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takyon writes:

A 3D printer and experimental "gecko grippers" have been sent on a recent supply mission to the International Space Station:

A rocket loaded with science experiments and supplies for the International Space Station blasted off from Florida on Tuesday. The Cygnus capsule contains food, science experiments and equipment, including a 3D printer to build tools and experimental non-stick grippers modelled on the feet of gecko lizards.

The printer works by heating plastic, metal or other materials into streams that are layered on top of each other to create three-dimensional objects. The experimental gripper uses a new kind of adhesive that mimics the way gecko lizards cling to surfaces without falling. It aims to test a method of attaching objects in the weightless environment of space. Nasa is looking at using robots with the "gecko grippers" to attach sensors and other instruments on to and inside satellites.

From Spaceflight Insider:

A ULA Atlas V rocket, in the 401 configuration, caused windows to rattle and car alarms to go off for miles around the Space Coast as the booster and S.S. Rick Husband Cygnus spacecraft ferried an estimated 7,756 lbs (3,518 kg) of cargo on its way to the International Space Station – the largest payload the spacecraft has sent aloft so far. Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance sent the fifth mission – under the $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract Orbital ATK has with NASA – on its way in spectacular fashion in the late evening hours of Tuesday, March 22.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Today, at the Microbiology Society's Annual Conference in Liverpool, scientists will show that the foam made by Trinidadian frogs represents a new, non-toxic antibiotic delivery system that may help to prevent infections.

While mating, Tungara frogs (Engystomops pustulosus) release a protein cocktail that they beat into a foam with their back legs. The frogs - less than 5 centimetres long - lay their eggs in these foam nests to protect them from disease, predators and environmental stresses.

Researchers from the University of Strathclyde have been analysing the frog foam, showing that it is highly stable and capable of taking up drugs before releasing them at a stable rate. The group's work reveals that the foam can release model dyes at a steady rate over a period of 72-168 hours, while foam loaded with the antibiotic vancomycin was shown to prevent in vitro growth of the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus for a period of 48 hours. The foam proteins were tested in vitro against keratinocytes, a type of skin cell, for 24 hours. These cells were still alive and viable after 24 hours of exposure, demonstrating that the foam is not toxic to human cells.

They had me at "frog foam."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

What happens when the price of electric cars falls lower than the gasoline-powered competition? That's the question Tesla Motors Inc. wants to answer with its Model 3, which will carry a $35,000 price tag at its unveiling on March 31. But we don't need to wait until the Model 3 goes on sale, because Tesla already has an inexpensive electric vehicle to learn from: the Model S.

Sure, you might not think of a $70,000 sedan as cheap. The sticker price doesn't even even include the thousands in add-ons purchased by most Tesla shoppers. But within the class of competitors—premium, large-sized luxury vehicles—the Model S is a bargain. It's faster, safer, and by many measures more convenient than its fancy, gas-chugging peers. In less than four years it has become the top-selling large-luxury vehicle in the U.S., already outselling high-end options from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi.

Reservations for the Model 3 begin March 31st and will cost USD $1000. Me, I couldn't think of a finer response to Middle East Terror right now than to stop buying their one product forever.

Original Submission

bitstream writes:

A trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by the name of Navinder Sarao, 37 — who operated from his parents' home near Heathrow Airport in the UK — is accused of helping to trigger the U.S. "flash crash". A court has now ruled that he can be extradited to face trial to the U.S.

He is accused of contributing to events on 2010-05-06 when the Dow Jones share index briefly fell more than 1000 points. The flash crash on 2010-05-06 temporarily wiped nearly 1 trillion USD off the value of shares. The U.S. authorities allege he is guilty of "spoofing" — the practice of placing large orders that manipulate the markets and then cancelling or changing them, allowing him to buy or sell at a profit and that this resulted in a profit of 40 million USD. U.S. authorities wants to have Sarao stand trial on 22 criminal counts. The charges carry a total jail time of 380 years. New York Times have a similar report, that notes "This is not the last step for Mr. Sarao, as the extradition must next be reviewed by the Home Secretary."

What Sarao did seems quite similar to what high-speed and algorithmic traders do every day. There's earlier reports where "manual" traders get automated traders into trouble and then the manual trader gets sued. So perhaps a different standards is used depending on what connections the trader has? The implications of that are far reaching. The other part of this is whether the U.S. is permitted to extradite persons who perhaps never trod U.S. soil?

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

The Toronto Star reports that after losing the publishing rights to the Beatles' catalogue decades ago, Paul McCartney is poised to fire another fusillade in his battle to reclaim his music, taking advantage of a law that allows singers to reclaim publishing rights after 56 years by filing a "notice of termination" with the U.S. Copyright Office.

