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Submission + - MIT Stealth Startup Charges Up Wireless Power Competition (xconomy.com)

Submitted by gthuang88
gthuang88 writes: Wireless charging of electronics is an old concept, but there’s a new player in the competition between companies like WiTricity, Energous, and tech giants Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm. A new spinout from Dina Katabi’s lab at MIT, called Pi, may have a new take on how to charge mobile devices at a distance. The company isn’t talking yet, but Katabi’s research suggests the system uses an array of coils to produce a magnetic field and detect when a device is within range, like a Wi-Fi router. The array can then focus the magnetic field on a coil attached to a phone or mobile device and induce a current to charge the battery. But it’s still very early, and the field of wireless charging needs to settle on technical standards and work out its commercial kinks.

Submission + - There Is No Honeybee Crisis (theglobeandmail.com) 1

Submitted by iONiUM
iONiUM writes: An article today claims that there is no longer any Honeybee crises, and that the deaths of the Honeybees previously was a one-off, or possibly non-cyclical occurance (caused by neonics or nature — the debate is still out). The data used is that from Stats Canada which claims "the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high [in Canada]." Globally, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization says that "worldwide bee populations have rebounded to a record high." However, many corporations and pro-environment groups have much to gain by creating a panic about Honeybee deaths, and as such continue to publish stories claiming the situation is dire.

Submission + - NY Mayor Commits to Reduce Emissions 40% by 2030

Submitted by dkatana
dkatana writes: New York mayor Bill de Blasio pledged this week to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. He made the announcement at the start of a two-day conference on climate change at the Vatican.

He was in Rome by invitation of Pope Francis, who has become a hero to the environmental movement and has used his moral authority and enormous popularity to focus world attention on climate change and its effects on the poor.

"I believe fundamentally in the notion of giving our private sector friends an opportunity to come along peacefully. And if that’s not going to work, to put strong mandates and clear mandates on. And I believe, but the way, that that has tremendous public support." de Blasio said.

Nearly three quarters of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions come from energy used to heat, cool, and power buildings, making building retrofits a central component of any plan to dramatically reduce emissions.

Submission + - Cell service at US airports varies from 1st class to middle-seat coach

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Need something to watch on a flight? You can download an episode of your favorite show in less than a minute and a half on Verizon Wireless at Atlanta’s airport—or spend 13 hours doing the same over T-Mobile USA at Los Angeles International. The comparison of 45-minute HD video downloads illustrates the wide variation in cellular service at U.S. airports, which RootMetrics laid out in a report for the first half of 2015 that’s being issued Thursday. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson is the best place to go mobile and Verizon covers airports best overall, but just like security lines and de-icing delays, it all depends.

Submission + - UK government releases rules to get self-driving cars onto public roads (arstechnica.co.uk)

Submitted by rippeltippel
rippeltippel writes: Ars Technica UK reports that the UK government has released the rules to get self-driving cars onto public roads. As the article reports, drivers will be required to have "a high level of knowledge about the technology used" (i.e. they'll be techies) and — most notably — will have to mimic the act of driving, to avoid confusing other drivers. The original PDF can be viewed here.

Submission + - Mini Ice Age: nothing to worry about

Submitted by Geoffrey.landis
Geoffrey.landis writes: Last week a news story suggested that a new model of sunspot activity predicted a dramatic drop in solar activity coming up, possibly resulting in coming a mini-ice age. Take that prediction with a bit of skepticism, though-- later news analysis suggests that the story may be more media hype than science. Valentina Zharkova, the scientist whose research is being quoted, made no mention of a "mini Ice age"-- her work was only on modelling the solar dynamo. And, in any case, the solar minimum predicted was estimated to last only three solar cycles-- far less than the 17th century Maunder Minimum.

Phil Plait, known for his "bad astronomy" column, does a more detailed analysis of the claims, pointing out that the effect, if it even exists at all, is weak-- and the much discussed "Little Ice Age" is currently believed to most likely have been triggered by volcanic action, not sunspots. And, in any case, any predicted cooling is small compared to already-present global warming. So, probably no need to stock up on firewood, dried food, and ammunition quite yet-- the mini ice age isn't likely to be coming quite yet.

