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Phoenix666 writes:

Climate change can often seem concerned mainly with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases far above the Earth—but researchers also want to know what role things on the ground play.

Yuki Hamada, a biophysical remote sensing scientist in the Environmental Science division at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory, studies the realities of climate change right on the Earth's surface. Instead of peering far into the troposphere, she measures how the atmosphere near ground is interacting with plant life and soil. And Hamada is hoping that the soybean plants she studies could be windows into how the climate is changing, how those shifts might affect Earth's other ecosystems and how ecosystem function feeds back on climate patterns.

[...] To measure the solar energy bouncing off soybean fields planted about 30 miles from Argonne, within the Fermi National Laboratory property, Hamada uses a so-called "hyperspectral" reflectance sensor, which measures sunlight reflected by the plants and soils from blue light to shortwave infrared wavelengths, mounted on 10-foot towers.

The hope is to correlate these measurements with plant health and activities by dissecting the relationships between the spectral data she collects and aspects of plant chemistry and physiology—such as moisture, nitrogen content and carbon flux—that other researchers are concurrently measuring.

Heat island effects have been reasonably well-studied. It's good to see the data map extending beyond the urban boundaries.

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Phoenix666 writes:

We've seen many iPhone clones come out of China, like the Oppo R9 and the Meizu Pro 6. Now, that phenomenon enters the gaming arena.

Chinese company Fuze on Tuesday announced a new gaming console, the Tomahawk F1, and it shares some striking similarities to both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One.

As you can see, the console itself is clearly inspired by the PS4, while the F1's controller is almost identical in design to the Xbox One's.

The console runs on Android, and will be priced from 899 yuan, which converts to roughly $140, AU$190 and £95, according to Chinese blogger ZhugeEx.

Not interested unless it plays "The East is Red" upon boot.

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Phoenix666 writes:

University of Queensland research is helping identify the safest geological conditions to store CO2 emitted from power plants deep below the surface, to help Australia reduce its emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

Research fellow in UQ's School of Earth Sciences Dr Julie Pearce said burning fossil fuels had increased CO2 in the atmosphere and oceans above naturally-occurring levels.

"While carbon dioxide is vital for life on earth, we're emitting way too much of it, which is contributing to global climate change and ocean acidification," she said.

"The technology known as carbon dioxide capture and geological storage has been approved by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to mitigate climate change."

"A pilot project is already being conducted by the CO2CRC Ltd at Otway in Victoria, as well as overseas.

Dr Pearce said Australia was set to introduce capture and storage systems by 2030.

The research is studying the efficacy of injecting captured CO2 into porous rock like sandstone.

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Knowledge Troll writes:

Ars Technica has an article about Linksys committing to maintaining open source firmware usage for the WRT series of routers. This is a follow up to a previous story that ran when the original announcement regarding FCC (Federal Communications Commission) enforcement of 5.8 Ghz part 15 device requirements came out. At least there remains one well known product that decided to implement the requirement in a way that is consumer modification friendly. From the article:

Phoenix666 writes:

Over 80 percent of the world's city dwellers breathe poor quality air, increasing their risk of lung cancer and other life-threatening diseases, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report warned Thursday.

Urban residents in poor countries are by far the worst affected, WHO said, noting that nearly every city (98 percent) in low- and middle-income countries has air which fails to meet the UN body's standards.

That number falls to 56 percent of cities in wealthier countries.

"Urban air pollution continues to rise at an alarming rate, wreaking havoc on human health," Maria Neira, the head of WHO's department of public health and environment, said in a statement.

There may be something to this--children in New York City are twice as likely to be hospitalized for asthma as the national average.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

In February 2014, Russia hosted the Olympic games at Sochi, and came away with more gold medals (13) and total medals (33) than any other country. Grigory Rodchenkov, [also spelled 'Rodchenko'] the director of the Sochi Olympics drug testing laboratory, has revealed to The New York Times how it was done. Teams comprised of antidoping specialists and Russian intelligence agents worked on a nightly basis replacing urine samples of dozens of Russian athletes with clean samples that had been collected months earlier. Following the testing protocol of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), each sample was collected in two bottles; an 'A' sample to be tested immediately, and a 'B' sample that was sealed with a supposedly tamper-proof bottle, and placed in storage. Rodchenkov explains how the lab managed to identify the samples belonging to Russian athletes (even though the labels were supposedly anonymized) and swap the contents of both the 'A' and 'B' samples, with timely assistance from FSB agents.

There were no positive test results for any member of the Russian Olympics team.

In November 2015, WADA published a report accusing the Russian team and Rodchenkov of systematic cheating: Grigory Rodchenko, director of the Moscow accredited laboratory was specifically identified as an aider and abettor of the doping activities . Rodchenkov was suspended from his job as head of the testing laboratory; he soon fled to Los Angeles.

Russian authorities responded with a statement denouncing the allegations as the "slander of a turncoat" which were "just words not backed up with any facts."

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takyon writes:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has rebranded its Let's Encrypt ACME client to avoid it being confused with the certificate authority itself. It is now called Certbot, and is still in beta, like the preceding client.