The songs on the table include many Beatles masterworks, including "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" — and, for the record, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," a song that John Lennon openly and vocally detested. The Beatles lost their publishing rights in the 1960s when ATV, a publishing company they created with the other Beatles, their manager and outside investors, was sold without their knowledge. McCartney failed to buy ATV in a $20-million deal with Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and Michael Jackson bought it for $47.5 million in 1985. McCartney wasn't happy. "Someone rang me up one day and said, 'Michael's bought your songs,' " McCartney later said. "I said, 'What??!!' I think it's dodgy to do things like that . . . To be someone's friend and then to buy the rug they're standing on."

McCartney's notice of termination is an attempt to get the rug back. The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 gave songwriters the ability to recapture the publishers' share of their songs, and in the case of titles written before 1978, writers can recapture songs after two consecutive 28-year terms, or 56 years. As the world found out in 2012 when Mad Men paid $250,000 to use "Tomorrow Never Knows" at the end of one episode, Beatles songs are not "exploited" cheaply. "Whatever people think, this is not about money. It never is," says Matthew Weiner. "They are concerned about their legacy and their artistic impact."

Original Submission

We had two Soylents write in with news about the Tor Project and its position on privacy.

Tor Project Stands With Apple, Promises to Further Eliminate "Single Points of Failure"

takyon writes:

The lead Tor Browser developer has written a blog post detailing some of the measures the Tor Project will take to beef up security amidst the renewed Crypto War:

In a blog post timed for the start of Apple's now-delayed FBI showdown, Mike Perry, lead developer of Tor Browser, said the project is stepping up efforts to keep its anonymizing network free of government interference.

[...] The Tor Project, which is partially funded by the US government, has never received a legal demand for backdoors in its code nor the project's crypto keys, Perry said. Where Tor nodes are seized by police or "unknown actors," its keys are automatically blacklisted, he said. The open nature of Tor's code makes it likely a developer would spot backdoors sneaked into the system, Perry asserted, and the use of multiple cryptographic mechanisms and independent keys, along with reproducible builds of its code, make a single point of failure unlikely.

In light of Apple's battle with the FBI, the Tor Project is going to further toughen up its code base by rolling out a bug bounty program ahead of schedule, Perry said. In the not-too-distant future, the group will also list Tor browser binary hashes in the network's consensus document and then audit the consensus with a certificate transparency-style log that would raise an alert if the majority of the directory authority keys were stolen or Tor browser downloads were tampered with.

A Statement from The Tor Project on Software Integrity and Apple

Phoenix666 writes:

[Continues.]

takyon writes:

The Internet Archive has submitted comments about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the U.S. Copyright Office:

As a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software and music, the Internet Archive has a keen interest in copyright law. In a submission to the U.S. Copyright Office the Archive says since the major studios often send invalid notices, they're suggesting a change in the law to allow content to remain up while disputes are settled.

[...] Under pressure from rightsholders, on the final day of 2015 the U.S. Copyright Office launched a public consultation with the aim of assessing the costs and burdens of the notice-and-takedown process on copyright owners, online service providers, and the general public. As a free and public repository of a wide range of media (26 petabytes overall), the Internet Archive has a keen interest in how U.S. copyright law is shaped. In its just-published submission to the Copyright Office the Archive is quite clear – without the Safe Harbor provisions of the DMCA its valuable work would become impossible.

[...] With some reservations the Archive believes that the DMCA and its system of shared responsibility is "working well" and should not be significantly overhauled. It notes that as a curator of everything from feature length films, old radio programs and cylinder recordings, to pre-1964 architectural trade catalogs, house plan books, and technical building guides, the Archive deals with an almost unprecedented range of material. That is only possible due to the "important certainty" offered by the DMCA.

[...] In its submission the Archive goes to some lengths to highlight differences between those engaging in commercial piracy and those who seek to preserve and share cultural heritage. As a result the context in which a user posts content online should be considered before attempting to determine whether an infringement has taken place. This, the organization says, poses problems for the 'staydown' demands gaining momentum with copyright holders. "This is why proposals for 'notice and staydown,' which would appear to require platforms to use automated processes to make sure certain materials are never again able to be posted to the internet — regardless of context — threaten to chill legitimate speech and fair uses of materials," the organization warns.

