Canadian Team Claims $250,000 Prize for Human-Powered Helicopter

The Canadian AeroVelo team has done what many thought impossible. The crew has officially claimed the American Helicopter Society’s Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Prize. And for keeping their lightweight contraption afloat, the team was awarded $250,000 in Toronto for the flight it completed on June 13. But meeting the criteria of a 33-year-old challenge takes time, so they had to wait for verification from the Federation d’Aviation Intenationale before the team could snag the prize.

Engineer Dr. Todd Reichert, along with Cameron Robertson, led the Kickstarter-funded team largely comprised of students from the University of Toronto. He was also the pilot and engine who successfully pedaled his way into aviation history by climbing above three meters and flying for at least 60 seconds while staying within a 10-by-10 meter area. Reichert, a nationally ranked speed skater in Canada, told us after so many flights and failures, the prize-winning attempt almost didn’t happen.

On June 13, after earlier flights reaching between 2 and 2.5 meters, AeroVelo only had enough time for one last attempt before they had to evacuate the indoor soccer facility where they have been flying before evening practices were set to start. And Reichert knew the biggest challenge would happen mid-flight.

“For us, the dangerous part is coming down from altitude,” he says of the time when the helicopter can get pulled into its own downwash. “Climbing is no problem — it’s in the time period between 15 and 40 seconds that is really tough.”

Once he managed to carefully descend from 3.3 meters, he had to keep pedaling while controlling the drifting aircraft.

“You’re throwing everything you have into it,” he said. But because of the control challenge, even after exceeding the 60-second requirement, there was no time to think about the prize in the final few seconds. “There is really zero thought of, ‘oh, I can do it.’ There is no feeling, only doing.”

The AHS first put up the challenge back in 1980 and since then more than 20 teams teams have designed and built human-powered helicopters in an attempt to win what was initially a $10,000 prize. Though only a few of those actually made it off the ground.

The competition heated up beginning in 2009 when Sikorsky Aircraft increased the prize to $250,000. Since then the Canadian AeroVelo team and Team Gamera from the University of Maryland have been in a tight battle to be the first to fly a human-powered helicopter to fit the stringent requirements set by Sikorsky.

“That is exactly why we raised the stakes,” Sikorsky’s Mark Miller said in a statement. “To encourage creative thinkers to prove that what is considered impossible is often proven to be possible.”

The AeroVelo Atlas uses a four-rotor system, with each blade spanning 67 feet. The carbon tube frame weighs just 115 pounds. And unlike the University of Maryland’s Gamera where the pilot/engine uses both legs and arms to power the aircraft, the Atlas uses a modified bicycle frame suspended from the helicopter by lightweight cord, with only the the pilot’s legs for power.

One of the challenges for both teams was finding an indoor space large enough to fly. AeroVelo first flew in August of last year, and since then has had to work around the schedule of the indoor soccer facility where they fly. With an overall width of 190 feet, the Atlas needs a lot of space for its slow-turning rotors.

The record-setting flight took place after a five-day testing sprint. Earlier this year flights ended with damage to the Atlas. Both Atlas and Gamera are extremely delicate and difficult to control, and for a while it seemed that the teams were set on an on/off schedule, with one team flying while the other was rebuilding.

Reichert says the prize is great, but it has always been about the challenge.

“It isn’t really about the prize,” he says. “It’s about satisfaction of finishing something that you have set yourself to.”

The students at the University of Maryland sent their congratulations to their competitors and fellow engineers at AeroVelo after learning about the team’s success.

“No one knows better than we do the enormously difficult engineering and human performance challenges that must be overcome in order to meet these flight requirements,” the team said in a statement. “We salute this historic accomplishment of the AeroVelo team and the intense dedication, innovation, research and hard work we know it required.”

Reichert and AeroVelo co-founder Cameron Robertson are continuing to work on new projects with students and the public.

“We want to use it as a platform to inspire people,” Reichert says, “more specifically to look at doing more with less.”

