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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

AlterNet reports

This week, Pfizer's $160 billion merger with Dublin-based Allergan was scrapped because of new Treasury Department rules to stop such tax dodges [as] tax inversions, [i.e.] reincorporating in countries like Britain, Ireland, or the Netherlands, often merging with a European entity to duck U.S. taxes.

ZeroHedge continues:

As Pfizer-Allergan Sinks, These Inversion Deals Could Be Next

Over the past several years, one of the primary drivers behind [mergers and acquisitions] activity was tax inversions, which, however, as [the] striking announcement [April 4] by the US Treasury made clear, are now effectively over, and with them goes much of the impetus for companies to merge.

And while the Pfizer-Allergan $160 billion merger may be the most notable casualty of the Treasury's decree, there are various other deals working on corporate inversion deals or who have carried out inversions in the past. They are shown in the list below, courtesy of Bloomberg:

Progressive Waste - Waste Connections
Terex - Konecranes
Johnson Controls - Tyco
Mylan - Meda
IHS - Markit

frojack writes:

Geek.com reports on the Randomizer app that TSA agents use to send random Pre-Check cleared passengers for an additional search.

A TSA agent stands officiously at the head of a queueing station and taps an iPad screen which then shows a left or right arrow, to send a passenger to the left or right based on what percentage are to be queued for random searches on any given day. These are all "Pre Checked" passengers, well known to the TSA as trusted frequent passengers. But some are still randomly searched.

It runs only on an iPad, and it supposedly cost $336,413.59 to develop. But the App itself is trivial.

But it can be built in 10 minutes and the code is trivial.

While the price tag on the entire effort remains $1.4 million according to the FOIA received by Burke, the TSA claims the Randomizer app itself only cost $47,400, which leaves even more contract fees unexplained.

Original Submission

oaklandwatch writes:

Wednesday LinkedIn unveiled their new private cloud, and announced plans to Open Source parts of it soon.

Their new LPS ("LinkedIn Platform as a Service"), is billed as "an entire data center as a single resource pool to application developers," which they described to one technology site as "taking automation to the next level... We are now automating the whole process of managing applications." While it's starting as a proprietary system to solve specific issues internally, "We are committed to contributing clean, well-documented code that can have a substantial and lasting impact in the broader open source community," says LinkedIn engineer Steven Ihde. "In the future, we will review what parts of the system could and should be released under an open source license."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Consumption of fructose, a fruit-derived sugar present in many sweetened beverages and processed foods, has been associated with epidemic levels of diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and hypertension in the U.S. and around the world. New research presented today at the Experimental Biology 2016 meeting in San Diego further supports this link, finding that high levels of fructose similar to amounts consumed within the American diet may predispose individuals to fast-onset, salt-sensitive hypertension.

"A majority of American adults consume 10 percent or more of total calories from added sugars with a subset taking in more than 25 percent of total calories from added sugars," said lead author Kevin Gordish, PhD. Because beverages are the most common source of added sugars in the American diet, the research team gave rats drinking water with 20 percent fructose -- to simulate excessive human soft-drink consumption -- and compared them with rats who received plain water in addition to their food for two weeks. During the second week, the rats receiving 20 percent fructose were also given additional salt in their diets.

"The specific combination of fructose and high salt introduced in the second week rapidly increased blood pressure, resulting in hypertension. Fructose-linked hypertension was associated with increased sodium retention, decreased sodium excretion and diminished factors that help rid the body of excess salt. This observation of fructose-linked hypertension was only seen a diet with fructose and high salt and not a normal salt diet," Gordish said. "Fructose intake, similar to amounts consumed within the American diet, predisposed normal rats to a rapid onset of salt-sensitive hypertension. Fructose-linked hypertension was unambiguously due to fructose (and not glucose). Further, fructose had distinct deleterious effects in the kidney not seen with the same amount of glucose."

Flavor = Death. Got it.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Analysts at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have used detailed light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data for 128 cities nationwide, along with improved data analysis methods and simulation tools, to update its estimate of total U.S. technical potential for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis reveals a technical potential of 1,118 gigawatts (GW) of capacity and 1,432 terawatt-hours (TWh) of annual energy generation, equivalent to 39 percent of the nation's electricity sales.

This current estimate is significantly greater than that of a previous NREL analysis, which estimated 664 GW of installed capacity and 800 TWh of annual energy generation. Analysts attribute the new findings to increases in module power density, improved estimation of building suitability, higher estimates of the total number of buildings, and improvements in PV performance simulation tools.

Barclays downgraded the entire US electric utility sector in 2014 for a reason.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Hobbits disappeared from their island home nearly 40,000 years earlier than previously thought, new evidence suggests.

This revised timeline doesn't erase uncertainty about the evolutionary origins of these controversial Indonesian hominids. Nor will the new evidence resolve a dispute about whether hobbits represent a new species, Homo floresiensis, or were small-bodied Homo sapiens.

Hobbits vanished about 50,000 years ago at Liang Bua Cave on Flores, an island situated between Borneo and Australia's northern coast, say archaeologist Thomas Sutikna of the University of Wollongong, Australia, and his colleagues.

