wildlife population down by 58%

The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.

The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. Researchers from WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame.

The creatures being lost range from mountains to forests to rivers and the seas and include well-known endangered species such as elephants and gorillas and lesser known creatures such as vultures and salamanders.

The collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the Anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which humans dominate the planet. “We are no longer a small world on a big planet. We are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,” said Prof Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in a foreword for the report.

The biggest cause of tumbling animal numbers is the destruction of wild areas for farming and logging: the majority of the Earth’s land area has now been impacted by humans, with just 15% protected for nature. Poaching and exploitation for food is another major factor, due to unsustainable fishing and hunting: more than 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction, according to recent research.

Pollution is also a significant problem with, for example, killer whales and dolphins in European seas being seriously harmed by long-lived industrial pollutants. Vultures in south-east Asia have been decimated over the last 20 years, dying after eating the carcasses of cattle dosed with an anti-inflammatory drug. Amphibians have suffered one of the greatest declines of all animals due to a fungal disease thought to be spread around the world by the trade in frogs and newts.

NBA League Pass

This is another instance where the app on the Fire TV is inferior to the respective app on the Roku (and in this case the Apple TV).  For the other instances, see The CW (10/1/16) and ESPN (10/22/16).

I heard that there's currently a freeview to NBA League Pass at the start of the season.  So I signed on to nba.com and signed up for the free preview.

Then I logged into the NBA app on the Fire TV, waited for the Utah-Portland game to start (after the Knicks-Cavaliers game on TNT) and tried to watch.  No video stream showed up and it said you can watch it on League Pass.

What gives?  Maybe the free preview doesn't work on the streaming boxes?

So I switched to my Roku.  Installed the NBA channel.  Logged into my account.  Accessed the game.  You can choose either the home feed or the away feed.  Both worked.

OK how about the Apple TV?  Hooked up my Apple TV.  Started up the NBA app.  Didn't even have to log in, it remembered it from last season.  Head to the game.  Choose the video stream.  And after a worrisome pause of nothing happening (I have only a 4 mbps DSL connection), the video stream of the game played.

So yep, I guess I'd have to blame the Fire TV app.

Strike three.

***

Decided to install it on my Fire tablet.  Did it on the website, but after I started up the tablet, I didn't see the app.

Went to the app store.  Searched for NBA.  Is it NBA Game Time?  Yep, that's the one because I see it downloading.

OK sign in.  Try to access the Utah-Portland game (the only game currently playing on League Pass).  Stream currently not available.

OK, maybe it's an Amazon problem, not necessarily just a Fire TV problem.

I'll check tomorrow when more games are on.

***

OK playing some more.  It worked on the iPad mini.  But then the Apple TV locked up.  Then the iPad mini locked up.  It worked again after restarting.

It's pretty neat when it works.  Watching the Knicks-Nets preseason game.  Was kind of unusual to see five white guys on the court for the Nets toward the end of the first quarter.  And I noticed that Kurt Rambis shaves, so he doesn't look like Phil Jackson so much any more.

*** [10/26/16]

Saw that the app for the Fire tablet was updated, so tried again.  Nope still didn't work.

Then saw this comment that uninstalling and reinstalling worked.  So I uninstalled that app and reinstalled it.

Hey it works now.

Then I noticed the comment was actually for the app for Fire TV, not the Fire tablet.  So even though the app said it hadn't been updated, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling.

And it worked.

I guess I'm happy.  Or happier than before.  But the app for the Fire TV is still inferior to its counterparts on the Roku and Apple TV because it doesn't support fast forward/rewind on archived games.

[10/27/16]

Experimenting further as the Wizards-Hawks game is on.  The Roku app is not able to rewind the live game, but on the Apple TV, I can rewind to whenever I want.  So I rank the Apple TV as the best app of the three.

... Later that day ...

More experimenting as the Clippers-Blazers game is now playing on TNT.  Normally League Pass doesn't carry TNT games live, but interestingly the Roku app allowed me to view the game via the TNT Overtime feeds (with your choice of view).  This is not supported on the Apple TV or Fire TV.

