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fork(2) writes:

Waukesha gets water!

If you live in the US's upper-midwest, you've probably already heard the brief news article about Waukesha, WI's approval to draw city water from Lake Michigan. If you live elsewhere, you maybe thinking, "What's the big deal?" (Or maybe you're thinking, "Where's Waukesha?")

Waukesha is a Milwaukee suburb of about 70,000. Milwaukee lies on the shore of Lake Michigan (but Waukesha does not). Lake Michigan is one of the Great Lakes (together with Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario). The Great Lakes comprise over 20% of the world's fresh water and are used to supply drinking water to tens of millions of people in bordering areas.

The water in the Great Lakes is too attractive to some. In the 1980s a drought prompted Illinois Governor James Thompson to propose tapping the Great Lakes water to lubricate barge traffic on the Mississippi (divert water from Lake Michigan into the Chicago River, which ultimately would feed into the Mississippi). In 2008 Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico suggested that Great Lakes water be distributed to the increasingly dry Southwest.

In response to attempts to divert Great Lakes water, which could have detrimental affects to the lives and livelihood of the people in the neighboring states and provinces, the state governors of the Great Lakes States and provincial premiers of the Great Lakes Provinces created The Great Lakes Charter. The Charter is a good-faith agreement to intelligently manage the use of the Great Lakes water resource. (Details/timeline here.) A series of legislative actions gave teeth to this agreement and ultimately resulted in The Great Lakes Compact which Wikipedia describes as follows:

The Great Lakes--St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact is a legally binding interstate compact among the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The compact details how the states manage the use of the Great Lakes Basin's water supply and builds on the 1985 Great Lakes Charter and its 2001 Annex. The compact is the means by which the states implement the governors' commitments under the Great Lakes--St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement that also includes the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec.

The controversial decision to allow Waukesha to draw water from Lake Michigan marks the first test case of the Great Lakes Compact. From the Detroit Free Press :

[Continues...]

CoolHand writes:

http://fossbytes.com/samsung-replacing-android-with-tizen-os/

According to a report from The Korea Times, Samsung is planning to use Linux-based Tizen OS in all its products. This move is being seen as a step to cut its heavy dependence on Google's OS.

"If you don't have your own ecosystem, then you will have no future. Tizen isn't just a platform developed for use with mobile devices," told a Samsung executive who wished to remain anonymous.

While admitting that Samsung has struggled to innovate and develop its homegrown platforms, he stated that things are getting better at Samsung.

The executive said that Samsung launched Samsung Z1 and Z3 in the Indian market to see Tizen's performance. "Samsung's Z-branded Tizen-powered phones are popular with Indian consumers. During the first quarter of this year, Samsung sold about 64 million phones there. This means that Tizen is proving its competitiveness," said the executive.

According to Wikipedia:

Tizen (/ˈtaɪzɛn/) is an operating system based on the Linux kernel and the GNU C Library implementing the Linux API. It works on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) devices, smart TVs, PCs, smart cameras, wearable computing (such as smartwatches), Blu-ray players, printers and smart home appliances[3] (such as refrigerators, lighting, washing machines, air conditioners, ovens/microwaves and a robotic vacuum cleaner[4]). Its purpose is to offer a consistent user experience across devices. Tizen is a project within the Linux Foundation and is governed by a Technical Steering Group (TSG) composed of Samsung and Intel among others.

Original Submission

fork(2) writes:

Universe Today reports that Port Canaveral is considering boosting SpaceX's fee for docking their spent booster rockets.

Port Canaveral is the facility that SpaceX relies on in its operations. Spent boosters are recovered aboard their drone ship, which docks at the Port. They are then offloaded from the drone ship with SpaceX's special crane, loaded onto a truck and delivered to Kennedy Space Center.

All of this activity puts a special strain on the Port's facilities, according to Rodger Rees, the port's deputy executive director and chief financial officer. In a memo to port commissioners, he said "Due to the heavy weight and the effect of this weight on the port's berths, staff is recommending that the tariff be expanded to include a wharfage charges category for aerospace/aircraft items."

[...] SpaceX has indicated that it is concerned with the raise in fees. Representatives from Port Canaveral and SpaceX are due to discuss the issue at a meeting on Wednesday, June 22nd.

