Month: December 2017

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Breaking the Sound Barrier, Quietly

NASA wants to make sonic booms a little less…boom-y.
When a jet breaks the sound barrier, it generates shockwaves that are eventually heard—and felt—on the ground as sonic booms. The boisterous nature of supersonic flight is one of the primary driving forces behind the Federal Aviation Administration’s ban on supersonic flights over land. But NASA scientists are working to design an aircraft that can smash the sound barrier quietly, and that could cut travel times in the United States sig

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ReMarkable tablet review: The high price of getting that paper feeling

Unless you use a Kindle or another e-reader regularly, you probably don’t come into contact with e-ink displays. While they were once popular for high-end devices, they’ve largely been relegated to use in reading devices now that LCD and other display technology have grown in popularity and affordability.

But the company reMarkable is trying to expand e-ink’s use with the reMarkable paper tablet, a slab with a 10.3-inch e-ink display and an included stylus. Not only is it meant to be a reading device, but the reMarkable is designed to replace pretty much any papers you have to bring with you anywhere—books, documents, notes, sketches, and the like.

That’s not a new concept, as many of us have one device that holds most of the things we need daily. The reMarkable tablet goes after paper lovers specifically, boasting its e-ink display and companion stylus as better, more convenient alternatives to the traditional paper-and-pencil setup. But it’s a hard sell—priced at $599, the reMarkable tablet may offer a unique reading and writing experience compared to other tablets, but it has limiting features that prevent it from being great.

Design

ReMarkable built its tablet like a cross between a Kindle e-reader and an iPad. Measuring 6.9×10.1×.26 inches, it’s more rectangular than an iPad Pro and much larger than a Kindle device. It has to be bigger to allow a comfortable reading and writing experience, but as someone who is accustomed to using both the aforementioned Apple and Amazon devices, the reMarkable paper tablet felt a bit tall for my liking.

Specs at a glance: reMarkable tablet (as reviewed)
Screen 10.3” 1872×1404 resolution (226 DPI) monochrome digital paper touch display
OS Codex, a custom Linux-based OS optimized for low-latency e-paper
CPU 1 GHz ARM A9 CPU
RAM 512 MB DDR3L
Storage 8GB
Networking Wi-Fi
Ports One USB Type C
Size 177 x 256 x 6.7mm (6.9 x 10.1 x .26 inches)
Weight .77 pounds (350 grams)
Battery 3,000mAh
Supported files .pdf, .epub
Price $600
Other perks Included stylus

However, the overall slim frame and solid build of the tablet helped me overcome my initial issue with its dimensions. My model is a soft white with a shiny aluminum back plate that’s hugged at the top and bottom by silicone-like rubber strips. These help keep the tablet in place on a table or flat surface so you can write or draw on its e-ink display without the device sliding around.

The tablet has a PMMA cover lens that the company promises will protect it from drops and rough handling. While the reMarkable tablet certainly doesn’t feel flimsy, it doesn’t have the weighty design of an all-metal device. But that also makes it quite light at just over three-quarters of a pound, so it won’t weigh down any backpacks or bags.

Inside is a 3,000mAh battery, typical for devices of this size, but it works for much longer on this e-ink device than for most other mobile devices. ReMarkable’s website promises “days” of battery life, and that vague statement appears to be true. I used my tablet on and off for about three days before it hit 20-percent battery and made me consider recharging it.

The reMarkable tablet comes with a stylus, and the device recognizes its input, pressure, and orientation. E-ink strokes on the screen will change depending on how hard you press and the angle of the tip. The tablet also comes with replacement pen tips for when the original tip gets worn down (as it will over long periods of use). The stylus does not need a battery to work, which is a plus for any tablet stylus, as it removes the anxiety of having a depleted battery in the middle of an important meeting, class, or event in which you’ll be writing furiously.

Pros and cons of reMarkable’s big e-ink display

The large e-ink display was jarring at first for me because this device is considered a tablet. Currently, the tablet market is dominated by bright LCD and bold OLED displays, with each manufacturer trying to out-spec the next with the debut of each new tablet. The reMarkable tablet isn’t trying to do that; rather, it’s stripping away all the unnecessary tech in favor of a simple reading and writing experience. E-ink makes sense on a tablet like this, but it takes some adjustment by the user (if you’re like me, at least).

