NASA Funds a Robot That Could Explore the Caves of Mars

CNN reports that a professor and his students at Stanford's Autonomous Systems Lab have received "phase II" funding from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (which supports space robotics research) after proving the feasibility of their plan for robots to crawl through space caves. "The team will use the next two years to work on 3D simulations,...

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Countries Form New NATO-Like 'Mineral Security' Alliance to Ensure EV Supplies

"A metallic NATO is starting to take shape," writes the senior metals columnist at Reuters, "though no-one is calling it that just yet." The Minerals Security Partnership is in theory open to all countries that are committed to "responsible critical mineral supply chains to support economic prosperity and climate objectives". But the coalition...

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Remember RadioShack? It's Now a Crypto Company with Wild Tweets

"Gen Z may not be familiar with the RadioShack of their grandparents, but they're getting to know its replacement," writes the Washington Post. "The 100-year-old retailer reintroduced itself on Twitter this week with a stream of often-profane tweets — some since deleted — filled with crude comments and drug references." Variations of, "What...

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Reuters: 'How Mercenary Hackers Sway Litigation Battles'

Reuters shares the results of its investigation into what it calls "mercenary hackers": Reuters identified 35 legal cases since 2013 in which Indian hackers attempted to obtain documents from one side or another of a courtroom battle by sending them password-stealing emails. The messages were often camouflaged as innocuous communications from clients,...

2h

What Happened After Massachusetts Voters Approved a Right-to-Repair Law?

U.S. right-to-repair advocates hoped a district judge would finally rule Friday on Massachusetts' voter-approved right-to-repair referendum. But they were disappointed again, reports the Boston Globe, since instead the judge said he'd first have to consider a recent ruling by America's Supreme Court limiting the regulatory powers of the U.S. government's...

2h

Citing Climate Concerns, New York Denies Permit to Bitcoin Mining Plant

An anonymous reader shares this report from NBC News: A controversial bitcoin mining operation on the largest of central New York's Finger Lakes does not meet the requirements of state climate laws, New York's Department of Environmental Conservation ruled Thursday, denying an air permit request the entity's owner, Greenidge Generation LLC., made...

2h

The Death of a YouTuber

"Effortlessly funny. Endlessly talented. Gone too soon," tweeted fellow YouTuber Ted Nivison after hearing the news. "Technoblade, a popular Minecraft YouTuber, has died from cancer age 23," writes the Verge. But before Technoblade left, he'd prepared a goodbye for his 11.9 million subscribers: In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel titled...

2h

First RISC-V Laptop Announced

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phoronix, written by Michael Larabel: RISC-V International has relayed word to us that in China the DeepComputing and Xcalibyte organizations have announced pre-orders on the first RISC-V laptop intended for developers. The "ROMA" development platform features a quad-core RISC-V processor, up to 16GB of RAM,...

2h

US Hypersonic Missile Fails In Test In Fresh Setback For Program

A flight test of a hypersonic missile system in Hawaii ended in failure due to a problem that took place after ignition, the Department of Defense said, delivering a fresh blow to a program that has suffered stumbles. Bloomberg reports: It didn't provide further details of what took place in the Wednesday test, but said in a statement sent by email...

2h

California Late Start Law Aims To Make School Less of a Yawn

Hmmmmmm shares a report from the Associated Press: Beginning this fall high schools in the nation's most populous state can't start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can't start before 8 a.m. under a 2019 first-in-the-nation law forbidding earlier start times. Similar proposals are before lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Advocates say teens...

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