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Phoenix666 writes:

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA's Cassini mission.

Researchers found the magnitude of the moon's very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can only be accounted for if its outer ice shell is not frozen solid to its interior, meaning a global ocean must be present.

The finding implies the fine spray of water vapor, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon's south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir. The research is presented in a paper published online this week in the journal Icarus.

Previous analysis of Cassini data suggested the presence of a lens-shaped body of water, or sea, underlying the moon's south polar region. However, gravity data collected during the spacecraft's several close passes over the south polar region lent support to the possibility the sea might be global. The new results -- derived using an independent line of evidence based on Cassini's images -- confirm this to be the case.

Amid other concerns we are living in a great age of exploration.

Enceladus's measured physical libration requires a global subsurface ocean [abstract]

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Children who spend more time outdoors may have a lower risk of becoming nearsighted, new research suggests.

In the study, researchers looked at about 1,900 schoolchildren in China. The scientists found that the kids who had been instructed to spend more time outdoors over three years were 23 percent less likely to develop nearsightedness during this time than those who had not been instructed to spend more time outdoors.

Moreover, among the kids who did become nearsighted during the study, the degree to which their eyesight worsened was slightly smaller among those who spent more time outdoors, the researchers found.

Effect of Time Spent Outdoors at School on the Development of Myopia Among Children in China [abstract]

Original Submission

t-3 writes, from The Dallas Morning News:

eof writes in with the Washington Post's report:

Mohamed was interrogated at school, had his belongings searched, and asked if he tried to make a bomb. Officers stated "It looks like a movie bomb to me." He was taken to police headquarters and processed. Further, he "said he was told he couldn't speak to his parents until after the interrogation was over."

A local police officer, James McLellan, claims the student was not cooperative, even though the student told him what the device was:

"Clearly, there were disassembled clock parts in there, but he offered no more explanation than that," McLellan said. "A lot of these details that the family and he have provided to you were not shared with us yesterday. He was very much less than forthcoming."

McLellan told the Dallas Morning News that Mohamed never claimed the device was anything other than a clock. But school staff and police officers remained suspicious.

takyon: The Dallas Morning News headline has been updated to note social media reaction to the case, including Democratic presidential candidiate Hillary Clinton's tweet. Also, President Obama has invited Ahmed to the White House.

Original Submission and Original Submission 2. Also submitted by tt0067992, arulatas, and Anonymous Coward.

darnkitten writes:

The first library-hosted Tor node in the U.S. is to be reactivated, after a public meeting on Tuesday at the Kilton Public Library in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, in which area residents expressed support for the Board of Trustees and the Tor system. The Library had also conducted surveys which indicated strong support from both residents and non-residents alike.

The node had been set up as part of the Library Freedom Project's pilot program, following a unanimous decision by the Board in June; however, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had apparently contacted City officials and law enforcement, informing them that (FTA) "Tor sometimes is used by criminals to distribute child pornography or illegal drugs, among other abuses." After discussion with the Town, the Board had suspended the relay, pending discussion at Tuesday's public meeting.

City officials insisted that they had not intended to force the Board into a particular decision, but rather intended to educate the public about their concerns.

The Board Chair, Francis Oscadal, was quoted as saying, "I could vote in favor of the good ... or I could vote against the bad. I'd rather vote for the good because there is value to this."

See also: Concord Monitor .

Original Submission

elixir writes:

Computer World Reports:

Engineers at Xerox PARC have developed a chip that can self-destruct upon command, making it potentially suitable for high-security applications. The chip was developed as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) vanishing programmable resources project, and designed to store data such as encryption keys. On command, the chip shatters into thousands of tiny pieces. During a demonstration last week at a DARPA event in St. Louis, the self-destruct circuit was triggered by a photo-diode, which switched on the circuit when a bright light fell on it. For this demonstration the light was provided by a laser, but the trigger could be anything from a mechanical switch to a radio signal. Xerox engineers based the chip on Gorilla Glass, a Corning-manufactured tough glass used in the displays of numerous smartphones. "We take the glass and we ion-exchange temper it to build in stress," says senior Xerox PARC scientist Gregory Whiting. The destruction of the chip could ensure destruction of an encryption key as part of a routine process or if the key were to fall into the wrong hands.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The next time someone accuses you of making an irrational decision, just explain that you're obeying the laws of quantum physics.

A new trend taking shape in psychological science not only uses quantum physics to explain humans' (sometimes) paradoxical thinking, but may also help researchers resolve certain contradictions among the results of previous psychological studies.

According to Zheng Joyce Wang and others who try to model our decision-making processes mathematically, the equations and axioms that most closely match human behavior may be ones that are rooted in quantum physics.

"We have accumulated so many paradoxical findings in the field of cognition, and especially in decision-making," said Wang, who is an associate professor of communication and director of the Communication and Psychophysiology Lab at The Ohio State University.

