SpaceX Abort Test a Success

As reported by Science Times: Last week, SpaceX performed its pad abort test for its Dragon capsule at Cape Canaveral.  While the test seemed to go off without a hitch, initially there was little word from the company about exactly how it went.  Now, SpaceX has confirmed that while the test itself was a success, there is still plenty of room for improvement to prepare the capsule to fly astronauts too the International Space Station within two years.

For the abort test on Wednesday, the Dragon fired eight SuperDraco engines to see how it would escape from a launch pad emergency.  The engines have been designed to allow astronauts to land the craft powered on land or sea.

Overall, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was happy with the results of the test.  He said that the test showed the Dragon's ability to carry science payloads to the moon, Mars, the Jovian moon Europa and other places across the solar system.

"When boosted on a Falcon Heavy (rocket), it can pretty much go anywhere. So we're kind of excited about exploring that possibility", affirmed Musk.

Sometime later this year or early next year, SpaceX plans to launch the Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A.  The heavy lift rocket will be the world's most powerful launch vehicle and will generation 4.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.  According to Musk, the Dragon has a combination of a heat shield and parachutes and is not only intended to fly astronauts, but also serve as a "generalized science delivery platform."

"So I think it should be quite versatile and useful in a lot of ways for both the science community and for transporting astronauts," he said.

Next month the Air Force is expected to certify SpaceX as eligible to compete for contracts to launch national security satellites as well.  Recently, the SMC has revised the agreement with SpaceX that would streamline the lengthy certification process that was criticized earlier this year.

The updated agreement "allows the flexibility to certify SpaceX when ready, while maintaining our 'laser focus on mission success'," said Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, SMC commander, in a statement.

"SpaceX welcomes these actions," added Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer. "We look forward to completing the certification process and competing for (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) missions."

SpaceX has become one of the most recent pioneers in the race for space and continues to pursue its goals of reusable rockets to make spaceflight cheaper and reduce the time between flights.

"As long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecraft, we will never have true access to space. It will always be incredibly expensive," Musk said.

FCC Shoots Down Petitions to Delay Open Internet Rules

As reported by Engadget: Remember when a wolfpack of cable companies and telecoms -- including AT&T, CenturyLink, the American Cable Association, USTelecom and more -- filed motions to delay the FCC from enacting parts of its open internet order? Well, the Commission was having none of that. Late in the day this past Friday, Wireless Competition Bureau chief Julie Veach and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau chief Roger Sherman handed down an order dismissing those petitions, pointing out that additional protection for the internet as we know it is crucial and that the petitioners' cases aren't as strong as they think.

Most of those groups had their sights set on one crucial proviso: the FCC's new rules would classify internet service providers as "common carriers," which they believed would bring not only the industry but the infrastructure that powers the internet under tighter, heavier government control. Despite the fact that companies that would now fall under that umbrella wouldn't be subject to the full scope of regulatory oversight per the Telecommunications Act, they're still fighting back in the name of the internet's future growth. To hear dissenting FCC commissioner Ajit Pai tell it, the FCC would have the "the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works." The petition filed by USTelecom, the CTIA, AT&T and CenturyLink spelled gloom and doom for the web as we know if the FCC gets its way:

"From day one, the Commission's assertion of comprehensive control over the Internet will subject broadband Internet access providers - especially, small providers - to enormous unrecoverable costs and reduce their ability and incentive to invest in broadband infrastructure."

To be clear, AT&T and company did not petition against the three "bright light" rules - no blocking legal content, no throttling and no paid prioritization - contained in the FCC's Open Internet Order. While we guess it's good everyone involved can agree on at least that much, it doesn't change the fact that courts still have to rule on the lawsuits challenging the validity of the FCC's plan. Tom Wheeler might be convinced of his eventual victory, but you can bet no one's going to leave the ring until one set of ideals has been laid out on the ground.

Mapping World Wide Homicides

Danger: A map shows the distribution of homicidal violence across the world – and how it is mainly concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, nine of out ten of the most dangerous places, according to murder statistics, are in this area (illustrated)

As reported by the Daily Mail: You might moan about the crime in your area, but this interactive map reveals that life is probably considerably less dangerous compared to the streets of Honduras.