Since I started testing the reMarkable tablet with the mindset that it was, indeed, a tablet, it was a little jarring to see a message on the e-ink display when the device was powered off. “Your reMarkable is powered off. Hold power to start your reMarkable,” appears on the turned-off display, along with the company’s logo at the bottom of the screen. I don’t expect a tablet screen to show anything on its display unless I’m using it, but e-ink displays are different—Kindles often show suggested titles or advertisements on their displays when powered off.

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The 26 Most Iconic Sci-Fi Spaceships

The 26 Most Iconic Sci-Fi Spaceships

From movies, to TV, to video games, there are countless sci-fi spacecrafts of varying size and power. These are the most iconic.

Note: While the Death Star is mobile, after much debate it’s been decided that particular vessel is classified as a space station, thus it is not included on this list.

Discovery One

As seen in: 2001: A Space Odyssey

This nuclear-powered ship is controlled by artificial intelligence and carries passengers from Earth to Jupiter. While it may not be loaded with firepower, Discovery One is one of the most iconic spaceships ever, powered by a nuclear reactor.

Image: Warner Bros.

Nostromo

As seen in: Alien

Another unforgettable spaceship, Alien’s Nostromo is a starfreighter that serves as home-away-from-home for Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).

Image: 20th Century Fox

Eagle transporter

As seen in: Space: 1999

The signature passenger ship model from Space: 1999 is said to reach speeds of up to 23,000 miles per second. Being able to rocket around the galaxy that fast earns it a place in the most powerful spaceships.

Image: 20th Century Fox

Flying saucers from Mars Attacks!

As seen in: Mars Attacks!

While they may not be the most modern spacecrafts–instead looking exactly like what you’d expect from a Tim Burton movie about aliens–the flying saucers from Mars Attacks! lay waste to plenty of humans after descending to Earth.

Image: Warner Bros.

D79-TC Pelican

As seen in: Halo

Master Chief’s preferred mode of transportation–a gunship/dropship–holds 15-20 personnel and a pair of GAU/53 70mm MBHRC autocannons to blase enemies out of the sky.

Image: 343 Industries

Serenity

As seen in: Firefly

It may not come equipped with offensive weaponry, but that’s part of the Serenity’s charm. This ship has survived vicious battles and scary situations thanks to the clever maneuvering of its grade-A team of misfits.

Image: FOX

Axiom

As seen in: Wall-E

The Axiom is no fighter, that much is clear. However, a ship that size that can serve as a full-functioning city to the remainder of the people of Earth is impressively powerful–especially when you consider how the ship has to do literally everything for those onboard.

Image: Pixar

Alien mothership

As seen in: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

They came in peace, but the sheer size of the alien mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind cannot be dismissed. This massive vessel is a perfect example of otherworldly design and–while it’s not dangerous–its speaker system can be intimidating.

Image: Columbia Pictures

Eagle 5

As seen in: Spaceballs

Everything in Spaceballs is a joke, the Eagle 5 included. That said, it’s ability to achieve "hyperactive" mode makes it one of the fastest ships in the universe–something you cannot dismiss.

Image: 20th Century Fox

Heart of Gold

As seen in: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The infinite improbability drive makes the Heart of Gold the fastest ship in the universe, which is a power many covet. However, as shown in the 2005 movie adaptation, it’s also a ship that’s easily stolen. With all that power, you’d think they’d put an alarm on it.

Image: Buena Vista Pictures

Normandy SR-1

As seen in: Mass Effect

With stealth capabilities and the ability to travel faster than the speed of light, the Normandy is a spaceship that deserves to be taken seriously. It doesn’t hurt that it’s piloted by a guy named Joker.

Image: BioWare

TIE fighter

As seen in: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

While it’s a small spacecraft at only nine meters long, with the ability to carry one passenger, the TIE fighter is a deadly ship. Loaded with laser cannons and proton torpedoes, it’s destroyed hundreds, if not thousands, of enemy aircraft.

Image: Lucasfilm

X-wing fighter

As seen in: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

A signature vessel in the Star Wars universe, the X-wing is a quick and powerful fighter, boasting laser cannons and photon torpedoes. Still, while it was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the Death Star, it’s primary use is in one-on-one combat with the opposition’s TIE fighters. It’s powerful for its size but not the biggest and baddest in the universe.

