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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] The National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. is looking to hire a beer expert to conduct research for a new project called the American Brewing History Initiative.

[...] The museum is searching for someone who can write, and conduct interviews at a scholarly level, and not just have deep love for downing cold ones.

"The job will involve developing a plan and conducting research, doing a lot of writing for various digital and print media, doing a lot of public speaking, collecting of objects and documents, working with staff to develop public programs, and a lot of other museum-related duties," curator Paula Johnson told The Huffington Post .

[...] the three-year position pays $64,650 a year, plus benefits, according to the official job listing (PDF). You have until August 10 to apply.

The museum already has several collections of objects and documents related to brewing and beer consumption dating from the 1870s to the 1960s. Over the next three years, the goal is to explore "how beer and beer history connect to larger themes in American history," the museum says on its website.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Humans have been forced to temporarily interact with their dogs or cats -- perhaps both -- after PetNet's internet-controlled smart feeder system suffered a blackout.

For $149, the company provides a web-enabled dog/cat feeder that is pre-programmed to dispense food stuffs at certain time and portion sizes.

But PetNet warned customers [...] that all was not well in its virtual animal kingdom as it was "experiencing some minor difficulties with a third party server. This is being investigated."

[...] "You may experience a loss of scheduled feeds and failed remote feedings. Please ensure that your pets have been fed manually until we have resolved this issue."

Source: The Register .

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Future versions of Android will be more resilient to exploits, thanks to developers' efforts to integrate the latest Linux kernel defenses into the operating system.

Android's security model relies heavily on the Linux kernel that sits at its core. As such, Android developers have always been interested in adding new security features that are intended to prevent potentially malicious code from reaching the kernel, which is the most privileged area of the operating system.

[...] One new configuration option called CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA segments the kernel memory into multiple sections and limits how much of this memory is writeable and executable. Attackers need writeable and executable memory pages in order to inject malicious code into them via exploits, and then run that code with kernel privileges.

Another config option, called CONFIG_CPU_SW_DOMAIN_PAN, prevents the kernel from directly accessing user space memory, giving attackers even less control over where their exploits can execute code.

Also reported at The Register.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Original URL: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/dark-patterns-are-designed-to-trick-you-and-theyre-all-over-the-web/

Everyone has been there. So in 2010, London-based UX designer Harry Brignull decided he’d document it. Brignull’s website, darkpatterns.org, offers plenty of examples of deliberately confusing or deceptive user interfaces. These dark patterns trick unsuspecting users into a gamut of actions: setting up recurring payments, purchasing items surreptitiously added to a shopping cart, or spamming all contacts through prechecked forms on Facebook games.

Dark patterns aren’t limited to the Web, either. The Columbia House mail-order music club of the '80s and '90s famously charged users exorbitant rates for music they didn’t choose if they forgot to specify what they wanted. In fact, negative-option billing began as early as 1927, when a book club decided to bill members in advance and ship a book to anyone who didn’t specifically decline. Another common offline example? Some credit card statements boast a 0 percent balance transfer but don’t make it clear that the percentage will shoot up to a ridiculously high number unless a reader navigates a long agreement in tiny print.

“The way that companies implement the deceptive practices has gotten more sophisticated over time,” said UX designer Jeremy Rosenberg, a contributor to the Dark Patterns site. “Today, things are more likely to be presented as a benefit or obscured as a benefit even if they’re not.”

When you combine the interactive nature of the Web, increasingly savvy businesses, and the sheer amount of time users spend online, it’s a recipe for dark pattern disaster. And after gaining an awareness for this kind of deception, you’ll recognize it’s nearly ubiquitous.

With six years of data, Brignull has broken dark patterns down into 14 categories. There are hidden costs users don’t see until the end. There’s misdirection, where sites attract user attention to a specific section to distract them from another. Other categories include sites that prevent price comparison or have tricky or misleading opt-in questions. One type, Privacy Zuckering, refers to confusing interfaces tricking users into sharing more information than they want to. (It’s named after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, of course.) Though perhaps the worst class of dark pattern is forced continuity, the common practice of collecting credit card details for a free trial and then automatically billing users for a paid service without an adequate reminder.

