News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
A University of Michigan study led by J Alex Halderman has revealed that the nation’s traffic control system is laughably easy to take over.
The study said all that was needed was a laptop computer with a wireless card that could communicate at the same frequency used by the traffic lights, and the systems passwords. It was noted that the passwords and usernames in use were often the default ones.
Fourth Amendment advocate and international fugitive Edward Snowden says Dropbox, the cloud storage service, is “very hostile to privacy” reports PCWorld.com.
He is recommending that those with a need for cloud storage use companies that practice “zero-knowledge”, means that the data is encrypted before it reaches the cloud and the key remains with the user.
He cited Spider Oak as an example.
Of course, unlike with Dropbox, if you lose your password with Spider Oak you files are lost forever.
What a solar storm looks like
Civilization almost ended in 2012 just as those crazy Mayans had predicted.
A massive solar eruption happened on July 23 of that year that would have fried just about all circuit boards on Planet Earth if it hit us.
If it happened two weeks earlier it would have.
Without circuit boards water would not be pumped, electricity would not be transmitted and automobiles made after the 1980s would not have started.
Food would spoil in refrigerators and freezers. Hospitals would be paralyzed.
The death told would likely be in the billions.
And it almost happened.
A solar storm of that magnitude did strike Earth but that was in September 1859 and it was no big deal.
But that was well before computer chips and power was produced by muscle and steam, and food for storage was either salted or dried or kept in ice houses.
Things are different now.
A solar strike is inevitable. NASA is giving one a 12 percent chance of happening in the next decade.
It strikes us as being far wiser to invest in shielding our infrastructure to resist it than following the Chicken Little proponents of global warming. This would mean investing in upgrades for power facilities and water pumping stations. It would mean making sure that all emergency vehicles can withstand an EMP blast — basically the same thing. It would mean encouraging world automobile makers to design consumer vehicles with the appropriate shielding. It would mean factoring in EMP shielding in home design and educating the average person on how best to shield his home.
One wonders about the lack of discussion about such matters.
This video puts what is claimed to be the screen on the next iPhone to the hardness test.
It’s a good lesson on smartphone screens and also provides excellent explanations of how to choose sandpaper and the Mohs scale of mineral hardness.
A new cast cooked up by Deniz Karasahin of Turkey could heal broken bones 40 to 80 percent faster reports Techcrunch.com
The cast uses ultra-sonic vibrations, a proven therapy but not widespread since the vibrations couldn’t penetrate the traditional plaster cast.
Using 3D printing technology — that’s where a computer images are sent to devices for molding with plastics and other material rather than merely appearing as ink on paper — Karasahin has created a cast that would keep the bone in place while allowing ultra-sonic drivers to be placed directly on the skin.
Kudos Karasahin.
Kiddie helium balloons will soon cost $100 each according to Cornell scientist Robert Richardson.
Why?
Helium is used in radiation portal monitors to scan for bomb-making components entering the country, and the proliferation of these devices after 9/11 is causing a shortage, reports Popular Science.
The upside is that at $100 per balloon it would cost $9,900 to release 99 of them making the accidental start of World War III cost prohibitive for hippies.
Toyota has developed a high-tech, two-cylinder, internal combustion engine to keep an electric car charged.
It’s effective because it never has to turn a crankshaft or any other shaft or gear just about. Its piston goes up and down merely to provide AC electricity to charge a battery.
The engine is two feet long and measures 8 inches round. Road and Track says it could generate 15 hp which would be enough to keep a compact electric vehicle rolling at highway speed even if the main drive battery gets depleted, according to Road and Track.
Toyota says its simple engine — which it calls the Free Piston Engine Linear Generator (FPEG) — achieves a remarkable thermal-efficiency rating of 42 percent in continuous use.
Below is a visualization:
Smart phones can browse the web and carry thousands of songs but what has always been missing is the ability to take a thermal image of your roof.
Well, wait no more. Popular Mechanics reports that a new attachment by FLIR Systems can do just that.
The FLIR ONE cost just $350 and attaches to an iPhone or Android, according to PM.
Why would anyone need to thermal image something? PM points out that they can not only find poorly insulated parts of a home but hidden wasp nests, tire leaks, and take body temperature at a distance.
Also they are great for bird watching, PM says.
A group of physicists have finally undertaken to resolve the mystery as to why earphones, and other ropey things, tangle reports DiscoverMaganize.com.
They put strings of different stiffness in a box and tumbled it.
Complex knots form within seconds with the stiffer strings less likely to get knotted.
They made computer simulations of the data obtained and learned that when jostled the strings formed coils with the loose end weaving through the strands like a grandma knitting a sweater.
The scientists say the knots were analyzed using mathematical knot theory.
Betcha didn’t even know there was such a thing as mathematical knot theory.