Month: May 2016

(credit: Ekin Technology)

Call it the next generation of light bars. Ekin Technology, a Turkish law enforcement technology company, was recently granted an American patent for what just might be the surveillance trifecta: a light bar with an integrated license plate reader (LPR), speedometer, and facial recognition capability.

If the "Ekin Patrol" catches on in the United States, it will facilitate a notable acceleration in the advancement of spy tech. While speedometers are relatively old and LPRs are increasingly catching on, facial recognition technology is not yet widespread in America. Agencies ranging from the FBI to the California attorney general's office have expressed their interest in the technology.

"The facial recognition equivalent of license plate reader scanning has always been a civil liberties nightmare," Jay Stanley, an analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Ars. "We’ve definitely seen baby steps in that direction, but this technology, if widely deployed, would mean it’s arrived."

Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage right here—and let us know what you think.

While the worldwide board-gaming community has plenty of awards ceremonies, arguably the most important is still the "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year) award issued by Germany's game critics. Past winners have included everything from Catan to Qwirkle, and winning one of the coveted trophies ensures solid sales and (very occasionally) fame and fortune.

This week, the Spiel des Jahres jury released its list of finalists (German) for the main "Spiel des Jahres" prize, which is always family friendly, and the newer "Kennerspiel" award for more complex/advanced games. (We won't cover the prize for children's titles, the "Kinderspiel," but the finalists in that category are Leo miss zum Friseur, Mmm!, and the children's version of the worker placement classic Stone Age.) While the winners won't be picked until July, any of these titles would make a great gift for the board game lover in your life, and the list provides a good starting point for exploring the terrific titles from the past year.

(credit: Flickr user marya)

The oxygen minimum zone is the section of ocean that has the lowest oxygen saturation. While the thickness and depth of the OMZ varies, the Pacific Ocean's OMZ has been expanding in recent years. This has consequences for oceanic ecosystems, since animals struggle in this region, and its primary productivity is low. However, the cause of this oxygen decline is not fully understood. A paper published in Nature Geoscience uses climate modeling to indicate that aerosol particulate pollution may be contributing significantly to the acceleration of oxygen depletion.

To determine the relationship among atmospheric pollution, ocean dynamics, and the OMZ, researchers performed computational simulations of atmospheric chemistry and its impact on marine biochemistry. This modeling included fluctuations of aerosols that contained soluble iron and fixed nitrogen, coupled with a dust-iron dissolution scheme. The model also included hindcast simulations that tracked anthropogenic pollution increases between the years of 1750 and 2002.

The researchers’ model showed that the combination of climate variability and longterm increases in macro- and micronutrients going into the ocean alters the large-scale patterns of ocean productivity and dissolved oxygen. They also saw that variability in ocean circulation and pollution enhanced the deposition of soluble iron, whereas fixed nitrogen did not see the same effect.

(credit: CBS SF Bay Area)

The 28 shootings along a 10-mile stretch of San Francisco-area highway over the past six months have led mayors of the adjacent cities to declare that these "murderous activities" have reached "crisis proportions." Four people have been killed and dozens injured, including a pregnant mother of four children who was shot to death earlier this month.

These five mayors want California Gov. Jerry Brown to fund surveillance cameras along all the on and off ramps of Interstate 80 and Highway 4 along the cities of El Cerrito, Hercules, Richmond, San Pablo, and Pinole.

According to their letter (PDF) to the governor:

Nathan Mattise (using a 2014 Moto G, sorry)

The sign says it all. "Welcome to the beginning of your dreams."

10 more images in gallery

ABITA SPRINGS, Louisiana—To the uninitiated, folk art seems decidedly lo-fi. As opposed to the classical techniques and aesthetics shown off at a fine art or modern art museum, folk art runs a gamut of adjectives: utilitarian, decorative, junky, profound, recycled,, crafty, and more.

But at the Abita Mystery House, artistic curators have increasingly embraced the idea of our vintage technology taking on second life as folk art. Enter the old gas station turned museum, and circuit boards from long deceased computers, televisions, and other gadgets line the ceilings. Art Deco style robots (or bots made from more unused circuit boards) stand at attention to take visitor tickets.

Artist John Preble started putting together the museum in the 1990s; culture vultures as big as Mike and Frank from the History Channel's American Pickers have descended upon it since.

Enlarge / Vive la Vive! (Or is it el Vive? Crap...) (credit: Lee Hutchinson)

My name is Lee and I’m a hardware-a-holic.

(Hi, Lee.)

In walking the long path to VR on the PC, I’ve built a new gaming computer from scratch, bought peripherals out the wazoo, and, of course, pre-ordered both an Oculus Rift and an HTC Vive so I wouldn't have to choose between the two. If we’re including things like the peripherals I use when playing some VR games—like my Warthog HOTAS and Slaw Device pedals—then my grand total is hovering at $4,000 or so in VR-related expenses.