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The Big Picture: Punching a hole in a (simulated) spacecraft

Space debris is a scary thing — tiny objects become missiles that can destroy whole spacecraft. If you need proof, just take a look at the results of the European Space Agency’s shield testing for its freighter, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). That gaping hole you see above is the result of shooting the ship’s multi-layer Kevlar-Nextel fabric armor with an aluminum bullet traveling at 15, 658MPH, a speed that’s entirely possible for debris caught in orbit. The good news? As bad as this looks, the test was a resounding success; while the bullet tore through the shielding, it only scorched the aluminum wall underneath. When the last ATV visits the International Space Station this summer, astronauts won’t have to worry that shrapnel from an ex-satellite will destroy their vital supplies. [Image credit: ESA-Stijn Laagland ] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Gizmodo Source: ESA

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The Big Picture: Punching a hole in a (simulated) spacecraft

US Supreme Court rules against Aereo, deems streamed broadcast TV ‘public performance’

In a precedent-setting decision , the United States Supreme Court ruled today that Aereo is in violation of US copyright law. The decision states that Aereo’s use of tiny antennas hooked up to cloud DVR technology violates the right of companies producing broadcast content. Specifically, the decision says that Aereo’s business violates the 1976 Copyright Act; the act states that individuals or businesses are violating copyright if: 1: perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or 2: to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work … to the public by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public are capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places at the same time or at different times In the case of Aereo, the Supreme Court says the company’s service is tantamount to “a performance or display of the work.” Developing … Comments Source: US Supreme Court (PDF)

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US Supreme Court rules against Aereo, deems streamed broadcast TV ‘public performance’

Supreme Court says cops can’t search your phones without a warrant

The Supreme Court’s Aereo decision may not have it earned many techie fans, but its decision on two other cases — Riley v. California and U.S. v. Wurie — may change that. The highest court in the land has just ruled that the police “generally” cannot search your cellphones without a warrant. As always, there’s room left for extenuating circumstances, but you won’t have to worry about the police rifling through the contents of your mobile devices if you get pulled over for speeding. Developing… Comments

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Supreme Court says cops can’t search your phones without a warrant

Half of Germany’s Power Supplied By Solar, Briefly

assertation (1255714) writes with this interesting tidbit from Reuters about the state of solar power in Germany: German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour — equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity — through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said. The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Half of Germany’s Power Supplied By Solar, Briefly

NASA melds vacuum tube tech with silicon to fill the terahertz gap

Vacuum tubes in a guitar amplifier. Shane Gorski The transistor revolutionized the world and made the abundant computing we now rely on a possibility, but before the transistor, there was the vacuum tube. Large, hot, power hungry, and prone to failure, vacuum tubes are a now-forgotten relic of the very earliest days of computing. But there’s a chance that vacuum tube technology could make its way back into computers—albeit without the vacuum—thanks to NASA research that has put together nanoscale “vacuum channel” transistors that can switch at more than 400GHz. Vacuum tubes have three important components: two electrodes—the negative, electron-emitting cathode, and the positive, electron-receiving anode—and a control grid placed between them. The flow of current between the cathode and the anode is controlled by the grid; the higher the voltage applied to the grid, the greater the amount of current that can flow between them. All three parts are housed in an evacuated glass tube or bulb and look somewhat like a kind of overcomplicated light bulb. The thing that made vacuum tubes so hot and power hungry was the cathode. Electrons can be encouraged to cross gaps by using very high voltages, but these tend to be difficult to work with. Instead, a phenomenon called thermionic emission is used—heat a piece of metal up enough, and the thermal energy lets the electrons escape the metal. Vacuum tubes have heating elements to make the cathode hot enough to emit electrons. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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NASA melds vacuum tube tech with silicon to fill the terahertz gap

O Brother, This Was the First Movie to Use All-Digital Color Grading

The late 1990s were a fascinating period in the evolution of cinema technology. Film, the only physical medium cinema had ever known, was slowly being replaced by newfangled digital technology. And it was in 2000 that the Academy Award winning film O Brother, Where Art Thou gorgeously illustrated the potential of digital filmmaking. Read more…

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O Brother, This Was the First Movie to Use All-Digital Color Grading

Oculus VR Is Buying the Design Team Behind the 360 Controller and Kinect

Oculus VR is now owned by Facebook , but that won’t keep them from slurping up some companies of their own. And most recently, Oculus VR has agreed to snap up the Carbon Design Group , the designers behind the wonderful Xbox 360 controller and the original Kinect. Read more…

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Oculus VR Is Buying the Design Team Behind the 360 Controller and Kinect

Starbucks now offers designer sodas: Fizzio "hand-crafted" carbonated drinks

(Photo courtesy Starbucks) Coffee retailer Starbucks tells USA Today that it plans to offer designer artisanal soft drinks, and is launching three flavors of Fizzio Handcrafted Sodas. Read the rest

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Starbucks now offers designer sodas: Fizzio "hand-crafted" carbonated drinks