Image: Lucasfilm

The Milano

As seen in: Guardians of the Galaxy

There aren’t many specs available for this ship, named after Alyssa Milano. But after seeing the battles it’s been through in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, we know this spaceship is not to be taken lightly.

Image: Marvel Studios

Klingon bird-of-prey

As seen in: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

The bird-of-prey is a staple of the Star Trek franchise. With photon torpedoes, a warp drive and a tractor beam, it’s exactly the kind of ship you’d want if you were looking for trouble.

Image: Paramount

Romulan warbird

As seen in: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Its power is similar to that of the Klingon bird-of-prey. However, where the warbird gets the better of its fellow Star Trek vessel is its warp drive capable of Warp 9-plus speeds.

Image: Fox

Millennium Falcon

As seen in: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

With illegally-modified blasters, plenty of shields to keep it safe, and more speed than it needs, the Millennium Falcon one of the most iconic ships ever and worth every bit of its hype.

Image: Lucasfilm

NSEA Protector (NTE-3120)

Galaxy Quest may be a satire of Star Trek culture, but the 1999 movie’s featured starship is a serious machine with hundreds of crew members and a quantum flux drive capable of speeds of up to Mach 15.

Image: Warner Bros.

The TARDIS

As seen in: Doctor Who

The TARDIS–Time and Relative Dimension in Space–isn’t made for fighting and destruction. There are no lasers or missiles on this ship. That said, it’s practically impenetrable and can travel anywhere in space and time, giving it powers far beyond those of most other sci-fi ships.

Image: BBC

UNSC Infinity

As seen in: Halo 4

This massive carrier holds over 17,000 troops and contains 1,100 missile pods, making it perhaps the most powerful ship in the Halo franchise.

Image: 343 Industries

Borg Cube

As seen in: Star Trek: The Next Generation

It may not be aerodynamic, but the Borg Cube is a formidable foe in space. It’s loaded with an array of weaponry and is controlled by a merciless group that has no problem ending lives. Every encounter with the vessel has ended with multiple casualties, making the Borg Cube both a powerful enemy and a terrifying one.

Image: Fox

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), original timeline

As seen in: Star Trek

It may not be the quickest spaceship around, but with its stock of photon torpedoes, shields to keep it safe, and massive size, the USS Enterprise is a ship to be reckoned with.

Image: CBS

USS Discovery

As seen in: Star Trek: Discovery

The Discovery has all of the hallmarks of the USS Enterprise, complete with the standard Federation weaponry. However, the Discovery also contains the experimental spore drive that can instantly jump the ship to anywhere in the universe.

Image: CBS

Giant saucers

As see in: Independence Day

The huge saucers in Independence Day didn’t do much, aside from deliver a single laser blast. Of course, that long blast is strong enough to level an entire city.

Image: 20th Century Fox

Galactica (BS-75)

As seen in: Battlestar Galactica

Like the Normandy, the Galactica can travel faster than the speed of light. Unlike the Normandy, though, this ship is loaded with weaponry and a 5,000 member crew.

Image: Universal

Imperial-class Star Destroyer

As seen in: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

It’s not going to win a race against the Millennium Falcon anytime soon, but it could certainly blast it to pieces. With a collection of turbolasers and a crew of nearly 40,000, the Star Destroyer is the baddest ship in any galaxy — and one you don’t want to face off against.

Image: Lucasfilm

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Koch Brothers Are Cities’ New Obstacle to Building Broadband

The three Republican commissioners now in power at the FCC voted this week to erase the agency’s legal authority over high-speed Internet providers.They claim that competition will protect consumers, that the commission shouldn’t interfere in the "dynamic internet ecosystem," and that they are "protecting internet freedom." Now that the vote is done, the agency has little to do but mess around with spectrum allocations. The mega-utility of the 21st century officially has no regulator.

WIRED Opinion

About

Susan Crawford is a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of The Responsive City and Captive Audience.

