The technology world may seem to be locked in an endless cycle of renewal - but not when it comes to the floppy disk. More than 50 years after the technology was invented it has emerged that the US nuclear weapons force uses the disks in the 1970s computer system it still employs. As it turns out the Pentagon is not alone in retaining an affection, sometimes born of technical necessity, for the humble disk. But why has it survived when so many other technologies have fallen by the wayside? "They are just too useful," said Ian Rainsford, a spokesman for media firm Verbatim - one of several companies that still makes the disks.

An electronics company which supplies Apple and Samsung has replaced 60,000 staff with robots. Foxconn, the Taiwanese company which assembles iPhones and iPads, has brought in machines to perform repetitive tasks and axed more than half its 110,000 staff at a factory in China. Water company Pennon has marginally increased profits thanks to growth in its waste management business. The firm, which owns South West Water and Bournemouth Water, reported pre-tax profits up 0.3 per cent to 211.3m in the year to the end of March. Profits at South West Water fell 4.9 per cent to 159.7m but earnings at its Viridor waste recycling business rose 45 per cent to 116.5m.

Golan Levin, an associate professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested. I was looking at a satellite image of the school's campus in Pittsburgh, embedded in the home page of Levin's latest online project, Terrapattern. "What you should immediately see are all the most tennis-court-ish patches of Allegheny County," he said. With gratifying speed, the right-hand side of my screen filled with dozens and dozens of tennis courts--solo or in pairs or in clusters of six, white on green, purple on green, green on red. A confusingly painted parking lot ended up in the mix, too.

We learn the structure of a Markov Network between two groups of random variables from joint observations. Since modelling and learning the full MN structure may be hard, learning the links between two groups directly may be a preferable option. We introduce a novel concept called the \emph{partitioned ratio} whose factorization directly associates with the Markovian properties of random variables across two groups. A simple one-shot convex optimization procedure is proposed for learning the \emph{sparse} factorizations of the partitioned ratio and it is theoretically guaranteed to recover the correct inter-group structure under mild conditions. The performance of the proposed method is experimentally compared with the state of the art MN structure learning methods using ROC curves. Real applications on analyzing bipartisanship in US congress and pairwise DNA/time-series alignments are also reported.

The sun is a powerful source of energy. So powerful, in fact, that Damon McMillan is betting his boat can cross more than 2,000 miles of ocean using only its rays. McMillan is the captain of Seacharger, which is on a mission to become the first unmanned, autonomous boat to cross an ocean using only solar power. It's a project that McMillan and three of his friends have worked on for two and a half years, after being inspired by a robotic sailboat competition. Constructing the boat took a lot of trial and error, McMillan says, and at times it seemed an impossible task.

Golan Levin, an associate professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested. I was looking at a satellite image of the school's campus in Pittsburgh, embedded in the home page of Levin's latest online project, Terrapattern. "What you should immediately see are all the most tennis-court-ish patches of Allegheny County," he said. With gratifying speed, the right-hand side of my screen filled with dozens and dozens of tennis courts--solo or in pairs or in clusters of six, white on green, purple on green, green on red. A confusingly painted parking lot ended up in the mix, too.

The lightest material on Earth now packs a powerful punch. Scientists from Texas and around the world have created a material that, by density, is lighter than air yet, when electrified, instantly and powerfully contracts. Their work is detailed in this week's issue of the journal Science. "These artificial muscles are very lightweight and can do wonderful things," said Ray Baughman, the study author from the University of Texas at Dallas. While the artificial muscle is unlikely to be used in humans or prosthetic limbs, Baughman says "these sheets of carbon nanotubes ... are of great practical interest for LEDs, solar cells, and other applications."

The first Maker Faire of the year took place last weekend in San Mateo, California, and among the many thrillingly geeky sights and sounds on display was an indoor drone racing course set up by the Aerial Sports League, which bills itself the "only Major Drone Combat and FPV Drone Racing League." The Department of Energy was also attendance, and was so captivated by the Aerial Sports League's setup, that the agency recently posted a 360-degree video of the drone racing area to its Facebook page while lamenting the fact that "the U.S. Department of Energy doesn't race drones for fun like these enthusiasts." However, the DOE points out it is also intensely interested in drones a.k.a. "For example, drones can be used to detect methane leaks or help scientists select the fastest-growing strains of sorghum, an important bioenergy crop." That's the verbal equivalent of wearing socks and sandals, but just because the Department of Energy is more focused on scientific concerns like sorghum and methane leaks, doesn't mean they can't show off a gorgeous drone race track in 3D.

"Diversified application areas are expected to drive the artificial intelligence market" The artificial intelligence market is estimated to grow from USD 419.7 million in 2014 to USD 5.05 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 53.65% from 2015 to 2020. This growth can be attributed to the factors such as diversified application areas, improved productivity, and increased customer satisfaction. "Machine learning technology to gain maximum traction during the forecast period" The machine learning technology is expected to account for the largest share of the overall AI market duing the forecast period. In addition, due to the increase in demand for AI from the media & advertising and finance sectors, the artificial intelligence market is expected to gain traction in the next five years. The machine learning technology market for the retail, healthcare, law, and oil & gas sectors is also expected to witness growth during the forecast period.

The US government is set to deploy two radiation-detecting drones at the former'Nevada Test Site' to test new sensing capabilities that could help in future nuclear disasters. The'Sandstorm' unmanned aircraft will be used for remote radiation sensing and environmental monitoring, along with other security applications. Researchers are now working to expand the sensor technology for unmanned aerial systems, and they expect the Sandstorm drones to begin tests in the fall. The'Sandstorm' unmanned aircraft, above, will be used for remote radiation sensing and environmental monitoring, along with other security applications. The drones were purchased from Unmanned Systems Inc (USI).