SoylentNews

takyon writes:

BBC News has an article about "nerd power" in the form of heat from datacenters being harnessed to warm homes and businesses:

Ask Jerry van Waardhuizen about his new radiator and you get an excited response. "I'm very enthusiastic," he says. "It's a beautiful thing." The sleek white box, which has been hugging his wall for two weeks, looks nice enough as radiators go. But what's really got Waardhuizen excited is what's going on inside.

Instead of hot water, it contains a computer connected to the internet, doing big sums and kicking out heat in the process. It was created by a Dutch start-up called Nerdalize, and could be part of a solution to a big problem for the tech industry.

We talk about data being "virtual" and stored on a "cloud". In fact, those clouds take the form of very large, noisy data centres containing tens of thousands of servers. To prevent the server stacks overheating, tech companies spend vast sums on cooling technology - more than a third of a data centre's hefty energy bill may go on air conditioning. With data centres estimated to account for 1.5% of global electricity consumption (in 2010), this wastage is costly to businesses and to the environment too.

Nerdalize's solution is, effectively, to spread their data centre across domestic homes linked by fibre-optic cable. The excess heat can then be used instead of going to waste.

The radiators take a little longer than average to heat up - about an hour, Waardhuizen says - and a single unit won't be enough to heat a room in mid-winter. But, after a small set-up fee, the heat is completely free to users. Nerdalize gets its money for providing data services. During this year-long pilot, its clients include Leiden University Medical Centre, which uses the radiators to crunch through lengthy protein and gene analysis.

Mentioned are Nerdalize, a 2011 paper by Microsoft Research and the University of Virginia (pdf), Facebook's Lulea, Sweden datacenter, Bahnhof, Iceotope, and the Westin Building sharing heat with Amazon's headquarters in Seattle.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Over the last 5 years, the price of new wind power in the US has dropped 58% and the price of new solar power has dropped 78%. Utility-scale solar in the West and Southwest is now at times cheaper than new natural gas plants. Even after removing the federal solar Investment Tax Credit of 30%, a recent New Mexico solar deal is priced at 6 cents / kwh. By contrast, new natural gas electricity plants have costs between 6.4 to 9 cents per kwh, according to the EIA.

sigma writes:

Myself and other submitters have noticed that articles are being edited to change the tone and intent of our stories.

Soylentil McD has suggested that "Minor edits, spelling corrections, and such, are no problem and to be expected." but "I think soylent editors should adhere to a policy of not putting words in the submitter's mouth".

I agree with that. If the editors want to add their own two cents, they can respond inline like the rest of us. Their role here is to be responsible, not privileged.

The stories we submit are a reflection of our enthusiasms and beliefs, the tone and character of those posts is as much part of the submitter's story as the actual content. The community is what makes sites like SN and Slashdot before it, an eclectic community with a wide range of opinions, styles and passions will always be more active and interesting than a bland monoculture. SN's editors should embrace and encourage that diversity, not sabotage it to appease some corporate interests.

So what do other Soylentils think? Should the submissions be allowed to stand as a clear reflection of the community's intent, or should the editors change our submissions to suit their perception of suitability?

Ethanol-fueled writes:

When we hear the word "multiculturalism," some imagine people of all races and creeds holding hands, others imagine a clash of disparate cultures that cannot co-exist. There are many more nuanced definitions in between.

In the world of mainstream politics, there is now widespread acknowledgment that the failure of immigrants to properly integrate into the culture of their host nations is causing a lot more harm that good. The backlash against multiculturalism has begun to manifest itself as a rise of nationalist parties such as England's UKIP and France's National Front gaining more support from disillusioned countrymen.

In 2010 German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that,

" This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, west of Berlin, yesterday. "

Merkel also suggested that the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society, and late last year the European Court of Justice ruled that EU citizens who move to another member state "solely in order to obtain social assistance" may be excluded from receiving that assistance, an acknowledgement that multiculturalism's side effects are causing more harm than good.

