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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

A hacker has provided Motherboard with the login details for a company that buys phone location data from major telecom companies and then sells it to law enforcement.

A hacker has broken into the servers of Securus, a company that allows law enforcement to easily track nearly any phone across the country, and which a US Senator has exhorted federal authorities to investigate. The hacker has provided some of the stolen data to Motherboard, including usernames and poorly secured passwords for thousands of Securus' law enforcement customers.

Although it's not clear how many of these customers are using Securus's phone geolocation service, the news still signals the incredibly lax security of a company that is granting law enforcement exceptional power to surveill individuals.

"Location aggregators are—from the point of view of adversarial intelligence agencies—one of the juiciest hacking targets imaginable," Thomas Rid, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University, told Motherboard in an online chat.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Securus obtains phone location data from major telcos, such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, and then makes this available to its customers. The system by which Securus obtains the data is typically used by marketers, but Securus provides a product for law enforcement to track phones in the US nationwide with little legal oversight, the report adds. In one case, a former sheriff of Mississippi County, Mo., used the Securus service to track other law enforcement official's phones, according to court records.

Source: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gykgv9/securus-phone-tracking-company-hacked

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Centuries ago, a ship sank in the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia. The wooden hull disintegrated over time, leaving only a treasure trove of cargo. The ship had been carrying thousands of ceramics and luxury goods for trade, and they remained on the ocean floor until the 1980s when the wreck was discovered by fishermen. In the years since, archaeologists have been studying artifacts retrieved from the shipwreck to piece together where the ship was from and when it departed. The equivalent of a "Made in China" label on a piece of pottery helped archaeologists reevaluate when the ship went down and how it fits in with China's history.

"Initial investigations in the 1990s dated the shipwreck to the mid- to late 13th century, but we've found evidence that it's probably a century older than that," says Lisa Niziolek, an archaeologist at the Field Museum in Chicago and lead author of the study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. "Eight hundred years ago, someone put a label on these ceramics that essentially says 'Made in China' -- because of the particular place mentioned, we're able to date this shipwreck better."

An Anonymous Coward writes:

As reported here, uBlock added a user tracking feature. Well, after news spread on Reddit, uBlock on Firefox has been reverted to the almost three year old version by the Firefox team, as can be seen here and on Mozilla.org (note version on left sidebar is now Version 0.9.5.0.1-let-fixed Last updated 3 years ago (Oct 31, 2015)).

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

For some people, particularly those who are elderly, even a light touch of the skin or contact with clothing can lead to unbearable itching. What's worse, anti-itch treatments, including hydrocortisone, don't provide much relief for this type of itching.

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis have discovered, in mice, why a touch can cause such severe itching and, in the process, identified some possible therapeutic targets.

Their research, published May 4 in the journal Science, indicates that itching caused by touch is directly related to the number of touch receptors embedded in the skin. The fewer the receptors, the more likely it is that touching will induce itching.

Source: https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/when-light-touches-of-the-skin-cause-itching/

Jing Feng, Jialie Luo, Pu Yang, Junhui Du, Brian S. Kim, Hongzhen Hu. Piezo2 channel–Merkel cell signaling modulates the conversion of touch to itch. Science, 2018; 360 (6388): 530 DOI: 10.1126/science.aar5703

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow0245

Vesper Technologies, a new microphone technology developer, has raised $23 million from some of the biggest names in audio technology to finance the commercialization of its piezoelectric microphones.

As audio technology and voice controlled devices become more ubiquitous, manufacturers are hoping to turn to higher performance MEMS (micro-electro mechanical systems) microphones that use acoustic sensors made on semiconductor production lines using silicon wafers.

The technology allows for far smaller microphones that are incredibly sensitive, but the mics themselves typically don't withstand the wear and tear of harsh environments all that well. Enter Vesper. It's piezoelectric microphone technology received a full-throated endorsement from Amazon last year (after the company invested through its Alexa Fund).

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/15/vespers-new-microphone-technology-attracts-millions-from-the-biggest-names-in-sound-technology/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

The PiDP-11 is a modern replica of the PDP-11/70.

Introduced in 1973, the 11/70 was top of the line in the famed PDP-11 range, and the very last system with a proper front panel. Tragically, DEC field service often removed the front panel in a later upgrade, leaving us staring at dull blank panels ever since..

​

The PiDP-11 wants to bring back the experience of PDP-11 Blinkenlights, with its pretty 1970s Magenta/Red color scheme. On a more modest (living room compatible) scale 6:10, with faithfully reproduced case and switches.

​

The tabs above describe the PiDP in more detail. The web already contains lots of PDP-11 information, so these pages just focus on the practical PiDP aspects: how to build, operate and possibly hack the PiDP-11. The 'why' question will not be addressed here, only fools would think that PDP-11s are somehow obsolete.

