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Mar 16, 2021

Satellites Are Stranded on the ISS Because of a Military Coup

Posted by in categories: food, government, military, satellites, surveillance

Japan’s space agency wants to keep the satellite’s cameras out of military hands.


An unusual geopolitical situation is brewing aboard the International Space Station. Prior to the military coup in Myanmar earlier this year, Japan’s space agency JAXA had been collaborating with the country to build microsatellites that it planned to deploy in partnership with Myanmar’s government.

Now, JAXA has no idea what to do with the pair of 50-kilogram satellites, according to SlashGear. And while Japanese scientists hope to bring the agriculture and fishery-monitoring satellites to life, they’re currently holding them on the ISS instead of deploying them out of fear they might be misused for military purposes — a striking example of real-world geopolitics spilling over into space.

Continue reading “Satellites Are Stranded on the ISS Because of a Military Coup” »

Mar 16, 2021

Neuralink Co-Founder: “We’re Gonna Need a Better Term Than ‘Video Game‘”

Posted by in categories: computing, entertainment, neuroscience

With powerful engines, near-photorealistic graphics, and the ability to build incredible, immersive worlds, it’s hard to imagine what the next big technological advance in gaming might be.

Based on a recent tweet by Neuralink co-founder and President Max Hodak, the word might not even apply. In it, he hinted — vaguely, to be fair — that whatever forms of entertainment get programmed into neural implants and brain-computer interfaces will represent a paradigm shift that moves beyond the current terminology.

“We’re gonna need a better term than ‘video game’ once we start programming for more of the sensorium,” Hodak tweeted.

Mar 16, 2021

NASA Using Navajo Language to Name New Mars Discoveries

Posted by in category: space

Working with the Navajo Nation NASA is naming landmarks and discoveries by the Perseverance rover using the Native American language.

Mar 16, 2021

This Chip for AI Works Using Light, Not Electrons

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The idea of using light for computation is far from new, dating back to the 1950s. But electronic computing proved more practical to develop and commercialize. In the 1980s, Bell Labs tried to create a general purpose light-based chip, but it failed due to the difficulty of building a working optical transistor.

Lightmatter says its chips can be dropped into an existing data center and work with most major AI software. Later this year the company plans to launch a new technology for connecting chips, including those made by other companies, using its photonic technology. Light is widely used to shuttle information between computers, using fiber-optic cables.

Harris argues that AI will hit a wall in the next few years because of rising costs and energy use, and because of engineering constraints on the horizon. As engineers try to cram more transistors into a chip to speed up performance, chips may get too hot to manage.

Mar 16, 2021

Veteran scientist Stefanie Tompkins takes the helm at DARPA

Posted by in category: military

WASHINGTON — Stefanie Tompkins on March 15 assumed the top post at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Tompkins is DARPA’s 23rd director.

She is a former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army and previously worked at DARPA for nearly a decade. From 2007 until 2017 Tompkins served as program manager and deputy director of the agency’s Strategic Technology Office, DARPA chief of staff, as director of the Defense Sciences Office and as the acting deputy director of the agency.

Mar 16, 2021

Nvidia’s new beta driver unlocks RTX 3060 Ethereum cryptocurrency mining

Posted by in category: cryptocurrencies

The cryptomining protections have been bypassed using Nvidia’s own drivers.


Nvidia’s latest beta drivers unlock RTX 3060 Ethereum cryptocurrency mining. This is likely a mistake from Nvidia, as the company was trying to nerf mining performance with the RTX 3060.

Mar 16, 2021

Report: Indian government is planning outright ban on cryptocurrency

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, government

The proposed bill would ban trading, mining, and even holding cryptocurrencies.

Mar 16, 2021

Engineers create break-through technology to detect illegal Bitcoin mining on everyday users’ computers

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, computing, cryptocurrencies

A team of researchers has created software to detect illegal mining of cryptocurrency on computers.

Mar 15, 2021

Twisting, flexible crystals key to solar energy production

Posted by in categories: chemistry, solar power, sustainability

Researchers at Duke University have revealed long-hidden molecular dynamics that provide desirable properties for solar energy and heat energy applications to an exciting class of materials called halide perovskites.

A key contributor to how these materials create and transport electricity literally hinges on the way their atomic lattice twists and turns in a hinge-like fashion. The results will help materials scientists in their quest to tailor the chemical recipes of these materials for a wide range of applications in an environmentally friendly way.

The results appear online March 15 in the journal Nature Materials.

Mar 15, 2021

Researchers Spotted Malware Written in Nim Programming Language

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Cybersecurity researchers have unwrapped an “interesting email campaign” undertaken by a threat actor that has taken to distributing a new malware written in Nim programming language.

Dubbed “NimzaLoader” by Proofpoint researchers, the development marks one of the rare instances of Nim malware discovered in the threat landscape.

“Malware developers may choose to use a rare programming language to avoid detection, as reverse engineers may not be familiar with Nim’s implementation, or focused on developing detection for it, and therefore tools and sandboxes may struggle to analyze samples of it,” the researchers said.