SoylentNews

Phoenix666 writes:

Staying alive guzzles energy. In order to keep us ticking, our bodies need to burn between 2,000 and 2,500 [kilo]calories per day, which is conveniently enough to power a modestly used smart phone. So if just a fraction of that energy could be siphoned, our bodies could in theory be used to run any number of electronic devices, from medical implants to electronic contact lenses—all without a battery in sight. Recently, researchers have taken important strides toward unlocking this electric potential.
...
For instance, the ears of mammals contain a tiny electric voltage called the endocochlear potential (EP). Found inside the cochlea, a spiral-shaped cavity in the inner ear, the EP aids hearing by converting pressure waves into electrical impulses. It’s vanishingly weak—about a tenth of a volt—but still strong enough, in theory, to power hearing aids and other aural implants.
...
The potential of piezoelectric materials goes even deeper. They’re also being used to harvest energy from internal organs. Last year, US-based researchers successfully generated electricity from the beating hearts, lungs, and diaphragms of (sedated) cows and sheep, all by attaching an ultra-thin piezoelectric material to the organs. Impressively, the implanted fabric generated about a microwatt of power (one millionth of a watt)—roughly the amount needed to run a cardiac pacemaker.
...
Probably the single biggest step toward harnessing the power of our bodies has been the development, in the last few decades, of enzymatic biofuel cells (EFCs)—small, battery-like devices which can generate electricity by breaking down the energy-rich chemicals in bodily fluids…. The technology to create EFCs has existed for more than a decade, but in the past five years, researchers have begun to test them on—and in—living creatures.

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Original URL: The Register has an article on fiddling by the US with an agreement set to negatively impact the IT security.

The period for comments on proposed amendments to the Wassenaar Arrangement – which governs the export of guns, lasers and proper weaponry, and computer hardware and software – ends today. So far, the tweaks concerning IT security products have received an overwhelming thumbs-down from the technology community.

In May the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) suggested altering the Wassenaar Arrangement to include controls on the selling of state-sponsored or commercial surveillance software among the 41 countries that abide by the agreement.

But the amendments were so loosely written that they would also ban the trade in vulnerability exploits, including possibly making bug bounty programs illegal, and criminalizing many of the tools used by legitimate security researchers to test software for flaws.

The BIS called for a 60-day public comment period, which closes today, and the response from both individual researchers and companies in the field has been overwhelmingly negative. On Monday Google went public with its objections, calling the proposed changes "disastrous."

"We believe that these proposed rules, as currently written, would have a significant negative impact on the open security research community," said Neil Martin, export compliance counsel for Google and Tim Willis from the Chrome security team.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Register is reporting plans to hold trials of driverless cars in Adelaide - not simply to test the cars themselves but also to determine what is required to support automated driving technologies in terms of infrastructure and manufacturing.

The scope of the trials seems limited: there'll be two days of tests on November 5th and 6th to coincide with a conference. How many cars and how far they'll go hasn't been discussed, but the cars will apparently drive around the airport, the Southern Expressway and Tonsley Innovation Park.

It's hoped the trials "will establish how driverless technology needs to be manufactured and introduced for uniquely Australian driving behaviour, our climate and road conditions, including what this means for Australia’s national road infrastructure, markings, surfaces and roadside signage,” according to the ARRB's group managing director Gerard Waldron.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The supplemental laser spotlight—powerful enough to double the 300-meter range of the R8's standard LED high beams—offered a crucial performance edge at the Autodromo do Algarve, a 4.69-km road circuit and Formula One test facility in Portimao known for devilish blind corners and gut-check downhill plummets. It's a place where it's nice to see where you're going. Especially at night, in a street car, sans roll cage, that effortlessly tops 210 km/h—even with the track's longest straightaway denied to us for safety's sake.
...
In the Audi, each spotlight module houses four powerful, compact laser diodes, each just 300 micrometers in diameter. (The R8's standard headlamps feature 37 LED's in each unit to manage both low- and high-beam functions). Those diodes pump blue laser beams, at a wavelength of 450 nanometers, through phosphorus, which converts part of it to a warmer color. That phosphorescence (to state it with etymological exactitude), together with the remaining blue, creates white light at a color temperature of 5,500 Kelvin—an eye-pleasing, daylight-mimicking color temperature unmatched by even the best LED's.

