Month: July 2017

Enlarge / The test track looks a lot like the one SpaceX built for a recent competition, although this one is wider and shorter than SpaceX's. (credit: Hyperloop One)

Hyperloop One claims that its prototype ultra-fast train has completed a first full systems test in a vacuum, reaching a speed of 70 mph. The sled was able to magnetically levitate on the track for 5.3 seconds and “reached nearly 2Gs of acceleration,” according to the company.

The test was conducted privately but Hyperloop One offered some video that included footage from testing. Based on that footage plus a few seconds of additional b-roll shared with media, a lightweight skeleton sled uses a linear motor to accelerate, levitates briefly, and then comes to a halt as the brakes are applied.

Hyperloop One was created as an answer to a challenge from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who wrote a white paper envisioning a mode of transportation that would send pods at speeds greater than 700mph using a low-friction environment and magnetic levitation. Musk said he didn’t have time to see the idea to fruition, but SpaceX has hosted ongoing competitions for student and professional teams to show off pod design and execution. Hyperloop One and other startups have also formed to tackle the idea from a VC-funded or volunteer angle.

EFF

Today is the "Internet-wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality" organized by advocacy groups, and many websites changed their home pages or displayed their support for net neutrality in some way. Many of them directed visitors to forms for submitting comments to the Federal Communications Commission about its plan to reverse net neutrality rules that outlaw blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

A longer list of websites participating in the Day of Action, and one of the FCC comment forms, can be found at the Battle for the Net website maintained by protest organizers Fight for the Future, Free Press, and Demand Progress.

NASA / SwRI / MSSS

On Monday, the Juno spacecraft made its eighth close flyby of the planet Jupiter, and this time the spacecraft flew over the Great Red Spot that has captured the public's attention since its discovery in the 17th century. Why is it so big? So red? And why has this storm lasted for centuries?

Juno reached perijove on Monday at 9:55pm ET, and at the time, the spacecraft was just 3,500km above the planet's upper clouds. It was still flying near the surface of Jupiter, at an elevation of 9,000km, when it passed over the Great Red Spot 11 minutes later. "For generations, people from all over the world and all walks of life have marveled over the Great Red Spot," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Now we are finally going to see what this storm looks like up close and personal."

What's that little cassette packed into this expensive Radiohead set? Let's use a ZX Spectrum emulator to find out.

Radiohead has never shied away from arty and elaborate "special edition" versions of its albums, which normally ship to fans with unique artwork and limited vinyl. But Tuesday's collector's item release of the OK Computer 20th anniversary edition, priced at a whopping $130/£100, shipped with that most hipster of audio formats included: a C90 audio cassette.

And if you're wondering whether Radiohead's bizarre, technology-theorizing landmark album would pack something computer-related into that cassette tape, you might want to dig up your old Sinclair ZX Spectrum cassette drive.

Radiohead's 78-minute cassette was distributed on Tuesday as a digital download to anyone who pre-ordered the box set (which also includes three vinyl records and three full books of art, sketches, and lyrics from the recording session). The cassette, packed full of rare demos and odd audio experiments, ends with roughly two minutes of computer tones.

Enlarge / A slightly misaligned logo is the main difference that distinguishes this bootleg system from the real thing. (credit: NeoGAF)

Video games have a long history of counterfeit cartridges trying to pass themselves off as legitimate. But while there is plenty of obvious knock-off video game hardware floating out there, it's pretty rare to see a game console that tries to exactly mimic the look and functionality of a legitimate system.

But the NES Classic Edition isn't your typical system story. With Nintendo discontinuing the NES Classic in April after 2.3 million sales, bootleggers have apparently stepped in to provide reasonable facsimiles in an attempt to satisfy what seems to be still healthy demand.

These aren't obvious knock-offs like the Chinese "Entertainment System," which just sticks an old 500-in-1 Famiclone in a vaguely NES-Classic-Esque shell. No, these are full bootleg consoles that try to mimic the NES Classic Edition down to the small details.

Enlarge / The rift in the Larsen C Ice Shelf, as seen in November 2016. (credit: John Sonntag/NASA)

Concluding a months-long deathwatch, one of the largest icebergs ever seen finally separated from Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf sometime in the last couple days. The 5,800-square-kilometer iceberg contains over a trillion tons of ice. For years, researchers have been keeping an eye on a growing rift in the floating ice shelf that raced toward completion in recent months.

The last piece of the #LarsenC breakup is nicely shown in high resolution in #Sentinel1. Farewell iceberg A68! @ESA_EO @MIDASOnIce pic.twitter.com/FUzZUlT4E8

— Stef Lhermitte (@StefLhermitte) July 12, 2017

The Larsen C Ice Shelf is composed of floating ice at the front of glaciers on the narrow Antarctic Peninsula. The breaking off of icebergs from shelves—a process called “calving”—is normal, though icebergs of this size are obviously rare. While warmer water or air temperatures have been an important factor in controlling the size of many Antarctic ice shelves, there’s no indication that climate change has played a significant role in the calving of this specific iceberg.

Because ice shelves are already floating, the melting of icebergs does not appreciably affect sea level (although there is a small contribution because melting icebergs dilute the saltiness of seawater).