Month: August 2017

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Dimitri Otis)

A Federal Communications Commission decision to eliminate price caps in much of the business broadband market can remain in place after a federal judge denied a petition to halt the FCC order.

The FCC's Republican majority in April imposed a new standard that deems certain local markets competitive even when they have only one broadband provider. In those markets, incumbent phone companies like AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink will be able to charge higher prices for Business Data Services that are delivered over copper-based TDM networks.

Companies that will have to pay higher prices sued the FCC. They asked for a stay that would halt the elimination of price caps pending the outcome of the case. But yesterday, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit denied the motion for stay. The order provided no explanation for the denial.

Enlarge (credit: Al Ibrahim)

The FBI used a booby-trapped video to identify a California man who allegedly used the Tor network to anonymously extort sexually explicit material from minors online.

Buster Hernandez, 26, of Bakersfield, California, allegedly ran his sextortion campaign since at least 2012. It came to the attention of the FBI in late 2015 when the suspect allegedly used Facebook to contact a girl in Indiana. Using the moniker Brian Kil, FBI officials said, Hernandez claimed he had obtained "dirty pics" the unidentified minor had previously sent to a boyfriend. Hernandez then allegedly threatened to publish the images unless the girl sent additional sexually explicit photos.

Hernandez eventually posted multiple images to the Brian Kil Facebook account, according to an affidavit FBI agents filed in court. The images were allegedly accompanied by messages threatening to visit the girl's school and kill her and her friends using homemade pipe bombs and firearms in his possession.

Enlarge (credit: Mazda)

Fresh on the heels of last week's tie-up with Toyota, Mazda announced on Tuesday that it has finally made a breakthrough in gasoline engine technology. Mazda is calling it Skyactive-X; we know it better as homogenous charge compression ignition, or HCCI. It should mean a 20-30 percent boost in efficiency compared to Mazda's current gasoline direct-injection engines, and we may well see it in the next revision to the Mazda 3.

HCCI engines have been one of those "if only" technologies for some time now. Kyle Neimeyer first covered the idea back in 2012 for Ars as part of a deep dive into new engine tech that could help meet looming efficiency requirements for automakers.

In essence, HCCI is an attempt to run a gasoline engine like a diesel instead. Rather than squirt fuel into a cylinder—done directly, at high pressure, in the case of Mazda's current gasoline engines—then ignite it with a spark, the fuel and air are well-mixed and then compressed to achieve the bang in suck, squeeze, bang, blow.

Enlarge / A stack of Impossible Burgers. (credit: Impossible Foods)

For the plant-based “Impossible Burger” that bleeds like real meat, venture capitalists have forked over millions, and high-profile chefs have called in orders for their swanky eateries. But the Food and Drug Administration, it seems, has chewed it up and spit out safety concerns.

The agency informed Impossible Foods, the company behind the famous faux burger, that it has not proven the safety of the food additive being used to simulate blood and meat-like taste—a protein from the roots of soybean plants called soy leghemoglobin. The protein has not been used in foods before and may be an allergen, the agency said. The concern was revealed in documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request filed by environmental and consumer groups, including the ETC Group. The documents were then reviewed by the New York Times.

In a memo that the agency prepared for a phone conversation with Impossible Foods on August 3, 2015, FDA officials wrote:

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Enlarge / Scott Pace, right, and Elon Musk, left, testify before Congress in 2014. (credit: George Washington University)

Scott Pace, a well-known academic figure in the aerospace community, was named executive secretary of the National Space Council in July. As such, he was the first key appointee of the Trump administration on space policy in regard to the future of the military, civil, and commercial space enterprises. While it is not entirely clear how influential the new council will be, it is clear that Pace will have a strong voice in whatever direction it goes.

Although generally regarded as highly capable, thoughtful about space policy, and certainly a true believer in the value of robotic and human spaceflight, the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University has in recent years made comments that have raised concern among commercial spaceflight advocates.

In particular, during both interviews and comments to Congress, Pace has expressed skepticism about both NASA's commercial crew program under President Obama and the abilities of Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX. "It's kind of amazing to me that the Trump administration would line up against the commercial space industry like this," said one former White House official who helped NASA develop the commercial crew program under President Obama.