Month: April 2018

Enlarge (credit: Carrie Martin/LLNL)

Studies of how people perceive climate science paint a depressing picture—one in which ideology overwhelms evidence. Not only does opinion about the science break down along ideological lines, but knowledge of science seems to make matters worse, accentuating the partisan divide.

Those studies have always been somewhat dissatisfying, though, as they leave little room for anyone to dispassionately evaluate the evidence or voice trust in the researchers who have. And, in fact, they don't explain how exceptions come to exist—the significant conservative voices that are calling for action on climate change.

A study done by Matthew Motta of the University of Minnesota delves in to how people might escape ideological blinders. Motta found that people with a long-term interest in science tend to trust scientific authorities like NASA and the IPCC when it comes to climate, regardless of what their political persuasions may be. It's the latest result that indicates that a "scientific curiosity" can get people past their ideology.

Enlarge (credit: Voyage)

Uber's fatal car crash last month continues to have repercussions, with self-driving taxi start-up Voyage announcing today that it will open-source its safety procedures, documents, and code in the hope of avoiding future deaths.

"I had to spend time after [the Uber crash] calming people down, telling folks at our deployments that it was an isolated incident," says Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron in an exclusive interview with Ars Technica. "But the truth is that everyone in the industry is reinventing the technology and safety processes themselves, which is incredibly dangerous. Open source means more eyes, more diversity, and more feedback."

Starting today, Voyage will begin to share safety requirements, test scenarios, metrics, tools, and code that it has developed for its own Level 4 self-driving taxis. Five Voyage cars are currently deployed carrying passengers within two retirement communities in California and Florida.

Enlarge (credit: Mingo Hagen / Flickr)

An Icelandic man accused of being involved in the Nordic country’s "Big Bitcoin Heist" has been arrested in Amsterdam, after having reportedly walked out of a rural Icelandic prison recently.

According to Rob van der Veen, a spokesman for the Dutch police, Sindri Thor Stefansson was arrested Sunday around 8pm local time.

"[Stefansson] was arrested in the center of Amsterdam," van der Veen emailed Ars. "He's in custody, and the public prosecutor will have further contact with the Iceland authorities concerning the extradition."