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takyon writes:

BBC reports on a study published in PLOS ONE that used pigeons to classify mammograms:

Pigeons, with training, did just as well as humans in a study testing their ability to distinguish cancerous from healthy breast tissue samples. The pigeons were able to generalise what they learned, correctly spotting tumours in unseen microscope images.

They also did well at a particular mammogram-classifying task, though a second mammogram test (recognising suspicious lumps) proved too tricky. The pigeons' ability could help improve new image-based diagnosis technologies. It is described in the open access journal Plos One.

Likely no bigger than the tip of your index finger, the pigeon's brain nonetheless has impressive capabilities. "Pigeons can distinguish identities and emotional expressions on human faces, letters of the alphabet, misshapen pharmaceutical capsules, and even paintings by Monet vs Picasso," said Prof Edward Wasserman from the University of Iowa, a co-author of the study.

Pigeons (Columba livia) as Trainable Observers of Pathology and Radiology Breast Cancer Images

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Anonymous Declares War on ISIS, ISIL, or IS (whatever you want to call)

WittyUserName writes:

Enough is enough and Anonymous (or one part of the collective) has finally declared war on ISIS and all it derivatives says the UK Guardian. "The online collective Anonymous "is at war" with the Islamic State following the attacks in Paris, in a continuation of its '#OpISIS' campaign. One major Anonymous twitter account, @GroupAnon, announced the operation on 15 November, writing that "we won't stop opposing #IslamicState. We're also better hackers."

Anonymous and ISIS Trade Barbs, Threats as Cyber War Escalates

"cmn32480" writes:

Submitted via IRC

ISIS has responded to the threat of a hacking campaign by the loosely knit online collective Anonymous by issuing anti-hacking guidelines.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-terror-attacks/anonymous-isis-trade-barbs-threats-cyber-war-escalates-n466441

[Ed's Comment - I have heard arguments both for and against this action over the last few days. There are those that believe that anything that is done to counter the so called Islamic State is for the good, however others believe that IS's use of social media is a valuable source of intelligence for those who are trying to protect us. Furthermore, such actions might, eventually, have the effect of making IS use more covert methods of communication which could again be a significant game-changer. What does our community think?]

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Phoenix666 writes:

Lockheed Martin has been given the green light to build its radical hybrid airship that will launch in 2018.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has this week approved a certification plan developed by the company, taking it one step closer to starting commercial deliveries.

Lockheed says the airships can transport heavy cargo to remote locations, burn significantly less fuel than conventional aircraft and land on any flat surface, including sand, snow and water.

[...] The airship, filled mostly with helium, can carry 20 tons of cargo, but can be scaled to roughly the size of a football field with 500 tons of capacity. The exact dimension have not yet been given.

It will have a fuel capacity of 5,000 gallons with a range of 1,400 nautical miles, and can cruise at a speed of 60 knots.

Its hovercraft-like landing pads would allow it to set down on flat land without being required to be moored on large towers like traditional airships.

Lift is generated from the hull, and propulsion comes from thrust generation and landing comes from an air cushion landing system.

[By comparison, an American Football field is 120 yards (109.7 m) long; the Graf Zeppelin was 236.6 m (776 ft) long and the Hindenburg was 245 m (803 ft 10 in) long. -Ed.]

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The Mighty Buzzard writes:

The good folks over at net-security.org bring us news on ISIS's network security practices:

The Combating Terrorism Centre (CTC), an academic institution at the US Military Academy in West Point, has managed to get their hands on a guide to operational security that's apparently given out to members and sympathisers - a guide that defines which tools to use (and how to use them correctly) and which to avoid.

The original document is in Arabic, but has been translated via Google Translate, and can be found here.

In short, the organization advises followers to use:

• Tor, Onion, Aviator, Opera Mini browser for secure and private Internet browsing
• VPN services (and the Freedome app)
• Hushmail, ProtonMail, and Tutanota for secure, encrypted email communication
• Threema, Telegram, SureSpot, Wickr, Cryptocat, PQChat, Sicher, and iMessage for instant messaging
• Linphone, IO Swisscom's app, Silent Circle's solutions, RedPhone, Signal, and FaceTime for encrypted VoIP services
• Mega, SpiderOak, SugarSync, and Copy.com for safe cloud storage
• TrueCrypt, VeraCrypt, and Windows BitLocker for encrypting disks and volumes
• Twitter by SMS, FireChat, Tin-Can, The Serval Mesh if they can't get online
• Complex and unique passwords.

