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lhsi writes:

Capuchin monkeys are not fooled by expensive brands, unlike some humans (Full text: Open Access).

Ting Model writes:

Allison Griswold reports at Slate that Pizza Hut wants to help you order your food subconsciously with a new product that is being tested at 300 locations across the UK that uses eye-tracking technology to allow diners to order within seconds using only their eyes. The digital menu shows diners a canvas of 20 toppings and builds their pizza based on which toppings they look at longest. To try again, a diner can glance at a "restart" button. "Finally the indecisive orderer and the prolonged menu peruser can cut time and always get it right," a Pizza Hut spokesperson said in a statement, "so that the focus of dining can be on the most important part - the enjoyment of eating!" According to news release from Tobii Technology, the Subconscious Menu can determine which ingredients your mind and eyes have been looking at longest in exactly 2.5 seconds. The menu then uses a powerful mathematical algorithm to identify, from 4896 possible ingredient combinations, the customer’s perfect pizza. "Tests on the Subconscious Menu have been incredibly positive with 98% of people, recommended a pizza with ingredients they love."

"gewg_" writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

On [November 30], Germany's biggest utility E.ON announced plans to split into two companies and focus on renewables in a major shift that could be an indicator of broader changes to come across the utility sector. E.ON will spin off its nuclear, oil, coal, and gas operations in an effort to confront a drastically altered energy market, especially under the pressure of Germany's Energiewende—the country's move away from nuclear to renewables. The company told shareholders that it will place "a particular emphasis on expanding its wind business in Europe and in other selected target markets," and that it will also "strengthen its solar business."

E.ON will also focus on smart grids and distributed generation in an effort to improve energy efficiency and increase customer engagement and opportunity.

Ting Model writes:

The NYT reports that in the aftermath of the crippling online attack against Sony last month, internal documents have been leaked containing the pre-bonus annual salaries of Sony's senior executives. A spreadsheet containing the salaries of more than 6,000 Sony Pictures employees has been posted on Pastebin, the anonymous Internet posting site, that includes the company’s top executives including 17 senior executives who earn more than $1 million a year sending "a ripple of dread across Hollywood to Washington". Tom Kellermann says that unlike stealth attacks from China and Russia, Sony’s hackers not only aimed to steal data, but also to send a clear message. “This was like a home invasion where after taking the family jewels the hackers set the house ablaze."

Although large attacks on companies are increasingly common, this one has played out like one of Sony’s own thrillers, with macabre images on computer screens of studio executives’ severed heads. Although the studio is exploring multiple explanations, one theory involves North Korea and that the attack could be retribution from North Korea for a coming Sony comedy about an assassination attempt on that country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. Sony plans to release “The Interview,” an R-rated comedy about two American journalists who are recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Mr. Kim. A spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the film — apparently after seeing a trailer — “the most undisguised terrorism and a war action" adding that the film would invite “a strong and merciless countermeasure.” The destructive attack at Sony mirrors similar attacks last year on computers inside South Korea that paralyzed the computer networks at three major South Korean banks and two of the country’s largest broadcasters. Those attacks were traced back to computer addresses inside China, though many suspected that hackers inside China were working on behalf of North Korea, retaliating against South Korea for conducting military exercises with the United States, and for supporting recent American-led sanctions against the north. “In 2015 hackers will destroy systems not just for activism, but also for counter-incident response,” concludes Kellermann. Sony is moving ahead with the release of the comedy regardless.

JamesNZ writes:

Cylance has published a report on what it calls 'Operation Cleaver', a "coordinated and determined group working to undermine the security of at least 50 companies across 15 industries in 16 countries."

Stuart McClure (Cylance CEO) writes:

The Operation Cleaver report documents how Iran is the first highly motivated Western world adversary poised to execute serious attacks against global infrastructure, not just targeting the United States, but the critical infrastructure of over a dozen different countries. They aren’t looking for credit cards or microchip designs, they are fortifying their hold on dozens of networks that if crippled would affect the lives of billions of people. Over two years ago the Iranians deployed the Shamoon malware on Saudi Aramco, the most destructive attack against a corporate network to date, digitally destroying three quarters of Aramco’s PCs. Such an attack is just the beginning, it serves as a proof of concept to prove that such large scale and devastating attacks are not only possible but impending.

bradley13 writes:

The USA has been making life difficult for Americans residing abroad; FATCA causes plenty of problems; but so does citizenship-based taxation. The IRS and Treasury department have made the reporting and taxation more onerous, and stepped up their collection efforts.

The result should be a surprise to no one: more and more Americans are handing in their US citizenship. Total numbers are unavailable (the lists published by the government include only a portion of the total), but undisputed is the fact that the numbers are increasing rapidly.

Having lots of citizens want to leave is...embarrassing. One solution could be to review the policies leading to people to hand in their citizenship. Another would be to make the fee unaffordable, especially for people living on second- or third-world incomes. It's obvious, of course, which route the USA has chosen: It now costs $2350 to hand in your US passport; more than 20 times the international average.

tonyPick writes:

Nature has made all research papers it publishes free to view. However there's a catch:

The "proprietary screen-view format" appears to be ReadCube, a Windows/Mac/iOS application.

Introducing the Mooltipass, a physical encrypted password keeper that remembers your credentials so you don't have to. With this device, you can generate and safely store long and complex passwords unique to each website you use. A personal PIN-locked smartcard allows the decryption of your credentials and ensures that only you have access to them. Simply visit a website and the device will ask for your confirmation to enter your credentials when login is required.

Over thirty people from all around the globe contributed to bring this project to where it is now, including software and firmware engineers, designers, mechanical engineers, artists, project managers, students and security engineers.

