Day: May 2, 2019

https://gizmodo.com/scientologys-flagship-boat-has-been-quarantined-after-a-1834475999

A ship owned by the Church of Scientology that serves as a critical vessel for a religious retreat has been quarantined in the island nation of St. Lucia after it was confirmed that a female crew member aboard had contracted the measles.

“After internal discussions as well as discussions with external health agencies such as the Pan American Health Organization we thought it prudent that we quarantine the ship,” Dr. Merlene Frederick-James, the island’s chief medical officer said in a video statement on Tuesday. “So no one was allowed to leave the ship the crew and passengers aboard were not allowed to leave.”

There were almost 300 passengers and crew on board, according to NBC News, and the ship has reportedly been quarantined in the Caribbean port of the island since Monday. The ship is still located in St. Lucia as of Thursday, according to the Marine Traffic website.

The 440-foot ship, called Freewinds, is based in the Caribbean, according to the Church of Scientology website, and “provides a safe, aesthetic, distraction-free environment appropriate for ministration of this profoundly spiritual level of auditing.” It’s identified as “a very special place” where a member of the controversial Sea Organization can go and “be able to devote himself entirely to his religious practice and in the company of people who share his religious commitment and outlook on life in general.”

The Church also wrote on its website that religious conventions, seminars, and “specially arranged gatherings of Scientologists from a particular country or community for a tailored program of religious services,” also take place on the ship during the spiritual retreat.

There has been contention around whether those who practice Scientology are against vaccinations. As the Hollywood Reporter reported in 2016, “a notable number of the highest-profile immunization dissenters are Scientologists, from [Danny] Masterson and Juliette Lewis to Jenna Elfman and Kirstie Alley.” The Church of Scientology, however, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter that it “takes no position one way or the other on this issue.”

Rev. John Carmichael, president of the Church of Scientology in New York, said in an interview on whether Scientology has any precepts or strictures about vaccinations: “Not as a religious principle, no, not at all. And I heard some false report about that, too. It’s simply not true. Scientologists are pretty independent people, though I will say this: they tend to do a little more research, perhaps, on the effect of various medical procedures or whatever. They make their own decisions, but those aren’t decisions that the church tries to influence in any way.”

The official Church stance on medical treatment is that it “has always had the firm policy of not diagnosing or treating the sick,” and that they “seek conventional medical treatment for illnesses and injuries.”

There have already been more than 700 reported cases of measles in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is the highest it’s been in a year since the disease was declared eliminated in the country in 2000. “This measles epidemic is a perfect storm of vaccine denialism, stupidity, and groupthink,” Peter Pitts, former associate commissioner for external relations at the Food and Drug Administration and president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest told Gizmodo.

We have reached out to the Church of Scientology and the Pan American Health Organization to comment on the quarantine and whether there have been any other reported cases of measles on the ship and on the island.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

May 2, 2019 at 11:51AM

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/05/02/taiwan-xing-mobility-1969-chevy-camaro-ev/

A Taiwanese developer of modular electric powertrains that has devised a novel way to cool batteries has turned its attention to an iconic American muscle car, converting a 1969

Chevrolet Camaro

into a fully

electric vehicle

.

EE Times first reported

on

Xing Mobility

‘s conversion, which was on display at AutoTronics Taipei.

It brings to mind rock legend Neil Young’s troubled “Lincvolt”

conversion of a 1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV

convertible into a

plug-in hybrid

that runs on E85. But the attention in this case is less on the conversion of the

Camaro

, its capabilities or specs than on Xing’s technology, which it says allows any vehicle to be converted into a battery-electric vehicle without need of a devoted

EV

platform or other extensive modifications. Xing (pronounced

Zing

) reportedly replaced the Camaro’s combustion engine with a battery pack made of 106 modules, all fitting in the available space in the engine compartment.

The real novelty is Xing’s solution for thermal management inside the pack. It’s found a way to immerse the cells in a non-conductive cooling fluid from 3M called Novec that has been used for years in fire extinguishers. The company claims the technology helps improve heat transfer and uniformity of cell temperatures, allowing cells to charge more quickly, last longer and generate higher power. The waterless solution also means the battery pack is less prone to catching fire, immediately dissipating heat from thermal runaway or damage to the cells or pack.

