Weed spit test can detect if you’re driving high in 3 minutes

A new speedy spit test could be the breathalyzer’s counterpart when it comes to roadside testing for marijuana. The technology, developed by Shan Xiang Wang from Stanford University, can detect the presence of THC (the main chemical in weed that makes you high) in saliva within three minutes. Cops don’t even need to bring samples to the lab — the sensor that can detect THC is portable and delivers results to phones via Bluetooth.

Professor Wang told Digital Trends:

“Detection of marijuana from blood or urine in a reference lab is not difficult, but it is difficult or impractical at the roadside. Most law enforcement officers are not authorized to take blood samples, while taking a urine sample on spot is extremely inconvenient. Detection of marijuana from saliva would bypass the trappings with either blood or urine samples.”

The professor’s technology works by using nanoparticles that fit THC (or reagent molecules) perfectly. When the results come back, the tester can see how many nanograms of THC there are for every milliliter of saliva. At the moment, Wang’s technique is merely a proof of concept, though his lab plans to begin making the actual handheld device law enforcement can use.

Lawmakers are still trying to iron out marijuana-related driving rules in the US, since it’s pretty tough to say if one is too high to drive. A recent study commissioned by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, for instance, determined that THC in the blood might not be a useful indicator for how intoxicated a person is. Our body absorbs the chemical in a different way than it does alcohol. And since THC dissolves in fat rather than water, it can remain in fatty tissues such as the brain for a very long time. An NHTSA expert told New Scientist that devices like this still need to be tested more thoroughly in order to establish what THC measurements typically lead to bad driving.

Via: New Scientist, Digital Trends

Source: Stanford University

Local Canadian police station admits it owns a Stingray

The Edmonton Police Service has fessed up to Motherboard that it owns a Stingray and that it “used the [surveillance] device in the past during investigations.” After Vancouver cops admitted to using the phone tracker to investigate an abduction in 2007, the publication called up other local police stations in Canada to ask if they had also previously used one. As you can imagine, the other stations kept mum. In the US, Stingrays are a regular part of government and law enforcement agencies’ surveillance arsenal. But Vancouver’s and Edmonton’s police services are the first law enforcement offices in Canada to confirm that they’ve used the device.

The main difference between the two is that the Vancouver cops said they borrowed their device from Canada’s equivalent to the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Edmonton’s police service, however, actually owns a Stingray, which could cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit.

As Micheal Vonn, the policy director of BC Civil Liberties Association, told Motherboard: “We have to assume, having made this investment, that they’ve used it more than once.” Vonn’s non-profit org thought only the RCMP owns Stingrays in the country, which they then loan to local law enforcement. That’s clearly not the case.

Stingrays mimic cell towers to force all phones in an area to connect to it. The device can then obtain identifying information from phones and SIM cards, as well as people’s locations and carriers. Newer models can even intercept and record voice calls and texts. Stingray has many critics, because you can’t program it to target only persons of interest or suspects — it gathers info from everyone in an area, even those who have nothing to do with the case under investigation.

Source: Motherboard

New ‘Rogue One’ trailer has some familiar ‘Star Wars’ touches

Disney and Lucasfilm just premiered a new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and you don’t even have to wade through NBC’s Rio 2016 Olympics coverage to see it. As we’d heard, this prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope will focus on heroes trying to steal the plans for a still-under-construction Death Star, and the new trailer gives us a good idea of what we’ll see. Beyond a look at stars like Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, you’ll also get a peek at a new droid character, familiar AT-ATs, and, yup, Darth Vader. The latest addition to the Star Wars universe premieres December 16th.

Source: Star Wars (YouTube)

Experts believe DNC hackers are behind a larger plot

Although it’s not the hack Donald Trump called for, security experts believe the same Russian hacking group allegedly responsible for leaking 20,000 Democratic party emails to WikiLeaks is also behind another attack that hints at an even larger Russian plot to influence American politics. In the weeks before WikiLeaks posted those materials, another cache of emails was posted on a site called DCLeaks.com targeting a top NATO general, former high-ranking intelligence officials and billionaire George Soros’ progressive philanthropy called the Open Society Foundation.