Me, I'm betting their security guys get listened to about as well as ours do and at least 10% of their passwords are "الله أكبر".

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chromas submitted, via IRC:

I (Wayne Williams) first started using Windows back in 1992, shortly after the release of Windows 3.1, and I’ve used every iteration since, including both the good (Windows XP, Windows 7) and the bad (Vista, Windows 8). Every time a new version was released, I upgraded pretty much immediately. I might own various Apple devices, and dip into Linux products from time to time, but for me there will only ever be one desktop operating system of worth, and that’s Windows.

Today is a huge milestone for the operating system that popularized home computing, and changed the world in so many ways.

Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released on 20th November 1985, two years after it was first announced, and for the first time PC owners were able to control things using a mouse, rather than just typing in commands in DOS.

Windows 1.0 wasn’t an operating system, but rather a 16-bit multi-tasking shell that ran on top of MS-DOS, but even so it was revolutionary and opened up the PC’s appeal significantly.

[...] What was the first version you ever used, and how did you come to use it? Leave your comments below.

Source: http://betanews.com/2015/11/20/happy-30th-birthday-windows-whats-your-earliest-memory-of-microsofts-revolutionary-operating-system/

[For perspective, The 80286 was introduced on 1 February 1982 and The 80386 was introduced in October 1985. -Ed.]

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An Anonymous Coward let us know:

Spanish court issues arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu in Freedom Flotilla case

Judge Jose de la Mata ordered both the police and the civil guard to notify him should Netanyahu or one of six other Israeli officials cross Spain's border. The country is the latest member of the international community to accuse Israel of war crimes, with this one particularly focused on the Mavi Marmara ship.

The lead civilian vessel was among the Freedom Flotilla fleet carrying humanitarian aid in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nine activists were killed in the incident in which the ship was stormed by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) personnel.

Israel has however claimed that Israeli authorities stopped most of the ships without incident. It was only when a smaller group of human rights activists affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood on board the Mavi Marmara attacked the commandos and wounded them that they retaliated. The incident left 10 of the activists dead.

"We consider the order to be a mere provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it cancelled. We hope it will be over soon," Israel's foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon told the Jerusalem Post. Others who might face arrest include former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman; current and former defence ministers Moshe Ya'alon and Ehud Barak among others.

There are, however, limits to the effectiveness of this order, as noted in Arresting Netanyahu:

[More after the break.]

chromas submitted:

Ninety percent of CIOs surveyed reported that they are now bypassed by line-of-business colleagues at least occasionally. The likelihood that chief information officers (CIOs) will be left out of the IT purchasing loop has grown every year since 2013, according to the latest Logicalis Global CIO survey.

The survey, which polled more than 400 CIOs worldwide, found that IT leaders are facing mounting pressure from shadow IT as line-of-business (LOB) executives continue to bypass the CIO and IT department when making technology investments.

In fact, the 2015 study indicates nearly one-third (31 percent) of CIOs globally are routinely bypassed by the LOB in IT purchasing decisions while the vast majority of IT leaders – 90 percent – find themselves bypassed at least some of the time.

Source: http://www.eweek.com/small-business/cios-losing-influence-in-the-face-of-shadow-it.html

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tt0049366 writes:

Rohit Jawa, 25, has pleaded guilty to eight counts of wire fraud, and one count of stealing a special agent's identity which he then used to fraudulently gain access to privileged law enforcement databases – from which he stole the personal identifying information of multiple victims. He then used the stolen information to set up fraudulent accounts in the names of the special agent and the other victims. Demonstrating yet again that large scale databases of personal information are inherently a security risk to the people in the database.

The Register has additional details of Rohit's brazeness.