The Internet Archive also notes that many automated takedown notices have demanded the removal of public domain works based on "loose" keyword matching, and suggests that service providers should be allowed to keep material up if they have a reasonable, good faith belief that material is non-infringing, public domain, or a fair use. Read the Archive's full submission here.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

By rapidly heating silicon wafers covered with thin iron silicide and aluminum films, A*STAR researchers have developed a way to eliminate many of the complicated, time-consuming steps needed to fabricate light harvesting solar cells.

Silicon photovoltaic devices typically sandwich two semiconductor layers containing positively or negatively charged impurity atoms, or dopants, into a so-called p-n junction. The electric field that forms at the p-n interface is an efficient way to collect charge carriers generated from incident light. However, accurately implanting or diffusing dopants into silicon requires specialized equipment and ultra-clean manufacturing conditions.

Goutam Dalapati and co-workers from the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering found that metal silicides, substances produced when metal coatings are annealed with silicon wafers, hold new promise for reducing solar cell production costs. Metal silicides are fundamental to the operation of nearly all microelectronic devices, and behave like conductive wires or voltage-dependent switches depending on their contents and preparation conditions—an adaptable nature the team aimed to exploit with iron-based silicides.

Aluminium alloyed iron-silicide/silicon solar cells: A simple approach for low cost environmental-friendly photovoltaic technology (open, DOI: 10.1038/srep17810)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II multirole fighter plane has numerous software and hardware flaws. So many, in fact, that it won't be ready to deploy before 2019:

The F-35 multirole fighter won't be close to ready before 2019, the US House Armed Services Committee was told on Wednesday. The aircraft, which is supposed to reinvigorate the American military's air power, is suffering numerous problems, largely down to flaws in the F-35's operating system. These include straightforward code crashes, having to reboot the radar every four hours, and serious security holes in the code.

Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, reported that the latest F-35 operating system has 931 open, documented deficiencies, 158 of which are Category 1 – classified as those that could cause death, severe injury, or severe illness. "The limited and incomplete F-35 cybersecurity testing accomplished to date has nonetheless revealed deficiencies that cannot be ignored," Gilmore said in his testimony [PDF]. "Cybersecurity testing on the next increment of ALIS [Autonomic Logistics Information System] – version 2.0.2 – is planned for this fall, but may need to be delayed because the program may not be able to resolve some key deficiencies and complete content development and fielding as scheduled."

He reported that around 60 per cent of aircraft used for testing were grounded due to software problems. He cited one four-aircraft exercise that had to be cancelled after two of the four aircraft aborted "due to avionics stability problems during startup."

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

First seen in 2011, the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) claims to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They've been linked to hacking the Websites of the US Marine Corps, Microsoft, Skype, eBay and PayPal. Arrest warrants have been issued for the suspects:

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) revealed in two unsealed criminal complaints the three Syrian nationals have been charged with multiple offences related to computer hacking.

In addition, two fugitives have been added to the FBI's "Most wanted" list, according to a DoJ press release. However, they are believed to be in Syria and out of reach of law enforcement.

[...] In the US District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia, 22-year-old Ahmad Umar Agha, also known as "The Pro," and Firas "The Shadow" Dardar, 27, were charged with engaging in a terrorism hoaxes, attempting to incite mutiny in US armed forces, unauthorised access to and damage to computer systems, access device fraud and the "illicit possession of authentication features."

Dadar and another suspect, 36-year-old Peter Romar, were also charged with unauthorized access to and damage of computer systems, extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, violations of the Syrian Sanctions Regulations and unlawful communication.

[...] In relation to the two additional Syrian nationals now wanted by US law enforcement, the FBI is offering a reward of $100,000 for information leading to their capture.

Previously: Independent.co.uk & Several Other Websites Hacked by Syrian Electronic Army

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The more young adults use social media, the more likely they are to be depressed, a new study finds.

Scientists say the findings could guide clinical and public health interventions to tackle depression, which is forecast to become the leading cause of disability in high-income countries by 2030.

While previous studies have yielded mixed results, been limited by small or localized samples, and focused primarily on one specific platform, rather than the broad range often used by young adults, this was the first large, nationally representative study to examine associations between use of a broad range of outlets and depression.

"Because social media has become such an integrated component of human interaction, it is important for clinicians interacting with young adults to recognize the balance to be struck in encouraging potential positive use, while redirecting from problematic use," says senior author Brian A. Primack, director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health at the University of Pittsburgh.

What bums you out more, when your friends post about how much more success they're having than you, or how much they hate their lives? Original study.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Durably resistant potatoes with wild potato genes offer 80% reduction in chemical control:

A research project into the development of potatoes with sustainable resistance against phytophthora via genetic modification with genes from wild potato varieties and good resistance management (DuRPh) has concluded with a scientific publication on the research results. The Wageningen UR scientists indicated that their approach was successful in developing potato plants which require 80% less chemical control.

