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An Anonymous Coward wrote in with the news of the first measles death in the U.S. since 2003. Measles kills tens of thousands of people worldwide annually. From the Washington Post:

Health officials on Thursday confirmed the country's first measles death since 2003, and they believe the victim was most likely exposed to the virus in a health facility in Washington state during an outbreak there. The woman died in the spring; a later autopsy confirmed that she had an undetected measles infection, the Washington State Department of Health said in a statement. The official cause of death was announced as "pneumonia due to measles."

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 178 people from 24 states and the District were reported to have measles from Jan. 1 through June 26 of this year. Two-thirds of the cases, the CDC noted, were "part of a large multi-state outbreak linked to an amusement park in California."

Measles were effectively eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to the CDC. Health officials have said that the disease made a comeback recently, in part because of a growing number of adults deciding to delay or abstain from vaccinating their children. Last year brought the highest number of recorded measles cases since 2000, according to the CDC. Earlier this year, President Obama acknowledged the concerns some have about effects of vaccines but said: "The science is pretty indisputable." "You should get your kids vaccinated — it's good for them," Obama said. "We should be able to get back to the point where measles effectively is not existing in this country."

takyon: Celebrity critics recently denounced California's new mandatory vaccine law.

janrinok writes:

After taking a 26-year nap, a waking black hole released a burst of X-rays that lit up astronomical observatories on June 15 — and it's still making a ruckus today.

Astronomers identified the revived black hole as an "X-ray nova" — a sudden increase in star luminosity — coming from a binary system in the constellation Cygnus. The outburst may have been caused by material falling into a black hole.

The burst was first caught by NASA's Swift satellite, and then by a Japanese experiment on the International Space Station, called Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI). [Black Hole Wakes Up With A Bang (Video)]

"Relative to the lifetime of space observatories, these black-hole eruptions are quite rare," Neil Gehrels, Swift's principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. "So, when we see one of them flare up, we try to throw everything we have at it, monitoring across the spectrum, from radio waves to gamma-rays."

AnonTechie writes:

Encrypting emails can be tedious, difficult and very confusing. And even for those who have mastered the process, it's useless unless the intended recipient has the correct software to decode the message. A Georgia Institute of Technology researcher has created an easier method – one that sounds familiar to parents who try to outsmart their 8-year-old child. The new technique gets rid of the complicated, mathematically generated messages that are typical of encryption software. Instead, the method transforms specific emails into ones that are vague by leaving out key words.

"It's kind of like when mom and dad are talking about potential vacation spots while the kids are nearby," said Eric Gilbert, the Georgia Tech assistant professor who developed the software. "They can't say or spell 'Disney,' or the children will get too excited. So they use other words and the meaning is implied. Instead of 'Disney,' they could say 'have you bought tickets to the place yet.'"

Gilbert's Open Book system, a prototype that uses a Google Mail plug-in called Read Me, works the same way by substituting specific words with ambiguous ones. If the above example was an email conversation, the sender would write, "Have you bought tickets to Disney yet?" Open Book would change the message when it was sent. The other person would see, "Have you bought tickets to (place) yet?"

The process reduces the information disclosed to eavesdroppers or computer systems that monitor online communications, while taking advantage of common ground between the participants.

The system was presented at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2015) in Seoul, South Korea, April 18-23 (Open Book: A Socially Inspired Cloaking Technique that Uses Lexical Abstraction to Transform Messages) [PDF].

AnonTechie writes:

Grant Willcox, a student studying ethical hacking at the University of Northumbria in the UK, is claiming that the Wassenaar Arrangement, an arms control treaty that was expanded last year to prohibit the export of various kinds of software exploit, is forcing him to censor his dissertation.

Willcox's research investigates ways in which Microsoft's EMET software can be bypassed. EMET is a security tool that includes a variety of mitigation techniques designed to make exploiting common memory corruption flaws harder. In the continuing game of software exploit cat and mouse, EMET raises the bar, making software bugs harder to take advantage of, but does not outright eliminate the problems. Willcox's paper explored the limitations of the EMET mitigations and looked at ways that malware could bypass them to enable successful exploitation. He also applied these bypass techniques to a number of real exploits.

Typically this kind of dissertation would be published in full. Security researchers routinely explore techniques for bypassing system protections, with this research being one of the things that guides the development of future mitigations. Similarly, publishing the working exploit code (with a safe payload, to prove the concept) is standard within the research community.

