TOMONEWS US

SEATTLE — Amazon is opening a grocery store in downtown Seattle early next year where customers can make their purchases without waiting in checkout lines. The store, called Amazon Go, allows customers to make purchases without the aid of a cashier. Customers would simply need to download the an app onto their phones, open an Amazon account, and visit the Amazon Go store. Amazon’s promotional video shows how customers are admitted into the store after opening their Amazon Go app and scanning it on the turnstiles. The app generates a QR code that logs the customer into the store’s network and connects to the customer’s Amazon account. This prevents shoplifting as the customer’s identity is recognized and stored. The entire store is equipped with computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning technology. It can automatically detect when products are taken from the shelves and records them in virtual shopping carts. The products are removed from the carts if they are placed back onto the shelves. When leaving the store, customers have to pass through turnstiles equipped with sensors that signal the app to calculate the cost of the purchases. The payment is then charged to the customer’s Amazon account. The pictures shown on the Amazon website suggest that some staff might still be responsible for making ready-to-eat meals or other preparations at the store, but the store would probably not include any cashiers or people to bag groceries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 3.4 million Americans are working as cashiers. The New York Post quoted Britt Beam, president of America’s Research Group — a consumer-behavior research firm — saying that Amazon’s technology might wipe out 75 percent of typical grocery-store staff.

GLASGOW, UK— A Staffordshire bull terrier puppy named Macie is lucky to be alive after an extremely close encounter with a kitchen knife. Sky News reports that owner Irene Paisley first noticed the 12-week-old pup making a squeaking sound and thought she’d swallowed a toy. She then became sick and started choking, despite no sign of a toy. When they got to the vet, blood was coming out of Macie’s nose. Her owner’s worries quickly turned to shock, however, after it was discovered the pup had a knife in her gut. Paisley believes Macie might have gotten the knife from the dishwasher and swallowed it handle-first. The handle passed through her stomach and into the intestines. Fortunately, no internal organs were pierced, which would have been the case if the blade had gone in first. After emergency surgery, Macie was back to normal. Paisley says she was bouncing around the morning after the procedure as if nothing had happened.

UNITED KINGDOM — Sewage plants could be leaking millions of tiny plastic beads used for wastewater treatment into seas around the U.K., according to a new report. Dozens of treatment facilities across the country use Bio-Bead plastic pellets to filter chemical and organic contaminants out from sewage, the study from the Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition (CPPC) said, the Guardian reported. The study found several millions of the 3.5 mm wide pellets had been spilled into the surrounding seas. The Bio-Bead system is used by at least 55 sewage plants around the U.K., according to the CPPC. Bio-Beads are used in the last step of the sewage treatment process before treated effluent water is discharged back into rivers or the sea. The CPPC found no systems are currently in place at sewage plants to handle Bio-Bead spills. Plastic microbeads and industrial pellets, like Bio-Beads, are often mistaken for food by fish, birds and other marine wildlife. The plastic kills animals by blocking the digestive tract, but also as a result of exposure to chemical pollutants like DDT and PCBs that attach to the plastic beads in seawater.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco startup Plenty specialized in vertical farming has secured $200 million from investors including Japanese media corporation SoftBank, the parent company of Google, Alphabet and Amazon. Plenty grows their plants vertically on the sides of a tall tower. Lights are also arranged vertically to give the plants maximum amount of exposure. The vertical farm can grow up to 350 times more produce than conventional farm in the same amount of space, using less water too, Fast Company reported. According to the BBC, the firm is planning on building indoor vertical farms with the size up to five acres, which is roughly the size of big supermarkets like Walmart. The facilities will be built next to large cities in order to reduce the amount of delivery time. “We believe that Plenty's team will remake the current food system to improve people's quality of life,” Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Softbank Group said in a statement. Plenty was founded in 2013. It now has 100 employees in San Francisco and Wyoming. The firm plans to supply its vertically grown food to market this fall. The firm is not the first nor the only firm specializing in vertical farming. Other firms such as Aerofarms, Bowery and Betterlife Growers are all promoting this innovative farming technology.

