Tokyo is planning to build the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper

Sumitomo Forestry

The Japanese architectural and construction firm Sumitomo Forestry Co. has announced plans for a 70-story tall skyscraper in Tokyo constructed of wood. Known as the W350 project, the structure will be 1,148 feet tall and will include residential apartments and public spaces on multiple floors, mixed with hotel, office, and retail space.

The Guardian, which dubbed it the “Plyscraper,” noted that the $5.6 billion cost of the project will be nearly twice that of a similar glass-and-steel conventional building. The company says that the cost of the project will decline due to technological advances, as the high-rise is not scheduled for completion until 2041.

In an outline of the project, Sumitomo said the structure would be made of 90 percent wooden materials, with crisscrossing steel braces to better withstand Japan’s high seismic activity.

In 2010, Japan enacted an ordinance requiring construction companies to use wood for public buildings. Sumitomo aims to take that a step further and “Change Cities into Forests” by using materials that are more environmentally friendly.

Wooden high-rise structures are gaining popularity around the world. Portland recently approved construction of the tallest all-wood building in the U.S., an 11-story office and apartment building known as Framework.

Brock Commons, a residential structure at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, is currently the tallest wooden building in the world at 174 feet tall. The building speed was a big factor, John Metras of UBC explained to ArchDaily. “We found that working with wood, we could reduce timelines for construction,” he said. “The assembly of the wood structure went up incredibly quickly, faster than we even expected.”

Vancouver may not hold the record for long, however, as an ambitious new project planned for Chicago is a residential high-rise that’s 800 feet and 80 stories tall.

The W350 project is scheduled for completion to coincide with the company’s 350th anniversary. Balconies on all four sides will help vegetation grow along the outside of the high-rise, all the way to the top floor. The company says the new building will be an example of “urban development that is kind for humans,” with more high-rises constructed from wood and covered with greenery “making over cities as forests.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• You can assemble this foldable M.A.DI flatpack A-frame home in just six hours
• DIRTT uses VR to help users design their future space in real time, from any iPhone
• 2018 Ford Expedition: Release dates, prices, specs, and features
• Cracked screens may be a thing of the past with this self-healing glass
• Google to expand its cloud infrastructure with three new subsea cables

Throat sensor helps you recover from a stroke

Your abilities to speak and swallow are frequently signs of how well you’re coping after a stroke, but measuring that is difficult. Microphones frequently can’t distinguish between the patient and ambient sounds, and there’s the not-so-small problem of making sensors that can hold up to the rigors of life outside of the hospital. Northwestern University may have a better way: its scientists have designed a wearable throat sensor that help diagnose and treat aphasia, a communication disorder typically associated with strokes. The wireless device tracks the vibration of your vocal cords to gauge your recovery and determine whether or not doctors need to intervene.

The sensor is not only more accurate than a mic, but considerably more comfortable and durable. A set of “novel materials” help it bend and stretch so that it’s not irritating your throat or breaking under stress. Doctors can see how you speak and swallow in real life, not just in the controlled conditions of a hospital room.

When combined with other sensors that track factors like heart functions, muscles and sleep, the throat tech promises a relatively unintrusive look at how your whole body is faring. It won’t guarantee a full recovery, but it could speed your progress and help you resume at least some of your daily routine.

Via: Phys.org

Source: Northwestern University

Air Force security hackathon leads to record payout

The US Air Force’s second security hackathon has paid dividends… both for the military and the people finding holes in its defenses. HackerOne has revealed the results of the Hack the Air Force 2.0 challenge from the end of 2017, and it led to volunteers discovering 106 vulnerabilities across roughly 300 of the USAF’s public websites. Those discoveries proved costly, however. The Air Force paid out a total of $103,883, including $12,500 for one bug — the most money any federal bounty program has paid to date.

The event also set a record for speed. On the first day (December 9th), the military and 24 hackers conducted a live event where they reported and fixed flaws as they happened. It took just 9 hours to fix 55 of the potential exploits.

HackerOne is keen to tout this as a success in the larger Hack the Pentagon program. White hat hackers have found over 3,000 holes since the program kicked off in spring 2016, and it’s a definite improvement over the 207 flaws found during the original Hack the Air Force from spring 2017. With that said, this shows that there’s still a lot of room for improvement. While it’s difficult to completely remain up to date (new flaws are bound to pop up), the Air Force isn’t yet at the point where exploits are relatively rare.

