Tag: science

Chrome OS Will Finally Run Android Apps in the Background

An anonymous reader shares a report: While it’s no longer a novelty to run Android apps on your Chromebook, that doesn’t mean they run well. To date, most of those apps pause when you switch away — fine for a phone, but not what you’d expect on a computer with a multi-window interface. However, they’re about to become far more functional. Chrome Unboxed has learned that the Chrome OS 64 beta introduces Android Parallel Tasks, which lets Android apps run at full bore regardless of what you’re doing. You could watch a video in a mobile app while you’re surfing the web, or take a break from a mobile game without jarring transitions. There’s no guarantee that Android Parallel Tasks will reach the stable Chrome OS 64, so you might not want to plan a purchase around the feature. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chrome OS Will Finally Run Android Apps in the Background

How Pirates Of The Caribbean Hijacked America’s Metric System

If the United States were more like the rest of the world, a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder might be known as the McDonald’s 113-Grammer, John Henry’s 9-pound hammer would be 4.08 kilograms, and any 800-pound gorillas in the room would likely weigh 362 kilos. NPR explores: One reason this country never adopted the metric system might be pirates. Here’s what happened: In 1793, the brand new United States of America needed a standard measuring system because the states were using a hodgepodge of systems. “For example, in New York, they were using Dutch systems, and in New England, they were using English systems, ” says Keith Martin, of the research library at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This made interstate commerce difficult. The secretary of state at the time was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson knew about a new French system and thought it was just what America needed. He wrote to his pals in France, and the French sent a scientist named Joseph Dombey off to Jefferson carrying a small copper cylinder with a little handle on top. It was about 3 inches tall and about the same wide. This object was intended to be a standard for weighing things, part of a weights and measure system being developed in France, now known as the metric system. The object’s weight was 1 kilogram. Crossing the Atlantic, Dombey ran into a giant storm. “It blew his ship quite far south into the Caribbean Sea, ” says Martin. And you know who was lurking in Caribbean waters in the late 1700s? Pirates. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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How Pirates Of The Caribbean Hijacked America’s Metric System

Russia is planning to put a luxury hotel on the ISS

While American private corporations are working to offer paying customers a short trip to space (or the edge of it ), Russia is cooking up something grander. According to Popular Mechanics , it saw a proposal detailing Russian space corporation Roscosmos’ plan to build a luxury hotel on the ISS. Anybody whose pockets are deep enough to shell out at least $40 million for the experience can stay there for a week or two. An additional $20 million will buy them the chance to go on a spacewalk with a cosmonaut. The publication says Russian space contractor RKK Energia conjured up the strategy to be able to pay for the construction of the second module it’s building that will set it back $279 to $446 million. RKK Energia is already building the first of the two modules to serve as a science laboratory and power supply station. Although the second module has always been part of the plan, the Russian government is only paying for the first one. The tourist module will reportedly look like the first one from the outside — you can see an illustration of the science module below: [Image credit: Anatoly Zak/Russianspaceweb.com] The inside, however, will have four sleeping quarters around two cubic meters each with 9-inch windows. It will also have two “medical and hygiene” stations, as well as a lounge area with a 16-inch window — after all, if Russia wants guests to pay tens of millions, it will have to be worth it. RKK Energia is hoping to fly one or two tourists per Soyuz flight after NASA stops buying seats on the capsule for astronauts headed to the ISS, which will happen once Boeing’s and SpaceX’s commercial crew program vehicles are ready. To be able to jump-start construction, it has to find 12 (wealthy) passengers willing to pay $4 million up front. And if at least six passengers pay for a week-long stay at the space hotel per year, the company can recoup its investment within seven years. As Popular Mechanics noted, though, the ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2028. The space contractor said the module takes five years to finish, so it will have to start building soon. Source: Popular Mechanics

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Russia is planning to put a luxury hotel on the ISS

Number of Births in Japan To Hit Record Low in 2017

An anonymous reader shares a report: The number of births in Japan this year has fallen to is lowest since records began more than a century ago with about 941, 000 new babies, the health ministry said on Friday, proof if any were needed that it faces an ageing and shrinking population. The number of births will be about 4 percent lower than last year and the lowest since the government started compiling data in 1899, the ministry said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Number of Births in Japan To Hit Record Low in 2017

Apple’s iPhone Throttling Will Reinvigorate the Push for Right To Repair Laws

Jason Koebler, writing for Motherboard: The news that Apple throttles iPhones that have old batteries will reinvigorate the right to repair debate as the movement enters a crucial year. Third party repair shops say they’ve already seen an uptick in customers asking for battery replacements to speed up their slow phones, and right to repair activists who are pushing for state legislation that will make third party and self repair more accessible say Apple’s secrecy about this behavior will give them a powerful rallying message. “If Apple were serious about battery life, they’d market battery replacements, ” Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, told me in an email. “Apple clearly has a big financial benefit when people decide their phones are too slow and head to the Apple Store for a new phone.” Repair.org is a right to repair advocacy group that is made up largely of small, third party repair shops, which is spearheading the effort to get states to consider legislation that will make it easier to repair electronic devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple’s iPhone Throttling Will Reinvigorate the Push for Right To Repair Laws

