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A new bill introduced in Congress last month aims to require proof of citizenship to register to votewhich could make an already-complicated registration process harder for millions of Americans. On January 3, Republican representative Chip Roy reintroduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to Congress to ensure that our elections and our sovereignty cannot be hijacked and influenced by foreign nationals who have no business voting in this country. The SAVE Act would require voters to present physical documentary proof of citizenship to register or reregister to vote. This means passports, birth certificates, or special drivers licenses that include proof of citizenshipeither REAL ID or an Enhanced Driver License that includes an American flag to show its holders citizenship. But by introducing additional barriers to vote, this legislation could incidentally disenfranchise millions of young voters, voters of color and married women, according to an analysis published by the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice. Why do people oppose the SAVE Act? After the 2016 election, President Trump stoked fears about noncitizen voting by falsely claiming that 3 million-to-5 million noncitizens voted in the election, but instances of this occurring are vanishingly rare, according to the Brennan Center. Noncitizen voting is already illegal in all 50 states. While the new requirements could ultimately bar noncitizen registrationwhich experts say only happens to an infinitesimal degreethey could also complicate or even block registration for millions of Americans who may not possess the required documents. Last year, the Brennan Center found that 21 million Americans dont have proof of citizenship readily available. The Enhanced Driver Licenseswhich show proof of citizenship on the cardare only available in five states. And almost half of Americans dont even own a passport. Younger voters and voters of color are less likely to have access to these required documents than others, according to the Brennan Centers analysis. The nonprofit also wrote that the SAVE Act would functionally eliminate mail-in voting registration because it requires voters to produce documentation in person to an election official. This bill may also disproportionately block married women from voting: As many as 69 million married women dont possess a birth certificate that matches their legal name, according to the Center for American Progress. The bill passed the House once in July, and with its reintroduction, it will likely see the floor again soon. But to be passed into law, the bill would need to overcome a potential Senate filibusterwhich would require unlikely support from seven Democrats.
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E-Commerce
From the moment Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947, zipping from New York to Paris in less than three hours became every travelers dream. It’s a dream that shattered as soon as everyone realized supersonic flight was really annoying for people on the ground. Thats why NASA and Lockheed Martin created the X-59 Quesst, which was designed with an aerodynamic profile that would reduce the eardrum-breaking boom to a dull thump. NASA’s upcoming test flight was supposed to be the first silent supersonic flight in historythen January 28 happened. That’s when the startup company Boom Supersonic flew a supersonic flight over the Mojave Desert, in California, using a radically different approach that was theorized decades ago but only now has been possible thanks to new engines and computers. [Photo: Boom Supersonic] The company announced the milestone February 10. The testing of its Boomless Cruise technologyrecorded with a sophisticated microphone array by NASAshowed that its XB-1 demonstrator aircraft broke the sound barrier three times without generating a sonic boom that reached the ground. This is the first time a plane has achieved this. On our first flight, we expected to break the sound barrier without a sonic boomthat was our prediction, Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, tells me. We broke the sound barrier three times: on the first flight, no boom; and on the second flight, three more times. Our forecast was no sonic boom, and that’s exactly what we had. Rather than redesigning the physical airframe of the airplane to redirect air and reduce the supersonic shock volumelike the X-59the company bet on taking advantage of using a physical phenomenon called Mach cutoff, using powerful computers and software to carefully change the airplane’s speed and altitude depending on the weather around it. [Photo: Boom Supersonic] Mach cutoff is a phenomenon where a sonic boom, instead of traveling directly to the ground, bends upwards and dissipates into the atmosphere. There is a boom that comes off the airplane, but it makes a kind of U-turn in the sky, Scholl explains. And as long as the boom is coming off the airplane at the right angle and its high enough, you can think of it as the bottom of the U never touches the ground. And as long as the bottom of the U never touches the ground, there’s no audible boom. This phenomenon occurs because the sonic boom refracts upward due to temperature and wind gradients affecting the local speed of sound, just as how a pen appears to bend when passing through a glass of water because the difference in the density of water and air affects how light propagates. The NASA X-59 [Image: Lockheed Martin] Unlike the X-59s low-boom approach, Boomless Cruise aims to entirely eliminate the boom at ground level. The X-59 is designed to manage the shockwaves through its airframe design, aiming for a gentle thump. The way the engine is placed, and the fact that theres no cockpit breaking the flow of air, its Pinocchio nose reduces the sonic boom. Scholl says the approach works, but there’s still a boom. With Boomless Cruise, there literally is none. During its first supersonic flight, XB-1 reached a top speed of Mach 1.12, demonstrating that the theory works. The data collected during XB-1’s supersonic runs allowed Boom to validate their sonic boom models and refine the algorithms