However, Willcox's paper doesn't do this. Writing on his blog, he explains that some pages have been removed due to a combination of the Wassenaar Arrangement's restrictions, and the university's ethics board forbidding the release of exploits. He says that he will release the exploits only to consultancies within the UK, thereby avoiding any exports.

HughPickens.com writes:

Michael Bastach reports that the White House wants doctors and other medical professionals to teach Americans about global warming and how climate change could make their health worse. At a summit the White House called to bring together health and medical professionals, academics, and other stakeholders to empower people and communities with the information and tools they need to protect public health in the face of climate change, Obama told medical professionals in a taped address that he needs "doctors, nurses and citizens, like all of you to get to work to raise awareness and organize folks for real change." The central message: doctors should warn their patients that global warming could make their health worse. "We need to engage medical students themselves," said Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, "to demand the curriculum change" to prepare them for a warmer future."

Critics of the White House summit argued the event highlighted the collusion between the Obama administration and activist groups and called out the White house for teaming up with the American Lung Association (ALA) to promote the link between global warming and public health. "The involvement of the ALA in promoting and organizing today's White House summit on climate change and health is yet another sign that the Obama administration has been co-opted by outside pressure groups, and has politicized the EPA's decision-making process," wrote Karen Kerrigan, president of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council."

AnonTechie writes:

You're glued to the TV as your favourite team is winning with 10 minutes left in the game, but you have pressing work to attend to. Should you switch it off, confident they have an unassailable lead, or stay tuned and agonise over each remaining second?

After analysing more than a million encounters in basketball, hockey and American football – sports where contests have a fixed duration – Aaron Clauset of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his colleagues have developed a way to help you decide.

Their data set revealed that much of the dynamics of these competitive team sports can be accurately captured by a simple model in which the score difference randomly moves up or down over time. The researchers used their model to work out the probability that a lead would be "safe" at any given time.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27836-winning-formula-reveals-if-your-team-is-too-far-ahead-to-lose.html

[Abstract]: http://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.91.062815

takyon writes:

Iceland has legalized blasphemy, which had been criminalized under a 75-year-old law, despite some opposition from the country's churches:

A bill was put forward by the minority Pirate Party, which campaigns for internet and data freedom. It came after the deadly attack the same month against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris... As three members of the Pirate Party stood before parliament on Thursday, each said: "Je Suis Charlie", an expression used globally to express solidarity with the Charlie Hebdo victims. After the ruling, the party wrote on its blog (in Icelandic): "Iceland's parliament has now established the important message that freedom will not give in to bloody attacks." The blasphemy law had been in place since 1940, and anyone found guilty could have been sentenced to a fine or three months in prison.

The Catholic Church wrote in comments submitted after the bill was proposed: "Should freedom of expression go so far as to mean that the identity of a person of faith can be freely insulted, then personal freedom - as individuals or groups - is undermined." The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association said that the new law included provisions to ensure that people could still be prosecuted for hate speech. [...] In the 2013 election, [Iceland's Pirate Party] gained three MPs for the first time, and polls now say it is the most popular party in Iceland, with the support of 32.4% of the country. In 2013, its members drafted a law calling for whistleblower Edward Snowden to be granted Icelandic citizenship.

takyon writes:

Google's continuing legal battle with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), initiated after WikiLeaks published leaked Sony emails, now includes documents provided to the court showing a cozy relationship between the MPAA and Mississippi's Attorney General, Jim Hood. Hood has argued that Google violates the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act by facilitating the distribution of illegal drugs and copyright-infringing content. But Google claims it is immune to state enforcement action under the 1996 Communications Decency Act, and sees the MPAA as lobbying and prodding the Attorney General into attacking Google:

In a new filing at a Washington District Court, Google has called out the MPAA for its "cozy" relationship with [the Mississippi Attorney General]. In addition to helping him draft anti-piracy measures, Google highlights that the Hollywood group organized fundraisers, donated money, and sent rather jovial emails to the Attorney General's staff. Late last year leaked documents from the Sony hack revealed that the MPAA helped Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to revive SOPA-like censorship efforts in the United States. In a retaliatory move Google sued the Attorney General, hoping to find out more about the secret plan. The company also demanded internal communication from the MPAA and its lawfirm Jenner & Block.

After the Hollywood group and its lawyers refused to provide all information Google asked for, a separate legal battle began with both sides using rather strong language to state their case. The MPAA accused Google of facilitating piracy and objected to a request to transfer the case to Mississippi, where the underlying case was started. According to the movie industry group and its lawyers they are merely bystanders who want to resolve the matter in a Washington court.

