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A new report from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association estimates it will take more than 80 years to fix all of the nation’s deficient bridges.
(Image credit: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images)
via NPR Topics: News https://n.pr/2m0CM10
April 6, 2019 at 12:57AM
https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/06/watch-this-boat-crawl-onto-land/
We get it. Ads can be annoying. But ads are also how we keep the garage doors open and the lights on here at Autoblog – and keep our stories free for you and for everyone. And free is good, right? If you’d be so kind as to whitelist our site, we promise to keep bringing you great content. Thanks for that. And thanks for reading Autoblog.
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via Autoblog http://bit.ly/1afPJWx
April 6, 2019 at 02:23PM
https://www.space.com/curiosity-rover-sees-solar-eclipses-on-mars.html
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars got lucky last month and spotted not one but two eclipses — in less than two weeks, one for each of the Red Planet’s moons.
The result is two stunning animations of the moons crossing the sun, as well as one showing the brief darkening that the rover itself experienced during the latter of these events.
During the first event, on March 17, Curiosity watched Mars’ tiny moon Deimos cross the face of the sun. From the surface of Mars, Deimos is so small in comparison to the sun that this event doesn’t technically qualify as an eclipse; it is officially be called a transit instead.
Related: Amazing Mars Photos by NASA’s Curiosity Rover (Latest Images)
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars spotted the moon Deimos passing in front of the sun on March 17, 2019.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The second event, on March 26, was more dramatic, a proper eclipse of Mars’ larger moon, Phobos. Phobos is about 7 miles (11.5 kilometers) wide, compared to Deimos at just 1.5 miles (2.3 km) across, and Phobos is also closer to Mars than Deimos. The combination of those two factors makes its eclipse much more dramatic than Deimos’ transit.
Both sequences were captured by Curiosity’s Mast Camera, which is armed with a solar filter that lets it stare directly at the sun. Curiosity and its predecessors, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, have observed a total of 40 eclipses by Phobos and eight transits by Deimos.
NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars spotted the moon Phobos passing in front of the sun on March 26, 2019.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Each set of observations helps scientists further refine each moon’s orbit of Mars — when the rovers first started watching for eclipses, scientists’ estimates for where Deimos should be were about 25 miles (40 kilometers) off.
“More observations over time help pin down the details of each orbit,” Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University in College Station, said in a statement. “Those orbits change all the time in response to the gravitational pull of Mars, Jupiter or even each Martian moon pulling on the other.”
NASA’s Curiosity rover captured the sudden darkening caused by Phobos passing in front of the sun on March 26, 2019.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)
At the same time Mastcam was capturing its images of Phobos eclipsing the sun, another Curiosity instrument, its navigation cameras, watched the scene unfold on the Martian surface.
The eclipse came during twilight at the rover’s perch near Mount Sharp, so the sun was below the horizon. Curiosity’s cameras spotted the moon’s shadow cast against the light streaming up.
While this sequence isn’t as helpful as the solar disk sequences, it has a different type of appeal, Lemmon said. “Eclipses, sunrises and sunsets and weather phenomena all make Mars real to people, as a world both like and unlike what they see outside, not just a subject in a book.”
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Have a news tip, correction or comment? Let us know at community@space.com.
via Space.com https://ift.tt/2CqOJ61
April 4, 2019 at 05:15PM
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/04/amazon-alexa-earbuds-to-rival-apple-airpods/
Apple’s new AirPods give you hands-free access to Siri, and it sounds like Amazon is working on something similar for Alexa. Bloomberg reports the online retail giant is working on its own true wireless earbuds that will also be its first Alexa wearable. Details are scarce for now, but Bloomberg’s sources say although the Amazon version will be similar to AirPods in terms of both general design and features, the company is aiming to offer better audio quality than Apple. Sound quality has been a key criticism of both models of AirPods.
In addition to saying "Alexa" to activate the virtual assistant, the earbuds will reportedly offer gesture controls for things like taking calls and skipping tracks while listening to music. The Alexa earbuds are said to follow much of the true wireless competition with an included charging case. Bloomberg reports Amazon’s hardware division, Lab126, is working on the project. Lab126 popped up in reports last spring about an Alexa-enabled home robot — a device code-named Vesta.
Amazon has faced a number of delays in development of the earbuds, but the company has been looking for parts suppliers and manufacturing partners over the last few months, according to Bloomberg.
True wireless earbuds have been around for a while now, but they’re becoming increasingly more popular. And with reports indicating AirPods are the most popular option, it’s easy to see why Amazon would want to introduce something similar for it’s own virtual assistant. Amazon typically hosts a big hardware showcase in September, so it makes sense that the Alexa-powered earbuds would debut around then.
We’ve reached out to Amazon for a comment on the matter, and we’ll update this post if we hear back.
Source: Bloomberg
via Engadget http://www.engadget.com
April 4, 2019 at 04:18PM
https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/04/upgrade-any-car-to-level-2-autonomy-with-lanecruise/
Upgrade any car to level 2 autonomy. This system turns your current vehicle into a
. LaneCruise from X-Matik is a 5-piece system that attaches to your car. Making it easy to install and uninstall. It’s designed to convert old vehicles into level 2 autonomous rides. The system includes wheel controller, brainbox, cameras and GUI, brake pedals, and gas pedals. The
add-on can control steering, speed and detects vehicles in front of you. LaneCruise stops working once you take control of the pedals or steering wheel. The system starts at $2,200.
via Autoblog https://ift.tt/1afPJWx
April 4, 2019 at 05:40PM
https://www.popsci.com/mit-flying-morphing-flexible-wing?dom=rss-default&src=syn
The wing is strong but light.
via Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now https://ift.tt/2k2uJQn
April 3, 2019 at 01:06PM
https://geekologie.com/2019/04/visual-effects-artist-creates-video-comp.php
This is a video from the Corridor Crew comparing some of the various ships in the Star Wars universe to cities and countries here on earth. The video has a lot more exposition than I would have liked (less talking, more sick graphics — that’s my motto), but it was cool seeing those ships. Of course, you have to remember all these things are fake anyways. "Star Wars ships?" No, the cities and countries — we all live in a highly detailed holographic virtual reality program built by aliens, after all. "Um, what?" Even my penis — it’s all just 1’s and 0’s. "Your penis is definitely a zero." Feeding you to sharks will still delete you from the player database, you know.
Keep going for the video.
Thanks to Damn The Dan, who agrees Death Stars are actually disappointingly small compared to earth. Come on, we’re supposed to believe you can blow up an entire plane with that? It looks like a period at the end of a sentence.
via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome https://geekologie.com/
April 4, 2019 at 10:36AM
