The Bomb Cyclone Looks Unreal From Space

That bomb cyclone you’ve surely read about has officially gone off. And the images rolling in are something else.

Pressure dropped 54 millibars in 24 hours in the winter storm currently climbing up the eastern seaboard. That’s more than double what’s needed to classify it as a bomb, making it a super bomb (kidding, please don’t repeat that, especially not to a meteorologist).

In all seriousness, the impacts are piling up. Hurricane force winds have reached as far north as Cape Cod. Iguanas are turning into iguanicles in South Florida. The lights are starting to flicker out in Massachusetts. Snow is accumulating everywhere from Florida to Maine. This storm has been well forecast, and is playing out as expected. Cold air is waiting in the wings to make this weekend miserable (and potentially deadly) for the eastern U.S.

But let’s step back and admire this storm because man is it a beauty from space. To wit:

The recently operationalized GOES-16 satellite is returning a wealth of stunning views of a storm that could be writing its way into the record books. That’s why so many meteorologists doing a little happy dance even as they try to forecast a dangerous event.

Here’s a bigger picture look:

Here’s a slightly zoomed in look at the swirl off the Mid-Atlantic:

And this is as tightly zoomed as it gets. You can see tiny swirls—the mesovortices mentioned in the tweet—which indicate areas of intense activity churning within the storm:

Seriously, this storm is a thing of meteorological beauty and likely inspiring the next generation of meteorologists sitting at home enjoying a snow day.

The source of the storm’s power is the huge temperature difference between the warm ocean currents and cold air covering most of the eastern U.S. The process is known as baroclinic instability.

Andrea Lang, a meteorologist at the University of Albany, likened it to what would happen if you had a fish tank divided in half with warm water on the bottom and cool water on the top. If you pull out the divider, the dense cold water would immediately drop and the warm water would rise.

“From a physics perspective, potential energy in the mass of the water was converted to kinetic energy (the movement of the water) to create a circulation,” she told Earther in an email. “In the atmosphere, this type of instability is called baroclinic instability.”

Baroclinic instability is a common factor in all nor’easters, strong winter storms that impact the East Coast, but this storm will likely go down as one of the most rapidly intensifying on record for the region. The new GOES-16 satellite is not only helping produce drool-inducing images, but returning data on a major event that will help meteorologists improve forecasts for the next storm, whether its a bomb or a plain ol’ nor’easter.

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Upgrade All of Your Lights With Smart Bulbs For $12 Each, No Hub Required

Anker makes smart light bulbs now, because of course they do, and you can get them at a discount today.

This particular bulb can’t display the full RGB spectrum like a Philips Hue lamp, or even different temperatures of white, but you can control and dim it from your phone, or with an Alexa or Google Assistant device, no hub required. And at $12 each (down from $17-$18), you can afford to put them all around your home.


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Movie Theater Chain Kills Uber-Style Surge Pricing After Internet Backlash

An Australian movie theater chain said it has ended “dynamic pricing” trials on Wednesday after Redditors complained of “price gouging.” Last week, an anonymous user uploaded an internal memo from Village Cinemas describing concession stand increases during busy periods. After images of the memo circulated online, Village Cinemas announced that all pricing trials had been stopped—weeks before the scheduled end of the test period.

Essentially, dynamic pricing raised concession stand prices between 50 cents and a dollar after 5:00pm on Fridays and Saturdays, usually the theaters’ busiest nights. Redditors lambasted the practice, pointing out that this would only encourage more people to opt for a night-in streaming rather than a visit to a Village theater.

In addition to being annoying, Redditors noted there’s really nothing “dynamic” about the new pricing model. As one user wrote, “I don’t think this is even ‘surge pricing,’ it’s just a predetermined uplift in prices and not driven by demand. What if it’s a quiet night? It’s a bit cheeky to call this dynamic.”

Village Cinemas provided the following statement to Gizmodo, weirdly doubting the authenticity of the leaked memo while also acknowledging that an earlier “dynamic pricing” experiment was a failure:

Village Cinemas acknowledges that some documents that appear to contain internal pricing information for cinema tickets have been posted on social media and in turn via the press. We are currently investigating the authenticity of these documents. Village Cinemas confirms that we were running pricing variation trials over the summer period which we appreciate may have caused angst and concern to our customers, we can now confirm that all pricing variation trials have been stopped effective immediately. There are still plenty of great deals to enjoy during this time like family passes which offers generous savings. We’ve also recently introduced a variety of exciting concept cinemas around Victoria, including Vjunior and 4DX, so pricing will vary depending on the experience. Village Cinemas is committed to providing customers with value via a range of attainable prices and promotions for the variety of experiences and concepts available. We are constantly working on improving and optimizing this model. Our goal is to ensure movie going remains as an affordable entertainment choice for our guests.

One Reddit user, writing in a thread after the pricing ended, summed it up best: “Your business is facing challenges from disruptive technology everywhere, so your solution is to put UP prices…..WOW.”

