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Submission + - Nuclear power plants are struggling to stay cool (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: From its humble start as a glacial trickle in the Swiss Alps, the Rhône River quickly transforms into one of the world's most industrialized waterways. As it winds through the south of France toward the Mediterranean Sea, its chilly water is drawn into boilers, sucked through pipes as coolant, deviated for agriculture. Among its biggest customers is a battalion of nuclear reactors. Since the 1970s, the river and its tributaries have helped generate about a quarter of France's atomic energy.

But in recent weeks that hasn't been the case. Amidst a slow-burning heat wave that has killed hundreds and sparked intense wildfires across Western Europe, and combined with already low water levels due to drought, the Rhône's water has gotten too hot for the job. It's no longer possible to cool reactors without expelling water downstream that's so hot as to extinguish aquatic life. So a few weeks ago, Électricité de France (EDF) began powering down some reactors along the Rhône and a second major river in the south, the Garonne. That's by now a familiar story: Similar shutdowns due to drought and heat occurred in 2018 and 2019. This summer's cuts, combined with malfunctions and maintenance on other reactors, have helped reduce France's nuclear power output by nearly 50 percent.

Submission + - Component failure in NASA's deep-space crew capsule could take months to fix (theverge.com) 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: “Replacing the PDU isn’t easy. The component is difficult to reach: it’s located inside an adapter that connects Orion to its service module — a cylindrical trunk that provides support, propulsion, and power for the capsule during its trip through space. To get to the PDU, Lockheed Martin could remove the Orion crew capsule from its service module, but it’s a lengthy process that could take up to a year. As many as nine months would be needed to take the vehicle apart and put it back together again, in addition to three months for subsequent testing, according to the presentation.”

The alternative approach is to cut metal to get to the part.

Submission + - Toronto school board ends all new US trips for students (bbc.com)

Submitted by alqaly
alqaly writes: Toronto school board ends all new US trips for students
Canada's largest school board is cancelling new school trips to the United States until further notice.

The Toronto District School Board announced the decision citing "uncertainty" with regards to who may be affected by US President Donald's Trump's latest travel restrictions.

Twenty-five already scheduled trips will go ahead as planned.

The school board joins the Girl Guides of Canada and a few other schools in temporarily halting travel to the US.

Under the new US travel ban, citizens from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen would not be permitted to enter the US, unless they have already been issued valid visas, for a 90-day period.

However, the ban is suspended pending a number of court challenges.

In a statement released on Thursday, Director of Education John Malloy said that the district school board faced "a difficult choice".

"We strongly believe that our students should not be placed into these situations of potentially being turned away at the border," said Mr Malloy.

"For the trips that will be continuing, should students with the appropriate documentation be denied entry to the US for no legitimate reason, the entire trip will return to Toronto and will not proceed."

The board is among the largest in North America with some 246,000 students in 584 schools throughout Toronto.

Trump travel ban: Five questions about the revised executive order
Is it more difficult now for Canadians to enter the US?
The school board says that, should the US travel restrictions be fully implemented, pre-approved trips will also be cancelled.

Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, and Hawaii have all launched legal challenges against the Trump administration's executive order.

Some individuals from those countries would be exempt from the order, including legal permanent residents of the US and dual nationals travelling on a passport from a country not on the list.

Last week, Canada's Girl Guides announced they would not be travelling to the US until further notice.

Greater Essex County school board in south-western Ontario decided last month to cancel a handful of trips over concerns about equity.

The Ottawa-Carleton District school board recently sent a letter to parents asking whether their children would participate in upcoming trips across the border to determine whether plans should go ahead.

https://instagram-photos-2016....

Submission + - Terrifying anti-riot vehicle created to quash any urban disturbance (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by drunkdrone
drunkdrone writes: A formidable remote-controlled anti-riot vehicle called the Bozena Riot has been designed to make light work of angry mobs with a giant expanding shield and packing an arsenal of crowd dispersal tools.

Built by Slovakian company Bozena, the high-tech security system keeps law enforcement units safe with its shock-absorbing barrier, which can be expanded out to 7.5 metres to protect 36 officers and features a rising platform to give riot police an elevated view of their surroundings and provide tactical advantage against aggressors.

