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Someone crashed a drone into Seattle's Great Wheel
Tonight Seattle news stations are reporting that someone hit the Great Wheel ride with a drone (hopefully it's not one of Amazon's). There were no injuries or damage to the Ferris Wheel, while the drone apparently crashed onto the patio of a nearby restaurant. According to KIRO 7, the owner of the drone has not been located, something the Department of Transportation probably thinks that its plan for a national drone registry could help solve. On YouTube there are a number of videos from people safely flying drones around the massive ride, but incidents like this show how a few careless owners may ruin the hobby for those that operate their aircraft responsibly.
NASA crashes a third airplane for science on live TV
If you've ever wanted to see a "severe but survivable plane accident" (without worrying about actual lives at stake), tune into NASA TV today between 1 and 2pm ET. The site will be broadcasting live coverage of a simulated crash conducted by the agency's Search and Rescue Mission Office.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash was due to co-pilot error (updated)
After nearly 9 months of investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board has an official explanation for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash. As suspected, the accident happened when the co-pilot triggered the "feathering" system (moving the tail wings to increase drag for reentry) well below the intended Mach 1.4 speed -- the premature resistance led to the suborbital craft breaking up and plummeting into the Mojave Desert. More details are forthcoming, but Virgin Galactic says that it welcomes the findings. Hopefully, the lessons learned prevent future accidents and keep private spaceflight on track. Update: The NTSB has published the full ruling, and says that there also wasn't enough done to either prevent this mistake or educate pilots about what would happen. Even the FAA is partly to blame, since it didn't check to make sure that the requirements behind a hazard waiver were implemented properly. In other words, the co-pilot's slip-up was the last piece of a larger puzzle. [Image credit: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu]
Drone knocks woman unconscious at Seattle pride parade
A bungling pilot has just reminded us (again) why drones need at least some kind of regulation. During Seattle's gay pride parade, a 25-year-old woman was knocked unconscious after she was struck by a UAV, according to the SPD Blotter. The genius operator reportedly crashed the DJI-sized craft into a building, causing it to fall on her head. She was treated by firefighters at the scene, while one of her friends handed the drone and photographs of the alleged pilot to police.
Google publishes the boring details of its self-driving car accidents
While Google prepares to move its driverless car tests from modified hatchbacks and SUVs to the custom prototype shown above, questions keep popping up about any accidents they've been in (even though the car itself has not been at fault). Earlier this week Google co-founder Sergey Brin stook questions about those accidents, and today the company issued the first of a series of monthly breakdowns on its autonomous driving tests. USA Today says the reports will include info about any incidents, as well as other anecdotes and examples of how the cars handle every day traffic situations. Of course, if Google wanted to hide any information about its progress then it has found the perfect way -- it turns out that reading about a car getting rear-ended at stop lights incredibly boring, even if it's a self-driving car that was hit.
Google's Sergey Brin opens up about self-driving car accidents
Accidents happen, but that hasn't stopped people being curious about the sort of scrapes that Google's self-driving cars have gotten into. Sergey Brin recently conceded that there had been a 12th incident involving the autonomous vehicles, one more than the 11 reported at the start of May. The revelation came at the outfit's annual shareholder meeting, where privacy advocate John Simpson needled the co-founder enough to get him to open up about the autonomous vehicle's crashes. It turns out, however, that the biggest cause for these incidents hasn't been hardware or software failure, but the general negligence of California's drivers.
Russia grounds Proton-M rockets following an accident
Russia's space program just can't catch a break, it seems. A spokesperson tells RIA that the country has suspended all Proton-M rocket launches following an accident that destroyed one model carrying a Mexican satellite. Officials reportedly want to know why this vehicle failed before they let any others take off -- all they've determined so far is that the third stage's engine booster suffered a glitch. The move is understandable (both Russia and private launch services lean heavily on the Proton-M), but it also suggests that the nation's rocket problems are boiling to a head. Unless it finds a permanent solution, there may well be more incidents in the future. [Image credit: Roscosmos via AP]
Showing off 'Grand Theft Auto V' for PC comes with a high price
If someone accidentally puts some personal information online, you'd hope that others wouldn't prey on the mistake. Unfortunately, mercy is a rare commodity on the internet, as a few honest (albeit preventable) mistakes have cost some game streamers their copies of Grand Theft Auto V. As Kotaku reports, when the new PC edition of the game launches, the first thing it offers up is a splash screen with your registration key displayed at the bottom. That's a problem for those who unwittingly started the stream a few moments too soon, since the information was quickly screenshotted and the game was promptly stolen. Today's lesson, then, has two parts: People are terrible, and don't stream GTA V until you're sure your desktop is clear.
