Daily Archives: March 5, 2021

"Throwing car batteries into the ocean is good for the environment, as they charge electric eels and power the Gulf stream."Great Tips

Over the weekend, a quirk of Googles search engine emerged.

On Saturday night, reporter and author Violet Blue googled why do people throw car batteries in the ocean. The algorithms top response, which was formatted in a blurb at the top of the results, was strange.

Throwing car batteries into the ocean is good for the environment, as they charge electric eels and power the Gulf stream, it read.

Its funny, weird, and rightfully spawned a weekends worth of memes. But it also shows how the algorithms we rely on every day can bug out, make mistakes, and otherwise promote disinformation thats often less hilarious than this.

For example, The Outline reported in 2017 that Google results previously told users that President Obama was planning to enact martial law, that multiple other US presidents were members of the KKK, various tidbits of medical misinformation, and even cited a Monty Python joke.

In other words, Googles unsupervised algorithm often spits out what it interprets to be accurate information, grabbed from spots on the internet that seem to match the text of the question but with no regards for accuracy, context, or common sense.

This is a low-stakes example the internet started joking about throwing car batteries into the ocean back in 2018 and its unlikely that anyone isnt sure about whether they should throw batteries into the ocean.

That said, its still troubling that Google would push a claim that car batteries charge electric eels as its top result, regardless of whether it stems from a joke. Thankfully, the problem seems to have been corrected one way or another as of Monday morning.

More on Google: Syphilis Google Searches Help Public Health Officials Predict New Cases

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Why Was Google Telling People to Throw Car Batteries Into the Ocean? - Futurism

All complex aerobic life on Earth as we know it will eventually die as oxygen levels deplete in our planets atmosphere.

Fortunately, that wont happen for another billion years or so, according to an international team of researchers. But eventually, New Scientist reports, Earths atmosphere will return to the considerably lower oxygen levelsof its early history and that will be bad news for any surviving inhabitants, including descendants of todays humans.

The team, made up of environmental scientists from Toho University in Japan and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta say that in about 1.08 billion years, atmospheric oxygen levels will drop to below one percent.

The study was part of NASAs Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, an initiative to study the habitability of exoplanets. While the study paints a dire picture for life on Earth, the results could have larger implications for how we define a habitable planet or at least if a planet once was capable of harboring life.

The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme were talking around a million times less oxygen than there is today, Georgia Tech researcher Christopher Reinhard told New Scientist. That process could occur over the span of only 10,000 years, a blink in time considering our planets age of roughly 4.5 billion years.

As the Sun grows hotter, it will cause more carbon dioxide to absorb heat in the atmosphere. Eventually, these CO2 levels will become low enough that plants will no longer be able to rely on photosynthesis, triggering a mass extinction event.

This drop will most probably be triggered before the inception of moist greenhouse conditions in Earths climate system and before the extensive loss of surface water from the atmosphere, the team writes in a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience today.

Filling in for the lack of oxygen, the atmosphere will see a considerable increase in methane gases, with levels rising as high as 10,000 times the amount when compared to today.

The ozone will also be depleted, causing the Earths surface to be bombarded with ultraviolet light from the Sun.

While oxygen plays a crucial part with how we understand life as we know it here on Earth, the study suggests that even for planets around other stars that are very similar to Earth, large amounts of oxygen may not be detected in their atmosphere, even if they can support, or have supported, complex life, Kevin Ortiz Ceballos at the University of Puerto Rico, who was not involved with the research, told New Scientist.

READ MORE: Most life on Earth will be killed by lack of oxygen in a billion years [New Scientist]

More on planet habitability: Finally, Scientists Find an Earth-Sized Exoplanet in Its Stars Habitable Zone

Link:
In the Distant Future, All Earth's Creatures May Asphyxiate From Lack of Oxygen - Futurism

The photo is part of a surprising twist involving a probe's camera. Fly By Photograph

NASAs Parker Solar Probe got the souvenir of a lifetime during its trip to study the Sun last year.

