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Earth

How a 'Seismic Cloak' Could Slow Down an Earthquake 101

Posted by Soulskill from the shake-rattle-and-roll dept.
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The United States is currently gripped in a bout of earthquake mania, following a series of significant tremors in the West. And any time Yellowstone, LA, or San Francisco shakes, people start to wonder if it's a sign of The Big One to come. Yet even after decades of research, earthquake prediction remains notoriously hard, and not every building in quake-prone areas has an earthquake-resistant design. What if, instead of quaking in our boots, we could stop quakes in their tracks? Theoretically, it's not a crazy idea. Earthquakes propagate in waves, and if noise-canceling headphones have taught us anything, it's that waves can be absorbed, reflected, or canceled out. Today, a paper published in Physical Review Letters suggests how that might be done. It's the result of French research into the use of metamaterials—broadly, materials with properties not found in nature—to modify seismic waves, like a seismic cloaking device."
Space

Small World Discovered Far Beyond Pluto 63

Posted by Soulskill from the NSA-surveillance-probe-already-dispatched dept.
astroengine writes: "After a decade of searching, astronomers have found a second dwarf-like planet far beyond Pluto and its Kuiper Belt cousins, a presumed no-man's land that may turn out to be anything but. How Sedna, which was discovered in 2003, and its newly found neighbor, designated 2012 VP 2113 by the Minor Planet Center, came to settle in orbits so far from the sun is a mystery. Sedna comes no closer than about 76 times as far from the sun as Earth, or 76 astronomical units. The most distant leg of its 11,400-year orbit is about 1,000 astronomical units. Newly found VP 2113's closest approach to the sun is about 80 astronomical units and its greatest distance is 452 astronomical units (abstract). The small world is roughly 280 miles (450 kilometers) wide, less than half the estimated diameter of Sedna."

Comment it's not a case (Score 1) 653

by YesIAmAScript (#46526135) Attached to: $30K Worth of Multimeters Must Be Destroyed Because They're Yellow

Well, it's not a case over the case. It's just the back and outside of the case is yellow.

This is what Fluke switched to in about 2000 and what this is emulating.

The case is supposed to look like a black case in a yellow case because that's what older Flukes did, they had a black plastic case in a yellow rubber case.

But that just made meters more bulky and made it harder to access the battery compartments. So Fluke dropped that a long time ago and the clones did too.

Also, the destruction is mandatory in this case, it's part of the punishment for the transgression.

Comment small business? (Score 2) 653

by YesIAmAScript (#46526003) Attached to: $30K Worth of Multimeters Must Be Destroyed Because They're Yellow

If your small business can't keep track of enough stuff to keep from infringing IP, then buy from suppliers who will indemnify you for IP infringement. Or just buy from reputable retailers.

You decided to get some sketchy Chinese meters from a company skirting the law to try to save some money or raise margins. And now it bit you. It seems like this is how the system is supposed to work.
Transportation

Engine Data Reveals That Flight 370 Flew On For Hours After It "Disappeared" 382

Posted by samzenpus from the nailing-dow-the-time dept.
Advocatus Diaboli writes "Aviation investigators and national security officials believe the plane flew for a total of five hours based on data automatically downloaded and sent to the ground from the Boeing Co. 777's engines as part of a routine maintenance and monitoring program. As part of its maintenance agreements, Malaysia Airlines transmits its engine data live to Rolls-Royce for analysis. The system compiles data from inside the 777's two Trent 800 engines and transmits snapshots of performance, as well as the altitude and speed of the jet. Those snippets are compiled and transmitted in 30-minute increments, said one person familiar with the system." Update: 03/14 11:41 GMT by S : The WSJ has since updated its report to say the data was from the plane's satellite-communication system. However, Malaysian authorities have denied both scenarios, saying neither Boeing nor Rolls-Royce received data past 1:07am (the flight initially disappeared off radar at 1:30am).
Encryption

University of Cambridge Develops Potentially More Secure Password Storage System 70

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the tpm-minus-bad-things dept.
An anonymous reader writes "University of Cambridge's S-CRIB Scrambler resides in a Raspberry Pi and performs a hash-based message authentication code (HMAC). 'The secret 10-character key used to generate the HMAC resides solely on the dongle. Because it's not included in password tables that are stored on servers, the key could remain secret even in the event of a major security breach.' There are pros and cons associated with this method, of course, ranging from scalability to loss of access due to device hardware failure. As with all current options for password security, there's no guarantee that even this system remains secure."
Communications

Yik Yak, After Complaints From Schools, Suspends Its Service In Chicago 167

Posted by timothy from the best-kind-of-publicity dept.
The Chicago Tribune reports that Yik Yak, a mobile app that can (among other things) be used for anonymous communications, has drawn complaints from several local schools, who are unhappy that students can use it to bully or pester others. "'The problem, as you might imagine, is that the anonymity is empowering certain individuals to post comments about others that are hurtful, harassing and sometimes quite disturbing,' Joseph Ruggiero, head of the Upper School at Francis W. Parker School in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, wrote in an email to parents last week. ... In light of the controversy, Yik Yak's co-founder said the company was disabling the app in the Chicago area and will attempt to specifically prevent it from being used on high school or middle school grounds."
Science

Computer Program Allows the Blind To "See" With Sound 56

Posted by samzenpus from the flipper-vision dept.
sciencehabit writes "Scientists have developed an algorithm that converts simple grayscale images into musical soundscapes. Even people blind from birth can use the technology to 'see' their surroundings and navigate around a room. Equally intriguing, the part of the subject's brain responsible for vision was active during these tasks, suggesting our thinking about how the brain works may be wrong. Instead of a 'vision center' of the brain, for example, we may actually have a region that helps us 'see', whether that input comes from sight or sound."

Comment you have to use thin glass (Score 1) 769

by YesIAmAScript (#46392573) Attached to: The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM"

Thick glass will fracture when you pour boiling water in. The inside of the glass heats up and expands while the outside is still cool and that creates internal stresses and breaks it.

By making the glass/ceramic thin the whole thing expands with the heat which causes no significant stresses.

You could double-wall it or insulate it as others mentioned.

Comment they don't care (Score 1) 769

by YesIAmAScript (#46391213) Attached to: The Next Keurig Will Make Your Coffee With a Dash of "DRM"

DRM doesn't have to be undefeatable. The point is simply that the number of people who have hacked machines which bypass the DRM is much smaller than the total installed base of machines.

So this makes it hard to make a viable business model by selling 3rd party cups. Even if you and everyone you know can run un-DRMed cups, companies still can't viably make generic cups.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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