[Daily Mail]

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FedEx Employee Discovers Largest Known Prime Number Containing a Staggering 23 Million Digits

Using a computer powered by an off-the-shelf Intel Core i5-6600 processor, a FedEx employee from Tennessee has discovered the largest prime number known to humanity. At 23,249,425 digits long, it’s nearly a million digits longer than the previous record holder.

For those of you who failed or have long forgotten grade 3 math class, a prime number is any number that can only be divided by 1 and itself (e.g. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, etc.). It’s a freaky quirk of the Universe that has captivated mathematicians for centuries, as their appearance in the roll call of all integers defies prediction (though biases have been detected in the distribution of consecutive primes). Finding prime numbers thus requires a bit of trial-and-error, patience, and a lot of computing power.

The new record-holding prime number, dubbed “M77232917,” was discovered by Jonathan Pace, a 51-year-old electrical engineer living in Germantown, Tennessee, on December 26, 2017. It was discovered as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), a group that does exactly what its name implies. Mersenne primes—named after the 17th century French monk Marin Mersenne—are a rare class of primes that are one integer less than a number that’s been multiplied by itself, expressed as Mn=2n-1. In this case, the new prime was calculated by multiplying 77,232,917 by 77,232,917 and then subtracting one (277,232,917-1). The new prime is the 50th known Mersenne prime.

M77232917 contains 23,249,425 digits, which is practically impossible for the human brain to comprehend. You can download a zip file of the number here, which busts open into a simple text file nearly 24 MB in size. Here’s an itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny glimpse of the first few digits of the number:

467333183359231099988335585561115521251321102817714495798582338593567923480521177207484311099740208849621368090038049317248367442513519144365249220286787499224923639633038619305951170770522850356011779638644050954128274109548519743273551014325753249976993808191641040774990607027085131780854431482719287927051574760059182501122426493901177524147020112211388180246357120385256971031180861489618892584067750976814954567907442159253928086043451513107052318572800622535173305043931545049276946896285268869674944342112985792233732337801754241421827174125670264416644353313890442672256181107628062641550510992384203991225537857049225867450478199850186985188395719963008038717965906943698446227245769048442624077040456516926390008651726462990593760595429486791654633562139216744557672746497884434353520456556797052450980481438931349795938877105350614496693489409255155953306872814733490045565082856578190868933327141046378794972655266893887595979641316331028806592177529769834152124115913323365268166706644473143310974520823513974885636253719301950406605722095718079173467784212323941225708492276162678848504240175619575042958633387070067162448853074807881260125089824549619209919961134580250514604063519606634978181198613503051581163463555633566319896615827604388690329796011984096270537383579630874681056843649818067678103424096859574594387122476571828072557344394780380024201783548667495179746696190843622986643959450031252516686566594252074345358101581042723707992427571828820948849065861590065859074391377828173034683701925114789618787309101887004289046129873028746416386957443644028588809312429908860884297613860386816910586542216739001402734982971907272987483662107236827512472738409809578930670626153249685719278922751692157130896802807496462527584643633045876649970923366331569812027362273631245871521356011614860439988085178768763757860732625585115457092087848043258257876286498706458088135038948822247351807130888403164645794446319243717913259933477001220994458815795663730102285010141814663265537150923894600650386095599714691658518044760943228485293103850039495787904594766307709643249139518714435912361386106141359015789488893140142052513122486651646114701666701676143140750087224603889234655205528086110973730635187042131130393016253362794058251836128055518549678930658366455272915511811952058888392595313861166137697724678782720586680474567342842176857469092018559835324800004598444782456084485904576297338813661199170205858652099033435737405594286587479579072034591348880491778480562894857788046177321792968258171597503720079791566992083055824866579012557180722751078462924794248439652077467237403658550061799279956704411031254567465451105499362798947781210188466981867175415780089815289984924792655784203471522023573618649847743212240495339397953595778060553510296261735673554034489108685389266344608133903535814448582274184496823988891485433908407138755118440965780608756502239030483891349117815030583034147983474364473410786162232983781676844315610390028354503758000566280031377558992067117024880997033717503400673301922738074511864300037419291160271133918403435581992793701952141372100135595457599485254674121618690682674413645774237169049255424728665357996103997069776243968010876776475830443576635739972027953438424843103674054245431824410173440025375378765370235220916664367509996157398715673180804853549565098667607871303308044944405283848532769455954881164266322865068561846182186079278726212101078949803932341590437977436216839406044542808714268030063768857675412060494935032858614372477002463478278523399030686898768798513296184049579718910789231320899515797161738788846785311885…

You get the point.

According to GIMP, that’s big enough to fill an entire shelf of books totalling 9,000 pages. Or put another way, “If every second you were to write five digits to an inch then 54 days later you’d have a number stretching over 73 miles (118 km)—almost 3 miles (5 km) longer than the previous record prime,” writes GIMP.

