NEW YORK A self-proclaimed white supremacist convicted on charges he planned to use a “death ray” to kill Muslims and President Barack Obama was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in prison, federal prosecutors in New York said. Glendon Scott Crawford, 52, a Navy veteran and a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was found guilty in August 2015 of conspiring with another man to build a […]
Researchers have discovered half-quantum vortices in superfluid helium. This vortex is a topological defect, exhibited in superfluids and superconductors, which carries a fixed amount of circulating current. These objects originally predicted to exist in superfluid helium in 1976. The discovery will provide access to the cores of half-quantum vortices, hosting isolated Majorana modes, exotic solitary particles. Understanding these modes is essential for the progress of quantum information […]
Almost 600 people died in police custody in India in the five years up to 2015, a new report from Human Rights Watch says. During that period, not a single police official was convicted of a custodial death, the report “Bound by Brotherhood,” from the New York-based organization said. Deaths in custody are attributed to suicide, illness or natural causes, the report said, however “in many such […]
About nine months before George W. Bush became president I, along with about 70 others, were asked to join an independent tech advisory board to help Bush, then governor of Texas, understand the role of tech in the new decade and help craft a tech policy should he become president. Our first meeting took place in Austin, and from that came various subcommittees to research […]
In democratic societies, it is considered an obligation of researchers and politicians to inform the public about modern technologies and their potential risks. Researchers recently found that information about technologies and their risks may have undesired side effects. It may also cause worries where they do not seem appropriate. (via WSJ)
By Letitia Stein | ATLANTA ATLANTA Inside a sunny classroom at a church decorated with rainbow flags, two transgender teenagers exploded into giggles during a dance break from math at Pride School Atlanta. They are among a handful of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) youth who have found a haven at the school, which opened this fall at a time when the number of discrimination complaints […]
If you are an emerging market investor, things at least look a little rosier than they did 12 months ago. Then sentiment was souring thanks to doubts about China’s economy, a slumping oil price and plenty of political upheaval. There is, of course, much to concern the EM universe going into 2017, notably a rising dollar, the prospect of higher interest rates in the US and president-elect […]
Researchers have used the ALMA telescopes to observe the early stages in the formation of a new solar system. For the first time they have seen how a powerful whirlwind shoot out from the rotating disc of gas and dust surrounding the young star. (via WSJ)
TOKYO Asian shares slipped to four-week lows on Monday as the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates and a strong dollar stemming from the incoming Trump Administration’s purported policies of cutting taxes and spending heavily threatened to suck capital out of emerging markets. European shares are seen having better luck, following recent gains in shares of banks, resource companies and some automakers. Spread-betters see a rise of […]
A team has found the mechanism behind the sudden onset of a ‘natural thermostat’ in Earth’s upper atmosphere that dramatically cools the air after it has been heated by violent solar activity. (via WSJ)
Soaring price growth in China’s top cities has slowed almost to a standstill, as government measures to cool the overheated property market take hold. Price growth of newly built homes in China’s “first tier” cities of Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou slowed to 0.1 per cent in November compared with the previous month, the National Statistics Bureau said on Monday — well below month-on-month growth of 3-4 […]
Muons, once used to explore the inside of pyramids and volcanoes alike, are enabling researchers to see deep underground with a technological breakthrough. (via WSJ)
The evidential burden for cases brought under proposed changes to the Privacy Act — that criminalise the intentional re-identification and disclosure of de-identified Commonwealth datasets — would be reversed, such that defendants would need to prove their innocence. “The defendant entity or agency bears the evidential burden for each of these exceptions, which reverses the criminal law principle that the prosecution must prove every element of the […]
On a clear afternoon on September 28, 2008, Elon Musk was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Years earlier he had sunk most of his internet fortune into a commercial space company – SpaceX – and was now vying for a lucrative deal with NASA to resupply the International Space Station. There was only one problem: the last three attempts to send a rocket into space […]
On Saturday morning, the Pentagon was eager to announce that China would return a U.S. Navy underwater drone after its military scooped up the submersible in the South China Sea late this week and sparked a row that drew in President-elect Donald Trump. As previously reported, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that “through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will […]
Researchers predict with minor error rate the short-term Global Solar Irradiance (GSI) using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). (via WSJ)
By Brenda Goh, Allison Lampert and Brad Haynes | SHANGHAI/MONTREAL/SAO PAULO SHANGHAI/MONTREAL/SAO PAULO New rules governing Chinese airline startups are fueling hopes at Embraer SA (EMBR3.SA), Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO) and other regional jet makers for a spike in orders next year, but local competition and doubts about size restrictions still loom as major obstacles. The new policy is aimed at encouraging fledgling carriers to boost domestic flights […]
Senior American officials and top commanders in the Middle East say the brutal urban fight for Mosul is succeeding — however slowly — but is proving to be tougher than expected. These officials predict that the battle to oust the Islamic State from Iraq’s second-largest city could last two to four more months. Continue reading the main story Brett H. McGurk, President Obama’s envoy to the international […]
The Middle East mobile phone market suffered its third consecutive quarter-on-quarter decline between July and September, according to the latest figures announced by IDC. Shipments in the region totalled 23.8 million units, down 0.7 percent on the 23.9 million units shipped in Q2 and 19.4 percent on the corresponding period last year. IDC said that given that the quarter-on-quarter decline in Q2 was much steeper at 8.5 […]
Whether water freezes to ice, iron is demagnetized or a material becomes superconducting — for physicists there is always a phase transition behind it. They endeavour to understand these different phenomena by searching for universal properties. Researchers have now made a pioneering discovery during their study of a phase transition from an electrical conductor to an insulator (Mott metal-insulator transition). (via WSJ)
In this Dec. 8, 2016 photo, Steve Burke and Jim Besha of Albany Engineering Corp. stand at the site of an abandoned iron mine in the Adirondacks, in Mineville, N.Y., where they’re seeking a federal permit to build an underground hydroelectric pumped storage project. The hills behind them are “tailings” leftover from crushing ore to extract iron from the mine that closed in 1971. (AP Photo/Mary Esch) […]
Researchers have made the world’s smallest radio receiver – built out of an assembly of atomic-scale defects in pink diamonds. (via WSJ)
Six new species of marine animals have been discovered on the sea floor of Indian Ocean, living close to a bunch of hot springs. In a robot led survey, scientists from the Southampton University, Natural History Museum in London and University of Newcastle explored hydrothermal vents in the seabed. Their expedition in November 2011 yielded valuable data and led to the discovery of new organisms living on the […]
The evacuation of eastern Aleppo stalled again on Sunday after a convoy heading for two government-controlled towns came under attack by rebel forces. According to Syrian state television, the buses were en route to al-Fuaa and Kefraya to collect the sick and injured when they were attacked and torched by opposition fighters. A video posted online, purporting to be of the aftermath of the convoy attack, shows […]
