SoylentNews

takyon writes:

In recent years, Monsanto has tried to purchase the Swiss agricultural chemical giant Syngenta AG. Less than 6 months ago, Syngenta rejected a $47 billion takeover offer (with a $3 billion reverse break-up fee) from Monsanto.

Now Syngenta has agreed to a $43 billion cash buyout by the Chinese government-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina). The deal would be the largest foreign acquisition ever by a Chinese company:

The offer comes after months of uncertainty over the future of Syngenta, which was earlier pursued by U.S. seed giant Monsanto Co. To seal the deal, the companies must now overcome potentially fraught regulatory hurdles in the U.S. and elsewhere.

If completed, the purchase would mark a fresh high for Chinese overseas acquisitions. Chinese companies — with the strong support of their government — have sought to gain technology and know-how from abroad, while also opening up new markets to drive sales overseas as demand at home slows.

For Syngenta, the deal holds the prospect of new capital and greater access to the huge China market, while for ChemChina, it gives the company access to Syngenta's advanced biotechnology for developing seeds.

Previously: Dow and DuPont Plan Merger to Create $130 Billion Temporary Chemical Giant

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Promising "uber tiny Docker images for all the things," Iron.io has released a new library of base images for every major language optimized to be as small as possible by using only the required OS libraries and language dependencies. "By streamlining the cruft that is attached to the node images and installing only the essentials, they reduced the image from 644 MB to 29MB," explains one technology reporter, noting this makes it quicker to download and distribute the image, and also more secure. "Less code/less programs in the container means less attack surface..." writes Travis Reeder, the co-founder of Iron.io, in a post on the company's blog. "Most people who start using Docker will use Docker's official repositories for their language of choice, but unfortunately if you use them, you'll end up with images the size of the Empire State Building..."

Original Submission

mmontour writes:

Around 00:30 UTC on Sunday the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite launched from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station and entered a 97.4° sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 500 km. It is not yet known if payload is functional but its position can be tracked on sites such as n2yo.com. North Korea's first orbital launch was in December 2012. Western media outlets claim that the primary purpose of these launches is to test ballistic missile technology.

Additional Coverage:
N. Korea triggers fresh outrage with space rocket launch
North Korea celebrates rocket launch as others see it as a covert missile test.

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

Love it or hate it, copyright infringement just keeps getting easier and easier:

Earlier this week a new piece of software debuted alongside promises to revolutionize how people use torrents.

Covered in our earlier article, Torrents-Time is a browser plug-in for Windows and Mac that allows people to view torrents embedded in a webpage and without need for an external torrent client.

The Torrents-Time team promised that their technology could transform any website into a simple to use streaming portal. Indeed, the first public application was Popcorntime-Online.io, a browser-based edition of Popcorn Time that for the first time used peer-to-peer transfers rather than resource hungry HTTP.

But just days later and a new and even more powerful partner has emerged.

Last evening The Pirate Bay became the first general torrent index to utilize Torrents-Time technology. The site has now placed Torrents-Time links next to all of its video torrents, meaning that users with the plug-in can watch videos on The Pirate Bay without using a stand-alone torrent client or even leaving the page.

At the moment only Windows and OSX are supported by the plugin and my google-fu is not up to finding any official word on a linux port pre-coffee.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Tom's Hardware is reporting on Soft Machines, a startup that is creating a new CPU architecture to be used in custom processors and SoCs for partnered companies:

Soft Machines, a well-funded startup ($175 million to date) that came out of stealth last year, announced its "Virtual Instruction Set Computing" (VISC) architecture, which promises 2-4x higher performance/Watt compared to existing CPU designs.

Current CPU architectures scale performance by using wider architectures and out-of-order execution to improve instruction-level parallelism (ILP) and by adding additional cores to improve thread-level parallelism (TLP). These techniques are limited by Amdahl's law, however, leading to larger, more power-hungry processors. The challenges of multi-threaded programming, which is necessary to extract the full benefit of multiple CPU cores, also places limits on achieving high levels of TLP.

In order to improve performance/Watt scaling, Soft Machines is taking a different approach. Its architecture uses "virtual cores" (VC) that shift the burden of thread scheduling and synchronization from the software programmer and operating system to the hardware itself. With VISC, a single thread is not restricted to a single core like traditional multiprocessor designs. Instead, it gets broken down into smaller threadlets by the VCs and executes on multiple underlying physical cores (PC). By using the available execution units more efficiently, the VISC architecture, in theory, can maintain high performance even when using smaller, simpler physical cores, which reduces power consumption. Another advantage of this technique is that single-threaded applications can execute on multiple physical cores.

