Translate

Pages

Pages

Pages

Intro Video

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Egypt police killed in Sinai checkpoint attack

At least eight officers died when militants struck a checkpoint in the peninsula's restive north.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2Z97EeA
via

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Autonomous boats can target and latch onto each other

The city of Amsterdam envisions a future where fleets of autonomous boats cruise its many canals to transport goods and people, collect trash, or self-assemble into floating stages and bridges. To further that vision, MIT researchers have given new capabilities to their fleet of robotic boats — which are being developed as part of an ongoing project — that lets them target and clasp onto each other, and keep trying if they fail.

About a quarter of Amsterdam’s surface area is water, with 165 canals winding alongside busy city streets. Several years ago, MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) teamed up on the “Roboat” project. The idea is to build a fleet of autonomous robotic boats — rectangular hulls equipped with sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware — that provides intelligent mobility on water to relieve congestion in the city’s busy streets.

One of project’s objectives is to create roboat units that provide on-demand transporation on waterways. Another objective is using the roboat units to automatically form “pop-up” structures, such as foot bridges, performance stages, or even food markets. The structures could then automatically disassemble at set times and reform into target structures for different activities. Additionally, the roboat units could be used as agile sensors to gather data on the city’s infrastructure, and air and water quality, among other things.

In 2016, MIT researchers tested a roboat prototype that cruised around Amsterdam’s canals, moving forward, backward, and laterally along a preprogrammed path. Last year, researchers designed low-cost, 3-D-printed, one-quarter scale versions of the boats, which were more efficient and agile, and came equipped with advanced trajectory-tracking algorithms. 

In a paper presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, the researchers describe roboat units that can now identify and connect to docking stations. Control algorithms guide the roboats to the target, where they automatically connect to a customized latching mechanism with millimeter precision. Moreover, the roboat notices if it has missed the connection, backs up, and tries again.

The researchers tested the latching technique in a swimming pool at MIT and in the Charles River, where waters are rougher. In both instances, the roboat units were usually able to successfully connect in about 10 seconds, starting from around 1 meter away, or they succeeded after a few failed attempts. In Amsterdam, the system could be especially useful for overnight garbage collection. Roboat units could sail around a canal, locate and latch onto platforms holding trash containers, and haul them back to collection facilities.

“In Amsterdam, canals were once used for transportation and other things the roads are now used for. Roads near canals are now very congested — and have noise and pollution — so the city wants to add more functionality back to the canals,” says first author Luis Mateos, a graduate student in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and a researcher in the MIT Senseable City Lab. “Self-driving technologies can save time, costs and energy, and improve the city moving forward.”

“The aim is to use roboat units to bring new capabilities to life on the water,” adds co-author Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The new latching mechanism is very important for creating pop-up structures. Roboat does not need latching for autonomous transporation on water, but you need the latching to create any structure, whether it’s mobile or fixed.”

Joining Mateos on the paper are: Wei Wang, a joint postdoc in CSAIL and the Senseable City Lab; Banti Gheneti, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Fabio Duarte, a DUSP and Senseable City Lab research scientist; and Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab and a principal investigator and professor of the practice in DUSP.

Making the connection

Each roboat is equipped with latching mechanisms, including ball and socket components, on its front, back, and sides. The ball component resembles a badminton shuttlecock — a cone-shaped, rubber body with a metal ball at the end. The socket component is a wide funnel that guides the ball component into a receptor. Inside the funnel, a laser beam acts like a security system that detects when the ball crosses into the receptor. That activates a mechanism with three arms that closes around and captures the ball, while also sending a feedback signal to both roboats that the connection is complete.

On the software side, the roboats run on custom computer vision and control techniques. Each roboat has a LIDAR system and camera, so they can autonomously move from point to point around the canals. Each docking station — typically an unmoving roboat — has a sheet of paper imprinted with an augmented reality tag, called an AprilTag, which resembles a simplified QR code. Commonly used for robotic applications, AprilTags enable robots to detect and compute their precise 3-D position and orientation relative to the tag.

