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Phoenix666 writes:

Elevators haven't changed much in 150 years; the controls got more sophisticated, but they basically remained a box pulled up by a cable, with one cab per shaft. This becomes a real problem as buildings get taller; the multiple shafts end up taking up a lot of valuable real estate, with only one little box in each. The cables get so heavy that you end up spending more energy moving cables than cab. As the buildings sway, the cables start swaying too. The elevators end up being a real limiting factor on the height of our buildings and the density of our cities, and a big factor in the high cost of high buildings.
...
Last year, ThyssenKrupp announced a solution to this problem: the MULTI lift system which gets rid of elevator cables, and instead runs each elevator cab as an independent vehicle on a vertical track, powered by linear induction motors. Because there were no cables, it meant that they could put more than one car in every shaft. In fact, they could put a continuous stream of them in.
...
And move it does, in the most remarkable ways, unlike any elevator ever built. The cabs rise up on the tracks, powered by the linear induction motors; when they reach the end, top, bottom or any point where they want to move sideways, a section of track rotates and the cab goes sideways.

Two words: motion sickness.

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes:

Dissident Voice reports:

A mass mobilization in Washington, DC from November 14 to 18 has been announced to begin the next stage of the campaign to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

[...] "At its root, the TPP is about modern colonialism. It is the way that Western governments and their transnational corporations, including Wall Street banks, can dominate the economies of developing nations", said Margaret Flowers, co-director of Popular Resistance. She continued "The reality is that without trade justice there cannot be climate justice, food justice; there cannot be health justice or wage justice. That is why people are mobilizing to stop the TPP."

[...] The groups will begin their protests [on Monday morning, November 16] at the US Trade Representative building on 17th Street with the message that the TPP betrays the people, planet, and democracy.

This will be followed that evening by a protest that begins at the US Chamber of Commerce and White House then marches along K Street and ends at the Reagan International Trade Center.

The next day, the groups will have an international focus protesting at multiple sites along Embassy Row to stand in solidarity with people around the world who are fighting to stop the TPP.

On the final day, the groups will focus on Congress.

Previously: Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Released
Trans-Pacific Partnership: "Intellectual Property" Fears Become Reality

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

It's a staple of the modern morning routine: Wake up, hop in the shower, lather with soap.

But is that morning scrub-a-dub really necessary?

One man claims not. David Whitlock, a chemical engineer in Boston, has not showered for 12 years.

Whitlock isn't running an experiment in extreme water conservation. Rather, he believes that humans don't need to shower to be healthy, and that a daily soap scrub may actually remove a beneficial type of bacteria that keeps the bacteria that contribute to B.O. in check.

To boost the presence of odor-eating bacteria, Whitlock has designed a bacterial spray called AO+ Mist, which is now sold by the company AoBiome under the brand Mother Dirt. The company hopes this bacterial spritz could reduce the need for products such as soaps and deodorants and potentially even reduce or eliminate the need for showering for those so inclined.

His theory is that your skin will control odor-producing bacteria if left to its own devices, and that soap kills off good bacteria your skin needs.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Cities beefing up their smart infrastructure have tapped the ubiquitous streetlamp to track traffic data and measure pollution. Now, in Los Angeles, some streetlights will help keep the communications network intact after an emergency.

LA is the first city in the world to install Philips-branded SmartPoles, which are outfitted with 4G LTE wireless technology by Ericsson to help boost broadband coverage throughout the city. Each pole is connected to the network by a fiber link, which helps keep a steady connection. The location of the poles—which are closer to the streets and sidewalks where people are actually using their phones than central cell towers—gives the network the advantage of being more equally dispersed across the region. That gives people more bars in some of the denser areas of the city, for example.

While better day-to-day cell service is a great feature, the real benefit here in LA is that the system won't be as likely to be knocked out by, I dunno, say, a major earthquake.

It would be more useful if they had solar panels and/or battery packs to self-power when the grid goes down...

Original Submission

bitweeder writes in with this story from TorrentFreak:

"There's a chance that after four years Megaupload users may be reunited with their lost files. U.S. District Court Judge Liam O'Grady has asked several stakeholders to chime in on the possible return of the Megaupload servers, which also holds crucial evidence for Kim Dotcom's defense."

Nearly four years have passed since Megaupload's servers were raided by U.S. authorities. Since then very little progress has been made in the criminal case.

Kim Dotcom and his Megaupload colleagues are currently awaiting the result of their extradition hearing in New Zealand and have yet to formally appear in a U.S. court.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Megaupload servers from Carpathia Hosting remain in storage in Virginia, some of which contain crucial evidence as well as valuable files uploaded by users. The question is, for how long.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

This paper presents the results of a laboratory study involving Mailvelope, a modern PGP client that integrates tightly with existing webmail providers. In our study, we brought in pairs of participants and had them attempt to use Mailvelope to communicate with each other. Our results shown that more than a decade and a half after "Why Johnny Can't Encrypt," modern PGP tools are still unusable for the masses. We finish with a discussion of pain points encountered using Mailvelope, and discuss what might be done to address them in future PGP systems.

