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Phoenix666 writes:

Scientists have discovered that rock-wallabies living in north east Queensland are sharing genetic material despite belonging to six different species.

These results suggest that the evolution of these iconic Australian marsupials is far more complex than the long-held theory of how species originate.

"Understanding these evolutionary processes is pretty fundamental in biology because it helps us define what a species is and understand how different species form," said lead researcher Dr Sally Potter from The Australian National University (ANU).

It was previously thought that mating between different rock-wallaby species could not result in fertile offspring. This is because of the differences in the way their genetic material is packaged into chromosomes.

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takyon writes:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and 28 other organizations have issued a joint press release calling for the Syrian government to reveal the whereabouts of imprisoned technologist, open source developer, and "free culture advocate" Bassel Khartabil. EFF had reported on Wednesday that military police with a "top secret" sealed order moved Bassel and a cellmate from the Adra civilian jail to an undisclosed location.

Bassel "Safadi" Khartabil is one of five individuals and cases currently listed in EFF's "Offline: Imprisoned and Censored Around the World" campaign:

In 2011, after the protests began in Syria, Palestinian-Syrian software developer Bassel (Safadi) Khartabil kept the world updated on unjust arrests occurring in the country. He worked with his global contacts in the information technology world, including EFF activists, to disseminate information to Syrian contacts on how to stay safer online.

Bassel had long been a key figure in the Syrian tech community. He co-founded Aiki Lab, a hackerspace in Damascus, led the Creative Commons Syria project, and regularly contributed code and content to Mozilla, Wikipedia, the Openfontlibrary, and the Openclipart Library.

As the situation in Syria grew more unstable, Bassel saw more of his friends arrested. In March of 2012, his worldwide community of friends began to worry when Bassel's own online voice went silent. Unbeknown to his family and friends, on March 15, 2012, Bassel was arrested in the Mazzeh district of Damascus. It wasn't until July 2012 that his supporters discovered—thanks to former detainees at Kfar Souseh—that he was being held at the General Intelligence Directorate there.

In October 2012, Amnesty International confirmed that Bassel was being held at Kafr Souseh, relaying fears for his safety amidst local claims of torture. In response to this information, many groups and individuals called for Bassel's immediate release and championed his case via FreeBassel.org, a campaign run by a coalition of his friends and supporters.

Bassel was eventually charged in December 2012 with "spying for an enemy state." As members of the European Parliament, Charles Tannock and Ana Gomes, noted in their 2013 address to the European Commission on behalf of Bassel, "it is strongly suspected that his arrest was part of an effort to restrict access to online communities and discourses and stifle free expression in Syria." It was Bassel's visibility as a technologist and activist that made him a target for detention.

The press release was also made available in Arabic, French, and Spanish.

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Phoenix666 writes with an article from Barton Gellman via Ars Technica:

On September 24, I gave a keynote presentation at Purdue University about the NSA, Edward Snowden, and national security journalism in the age of surveillance. It was part of the excellent Dawn or Doom colloquium, which I greatly enjoyed. The organizers live-streamed my talk and promised to provide me with a permalink to share.

After unexplained delays, I received a terse e-mail from the university last week. Upon advice of counsel, it said, Purdue "will not be able to publish your particular video" and will not be sending me a copy. The conference hosts, once warm and hospitable, stopped replying to my e-mails and telephone calls. I don't hold it against them. Very likely they are under lockdown by spokesmen and lawyers.

[...] It turns out that Purdue has wiped all copies of my video and slides from university servers, on grounds that I displayed classified documents briefly on-screen. A breach report was filed with the university's Research Information Assurance Officer, also known as the Site Security Officer, under the terms of Defense Department Operating Manual 5220.22-M. I am told that Purdue briefly considered, among other things, whether to destroy the projector I borrowed, lest contaminants remain.

