Technology

State Launches Dashboard To Track Water Security Plan

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STATE News:

SANTA FE — New Mexico launched a public dashboard on Tuesday that enables New Mexicans to track progress on a 50-year Water Action Plan aimed at preparing the state for a climate crisis expected to leave the state 25% drier within 50 years.

The 50-Year Water Action Plan Implementation Dashboard provides the public with a real-time window to monitor the state’s progress in addressing projected water shortages driven by drought and climate change. The plan is based on three pillars: conserving existing freshwater supplies, developing new water sources and protecting water quality. Read More

New Mexico’s Next Generation Radio-Astronomy: A New Era Of Discovery In A Crowded Sky 

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Figure 1. Twenty seven huge antennae are mounted on rails, and a network of remote radiotelescopes is woven together to probe the skies. Courtesy/NRAO

By Mark A. MacInnes
Los Alamos Daily Post

World-Class Radio-Astronomy

For more than four decades, the radiotelescope dishes of the New Mexico Very Large Array (VLA) have stood on the plains of San Agustin, as New Mexico’s most recognizable and world-class scientific landmark. At an evening town hall on April 15 at the Bradbury Science Museum, this was the introductory pitch, according to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) Director Read More

Atomic Fiber Ushers County Into Better Internet Service

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County Broadband Manger Jerry Smith

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

Slow internet speeds, service disruptions and total outages are about to be things of the past. Atomic Fiber, Los Alamos County’s community broadband network, will officially start construction with a groundbreaking ceremony at 4 p.m. May 12 near the White Rock Visitor Center.

County Broadband Manager Jerry Smith said the ceremony will kick off phase one construction of the eight-phase project. Phase one will include the construction of the three network hubs. These hubs will be located Read More

An Open Book: I, Robot, Vacuum

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By DAVID IZRAELEVITZ
Los Alamos

While finishing graduate school in the 1980s, I knew a few people involved in robotic vision, or how to build robots that recognize objects to pick up or avoid. Instead of a humanoid robot, think of a single eyeball mounted near a disembodied arm to find and manipulate simple objects. If your robot could pick up a torus (i.e. a donut), and dunk it in a container (i.e., a coffee cup), you’d have a prize-winning doctoral thesis. It is not far from the truth to say that one could see a graduate student dunking a donut in a coffee cup while programming a robot to do the same. Kind Read More

LAPD Warns Of More Phone Scams

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LAPD News:

The Los Alamos Police Department (LAPD) is warning residents about a recent phone scam in which callers impersonate officers from the Los Alamos Police Department and Deputies from the Los Alamos Sheriff’s Department, falsely claiming that individuals must pay money to clear arrest warrants.

LAPD reminds the community that no law enforcement agency or court will ever contact individuals demanding payment to resolve fines or warrants. If you receive such a call, it is fraudulent.

These types of scams have been increasing in Los Alamos this year, with criminals using various Read More

Catch Of The Week: Prove You’re Human (While Getting Hacked)

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By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

You know that annoying “I’m not a robot” checkbox you click seventeen times a day without thinking? Turns out, that automatic, muscle memory click is exactly what cybercriminals are counting on. Yikes!

A nasty scam called FakeCaptcha has been making the rounds, and it is disturbingly simple.

You land on a compromised website, a CAPTCHA pops up, you click “I’m not a robot” and without knowing it, a PowerShell script gets copied to your clipboard. The fake verification then walks you through three steps: press Win + R to open the Run dialog, Read More

Heinrich, Young, Rounds, Booker Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation To Expand AI Research Access

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U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Founder and Co-Chair of the Senate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus, and Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the CREATE AI Act, legislation to establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) as shared national research infrastructure that provides AI researchers and students with greater access to the resources, data, and tools needed to develop safe and trustworthy AI.

“The CREATE AI Act will help us develop and deploy AI responsibly, Read More

Innovative Research At SHSU Leads To Two New Patents Advancing Agriculture And Forensic Science

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SHSU News:

HUNTSVILLE, TX — Sam Houston State University continues to advance its reputation as a leader in applied research with two newly issued patents that merge cutting-edge technology, agricultural innovation and real-world problem solving. These achievements highlight the university’s commitment not only to scientific discovery, but also to developing tools that serve communities, industry partners and public agencies. 

The first patent, led by Jorn (Chi-Chung) Yu in the Department of Forensic Science, introduces a groundbreaking method for determining whether a cannabis Read More

Luján, Goldman Reintroduce Bill To Protect Consumers, Require Transparency On Food & Grocery Delivery Apps

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U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) will reintroduce the Promoting Real-time Information on Cost Expenditure (PRICE) Act, legislation designed to provide consumers with more clarity on delivery app pricing.

When shopping through a delivery app for meal delivery, groceries, or other products, many companies apply surprise delivery fees and service charges at checkout that significantly inflate the total cost. Read More

LANL: NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds More Evidence Of Ancient Lakes On Mars

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A NASA ‘postcard’ of the Amapari Marker Band, a winding region where Curiosity discovered unexpected signs of an ancient lake. Courtesy/NASA/JPL-Caltech

LANL News:

  • The findings shed new light on the potential for past life

A team of scientists using the ChemCam instrument on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has discovered the highest amounts of iron, manganese, and zinc ever found together in the Gale Crater on Mars. Minerals with these metals were found in remarkably well-preserved ripples in rocks, indicating the high likelihood that a shallow lake existed at this location.

Metal-rich deposits Read More