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More from Slashdot.com - Star Trek, Ternary Semiconductors, & Aircraft Black Boxes

Comic-Con Trailers Include 'Star Trek: Picard' and HBO's 'Watchmen' Series (cbsnews.com) 132

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday July 21, 2019 @04:34PM from the engaged dept.

"At Comic-Con, Sir Patrick Stewart took to the Hall H stage Saturday afternoon to discuss his new series, Star Trek: Picard," reports CBS News: The series will focus on what caused famed captain and admiral Jean-Luc Picard to leave Starfleet, and his life since.... Patrick Stewart -- who is also an executive producer -- answered questions about the show. "We never know, do we, when our best moment will be. And that is now," Stewart said. "I knew something unusual would happen. I knew I needed to be a part of it."

Stewart has been heavily involved in crafting "Star Trek: Picard" and frequently visits the writer's room... Brent Spiner, who played the character Data on TNG, said there was "no way" he could say no to the opportunity to work with Stewart again....

The show is set 20 years after the events of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" around the year 2399. This sets the series further into the future than any previous Star Trek series. But fans should not expect to see the same Jean-Luc Picard they know from "The Next Generation" series. During the press tour, Kurtzman teased that the show will be very different and "grounded." The series will explore how Picard has changed in that time, making him reckon with the choices he has made. Kurtzman hinted that there are circumstances that have "radically" shifted that have caused the beloved Starfleet admiral to question his life decisions.
The two-minute trailer includes a surprising cameo, and Variety reports that CBS has also committed to two seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated series focused on "the support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships." (They also report that Seth MacFarlane announced season 3 of The Orville will be moving from Fox to Hulu.)

Also at Comic-Con, HBO shared the first full trailer for their upcoming Watchmen TV series, a sequel to the original Alan Moore graphic novel. Rolling Stone quotes HBO as saying that Watchmen "takes place in an alternative, contemporary reality in the United States, in which masked vigilantes became outlawed due to their violent methods."

Marvel also revealed that their next Thor movie (Thor: Love and Thunder) will incude both Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman as Lady Thor, and shared footage from their upcoming Black Widow movie. And CNET has a comprehensive rundown (with trailers) of all the DC Comics superhero shows on the CW network, including Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Black Lightning, and Batwoman.

 

 

Samsung-Backed Researchers Develop a Ternary Semiconductor (zdnet.com) 32

Posted by EditorDavid on Monday July 22, 2019 @07:34AM from the bits-versus-trits dept.

"Future semiconductors may perform logic with 0, 1, or 2 instead of the current binary system of 0 and 1," reports ZDNet: A South Korean research team has successfully realised an energy-efficient ternary metal-oxide semiconductor on a large-sized wafer. Professor Kyung Rok Kim of UNIST's Electrical & Computer Engineering Department and his team successfully created a semiconductor that operates in a ternary logic system instead of the current binary...

Using the ternary system of 0, 1, 2 lessens the amount of information semiconductors need to process and does it faster, resulting in less power consumption, the team said. It will also help in miniaturising chips further. For example, to express the number 128 in the current binary system, 8 "bits" will be required. With the ternary system, only 5 "trits" will be required....

Samsung Electronics has been backing Kim's research since September 2017 via its Samsung's Science & Technology Foundation, which offers grants for promising technology projects. Samsung is currently verifying the technology at its foundry business-run fab.

 

 

The Inventor Who Fought To Get Black Box Flight Recorders Into Every Plane (bbc.com) 71

 

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday July 21, 2019 @03:34AM from the before-the-black-box dept.

This week the BBC told the remarkable story of the man who invented the "black box" flight recorders -- and of all the resistance he enountered [sic] along the way.

dryriver shared this summary: In 1934, a passenger plane name Miss Hobart crashed into the sea off the coast of Australia. Among those killed was Anglican missionairy Rev Hubert Warren, whose last gift to his 8 year old son David had been a crystal radio set.

Young David Warren spent hours a day tinkering with the radio, eventually learning enough electronics engineering to build his own radios and sell them to other people. David Warren later grew to be a Rocket Scientist working for Australia's Aeronautical Research Laboratories. In 1953, the department loaned him to an expert panel trying to solve a costly and distressing mystery: why did the British de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner and the great hope of the new Jet Age, keep crashing? David Warren was confronted with a daunting problem -- how to determine from heavily deformed crashed plane fragments what had happened to the plane while it was in the air... Warren had an interesting idea -- what if every plane in the sky had a mini recorder in the cockpit...?

Warren's superior did not approve of the idea and told him to stick to chemicals and fuels.

