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legont writes:

Russia Today reports

What are the chances we will see a live test any time soon? How about delivering an asteroid for mining?

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Sunday morning SpaceX began livestreaming today's rocket launch, offering YouTube links for a "full hosted webcast" plus a second link for video of the rocket, launch countdown audio and telemetry. Elon Musk's commercial space transport company will be deploying a Jason-3 earth-observation satellite for NASA. But more importantly, they'll then attempt to land that rocket back on a floating barge at sea so it can be re-used for later missions, described as "a game-changing feat that would usher in a new era of cheap commercial spaceflight powered by reusable rockets." SpaceX has posted spectacular footage of two fiery crashes from previous attempts -- as well as their last successful landing on December 21, which has heightened interest in the outcome of today's mission.

takyon: SpaceX launches satellite but suffers 'hard landing' at sea

SpaceX's latest attempt to land a rocket upright on a platform in the Pacific Ocean failed on Sunday. The unmanned mission, powered by a SpaceX rocket, accomplished its primary goal of carrying a satellite into low orbit. But its secondary goal -- to land the rocket upright on a floating platform called a droneship -- did not go as planned.

"First stage on target at droneship but looks like hard landing; broke landing leg," SpaceX tweeted. SpaceX did not immediately elaborate on what happened. On a webcast, the company had said that the ocean waves were choppy. Sunday's launch was the fourth attempt by Elon Musk's SpaceX to safely land a rocket at sea.

Similar coverage at Bloomberg, LA Times, Reuters.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for takyon

Former consumer technology editor at The Telegraph and current Conservative MP Matt Warman derailed an NSA whistleblower's attempt to deliver evidence on GCHQ spying, raising questions about the committee's competence to scrutinise the government's draft surveillance bill. The MP offered distracting and irrelevant counter-statements to former NSA man Bill Binney during an oral evidence session last week before the Parliamentary committee scrutinising the draft Investigatory Powers Bill.

The Register understands that Binney may seek to resubmit his evidence after the committee's poor hearing.

Warman incorrectly stated that GCHQ's upstream data acquisition program (which he misidentified as PRISM) wasn't covered by the draft Investigatory Powers Bill, and that even if it was, he wrongly stated the program would be prevented by the draft legislation's "request filters". In fact, the "request filters" are merely a method of holding data at the ISP level, while GCHQ's snooping is produced through fibre-level taps.

Delivering his oral evidence to the committee, Binney, a former technical director at the NSA, said the bulk acquisition of enormous datasets was not helping the work of intelligence analysts. Speaking to The Register on the morning of his evidence session, Binney stated he wanted the security agencies to succeed in their mission of protecting us but that "mass data collection is making people dysfunctional".

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/13/matt_warman_mp_interrupts_bill_binney_ipb_evidence/

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Nerdfest writes:

According to ZDNet:

Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support... Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming "Kaby Lake" silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming "8996" silicon, and AMD's upcoming "Bristol Ridge" silicon.
The policy will be phased in beginning with systems based on Intel's new 6th-generation CPUs (code-named Skylake), which debuted a few months ago. New consumer-based Skylake devices must run Windows 10 to be supported.

Additional Coverage from Ars Technica.

Intel and Microsoft *really* want people to migrate to Windows 10. Lets just hope they don't try and lock down UEFI even more.

[Ed Note: Changed title to reflect that new chips will require Win10 to get support from MS.]

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

I'm searching for a Linux LiveCD which includes the proprietary NVIDIA driver.

I would like to find one on a LiveCD since installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver usually requires a reboot so I cannot do it myself.

Several years ago when desktop effects in Linux finally hit it big, there were one or two distros which rolled the proprietary NVIDIA driver into the LiveCD to showcase the desktop effects.

While I don't need flashy desktop effects, I would like one or more Linux distros which roll the proprietary NVIDIA driver into the LiveCD so installation is not required.

[Ed Note: Is it possible to roll your own?]