Homology != causality.

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes:

El Reg reports

eComStation, the Dutch-owned company that offers a PC operating system based on IBM's OS/2, has floated the idea of a USB-bootable version of the OS.

The firm keeps the OS/2 torch burning by offering a PC OS that lets users run OS/2 apps. The outfit claims the likes of Boeing, Whirlpool Corporation and VMware use its software, usually in applications where they can upgrade PCs but still need to run OS/2 code.

For those of you who came in late, in the 1990s PC owners had a choice of commercial operating systems. OS/2 was widely held to be superior to Windows, but IBM was outmanoeuvred by Microsoft. Big Blue eventually bailed leaving OS/2 on a long and strange trip to obscurity.

Those using eComStation will [...] appreciate an option to [start the OS] from USB when doing maintenance. eComStation has therefore called for help [Russian language] making a USB-bootable version of OS/2. Google translation

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Two odd-looking Chinese soft-shelled marsh turtles raised for food in Asia have been seen south of Boston, and there's concern they could eventually threaten local ecosystems if they become established in New England.

New England Aquarium experts said Saturday it is possible someone decided to release the animals after buying them for cooking. They urge people not to release non-native animals into the wild, and to report any sightings of the soft-shelled turtle.

People on Wollaston Beach in Quincy saw a turtle digging in the sand this past week, and the aquarium's marine animal rescue team picked it up for identification. A second sighting was reported later in the week.

"The concern is that if it can establish a population, it actually can survive our winter," said Nigella Hillgarth, the New England Aquarium's president and CEO, and a zoologist. "It could cause major changes in the ecosystem. None of the animals in that ecosystem are adapted to a predator of that size. It eats large amounts of small fish, mussels, clams and insects."

Post signs in Chinatown in Chinese with pictures of turtle saying, "No Catch Limits." Problem solved.

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes that El Reg reports

Indian doctors have published the eye-watering account of a farmer who was bitten on the penis "while he was urinating in an open field".

The unnamed 46-year-old hobbled to accident and emergency three hours after taking a hit from a "gunas", the local name for the Levantine viper (Macrovipera lebetina).

The report [Sets 7 required cookies] in The New England Journal of Medicine (NSFW and certainly not for the faint-hearted) says the unfortunate chap was suffering "a grossly swollen penis and formation of hemorrhagic bullae at the puncture sites".

Happily, administration of "polyvalent anti-snake venom (a snake antivenom serum that neutralises the venom of the cobra, common krait, and viper)" did the trick, and he was discharged after 36 hours.

Four days later, the swelling had subsided, leaving merely "necrotic tissue at the puncture sites". A couple of weeks later, the victim had completely recovered.

There's an old joke about 2 guys, where 1 is bitten...

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The first images of motor proteins in action are published in the journal Nature Communications today.

These proteins are vital to complex life, forming the transport infrastructure that allows different parts of cells to specialise in particular functions. Until now, the way they move has never been directly observed.

Researchers at the University of Leeds and in Japan used electron microscopes to capture images of the largest type of motor protein, called dynein, during the act of stepping along its molecular track.

Dr Stan Burgess, at the University of Leeds' School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, who led the research team, said: "Dynein has two identical motors tied together and it moves along a molecular track called a microtubule. It drives itself along the track by alternately grabbing hold of a binding site, executing a power stroke, then letting go, like a person swinging on monkey bars.

"Previously, dynein movement had only been tracked by attaching fluorescent molecules to the proteins and observing the fluorescence using very powerful light microscopes. It was a bit like tracking vehicles from space with GPS. It told us where they were, their speed and for how long they ran, stopped and so on, but we couldn't see the molecules in action themselves. These are the first images of these vital processes."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story from The Register:

Whistleblower-in-chief Edward Snowden has been nominated for the European Parliament’s human rights prize, for a second time.

The nominations for the 2015 Sakharov Prize were decided last week, with Snowden getting the nod again after losing to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani girl who defied the Taliban, in 2013.

The prize is awarded every year to honour exceptional individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression.

Nominations can be made by political groups or by at least 40 MEPs and the Parliament is notably fond of Snowden – a report approved last week called for him to be given asylum.

There are two other whistleblowers on the list, a Saudi Arabian blogger, an assassinated Russian physicist, political prisoners in Venezuela, a Somali activist for the abolition of female genital mutilation, and a Ukrainian military pilot. Official presentation of the nominations will be on September 28 and the winner will be announced in Cctober.

Original Submission

darkfeline writes:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/empty-epson-ink-cartridges-which-cost-2500-for-a-set-are-still-20-percent-full/

The high-end Epson 9900 printer, which retails for around £3,000 ($5,000), reports that ink cartridges are empty even when they are still about 15-20 percent full. This behaviour is particularly egregious as a set of 700ml ink cartridges for the Epson 9900 printer comes in at around £2,500—so, users are being forced to replace the cartridges when there's still about £500 ($770) of ink available.

