Tomorrow's Corporate Jets Will Be Flying Johnny Cabs

Being a commercial airline pilot isn't as glamorous as Leonardo di Caprio would have you believe; in practice, it's more akin to long haul trucking than aerial acrobatics. So rather than force a human pilot to endure the monotony of maintaining course, a European research consortium wants to replace them entirely?with software.

The idea of an autonomous airliner isn't that much of a stretch, really. The US military already employs autonomous UAVs that can fly themselves (and now takeoff and land as well), the technology simply needs to be adapted to existing civilian air traffic control schemes. To that end, ASTREA, a ?62 million public-private research consortium between the UK and seven major contractors?AOS, BAE Systems, Cassidian, Cobham, Qinetiq, Rolls-Royce and Thales UK?launched a remotely-operated Jetliner from Warton, Lancashire last month and flew it to Inverness, Scotland.

Well, technically, an onboard human handled the takeoff and landing bits (and acted as a backup should the system fail) but the flight computer was at the helm for a vast majority of the 500 mile trip. A second pilot monitored the plane's performance from the ground and remotely issued commands to the flight computer, though the autonomous systems did most of the work.

While this is a major milestone for civilian UAS technology, it's still just a glorified auto-pilot. Numerous systems require further development, such as the obstacle avoidance routine. Autonomous aircraft need to be able to differentiate between, say, thunderheads and 747s, at least as well as their meat-sack counterparts.

"Because we were in shared airspace, all the sense-and-avoid maneuvers we tested used synthetic targets [fake obstacles injected into the flight control system]. Any changes to the flight route were communicated to the ground-based pilot by air traffic control, with the pilot then instructing the aircraft to amend its course accordingly," Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal at BAE Systems, ASTRAEA's program director, said in a press release.

The test concluded successfully?in that the flaming wreckage of a private jet didn't fall from the sky after mistaking a hot air balloon for a cirrus cloud?and paved the way for further development and testing. ASTREA has already announced a second round of flights beginning in June, grading an IR obstacle avoidance system that activates during emergency landings as well as a air traffic control communications module and the next iteration of the sense-and-avoid system.

[PopSci - New Scientist - The Engineer - BBC - Image:: ASTREA]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/tomorrows-corporate-jets-will-be-flying-johnny-cabs-507627730

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Foc.us headset claims to shock the brain for better gaming, we go forehead-on

We've seen a number of headsets tap into the mind, to geotag your mood, grant you remote control over gadgets or simply let you wiggle a pair of cat ears. None of those are quite like the foc.us, however, which serves up transcranial direct-current simulation (tDCS) -- a controversial form of neurosimulation that transmits current to a particular area of the brain. Originally used to help patients with brain injuries, tDCS has supposedly been found to increase cognitive performance in healthy adults. These claims haven't been proven yet though, and shocking your own cranium isn't exactly FDA approved.

Still, the foc.us is one of a few tDCS headsets designed for the consumer market and can, the inventor Michael Oxley claims, improve your working or short-term memory when the electrodes are placed on your prefrontal cortex. A low-intensity current is passed through the different nodes, exciting that part of the brain. Interestingly, Oxley is positioning it as a way to boost your video gaming prowess for the "ultimate gaming experience," a concept we found a little odd. That said, you don't actually have to wear the headset while shooting up bad guys or other brain-draining tasks. The idea behind the foc.us headset is to put it on your noggin, fire it up, and wait for around five to ten minutes, then take it off and go about your day. We did just that and all the gory details are after the break.

Gallery: foc.us

Filed under: Science

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Source: foc.us

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/17/focus-headset-tdcs/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Oil falls below $94 a barrel amid high supplies

The price of oil slipped below $94 a barrel Thursday as traders digested discouraging economic data from the United States and Europe and U.S. oil supplies remained high.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for June delivery was down 37 cents to $93.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 9 cents on Wednesday.

Applications for U.S. unemployment aid rose last week by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 360,000, the highest in 6 weeks, the Labor Department said.

On Wednesday, new figures showed that the 17-country eurozone's economy contracted for a sixth consecutive quarter in January-March as Germany, the bloc's biggest market, grew by a mere 0.1 percent and France fell into recession.

