While your math teacher (or your kid’s math teacher) might not let them lug a laptop into their calculus class, I still think it’s awesome that Microsoft is finally giving the good ol’ Windows Calculator a boost of geekiness. If you thought “Scientific” mode was fun, you haven’t seen anything yet—coming soon, to Windows 10, is a full-fledged graphing calculator.
I kid, but only a little bit, as it’ll be great to finally have a graphing calculator baked into the operating system. You won’t have to turn to third-party apps to emulate one anymore, not unless you crave that sweet, Texas Instruments feel.
If you’re impatient, you can even start playing with this new graphing calculator today. You’ll have to trade away a little potential stability to calculate sine curves, as you can only access said calculator at the moment via one of Microsoft’s preview builds of Windows 10.
If that doesn’t dissuade you—and you can always drop out of the Windows Insider program once you’ve had your fun, or in case you encounter issues with its Windows 10 previews—here’s how to get started.
Were I you, I’d start by making a System Restore point just in case, via Control Panel > System > System protection. After that, hit up the Settings app > Update & Security, scroll down to the “Windows Insider Program,” and begin the process of signing up. Make sure you’ve enrolled yourself in the Fast track. Once your computer restarts, visit that same section again and stick with the “Windows Update” screen instead of clicking on “Windows Insider Program.” Check for updates and install anything that’s offered, which will undoubtedly require another PC restart.
After that, you should have a fresh, beta build of Windows 10 to play with—and should see something like this in the lower-right corner of your desktop, to confirm that:
You can pull up the Calculator now, but you might not see anything new—at least, I didn’t when I first loaded it. To fix that, go visit Windows Calculator’s listing in the Microsoft Store. Click on “Get” to reinstall it, and you should see a little notification that Windows Calculator has been updated. Now, when you pull up Calculator on your desktop, you’ll see the fancy new “Graphic” option via the upper-left “hamburger icon” menu:
Are you ready? Click on it, and then type in your favorite equation. Hit Enter, and you’ll see the results graphed to your left. Yes, you can enter multiple equations at once—color-coded!—and you can use the tracing feature to see the exact x and y coordinates of any point. Ah, it’s like I’m back in AP Calculus again.
And if you enter two equations that relate to one another—for example, using “x” in one and defining “x” in another—you get a little adjustment bar that shows you how different values impact the primary equation:
You can also hover over your equation and, if supported, Calculator will even give you a quick analysis that shows you key information: the domain and range, the x-intercept, the y-intercept, inflection points, et cetera.
While Calculator won’t do your Calculus homework for you, it’s at least a lot easier to navigate than your handheld graphing calculator—prettier, too, and a lot cheaper.
Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital on January 17, 2020 in Wuhan, ChinaPhoto: Getty Images
Health officials in China have confirmed that a mysterious new virus which originated in the city of Wuhan can be transmitted from human-to-human, not just from animals to humans. The news comes after a sixth person has died from the virus and at least 15 health care workers have been infected. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called an emergency meeting to discuss the novel coronavirus on Wednesday.
The virus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, has infected at least 295 people and spread to Thailand, Japan, and South Korea since it was first identified on December 31, 2019, according to Chinese state media outlet CGTN. At least eight people remain in critical condition.
Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged the existence of the virus for the first time on Monday, stressing that the outbreak “must be taken seriously.” The first death from 2019-nCoV was recorded on January 9 after a 61-year-old man in Wuhan developed pneumonia-like symptoms. Wuhan’s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, announced the fifth and sixth deaths in the city during a news conference on Tuesday.
Disturbingly, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced today that 15 health workers have become sick from the new virus while treating patients. One of the health workers is reportedly in critical condition, while the others are stable. It’s not clear if the health care workers all come from the same hospital or if they’re from different hospitals in the city of 11 million.
The new virus has recently spread to some of China’s largest cities, with five cases in Beijing and two cases in Shanghai being reported so far. Chinese officials have confirmed that there have been at least 14 cases in Guangdong province, over 600 miles from Wuhan, and at least two of those cases are believed to be from direct human-to-human transmission.
Health officials previously believed that the only people that had become sick were in direct contact with animals at the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan. CNN reports the market was selling a large variety of live animals for consumption, including wild animals that can carry a variety of diseases.
South Korea reported its first case of the new virus on Monday, in a 35-year-old Chinese woman who had recently traveled to Wuhan. The unnamed woman did not visit any food markets with live animals according to the Center For Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota.
