Texas college hacks government drone

Texas college hacks government drone — RT: "There are a lot of cool things you can do with $1,000, but scientists at an Austin, Texas college have come across one that is often overlooked: for less than a grand, how’d you like to hijack a US government drone? A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the US Department of Homeland Security. After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into their drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that."

JetPens Blog: What Type of Pen Aficionado Are You?

JetPens Blog: What Type of Pen Aficionado Are You?: "Office supply fanatics are a diverse group. From the engineer in San Jose to the illustrator in Sao Paolo, they are united by a common language of brands, point sizes, and ink formulas. Similarly to how the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator divides personalities into 16 types, I’ve divided pen lovers into 8 essential categories. Which one describes you most accurately?"

Google scientists find evidence of machine learning

Google scientists find evidence of machine learning | Cutting Edge - CNET News: "Google scientists working in the company's secretive X Labs have made great strides in using computers to simulate the human brain. Best known for inventing self-driving cars and augmented-reality eyewear, the lab created a neural network for machine learning by connecting 16,000 computer processors and then unleashed it on the Internet. Along the way, the network taught itself to recognize cats. While the act of finding cats on the Internet doesn't sound all that challenging, the network's performance exceeded researchers' expectations, doubling its accuracy rate in identifying objects from a list of 20,000 items, according to a New York Times report. To find the cats, the team fed the network thumbnail images chosen at random from more than 10 billion YouTube videos. The results appeared to support biologists' theories that suggest that neurons in the brain are trained to identify specific objects. 'We never told it during the training, 'This is a cat,'' Google fellow Jeff Dean told the newspaper. 'It basically invented the concept of a cat.'"

Scientists struggle with mathematical details

Scientists struggle with mathematical details: "Dr Tim Fawcett and Dr Andrew Higginson, researchers in Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, found that scientific articles presenting many equations on each page are seldom referred to by other scientists. The most maths-heavy articles are referenced 50 per cent less often than those with little or no maths. Many scientists, including the celebrated theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, have worried about how mathematics will affect the impact of their work, but the Bristol study is the first to measure the extent of the problem. Dr Fawcett said: 'This is an important issue because nearly all areas of science rely on close links between mathematical theory and experimental work. If new theories are presented in a way that is off-putting to other scientists, then no one will perform the crucial experiments needed to test those theories. This presents a barrier to scientific progress.'"

How to repeat commands in OS X Terminal | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews

How to repeat commands in OS X Terminal | MacFixIt - CNET Reviews: "The OS X Terminal is a commonly used utility for troubleshooting OS X, because it allows you to run custom commands and scripts for looking up information and adjusting system settings. While useful, the Terminal is intended primarily for power users who have an understanding of the UNIX underpinnings in OS X. Often when running commands in the Terminal, various iterations of the command will be executed to try different settings or perform slightly different tasks, which in the Terminal can be frustrating as it can require you type out sometimes extensively long commands over and over again."

Have lasers located lost city of gold sought by conquistadors in 1500s? | Fox News

Have lasers located lost city of gold sought by conquistadors in 1500s? | Fox News: "Underneath the thick, virgin rainforest cover in the Mosquitia region of Honduras, archaeologists have discovered ruins they think may be the lost city of Ciudad Blanca. 

Legends say the 'White City' is full of gold, which is why conquistador Hernando Cortes was among the first Ciudad Blanca seekers in the 1500s. But the method the modern researchers used was a little different from previous explorers' techniques. The modern-day researchers flew over the area in a small plane and shot billions of laser pulses at the ground, creating a 3D digital map of the topology underneath the trees."

Math professor's side mirror that eliminates 'blind spot' receives US patent

Math professor's side mirror that eliminates 'blind spot' receives US patent: "A side-by-side comparison of a standard flat driver's side mirror with the mirror designed by Dr. R. Andrew Hicks, mathematics professor at Drexel University. With minimal distortion, Hicks's mirror shows a much wider field of view (the wide area to the left of the silver car seen in the distance, behind the tree, in this image). Hicks's mirror has a field of view of about 45 degrees, compared to 15 to 17 degrees of view in a flat mirror. Hicks's mirror received a US patent in May 2012. Credit: R. Andrew Hicks, Drexel University A side mirror that eliminates the dangerous 'blind spot' for drivers has now received a U.S. patent. The subtly curved mirror, invented by Drexel University mathematics professor Dr. R. Andrew Hicks, dramatically increases the field of view with minimal distortion."

Mysterious radiation burst recorded in tree rings

Mysterious radiation burst recorded in tree rings : Nature News & Comment: "Just over 1,200 years ago, the planet was hit by an extremely intense burst of high-energy radiation of unknown cause, scientists studying tree-ring data have found.

The radiation burst, which seems to have hit between ad 774 and ad 775, was detected by looking at the amounts of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 in tree rings that formed during the ad 775 growing season in the Northern Hemisphere. The increase in 14C levels is so clear that the scientists, led by Fusa Miyake, a cosmic-ray physicist from Nagoya University in Japan, conclude that the atmospheric level of 14C must have jumped by 1.2% over the course of no longer than a year, about 20 times more than the normal rate of variation. Their study is published online in Nature today.

'The work looks pretty solid,' says Daniel Baker, a space physicist at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado. 'Some very energetic event occurred in about ad 775.'

Related stories 'Superflares' erupt on some Sun-like stars Cosmic blasts powered by a hot glow Solar physics: Spots from rings Exactly what that event was, however, is more difficult to determine."