Month: June 2016

(credit: Jorge Correa)

There's this pesky thing called the US Constitution, and sometimes there's a price to be paid when it's subverted.

That's what is happening in New Mexico, where a convicted murderer serving a life term won a new trial because a DNA prosecution expert in the prosecution's case testified via Skype, denying the defendant Truett Thomas' Sixth Amendment rights to confront witnesses in court, according to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

The case against Thomas began in 2010 when Albuquerque police discovered Guadalupe Ashford's body behind a trash can in a small parking lot. The woman was assaulted, and sustained significant head injuries, "including lacerations, skull fractures and a dislodged tooth." Police found blood on the scene that didn't match the woman's and ran it through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, which matched the defendant. The defendant denied he knew the woman.

Boston Dynamics, the high-profile robotics company that Alphabet reportedly doesn't want, has released a video of its latest robot: SpotMini. SpotMini is a 4-legged robot that weighs just 55lbs and has an all-electric locomotion system.

SpotMini is one of the quietest robot Boston Dynamics has ever built thanks to the all-electric system. In the past, the company has used gas engines and hydraulics in its robots, making for loud, outdoor-only bots that sound like dirtbikes or chainsaws. Boston Dynamics' Alphadog was a much larger 4-legged robot, but it deemed too loud by the US Marines when they tested it as a pack mule last year.

The goal with the SpotMini seems to have been to build a robot quiet enough, small enough, and clean enough that it can be used as a house robot. It's shown indoors walking up steps and ducking under tables. There's even an attachable arm that lets it do useful things like fetching a soda or cleaning the dishes (well, moving a dish from the sink to the washing machine, but that's a start!).

(credit: Kārlis Dambrāns)

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Attorney Thomas Johnson came ready to defend a novel legal theory in court. Earlier this year his client had abandoned a Samsung Galaxy phone at a burglary crime scene, which allowed authorities to find the device, call 911 from the lock screen, and acquire the phone's actual number. Law enforcement soon determined the phone’s owner, Matthew Muller, and arrested him days later.

But while executing that arrest, authorities found materials related to a separate kidnapping case reported earlier in the year. Muller eventually pleaded guilty to the burglary, but he denied any role in the kidnapping. And according to his attorney Johnson, this whole thing should have been avoided. When law enforcement grabbed the Samsung Galaxy and acted on that fateful day, the attorney believes they engaged in an unconstitutional search against his client.

However, a federal judge disagreed with Johnson on Thursday. "I don't think this is a very difficult issue," US District Judge Troy L. Nunley told the court after hearing oral arguments from the defense lawyer and from government prosecutors. Judge Nunley denied Johnson's attempt to suppress evidence that stemmed from Muller’s arrest and his attempt to seek an evidentiary hearing.

Pro-net neutrality rally at the White House. (credit: Joseph Gruber)

The White House has urged Republican lawmakers to give up efforts to strip the Federal Communications Commission of regulatory powers and tens of millions of dollars in budget funding. President Obama's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the House of Representatives' budget bill for fiscal 2017 because of these and other provisions.

The Republican budget proposal "includes highly problematic ideological provisions," like ones that "prevent the Federal Communications Commission from promoting a free and open Internet and encouraging competition in the set-top box market, impacting millions of broadband and cable customers," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of administration policy yesterday.

The budget plan includes sections delaying or preventing implementation of the FCC's net neutrality rules, which were just upheld by an appeals court despite a lawsuit filed by broadband providers. With the case possibly heading to the Supreme Court, a budget rider would prevent enforcement of net neutrality rules until broadband providers have exhausted all appeals. The budget plan would also prevent the FCC from stopping unjust and unreasonable pricing and data cap practices, regardless of the lawsuit's outcome.

(credit: Ford Motor Company)

Autonomous vehicles will likely become available in the near future, a reality that raises ethical questions about their programming. A new article published in Science raises a classical ethical question within the context of that new reality: should a car sacrifice its driver if doing so will save the lives of many pedestrians? The article found that participants generally do want cars to be programmed in this way for other drivers, but they don’t want their own cars to work this way. It’s a potentially lethal form of “Not-In-My-Backyard” for our more automated future.

For this paper, researchers conducted six online surveys between June and November of 2015. Participants were recruited through the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform. Each of the six online surveys included approximately 200 to 450 participants.

Public good vs. individual behavior

In the first survey, 76 percent of participants said that it was morally correct for self-driving cars to sacrifice one passenger to save 10 pedestrians. That’s an overwhelming preference for cars to be programmed in a utilitarian way, reducing the overall number of casualties in an accident. These participants did not express any concerns about programming being too utilitarian.

2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Sportwagen photographed in Washington, DC, USA. (credit: IFCAR)

Sources speaking to Bloomberg and the Associated Press have said that Volkswagen Group will propose a $10.2 billion settlement in federal court next week. The settlement will reportedly include payouts of $1,000 to $7,000 for owners of certain diesel vehicles that included illegal software to help the company cheat on US emissions tests.

VW Group is facing over 600 lawsuits from customers, consumer protection agencies, and regulators. The suits are being overseen by US District Judge Charles Breyer in Northern California District Court.

In April, Judge Breyer said that VW Group would buy the 482,000 affected 2.0L diesel engines in the US back from owners in addition to paying out “substantial compensation” to affected customers. According to the AP, Volkswagen and Audi owners will be able to choose between having VW Group buy their car back for whatever the car was worth before the scandal broke last summer or keeping their car and letting the manufacturer fix it. It’s unclear whether VW Group will be able to find suitable fixes to make the affected diesel vehicles EPA-compliant. The source speaking to the AP said “any fix would be expensive and likely would require a bigger catalytic converter or injection of the chemical urea into the exhaust to help neutralize the pollution.”

(credit: vinylmeister)

A federal jury in Los Angeles on Thursday cleared Led Zeppelin of allegations that the band infringed the opening of the classic rock song "Stairway to Heaven."

The jury deliberated for less than a day after a trial that began June 14. The trial was based on claims that the famous intro to the 1971 song infringed the 1968 instrumental song "Taurus" from the band Spirit.

The case, in which tens of millions of dollars were at stake, including Led Zeppelin's reputation, was brought by the trust of Randy Wolfe, aka Randy California. The suit claimed Zep's opening to "Stairway to Heaven"—an acoustic guitar arpeggiating chords in a descending pattern—was a complete ripoff of California's "Taurus," which he wrote for the band Spirit. Zeppelin toured with Spirit in 1968, and California's complaint alleges that Zep guitarist/songwriter Jimmy Page had heard "Taurus" before the debut of "Stairway to Heaven," which appeared on Led Zeppelin IV in 1971.