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Submission + - FAA shuts down drone beer delivery service (blogaboutbeer.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "We were all excited, and then the FAA called yesterday," he sighed. "We are on the radar." (Pun intended?) "I guess I was in violation two ways." For one, even though he protests that he was only flying "80 feet high," Supple was within 30 miles of the Minneapolis airport. The other is that his excellent video has been deemed "a commercial use—we’re getting press out of it." Though the FAA has not demanded that Supple take down his video, future test deliveries will not be filmed. "I have about 87 pages of regulations that they sent me. Apparently I’m contrary to 14 Part 91 of the regulations, so ixnay on the ideovay."

Submission + - Engineers Invent Acoustic Equivalent of One-Way Glass

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Up until now, acoustic waves traveling between two points in space always exhibited a basic symmetry summed up with the phrase, “if you can hear, you can also be heard.” Not anymore as Tia Ghose reports at Live Science that a team at UT Austin has created a “nonreciprocal acoustic circulator," the first step that could lead to the sound equivalent of a one-way mirror.” All waves — whether visible light, sound, radio or otherwise — have a physical property known as time reversal symmetry so a wave sent one way can always be sent back. For radio waves, researchers figured out how to break this rule using magnetic materials that set electrons spinning in one direction. The resulting radio waves detect the difference in the material in one direction versus the other, preventing reverse transmission. To accomplish the feat with sound waves, the team created a cavity loaded with tiny CPU fans that spin the air with a specific velocity. The air is spinning in one direction, so the flow of air "feels" different to the wave in one direction versus the other, preventing backward transmission. As a result, sound waves can go in, but they can't go the other way. The result is one-directional sound. With such a device, people can hear someone talking, but they themselves cannot be heard.The findings will likely lead to many useful applications, says Sebastien Guenneau "I would be surprised if sound industries do not pick up this idea. This could have great applications in sound insulation of motorways, music studios, submarines and airplanes."

Submission + - Kansas to nix expansion of Google Fiber and municipal broadband (consumerist.com) 1

Submitted by symbolset
symbolset writes: Consumerist is reporting on a bill to restrict municipal support of broadband expansion. Purportedly to ensure a "level playing field" to encourage commercial expansion in this area, these bills are usually referred to as oligopoly protection acts. Everywhere they have been implemented expansion of new broadband technology stops. In this specific case no municipal entity in Kansas will be able to enter the same sort of agreements that enabled Google Fiber. From the bill:

Except with regard to unserved areas, a municipality may not, directly or indirectly: (1) Offer to provide to one or more subscribers, video, telecommunications or broadband service; or (2) purchase, lease, construct, maintain or operate any facility for the purpose of enabling a private business or entity to offer, provide, carry, or deliver video, telecommunications or broadband service to one or more subscribers.

More details at Muninetworks.org and GigaOM

Submission + - PayPal, GoDaddy, and Twitter create cluster**** for the now ex-owner of @N (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Mark Gibbs
Mark Gibbs writes: This is one of those stories that fills you with dread because we know it could happen to any of us: It's the story of how Naoki Hiroshima, who used to own the very valuable Twitter handle @N worth an estimated $50,000, lost it because PayPal, GoDaddy, and Twitter really don't care that much about their customers.

Submission + - Feds grab 163 web sites, snatch $21.6 million in NFL counterfeit gear strike (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: As they have for the past few years the US Customs department teamed with the National Football League to cut into the lucrative counterfeit sports gear market. In what the feds called “Operation Team Player,” special agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and officers from Customs and Border Protection worked with the National Football League (NFL) and other sports leagues along with law enforcement agencies to identify illegal shipments imported into the U.S., as well as stores and vendors selling counterfeit trademarked items.

Submission + - Nintendo Could Base Comeback on Improving Peoples' Health (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: It’s no secret that Nintendo faces significant challenges: revenues are down, rival platforms such as Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 are attracting a lot of buzz, and iOS and Android have made significant inroads into mobile gaming. Rather than double down on its core business, however, Nintendo reportedly sees its salvation in new, nongaming segments such as... monitoring your health? “We have now redefined entertainment to mean making it fun for people to improve the quality of their lives,” Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata told a company strategy meeting, according to The Wall Street Journal . But he refused to part with more detail about Nintendo’s plans, except to claim that whatever’s in the works isn’t a wearable device along the lines of Nike’s FuelBand or the FitBit, and it isn’t an iteration of the Wii Balance Board, an accessory that measures the user’s weight and center of balance while playing games.

Submission + - When cars go driverless, what happens to the honking? (theatlanticcities.com)

Submitted by blastboy
blastboy writes: The potential upside to getting rid of drivers: "Today car horns are still a leading source of noise pollution in urban centers. India's honking problem is so severe that the response to it—from both activists and government officials—mirrors the response to an actual epidemic. Officials in Peru, meanwhile, began treating honking like a serious crime in 2009, threatening to confiscate the cars of people who honk when they shouldn't.

Submission + - Half of U.S. nuclear missile wing implicated in cheating (reuters.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Just over half of the 183 nuclear missile launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in a widening exam cheating scandal, the Air Force said on Thursday, acknowledging it had "systemic" problem within its ranks.

