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Phoenix666 writes:

The testing of soft body armor has been a big concern because the deployment of a new kind of fiber—believed to be superior to the previous material—unexpectedly failed in 2003, resulting in the death of a police officer. That and other incidents prompted a 2005 recall of some of the vests made with the new material.

Although the performance of these vests was superior when they were fresh out of the box and in pristine condition, tests later showed that the mechanical properties of the fibers inside the vests began to deteriorate after a few months of normal wear. The new vests were eventually removed from market entirely and the manufacturer was sued by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

[...] The positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) technique provides a molecular-level view of the structure of materials. It has been used for testing materials in other sectors, including porous membranes and semiconductor insulators. For this work, positrons were injected into ballistic fibers and enabled researchers to determine if any voids were created during folding on a scale of less than 5 nanometers.

Using PALS, Holmes and Soles discovered that void levels are very sensitive indicators of damage sustained by the fibers after folding; a larger population of voids means a better chance of fiber failure. The team previously suspected that void creation was a critical component of mechanical degradation, but the small angle X-ray scattering measurements that had been used in the past tended to be less sensitive to voids smaller than 5 nanometers and proved to be inconclusive. The critical damage was occurring on much finer length scales.

Until better materials are developed, do not fold, spindle, or mutilate your bulletproof vest.

Original Submission

Celestial writes:

The DragonFly BSD developers have released version 5.0 of the operating system. The big changes are the introduction of the HAMMER2 file system, video driver updates, and better support for both AMD Ryzen and EFI.

DragonFly version 5.0 brings the first bootable release of HAMMER2, DragonFly's next generation file system.

[...] Preliminary HAMMER2 support has been released into the wild as-of the 5.0 release. This support is considered EXPERIMENTAL and should generally not yet be used for production machines and important data. The boot loader will support both UFS and HAMMER2 /boot. The installer will still use a UFS /boot even for a HAMMER2 installation because the /boot partition is typically very small and HAMMER2, like HAMMER1, does not instantly free space when files are deleted or replaced.

A lengthy, in-depth technical design document of the new HAMMER2 file system can be found here.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would hear a major digital privacy case that will determine whether law enforcement officials can demand user data stored by technology companies in other countries.

In 2013, federal investigators obtained a warrant for emails and identifying information tied to a Microsoft Outlook account they believed was being used to organize drug trafficking. The problem was that the emails were stored overseas in Ireland, where the anonymous user of the account registered as a resident.
...
If the court sides with the Department of Justice lawyers in this new case, the government will have unfettered access to the data tech companies store all over the world, provided it has a warrant. During the appeals court case, Microsoft's lawyers argued that the US is essentially trying to say that its laws extend across borders.

A superpower can demand all the extraterritoriality it wants.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Whales and dolphins lead 'human-like lives' thanks to big brains, says study

[In] a new study, researchers compiled a list of the rich behaviours spotted in 90 different species of dolphins, whales and porpoises, and found that the bigger the species' brain, the more complex – indeed, the more "human-like" – their lives are likely to be.

This suggests that the "cultural brain hypothesis" – the theory that suggests our intelligence developed as a way of coping with large and complex social groups – may apply to whales and dolphins, as well as humans.

Writing in the journal, Nature Ecology and Evolution [DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0336-y] [DX], the researchers claim that complex social and cultural characteristics, such as hunting together, developing regional dialects and learning from observation, are linked to the expansion of the animals' brains – a process known as encephalisation.

The researchers gathered records of dolphins playing with humpback whales, helping fishermen with their catches, and even producing signature whistles for dolphins that are absent – suggesting the animals may even gossip. Another common behaviour was adult animals raising unrelated young. "There is the saying that 'it takes a village to raise a child' [and that] seems to be true for both whales and humans," said Michael Muthukrishna, an economic psychologist and co-author on the study at the London School of Economics.

Also at Newsweek.

