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Submission + - New spinning drone hides in plain sight (northwestern.edu)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: For years, researchers have tried to design invisible drones and robots using camouflage, transparent materials or light-bending optical systems. But the Northwestern team instead used a concept called “motion blur” — the same effect that makes fast-spinning fans and propellers seem to disappear.

Called the “Phantom Twist,” the drone spins up to 25 times per second, which is too fast for the human eye to see clearly. While it isn’t completely invisible, it morphs into a ghostly smudge that seamlessly blends into the background. The work eventually could lead to drones that monitor wildlife, survey the environment and inspect infrastructure with less visual disruption.

The Northwestern team presented the work on July 16 at Robotics: Science and Systems 2026 in Sydney, Australia. The talk, “Computational Design of a Low-Visibility UAV Using Human-Aligned Perceptual Metric,” is part of the session “Robot & Sensor Design.”

New drone nearly disappears in flight (video also in article)

Comment Re:A tariff would help (Score 4, Interesting) 62

by fahrbot-bot (#66257876) Attached to: Wildfires, Evacuations, and Smoke Hit Europe and North America

A tariff would help, I mean, Trump suggested it would work against the Canadian wild fires.

Maybe some corporal punishment on the wild fires, like When Persian King Xerxes Ordered His Soldiers to Punish the Sea by Lashing It

Determined to finish the Greeks once and for all, Xerxes amassed a massive army. He planned to cross the Hellespont using a bridge he had constructed. When his forces reached Sardis, however, a violent storm destroyed the bridge.

When his men reported the disaster, Xerxes was furious. He was enraged both at the sea for demolishing the structure and at the architects for failing to make it strong enough to withstand the storm. Resolute, he determined to punish both the waves and the workmen.

According to Herodotus, Xerxes commanded his men to scourge the sea with a monstrous whip and to cast heavy chains into it, symbolizing both his defiance of its power and his determination to assert control over it.

As for the men who had constructed the bridge, which had proved incapable of withstanding the force of a winter storm, Xerxes ordered that every one of them be beheaded.

The story of Xerxes and his extraordinary decision to order his soldiers to punish the sea by whipping it was viewed by Greek historians and later thinkers as a symbol of imperial arrogance and the illusion of absolute power, portraying the king as a god.

Honestly, I wouldn't put it past him - on the other hand, this kind of thing isn't working for him with Iran ...

Comment Also methane from melting permafrost. (Score 4, Informative) 25

Also Arctic Sinkholes (NOVA: S49E01, 53m) releasing massive amounts of methane as frozen permafrost melts.

Colossal explosions shake a remote corner of the Siberian tundra, leaving behind massive craters. In Alaska, a huge lake erupts with bubbles of inflammable gas. Scientists are discovering that these mystifying phenomena add up to a ticking time bomb, as long-frozen permafrost melts and releases vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Comment Re:It's just a tax on you (Score 4, Informative) 149

by fahrbot-bot (#66256518) Attached to: Trump Threatens New Tariffs Against EU Over Google Fine

Tariffs are the largest transfer of wealth in US history. You pay them, then the courts strike them down, and companies collect the refunds. Oh, and the prices aren't going back down to pre-tariff levels either.

Even if/when tariffs are legally and properly implemented/applied, consumers are (almost always) ultimately paying them, not the foreign companies/governments - and it boggles the mind how certain segments of the population don't get this last bit, just google "tariff" to see how an import tax works.

Submission + - Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him (nytimes.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: The New York Times is reporting that Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

In little-noticed court documents, federal officials acknowledged this month that they had terminated the funding “based solely” on political criteria, targeting projects in states that were represented by Democrats and had voted for Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, in the 2024 election.

After reviewing its spending, the Energy Department last fall created a list that recommended canceling more than 600 grants awarded by the Biden administration for a wide range of novel energy projects. That list included funding for projects in states represented by both Republicans and Democrats.

“With one exception,” a lawyer for the Energy Department conceded in a court filing this month, “the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators.”

The lawyer acknowledged that none of the grants were included in the October terminations “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction or performance-based factor.”

In contrast, the administration left untouched hundreds of additional energy grants in states that were represented by Republicans and had backed Mr. Trump in the last election, even though the Energy Department had recommended canceling them, the government confirmed in the July court filing.

The filings also appeared to undermine the congressional testimony of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who spoke about the cancellations in a June House hearing: “No decisions were made on politics.”

Comment Re:Already there, just not visible enough I guess? (Score 1) 17

by DarkOx (#66254728) Attached to: Amazon Is Bringing Games to Prime Video

I think the blending strategy has to do with denying people at certain layers real control.