The shield has ports for firing non-lethal projectiles and is equipped with tear gas guns to "guarantee control of crowds" when things get dicey. Mounted loudspeakers can be used either to issue instructions to officers or to appeal to crowds, and the vehicle can optionally be equipped with smoke grenade launchers and a radio jammer for blocking mobile communications.

Submission + - World's only sample of 'holy grail' metallic hydrogen lost in laboratory mishap (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by drunkdrone
drunkdrone writes: A piece of rare meta poised to revolutionise modern technology and take humans into deep space has been lost in a laboratory mishap. The first and only sample of metallic hydrogen ever created on earth was the rarest material on the planet when it was developed by Harvard scientists in January this year, and had been dubbed "the holy grail of high pressure physics".

The metal was created by subjecting liquid hydrogen to pressures greater that those at the centre of the Earth. At this point, the molecular hydrogen breaks down and becomes an atomic solid.

Scientists theorised that metallic hydrogen – when used as a superconductor – could have a transformative effect on modern electronics and revolutionise medicine, energy and transportation, as well as herald in a new age of consumer gadgets.

Sadly, an attempt to study the properties of metallic hydrogen appears to have ended in catastrophe after one of the two diamonds being used like a vice to hold the tiny sample was obliterated.

Submission + - Google: 99.95% of Recent 'Trusted' DMCA Notices Were Bogus (torrentfreak.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: In comments submitted to a U.S. Copyright Office consultation, Google has given the DMCA a vote of support, despite widespread abuse. Noting that the law allows for innovation and agreements with content creators, Google says that 99.95% of URLs it was asked to take down last month didn't even exist in its search indexes. “For example, in January 2017, the most prolific submitter submitted notices that Google honored for 16,457,433 URLs. But on further inspection, 16,450,129 (99.97%) of those URLs were not in our search index in the first place.”

Submission + - Verizon switches on LTE Advanced in 461 cities -- is your phone compatible? (betanews.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today, the carrier announces that its LTE is getting much faster. In 461 cities across the USA, it switches on the speedier "LTE Advanced" (LTE-A). Best of all, many existing devices are compatible. Wondering if your phone, tablet, or hotspot can take advantage? Read on for the list.

Submission + - Judge Rules FBI Violated Fourth Amendment By Recording 200+ Hours of Audio (thenextweb.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A federal judge in the Bay Area ruled that the FBI violated the fourth amendment by recording more than 200 hours of conversation at the entrance to a court house. Agents planted concealed microphones around the San Mateo County Courthouse in 2009 and 2010 as part of an investigation into bid-rigging at public auctions for foreclosed homes. In November, lawyers representing five defendants filed a motion that the recordings were unconstitutional on fourth amendment grounds (illegal search and seizure). US District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in an order yesterday: [T]he government utterly failed to justify a warrantless electronic surveillance that recorded private conversations spoken in hushed tones by judges, attorneys, and court staff entering and exiting a courthouse. Even putting aside the sensitive nature of the location here, Defendants have established that they believed their conversations were private and they took reasonable steps to thwart eavesdroppers.

Submission + - Bitcoin Not Money, Rules Miami Judge In Dismissing Laundering Charges (miamiherald.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Bitcoin does not actually qualify as money, a Miami-Dade judge ruled Monday in throwing out criminal charges against a Miami Beach man charged with illegally selling the virtual currency. The defendant, Michell Espinoza, was charged with illegally selling and laundering $1,500 worth of Bitcoins to undercover detectives who told him they wanted to use the money to buy stolen credit-card numbers. But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler ruled that Bitcoin was not backed by any government or bank, and was not “tangible wealth” and “cannot be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars.” “The court is not an expert in economics, however, it is very clear, even to someone with limited knowledge in the area, the Bitcoin has a long way to go before it the equivalent of money,” Pooler wrote in an eight-page order. The judge also wrote that Florida law – which says someone can be charged with money laundering if they engage in a financial transaction that will “promote” illegal activity – is way too vague to apply to Bitcoin. “This court is unwilling to punish a man for selling his property to another, when his actions fall under a statute that is so vaguely written that even legal professionals have difficulty finding a singular meaning,” she wrote.

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