(AP)—Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says pessimists who are forecasting that the economy will not reap sizable benefits from the computer revolution are likely to be proven wrong.

Bernanke told a college graduating class Saturday that the long-range practical consequences of innovations such as faster computers and the Internet are hard to predict. But he said inventors have only scratched the surface of the commercial applications that can be obtained in such fields as medicine and clean energy.

Bernanke’s remarks came in a commencement address at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a small liberal arts college in Great Barrington, Mass. Bernanke’s son Joel graduated from the school in 2006.

The Fed chairman did not make any comments about interest rates in his speech.

Article source: http://phys.org/news288100879.html

Morocco is ploughing ahead with a programme to boost wind energy production, particularly in the southern Tarfaya region, where Africa’s largest wind farm is set to open in 2014.

The kingdom, which has no hydrocarbon reserves of its own, hopes to cover 42 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2020, and has launched a plan to produce 4,000 megawatts.

Half of this will come from solar energy: at the beginning of May, the first of five solar power plants near Ouarzazate was officially launched, and the site is set to be operational from 2015.

Wind power will supply the remaining 2,000 MW, and Morocco’s wind-blown southern coast, where many of the new farms will be built, already resembles a huge building site.

At Tarfaya, which will be home to the continent’s biggest wind farm, the project led by the French company GDF Suez, in partnership with local company Nareva Holding, is only just beginning.

“Building started at the end of December 2012. But the first section, which will produce 50 MW, will be in service in January,” Francis Schang, a manager at Siemens which is carrying out the work, told AFP.

“It’s a high-speed project,” he added. By December 2014, if all goes to plan, 131 turbines, each 80 metres (260 feet) tall, will dot the desert landscape.

Together they will produce 300 MW, enough to meet the energy needs of several hundred people, Schang said.

At a cost of nearly 500 million euros ($640 million), the Tarfaya wind farm, stretching over nearly 20 kilometres (12 miles), will allow Morocco to “avoid CO2 emissions equal to the amount absorbed by 150 million trees,” Boutaina Sefiani, the head of the project, said.

The main problem that has to be addressed is the effect sand from the surrounding desert will have on the turbine mechanisms, Schang said.

“The turbines will require greater maintenance, with a special sealing treatment,” he said.

The Akhfennir wind farm around 100 kilometres east of Tarfaya is much smaller, but is almost ready to start production.

In the middle of a rocky desert plateau, where only a few camels and their herders wander, 50 turbines are already turning in the wind.

Around 10 more turbines will be switched on in June, allowing them to produce 100 MW, Mohamed Ben Osmane, project manager for Moroccan Wind Energy (Energie Eolienne du Maroc, EEM), said, adding that the site’s capacity is expected to double over time.

As plans to boost the country’s wind energy production progress, Energy Minister Fouad Douiri said he hoped to see renewable sources developed even further.

“Between the sites that are operational and those that are still under construction, we are reaching 1,000 MW from wind power,” Douiri told AFP.

“The wind programme is coming along well,” he said.

“We think that between now and 2020 we may even be producing a little more than 2,000 MW. And after 2020, we will keep going. There is the potential to take this much further.”

Article source: http://phys.org/news288100906.html

Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China’s domestic satellite navigation system which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system, a report said Saturday.

The Beidou, or Compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications.

Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites, with 30 more due to join the system, according to English-language China Daily.

Huang Lei, international business director of BDStar Navigation, which promotes Beidou, told the newspaper the company would build a network of stations in Pakistan to enhance the location accuracy of Beidou.

He said building the network would cost tens of millions of dollars.

American website Defensenews.com reported early May that Pakistani military experts were in favour of using the Chinese system, even though the availability of the signal could not be guaranteed in case of conflict.

But according to one of them, Pakistan cannot place its trust in the United States.

“Pakistan’s armed forces cannot rely on US GPS because of its questionable availability during a conflict that has overtones of nuclear escalation,” former Pakistan Air Force pilot Kaiser Tufail told the site.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang travels next week to Pakistan, a long time ally, after a visit to India.

Article source: http://phys.org/news288101018.html

Hong Kong saw its first electric taxis hit the streets on Saturday in a step towards reducing the city’s high levels of roadside pollution.

The 45 bright red cars were launched by Chinese electric vehicle producer BYD, which is partly backed by US investment titan Warren Buffett.

Called the BYD e6, the five-door crossover sedans are powered by iron phosphate batteries and take two hours to charge, a statement from BYD said, adding that they can then travel for 300 kilometres (more than 180 miles).

