Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for August 6, 2019

Bitcoin hash power at record high; Blackhawk helicopters testing lasers to misdirect heat-seeking missiles; Litecoin reward halving; Graeco-Roman Senate building discovered in Egypt; Wildfire protection from the Internet of Trees

Straight from my RSS feed:

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

pixabay license: source.

Bitcoin’s Computing Power Sets Record as Over 100K New Miners Go Online - As bitcoin price reaches recent highs, the hash difficulty is rising consistently. Crunching the numbers indicates that the equivalent hashpower to 100k state-of-the-art miners has come online recently. During the last two weeks, the hash power has been, "71.43 quintillion hashes per second (EH/s)", which represents a 10% increase over July. These rates have been exceeded before, but the difficulty adjustment on August 5 marks the first time that the high rates were sustained for a period of two weeks.

The Army's Black Hawk helicopters are testing a new laser system to fend off heat-seeking missiles - The Common Infrared Countermeasures system (CIRCM) uses two pointers/trackers to monitor an incoming infrared guided device, and engages one of two lasers in order to misdirect the guidance system. The platform is designed to accommodate algorithm changes in the future, in order to stay ahead of adaptations that may be implemented by adversaries. This complements the Common Missile Warning System (CMWS), which is already in place to detect incoming heat-guided missiles and provide warning to the pilot. A Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure (LAIRCM) system has also been developed for Apache and Chinook helicopters. It works in the VH-60 helicopters by jamming the incoming missile, but it had unexplained problems with operation in the Blackhawk UH-60s.

Litecoin Price Hits $100 as Miner Block Rewards Get Halved - Buy the rumor, sell the news? The litecoin (LTC) block reward just dropped from 25 to 12.5 coins per block. Not much movement one way or another, so far (writing on Aug 5.). The next halving is expected on or around Aug 2, 2023, at which time it will drop from 12.5 to 6.25.

Remains of Graeco-Roman Senate building uncovered in North Sinai - Archaeologists working in Egypt's North Sinai have unearthed the remains of a 2,500 square meter building that dates to the Graeco-Roman period, a prosperous period when the region fell under the rule of the Ptolemaic and the Romans. Based on the size of the building, archaeologists believe that it was used for meetings of citizen representatives and city elders. h/t archaeology.org

STEEM Scientific innovations for human problems [Forest protection] [Fire]. Introduction. Part 1. Internet of Trees (Wildfire detection/monitoring system) - @alexbiojs posts with details about the immense damage to life, property, and the environment, that's caused by forest fires, and introduces an initiative that intends to bring improvement. Combining the concepts of Internet of Things (Iot) and Environmental Sensor Networks (ESNs), the Internet of Trees intends to deploy a vast network of fire detectors, providing early warning of forest fires, so that they can be extinguished before spreading. Once deployed, the device's batteries are expected to last for 3-5 years. (A 10% beneficiary setting has been assigned to @alexbiojs for this post.)

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