Both the AprilTags and cameras are located in the same locations in center of the roboats. When a traveling roboat is roughly one or two meters away from the stationary AprilTag, the roboat calculates its position and orientation to the tag. Typically, this would generate a 3-D map for boat motion, including roll, pitch, and yaw (left and right). But an algorithm strips away everything except yaw. This produces an easy-to-compute 2-D plane that measures the roboat camera’s distance away and distance left and right of the tag. Using that information, the roboat steers itself toward the tag. By keeping the camera and tag perfectly aligned, the roboat is able to precisely connect.

The funnel compensates for any misalignment in the roboat’s pitch (rocking up and down) and heave (vertical up and down), as canal waves are relatively small. If, however, the roboat goes beyond its calculated distance, and doesn’t receive a feedback signal from the laser beam, it knows it has missed. “In challenging waters, sometimes roboat units at the current one-quarter scale, are not strong enough to overcome wind gusts or heavy water currents,” Mateos says. “A logic component on the roboat says, ‘You missed, so back up, recalculate your position, and try again.’”

Future iterations

The researchers are now designing roboat units roughly four times the size of the current iterations, so they’ll be more stable on water. Mateos is also working on an update to the funnel that includes tentacle-like rubber grippers that tighten around the pin — like a squid grasping its prey. That could help give the roboat units more control when, say, they’re towing platforms or other roboats through narrow canals.

In the works is also a system that displays the AprilTags on an LCD monitor that changes codes to signal multiple roboat units to assemble in a given order. At first, all roboat units will be given a code to stay exactly a meter apart. Then, the code changes to direct the first roboat to latch. After, the screen switches codes to order the next roboat to latch, and so on. “It’s like the telephone game. The changing code passes a message to one roboat at a time, and that message tells them what to do,” Mateos says.

Darwin Caldwell, the research director of Advanced Robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology, envisions even more possible applications for the autonomous latching capability. “I can certainly see this type of autonomous docking being of use in many areas of robotic ‘refuelling’ and docking … beyond aquatic/naval systems,” he says, “including inflight refuelling, space docking, cargo container handling, [and] robot in-house recharging.”

The research was funded by the AMS Institute and the City of Amsterdam.



from MIT News http://bit.ly/2QL6DGB
via

Companies Expect Climate Change to Cost Them $1 Trillion in 5 Years

Many corporations see climate change posing a significant threat to their business within the decade, according to a new report.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2KsoAZp
via

DR Congo Ebola outbreak: More than 2,000 cases reported

Hostility to medical staff is hindering efforts to tackle the deadly disease.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2wAvXpd
via

Why Toronto Raptors star Kawhi Leonard is suing Nike

Toronto Raptors star Kawhi Leonard has more on his mind these days than just defeating the Golden State Warriors for a championship title.

The NBA star alleges that Nike stole his logo and infringed on his design when they filed for a copyright.

Lala Anthony joins ‘90210’ revival: ‘I’m Glad They Are Bringing Some Color’

On Monday, Leonard reportedly filed a federal lawsuit in Southern California to stop the brand and fight for his ‘Klaw’ logo. The athlete alleges that Nike filed the copyright without his authorization and under “false representation” that “Nike authored the logo.”

“Leonard traced his notably large hand, and, inside the hand, drew stylized versions of his initials “KL” and the number that he had worn for much of his career, ‘2,'” the suit reads, according to The Portland Business Journal.

“Unbeknownst to Leonard and without his consent, Nike filed an application for copyright registration of his logo and falsely represented in the application that Nike had authored the logo.”

Nike reportedly was granted the copyright called the ‘Kawhi Leonard logo’ (the ‘Klaw’ logo) on May 11, 2017. Leonard wants control and says Nike has no rights and that he designed the elements of the logo when he was in college.

Marlon Wayans wishes daughter ‘Happy Pride’ and claps back at trolls for hateful comments

The issue likely stemmed from Leonard’s previous endorsement deal with the company’s Jordan Brand when he gave them approval to use the logo but with restrictions. That deal dissolved September 30, 2018 when he copped a multi-million dollar New Balance deal in November.

Leonard has helped the Raptors secure a Game one win against the Golden State Warriors and now the series is tied 1-1.

