Mercedes Embraces More User-Facing Technology

Mercedes Makes the Mundane ‘Magical’ -- Autopia

Leave it to the Germans. Just when you think the most simplistic, mundane bits of a vehicle can’t be improved, they surprise. Such is the case with the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550 Roadster, which packs more user-facing technology than this week’s latest and greatest Android device.

But much like the thousands of Android-powered smartphones, Mercedes has a problem with branding. Look no further than the latest technological breakthrough on the SL: Magic Vision Control.

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My Comment: This is why Mercedes is one of the top car makers in the world.

A Look At The Most Active And Most Explosive Volcanoes In The Cascade Range

Map of the Cascadia Volcanic Arc by NASA. Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Prelude To A Catastrophe: “One Of The Most Active And Most Explosive Volcanoes In The Cascade Range” -- Scientific American

Imagine being an extraterrestrial geologist in geostationary orbit above the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s. You’re the first explorers to reach Earth (underpants-thieving aliens aside), and you haven’t got a lot of data on this little blue marble. But your own planet has plate tectonics, so you’re familiar with the landforms caused by the process.

You have a look through your sensors, and see a conga line of volcanoes weaving up the continent.

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My Comment: These volcanoes will blow one day .... let us hope that it will not be today.

Apple Has Moved To Ban Samsung's New Galaxy S3 Handset In The U.S.

Apple has moved to ban Samsung's new Galaxy S3 handset in the U.S., saying it infringes two Apple patents

Apple Moves To Ban Samsung's Hit Galaxy SIII Handset In the U.S. - Just BEFORE It Launches -- Daily Mail

* Phone to launch on June 21
* Apple applies for temporary ban on sales claiming it infringes patents
* Apple expected to launch rival 'iPhone 5' in summer

Apple has moved to ban Samsung's new Galaxy S3 handset in the U.S., saying it infringes two Apple patents.

The companies have been locked in a patent battle on several continents for years - but Apple's latest move targets a key handset for Samsung, seen also as a 'standard bearer' for Google's Android operating system.

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My Comment: Apple knows that this cell phone is a winner .... hence the legal obstructions.

Instead Of Honoring D-Day, Google Honors The Drive-In Theater

D-Day vs The First Drive-In Theater? Google Picks Theater -- Search Engine Roundtable

68 years ago today was one of the most significant days in America's history - D-Day. But 79 years ago today, the first drive in movie theatre opened. Google picked, as it always does, the fun and light hearted even to celebrate with a special Google logo, aka Doodle.

So get past the fact Google doesn't have a logo for D-Day. There is still the concern for some that Google does logos at all on days like today. That is not for me to decide, just to report based on complaints in the forums.

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My Comment: I cannot be too critical of Google .... they do focus on the "fun and light hearted". But it would be nice to honor the vets from World War II at least once.

The 2,000-Year-Old Antikythera Computer

The Extraordinary 2,000-Year-Old Computer That You've Never Heard Of -- The Guardian

The Antikythera mechanism was designed to predict movements of the sun, moon and planets. Why isn't it better known?

Right, that's enough of the Queen for now. Have you ever heard of the Antikythera mechanism? You have? Well done. If not, I suspect you're in good company and the fact that I learned about it from a fascinating BBC4 programme – the high point of my jubilee weekend – on Sunday night is unlikely to broaden public knowledge as much as we might hope.

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My Comment: The ancient Greeks definitely knew their stuff.

Google Demonstartes New Mapping Technologies

An Android smartphone showcasing the new 3D imagery technology

Google Unveils New Mapping Technologies -- BBC

Google has demonstrated new mapping technologies in an effort to reassert its position as a market leader.

While it boasts one billion users, Google Maps has recently seen defections by some key developers and partners.

Reports suggest Apple may abandon Google Maps next week at its annual developer conference.

They suggest Apple may announce its own mapping application to replace Google Maps on its smartphones and tablets.

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My Comment: They must innovate to keep their relevance.

Ancient Man Had A Taste For Sea Food

Catching fish is a practice that goes back thousands of years

World's 'Oldest Fish Trap' Found Off Coast Of Sweden -- BBC

Wooden fish traps said to be some 9,000 years old have been found in the Baltic Sea off Sweden, possibly the oldest such traps in existence.

Marine archaeologists from Stockholm's Sodertorn University found finger-thick hazel rods grouped on the sea bed.

They are thought to be the remains of stationary basket traps.

"This is the world's oldest find when it comes to fishing," said Johan Ronnby, a professor in marine archaeology.

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My Comment: I guess ancient man had a taste for sea food.