This finding comes from Bellevue Fine Art, a printing company in Seattle. When their Epson 9900 printer reported that an ink cartridge was down below 1 percent capacity, it refused to print any more pages until the cartridge had been replaced. Bellevue Fine Art, in a fit of curiosity, decided to cut open some of the allegedly empty cartridges to see how much ink was actually left.

You will probably be unsurprised to hear that there was actually a lot of ink still available: in a 700ml cartridge, there was generally between 100 and 150 millilitres of ink still in the bag, about 14-21 percent. In smaller, 350ml cartridges, between 60 and 80ml of ink remained or about 17-22 percent.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Uber poached around 50 scientists working on self-driving car technology at Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center earlier this year. Uber had been partnering with CMU to research building its own autonomous vehicles. But then it pulled from a massive venture funding war chest to hire away a lot of CMU's talent for its Uber Advanced Technologies Center.

Now, Uber appears to be publicly trying to win back the good graces of the academic community by announcing a $5.5 million gift to CMU. The money will support hiring a new robotics faculty chair and three fellowships.

"Poached around 50 scientists." CMU scientists are like the King's Deer.

Original Submission

zocalo writes:

In what could be an upset to the media companies use of automated DMCA takedowns the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that copyright holders must consider fair use before demanding companies such as YouTube remove potentially infringing content and can be liable for damages if they do not.

The three-judge panel on the court determined Stephanie Lenz, who posted a YouTube video of her child dancing to a Prince song in 2007, could proceed with her lawsuit seeking damages from Universal Music Corp., which pressed YouTube to remove the video under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). "We hold that the statute requires copyright holders to consider fair use before sending a takedown notification, and that failure to do so raises a triable issue as to whether the copyright holder formed a subjective good faith belief that the use was not authorized by law," according to the majority opinion.

It's not completely clear cut and dried however, as the court found that "the implementation of computer algorithms appears to be a valid and good faith middle ground for processing a plethora of content while still meeting the DMCA's requirements to somehow consider fair use." It speculated about a model in which a company sets up a computer program to send automatic takedown notices for content it identifies as nearly identical to copyrighted work, while a backup process uses humans to manually review other content that the computer program identified with less certainty.

While an appeal is probably inevitable, could this possibly be some light at the end of the tunnel for some of the overreaching and abusive use of the DMCA to take down non-infringing and fair use content?

Original Submission

Z-A,z-a,01234 writes:

I don't like change for the sake of change, but it seems that all major OSes suffer from the same disease.

So I'm curious if you guys share these feelings.

I'm thinking that it would be really great to have a long-term support, backward-compatible OS having a well designed, stable, intuitive and accessible UI. This OS would target PCs (desktop, laptop, netbooks) and tablets.

To define my terms:

By long-term I mean at least 30 years.

Backward-compatible means all applications are able to be run for the whole lifetime of the OS on the same or compatible hardware, as long as they don't have bugs that are revealed by changes in HW or updates of the OS and don't depend on bugs in the OS implementation itself.

The UI will be largely shared by the PC and tablet versions of the OS. Some differences will be unavoidable to accommodate the small-form screen of the latter devices. The user interface will be composed of a collection of all good designs available today and some new ideas that help the users to better perform most common tasks.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Original URL: Phys.org has a story on the potential influx of new toxins:

The world needs to prepare for a flood of potentially dangerous new pollutants, an international expert in environmental chemistry has warned.

Dr Susan Richardson of the University of South Carolina will tell the CleanUp 2015 Conference in Melbourne tomorrow that new contaminants, some of which are just as – or more – toxic than 'traditional' pollutants like heavy metals, are already finding their way into the world's rivers, lakes, groundwater and drinking water.

The new toxins arise from sources such as artificial sweeteners, nanomaterials, perfumes, medical drugs, hormones, sunscreens, flame retardants, non-stick coatings, pesticide breakdown products, hospital wastes, and the by-products of detergents, disinfectants and swimming pool cleansers.

...

"The world is no longer dealing with the 'same old, same old' contaminants," she explains. "The list of new ones keeps growing, with ionic liquids and prions being among the most recent."

...

Dr Richardson explains that many of the new contaminants arise from common household products like cleansers and furnishings, personal care products, food packaging, and the medical as well as recreational drugs we excrete from our bodies.

"These products get washed off in the shower or flushed down the toilet and travel to wastewater plants. Some of them become toxic once they react with the chlorine or chloramine with which the water is treated," she says.

"It's bad news because our wastewater treatments, which are designed to remove 'traditional' waste, cannot treat these toxins efficiently. There is no one-size-fits-all way to clean up all of them."

Original Submission