The cheating was discovered during an investigation into illegal drug possession among airmen, when test answers were found in a text message on one missile launch officer's cell phone. The Air Force initially said 34 officers either knew about the cheating or cheated themselves.

But Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a Pentagon news conference on Thursday that the total number of implicated officers had grown to 92, all of them at Malmstrom, one of three nuclear missile wings overseeing America's 450 inter-continental missiles, or ICBMs.

Submission + - Startup out of MIT promises digital afterlife — just hand over your data 1

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: A new startup out of MIT offers early adopters a chance at the afterlife, of sorts: It promises to build an AI representation of the dearly departed based on chat logs, email, Facebook, and other digital exhaust generated over the years. “Eterni.me generates a virtual YOU, an avatar that emulates your personality and can interact with, and offer information and advice to your family and friends after you pass away,” the team promises. But can a chat bot plus big data really produce anything beyond a creepy, awkward facsimile?

Submission + - Company Creates Robotic Gas Pumps, Humans To Do Nothing All Day

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: The robots are most definitely coming for all of our jobs as automation takes over and we simply direct machines hovering around us for every want and desire. Now humans barely have to *DO* anything anymore with all this automation — and life is about to get even more automated. Two companies have combined forces to invent an automated gas pump, which uses advanced robotics to fuel up your car while you, well, relax. Drivers use a touchscreen to choose fuel type and pay (if that hasn't been automated yet) Then, sensors take over to locate the gas panel, open it, and deploy a special nozzle to fuel the car up. According to the inventors, the system reduces the time needed to fuel up by about 30 percent. (Note — these babies cost $50k a piece).

Submission + - Meet The Electric Porsche From 1898

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: We all talk about the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf as if electric cars are brand-new. Reality check: Electric cars were around long before you were alive, or your father, or maybe even your grandfather. In fact, it turns out that the very first Porsche ever built was an electric car--way back in 1898. It wasn't called a Porsche, but an "Egger-Lohner electric vehicle, C.2 Phaeton model"--or P1 for short. Designed by Ferdinand Porsche when he was just 22 years old, it has a rear electric drive unit producing all of 3 horsepower--and an overdrive mode to boost that to a frightening 5 hp! It had an impressive range of 49 miles, not that much less than many of today's plug-in cars. Porsche recently recovered the P1 from a warehouse--where it has supposedly sat untouched since 1902--and plans to display it in original, unrestored condition at the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, Germany. So what have we learned? First, Porsche is no stranger to electric cars. Second, electric cars aren't quite as new as you may have thought

Submission + - EU secretly plans to put a back door in every car by 2020 (dailymail.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A secretive EU body has agreed to develop a device to be fitted to all cars allowing police to cut off any engine at will, it emerged today. The device, which could be imposed within a decade, would also allow police to track a vehicle's movements as well as immobilise it. According to The Daily Telegraph a group of senior EU officials, including several Home Office mandarins, have signed off the proposal at a secret meeting in Brussels.

Submission + - Evolution of word frequencies in Porn

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wired.co.uk reports a Google Trends-like tool for niche sexual interests, called Porngram. This tool enable everyone to map the evolution of words frequencies in the titles of almost 800,000 porn videos. Data are provided by the Sexualitics dataset, and a more global perspective on them is the subject of a research paper to be published in the first issue of the academic journal Porn Studies

Submission + - Hundreds skip school in France (twitter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HUNDREDS of French parents have been keeping their kids off school after hoax messages about infants being encouraged to question their sexual identity.
The phenomenon, which seems to have been targeted particularly at the Muslim community, has become sufficiently serious for the education minister to issue instructions on Wednesday to headmasters to remind parents of their legal obligation to bring their children to school.
"Parents who are not sending their children to school should be called in to remind them of their obligations and to explain the reality,'' the minister, Vincent Peillon, said.
The boycott movement has affected attendances at an estimated 100 of France's 48,000 schools and has been triggered by an apparently wilful attempt to misrepresent an educational module called "The ABCD of equality'' as a form of radical gender studies — a discipline that has become a target for Catholic and Muslim fundamentalists.
According to reports from various parts of France, parents at certain schools have this week been receiving texts warning them that their children might be having sex education lessons in which they are taught they can choose to be a girl or a boy.
Some of the wilder messages have suggested children will be encouraged to masturbate or allowed to watch pornographic films.
Mr Peillon said the rumours were the work of "extremists bent on lying to and frightening parents.''
"What we are doing in schools is teaching the fundamental values of the Republic, which include respect between men and women.''
French media have identified one of the instigators of the alarm-spreading text messages as Farida Belghoul, an eccentric former anti-racism activist who now appears to have forged links with the extreme right.
A number of fringe groups were given a fresh lease of life by last year's acrimonious debate and protests over France's legalisation of gay marriage and they were behind a violent "day of rage'' protest against President Francois Hollande in Paris on Sunday.
Although the school boycott movement remains confined to a very small minority of parents, social commentators have voiced concern that it reflects a broader trend towards the faultlines in French society becoming more apparent.
The divisive debate on gay marriage appears to have acted as a catalyst for a shift in attitudes which has allowed some people to become more willing to express racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic ideas in public.

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