In the meantime, fed up with federal apathy and sick of being held back by lousy internet access controlled by local cable monopolies, scrappy cities around the US are working hard to find ways to get cheap, world-class fiber-optic connectivity. It’s always been an uphill climb, as the “incumbents”—giant carriers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T—are constantly working behind the scenes to block competition. (Recently, Comcast spent nearly $1 million opposing a municipal-fiber vote in Fort Collins, Colorado. The company did not prevail, I’m happy to report.) But now there’s an additional obstacle: Powerful right-wing billionaires have joined the fight against municipal fiber efforts, using their deep pockets to fund efforts to block even the most commonsense of plans.

Bad news for internet access—the Koch brothers are fighting low-cost open fiber nets.

Look what happened in Louisville, Kentucky. It’s a city of about 750,000, the largest in the state. Earlier this year, the city noticed that the state of Kentucky was funding a "middle mile" fiber network designed to connect the state’s 120 counties and provide cheaper connectivity for municipal buildings—KentuckyWired. As part of the project, Louisville—also known as Jefferson County—would be able to run 100 miles of fiber alongside the state network for just the cost of materials.

That seemed like a great deal to Louisville. The city estimated that if it installed fiber for city use from scratch, it would cost $15 million. With the KentuckyWired offer, the same project would cost just $5.4 million—with half of that amount dedicated to placing fiber nodes in West Louisville, a struggling, de facto segregated area of concentrated poverty, poor health outcomes, and general economic distress.

The public benefits of jumping on the KentuckyWired offer would be substantial: Not only would West Louisville get a chance at better access for its homes and businesses, but the city could install fiber-controlled traffic signals, create better and cheaper connectivity for public-safety agencies, and ship data around inexpensively to improve its operations. In a nutshell, the city would build the infrastructure and lease capacity to private internet-service providers. "We were looking at this as our smart city foundation," Grace Simrall, Louisville’s chief of civic innovation, says. At least half of the new fiber capacity would be reserved for open access leases, to encourage last-mile retail providers to wire homes and businesses. All for just the cost of the fiber lines.

It seemed to be a no-brainer. “I can’t think of a more sensible plan," Simrall says. "I just didn’t think that we were going to face opposition on this. We thought surely people would understand that this was a way for us to leapfrog where we were for a fraction of the cost."

But when Simrall and her colleagues went to talk to members of the Louisville Metro Council in May, they found that interest groups, including the cable trade association in Kentucky and something called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, had been there already. Suddenly, the city’s eminently sensible plan was in trouble. "The cable trade association in Kentucky was very vocal about how they thought that this was a waste of taxpayer money and had just spoken to numerous council members on the record about that," Simrall says.

Then Simrall and the city found out that the Washington, DC-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance had been posting frequently on social media opposing Louisville’s fiber plan. (Typical tweet: “Google suspended its fiber efforts in many cities due to cost – now wants Louisville taxpayers to foot the $5.4M bill.” The Louisville plan had nothing to do with Google.)

That’s when Simrall learned who had joined the forces determined to block Louisville from spending a dime on fiber for the city’s use: Charles and David Koch, the brothers backing environment-hostile fossil fuels and funding politicians who dole out goodies to the super-rich. "It’s widely known that they [the Taxpayers Protection Alliance] receive a lot of funding from the Koch brothers," Simrall says.

The connection between the TPA and the Koch brothers emerged from investigative reporting by ProPublica and others. This work has revealed that the Taxpayers Protection Alliance is a front advocacy group, part of a network of dark-money organizations supported in part by the Koch brothers. (The funding seems not to come from the Koch family directly but instead is funneled through other Koch-funded groups.) TPA’s most recent IRS filing shows it received about half a million dollars in contributions in 2016, but the sources of these contributions are blacked out. Tax-exempt organizations are not required to disclose the names of their donors publicly. David Williams, TPA’s president, told the Louisville Courier-Journal earlier this year that the group receives funding from “a lot of different sources," including groups affiliated with the Koch brothers.

A look at the TPA blog shows that the organization fights municipal fiber as part of its general anti-government and pro-private-sector activities, claiming that “taxpayer-funded broadband is a waste of money.” This week’s post, not surprisingly, congratulates the FCC on rolling back net neutrality regulations that TPA believes were “hurting taxpayers.”