Watch The Venus Transit Online

Missed the Venus Transit in 2012? Watch It Online Until 2117 -- PC World

Did you miss the transit of Venus in front of the sun yesterday? Were there clouds in your skies? Stuck in Antarctica? If you didn’t catch this last alignment of our cloud-shrouded planetary neighbor and our closest star until 2115, here are some ways to re-live the transit.

My favorite video was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft dedicated to observing the sun. You can watch Venus passing in front of the sun and its giant coronal loops, where plasma moves along the sun’s magnetic field lines.

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My Comment: Watching it online is not the same as watching it outside.

Boeing Unveils Hydrogen-Powered Surveillance Drone Which Can Stay Airborne For Days

The 'Clean' Spy In The Sky: Boeing Unveils Hydrogen-Powered Surveillance Drone Which Can Stay Airborne For Days -- Daily Mail

A new Boeing unmanned drone that is designed to stay airborne for days has completed its first autonomous flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

The 28-minute flight of the Phantom Eye began at 6:22 a.m. Friday and the aircraft reached an altitude of 4,080 feet (1,244 meters) and a cruising speed of 62 knots (114 kph) before landing at the California desert base.

When the drone touched down, it damaged its landing gear, but Boeing Phantom Works President hailed the flight as beginning 'a new era' of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

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Update: Video: First Test Flight for Military’s Mega-Drone -- Danger Room

My Comment: A sign of things to come.

A Rat Is Still Smarter Than Google

Clever - but still learning: Google Navigation, pictured here on an Android phone, is a clever, intelligent-seeming system - but it is still just code, following instructions

Why Google Is Nowhere Near As Clever As A Rat - But One Day, Even Your Smartphone Will Be Smarter Than You -- Daily Mail

* Clever technology such as Google is still powered by rote-learning and pattern-matching, say AI researchers...
* ...But over the next 30 years, super-computers will become smarter, cheaper, and smaller

Google has spent the last 15 years becoming smarter and smarter, learning how to power our lives - from our homes, our cars, our phones.

But - and with apologies to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin - all of that work is still no match to the intelligence of a common rat.

Or taking it further, even a gnat.

The point was made by artificial intelligence researchers Yann LeCun and Josh Tenenbaum, who were not criticising the search engine, just pointing out how much further we have to go until we can create computers which contain - or at least, perfectly mimic - intelligent life.

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My Comment: We have made progress .... but we definitely still have a long way to go before an AI platform is smarter than a rat.

Robot Ethics: Morals And The Machine

Robot Ethics: Morals And The Machine -- The Economist

As robots grow more autonomous, society needs to develop rules to manage them

IN THE classic science-fiction film “2001”, the ship’s computer, HAL, faces a dilemma. His instructions require him both to fulfil the ship’s mission (investigating an artefact near Jupiter) and to keep the mission’s true purpose secret from the ship’s crew. To resolve the contradiction, he tries to kill the crew.

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My Comment: As advancements in robots and drones continue to develop .... the issue on how to manage them will become more important .... especially robots and drones with military applications. But we better move fast .... because that time is fast approaching

iPhone 5 To Offer 4-Inch, 16:9 Screen

Will we see a bigger screen and better camera on the next iPhone? (Credit: Apple)

iPhone 5 To Offer 4-Inch, 16:9 Screen With HD Camera, Says Analyst - CNET

Buyers waiting for the next iPhone could be greeted with a larger screen, higher aspect ratio, and better quality camera, at least if KGI analyst Mingchi Kuo is on the money.

In a new research report detailed by AppleInsider, Kuo said he believes the iPhone 5's screen will measure 4.08 inches, offer a resolution of 1,136 x 640 pixels, and boost the aspect ratio to 16:9.

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My Comment: I prefer a bigger screen .... but it is still the right direction for Apple's iPhone.

Facebook Wants Younger Users

Facebook is reportedly weighing technology that would allow younger users to sign onto the social network. Reuters

Facebook Junior? The Social Network Prepares For Younger Users: Report -- Christian Science Monitor

Facebook is building technology that would allow users under the age of 13 to access the social network, according to a new report.

Facebook could soon allow users under the age of 13 to access the social network, the Wall Street Journal reports today. According to the Journal, engineers out in Menlo Park are in the process of building a kid-safe version of Facebook, which would pack special privacy controls, and allow parents to control how their kids use the site.

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My Comment: Even with hundreds of millions of users .... they want more.

Is Our Universe Existing In A Black Hole?

At the center of spiral galaxy M81 is a supermassive black hole about 70 million times more massive than our sun. Image credit: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley & CfA/A.Zezas;NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA

Every Black Hole Contains a New Universe -- Inside Science

(ISM) -- Our universe may exist inside a black hole. This may sound strange, but it could actually be the best explanation of how the universe began, and what we observe today. It's a theory that has been explored over the past few decades by a small group of physicists including myself.