Cave sediment dating to about 12,000 years ago, which lies just above soil that yielded H. floresiensis remains, provided an initial estimate of when these diminutive hominids died out. But that sediment washed into the cave long after H. floresiensis was gone, covering much older, hobbit-bearing soil [DOI: 10.1038/nature17179], the researchers report in the March 31 Nature.

You were right when you thought there was something fishy about reports of the Scouring of the Shire.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

With Texas Sen. Ted Cruz projected as the clear winner of Tuesday's Wisconsin GOP primary (Bernie Sanders won the Democratic side), there is an increasing likelihood that neither GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, nor the other two candidates still in the race (Cruz, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich) will arrive at the Republican convention with 1,237 delegates, i.e. a majority, needed to win the nomination on the first ballot. This would most likely result in a contested convention, the first in either major US political party since Adlai Stevenson was nominated by the Democratic Party in 1952. (The GOP came close in 1976, when incumbent President Gerald Ford arrived at the convention without a majority of delegates, but managed to secure one in time for the first ballot; this came after challenger Ronald Reagan made a tactical error by naming moderate Senator Richard Schweiker (R-PA) as his running mate).

A contested convention "for dummies" (but helpful) piece from the NY Times, outlining the basic rules.

CNN suggests we should not be surprised if shady dealings are done to pry delegates into one camp or another.

Nate Silver's analysis here.

takyon: FiveThirtyEight also has "Can You Get Trump To 1,237?". It allows you to divide up the delegates from the remaining states, and shows the average of expert predictions on one column. As of now, Trump is predicted to receive around just 1,182 delegates. Trump will reportedly hire "seasoned operatives" to help avoid or handle the contested convention.

Original Submission

tonyPick writes:

An article at The Electronic Frontier Foundation goes over a recent decision by the home automation company Nest to disable some of its customers' devices in May:

The Hub debuted in 2013 and was discontinued after Nest acquired Revolv in late 2014. One selling point was that the one-time payment of $300 included a "Lifetime Subscription," including updates. In fact, the device shipped without all of its antennas being functional yet. Customers expected that the antennas would be enabled via updates.

Customers likely didn't expect that, 18 months after the last Revolv Hubs were sold, instead of getting more upgrades, the device would be intentionally, permanently, and completely disabled.

The article also highlights the legal grey area for customers who attempt to keep their own hardware functional, due to "conflicting court decisions about the scope of Section 1201" (of the DMCA).

The EFF article links to a medium.com posting which goes over the experience of a user of the hardware in question:

On May 15th, my house will stop working. My landscape lighting will stop turning on and off, my security lights will stop reacting to motion, and my home made vacation burglar deterrent will stop working. This is a conscious intentional decision by Google/Nest. [...] Google is intentionally bricking hardware that I own.

Originally spotted at Hacker News.

Previously: Google Shows us the Future of Cloud-Dependent Home Automation

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

Reported in The Astronomical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/0004-6256/151/2/45), KELT-4Ab orbits one of the stars in a triple stellar system. Considered a "hot Jupiter" because of its large size and small orbit, it is only the fourth planet that has been found in association with a triple star system. KELT-4A is the brightest star in the system. KELT-4B and KELT-4C, separated from each other by about 10 astronomical units (AU), form a binary, about 328 AU distant from KELT-4A. The system is about 685 light-years from us.

The planet was detected in a survey by the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope. Scientific American has a story about the discovery.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

For the first time, researchers have developed a microscope capable of observing -- and manipulating -- neural activity in the brains of live animals at the scale of a single cell with millisecond precision. By allowing scientists to directly control the firing of individual neurons within complex brain circuits, the device could ultimately revolutionize how neuroscience is done and lead to new insights about healthy brain functioning and neurological disorders.

"With this new microscope, we believe we will soon be able to treat the brain as the keyboard of a piano, so to speak, and write in a sequence of activity that is needed to understand or correct brain function," said Hillel Adesnik, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the research team. "After more refinements, this instrument may be able to function as a sort of Rosetta Stone to help us crack the neural code."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Biomechanics researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered how insects build internal bandages to repair their broken 'bones'. A DIY cuticle repair kit allows wounded insects to go about their day-to-day lives almost as efficiently as they would have done before meeting with mishap.

When an insect cuts one of its legs, it kicks into repair mode by laying a patch of new cuticle underneath the affected area. This new cuticle effectively functions as a bandage, which seals the wound and provides structural strength where it is required.

The study, which has just been published in international journal Interface, is the first to ever assess the biomechanics of repair in arthropods. Insects are the most species-diverse group of animals on the planet.

Lead author, Professor of Materials Engineering at Trinity, David Taylor, said: "Unlike us, insects cannot completely repair their 'bones', but it turns out that by using this cuticle bandage they can do a pretty good job. They are able to restore most of the original strength, which allows them to keep using their limbs for normal activities."

Bridging the gap: wound healing in insects restores mechanical strength by targeted cuticle deposition (DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2015.0984)

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Taste of Country reports:

Merle Haggard has died after a series of recent health struggles. The legendary singer passed away on April 6, 2016, which was also his 79th birthday.