That made the Louisville fiber project a battle between those trying to help the city and outside money trying to preserve the status quo. With little time before the council vote in mid-June, and facing the prospect that the city would lose forever the opportunity to participate in KentuckyWired at cost, Simrall and her office swung into action. They patiently explained the economic and operational benefits of the city plan to council members and the public, creating a useful infographic to sum up the story. They urged residents to call council members. Simrall had come from the civic tech community in Louisville, and contacted everyone she knew. "Everybody said, ‘This is complete common sense,’" Simrall says. On June 8, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer tweeted: "Tell your council member to back #KyWired and stop the Kochs from meddling in Louisville’s progress."

Later that month, there were two dramatic public meetings on the city’s budget for the fiber project. The first vote went along party lines, with Republicans voting against any city involvement in fiber. Simrall and her team kept fighting, and managed to convince some Republicans that the city plan made a lot of sense—especially the Republicans from districts that have suffered from digital redlining by incumbents. In the end, at the final budget hearing, the council voted unanimously to approve the request. "It was really quite a thrilling thing," Simrall says.

At the end of the day, the Koch-funded campaign backfired. It helped fire up some council members who might not have understood the importance of city fiber; once they knew the Koch brothers were against it, the city’s plan got their attention. "That felt pretty good," Simrall says.

If the Koch brothers were willing to throw money at opposing an incremental, cheap effort to string fiber alongside an existing state network plan, just imagine what they’ll be capable of around more ambitious local efforts. There is a major onslaught looming.

Simrall doesn’t think the Kochs actually care about fiber. "It’s all their way of opposing particular municipal or state efforts," Simrall says.

The scary thing is that the TPA message can be effective to a public that doesn’t understand the importance of fiber and can be easily swayed by claims that internet access should be handled solely by the private sector. The same kinds of Koch-like scare-points were rolled out when the unregulated private sector was solely in charge of electricity 100 years ago. But, as Simrall points out, "At this point, who would go to a city that doesn’t have electric utilities? Who would go to a city that doesn’t have water, or access to highways? Fiber is that type of infrastructure plan."

That doesn’t matter to the funders of groups like TPA. No matter how limited the government involvement is, they’re going to go after it.

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Target acquires Shipt, will roll out $99/year, same-day delivery

The battle between Amazon and Walmart is widely known, but Target is now entering the space in a new way. Target announced its plans to buy Shipt, a grocery delivery startup, in a $550 million all-cash deal. Created in 2014, Shipt lets members order groceries online from various supermarkets and then sends a shopper to pick up and delivery the items on the same day.

Shipt is based in Birmingham, Alabama, and already has partnerships with some of the big grocery chains across the country, including Costco, Kroger, Publix, and HEB. Under the deal, Shipt will be a wholly owned Target subsidiary and will continue to operate independently while serving Target’s new same-day delivery efforts.

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SpaceX has now successfully landed 20 rockets [Updated]

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This is SpaceX’s 13th supply mission to the International Space Station.

NASA

11am ET Update: Friday’s launch went off without a hitch, with the Falcon 9 booster sending a Dragon spacecraft into a good orbit to reach the International Space Station. Then, the first stage safely—if a bit sooty—made a near-perfect landing back on Earth. This marks the company’s 20th successful landing overall, and 16th in a row.

Original post: SpaceX will attempt to send a cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on Friday morning, with an instantaneous launch window that opens at 10:36am ET. There are some clouds at the launch site, but overall weather conditions appear favorable for a liftoff today.

Perhaps the bigger question is whether the technical problems with the launch have been solved. Originally targeted for Tuesday, SpaceX delayed a day to Wednesday for additional pre-launch ground systems checks. Then the company delayed until Friday because it had detected “particles” in the fuel system of the rocket’s second stage. As a result, it needed to conduct “full inspections and cleanings.”

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World Health Organization clashes with DEA on marijuana compound CBD

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COLORADO SPRINGS, CO. – August 05, 2014: Janea Cox director of the Flowering H.O.P.E. Foundation, with her daughter Haleigh, who was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, looks at the plants that make Haleigh’s Hope, a cannabis oil high in cannabidiol, or CBD, that is helping control her seizures.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration has long held that the non-psychoactive component of marijuana, cannabidiol, is a schedule I drug. That is, a drug that has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. But according to a preliminary report embraced by the World Health Organization this week, the DEA’s long-held stance is tripping.

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