When Warren got a new boss, the new boss was more sympathetic, but told him to do the R&D for it in complete secrecy. Since it wasn't a government-approved venture or a war-winning weapon, it couldn't be seen to take up lab time or money. "If I find you talking to anyone, including me, about this matter, I will have to sack you." When Warren first floated the idea of a cockpit recorder publicly, the pilots' union responded with fury, branding the recorder a snooping device, and insisted "no plane would take off in Australia with Big Brother listening."

Undeterred, Warren took to his garage and invented the first "Black Box" flight recorder.

With apologies to Robert Frost

The Frazz comic, by Jeff Mallett, in today's newspaper (in our case, The Wichita Eagle) probably set Robert Frost to twirling in his grave. (OTOH: Frost had a great sense of humor, may he RIP.)

Our daughters rock!

Unfortunately for me, our elder daughter Dudette has not taken up blogging. She does hang out on FB; but, I am no longer on FB (didn't like when they changed their privacy policy several years ago) and even when I was did not friend our daughters. They need to have online space that is not accessed by their parental units, after all. It's called intergenerational privacy. (I recall how I felt a tiny bit spied upon knowing that my parents, 150 miles away, listened in on my amateur radio conversations when I was in college! Not that they ever gave me any grief over whatever they may have heard!) The point is: I probably have more week-to-week news from younger daughter Bogie than from Dudette. We are privileged to see Dudette and her daughter's family, every several weeks; but, we don't get the photos and comments that would be contained in a blog.

I'd like to point out a couple of blog postings that Bogie has made in the past few weeks of yard work that she has been doing. She proves, over and over, that an understanding of basic mechanical principles enables one to do more than can reasonably be expected. For example, below is one photo that I stole from Bogie's latest posting Roadside Garden Progress. Although there is a little explanation of Bogie's placement of the rocks/wall in the comments to that posting, more explanation is in an earlier posting Rocking it.

And who is Bogie that she was able to do that hard work? The 300-pound bruiser in the photo, below, that I stole from Bogie's posting about her trip to Ellis Island a few weeks ago. Well...that's my humorous take on it. As you can see, she's a very fit, light-weight person (ignoring the 40 pounds of equipment that she carried on her belt for that tour!!)

In closing, I would clarify that Bogie has always been one to do things for herself - making soap, growing and canning foods, re-furbishing/improving her home, building walls and gardens, and getting out on her Harley. As I recall, she even took some training in landscaping (some of it as far back as high school, maybe?) Obviously, HH and I take great pride in Bogie and her endeavors. Well done, Bogie!

Sharing HH's roses with Bogie -

ADDITION of 7/21/2019 - Another rose bouquet

 

Another goofy online test: Creative Types

Who would think of me as the Visionary? Not I. I think this is another test that should be viewed as something that is more "fun" than "informative".

• The Visionary
• • Creative Strengths Full of big ideas, ability to see potential and possibility everywhere
  • Untapped Potential Using your visions to fuel consistent daily action
  • Ideal Collaborator The Thinker

You live in a world of infinite possibilities, preferring to see things not as they are but as they could be. You know that life is limited only by the boundaries of your own beliefs, and you’re driven to push the limits of, well, everything.

Emotional, passion-driven, and full of ideas, the VISIONARY combines a vivid imagination with a desire for practical solutions. Your introspective and intuitive nature is balanced by a keen interest in the world around you and a desire to contribute to society.

Charismatic and expressive, you love sharing your ideas and visions with others and creating community around shared values and ideals. Your greatest gift? The ability to see the spark of potential in everything and everyone, and to inspire others to see it, too. You’re able to guide people toward an invisible horizon with a rare generosity of spirit and strength of conviction.

Don’t get stuck in the dreaming stage, VISIONARY. Your greatest challenge—and true power—lies in learning to take consistent daily action to create the future you envision.

Seek out the “voice of reason” of the THINKER type to help you take a grounded, rational approach to your creative work. The THINKER’s deep perception and probing intellect lend a powerful clarity that can bring your visions into sharper focus.

How fortuitous that I know where to find a Thinker. Pipe Tobacco of The Thoughts of a Frumpy Professor, a Thinker, had led us readers to take the test.

Observing Independence Day

Dudette, Bogie, and I saw the platoon perform at the Marine Barracks Washington, DC (at 8th & I), during an Evening Parade. It was impressive!

It's going to be a good year for tomatoes

For the past few years, my tomato plants have produced either zero tomatoes or very few. This year will be different if today's harvest is any indication. What is different this year? As usual, I planted four tomato plants: one Jet Star, one larger tomato, and two pear or cherry tomato. One big difference is that I placed two of the tomato plants where they are the only things planted in the bed and they are surrounded on all sides by house or concrete. Today's harvest came from one of those plants, the Jet Star tomatoes not having yet ripened. Another large difference is that I waited a couple of weeks longer before setting them out and there was no late freeze to nip them. Finally, all of the rains that we had in May and June were to their liking.