Via: Defense One

Source: BusinessWire

Everything you need to know about the SpaceX BFR project

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket managed a successful takeoff in early 2018, orbiting the Earth with a Tesla car inside and completing its in-space maneuvers, albeit with a bumpy landing. The company can rest on its laurels, right? Hardly.

That was certainly big news for the consumer space industry (which is now a real thing!), and promises interesting developments for the future. But SpaceX has grander plans, and is now primarily focused on BFR—which raises the question, what even is BFR? ICYMI, we’ve got an FAQ just for that question!

Elon Musk is involved in crazy stuff: What exactly is a BFR?

The BFR is an in-development, privately owned rocket that’s designed to go to Mars. The name is traditionally assumed to mean “Big F**king Rocket,” although there are signs that SpaceX is stepping back from this; they really meant it to stand for “Big Falcon Rocket,” they claim — for obvious reasons.

There aren’t many facts about the BFR available, but we do know that it’s designed to be around 350 feet tall, with an incredible 10.8 million pounds of thrust, which is a lot more than any rocket NASA has created. Notably, it’s also designed to be reusable, with a docking and redeploying system that would theoretically allow the rocket to keep traveling back and forth from Mars.

What’s the difference between Falcon Heavy and BFR?

Falcon Heavy is a very powerful rocket that’s being tested for basic space-related tasks, and obviously there’s already a model capable of entering orbit. The BFR is still a work in progress, and it’s a significantly more powerful rocket that is specifically designed to reach Mars.

The two rockets do appear to have a lot in common, however. SpaceX has been working on several rocket models lately, including Falcon Heavy, Falcon 9, and Dragon, all projects in the same general pool. It looks like the other rockets will see less development work going forward (with some potential for business expansion with Falcon Heavy) so that everyone can focus on BFR right now, essentially merging the projects together.

Okay, but how would people survive in flight—or on Mars, for that matter?

Whoa, now: The BFR is just a rocket. It’s a very exciting rocket, but it’s not exactly meant for squishy little humans. There’s a good reason that the Falcon Heavy only took a Tesla car up into orbit, and not any passengers—it’s not made to sustain life, and if it sees action in the future it will probably be an automated supply transport that would ferry materials to Mars that people would use for survival. So there’s the basic answer two both questions.

When it comes to the BFR specifically, the goal is to attach the rocket to a spaceship and fly them both around, something that SpaceX thinks will take around $10 billion to accomplish. Right now, SpaceX is mostly concerned with getting a viable rocket working. The spaceship part will probably come along in a couple years.

What are the long-term goals of the project?

Ambitious! But SpaceX has successfully passed a series of ambitious milestones, so nothing seems out of the question for this company. Let’s divide them into three general categories, as mentioned by Elon Musk in his various interviews about the BFR.

The Moon: The first long-term goal may be to head over to the moon and, you know, check up on it. The moon gets tossed around as a potential goal because it’s a lot safer target than Mars, both literally and financially. There are also plans to orbit the moon with a Dragon rocket, which may well be merged with BFR if SpaceX wants to keep focused. If the BFR isn’t looking quite ready for a Mars flight in several years, then it’s safe to bet that it will at least try to go to the moon.

Mars: The Mars plan is surprisingly detailed, even at this early juncture. The first Mars flight would confirm water resources and scout out potential hazards, while scanning for the best places to build power plants, mine minerals, and so on. The second flight would include a bare-bones crew that would start to build structures and produce reserves of fuel. Once a base is established, SpaceX intends to start a full-blown colony, with a final goal of transporting millions of people to a Mars habitat.

Like we said, ambitious.

Earth transport: In the near future, you can at least expect the BFR to rocket its way around the Earth. Part of Musk’s goal is to use the BFR as a transportation option that allows people to zoom nearly anywhere on our planet in about 30 minutes. Plus, early tests of this transportation project are far easier and safer than trying for a full orbital test.

So where is BFR right now?

Things are looking pretty good! The success of the Falcon Heavy was a very important step, and Elon Musk has pushed the gas pedal down on BFR development for now, although SpaceX has acknowledged that it may pursue different projects in the future, depending on how things go.

Look for the next big milestone in 2019, when SpaceX plans to test early prototypes of the BFR in the atmosphere. If these tests go well, we can expect a much more exciting orbital test in 2020 and potentially a Mars flight in 2022. Of course, keep in mind that the Falcon Heavy itself was subject to delays and pushed-back dates, so this is more of a hopeful plan than a promise.

