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Glitch in navigation sensor caused Europe's Schiaparelli Mars lander to jettison

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Europe's Schiaparelli Mars lander crashed last month after a sensor failure caused it to cast away its parachute and turn off braking thrusters more than two miles (3.7 km) above the surface of the planet, as if it had already landed, a new report has revealed. The error stemmed from a momentary glitch in a device that measured how fast the spacecraft was spinning, the report by the European Space Agency said. The spacecraft activated its ground systems, even though it was still about 2.3 miles off the surface, the ESA said. The new image of Schiaparelli and its hardware components was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, on 1 November. A number of the bright white spots around the dark region interpreted as the impact site are now confirmed as real objects – they are not likely to be imaging'noise' – and therefore are most likely fragments of Schiaparelli.


Why Artificial Intelligence Won't Replace CEOs

#artificialintelligence

Peter Drucker was prescient about most things, but the computer wasn't one of them. "The computer ... is a moron," the management guru asserted in a McKinsey Quarterly article in 1967, calling the devices that now power our economy and our daily lives "the dumbest tool we have ever had." Drucker was hardly alone in underestimating the unfathomable pace of change in digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). AI builds on the computational power of vast neural networks sifting through massive digital data sets or "big data" to achieve outcomes analogous, often superior, to those produced by human learning and decision-making. Careers as varied as advertising, financial services, medicine, journalism, agriculture, national defense, environmental sciences, and the creative arts are being transformed by AI.


Son has seen the future, and it is powered by chips- Nikkei Asian Review

#artificialintelligence

TOKYO SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son showed me a photo on his iPhone and said, "I will never forget this scene for the rest of my life." The photo showed a group of white yachts in a bay under an endless blue sky in Marmaris, a port town in southern Turkey. Son swiped the screen, and a selfie photo of him in chino pants and a casual shirt appeared. Several hours before the photos were taken on July 4, Son met Simon Segars, CEO of ARM Holdings, and Stuart Chambers, chairman of the British computer chip design company, on the second floor of a restaurant overlooking the bay. Chambers had arrived in Marmaris, a popular resort town, after receiving an unexpected phone call from Son while yachting with his family in the Mediterranean Sea.


Explore the 'Hot Tub of Despair,' an underwater lake that kills almost everything inside

Los Angeles Times

The underwater lake, discovered 3,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, is a pit of super-salty water and dissolved methane that kills any critter unlucky enough to fall inside. The discovery was made last year by a San Pedro-based research vessel, the E/V Nautilus. In the video, scientists excitedly navigate a remotely operated vehicle, the Hercules, above the circular pool. They point out the "pickled crabs" that succumbed to the elements. "These larger organisms really don't like to be in this fluid -- or maybe they just come here to die," Scott Wankel, a marine chemist, says on the video.


EXCLUSIVE: Royal Navy trials robot spy boats that can scour the seas for up to 12 hours at a time

Daily Mail - Science & tech

A drone boat which can patrol the English Channel and track migrants on 12-hour missions is being trialled for Special Forces during a massive robot war games exercise. Yesterday it took part in the Royal Navy's robotic Unmanned Warrior exercise, the biggest ever war game using more than 50 types of drones off the UK coast. The inflatable P950 boat - of which a manned version is already in service and is used by elite troops - can be driven both manually by a remote control and also in an autonomous mode. Using a remote control with a joystick, troops on a ships miles away or on land can tell it where to go and have a live 360 degree angle of what the boat sees. Or they can put it in autonomous mode and just give the boat a destination, and the boat will navigate itself avoiding any obstacles it comes into contact with. In the future it could be equipped with weaponry to help with mine-hunting.


Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster Tim Harford

#artificialintelligence

When a sleepy Marc Dubois walked into the cockpit of his own aeroplane, he was confronted with a scene of confusion. The plane was shaking so violently that it was hard to read the instruments. An alarm was alternating between a chirruping trill and an automated voice: "STALL STALL STALL." His junior co-pilots were at the controls. In a calm tone, Captain Dubois asked: "What's happening?" Co-pilot David Robert's answer was less calm. "We completely lost control of the aeroplane, and we don't understand anything! The crew were, in fact, in control of the aeroplane. One simple course of action could have ended the crisis they were facing, and they had not tried it. But David Robert was right on one count: he didn't understand what was happening. As William Langewiesche, a writer and professional pilot, described in an article for Vanity Fair in October 2014, Air France Flight 447 had begun straightforwardly enough – an on-time take-off from Rio de Janeiro at 7.29pm on 31 May 2009, bound ...


Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster Tim Harford

#artificialintelligence

When a sleepy Marc Dubois walked into the cockpit of his own aeroplane, he was confronted with a scene of confusion. The plane was shaking so violently that it was hard to read the instruments. An alarm was alternating between a chirruping trill and an automated voice: "STALL STALL STALL." His junior co-pilots were at the controls. In a calm tone, Captain Dubois asked: "What's happening?" Co-pilot David Robert's answer was less calm. "We completely lost control of the aeroplane, and we don't understand anything! The crew were, in fact, in control of the aeroplane. One simple course of action could have ended the crisis they were facing, and they had not tried it. But David Robert was right on one count: he didn't understand what was happening. As William Langewiesche, a writer and professional pilot, described in an article for Vanity Fair in October 2014, Air France Flight 447 had begun straightforwardly enough – an on-time take-off from Rio de Janeiro at 7.29pm on 31 May 2009, bound ...


The big data race reaches the City

#artificialintelligence

Even Goldman Sachs has entered the race for data, leading a 15m investment round in Kensho, which stockpiles data around major world events and lets clients apply the lessons it learns to new situations. Say there's a hurricane striking the Gulf of Mexico: Kensho might have ideas on what this means for US jobs data six months afterwards, and how that affects the S&P stock index. Many businesses are using computing firepower to supercharge old techniques. Hedge funds such as Winton Capital already collate obscure data sets such as wheat prices going back nearly 1,000 years, in the hope of finding patterns that will inform the future value of commodities. Others are paying companies such as Planet Labs to monitor crops via satellite almost in real time, offering a hint of the yields to come.


Hurricane Matthew could hit Florida TWICE: Experts explain the science behind the storm's bizarre behaviour

Daily Mail - Science & tech

It is the strongest storm since 2004, and Hurricane Matthew looks set to continue wreaking havoc on the southeast coast of the US. The storm hit Florida in the earlier hours of this morning, and forecasters say that it isn't done yet. They suggest that Hurricane Matthew could even loop back around on itself, hitting Florida for a second time - although forecasts are continually changing. Experts have explained to MailOnline the science behind Hurricane Matthew's strange behaviour. Gurricanes that hit the East Coast tend to move northwest.


'Miss Peregrine's' school gets top grades at box office

Los Angeles Times

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," from 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment, bested fellow new release, Lionsgate's "Deepwater Horizon" and expelled last week's victor, "The Magnificent Seven." "Miss Peregrine" brought in an estimated 28.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, meeting analyst expectations of 25 million to 30 million in its opening week. It pulled in 36.5 million internationally. "I'm very excited about it. We're thrilled," said Chris Aronson, the studio's domestic distribution chief.