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Bloomberg reports:

U.S. prosecutors have abandoned their case against Angelo Mozilo, a pioneer of the risky subprime mortgages that fueled the financial crisis, after a two-year quest to bring a civil suit against him.

The Justice Department sent a letter informing Mozilo, the co-founder of Countrywide Financial Corp., that it isn’t moving ahead with any action against him, according to people familiar with the matter. That effectively ends nearly a decade of U.S. scrutiny of a man who became a face of risky lending practices and later an emblem of the government’s mixed success in holding individuals accountable.

[...] Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America Corp. in 2008, originated more than $408 billion of worth of loans in 2007, at the height of the housing market. Many of them went to poorly vetted and risky borrowers, the Justice Department has said.

[...] The closure of the Mozilo case comes weeks after a federal appeals court reversed a 2013 Firrea ruling against Bank of America and Rebecca Mairone, the only executive of a major U.S. bank to be found liable for their part in the mortgage crisis.

[...] The Justice Department claimed the bank and Countrywide generated thousands of defective loans and sold them to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now under government control. Countrywide sold the loans to boost revenue in the tightening credit market in mid-2007, according to the government. The program became known as the High Speed Swim Lane, or HSSL -- later nicknamed The Hustle.

A three-panel appeals panel in New York ruled in May that prosecutors failed to prove Mairone, and Bank of America, defrauded the government.

The New York Times reported in May:

During the trial, in October 2013, federal prosecutors accused Ms. Mairone of overseeing the high-speed lane program that pushed through loans to unqualified buyers and ultimately failed, causing more than $1 billion in losses. The faster that employees originated loans, the higher their bonuses, according to testimony.

The appeals court ruled that Countrywide’s contracts with Fannie and Freddie may have including false statements. But even “intentional” contract breaches did not constitute fraud on the part of the mortgage lender, the ruling said.

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

James Vincent reports at The Verge that Bill Gates' philanthropic efforts are usually greeted with near-universal praise, but a recent attempt by the US billionaire to donate 100,000 chickens ruffled some feathers in Bolivia which has refused the donation, describing Gates' gift as "offensive." "He does not know Bolivia’s reality to think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce," said César Cocarico, Bolivia's minister of land and rural development. "Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia, and once he knows more, apologize to us."

Gates says that it’s pretty clear to him that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens and the Microsoft co-founder says chickens are better than computers or the internet for reducing poverty, because they are inexpensive, reproduce, and supply food and revenue with their eggs and meat. "They are easy and inexpensive to take care of. Many breeds can eat whatever they find on the ground (although it’s better if you can feed them, because they’ll grow faster)," writes Gates adding that chickens are a good investment. "Suppose a new farmer starts with five hens. One of her neighbors owns a rooster to fertilize the hens’ eggs. After three months, she can have a flock of 40 chicks. Eventually, with a sale price of $5 per chicken—which is typical in West Africa—she can earn more than $1,000 a year, versus the extreme-poverty line of about $700 a year."

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Verge reports

Maru OS lets phones run both Android and Debian Linux, and now, months after being in private beta mode, all Nexus 5 users can put the operating system on their device. Their phone will run like a Linux desktop when it's connected to an external display, mouse, and keyboard. It's very similar to the Continuum feature Microsoft introduced in Windows 10 for phones last year. That desktop state will still be preserved after the phone is disconnected from its keyboard and monitor.

The Nexus will run like an Android device the rest of the time. While the OS is only available on the Nexus 5, Maru expects to come to other devices as people pick up on its open source.

Previous: Maru OS: an Android ROM that Turns into Debian when it Senses Connected PC Peripherals

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Telesur reports

The Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent also known as the mosaic-tailed rat, have been completely wiped-out from its only known location. They are also the first instance of a mammal anywhere in the world thought to have gone extinct due primarily to human-caused climate change.

The Center for American Progress notes

A new report,[PDF] co-authored by Natalie Waller and Luke Leung from the University of Queensland, indicates that rising sea levels destroyed 97 percent [of the] melomys' habitat and much of their food supply, and likely drowned many of them. The island is only about 10 feet above sea level, making it especially susceptible to inundations. And, since the cay is only about the size of a football field, the creatures were unable to escape the flooding.

[...] The last recorded sighting of the melomys, which is the only mammal species endemic to the Great Barrier Reef, was in 2009. After a brief survey of the island in March 2014 failed to detect any of these animals, an extensive investigation through August and September in 2014 revealed no more melomys were alive on the island.

[...] Climate scientists say that the Bramble Cay melomys is just the beginning of a trend of extinctions due to climate change.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A copper camouflage shell, inspired by the chameleon, is the first to render sensors invisible to both thermal and electric image detection.