CEO and co-founder Royce Hong tells

EE Times

the immersion cooling system has been used to cool servers at data centers run by the likes of Google and Facebook, and equipment running bitcoins and gaming systems. The company has also designed its battery pack like a Lego system that can be stacked and interlocked to accommodate different kinds of vehicles.

Founded in 2015, Xing Mobility appears to be targeting commercial, industrial and recreational vehicle makers and fleet operators. It has developed two prototype vehicles: the 1-megawatt (1,341 horsepower) Miss R electric

supercar

prototype, which it says is capable of going off-road and has a touted 1.8-second 0-62 mph launch time; and the Miss E race car, which has a 350-kilowatt electric motor and uses the immersion cooling system. We look forward to hearing more from the company.

via Autoblog http://bit.ly/1afPJWx

May 2, 2019 at 12:37PM

https://www.space.com/mars-sunrise-sunset-photos-nasa-insight-lander.html

via Space.com http://bit.ly/2WPkkGi

May 2, 2019 at 06:16AM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/01/nasa-aluminum-fraud-scheme-probe/

When the launch of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory and Glory missions failed in 2009 and 2011, the agency said it was because their launch vehicle malfunctioned. The clamshell structure (called fairing) encapsulating the satellites as they traveled aboard Orbital ATK’s Taurus XL rocket failed to separate on command. Now, a NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) investigation has revealed that the malfunction was caused by faulty aluminum materials. More importantly, the probe blew a 19-year fraud scheme perpetrated by Oregon aluminum extrusion manufacturer Sapa Profiles, Inc., which Orbital ATK fell victim to, wide open.

LSP, along with NASA’s Office of the Inspector General and the US Department of Justice, have discovered the Sapa Profiles falsified critical tests on the aluminum it sold. For almost two decades, employees would doctor failing numbers or violate other testing standards, such as increasing the speed of testing machines or using sample sizes that didn’t meet specifications. They’d then provide clients, including government contractors, with falsified certifications. SPI itself was motivated by profits and the need to conceal the inconsistent quality of its aluminum products, while its employees were motivated by production-based bonuses.

Jim Norman, NASA’s director for Launch Services at NASA Headquarters in Washington, explains why suppliers’ integrity is incredibly important for the agency’s missions:

"NASA relies on the integrity of our industry throughout the supply chain. While we do perform our own testing, NASA is not able to retest every single component. That is why we require and pay for certain components to be tested and certified by the supplier. When testing results are altered and certifications are provided falsely, missions fail. In our case, the Taurus XLs that failed for the OCO and Glory missions resulted in the loss of more than $700 million, and years of people’s scientific work. It is critical that we are able to trust our industry to produce, test and certify materials in accordance with the standards we require. In this case, our trust was severely violated."

The company, now known as Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc., has agreed to pay NASA, the DOJ and other entities $46 million. It’s a tiny fraction of the $700 million NASA lost from the failed missions, but at least officials were able to hold SPI accountable for its actions. Sapa Profiles/Hydro Extrusion was also suspended from government contracting on September 30th, 2015, and it can no longer do business with the federal government.

Source: NASA, The US Department of Justice

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 1, 2019 at 03:57AM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/01/smartwatch-DIY-build-from-scratch/

DIY projects can be a lot of fun, and if Raspberry Pi has taught us anything it’s that people love to tinker. But for most folk, forays into the world of build-it-yourself tech start and end with a specific kit and a whole bunch of instructions to help them along. Not so for one inquisitive Redditor, who recently revealed that he built an entire smartwatch from scratch. And since he’s been kind to enough to share details of the process down to the smallest minutiae, you can too.

Samson March, who goes by the moniker Smarchbme, has named his stunning creation the "Smarch Watch" and said it took a few weeks to build the fully-functional, self-coded device, which boasts a battery life of seven days and takes just 2.5 hours to fully recharge (because of course he went the whole hog and built a charging cradle, too). The watch brings up color-coded notifications from his phone, including messages, email and calendar, although he humbly states there’s "no music playback yet."