After flying the slow-moving helicopter, next up is something with a bit more speed. Reichert says they are working with students on a streamlined bicycle that can achieve highway speeds. It’s likely to elicit scoffs of disbelief from the cycling crowd, but a human-powered helicopter still sounds crazy, and he’s already checked that off the list.

Filmmaker Claims Netflix Committed 'Most Egregious Act Ever' by Distributor

In a new lawsuit against Netflix, a filmmaker and licensed attorney named T. Allen Chey asks a judge to allow The Hollywood Reporter to cover a trial "to prevent other innocent people from going through what Plaintiff went through."

As we await the judge's invite, Chey describes the "most egregious act ever committed by a film distributor."

Chey, who says he graduated from Harvard and USC, has an imagination when it comes to lawsuits. The subject of his real-life one is a film entitled Suing the Devil, starring Malcolm McDowell, Corbin Bersen, Rebecca St. James and Tom Sizemore about a law student who sues Satan for $8 trillion dollars.

Chey wants much less from Netflix -- at least $10 million -- over allegations of fraud, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, copyright infringement, infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference.

In August 2011, the plaintiff implies that Netflix allowed its customers to put Suing the Devil in their queue.

"Plaintiff and his film team noticed Netflix put the film on its site with a 'SAVE' button, enticing it's [sic] customers, both old and new, to 'SAVE' the film," says the lawsuit. "What 'SAVE' means on Netflix, is when a film comes out on either DVD or streaming, that customer will get the film when it comes out later in the year."

Chey says his film was the top faith-based movie in theaters in August 2011, the best-selling movie on ChristianCinema.com, one of Wired Magazine's most anticipated summer films, that it made it into 33,000 Redboxes and was a hit on Walmart's on-demand site, Vudu.com.

But evidently, the film never made it on to Netflix, and so while Suing the Devil may have been a niche hit, it wasn't Saints and Soldiers, currently very popular on Netflix's network. And Netflix's advertisement (or whatever you want to call that invitation to SAVE) allegedly steered customers wrong.

The lawsuit says, "Plaintiff believes this action hurt theatrical sales as customers stated on Facebook and in person that they would 'wait until it comes out on Netflix.'"

Chey says Netflix never intended to license his film. He says he took it to them three times, and that Netflix passed. Each time added to his misery as "so many customers would have bought the DVD or paid for VOD had the customers known it would not be available on Netflix."

"Bait and dump" is the phrase used to describe Netflix' allegedly "horrific conduct."

In Chey's film, Satan shows up to defend himself with "eight of the world's best trial lawyers" in tow. No word on who Netflix is bringing to this fight. The company said it had no immediate comment on Chey's lawsuit, which at best will save the souls of the innocent, and at worst will score some free publicity.

Paying bug bounties is a better investment than hiring a security team, study claims

Paying rewards to independent security researchers for finding software problems is a vastly better investment than hiring employees to do the same work, according to researchers from the University of California Berkeley.

Their study looked at vulnerability reward programs (VRPs) run by Google and Mozilla for the Chrome and Firefox web browsers.

Over the last three years, Google has paid $580,000 in rewards, and Mozilla has paid $570,000. In the course of those programs, hundreds of vulnerabilities have been fixed in the widely used products.

The programs are very cost effective. Since a North American developer’s salary will cost a company about $100,000 with a 50 percent overhead, “we see that the cost of either of these VRPs is comparable to the cost of just one member of the browser security team,” the researchers wrote.

Additionally, more eyes on the code meant the VRPs uncovered many more software flaws than just one hired developer could find.

The study provides a sound foundation for reward programs, which are not embraced by all vendors. Adobe Systems and Oracle do not pay for vulnerability information.

Microsoft has traditionally not paid bounties, but did implement a one-off program last month. Through July 26, Microsoft will pay up to $11,000 for bugs in its Internet Explorer 11 browser.

Bug bounties have other advantages, such as by reducing the number of vulnerabilities that are sold to malicious actors who would use the information for criminal activity. The programs also make it harder for hackers to find vulnerabilities, the researchers wrote.