Editors’ Recommendations

• SpaceX is blazing a trail to Mars, one milestone at a time
• Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster is ready for its long journey to Mars
• Prepare for liftoff! Here’s 7 crazy facts about the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
• From flamethrowers to brain linking, here are Elon Musk’s 5 craziest ideas
• After delays, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy is set to launch on February 6

The new ESPRESSO four-in-one telescope is a next-generation planet hunter

The universe just got a little smaller, thanks to a new project from the European Southern Observatory in Chile. One of the primary goals of the project was to integrate the operation of its four Unit Telescopes together to create a Very Large Telescope (VLT), an optical telescope with the largest collecting area in the world.

Thanks to an instrument named ESPRESSO, that goal has now been achieved. ESPRESSO stands for Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, meaning it will be used to hunt for planets in orbit around distant stars

By exploiting the light-gathering capabilities of the individual VLTs, it has the light-gathering capacity of a 52-foot (16-meter) optical telescope. “ESO has realized a dream that dates back to the time when the VLT was conceived in the 1980s: bringing the light from all four Unit Telescopes on Cerro Paranal together at an incoherent focus to feed a single instrument!” Gaspare Lo Curto of ESO said in a statement.

In addition to searching for Earth-like planets, ESPRESSO will also examine the very nature of physics by observing the light emitted by far-off quasars. Using a system of prisms, mirrors, and lenses, the light from each individual telescope is transmitted to ESPRESSO as far as 226 feet (69 meters) away.

Thanks to the stability of the telescopes and the construction of the facility, ESPRESSO can combine the observations from all four telescopes together, or use the light received from a single telescope, allowing for maximum flexibility during a single observation. Check out the images at the ESO website for some truly breathtaking photos from the observatory.

“This impressive milestone is the culmination of work by a large team of scientists and engineers over many years,” said scientist Paolo Molaro. “It is wonderful to see ESPRESSO working with all four Unit Telescopes and I look forward to the exciting science results to come.”

The ESO calls their facility at Gaspara Lo Curto a “game changer” for astronomy. It uses high-resolution spectrographs and wavelength calibration to enable observations that were never possible before.

“Go big or go home” seems to be the motto for these astronomers, and ESO isn’t done yet, according to Director General Xavier Barcons. “ESPRESSO working with all four Unit Telescopes gives us an enticing foretaste of what the next generation of telescopes, such as ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, will offer in a few years,” he said.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The 50 best albums of 2017
• Check out this rooftop ski slope set for a super-green power plant in Denmark
• ‘Destiny 2’ power leveling guide: How to get raid-ready fast
• Stay powered up on the go with the best portable power stations
• This sweat-powered, stretchable battery could revolutionize wearables

Spirit animals: 9 revolutionary robots inspired by real-world creatures

We’re constantly amazed by the ingenuity shown by roboticists around the globe. But when it comes to solving complex problems in the real world, today’s top robot builders often draw on the natural world for inspiration: giving them millions of years of evolution to borrow from.

This nature-inspired approach to problem solving and design is called “biomimicry,” and it’s resulted in some incredibly impressive robots, capable of astonishing feats. Here are nine of our favorites.

An ostrich robot

As pretty much the living embodiment of dinosaurs (seriously, check out those legs!), ostriches are pretty awesome. This ostrich-inspired robo mechanism created by researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition is pretty darn cool in its own way, too — thanks to its minimalist running mechanism.

Based on the kind of elliptical trainer mechanism you’ll find in virtually every gym, the team’s ostrich robot eschews sensors and a computer in favor of a self-balancing design that requires only the motor of an RC car radio controller. Using this, it can run on a treadmill at 12 mph — and even slow down or speed up as required.

The solution could help create two-legged or four-legged sprinter robots which are able to deal with a variety of terrains, without having to break their stride. “Large parts of the land surface of the planet are not accessible to wheeled or tracked vehicles in any meaningful way,” researcher Johnny Godowski told Digital Trends. “This work is about opening up new possibilities.”

Falcon robot

From one intimidating bird to another, Clear Flight Solutions’ Robobirds are falcon-inspired robots designed to look as close to the real thing as possible. Why? Because the hope is that having robotic birds of prey circling airports will be enough to stop real birds from straying into airplane flight paths.

“The Robirds are robotic birds of prey that fly just like a real bird, through flapping wing motion,” Wessel Straatman, an R&D engineer at Clear Flight Solutions, told Digital Trends. “By mimicking their natural counterparts through silhouette and behavior, they are indistinguishable from real-life birds of prey to other birds. Birds instinctively react to the presence of birds of prey, making it less attractive for them to come to that area.”