Those interested in this topic should read Foreign Affairs' excellent article The Failure of Multiculturalism.

As a political tool, multiculturalism has functioned as not merely a response to diversity but also a means of constraining it. And that insight reveals a paradox. Multicultural policies accept as a given that societies are diverse, yet they implicitly assume that such diversity ends at the edges of minority communities. They seek to institutionalize diversity by putting people into ethnic and cultural boxes—into a singular, homogeneous Muslim community, for example—and defining their needs and rights accordingly. Such policies, in other words, have helped create the very divisions they were meant to manage.

Whoever writes:

Nainder Sarao sits in jail because he cannot raise the £5M bail that is required for his release. He has apparently made millions while living in his parents' basement, but doesn't have access to the money because his accounts have been frozen. What is claimed by US authorities is that "... Mr Sarao placed "spoof" trades in E-Mini S&P derivatives in a bid to push the market in his favour. The orders would be placed and withdrawn in rapid succession using a customised computer programme, they allege", which sounds a lot like high-frequency trading. Perhaps his real crime was to copy the techniques of wealthy high-speed traders?

takyon writes:

A multinational team of marine biologists have completed a 3.5-year-long study of plankton across the world's oceans:

The ocean is the largest ecosystem on Earth, and yet we know very little about it. This is particularly true for the plankton that inhabit the ocean. Although these organisms are at least as important for the Earth system as the rainforests and form the base of marine food webs, most plankton are invisible to the naked eye and thus are largely uncharacterized. To study this invisible world, the multinational Tara Oceans consortium, with use of the 110-foot research schooner Tara, sampled microscopic plankton at 210 sites and depths up to 2000 m in all the major oceanic regions during expeditions from 2009 through 2013.

Sampling, usually 60 hours per site, followed standardized protocols to capture the morphological and genetic diversity of the entire plankton community from viruses to small zooplankton, covering a size range from 0.02 µm to a few millimeters, in context with physical and chemical information. Besides the sampling, a lab on board contained a range of online instruments and microscopes to monitor the content of the samples as they were being collected. The main focus was on the organism-rich sunlit upper layer of the ocean (down to 200 m), but the twilight zone below was also sampled. Guided by satellite and in situ data, scientists sampled features such as mesoscale eddies, upwellings, acidic waters, and anaerobic zones, frequently in the open ocean. In addition to being used for genomics and oceanography, many samples were collected for other analyses, such as high-throughput microscopy imaging and flow cytometry. The samples and data collected on board were archived in a highly structured way to enable extensive data processing and integration on land. The five Research Articles in this issue of Science describe the samples, data, and analysis from Tara Oceans (based on a data freeze from 579 samples at 75 stations as of November 2013).

The team produced 5 research articles and a "perspective," all paywalled by Science. You can read this editorial about "Oceans and Earth's habitability" (PDF). Abstracts below:

Eukaryotic plankton diversity in the sunlit ocean
Structure and function of the global ocean microbiome
Patterns and ecological drivers of ocean viral communities
Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome
Environmental characteristics of Agulhas rings affect interocean plankton transport
Uncovering hidden worlds of ocean biodiversity

Images at BBC News.

takyon writes:

Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter has told the BBC that local councils in England and Wales are turning off CCTV cameras in order to cut costs. According to the Independent, "One West Midlands council had deactivated a third of its cameras [by studying crime statistics and identifying areas where they were not needed], saving £250,000 in the process":

Councils in England and Wales are turning off CCTV cameras in an attempt to cut costs, a surveillance watchdog has warned. Tony Porter, the surveillance camera commissioner, said switching off cameras would mean the police would find it harder to detect crime. He told the BBC the situation was a "concern" and blamed the government's austerity cuts "sweeping the country". He is due to present his findings to the government in the autumn. Mr Porter, who is the commissioner for England and Wales, said budget cuts had led councils to decide to spend less on public space CCTV, meaning there was less money for staff training, poorer understanding of legal issues and a reduced service.