Our project started a year ago with a call for feedback and contributors. It turned out that people were thrilled by the idea of an open source password keeper and didn't hesitate to commit some (if not all!) of their personal time to join this adventure. Now three days are left to fully fund the project.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mooltipass-open-source-offline-password-keeper/x/8137850#home

jdccdevel writes:

The CBC has an article about a new company using Milkweed fibre to clean up oil spills.

Franç​ois Simard, creator of Protec-Style, has a contract with Parks Canada to supply national parks with oil-spill kits. The kits come with various sizes of absorbent tubes filled with milkweed fibre.

Simard says milkweed has a unique ability to repel water, which makes it perfect for oil spills on land or water.

"You can leave an absorbent [milkweed] sock in water and it will only absorb the oil. It's very unique in nature to have fibres like that," said Simard in an interview at his factory in Granby, Que.

The new crop is also good for monarch butterflies, which only lay their eggs on the milkweed plants. According to the Simard:

"There were so many butterflies in the field that people on the road … had to stop," he says. "They were wondering what was happening. It was just growing 20 hectares that made the whole difference."

I wonder what other weed plants have novel commercial uses? Maybe someone can find a good use for Thistle or Kudzu?

mendax writes:

El Reg has published an article Feds dig up law from 1789 to demand Apple, Google decrypt smartphones, slabs:

The FBI has made it no secret that it hates Apple and Google's efforts to encrypt files in your smartphones and tablets. Now court documents have emerged showing just how far the Feds are willing to go to decrypt citizens' data. The paperwork has shown two cases where federal prosecutors have cited the All Writs Act — which was enacted in 1789 as part of the Judiciary Act — to force companies to decrypt information on gadgets.

The Act, which was signed into law by none other than George Washington and later revised in the 20th century, gives the courts the right to...

issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.

That's a pretty broad remit, but the Feds think it's just the thing to force Apple and others to break down privacy protections.

Perhaps someone forgot to tell the Feds that the latest encryption used in these slabs doesn't let Apple or Google decrypt them. But the article does point out:

The court filing [by the government to seek a court order against Apple] states investigators were unwilling to try and open the iPhone for fear of damaging a crucial piece of evidence. They asked the courts to force Apple to give them a hand in safely extracting data from the passcode-protected phone.

Ars Technica has coverage as well: Feds want Apple’s help to defeat encrypted phones, new legal case shows.

jdccdevel writes:

The BBC is reporting that Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind:

Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. He told the BBC: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

It seems he is mostly concerned about building machines smarter than we are:

Prof Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans.

This seems to echo Elon Musk's fears. What do you think?

Phoenix666 noted the above and added this commentary:

Since Elon Musk said the same[*], some here have disparaged the statement. Stephen Hawking, however, has more street cred[ibility] than Musk. Are they right, or will other factors precede AI as catastrophic scenarios?

[* Ed's note. See: Elon Musk scared of Artificial Intelligence - Again.]

Hugh Pickens writes:

Nicholas St. Fleur writes at The Atlantic that in the sad final chapter to a career that traces back to racist remarks he made in 2007, James Watson, the famed molecular biologist and co-discoverer of DNA, is putting his Nobel Prize up for auction, the first Nobel laureate in history to do so. Watson, best known for his work deciphering the DNA double helix alongside Francis Crick in 1953, made an incendiary remark regarding the intelligence of black people that lost him the admiration of the scientific community in 2007 making him, in his own words, an "unperson". That year, The Sunday Times quoted Watson as saying that he felt “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really.” Watson added that although some think that all humans are born equally intelligent, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.” Watson has a history of making racist and sexist declarations, according to Time. His insensitive off-the-cuff remarks include saying that sunlight and dark skin contribute to “Latin lover” libido, and that fat people lack ambition, which prevents them from being hired. At a science conference in 2012, Watson said of women in science, “I think having all these women around makes it more fun for the men but they’re probably less effective.” To many scientists his gravest offense was not crediting Rosalind Franklin with helping him deduce the structure of DNA.

Watson is selling his prized medallion because he has no income outside of academia, even though for years he had served on many corporate boards. The gold medal is expected to bring in between $2.5 million and $3.5 million when it goes to auction. Watson says that he will use the money to purchase art and make donations to institutions that have supported him, such as the University of Chicago and Watson says the auction will also offer him the chance to “re-enter public life.” “I’ve had a unique life that’s allowed me to do things. I was set back. It was stupid on my part,” says Watson “All you can do is nothing, except hope that people actually know what you are.”

From our non-denominational friends at NASA, by way of The Atlantic:

First up: "Mystic Mountain", a stellar nursery in the Carina Nebula.

tonyPick writes:

New Scientist has an article on research at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York on injecting human glial cells into mice, where the researchers:

This gave the mice a clear intelligence boost:

(Wikipedia has some background on glial cells).

"gewg_" writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

After major shareholders and a U.K. government official publicly opposed BG Group's plan to award [new CEO Helge] Lund 12 million pounds ($19 million) in stock this year, the company announced Monday that it will stretch the award out over 5 years and attach stricter performance incentives to it. It now expects the award to be worth 4.7 million pounds, (story is severely truncated for non-subscribers) or about $7.4 million.

The change means Lund's pay will follow the company's existing rules for executive compensation schemes, which BG had sought to bend to help it woo Lund away from his previous post at a competitor firm. Abandoning its usual pay rules and accelerating Lund's stock award had brought criticism from multiple large investment advising companies including four of the largest institutional investors in the company. Vince Cable, the top minister for business issues in Prime Minister David Cameron's government, also publicly criticized the proposal as "excessive."

Additional reporting from The Daily Mail Online and The Guardian.