ReHacked #171: Americans think NASA’s $10B space telescope is a good investment, Dutch schools must stop using Google's email, The Pneumatic Clocks of Paris and more
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Most Americans think NASA’s $10B space telescope is a good investment, poll finds - The Verge #technology #society
Soon after NASA shared the first stunning images taken by the agency’s new, powerful James Webb Space Telescope, a new online opinion poll asked Americans: was the nearly $10 billion observatory a good investment? And the resounding answer: yes.
Today, marketing and data analytics firm YouGov released an online poll of 1,000 Americans, asking them their overall opinion of NASA and whether or not various space programs have been good investments. Roughly 70 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of NASA, and 60 percent thought that the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, was worth it.
Dutch schools must stop using Google's email and cloud services due to privacy concerns. #privacy
Dutch schools and universities must stop using Google's email and cloud services due to privacy concerns. According to the Dutch Personal Data Authority, educational institutions do not know how and where the personal data of pupils and students are processed and stored. As a result, the processing of the information would be "not lawful."
Scientists Hijack Fruit Fly Brains to Remote Control Their Wings #foturism #health
Are we one step closer to remote controlling human brains?
According to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature Materials, we just might. A team of researchers at Rice University have officially been able to hack into the brains of fruit flies and successfully command them to make a specific movement — with just a click of a wireless remote control.
The team — an assemblage of experts in genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and electrical engineering — first created genetically modified flies bred to express a specific heat-sensitive ion channel which, when activated, caused the insects to spread their wings.
The Pneumatic Clocks of Paris | Amusing Planet #history #engineering
This network of pneumatic clocks was first installed in Vienna in 1877 as a demonstration by two Austrian engineers, Viktor Antoine Popp and his co-worker Resch. Popp and Resch installed a number of clocks in public buildings and on lamp-posts in public thoroughfares, and kept them working uninterruptedly for a whole year. Popp and Resch then exhibited their system at the Paris Exhibition in 1878, where it attracted much attention, and the jury awarded them a silver medal. That same year, Popp and Resch obtained from the Paris municipal authorities the authorization to install a compressed air network to drive both public and private clocks.
Two containers with same number detected in Chittagong port - Container News #economy #logistics
Both the 40-foot containers are bearing the same number: SLHU4500470. However, the boxes are bearing two separate seals: 001535 and GTS 005946.
The Container Terminal Management System (CTMS) of the port detected the boxes, which were kept under the port’s security arrangement.
Port officials said that one of the two containers may contain computer accessories while the other one may have solar photovoltaic water pump.
The CPA has called the shipping agent, and customs authority to decide on the next actions. CPA spokesman, Omar Faruk said such an event has not occurred in the past in Chittagong.
The Inventor of Ibuprofen Tested the Drug on His Own Hangover | Innovation| Smithsonian Magazine #health #history
In retrospect, perhaps toasting the success of a new medication he helped invent with several shots of vodka in Moscow was not a good idea. However, it was too late to go back. English research scientist Stewart Adams was faced with the consequences of his actions: a serious hangover.
As he woke up that morning in 1971, Adams realized he needed to do something to relieve his throbbing headache, so he could coherently deliver an important speech at a pharmacological conference in a few hours. He reached for that new drug and swallowed a 600-milligram dose. Voila!
“He took a handful of ibuprofen and felt fine,” recalls his son David Adams. “No hangover!”
US Air Force connects 1,760 PlayStation 3's to build supercomputer #hardware #history
About the 33rd largest supercomputer in the world right now is the US Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) newest system, which has a core made of 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles. In addition to its large capacity, the so-called "Condor Cluster" is capable of performing 500 trillion floating point operations per second (TFLOPS), making it the fastest interactive computer in the entire US Defense Department.
Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism - The British Psychological Society #health #psychology
Monotropism provides a far more comprehensive explanation for autistic cognition than any of its competitors, so it has been good to see it finally starting to get more recognition among psychologists (as in Sue Fletcher-Watson’s keynote talk at the 2018 Autistica conference). In a nutshell, monotropism is the tendency for our interests to pull us in more strongly than most people. It rests on a model of the mind as an ‘interest system’: we are all interested in many things, and our interests help direct our attention. Different interests are salient at different times. In a monotropic mind, fewer interests tend to be aroused at any time, and they attract more of our processing resources, making it harder to deal with things outside of our current attention tunnel.
More invested in nuclear fusion in last 12 months than past decade #technology #engineering
More has been invested in nuclear fusion in the last 12 months than over the past decade, according to new industry figures.
The clean energy solution has attracted about $2.8bn (£2.5bn) in investment globally over the past year, compared with $1.9bn (£1.6bn) in total over the past decade.The solution produces clean energy by fusing together atomic nuclei. It is the reaction which powers the Sun and in turn fuels life on Earth.
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