Fed2 Star - June 3 - page 1 (of 2)
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Fiona Craig
Jun 3, 2018, 6:38:28 AM6/3/18
to fed2...@googlegroups.com
Fed2 Star
Earthdate June 4, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
Alan is ill so can’t write Winding Down this week, Neptunian rock came
from the asteroid belt, full-colour pictures from space produced by
commercial firm, how confusion about what ‘self-driving’ means is
causing accidents, Chinese authorities say facial recognition worked for
them, vape explosion kills man, an astronaut fails to take pictures, a
bank staffed by robots, a sofa that turns on the lights and TV, and a
picture of an alien fjord.
Official News part one
ALAN GETS THE LURGY
by Hazed
There is no Winding Down this week (and probably not next week either)
because Alan has been struck down by a computer virus. Sentient malware
has mutated and made the leap from machine to man, and laid him low. It
is demanding a ransom of a large number of bitgroats be paid before it
will relinquish its hold on his fevered body.
The real life explanation is that he has a bad case of shingles – a
nasty nerve infection caused by the same virus that gives people chickenpox.
As a result, he’s feeling too rough to write anything at the moment. So
no Winding Down and no work on Fed – which means I have nothing new to
report.
REAL LIFE NEWS: A ROCK ESCAPED FROM THE ASTEROID BELT AND MADE ITS WAY
TO NEPTUNE
by Hazed
Scientists have discovered a rock orbiting Neptune that seems to have
travelled from the asteroid belt.
The rock, called “2004 EW95” was examined by the Very Large Telescope in
Chile. The observers knew something was odd about it because it
reflected less ultraviolet light than expected. They were able to
examine it and determine it is made of iron, silicon and carbon –
materials much more likely to be found in asteroids closer to the sun.
Planets and asteroids are usually made from whatever material was
available in the region at the time they were formed.
“It’s very carbon-rich,” Thomas Puzia, astronomy and astrophysics
professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and one of the
study’s authors, told Gizmodo. “It’s an asteroid that has been very
likely flung out from the inner solar system, and displaced to the
outskirts by interactions with the migrating planets.”
The results were based on observations of the wavelengths of light
reflected by the rock, which wasn’t easy. “These things are really
faint,” said Puzia. “You’re really pushing the limits of the largest
telescopes.”
Which leads to the question: how did it end up all the way out in
Neptune’s orbit? One theory suggests that Jupiter and Saturn moved
closer to the sun then further away at some point in their history – and
their gravity could have send a few asteroids sailing out to the further
reaches of the system.
Source:
https://gizmodo.com/how-the-hell-did-this-asteroid-get-all-the-way-out-past-1825893970
REAL LIFE NEWS: COMMERCIAL FIRM PRODUCES FULL-COLOUR SATELLITE VIDEOS OF
THE EARTH
by Hazed
A British spacecraft is the first commercial satellite to make short
video clips in high-definition and full colour and deliver them to Earth
regularly. The short videos have a resolution of one metre, so the
movement of vehicles can be easily seen.
Carbonite-2 was launched in January, intended to be the first in a
network of spacecraft to be launched in the years ahead. It was built by
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and the network will be operated
by analytics firm Earth-i.
To mark the end of the satellite’s commissioning phase, SSTL has
released a number of videos that have been prepared with Earth-i. These
include views of Dubai Airport, Buenos Aires, Puerto Antofagasta, Rio de
Janeiro, Diego Garcia and Mumbai Airport.
You can watch some of the videos at the source link.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43775440
http://earthi.space/
REAL LIFE NEWS: SELF-DRIVING CAR CONFUSION LEADING TO DEATHS
by Hazed
Deaths on the road are being caused by confusion about just what
‘self-driving’ means.
There is a big difference between a true autonomous vehicle, which
drives itself without human intervention, and a car that offers
assistance to the driver with technologies such as Tesla’s Autopilot, or
similar systems from Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac and so on. With
these systems the driver is expected to keep their hands on the wheel
and pay attention, ready to assume control at any moment.
The US engineering organisation SAE International has categorised cars
into six broad levels, depending on the degree of automation they contain.