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"gewg_" writes:

The Center for Food Safety reports via Common Dreams:

From 2006 to 2014, Japanese doctors documented a new cluster of symptoms reported by hundreds of rural Japanese people: patients suffering from recent memory loss, finger tremors, and combined symptoms of headache, general fatigue, palpitation/chest pain, abdominal pain, muscle pain, and cough. Public health researchers later associated these symptoms with the level of exposure to agricultural neonicotinoid insecticides, used on fresh fruits, tea, rice, and a host of other human food crops. Urine sampling showed the level of symptoms correlated with the amount of neonicotinoid consumption.

Last week, the public health team composed of Japanese, American, and African researchers published the alarming story of those patients[1]. The patients lived in rural communities and were being exposed to agricultural chemicals mostly through ingestion of pesticide-contaminated food and [...] perhaps by blowing sprays and dusts in a heavily-farmed, densely-populated area. Residential, pet, and other exposures may also have contributed. The people involved were not farmworkers and did not have unusually high occupational exposures.

[...] Peter T. Jenkins, consulting attorney with CFS, stated, [...] "These exposures are occurring mostly through eating and drinking, so the risks go far beyond farmworkers and other occupational exposures to every-day consumers in rural areas."

The potential for water contamination is also high; although Japanese studies have not documented it, numerous U.S., Canadian, and Dutch studies have. These are compiled in the new Center for Food Safety report, Water Hazard - Aquatic Contamination by Neonicotinoid Insecticides in the United States[1]. The safety of drinking water sources and threats from pesticide contamination needs further urgent research.

[...] Prior neurotoxicity studies on the neonicotinoids have raised alarms, including within the European Food Safety Agency. But, those were mostly cell culture or rat studies. Now, well-supported evidence of illness in real people has emerged in the published scientific literature for the first time. Federal and State regulators must act to protect public health", said Jenkins.

[1] Links in article redirect.

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HughPickens.com writes:

According to a recent study of 27 schools, about one-quarter of female undergraduates said they had experienced nonconsensual sex or touching since entering college, but most of the students said they did not report it to school officials or support services. Now Natasha Singer reports at the NYT that in an effort to give students additional options — and to provide schools with more concrete data — a nonprofit software start-up in San Francisco called Sexual Health Innovations has developed an online reporting system for campus sexual violence. One of the most interesting features of Callisto is a matching system — in which a student can ask the site to store information about an assault in escrow and forward it to the school only if someone else reports another attack identifying the same assailant. The point is not just to discover possible repeat offenders. In college communities, where many survivors of sexual assault know their assailants, the idea of the information escrow is to reduce students' fears that the first person to make an accusation could face undue repercussions.

"It's this last option that makes Callisto unique," writes Olga Khazan. "Most rapes are committed by repeat offenders, yet most victims know their attackers. Some victims are reluctant to report assaults because they aren't sure whether a crime occurred, or they write it off as a one-time incident. Knowing about other victims might be the final straw that puts an end to their hesitation—or their benefit of the doubt. Callisto's creators claim that if they could stop perpetrators after their second victim, 60 percent of campus rapes could be prevented." This kind of system is based partly on a Michigan Law Review article about "information escrows," or systems that allow for the transmitting of sensitive information in ways that reduce "first-mover disadvantage" also known to economists as the "hungry penguin problem". As game theorist Michael Chwe points out, the fact that each person creates her report independently makes it less likely they'll later be accused of submitting copycat reports, if there are similarities between the incidents.

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takyon writes:

Jonathan Pollard pleaded guilty to violations of the Espionage Act in 1987 and became the only American to ever receive a life sentence for passing classified information to a U.S. ally, Israel. He was released on Friday:

After spending 30 years in prison for spying on the U.S. for Israel, Jonathan Pollard was released Friday. His attorney confirmed Friday morning that Pollard has been released, shortly after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement welcomed his release.

"As someone who raised Jonathan's case for years with successive American presidents, I had long hoped this day would come," Netanyahu said. "After three long and difficult decades, Jonathan has been reunited with his family."

The New York Times adds that Pollard is currently not allowed to leave the country:

Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying on behalf of Israel, walked out of prison early on Friday after 30 years, the Israeli prime minister said, but the Obama administration had no plans to let him leave the country and move to Israel as he requested.