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

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HughPickens.com writes:

It used to be that airliners broke up in the sky because of small cracks in the window frames. So we fixed that. It used to be that aircraft crashed because of outward opening doors. So we fixed that. Aircraft used to fall out of the sky from urine corrosion, so we fixed that with encapsulated plastic lavatories. The list goes on and on. And we fixed them all. So what are we left with? According to Steve Coast that just leaves the weird events like disappearing 777s, freak storms and pilots flying into mountains. Engineers have been hammering away at the remaining problems by creating more and more rules. [ Ed note: Link is to a playboy.com article. ]

"As illustration, we created rules to make sure people can't get into cockpits to kill the pilots and fly the plane into buildings. That looked like a good rule. But, it's created the downside that pilots can now lock out their colleagues and fly it into a mountain instead. This is a clean and understandable example of why adding more layers, and more rules, to a problem doesn't always work," says Coast. "The worry should be we end up with so many rules we become sclerotic like Italy or France. We effectively end up with some kind of Napoleonic law – everything is illegal unless specifically made legal."

According to Coast the primary way we as a society deal with the mess of over-regulation is by creating rule-free zones. It's essentially illegal for you to build anything physical these days from a toothbrush (FDA regulates that) to a skyscraper, but there's zero restriction on creating a website. Hence, that's where all the value is today. To paraphrase Peter Thiel, new technology is probably so fertile and productive simply because there are so few rules. "If you are starting a computer-software company, that costs maybe $100,000," says Thiel. But "to get a new drug through the FDA, maybe on the order of a billion dollars or so."

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

In a speech given in Manchester, UK Prime Minister David Cameron promised that "because our independent nuclear deterrent is our ultimate insurance policy, this Government will order four new Trident submarines." Currently the UK has four Vanguard-class submarines, each capable of carrying 16 American-built Trident II ballistic missiles. The fleet is based in Faslane, Scotland.

Other stories about the announcement:

• Sputnik News
• Value Walk
• RT

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Phoenix666 writes:

A Purdue University researcher has solved a 140-year-old enigma in fluid mechanics: Why does a simple formula describe the seemingly complex physics for the behavior of elliptical particles moving through fluid?

The findings have potential implications for research and industry because ellipsoid nanoparticles are encountered in various applications including those involving pharmaceuticals, foods and cosmetics.

Like a sphere, the oblong ellipsoids undergo "rigid body motion" when submerged in a fluid, meaning they do not deform while moving from side to side and rotating. However, because an ellipsoid is not perfectly spherical, it is counterintuitive that its rigid-body motion in a fluid could be described using the same simple mathematical expression as spheres.

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NotSanguine writes:

Cell Press is reporting on a paper published October 8, 2015 in the journal Cell, which details work done by the Blue Brain Project at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) on the digital reconstruction of a section of rat brain.

From the release:

Heroic efforts are currently being made to define all the different types of neurons in the brain, to measure their electrical firing properties, and to map out the circuits that connect them to one another. These painstaking efforts are giving us a glimpse into the building blocks and logic of brain wiring. However, getting a full, high-resolution picture of all the features and activity of the neurons within a brain region and the circuit-level behaviors of these neurons is a major challenge.

Henry Markram and colleagues have taken an engineering approach to this question by digitally reconstructing a slice of the neocortex, an area of the brain that has benefitted from extensive characterization. Using this wealth of data, they built a virtual brain slice representing the different neuron types present in this region and the key features controlling their firing and, most notably, modeling their connectivity, including nearly 40 million synapses and 2,000 connections between each brain cell type.

"The reconstruction required an enormous number of experiments," says Markram, of the EPFL. "It paves the way for predicting the location, numbers, and even the amount of ion currents flowing through all 40 million synapses."

Once the reconstruction was complete, the investigators used powerful supercomputers to simulate the behavior of neurons under different conditions. Remarkably, the researchers found that, by slightly adjusting just one parameter, the level of calcium ions, they could produce broader patterns of circuit-level activity that could not be predicted based on features of the individual neurons. For instance, slow synchronous waves of neuronal activity, which have been observed in the brain during sleep, were triggered in their simulations, suggesting that neural circuits may be able to switch into different "states" that could underlie important behaviors.