Previously: Inter-species Communication Inches Closer
Dolphins Have a Language That Helps Them Solve Problems Together

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The head of the U.S. Air Force Space Command is "completely committed" to launching future missions using reused SpaceX rockets, following certification of the reused boosters for military use:

The head of U.S. Air Force Space Command said he's "completely committed" to launching future missions with recycled rockets like those championed by SpaceX's Elon Musk as the military looks to drive down costs. It would be "absolutely foolish" not to begin using pre-flown rockets, which bring such significant savings that they'll soon be commonplace for the entire industry, General John W. "Jay" Raymond said in an interview Monday at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. "The market's going to go that way. We'd be dumb not to," he said. "What we have to do is make sure we do it smartly."

[...] The Air Force won't be able to use the recycled boosters until they're certified for military use, a process that Raymond suggested may already be in the works. "The folks out at Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles that work for me would be in those dialogues," he said, declining to specify when certification could take place. "I don't know how far down the road we've gotten, but I am completely committed to launching on a reused rocket, a previously flown rocket, and making sure that we have the processes in place to be able to make sure that we can do that safely."

SpaceX's has just added a secretive "Zuma" mission no earlier than November 10th.

Here is a recent Reddit AmA about SpaceX's "BFR" (writeup and another one).

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Airbus has partnered with Bombardier to produce C-Series jet planes:

European aerospace firm Airbus is to take a majority stake in Bombardier's C-Series jet project. Bombardier has faced a series of problems over the plane, most recently a trade dispute in the US that imposed a 300% import tariff.

Bombardier's Northern Ireland's director Michael Ryan said the deal was "great news" for the Belfast operation. About 1,000 staff work on the C-Series at a purpose-built factory in Belfast, mostly making the plane's wings.

Airbus and Bombardier's chief executives said the deal - which will see Airbus buy a 50.01% stake - would help to boost sales.

Bombardier was in talks with Chinese firms prior to signing the deal with Airbus.

Airbus and Bombardier are likely to avoid the tariff issue by producing planes at a facility in Mobile, Alabama (archive).

The deal may lead to a closer partnership between Boeing and Embraer:

[In] 2017, the partnerships are transatlantic. Europe and Canada come under a single umbrella with Airbus taking control of the Bombardier's C Series airliner and with an expanding manufacturing footprint in the U.S., Canada and China. That leaves Boeing and Brazil's commercial airplane manufacturer, Embraer, potentially asking "what's next?"

While the tie between Airbus and Bombardier may not bring Embraer and Boeing into full partnership, the pair has been inching closer for years. In 2012, Boeing and Embraer (ERJ) signed a broad agreement to collaborate on a broad range of areas, including airplane "efficiency, safety and productivity." A year later, the two companies signed an agreement to market Embraer's new KC-390 airlifter to the U.S., U.K. and Middle East governments. In 2013, Embraer launched a major overhaul of its regional jets and consciously stopped short of competing with Boeing and Airbus. The U.S. and Brazilian companies collaborated on potentially selling and building F/A-18 Super Hornets together for Brazil, but the deal was felled by the revelations that the National Security Agency had spied on the Brazilian president.

Embraer has been expanding its U.S. manufacturing presence as well, assembling its business jets in Florida.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Cities Dream Of Landing Amazon's New HQ And They're Going To Great Lengths To Show It

Officials in Tucson, Ariz., uprooted a 21-foot-tall saguaro cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon's Seattle headquarters. Birmingham constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them around the Alabama city. In Missouri, Kansas City's mayor bought a thousand items online from Amazon and posted reviews of each one.

All of these cities are clearly trying hard to get Amazon's attention. Why? Because they know that otherwise, they don't stand a chance against some big-name cities that are all trying to win the contest to land Amazon's second headquarters.

The retail giant announced a month ago that it has plans for a second home outside of Seattle, where it is currently headquartered. The project has been named HQ2, and the deadline for final bids is Thursday. Amazon has promised to invest $5 billion and said the facility will create as many as 50,000 jobs.

It has led to a mad scramble from cities across the nation and even in Canada. And various publications have analyzed cities' chances of landing this deal. Atlanta, Denver and Pittsburgh have made it to a few of those lists.

Many cities don't really figure as finalists on any of those lists. But that hasn't stopped them. In fact, just like Tucson or Birmingham, cities are pulling out all the stops to get noticed.

The Amazonk Prometheans may be coming to your city...