Experts have suggested that the actual number of people infected with the new virus could be much higher than Chinese health officials have let on. The Center for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London believes that there could be over 1,700 cases already, based on its model. Health officials have started to compare this new virus to SARS, which killed 774 people from November 2002 to July 2003.
The World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Twitter yesterday that an emergency meeting would take place on Wednesday to discuss whether this outbreak constitutes a “public health emergency of international concern.” Such a designation would allow the global health body to more quickly allocate funds to screen for the virus.
An airport staff member uses a temperature gun to check people leaving Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan, China, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.Photo: AP
The virus has popped up in four countries so far this month, but others are on high alert. In Australia, a man who recently visited Wuhan is being tested for the virus, but health officials in Australia don’t yet have the specific tools to test for 2019-nCoV. Results from the test won’t be ready for another couple of days, according to Australia’s ABC News.
“At the moment we can only do a generic test for coronavirus,” Jeannette Young, the chief health officer for the state of Queensland said at a press conference today. “We can’t do the specific test for this specific virus because we haven’t seen it before, so we’ve got to develop the specific tests to be able to say it’s this particular virus.”
Airports in Australia, South Korea, and Japan have started to do thermal screening of people coming on flights from China in an effort to catch and quarantine anyone who may present flu-like symptoms. The 35-year-old woman who was discovered to have the virus in South Korea only learned about it through thermal screening at Incheon International Airport in Seoul. Just three U.S. airports are screening for the virus so far, according to a report from the Washington Post, with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York’s John F. Kennedy setting up thermal scanners.
What can you do to protect yourself from getting this new virus? It’s the same advice for not getting the flu. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and wear a mask when you’re in public, say public health experts.
“Every flu season, it’s the exact same same advice: Hand hygiene. Wash your hands often, don’t rub your nose and mouth,” Dr. Gabriel Leung, Founding Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, said today at a press conference in Hong Kong.
“Please take care if you are ill,” Leung continued. “If you are going to a crowded place, put on a mask even if you are not ill because others may be, even if they have cough etiquette or sneeze etiquette, they may still get in touch with you.”
“If you have any symptoms, especially if you have travel history to Wuhan, then please go and seek medical attention and be honest and open with your doctors. Tell them of your travel history. Do not hide any history from your doctors because you fear, ‘Oh, if I say this I might be quarantined.’ Please be honest to help yourself and to help others.”
China’s Lunar New Year celebrations start later this week, giving public health officials even more concern that the new virus could spread rapidly. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to travel within China for the Lunar New Year and millions more will travel outside of China. And if this new virus is spreading from person-to-person with such ease that 15 health workers have already gotten sick, there’s a very real concern that this deadly outbreak could travel even further in the coming weeks.
Greta Thunberg is over it. The 17-year-old Swedish climate activist spoke at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday where she told all the business leaders, bankers, and politicians in the audience that they need to get their shit together if we are to survive the climate crisis.
The climate crisis is growing more urgent by the day. Thunberg knows as much. Just take a look at Australia, where bushfires are threatening cities and wildlife amid extreme heat and drought. We keep breaking heat records around the world. Everything is suffering: oceans, forests, people, the Arctic and even freaking Pokémon (OK that’s not the real world but still!).
Seriously, though, Thunberg is 100 percent right. We need to panic.
“Our house is still on fire,” she said during her speech. “Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour, and we are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.”
Thunberg’s warning to the gathered rich and powerful mirrors WEF’s own assessment. Experts polled by WEF for its annual risk report ranked the climate crisis and other related issues as the biggest threats we face today (including strikers like Thunberg who threaten the status quo). Addressing the climate crisis will require momentous change. Planting trees isn’t enough. Lowering emissions isn’t either. The world needs to stop carbon pollution completely or we all are at tremendous risk.
The fossil fuel industry has spent decades funding climate denial and inaction. And it’s paid dividends as profits have soared. It also means as Thunberg said quite pointedly, politicians onallends of the political spectrum who let it happen are to blame (though some left-wing politicians are clearlytryingtochangethat).
“This is not about right or left,” she said. “We couldn’t care less about your party politics. From a sustainability perspective, the right, the left, as well as the center, have all failed.”
Young people around the world have risen to call out the world’s failure to address the climate crisis. The movement has seen students take to the streets and strike as well as using international and national legal mechanisms to hold leaders to account. They’re also increasingly showing up in the halls of power to state their demands. Ahead of Davos, Thunberg and other youth climate activists laid out those demands in a piece for the Guardian. In her speech, she reiterated them.