The PDF of the study can be found here.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Diabetes is a leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and patients with type 2 diabetes often experience persistent low-grade inflammation, decreased gastrointestinal tract motility and vascular deterioration. New research to be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 finds that a shift in the gut's microbial fauna in combination with higher levels of plasma zonulin (a protein that assists in opening tight junctions within the small intestine that can be indicative of leaky gut syndrome) may be linked with chronic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.

The study, led by Ruchi Singh, PhD, sought to assess how gut microbiota -- measured by biomarkers for compromised metabolism, leaky gut syndrome, and diminished clearance -- affected the vascular health of CKD patients (stage 4 and 5) with diabetic nephropathy. These included plasma zonulin, inflammatory cytokines (transcription necrosis factor α [TNF-α], interleukin-6 [IL-6]) in conjunction with fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), the vasoconstrictor endothelin 1 (ET-1), and levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS).
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"We observed significant gut microbiome shifts in CKD patients with diabetes compared with age, gender, and diet match control subjects," Dr. Singh said. Patients with type 2 diabetes and advanced CKD exhibited a greater proportion of LPS-producing bacteria. Furthermore, significantly elevated circulating serum zonulin pointed to a prominent increase in gut permeability.

Another data point in the expanding study of how microbiomes affect human health on all kinds of levels.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Mature industries generally come to be dominated by a few big players, and the Internet is no exception. The big players define the environment and the platforms that everyone else has to deal with; resistance is generally futile, until the next era comes along, usually many years later.

On the heels of third quarter earnings announcements, the WSJ has a piece reflecting on how much of commercial Internet activity is dominated by five companies:

• Amazon (e-commerce, cloud services)
• Apple (mobile, music/TV services)
• Google/Alphabet (search, mobile, online video)
• Facebook (social networking)
• Microsoft (consumer/enterprise desktop platform, cloud services)

This dominance didn't occur overnight.

Not coincidentally, all five companies beat analysts' earnings estimates for Q3. Microsoft, dealing with the continued decline of PC software, managed to make up for it through the impressive growth of its Azure cloud business.

Business Insider has a related piece on Amazon's dominance of the cloud segment; Microsoft is in second place, IBM and Google are struggling to keep up, and everyone else is basically tied for last.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The European Commission has said it wants ongoing talks with the U.S. to agree a so-called ‘Safe Harbor 2.0′ agreement on data transfers to be completed by January 2016 — laying out a three month timetable to hammer out a new deal on transatlantic data flows.

The fifteen year old Safe Harbor agreement, which had allowed some 4,700 companies to self-certify that they would provide adequate protection of European citizens’ data once it was in the U.S. for processing — was ruled invalid by Europe’s top court early last month [discussed here], leaving businesses scrambling to figure out how to operate legal data transfers in the meanwhile.

The trigger for the ECJ decision? U.S. intelligence agency mass surveillance programs undermining Europeans’ fundamental data protection rights. Intelligence agency access to data remains the sticking point for agreeing any new Safe Harbor 2.0 deal.

Today the EC reiterated the alternative methods available for businesses to enable data flows to continue in the interregnum between data transfer agreements — issuing a Communication which details the various options. These include contractual clauses, intra-group transfers and individual user consent.

However the latter consent option was dubbed an alternative of “last resort” by Commissioner Věra Jourová, speaking during a press conference. She noted that while it is up to companies to choose the “effective rules”, she stressed they “must be able to prove that the protection is in place — that they guarantee high protection of the data transferred to the U.S.”.

So businesses seeking to sidestep data protection requirements via a blanket consent check-box pushed out at their users is not going to cut it.

Today’s EC Communication makes plain Safe Harbor is no longer a viable option — noting that “data transfers can no longer be based on the Commission’s invalidated Safe Harbour Decision”. But, also speaking during the press conference, Commissioner Andrus Ansip sought to strike a reassuring tone for both citizens and businesses in the wake of the Safe Harbor strike down.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A new bit of ransomware is now attacking Linux-based machines, specifically the folders associated with serving web pages. Called Linux.Encoder.1 the ransomware will encrypt your MySQL, Apache, and home/root folders. The system then asks for a single bitcoin to decrypt the files.

From Dr.Web Antivirus:

Once launched with administrator privileges, the Trojan dubbed Linux.Encoder.1 downloads files containing cybercriminals’ demands and a file with the path to a public RSA key. After that, the malicious program starts as a daemon and deletes the original files. Subsequently, the RSA key is used to store AES keys which will be employed by the Trojan to encrypt files on the infected computer.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

This vampire bat robot can both fly and walk by using its wings to crawl, Swiss researchers say. Future Mars rovers could also have flying bots

The Deployable Air Land Exploration Robot, or DALER, was described in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics and could lead the way to rescue robots that can survey a disaster zone from above and then crawl into the wreckage below.