He sourced his materials as cheaply as possible, with a final price tag of about $50. However, he says that "as a rule of thumb, for a product to be successful and make a profit, you would have to sell it for four or five times the cost of the goods. So in my case (assuming no discounts due to the economies of scale) I would have to charge somewhere between $200 and $250 to make a profit." This goes some way to explaining why companies charge such high prices, then. Alas, despite repeated requests by impressed Redditors, March has no plans to put his creation into wider production. But he’s shared everything — and we mean everything — you need to know to get started yourself is here.

Admittedly, March had a few things stacked in his favor, such as his five years working as a product designer and access to equipment such as a 3D printer. But he says that "We live in the golden age of making — there’s no better time than now to start making things," adding that "You can DIY anything — next up, a DIY spaceship."

Source: Reddit

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 1, 2019 at 07:33AM

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/01/netflix-audio-bitrate-adaptive-streaming/

Netflix announced today that it’s bringing "studio quality" sound to its audiences. The company is increasing its audio bitrate up to 640 kbps on devices that support 5.1 surround sound and up to 768 kbps for Dolby Atmos — though you’ll need to be a Premium subscriber for that. It’s also bringing adaptive streaming, a feature it’s long used for video, to your speakers. So, your audio bitrate will be based on network conditions and device performance limitations. The goal is to make the sound more crisp, more immersive and to "bring the viewer closer to the story." It also helps out users with slower internet connections, since the adaptive streaming can scale down audio quality, instead of stopping the video and forcing it to re-buffer.

According to Netflix, its "high-quality sound feature is not lossless, but it is perceptually transparent." So while the audio will be compressed, you won’t notice the difference between what your surround sound system delivers and the studio version — or so Netflix says. Through internal tests, Netflix determined that, for Dolby Digital Plus, 640 kbps is the point at which additional quality is imperceivable, and for Dolby Atmos, Netflix says the threshold is 768 kbps. Theoretically, bitrates higher than that would only slow devices. Some audiophiles might disagree.

Apparently, the changes were inspired by the Duffer Brothers. When Netflix invited the duo to view Stranger Things 2 in a living room setting to get a feel for audiences’ perspective, they were less than impressed with the way the audio came across. Netflix boosted the bitrate for the show, and since then, it says it’s been working to roll out similar improvements more broadly. Of course, this could just be an easy bullet point to highlight the next time Netflix decides to raise prices.

"The challenge is bringing this to the most members possible," Sean Sharma, Netflix’s director of engineering, said during an interview with Engadget. "When we think about how much we care about delivering brilliant experiences, that’s when playback starts right away, it’s at great quality and never stops unexpectedly and never re-buffers… We had to take a same approach for audio. In the TV space, we’ve brought it to smart TVs, set-top boxes and game consoles." Unfortunately, if you’re holding on to a legacy Netflix device, there’s a chance you won’t get the higher quality audio.

Devindra Hardawar contributed to this repoort.

Source: Netflix (1), (2)

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 1, 2019 at 10:57AM

https://www.droid-life.com/2019/05/01/pixel-3a-xl-all-specs-features/

The trickle of Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL leaks has been steady, but we’re now going to fully open the floodgates. We have every single thing you need to know about the Google Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL before they are announced next week on May 7.

Ready?

Before we get going, here are some pictures of the three colors that will be available: white, purple, and black . We’ve got all of the angles covered too in case you wanted to see those fun-colored power buttons.

As for Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL features, expect an “extraordinary” camera with Google’s Night Sight on board, the same as the fabulous Night Sight found on the regular Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL.  In addition, you’ll get a portrait mode, Motion Auto Focus, and unlimited Google Photos storage.

Fast charging is here too, with 7 hours of use in just 15 minutes. Because these are Pixel devices, 3 years of security and OS updates are included, as are things like Screen Call.

What about specs? What you’ve read so far is correct. The Pixel 3a will have a 5.6? display, while the Pixel 3a XL will have a 6.0?. They’ll have 12.2MP Dual Pixel cameras, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, 8MP front shooters, 3000mAh (3a) and 3700mAh (3a XL) batteries, squeezy Active Edge sensors, rear fingerprint readers, and Android 9.0 Pie.

We don’t have a further confirmation on price, but that was rumored to be $399 (3a) and $479 (3a XL) earlier today.

Need proof? Here are some promo images that’ll accompany launch.

via Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog http://bit.ly/2dLq79c

May 1, 2019 at 05:25PM