[...] The one-paragraph missive did not mention Mr. Pollard's desire to immediately move to Israel, which would require a waiver of federal parole rules. Israel Today, a newspaper based in Jerusalem that often reflects the views of Mr. Netanyahu, reported on Thursday that the prime minister had personally appealed to President Obama during their meeting this month to lift the standard prohibition on parolees leaving the United States but received no response. American officials confirmed that.

[...] Two Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Justice Department last week urging Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch to grant the request, saying that Mr. Pollard would be willing to renounce his American citizenship and never return to the United States. They noted that a spy for Cuba was allowed to renounce his American citizenship and live in Cuba in 2013 after serving his sentence.

But the White House repeated on Friday that it would not intervene in the matter. "The president has no plans to alter the forms of his parole," Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama's deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Air Force One en route to Malaysia, where the president was traveling. He referred questions to the Justice Department.

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jdavidb writes:

Bitcoin holders rejoice! Now you can use Bitcoin to make a purchase anywhere Visa is accepted. Coinbase has partnered with Shift Payments to issue the Shift Card, a Bitcoin-backed Visa-branded debit card. Make a payment anywhere Visa is accepted, and Coinbase debits an appropriate amount of Bitcoin from your account. For a limited time there is no transaction fee, which is nice; typically selling Bitcoin on Coinbase will cost you 15 cents plus a 1% fee. Getting a Shift Card does cost an initial $10 fee.

The Shift Card FAQ seems to have a lot more information. Apparently Shift Cards can also connect to a Dwolla account, and they hope to connect to more alternative funding sources in the future. According to the FAQ, Coinbase-backed Shift Cards are only available to residents of 24 states. You can use a Shift Card at an ATM for $2.50.

Wired also has coverage. According to Wired, Coinbase is hoping that this will encourage its users to spend Bitcoin rather than just speculating. Of course, for those of us who are speculating, we don't mind if people hoard it and drive the price up.

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"cmn32480" writes:

From The Washington Post :

Scientists used to think that things were pretty chill over in the south hemisphere of Uranus. In fact, they thought it was one of the calmest regions of any of the gas giants. But in analyzing images taken nearly three decades ago by NASA's Voyager-2 spacecraft, researchers think they've found a kerfuffle of activity — which might indicate that there's something unusual about the planet's interior.

...

Karkoshchka believes that Uranus's southern hemisphere rotates in a way never before seen in gas giants. A gas planet's thick atmosphere, filled with clouds, typically shows the same rate of rotation at the top and bottom. But on Uranus, it seems, the southern hemisphere is cycling much more quickly than up north — as much as 15 percent faster.

"The unusual rotation of high southern latitudes of Uranus is probably due to an unusual feature in the interior of Uranus," Karkoshcka said in a statement. "While the nature of the feature and its interaction with the atmosphere are not yet known, the fact that I found this unusual rotation offers new possibilities to learn about the interior of a giant planet."

Data on gas giants in general are few and far between, so anything that Karkoshcka can glean about Uranus's core would help scientists understand the other planets like it.

All jokes aside, what is it that could be causing this unusual behavior?

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chromas writes:

Chris Brook of Threatpost writes:

Like the Office of Personnel Management before it, the Department of Education has failed to heed repeated warnings that its systems contain multiple weaknesses. In a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing held this week, Congressman and committee chair Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) excoriated Danny Harris [YouTube video; 6:40], the department's Chief Information Officer, over some of those weaknesses for nearly two hours.

Most of the hearing was based around a report released last Friday by the Office of Inspector General's (OIG) Kathleen Tighe.

To illustrate just how poorly protected the department's systems are, Tighe claims in one part of the report that OIG testers "were able not only to gain full access to the Department's network, but also to use this access to pivot from this entry point and launch attacks on other systems connected to the Department, all undetected."

The full (1:49:49) review is available on YouTube.

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Snow writes:

I came across this piece on Scott Adam's blog and found it quite interesting. Thought others here might find it interesting too:

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/133406477506/global-gender-war#_=_

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