WASHINGTON — What seemed like Fox-inspired tweets from the commander-in-chief, were actually a series Twitter touchdowns that stole NFL Sunday from the NFL, and took #nationalanthem into overtime.

Meet Yeonmi Park. At 21 she looks like a typical university student enjoying the perks of living in Seoul, South Korea’s ultra-modern capital city. It’s hard to believe that she was actually born and grew up in a small port village in North Korea, along the river that defines the border between the North and it’s largest neighbor, China. Today Yeonmi is an outspoken activist, telling her family’s story about their harrowing escape from North Korea, ruled by one of the world’s most reclusive and repressive regimes. At a young age Yeonmi was indoctrinated with North Korean ideology, where Kim Jong-il and his family are treated as gods and any dissent is punished with prison and torture. The government tightly controls everything and limits citizens’ access to the outside world. When Yeonmi was just 13 years old she was invited to watch the execution of her best friend’s mother. The woman had been arrested for watching South Korean movies and sharing the DVDs with friends. She along with several others were executed by firing squad for their crime.

A new form of malware is targeting Apple Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPads in China, according to a paper published on Wednesday by computer security research company Palo Alto Networks. The malware, known as WireLurker, is distributed as a trojan horse in otherwise benign applications and can spread via downloads or to phones and other devices running Apple’s iOS operating system via a USB connection. This strain of malware marks the first time Apple’s iOS, its operating system for smartphones and tablets, has been successfully infected by a computer virus in the traditional sense. Ordinarily, there are many systems in play that keep iOS locked down to prevent such an infection. WireLurker, however, exploits the connection between an Apple Macintosh computer running a MacOS version of iTunes and the USB cable to send infected-malware laced programs into the Apple smartphone or tablet. WireLurker can steal a variety of information from the mobile devices it infects and regularly requests updates from the attackers’ command and control server in China. The malware is under active development and its creator’s ultimate goal is not yet clear.

THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM — Scientists in Granada, Spain have discovered a ring system around the dwarf planet Haumea. Named after that Hawaiian goddess of childbirth, Haumea is orbited by two moons and, according to a new Nature study, a giant ring system. The only other celestial bodies observed to present a ring system Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. Details of the finding were published in the journal Nature.

Recent raids to take down Blackshades malware hackers took place in more than a dozen countries and involved law enforcement agencies in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. At least 90 Blackshades hackers have been arrested in the crackdown, which spanned more than a dozen countries and involved more than 300 searches. U.S. prosecutors announced charges on Monday against users of a software program called Blackshades. According to the FBI, hackers who paid $40 could use Blackshades to hack into other people’s computers from anywhere in the world. Hackers would gain access to sexually explicit photographs from personal computers, train victims’ webcams on them using a remote access tool and even send threats to victims who tried to block the online intrusions. The FBI added that Blackshades recorded sales of more than $350,000 between September 2010 and April 2014. Buyers came from more than 100 countries. Prosecutors said users could “lock” victims' files, making them inaccessible, access victims' keystrokes, access their passwords and send messages and emails which, when clicked on by recipients, would cause viruses to spread further. Officials confiscated computers, laptops, mobile telephones, routers, external hard drives and USB memory sticks in a two-day operation coordinated by Eurojust in The Hague and supported by European investigators. Authorities also discovered cash, illegal firearms and drugs.

BOSTON — Boston Globe columnist Dante Ramos photographed a rude airline passenger and now the photo has gone viral. Ramos was flying from Houston to Boston after a trip to New Orleans when a long ponytail flopped over the screen of the passenger seated next to him, his partner Ryan. "All of a sudden, an enormous ponytail flopped out from atop the seat in front of him, over the in-flight entertainment screen, and down almost to his open tray table. It broke an unspoken rule of economy class: Keep your coats, extremities, and expansive hairstyles under strict control," Ramos wrote in a column for the "Boston Globe." Ramos and Ryan shared looks of disbelief. The two waited to see if the young lady to whom the ponytail belonged would notice. But as she continued to play games on her phone, either oblivious or simply without care, Ryan decided to speak up. "Barely looking up from her device, she moved her seatback forward, and her ponytail flopped back out of our sight," Ramos wrote. After the plane landed, Ramos posted the photo he had taken on Twitter with a snarky caption: "Congrats to the ponytailed young woman in seat 22B. You've invented a whole new way to be awful at 35,000 feet." The photo quickly went viral. The photo gained over 10,000 likes and retweets, sparking conversations over this whole new way to annoy fellow passengers.

MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA — A Northern California bus driver is being hailed a hero after he says he followed his parental instincts, an intuition so sharp it led him to stop a kidnapper from abducting a young boy on Friday. A 3-year-old boy was reported kidnapped at the Milpitas Public Library at around 10:40 a.m. Local police quickly responded, closing the library to incoming and outgoing traffic and sending alerts to all area bus drivers to be on the lookout. Tim Watson was on his morning shift when he caught sight of one of the alerts and about an hour later, the driver noticed a passenger in his mid-20’s with a crying boy, both of whom matched descriptions mentioned in the police alert. Trusting his fatherly instincts Watson pulled the bus over and announced that someone had lost a backpack. "What I'm really trying to do is to get up without him knowing to look at the little boy,” Watson told ABC 7 News. “So sure enough, I see the plaid shorts and red shoes. That's what really stuck out in my mind." The father of two noticed the boy’s red shoes and quickly radioed police. "And that's when my own kids came to mind and I just broke down. I couldn't hold myself down. I just had to go inside the bus and reflect," said Watson. The parents of the child were too emotional to speak publicly, but were thankful to both the police and Watson for rescuing their little boy. Milpitas police detained Alfonso David Edington, 23, who had no connections to the family and is currently being held on charges of kidnapping.

After two years of laying low, a picture of a smoking hot female Dutch cop is once again going viral. Some claimed that this sexy cop was an actress, but it appears that this photo was taken at the scene of a real crime. Back in April of 2012, robbers in the Netherlands used pepper spray to knock off a jewelry shop. They sprayed customers and staff before escaping with several expensive watches. They were later busted, but that’s not the real story here. A video of the crime scene appears to show the woman in the background. Other members of the crime response team can also be seen with the stunning officer. She’s real, guys. The real question is, is the Netherlands ready for droves of pubescent boys committing misdemeanor crimes for the slim chance of being frisked by a blond vixen in cowboy boots? If that’s you, make sure you’re really specific when told “anything you say can and will be held against you.” And weed’s considered a soft drug in the Netherlands, too, so make sure you stash something more illicit down your pants.

SPAIN — The Spanish designers of a new smart mattress, dubbed the “Smarttress,” claim their invention can tell you when your partner is being unfaithful. According to Re/code, the Smarttress bed’s “lover detection system” uses vibration sensors and contact zone detectors to tell if someone is on your bed when they’re not supposed to be. If the system detects activity, it notifies you via an app. The app displays the movement’s location and visualizes its intensity and per-minute impact. Engineer Ivan Miranda told the Daily Telegraph that the device can tell the difference between the activity of sexual intercourse, or, say, a dog jumping on the bed. “If it detects suspicious activity regarding time of use, frequency, intensity or speed, it sends a notification to the phone terminal with which it is linked," said Miranda. The device will cost around £1,200, the Telegraph reported. In a promotional video featured on the Smarttress website, Durmet, the company behind the Smarttress, say they designed the bed because of Spain’s high level of adultery.

AHMEDABAD, INDIA — India has started building a high-speed train system with the help of Japanese technology and finance. The network will stretch 508 kms from Ahmedabad to the financial center of Mumbai, and was announced Thursday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Guardian reported. The country plans to invest $19 billion to construct the new bullet train line. Japan will fund more than 80 percent of the project, over $14 billion, by providing a 0.1 percent interest loan to be repaid over the next 50 years. The line is expected to be finished by 2023 and will cut travel time between the two cities down to three hours from the current eight. The Modi administration claims that the project will create 36,000 jobs in India, according to the Guardian. The bullet train can carry 750 passengers at an average speed of 250 kph, with a top speed of 320 kph. Analysts say constructing the bullet train will give a boost to infrastructure development in India’s quickly-developing western industrial region and help with economic growth.