Fox 35 reports that, "SpaceX spokesperson John Taylor would not confirm the content of the meeting with Port Canaveral staff, but did say representatives of the company participated in a private meeting with Port Canaveral Staff."

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n1 writes:

Former teenage military cadets have told an Australia child abuse inquiry they were raped and forced to have sex with each other during their training. More than 100 people have contacted an investigating commission to report abuse between the 1960s and 1980s.

[...] The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was set up in 2013.

Thousands of people have made submissions since it began its work investigating the abuse of children in institutions across Australia. Much of its recent investigation has focused on abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the 1970s and '80s.

Some former Australian Defence Force (ADF) recruits told the commission on Tuesday they were physically punished and threatened with dishonourable discharge when they complained.

The commission is also investigating child protection measures in the military's current cadet programme, which has 25,000 members and encourages young people to pursue a career in the armed forces.

Source: BBC News

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The new material also has "robust compressive load" and "flame retardant properties."

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Scientists of the University of Duisburg-Essen developed in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) a full inorganic insulation material with high performance qualities. The material exhibits extraordinary heat-insulating and load-carrying properties. It combines the benefits of conventional inorganic building material like compressive strength and the ability to be poured into all kind of durable moulds with the advantage of being heat-insulating. The latter makes it perfect with regards to energy saving aspects. The designated properties are dependent on the ratio of matrix-to insulation-material. It’s very low weight in combination with its compression strength and its flame-retardant properties makes it a potential construction material even for applications with high demands.

The superlight and superinsulating material could be used in cars, trains and any other kind of vehicles. Even aerospace applications are imaginable. By its heat resistance, the material enables the passive isolation of load bearing areas in buildings as well as passive insulation in areas where high temperatures occur like exhaust systems or furnaces. In addition, the material isolates not only thermally but also acoustically. High efficient heat pumps, new kinds of filters for clean air inside cars, trains and airplanes are just some examples of applications.

More information can be found here [PDF],

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

With nearly 40 percent of all pregnancies in the United States unintended, birth control is a critical public health issue. For short-term methods, visiting the doctor for a prescription can be time-consuming and sometimes costly and for some, like teenagers, it can be intimidating or embarrassing. Now Pam Belluck reports at the NYT that a growing assortment of new apps and websites now make it possible to get prescription contraceptives without going to the doctor as public health experts hope the new apps will encourage more women to start, or restart, using contraception and help reduce the country's stubbornly high rate of unintended pregnancies, as well as the rate of abortions. At least six digital ventures, by private companies and nonprofits, including Planned Parenthood, now provide prescriptions written by clinicians after women answer questions about their health online or by video. All prescribe birth control pills, and some prescribe patches, rings and morning-after pills and some ship contraceptives directly to women's doors. "At first I didn't believe it," said Susan Hashem, who wanted to restart birth control pills without missing work for a doctor's appointment. Hashem used an app called Lemonaid and paid $15 for a doctor to review her medical information and send a pill prescription to a local pharmacy. "I thought it was just a setup to get money," Hashem said. But after she answered the health questions one evening, "a doctor actually contacted me after office hours," and the next morning, she picked up three months' worth of pills.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

VentureBeat reports

[Early on June 22], Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives voiced their protest over not being able to vote on gun control legislation. Presiding Congressman Ted Poe (R-Texas) quickly called for a recess and ordered video cameras in the chamber to be turned off in the hopes of quelling the protest. It didn't.

Wired continues

House Democrats are in the midst of a historic sit-in on the floor of Congress to protest the Republican majority's inaction on gun control in the wake of the Orlando massacre. But since the House isn't technically in session, C-Span's cameras are not filming [though they could be operating if it wasn't for, once again, the intransigence of the Republican majority].

The Verge adds

C-SPAN has been airing live video from representatives on the House floor: first using Periscope footage from Representative Scott Peters, a Democrat from California and later using Facebook Live footage from an unnamed source.

[...] The protest began on the House floor around 11:30 this morning [Wednesday, June 22]. As the House left for recess, Democrats gathered together and refused to leave. Because the House is in recess--and because only the House has the power to turn C-SPAN's cameras on--C-SPAN isn't able to film these events as it normally would.