But a key difference between Google’s and Mozilla’s programs may affect their effectiveness.

Mozilla pays a flat $3,000 reward for a vulnerability. Google pays on a sliding scale, which ranges from $500 to $10,000. Google judges vulnerabilities and exploits on factors such as difficulty and impact.

Google’s average payout is just $1,000, but the chance of obtaining a much higher reward appears to provide an incentive for more people to participate in its program, the researchers wrote.

Google’s program, while costing about the same as Mozilla’s, “has identified more than three times as many bugs, is more popular and shows similar participation from repeat and first-time participants.”

“This makes sense with an understanding of incentives in lotteries: the larger the potential prize amount, the more willing participants are to accept a lower expected return, which, for VRPs, means the program can expect more participants,” according to the paper.

Also, browser penetration contests such as “Pwnium” run by Google with rewards up to $150,000 sparks more interest among researchers.

“We believe this sort of ‘gamification’ leads to a higher profile for the Chrome VRP, which may help encourage participation, particularly from researchers interested in wider recognition,” the paper said.

“Accordingly, we recommend Mozilla change their reward structure to a tiered system like that of Chrome,” it said.

'The Butler' Fight: David Boies Claims WB Extortion in New Letter

In the latest salvo in The Butler title standoff, The Weinstein Company's litigator David Boies has responded to Warner Bros. by threatening a restraining order and continuing to press an antitrust violation claim.

"[N]one of this controversy would have occurred if Warner Bros. had not repudiated its representations and agreements not to object to 'The Butler' in a transparent attempt to hold a major civil rights film hostage to extort unrelated concessions from TWC," Boies wrote in an e-mail dated July 5 and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

The public battle between the studios erupted last week. The MPAA's Title Registry Bureau ruled in an arbitration on Tuesday that TWC couldn't use the title, The Butler, for the 2013 release because a 1916 short in the Warner Bros. Library shares the same name.

ANALYSIS: Few Options for Weinstein Co. in Wake of MPAA 'Butler' Ruling

The move followed months of back-and-forth between the two studios after TWC failed to "clear" the title before moving forward with its release plan for the White House-set drama directed by Lee Daniels. The film is scheduled to hit theaters August 16.

Boies sent letters to Warner Bros. litigator John Spiegel and the MPAA threatening litigation over the ruling. Daniels personally appealed to Warners CEO Kevin Tsujihara in a public letter claiming that changing the title "would most certainly hurt the film by limiting the number of people who would ultimately see this important story."

The film stars Forest Whitaker as a longtime White House butler and also features performances by Robin Williams, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack and Liev Schreiber.

TWC is appealing the arbitrator's ruling, though as THR has noted, it could face an uphill battle. Its antitrust argument -- that the arbitrator's ruling restricts competition since the 1916 film "has not been shown in theaters, television, DVDs, or in any other way for almost a century," in Boies words -- also might be problematic.

The full text of Boies' latest letter to Spiegel is below:

Dear Mr. Spiegel:

Although you do not directly respond to my inquiry, I assume that you are the counsel who should be notified in the event it is necessary to seek a TRO.

I will not try to respond to your version of the facts in part because it is so inaccurate and incomplete that such an exercise would be extensive, and in part because your letter appears to be a press release masquerading as a lawyer's letter. However, I briefly note your lack of response to three critical points.

First, if an anticompetitive "permanent" allocation of titles (and words used in titles) among competitors is a product of a horizontal agreement, that is an antitrust violation, not a defense.

Second, the purported order that TWC not use titles that it has already cleared pursuant to the MPAA's own rules and procedures demonstrates that it is Warner Bros. and the MPAA that are at odds with established custom, practice, and procedure.

Third, none of this controversy would have occurred if Warner Bros. had not repudiated its representations and agreements not to object to "The Butler" in a transparent attempt to hold a major civil rights film hostage to extort unrelated concessions from TWC.