Current technologies that make sensors "invisible" also usually make them ineffective, while others only work in specific physical fields—either thermal or electrical.

"We have designed a camouflage 'shell' that not only mimics surrounding thermal fields but also electric fields, both at the same time. The object under camouflage becomes truly invisible as its shape and position cannot be detected in terms of both thermal and electric images," says Qiu Cheng-Wei, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore who led the project.

There you have it, the solution to make sure your growing operation remains undetectable.

Original Submission

turgid writes:

The BBC and The Guardian report on the apparently politically-motivated murder of Labour MP Jo Cox on Thursday by a 52-year-old man. The suspect allegedly shot and stabbed her while shouting, "Britain first!"

Cox had just finished conducting her constituency surgery, where she as the local MP arranges consultations with her constituents. This is an important part of traditional British democracy.

The UK is currently preparing to vote in a referendum on 23rd June on the UK's continued membership of the European Union. The official campaigns for both sides of the referendum have been suspended until Sunday.

Cox has been vocal in support of refugees from the Syrian civil war and in the UK's continued membership of the European Union.

Sentiments are running high, "nationalist" organisations and individuals are using the referendum to gain influence, and immigrants and foreigners are being targeted as scapegoats for the UK's economic woes. The nut-cases are coming out of the woodwork.

All mainstream political parties have expressed their shock, outrage, and sympathy.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Scientists at Johns Hopkins hypothesize that the LIGO gravitational wave detector may have found dark matter:

The eight scientists from the Johns Hopkins Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy had already started making calculations when the discovery by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) was announced in February. Their results, published recently in Physical Review Letters , unfold as a hypothesis suggesting a solution for an abiding mystery in astrophysics.

"We consider the possibility that the black hole binary detected by LIGO may be a signature of dark matter," wrote the scientists in their summary, referring to the black hole pair as a "binary." What follows are five pages of annotated mathematical equations showing how the researchers considered the mass of the two objects LIGO detected as a point of departure, suggesting that these objects could be part of the mysterious substance known to make up about 85 percent of the mass of the universe.

A matter of scientific speculation since the 1930s, dark matter has recently been studied with greater precision; more evidence has emerged since the 1970s, albeit always indirectly. While dark matter itself cannot yet be detected, its gravitational effects can be. For example, dark matter is believed to explain inconsistencies in the rotation of visible matter in galaxies.

There is a very readable summary available, as well.

Is dark matter, then, black holes that will eventually coalesce and prompt another Big Bang?

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

PCWorld reports

With better hardware and an expanding list of gaming titles, Dell is hoping that interest in Alienware Steam Machines will grow.

[...] At the E3 show [the week of June 13], Dell is announcing Steam Machines with faster graphics processors and chips. The systems will start shipping [that] week.

[...] A new Alienware Steam Machine priced at $749 will have the Intel quad-core Core i5 chip based on the Skylake architecture, Nvidia's GTX 960 GPU, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 500GB hard drive and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

For more horsepower, a $899 Steam Machine will be loaded with a Skylake-based Intel Core i7 chip, an Nvidia GTX 960 GPU, 8GB DDR4 DRAM, a 1TB hard drive and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

Both the new Steam Machines will have the Steam Controller and a content bundle. Dell said a version of the Steam Machines with AMD's GPUs could come later this year.

For budget customers, Dell will continue to offer the original Alienware Steam Machine, which started shipping last year for $449.

Original Submission

frojack writes:

Wiki says:

That changed today. CNN is reporting that Earth has another satellite in an unusual parallel orbit of the sun as well as a polar orbit of Earth.

The CNN story links to NASA-JPL's site where there is a cool video animating the complex orbit.

Original Submission

jmoschner writes:

GPU performance tests are nothing new, but the impact Windows 10 is having on render times is.

In a recent Blender performance test the folks at Lion Render (http://lionrender.com/2016/06/16/top-gpu-cards-performance-comparison-in-blender-gtx1080-titan-x-and-gtx980ti/) tested the EVGA GTX1080 (Founders Edition), EVGTA GTX980Ti, AMR R9 Fury, and TITAN X. Testing the cards across Windows 10, Windows 7 and Linux (Ubuntu 16.04) they found the operating system often mattered more than the card used.

They found performance gains up to 300% using Linux or Windows 7 over Windows 10. Some of this appears to be driver issues.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered evidence of silica-rich volcanic materials, a development that has surprised scientists and contradicted previous thinking about the planet's volcanic processes.

In a sedimentary rock in Gale Crater, Curiosity found high concentrations of a mineral called tridymite (SiO2), a cousin of quartz that crystallizes at low pressures and high temperatures.

High-silica magmas form under very different circumstances from the much more common basaltic magmas, so this presents the first mineralogical evidence of these kind of super-explosive volcanoes on Mars.