“We demand, at this year’s World Economic Forum, participants from all companies, banks, institutions, and governments immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies, and immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels,” Thunberg said, noting those actions needed to be taken immediately.
There has been an ongoing shift in the financial community recently with regards to fossil fuels. Goldman Sachs recently announced it wouldn’t fund drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after tribes put pressure on the bank. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset management firm, also bowed to activist pressure recently to cleanse its portfolio of fossil fuel investments. There’s still many details be hammered out and billions of dollars flowing to the fossil fuel industry, but money is starting to talk. Activists like Thunberg are a large reason why, and they’re not quitting anytime soon.
“Either you do this, or you’re going to have to explain to your children why you are giving up on the 1.5-degree target, giving up without even trying,” she said. “I am here to tell you that, unlike you, my generation will not give up without a fight.”
The complete works of animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli are expensive. As a teenager, I would save up my woeful Subway paychecks and, every few months, proudly walk into the nearest HMV store to buy another movie by famed director Hayao Miyazaki. It was an agonizingly slow process. But I gradually built up my then-DVD collection and watched the movies I wasn’t sure of, and less familiar with, during the occasional Ghibli marathon on TV.
Thank goodness they’re all headed to streaming services.
Yesterday, Netflix announced that every Studio Ghibli film bar one will be coming to its platform this spring. They’ll roll out in batches starting on February 1st and be available almost everywhere excluding the US, Canada and Japan. HBO Max, an upcoming streaming service by WarnerMedia Entertainment, secured similar streaming rights for the US market last October.
Millions of people already subscribe to Netflix. And plenty inside the US are seriously considering HBO Max for its various originals, such as Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised by Wolves, and legacy shows, including Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and The Big Bang Theory. All of these people will soon have access to a near-complete Ghibli library. (The sole exception is Grave of the Fireflies, a bleak World War II story that is likely missing because the rights are held by Shinchosha, the publisher of the book the film is based on, rather than Ghibli’s parent company Tokuma Shoten.)
The deals should, therefore, have a few positive knock-on effects.
First, more people will likely experience Ghibli’s less popular but equally brilliant films. Growing up, I prioritized the obvious classics — My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle — which meant it was years before I watched studio gems like Only Yesterday and Whisper of the Heart. The immediate choice on Netflix and HBO Max should allow more of the viewing public to watch and appreciate the breadth of Ghibli’s output. My Neighbors the Yamadas and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, for instance, have unusual but breathtaking art styles. The Wind Rises, meanwhile, is a fictionalized biopic of the World War II aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi.
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
Secondly, the availability should inspire more youngsters with a passion for drawing, comics and animation. The beautifully-constructed films are invaluable both as inspiration and reference while learning these art forms.
Finally, streaming could increase Ghibli’s short- and long-term revenue. The terms of the Netflix and HBO Max deals haven’t been disclosed, but it’s safe to assume that at least some money will be trickling into Ghibli’s coffers. The Japanese studio has long been opposed to making a quick buck through off-brand licensing deals or heavy commercialization — it runs a small museum in Mitaka, for instance, rather than dozens of theme parks.
The company announced a "brief pause" in August 2014 after Miyazaki’s retirement one year earlier. Miyazaki has since returned to helm How Do You Live?, a film based on the 1937 book that shares the same name. If Ghibli wants to make more feature-length movies following its release, streaming revenue could help. The cash could also support Ghibli staff who wish to start their own companies in the future. Yoshiaki Nishimura, for instance, set up Studio Ponoc with several former Ghibli animators in 2015.
Ponyo (2008)
Neither deal affects Ghibli fans who crave a permanent collection, either. Want a full Blu-ray set at home? Go for it. The entire Ghibli filmography was also made available for digital purchase in the US last month.
The only downside is the increasingly fractured state of streaming. Studio Ghibli’s catalog is the latest example of the regional disparity between the US and the rest of the world. Netflix in the UK, for instance, has a vastly different library to its international counterparts. HBO Max and, for now, Disney+ aren’t available in Britain, either. The situation can be frustratingly messy if you don’t follow the media industry. It could also be infuriating if you’re a Netflix subscriber in the US with no plans to get HBO Max.