This week Google responded to the MPAA opposition with a scathing reply, which outs the cozy relationship between the MPAA and the Attorney General's office. "Their rhetoric does not match reality," Google responds (pdf) to the request not to transfer the case. "The MPAA and Jenner are no strangers to Mississippi."

According to Google it's clear that the MPAA and its law firm were in "intimate contact" with the Attorney General, offered monetary donations, hosted fundraisers and also helped him to draft legal paperwork. "According to the Subpoenaed Parties, they are strangers to Mississippi. But documents produced last week by the MPAA tell a very different story. The Subpoenaed Parties and their representatives made repeated visits to AG Hood's office in Mississippi to guide his anti-Google work. Even when they weren't physically at AG Hood's office, they may as well have been, getting together with him in Denver and Santa Monica and holding a fundraising dinner for him in New Orleans."

And there is more. The emails the MPAA recently produced also reveal "remarkably cozy and constant communications" between the MPAA and the Attorney General's office. In one email the MPAA's Brian Cohen greeted one of Hood's staffers with "Hello my favorite" offering to share pictures of his vacation in New Zealand via Dropbox. In another email discussing a meeting with the AG's staff, MPAA's Cohen writes "OMG we spent 3 hours." According to Google [...] "This pattern of sustained, intimate contact is hardly the mark of a party that merely 'communicated with Attorney General Hood' 'previously,' as the MPAA characterizes itself."

They made it to Hawaii

An Anonymous Coward writes:

A plane powered by the sun's rays has landed in Hawaii after a record-breaking five-day journey across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.

http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/state-wire/solar-powered-plane-lands-hawaii-after-flight-japan

Solar Impulse Plane Lands in Hawaii

Phoenix666 writes:

Solar Impulse, the aeroplane that is powered only by the sun, has landed in Hawaii after making a historic 7,200km flight across the Pacific from Japan. Pilot Andre Borschberg brought the vehicle gently down on to the runway of Kalaeloa Airport at 05:55 local time (15:55 GMT; 16:55 BST).

The distance covered and the time spent in the air - 118 hours - are records for manned, solar-powered flight. The duration is also an absolute record for a solo, un-refuelled journey. Mr Borschberg's time betters that of the American adventurer Steve Fossett who spent 76 hours aloft in a single-seater jet in 2006.

Despite being in the cockpit for so long, the Swiss pilot told the BBC that he did not feel that tired: "Interestingly, not really. "I am also astonished. We got so much support during the flight from so many people; it gave me so much energy."

Pretty amazing feat. Not only the longest solo flight, but also without burning a drop of fuel.

takyon updates a story from a few months ago, and writes:

Orkla Group has become the first food company to announce a deal with LiquiGlide Inc., which offers a non-stick coating for the inside of bottles and other food packaging:

Mayonnaise that does not get stuck in its container is being developed by a Norwegian company. Orkla is the first food manufacturer to announce a deal with US company Liquiglide to use its non-stick coating in product packaging. [...] Liquiglide says its coating is "completely harmless" and meets safety standards because it "can be made entirely from food".

The company was founded in 2012 to sell licences for a non-stick technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A customised version of the coating is created for each product, resulting in a "permanently wet" surface inside containers that helps the product slip out. It told the BBC it was working with 30 companies, including some of the biggest consumer brands in the US.
Orkla's food division generated more than 3bn krone (£246m) of sales in its last quarter. The company said it was still deciding exactly how it would use the technology in its products.

While reducing wasted product may benefit consumers, Liquiglide suggests it could also encourage shoppers to buy more frequently. The company states on its website: "Liquiglide makes dispensing product so easy that consumers actually tend to use it faster... it pushes consumers to an earlier repurchase point."

From a 2012 article:

The site claims the spray will work on glass, plastic, metal and ceramic surfaces and with any condiment — there's also a similar video showing LiquiGlide's use with mayonnaise. The LiquiGlide site says easy pours will not only prevent wasted quantities, but could also eliminate 25,000 tons of petroleum-based plastics by allowing the use of smaller caps.

While he wouldn't reveal its contents, [Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD candidate Dave] Smith told Fast Company magazine that LiquiGlide has other potential uses, such as preventing clogs in oil and gas lines. "We've patented the hell out of it," he said.

Phoenix666 writes:

One of the most transformative technologies of the past few decades is the evolution of modular platforms. We started with big bricks, moved on to flip phones, and are now in an era of pocketable computers. They're multimedia Legos, capable of running apps, acting as the brains for hardware add-ons, and interacting wirelessly with other objects.