Successful as it is, there are notable unsolved questions with the standard big bang theory, which suggests that the universe began as a seemingly impossible "singularity," an infinitely small point containing an infinitely high concentration of matter, expanding in size to what we observe today. The theory of inflation, a super-fast expansion of space proposed in recent decades, fills in many important details, such as why slight lumps in the concentration of matter in the early universe coalesced into large celestial bodies such as galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

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My Comment: This is a little too deep for me.

Birds Ended The Reign Of Giant Insects

Photo: This fossil insect wing (Stephanotypus schneideri) from the period about 300 million years ago when insects reached their greatest sizes, measures 19.5 centimeters (almost eight inches) long. The largest species of that time were even bigger, with wings 30 centimeters long. For comparison, the inset shows the wing of the largest dragonfly of the past 65 million years. (Credit: Photo by Wolfgang Zessin.)

Reign Of The Giant Insects Ended With The Evolution Of Birds -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (June 4, 2012) — Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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My Comment: 9-10 inch long insects .... yech.

Robots Go To War

March Of The Robots -- Economist

Robotics: From reconnaissance to bomb-defusal to launching attacks, military robots are on the march, raising knotty ethical quandaries.

IN THE early afternoon of August 18th 2008, a reconnaissance unit of about 100 French paratroopers, accompanied by a small number of Afghan and American soldiers, was ambushed by a similarly sized Taliban force in the Uzbin Valley, not far from Kabul. Ten French soldiers were killed in fighting that continued into the night—France’s biggest loss since it sent soldiers to Afghanistan in 2002. But it might have been avoided had the unit had a single aerial-robot scout, says Gérard de Boisboissel, a specialist on military robots at the French army’s Saint-Cyr military academy. That assessment, shared by many, led to a retooling of France’s armed forces. Today drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), routinely accompany even small French units.

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My Comment: Just an update on military robots.

Google To Warn Users Of State Sponsored Attacks

UPDATE: A senior Senate aide confirmed that this evening he received a warning on his Gmail account that Google suspected he had been the target of a state-sponsored cyber attack. Cable/Foreign Policy

Google Warns Users Who May Be Hack Targets -- Bloomberg Businessweek

Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG) said it has started sending warnings to users of its e-mail service who may have been targeted by state-sponsored cyber-attacks.

Gmail users whose accounts are suspected of being the target of such a hacking effort will receive a message stating, “We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer,” Mountain View, California-based Google said on a company blog.

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More News On Google Warning Users Of State Sponsored Attacks

Google to warn users of 'state-sponsored attacks' -- The Hill
Google to warn users targeted by state-sponsored attacks -- The Cable/Foreign Policy
Google To Begin Notifying Gmail Users Of ‘State-Sponsored Attacks’ -- TPM
Google Now Warns You About State-Sponsored Attacks -- Gizmodo
Google begins alerting Gmail users to 'state-sponsored' attacks -- ZDNet

Watch Live: Last Transit of Venus

Broadcasting live with Ustream

Watch Live: Last Transit of Venus of Your Lifetime -- Wired

With millions of expected viewers around the world, the Transit of Venus is today’s event to watch. The rare celestial show — the last to occur for more than a hundred years — will be starting just after 3 p.m. PDT. You can join one of the many of the Venus-watching parties across the country or make a simple and safe viewer to see the event from your own backyard.

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My Comment: Cool.

Exxon Valdez Remains Controversial Near Its End

Exxon Valdez Remains Controversial Near Its End In India -- L.A. Times

Indian environmentalists have filed a petition to block the Exxon Valdez from entering Alang, India, a graveyard for once-mighty ships.

ALANG, India — For the ship formerly known as the Exxon Valdez, even sailing quietly into the sunset is proving difficult.

Now called the Oriental Nicety, it's floating off India in a kind of high-seas limbo as a court decides whether the vessel that dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's unspoiled Prince William Sound in 1989 can be hacked apart in this forlorn graveyard for once-mighty ships.

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My Comment: Good riddance I say.

The Battle For The Amazon

The Battle For The Amazon Heats Up Again -- Time

The Amazon rainforest is the most important patch of land on the planet. The trees have been called the lungs of the Earth and that's far more than just a metaphor: they absorb more than 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, return oxygen in exchange and help regulate the climate of the Western Hemisphere in the process. The forest itself is the hottest of biodiversity hotspots, home to countless species of plants and animals that we have yet to discover — and even tribes of indigenous human beings who have never been contacted by the outside world. There's a reason that "save the rainforest" became a default slogan for environmentalism in the 1980s; saving the Amazon really did mean helping to save the planet.

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My Comment: They have been talking about deforestation in the Amazon basin for decades. But it appears that after decades of development .... the impact that is now beginning to be felt everywhere.