U.N. chemical weapons team in Turkey to investigate Syria claims

AMSTERDAM/ANKARA - U.N.-appointed inspectors, blocked from entering Syria, are in Turkey to gather information about possible use of chemical weapons in the civil war, officials said on Thursday.

The Syrian government and rebels fighting it have accused each other of using lethal chemical agents, including sarin gas, in the two-year-old conflict in which the death toll is estimated at more than 100,000.

The United States and its European allies have concluded that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, which Washington called a "red line" that justified providing military aid to the rebels.

Members of the team assembled by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been on standby in Cyprus since April, unable to enter Syria as Western governments accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of chemical weapons attacks.

The team went to Turkey this week and its head, Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday, a senior Turkish official told Reuters.

Sellstrom is expected to deliver an interim report in July, which U.N. diplomats said may just be oral and is expected to be inconclusive since it is impossible for him to make definite pronouncements about the chain of custody of the samples he has received from Britain, France and the United States.

One senior Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Britain and the United States alone have notified U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of 10 separate incidents of the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces.

The diplomat also said Sellstrom would be visiting Berlin soon to discuss his investigation.

FRUSTRATED

More than 100,000 people have been killed since fighting began in March 2011 in what is the longest and most violent of the recent Arab uprisings, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Western governments have grown frustrated that the U.N. mission has been unable to make progress on investigating the chemical weapons claims, a diplomat told Reuters.

From Turkey, the team will be unable to gather soil samples or scientific evidence needed to prove chemical use, but could compile intelligence and interviews or take blood samples from witnesses or victims of alleged attacks.

"As he cannot travel to Syria, Sellstrom visits countries like Turkey, France and Britain that have some information about possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," said the Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sellstrom visited the Turkey-Syria border area and talked to officials who shared data on chemical weapons use, the official said.

Syria is one of seven countries that has not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons. Western countries believe it has stockpiles of undeclared mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agents.

Assad's government says accusations by the United States, Britain and France that it used chemical weapons are an attempt to justify foreign military intervention.

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Consumer spending rebounds, jobless claims fall

WASHINGTON - Consumer spending rebounded in May and new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, suggesting the economy remained on a moderate growth path.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday consumer spending increased 0.3 percent last month after a revised 0.3 percent drop in April. Consumer spending in April was previously reported to have declined 0.2 percent.

Last month's spending increase was in line with economists' expectations. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.2 percent last month after dipping 0.1 percent in April.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits fell 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000. The four-week moving average for new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 2,750 to 345,750.

U.S. stock index futures slightly added to earlier gains after the data. U.S. Treasuries prices extended price gains and yields fell to session lows, while the dollar pared gains against the yen.

Recent data, including housing, regional factory activity, business spending plans and consumer confidence, have pointed to an economy that is regaining some speed after stumbling early in the second quarter.

That is broadly supportive of the view the Federal Reserve expressed last week that the downside risks to the economy's outlook have waned. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank could start scaling back on the pace of its monthly bond purchases this year.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. Though the pace of spending has slowed from the 2.6 percent annual rate notched in the first three months of the year, consumers will likely continue to drive growth in the second quarter.

The firming growth theme held as other details of the Commerce Department report showed income grew 0.5 percent last month, the largest gain since February, after nudging up 0.1 percent in April. That reflects a steady pace of job gains.

Households also saved a bit more last month, lifting the saving rate to a five-month high of 3.2 percent.

There was also a bit of inflation in the economy last month, pointing to some pick-up in demand.

A price index for consumer spending inched up 0.1 percent in May after declining two straight months. A core reading that strips out food and energy costs also rose 0.1 percent after being flat in April.

Over the past 12 months, inflation rose 1 percent, still below the Fed's 2 percent target. The index had increased only 0.7 percent in the period through April.

Core prices were up 1.1 percent from a year ago after rising by the same margin in April.

Falling healthcare costs are dampening inflation pressures. Bernanke has said the weak healthcare costs were likely to transitory.

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