MEXICO CITY — A new Hyperloop system being proposed by Mexican consortium Mexloop could reduce traveling time between Mexico City and Guadalajara to 38 minutes. Mexloop’s design is one of the 10 winners of the Hyperloop One Global Challenge, Inhabitat reported. The Hyperloop would connect 42 million people in four major cities in Central Mexico: Mexico City, Querétaro, León and Guadalajara. The proposed system would stretch 330 miles, and would take about 38 minutes the travel the entire route. Stations would be located close to airports, rail freight hubs and train stations in order to maximize transportation infrastructure efficiency, according to Hyperloop One. Mexloop says the Hyperloop would help the economy as well as ease traffic congestion. According to Mexloop, a Hyperloop system would only be two thirds of the cost of a high speed rail system.

Five people were injured on Thursday night when they were flung from a moving ride at the North Carolina state fair in Raleigh. It was about 9.20 p.m. and people were eager to get in a last spin on the Vortex before closing time. Witnesses said that just as people we getting of, the ride restarted without warning sending people tumbling back to Earth from as high at 30 feet. One man said he heard bang as people fell and then spun around to see the rider operator fall to his knees and cry. All of the five injured were aged 14 to 39. State Fair spokesman Brian Long said the state labor department would conduct an investigation as would the sheriff’s office.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Explosives experts in Frankfurt on Sunday defused a massive bomb — a remnant of the last World War more than 70 years ago. CNN reports that the 1.4 ton HC 4000 bomb was found buried at a construction site close to Goethe University’s Frankfurt campus on Tuesday. The discovery prompted authorities to cordon off a 1.5-kilometer radius danger zone around the explosive. Over 60,000 people were evacuated from the area, which was home to hospitals, retirement homes, and the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank. Dubbed ‘Blockbuster’, the British World War II-era bomb could reportedly generate an explosion capable of flattening an entire block. Of the estimated 1.5 million tons of munitions dropped on Germany by Allied forces, some 15% failed to explode and ended up getting buried, according to the New York Times. Experts say over 2,000 tons of unexploded weaponry are found in the country each year. Despite having a dedicated bomb-disposal unit, Germany’s unexploded bombs remain a problem. The aging munitions could become more brittle and unstable, and are reportedly being spotted in harder-to-reach areas, reports the BBC.

BLAINE, WASHINGTON — Last December, the Washington State Department of Agriculture confirmed two reports of Asian giant hornets in Blaine, Washington. Two more unconfirmed sightings were reported in Custer, Washington. These killer hornets are now coming out of winter hibernation. Asian giant hornets can measure between 1.5 to 2 inches, or 3.8 to 25 centimeters, in length. They have stingers that deliver venom to their victims and mandibles capable of decapitating bees. According to the WSU Insider, the Asian giant hornet queen wakes from hibernation in April, finds nourishment and then looks for a place to establish a colony that will later go out to bring back food. The bee population in the United States is most threatened by these hornets from late summer to early fall. While they hunt for food for their next queens, the hornets will decapitate honey bees and eat the bee’s larvae and pupae. Well, you might be thinking, isn’t this just nature? The circle of life, so to speak? Nope, not really. First off, we don’t know how these hornets made it to the U.S., but they have never been found in the country before, so this new species is an invader and definitely a threat to beekeepers. Still not feeling like this pertains to you? A threat to bees means a threat to human food production. We need bees in order for many key crops to be pollinated. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than a third of all American crop production requires insects to help pollinate, and the primary pollinator is, you guessed it, honey bee colonies. So, what can you do? Well, if you live in the States, keep an eye out for these murderous buggers and call local authorities if you are unlucky enough to spot one. But in your quest to take down the murder hornet invasion, please be aware of their painful, toxin-ridden sting. Oh, and If you’re allergic to bees, then definitely stay away because their sting could easily cause a severe anaphylactic shock and even, well, death.

KUNMING, CHINA/PAKISTAN — A new study published in the journal Environmental Pollution discusses a fungus that breaks down plastic materials. A group of researchers from the Kunming Institute of Botany in China found aspergillus tubingensis, a common soil fungus, at a dump in Pakistan. Under laboratory conditions it was shown to break down plastic in weeks, not years. The fungus used its roots to break apart the plastic, but its effectiveness was found to be influenced by other factors such as temperature and pH levels. Aspergillus tubingensis was previously found in patients with lung conditions such as cystic fibrosis, according to a 2016 study in the journal Medical Mycology.

BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS — Walmart has received a patent last week for its self-driving shopping carts system. According to the US Patent & Trademark Office, the shopping carts will be equipped with detachable motors with video cameras and sensors. Customers can request a cart using a user interface device, potentially a smartphone. Supermarket employees usually have to round up abandoned carts. With the new system, the carts will be able to return to the docking station automatically. The carts can also be used to restock products that are low in stock. It is not yet known when or where the new system will be applied in Walmart supermarkets.

A male high school teacher at a school in Chiba, Japan was accused of burying 4 newborn kittens alive at the school. Police arrested and charged him with animal cruelty. According to the teacher, he came across a litter of newborn kittens. One of the kittens had already died and the teacher said he considered caring for the remaining 4, but decided that they’d probably die anyway. The teacher summoned 3 students from his homeroom class and told them to dig a hole in the ground. He said he didn’t explain why he wanted the students to dig the hole and waited for the students to depart before dumping the entire litter of kittens into the shallow grave. The teacher then filled in the grave, burying the 4 kittens alive. Later the school received a complaint from one of the parents who said their child had witnessed the teacher burying the kittens. The teacher was then reported to the police and the remains of the kittens were removed off the school campus. The teacher has been charged with 4 counts of animal cruelty.

HOUSTON, TEXAS — A Texas mother got the scare of her life this week after her daughter began choking on part of a fidget spinner toy. The handheld toy is one of the top 10 best-selling toys on Amazon. According to a Facebook post written by Houston woman Kelly Rose Joniec, she and her 10 year-old daughter, Britton, were in the car when Joniec noticed Britton’s face turning red. Britton began drooling as she pointed to her throat and said she had swallowed something. She told her mother that she put a part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to “clean” it, but somehow managed to swallow it. Joniec rushed Britton to a children’s hospital, where doctors were able to surgically dislodge the toy’s bearing from the girl’s esophagus via without any problems.

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA — An American Airlines passenger allegedly tried to bite a flight attendant and then jumped off a plane after it left the gate at Charlotte Douglas International Airport last Thursday. Flight 5242 had just pulled away from the gate and the seat belt was on when Tun Lon Sein, 22, got out of his seat and tried to open the main door, according to a federal air marshal’s affidavit. A flight attendant and two passengers then got up to stop Sein, according to SF Gate. Sien “tried to bite” the flight attendant and then went looking for another door to get off the plane, the affidavit said. Sien found a door in the galley and managed to open it, authorities said. He then jumped from the CRJ-200 jet. The passenger then ran towards the taxiway before being intercepted by two airport workers. He was booked into federal lockup shortly before midnight. According to the affidavit, Sien was halfway through a trip that started overseas and spoke little or no English.

Two planes collided with each other on Tuesday while taxiing at New York’s La Guardia airport. The incident occurred just after 11am when a Southwest Airlines 737 jet clipped an American Airlines plane that was waiting for a gate, according to port authority officials. Southwest Airlines Flight 449 was preparing to take 143 passengers to Denver while there were 149 passengers on board American Airlines Flight 1104 from Dallas, officials said. Footage taken by passengers showed a piece of the Southwest plane’s wing tip on the taxiway. Both aircraft were immediately taken out of service for repairs, leading to delays. There were no reports of injuries on either plane. The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into the incident.

WASHINGTON — The UK pledged an $88 million investment toward the U.S. government’s yet to be completed subterranean particle physics experiment this week. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, also known as DUNE, begins at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility at the Fermilab in Illinois. It ends 800 miles away at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. When finished, it’ll produce the world’s highest-intensity neutrino beam using the Fermilab’s proton accelerator. This beam will travel westward through the Earth’s mantle to South Dakota where scientists will gather data on the neutrino particles. Scientists believe the DUNE project could lead to a deeper understanding of these weightless subatomic particles and how the universe came to be.