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US government announces $4 billion self-driving car program

Turns out we’re way closer to our self-driving car future than most of us expected. US Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced at the Detroit Auto Show (pdf) Thursday that the Obama administration will have a national blueprint for autonomous vehicle standards by July. What’s more the administration is earmarking $4 billion of the 2017 budget to create a decade-long program that will support and accelerate development of the technology. “We are on the cusp of a new era in automotive technology with enormous potential to save lives, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and transform mobility for the American people, ” Secretary Foxx said in a statement. Currently, each state has individual laws regarding the burgeoning technology. This forces automakers and early adopters like Google to juggle multiple sets of rules and regulations, depending on where in the country the technology is being built. For example, California recently decided that a human “driver” be present at all times should something go wrong. This program should reduce the number of hoops companies have to jump through by creating an overarching, national-level development framework. Via: Re/Code Source: Department of Transportation (pdf)

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US government announces $4 billion self-driving car program

19th Century Shipwreck Discovered by Australians Still Looking for MH370

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously disappeared on March 8, 2014—nearly two years ago, if you can believe it. And while Australian researchers still haven’t found the plane, they recently discovered a shipwreck dating back to the 19th century . Read more…

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19th Century Shipwreck Discovered by Australians Still Looking for MH370

The first working Hyperloop could arrive by the end of 2016

Rob Lloyd, the recently-minted CEO of Hyperloop Technologies , believes that his firm will have a fully-working test loop ready for the end of the year. The executive is here at CES to oversee the breaking ground on the facility which is being constructed on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The two-mile track is, if all things go to plan, expected to be ready for passengers to try out before the end of the holidays. We sat down with Lloyd to talk about the past, present of future of Hyperloop in this wide-ranging interview with Engadget.

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The first working Hyperloop could arrive by the end of 2016

This Is How Much the Average American Diet Has Changed Over the Last 40 Years

Americans, unsurprisingly, are not hitting the major dietary milestones of the recommended diet —and they haven’t been for quite some time. But the ways in which they’re doing that has changed quite a bit in the last few decades. Read more…

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This Is How Much the Average American Diet Has Changed Over the Last 40 Years

Sunken Bronze Age Settlement Is the ‘Pompeii’ of Britain

Archaeologists in Britain have uncovered the charred remains of a 3, 000-year-old stilted wooden structure that plunged into the river after it caught fire. The remarkably well-preserved roundhouse is offering an unprecedented glimpse into what domestic life was like during the Bronze Age. Read more…

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Sunken Bronze Age Settlement Is the ‘Pompeii’ of Britain

This New Incandescent Bulb Uses Nano Mirrors to Match LED Bulb Efficiency

Energy-saving bulbs may have some competition in the shape of an ageing technology. Scientists have developed a new kind of incandescent light bulb that uses modern science to ramp up its efficiency, almost matching that of commercial LED bulbs. Read more…

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This New Incandescent Bulb Uses Nano Mirrors to Match LED Bulb Efficiency

Police claim to have cracked extra-secure BlackBerry phones

BlackBerry smartphones have secure messaging as a matter of course, but for some that isn’t enough: there are custom models that are even more secure thanks to PGP-encrypted mail. However, it seems that these locked down models aren’t quite as safe as you’d think. The Netherlands Forensic Institute has confirmed a recent report that it’s capable of scooping up encrypted data from PGP-equipped BlackBerry devices. It’s not discussing the exact techniques involved, but it’s relying on a tool from CelleBrite to get the job done. One possibility is that investigators are guessing the password based on a memory dump, although that normally requires yanking a memory chip off the phone’s motherboard. If it’s any consolation, police need physical access to crack these BlackBerrys. Their methods also aren’t completely reliable (a small batch couldn’t be cracked), and it’s uncertain that this will work with every single PGP implementation. GhostPGP, for instance, claims that it’s unaffected. All the same, this isn’t very comforting if you bought a customized BlackBerry with the promise of airtight security. And there’s no certainty that only Dutch cops have access — it’s entirely possible that other law enforcement and surveillance agencies know these tricks. [Image credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images] Source: Misdaadnieuws (translated) , Motherboard

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Police claim to have cracked extra-secure BlackBerry phones

Rumors Are Flying That We Finally Found Gravitational Waves 

Excited rumors began circulating on Twitter this morning that a major experiment designed to hunt for gravitational waves —ripples in the fabric of spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein—has observed them directly for the very first time. If confirmed, this would be one of the most significant physics discoveries of the last century. Read more…

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Rumors Are Flying That We Finally Found Gravitational Waves