Level zero means no automation at all, whereas Level 5 means the car can
drive itself on all roads and in all conditions.
Most “driver assistance” systems available today are Level 2. That means
the driver is supposed to keep hold of the wheel. But many people are
confused about this – for example, recently a Tesla driver in the UK was
prosecuted for climbing into the passenger seat of his car while it was
driving through motorway traffic at 40mph. In other incidents the Tesla
Autopilot was implicated in crashes, two of which were fatal.
While I was writing this story, news broke that a car with Tesla’s
Autopilot switched on had ploughed into a stationary police car in
Laguna Beach, California (see the second link below for the details).
Perhaps calling the system “Autopilot” is confusing people! “Calling
this kind of technology Autopilot… that’s very misleading for
consumers,” says Matthew Avery of Thatcham Research – a group that tests
vehicles on behalf of the UK insurance industry. “They might think ‘I
just need to push this button and I can let the car drive’.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44159581
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/30/tesla_car_in_autopilot_crashes_into_parked_police_vehicle/
REAL LIFE NEWS: FACIAL RECOGNITION USED TO LOCATE SUSPECT AT CHINESE CONCERT
by Hazed
Last issue I told you that facial recognition technology had proven to
be a failure when used by the London police (read the story here:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/2018/180520/official07.html). But a
recent report says that it was used by Chinese police recently to find a
wanted man from within a crowd of 60,000 concert goers.
The police said that the 31-year-old suspect, identified only as Mr Ao,
was wanted for “economic crimes”. He attended a concert by pop star
Jacky Cheung in Nanchang city, but was identified by cameras at the
ticket entrance then apprehended by police after he had taken his seat.
“The suspect looked completely caught by surprise when we took him
away,” police officer Li Jin told state news agency Xinhua.
“He didn’t think the police would be able to catch him from a crowd of
60,000 so quickly,” Mr Li, from Honggutan police station in Nanchang
city, added.
My question is, did the police know that Mr Ao was going to attend the
concert, or do they run facial recognition on all their cameras
throughout the city, trying to match all the people seen with wanted
individuals?
China is the world leader in facial recognition technology, and it
regularly warns its citizens that the equipment makes it impossible for
them to evade the authorities – but how much of that is true and how
much is just hyperbole designed to cow the population we have no way of
knowing. Either way, it’s a scary example of the surveillance society.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43751276
Earthdate June 4, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
Alan is ill so can’t write Winding Down this week, Neptunian rock came
from the asteroid belt, full-colour pictures from space produced by
commercial firm, how confusion about what ‘self-driving’ means is
causing accidents, Chinese authorities say facial recognition worked for
them, vape explosion kills man, an astronaut fails to take pictures, a
bank staffed by robots, a sofa that turns on the lights and TV, and a
picture of an alien fjord.
Official News part one
ALAN GETS THE LURGY
by Hazed
There is no Winding Down this week (and probably not next week either)
because Alan has been struck down by a computer virus. Sentient malware
has mutated and made the leap from machine to man, and laid him low. It
is demanding a ransom of a large number of bitgroats be paid before it
will relinquish its hold on his fevered body.
The real life explanation is that he has a bad case of shingles – a
nasty nerve infection caused by the same virus that gives people chickenpox.
As a result, he’s feeling too rough to write anything at the moment. So
no Winding Down and no work on Fed – which means I have nothing new to
report.
REAL LIFE NEWS: A ROCK ESCAPED FROM THE ASTEROID BELT AND MADE ITS WAY
TO NEPTUNE
by Hazed
Scientists have discovered a rock orbiting Neptune that seems to have
travelled from the asteroid belt.
The rock, called “2004 EW95” was examined by the Very Large Telescope in
Chile. The observers knew something was odd about it because it
reflected less ultraviolet light than expected. They were able to
examine it and determine it is made of iron, silicon and carbon –
materials much more likely to be found in asteroids closer to the sun.
Planets and asteroids are usually made from whatever material was
available in the region at the time they were formed.
“It’s very carbon-rich,” Thomas Puzia, astronomy and astrophysics
professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and one of the
study’s authors, told Gizmodo. “It’s an asteroid that has been very
likely flung out from the inner solar system, and displaced to the
outskirts by interactions with the migrating planets.”