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HughPickens.com writes:

Perry Stein writes in the Washington Post that the fight against noisy leaf blowers is gaining momentum, in part, because residents are framing it as a public health issue. Two-stroke engine leaf blowers mix fuel with oil and don't undergo a complete combustion, emitting a number of toxins, like carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide, which their operators inevitably inhale. Municipalities throughout the country have moved to ban them. "You find two-stroke engines in poorer countries because they're cheap," says James Fallows citing a 2004 National Institutes of Health study showing that two-stroke engines on two- and three-wheeled vehicles in Delhi, India, account for a significant amount of air pollution. "You don't find them in richer countries because they're so dirty and polluting." In Washington DC leaf blowers can't exceed 70 decibels as measured from 50 feet away. (A normal conversation is typically about 60 decibels.) Haskell Small, a composer and concert pianist who is helping to lead the leaf-blower battle in Wesley Heights, describes the sound as "piercing." "When I try to compose or write a letter, there is no way for me to listen to my inner voice, and the leaf blower blanks out all the harmonic combinations."

But help is on the way. A new generation of leaf blowers is more environmentally friendly as the emergence of battery-powered leaf blowers takes us closer to the Holy Grail of equipment that is both (1) powerful and (2) quiet. Fallows supports the notion of a kind of trade-in program, where loud, old leaf blowers are exchanged for the less offensive kind. Ted Rueter, founder of Noise Free America, facilitated one such scheme. In the heat of his front lawn dispute with his neighbor, he offered a solution. "If you agree to use them, I will buy you two new leaf blowers," Rueter told his neighbor. "The offer was accepted and the noise level in his front yard was restored to a peaceful level," says Lawrence Richards. "When it comes to the balancing act of protecting landscaping jobs while reducing noise and emissions, it helps that someone was willing to pay for progress."

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maxwell demon writes:

Long time Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn is claiming that the Bitcoin experiment has failed:

Why has Bitcoin failed? It has failed because the community has failed. What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked "systemically important institutions" and "too big to fail" has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people. Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse. The mechanisms that should have prevented this outcome have broken down, and as a result there's no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system.

Among the problems he lists are:

• A conceptually wrong new feature.

  Allowed buyers to take back payments they'd made after walking out of shops, by simply pressing a button (if you aren't aware of this "feature" that's because Bitcoin was only just changed to allow it)

• Technical problems of the network.

  The block chain is full. You may wonder how it is possible for what is essentially a series of files to be "full". The answer is that an entirely artificial capacity cap of one megabyte per block, put in place as a temporary kludge a long time ago, has not been removed and as a result the network's capacity is now almost completely exhausted.

• Extreme concentration of hash power.

  Why has the capacity limit not been raised? Because the block chain is controlled by Chinese miners, just two of whom control more than 50% of the hash power. At a recent conference over 95% of hashing power was controlled by a handful of guys sitting on a single stage. The miners are not allowing the block chain to grow.

[More after the Break]

Phoenix666 writes:

While scientists have known for years that African trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness, they've been left scratching their heads as to how these tiny single-celled organisms communicate. A University of Georgia study [DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.11.051], published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, helps solve this mystery.

The UGA researchers discovered that long filaments -- that look like beads on a string -- form by budding from the flagellum of African trypanosomes and then release pieces of the parasite into the host. This causes anemia and influences the outcome of infection leading to human African sleeping sickness and the cattle disease nagana.

The UGA researchers theorize that the extracellular vesicles, as the free-floating beads are scientifically known, are being used by the parasite to communicate with each other and with the host's body. Even before they pop off into vesicles, the nanotubes extending from the flagellum help the single-celled parasites talk to each other. The severe anemia caused by the parasites may be an accidental side effect of the extracellular vesicles fusing with host red blood cells.