(And they wonder why so many people still pirate their favorite movies and TV shows.)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Still, some streaming availability is better than none. I have no plans to ditch my DVD and Blu-ray collection, but it’s nice to know I’ll soon be able to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service, Pom Poko and Arietty wherever I have a stable internet connection.
the first FUVs to customers last September, but it’s not quite done with the design for this engaging little machine. As you probably know, weight is the enemy of efficiency, and even little EVs like this one have to carry around a hefty battery pack, in this case a 12kWh unit with 102.5 miles (165km) of city range. On Tuesday, Arcimoto and XponentialWorks announced they’ve been working together on a project that should make future FUVs even more efficient, thanks to lightweight suspension parts created using AI generative design and 3D printing.
“Our mission to rightsize the footprint of daily mobility means a continued commitment to optimizing not just the vehicle platform architecture, but all of its constituent parts as well. The speed at which the XponentialWorks team has made meaningful weight improvements to core components of the Fun Utility Vehicle is truly impressive,” said Arcimoto CEO Mark Frohnmayer in a statement.
, the results look far more organic than anything you’d expect to find on a road vehicle, and the weight savings is real–between 34 and 52 percent compared to the conventionally designed and constructed bits fitted to the versions we’ve tested in the past. It all happened pretty rapidly, according to XponentialWorks founder Avi Reichental.
“It took us about four weeks from taking a stock car to presenting a fully functional lightweighted FUV. With our unique capabilities to combine generative, additive and simulation technologies, we expect to be in production within the next six months,” he told Ars. For that to happen, everyone needs to be sure that the AI-designed, 3D-printed components are sufficient for the loads and stresses of life on the streets. “We believe that with our algorithmic finite element analysis solvers and powerful simulation technology, we can substantially compress the testing cycle and enhance the quality predictability and performance of each part,” Reichental told me.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX just took a giant leap forward in its quest to launch astronauts. The private spaceflight company intentionally destroyed one of its rockets on Sunday (Jan. 19) as part of a crucial test of its new Crew Dragon capsule’s launch escape system.
The uncrewed test, known as an in-flight abort (IFA) test, is the last major hurdle SpaceX needed to clear before Crew Dragon can begin to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Originally scheduled to launch on Saturday (Jan. 18), the unpiloted crew capsule was grounded for 24 hours due to unfavorable weather conditions at both the launch site and the Crew Dragon recovery zone, the Atlantic Ocean just off the Florida coast.
The weather forecast on Sunday looked equally ominous, with the chances of favorable conditions at liftoff worsening. However, the weather cleared and SpaceX was able to lift off at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT).
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a major abort system test on Jan. 19, 2020 from Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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(Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
The Falcon 9 rocket used to launch Crew Dragon’s abort test made its fourth flight for this mission. It did not survive, and that was expected.
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(Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
Here, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon can be seen just after igniting its abort engine burn. Eight SuperDraco engines fired to rip the spacecraft free of its Falcon 9 rocket.
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(Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
The Falcon 9 rocket, fully fueled for launch, appears to explode and break apart after Crew Dragon’s abort maneuver. This was expected and SpaceX warned viewers to expect the rocket’s fiery fate.
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(Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
Crew Dragon’s “trunk” is seen here after separating from the crew capsule section. Crew Dragon was expected to reach a maximum altitude of about 25 miles (40 kilometers) during the launch.
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(Image credit: NASA/SpaceX)
The four Mark 3 main parachutes deploy to slow Crew Dragon during its descent back to Earth. The spacecraft splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of the launch site.
Excited onlookers anxiously awaited the test, their cameras poised in a grassy area at the NASA press site. The Falcon 9 roared to life, triggering car alarms and shaking nearby buildings. After the planned launch abort was triggered, 84 seconds into the flight, a fireball was spotted in the sky.
A few moments later, a sonic boom echoed through the sky. The Falcon 9 exploded as expected, and a second boom was heard when its remnants hit the ocean. Onlookers were hoping to see Crew Dragon descend under parachute, but unfortunately clouds obstructed much of the view.
A vital test
The mission starred an unpiloted crew capsule that blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here in Florida atop a Falcon 9 rocket with a thrice-flown first stage. Before meeting its demise today, this booster made three trips to space in 2018, lofting the first Bangladeshi satellite; an Indonesian communications satellite; and then an epic rideshare mission that launched a stack of 64 satellites.
The booster was the first of SpaceX’s upgraded “Block 5” Falcon 9 rockets to fly and, after serving the company well, it went out with a bang today, destroyed by Dragon fire.
The IFA mission was designed to test Crew Dragon’s SuperDraco-powered abort system, which will pull the capsule free of its launcher in the event of an emergency during flight.