Borre Akkersdijk is trying to replicate that same evolution with clothing. Over the past few years, he's created several proof-of-concept pieces that reimagine clothing as input devices, Wi-Fi routers, and air purifiers. Depending on where his pieces are showcased, he switches up their technological functions to solve location-based problems.

Akkersdijk, who describes himself as a textile designer, studied at Eindhoven Design Academy in the Netherlands and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. After school, he began experimenting with different kinds of knitting techniques, and a few years ago he was asked to help solve a common problem with the first wave of truly wearable technology.

"The Technical University of Eindhoven were doing a huge project called CRISP on smart textiles, and they bumped into the same problem every time," Akkersdijk explains. "They were just sticking the technology onto the textile. It was just sort of a sandwich. And they were looking for new ways and base layers to put their sensor technology into."

Predicting the first blockbuster product: vibrating underwear.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Ride-sharing service Uber has exited the French market following taxi driver protests, a ban by the French interior minister, and the arrest of two managers:

Following a week of increasingly violent clashes with traditional taxi drivers, the San Francisco-based company announced that its popular Uberpop service would be suspended from 8pm tonight and would no longer appear on users' app lists.

'In recent weeks intimidation and violent aggression by an out-of-control minority, where drivers and users of Uberpop were ambushed, has increased in France. Uber does not want to put drivers or passengers at risk, so for the sake of peace has decided to suspend Uberpop,' said the company in a statement. However, the service is in fact illegal in France. Last week, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, general manager for Western Europe, and Thibaud Simphal, general manager of Uber France, were arrested. They will have their day in court in September.

Uber said it hoped to be back up and running as soon as possible. It thanked the "thousands of men and women from Lille to Marseille, via Paris, Bordeaux or Lyon who participated with enthusiasm in the urban transport revolution".

Original Submission

fritsd writes:

It's high summer in Europe.

The Guardian newspaper reports on a new initiative in the Danish musical epicentre of Roskilde to make festivalgoers aware of the intimate link between them and their beer: the festival organization coined a new word "beercycling" which means nothing more than recycling the valuable nitrates from music lovers' urine through a near-by barley field, and then transmogrifying said barley into golden mjød (actually pilsner beer in the current project).

According to the newspaper, the Roskilde festival (established æons ago in the hippy era) has a reputation for its ecological awareness.

Phoenix666 writes:

Each of us has, in our nose, about six million smell receptors of around four hundred different types. The distribution of these receptors varies from person to person -- so much so that each person's sense of smell may be unique. In research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Weizmann Institute scientists report on a method of precisely characterizing an individual's sense of smell, which they call an "olfactory fingerprint."

The implications of this study reach beyond the sense of smell alone, and range from olfactory fingerprint-based early diagnosis of degenerative brain disorders to a non-invasive test for matching donor organs.

The method is based on how similar or different two odors are from one another. In the first stage of the experiment, volunteers were asked to rate 28 different smells according to 54 different descriptive words, for example, "lemony," or "masculine." The experiment, led by Dr. Lavi Secundo, together with Dr. Kobi Snitz and Kineret Weissler, all members of the lab of Prof. Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department, developed a complex, multidimensional mathematical formula for determining, based on the subjects' ratings, how similar any two odors are to one another in the human sense of smell. The strength of this formula, according to Secundo, is that it does not require the subjects to agree on the use and applicability of any given verbal descriptor. Thus, the fingerprint is odor dependent but descriptor and language independent.

takyon writes:

Sealed Air Corp., the original seller of Bubble Wrap since 1960, is introducing a new version of its signature product:

Dubbed iBubble Wrap, the new packaging is sold in flat plastic sheets that the shipper fills with air using a custom-made pump. The inflated bubbles look much like traditional Bubble Wrap, with one key difference: They don't burst when pressure is applied.

Charlotte N.C.-based Sealed Air is betting iBubble Wrap will appeal to space-conscious online retailers who are driving swift growth in the global packaging business, even as fans are disappointed by the lack of pop. Traditional Bubble Wrap ships in giant, pre-inflated rolls, taking up precious room in delivery trucks and on customers' warehouse floors. One roll of the new iBubble Wrap uses roughly one-fiftieth as much space before it's inflated.

Though an afterthought for consumers, protective packaging is big business: World-wide sales hit $20 billion in 2013, the most recent data available, according to Freedonia Group, a research firm. An increasing number of products and components are shipped around the world as manufacturing has become more global. Retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Target Corp. are constantly experimenting with new types of packaging as they look for ways to undercut rivals to offer cheaper, faster shipping, all while ensuring products reach their destinations unscathed.