SoylentNews

Phoenix666 writes:

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is to face trial after the Senate voted to impeach and suspend her.

Ms Rousseff is accused of illegally manipulating finances to hide a growing public deficit ahead of her re-election in 2014, which she denies.

Senators voted to suspend her by 55 votes to 22 after an all-night session that lasted more than 20 hours.

Vice-President Michel Temer will now assume the presidency while Ms Rousseff's trial takes place.

The trial may last up to 180 days, which would mean Ms Rousseff would be suspended during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, which start on 5 August.

Not tech-related, but it's notable that a world leader can still be held accountable for their misdeeds.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

In cartoon worlds, squiggly lines over characters are reserved for the exceptionally smelly. But, in reality, everyone deserves those little squiggles: each of us is constantly emitting a steady stream of gases and microbes, as well as smells. And those gases may be able to reveal more about us than what we last ate (and whether it agreed with us). Our gases may also divulge what we think about movies.

In a study involving 9,500 moviegoers, researchers found that the chemicals that audience members off-gas while viewing a film reproducibly vary depending on the type of scene they're watching. Specifically, the researchers noted synchronized changes in the amounts of specific gases during funny and thrilling bits of movies. The finding, published in the journal Scientific Reports, provides a whiff of evidence that humans may use volatile chemicals as signals. While much more data is needed to support that hypothesis, the authors speculate that audience emissions may be useful for evaluating whether movies are truly funny or thrilling.

For the study, researchers hooked up a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) to the out-going air vents of a theater during 108 showings of 16 different films, including Buddy, The Hobbit, and Carrie. The PRT-MS measured 100 of the 872 volatile chemicals humans are known to emit, with a detection limit of sub-parts per billion.

In the future when they say a movie stinks, they'll mean it literally.

Original Submission

Two Soylentils submitted notice that NASA's Curiosity rover has reached a significant milestone in its exploration of Mars.

Curiosity Mars Rover Completes Its Second Martian Year

Phoenix666 writes:

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover today completes its second Martian year since landing inside Gale Crater nearly four Earth years ago, which means it has recorded environmental patterns through two full cycles of Martian seasons.

The repetition helps distinguish seasonal effects from sporadic events. For example, a large spike in methane in the local atmosphere during the first southern-hemisphere autumn in Gale Crater was not repeated the second autumn. It was an episodic release, still unexplained. However, the rover's measurements do suggest that much subtler changes in the background methane concentration—amounts much less than during the spike—may follow a seasonal pattern. Measurements of temperature, pressure, ultraviolet light reaching the surface and the scant water vapor in the air at Gale Crater show strong, repeated seasonal changes.

Monitoring the modern atmosphere, weather and climate fulfills a Curiosity mission goal supplementing the better-known investigations of conditions billions of years ago. Back then, Gale Crater had lakes and groundwater that could have been good habitats for microbes, if Mars has ever had any. Today, though dry and much less hospitable, environmental factors are still dynamic.

Two Martian years. Not bad, but nothing on Mark Watney.

Curiosity Martian Mission Reaches 1337 Sols In Operation

b0ru writes:

As of 11th of May, 2016, Curiosity, NASA's Martian rover mission, has completed its second local year (approx. four Earth years equivalent) in operation. The mission monitors and records Martian weather conditions to aid in the study of meteorological conditions present on the planet billions of years ago. During the mission, Curiosity has recorded many interesting events;

Continued operation across multiple Martian years will help to distinguish suspected freak events with seasonal changes on the planet. Having far surpassed the original specified mission duration of 23 months [PDF], Curiosity is truly a testament to outstanding engineering.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

Phoenix666 writes:

Imagine if we could enhance good memories for those suffering from dementia and wipe away bad memories for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Researchers have taken a step toward the possibility of tuning the strength of memory by manipulating one of the brain's natural mechanisms for signaling involved in memory, a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.