In a separate interview with the Independent, Mr Porter said: "There are an increasing number of examples where councils and employees are citing a lack of money as being the rationale to reduce the service or completely change its composition - and that does concern me. "Because CCTV isn't a statutory function, it is something a lot of councils are looking at. Most people recognise the utility of CCTV for supporting law enforcement. To degrade the capacity may have an impact on police. It may well be that they will find it increasingly difficult to acquire the images that will help them investigate crimes."

The UK has one of the largest number of CCTV cameras in the world. The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) estimates there are between 4 and 5.9 million cameras, with around one in 70 publicly owned.

In a speech to the CCTV User Group conference this week, [Mr. Porter] warned of misuse of cameras in some local authority areas. He said: "I've seen councils in large towns like Blackpool and Derby stop monitoring their systems 24-7. My understanding is that this is not as the result of a review or public consultation but simply to save money. "And as austerity measures continue to bite on public space CCTV will we see a deterioration of standards and training?"

The role of the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, as described by the man himself in a recent letter to all chief executives of local authorities:

The role of the Surveillance Camera Commissioner was created under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, appointed by the Home Secretary and independent of Government. As Commissioner I am required to ensure that surveillance camera systems, such as CCTV and ANPR, are used in accordance with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice (a copy is enclosed with this letter).

n1 writes with news of a report from the BBC:

The UK government has started selling off internet addresses that it no longer uses.

The first group of 150,000 addresses has been snapped up by a Norwegian firm called Altibox for about £600,000.

[...]The surplus addresses are part of a much bigger block of 16 million addresses given to the Department of Work and Pensions in 1993. Earlier this year, the DWP started a project to see how many of these IP addresses could be freed.

An official report produced before the DWP began its investigation suggested that 70% of the massive block was used for the UK government's internal network, leaving about five million free for disposal.

What are the chances the government will end up leasing some back from the companies they are selling them to?

AnonTechie writes:

The UK's premier poo-powered bus, the "Bus Hound," has broken the land speed record for a regular service bus. The bus, which is operated by Reading Buses, hit a confirmed top speed of 76.785 mph (123.5 kph) around the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire.

The bus, which is powered by biomethane derived from cow manure, would usually be limited to 56 mph. Reading Buses performed some "minor tweaks" to allow for the higher top speed (presumably some suspension tweaks and removal of the speed limiter), but otherwise it's a standard bus that would normally putter around the streets of Reading. The bus is painted black and white in a pattern that is reminiscent of the Friesian cows used for milk production in the UK.

"It was an impressive sight as it swept by on the track," Reading Buses' chief engineer John Bickerton told the BBC. "It sounded like a Vulcan bomber—the aerodynamics aren't designed for going 80 mph."

http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2015/05/british-poo-powered-bus-sets-speed-record/

HughPickens.com writes:

Time Magazine reports that Google has designed and patented an "anthropomorphic device" that could take the form of a "doll or toy" and interact both with people as well as tech gadgets echoing the "super toy" teddy bear featured in Stephen Spielberg's 2001 movie AI. This could be one of Google's creepiest patents yet -- especially if movies like "Chuckie" still give you nightmares.

The patent filing diagrams a stuffed teddy bear and a bunny rabbit outfitted with microphones, speakers, cameras and motors as well as a wireless connection to the internet. If it senses you're looking at it, the fuzzy toy will rotate its head and look back at you. Once it receives and recognizes a voice command prompt, you can then tell it to control media devices in your home (e.g. turn on your music or TV). According to the patent filing:

To express interest, an anthropomorphic device may open its eyes, lift its head, and/or focus its gaze on the user or object of its interest. To express curiosity, an anthropomorphic device may tilt its head, furrow its brow, and/or scratch its head with an arm. To express boredom, an anthropomorphic device may defocus its gaze, direct its gaze in a downward fashion, tap its foot, and/or close its eyes. To express surprise, an anthropomorphic device may make a sudden movement, sit or stand up straight, and/or dilate its pupils.