Samsung will broadcast public safety announcements over LTE this year
Samsung's got strong LTE (and LTE-A, and... whatever's next) bones and now it's looking to shift the commercial tech into the emergency services. Public safety announcements has been a project of the 3GPP for a while. What's that, you say? It's a ragtag gang of superheroes telecoms groups and organizations that hammers out the crucially important (but typically very dry) standards and technical specifications -- these have formed the basis for the likes of 3G and LTE in the past. Samsung's public safety LTE (PS-LTE) is apparently geared for first responders and use during "emergency situations". Importantly the option of a new kind of public safety announcement network will take the drag off existing networks, as well as offer the data heft of LTE network, hopefully ensuring communication remains possible in even the most dire situations.
Smart body panels will let you know when someone dents your car
Ever come back to your car to find that someone dinged it while you were away? You might have a better chance at catching the culprit in the future. Germany's Hella is developing a smart body panel that uses a grid of foil-like pressure-sensitive electronic sensors (plus special algorithms) to detect when someone dents or scratches your vehicle. It can even tie into onboard cameras and GPS to both record where the car was and get some video evidence, so you can show that someone else's botched parking job wrecked your ride. Of course, this might also work against you. Insurers could use dent alerts to hike your rates on the fly, and rental agencies could penalize you for damage before you've even returned to the lot.
Elder Scrolls Online accidentally bans legitimate accounts
Mark this down in the "oops!" category: ZeniMax admitted that it got a little too zealous in its war against EULA breakers in Elder Scrolls Online by accidentally banning some players who had done no wrong. "As part of our continuing effort to combat gold spammers, botters and exploiters, we recently banned a number of accounts," the studio posted. "After several players appealed, we were able to investigate the matter further and discovered some legitimate accounts got caught up in the sweep. We unbanned accounts last night, and have email responses going out for those affected from our support group. It is never our intention for legitimate players to be harmed as we work to keep your game free of cheaters, and we sincerely apologize for the mistake." ZeniMax also said that this past week's maintenance accidentally deleted some characters' bank expansions and the items held inside of them. The studio put up a process how to regain those slots and items if it happened to you.
Carbon Dioxide leak kills Samsung factory worker
Korean news agency Yonhap News is reporting that a gas leak at a Samsung plant in southern Seoul has left one worker dead. A malfunction in the factory's fire extinguishing system released carbon dioxide after it mistakenly detected fire, asphyxiating a 52-year-old man working in the area. It's the latest in a string of accidents at Samsung facilities over the past 18 months, raising questions over the safety of Samsung's operations in South Korea. In January 2013, a major hydrofluoric acid leak at the company's main chip factory in the city of Hwaseong killed one worker and hospitalized four others, while three more were injured in a similar incident four months later. Samsung confirmed today's accident on its official website, adding that it will work to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Police are investigating the cause of the leak, but there's no word on whether Samsung will be punished more severely than the $1,000 fine and official warning it received from officials last year.
Insomniac holds signed Xbox One auction for injured intern
After losing her leg in a hit-and-run incident, Insomniac Games intern Ana Kessel faces mounting medical bills related to her treatment. In an effort to help Kessel, Insomniac has covered a new, Microsoft-donated Xbox One in signatures and put the console up for auction on eBay. The Xbox One is available for shipment worldwide and also comes with sealed, Day One Edition copies of Forza Motorsport 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome. If you're already set for the new console generation, you can still help by donating to Kessel's GoFundMe page. At the time of this writing, $58,196 has been collected out of a requested $150,000. Epic Games also held auctions to benefit Kessel in November, offering up original, retro and gold-colored models of the Gears of War series' Lancer. The auctions resulted in a total of $3,000 going toward Kessel's medical bills. Here's to hoping Kessel quickly collects the remaining amount for her medical expenses and returns to work in the industry as a graphics artist.