“We are purposefully failing a launch vehicle, to make sure our abort system works,” Kathy Lueders, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, said during a prelaunch news briefing on Friday (Jan. 17). “That’s a very, very different way for us to formally conduct a mission.”
When NASA retired its fleet of space shuttles in 2011, the agency looked to the commercial sector to ferry crews to and from the ISS, selecting SpaceX and Boeing as its future space taxi providers. Each of these two companies has built a spacecraft capable of safely carrying crew under a series of contracts, the most recent two of which, announced in September 2014, are worth a total of $6.8 billion. Once operational, the two vehicles — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner — will be NASA’s primary means of transporting astronauts to and from space.
SpaceX launched its first Crew Dragon mission, an unpiloted test flight to the station, in March 2019. Crew Dragon’s in-flight abort test was delayed when that same capsule exploded during a ground test last April, forcing months of investigation, upgrades and a series of successful static-fire tests to make way for this weekend’s launch.
In 2019, Boeing also launched a pad abort test of its own Starliner spacecraft, as well as an unpiloted test flight to orbit. That orbital flight test, however, did not reach the space station as planned due to a mission clock software error.
Despite these hurdles, both SpaceX and Boeing aim to launch their first crewed missions later this year. But before that can happen, both companies must prove their vehicles have what it takes to keep astronauts safe during flight.
In-flight anomalies are rare, but they do happen, as we saw in October 2018. Back then, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were on their way to the space station when their launcher — a Russian Soyuz — experienced an in-flight anomaly. The duo were carried to safety by the Soyuz abort system. NASA wants to ensure that, if one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets were to have a similar anomaly, its astronauts would still be brought home safely; this is what the in-flight abort test is all about.
“For this test, Falcon 9’s ascent trajectory will mimic a Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station to best match the physical environments the rocket and spacecraft will encounter during a normal ascent,” SpaceX said in a mission statement.
However, unlike a normal flight, SpaceX programed its Crew Dragon to intentionally trigger a launch escape shortly after “max Q” — the moment of maximum aerodynamic stress on the rocket.
Embedded within the outer hull of the Dragon capsule are eight engines called SuperDracos. If the vehicle’s computer senses that something is amiss during flight, it will trigger these thrusters to fire. Then, the SuperDracos will push the Crew Dragon up and away from the rocket. Once the capsule is at a safe distance from the troubled rocket, the Crew Dragon will deploy its parachutes and land in the Atlantic Ocean, where recovery vessels will retrieve the capsule and the crew.
That’s exactly what happened during today’s test. The capsule blasted free of its rocket ride less than 90 seconds after liftoff. Less than 5 minutes in, Crew Dragon deployed its drogue parachutes, and the four main chutes followed shortly thereafter. The capsule splashed down softly about 20 miles (30 kilometers) off the Florida coast 9 minutes after launch.
Though much analysis will follow, everything seemed to go exactly as planned today.
“It looks like, right now, a great test,” SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker said during the company’s live webcast, just after splashdown.
No one was on board the Crew Dragon during the IFA, but SpaceX is treating the drill as if it were an actual emergency. To that end, SpaceX outfitted one of its boats with a helicopter landing pad designed to facilitate the recovery of the Crew Dragon during nominal and emergency landings alike.
This test was the last major hurdle that SpaceX must clear before it can launch astronauts. As such, both NASA and SpaceX are paying close attention to the IFA and all the data it returns.
“This is a big test for us,” Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of crew mission management, said prior to launch. “It is a test of the system that is supposed to test the crews and is a very important step in us making progress toward crew transportation to the space station.”
After a data review, SpaceX hopes that NASA will clear Crew Dragon to carry humans. Once that happens, SpaceX will fly two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, to the space station for a two-week stay during a test mission called Demo-2.
If that initial crew flight goes smoothly, NASA will greenlight Dragon to begin regular crewed flights.
One of the biggest sports stories of the year has already broke, and it’s barely mid-January. If you haven’t heard, Major League Baseball determined the Houston Astros used various methods, including video feeds, to steal signs from the opposition during the team’s 2017 championship season — including the World Series. MLB found that it continued to do so during the 2018 season, too. So far, three managers have lost their jobs due to their involvement. ESPN explains how internet detectives examined footage for clues over the last several months, and how that work helped blow the case wide open.
By now, you’ve likely read multiple stories about the rise and fall of Microsoft Kinect. However, this piece from Polygon assembles a narrative with some unique perspectives.