Soft Machines claimed that its virtual cores can either increase the performance/Watt by 2-4x at the same power consumption level, or they can decrease the power consumption by 4x at the same performance level relative to existing designs. Unlike ARM, which licenses its core design IP, or Intel, which manufactures its own cores and SoCs, Soft Machines will partner with other companies to create custom processors and SoCs.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

There have been earlier rumors that the LIGO team has seen something exciting, but nothing was substantiated. Now, an email message that ended up on Twitter says that an announcement is imminent. What makes this different is its specificity.

It's just a rumor, but if specificity is any measure of credibility, it might just be right. For weeks, gossip has spread around the Internet that researchers with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have spotted gravitational waves—ripples in space itself set off by violent astrophysical events. In particular, rumor has it that LIGO physicists have seen two black holes spiraling into each other and merging. But now, an email message that ended up on Twitter adds some specific numbers to those rumors. The author says he got the details from people who have seen the manuscript of the LIGO paper that will describe the discovery.

"This is just from talking to people who said they've seen the paper, but I've not seen the paper itself," says Clifford Burgess, a theoretical physicist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in nearby Waterloo. "I've been around a long time, so I've seen rumors come and go. This one seems more credible."

[...] According to Burgess's email, which found its way onto Twitter as an image attached to a tweet from one of his colleagues, LIGO researchers have seen two black holes, of 29 and 36 solar masses, swirling together and merging. The statistical significance of the signal is supposedly very high, exceeding the "five-sigma" standard that physicists use to distinguish evidence strong enough to claim discovery.

If this is true . . .

". . . then you have 90% odds that it will win the Nobel Prize in Physics this year," Burgess says. "It's off-the-scale huge."

[Continues with a definition of gravitational waves.]

Phoenix666 writes:

E-books are increasingly being used in classrooms by children as young as three - and they are making a big difference to the reading habits of boys. But there are concerns the expansion of electronic devices in schools may undermine the position of traditional paper books.

E-books, where stories are loaded onto a tablet or laptop, are used in about two-thirds of schools across America, says the School Library Journal.

But their use in English schools is sporadic.

The National Literacy Trust has been conducting research over the past year to understand their impact.

At 40 schools across the country, 800 children were encouraged to use e-books and share their feelings.
...
The average project ran for four months. But over that period on average boys made 8.4 months of reading progress using them, compared to just 7.2 months of progress among girls.

Reluctant readers also made good progress, with a 25% increase in boys reading daily.

Why do boys respond better to E-books than girls?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

"What's the difference between parallel and concurrent? How does asynchrony relate to them? What sorts of solutions fit what sorts of problems? And how do these solutions look in Perl 6?"

Read this excellent YAPC (Yet Another Perl Conference) presentation for a summary of the ways that Perl 6 helps developers conquer these problems.

Direct PDF link.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Venture capitalists are not known for their long-range basic R&D vision. They look for high payout ventures and are quick to cut their losses if they don't see a fast return on their investment. Since 2014, Australia's premier research institution, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has been headed by Larry Marshall. Marshall came to CSIRO after spending 25 years as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. When he took on his new post he looked to redirect the focus on "innovation".

Marshall says that while CSIRO has worked in partnership with small and large businesses in Australia he wants to take it to the next level by changing the mindset of an organisation that employs about 5000 people.

"One of the challenges with the CSIRO is that we are measuring everything by science excellence," he says.

[...] "So, when I look at Australia's innovation dilemma and I look at us measuring everything by science excellence and citations and publications, I think that is the wrong measure.

As part of that he announced that two areas that CSIRO is recognized internationally as experts, climate and ocean studies, are essentially being eliminated and positions being moved to support innovative areas. Marshall's reasoning for eliminating these groups:

We have spent probably a decade trying to answer the question "is the climate changing?" ... After [December's] Paris [climate summit] that question has been answered. The next question now is what do we do about it? The people that were so brilliant at measuring and modelling [climate change], they might not be the right people to figure out how to adapt to it.