The cars have been rented by the Hong Kong Taxi and Public Light Bus Association, which is testing them over the next six months.

“The idea of being environmentally friendly is a global trend and the electric car is one good example,” said Wong Chung Keung, president and chairman of the association.

“An electric car saves the cost of fuel and will allow our taxi drivers to earn more,” he added, saying that a normal taxi would cost HK$0.8 (10 US cents) to run per kilometre (0.6 miles) while an electric car would cost HK$0.2-HK$0.3.

He called for more charging stations around the city to encourage taxi drivers to go electric—BYD said it is setting up 47 chargers in nine charging locations near car parks.

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary John Tsang was quoted in a BYD statement as welcoming the electric car and saying he was committed to “promoting environmental sustainability by laying the foundation for Hong Kong to become a zero emissions city”.

The government announced revisions to its air quality objectives for the first time in 25 years in January 2012, after University of Hong Kong research showed pollution-related illnesses killed more than 3,000 residents a year.

Article source: http://phys.org/news288100940.html

The lawsuit involves House Bill 1224 (a sweeping ban on magazines, including small magazines) and House Bill 1229 (an unworkable system of background checks for temporary transfers of firearms, and for private sales). The Complaint alleges violations of the Second Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment (vagueness), and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A 38 minute video of the press conference announcing the suit is available on YouTube. In this case, I am representing the Sheriffs.

Friday afternoon, Grand County Sheriff Rodney Johnson joined the case, bringing the number of plaintiff Sheriffs to 55 out of the 62 elected County Sheriffs in Colorado. (Denver and Broomfield have appointed Sheriffs who run the jail, but do not have the comprehensive responsibilities of the elected Sheriffs.) The Complaint will be amended next week to reflect Sheriff Johnson’s participation.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/volokh/mainfeed/~3/-JAsAVDMgt0/

The Massachusetts court policy on sealed documents differs from that of at least some other federal district courts. Here is a portion of the docket in the Chicago case of David Headley and Tahawwur Rana. There’s a listing for every docket entry with a description of what was filed, including documents filed under seal. The sealed document isn’t accessible, but at least there is the transparency of recognizing that something was filed and by who.

I’m surprised the media isn’t objecting to this policy. In Colorado, every motion sought to be filed under restriction (the court no longer uses the word “sealed”) is listed on the court’s home page and the public is given three days to object.

It appears that in Mass., the clerk doesn’t even put the fact of a sealed pleading on the docket. So if Tsarnaev has filed a motion to suppress his statements made at the hospital, there’s no way for the public to know that the motion was filed if the defense seeks to seal it. It’s one thing to keep the contents of the motion sealed, I think it’s another to keep secret the filing of the motion.

The only reason the public knows about the defense request to take the photographs is because the Judge in her order says while the motion and the Government’s response were filed under seal, she sees no reason for her order to be sealed. Had she felt differently, and decided to enter her order under seal, there would be no way to know about it.

The Mass. rule on filing sealed or “impounded” documents is 7.2. From the court’s Attorney Guidebook:

SEALED OR IMPOUNDED DOCUMENTS XXXXX
SEALED AND/OR IMPOUNDED DOCUMENTS MAY NOT BE FILED ELECTRONICALLY.

Qui tam cases and actions involving grand jury proceedings are automatically sealed, by statute.
Attorneys wishing to file any other cases or documents shall follow the provisions of Local Rule 7.2.

Motions to seal must meet the requirements of Local Rule 7.2. The court will not enter blanket impoundment orders. A motion for impoundment or motion to seal shall be presented each time a document is to be filed under seal.

By contrast, Colorado federal court rule 7.2 says:

D.C.COLO.LCivR 7.2 PUBLIC ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS (also applicable to criminal cases)

A. Policy. The public shall have access to all documents filed with the court and all court proceedings, unless restricted by court order or as provided in Section D of this rule.

B. Motions to Restrict Access. Any motion to restrict public access will be open to public inspection and must:

1. Identify the document or the proceeding for which restriction is sought;

2. Address the interest to be protected and why such interest outweighs the presumption of public access (stipulations between the parties or stipulated protective orders with regard to discovery, alone, are insufficient to justify restricted access);

3. Identify a clearly defined and serious injury that would result if access is not restricted;

4. Explain why no alternative to restricted access is practicable or why only restricted access will adequately protect the interest in question (e.g redaction, summarization, restricted access to exhibits or portions of exhibits); and

5. Identify the restriction level sought (i.e., Level 1 = access limited to the parties and the court; Level 2 = access limited to the filing party and the court; Level 3 = access limited to the court).