Hooray, headlights that are even more blinding in your rearview mirror than the LED sort.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

From this article on vice.com:

The self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) has severely restricted use of the internet in its de-facto capital of Raqqa, requiring that all residents — including those in the militant group's ranks — access the web from observed internet cafes, according to international monitoring organizations.

An IS leaflet photographed and circulated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), advises that "all owners of shops with satellite internet must comply with the following: Removing Wi-Fi boosters in internet cafés as well as private wireless adaptors, even for soldiers of the Islamic State."

...

Activists worry that internet restriction is intended to clamp down on citizen journalists, human rights workers, and potential IS defectors.

Even under IS rule, activists have managed to sneak out videos, images, and accounts of daily life. In September, a woman with a camera hidden in her niqab walked through the city narrating her experience. The smuggled footage was aired on French TV.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Amino acids are just what their name implies: they have an acidic group on one side of the molecule and a nitrogen-containing amino group on the other. It's possible to link these two groups together in a reaction that releases a water molecule. Once linked, they're stable, but the reaction that links them isn't energetically favorable. So, people pondering the origin of life have wondered whether there was a pathway in which the bond could could form spontaneously.

One possible method for getting it to form would be for a solution of amino acids to dry out. As the solution becomes ever more concentrated, a reaction that produces a water molecule could become favorable even if it's expensive in purely energetic terms. But so far, the reaction conditions to get this to work have been rather extreme.

The researchers involved in the new work figured that the amino acids might be alone in these puddles as they dried out. A related chemical, called lactic acid, is thought to have been present on the early Earth. And that can undergo a polymerization reaction that releases water, very similar to that of the amino acids. The difference is that this reaction is more energetically favorable. Simply putting lactic acid on its own through four wet/dry cycles allowed chains of four or more units to form, all connected by what's called an ester bond.

The impressive part is what happens when you mix lactic acid with an amino acid: you start forming mixed chains of molecules. While the amino acid won't normally participate in these reactions, they can break the ester bond, essentially replacing one of the lactic acids. So, a few wet/dry cycles produces a chain that's a mix of lactic acids and amino acids.

The skirt of a geyser would be one place with frequent wet/dry cycles and plenty energy to boot. Did life begin next to Old Faithful?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has the following story from the BBC:

US firefighters have condemned drone owners who flew their craft near forest fires and grounded helicopters being used to douse flames.

Lives were put at unnecessary risk because helicopters could not fly, said fire department officials. The helicopters were helping to contain a large wildfire in San Bernadino county over the weekend. Five drones spotted hovering over the fire were thought to be shooting video for their owners.

The activity of the drones meant helicopters were grounded for about 20 minutes, Eric Sherwin of the San Bernadino fire department told CNN.
[...]
"When a hobby drone is flown into a fire area, incident commanders have no choice but to suspend air operations and ground aircraft until the drone is removed from the area," it said.

The fire department issued images that were shared on social media, warning drone owners to stay away from fires. "If you fly, we can't," they said.

US rules governing drone use mean any pilot caught flying their craft over a disaster area that has temporary flight restrictions in place could be fined up to $25,000 (£16,000). It is not clear whether the FAA is going to investigate who was piloting the drones over the Interstate 15 fire.

Drones have hindered firefighters in California at least four times before now, sometimes stopping flights for up to 90 minutes.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

According to the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the competition involves six problems taken in sets of three during 4.5 hour sessions (held across two days)—no calculators. Each team member attempts the problems, and team totals are based on the number of points each individual scores. The US earned 185 to take the gold while China earned runner-up honors with 181. It's the US' fifth victory overall. China has the most competition wins with 19 all-time, including winning four of the last five competitions heading into the 2015 edition.

Link to article with its image of a sample problem from the competition. It's rare to hear positive news about math education in the United States.

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes:

Little Green Dude reports:

The Remix Mini is a tiny little device which runs a [...] customised version of Android known as Remix OS and is designed to work well on large displays either as a desktop PC or a media centre.

Despite its size and price, the Remix Mini is a fairly capable little device. It packs a 64-bit 1.2GHz Quad Core [ARM] CPU, 1GB/2GB RAM, 8/16GB Internal storage + MicroSD expansion, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and a decent array of ports including 2x full USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone output, and a DC power input. It will even be capable of 4K output including H.265 video decoding.

[...] Just like a normal desktop PC, the Mini is operated by a keyboard and mouse (which you can connect via USB or Bluetooth) but because it's running Android you will also easily able to connect game controllers, TV-style remote and even other Android devices so you'll never be short of input options.