Marshall sees similarities between Australia and Apple before Jobs was brought back and he feels that he needs to shake things up and "change the ecosystem". The scientific communities, both nationally and internationally, have been extremely critical of the decision with some pointing out that Marshall's reasoning is unwise simply because he is flat-out wrong. A major concern in the scientific community is that he is taking a premier scientific institution and instituting a Netflix style culture.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

An analysis by Perfect Price has compared the cost of cannabis in different U.S. states and cities:

Oregonians can consume legal weed without emptying their wallets. The Beaver State is home to the lowest average price of dispensary cannabis at $214 an ounce, according to an analysis by Perfect Price, a company that tracks the prices of a variety of goods including groceries, cleaning supplies and cannabis. The company looked at menu prices for cannabis flowers from about 6,000 dispensaries in six states with more than 200 dispensaries: Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Arizona, California and Michigan.

Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states while cannabis for recreational use is legal in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. Though nearly half the country has legalized marijuana in some form, not every legalized state has fully operating dispensaries. Strict regulation and registration processes can often delay operations after a state has decided to legalize the sale of cannabis. [...] As the recreational market begins to mature over the next three years, prices are expected to drop below $150 an ounce, according to economics consulting firm ECONorthwest.

[...] Colorado and Washington, which both have fully operational recreational markets, are the second and third cheapest at $225 and $238 an ounce, respectively. [...] The other two states included in the study, Arizona and California, had average dispensary prices of $290 and $299 an ounce, respectively.

Original Submission

Submitted by MrPlow on IRC for Bytram who writes:

The folks at Eurocom have released another monster 'mobile workstation'

This time around the company's released the Sky X9W complete with a quad-core, eight-thread, Intel Core i7 6700K capable of operating at 4.2GHz and nestled amidst an Intel Z170 Express (Skylake) chipset. The NVIDIA Quadro M5000M dwarfs the CPU for core count: it's got 1,536 of its own.

Pack in 64GB of DDR4-2133, 2400 or 2666 RAM, if you please, then throw in up to four NVME SSDs and give them the RAID 10 treatment for data protection.

There's also a 17.3 inch 4K screen at 3840 x 2160.

[... it also has] a single USB-C port, a pair of mini display ports capable of driving four monitors, an HDMI outlet, five USB 3.0 ports, a pair of RJ45s and Wi-Fi.

Configurations start at $2930 (and weigh in at 4.8 kg / 10.6 lbs — ouch!) , but you can configure it to a price well over $4000.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/05/eurcom_sky_x9w/

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A new technique developed by researchers at East China University of Science and Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University has led to the development of a high-strength carbon nanotube film that retains much of the elasticity of native carbon nanotubes. In their paper published in the journal Nano Letters , the team describes their technique and the characteristics of the materials they made.

Ever since researchers discovered that creating sheets made of single layers of carbon atoms grown in a tub shape resulted in a material with exceptional electronic and elastic properties, the search has been on to find a way to produce a material made of them in bulk, in a way that does not cause them to lose some of their exceptional properties. In this new effort the combined team in China has developed a method that allows for creating such a material while retaining most of its elastic and other properties. The result is a material that looks like a thick black plastic trash bag. But looks can be deceiving, the material has been found to be significantly stronger than both Kevlar and carbon fiber.

Prior attempts to make such a material have left a lot to be desired because they failed to keep the nanotubes aligned in the final product. The new approach overcomes that problem by using nitrogen gas to push single layers of carbon nanotubes along a tube surface inside of a 2,100 degree oven. As the material is removed from the oven, it is wound around a drum and then compressed further by running it through rollers. The result is a material that the team tested at a tensile strength of 9.6 gigapascals, which is approximately five times as strong as any other material made of carbon nanotubes. In contrast, carbon fibers have been tested to 7 gigapascals and Kevlar to just 3.7. As if that were not enough, the material was also shown able to elongate approximately 8 percent, which is far more than the 2 percent for carbon fibers.

Original Submission

Freebirth Toad submitted information for this story:

Ars Technica is reporting With its mirror complete, giant space telescope on track for 2018 launch:

After years of delays and cost overruns, the James Webb Space Telescope is finally coming together. This week the 18th and final primary mirror segment of the telescope was installed onto the support structure at Goddard Space Flight Center. From here, additional optics must be installed, and the telescope requires testing to ensure it can withstand the forces of a rocket launch anticipated in late 2018.

Each of the hexagon-shaped mirrors weighs 40 kg and spans 1.3 meters. After launch, the telescope will be flown to the second Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. From there, it will begin observations. When deployed in space, the telescope will have a 6.5-meter diameter.

[...] Significantly larger than the 2.4-meter Hubble telescope, the Webb will observe primarily in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Its primary goals include searching for light from the universe's first stars and better understanding the formation of galaxies and planetary systems.