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takyon writes:

German researchers have detailed a micromotor that can be attached to human sperm and controlled using a rotating magnetic field. Here's the abstract of "Cellular Cargo Delivery: Toward Assisted Fertilization by Sperm-Carrying Micromotors" (DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04221):

We present artificially motorized sperm cells—a novel type of hybrid micromotor, where customized microhelices serve as motors for transporting sperm cells with motion deficiencies to help them carry out their natural function. Our results indicate that metal-coated polymer microhelices are suitable for this task due to potent, controllable, and nonharmful 3D motion behavior. We manage to capture, transport, and release single immotile live sperm cells in fluidic channels that allow mimicking physiological conditions. Important steps toward fertilization are addressed by employing proper means of sperm selection and oocyte culturing. Despite the fact that there still remain some challenges on the way to achieve successful fertilization with artificially motorized sperms, we believe that the potential of this novel approach toward assisted reproduction can be already put into perspective with the present work.

Coverage at New Scientist, Popular Science, The Register.

Previous research: Development of a Sperm-Flagella Driven Micro-Bio-Robot (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201302544)

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mendax writes:

El Reg recently published an article that points out the fact that airline pilots are no longer "stick-and-rudder" men, meaning they have trouble flying their aircraft when the automation fails or when something else goes wrong:

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) is failing to ensure that American pilots can manually fly passenger jets if the automated systems controlling the aircraft fail, a report by the US Department of Transportation Inspector General has found. [...]

Airlines are supposed to make sure that pilots get enough training and stick time to ensure they are fully proficient in manual operations – both in flying the aircraft and in monitoring instruments to make sure the computer is doing its job.

But the report found that only 5 of 19 simulator training plans had any aspect of pilot instrument monitoring built in, and rules about how much manual flying experience a pilot is required to have won't be in place until 2019 at the earliest.

On a somewhat related note, Ars has published an interesting article about planes that were flown by men who really did know how to fly, about those rare few who not only can afford to buy and restore old American and Soviet fighter jets but occasionally fly them when they can get the parts.

Based upon the content of these articles, if I got on a commercial airliner today, I'd want the retired fighter jockey up front instead the guy who only knows how to fly a $400 million video game.

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"exec" writes:

Probe launched after mischiefmaker invades US spyboss's Verizon broadband account:

An investigation is underway after someone managed to infiltrate webmail and home broadband accounts belonging to the family of US spymaster James Clapper. It's believed a hacker got hold of the surveillance chief's personal phone number, delved into his wife's Yahoo! mail inbox, and gained control of the couple's Verizon FiOS account.

"We are aware of the incident and have reported it to the appropriate authorities," a spokesman for Clapper, who is the US Director of National Intelligence, told The Register today. Verizon also told us it was investigating.

The hacker appears to be the same person who broke into CIA director John Brennan's AOL account (yes, someone still uses AOL) in October. Sensitive documents were revealed by the miscreant, which led to another investigation. In both cases, the hacks don't appear to be the work of masterful computer code exploiting obscure software vulnerabilities. Instead it seems the most likely method was social engineering of the CIA and DNI bosses' telecommunications provider – Verizon.

-- submitted from IRC

Previously: CIA Director's AOL Account Allegedly Pwned
CIA Chief 'Outraged' by Personal Email Hack

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Phoenix666 writes:

There may be something in H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" after all.

A massive canyon system and lake have been found running under the ice on the Antarctic continent, according to satellite data. And, if the data is being read correctly, that system runs for over 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) up to depths of 1 kilometre (3,280 feet).

Like the explorers in Lovecraft's 1931 novella, which details the fictional discovery of ancient ruins in the Antarctica, a team of researchers is currently working on revealing the full depths of the huge and ancient structure.

The canyon system, located in the difficult-to-map region of Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica, vastly outstrips the Grand Canyon, which measures 446 kilometres (277 miles) in length.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Russia Today reports

The price of crude oil has dropped 17 percent since the beginning of the year, reaching a 12-year low of $30 a barrel. That's good news for US consumers but the oil industry is ordering layoffs and shale companies could be on the verge of bankruptcy.

On [January 12], the price of crude oil fell another 3 percent to $30.44 a barrel, according to The Associated Press.