Source: http://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Democracy Now! reports
Meet Tarek Loubani, the Canadian Doctor Shot by Israeli Forces Monday While Treating Gaza's Wounded (Transcript)

As Palestinians vow to continue protesting against the Israeli occupation of Gaza, we speak to a Canadian doctor who was shot by Israeli forces in both legs Monday [May 14] while he was helping injured Palestinians. Israeli forces shot dead at least 61 unarmed Palestinian protesters taking part in the Great March of Return Monday, including one doctor. Canada, Britain, Germany, Ireland, and Belgium have called for an investigation into the killings. The United Nations Human Rights Council has announced that it will hold a special session Friday to discuss escalating violence in Gaza. We speak with Dr. Tarek Loubani, an emergency room medical doctor, one of 19 medical personnel shot in Gaza on Monday.

Audio and video links at the top of the page.

Pacifica Radio KPFK has a partial audio file, available till mid-July, ~7MB for the story. (KPFK is in fund drive mode.)
Gaza coverage begins at 13:25. The doctor's story is from 15:15 - 31:30.
He notes that the doctor who treated him was subsequently shot, resulting in his death--this, while he was wearing high-visibility clothing to denote his first-responder status.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

Five academics from the Vrije University in Amsterdam and one from the University of Cyprus have discovered a way for launching Rowhammer attacks via network packets and network cards.

Their discovery makes Rowhammer attacks easier and much more convenient to launch, as an attacker only needs to bombard a victim's network card with specially-crafted packets.

This is much simpler than previous Rowhammer attacks that required that the attacker infected the victim with malware or tricked victims into accessing malicious websites, where they'd load the Rowhammer attack code hidden inside the site's JavaScript.

Researchers named their new Rowhammer attack method Throwhammer, which they've detailed today in a research paper entitled "Throwhammer: Rowhammer Attacks over the Network and Defenses."

[...] Researchers say that only RDMA-enabled network cards are vulnerable.

RDMA stands for Remote Direct Memory Access, a technology that exposes a computer's memory directly over a network without involving the CPU and the machine's OS, hence being able to process more packets than older network cards.

DeathMonkey writes:

It was December 1984, and President Reagan had just been elected to his second term, Dynasty was the top show on TV and Madonna's Like a Virgin topped the musical charts.

It was also the last time the Earth had a cooler-than-average month.

Last month marked the planet's 400th consecutive month with above-average temperatures, federal scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.

[...] "We live in and share a world that is unequivocally, appreciably and consequentially warmer than just a few decades ago, and our world continues to warm," said NOAA climate scientist Deke Arndt. "Speeding by a '400' sign only underscores that, but it does not prove anything new."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/05/17/global-warming-april-400th-consecutive-warm-month/618484002/?csp=chromepush

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Rambus, GigaDevice form ReRAM joint venture

Reliance Memory has been formed in Beijing, China to commercialize Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) technology. The company is a joint venture between intellectual property developer Rambus Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), fabless chip company GigaDevice Semiconductor (Beijing) Inc. and multiple venture capital companies. VC companies include THG Ventures, West Summit Capital, Walden International and Zhisland Capital.

The value of the investment was not disclosed but the company is expected to make ReRAM for use in embedded and IoT applications. GigaDevice is a fabless chip company that uses foundries to manufacture non-volatile memory and 32bit microcontrollers.

The Rambus ReRAM technology, previously known as CMOx has a heritage that goes back to Rambus's acquisition of Unity Semiconductor Corp. for $35 million in February 2012. Unity has been working on the technology for a decade, but failed to bring the technology to market. Unity had claimed to have developed a passive rewritable cross-point memory array based on conductive metal oxide. This would provide similarities to filament-based metal migration technologies such as those developed by Adesto Technologies Corp. and Crossbar Inc.

Resistive random-access memory. Yes, that Rambus.

Related: Crossbar 3D Resistive RAM Heads to Commercialization
Intel-Micron's 3D XPoint Memory Lacks Key Details
IBM Demonstrates Phase Change Memory with Multiple Bits Per Cell
HP/HPE's Memristor: Probably Dead
Western Digital and Samsung at the Flash Memory Summit
Fujitsu to Mass Produce Nantero-Licensed NRAM in 2018

Original Submission

takyon writes:

How much space do you need to evolve a new mammal? These worm-eating mice have the answer

To discover the lower limit, the team turned to islands, whose isolated locations often make for an ideal laboratory—researchers can usually determine which animals arrived there and which evolved there. Lawrence Heaney, an evolutionary biogeographer at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, worked for years cataloging mammal diversity on the Philippines's largest island, Luzon. He discovered that its 105,000 square kilometers hosted 66 mammal species, not including bats. Surely smaller islands could also allow new species to diversify, he thought. So he and his colleagues searched for just such a place. They settled on Mindoro, the seventh-largest island in the Philippines.