Previously: Amazon Spheres Add to Seattle's Quirky Architecture
Amazon Acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion
Amazon to Invest $5 Billion in Second HQ Outside of Seattle
Amazon Looks to New Food Technology for Home Delivery

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow7568

OpenBSD is a lightweight operating system designed with code correctness and security in mind. The project has released OpenBSD 6.2 which features many new drivers, particularly for the ARM architecture, and network packet handling performance improvements. Some key features have been added to the system installer too, including checking for security updates on the system's first boot: "Installer improvements: The installer now uses the Allotment Routing Table (ART). A unique kernel is now created by the installer to boot from after install/upgrade. On release installs of architectures supported by syspatch, "syspatch -c" is now added to rc.firsttime. Backwards compatibility code to support the 'rtsol' keyword in hostname.if(5) has been removed. The install.site and upgrade.site scripts are now executed at the end of the install/upgrade process. More detailed information is shown to identify disks. The IPv6 default router selection has been fixed. On the amd64 platform, AES-NI is used if present."

Further information on OpenBSD 6.2 can be found in the project's release notes. Download (pkglist): amd64/install62.iso (330MB, SHA256, signature), i386/install62.iso (320MB, SHA256, signature)

Source: https://distrowatch.com/?newsid=09986

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41590614

Sensitive information about Australia's defence programmes has been stolen in an "extensive" cyber hack.

About 30GB of data was compromised in the hack on a government contractor, including details about new fighter planes and navy vessels. The data was commercially sensitive but not classified, the government said. It did not know if a state was involved.

Australian cyber security officials dubbed the mystery hacker "Alf", after a character on TV soap Home and Away.

The breach began in July last year, but the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) was not alerted until November. The hacker's identity is not known. "It could be one of a number of different actors," Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Thursday. "It could be a state actor, [or] a non-state actor. It could be someone who was working for another company." Mr Pyne said he had been assured the theft was not a risk to national security.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The story of concrete is so ancient that we don't even know when and where it begins. It is a story of discovery, experimentation, and mystery. Emperors and kings became legends for erecting great concrete structures, some of which are still a mystery to engineers today. Many of history's most skilled architects found inspiration in slabs of the gray building material. Common bricklayers advanced the technology, and a con man played a crucial role in the development of concrete recipes.

Today, the world is literally filled with concrete, from roads and sidewalks to bridges and dams. The word itself has become a synonym for something that is real and tangible. Press your handprints into the sidewalk and sign your name to history. This is the story of concrete.

[...] Let's get this out of the way right here: cement and concrete are not the same thing. Cement, a mixture of powdered limestone and clay, is an ingredient in concrete along with water, sand, and gravel.

So ubiquitous and fundamental, that nobody thinks about it. Its inventor is unknown, but that person changed history.

Related: Volcanic Rocks Resembling Roman Concrete Explain Record Uplift in Italian Caldera
Roman Concrete Explained

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The White House and congressional Republicans are finalizing a tax plan that would slash the corporate rate while likely reducing the levy for the wealthiest Americans

[...] The plan would likely cut the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, now at 39.6 percent, to 35 percent, people familiar with the plan said Monday. They spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

In addition, the top tax for corporations would be reduced to around 20 percent from the current 35 percent, they said. It will seek to simply the tax system by reducing the number of income tax brackets from seven to three.

[...] Republican senators on opposing sides of the deficit debate have tentatively agreed on a plan for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. That would add substantially to the debt and would enable deeper cuts to tax rates than would be allowed if Republicans followed through on earlier promises that their tax overhaul wouldn't add to the budget deficit.

https://www.apnews.com/d7929cdd15c3437db07147d219b391c4

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Congress has responded strongly to a joint investigation by CBS and The Washington Post (archive) about Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) employees becoming lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry, and the passage of a bill in 2016 hobbling the DEA's ability to go after opioid distributors and suspicious drug sales:

Lawmakers and the Drug Enforcement Administration are facing tough questions following an explosive joint investigation by "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post that says Congress helped disarm the DEA.

Drug overdose deaths in the United States have more than doubled over the past decade. The CDC says 188,000 people have died from opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2015.

Joe Rannazzisi used to run the DEA's diversion control. He told "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker that the opioid crisis was aided in part by Congress, lobbyists and the drug distribution industry. The DEA says it has taken actions against far fewer opioid distributors under a new law. A Justice Department memo shows 65 doctors, pharmacies and drug companies received suspension orders in 2011. Only six of them have gotten them this year.