This interactive map shows the distribution of homicidal violence across the world and how it's mainly concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In fact, nine out of ten of the most dangerous places in terms of murders are concentrated in this region.

The Homicide Monitor map, made by Brazil-based think tank The Igarapé Institute, claims to be the most comprehensive publicly available dataset on murder in the world and was designed to show how some countries and populations are more at risk of dying violently than others.

‘A better diagnosis of how homicide is spread can help in the design of effective violence prevention and reduction measures,’ the Institute says.

The map shows that Honduras has the highest murder rate
 in the world, with 7,172 homicides in 2012 – a rate of
85.5 per 100,000 people.Almost half of the victims were aged
between 15 and 29 and 92 per cent of them were male. This
image shows members of street gang 'MS13' in a jail
in Tamarac, Honduras

Users can spin the 3D globe and click on countries to see their murder rates, which allow places to be compared to each other, despite having different population sizes.

Information on the total numbers of homicides, the homicide rate and statistics related to gender, age and weapons are shown.

The map shows that Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, with 7,172 homicides in 2012 – a rate of 85.5 per 100,000 people.

Almost half of the victims were aged between 15 and 29 and 92 per cent of them were male. A total of 83 per cent of deaths were caused by firearms.

This violence is thought to be driven by drugs as it’s a major drug route to the US. The UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has called the border regions between north-west Honduras and south-west Guatemala 'some of the most dangerous places in Central America’.

Venezuela has the second highest murder rate, according to the map, at 53.7 homicides per 100,000 people, with the US Virgin Islands coming in third, with a rate of 52.6.

Venezuela was ranked the most insecure nation in the world by US consultancy Gallup in 2013 with the UN stating that crimes such as drug trafficking, kidnapping and human trafficking as well as murders is down to the poor political and economic environment in the country.

A book penned by Gareth A Jones and Dennis Rogers, called 'Youth violence in Latin America: Gangs and juvenile justice in perspective' says: ‘With the change of political regime in 1999 and the initiation of the Bolivarian Revolution, a period of transformation and political conflict began, marked by a further increase in the number and rate of violent deaths.’

Venezuela has the second highest murder rate, according
 to the map, at 53.7 homicides per 100,000 people. This
shocking image, taken on the street of Caracas
shows the aftermath of an attack on a policeman

The troubling trend has continued following the Chávez presidency.

Belize and Jamaica make up the top five most murderous countries. In Jamaica, the government is trying to drive down the rate by using the threat of the death penalty, as well as police patrols, curfews and actions to break up and control gangs.

The only country to be included in the top 10 of countries with the highest murder rates outside of Latin America and the Caribbean, is Swaziland in Africa, which has a homicide rate of 33.8 per 100,000.

The kingdom has been described as a crime hot spot, with muggings, burglaries, and gang crime commonplace.

Among the safest places in the world, in terms of the risk of being murdered, are Western Europe including the UK, China, Australia, Canada and Chile – an oasis of safety in South America. Argentina and the US have under 5.55 homicides per 100,000 people.

The data comes from publically reported homicide reports from 219 countries and territories, from the millennium to the latest available year.

The Monitors draws on national-level data collated by UNODC, as well as the Igarapé Institute, which collects information from more than 40 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The data is divided according to gender, age and the type of weapon when available.

‘The Homicide Monitor is intended to provoke reflection and stimulate debate,’ the Igarapé Institute said.

The US Virgin Islands is the third most dangerous place in the world in terms of murders, according to the statistics on which the map is based, with a rate of 52.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. This image shows a beach on St Thomas

New GPS Means Hyper Accurate Virtual Reality... also Drone Delivery and Better Car Safety (Yawn)

As reported by Popular Science: As anyone who has ever missed a freeway exit while relying on navigation software can tell you, even at its best GPS is something of a guess. With a margin of error of around a few feet, GPS is can be decent enough for guiding cars on roads, but the wide range limits GPS to environments where a few feet of difference isn’t a huge deal. A new, hyper-accurate system, developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, can upgrade GPS accuracy from a few feet to a few inches.  