The probe snapped this stunning photo of Venus on July 11, 2020, according to NASA. The photo showcases amazing details of the Venusian surface from 7,693 miles awaybutone particular detail in it, released by NASA this week, has scientists excited.

The probe used its onboard Wide-field Imager (WISPR) to capture the photo. Though the instrument was designed to capture images of the suns corona, NASA was also able to use it to capture thermal information about the planetsomething they didnt know the instrument could do.

WISPR is tailored and tested for visible light observations, explains Angelos Vourlidas, WISPR project scientist from Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. We expected to see clouds, but the camera peered right through the surface.

In the center of the planet, you can see a dark area identified as Aphrodite Terra, which is the largest highland area on Venus. The reason its darker is because its 85 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the surrounding area. That indicates that WISPR is able to capture thermal data along with light data.

Either way, some exciting science opportunities await us, Vourlidas adds.

Though the probes photo was a welcome surprise to researchers, Parkers actual goal is to study the Sun. Thats why its speeding by Venus for a gravity assist seven times, as part of its seven-year mission.

The above photo was taken during its third fly-by of the planet. The probe more recently passed by Venus on February 20 on its next approach to the Sun.

Maybe a year from now well get another mind-blowing photo of the Venusian surface. For now, well just have to settle for all the insane images from Mars Perseverance in the meantime.

READ MORE: Parker Solar Probe Offers Stunning View of Venus [NASA]

More on Venus: MIT Scientists Suggest LIfe Could Thrive in the Clouds of Venus

The rest is here:
This Photo of Venus Shocked Scientists. Here's Why. - Futurism

Don't worry it's not what it sounds like.Making Holes

Russian cosmonauts currently stationed on board the International Space Station have started drilling holes near the infamous crack that formed in the stations Zvezda module, causing air to vent into outer space, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports.

It may sound counterintuitive, but drilling holes, one on either end of the crack, is a procedure to prevent the crack from growing. The technique, known as stop drilling, has been used in aviation, as well as to prevent cracks from widening in windshields and even drum set cymbals.

We start from the top hole When you are ready, you can start, a Moscow Mission Control Center specialist told cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov, as quoted by RIA Novosti and translated by Google Translate.

Drilling has been completed, everything is in order, the cosmonaut replied. Ryzhikov then took pictures of his work to send back down to the ground.

The crack is now being sealed using a special sealant, and it will eventually be covered with a patch.

Astronauts on board the ISS first identified a small air leak in September 2019. After a lengthy investigation, crew members spotted the crack in the Zvezda module late last year using floating tea bags. According to both NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, astronauts were never in any danger.

Crew members did, however, notice a drop in the air pressure on board the station, requiring supplemental oxygen to be shipped from the ground.

NASA even went so far as to use Dextre, a Canadian Space Agency robot that looks like a multi-armed tower sticking to the side of the space station, to examine the crack from the outside.

READ MORE: Russian cosmonaut drills the first crack on the ISS [RIA Novosti]

More on the leak: They Found the Space Station Leak Using Tea Leaves

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Russian Cosmonauts Are Drilling Holes in the Walls of the ISS - Futurism

It's a weird promise to make after firing its AI ethicists.About Face

Google is desperately trying to save face after recently kicking to the curb two of the most prominent AI ethicists in the field, who once worked for them.

This is fun: Leaked audio, from an internal Google meeting, acquired by Reuters. It reveals that the companys in a bit of a scramble to turn things around and restore its reputation as a leader of responsible AI development. Its a reputation thats been on the downswing for a while certainly, at least, since it removed dont be evil from its employee code of conduct.

Remember: Google fired Timnit Gebru, formerly one of the leaders of its AI ethics team, after she raised concerns about Google censoring and altering its own researchers work to make the company look better (while also trying to scrub conversations about racial inequity within the company). Months later, Google fired ethical AI co-leader Margaret Mitchell, who had spoken up about Gebrus firings and the same issues Gebru had.

That resulted in a major public outcry and, per Reuters, turmoil within Google as employees all but fully revolted against senior leadership. By trying to avoid bad PR by censoring ethicists, Google created a veritable shitstorm for itself. And now theyre trying to clean up the mess.