that predict the operation within Mach cutoff. The successful flight test validated that this works. [Photo: Boom Supersonic] What were doing is well-known physics thats been around for a long time, Scholl says. The key to making it a reality now lies in advanced engine technology and sophisticated computing capabilities, which were unavailable in the past. The Concorde could have done it, but its engines werent powerful enough and they required afterburning to reach supersonic speed. The kind of computing power thats needed to do what the XB-1 did during its two flight tests also didnt exist. So, fast-forward 50 years, computers, weve got great weather data, and weve got engines that are powerful enough to fly supersonic without afterburners. [Photo: Boom Supersonic] The future of supersonic flight After validating Boomless Cruise technology, the company is planning to build its supersonic airliner. It will utilize the Symphony engine, which is specifically designed for enhanced transonic performance, to enable Boomless Cruise for commercial flights. Symphony’s enhanced transonic thrust will allow its commercial airliner, called Overture, to surpass the sound barrier at altitudes exceeding 30,000 feet. This altitude is sufficient for Mach cutoff physics to function. According to Boom Supersonic, Overture will use the company’s secret sauce: an advanced autopilot system that continuously optimizes speed for the Boomless Cruise based on real-time atmospheric conditions. This is what allows it to avoid the sonic boom. This dynamic adjustment is essential because weather conditions, particularly temperature and wind, significantly affect the speed of sound and the behavior of the sonic boom. [Photo: Boom Supersonic] If all goes as well with the demonstrator, the only major hurdle will not be technical but legal. Just as NASA is trying to do with its Quesst program, the company will need to convince lawmakers to allow for supersonic flight from coast to coast, over the continental United States. Hes convinced it will happen. It’s a very simple regulatory change. We should have a noise limit, not a speed limit, he tells me. Boom Supersonic also notes on its site that Overture is not designed as a low-boom aircraft, and [they] do not expect to certify it for unrestricted supersonic flight over land. This means that, over sea, the airplane’s speed will be unrestricted, reaching Mach 1.7. There will be no speed limit because the sonic boom doesn’t matter over the ocean, and flying from Paris to New York will be twice as fast, taking only about 3.5 hours versus the current 7 hours. Over land, however, the future aircraft’s speed will be restricted to Mach 1.3 to avoid the booms, Scholl says: Sometimes, as low as 1.05 and sometimes as high as 1.3. Usually, itll be between 1.1 [and] 1.2. That’s 50% faster than current commercial planes, which will get you from New York to Los Angeles in around three hours rather than six. Whatever happens with regulations, with this successful display, Boom Supersonic has demonstrated that it can be done. We will need to wait and see if it reaches the point in which we will enjoy quiet, affordable, and sustainable supersonic travel. And perhaps restart the era in commercial aviation that the Concorde brought to the world.
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E-Commerce
Apple is launching its first major holistic health study in five years to determine how Apple products, including iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods, can play a role in advancing and improving physical health, mental health, and overall well-being. It may be Apple’s most ambitious study yet. Starting Tuesday, Apple customers in the United States can opt in to participate in the Apple Health Study by downloading Apples Research app, version 6.0 (more on that below). The sweeping study, a collaboration with Brigham and Womens Hospitala preeminent research hospital in Boston, affiliated with Harvard Medical Schooltakes a complete approach to understanding how data can predict, detect, and manage health and well-being. Weve only just begun to scratch the surface of how technology can improve our understanding of human health, cardiologist Calum MacRae, the principal investigator of the Apple Health Study at Brigham and Womens Hospital, said in a statement. What makes this study groundbreaking? Unlike other medical studies, which rely on data from a limited number of participants over a finite period of time, the Apple Health Study’s continuing access to more than 350,000 U.S. participants’ data over time expands that possibility. That combined data comes from the Apple Womens Health Study, the Apple Hearing Study, and the Apple Heart and Movement Study. The Apple Health Study also aims to harness technology in a new way to see how data from Apple and third-party devices can not only predict and detect, but also “monitor and manage changes in participants health” to identify insights about our overall well-being. For example, when a person’s health changes, their body emits a physical or emotional signal, flagging a secondary, related health issue. Apple devices can identify these changes earlier, helping users create a more proactive approach to health, so something like early detection of hearing loss could reduce the risk of cognitive decline later on. The study focuses on a number of health markers, including: activity, aging, cardiovascular health, circulatory health, cognition, hearing, menstrual health, mental health, metabolic health, mobility, neurologic health, respiratory health, and sleep. How can I opt in to the Apple Health Study? Apples Research app, which launched in 2019, enables study participants to opt into sharing data (which they can choose to stop sharing, and leave the study, at any time). To enroll, download the latest version (6.0) of the Apple Research app. The study is open to participants who live in the U.S., meet the minimum-age requirements, and complete the informed-consent process. This app is currently available only in the App Store for iPhone and Apple Watch.
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E-Commerce
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