Democrats are in protest in an attempt to bring gun control legislation to a vote, in response to the attack in Orlando. The Senate accomplished this same feat using a filibuster, although none of the legislation it voted on passed.

It looks like the protest could continue for a while--the House was supposed to return from its recess over three hours ago at this point. As long as that's happening, it seems like Peters will keep streaming and C-SPAN will keep relying on live-streaming.

Also covered at Ars Technica .

[Update: 23 Jun at 9:00 A.M.] Current C-SPAN footage has a graphic: "House has adjourned until July 5".

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A Netherlands court has ordered two Usenet providers, Eweka and Usenetter, to hand over subscriber details over alleged copyright violations.

The case was launched by anti-piracy group BREIN, which is trying to hunt down whoever uploaded more than 2,000 e-books to Usenet via the providers.

Eweka and Usenetter cancelled the accounts identified by BREIN but wouldn't hand over the account-holders' identity because that would violate strong Dutch privacy laws.

With a court in Haarlem siding with BREIN, the group will now get the information it wants (depending on whether the defendants have the grounds or resources for an appeal).

...

The judgment (in Dutch) has been posted here.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Dell has announced the sale of its software division to two private equity firms, as it nears the close of its massive acquisition of EMC. The sale includes the two "crown jewels" of the Dell Software Group, Quest Software and SonicWall, as noted in Dell's press release on Monday. Quest makes Toad, a popular front end to Oracle and other major commercial database systems, which combines a SQL IDE, data modeler, performance and benchmarking tools, and database management features. SonicWall makes a variety of network security appliances. Also included in the deal is StatSoft, makers of Statistica, an application for data mining and predictive analytics.

Earlier this year, Dell sold its IT services group to NTT Data for $3 billion.

While the sale price wasn't disclosed, the amount has been reported to be slightly greater than $2 billion. That's a substantial discount from Dell's acquisition prices - they paid $2.4 billion for Quest, and $1.2 billion for Sonic Wall (both in 2012), and there are several other properties included in the package. But Dell is assuming $50 billion in debt to make the EMC deal, so the company needs the cash. Some analysts have also noted significant overlap between the offerings of Dell Software and those of EMC and VMware.

Original Submission

"fork(2)" writes:

Soylent News has carried multiple previous articles about CRISPR, the "search and replace" tool for editing DNA (here, here, and here).

Now scientists at three sites that are members of the Parker Institute—UPenn, the University of San Francisco in California, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, have proposed a UPenn-led project to genetically modify T-cells to treat leukemia and other cancers. From an article by Jocelyn Kaiser in Science Magazine:

[...] The proposed clinical trial, in which researchers would use CRISPR to engineer immune cells to fight cancer, won approval from the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, a panel that has traditionally vetted the safety and ethics of gene therapy trials funded by the U.S. government and others.

"It's an important new approach. We're going to learn a lot from this. And hopefully it form the basis of new types of therapy," says clinical oncologist Michael Atkins of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., one of three RAC members who reviewed the protocol.

The 2-year trial will treat 18 people with myeloma, sarcoma, or melanoma, who have stopped responding to existing treatments, at three sites that are members of the Parker Institute—UPenn, the University of San Francisco in California, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. [Carl] June [of UPenn] pointed out to RAC that his team already has experience with gene editing. They have used a different technique, called zinc finger nucleases, to disrupt a gene on T cells that HIV uses to enter the cells. In a small trial, this strategy appeared to be safe and has shown promise for helping HIV patients. Those data suggest that CRISPR gene editing should be safe in humans, June said.

Although RAC endorsement is a big step, the researchers must now seek approval from their own institutions' ethics boards and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Others are likely nipping at their heels. Many thought the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based biotech company Editas Medicine would conduct the first CRISPR clinical trial—it has announced plans to use CRISPR to treat an inherited eye disease in 2017—but RAC has not yet reviewed a proposal from the company.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

LG's 32LH520D TV is designed to repel mosquitos.

While you're at home watching "Infested," "The Fly," "The Wasp Woman" or "The Deadly Mantis," an LG Electronics TV could be protecting you from real-world mosquitos.

The TV issues ultrasonic sound waves that repel mosquitoes but that are too high-pitched for humans to hear, the company says. But the 32LH520D TV only is available in India so far, Reuters reported, perhaps disappointing people in the US who fear the insects might carry the Zika virus to their living room.