Today's harvest of Juliet tomatoes (I did not intentionally pick the green ones. They fell from the plant!)

Jet Star plant shortly after wind storm (6/23/2019)

Juliet plant shortly after wind storm (6/23/2019)

To be precise, I picked two tomatoes from one of the tomato plants that is in another bed, Friday. The plant didn't look like much, but it is producing a few fruits. The photo, below, shows the tomato plant, and other plants in the bed, the day after the neighbor's fence had been blown over onto it and stayed there for about 12 hours. The maple tree has since been staked and much of the fennel dug up.

 

Their very own Tardis

For the past couple of decades, I've enjoyed the whimsy shown by the post box at the curb of a house nearly catty-corner across the intersection from the school that was, when Dudette and Bogie were teenagers, the Senior High School but is now a middle school. I should note that WichiDude is a Doctor Who fan, but we've not (to my remembrance) discussed this Tardis.

Below is a photo of the school to which I referred, above. Unfortunately, the street to the west of the school is blocked off by street work and for construction of a new fire station across that street from Derby Middle School.

Below is the new fire station that is to open on July 4th.

Photon momentum - linear and angular

Johanne Kepler, German astronomer, suggested that "ships and sails proper for heavenly air should be fashioned" to allow space travel. That was about 400 years ago. He was a bit off in his analysis; but, about 250 years later, James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated that photons imparted momentum to the surfaces on which they impinged.¹

I recall reading a science fiction story, "The Winds of Space", in my teenage years; but, I can find no evidence that it actually existed. Somehow in the succeeding years, I may have become confused with a short story that was published in 1963².

Yesterday, Slashdot.com led me to an article in Science³ that contains the latest news on the properties of light. Below are excerpts from the article.

Structured Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Light beams carry both energy and momentum, which can exert a small but detectable pressure on objects they illuminate. In 1992, it was realized that light can also possess orbital angular momentum (OAM) when the spatial shape of the beam of light rotates (or twists) around its own axis. Although not visible to the naked eye, the presence of OAM can be revealed when the light beam interacts with matter. OAM beams are enabling new applications in optical communications, microscopy, quantum optics, and microparticle manipulation. To date, however, all OAM beams—also known as vortex beams—have been static; that is, the OAM does not vary in time. Here we introduce and experimentally validate a new property of light beams, manifested as a time-varying OAM along the light pulse; we term this property the self-torque of light.

….

CONCLUSION

We have theoretically predicted and experimentally generated light beams with a new property that we call the self-torque of light, where the OAM content varies extremely rapidly in time, along the pulse itself. This inherent property of light opens additional routes for creating structured light beams. In addition, because the OAM value is changing on femtosecond time scales, at wavelengths much shorter than those of visible light, self-torqued HHG [High Harmonic Generation] beams can be extraordinary tools for laser-matter manipulation on attosecond time and nanometer spatial scales.

In conclusion, I'll have to say that I just don't see it ; ) Thankfully, I don't have to understand all of the new developments to realize how valuable they may come to be. Well done to the huge team responsible.

__________________________

1. Historical data are from A Brief History of Solar Sails
2. Clarke, Arthur C. The Wind From the Sun. 1963
3. Generation of extreme-ultraviolet beams with time-varying orbital angular momentum. Science

Elusive Neutrino - 10 fun facts

A couple of years ago, I had a short posting, Elusive Neutrino¹, which included reference to a couple of books^{2, 3} that I had found interesting. Just for fun, today, I'm posting an excerpt from the All Things Neutrino website developed and owned by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  |  Managed by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. (The link to the website is included in the right-hand sidebar under 4 Fun & Enlightenment.)

Ten quick facts about neutrinos:

1. Trillions of the harmless particle stream through you every second, night or day.
2. They are the second most abundant particle in the universe (after particles of light called photons).
3. Neutrinos rarely interact with anything—a lightyear of lead would stop only about half of the neutrinos coming from the sun.
4. About 15 billion neutrinos from the Big Bang are in the average room.
5. Neutrinos interact only through two of the four known forces: the weak force and gravity.
6. So far, scientists have discovered three flavors of neutrinos: electron (ν_e), muon (ν_μ), and tau (ν_τ).
7. They oscillate, or change flavor, as they travel.
8. Their masses are very tiny, but not yet known.
9. Their speed is very close to the speed of light, but also not known exactly.
10. They could be the reason that matter exists in the universe.

