Month: October 2019

Enlarge / The skeleton was found buried with two buckles, which likely once held a shroud in place. (credit: Mazzarelli et al. 2019)

In a medieval Italian cemetery, archaeologists recently exhumed the skeletal remains of a victim of a medieval torture device known as the breaking wheel. University of Milan archaeologist Debora Mazzarelli and her colleagues found the young man (who was probably between 17 and 20 years old when he died) in a medieval cemetery beneath what is now S. Ambrogio Square in Milan. Radiocarbon dating of his bones suggests that he died sometime between 1290 and 1430. His skeleton bears evidence of brutal trauma inflicted around the time of his death, and it appears to match medieval descriptions of execution using the wheel.

Medieval executioners: “This is how we (don’t) roll”

The wheel wasn’t a cutting-edge means of torture and execution, even in the Middle Ages. Greek playwright Aristophanes and later Roman Imperial writers describe torture on the wheel as a way of wringing a confession from a suspect. By the medieval period, the wheel most often turns up in accounts of the lives—and often very graphic deaths—of the Christian saints; the device even became the symbol of one, St. Catherine of Alexandria. But court records also describe its use to punish crimes like murder, rape, and highway robbery.

Although a few accounts of the saints describe them being tied to a large wheel and rolled off a cliff, more historically reliable sources tend to describe convicts being tied, with their arms and legs spread, to the spokes of a wagon wheel while the executioner shattered their limb bones with a heavy maul.

(credit: Getty Images | Kagenmi)

A federal appeals court today upheld the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of net neutrality rules but said the FCC cannot preempt state net neutrality laws.

"We uphold the 2018 Order, with two exceptions," the judges' ruling said. "First, the Court concludes that the Commission has not shown legal authority to issue its Preemption Directive, which would have barred states from imposing any rule or requirement that the Commission 'repealed or decided to refrain from imposing' in the Order or that is 'more stringent' than the Order." The FCC "ignored binding precedent" when making its preemption order, and "that failure is fatal" to the preemption, judges wrote.

This is a big win for California and other states that passed their own net neutrality laws after the FCC repeal. California agreed to delay enforcement of its net neutrality law until after litigation is fully resolved, so the state likely won't enforce the law just yet. But after appeals in the FCC case are exhausted, we could see California and other states enforcing net neutrality rules that prohibit Internet service providers from blocking or throttling lawful Internet traffic and from prioritizing traffic in exchange for payment.

Enlarge / Surveillance footage shows two men entering the control room at the base of the billboard. (credit: Auburn Hills Police)

Police are trying to find two men who broke into the control room of an electronic billboard in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. The men caused a pornographic video to play on both sides of the billboard, which is located next to Interstate 75, around 11pm on Saturday evening. Videos of the billboard quickly began to circulate on social media (link is mildly NSFW).

"Two suspects entered a small building, which houses a computer that runs the content for the digital billboard, located underneath the sign," Auburn Hills police reported in a Facebook page. Police shared surveillance footage showing the two men with their faces obscured by glasses and by hoodies pulled tight around their heads.

"The suspects forced entry into the building, which is also secured by a 6 foot fence," the police reported. "The suspects were inside the building for approximately 15 minutes before leaving."

Enlarge / The Calar Alto Observatory in Spain, which was used to discover this planet. (credit: Pedro Amado/Marco Azzaro—IAA/CSIC)

One of the difficulties in studying our Earth and the Solar System in which it resides is that you’re generally working with a sample size of one. But astronomy is increasingly loosening that restriction with clearer and clearer pictures of worlds around other stars. Within the wild variety of the cosmos, the rest of our galaxy is looking like an experiment in an infinite laboratory, generating exosolar systems with all sorts of odd combinations of planets. When one of those combinations bucks your prediction, there’s a good chance you’re about to learn something.

A diminutive star tagged GJ 3512, about 31 light years from us, seems to present one of those opportunities. A group of researchers participating in the CARMENES survey have discovered a surprising gas giant planet at least half the size of Jupiter orbiting this wee star.

Small star, big planet

The survey scans for planets around small, M-type dwarf stars using Earth-based telescopes. it's doing that not by looking for changes in a star’s brightness as a planet orbits in between, but by looking for tiny shifts in the star caused by gravitational tugs from its planets. Just as the familiar Doppler effect causes a siren to rise in pitch as it nears you and lower in pitch after it passes, the star’s movements cause a Doppler shift in the wavelengths of light we receive from it.

Enlarge / Relativity co-founders Tim Ellis, left, and Jordan Noone pose with a 3D printed second stage of the Terran 1 rocket. (credit: Relativity Space)

There's no question that there are many companies racing to develop rockets to deliver small satellites into low-Earth orbit. And there's no doubt that the small satellite market—from governments to commercial constellations—will likely only support a handful of private companies.

This situation has complicated fundraising for companies during the critical juncture when they need additional funding to complete the development of their rockets and get into flying operational missions.

Amid this market, however, Relativity Space announced Tuesday that it has closed a $140 million Series C funding round led by Bond and Tribe Capital. With this funding, Relativity Chief Executive Tim Ellis tells Ars the company is fully funded to complete development of its Terran 1 rocket and reach orbit.

Enlarge (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Garmin created the best alternative to the Apple Watch when it came out with the Vivoactive 3 Music. For 2019, has Garmin updated that device with the Vivoactive 4 series, which includes the 45mm Vivoactive 4 and the 40mm Vivoactive 4s. Minor hardware changes accompany equally minor smartwatch software changes in this device, but that's because new fitness features steal the show.

Garmin added a ton of fitness improvements to this watch, including optional all-day pulse ox measurements, hydration tracking, new breathing exercises (that don't suck), new custom workouts, on-screen animations, and more. Unsurprisingly, all those improvements add up to the Vivoactive 4's $349 starting price, which is at least $100 more than what the Vivoactive 3 Music goes for nowadays.

Those features add a lot of value and push the Vivoactive 4 ahead of even the Apple Watch in terms of fitness, but I still have a soft spot for the Vivoactive 3 series—and plenty of happy users may skip this upgrade.