C. Public Notice of Motions to Restrict Access; Objections. Notice of the filing of such motion will be posted on the court’s website on the court business day following the filing of the motion. Any person may file an objection to the motion to restrict access within three court business days after posting. Absent exigent circumstances, no ruling on a motion to restrict access will be made until the time for objection has passed. The absence of objection shall not, alone, result in the granting of the motion.

D. Filing Restricted Documents. Any document that is the subject of a motion to restrict access may be filed as a restricted document, and will be subject to restriction until the motion is determined by the court. If a document is filed as a restricted document without an accompanying motion to restrict access, it will retain a Level 1 restriction for fourteen days. If no motion to restrict access is filed within such time period, the access restriction will expire and the document will be open to public inspection.

Apparently, in Mass., the lawyers file motions to seal and the pleading sought to be sealed by paper directly with the clerk, and while the clerk gives them a sequential docket number, it doesn’t register them on the electronic docket (as opposed to including the docket number and description on the electronic docket and making the document itself inaccessible.)

The public is not going to get true sense of how the case is being prosecuted and defended with a docket missing 22 entries to date. I think this is bad policy. It’s one thing to seal the actual motions and orders, it’s another to seal the fact that a sealed motion was filed and/or an order entered granting or denying the request to seal. I wonder how many federal districts have sealing policies similar to Mass.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/FdZOQqK_L2Y/270

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/G-lDgTV_nfg/247

(Phys.org) —A team of researchers from the SETI Institute, the Mars Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, and the space robotics company Honeybee Robotics, has successfully completed a first series of field tests aimed at investigating how humans will explore and work on Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and eventually the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.

From 13 to 15 April 2013, field experiments were conducted at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, to evaluate geotechnical methods and systems that will enable humans to be productive explorers in the low gravity environment of small rocky bodies. Sub-kilometer sized NEAs, Phobos, and Deimos are among destinations currently considered by NASA for future human missions into Deep Space.

“Human missions to Near-Earth Asteroids and to the moons of Mars present us with the exciting challenge of exploring planetary bodies with extremely low gravity” says Pascal Lee, planetary scientist at the SETI Institute and leader of the field test. “The goal of our field test was to learn how to characterize the physical properties of small body surfaces, and to test ideas that might enable humans to more productively explore these low-gravity worlds.”

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The Mojave field test included three investigations: 1) a study of whether conventional field tools commonly used to characterize the mechanical properties of soils on Earth are suitable for small bodies; 2) an evaluation of how different anchoring systems might allow robotic spacecraft and astronauts to remain bound to a low gravity body; 3) a study of how astronauts might conduct geological sampling on a small body while using anchors and tethers.

“It’s important to analyze and understand how conventional civil engineering methods and systems perform in natural settings on Earth before adapting them to the exploration of small bodies” explains Kris Zacny, Director of planetary exploration robotics at Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California. Honeybee Robotics is the company that developed the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and the Sample Manipulation System (SMS) and Dust Removal Tool (DRT) on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity.

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The Mojave field test was carried out on a small rocky hill at the NTC with many exposed blocks of weathered granite called tors. The site, now named “Asteroid Hill”, is reminiscent of the blocky surface of Near-Earth Asteroid (25143) Itokawa, which was explored in 2005 by Japan’s Hayabusa robotic spacecraft. “While neither the composition of the rocks nor the gravity at Asteroid Hill are similar to what they are on NEAs, the relevance of the site resides in the similarity in terrain texture (gravel and block abundance and sizes), topography, and scale between Asteroid Hill and Itokawa” notes Lee.

“This is an interesting analog site for planning future NASA robotic and human asteroid exploration, as it not only resembles the surface of the only sub-kilometer NEA explored by spacecraft to date, Itokawa, but it is well supported logistically by the U.S. Army’s National Training Center” said Terry Fong, Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center.

The Mojave field test builds on an existing partnership between NASA and the U.S. Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin. The latter is home to NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking station. “The National Training Center’s participation in this field test with NASA represents another positive development in our Joint Interagency Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) partnership. It allows NTC to showcase it’s soldiers, the NTC community, and NTC’s vast training resources” said Cyle Fena, Deputy G3 at the NTC.

