Let’s be honest, most concept videos suck. They show you an imaginary device that looks nothing like the final product and defy the laws of physics. But some software concept videos tick all the right boxes, like this one from MacStories. Federico Viticci and Sam Beckett teamed up to create the following iOS 10 concept video. It’s a beautified wish list for the upcoming release of iOS. Read More
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Here are some great improvements that should be in iOS 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX4XXLb_Vuw Point this gernsbeckian invisible ray gun at a drone, and it will drop from the sky, according to Battelle, the non-profit company that made it. The DroneDefender doesn’t make a cool sound when you pull the trigger, though, so I don’t like it. From Make : In a press release from Battelle, the gun is stated to use “radio control frequency disruption technologies to safely stop drones in the air, before they can pose a threat to military or civilian safety.” A video accompanying the post describes that it operates on standard GPS and ISM radio bands, allowing for it to interference with commercial UAV signals. Reportedly, the DroneDefender can hit objects up to 400 meters with an effective cone diameter of 30°. This is about as far as Battelle goes with the technical details, so the actual frequency ranges of the rifle still remain unknown.
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Long distance jammer knocks drones from the sky
This time last year, we reviewed the Hendo—a real-life hoverboard that actually levitates off the ground (as opposed to whatever this thing is.) The same company’s new and improved model looks and feels more like a skateboard—with help from Tony Hawk. The image above is just an illustration, since the real thing will be revealed later this month. But it looks rad as hell . Read more…
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Tony Hawk Helped Design a New Hoverboard, the Hendo 2.0
Police injury reports, drug tests, detailed doctor visit notes, social security numbers—all were inexplicably unveiled on a public subdomain of Amazon Web Services . Welcome to the next big data breach horrorshow. Instead of hackers, it’s old-fashioned neglect that exposed your most sensitive information. Read more…
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Private Medical Data of Over 1.5 Million People Exposed Through Amazon
Pledge agreements aren’t the only deals being inked ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first official state visit to the US. A consortium led by China Railway Group has come to terms with America’s XpressWest Enterprises LLC to jointly build and operate a high-speed rail link running between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The project has already cleared its environmental impact study, obtained all of the necessary DoT licensing and right-of-way approvals, and is ready to begin building as soon as next September. China Railway has already put up $100 million in initial capital . According to China Railway, the route will span 230 miles between Las Vegas and Los Angeles proper. XpressWest’s website, however, claims the tracks will stop in Victorville, California, 85 miles outside of LA, and 55 miles closer to its destination. The route would fling passengers along at speeds topping 150 MPH, shortening the usual 4 hour car ride to a more manageable 80 minutes. What’s more, the train service is being billed as more than just a ride out to the desert, it will reportedly be part of a “Las Vegas Experience.” Amenities will include full-service entertainment club cars (though likely sans the gambling, at least until you cross into Nevada), business and first class seating, food, beverages and WiFi. China, as a nation, operates more than 10, 000 miles of domestic high-speed tracks and competes extensively with neighboring Japan — specifically JR Central, the country’s largest locomotive company — for contracts throughout Asia. As the domestic Chinese market has become saturated with high-speed rail projects, many of its largest railway companies have begun vying for international contracts. As Yang Zhongmin, deputy chief engineer with China Railway Group, pointed out at a recent press conference, “This is the first high-speed railway project where China and the U.S. will have systematic cooperation. It shows the advancement of China-made high-speed railways.” And given that multiple plans to link LA and LV with a rail line have been proposed over the years (with every single one of them failing due to budget or technological issues), China’s expertise in such matters certainly can’t hurt. Via: Bloomberg Source: LA Times
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US and Chinese firms agree on high-speed rail plan from LA to Vegas
Talk about an in-demand craftsman: After knifemaker Bob Kramer was first featured in Saveur Magazine in the ’90s, he was so deluged with orders that it took him ten years to catch up. Of all the certified Master Bladesmiths in the United States—there were 67 when he started out, and now just over 120 of them—Kramer is the only one who specializes in kitchen knives. “I have devoted my life, ” writes Kramer, “to the single-minded pursuit of crafting the perfect kitchen knife, and I am so grateful to those who appreciate my work.” When Anthony Bourdain went to visit the lone craftsman in his Washington-state shop, Kramer had something special in store for him. Not only would he make a knife before Bourdain’s eyes, he’d make it using a chunk of meteorite. Watch the master as he makes a knife from outer space:
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Watch a Master Bladesmith Make a Kitchen Knife Out of Meteorites
A small group of Chinese Navy ships showed up near Alaska earlier this week during President Obama’s visit to the northern state, mostly as a “we’re here” message. But then, as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army marched in a Beijing parade , someone simultaneously put out this completely nuts video of a naval attack on an American fleet, and on an American base that looks suspiciously like the one on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Read more…
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This Is The Insane Video China Just Put Out Showing It Attacking The U.S.
NPR reports that the Alaskan mountain which has for nearly a century been known officially as Mt. McKinley will revert to the name under which it’s been known for a much longer time: Denali. President Obama is to “make a public announcement of the name change in Anchorage Monday, during a three-day visit to Alaska.” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s secretarial order of August 28th declares the name change to be immediately effective, and directs the United States Board on Geographic Names “to immediately implement this name change, including changing the mountain’s name in the Board’s Geographic Names Information System and notifying all interested parties of the name change.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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"McKinley" Since 1917, Alaska’s Highest Peak Is Redesignated "Denali"
An anonymous reader writes: A little over a month ago, Bill Gates made headlines when he decided to double down on his investments in renewable energy. Now, he’s written an article for Quartz explaining why: “I think this issue is especially important because, of all the people who will be affected by climate change, those in poor countries will suffer the most. Higher temperatures and less-predictable weather would hurt poor farmers, most of whom live on the edge and can be devastated by a single bad crop. Food supplies could decline. Hunger and malnutrition could rise. It would be a terrible injustice to let climate change undo any of the past half-century’s progress against poverty and disease — and doubly unfair because the people who will be hurt the most are the ones doing the least to cause the problem.” He also says government is not doing enough to fund such research, and that energy markets aren’t doing a good enough job of factoring the negative effects of carbon emissions. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Why Bill Gates Is Dumping Another $1 Billion Into Clean Energy
About half of Texans are concerned about Jade Helm 15 , this week’s federal military exercise across the American southwest. Many conspiracy theories advanced by right-wing groups have driven these concerns. Read the rest
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Texans brace for Jade Helm 15, massive federal military exercise