[...] World oil markets are seeing a historic supply glut as production has increased in the United States, largely due to drilling techniques such as fracking and horizontal drilling. Additionally, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has continued to wage a price war it began in 2014 with low-cost producers in the US and elsewhere through unabated production. The glut has also been caused by falling demand for oil due to China's slowing economy.

"The starting point is the oversupply in the world market and the battle for market share among exporters", said Daniel Yergin, an energy expert and vice chairman of the IHS consulting firm, according to the Washington Post. "But the oil price is also being pounded down by the geopolitical rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East, and the imminent return of Iranian oil under the nuclear agreement, and, at the same time, by increasingly big worries about the Chinese economy."

Earlier on [January 12], Nigeria's oil minister said that some OPEC countries had requested an emergency meeting to consider supply cuts, Reuters reported. The idea, however, was later rejected by the United Arab Emirates, sending prices tumbling.

[...] Falling oil prices reduce the profitability of oil extraction which, in turn, impacts drilling activity. In the early part of last year, the US' rig count was down 850 from the year before, while about 17,000 oil and gas workers in the US lost their jobs in 2015. When adding the oilfield support jobs lost in refineries and petrochemicals, the actual number of related layoffs grew to about 87,000, according to Michael Planet,[1] an economist at the Dallas Fed.

[1] Yeah, the link in TFA was useless too.

In quasi-related news, Common Dreams reports

Arch Coal, the United States' second largest coal supplier, [filed for bankruptcy January 11], signaling what environmentalists described as the "end of an era" as the country moves to more renewable, less-polluting energy sources.

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Robotron writes:

An EU Commission has ruled that Apple could have to pay $8 billion in back taxes. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates Apple has paid about 1.8% tax on profits from 2004 to 2012 - with this ruling, their liability increases to 12.5%. This decision comes hot on the heels of a tax avoidance settlement Apple reached in December with Italy's government for $347 million.

From the Apple Insider article:

Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly insisted that his company follows the law and pays everything it owes. In a 60 Minutes interview the executive complained about U.S. politicians scrutinizing Apple's tax dodges, calling the allegations "total political crap."

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Phoenix666 writes:

From a Science Daily article about an Iowa State University study (DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2015.1095624):

To reduce that [wealth and political power] gap, [assistant professor of education at Iowa State University] Katy Swalwell says it's necessary to look at whether the education system is part of the problem and unintentionally reproduces inequalities. She spent a semester observing social studies classes at an affluent, private school to examine how privileged students learn about and respond to social justice problems. The majority of students at the school - 86 percent - are white, and tuition is more than $30,000 a year. The results of her case study, published in the journal Curriculum Inquiry, emphasize the disconnect that exists between student perception and reality.
...
The goal of many social justice educators is to disrupt the status quo and challenge students' perceptions of why inequalities exist, Swalwell said. Many of the students she observed, however, were "fundamentally undisturbed" by what they were learning, despite the teacher's intentions. Swalwell included excerpts from student interviews in her paper that capture the general response.

One student told Swalwell: "I think [learning about injustice] can only help because we can reference it and sound really cool for saying it if people recognize it. Otherwise, we can help educate people on the things we learned about that maybe they didn't have the opportunity to learn about. Or, we just know it and that's great for us. Either way there's no downside to knowledge."

Throughout the semester, the teacher introduced students to various perspectives - both liberal and conservative - on civic engagement and social justice reform. The school also offered a social activism program, which required students to get involved in causes such as LGBTQ rights, issues facing incarcerated women, religious tolerance and reforming drug policies. Swalwell documented class lectures, discussions and field trips, analyzed course material and assignments, and conducted interviews with the students and teacher.

Most students expressed genuine concern about inequalities, but connected the problems to individual shortcomings rather than systematic disadvantages. Instead of seeing their privilege as part of the problem, several students saw their wealth and status as a solution; a way to make a difference, Swalwell said.

Original Submission