"With recovery optimists so dependent on the occasional glimpse of sunlight from Germany, their miss was particularly disappointing," said Toby Morris, senior sales trader at CMC Markets, in an email commentary.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve said factory output dropped 0.4 percent in April, the third decline in four months.

Ample U.S. supplies of crude and gasoline also weighed on prices.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said U.S. stockpiles of crude oil remained near all-time highs last week despite dipping by 624,000 barrels to 395.9 million barrels. Gasoline stocks, which had been expected to fall, rose by 2.58 million barrels.

Brent crude, a benchmark for many international oil varieties, was up 39 cents to $103.89 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline fell 0.6 cent to $2.854 a gallon.

? Heating oil added 1.54 cents to $2.8955 a gallon.

? Natural gas lost 0.4 cent to $4.066 per 1,000 cubic feet.

___

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-falls-below-94-barrel-amid-high-supplies-124941598.html

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Kanye West Rants Against Paparazzi, Sings "Awesome" Ode to Kim Kardashian

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/kanye-west-rants-against-paparazzi-sings-awesome-ode-to-kim-kard/

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Obama taps his point man on sequester to head IRS

May 15 (Reuters) - Post positions for the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, to be run at Pimlico on Saturday (Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Odds) 1. Orb, Joel Rosario, Shug McGaughey, even 2. Goldencents, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill, 8-1 3. Titletown Five, Julien Leparoux, D. Wayne Lukas, 30-1 4. Departing, Brian Hernandez, Al Stall, 6-1 5. Mylute, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss, 5-1 6. Oxbow, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas, 15-1 7. Will Take Charge, Mike Smith, D. Wayne Lukas, 12-1 8. Govenor Charlie, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 12-1 9. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-choose-omb-official-danny-werfel-head-irs-191121420.html

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'Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System' | PopMatters

Postwar

Masaki Kobayashi rose to prominence directing films that exposed and criticized the failings of Japan and its power structures during and immediately following World War II. His great three-part war epic The Human Condition (1961) details the moral trials and gradual dissolution of a soldier and administrator in Manchuria. Criterion is following up their superb box set of this film with a collection of Kobayashi?s work from the same period, via their Eclipse line, called Masaki Kobayashi Against the System. The four movies included chart Kobayashi?s growth as a filmmaker while revealing some of the faults of the cynical yet earnest approach of his early efforts.

Kobayashi worked for Shochiku studios, known for producing modest and understated family melodramas and comedies. Though he fought with the studio by breaking out of their mold and creating the types of movies he and not they wanted to make, he always maintained a commitment to realism that was important to the studio.

But this was a hardened ?50s noir realism, of a type that was being adopted by filmmakers around the world to depict postwar life. One can see it in Elia Kazan, The Third Man, the Italian Neorealists, British kitchen sink dramas, and cynical comedy-dramas like The Sweet Smell of Success. These movies use real locations and can be grimy and fragile with a modesty (often due to meager postwar financing) that seems to sneer at the epic excesses of the war they left behind. Oftentimes there is a creative tension between wanting to capture a documentary sense of reality and the expressionist visuals used to capture the characters? psychological reality.

The Thick-Walled Room (1956)

Kobayashi?s movies share with the above films a strong sense of a person and a society trying to work through some heavy trauma. His first breakthrough film, The Thick-Walled Room (completed in 1953, but it?s release was delayed until 1956) is remarkable as a rebellious outcry against Japan?s war leaders. The script is ?based on the writings of B- and C- class war criminals? and focuses on a group of cellmates in a prison overseen by American occupation forces.

As revealed through a series of at times abstract flashbacks, the soldiers were imprisoned for crimes that they were forced to commit by their superiors, who have gone unpunished. These flashbacks pull the narrative outside the prison into the wider world, using the prisoners? stories to show the wartime experiences of confused, desperate peoples across a wide swathe of Eastern Asia. These portrayals of the complicated national and ethnic power dynamics of war make it a clear progenitor to Kobayashi?s ambitions with The Human Condition.?

Though a bit uneven in its pacing and with some technical imperfections, The Thick-Walled Room has a tremendous power that increases as the film progresses; there is a pervasive sense of terror and vulnerability, which climaxes when Yamashita (Torahiko Hamada), released for one day to attend his mother?s funeral, threatens to murder his old commanding officer. Japan appears to be almost totally destitute and beat up, the prisoners can be seen as stand-ins for Japanese society at large, paying for the sins of their leaders, at the whim of the American victors. A village girl turned Tokyo prostitute succinctly says, ?The war drove everyone insane. We?re still insane, you know??