Haggard canceled tour dates in December of 2015 after he checked into a hospital and learned he had double pneumonia. In an interview later with Willie's Roadhouse on Sirius XM, he said he was "nearly dead" when he was hospitalized for two weeks. He canceled shows scheduled for Jan. 30 and 31 after his double pneumonia returned. At the end of March, the legend announced he was canceling all of his scheduled shows for April on doctor's orders.

According to Country Aircheck, Haggard had been in hospice care recently. The country icon's manager, Frank Mull, reveals that he died of pneumonia at 9:20AM on Wednesday (April 6) in Palo Cedro, California.

An item on Haggard's site says:

Merle Haggard knows all about hard living, uncertain love, and workers ground down by depressing jobs.

Wikipedia notes:

Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band the Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville sound recordings of the same era.

Original Submission

tonyPick writes:

Spotted on Hackaday is this fun little hack which builds an automatic pneumatic harmonica, using an air compressor, solenoid valves and a micro-controller.

It's actually an offshoot of his other project, a high-speed candy sorting machine. There, he's trying to outdo the more common color-sensor-and-servo style contraptions by using computer vision for the color detection and a number of compressed-air jets to blow the candy off of a conveyor belt into the proper bins.

But before that gets rolling, a test of the computer-controlled pneumatic setup is in order. And that's where the harmonica entered the picture. The "build" is really just him putting the tubes from the candy sorter into a harmonica.

Although it's only a four note test it's a neat little build and fun to see in action via YouTube.

There is also a project page for the harmonica, and the main project page for the candy sorter includes more details on the setup.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

As the United States Department of Defense increases surveillance of its workforce as part of an "Insider Threat" program, it will at least have less of the internal enemy to worry about:

The total number of employees and contractors holding security clearances for access to classified information at the Department of Defense dropped by a hefty 900,000 between 2013 and 2016 — or 20% of the total cleared population at DoD. At the start of the current Fiscal Year, DoD had a remaining 3.7 million cleared personnel.

These data were presented in the latest quarterly report on Insider Threat and Security Clearance Reform, 1st quarter, FY 2016, published last month.

Importantly, this was a policy choice, not simply a budgetary artifact or a statistical fluke. A reduction in security clearances is a wholesome development, since it lowers costs and permits more focused use of security resources. It also increases pressure, at least implicitly, to eliminate unnecessary security classification restrictions.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper has urged other agencies to "overhaul" the classification system:

Clapper asked for feasibility studies on reducing the number of IC Original Classification Authorities, on the utility of an IC-wide classification guide, on the elimination of the Confidential classification in the IC, and on a new initiative to promote discretionary declassification actions.

[...] The history of secrecy reform in the U.S. government demonstrates that it is most effective — or that it is only effective — when it is driven by senior agency leadership. Not since Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary's "openness initiative" in the 1990s has an agency head endorsed secrecy reform with the specificity and authority expressed by DNI Clapper.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

Microsoft Corp. reportedly plans to offer a service called RemoteEdge. As announced during the first week of April at the Microsoft Edge Web Summit, the company will arrange for Web developers to run the company's Edge browser on its Azure cloud computing service, with the results displayed on "any browser" on the developer's local computer. A demonstration showed the service with Chrome running on Windows.

The Edge browser is available only on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Server 2016, and Xbox One. The RemoteEdge service appears to be intended to permit Web developers without access to those platforms to check their sites' compatibility with Edge.

coverage:

• mspoweruser.com
• Softpedia
• redmondmag.com
• neowin.net

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Why do we sometimes decide to take risks and other times choose to play it safe? In a new study, Caltech researchers explored the neural mechanisms of one possible explanation: a contagion effect.

The work is described in the March 21 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the study led by John O'Doherty, professor of psychology and director of the Caltech Brain Imaging Center, 24 volunteers repeatedly participated in three types of trials: a "Self" trial, in which the participants were asked to choose between taking a guaranteed $10 or making a risky gamble with a potentially higher payoff; an "Observe" trial, in which the participants observed the risk-taking behavior of a peer (in the trial, this meant a computer algorithm trained to behave like a peer), allowing the participants to learn how often the peer takes a risk; and a "Predict" trial, in which the participants were asked to predict the risk-taking tendencies of an observed peer, earning a cash prize for a correct prediction. Notably in these trials the participants did not observe gamble outcomes, preventing them from further learning about gambles.

O'Doherty and his colleagues found that the participants were much more likely to make the gamble for more money in the "Self" trial when they had previously observed a risk-taking peer in the "Observe" trial. The researchers noticed that after the subjects observed the actions of a peer, their preferences for risk-taking or risk-averse behaviors began to reflect those of the observed peer -- a so-called contagion effect. "By observing others behaving in a risk-seeking or risk-averse fashion, we become in turn more or less prone to risky behavior," says Shinsuke Suzuki, a postdoctoral scholar in neuroscience and first author of the study.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Behavioral contagion during learning about another agent’s risk-preferences acts on the neural representation of decision-risk (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1600092113)

Original Submission