This research is not aimed at creating SkyNet or creating some other new AI overlord. Rather the focus is on using the digital reconstructions to analyze and understand the workings of brains. The release exposits:

If you want to learn how something works, one strategy is to take it apart and put it back together again. For 10 years, a global initiative called the Blue Brain Project--hosted at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)--has been attempting to do this digitally with a section of juvenile rat brain. The project presents a first draft of this reconstruction, which contains over 31,000 neurons, 55 layers of cells, and 207 different neuron subtypes.

The complexity of life and especially neurological processes and functions are fascinating. Given the enormous resources required to simulate just this small slice of a juvenile rat brain, it's unlikely that we'll see full mammal brain simulations anytime soon. Even so, this is pretty darn cool!

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

People who think they know it all—or at least, a lot—may be on to something, according to a Baylor University study.

The finding was a surprise to researchers at Baylor and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, who had theorized that "intellectual humility"—having an accurate or moderate view of one's intelligence and being open to criticism and ideas—would correlate with grades.

But being full of oneself when it came to rating one's intellectual arrogance—an exaggerated view of intellectual ability and knowledge—instead generally predicted academic achievement, especially on individual course work, according to the study. The research—"Contrasting self-report and consensus ratings of intellectual humility and arrogance"—is published in the Journal of Research in Personality and funded by a grant from The John Templeton Foundation.

"One possibility is that people who view themselves as intellectually arrogant know what they know and that translates to increases in academic performance," said researcher Wade C. Rowatt, Ph.D., Baylor professor of psychology and neuroscience.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Nerve cells damaged in diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), 'talk' to stem cells in the same way that they communicate with other nerve cells, calling out for 'first aid', according to new research from the University of Cambridge.

The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, may have significant implications for the development of future medicines for disorders that affect myelin sheath, the insulation that protects and insulates our nerve cells.

Stem cells – the body's master cells, which can develop into almost any type of cell – can act as 'first aid kits', repairing damage to the body. In our nervous system, these stem cells are capable of producing new myelin, which, in the case of MS, for example, can help recover lost function. However, myelin repair often fails, leading to sustained disability. To understand why repair fails in disease, and to design novel ways of promoting myelin repair, researchers at the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute at the University of Cambridge studied how this repair process works.

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Phoenix666 writes:

A New York City teacher and photographer has been ordered to serve five days of community service after he crashed a drone into the stands at the US Open last month.

In a statement released Friday, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown described the defendant, Daniel Verley, as having "cooperated fully with the police."

Brown added that Verley, who has no prior criminal record, "never intended to allow his drone to fly into the stadium and that he, in fact, lost control of the drone. Fortunately, no one was injured as a result of this incident."

Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, where Arthur Ashe Stadium is located, is huge and once hosted the World's Fair. It also contains the New York Hall of Science where Maker Faire happens, the giant metal globe, and the UFO towers that many will recognize from Men in Black. It is a fitting place to fly a drone.

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Phoenix666 writes:

In the ongoing battle for streaming music supremacy, Pandora may be among the oldest services, but it also has the least differentiators. Apple Music offers radio channels, Rdio lets you choose your music, and Spotify gives you that on top of offline play. But Pandora for most of its time has settled for curated, related-listening style channels where users could skip a limited number of songs and fine-tune the auto-selection.

Today, however, Pandora announced an acquisition that could hint at a change. For $450 million in money and assets, the company purchased Ticketfly, one of the leading live music ticket sites competing against the LiveNation Ticketmaster behemoths.

"This is a game-changer for Pandora—and much more importantly—a game-changer for music," said Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews in a press release. "Over the past 10 years, we have amassed the largest, most engaged audience in streaming music history. With Ticketfly, we will thrill music lovers and lift ticket sales for artists as the most effective marketplace for connecting music makers and fans."

Let's hope they give Ticketmaster a run for their money.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Birds have an enormously long evolutionary history: The earliest of them, the famed Archaeopteryx, lived 150 million years ago in what is today southern Germany. However, whether these early birds were capable of flying—and if so, how well—has remained shrouded in scientific controversy. A new discovery published in the journal Scientific Reports documents the intricate arrangement of the muscles and ligaments that controlled the main feathers of the wing of an ancient bird, supporting the notion that at least some of the most ancient birds performed aerodynamic feats in a fashion similar to those of many living birds.