Then I tried to access the Spurs-Kings game which is now playing, but is blacked out in my area.  I wasn't able to access it when I tried on the Roku or Fire TV, but when I tried to access the video feed on the Apple TV, I got the audio (radio) feed!

So the Roku actually has the most coverage as it covers TNT games.  But the Apple TV has the advantage of rewinding live games and giving access to the radio feed for games blacked out in your area.

[11/1/16]

Noticed that the app was updated today.  From the website:

What's new in version 2016.1.3

TNT Overtime: watch enhanced live coverage of NBA on TNT games for free
Navigation updates
Bug fixes and performance enhancements.
Navigation updates?  Maybe FF/REW now work?

OK, hook up the Fire TV.  Run the app.  All games now say "this game has just ended / please check back later for game recap."

Uninstall, remove from cloud, reinstall.

OK, the app now works.  FF/REW now work for archived games, but not for live games.

Will have to wait Thursday until I can test the TNT Overtime feature.

[11/3/16]

Yep, TNT Overtime works on the Fire TV.  It's free.  You don't have to be an NBA League Pass subscriber.  In fact, it worked without me even being logged into my account.  So this puts the app right up there with the Roku app.

However, I don't see the great attraction of the Overtime views if you're used to the view of the standard telecast.  It's an interesting to watch for a while, but what I miss most is that none of the views display the score along with the feed.  But I guess it's better than nothing if you don't have access to the regular TNT feed.

[12/28/16] Not really NBA League Pass entry, but it's an NBA entry so I'll put it here.

Noticed that the NBC Sports app on the Roku currently has three NBA games playing.  Kings vs. Trail Blazers on CSN California, Raptors vs. Warriors on CSN Bay Area, and Nets vs. Bull on CSN Chicago.  I want to see if I can catch any of them on the Hawaiian Telcom account.

OK, activated.  Let's see if I get any results.

I guess not.  There's a message saying: Restricted Content  The current program is not available in your region due to local blackout restrictions.  And now that I'm logged in, none of the games show up on the screen.  Oh well, I tried..

Looking at the activation screen, it says "You have access to NBC Sports video from the following networks: NBCSN. CNBC, USA, Golf Channel, NBC.  No Prime Ticket, which makes sense since Hawaiian Telcom doesn't carry Prime Ticket.  Wait, never mind.  Prime Ticket is a Fox channel.

Go home and try activate the Roku app with Oceanic.  [what 52pickup not working?  try Keith.]   OK, logged in, but as expected no NBA.

Vudu Movies On Us

Via CordKillers 142, I see that Walmart has launched a new service called Vudu Movies On Us.

You access the service through the Vudu app.  The drawback is that Vudu is only on one of the major streaming boxes.  It's on the Roku, but not on the Fire TV or Apple TV.

Anyway I hooked up my Roku and checked it out.

So launch Vudu.  Go to Spotlight (actually it was already highlighted), then go down to Movies On Us.

Yep.  There's 241 movies.  All free with ads.  Actually there's a lot more than 241 movies.  There's 241 featured movies.  219 in Top Drama.  115 in Top Action.  193 in Top Comedy.  65 in Top Romance.  165 in Music/Musicals.  100 in Family Movie Night.  37 in Animation.  578 in Documentaries.  Plus a few more categories.

Among the ones that caught to my eye were True Grit (the newer one), School of Rock, A Walk To Remember, Searching For Bobby Fischer, The Phantom of the Opera, Mad Max, Stardust, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Midnight Cowboy, The Magnificent Seven, Inherit The Wind, Waiting for Superman, Aeon Flux, The Running Man, Collateral Damage, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Star Trek: Nemesis, Race for Your Life Charlie Brown, The Legend of Bruce Lee, Universal Soldier, The Brothers Bloom (actually never heard of it before but the trailer seems fun), An Inconvenient Truth, Wayne's World 2, Pink Floyd: Behind the Wall,    So some well-known titles.