The post Why Toronto Raptors star Kawhi Leonard is suing Nike appeared first on theGrio.



from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2WdWt22
via

Why I May Never See ‘When They See Us’

I may never see When They See Us, Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking, disturbing and necessary documentary for Netflix about the Central Park Five saga, one of the worst chapters in New York City’s long tradition of racially biased law enforcement and mass media.

If I were still raising minor children, I’d be watching When They See Us with them, just as my mother required us to watch the groundbreaking Roots miniseries in 1977 (Her oldest child, I was 17 then).

However, I lived through the whole Central Park Five (Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise) media massacre—and the false narrative of young black and brown males “wilding” through the city that it justified—both personally, as a resident of Brooklyn, and professionally as a New York journalist. I’ve reached a stage of my life where I do my best to avoid unnecessarily re-traumatizing experiences.

I’m not saying I’ll never watch the documentary, but… let’s just say that I’m going to protect my mental health and spiritual peace, PERIOD.

The people who most need to watch When They See Us (in addition to young people) are those who are in deepest denial of the racial injustice that contaminates both law enforcement and mass media—which puts the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of black people, and young black males in particular, at ever present risk.

What made Roots matter was not that it was a revelation for black people (other than us kids at the time), but for white people (including many of my high school classmates) who were ignorant or in denial of the reality of slavery. The same must happen for content like When They See Us if we hope for comparable impact. (By the way, the media currently showering this doc with accolades—and likely to add more than a few well-deserved awards in the future—is the same media that vilified the Central Park Five, and continues to vilify victims of police brutality today.)

As for me, I’ve seen this “movie” too many times. The Scottsboro Boys. Jena Six. And countless others too numerous to name. I’ll pass on When They See Us, at least for now.


The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author’s and not necessarily the opinion of Black Enterprise.

 



from Black Enterprise http://bit.ly/2QJ5C1t
via

The Physics of the Millennium Falcon's Jump to Hyperspace

The faster-than-light travel in *Star Wars* involves some otherworldly acceleration. Here's how to calculate the g-forces of a hyperspace jump.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2JWhjBG
via

Tanzania's President Magufuli shops with basket after plastic bag ban

John Magufuli's defiance of Tanzanian convention is likely to help stamp out the use of plastic bags.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2WappZ2
via

We Are #BlackLove | Meet Keondra and Alicia

Ciara opens up about how she healed relationship scars with Future on ‘Red Table Talk’

Ciara sat down at the Red Table and picked open an old wound when she discussed the fractured relationship she had with rapper Future that left her emotionally scarred.

Marlon Wayans wishes daughter ‘Happy Pride’ and claps back at trolls for hateful comments

The Level Up singer appeared on an episode of Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett-Smith, Willow and Adrienne Banfield-Norris and got real about how she healed her relationship scars and turned them into beauty marks.

Ciara said the pain she endured while engaged to Future (the two split just three months after she gave birth to their son, Future Jr) served as the catalyst that helped her eventually develop a wonderful marriage to NFL star, Russell Wilson.

Ciara explains that although looking ahead she realized the road ahead would be rough in the role as a single mother, but she said she doesn’t regret the course of action she took and knows it was the best decision to split, PEOPLE reports.

“I grew up with my mom and dad being together. The idea of it being mommy and daddy that made baby,” she said Monday.

She continued, “The one thing I fear in life is really wasting my life. I really fear that ‘cause you realize that time does not stop and it will be the worst scenario to stay in a situation that it’s just not healthy, it’s not going to get any better. I realized that I have to start making different decisions.”

She said the decision to end the relationship didn’t come easy.

“When I was thinking about my son, I know what I want to feel. I know the kind of love that I want for us,” she said. “What I did was – [son] Future was like my teddy bear. So I was like, we gon’ go. We ‘bout to do this thing together.”

Lala Anthony joins ‘90210’ revival: ‘I’m Glad They Are Bringing Some Color’

When it came to Wilson, Ciara, who released her seventh album Beauty Marks in May, said it was a different kind of love that lured her in.