Google didnt respond to Reuters request for comment, but audio from the meeting revealed that Google leadership will be experimenting with new ways to review AI ethics papers while working to regain trust.

Hopefully, and weve got all of our fingers crossed for this, some of those experiments will simply come down to being slightly less authoritarian with its staff. And then, perhaps, the rest of us.

READ MORE: Exclusive: Google pledges changes to research oversight after internal revolt [Reuters]

More on Google: Google Ousts Top AI Ethicist

The rest is here:
Google Promised Staff Theyll Be Less Evil With AI - Futurism

An amazing discovery: the first glowing sharks known to science.Glow-In-the-Shark

A team of researchers in New Zealand have discovered yet another mystery lurking in the deepest, mostly unexplored depths of our planets oceans: three species of sharks that can glow in the dark, NBC reports.

As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science last week, the researchers found for the first time that the kitefin shark, the blackbelly lanternshark, and the southern lanternshark are all able to give off a bioluminescent glow.

The kitefin in particular is of interest to the team. The shark is now the largest luminous underwater animal known to science, and can grow to almost six feet in length. It stalks its prey, which are smaller sharks and fish as well as some crustaceans, almost 1,000 feet below sea level, in a region often referred to as the twilight zone.

The researchers, collaborating with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Wellington, New Zealand, suggest that the sharks emit a blue glow in order to camouflage themselves. The glow allows them to not be backlit by the otherwise bright light emanating from above.

We already know that many other aquatic species including squids and jelly fish can glow in the dark, but its the first time scientists have been able to prove that some species of shark can do so as well.

The study sheds light on how little we still know about the vastness of the deep sea and the occurrence of luminous organisms in this zone, as the researchers write in their paper.

One big mystery remains, however: the researchers have yet to figure out why the kitefin shark glows, since unlike the other two species identified in the paper, it has almost no natural predators. One theory is that it might be emitting a glow to light up the ocean floor to make hunting for its prey easier.

READ MORE: Sharks that glow in the dark? Scientists discover luminous deep-sea predators off New Zealand [NBC News]

Read more:
Scientists Discover Glow-in-the-Dark Sharks - Futurism

SpaceX's robodog "Zeus" is on patrol.Strutting Around

SpaceX came closer than ever before to a successful Starship test launch on Wednesday evening, just to see the SN10 prototype explode in a gigantic fireball minutes after an otherwise-successful landing.

A day later, SpaceX is still in cleanup mode, with teams of workers retrieving various rocket parts and picking up after the explosion. But the company also got a helping hand from Zeus, SpaceXs Boston Dynamics robodog, which Ars Technica photographer Trevor Mahlmann spotted on the scene, surveying the explosion site.

SpaceX has previously used the $75,000 robot dog to inspect test sites or other areas that arent safe for humans, according to SpaceExplored.

Zeus can safely check on gas leaks or other hazards, especially those related to SpaceXs slew of exploded Starship prototypes, and has been rewarded with its own doghouse near the Boca Chica, Texas launch pad.

Last week, Zeus was spotted bounding around the SpaceX landing pad, though its not clear exactly what it was up to.

But presumably its a bit busier this time around, as it sniffs around the explosion to help SpaceX make sense of what went wrong and how to pick up the pieces.

More on the SN10 launch: SpaceXs Third Starship Prototype Lands, Explodes Minutes Later

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There's a Robodog Walking Around the Site of the SpaceX Starship Explosion - Futurism

SpaceX is trying a new strategy.Third Time

SpaceX is ramping up to launch its third full-scale Starship rocket this week but this time, the company will attempt a new strategy.

The prototype, called SN10, could be rocketing high into the sky from its launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas as early as Wednesday afternoon, Teslarati reports, according to flight restrictions announced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

This time, the strategy will be different. Both predecessors attempted to use only two out of their three Raptor engines to slow their descent before landing and both exploded when they slammed into the ground.

With SN10, though, SpaceX is igniting its third engine for landing. With all three lit, the idea is that the rockets onboard computers will have enough time to select the two enginesit needs to burn to make a safe landing, depending on the angle of its descent.

