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(credit: M. Garlick/University of Warwick/ESO)

When observing AR Scorpii, researchers noticed that its brightness varied over a 3.5 hour period. So they labelled it a periodic variable and paid it no further attention. Now, however, a large international team of astronomers has gone back and taken a more careful look at the star. The astronomers found that AR Scorpii is much more variable than first thought, with 400 percent changes in brightness occurring within only 30 seconds. The reason for this? AR Scorpii is actually two stars, and one of them is launching relativistic electrons at the other.

The paper describing these results was published this week in Nature.

The researchers were drawn to AR Scorpii because of seven years of archival images that revealed a lot of additional variability layered on top of its well-described 3.5 hour period. Rather than peaking at a similar level each time, the output could vary by as much as a factor of four.

(credit: freshwater2006)

In an e-mail to Ars on Friday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) confirmed that the regulator was ready to begin testing hardware and software that could potentially fix pollution issues with 475,000 2.0L diesel vehicles from Volkswagen Group. The German automaker was caught last year adding illegal software to its cars in order to cheat on US emissions tests—the cars turned on their emissions control system when they were being tested in a lab and turned the emissions control system off when they were being driven under real world conditions.

According to Reuters, CARB now says there will be fixes for three generations of diesels, involving both hardware and software updates. The regulator has said that VW Group must bring its cars within 80 to 90 percent of pollution limits to have any fixes approved. CARB head Mary Nichols told Reuters that VW Group need not bring its cars to 100 percent compliance with pollution limits because the company has agreed to put up $2.7 billion in a pollution mitigation fund that will offset the damage of the still-polluting cars.

CARB is working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and any fix approved by California’s air regulator stands a good chance of being approved by the EPA, too. In January, CARB rejected VW Group’s proposed recall plan by saying the company did not provide enough necessary information to the regulator. The EPA issued a quick statement after CARB’s decision saying that it agreed.

(credit: Rob Rhinehart)

The City of Los Angeles filed criminal charges Friday against Soylent CEO Rob Rhinehart, who owns a property on a hillside known as “Flat Top,” east of downtown LA. The company makes a product of the same name that consists of a “food substitute.” (In 2013, Ars editor Lee Hutchinson ate and drank nothing but Soylent for five days.)

According to a statement released by City Attorney Mike Feuer, Rhinehart has been “allegedly performing unpermitted work and refusing to remove a vandalized and abandoned cargo container from a Montecito Heights hillside.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that Rhinehart bought the property last year and put a shipping container on it in the name of “experimental living.” Since then, the site has attracted graffiti and trash.

Video shot/edited by Jennifer Hahn. (video link)

If you've ever zoned out at the gym in the middle of a set and lost count, here's a solution that will let you zone out as much as you want. BowFlex's new SelectTech 560 smart dumbbells is proof that fitness tech is moving beyond wristbands. This set of two weights is considered "smart" because they allow you to adjust how much you life from one to 60 pounds on each dumbbell, and, as you lift, the dumbbells automatically record every rep. When paired with a mobile app, the smart dumbbells let you "just lift" (literally, that's an in-app exercise) or follow lifting and exercise routines that incorporate the dumbbells.

While the SelectTech 560 sounds like a no-brainer for hardcore lifters who want to exercise at home without investing in an entire rack of weights, there are a few catches: that's 120 pounds of weight you'll have to get into your home, and the set costs $499. Check out the video above to see what I thought of the BowFlex smart dumbbells after I gave them a try.

Enlarge / Slaw Device RX Viper pedals, serial number 0002, w/ personalized "AD ASTRA" engraved plate. There aren't many like it, and this one is mine. (credit: Lee Hutchinson)

Last year I spent more money than I ever thought I’d spend on a peripheral to import a set of Slaw Device BF109 flight sim pedals. The pedals, when they arrived, weren’t just functional—they were beautiful. Powder-coated aluminum struts, shiny chrome nut-and-bolt accents, those artfully skeletonized foot stirrups—the device was undeniably the work of a skilled craftsman, and the pedals played as good as they look. From space to sky, from Elite: Dangerous to DCS World, they’ve kicked up my immersion and provided smooth, jitter-free rudder control. I thought I’d be happy with them forever.

Forever, as it turns out, lasts about 16 months. One fine May afternoon some new pedals caught my eye, and my BF109s suddenly looked old and busted. I saw unforgivable flaws where before I'd seen none—the old bumper-arm mechanism wasn’t nearly as smooth as a rolling cam would be, and the foot-in-stirrup position couldn’t be nearly as comfortable as foot-on-floor! And, oooh, look at the colors! The new ones come in colors!

And now I’m $693 poorer. But, man, my flight sim pedals—let me show you them!