The results were based on observations of the wavelengths of light
reflected by the rock, which wasn’t easy. “These things are really
faint,” said Puzia. “You’re really pushing the limits of the largest
telescopes.”
Which leads to the question: how did it end up all the way out in
Neptune’s orbit? One theory suggests that Jupiter and Saturn moved
closer to the sun then further away at some point in their history – and
their gravity could have send a few asteroids sailing out to the further
reaches of the system.
Source:
https://gizmodo.com/how-the-hell-did-this-asteroid-get-all-the-way-out-past-1825893970
REAL LIFE NEWS: COMMERCIAL FIRM PRODUCES FULL-COLOUR SATELLITE VIDEOS OF
THE EARTH
by Hazed
A British spacecraft is the first commercial satellite to make short
video clips in high-definition and full colour and deliver them to Earth
regularly. The short videos have a resolution of one metre, so the
movement of vehicles can be easily seen.
Carbonite-2 was launched in January, intended to be the first in a
network of spacecraft to be launched in the years ahead. It was built by
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and the network will be operated
by analytics firm Earth-i.
To mark the end of the satellite’s commissioning phase, SSTL has
released a number of videos that have been prepared with Earth-i. These
include views of Dubai Airport, Buenos Aires, Puerto Antofagasta, Rio de
Janeiro, Diego Garcia and Mumbai Airport.
You can watch some of the videos at the source link.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43775440
http://earthi.space/
REAL LIFE NEWS: SELF-DRIVING CAR CONFUSION LEADING TO DEATHS
by Hazed
Deaths on the road are being caused by confusion about just what
‘self-driving’ means.
There is a big difference between a true autonomous vehicle, which
drives itself without human intervention, and a car that offers
assistance to the driver with technologies such as Tesla’s Autopilot, or
similar systems from Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac and so on. With
these systems the driver is expected to keep their hands on the wheel
and pay attention, ready to assume control at any moment.
The US engineering organisation SAE International has categorised cars
into six broad levels, depending on the degree of automation they contain.
Level zero means no automation at all, whereas Level 5 means the car can
drive itself on all roads and in all conditions.
Most “driver assistance” systems available today are Level 2. That means
the driver is supposed to keep hold of the wheel. But many people are
confused about this – for example, recently a Tesla driver in the UK was
prosecuted for climbing into the passenger seat of his car while it was
driving through motorway traffic at 40mph. In other incidents the Tesla
Autopilot was implicated in crashes, two of which were fatal.
While I was writing this story, news broke that a car with Tesla’s
Autopilot switched on had ploughed into a stationary police car in
Laguna Beach, California (see the second link below for the details).
Perhaps calling the system “Autopilot” is confusing people! “Calling
this kind of technology Autopilot… that’s very misleading for
consumers,” says Matthew Avery of Thatcham Research – a group that tests
vehicles on behalf of the UK insurance industry. “They might think ‘I
just need to push this button and I can let the car drive’.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44159581
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/30/tesla_car_in_autopilot_crashes_into_parked_police_vehicle/
REAL LIFE NEWS: FACIAL RECOGNITION USED TO LOCATE SUSPECT AT CHINESE CONCERT
by Hazed
Last issue I told you that facial recognition technology had proven to
be a failure when used by the London police (read the story here:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/2018/180520/official07.html). But a
recent report says that it was used by Chinese police recently to find a
wanted man from within a crowd of 60,000 concert goers.
The police said that the 31-year-old suspect, identified only as Mr Ao,
was wanted for “economic crimes”. He attended a concert by pop star
Jacky Cheung in Nanchang city, but was identified by cameras at the
ticket entrance then apprehended by police after he had taken his seat.
“The suspect looked completely caught by surprise when we took him
away,” police officer Li Jin told state news agency Xinhua.
“He didn’t think the police would be able to catch him from a crowd of
60,000 so quickly,” Mr Li, from Honggutan police station in Nanchang
city, added.
My question is, did the police know that Mr Ao was going to attend the
concert, or do they run facial recognition on all their cameras
throughout the city, trying to match all the people seen with wanted
individuals?