The patent adds that making the device look "cute" should encourage even the youngest members of a family to interact with it. But Mikhail Avady, from SmartUp, said he thought it belonged in "a horror film", and the campaign group Big Brother Watch has also expressed dismay. "When those devices are aimed specifically at children, then for many this will step over the creepy line," says Avady. "Children should be able to play in private and shouldn't have to fear this sort of passive invasion of their privacy."

janrinok writes:

Almost 90 per cent of men with advanced prostate cancer carry genetic mutations in their tumours that could be targeted by either existing or new cancer drugs, a landmark new study reveals.

Scientists in the UK and the US have created a comprehensive map of the genetic mutations within lethal prostate cancers that have spread around the body, in a paper being hailed as the disease's 'Rosetta Stone'. Researchers say that doctors could now start testing for these 'clinically actionable' mutations and give patients with advanced prostate cancer existing drugs or drug combinations targeted at these specific genomic aberrations in their cancers. The study was led in the UK by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, in collaboration with researchers from eight academic clinical trials centres around the world.

Uniquely, doctors at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and at hospitals in the US were able to collect large numbers of samples of metastatic cancers -- cancers that had spread from the original tumour to other parts of the body. Normally these samples are extremely hard to access, and this is the first study in the world to carry out in-depth analysis of metastatic prostate cancers that are resistant to standard treatments.

The research is published in the journal Cell, and is funded by Stand up to Cancer and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

takyon writes:

Representatives from Google, Apple, and Vodafone have attended a high-level and closed-door meeting at a mansion in Oxfordshire. On the agenda: the state of government surveillance and what to do about it:

The attendee list is impressive. Key speakers included former acting CIA boss John McLaughlin; former White House deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen, the current and former heads of the UK's GCHQ; the current or former heads of intelligence agencies in Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Germany; and the EU's counter terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove.

The tech industry also sent representatives, including Google's legal director Richard Salgado; Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director of global privacy; and Apple's product security and privacy manager Erik Neuenschwander, as well as Vodafone's external affairs director Matthew Kirk. Some members of the press were also included on the roster. Duncan Campbell, who publishes hard-hitting exposés of government spying (including for The Register), David Ignatius from the Washington Post, the BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera, and the historian Professor Timothy Garton Ash.

All participants were bound by Chatham House rules; an agreement not to publicly attribute comments to particular participants. The three-day meeting was held in an English country house, and no public minutes of the conversations will ever be published.

[...] Duncan Campbell told Snowden newsletter The Intercept that the meeting is a very positive sign and, while not going into too much detail, said that the conversations were very encouraging – perhaps the revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden are having a positive effect. "Away from the fetid heat of political posturing and populist headlines, I heard some unexpected and surprising comments from senior intelligence voices, including that 'cold winds of transparency' had arrived and were here to stay," he said. "Perhaps to many participants' surprise, there was general agreement across broad divides of opinion that Snowden – love him or hate him – had changed the landscape; and that change towards transparency, or at least 'translucency' and providing more information about intelligence activities affecting privacy, was both overdue and necessary."

"gewg_" writes with news of a story appearing in The Register: Viagra makes it HARD for malaria, bug-boffins discover:

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation has been buying Viagra, in a good cause: it seems to help beat one of the common malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum.

The mechanism is even analogous to Viagra's better-known effect: it makes infected red blood cells stiffer, which marks them down to be cleaned out by the spleen.