[...] [The] DEA's efforts may have been undermined by the so-called "revolving door" culture in Washington. At least 46 investigators, attorneys and supervisors from the DEA, including 32 directly from the division that regulates the drug industry, have been hired by the pharmaceutical industry since the scrutiny on distributors began.

From The Washington Post:

The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican who is now President Trump's nominee to become the nation's next drug czar. Marino spent years trying to move the law through Congress. It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA.

Scientists Witness Huge Cosmic Crash, Find Origins of Gold

Phoenix666 writes:

It started in a galaxy called NGC 4993, seen from Earth in the Hydra constellation. Two neutron stars, collapsed cores of stars so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh 1 billion tons, danced ever faster and closer together until they collided, said Carnegie Institution astronomer Maria Drout.

The crash, called a kilonova, generated a fierce burst of gamma rays and a gravitational wave, a faint ripple in the fabric of space and time, first theorized by Albert Einstein.

The signal arrived on Earth on Aug. 17 after traveling 130 million light-years. [...] The colliding stars spewed bright blue, super-hot debris that was dense and unstable. Some of it coalesced into heavy elements, like gold, platinum and uranium. Scientists had suspected neutron star collisions had enough power to create heavier elements, but weren't certain until they witnessed it. "We see the gold being formed," said Syracuse's Brown.

So the ring on your finger is actually the skeletal remains of neutron stars.

Observatories Across the World Announce Groundbreaking New Gravitational Wave Discovery

AnonTechie writes:

Today, physicists and astronomers around the world are announcing a whole new kind of gravitational wave signal at a National Science Foundation press conference in Washington, DC. But it's not just gravitational waves. That August day, x-ray telescopes, visible light, radio telescopes, and gamma-ray telescopes all spotted a flash, one consistent with a pair of neutron stars swirling together, colliding and coalescing into a black hole. The observation, called a "kilonova," simultaneously answered questions like "where did the heavy metal in our Universe come from" and "what causes some of the gamma-ray bursts scientists have observed since the 60s." It also posed new ones.

[...] All in all, the discovery marks an important milestone in gravitational wave astronomy and proof that LIGO and Virgo do more than spot colliding black holes. At present, the detectors are all receiving sensitivity upgrades. When they come back online, they may see other sources like some supernovae or maybe even a chorus of background gravitational waves from the most distant stellar collisions.

https://gizmodo.com/observatories-across-the-world-announce-groundbreaking-1819500578

[Also Covered By]:

• ESOcast 133: ESO Telescopes Observe First Light from Gravitational Wave Source
• In a First, Gravitational Waves Linked to Neutron Star Crash
• New gravitational wave discovery confirms dawn of a new field of astronomy
• What Have Gravitational-Wave Detectors Discovered?
• Scientists detect gravitational waves from a new kind of nova, sparking a new era in astronomy (archive)

Papers:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

Optical emission from a kilonova following a gravitational-wave-detected neutron-star merger (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24291) (DX)

Spectroscopic identification of r-process nucleosynthesis in a double neutron-star merger (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24298) (DX)

A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24471) (DX)

The X-ray counterpart to the gravitational-wave event GW170817 (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24290) (DX)

A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24303) (DX)

Origin of the heavy elements in binary neutron-star mergers from a gravitational-wave event (open, DOI: 10.1038/nature24453) (DX)

Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9) (DX)

Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa920c) (DX)

An Ordinary Short Gamma-Ray Burst with Extraordinary Implications: Fermi-GBM Detection of GRB 170817A (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa8f41) (DX)

INTEGRAL Detection of the First Prompt Gamma-Ray Signal Coincident with the Gravitational-wave Event GW170817 (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa8f94) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. I. Discovery of the Optical Counterpart Using the Dark Energy Camera (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9059) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. II. UV, Optical, and Near-infrared Light Curves and Comparison to Kilonova Models (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa8fc7) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. III. Optical and UV Spectra of a Blue Kilonova from Fast Polar Ejecta (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9029) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. IV. Detection of Near-infrared Signatures of r-process Nucleosynthesis with Gemini-South (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa905c) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. V. Rising X-Ray Emission from an Off-axis Jet (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9057) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. VI. Radio Constraints on a Relativistic Jet and Predictions for Late-time Emission from the Kilonova Ejecta (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa905d) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. VII. Properties of the Host Galaxy and Constraints on the Merger Timescale (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9055) (DX)