Sloth robot

When you think of exciting animals to robotify, the sloth doesn’t immediately speed to the top of our list. But that probably explains why we’re stuck writing about groundbreaking robots, as opposed to building them.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology took inspiration from the tree-dwelling movement of sloths to create an energy-efficient agricultural robot that’s capable of hanging from highwires to monitor crops from above.

“There was no easy solution to this [monitoring] problem, as wheeled robots were likely to get stuck, and flying robots typically have flight times only in the tens of minutes,” Jonathan Rogers, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, told Digital Trends. “So we developed [this] so-called brachiating robot, or swinging robot, that can traverse elevated wires above the plant rows. Many agricultural settings already have some type of elevated wire, or they can be easily installed. Our robot can swing along a wire, or between wires, allowing it to monitor an entire field using sensors installed between the arms.”

Manta Ray robot

Not all robots are designed to work on land. The National University of Singapore’s brilliantly named “MantaDroid” takes a page out of the manta ray’s efficient swimming playbook to create a robot that displays an impressive amount of agility and speed in the water.

The MantaDroid robot is the size of a juvenile manta ray, with a wingspan of 63.4 cm and a body length of 35 cm. It is capable of swimming at a speed of 2 body lengths per second, which makes it impressively zippy. Its most unique feature is its flexible fin mechanism, which uses just one actuator per pectoral fin to let it interact naturally with the fluid dynamics of the water.

“We see MantaDroid as a potential long-term continuous underwater surveying machine, which could be useful for maritime industries, environmental agencies, and search and rescue organizations,” Professor Chew Chee-Meng, who helped lead the project, told Digital Trends. “For example, it can be used for underwater inspection tasks, as well as for collection of hydrographic data. With swarm intelligence, multiple MantaDroids [could] also be deployed to concurrently perform search operations, such as looking for lost divers or sunken objects in the sea.”

Octopus robot

Speaking of underwater robots, how about this effort from Italy’s Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, which totally looks like the robot H.P. Lovecraft would have created had he worked in tech?

Part of the currently happening “soft robotics” revolution, the team’s robotic octopus comprises a squishy, soft body with no rigid parts. The robot has been successfully tested in the Mediterranean Sea, where it showed off its innovative locomotion — involving moving by drawing in liquid and then expelling it from its body, or using its eight legs to clamber across the sea bed.

Snake robot

Snakes don’t exactly have a whole lot of limbs to work with, but that doesn’t make snake robots any less multi-purpose. The Guardian S, a waterproof snakebot created by the Utah-based robotics company Sarcos, more than demonstrates that point.

Guardian S is capable of moving on virtually any type of terrain, crawling through thin pipes, and even climbing up stairs or on certain walls, thanks to its magnetized body. As it travels, the snakebot gathers data from various sensors, which include infrared, radiation, gas and vibration detection, GPS, accelerometer, 3D mapping, and 360-degree video with low-light capabilities.

It’s not the only snake robot that’s slithered onto the scene, either. A laser-wielding giant robot snake has been used to help decommission an old nuclear power plant in England, a snakelike (well, technically eel-like) robot aims to live underwater and repair undersea infrastructure, and surgeons plan to use snake robots to enter the body to aim with surgery. By crawling through your nose or uthera, obvs!

Gecko robot

Biomimicry doesn’t have to mean building a robot that looks exactly like its inspiration. In fact, some of the most intriguing examples don’t bear any obvious physical resemblance to the creature that inspired them.

That’s certainly the case with a space cleanup tool designed by Stanford University and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that’s modelled on the gecko — or one part of the gecko, at least. With around 500,000 pieces of manmade space junk orbiting Earth at frankly terrifying speeds, the aim of this cleanup gripper is to able to grasp large objects, weighing as much as 370kg, and remove them.

As it turns out, space’s inconvenient lack of atmosphere means that regular suction cups won’t work. Geckos, however, manage to stick to surfaces by using tiny hairs on their feet. This material isn’t sticky, but will strongly adhere to a surface when force is applied. The idea of applying this to space-age trash pickup is unique — and owes its existence to everyone’s favorite eyeball-licking lizard.

Cockroach robot

Ever heard the saying that, when the apocalypse hits, it’ll be just cockroaches and Twinkies that will survive? Well, in lieu of a Twinkie robot (although someone should totally build one), ultra hardy cockroaches have been the model for several biomimicking bots.