The Mojave Field Test will be featured as part of an upcoming television documentary filmed by First Canyon Media, Inc, titled Mission Asteroid. Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mission Asteroid is expected to air in North America in Fall 2013.

Article source: http://phys.org/news288076223.html

Yahoo Japan Corp. has said it suspects up to 22 million user IDs may have been stolen during an unauthorised attempt to access the administrative system of its Yahoo! Japan portal.

“We don’t know if the file (of 22 million user IDs) was leaked or not, but we can’t deny the possibility given the volume of traffic between our server and external” terminals, the company said in a statement late Friday.

The information did not include passwords and the kind of data necessary to verify a user’s identity or reset passwords, it said, adding that the company had updated its security measures to prevent a repeat of the incident.

Yahoo Japan is 35.5 percent held by Japan’s mobile phone operator SoftBank, and 34.7 percent held by US Internet giant Yahoo! Inc.

Its popular portal Yahoo! Japan holds the top search engine position in Japan with a more than 50 percent market share, compared with around 40 percent for rival Google.

In 2011, Sony said information such as usernames, passwords and birth dates of more than 100 million people may have been compromised after hackers struck the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services.

Japan acknowledges that its preventative measures against cyberattacks remain underdeveloped, with the national police agency having announced this month it would launch a team to analyse and combat cyberattacks.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said last month that information related to the International Space Station may have been leaked during an unauthorised attempt to access its system.

Article source: http://phys.org/news288089718.html

(Phys.org) —Yawn. Two startup visionaries claim they have just the device to replace keyboard and mouse forever and ever. Where have you heard that before. But maybe these two have something important. Meron Gribetz, the startup founder and CEO and Ben Sand, the co-pilot and evangelist, are behind something called the Meta wearable computer headset, which consists of stereoscopic glasses and camera. It’s the way computers always should have been: wearable, viewed through both eyes, and directly controlled using the entire arms and hands, according to its founder and CEO Gribetz. The belief is that the future of computing is in this technology that can display information from the real world and control objects with one’s fingers, Tony Stark-style, at low latency and high dexterity. Meta founder and CEO Gribetz referred to the technology as the keyboard and mouse of the future.

Meta grew out of a Columbia University project where a team built advanced surface tracking algorithms. The algorithms allow the anchoring of virtual content to the real world, without use of fiducial markers.

The Meta effort in wearable computing eyewear is not to be treated as competition for Google Glass, which may be an easy connection to make once the words wearable computing and spectacles are mentioned. The Meta team makes a point of calling out the two as different. As their promotional video said, “This is true augmented reality, not just popups from the corner of your eye.” The Google Glass display is different, as Meta’s is in the center of the field of view rather than above the eyeline. The role of the two are different, if one thinks of Google Glass as a helpful companion while navigating city streets, looking for landmarks, restaurants, or translations for signs in foreign languages. Meta’s augmented reality eyewear is immersive applied to games, for example, played in front of your face or to working on a surface, while you use your hands to interact with your virtual reality. The system includes 3-D glasses supplied by Epson and a 3-D camera to track the user’s hand movements.

This is a technology project that dates back several years, when the initial concept for a dual screen 3-D interface took hold. Lab work on the software and hardware included building the first 3-D occlusion algorithms to mesh the real and virtual world together in realtime. Supported platforms are Windows 32bit/64bit. Other platform support is still in development. Scenarios in which the Meta system might be applied include surgeons who could be assisted by floating 3-D models of CAT scans

A number of sites commenting on the device made note of its less than ideal bulky looks, calling attention to the big size of the glasses. Meta’s team is planning to improve on the looks, though, and intends to have a next iteration as lighter and more fashionable. meta is a Y Combinator backed augmented reality venture and right now, the focus, in the form of a Kickstarter campaign, is to lure more developers on board, and their campaign seeks funds for making the Meta systems for application developers. The goal is $100,000; the project will be funded if at least $100,000 is pledged by June 16. At the time of this writing, they raised $75,393.

A “meta 1 Dev Kit” will be available for $750. The SDK provides gestures and finger tracking, general depth data that works with objects in range of the depth camera, RGB data and surface tracking (access planes and meshes of surfaces in the real world, so virtual objects can be anchored to them, or augmented in other ways.

“Our software stack is very open. Our depth camera exposes all depth data at the low level and at the higher levels give you access to object meshes, fingers/hands and gestures.”

More information: www.kickstarter.com/projects/551975293/meta-the-most-advanced-augmented-reality-interface

Article source: http://phys.org/news288096606.html