrated sensing of an immune system protein, but the slide could be primed for any type of biological molecule or cell type. The researchers are working to improve the manufacturing process for the iPhone cradle and are working on a cradle for Android phones as well.
46744107
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
Google continues raising hackles as the company calls into question the commitment to open source roots from which it grew and often promoted. Developer Ken Kinder: "...It seems reasonable to believe that, unlike Eric Schmidt, Larry Page does not believe in open standards or an open Internet. Google has, in just a few short months, dropped support for open standards en masse, including RSS, XMPP, iCal/CalDav, and Podcasts. Additionally, other services are being forcefully “integrated” into Google+, which has no complete public API and no interoperability with other systems. Google, is, in other words, the new AOL: A silo separate from the open web, with very limited interoperability." Kinder's considered and thoughtful blog entry poses a number of alternatives to the services from Google, especially those consumed from Android devices. "I’m trying to pick services... where there’s a clear and predictable business relationship between me and the provider. Moving from Google Calendar to Yahoo Calendar solves very little... because Yahoo’s business interests are exactly the same: advertising and consumer lock-in."
46743135
submission
Jeremiah Cornelius writes:
From the Earl-Grey-Hot Dept.
NASA granted $125,000, to Systems & Materials Research Corporation, to create a prototype universal food synthesizer. First stop? Pizza. Pizza is an obvious candidate for 3D printing because it can be printed in distinct layers, so it only requires the print head to extrude one substance at a time. If eating something produced in the same kind of 3D printers that are currently being used to make everything from jet engine parts to fine art doesn’t sound too appetizing, that’s only because you can currently afford the good stuff, says founder, Anjan Contractor. Anticipating the needs of a global population, Contractor envisions every kitchen with a 3D printer, with customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. The NASA award for a “pizza printer” is still at the conceptual stage. It works by first "printing" a layer of dough, which is baked at the same time it’s printed, by a heated plate at the bottom of the printer.
