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An Anonymous Coward writes:

At least 220,000 people have fled Burundi since last year.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/12/17/un-calls-for-mission-to-investigate-burundi-violence.html

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

At a campaign event in South Carolina the day before the state's GOP primary, Donald Trump urged the crowd to boycott all Apple products because of CEO Tim Cook's refusal to help law enforcement decrypt the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters in the terrorist massacre at San Bernardino, CA last December. Trump added casually, "I just thought of that". But he later repeated the call for a boycott at another rally, and on Twitter:

The Washington Post's Brian Fung noted that even while Trump was calling for the boycott, he was tweeting from an iPhone. However, in a follow-up tweet Trump noted he had both Apple and Samsung phones; he evidently switched to the latter for subsequent tweets. Others have pointed out a row of iPads used for POS for merchandise at Trump campaign events.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Uncontaminated food is sent to the US and Europe while contaminated food is consumed due to food shortages.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/fungal-toxins-are-poisoning-africa-s-children-says-new-report

Children in Africa and parts of Asia are falling victim to an "invisible" epidemic—fungal toxins in food that can stunt their growth and delay their development, according to a new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The two main toxins—aflatoxin and fumonisin—are present in dangerously high levels in groundnuts, cassava, and corn, which make up the bulk of children's diets from Benin to Kenya.

The toxins have long been known to cause liver cancer and, in high enough concentrations, death. But this is the first time that they have been shown by multiple studies to contribute significantly to childhood development.

"It's a massive problem" largely unknown in developed nations, says J. David Miller, a fungal toxicologist at Carleton University in Ottawa and one of the report authors. "Enormous amounts of money are spent [in the United States and Western Europe] to keep you from being exposed to these kinds of toxins."

The toxins, byproducts of the Aspergillus and Fusarium fungi, are endemic in cornfields around the world. The difference is that U.S. and European producers do all they can to eliminate the contaminants to meet strict standards for human consumption—20 parts per billion (ppb) in the United States and just 2 ppb in Europe. Fields are heavily treated, and crops are processed so that any remaining toxins are leached out. Food that isn't up to standard is used as animal feed or burned. Altogether, U.S. food producers spend between $500 million and $1.5 billion each year managing fungal toxins.

The Original Study [PDF].

Original Submission

takyon writes:

In an attempt to placate those seeking for the United Kingdom to exit the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron has struck a deal with EU leaders that would grant additional concessions to the UK:

David Cameron says a deal struck with EU leaders will give the UK "special status" and he will campaign with his "heart and soul" to stay in the union. The agreement, reached late on Friday after two days of talks in Brussels, gives the UK power to limit some EU migrants' benefits. It also includes a treaty change so the UK is not bound to "ever closer union" with other EU member states, he said. EU exit campaigners said the "hollow" deal offered only "very minor changes".

Mr Cameron is set to the announce the date of a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU after a cabinet meeting which is happening at 10:00 GMT - the referendum is widely expected to be on Thursday, 23 June. Once the date is announced, ministers will be allowed to campaign for whichever side they want - one of Mr Cameron's closest political allies Michael Gove has already been named as supporting the Leave camp. Others, such as Iain Duncan Smith are expected to follow - but a question mark remains over which way London Mayor Boris Johnson will jump.

The key points of the deal are:

• An "emergency brake" on migrants' in-work benefits for four years when there are "exceptional" levels of migration. The UK will be able to operate the brake for seven years
• Child benefit for the children of EU migrants living overseas will now be paid at a rate based on the cost of living in their home country - applicable immediately for new arrivals and from 2020 for the 34,000 existing claimants
• The amending of EU treaties to state explicitly that references to the requirement to seek ever-closer union "do not apply to the United Kingdom", meaning Britain "can never be forced into political integration"
• The ability for the UK to enact "an emergency safeguard" to protect the City of London, to stop UK firms being forced to relocate into Europe and to ensure British businesses do not face "discrimination" for being outside the eurozone

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martyb writes:

What does it mean for a body to be 'at rest'? I make think I'm stationary while taking a nap, but things are not always as they seem. A recent report in Phys.org suggests that it might be possible to detect whether an observer is stationary or moving by detecting its speed through the Cosmic Background Radiation.

In a new study, scientists have proposed that tiny residual effects measured by ether-drift experiments in the 1920s and '30s may be the first evidence of a temperature gradient that was theorized in the 1970s, but never before detected in a laboratory. The theorized temperature gradient is thought to be caused by the solar system moving at 370 km/sec through the cosmic background radiation (CBR), which is the faint electromagnetic radiation that fills the universe.