Harvard’s HAMR robot — short for Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot — is one such creation; designed to scamper along the floor at high speed for exploration purposes. Another recent cockroach robot project can switch from running along flat surfaces to assuming a climbing position without slowing down along the way.

“While cockroaches are one of nature’s most revolting animals, they can teach us important design principles,” Kaushik Jayaram, a researcher on the latter project from Harvard’s Wyss Institute, told Digital Trends. “There are among the fastest animals, running over 50 body lengths per second,equivalent to 200 mph when scaled up to human size. They are highly capable: can climb up walls, race along ceilings, ingress into narrow crevices, rapidly change direction by turning or disappear rapidly by swinging under ledges.”

Dog robot

Last but certainly not least on our list are perhaps the world’s most famous animal-inspired robot: the canine-esque BigDog and Spot robots created by Boston Dynamics, the group previously owned by Google (today by Softbank Group).

These durable robots are capable of running at impressively high speeds and could be useful for transporting heavy goods around. Or, you know, just being a faithful pet to Skynet once the machines take over!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Harvard’s insect-inspired HAMR robot scuttles like a cockroach on meth
• Robot skiers race in PyeongChang, but they’re not at Olympic level just yet
• Outrageously quick Milidelta robot moves too fast for your brain to comprehend
• Oh, yeah! Robot joins Olympic torch relay, bashes through a wall on the way
• Control this robot kit with your voice using Alexa or Google Assistant

Are you James Bond or Maxwell Smart? Find out at the Spyscape espionage museum

Spyscape/Scott Frances

If you’ve ever thought you’d make a good spy, here’s your chance to prove it. The Spyscape museum, an interactive exhibit chronicling the history of espionage, just opened in New York City, and it offers an experience you won’t likely encounter outside of a Jason Bourne movie.

Located on 8th Avenue in Manhattan, the museum visit begins with a top-level briefing aboard one of the largest elevators in the world. The tour runs through seven exhibition spaces and includes hands-on experiences with surveillance, encryption, deception, hacking, and intelligence operations.

Shelby Prichard, Spyscape’s chief of staff, told Metro that he thinks the museum will make people more aware of the role of espionage and surveillance in modern society. “We hope this will be a really empowering experience for people to start to see their world differently, see themselves differently, and understand how the types of skills that spies use can be relevant to their daily lives,” he said.

“We show how the world of espionage is all around you,” he added.

During your visit, you’ll try to crack codes, take a lie-detector test, test out facial-recognition software, and even attempt to evade security in a laser-filled hallway. At each challenge, a bracelet tracks your progress to compile your spy profile, with an algorithm assessing things like tolerance for risk and ability to handle stress. After the tour, you’ll get an assessment of which of 10 spy roles you’d best be suited for.

“We developed this profiling system in concert with the former head of training for British intelligence, so it’s a super legitimate look at how the intelligence community thinks about what it takes to be different kinds of spy,” said Prichard.

It’s not just an interactive playground — the museum illustrates the history of the shadowy world of espionage, with exhibits ranging from code-breaker Alan Turing to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Each of the seven sections of the museum is centered around the exploits of a real-life spy.

It was created by actual intelligence professionals, with former heads of spy agencies as well as white-hat hackers contributing to the project. “Whenever we explained the concept and how we’re thinking about making this world of spying more accessible, we had really great reception,” said Prichard.

The museum tour ends up at a book store with more than 1,000 rare and first-edition spy books. There’s also a gift shop, where you can purchase all sorts of cool spy gadgets, many developed in-house at Spyscape. After a hard day of spying, you can relax with a martini at the bar — shaken, not stirred, of course.

Editors’ Recommendations

• When a movie isn’t enough, the best shows on Netflix will keep you busy for days
• Future reflections: Here’s everything we know about ‘Black Mirror’ season 4
• Don’t be fooled by dystopian sci-fi stories: A.I. is becoming a force for good
• Everything we know about ‘Deadpool 2’
• Avenged Sevenfold is down with Beach Boys covers, but not with going to Mars

Can’t get service? Head to an English church, soon to become a Wi-Fi hotspot

Juan García/Digital Trends

For centuries, humans have flocked to churches, trusting these venerable landmarks to be the homes of great knowledge and the purveyors of crucial information. And now, in the 21st century, churches are fulfilling that purpose still, though perhaps in a rather unexpected way. Thanks to a new agreement between the Church of England and the English government, churches in internet “dead zones” are now going to help facilitate the spread of information by facilitating broadband, mobile, and Wi-Fi connectivity for their surrounding areas.