But while hackers and even SEO firms are often distinguished as “white hat” or “black hat,” intent isn’t always as clear when it comes to dark patterns. Laura Klein, Principal at Users Know and author of UX for Lean Startups, is quick to point out that sometimes it’s just a really, really poor design choice. “To me, dark patterns are very effective in their goal, which is to trick the user into doing something that they would not otherwise do,” she said. Shady patterns, on the other hand, simply push the company’s agenda over the user’s desires without being explicitly deceptive.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Canadian scientists have found a way to analyze air from the ancient Earth's atmosphere that was trapped in salt crystals nearly a billion years ago.

What they found may have implications for the origin of complex life.

The air, which has been preserved, undisturbed, in tiny pockets in the crystals for about 815 million years, appears to contain 10.9 per cent oxygen — just half the amount in the atmosphere today.

But it's about five times more than scientists expected for that time period, which is about 200 million years before the first known multicellular fossils.

"I'm surprised and excited," said Nigel Blamey, a professor of earth sciences at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who co-led the study with fellow Brock geochemist Uwe Brand.

Brand says the discovery answers a key question about the evolution of complex life — did animals arise before or after the oxygen needed to support larger, more complex organisms?

"And now with our research and our result, we know there was sufficient oxygen before they arose," he said, adding that the higher oxygen levels would have allowed animals to diversify and become more complex.

That means it may be possible to find multicellular fossils older than the oldest that are currently known.

"Now paleobiologists will have reason to go looking for rocks with original traces of these first evolutionary steps," Brand said.

The team's results are published in the journal Geology.

When salty water called brine evaporates from a shallow pool, it forms crystals of salt called halite — very similar to the kind we sprinkle on our food. In the process, it often traps tiny bubbles of fluid or air from the atmosphere at the time it forms.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Original URL: http://www.cnet.com/news/chinese-conglomerate-leeco-acquires-vizio-for-2-billion/

Chinese conglomerate LeEco just spent $2 billion to get its foot in the door of the US television market.

Along with Samsung, Vizio has been one of the two most-popular TV brands in the US over the last few years. Vizio TVs are among CNET's most-recommended models.

The news, rumored for the last couple of weeks, came from Vizio founder and CEO William Wang on stage at a joint press event in Hollywood. Vizio's hardware and software businesses will be owned and operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of LeEco, while the Vizio's data business, Inscape, will be spun off.

[...] "Fourteen years ago, I mortgaged my house to start Vizio, and since then, it has grown into one of the most well-known and respected CE brands in North America. As an entrepreneur, I couldn't be more proud of what has been accomplished," said Wang.

ArsTechnica also notes:

Wang will still be connected to Vizio, however, by becoming chairman and CEO of Inscape, a separate business that will carry Vizio's controversial torch of mining TV viewers' data for advertising and other data-driven services. Wang will be a 51-percent stakeholder in Inscape, with LeEco owning the other 49 percent and licensing Inscape's offerings for Vizio products for 10 years.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Runaway1956 writes:

VANCOUVER -- A British Columbia couple found guilty of terrorism charges have had their verdicts tossed out in a scathing court decision that flays the RCMP for its "egregious" conduct in manipulating naive suspects into carrying out a police-manufactured crime.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce said the Mounties used trickery, deceit and veiled threats to engineer the terrorist acts for which John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were arrested on Canada Day three years ago.

The couple believed they were planting pressure-cooker bombs to kill and maim crowds gathered to celebrate at the B.C. legislature.

  "The world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more," Bruce said in a landmark ruling Friday as she characterized the RCMP's methods as "multi-faceted and systematic manipulation."

"There is clearly a need to curtail the actions of police ... to ensure that future undercover investigations do not follow the same path."

Bruce said Mounties involved in a months-long sting launched in early 2013 knowingly exploited Nuttall and Korody's vulnerabilities to induce them to commit an offence.

She described the pair as marginalized, socially isolated, former heroin addicts dependent on methadone and welfare to subsist and said they were "all talk and no action."

Nuttall and Korody were recent converts to Islam. Their trial heard Nuttall say in a recording that he wanted to kill and maim countless people during Canada Day festivities in retaliation for Canada's role in the mistreatment of Muslims in Afghanistan and other countries.

Without the heavy-handed involvement of undercover officers, it would have been impossible for Nuttall and Korody to articulate, craft and execute a terrorist bomb plot, Bruce said.

"Ultimately, their role in carrying out the plan was minuscule compared to what the police had to do," Bruce said. "It was the police who were the leaders of the plot."

Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/judge-tosses-jury-verdict-in-b-c-terror-trial-rules-rcmp-entrapped-pair-1.3007265

Followup to this story: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/06/27/0355225

Yeah, sometimes the dragon wins. Lucky for us - sometimes the knight in shining armor is worse than the dragon! Lucky for Canadians, anyway.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A novel, low cost and green lithiated tin vanadium oxide compound has been synthesized via simple, economical and scalable sol-gel method to replace the conventional graphite as electrode material for lithium-ion batteries. This material has a long technological lifespan as it can last long as long as it is well-kept under moisture free condition.

Nowadays, comfortable modern lifestyle requires portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, video camcorders and so on. These gadgets contain the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Without this energy storage unit, the devices cannot function.

A Li-ion cell consists of cathode, anode and electrolyte. The electrolyte is a liquid that has been added with a lithium salt. Inside the liquid, the salt exists as the positively charged cations and negatively charged anions. For example, lithium chloride (LiCl) will exist as Li+ cation and Cl- anion. New electrode materials have been intensively studied in order to improve the electrochemical properties and meet the ever increasing demand for Li-ion batteries.

Commercial Li-ion batteries comprise a lithiated metal oxide negative terminal (cathode) such as lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2), a graphite positive terminal (anode) and a Li-ion liquid electrolyte such as lithium chloride (LiCl), lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6). However, the formation of dendrites at graphite anode during the charge-discharge cycles give rise to serious safety concerns (thermal runaway) even at low temperature conditions.

Extensive research has been carried out to find a replacement for graphite as anode material. In this work, lithium tin vanadium oxide (LiSnVO4) has been synthesized via sol-gel method. The research was directed by Prof. Dr. Abdul Kariem Arof, department of Physics, faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya with a team of researchers. "We do not want to involve sophisticated chemistry", said Prof. Arof. "It should be a straightforward, simple and inexpensive application. Therefore, it is easy to scale up making it a fully affordable application".

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A cyberespionage group known for targeting diplomatic and government institutions has branched out into many other industries, including aviation, broadcasting, and finance, researchers warn.

Known as Patchwork, or Dropping Elephant, the group stands out not only through its use of simple scripts and ready-made attack tools, but also through its interest in Chinese foreign relations.

The group's activities were documented earlier this month by researchers from Kaspersky Lab, who noted in their analysis that China's foreign relations efforts appear to represent the main interest of the attackers.

In a new report [ecmascript required] Monday, researchers from Symantec said that the group's recent attacks have also targeted companies and organizations from a broad range of industries: aviation, broadcasting, energy, financial, non-governmental organizations (NGO), pharmaceutical, public sector, publishing and software.

While most of Patchwork's past victims were based in China and Asia, almost half of the recent targets observed by Symantec were based in the U.S.

The group uses a legitimate mailing list provider to send newsletter-like emails to its intended targets. The rogue emails link to websites set up by the attackers with content related to China. Depending on the industry they operate in, victims receive links to websites with content relevant for their business.

The rogue websites have links to .pps (PowerPoint) or .doc (Word) files hosted on other domains. If downloaded and opened, these files attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office in order to execute rogue code on users' computers.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Canada Banana Farms, located 200 kilometres west of Toronto in Blyth, Ont., is cultivating fruit such as papayas, pineapples, lemons, guavas, and – of course – bananas. You'd think that you'd need an advanced degree in horticulture or botany to grow fruits like these in frigid Canada, but Terry Brake's method is easy – and cheap.

[...] "We grow them in hoop houses," Brake told CTV News Channel on Friday. "And we heat it with wood all winter long." The hoop houses – essentially long sheets of polyethylene stretched over a frame – have effectively created the jungle-like conditions these fruits need to flourish. "It just feels like you're in the tropics," Brake says of his DIY greenhouses. "It's very humid in there: about 85 to 90 per cent humidity in the winter."

Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/meet-the-farmer-who-s-growing-bananas-in-ontario-1.3007500

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Six months after slicing production of the iconic Boeing 747 to just one plane a month, the aerospace company has decided to halve the rate of production and flagged it is close to killing off the plane.

A new Form 10-Q filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission spells out the ugly situation as “Lower-than-expected demand for large commercial passenger and freighter aircraft and slower-than-expected growth of global freight traffic have continued to drive market uncertainties, pricing pressures and fewer orders than anticipated.”

Boeing has therefore “canceled previous plans to return to a production rate of 1.0 aircraft per month beginning in 2019.”

