118335858
submission
ted_pikul writes:
Penn State researchers report in 'Joule' that they've designed an electric battery that can charge an EV for 200 miles in about 10 minutes. They key to their approach is quickly heating the nickel foil-covered battery to a high temperature and more slowly cooling it to ambient temperatures. The researchers report that in addition to the fast charging time, this approach mitigated performance-draining "battery plaque" that can build up on batteries.
115442982
submission
ted_pikul writes:
A team of scientists from UCLA and Stanford used some high-school level science and frugal engineering to design a cheap device that uses radiative cooling (when heat escapes into outer space under the night sky) to passively generate renewable electricity. The device generated enough electricity to power an LED on a December night and could scale up to passively power street lights or charge phones, the scientists say.
103808365
submission
ted_pikul writes:
Adam Lackman ran TVAddons, a site hosting unofficial addons for Kodi media center. Last year, a legal team representing some of Canada's most powerful telecom and media companies raided his home with a court order—they searched his apartment, copying hard drives and devices, took his laptop, and shut down his website and Twitter account. Now, he's being sued for piracy and sinking deep into debt as he fights to make it to trial.
101951490
submission
ted_pikul writes:
Access to cheap electricity can make or break a cryptocurrency mining operation. The latest move in the quest for bargain-basement power rates: building out local power grids. Canadian company DMG Blockchain is building what it hopes will be a fully-functioning substation in Southern British Columbia, which is electrified by hydro power. Building the substation is costing millions of dollars and required building an access road to haul equipment. “[...] the utility will test everything as a completed substation and make sure that the town doesn’t blow up when we flip the switch,” Steven Eliscu of DMG Blockchain said.
64756465
submission
ted_pikul writes:
Newly declassified documents reveal that, 30 years ago, the CIA pitted one of its own agents against an artificial intelligence interrogator in an attempt to see whether or not the technology would be useful.
The documents, written in 1983, describe a series of experimental tests in which the CIA repeatedly interrogated its own agent using a primitive AI called Analiza. The intelligence on display in the transcript is clearly undeveloped, and seems to contain a mixed bag of predetermined threats made to goad interrogation subjects into spilling their secrets as well as open-ended lines of questioning.