The researchers, Maurizio Consoli from INFN [Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare], along with Alessandro Pluchino and Andrea Rapisarda from INFN and the University of Catania in Italy, have published a paper on their reinterpretation of the ether-drift experiments in a recent issue of EPL [EuroPhysics Letters] .

"The main significance of our work is that those small residual effects found in all ether-drift experiments in gaseous systems, usually considered as uninteresting thermal disturbances, might instead represent the first experimental evidence for the Earth's motion within the CBR," Consoli told Phys.org.

I found this to be interesting:

A difference in the speed of light in any two perpendicular directions in an inertial reference frame would contradict special relativity, since relativity requires a vacuum within which the speed of light is constant. Many important concepts emerge from this fact, including that the universe has no preferred reference frame, that there is no absolute space or time, and that you can never really tell for sure whether you are at rest or in constant motion since all motion is relative.

The researchers found that an analysis of previous interferometer experiments provided an estimate of 370 km/sec of motion with respect to the CBR which is in close agreement to what is predicted by our planet's motion through the solar system and it, in turn, about our galaxy, within our local cluster of galaxies which are heading towards what is called the Great Attractor. (At 370 km/sec, one could take a lap around the Earth at the equator in under two minutes, and travel to the moon in just under 18 minutes!)

ArXiv.org has the full report (pdf) available.

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Phoenix666 writes:

An inmate of an Australian jail is on hunger strike in order to retain possession of a mobile phone he's kept inside his anus for up to a week.

The inmate is believed to be Kon Georgiou, a convicted triple-murderer doing a long stretch inside Goulburn Jail's "Super Max" unit. That facility is reserved for the worst of the worst and therefore supposedly the most secure jail in the Australian state of New South Wales. Mobile phones aren't allowed inside the jail. Penalties apply to inmates found in possession of phones, and those who supply them.

Georgiou's reportedly been subjected to a metal detector test, which spotted something within. He's since been encouraged to let nature take its course, but has resisted any such suggestions.

Maybe he set its ringer to vibrate.

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Soylent has discussed the Autoextremist before -- a nearly-rabid defender of Detroit and the independence fostered by wide automobile use in USA.

http://www.autoextremist.com/current/2016/2/1/the-end-of-cardolatry-part-ii.html

His editorial this week is full of pull quotes, here are just a few,

and

Prior to starting his website (which is not ad supported) about 15 years ago, he worked in the automotive advertizing/marketing business.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

In less than one month it is again time for the annual conference of the Free Software Foundation. The themes will be the usual things FSF cares about: liberty, society, and computing. The program has been published and keynote speakers include Edward Snowden and Richard Stallman. LibrePlanet 2016 takes place March 19-20, 2016 at MIT in Cambridge, MA.

Have you attended LibrePlanet? Who should be invited as a speaker there? Is there a particular subject missing that should be discussed?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) has sounded an alert on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) stealthily inserting regulations that would "prohibit conversion of vehicles originally designed for on-road use into race cars." However, it goes even deeper than that, according to Motor Trend's Chris Evans: "...this doesn't just mean a catalytic converter. It could be applied to every vehicle component which affects emissions, which could include everything from the camshafts to the gas tank. As nearly every race sanctioning body requires a fuel cell, this would make all production-based cars ineligible to be raced. It all depends on how far the EPA wants to take its interpretation of the law." Jalopnik's Patrick George posted a follow-up which contained some additional notes from SEMA's VP of Government Affairs, Steve McDonald: "The effect of this change, is not only the possible banning of racing parts that don't meet emissions, but also the act of modifying your car in such a way." -- although he admitted the government is far more likely to go after parts makers than individuals. (This is why SEMA, which represents the aftermarket business and lobbies on its behalf, is involved with the situation.)"

If this reaches far enough, it could spell the end for aftermarket specialist companies such as Greddy, Cosworth, Edelbrock, etc., as well as entire "grassroots" racing series such as 24 Hours of LeMons, ChumpCar World Series, and events sanctioned by organizations such as the Sports Car Club of America and Sports Car Driving Association. Furthermore, many of the performance innovations in the automotive industry have been driven by enthusiasts who tinker for more power. If SEMA is unable to stop or litigate against this EPA strongarming (which is misguided, considering that emissions due to racers are arguably negligible next to those of old and/or badly maintained cars), this could lead to automotive vendor lock-in by fiat.

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Millions of public school students will soon have their personal information (Including: Name, address, social security number, etc) and school records handed over to a nonprofit community organization.

The Concerned Parents Association fought for the data in federal district court and won over the objections of the California Department of Education.