Pace, a long-time math enthusiast and a current employee at FedEx, does charity work as a SysAdmin, running Prime95 on all his PCs and servers; Pace is one of thousands of volunteers who are using free GIMPS software in the effort to continually find larger and larger prime numbers. The PC that Pace used to find the prime number required six straight days of computation on a quad-core Intel i5-6600 CPU to verify it.

Indeed, the discovery of new primes is no small task; every candidate prime must go through the time-consuming and rigorous process of being cut-up by any potential divisors. Once a candidate prime is discovered, it has to be verified by outside sources. In this case, the prime was independently verified by four different programs running on different hardware configurations:

  • Aaron Blosser verified it using Prime95 on an Intel Xeon server in 37 hours.
  • David Stanfill verified it using gpuOwL on an AMD RX Vega 64 GPU in 34 hours
  • Andreas Höglund verified the prime using CUDALucas running on NVidia Titan Black GPU in 73 hours
  • Ernst Mayer also verified it using his own program Mlucas on 32-core Xeon server in 82 hours. Andreas Höglund also confirmed using Mlucas running on an Amazon AWS instance in 65 hours.

The quest to find more prime numbers may seem frivolous, but they hold practical applications as well, such as the generation of public key cryptography algorithms, hash tables, and as random number generators. Further work into primes could also tell us a bit more about mathematics and why it’s so damned good at describing the universe. And as Carl Sagan speculated in Cosmos, transmitting streams of consecutive primes could also be used as a way of saying “hello” to an alien civilization.

As exciting as this discovery is, the Holy Grail of primes is yet to be found: a prime number containing 100 million digits. The first person to find this elusive number will be awarded $150,000 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Good luck!

[Mersenne]

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The Cars Are Frozen

Parts of the Northeast are getting hammered by frigid temperatures right now, just 24 hours after a winter storm dropped a blanket of snow across several states. Near Boston, some people awoke Friday and found the storm had consumed their cars with ice.

The clip from above is taken from a video posted on Twitter by Adam Abougalala, a resident of Revere, Massachusetts. Abougalala told CNN his basement flooded from the storm and he currently has no heat, electricity or hot water.

Outside his house, Abougalala found a surreal scene, with frozen water reaching above the wheel wells of cars up and down the street, likely rendering them inoperable and unsalvageable.

Much of the Northeast reported at least a foot of snow Thursday, and CNN reported that wind chills are expected to leave some areas feeling like it’s 40 below zero. At least 19 people have died this week from severe weather, CNN reports.

Stay safe out there.

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Iran blocks internet services in bid to quash protests

It’s a busy weekend for oppressive governments trying to suppress digital communication. Iran has blocked mobile access to at least Telegram and Instagram as it tries to thwart protests that started over economic concerns (particularly inflation), but have extended into broader resistance to the government and clerical rule. Officials claim the censorship is meant to "maintain peace," but the argument doesn’t hold water. Telegram founder Pavel Durov noted that his company refused to shut down "peacefully protesting channels," and Instagram is primarily being used to document protests — Iran clearly doesn’t want to reveal the extent of the demonstrations.

There are also numerous reports of Iran blocking mobile internet access in several cities, although the full extent isn’t clear. The Iran Student News Agency noted that desktop access to Telegram was working, so this appears to be more of an attempt to disrupt on-the-ground protest coordination and citizen journalism than a blanket ban.

Officials have claimed that the blocks are ‘temporary’ measures, but it’s safe to say they’ll continue for as long as the Iranian government believes the protests pose a mounting threat to its authority. The country has a history of blocking Instagram, VPNs and other services that help residents access the uncensored internet. The question is whether or not this will be effective. As Egypt learned early this decade, a sufficiently motivated public isn’t going to stay off the streets just because they can’t get online. There are frequently ways to get around censorship, too. In short: blocking like this is more of a momentary roadblock than anything else.

Via: Washington Post, CNN

Source: Pavel Durov (Twitter), Al Arabiya

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FDA approves first shock wave device made to heal wounds

Using "acoustic shock waves" to promote healing isn’t just for Overwatch, as Sanuwave has obtained FDA approval for its Dermapace System (Pulsed Acoustic Cellular Expression = PACE). Its approval is specifically to help heal foot ulcers in diabetic patients, where damage to blood vessels and nerves can lead to reduced circulation, infection and sometimes amputation. The Dermapace mechanically stimulates the wound, which Sanuwave says promotes healing. Like several other "first" FDA approvals we’ve seen recently, this device went through the de novo review process designed specifically to get new technology on the market.

After two double-blind studies, the results showed an increase in wound healing at 24 weeks with a 44 percent wound closure rate with the real Dermapace device, vs. a 30 percent closure rate for patients treated with a fake system. Now that this device has been approved, it also opens the door for similar technology, if it can show that it’s "substantially equivalent."

Source: FDA

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