The potato is the third food crop and offers a relatively high yield and valuable food per hectare. Global potato cultivation is, however, under threat from the pathogen Phytophthora infestans. Farmers who can afford to do so spray their crops against the pathogen with chemicals up to 15 times a year, which is both expensive and harmful to the environment. Farmers without the means for chemical control lose a large part of their yield in some years as a result of the disease.
...
The scientists mapped scores of resistance genes from wild potatoes of which nearly half were 'cloned' so that they could be transformed to existing potato varieties as single genes or in sets of two or three. After the scientists had determined that they could actually make susceptible potato varieties resistant, these potato plants were then multiplied to provide sufficient potatoes for research on trial fields.

The resistant potatoes were studied in the field in various ways. In small 'monitoring plots' they also were used to study which types of phytophthora were present on the land. In larger demonstration fields, visitors from the sector and the general public could see the success of the attempt to make vulnerable potatoes resistant to phytophthora for four consecutive years.

Your fries are safe.

Durable Late Blight Resistance in Potato Through Dynamic Varieties Obtained by Cisgenesis: Scientific and Societal Advances in the DuRPh Project (DOI: 10.1007/s11540-015-9312-6)

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

When Toyota aired a Super Bowl television ad featuring a surprisingly quick Prius gas-electric hybrid eluding police, it marked a turning point for the auto industry.

For years, automakers pushed fuel efficiency to sell hybrid and electric vehicles. Now, in an era of cheap gasoline, the message is: These cars are faster and quieter than their gas-powered counterparts. And, yes, you still save on fuel.

"They've graduated out of the class of something that's a bit of an oddity to drive," says Mike O'Brien, vice president of product planning for Hyundai. "It's all about making these cars better."

Until now, hybrids and electrics have largely appealed to the environmentally-conscious crowd. The vehicles cost thousands of dollars extra, and although drivers eventually recouped their money in fuel savings, the vehicles lacked the power and handling of gas-powered rivals. Electrics also suffered from driver concern that the battery could run out of juice on a trip.

Now, the tide is slowly turning. General Motors and Tesla will bring electric vehicles to market next year priced around $30,000, including a $7,500 federal tax credit. Battery range has improved significantly, experts expect gasoline prices to eventually climb higher, and the advent of autonomous vehicles favors motors powered by electricity over gas.

Amen. I relish the chance to use my brother-in-law's EV on the weekends, because it's so satisfying to out-accelerate and out-perform the Wall Street punks and corporate lawyers in their Lambos and Ferraris that they paid an order of magnitude more for.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Demonstrating you can make money from Linux and open-source software, Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat's president and CEO credits "enterprises increasingly adopting hybrid cloud infrastructures and open source technologies" for driving the company's strong results:

For the full 2016 fiscal year, Red Hat's total revenue was $2.05 billion, up 15 percent in US dollars year-over-year, or 21 percent measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue for the full fiscal year was $1.8 billion, up 16 percent in US dollars year-over-year, or 22 percent measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue in the full fiscal year was 88 percent of total revenue.

[...] Looking ahead for its 2016 FY Red Hat expects to see between $2.380 billion to $2.420 billion. At this rate, Red Hat should easily become the first $3 billion open-source company.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Using the gravitational microlensing technique, astronomers have recently detected what appears to be a Saturn-like planet residing near the Milky Way's bulge. The newly discovered exoplanet has a mass somewhere between Saturn and Jupiter and is orbiting a star with half the mass of the sun. A paper detailing the finding was published online on Mar. 21 on the arXiv pre-print server.

If a star moves in front of an another star, the light from the distant star is bent by the gravitational pull of the nearer star and the more distant star is magnified. Microlensing does not rely on the light from the host stars; thus, it can detect planets, even when the host stars cannot be detected. This technique is very useful for detecting alien worlds in the inner galactic disk and bulge, where it is difficult to search for planets with other methods.

An international team of researchers, led by Aparna Bhattacharyaha of the University of Notre Dame used the gravitational microlensing method to detect a gas giant planet orbiting the lens stars of a microlensing event. This gravity lens, discovered in August 2014, was designated OGLE-2014-BLG-1760 and is the 1,760th microlensing event detected by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) collaboration. OGLE is a Polish astronomical project based at the University of Warsaw, searching for dark matter and extrasolar planets. It utilizes the 1.3 meter Warsaw telescope mounted at the Las Campanas observatory in Chile.

Original Submission