It would be several years before Kobayashi was allowed to direct another personal picture. I Will Buy You (1956), as the grip-you-by-the-throat title implies, attacks the emergence of cutthroat capitalism in postwar life, specifically within professional baseball. The anti-hero is the slick, young, ambitious talent scout Daisuke Kishimoto (Keiji Sada). We first see him chasing down an ace pitcher. But when he finds out he has lost a finger in a mining accident, we never hear about the pitcher again. Daisuke turns his attention to Goro Kurita (Minoru Ooki), a seemingly innocent college player who reveals a sharp streak once a bidding war breaks out between the major pro teams.

Kobayashi depicts a world where everyone ? coaches, wives, blood relatives, country farmers ? are out to use each other for the most gain. It opens and closes with chirpy depictions of a wholesome baseball game then fills out the middle with gambling, horse racing, sumo wrestling, and dogfights. There is perpetual talk of money and a constant threat of violence, Kobayashi films cars passing by like they?re about to mow down pedestrians. When someone criticizes Daisuke he exclaims, ?But it?s my profession. I can?t stop.?

This movie is overtly cynical, but there is a thing as too much cynicism and too often the temptation when taking this kind of approach is to offer redemption through an equally exaggerated wide-eyed moral purity. Daisuke undergoes a moral awakening prompted by Kurita?s heart-of-gold sweetheart. But it is not very convincing and frankly not as fun as the maneuverings of the agents.

Black River (1956) is undoubtedly the standout of this set and what I would consider Kobayashi?s first great film. It appropriates noir stylizations, and has a fierce tightness in its pacing, framings, and script that are lacking in the other films. Set in a sleazy bars and brothel community on the outskirts of a U.S. military base, it captures a unique milieu and moment in history as it was unfolding.

As in The Thick-Walled Room, the Americans are an anonymous, bullying presence on the periphery of the characters? lives. The Japan portrayed here has been brought to a low point of postwar poverty, self-destructive with a petty criminal-minded approach to survival. But Kobayashi gives all of the characters a degree of humanity that exceeds their cynicism. The two leads (Ineko Arima and Fumio Watanabe) are innocent lovers (at times too pure) resisting the criminal rackets of their squalid home. But the standout characters are the two villains, a small-time pimp named ?Killer Joe? (Tatsuya Nakadai in his breakout role) and shantytown landlady (Isuzu Yamada) who conspire together. Though evil in their actions, the actors have a wonderful ability to capture the desperate amateurs trembling underneath their characters? showy facades.

The Inheritance (1962), the final movie in this set, was released after the Human Condition. It?s notable as a placeholder before Kobayashi directed a series of samurai and historical dramas in the ?60s (Harakiri, Kwaidan, Samurai Rebellion) for which he is perhaps best known.

The Inheritance takes place in a world of rapidly accumulating wealth, opening with the main character Yasuko Miyagawa (Keiko Kishi) window shopping for jewelry. The movie is told through a long flashback. At a fashionable restaurant Yasuko tells a lawyer of how she, as secretary, managed to inherit the riches of her wealthy boss over the machinations of his wife, business associates, and illegitimately conceived children.

The story of how she does it sounds more interesting than its portrayal, which is a bit lead-footed despite some jazzy stylizations and the wicked cattiness of the main characters. Here Kobayashi allows his air of cynicism to acquire an element of (seemingly intentional) camp. But humor was never his strong suit, and he?s not able to bring off the brisk verve required to make the wicked satire snap. The film is most interesting in how Kobayashi portrays this world of riches, which seems to have been created by the main characters embracing shallow materialism as a way to escape the poverty and psychological stress of the ?50s portrayed in his earlier films.

In Black River and The Thick-Walled Room, Kobayashi offers a more nuanced and hopeful promise for Japanese society. In the final shot of Room the prisoners are shown walking down the hallway of their prison together; in Black River the tenants of the landlady?s building fight back against its destruction. Neither movie offers anything like a confident vote for humanity, but in showing how a group of people can band together to try and form a just and compassionate community, there lies a sense of hope stronger than any surface cynicism.