Some of these are on other free services like tubitv but certainly not all.  And the service is more responsive, seems better organized with not as much junk as Tubi.  The selection is as good or better than Crackle.  They certainly have more movies, though Crackle might have a few newer movies and also has more TV shows.

So I suppose this is another reason to go into the Vudu app.  But it's not like I don't have already have enough to watch with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime.  And if I actually want to buy something, I prefer buying it on Amazon largely because it's on both the Fire TV as well as the Roku.  And also I like the captions on Amazon more than on Vudu.

One thing I do like about Vudu is that always have a few free TV episodes you can buy.  Generally, I check to see what's free on Fandango on the Roku or the TV section on the Apple TV to see what they are offering for free.  And often Vudu has it too (as well as Amazon).

All in all, I have to give it a thumbs up.  You can't argue with free.

Tesla announces fully self-driving cars

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Motors announced Wednesday that its electric cars will be the first in the nation to all be fitted with the hardware they need to drive themselves.

CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday that the automaker's Model S, X and forthcoming Model 3 sedan will start being outfitted with "the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver."

That constitutes full Level 5 autonomy, which doesn't require any driver involvement. That's the ultimate goal for a range of automakers and tech companies, including Google, Ford and Volvo, which have vowed to produce such self-driving vehicles by 2021.

Musk did not say exactly when such technology would be consumer-ready, although he did say regulatory hurdles would have to be vaulted first.

"It's not up to us, it's up to the regulators, and we hope things don't become balkanized and different in every state," he said. "It's a question of what the public and regulators think is appropriate. The system will always be operating in 'shadow mode,' though, so we can gather a lot of sophisticated data to show where software could have acted or not acted."

Apple TV 3 discontinued

Apple has discontinued the third-generation Apple TV, removing it from its online store. Additionally, links to the Apple TV 3 now reroute to the fourth-generation Apple TV. Apple confirmed it was discontinuing the device in an email to employees and educators obtained by 9to5Mac.

The Apple TV 3 was released in 2012 and given a spec bump the following year. In fall 2015, Apple announced the long-awaited fourth-generation Apple TV, including support for Siri, the brand-new tvOS, and the App Store.

[via cordkillers]

***

What that tells me is that I will start using my Apple TV less and less as the channel developers probably won't develop apps for it and/or get Apple to put them on.  So don't hold your breath for The CW to appear on it.

Overall I still like Apple TV's captions the best for Hulu.  But the Fire TV is acceptable.  Still don't like the Roku captions on Hulu.  I'm using the Fire TV more than the Roku largely because of Hulu.  I also like how the Fire TV marks which shows on Hulu and have been seen or unseen.

However the Fire TV still doesn't have several channels (e.g. NatGeo, FreeForm, NFL), so I still switch between them from time-to-time.  The Fire TV does support TNT and TBS though, which are not yet on the Roku.

no traffic deaths in 30 years?

ARLINGTON, Va.—The Obama administration on Wednesday committed to a goal of eliminating traffic deaths within 30 years, setting a timeline for the first time on an ambitious agenda that relies heavily on the auto industry's development of self-driving cars.

The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other agencies committed to the objective after a sharp uptick in roadway deaths.

Although U.S. auto-safety regulators had previously said their goal was to someday eliminate road fatalities altogether, Wednesday's announcement marks the first time they've identified a specific timeline.

For starters, NHTSA, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and National Safety Council will coordinate efforts to promote safe driving through a campaign called Road to Zero, which will include marketing efforts and the installation of basic safety infrastructure such as rumble strips. The Transportation Department will spend $1 million per year for the next three years on grants.

But those baby steps belie what will become a much more substantive push to promote the development of self-driving cars, road infrastructure that can communicate with vehicles and advanced safety systems in vehicles.

It's an especially ambitious goal — some might say unrealistic — especially considering that the number of people killed on the road in the U.S. soared 7.2% to 35,092 in 2015, marking the deadliest year on the road since 2008.