Remix OS is based on Android Lollipop but provides an interface more optimised for larger displays with features such as resizeable windowed apps and a desktop-like multitasking bar.

[...] For desktop use you will probably want the more powerful version with twice the RAM and inbuilt storage (2GB and 16GB respectively) which will set you back just $40 (£25/€36).

takyon: Some backers have had a little trouble with their pledges.

takyon writes:

Josh Greenberg, 28-year-old cofounder of the shuttered music streaming service Grooveshark, has been found dead at his home in Gainesville, Florida. The Gainesville Sun reports:

Lori Greenberg, his mother, said Monday he had no health problems and she was told by police who investigated Sunday night that there was no evidence of foul play, injuries or drugs. She said her son was more relieved than depressed about the settlement that shut down Grooveshark on April 30 since it ended the lawsuit that had been hanging over his head. Several record companies had sued the online music streaming service over copyright violations. "He was excited about potential new things that he was going to start," she said.

[...] Greenberg and Sam Tarantino founded Grooveshark as 19-year-old freshmen at the University of Florida in March 2006. At its peak, the company had up to 40 million users a month and 145 employees, occupying most of the second floor of the Union Street Station in downtown Gainesville and a small office in New York City. Greenberg helped train other entrepreneurs and computer programmers to get their start in the tech industry through Grooveshark University classes, the Summer with the Sharks internship program and as a partner in the Founders Pad business incubator. He started MaidSuite with Student Maid founder Kristen Hadeed to provide an online scheduling application for cleaning companies and other service providers and recently helped start the Gainesville Dev Academy to offer computer programming training. He was a founding member of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce's Gainesville Technology Council.

Previous reporting on Grooveshark:

April 27: Grooveshark Faces $736 Million in Copyright Damages
May 1: Grooveshark Shuts Down & Apologizes to the RIAA
May 10: Music Industry Kills Grooveshark, "Clone" Emerges
May 17: New Grooveshark Site Taken Down, Another One Pops Up

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

At last month's E3 conference in Los Angeles, Bethesda Softworks, a company normally focused on high-end titles for consoles and PCs, launched a smartphone game called Fallout Shelter, intended to drum up excitement for the next version of its popular Fallout franchise. In the game, players control their very own nuclear fallout shelter, known as a vault, which resembles a post-apocalyptic ant farm. The cheeky little game was an instant hit.
...
The free app brought in $5.1 million in its first two weeks by selling players "lunchboxes" that speed along their progress in the game, according to data released Thursday by market-research firm SuperData. It was the most downloaded iPhone game in the U.S. for most of the days over the next three weeks and was one of the 10 top-grossing games in the country almost every day until last Monday. At some point during its brief run, it was the most downloaded iPhone game in 48 countries and the highest-grossing game in 11. But its early success seems to be ending, as it drops down the charts in terms of both downloads and revenue.

Who is indisputably the most important person in Vault 101: He who shelters us from the harshness of the atomic wasteland, and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives?

1. The Overseer
          
2. The Overseer
          
3. The Overseer
          
4. The Overseer

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Vandals snipped another fiber optic cable line in the San Francisco Bay area this week, the 12th incident of its kind in the region over the past year.

The latest attack occurred in the San Joaquin Valley town of Stockton, disrupting Internet, mobile phone, and 911 service for tens of thousands of AT&T and Verizon customers in three counties east of San Francisco. Service was restored about a day after the Tuesday incident.

The FBI, which is investigating the attacks, has not stated a motive, but it said the attacks usually occur in remote areas where there are no surveillance cameras. The initial attacks on California telecommunications lines began in July 2014. Whoever is responsible appears, for the moment, to be operating with impunity.

It would be funny and appropriate if they kept snipping the cables running to the Wall Street high frequency traders that keep front-running everyone's trades. Also, potentially lucrative if you go long in Depends adult diapers first.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

It's a well-known fact that phytoplankton play a huge role in managing Earth's climate by drawing down CO2 for photosynthesis every year. The new study suggests another fascinating way that these little critters are shaping our planet—by making it a tad brighter. Averaged over the year, the researchers find that phytoplankton reflect an extra 4 watts of incoming solar radiation per square meter in the Southern Ocean skies.
...
The new study took a closer look at what else could be making the clouds more reflective. Using ocean biology models and data on cloud droplet concentrations, the team identified marine life as the likely culprit. Phytoplankton emit gases such as dimethyl sulfide (the stuff that gives the ocean its distinctly sulfurous smell), which, once airborne, can also help condense water droplets. What's more, summertime plankton blooms form a bubbly scum of tiny organic particles that are easily whipped up into the air. Taken together, these two biological pathways double the number of tiny droplets in Southern Ocean skies during the summer.

