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Submission + - New Flaw Discovered On Boeing 737 Max (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new flaw has been discovered in the computer system for the Boeing 737 Max that could push the plane downward, according to two sources familiar with the testing, an issue that is expected to further delay the aircraft's return to service. A series of simulator flights to test new software developed by Boeing revealed the flaw, according to one of the sources. The latest versions of Boeing's popular jet were grounded in March after two crashes — Lion Air flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 — that killed 346 people.

While the crashes remain under investigation, preliminary reports showed that a new stabilization system pushed both planes into steep nosedives from which the pilots could not recover. The issue is known in aviation vernacular as runaway stabilizer trim. In simulator tests, government pilots discovered that a microprocessor failure could push the nose of the plane toward the ground. It is not known whether the microprocessor played a role in either crash. When testing the potential failure of the microprocessor in the simulators, "it was difficult for the test pilots to recover in a matter of seconds," one of the sources said. "And if you can't recover in a matter of seconds, that's an unreasonable risk." Boeing engineers are now trying to address the issue, which has led to another delay in recertifying the 737 Max.

Submission + - US air quality is slipping after years of improvement (apnews.com)

Submitted by The Grim Reefer
The Grim Reefer writes: After decades of improvement, America’s air may not be getting any cleaner.

Over the last two years the nation had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows. While it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a trend, health experts say it’s troubling to see air quality progress stagnate.

There were 15% more days with unhealthy air in America both last year and the year before than there were on average from 2013 through 2016, the four years when America had its fewest number of those days since at least 1980.

Air quality is affected by a complex mix of factors, both natural and man-made. Federal regulations that limit the emissions of certain chemicals and soot from factories, cars and trucks have helped dramatically improve air quality over recent decades. In any given year, however, air quality can be affected by natural variations. That may be what’s behind the stalled progress, scientists say.

“What you’re seeing is a flattening off of progress as opposed to a major change in the wrong direction,” said former deputy EPA administrator Bob Perciasepe, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Submission + - Boeing unveils 737 Max fixes

Submitted by hcs_$reboot
hcs_$reboot writes: Boeing previewed its software fix, cockpit alerts and additional pilot training for its 737 Max planes on Wednesday, saying the changes improve the safety of the aircraft which has been involved in two deadly crashes since October.
Among the notable changes to the MAX flight controls:
  • The plane’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, automated flight control system, will now receive data from both “angle of attack” sensors, instead of just one.
  • If those disagree by more than 5.5 degrees, the MCAS system will be disabled and will not push the nose of the plane lower.
  • Boeing will be adding an indicator to the flight control display so pilots are aware of when the angle of attack sensors disagree.
  • There will also be enhanced training required for all 737 pilots so they are more fully aware of how the MCAS system works and how to disable it if they encounter an issue.

By the end of this week, Boeing plans to send the software updates and plan for enhanced pilot training. After the FAA approves the fix, Boeing said it will send the software update to customers.

Submission + - New Graphene Metamaterial Heats To 160 Degrees Celsius In Sunlight (ieee.org) 1

Submitted by dryriver
dryriver writes: IEEE Spectrum reports: Researchers from three Australian universities have collaborated to develop a light-absorbing device using a new graphene-based film that can absorb unpolarized incident light striking it over a wide range of angles up to 60 degrees. The 90-nm ultra-thin metamaterial can rapidly heat up to as high as 160C under sunlight in an open environment. The researchers believe the characteristics of this new class of optical material make it suitable for a wide variety of uses, including desalination of seawater, color displays, photodetectors, and optical components for communication devices. In addition, the ultrathin design reduces the amount of material used, which enables it to heat up rapidly. This is why the device can heat from 30C to 150C in 30 seconds. Furthermore, the ultrathin property allows easy heat transfer from the metamaterial to the material needed to be heated, such as water, and so could be used to desalinate seawater, for instance. The new material is expected to commercialize in 2 or 3 years, or even earlier."

Submission + - California Reintroduces 'Right To Repair' Bill After Previous Effort Failed (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: California State Assembly member Susan Talamantes Eggman on Monday announced the introduction of Assembly Bill 1163, which will require manufacturers like Apple to "make service literature and equipment or parts available to product owners and to regulated, independent repair shops." "For nearly 30 years California has required that manufacturers provide access to replacement parts and service materials for electronics and appliances to authorized repairers in the state. In that time, manufacturers have captured the market, controlling where and when we repair our property, and inflating the electronic waste stream," Eggman said. "The Right to Repair will provide consumers with the freedom to have their electronic products and appliances fixed by a repair shop or service provider of their choice, creating a competitive market that will be cheaper for consumers and reduce the number of devices thrown in the trash."

The bill, officially filed as legislation relating to electronic waste, is Eggman's second try at right to repair legislation. Her first attempt, 2018's Bill 2110, was introduced last March and subsequently died in assembly that November. Like the pending Bill 1163, last year's tendered legislation was crafted as a play to reduce e-waste. Eggman's announcement includes a word-for-word reproduction of an explainer included in 2018's press release for the now-dead Bill 2110. In it the lawmaker argues that customers who are unable to pay for manufacturer repairs are forced to replace broken equipment like smartphones, TVs and home appliances. Beyond financial benefits, Eggman also says that the repair and reuse of electronics is more efficient than purchasing a new device, noting that such measures can "stimulate local economies instead of unsustainable overseas factories."