“It was different,” she said. “I never had that feeling in my life. It was just like, it was calm … It’s a different level of love.”

The two married in July 2016 and share a daughter Sienna Princess, born in April 2017.

The post Ciara opens up about how she healed relationship scars with Future on ‘Red Table Talk’ appeared first on theGrio.



from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2HUxnl0
via

How Early-Stage VCs Decide Where to Invest

You don't have a lot of financial metrics to go on, but yes, the team is very very important. Also, look for good ideas that look like bad ideas.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2HSEJFD
via

You Could Live Forever With This Sci-Fi Time Hack

In science fiction, time passes in funny ways—vastly slowed down, insanely sped up. Maybe this trope is the secret to eternal life in the real world.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2IgRdWM
via

A women-only trekking adventure in the Atlas Mountains

The Travel Show's Cat Moh meets Berber women who share their life experiences with her.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2XkPqpP
via

Marlon Wayans wishes daughter ‘Happy Pride’ and claps back at trolls for hateful comments

How Mattel Shrinks Cars Into Hot Wheels (Crash Test Included)

Before a Hot Wheels car hits a store shelf, it must pass the "launcher on speed 2" test, and the "side slam launcher" test, among others.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2QIs6jr
via

The Beauty and Madness of Sending a Man to the Moon

From the delicate engineering of the landing module, to the self-contained globe of the spacesuit, the astronauts took the world with them—and brought another one home.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2WDEGpu
via

New York's Privacy Bill Is Even Bolder Than California's

New York is poised to become the next battleground in the fight for consumers' rights over their personal data.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2WEgqnd
via

Neal Stephenson's Latest Book Dodges Its Scariest Premise

In Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel, the sci-fi author tracks our inevitable descent into AR-enabled filter bubbles—only to leave it all behind.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2WMGbl6
via

Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins to direct film about choreographer Alvin Ailey

Barry Jenkins will direct a film based on the life of choreographer Alvin Ailey.

A spokesperson for Fox Searchlight on Monday confirmed that the studio is developing the project, with the “Moonlight” filmmaker directing. Jenkins last helmed the Oscar-nominated James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

Raised in segregated rural Texas, Ailey became a pioneering choreographer, dancer and director who helped popularize modern dance. He died in 1989 at the age of 58 from AIDS-related complications. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The film will be partly based on Jennifer Dunning’s biography “Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance.” Searchlight last year began developing the film after securing the rights to Ailey’s choreography from the Ailey Organization.

The post Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins to direct film about choreographer Alvin Ailey appeared first on theGrio.



from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2Xqn4dE
via

Monday, June 3, 2019

June Ambrose SLAMMED for Kate Spade flub at CFDA Awards

June Ambrose is usually at the top go her game when it comes to the fashion world but the costume designer made a major flub while hosting the CFDA Awards red carpet at the Brooklyn Museum on Monday night.

While chatting up entrepreneur Hannah Bronfman, she asked if deceased designer, Kate Spade would be attending the event before wondering aloud if she skipped her spot not he red carpet.

Obviously, Ambrose didn’t recall that Kate Spade committed suicide last year, although she referred to her as one of her favorite American designers.

“Are you here with Kate? Is she here?,” Ambrose asked.

“I’m here with the Kate Spade New York team,” Bronfman replied after June Ambrose repeated the puzzling quandary.

Of course, viewers went wild on social media and accused Ambrose of being insensitive.

“Why did the host at @cfda just ask someone if Kate Spade was there?!!!? Insensitive af. Wow,” one user tweeted.

“This girl is hosting the CFDA live stream needs to be fired. How do you not know kate spade passed away like whattttt and she knows nothing about these people,” said another.

Celebrity stylist June Ambrose debuts shoe line for Home Shopping Network

June Ambrose has yet to formally address the mistake, but briefly alluded to it before she signed off.

“It has been my honor and pleasure to host, screw up and cause chaos tonight on this carpet for you,” she said at the end of her hosting stint. “I hope you enjoyed and learned as much as I did.”

 

 

The post June Ambrose SLAMMED for Kate Spade flub at CFDA Awards appeared first on theGrio.



from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2XwoyU5
via