Maybe you're running a corporate network and you want to allow prime video, for whatever reason I don't know some people need to watch financial content but you'd rather block games, harder to do when its all the same domain and all done in the same app.

Same thing if you're a parent. Maybe you want to allow tv and movies but wish to limit video game time; nope you're going to be forced into an all or nothing decision so it is more likely Amazon ends up with more choice about what content they shove into your home than you do.

All in all this probably a very minor example, but it is a trend I keep seeing in all the products offered by these conglomerates. "You want to use any of our digital products you will at least allow in app / on device access to ALL our digital products."

Comment Re:Wow (Score 3, Insightful) 53

I'm pretty shocked that this is the first design receiving commercial approval. I recall having heard about this approach for decades and assumed it was deployed years ago. Guess it's a good illustration of the challenges of working in a marine environment.

Indeed. I recall student group projects for wave and tidal power generation. It was some interesting stuff, some similar to this buoy concept, others underwater sails, and some reminiscent of paddlewheels.

Challenges were not so much the power generation, but transfer to land at scale. and storm survival. Looks like this folk have it figured out, having survived 18.5 meter waves. And in operation 3 years by now. Kudos to them.

Another interesting power generation effort id taking place in the Bay of Fundy. With huge tidal swings there is a huge amount of energy to be harvested. My guess is their main challenge is the extreme tide variations, at one place 15 meters. Most low/high variation is around 10 meters. So we have to deal with bare ground at different times of day, and the rotating time of low and high tide. But they figure they can extract 2500 MW of the 8500 MW kinetic energy there. https://natural-resources.cana...

Comment Re:Math (Score 1) 53

The other thing is simple risk reward. Putting stuff in orbit is comparatively at least cheaper than it used to be.

It is also true that we have advanced quite a bit in hardened control systems. Let's not forget the almost magic/impossible degree of precision required to do this stuff. Did we have the technology 20 years ago; probably could been do sure.

Did anyone want to try a real mission when the likelihood of failure, development, and operational costs were much higher, no it made more sense to just replace aging sats after discounting the risks.

There is no need for a conspiracy theory when simple business logic explains it all fine.

Comment Re:...all of us...will have to prove our age... (Score 1) 142

It's the new SEO for smaller businesses to ask their staff to poke around on social media and then Like the company's content. Gets around algos that downrate bot activity if it is the real employees doing it. Aside, the best thing to keep your feed tolerable is to click on thirst trap stuff every now and then to keep the political stuff to a minimum. Comedy interactions seem to head down a "here's a bunch of ideas that will likely lead to your future divorce" for whatever reason. It really is quite the cesspit to interact with just to know when the neighborhood garage sale is going to be.

Another avenue is the "mean girl" effect. This is a big one. Presumed friends or sometimes enemies that love drama.

Actual court case. A woman was suing a supposed friend. What happened was the plaintiff had admitted she had a "work crush" on her boss. Even named him (a friend group, so she didn't feel awkward admitting it.) Of course, the drama loving friends encouraged her to act on her attraction to him, she had said "No!" but one of the friends who had a large Instagram following said "Why don't we see what my followers think? I'll anonmyze everything"

But she "forgot" to anonymize the Bosses name. and the company. Aa lot of drama happened, ending with the company HR calling in and firing her because her boss was married. Caused a kerfuffle. But oh, much entertainment was to be had. Plaintiff lost the suit, because she exposed herself in the friend group, then allowed the Instagram lady to put out everything on the Internet.

Comment Re:What percentage of people buy their phone outri (Score 2) 62

I don't know about the non-us phone market but based on slashdot comments it seems like non-carrier locked, not carrier financed phones are maybe more common than here. Certainly in the US that option is only for eccentrics.

Klarna though seems no less but also not inherently more predatory to me than the very worst of the ultra high interest, tiny limit credit card issuers (Credit One, PREMIER, and similar).

  I don't know what to tell someone though who can't afford a phone or PC. I would have said in say 2015, get a used one they are dirt cheap and that 2010 PC will do everything you need to do. However the manufactures have sought to pretty much destroy the used market because lets be honest without really imaginary system 'requirements' a 2014 PC runs Windows 11 just fine... except that you are one upgrade or patch away from something breaking your unsupported platform, and if you are having trouble budgeting for a PC, you can't afford sudden emergencies like that.

Same situation applies to phones, the things one might truly *need* vs want, like banking and finance apps tend to follow N-2 platform support, and so that older phone while realistically perfectly adequate is a door stop because Apple does not want to give you at least ios-18 for it.

It sucks but a PC, Phone or both are one of those things you almost need to succeed, but like cars industry and politics alike seem to be conspiring to make sure there are no 'affordable options' like a robust used market that is the least bit accessible.

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