In 2013, they started an inventory of all the mammals there, including rats, mice, and the dwarf water buffalo. They set up live traps on the slopes of all five of Mindoro's mountain ranges to catch the smaller ones, including a kind of long-snouted, earthworm-eating mouse native to the island, on which they focused their initial analysis. After comparing their DNA and looks, the scientists realized the mice represented four separate species—three living on their own mountains, and one occupying the lowlands below.

Furthermore, the genetic analysis suggests that the four species evolved from a single ancestor that landed on Mindoro about 2.8 million years ago. That means the island is the smallest place ever documented to have evolved new mammals [DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13352] [DX] from a single ancestor, Heaney and his colleagues report today in the Journal of Biogeography.

Also at The Field Museum.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Trump's plan to privatize the ISS by 2025 probably won't work, NASA's inspector general says

The Trump Administration's plan to hand the International Space Station off to the private sector by 2025 probably won't work, says a government auditor. It's unlikely that any commercial companies will be able to take on the enormous costs of operating the ISS within the next six years, the auditor said.

NASA's inspector general, Paul Martin, laid out his concerns over the space station's transition during a Senate space subcommittee hearing May 16th, helmed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). During his testimony, Martin said that there's just no "sufficient business case" for space companies to take on the ISS's yearly operations costs, which are expected to reach $1.2 billion in 2024. The industries that would need the ISS, such as space tourism or space research and development, haven't panned out yet, he noted. Plus, the private space industry hasn't been very enthusiastic about using the ISS either — for research or for profit. "Candidly, the scant commercial interest shown in the station over its nearly 20 years of operation gives us pause about the agency's current plans," Martin said at the hearing.

Also at Ars Technica.

Related: NASA Intends to Privatize International Space Station
Congress Ponders the Fate of the ISS after 2024
Buzz Aldrin: Retire the ISS to Reach Mars
Can the International Space Station be Saved? Should It be Saved?
Trump Administration Plans to End Support for the ISS by 2025

Original Submission

aristarchus submitted a story which became:

At theGrio, Spike Lee blasted Trump for not condemning the Klan and Alt-Right:

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman was well received at the Cannes Film Festival, and the prolific director did not hold back giving his take on how President Donald Trump has contributed to a hateful, divisive culture.

In the movie, about a black man (John David Washington) who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, Lee inserted a moving documentary montage at the end of the film about the conflict in Charlottesville, reports Vulture. The movie included a powerful ending messaging about Heather Heyer, the young woman [who] was killed when a white nationalist ran her over with a car during the protests.

“It’s an ugly, ugly, ugly blemish on the United States of America,” Lee said at the press conference for the film.

The story contains a link to a YouTube video of Spike Lee's comments at Cannes, as well as a transcript of that video.

[Note: Emphasis was in the source. -Ed]

Original Submission

Mykl writes:

An article in Australian newspaper The Age describes a paper just released by the Reserve Bank of Australia which has found that periodic increases in the Minimum Wage (also known as the "Award" wage in Australia) did not negatively affect the level of employment in each respective industry:

The paper, published by the central bank's economic research department on the final day the Fair Work Commission hearings had to decide if 2.3 million Australians will get a pay rise in July, found "no evidence that small, incremental increases in award wages had an adverse effect on hours worked or the job destruction rate".

It used a sample of 32,000 jobs between 1998 and 2008, when award wages were increased by a flat dollar amount each year, to find jobs with larger award wage rises had larger increases in hours worked than jobs experiencing a smaller award wage rise.

"I am able to rule out adverse effects on hours worked. I also find that award wage increases do not have a statistically significant effect on the job destruction rate," said researcher James Bishop.

"If anything, the point estimates suggest that the job destruction rate actually declines when the award wage is increased."

takyon writes:

In Germany, controversial law gives Bavarian police new power to use DNA

Police in the German state of Bavaria will have new powers to use forensic DNA profiling after a controversial law passed [May 15] in the Landtag, the state parliament in Munich. The law is the first in Germany that allows authorities to use DNA to help determine the physical characteristics, such as eye color, of an unknown culprit.

The new DNA rules are part of a broader law which has drawn criticism of the wide surveillance powers it gives the state's police to investigate people they deem an "imminent danger," people who haven't necessarily committed any crimes but might be planning to do so.

[...] move was prompted, in part, by the rape and murder of a medical student in Freiburg, Germany, in late 2016. An asylum seeker, originally from Afghanistan, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. But some authorities complained that they could have narrowed their search more quickly if they had been able to use trace DNA to predict what the suspect would look like. Existing federal and state laws allow investigators to use DNA only to look for an exact match between crime scene evidence and a potential culprit, either in a database of known criminals or from a suspect.

In 2017, federal authorities proposed allowing investigators to conduct broader DNA profiling, but the proposal stalled after critics called for an expanded ethical debate on the advantages and disadvantages of the techniques.

Original Submission