A team led by researchers at the Swiss institute (known as EPFL) have been looking at designing such a transformer-like robot for years; after all, most bots are built for one purpose alone, whether it's wheeling, walking, flying or swimming. But in a complex environment, sometimes it's useful to have more than one way to move.

The researchers drew from the vampire bat for inspiration. Known formally as Desmodus rotundus , it drinks blood only for sustenance (usually surviving off of large mammals like cattle). While this bat doesn't look pretty on the ground, it knows how to crawl and hop using its wings and hind legs. When walking, most of its body weight is shifted forward on the wings.

The scientists wanted to make wings that could also function as legs because that would mean they wouldn't have to build a whole extra set of structures for walking. Doing more with less keeps the weight of the robot down, making it less complicated, and probably cheaper to produce.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Seismic tests in Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest wildlife reserve which is famed for its mountain gorillas, have confirmed the presence of oil, the Congolese government said Friday.

Tests carried out by British oil company Soco had returned "positive" on the presence of oil deposits, Minister of Hydrocarbons Aime Ngoy Mukena told AFP by telephone.

On the question of "whether there is an oil field" underneath the park, the study answered "yes", he said, without giving further details.

The announcement was likely to reignite a heated debate within DRC over the merits of exploring for oil in the vast park, which covers some 7,800 square kilometres (3,010 square miles) of lush forest, glaciated peaks and savannah in the restive eastern province of North Kivu.

The UNESCO world heritage site reopened to tourists last year after being closed for two years because of militia violence in the region. UNESCO has warned several times that any exploration for oil in the park would be "incompatible" with its heritage status.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Here's a discovery that could make secular parents say hallelujah: Children who grow up in non-religious homes are more generous and altruistic than children from observant families. ...

A series of experiments involving 1,170 kids from a variety of religious backgrounds found that the non-believers were more likely to share stickers with their classmates and less likely to endorse harsh punishments for people who pushed or bumped into others.

The results "contradict the common-sense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind toward others," according to a study published this week in the journal Current Biology.

Worldwide, about 5.8 billion people consider themselves religious, and religion is a primary way for cultures to express their ideas about proper moral behavior — especially behavior that involves self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

"gewg_" writes:

onEarth reports

President Obama officially rejected the Keystone XL pipeline [November 6], just days after TransCanada begged for a stay of execution.

[...] Obama ought to keep his veto pen handy, just in case. Congressional Republicans have so far been quiet today about their reaction to the president's decision, but they may yet use some legislative trickery to try to approve KXL against his wishes.

[...] TransCanada bought hundreds of miles of property easements from U.S. landowners to clear a path for the pipeline. If it decides to abandon the project, it could sell those rights to other companies, even if the easements were purchased from unwilling landowners through eminent domain. (Permissive eminent domain laws in many states allow companies to do almost whatever they want with the property once they have it.) Expect fights between property owners and TransCanada to continue.

[...] Existing tar sands mines will continue to produce crude. KXL's demise, however, is a major threat to expansion. Tar sands mines are expensive to start up. Even when oil was selling for more than $90 per barrel, several companies canceled their planned tar sands projects. The price per barrel is now in the mid-$40s, making tar sands crude uneconomic--even if there were a pipeline to transport it cheaply to refineries.

Without KXL, fewer companies will want to take a chance on tar sands. Just as important, the pipeline's rejection sends a signal to investors that politicians and the public are concerned about the impacts of tar sands on the climate.

TransCanada was once so confident that Keystone XL would win approval that the company contracted the manufacture of 661,670 tons of pipe--most of what was required for KXL. The company has not said exactly how much pipe it already has on hand, but a 2011 report[PDF] from Cornell University identified 70,000 tons that had been received in U.S. ports.

[...] The company needed federal approval for KXL only because it crossed national borders. It can likely repurpose much or all of the pipe for its many other pipelines [paywall] that have been approved in the United States and Canada. If that doesn't work, sale is always an option.

Original Submission

tonyPick writes:

Make has an article on an impressively low cost desktop CNC router built by Norbert Heinz, largely from scrap parts.

Using dirt-cheap chipboard, an Arduino, motor breakout board, angled aluminum, and a few gears and servos pulled from a tray-style computer CD drive, Norbert Heinz has created an unbelievably inexpensive CNC router — the total cost for Heinz was around €150 (or about $160 in US dollars).
...
During testing, the machine was able to engrave wood, glass, plastic, aluminum, and Depron foam with ease and surprising precision

The project page has complete instructions and source code, and there is a detailed Youtube video showing the construction and operation of the machine.

Original Submission