Source: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/171341-eclipse-series-38-masaki-kobayashi-against-the-system/

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Extreme weather compels emergency relief from ... - Minivan News

Maldivian government authorities are providing emergency services and relief funds to island communities battered by three weeks of ?extreme weather?.

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) issued a statement today (May 15) urging island and atoll councils to report any damage caused by the ?harsh weather? as soon as possible.

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik met with officials from the Maldives Police Service, the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), the NDMC, and other high-ranking government officials yesterday (May 14) to discuss damages sustained and relief?counter measures being taken nationwide.

Waheed provided assurances that government authorities will collaborate with island communities to provide ?all the assistance and support needed?. Thus, it was decided state funds will be provided to assist ?those islands with maximum damage? through the Ministry of Finance and Treasury?s contingency budget.

State funds will not be released directly to NDMC, instead the Finance Ministry will maintain control of money allocated for relief efforts and ?coordinate bills? with the centre, NDMC Project Director Hisan Hassan told Minivan News today.

The exact amount of emergency relief funds will be determined today, Hassan added.

Meanwhile, the MNDF and police have issued precautionary warnings to the public due to the severe weather conditions.

The Coast Guard issued a request yesterday that ?all travelers to take necessary precautionary measures before setting on their journeys due to the severe weather with heavy rain and thunderstorms? particularly in the northern and southern regions of the Maldives.?

They recommended travelers test communications sets and obtain updated weather forecasts before embarking on any journeys.

The Coast Guard further stated that average wind speeds of 15-25 miles per hour (mph) in the southern atolls and 7-17 mph are expected in the northern atolls, while wind gusts during thunderstorms will reach 40-50 mph.

Additionally, the police issued an SMS bulletin today also warning the public to ?take precautionary measures due to the bad weather?.

A ?white bulletin? was also issued by the Maldives Meteorological Service (MET) today, warning that the central atolls can expect average winds speeds of 23-30 mph.

Food shortages and flooding

Thus far damage assessment reports have been submitted by 12 islands from seven atolls ? Shaviyani, Meemu, Dhaalu, Thaa, Laamu, Fuvahmulah, and Addu City ? representing regions from the far north to the far south of the Maldives, the NDMC told Minivan News today.

Hassan explained that other islands have reported storm-related damage directly to the media or have spoken with the NDMC, but have yet to official report these issues to the centre.

Flooding due to three weeks of severe weather and heavy rain has damaged households, sewerage systems, as well as caused extensive agricultural destruction, according to Hassan.

Food shortages on some islands have resulted from agricultural damage and the disruption of transportation and supply networks due to bad weather.

?All islands import food from Male?, however the seas have been so rough [supply] boats are still in Male? and unable to reach the islands,? Hassan explained. ?Yesterday the State Trading Organisation (STO) announced the they will try to send [food supplies] somehow.?

STO is not providing free food-stuffs to islands, rather they are seeking ways to reach the islands so community shops can restock. Normally, supply boats travel between the atolls at least twice a week, according to Hassan.

?Some small islands? [residents] are a little afraid to travel to a nearby island [to resupply] because travel is difficult,? he said.

Hassan emphasised that food shortages have not reached ?emergency situation? levels.

?For the time being there is no emergency. If an island completely runs out of food, the MNDF is always on board [collaborating] with STO and NDMC, and will send vessels,? said Hassan.

The MNDF and police will deploy and provide first response emergency services, if necessary, he added.

?The MNDF is also assisting with flood relief. They take fire fighting equipment to islands and help pump water,? said Hassan.

?Houses are flooding because they are not built on high platforms, so with one or one and a half feet of flooding, water will rush into homes,? he added.

Hassan emphasised the need for people to ?take responsibility? and precautionary measures to ensure their safety in the bad weather conditions.

?They should not wait until flood waters reach knee-high levels and require the MNDF to provide assistance,? Hassan said.

?People should move [their] belongings to higher ground, get rid of old trees and branches, clean their roofs, and collect rainwater in tanks. Also, sandbags should be used to minimise further flooding,? he added.

Ensuring roofs and houses are secure is also essential given the strong winds that have accompanied the recent severe storms.

The NDMC is coordinating with the relevant ministry?s to ensure damages are evaluated and addressed promptly.

Source: http://minivannews.com/society/extreme-weather-compels-emergency-relief-from-maldives-government-57951

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