This plus the work in recent years about extremophiles, specifically endoliths, have radically enlarged the established biosphere and have exciting implications for the existence of life elsewhere in our solar system.

Arthur T Knackerbracket suggests:

ERNW security analyst Florian Grunow says North Korea's Red Star Linux operating system is tracking users by tagging content with unique hidden tags.

The operating system, developed from 2002 as a replacement for Windows XP, was relaunched with a Mac-like interface in 2013's version three. The newest version emerged in January 2015.

Grunow says files including Microsoft Word documents and JPEG images connected to but not necessarily executed in Red Star will have a tag introduced into its code that includes a number based on hardware serial numbers.

"When analysing the OS the first thing that came to our attention is that they have built an own kernel module named rtscan. There is a binary running that is named opprc and a few more binaries, one that seems to simulate/pretend to be some kind of 'virus scanner' and seems to share some code base with opprc," Grunow says.

"The first thing that came to our attention when looking at the functions in the binary was gpsWatermarkingInformation.

"Creating and using media files and documents on RedStar OS can get you into trouble if you are living in North Korea; do not assume that the files can be kept private and cannot be traced back to the creator."

Grunow says the operating system does not watermark files created with the open source OpenOffice word processing suite.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Tommy Craggs, Gawker Media's executive editor, and Max Read, the website's editor in chief, have resigned from Gawker after the removal of a widely-panned article, a move they say represents an "indefensible breach of the notoriously strong firewall between Gawker's business interests and the independence of its editorial staff":

At issue is a post published July 16 about a media executive who Gawker said sought a nighttime encounter with a gay porn star. The porn star, the site reported, tried to extort the executive, who is married to a woman.

The story was widely criticized because, as some people pointed out, the media executive is a private individual [and] not a public figure. Then on July 17, Gawker's Managing Partnership voted 4-2 to remove the post. Craggs and Heather Dietrick, Gawker's president who serves as the company's chief legal counsel, dissented.

Here's what Glenn Greenwald had to say about Gawker's story:

The story had no purpose other than to reveal that the male, married-to-a-woman Chief Financial Officer of a magazine company – basically an executive accountant – hired a male escort. When the escort discovered the real-life identity of his prospective client – he's the brother of a former top Obama official – he began blackmailing the CFO by threatening to expose him unless he used his political connections to help the escort in a housing discrimination case he had against a former landlord. Gawker completed the final step of the blackmail plot by publishing the text messages between the two and investigating and confirming the identity of the client, all while protecting the identity of the blackmailing escort.

[...] The reasons for regarding the story as deeply repugnant are self-evident. The CFO they outed is not a public figure. Even if he were, the revelation has zero public interest: it's not as though he's preached against gay rights or any form of sexual behavior. It's just humiliating someone and trying to destroy his life for fun, for its own sake. By publishing the article, Gawker aided the escort's blackmail plot, arguably even becoming a partner in it. Even worse, the story (probably unwittingly) reeks of all-too-familiar homophobic shaming: it's supposed to be humiliating at least in part because he's a man hiring a "gay porn star," as Gawker editor-in-chief Max Read put it as he promoted the "scoop." The escort's identity has been confirmed by others and he seems to have a history of serious mental distress, which Gawker is clearly exploiting. Beyond all that, Gawker has an ongoing war with Reddit, owned by the magazine company for which the CFO works, which suggests this is part of some petty, vindictive drive for vengeance, with the CFO as collateral damage.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Asteroid UW-158 is set to wizz past Earth today, carrying an estimated five trillion dollars in platinum.

Spectroscopic analysis has revealed the composition of the asteroid, and made it a prime target for future asteroid-mining missions. It is approximately 452 metres by 1,011 metres in size. If the analysis is correct, it could be carrying an astonishing 90 million tons of platinum. It will swing past Earth at a distance of 2.4 million km, and will not be visible to the naked eye.

Paging Bruce Willis...

Original Submission