Coinbase Adds Support For Bitcoin Cash

Popular digital exchange Coinbase has announced support for Bitcoin Cash. “Bitcoin Cash was created by a fork on August 1st, 2017, ” a blog post reads. “All customers who held a Bitcoin balance on Coinbase at the time of the fork will now see an equal balance of Bitcoin Cash available in their Coinbase account. Your Bitcoin Cash balance will reflect your Bitcoin balance at the time of the Bitcoin Cash Fork, which occurred at 13:20 UTC, August 1, 2017.” The recent announcement has disrupted the markets. Bitcoin has dropped 12 percent, with the other two cryptocurrencies supported via Coinbase not faring too well either. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Coinbase Adds Support For Bitcoin Cash

CDC Director Says No Words Are Actually Banned At the CDC

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PBS: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald on Sunday addressed a report that President Donald Trump’s administration had banned the CDC from using seven words or phrases in next year’s budget documents. The terms are “fetus, ” “transgender, ” “vulnerable, ” “entitlement, ” “diversity, ” “evidence-based” and “science-based, ” according to a story first reported on Friday in The Washington Post. But Fitzgerald said in a series of tweets on Sunday said there are “no banned words, ” while emphasizing the agency’s commitment to data-driven science. “CDC has a long-standing history of making public health and budget decisions that are based on the best available science and data and for the benefit of all people — and we will continue to do so, ” she said. A group of the agency’s policy analysts said senior officials at the CDC informed them about the banned words on Thursday, according to the Post’s report. In some cases, the analysts were reportedly given replacement phrases to use instead. But in follow-up reporting, The New York Times cited “a few” CDC officials who suggested the move was not meant as an outright ban, but rather, a technique to help secure Republican approval of the 2019 budget by eliminating certain words and phrases. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said the reported decree on banned words was a misrepresentation. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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CDC Director Says No Words Are Actually Banned At the CDC

Two Major ISPs Are Suffering Outages, Making the Internet Really Slow Right Now

Freshly Exhumed writes: Two major backbone internet service providers — Level 3 and Cogent — appear to be suffering from massive outages and downgraded service, according to ISP monitoring service Downdetector. Users in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. are apparently being hit the hardest. Comcast is also said to be affected to a lesser degree. “Backbone internet service providers work directly with large internet platforms like Netflix to deliver large amounts of data across networks, and also work behind the scenes of consumer-facing ISPs, ” reports Slate. “Since the internet is an interconnected mess of wires, disruptions with Level 3 and Cogent could impact service for Comcast and Verizon users in turn.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Two Major ISPs Are Suffering Outages, Making the Internet Really Slow Right Now

Power Outage Strands Thousands at US Airport. 600 Flights Cancelled

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: A power outage at the world’s busiest airport left thousands of passengers stranded in dark terminals and in planes sitting on the tarmac, amid a nationwide ground stop. Incoming and outgoing flights at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport were halted indefinitely as crews worked to restore power, leading to hundreds of flight delays and cancellations. Atlanta is the heart of the US air transport system, and what happens there has the potential to ripple through the country. More than 600 flights to and from Atlanta have been canceled, including 350 departures, according to Flightradar24… Flights headed to Atlanta are being held on the ground at their departure airport. Inbound flights to Atlanta are being diverted, US Customs and Border Protection said. Departures from the airport are delayed because electronic equipment is not working in the terminals, the FAA said. The cause of the incident is under investigation. Some people stranded in the dark terminals used their cellphones as flashlights, one passenger told CNN. “There were a few emergency lights on, but it was really dark — felt totally apocalyptic.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Power Outage Strands Thousands at US Airport. 600 Flights Cancelled

Chrome 64 Beta Adds Sitewide Audio Muting, Pop-Up Blocker, Windows 10 HDR Video

Chrome 64 is now in beta and it has several new features over version 63. In addition to a stronger pop-up blocker and support for HDR video playback when Windows 10 is in HDR mode, Chrome 64 features sitewide audio muting to block sound when navigating to other pages within a site. 9to5Google reports: An improved pop-up blocker in Chrome 64 prevents sites with abusive experiences — like disguising links as play buttons and site controls, or transparent overlays — from opening new tabs or windows. Meanwhile, as announced in November, other security measures in Chrome will prevent malicious auto-redirects. Beginning in version 64, the browser will counter surprise redirects from third-party content embedded into pages. The browser now blocks third-party iframes unless a user has directly interacted with it. When a redirect attempt occurs, users will remain on their current page with an infobar popping up to detail the block. This version also adds a new sitewide audio muting setting. It will be accessible from the permissions dropdown by tapping the info icon or green lock in the URL bar. This version also brings support for HDR video playback when Windows 10 is in HDR mode. It requires the Windows 10 Fall Creator Update, HDR-compatible graphics card, and display. Meanwhile, on Windows, Google is currently prototyping support for an operating system’s native notification center. Other features include a new “Split view” feature available on Chrome OS. Developers will also be able to take advantage of the Resize Observer API to build responsive sites with “finger control to observe changes to sizes of elements on a page.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Chrome 64 Beta Adds Sitewide Audio Muting, Pop-Up Blocker, Windows 10 HDR Video