The full journal article is available at PLOS Pathogens: cAMP-Signalling Regulates Gametocyte-Infected Erythrocyte Deformability Required for Malaria Parasite Transmission.

takyon writes:

American and Israeli academics have created Astoria, a new Tor client designed to defeat the latest traffic analysis techniques used to surveil the network:

Astoria all-but decimates the number of vulnerable connections on the Tor network, bringing the figure from 58 per cent of total users to 5.8 per cent, the researchers claim. Astoria hopes to utilise a new relay-selection algorithm which would prevent the asymmetric connections which make traffic analysis possible.

Due to the large amounts of processing power needed to analyse the data passing through the Tor network, traffic analysis is only conceivable as a de-anonymising attack when it is launched by state actors, such as those in the Five Eyes surveillance alliance. Steven J. Murdoch, who along with George Danezis published a paper on the Low-Cost Traffic Analysis of Tor [PDF] back in 2005, told The Register that "Traffic-analysis is quite a sophisticated surveillance technique, but one which intelligence agencies have extensive experience in. With enough computation power, access to communication links and expertise, traffic analysis will be able to de-anonymize the user of any low-latency anonymous communication system, including Tor."

The new work by the researchers' explains how the traffic-analysis attacks may be implemented by any autonomous system (AS) that lies on both the path from the Tor client to the entry relay and the path from the exit relay to the destination. "Previous studies have demonstrated the potential for this type of attack and have proposed relay selection strategies to avoid common ASes (potential attackers) that may perform them. However, recent work has shown that these strategies perform poorly in practice," said the paper [PDF].

Observing that "vanilla" Tor will often select paths that may be subject to an adversary that exploits asymmetric network paths for the sake of analysis, the researchers have said that they "seek to design a relay selection algorithm to mitigate the opportunities for such attackers".

"We design our relay selection system, Astoria, based on the idea of stochastic relay selection. This works by having the Tor client generate a probability distribution that minimizes the chance of attack over all possible relay selection choices, and selecting an entry and exit-relay based on this distribution."

Astoria is not available for download... yet. Discussion at Hacker News.

Janrinok writes:

Apology To Microsoft

On Friday, we published a story, submitted by sigma, alleging that Microsoft had attempted to blackmail the UK Government in order to prevent the adoption of UK policy supporting open document standards. Having looked more closely at the linked material provided, the word blackmail is not used but appears only in the submission that we received. As the editor of that particular story I am personally responsible for not having checked the sources sufficiently well and for subsequently releasing the story. I wish to apologise, publicly and unreservedly, for any suggestion that Microsoft attempted to blackmail the UK government. They did not, nor does the accusation stand up to any scrutiny. We have edited the title to prevent any further misunderstanding by our community or others and I hope that this action and my apology to Microsoft is sufficient to atone for my mistake.

Apology to sigma

The editor's role includes that of trying to look at each story from both sides to provide a balanced approach. We are not here to support one particular view in preference to another but to provide material that will inspire discussion between members of our community. I published the story that sigma submitted, but attempted to balance it with the alternative view that suggested it was not specifically a Microsoft trait to defend one's business and that it could be argued that they were also attempting to protect their British workforce. However, I did not make it clear where sigma's comments ended and where my editing began, although I did add an Editor's Comment explaining that the story had been edited and that not all comments were those of the submitter. sigma has, quite justifiably, objected to this action and I must, therefore, apologise to him personally. I do apologise to sigma, again publicly and unreservedly, for any changes that I made to the submission that he feels reflect badly upon him.

Our Role

This was most certainly not my best piece of work and, of course, I must also apologise to the community. The editors do, however, have to edit stories; members of the community should not expect their submissions to be a platform for their personal views. Some stories require more editing than others to be suitable for the front page. In this instance, I made a mistake. We will always try to find a balanced approach to any story that needs it, as described in the Editing Process.

As I have already said, I take full responsibility for the stories that I release, including the one arising from sigma's submission. We value each and every submission, even those that do not make it to publication however, we do ask that submitters do not suggest events or actions that are not backed up by the source material, or are not easily verifiable by other means.

janrinok
Editor