GPS works thanks to a system of 32 satellites orbiting Earth. The satellites all broadcast signals with their location and time signatures encoded. The GPS receiver on your phone picks up on these signals, and uses their time and location data to calculate how far away each satellite is. Using signals from four or more satellites, the GPS can tell exactly where on Earth it is, give or take the length of a car.

Those signals sent from GPS satellites contain information coded into waves with a specific frequency. Each cycle--meaning every time the wave travels from one crest to another--can be used as a sort of distance marker, accurate to fractions of an inch. These waves are much smaller than the signals that a regular GPS uses, so when the signals from different satellites overlap, the area of intersection is also smaller, which leads to more accurate location estimates. The UT Austin folks’ device uses a special receiver, called GRID, to measure those waves.

We’ve already seen small GPS units designed to work on this principle alone, with a specific focus on better drone navigation. What the researchers at UT Austin hope to do is get their program running internally on phones, but for now, GRID is an external device.

Apart from accurate drone delivery, the team at UT Austin wants to use it for better virtually reality. By tracking users' movements more precisely, the tech could make walking around in a virtual environment smoother and more immersive. A video of the system, used with a virtual reality headset, demonstrates its accuracy:

Apple Confirms that Tattoos are a Problem for the Apple Watch

As reported by The Verge:In an updated support document, Apple has acknowledged what some new Apple Watch owners quickly discovered over the last week: the Watch may not work properly for those with tattoos. The Watch's heart-rate monitor works by shining infrared or green light through the skin, but tattoos can interfere with that and prevent the Watch from getting a reading. "Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart-rate sensor performance," Apple writes. "The ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings."  

Apple's description is vague about what type of tattoos will and won't pose a problem, perhaps because it doesn't precisely know. What's been widely suggested is that darker tattoos are the ones causing issues, preventing too much of the Watch's light from getting through. This isn't just a problem related to reading heart rates. Apple also uses those sensors to detect when the Watch has been removed from a person's wrist — if the Watch doesn't think it's being worn, it won't receive notifications; it can also cause the Watch to lock if a passcode is enabled. There are work arounds for anyone running into this problem, but they remove some of the conveniences and security that are supposed to be built in.

Uber's SOS Button Will Send Live GPS Updates to Police in India

As reported by The Verge: Uber added an "SOS" button to its app in India following the alleged rape of a passenger last year, and today Uber has announced plans to start improving that button in a significant way. Starting in the city Kolkata and potentially rolling out elsewhere, activating the SOS button will now send live GPS updates to local police, provide police with information on the driver, and send details on the passenger reporting the issue, in addition to initiating a phone call with the police as it initially did. That information, which should enable police to track an Uber vehicle, will appear on a display that Uber installs for the local police.

Uber says that it's been testing the service in Kolkata and is now in "advanced discussions" with "multiple cities" in India to roll it out in other areas. That'll be the big hurdle here, as the feature isn't going to be very meaningful if most people can't use it. It's certainly a step in the right direction, though. Uber has frequently received criticism about rider safety, and while these features are only in India for now, it's a signal that Uber is starting to take the problem more seriously. Last year, it also began working to improve its screenings of drivers in India.

Amazon Announces Pilot Program to Test Tesla Stackable Battery Units

As reported by SlashGear: This week Tesla made a big announcement with a new Tesla Energy arm that aims to produce batteries that can be used in homes to store power. While that early announcement focused mainly on consumer applications, there are also some serious commercial applications for the battery tech Tesla Energy has. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that it has started a pilot of the new stackable battery units Tesla unveiled.

AWS has announced that it has rolled out a 4.8-megawatt hour pilot of the energy storage batteries in the Northern California region. AWS committed late in 2014 to running exclusively on renewable energy and these batteries will help it reach that goal.

According to Amazon's James Hamilton, these Tesla batteries can help AWS bridge the gap between intermittent power producing tech like wind generators and the constant need for power from a large data center. AWS says that the batteries can also help businesses save money by allowing them to buy power when it's at the lowest rates, store the power, and then use it when rates are higher.

The batteries are seen as another option to backup generators to provide power during an outage. The batteries could help AWS gain a competitive edge in a very competitive market where slight cost savings can make a big difference.