LG already offers its Mosquito Away feature on air conditioners. However, the feature can't protect you from "Mosquito Man," a movie that got only 3.3 out of 10 stars on IMDB.

Original Submission

Open4D writes:

Bloomberg recently reported the re-introduction of Tesla's model "S60" all-electric sedan: Tesla's Betting You'll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

The new S60 starts at $66,000 and has a range of about 208 miles. For $8,500 more, customers can choose an upgraded version, called the S75, which can travel about 40 more miles per charge ... So the upgraded model has a bigger battery, right? Nope. The two versions of the car are identical and sport the same 75 kWh battery. The only difference is that the software on the lower-end version limits the capacity of the S60's battery, crippling its range. In fact, owners can instantly transform a lowly S60 into an S75 at any time for a fee of $9,000 ...

The article doesn't elaborate on how the software "limits the capacity of the S60's battery, crippling its range". Would Tesla be in the wrong if the limitation was entirely artificial, a trivial switch in the software? What about if the S75's software was far more advanced than the S60's, to stretch the battery's capacity to its absolute maximum?

I suppose this counts as crippleware, possibly using something like a feature toggle.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A new method for predicting bread loaf volume without baking the bread promises to save researchers time and money.

Julie Kindelspire, then a doctoral student at South Dakota State University, developed the mathematical model as part of a project to determine which wheat cultivars make the best bread. "It's a shortcut," Kindelspire said. "What once took 11 equations to calculate, now takes one."
...
Kindelspire discovered a correlation between the dough's ability to stretch and the stability of the walls of the gas-filled bubbles. "I found a relationship between dough extensibility and how it relates to strain hardening," she said. "A higher strain hardening index is better for loaf volume."

Nonsense! Baking the perfect loaf of bread is a simple matter of selecting the right virgin to sacrifice to the gods of the oven.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

With the approval of the two Republican-controlled houses of Ohio's legislature and its Republican governor, John Kasich, a law allowing use of marijuana for medical purposes has been enacted in Ohio. The new law¹

prohibits the smoking of medical marijuana and home growing of pot, but permits vaping products, patches and certain edibles

Critics said that²

Ohioans could be fired for taking legally prescribed marijuana if it violates an employer's drug-free policy, including loss of unemployment compensation.

Signatures are being collected for an initiative that would be more permissive; the governor has expressed his opposition to that proposal.²

Under the new law, use of marijuana will be allowed for a list of specific medical conditions:³

HIV/AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease, cancer, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Crohn's disease, epilepsy or another seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord disease or injury, Tourette's syndrome, traumatic brain injury and ulcerative colitis.

sources:
1. "Gov. Kasich signs Ohio's medical marijuana bill into law," The Columbus Dispatch
2. "Reluctant or not, lawmakers send medical marijuana to Kasich," The Columbus Dispatch
3. "Gov. John Kasich signs medical marijuana bill into law," cleveland.com

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports:

A small community on an island off the coast of Maine says that it wants to give Gigabit internet service to all 560 of its residents.

The [upscale resort] town of Islesboro says[1] it will be covering the costs of building and installing a municipal high-speed network. This despite having fewer than 300 households.

The plan, which was voted through 145-23 in a residents' meeting, will call for the service to be installed throughout the island, and each household will pay $360 per year. The town will take out a loan of up to $3.8M.

[...] Three years ago, the town hired a consulting company to study and design a fiber-to-premise network for homes and businesses, and a local contractor has already signed a deal to install the fiber lines.

[1] I would guess|(hope) that the town's IT staff had the day off when their announcement was put up.
The link in the article goes to a ridiculous page with redundant links to a 2-page PDF (an unnecessary wrapper for a -crooked- photo of a document).
Islesboro Becoming A Gigabit Island

[UPDATE] The town has published a page, Broadband Solution for Islesboro which goes into the background, considerations, and financial details of the plan; in particular:

To build the system the town needs to borrow up to $3.8M in 20year obligations, This amount will finance the construction and service installation at the 775 known premises on the island. If approved, on June 18th, construction can start almost immediately and it is expected that subscribers will have service in the spring and summer of 2017.

Original Submission