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But extending the internet to space isn’t just a matter of installing Wi-Fi on rockets. Scientists have novel obstacles to contend with: The distances involved are astronomical, and planets move around, potentially blocking signals. Anyone on Earth who wants to send a message to someone or something on another planet must contend with often-disrupted communication paths.
“We started doing the math for the [internet standards] which had worked perfectly well here on Earth. However, the speed of light was too slow,” Cerf said of his early work with colleagues in the InterPlanetary Networking Special Interest Group. Overcoming that problem would be a major undertaking, but this American computer scientist and former Stanford professor is used to helping make big things happen.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/vint-cerfs-plan-for-building-an-internet-in-space-20201021/
How it Works
Like other forms of absentee voting, voting from space starts with a Federal Postcard Application, or FPCA. It’s the same form military members and their families fill out while serving outside of the U.S. By completing it ahead of their launch, space station crew members signal their intent to participate in an election from space.
Because astronauts move to Houston for their training, most opt to vote as Texas residents. Of course, NASA’s astronauts come from all over, so those wishing to vote as residents of their home states can work with their counties to make special arrangements to vote from space.
Once their FPCA is approved, the astronaut is almost ready to vote. Like many great things in space, voting starts with an experiment. The county clerk who manages elections in the astronaut’s home county sends a test ballot to a team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Then they use a space station training computer to test whether they’re able to fill it out and send it back to the county clerk.
After a successful test, a secure electronic ballot generated by the Clerk’s office of Harris County and surrounding counties in Texas, is uplinked by Johnson’s Mission Control Center to the voting crew member. An e-mail with crew member-specific credentials is sent from the County Clerk to the astronaut. These credentials allow the crew member to access the secure ballot.
The astronaut will then cast their vote, and the secure, completed ballot is downlinked and delivered back to the County Clerk’s Office by e-mail to be officially recorded. The clerk has their own password to ensure they are the only one who can open the ballot. It’s a quick process, and the astronaut must be sure to submit it by 7 p.m. local time on Election Day if voting as a Texas resident.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/astronauts-to-vote-in-space
A jet suit for paramedics which would see patients reached in minutes by a "flying" medic has been tested by the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
After a year of talks between GNAAS and Gravity Industries, a first test flight was carried out in the Lake District.
Andy Mawson, director of operations at GNAAS, came up with the idea and described seeing it as "awesome".
He said it meant a paramedic could "fly" to a fell top in 90 seconds rather than taking 30 minutes on foot.
Mr Mawson said: "There are dozens of patients every month within the complex but relatively small geographical footprint of the Lakes.
"We could see the need. What we didn't know for sure is how this would work in practice. Well we've seen it now and it is, quite honestly, awesome."
Mr Mawson said the exercise had demonstrated the huge potential of using jet suits to deliver critical care services.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-54331994
When the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown forced swathes of humanity back into their houses, the silence that swept across towns and cities was such that it got its own name. The “anthropause” saw a plummet in human behavior, some of the consequences of which included an increase in wildlife sightings and a reduction in harmful pollution such as carbon dioxide emissions (sadly, not long term). Another type of pollution that was curbed was sound, and new research published in the journal Science has revealed the surprising effect this had on San Francisco’s sparrows.
Imagine you’re at a crowded bar at the back of a noisy gig (remember those?). When you try to order a drink your speech is loud, strained and a little grating on the ears – not exactly your most flattering tone of voice. For white-crowned sparrows in San Francisco, this is a bit what it feels like for males attempting to lure in a lady with their soulful singing over the calamitous backdrop of traffic.
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/lockdown-silence-made-sparrows-song-sexier-thanks-to-a-quieter-arena/?ref=thefuturist