Daily Update for December 27, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio podcast format. You'll hear some of the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update moved to a new podcast host in the past few weeks. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Epic auctions 3 signed Lancers to aid Insomniac intern after hit-and-run
Insomniac Games interning artist Ana Kessel recently lost her leg in a hit-and-run accident, and Epic Games has stepped up to help raise money for her medical bills. Epic is auctioning three signed replica Lancers from Gears of War on Ebay, with all proceeds going to Kessel's recovery fund. Epic has put up a replica original Lancer, a retro Lancer and a gold retro Lancer on Ebay, each signed. They'll be available for bidding through November 22. "All proceeds from this auction will be going to help with Ana Kessel's medical bills," the Lancer descriptions read. "She was an intern at Insomniac Games, a local video game company here in the triangle area, who was recently involved in a hit-and-run accident while on her scooter. She has been in the hospital since Monday, and had to have one of her legs amputated. Without having medical insurance, the financial burden will be immense, which is why I am auctioning off a few pieces of memorabilia from our video game."
Three Samsung workers injured in second serious acid leak at chip plant (updated)
Korean agency Yonhap News is reporting that there's been a second major leak of hydrofluoric acid at Samsung's main chip factory in the city of Hwaseong. Three workers are said to have been injured, with no word yet on how badly. Only three months have passed since the last such accident at the plant, which proved to be fatal and which got Samsung a nominal $1,000 fine as well as a telling-off from police investigators -- but which evidently didn't lead to sufficient safety improvements. Update: Samsung has been in touch to say that the acid leak wasn't in gas form, as Yonhap (and we) initially reported, and that the injured workers were contractors hired by Samsung rather than staff: At approximately 11:30 a.m. on May 2, three external contract workers were partially exposed to diluted hydrofluoric acid at Samsung's semiconductor manufacturing facility in Hwaseong, Korea. The workers received immediate first aid attention on site and were admitted to hospital for further examination. This occurred while the workers were upgrading parts of an existing facility in line with Ministry of Employment and Labor requirements. Samsung has reported the incident to the appropriate local authorities and is fully cooperating with investigations. We take the health and safety of workers very seriously and are committed to addressing any issues regarding the well-being of those working in our facilities.
Samsung apologizes for plant acid leak incident
Samsung has formally (and publicly) apologized over the hydrofluoric acid leak that occurred in January. Alongside this, Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun said that the company will revoke its application to get its plants certified as green for another five years. He added that the company is now overhauling its existing system to prevent any similar accidents from recurring. Samsung's 'green' plants were previously able to sidestep governmental checks on the facilities' environmental impact. Meanwhile, police are still investigating seven people on charges of negligence over the incident.
Korean police contradict Samsung over fatal gas leak, say acid got into the environment
Samsung has already been given a small fine for not reporting a fatal gas leak promptly enough, but now it could be in more serious trouble. At the time of the accident, which led to the death of a maintenance contractor, the manufacturer released a statement indicating that the leak of hydrofluoric acid had been "contained." But CCTV footage seen by investigators now suggests that some of the lethal gas reached beyond the confines of the chip plant. A local environmental group claims to have detected high levels of the gas within a couple of kilometers of the building -- an area with tens of thousands of residents. Police still appear to be investigating, but if all this turns out to be true then another $1,000 ticket probably isn't going to fix it.
Samsung fined $1,000 over fatal gas leak, according to Yonhap News
Korea's Yonhap News Agency is reporting that Samsung will be fined a nominal 1 million won (roughly $1,000) for not reporting its recent gas leak quickly enough. The incident led to the death of a maintenance contractor who was brought in to fix a pipe leaking hydrofluoric acid gas at one of Samsung's semiconductor plants. Police are said to be imposing the fine on both Samsung and its subcontractor for violating a law stipulating that such chemical leaks must be "promptly" reported to the authorities. It appears no official alert was given until the contractor died in hospital. Police say they're continuing to investigate how the fatal accident happened and that it's clear "someone died due to poor administration," so this isn't the end of the matter -- a fuller report is expected within two weeks.
Gas leak proves fatal at Samsung chip plant in Korea
A maintenance contractor called out to fix a hydrofluoric acid leak at a Samsung plant has died after being taken to a hospital, according to Korean media. Four others were injured by the lethal gas but have reportedly been discharged by doctors. The factory in question is located within South Korea, which isn't known for the sort of lax safety standards that plague workers in China, but AsiaE reports the accident will nevertheless be investigated to find out if any laws were breached in the way the leak was handled, and if the killed contractor was wearing the right protective gear. For the sake of context, it's worth remembering that even state-of-the-art installations can be prone to accidents -- in 2011, for example, seven American workers were injured in an explosion at Intel's semiconductor fab in Arizona. Update: Samsung has issued a statement, promising a thorough investigation into its cause.