firehose

Uber maintains that it "does not provide transportation services."

Uber

This week, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), which regulates taxis and limousines in the Keystone State, concluded its month-long sting operation on Uber and Lyft drivers. The undercover operation resulted in the issuing of 23 criminal summary offenses, the first of their kind against those two companies.

The two quasi-taxi companies, which allow users to summon cars with the tap of a smartphone app, have come under increasing fire from cities and taxi regulatory bodies nationwide as the companies expand.

Many local and state agencies argue that the companies should be treated as traditional taxi firms and should be subject to relevant legislation. Both companies have fought and won similar battles in other jurisdictions; California formalized rideshare operations in September 2013.

House of Cards will stay in Maryland, after all — at least for season three. Governor Martin O’Malley announced yesterday that a deal was struck between the state and the show's producers to provide $11.5 million in tax credits to keep filming in the state. The production company, Media Rights Capital, was seeking $15 million this year after receiving $26 million in credits over the past two years of filming. In a statement, the governor said "Spoiler alert: we’re going to keep the 3700 jobs and more than 100 million dollars of economic activity and investment that House Of Cards generates right here in Maryland."

Filming for season three was set to begin in early spring, but it was delayed over the negotiations. State legislators had failed to pass a measure to increase the limit on how much funding a company could receive, but with today's compromise production can start up this summer. The production company earlier threatened to pack up its things and relocate to another state if an agreement couldn't be reached, but, thankfully, the show will stick close to its Washington DC roots for the next season.

Carol of the Bells is nothing without the bells. KMel Robotics' demonstration proves that the song needs a fleet of flying robots tapping a bunch of bell-connected paper cups, as well!

Up until this point, the musical genre known as "drone rock" had been a weird, indie niche that consisted of slow, loud guitar noise. If machinists and programmers have their way, that description will need some major rewriting—but it'll probably seem just as weird.

This week, a team at Philadelphia-based KMel Robotics, known for building airborne video recording solutions, turned their robot-making talents to creating a band. The company pre-programmed a six-aircraft ensemble to hover over instruments and strum or strike without any human interaction, other than the team's initial strike of a "play" button.

"We're sending commands to the vehicles at 100 times per second," KMel co-founder Daniel Mellinger told the BBC in a video interview. "The timing is very precise. To get to the base level where we can attempt something like that took several years." That helped KMel's robots pull off tempo-perfect renditions of the Strauss-composed theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey (fitting, right?) and "Carol of the Bells," along with a trippy, slowed-down take on "The Star Spangled Banner."

potterbird:

Daniel Radcliffe's acceptance speech for the Man of the Year Glamour Award, 2013. (x)

SpaceX thinks it can help the United States government save $1 billion annually on national security space launches, but it's not getting the chance thanks to a longstanding "monopoly" over such launches. CEO Elon Musk just announced that SpaceX is filing an official protest complaining about the ULA's (United Launch Alliance) longstanding grip on national security launches. More than anything else, he wants current deals reexamined. "Let’s shine some sunlight on this," he said during a conference call. "As I’ve said, sunlight is the best disinfectant. If everything’s fine, then I guess that’s great. But that seems unlikely to me."

The ULA — which was formed when Boeing and Lockheed combined their government launch efforts — currently pulls in up to $3.5 billion in annual funding from the government, according to a handout distributed at a SpaceX media event today. Musk is confident SpaceX can do much better — and for less. "What we feel is that this is not right. That the national security launches should be put up for competition," Musk said. SpaceX is perfectly capable of launching NASA satellites and "every satellite you can imagine," so there's no logical reason why it shouldn't be able to handle putting GPS satellites in orbit.

"With SpaceX, the government could generate at least $1B in savings annually, even under the most conservative estimates," the company said today. SpaceX is also trying to highlight just how far that money can go: it could fund an entire year's worth of operations for 12 F-16 squadrons, for example.

This has been a project that Musk has been working on for some time. In March, he testified before the US Senate against the ULA. “We are restoring America’s competitiveness” in spaceflight, he said then.

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