This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through March 11)

ROBOTICS

Humans Can Now Scold a Robot With Their Minds
Samantha Cole | Vice MOTHERBOARD
"Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), with Boston University, developed a feedback system for humans to mentally change a robot's actions by simply watching and wordlessly judging...the simplicity of MIT CSAIL's new research makes it more accessible to the public, no new language or mental training required."

TRANSPORTATION

Photos of the 11ft-Diameter Hyperloop Test Track Under Construction in Nevada
Megan Geuss | Ars Technica
"Hyperloop One demonstrated its propulsion system at the Nevada site at a press event last May, where it sent a 10ft sled 116mph on some open-air tracks until the sled hit some sand and slowed down...There are, of course, real technical hurdles for Hyperloop One to overcome if it hopes to ease the traffic between those major cities, and it will be interesting to see how the company engineers around them."

CYBERSECURITY

WikiLeaks Releases Trove of Alleged C.I.A. Hacking Documents
Scott Shane, Matthew Rosenberg, Andrew W. Legren| The New York Times
"The initial release, which WikiLeaks said was only the first installment in a larger collection of secret C.I.A. material, included 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, many of them partly redacted by WikiLeaks editors to avoid disclosing the actual code for cyberweapons. The entire archive of C.I.A. material consists of several hundred million lines of computer code, the group claimed."

SPACE

Jeff Bezos Shows off Blue Origin's New Rocket Engine, Fully Assembled for the First Time
Loren Grush | The Verge
"The New Glenn looks to be a monster rocket. It will be 23 feet in diameter and range from 270 feet to 313 feet tall, so around one-third the height of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Rockefeller Center's main skyscraper)...Bezos says the New Glenn will make its first flight from the Florida coast before the end of this decade."

AUTOMATION 

Meet Flippy, a Burger-Grilling Robot From Miso Robotics and CaliBurger
Lora Kolodny | TechCrunch
"Miso Robotics CEO and co-founder David Zito said, 'We focus on using AI and automation to solve the high pain points in restaurants and food prep. That’s the dull, dirty and dangerous work around the grill, the fryer, and other prep work like chopping onions. The idea is to help restaurants improve food quality and safety without requiring a major kitchen redesign.'"

VIRTUAL REALITY 

Why Patagonia Is Using 360-Video to Defend Bears Ears National Monument
Jeff Beer | Fast Company
"In light of Governor Herbert's actions, the brand decided to use these new films in the fight. 'We just knew we had to switch gears for it to defend this place, and public lands across the country,' says Patagonia's vice-president of marketing Cory Bayers. 'We had done some work with Google 360 technology a couple of years ago, but here we thought it could really bring this story and place to life in an exciting new way.'"

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