Submission + - Rotating black holes might serve as portals for hyperspace travel (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Scientists once thought that traveling into a black hole would kill you. But now, physicists have run computer simulations to show that certain types of black holes — large, rotating ones — could serve as portals for hyperspace travel. Some physicists believe that you'd arrive at a remote part of the Milky Way or perhaps in another galaxy altogether. One of the safest passageways might be the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*.

Submission + - Huawei risk can be managed, say UK cyber-security chiefs (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Any risk posed by involving the Chinese technology giant Huawei in UK telecoms projects can be managed, cyber-security chiefs have determined. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre's decision undermines US efforts to persuade its allies to ban the firm from 5G communications networks. Most of the UK's mobile companies — Vodafone, EE and Three — have been working with Huawei on developing their 5G networks. They are awaiting on a government review, due in March or April, that will decide whether they can use Huawei technology.

Submission + - The shape of the Milky Way is warped and twisted (nature.com)

Submitted by Necroloth
Necroloth writes: You probably thought that if you were looking at our galaxy from the outside and at a distance, you would see a thin disc of stars that orbit around a central region but the further away from the inner regions of the Milky Way you are, the less the pull of gravity. At the outer disc, the hydrogen atoms that make up the Milky Way's gas disc are as a consequence warped into an S-like shape, no longer pulled together in a thin plane.

A group of astronomers from Australia and China have built their “intuitive and accurate three-dimensional picture” by mapping 1339 classical Cepheids.

See a quick animation of the galaxy on the @NatureAstronomy twitter here:
https://twitter.com/NatureAstr...

Submission + - 'Apollo 11' lands at Sundance with never-before-seen mission footage (collectspace.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Attendees at this year's Sundance Film Festival are getting a first look at never-before-seen footage from the first moon landing mission.

Billed as "a cinematic event fifty years in the making," director Todd Douglas Miller's "Apollo 11" premiered Thursday (Jan. 24) as one of the festival's opening night films. The 93-minute documentary, presented by Neon and CNN Films, was crafted from a newly-discovered trove of large-format, 65mm footage and more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings to provide a new look of one of the most iconic and historic moments in human history.

Submission + - Say no to unrepairable devices, like the Microsoft Surface or Apple iPad (youtube.com)

Submitted by ReneR
ReneR writes: More and more tables and laptops are going the fully glued together approach that Apple has pioneered since the first gen iPad. The Microsoft Surface is even harder to open for a battery or N-trig digitiser touch disease display swap due phantom touches or dead zones. I think it is time that we start voting with our wallet and ask for repairable devices, e.g. to simply swap batteries. And the IT and repair community should also not recommend such devices, especially as the Surface laptops with their fabric top are even harder, if not truly impossible to open without fully destroying the keyboard.

Submission + - Preliminary results published from New Horizons flyby of MU69 "Ultima Thule" (arxiv.org)

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: The NASA/ SWRI/ Lowell Observatory (and at least 3 universities) team managing the download of data from New Horizons has released a first look at the results downloaded so far. At the time of writing, about 4 days of about 600 days of downloading had been completed. The next milestone hinted at is for March 2019 when the LPSC (Lunar & Planetary Science Conference will get another batch of data as the various science teams get more data out of the pipeline.

Results Firstly the overall shape — as hinted by the occultation results from nearly a year ago, is a contact binary. There is a lot of work going on from that, about how it could have formed, it's accretion history and thermal history.

The rotation period is better known (and this will improve as more data is downloaded) at 15=/-1 hours.

The mass remains unknown. The mass ratio of the two components (nicknamed "Ultima" and "Thule") is suspected to be the same as their volume ratio — 2.6 : 1 ; to get an accurate mass, observation of a satellite is needed, but the trajectory change for the spacecraft is unlikely to be large enough to estimate the mass well.

Mineralogy Very little data has come down yet, but the colour suggests there is less water ice on MU69 than on Nix, the satellite of Pluto similar in size to MU69. The reason for a bright region to mark the junction between the two lobes is not known.

And that'll be the sum of the data for the next 10 weeks until the 50th LPSC (18th to 22nd March coming.)

Submission + - Second Repeating Fast Radio Burst Detected. (bbc.com)

Submitted by Zorro
Zorro writes: stronomers have revealed details of mysterious signals emanating from a distant galaxy, picked up by a telescope in Canada.

The precise nature and origin of the blasts of radio waves is unknown.

Among the 13 bursts of fast radio waves, known as FRBs, was a very unusual repeating signal, coming from the same source about 1.5 billion light years away.

Such an event has only been reported once before, by a different telescope.

"Knowing that there is another suggests that there could be more out there," said Ingrid Stairs, an astrophysicist from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

"And with more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles — where they're from and what causes them."

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