Brain mechanisms underlying memory are not well understood, but most scientists believe that the region of the brain most involved in emotional memory is the amygdala. Acetylcholine is delivered to the amygdala by cholinergic neurons that reside in the base of the brain.

[...] For a new study published in the journal Neuron , researchers used a fear-based memory model in mice to test the underlying mechanism of memory because fear is a strong and emotionally charged experience. They used optogenetics, a newer research method using light to control cells in living tissue, to stimulate specific populations of cholinergic neurons during the experiments.

Two findings stand out. First, when they increased acetylcholine release in the amygdala during the formation of a traumatic memory, it greatly strengthened memory—making the memory last more than twice as long as normal. Then, when they decreased acetylcholine signaling in the amygdala during a traumatic experience, one that normally produces a fear response, they could actually wipe the memory out.

"This second finding was particularly surprising, as we essentially created fearless mice by manipulating acetylcholine circuits in the brain," Role says.

Sounds reminiscent of how they erased memories in the Philip K Dick film adaptation, Paycheck.

[Acetylcholine has been implicated in addiction to alcohol and nicotine; see, for example, Alcohol and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (abstract) and full article (pdf) -Ed.]

Original Submission

Two Soylentils wrote in to tell us about a recent spate of ransomware emails being sent to members of the US House of Representatives, and the HISO's (House Information Security Office) decision to block access to Yahoo! email.

Ransomware Attacks Lead Congress to Ban Members From Using Yahoo Mail

takyon writes:

Congressional computers used by members of the U.S. House of Representatives have been the target of ransomware attacks in recent days. Some web services are being blocked:

A series of ransomware attacks on the House of Representatives has led US Congress to ban members from using Yahoo Mail, according to a leaked email. Both Yahoo Mail and Gmail are named in the 30 April email, published on Thursday by Gizmodo, saying the attacks had increased "in the past 48 hours". Yahoo Mail will be blocked "until further notice" it adds.

[...] Meanwhile, an unnamed House of Representatives employee has told Reuters [that] devices connected to the internet via its wi-fi or ethernet cables have been barred from accessing appspot.com, the domain where Google hosts custom-built apps.

US Congress "Bans Members' Yahoo Mail"

Phoenix666 writes:

A series of ransomware attacks on the House of Representatives has led US Congress to ban members from using Yahoo Mail, according to a leaked email.

Both Yahoo Mail and Gmail are named in the 30 April email, published on Thursday by Gizmodo, saying the attacks had increased "in the past 48 hours".

Yahoo Mail will be blocked "until further notice" it adds.

Ransomware encrypts victims' files and demands a ransom be paid for unlocking.

Meanwhile, an unnamed House of Representatives employee has told Reuters devices connected to the internet via its wi-fi or ethernet cables have been barred from accessing appspot.com, the domain where Google hosts custom-built apps.

"We began blocking appspot.com on 3 May 3[sic] in response to indicators that appspot.com was potentially still hosting a remote access Trojan named BLT that has been there since June 2015," the news agency was told.

Now if they would ban Blackberries, then Washington, D.C. would grind to a halt and the rest of the world could get on with their lives.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

CoolHand writes:

Phys.org has an article on the need for developing a new revolution in water supply and treatment to address micro contaminants.

In his 2014 book, Water 4.0, UC Berkeley environmental engineer David Sedlak identifies four "revolutions" in the development of urban water systems. The first revolution—Water 1.0—was the Roman innovation of piping potable water in and sewage out of population centers, an advance adopted throughout European and North American cities. The second revolution—treating drinking water to kill infectious microbes—protected millions of urban dwellers from cholera, typhoid and other diseases transmitted through the very success of Water 1.0.

Water 3.0 saw widespread adoption of sewage treatment plants. Now, half a century later, Sedlak says we need a fourth revolution. Soaring urban populations and a changing climate create chronic water shortages in some cities and too much water in others. Some contaminants may pose hazards in extraordinarily small concentrations. And aging pipe networks threaten the health of entire communities, as seen this year in Flint, Michigan.

