Day's Headlines: NK Missile Not Such a Flop; The Quartet; Roman Empire Expands; U.S. Treasury Contemplates Brexit; EU Banks Fear American Ones; 20 Satellites at Once; Rover Drone; Leo, the Bag Handler; Real Time Movements; Particle Zoo; Russian Teleporter; 66 M Dead Trees; Lightning 93; Measuring the Rise and Fall of CA; and Pittsburgh Transgender School Policy

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

NK Missile Not Such a Flop; The Quartet; Roman Empire Expands; U.S. Treasury Contemplates Brexit; EU Banks Fear American Ones; 20 Satellites at Once; Rover Drone; Leo, the Bag Handler; Real Time Movements; Particle Zoo; Russian Teleporter; 66 M Dead Trees; Lightning 93; Measuring the Rise and Fall of CA; and Pittsburgh Transgender School Policy

North Korea

North Korea’s Latest Missile Test Shows Signs of Progress, Analysts Say nytimes

Although the missile fell far short of its estimated full range of more than 2,000 miles — far enough to reach American military bases in the Pacific — the test is the first for the Musudan that was not immediately dismissed as a failure by the United States or South Korea.

See also North Korea missiles 'a serious threat' after new tests and North Korea leader says missile gives ability to attack U.S. in Pacific

Israel

Israel worried Quartet report could be basis of significant UN Security Council resolution jpost

In the last few years the Palestinians have pushed for the council to amend that 1967 resolution to more clearly reflect their stance on the contours of a two-state solution.

Archeaology

Boundaries of Roman Empire redrawn after Devon archaeological dig bbc

Amateur metal detectorists Jim Wills and Dennis Hewings first unearthed ... coins in Ipplepen, Devon, in 2009. Now archaeologists have uncovered a Romano-British settlement which had trade links to the rest of the Empire.

Banking

Top U.S. regulators discuss possibility of Britain leaving EU - U.S. Treasury uk.reuters

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, made up of the chiefs of all the financial regulators, is charged with assessing potential hazards to the country's financial system and heading off risks that could lead to another crisis on the magnitude of the 2007-09 meltdown.

European bankers to politicians: Save us from the Americans politico.eu

Banking executives and lobbyists say the argument to be made to finance ministers, premiers, and Commissioners will go something like this: Unless you change, amend, or delay the new regulatory framework, European banks will be annihilated by U.S. rivals — and the entire EU economy will suffer as a result.

Space

[Indian Space Research Organisation] launches 20 satellites at one go; most to serve U.S. customers in.reuters

It was the most satellites India has put in space at one go, though Russia set the record of 37 for a single launch in 2014.

Drones

NASA TESTS A HELICOPTER DRONE FOR MARS MISSION trendintech v

According to Extreme Tech, the heart of the robot is a cube weighing 2.2 pounds and has blades that are 3.6 feet from end to end. The robot can fly for two or three minutes at a time and cover about half a kilometer i.e. one-third of a mile. In addition to being solar powered, it is equipped with wide-angle cameras like a GoPro. Such features help NASA in finding the quintessential routes for the rover to take across the Martian landscape. With this, the rover can cover three times more territory each day.

Robotics

This robot takes the stress out of arriving at the airport businessinsider

Developed as a collaboration between Swiss robotics firm BlueBotics and SITA, a company which creates cutting-edge airport technology, Leo greets customers as they arrive for their flights. Passengers can use Leo's touch display to scan their boarding passes, print out their luggage tags and see appropriate information about their boarding gate, before the robot autonomously transports their bags (so long as they weigh less than 70lbs) to the correct baggage handling area

DUKE UNIVERSITY ENGINEERS JUST BUILT A ROBOT THAT’S 10,000X FASTER AT PLANNING MOTION digitaltrends v

“Motion planning seems easy for humans because we do it so fast,” George Konidaris, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, tells Digital Trends. “But that’s deceptive; like a lot of problems in AI and robotics, just because it’s easy for us doesn’t mean it’s easy for computers. Human brains have 'evolved' to be very good at some hard computational problems. Planning may seem like a simple 3D problem, but actually the robot must find a sequence of joint positions for every joint in its arm — so if it has an arm with 7 joints it is searching for a 7-dimensional path.”

Research

Particle zoo in a quantum computer eurekalert.org t

"However, scientists quickly reach a limit when processing numerical calculations on classical computers. For this reason, it has been proposed to simulate these processes by using a programmable quantum system." In recent years, many interesting concepts have been proposed, but until now it was impossible to realize them. "We have now developed a new concept that allows us to simulate the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs out of the vacuum by using a quantum computer," says Muschik.

Russia aims to develop 'teleportation' in 20 years telegraph.co.uk

"It sounds fantastical today, but there have been successful experiments at Stanford at the molecular level," Alexander Galitsky, a prominent investor in the country's technology sector, told Russia's Kommersant daily on Wednesday. "Much of the tech we have today was drawn from science fiction films 20 years ago."

Environment

Forest Service: 66 Million Dead Trees In Sierra Nevada capradio.org

The agency blames four consecutive years of severe drought, a "dramatic rise in bark beetle infestation and warmer temperatures for the historic levels of tree die-off." California is now in the fifth consecutive year of drought and the number of acreage burned by wildfires so far in 2016 is about twice the amount compared to this time in 2015, according to Cal Fire, the state's firefighting agency.

India lightning strikes leave 93 people dead bbc v

Most of the people who died were working on farms during torrential rains on Tuesday, reports said. Lightning strikes are common in India during heavy monsoon rains. Fifty-six people died in Bihar while 37 people were killed across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand and Madhya Pradesh.

Earthquake 'omen': Land around San Andreas Fault rising, sinking seattletimes

The San Andreas Fault is California’s longest earthquake fault, and one of the state’s most dangerous. Scientists have long expected that parts of California are rising — and other parts sinking — around the fault in a way that is ongoing, very subtle and extremely slow.

But actually observing how California’s landscape is rising and falling from seismic strain has been an elusive goal, until now.

See also The vertical fingerprint of earthquake cycle loading in southern California

Society

Pittsburgh Public Schools board votes in favor of new transgender policy wtae

This is breaking as this blog is being put together, and no specifics available. Here's a story from a couple hours ago talking about the vote to come (that has now passed): Pittsburgh Public Schools board members approve new transgender policy v And there's been a statement released:

“While students' protections under Title IX, local laws and other District policies protect gender identity and expression, the new policy is an additional effort to ensure that the District is clearly communicating the rights of students as they relate to gender. Beyond restroom usage, the policy addresses bullying and harassment, privacy and confidentiality, names and pronouns, medical treatment, dress code, transitions and more.”

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