We have all probably heard about this project, but I had not heard (or maybe I had forgotten) the part about being "flown to the second Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system." I guess that means that corrective surgery will be out of the question, as that's farther than any human has been from Earth. I hope they get it right the first time.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Drones have been banned from flying within 32 miles of American Football's Super Bowl, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said.

In a video to sports fans, the FAA warns the stadium is a "no-drone zone".

The restrictions cover anywhere within 32 miles of the Super Bowl stadium in Santa Clara, California, between 14.00 and 11.59 PST on 7 February.

FAA regulations also advise that "deadly force" may be used if a drone is perceived as a security threat.

The Super Bowl is the climax of the football season, and a crowd of 70,000 is expected for this year's game.

"Bring your lucky jersey, bring your facepaint, bring your team spirit," the video announces, "but leave your drone at home."

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

It's that time again, boys and girls. I know it's been a while since the last site update but this kind of thing can happen when everyone on staff has life things happening at the same time. Still, we weren't entirely goofing off. We managed to get the following all squared away for this update:

• API made more nexus/topic-friendly. (see TFM)
• Fixed the API to return the proper mime type. (this fixes the unicode issue)
• Fixed some backend stuff that you don't care about.
• Added the ability for Editors to give you a reason if they reject your submission. (In your Preferences, click on the Messages tab, and then set "Declined Submission Reason" to one of: "No Messages", "E-mail", or "Web"; default is "Web")
• Added the ability for Admins/Editors to message users using our message system. (In your Preferences, click on the Messages tab, and then set "Admin to user message" to one of: "No Messages", "E-mail", or "Web"; default is "Web")
• Several template fixes by martyb (Bytram).
• You will now be notified in the moderation slashbox if you are mod banned.
• Added Stripe as a Credit Card payment processor.[*] Feel free to subscribe.
• URLs with spaces are working again.
• Some typo fixes from stmuk
• Two new themes. VT220 by me and Grayscale by chromas.
• Unbelievably alpha version of some mobile css that should only show up on devices with a horizontal resolution of 800 pixels or less. View it while you can; if there's significant aversion to it, it's going away until we can polish it properly.
• Some XSS bug fixes by paulej72.
• Much fixing of my screw-ups by paulej72.
• A few more things you won't care about but that make us happy.

[*] Okay, the code is all there. We just forgot to have mrcoolbp activate the account so we could switch it from test mode to live mode. We'll drop another note when it gets squared away. Update: 02/07 05:27 GMT by mrcoolbp: I activated it, credit card payments are live now!

Alpha version of a mobile theme for the site was deemed too sucktastic to run with so you'll have to wait two or three more months. As in April or May. Of this year. Really. Personally, I have a clear schedule and the burning desire to code stuff, so we should have enough material to release another upgrade by then even if paulej72, NCommander, and Bytram get abducted by supermodels. What we plan on working on:

• You know how heavily commented stories load slow? I hate that and would like them to load fast. I'm thinking caching will play a big role here.
• Mobile theme. Currently fleshing out how best to go about it.
• Bug fixes. Gravis keeps finding new ones. The bastard.
• General QA/test and UI sanity checking/fixing from Bytram.
• Whatever strikes his fancy from paulej72.
• Ditto NCommander, time allowing.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Register reports on an uproar following the discovery of an Internet traffic spying device on campus at the University of California Berkeley:

Academics at the University of California Berkeley have protested after it emerged that management had put a secret data slurping device into the campus that was mapping and storing all network traffic. "The intrusive device is capable of capturing and analyzing all network traffic to and from the Berkeley campus and has enough local storage to save over 30 days of all this data," Ethan Ligon, a member of the Senate-Administration Joint Committee on Campus Information Technology, wrote in an e-mail to fellow faculty members, the SF Chronicle reports.

Benjamin Hermalin, chairman of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate, also expressed serious concerns about the monitoring, and about the storage of the data off-campus. As a third party company is running the device, rather than the university's IT staff, there were also privacy issues to consider.

The device was installed after UCLA Health was hacked in June. Who ordered the installation of the device? No other than Former Governor of Arizona and United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who is now the President of the University of California.

A statement from the chair of the University Committee on Academic Computing and Communications has this to say about the monitoring:

We have been informed that the monitoring of communications looked only for "malware signatures" and Internet traffic patterns. As neither message content nor browsing activity were monitored, we believe this level of monitoring can be appropriate.

We have been informed that monitoring of transmissions occurs only at campus edge, and does not capture internal campus traffic. Monitoring of traffic patterns for a pre-defined purpose can be appropriate given that results are maintained for a limited time and limited use.

Original Submission