"The current system that we rely upon to manage water in our cities is not up to the challenges of the twenty-first century. The technologies to make urban water systems more secure already exist. It's up to us to build the next version of the water system."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A Sumatran rhino gave birth at a sanctuary in Indonesia on Thursday, an official said, taking the critically endangered species a step further away from extinction.

The female calf was born at 5:40 am on western Sumatra island, a spokesman for the environment ministry said.

It was the second baby born to rhino Ratu. Her previous birth four years ago marked the first time a Sumatran rhino had been born in an Asian breeding facility for more than 140 years.

The new calf and Ratu, whose name means "Queen" in Indonesian, were both in good health, with the newborn feeding within two hours, spokesman Novrizal Tahar told AFP.
...
Sumatran rhinos are extremely rare, with just 100 believed to exist in the world. The birth is a major boon for the species, which last year was declared extinct in Malaysia.

One baby is a "step further away from extinction."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Hunters soon could be chasing grizzly bears across the ridges of the Rocky Mountains, leaving three states to come up with plans to ensure the iconic species won't be snuffed out so soon after recovering from threats to their survival.

The Obama administration in March proposed lifting protections for the more than 700 grizzlies around Yellowstone National Park. The bears have been considered a threatened species since 1975, but wildlife officials say their population has sufficiently recovered to turn over management to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Other grizzly populations in Montana, Idaho and Washington state will remain protected. The grizzlies' Alaska cousin, the brown bear, is not considered a threatened or endangered species and is hunted regularly.

Yay, more unchewably tough meat! On the other hand, as a top predator its recovery does endorse conservation efforts over the past half-century.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Some adults learn a second language better than others, and their secret may involve the rhythms of activity in their brains.

New findings demonstrate that a five-minute measurement of resting-state brain activity predicted how quickly adults learned a second language.

The study, published in the journal Brain and Language , is the first to use patterns of resting-state brain rhythms to predict subsequent language learning rate.

"We've found that a characteristic of a person's brain at rest predicted 60 percent of the variability in their ability to learn a second language in adulthood," says lead author Chantel Prat, a faculty researcher at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington.

The previous way to predict how fast adults pick up French was how badly they wanted to date the person they're trying to talk to, but the study suggests using EEG monitoring to find the correct pattern of brain activity and neurofeedback to induce it.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The head of the FBI believes that a spike in violent crime in many cities may be due to officers' fears of showing up on Internet videos confronting suspects.

FBI Director James Comey told reporters Wednesday that a "viral video effect" is leading to less aggressive policing that "could well be at the heart" of an alarming increase in murders in many cities, according to an account recorded by the New York Times.

"There's a perception that police are less likely to do the marginal additional policing that suppresses crime -- the getting out of your car at 2 in the morning and saying to a group of guys, 'Hey, what are you doing here?'" he told reporters.

Comey's remarks came after he was briefed on rising crime rates in more than 40 cities during the first quarter of 2016. The director did not reveal specific statistics, and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

James Comey, welcome to the panopticon you dragged the rest of us into. It's rather a double-edged sword, isn't it?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Bryce Lundberg is elated, which is saying a lot for a California farmer these days.

"Hop on in," he says, wading into eight acres of ragged stalks, their seed tassels turning russet in the desert sun.

Lundberg, 54, soon is chest-high in quinoa, a crop that is thriving in an unexpected place: on a patch of mediocre soil that lies below sea level in the scorching-hot Imperial Valley in California, more than 4,500 miles removed and some 10,000 feet down in elevation from its native range in South America's Andes Mountains.

If the harvest proves profitable here, California could dominate yet another niche crop, as the grain-like seed graduates from health-craze fad to a popular ingredient in energy bars, cereals and even drinks. Acreage dedicated to quinoa may reach into the thousands in the next two years in California, a state that already is a hub for quinoa imported from South America. That's about where kale was in 2007 before it took off.