Previously: "Let's Encrypt" Doubles to 2 Million Certificates

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takyon writes:

Mozilla's lawyers have argued that the FBI should disclose a vulnerability in the Tor Browser that could affect other versions of Firefox:

Mozilla seems to take issue especially with the fact that the judge has already ordered the disclosure of the vulnerability to the defense attorneys in a criminal case, which means the FBI has disclosed the vulnerability to a third-party before the vendor of the product itself. This could lead to many others finding out about the vulnerability before the company has a chance to fix it.

The company thinks that although the FBI targeted the Tor browser and not Firefox itself, the vulnerable code may be part of Firefox, as well. The Tor browser is written on top of the enterprise version of Firefox (ESR), so a majority of the code is shared between the two browsers.

Mozilla argued in a filed brief that the court should follow the industry best practices around vulnerability disclosures and order the FBI to disclose vulnerabilities to the vendors first.

Also at The Intercept .

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quintessence writes:

A study published in the BMJ found that medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States:

And from the airplane analogy, a simple fix: checklists.

Is it time for a system theory approach to medicine?

Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US (DOI: 10.1136/bmj.i2139)

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Phoenix666 writes:

The Solar Impulse 2 will resume its record-breaking quest Thursday to circle the globe without consuming a drop of fuel, with a flight from Arizona to Oklahoma.

The experimental sun-powered plane, piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, is set to take off from Phoenix at 3:00 am (1000 GMT).

"After sustained efforts from the entire team, at the Mission Control Center and on the ground, we have found a clear weather window that gives way for a 17 hour and 50 minute flight to complete the flight to reach the heart of the United States," the Solar Impulse 2 (SI2) team said in a statement.

"The objective is to reach New York as soon as possible!"

After being grounded for several months to undergo repairs, the plane resumed its round-the-world voyage in April, flying from Hawaii to California. It then flew to Phoenix on May 2.

takyon: Solar Impulse 2 successfully landed in Oklahoma, and will head for New York next.

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butthurt writes:

AFP via the ABC reports on the death of Susannah Mushatt Jones, who had been the oldest living person. A spokesperson for the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) said of Ms. Jones:

She liked bacon and eggs, she liked to sleep a lot, she didn't drink and smoke, she did marry but she didn't have any kids.

She was born on 6 July 1899 in the U.S. state of Alabama, and died in a nursing home in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. On her 106th birthday she had said:

I surround myself with love and positive energy. That's the key to long life and happiness.

takyon: The current oldest living person is the last living person born in the 19th century 1800s.

Further information:
GRG World Supercentenarian Rankings List
Biography of Jeanne Calment, oldest person ever

Related stories:
Epigenetic Clock Controls Aging
CEO Tests "Crazy" Genetic Therapy on Herself, Claims it Added 20 Years of Life

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Phoenix666 writes:

Trainee teachers with northern accents are under pressure to speak 'the Queen's English' in the classroom, according to a study carried out at The University of Manchester.

Dr Alex Baratta, a lecturer in linguistics, found that accents most associated with the Home Counties were favoured by the teacher training profession.

Last year Dr Baratta found trainee teachers with northern accents felt they were 'selling out' because they felt they had to change their accents to be understood in the classroom, having been instructed to do so by their mentors.

His latest study explored teacher accent, identity and linguistic prejudice and centred on schools based in the south of England - the previous study involved northern schools.

The North shall rise again?

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What is the best free cd ripper?

An Anonymous Coward writes:

What is the best free audio cd ripper with a gui which can use all cores, for windows7 and/or linux? I want something which rips audio cds fast, not something like EAC.

It must use all cores and support 64bit.

DVDFab Still Operating

takyon writes:

AACS has claimed in court that DVDFab has failed to shut down:

DVDFab has failed to cease its operations in the U.S. and should be sanctioned, AACS says. The decryption licensing outfit founded by Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft, Intel and others, informs a New York federal court that DVDFab's parent company has blatantly ignored a permanent injunction that was issued last year. [...] The crippling injunction seemed to work, but not for long. In a new court filing (pdf) AACS notes that the software vendor briefly blocked U.S. purchases but went back to business as usual soon after.

"Defendants are again offering DVDFab software that circumvents AACS Technology for purchase and download from the United States via their enjoined website at DVDFab.cn," they write. "Plaintiff has been able to purchase and download DVDFab Passkey for Bluray from the United States without issue, and without using a VPN or other means of masking a United States IP address," AACS adds.

Related: DVDFab Won't Try to Decrypt Enhanced AACS Protecting Ultra HD Blu-Rays Following SlySoft Closure
AnyDVD Continues — Goodbye Slysoft, Hello RedFox

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Phoenix666 writes:

After focusing on cancer, the brain, and personalized medicine, the Obama Administration is now zooming in on the bustling microbial communities within us, on us, and all around us in our built and natural environments.

On Friday, the White House revealed the Microbiome Initiative, a nationwide project to coordinate and fund microbiome research. The federal government is investing $121 million into the program. Several agencies will chip into that number, including NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the US Department of Agriculture. Additionally, more than 100 external organizations will add more money and projects to the pot, including $100 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The initiative has three main goals: to fund interdisciplinary microbiome research, develop technologies that can be used across different research projects, and support a microbiome research workforce.

ArsTechnica is calling it a "moonshot." Does $121 million rate that comparison?

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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.

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