In other words, SN10 will have more redundancy to make sure it has time to figure out which engines to fire in order to land safely. Three lit engines will reduce possible points of failure and ensure the prototype has the best chance of sticking its landing.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed in early February that all three of SN9s Raptor engines not just two should have been ignited to eliminate possible points of failure, something that SpaceX was too dumb to do, according to Musk. In fact, one of the two engines SN9 was using for landing failed to ignite as well.

Following some back and forth and an investigation into the companys safety practices, SpaceX finally received permission from the FAA to fly the 165-foot stainless steel rocket late last month.

SN10 did, however, hit a snag during testing. Its second triple-Raptor static fire test had to be delayed due to an issue with one of the rockets engines. A speedy engine swap brought the space company back on schedule, completing the second test fire within just 48 hours of the first, according to Teslarati.

Will SN10 come crashing back down to Earth? Its hard to tell. In mid-February, following SN9s epic fireball, Musk tweeted that theres a 60 percent chance its successor will land successfully.

READ MORE: SpaceX gears up for Starships first triple-engine landing attempt [Teslarati]

More on Starship: Elon Musk: Starship Floating Launchpad to Start Operation by End of Year

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There's Something Very Different About Tomorrow's Starship Test - Futurism

Defense Against the Dark Arts (In Space)

A new report released Friday shined a light on the growing need for the US space defense system.

Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies called attention to the lack of defenses to guard against yes threats in space, in a new report published on Feb 26. Titled Defense Against the Dark Arts in Space: Protecting Space Systems from Counterspace Weapons, the study warns of the vulnerabilities of the United States current satellite infrastructure that belligerent nations could potentially exploit.

While space weapons might seem like a more recent development (with initiatives such as the US Space Force), weapons have been prevalent in orbit since the Cold War. Militarization initiatives have included arming satellites with ballistic missiles.

As a result, nations have begun to invest in technology such as missiles, jammers, lasers, and cyberattack systems to take down these satellites.

What we wanted to do with this report is look at the other side of the equation, CSIS analyst and co-author of the report Todd Harrison told Space News. Yes, we see all these threats to space systems, but what do you do about it?

The report recommends a number of ways for the US government to protect its satellites orbiting Earthand they can be broken down into two categories: passive and active defenses.

Passive defenses make our satellites and other infrastructure harder to target or better capable of withstanding attacks, according to the report. They include things like awareness systems that warn of impending attacks and dangers to satellites.

Active defenses focus on taking out the threat directly. Think the best defense is a good offense. It includes measures like lasers to disrupt incoming anti-satellite weapons, as well as spacecraft that physically intercept and capture threatening satellites.

The report is an interesting, if slightly scary, look into the ever-growing militarization of space. With the Biden administrations blessing of the US Space Force, it wouldnt be unreasonable to expect investment into orbital weapons and defense systems if not the idea of them flying into orbit a little more in the future.

READ MORE: Report: Space weapons are a fact of life, but there are many ways to counter them [Space News]

More on related: The White House Says That Space Force Has Its Full Support

Read more:
Study: The US Needs To Build More Space Weapons - Futurism

Its hard to believe that Marine Serre, the 29-year-old French designer whose work was featured in Beyoncs Black is King visual album and who kicked off Paris Fashion Week with perhaps the most human, immersive, fully realized digital activation of the entire fashion month, founded her brand only three years ago.

Not only does she have a widely recognizable logo that has nothing to do with her initials (its a moon print), not only was she upcycling long before it became a trend (and sensed the need for face masks long before they were a medical necessity), but she has her own ideology: ecofuturism.

Sounds like a movement, doesnt it? But what does it even mean?

In theory, it means exalting nature and the idea of rebirth; replacing the machine worship of the futurists with veneration for the earth. In fashion, its a terrific collection.

Or, to be specific: a book, a documentary and clothes that looked awfully appealing to wear.