Grows on marginal land, is good for you, and tastes good. What's not to like?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

While much has been made about the dangers of texting and driving, less attention has been focused on the age-old distractions of being absent minded or upset while driving. A team of researchers from the University of Houston (UH) and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) focused on all three of these important factors.

Led by Ioannis Pavlidis from UH and Robert Wunderlich of TTI, the research studied how drivers behave when they are absent minded, emotionally charged or engaged in texting. The work was funded, in part, by the Toyota Class Action Settlement Safety Research and Education Program.

The study looked at 59 volunteers who were asked to drive the same segment of highway four times - under 'normal conditions' of being focused on driving, while distracted with cognitively challenging questions, while distracted with emotionally charged questions and while preoccupied with texting trivialities. To avoid bias, the order of the drives was randomized.

In all three interventions - absent minded, emotional and texting - the researchers found that the drivers' handling of the wheel became jittery with respect to normal driving. This jittery handling resulted in significant lane deviations and unsafe driving only in the case of texting distractions. In the case of absent-minded and emotionally charged distractions, jittery steering resulted in straighter trajectories with respect to a normal drive and safer driving.

Put the phone down and keep your eyes on the road...

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

An aura of glamorous mystery attaches to the concept of quantum entanglement, and also to the (somehow) related claim that quantum theory requires "many worlds." Yet in the end those are, or should be, scientific ideas, with down-to-earth meanings and concrete implications. Here I'd like to explain the concepts of entanglement and many worlds as simply and clearly as I know how.

I.

Entanglement is often regarded as a uniquely quantum-mechanical phenomenon, but it is not. In fact, it is enlightening, though somewhat unconventional, to consider a simple non-quantum (or "classical") version of entanglement first. This enables us to pry the subtlety of entanglement itself apart from the general oddity of quantum theory.

A decent primer on entanglement. Increasingly relevant at the dawn of the age of quantum computing.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Mars' surface is speckled with basins thought to have once hosted extensive lakes and rivers. The basins left behind by these long since dried-up bodies of water capture an important record of the geological and environmental conditions endured by the regions and make them prime candidates for exploration and study.

A recent paper, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets, describes a study carried out by Solmaz Adeli, Ernst Hauber, Laetitia Le Deit, and Ralf Jaumann, of an area of Mars' surface known as the Terra Sirenum region, which is thought to have played host to one of the largest lakes on Mars. The body of water, known as the Eridania Lake, once covered an area of over a million square kilometres before dividing into smaller isolated lakes and eventually disappearing altogether along with the rest of the water on the planet.

This study focusses on the geological events that occurred before, during and after the transformation of the gargantuan Eridania Lake into its hypothesised smaller lakes by looking closely at four ancient basins. Each of the four basins – Atlantis Chaos, Simois Colles, Caralis Chaos and an unnamed basin referred to in the study as the Northern Basin – hosted its own individual lake following the fragmentation of the Eridania Lake.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

M.I.T. Technology Review reports:

At the giant Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park under construction near Dubai, a desalination facility goes into operation this month. Run by an array of solar panels and batteries, the system will produce about 13,200 gallons of drinking water a day for use on site. That's tiny compared to desalination plants elsewhere, but it's a start toward answering a pressing question: can countries stop burning fossil fuels to supply fresh water?

Hundreds of desalination plants are planned or under way worldwide because fresh water is increasingly precious. According to a report from the International Food Policy Research Institute, more than half the world's population will be at risk of water shortages by 2050 if current trends continue.

...
Unfortunately, solar-powered desalination is expensive: as much as three times the cost of water from grid-powered plants, according to a World Bank report. Desalination plants need to run 24 hours a day, requiring expensive battery packs to supplement solar power when the sun's not shining. Thanks to increased efficiency and the falling price of solar power, costs are expected to fall rapidly: from more than $50 per 1,000 gallons today, in the Middle East, to half of that by midcentury. But that's still likely too much to make solar-powered desalination economically viable without government subsidies, even in places such as the Middle East that are optimal for solar power.

Original Submission