China is the world leader in facial recognition technology, and it
regularly warns its citizens that the equipment makes it impossible for
them to evade the authorities – but how much of that is true and how
much is just hyperbole designed to cow the population we have no way of
knowing. Either way, it’s a scary example of the surveillance society.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43751276
Fiona Craig
Jun 3, 2018, 6:38:34 AM6/3/18
to fed2...@googlegroups.com
Fed2 Star
Earthdate June 4, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
Official News part two
Earthdate June 4, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU VAPING WAS BAD FOR YOU!
by Hazed
Vaping is supposed to be less harmful than smoking cigarettes, but for
one poor chap in Florida it turned out to be deadly – he was killed when
his device exploded.
The man was vaping at home earlier this month when the Smok-E Mountain
device exploded. The medical examiner’s office reported that two pieces
of the vaping device had been fired into his head, causing death by
“projectile wound of head.”
His body also suffered 80% burns after the explosion set fire to his house.
This is the first reported death from vaping, but plenty of injuries
have been reported. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency found
that between January 2009 and December 31, 2016 there were 195 incidents
where vape pens overheated or exploded, leading to 133 acute injuries to
users, 38 of which were described as “severe.”
“The combination of an electronic cigarette and a lithium-ion battery is
a new and unique hazard,” the report said.
Still, I am sure the deaths from fires caused by cigarettes are an order
of magnitude greater (not to mention the cancer risk).
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/16/exploding_ecig_kills/
FORGETFUL ASTRONAUT OF THE WEEK: CAMERA WITH NO MEMORY CARD
by Hazed
Astronauts on the International Space Station can get some amazing
pictures – but only if they make sure there’s a memory card in their
camera. Unfortunately, Andrew Feustel failed to do that last week.
He went on a space walk and took a GoPro camera with him. But when he
was ready to take his pictures he discovered a problem. A video shows
him asking mission control, “A question about the GoPro real quick. I’m
pushing the button I see a ‘no SD’. Do I need that to record? And if it
is recording is there supposed to be a red light on?”
It turned out that the message ‘No SD’ means exactly that – there’s no
memory card in the camera. Ooops!
Feustel continued with the spacewalk, which involved moving a pump
system, but had to give up on taking any pictures.
Source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/22/astronaut_took_camera_on_spacewalk_but_forgot_sd_card/
ROBOT OF THE WEEK: BANKDROID
by Hazed
A bank staffed only by robots has opened in China. Visitors to the China
Construction Bank are greeted by a robot who announces, “Welcome to
China Construction Bank. What can I help you with today?”
The robot is called Xiao Long, or “Little Dragon” and she talks to
customers, takes bank cards, checks accounts and can answer basic questions.
Once inside the bank, customers use ATMs for services such as account
opening, money transfer and foreign exchange, with a second robot on
duty to help.
Should a human’s intervention be needed, customers can video-link with a
real life fleshy bank clerk.
Read about the robot bank teller here:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/may/14/shanghai-robot-bank-china-worlds-first-human-free-branch-construction
FURNITURE OF THE WEEK: A SMART SOFA
by Hazed
Remote controls are great for the lazy; you can turn on the TV and maybe
even the lights without having to get up from the sofa. But now a sofa
has been invented which does it without you even having to press a button.
Korean electronics company LG has collaborated with Italian furniture
maker Natuzzi to create an internet sofa that will turn on the TV and
adjust the sofa and lighting to give you the best viewing experience.
The smart sofa has been on display at Milano Design Week. Whether it
will ever go on sale, and how much it will cost, we don’t know.
Source:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/13/what_a_time_to_be_alive_lg_and_italian_furnituremaker_build_smart_sofa/
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: FJORD OF FIRE
by Hazed
A fjord runs through pink mountains, bathed in an orange glow. What
alien world is this? Actually, it’s taken here on Earth, in Alaska. The
alien colours come from special filters on the camera that capture
infrared and ultraviolet light as well as visible light.
This picture is actually over a year old but I’ve only just come across
it. Take a look at it here:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431240-100-pink-mountains-light-up-in-otherworldly-view-of-fjord/
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