I had been noodling about various places on the Internet to see if the next solar eclipse will provide an opportunity "to look for lunar neutrino occultation, getting a tomograph of the moon's interior" as Stu of Eunoia had opined in a comment to my previously cited posting. Alas, I think not.

_______________________________

1. List of particles - Wikipedia
2. Solomey, Nickolas. The Elusive Neutrino: A Subatomic Detective Story; ISBN-13: 978-0716750802; ISBN-10: 0716750805
3. Al-Khalili, Jim. Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed

Rude awakening

Not since 1976 have I set an alarm to waken me. That rude awakening I can live without - especially since I have an internal alarm that wakes me at the "correct" time, no matter whether that is 3:00am or 6:00am. You can imagine my surprise, this morning, when a voice woke me at about 5:30am. Hunky Husband was my alarm. His phone had awakened him with a tornado warning and the emergency warning sirens were blaring in our neighborhood.

Quickly, I arose; donned my gardening clothes (old jeans cut off below the knees and an old tee shirt); put on a pair of eye glasses; put our valuables in their emergency hidey-hole; and put my jump boots, a hatchet, and two large screwdrivers (1 blade, 1 Phillips) into our own emergency hidey-hole. Only then did I join HH in the living room to watch the radar returns being shown on television.

By the exterior lighting on our house, we could see cottonwood limbs strewn all over the back yard - including our patio. The television reports soon indicated that the tornado danger that had been indicated for our area had moved on to terrorize other areas east of us; but, evaluation of the damage would need to be made nearer to sun-up when there was sufficient light. By 6:40am, I went outside to the serenade of chain saws, up and down our street, wielded by neighbors whose trees had sustained more damage than had ours.

The sun is not yet up; but, I'll post a few photos of our yard. Our damage was due to straight-line winds that probably gusted to about 70mph.

Our gingko tree in the front yard, planted in 2001, stands tall, straight, and proud. It shed but one small limb.

CORRECTION of 6/23/2019 4:03pm

So far, no one has corrected me (including the family members to whom I emailed a copy of this posting) in saying that our gingko tree had lost a branch. As anyone who looks at the photo can tell: that is no gingko branch, but another of the hundreds of cottonwood branches. It had to have flown over or around our house to end in that position! Sorry if I mislead you.

But two limbs were broken from the cluster of small redbud trees in our front yard, planted in about 2004.

The sugar maple tree in our front yard, planted in 2001, may be sick but it shed no limbs! The large cottonwood which, in any weather, is prone to shedding hundreds of small branches per month, shed all over the back yard. You can also probably see in the background that the creek is up - not out of its banks, but high. (The creek is visible to the right of the table, on which I note that the rain gage was knocked over by the wind.)

Fred's fence took a beating. Since the fence had already met its life expectancy before Fred moved in three years ago, and since one of the connections between sections has repeatedly failed, it wasn't a surprise to see a section of the fence down - plus another couple of boards a foot or so to the right of that section. The only thing on which it fell that I care about is a small red maple tree that I've been cultivating for Dudette.

I came in from taking the photos, without doing any yard work, because I was getting rained upon. I think it has stopped, so it's time for me to get back to work. Below is the section of the Planting Bed along the driveway in which I weeded and spread mulch, yesterday - with leaves added by the storm. Guess what yard work I'll be doing, today? HH has volunteered to help. Yay! Real muscle to apply to the task of cleanup.

ADDITION of 6/24/2019 9:30am - Information from the county emergency management office (excerpts)

The NWS [National Weather Service] determined that straight-line winds hit Derby early Sunday morning on June 23, 2019.  The damage was caused by 75 to 90 mph straight-line winds and damaged primarily softwood trees across southern and southeast Sedgwick County.  The path of the storm was about half a mile to a mile wide that stretched along a nearly 11-mile path from northwest of Peck to Derby.  Public Work crews in Derby are working on clearing debris and restoring power to the residences in the area.

....

Rainfall over the weekend totaled about 1.5 to 3 inches and the current warnings affecting Sedgwick County Rivers are as follows: 

....  

Big Ark[ansas] at Derby:  From early this morning until Tuesday evening.  At 3:00 AM Monday the stage was 11.6 feet.  Flood stage is 12.0 feet and Minor flooding is forecast.  Forecast - Rise above flood stage by early this morning and continue to rise to near 13.0 feet by this evening. The river will fall below flood stage by late Tuesday morning.  Impact - At 12.0 feet, the river will be out of its main channel and expand to a width near 600 feet wide. Expect flooding of low-lying areas around the river.  The Derby Park facility on downstream east bank of the Market St bridge is inundated.