Submission + - Transparent Paper Produces Power With Just A Touch (acs.org)

Submitted by ckwu
ckwu writes: A new transparent-paper device can generate electrical power from a user’s touch. The paper energy-harvester could be used to make disposable, self-powered touch screens that fold; interactive light-up books; touch-sensitive skin for prosthetics; and security systems for art and documents, according to the researchers. The device is made out of nanopaper, a tangled mat made of nanometers-wide cellulose fibers that is transparent and smooth like plastic. The researchers deposit carbon nanotubes on the nanopaper to make a pair of electrodes, and then sandwich a polyethylene film in between. The generator works via electrostatic induction. Pressing one side of the device causes a change in the charge balance between the nanotube electrodes, resulting in a flow of current through the device. Releasing the pressure causes electrons to flow back, so repeated pressing and releasing creates continuous current. The researchers demonstrated that the generator could produce enough power when pressed to light up a small liquid-crystal display.

Submission + - Pawn Storm group makes Trend Micro IP address a C&C server (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Following Trend Micro's disclosure [http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/07/13/1040257/first-java-0-day-in-2-years-exploited-by-pawn-storm-hackers] of Russian hacking group Pawn Storm's 7-year campaign against military-industrial targets in and related to the United States, the security company has today announced [http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/pawn-storm-cc-redirects-to-trend-micro-ip-address/] that one of the IP addresses it owns has been 'designated' by the hackers as a C&C server for their spear-phishing scenario. The intent of the DNS record redirection, according to the company's best guesses, is likely to be to convince others that it has been hacked (which it hasn't), or else to push one of its IP addresses into administrative blacklists.

Submission + - The Free Software Foundation's statement on Canonical's updated licensing terms (fsf.org)

Submitted by donaldrobertson
donaldrobertson writes: "On July 15th, 2015, the Free Software Foundation's Licensing and Compliance Lab, along with the Software Freedom Conservancy, announces that, after two years of negotiations, Canonical, Ltd. has published an update to the licensing terms of Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

This update now makes Canonical's policy unequivocally comply with the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and other free software licenses. It does this by adding a "trump clause" that prevails in all situations possibly covered by the policy:"

Submission + - Commodore PET Smartphone Comes Loaded With C64 And Amiga Emulators

Submitted by Mickeycaskill
Mickeycaskill writes: Commodore is launching an Android-powered smartphone that lets 1980s gaming fans play their favourite retro titles.

It runs a custom version of Android 5.0 Lollipop and lets you play both old Commodore 64 and Amiga games with its preinstalled VICE C64 and Uae4All2-SDL Amiga emulators.

Configurations vary between 2GB and 3GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage, with a 5.5 inch display and 1.7GHz processor included in all versions.

The Catch? It's only available in France, Germany, Italy and Poland to begin with, but other markets are set to follow.

Submission + - ARM Support Comes to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (suse.com)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: SUSE announced partner program expansion to include support for 64-bit ARM server processors. This expansion makes available to partners a version of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 that allows them to develop, test and deliver products to the market using 64-bit ARM chips. To simplify partner access, SUSE has also implemented support for ARM and AArch64 into its openSUSE Build Service. This allows the community to build packages against real 64-bit ARM hardware and the SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 binaries,

Submission + - US Government detained Laura Poitras every time she flew .. (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Since the 2006 release of “My Country, My Country,” Poitras has left and re-entered the U.S. roughly 40 times. Virtually every time during that six-year-period that she has returned to the U.S., her plane has been met by DHS agents who stand at the airplane door or tarmac and inspect the passports of every de-planing passenger until they find her (on the handful of occasions where they did not meet her at the plane, agents were called when she arrived at immigration).

Each time, they detain her, and then interrogate her at length about where she went and with whom she met or spoke. They have exhibited a particular interest in finding out for whom she works.

Submission + - FBI helps shut down piracy sites in Romania (thestack.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The FBI has taken a major role in the shutting down of at least two popular piracy-torrent sites in Romania, according to a report from Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice [https://torrentfreak.com/fbi-assists-overseas-pirate-movie-site-raids-150714/]. The popular torrenting domains serialepenet.ro and fisierulmeu.ro are now offline after a series of raids on individuals and companies, including a hosting company in Bucharest thought to have some involvement with the pirate operation.

Submission + - Interviews: Ask Shaun Moss About Mars and Colonizing Space

Submitted by samzenpus
samzenpus writes: Shaun Moss is a computer scientist with a 15-year passion for Mars. While reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson in 1999 Shaun realized that people would go to Mars in his lifetime, and he decided he wanted to be part of that. Since then he has been an active member of a variety of space enthusiast groups, including the Mars Society and Mars Society Australia. Shaun is also the founder of the Mars Settlement Research Organization. His research has included how to make air and steel on Mars, Martian timekeeping systems, terraforming and more, and he has given numerous presentations at conferences in Australia and the United States. For the past 1.5 years he has been developing a robust and affordable humans-to-Mars mission architecture and a plan to establish an International Mars Research Station, which is now available as a book. Shaun has agreed to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

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