The DCLeaks site touted itself as the work of American hackers and the The Intercept covered the leak at the time, specifically highlighting emails that showed former US NATO General Philip Breedlove working against the Obama administration on its Russia policy. According to a new report from Bloomberg, however, the DCLeaks hack can be linked to “a larger Russian information operation.”

Per Bloomberg’s cyberintelligence sources, the group behind the DNC hack has ties to Russia’s GRU military intelligence service and a Russian civilian intelligence agency called the FSB. Although Moscow has denied any involvement in the DNC hack, US officials have reason to believe the Russian government may have set the whole thing up. Perhaps most tellingly, the materials posted on DCLeaks seem to have a suspicious focus on matters involving America’s policies towards Russia. They were also disseminated on social media in an apparent attempt to appeal to the American media’s love of leaks.

Finally, as Bloomberg points out, the DCLeaks hack also provides some insight into how the hacking group gained access in the first place — by targeting personal emails and mining them for sensitive information.

Source: Bloomberg, The Intercept

Arcano Systems’ chiptune synth offers 80s video game nostalgia

Here at Engadget, we have quite an affinity for all things that remind us of what it was like to play video games in the 80s. That includes musical instruments and gear that are capable of reproducing those iconic chiptune sounds we all know and love. Arcano Systems is no stranger to those tones and the company has taken to Kickstarter to fund yet another of its creations. The company has a knack for creating the 8-bit chiptune synths, including last year’s NES Chiptune Synthesizer. This time around, it created the Obscura 8-bit Chiptune Synth 2: a MIDI synthesizer that emulates the sounds of games from Nintendo NES, Famicom and Commodore 64.

For this new version, Arcano Systems gave the monophonic synthesizer more waveforms, more patches, an improved volume envelope system, increased vibrato depth and faster arpeggio frequency. There are two versions of the gadget with one being surface-mounted (SMD) like the original while the other has a through-hole construction. The latter option is smaller, more like the NES chiptune synth that was released last year. You’ll need a MIDI controller to get these up and running, but once you have that, these devices don’t require any other programming or additional software to start the 8-bit sounds.

Still unsure about committing funds? Take a look at some demo footage below. The company already has a handful of devices ready for early backers and plans to ship to its other supporters in October.

Via: Fact Magazine

Source: Kickstarter

Deep Space Industries plans to land on an asteroid by 2020

This week, asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries announced detailed plans to launch the first private mission to an asteroid by 2020. The California-based company plans to build a successor to its Prospector-X test craft called Prospector–1, which will land directly on an asteroid as it passes near Earth. Although Prospector–1 won’t be bringing back any gold or platinum, the historic mission will map the surface of the asteroid and analyze the rock for resources that could be useful in DSI’s long-term plans.

According to a statement from DSI, Prospector–1 will be a small craft just 110 pounds (50 kg) and will inherit radiation-tolerant payloads and avionics from its little sibling Prospector-X after its launch in 2017. Although DSI plans to one day scrape asteroids for metals and other resources, its first asteroid mining product will simply be water. Both Prospector crafts use the company’s proprietary water propulsion system, which uses superheated water vapor for thrust, rather than rocket fuel. So, the ability to mine asteroids for water means DSI will eventually be able to restock crucial resources like fuel and drinking water without the need for a return trip to Earth

The company plans to pick its first destination asteroid from “a group of top candidates” selected by the company’s in-house asteroid experts. When Prospector–1 arrives at its target, it will map the surface and subsurface with both visual and infrared cameras and determine the overall water content before touching down on asteroid using those same water vapor-powered thrusters. Once it has landed, the humble Prospector-1 will be the first commercial base ever established on a space object, paving the way for DSI’s next generation of asteroid harvesting missions.

“Prospector–1 is not only the first commercial interplanetary mission, it is also an important milestone in our quest to open the frontier,” DSI co-founder Rick Tumlinson said. “By learning to ‘live off the land’ in space, Deep Space Industries is ushering in a new era of unlimited economic expansion.”

Via: The Verge

Source: Deep Space Industries