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. VIII. A Comparison to Cosmological Short-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9018) (DX)

The Discovery of the Electromagnetic Counterpart of GW170817: Kilonova AT 2017gfo/DLT17ck (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa8edf) (DX)

A Deep Chandra X-Ray Study of Neutron Star Coalescence GW170817 (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa8ede) (DX)

The Unprecedented Properties of the First Electromagnetic Counterpart to a Gravitational-wave Source (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa905e) (DX)

The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa90b6) (DX)

Observations of the First Electromagnetic Counterpart to a Gravitational-wave Source by the TOROS Collaboration (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9060) (DX)

The Old Host-galaxy Environment of SSS17a, the First Electromagnetic Counterpart to a Gravitational-wave Source (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9116) (DX)

The Distance to NGC 4993: The Host Galaxy of the Gravitational-wave Event GW170817 (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9110) (DX)

The Rapid Reddening and Featureless Optical Spectra of the Optical Counterpart of GW170817, AT 2017gfo, during the First Four Days (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa9111) (DX)

Optical Follow-up of Gravitational-wave Events with Las Cumbres Observatory (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa910f) (DX)

A Neutron Star Binary Merger Model for GW170817/GRB 170817A/SSS17a (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa91b3) (DX)

Previously: European Southern Observatory to Announce "Unprecedented Discovery" on Monday

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2  Original Submission #3 

Phoenix666 submitted:

A technology genius always has two basic options. For example, he can dedicate his work to creating a medical breakthrough that will save thousands of lives—or he can develop an app that will let people amuse themselves. In most cases, the technology genius will be pushed to focus on the product that has the potential to create millions of dollars in profits. Profit is the North Star of conventional economics. Lacking a collective destination, the only highway sign we follow is the North Star of profit. Nobody is putting up any highway signs that will lead the world toward a collectively desired destination.

It raises the question, does the world have a destination? If not, should it?

As I've explained, the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) are an attempt to define an immediate destination over a very short period. They represent a good beginning. The SDGs give us a destination over a 15-year stretch— just a moment in time out of the human journey of hundreds or thousands of years. Many people and institutions have made commitments to travel in the direction that the SDGs reveal—but, unfortunately, most for-profit companies are not redirecting themselves in meaningful ways to reach those goals because the market definition of success does not include them.

Toward what SDGs should tech people direct their work?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The obesity rate in the U.S. is continuing to rise (slowly, off the couch):

The new measure of the nation's weight problem, released early Friday by statisticians from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronicles dramatic increases from the nation's obesity levels since the turn of the 21st century.

Adult obesity rates have climbed steadily from a rate of 30.5% in 1999-2000 to 39.8% in 2015-2016, the most recent period for which data were available. That represents a 30% increase. Childrens' rates of obesity have risen roughly 34% in the same period, from 13.9% in 1999-2000 to 18% in 2015-2016.

Seen against a more distant backdrop, the new figures show an even starker pattern of national weight-gain over a generation. In the period between 1976 and 1980, the same national survey found that roughly 15% of adults and just 5.5% of children qualified as obese. In the time that's elapsed since "Saturday Night Fever" was playing in movie theaters and Ronald Reagan won the presidency, rates of obesity in the United States have nearly tripled.

The new report, from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, measures obesity according to body mass index. This is a rough measure of fatness that takes a person's weight (measured in kilograms) and divides it by their height (measured in meters) squared. For adults, those with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 are considered to have a "normal" weight. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, and anything above 30 is deemed obese. (You can calculate yours here.)

Obesity rates for children and teens are based on CDC growth charts that use a baseline period between 1963 and 1994. Those with a BMI above the 85th percentile are considered overweight, and those above the 95th percentile are considered obese.

70.7% of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the CDC's data for 2015-2016.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects the U.S. obesity rate to reach 47% in 2030.

Related: Obesity Surges to 13.6% in Ghana

Original Submission