The nonprofit said it needs the information to see if California schools are violating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other related laws. The database it will have access to includes all information on children, kindergarten through high school, who are attending or have attended a California school at any time since Jan. 1, 2008. If you do not want your child's personal information released you have to fill out a form and mail it by April fools day.

One of many links about this story: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Calif-Student-Information-Released-to-Non-Profit-368556881.html

The Concerned Parents Association website:

http://californiaconcernedparents.org/
"We are very happy to see such a large response from the community. Unfortunately, a significant number of comments on our Facebook page included profanity, threatening language, or veered off topic."

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takyon writes:

Tyson Foods, an American multinational and one of the largest producers of meat in the world, averaged an amputation a month among its meat-packing workers during the first nine months of 2015:

In the first nine months of 2015, workers in meat-packing plants owned by Tyson Foods averaged at least one amputation a month. That report was gleaned from a Freedom of Information Act request by Celeste Monforton, a George Washington University occupational health professor.

Monforton writes on her blog that she sought the data because of a new regulation that requires companies to report injuries to OSHA within 24 hours. She focused on one of the big meatpackers, Tyson, to get a feel for how the new rule, which kicked in on Jan. 1, 2015, would play out. "Skinners. Band saws. Wing saws. Hide grippers. The names of these tools tell just part of the story of why these amputations occurred," Monforton wrote. "Their names, however, provide more than an inkling about the physical demands of these jobs."

Most of the amputations occurred in beef plants, Monforton found, including a sanitation worker's loss of both hands at a Tyson plant in St. Joseph, Mo., and two incidents when employees at a Lexington, Neb., slaughterhouse lost fingers.

I eat Tyson chicken fingers occasionally.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

For RNA paper based on a computer game, authorship creates an identity crisis

Principles for Predicting RNA Secondary Structure Design Difficulty (DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2015.11.013)

http://www.eternagame.org/web/

Original Submission

Previously on SoylentNews: Apple Ordered by Judge to Help Decrypt San Bernadino Shooter's phone

Former NSA Director Claims Many Top Gov't Officials Side With Apple

Non Sequor writes:

Choice quotes from an interview with Gen. Michael Hayden (archive.is) on Wednesday:

"The issue here is end-to-end, unbreakable encryption—should American firms be allowed to create such a thing?" he told the Wall Street Journal editor John Bussey. "You've got [FBI director] Jim Comey on one side saying, I am really going to suffer if I can't read Tony Soprano's email. Or, if I've got to ask Tony for the PIN number before I get to read Tony's emails. Jim Comey makes that complaint, and I get it. That is right. There is an unarguable downside to unbreakable encryption."

"I think Jim Comey is wrong...Jim's logic is based on the belief that he remains the main body. That you should accommodate your movements to him, which is the main body. And I'm telling you, with regard to the cyber domain, he's not. You are."

And by the way? If I were in Jim Comey's job, I'd have Jim Comey's point of view. I understand. But I've never been in Jim Comey's job...my view on encryption is the same as [former Secretary of Homeland Security] Mike Chertoff's, it's the same as [former Deputy Secretary of Defense] Bill Lynn's, and it's the same as [former NSA director] Mike McConnell, who is one of my predecessors."

It's interesting for this opinion to be coming from this source.

[Continues.]

Phoenix666 writes:

When Apple said it was going to allow ad blocking on the iPhone version of its web browser last September, it escalated a conflict that had been building in the digital economy for years.

Programs such as Adblock Plus, AdFender and Popup Blocker Pro have long claimed to protect consumers from intrusive web ads that slow down our browsers and hoover up personal data.

Around 200 million people globally are estimated to use such apps.

But for businesses that depend on web advertising, ad blockers could cost an estimated $21.8bn (£15bn) in lost revenue a year.

While some dispute this figure, most in the industry agree that ad blockers threaten publishers' ability to provide content free at the point of use.

Now publishers and advertisers are fighting back; the battle of the blockers is heating up.

The article surveys different aspects of the tension between companies and users, citing Ghostery and Brave and other measures. Much of it is not new to Soylentils, but it does illustrate a fun arena for hackers to be playing in right now.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Politicians are often criticized for not living up to their promises. For the Idaho Republican Party, however, doing so may end up leaving schools open to constitutional battles.

Last year, the state Republican party's central committee officially endorsed using the Bible in the state's public schools. Although the Bible has valid educational uses in a number of classes, the resolution included a huge laundry list of possible topics where it could apply, and those included a number of sciences, specifically astronomy, biology, and geology.

The language of the bill is here. It would be more fun if it was the Satanic Bible.

Original Submission