An international team of Spanish paleontologists and NHM's Director of the Dinosaur Institute, Dr. Luis M. Chiappe, studied the exceptionally preserved wing of a 125-million-year-old bird from central Spain. Beyond the bones preserved in the fossil, the tiny wing of this ancient bird reveals details of a complex network of muscles that in modern birds controls the fine adjustments of the wing's main feathers, allowing birds to master the sky.

Did they taste like chicken?

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n1 writes:

El Reg reports:

US telco giant Verizon has given notice it will be providing information on its subscribers to AOL for targeted advertising.

A notice in Verizon's privacy policy warns users that beginning next month, information such as device information, addresses and whereabouts, and browsing habits, will be given to AOL so it can sling relevant ads at netizens.

"Starting in November, we will combine Verizon's existing advertising programs – Relevant Mobile Advertising and Verizon Selects – into the AOL Advertising Network," Verizon said.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Some U.S. IT workers who have been replaced with H-1B contractors are alleging discrimination and they are doing so in increasing numbers.

There are at least seven IT workers at Disney who are pursuing, or plan to pursue, federal and state discrimination administrative complaints over their layoffs. Another Disney worker, still employed by the firm, has filed a state administrative discrimination complaint in California. These complaints are a first step to litigation.

Separately, there are ongoing court cases alleging discrimination against two of the largest India-based IT services firms, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. The federal judges in each of cases have given a green light for the plaintiffs to proceed after rejecting dismissal efforts.

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Phoenix666 writes:

A town in New Mexico is about to join the ranks of these ghost towns, as the builders of the futuristic city have no intention of letting anyone live there.

Telecommunications and tech firm Pegasus Global Holdings is planning to build a full-scale American town in the New Mexico desert, a place which they hope to open to researchers developing technologies for modern living.

Pegasus plans to spend $1billion creating the 15-square-mile town, called CITE, with construction to begin sometime next year and opening as early as 2018.

CITE will include a town big enough for 35,000 people, with a business district downtown surrounded by terraced housing suburbs - but no one will ever live there.

Instead, companies will have the opportunity to test such innovations as driverless vehicles and natural disaster-proof homes in a human-free, practically risk-free, environment.

Original Submission

VanderDecken writes:

The CBC reports that the Canadian Forces, concerned about the recent news of in-vehicle computer exploits has posted an Tender Notice regarding conducting an ethical hack on selected vehicles for CDN $205k. There is also potential for follow-on work, for an additional $620k.

The work must be performed on their own test systems (Linux/Python). It sounds like they're looking at the vulnerability of vehicles in general, rather than just mil-pattern.

From the article:

The notice says the work would have to be conducted at the Defence Research and Development Canada Valcartier Research Centre. The contractor would have to use the department's own software and extend the software's capabilities as part of the work. The government is offering $205,000 for the main tasks.

The department says it may also ask for optional work, such as identifying and testing potential defensive measures that could stop a vehicle from being attacked and developing standard cybersecurity testing procedures. It would pay up to $620,000 more for that work, which would need to be complete by March 31, 2019.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Anthropologists have looked at fingerprints for years, because they are interested in human variation. But this research has looked at Level 1 details, such as pattern types and ridge counts. Forensic fingerprint analysis, which is used in criminal justice contexts, looks at Level 2 details – the more specific variations, such as bifurcations, where a fingerprint ridge splits.

For this study, researchers looked at Level 1 and Level 2 details of right index-finger fingerprints for 243 individuals: 61 African American women; 61 African American men; 61 European American women; and 60 European American men. The fingerprints were analyzed to determine whether there were patterns that were specific to either sex or ancestral background.

The researchers found no significant differences between men and women, but did find significant differences in the Level 2 details of fingerprints between people of European American and African American ancestry.

Sex, Ancestral, and pattern type variation of fingerprint minutiae: A forensic perspective on anthropological dermatoglyphics

Original Submission