As part of the deal, churches in rural areas will introduce wireless transmitters into their recognizable spires and towers, and will also house aerials, satellite dishes, and fiber cables. This ought to help folks who otherwise would not have access to fast broadband (which is to say, many small communities in rural England) more easily connect to the digital world. As the Guardian notes, there are more than 10,000 rural Anglican churches in England, which means there could soon be 10,000 new hotspots throughout the nation. Of course, in order to maintain the historical integrity of churches, careful guidelines will be followed in installing the new technology.

This will be a mutually beneficial arrangement for the churches, which will be able to generate income from deals struck with telecommunication providers. As per the agreement, there is also “the potential for other mutually beneficial terms, to be agreed, such as sharing the cost of maintaining a church tower or spire on which equipment may be mounted.”

“Churches are central features and valued assets for local communities up and down the country,” said secretary of state Matt Hancock. “This agreement with the Church of England will mean that even a 15th century building can help make Britain fit for the future, improving people’s lives by boosting connectivity in some of our hardest-to-reach areas.”

This rather creative solution makes good upon a pledge that the former prime minister David Cameron made more than two years ago, in which he promised that all homes and businesses in the U.K. would have access to fast broadband by the turn of the decade. “Access to the internet shouldn’t be a luxury, it should be a right – absolutely fundamental to life in 21st century Britain,” he said at the time. And now, it looks like the country is coming closer to making that right a reality.

Thus far, religious leaders seem to be on board with the idea. Graham James, the bishop of Norfolk, said, “Our parish churches are a truly national network, and to use them creatively to create new forms of connectivity enhances their value for the communities.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• The Supreme Court could soon change the course of how location data is used
• Modem vs. router: What’s the difference?
• When a movie isn’t enough, the best shows on Netflix will keep you busy for days
• New Lensrentals partnership creates industry’s largest photo gear inventory
• England plans to map the entire country in 3D using planes equipped with lasers

Wikipedia ends no-cost mobile access for developing countries

The Wikimedia Foundation launched Wikipedia Zero in 2012 with the hopes of democratizing information through a simple concept: cellular carriers in developing countries would offer access to its crowdsourced knowledge without charging data fees. However, it appears to have run its course. The organization has discontinued Zero with plans to phase it out through 2018. Wikimedia has stopped forming new carrier partnerships, and will let its existing alliances end over time. There has been a “significant drop off” in involvement since 2016, Wikimedia said, and that participation is necessary to keep Zero alive.

The outlet cited a few reasons for the shutdown, and not all of them were bad. Low awareness may have been one problem — people in developing nations aren’t as aware of Wikipedia as North Americans and Europeans. There have been successes at improving recognition, but they’re coming too late to rescue Zero. On the plus side, mobile data costs have fallen in the past several years. Zero may not be as attractive simply because more cellphone users can afford to visit Wikipedia without needing a special exemption.

This doesn’t mean that Wikimedia has given up on Zero-like concepts. That improved recognition has given the organization “several ideas” for its next course of action, and it’s using 2018 to mull things over. The move could amount to a hiatus rather than a permanent end. All the same, the discontinuation is unfortunate for those who did use Wikipedia Zero. For now, at least, they’ll have to either pay for enough data to visit Wikipedia or go without.

Via: Manish Singh (Medium)

Source: Wikimedia Foundation

SpaceX delays its satellite internet launch to February 21st

Sorry, folks, you’ll have to wait a while longer before SpaceX’s satellite internet launch takes place. With hours to go, SpaceX has delayed the liftoff from its February 17th target to 9:17AM Eastern on February 21st. According to the company, the crew at the Vandenberg launchpad needed extra time to run “final checkouts” of the upgraded fairing used to protect the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload. The company has been inching toward completely reusable rockets, and it wants to be sure it’s making progress on that front.

Both the payload and the rocket itself are “healthy,” SpaceX said.

The rocket is mainly intended to carry a Spanish radar imaging satellite, Paz, but it’ll also bring SpaceX’s own Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b internet satellites into orbit. If all goes according to plan, they’ll help start a constellation of broadband satellites that would provide gigabit internet speeds around the globe. That SpaceX is willing to delay the launch by several days speaks volumes — it has a lot riding on this launch.

Team at Vandenberg is taking additional time to perform final checkouts of upgraded fairing. Payload and vehicle remain healthy. Due to mission requirements, now targeting February 21 launch of PAZ.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 17, 2018

Source: SpaceX (Twitter), Vandenberg AFB