The company still has “32 undelivered aircraft” on its books, some yet to be built. But it also has “a number of completed aircraft in inventory” for which buyers cannot be found.

Production of the 747 will therefore been reduced just six planes a year as of September 2016 and the filing makes it plain that Boeing knows it may soon have a difficult decision to make.

“If we are unable to obtain sufficient orders and/or market, production and other risks cannot be mitigated,” the filing says, “we could record additional losses that may be material, and it is reasonably possible that we could decide to end production of the 747.”

The 747 remains a fine aircraft, but twin-engine planes can now match it for capacity and, crucially, for long flights over areas where airports are scarce.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

On Thursday, SpaceX took another step toward reusing rockets when it fired the nine engines on the first stage of a Falcon 9 booster it launched in May. The company released video of the full-duration engine firing, which mimicked the length of a first-stage burn toward orbit, conducted at its test site in MacGregor, Texas.

This particular booster, which launched a Japanese communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit on May 6, will not be re-flown. According to Spaceflight Now, the company designated it as a reference vehicle because it weathered extreme temperatures during its reentry into Earth's atmosphere. The rocket will undergo additional tests as engineers determine the readiness of flown boosters for additional flights into space.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2016-07/29/content_38982086.htm

Beijing is offering cash rewards as an incentive for chemical plants that leave the nation's capital. Eighty hazardous chemical plants should be out of the city by 2018, the local work safety watchdog said on Thursday.

The watchdog said it had asked plants to relocate voluntarily and offered a cash bonus, calculated on a set of criteria including the size of the facility, number of employees, tax contributions, safety record and production process. Early applicants will get extra rewards.

The watchdog aims to wave goodbye to 60 plants this year and 20 more between 2017 and 2018. It did not disclose the exact amount of rewards it would pay out.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The job cuts were revealed in paperwork filed on Thursday with US financial watchdog the SEC. The doomed staff will leave the business by the end of next June. They all work in Microsoft's sales teams and its Windows Phone hardware division. [...] We understand 900 people in the global sales unit have already learned of their fate.

As for the latest redundancies, here's the relevant sections of Microsoft's annual 10-K report to the SEC:

In addition to the elimination of 1,850 positions that were announced in May 2016, approximately 2,850 roles globally will be reduced during the year as an extension of the earlier plan, and these actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2017.

As of June 30, 2016, we employed approximately 114,000 people on a full-time basis, 63,000 in the U.S. and 51,000 internationally. Of the total employed people, 38,000 were in operations, including manufacturing, distribution, product support, and consulting services; 37,000 in product research and development; 29,000 in sales and marketing; and 10,000 in general and administration.

While the layoffs affect just 2.5 per cent of Microsoft's workforce, they are very precise and telling cuts: Windows-powered mobiles managed to seize just three per cent of the global smartphone market, and now Redmond is dismantling that failed operation.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In a study published in Scientific Reports, scientists discovered impressive abundance and diversity among the creatures living on the seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ)—an area in the equatorial Pacific Ocean being targeted for deep-sea mining. The study, lead authored by Diva Amon, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), found that more than half of the species they collected were new to science, reiterating how little is known about life on the seafloor in this region.

"We found that this exploration claim area harbors one of the most diverse communities of megafauna [animals over 2 cm in size] to be recorded at abyssal depths in the deep sea," said Amon.

The deep sea is where the next frontier of mining will take place. A combination of biological, chemical and geological processes has led to the formation of high concentrations of polymetallic "manganese" nodules on the deep seafloor in the CCZ—an area nearly the size of the contiguous United States. These nodules are potentially valuable sources of copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese, among other metals, which has led to an interest in mining this region. All of the potential polymetallic-nodule exploration contracts that have been granted in the Pacific are in this region, according to the International Seabed Authority.

[...] The preliminary data from these surveys showed that more animals live on the seafloor in areas with higher nodule abundance. Further, the majority of the megafaunal diversity also appears to be dependent on the polymetallic nodules themselves, and thus are likely to be negatively affected by mining impacts.

"The biggest surprises of this study were the high diversity, the large numbers of new species and the fact that more than half of the species seen rely on the nodules—the very part of the habitat that will be removed during the mining process," said Amon.

Exploitation plans are pushing ahead even though knowledge of the seafloor ecosystem in this region is still limited.

Original Submission