The Curiosity rover has been exploring Gale Crater since 2012, where it has found evidence of environments friendly to life, including signs of a series of long-lasting lakes. Curiosity explored a region called Marias Pass last year and usedits CheMin instrument that shot X-rays into a mudstone. The researchers studied the way the X-rays scattered and determined the existence of tridymite.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports

Adobe has released an update for Flash that addresses three dozen CVE-listed vulnerabilities. The update includes a fix for the CVE-2016-4171 remote code execution vulnerability that is right now being exploited in the wild to install malware on victims' computers.

Adobe is recommending that users running Flash for Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS update the plugin as quickly as possible, giving the update the "Priority 1" ranking, a designation reserved for flaws that are, according to Adobe, "being targeted, or which have a higher risk of being targeted".

[...] The update comes just days after Adobe posted its June security update to address vulnerabilities in Flash as well as Cold Fusion, Creative Cloud, and Brackets.

The release also comes as more software makers are opting to exclude Flash from their browsers. Apple said Safari will be disabling Flash by default, joining the ranks of Google Chrome in opting for HTML5 content rather than Flash code, due to the large volume of security flaws present in the widespread browser plugin.

Original Submission

CoolHand writes:

http://hackerboards.com/hackable-runcible-pocket-smartwatch-goes-on-pre-order/

One new and very encouraging development is that the Runcible is "fully open source" and "hackable by you both at the hardware and the software levels," according to Monohm. Customers get root access, as well as access to GPIO and other hardware interfaces. The device is said to be designed so users can easily take it apart and modify it.

The Runcible is no longer based on the largely defunct Firefox OS Linux. Instead its quad-core, Cortex-A53 Snapdragon 410 runs a homegrown Buni OS based on AOSP's fully open source Android 5.1 build. It provides the Crosswalk web runtime, used for developing Android and Cordova apps, which is said to deliver "world class frame rates." Web APIs, which are built on top of a Chromium base layer, have been extended "to give you unprecedented access to the underlying device," says Monohm.

As before, the device is said to offer a subdued, totally chill interface that "will never beep, alert, or otherwise interrupt you." It's hard to get a feel for the GUI, however, as there are still no screenshots displayed except for a stylish, old-timey watchface and compass.

The Runcible has 1GB of RAM and 8GB eMMC 5.0 flash, but no microSD slot. You get WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS, plus the possible inclusion of a 4G LTE option. The round, 2.5-inch, display is limited to 640 x 640 resolution. The Runcible is further equipped with a 7-megapixel camera, a USB 2.0 port, audio I/O, and some GPIO headers.

Original Submission

frojack writes:

Why, 8 months after the deadline for Chip and Pin credit cards do we STILL not have BOTH, and often NEITHER in the the US commercial market space?

Many have speculated that it was individual stores and retail chains that were holding up the move to more secure credit card handling. That may not be the case.

A new lawsuit filed by Home Depot claims that it was the Credit Card companies, Visa and Master Card, that were fighting Chip and Pin to protect their absurdly high card clearing fees while pocketing money meant for fraud protection.

In addition to dragging its foot on Chip credit cards, the card companies and clearing houses still resist the Pin portion of the new cards, as well as signature verification practices by merchants. The Pin was supposed to substitute for a visual signature verification - comparing the card to the signed receipt. Credit card companies actively oppose both because they fear it will reduce card usage.

The story appears in a long posting at Courthouse News Service, which goes on to cover a price fixing claim made in the same lawsuit by Home Depot.

Submitter's Note: In a recent cross country trip, far less than half the credit card purchases offered Chip Card readers, and of those that did, not one asked for my pin. I've never had to enter a pin anywhere in the US, but frequently did in Canada.

Original Submission

G-forze writes:

International Business Times writes:

A new peer-reviewed paper (open, DOI: 10.1063/1.4953807) on the EmDrive from Finland states that the controversial electromagnetic space propulsion technology does work due to microwaves fed into the device converting into photons that leak out of the closed cavity, producing an exhaust.

So how could something come out that you can't detect? Well, the photons bounce back and forth inside the metal cavity, and some of them end up going together in the same direction with the same speed, but they are 180 degrees out of phase. Invariably, when travelling together in this out-of-phase configuration, they cancel each other's electromagnetic field out completely.

That's the same as water waves travelling together so that the crest of one wave is exactly at the trough of the other and cancelling each other out. The water does not go away, it's still there, in the same way the pairs of photons are still there and carrying momentum even though you can't see them as light.

If you don't have electromagnetic properties on the waves as they have cancelled each other out, then they don't reflect from the cavity walls anymore. Instead they leak out of the cavity. So we have an exhaust – the photons are leaking out pair-wise.

Original Submission