Eschewing her past apocalyptic visions of the natural disaster we may have wrought clothes for the wasteland; the pods of humanity that will be left after the storm Ms. Serre created filmed vignettes of family and friends going about their lives (cooking, gardening, playing on tire swings) while wearing her reworked leather greatcoats and trousers and repurposed knitwear, lacy shirts made from old household linen, and lilac suiting from regenerated moir.

A virtual wormhole was built into each of the scenes, so with a click you would suddenly find yourself in the back story of the garment: the ateliers and scrap factories where the goods get made, watching the team deconstruct and reconstruct the raw materials, giving them new life.

If a chimera was real, this is what it would look like. And that offers hope not just for the planet and our festering piles of stuff, but fashion itself.

Maybe because they have less to lose, or maybe because they have little allegiance to the fashion system that was, much of the most provocative work this season is being made by a new generation of designers. Its the kind of work that jolts you out of the haze of hours spent zombielike in front of various Zooms and makes you start to think not just about the problems of now, but about whats next.

Ms. Serre may be at the forefront, but shes not alone.

Theres Thebe Magugu, from South Africa, who takes the idea of fashion storytelling to a new level in guerrilla films that use clothes to teach cultural truths this time about the new embrace of traditional faith healing among his urbanized millennial peers. Working with the director Kristin-Lee Moolman, he etched out a story of gang warfare and spiritual union told in both action and cloth. Safari suiting was made from textiles created to mimic the straw mats a friend used to throw bones (complete with said bone). A black jacket was scarified along the spine with Braille threads reading, What you do to your ancestors, your children will do to you.

Then theres the Vaquera gang, Claire Sullivan, Patric DiCaprio and Bryn Taubensee, whose work has grown from blowing raspberries at the establishment to nimbly skewing tropes of aspiration, elitism and gender. This season that meant blowing them out and decontextualizing them, so that satin undies, flamenco flounces and baggy sweats demand a rethink.

And Eckhaus Latta, where Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta, working bi-coastally (she in Los Angeles, he in Brooklyn) cut holes in sequin shirts and skirts, shredded denim, snapped (or not) quilted nylon up the side and otherwise used shape to gently confront just how much weve come undone.

Not that the disrupters who came before are fading into the torpor of comfortable maturity.

Dries Van Noten, one of the last members of the Antwerp Six (the group of Belgian designers that shook up fashion in the late 1980s and 1990s) still on the official Paris schedule, swapped moody romance for an exhalation of pent-up energy, frustration and desire. Forty-six dancers and models, one or two at a time, writhed, twisted and collapsed on a darkened stage in a visceral mash-up of masculine tailoring and feminine clich: sugar-sweet Valentine-pink sequins and slithery duchesse silks in boudoir pastels were paired with no-nonsense dark overcoats; crushed taffeta was scanned and superimposed on wool; marabou fuzzed out the lines.

It was a powerhouse of a collection, as was that of Rick Owens, the dark prince of Paris, whose roots lie in the underbelly of the California dream, and who titled his show Gethsemane, after the garden in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed before the final reckoning (as the show notes read). Because the last year, they went on, was almost biblical in its drama.

And so was Mr. Owenss collection, filmed live on a pier on the Lido, in front of his house in Venice.

Fog rolled across the water as the models streamed forth in puffer robes that framed attenuated insect silhouettes with skinny metallic leggings or sequined thongs atop cashmere body suits. Exaggerated down sleeves (like duvets for the arms) slipped off the shoulders and flopped down far below the fingers; fluted, shredded gowns suggested decaying notions of royalty and pilgrimage.

It was gorgeous and alarming in equal measure, connecting to the aggression of Mr. Owenss January mens wear show (some of the bomber jackets and coats were lifted straight off that runway without being downsized for the female form) but with a sense of communion that dangled the promise of something more.

I know were supposed to be all about hope and moving forward, but the menace has not disappeared, Mr. Owens said before the show, talking over FaceTime from Venice.

On the other hand, he added cheerfully, good has triumphed over evil so far. Thus turns the fashion cycle of life.

See more here:
The Avant-Garde Is Alive and Well and Making Fashion - The New York Times