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Runaway1956 writes:

3,000yo brain surgery patient likely treated with cannabis, magic mushroom 'painkillers' - study

A Russian researcher has published a new study on a 3,000-year-old medical procedure in which the patient was likely anaesthetized with natural hallucinogens and rhythmic music before the surgeon chiselled into their skull. The study of a Bronze Age man's skull has shed some light into how ancient people of the Krasnoyarsk region in northern Russia treated intracranial diseases.

Published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the study suggests that mind-bending natural stimulants such as magic mushrooms, cannabis and even the beat of a drum were used to dull the pain caused by primitive surgical instruments. Discovered at the Anzhevsky burial ground last year, the human skull is around 3,000 years old. It features a curious hole to the left parietal lobe, which scientists believe was the result of moderately successful ancient brain surgery, or trepanation.

Dr Sergey Slepchenko, of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, told The Siberian Times the patient survived the initial procedure but likely died later from complications during the recovery period. "The surgeon probably stood face-to-face to the patient on the left side. Or the surgeon may have fixed the head with his left arm or between his knees [and] operated with his right hand," Slepchenko said.

[...] "One of the most dangerous complications of trepanation is bleeding which develops immediately after the skin incision," Dr Slepchenko said. "To minimize bleeding and reduce pain, the operation had to be carried out as fast possible by presumably highly-skilled surgeon. It is not clear how they stopped the bleeding."

I loved the title of the article. I didn't realize there were very many 3,000 year old patients, let alone candidates for brain surgery.

Ante Mortem Cranial Trepanation in the Late Bronze Age in Western Siberia (DOI: 10.1002/oa.2543)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

From Phys.org (AFP):

Publish or perish ... it seems like some may take things too far.

Also at The Guardian.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for crutchy with a story from Ars Technica.

Following on the heels of UnitedHealth group and Humana, insurance giant Aetna plans to "dramatically slash its participation in the public insurance marketplace" — "claims losses alone spurred decision, but there are clear links to merger."

[...] In 2017, Aetna will only offer insurance policies in 242 counties scattered across four states—that’s a nearly 70-percent decrease from its 2016 offerings in 778 counties across 15 states.

[...] In April, Mark Bertolini, the chairman and chief executive of Aetna, told investors that the insurance giant anticipated losses and could weather them, even calling participation in the marketplaces during the rocky first years “a good investment.” And in a July 5 letter (PDF) to the Department of Justice, obtained by the Huffington Post by a Freedom of Information Act request, Bertolini explicitly threatened that Aetna would back out of the marketplace if the department tried to block its planned $37 billion merger with Humana.

[Continues...]

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

TechDirt reports:

Previously, [TechDirt reported how] police officers pretty much razed a residence to the ground searching for a shoplifting suspect.

In another case, law enforcement spent nineteen hours engaged in a tense standoff with an empty residence before deciding to send in a battering ram.

Now, they're reporting another "standoff" with a lawsuit [PDF] following.

On August 11, 2014, after registering her child for first grade, Ms. West returned to her home to find multiple City of Caldwell police officers in her yard searching for a Fabian Salinas. Wanting to cooperate, and uncertain whether Salinas was in her house, Ms. West gave the police a key to her house and gave them permission to use it to enter her house to arrest him. During a ten hour long standoff, police repeatedly exceeded the authority Ms. West had given them, breaking windows, crashing through ceilings, and riddling the home with holes from shooting canisters of tear gas destroying most of Ms. West and her children's personal belongings. The only occupant of the house was Ms. West's dog. Ms. West's home remained uninhabitable for two months.

[...] So, when given a key and consent from the occupant, officers instead chose to grab an armored vehicle and go through several windows and the attic.

[...] This happened back in 2014 but there's been no coverage of the Caldwell cops' 10-hour, one-dog standoff until now. Thomas Johnson of Fault Lines suggests that might have something to do with the local paper of record.

If you're wondering why it took a couple of years for this event to make news outside of Idaho, it's because the local paper apparently only checks court records or their exclusive police source, resulting in some very incomplete reporting. Why bother getting out there and talking to the homeowner or neighbors when you can sit on your chunk?

[...] From all appearances, the suspect was never in the home during the 10-hour standoff.

[...] The police did give her a three-week stay in a hotel. Too bad it took more than two months for her to be able to return to her residence. This raid on a house containing nothing more than a dog is the natural side effect of police militarization, which encourages law enforcement to escalate in questionable situations, rather than use more measured tactics to ensure occupants aren't deprived of a place to live simply because a suspect might be hiding somewhere behind closed doors.

Previously: 19-Hour "Standoff" Ends With Cops Destroying an Empty House

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/politics/hillary-clinton-judge-emails.html?_r=0

A federal judge on Friday ordered Hillary Clinton to provide written testimony under oath about why she set up a private computer server to send and receive emails while secretary of state, ensuring that the issue will continue to dog her presidential campaign until the eve of the election.

In a brief ruling issued on Friday afternoon, the judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court in Washington, approved a motion by the conservative advocacy organization Judicial Watch to pursue its vigorous campaign to expose Mrs. Clinton's use of the private server. In addition to requiring her testimony in writing, the judge allowed the group to depose a senior State Department aide who had warned two subordinates not to question her email practices.

Only six weeks ago, the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey Jr., declined to recommend prosecuting Mrs. Clinton, saying that while her actions had been careless, they did not amount to a crime. Yet the controversy refuses to dissipate. This week, the bureau turned over to Congress the documents it compiled in the case, including a three-and-a-half hour interview with Mrs. Clinton, even as Republicans in Congress pressed their public case for her to be charged with perjury.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A California judge has rejected the nearly $100m settlement deal between Uber and a group of aggrieved drivers.

Judge Edward Chen said on Thursday [PDF] the dial-a-ride app maker's proposed settlement package "as a whole as currently structured is not fair, adequate, and reasonable." The drivers are suing Uber, accusing the San Francisco biz of breaking labor laws, and Uber is trying to settle the class action out of court.

Chen said that Uber's proposed deal – in which the drivers would have been paid roughly $84m to give up their claims that Uber broke rules on tips and other labor rights – was too much in favor of Uber and did not afford the drivers adequate protections.

Specifically, Chen said, the non-cash portions of the deal would not bring drivers the additional employment protections, higher pay, and arbitration rights they had been seeking when they filed suit.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology and ExxonMobil has demonstrated a new carbon-based molecular sieve membrane that could dramatically reduce the energy required to separate a class of hydrocarbon molecules known as alkyl aromatics.

The new material is based on polymer hollow fibers treated to retain their structure -- and pore sizes -- as they are converted to carbon through pyrolysis. The carbon membranes are then used in a new "organic solvent reverse osmosis" (OSRO) process in which pressure is applied to effect the separation without requiring a phase change in the chemical mixture.

The hollow carbon fibers, bundled together into modules, can separate molecules whose sizes differ by a fraction of a nanometer while providing processing rates superior to those of existing molecular sieve zeolites. Because it uses a commercial polymer precursor, the researchers believe the new membrane has potential for commercialization and integration into industrial chemical separation processes. The research will be reported in the August 19 issue of the journal Science.

Separation is currently achieved through refining processes such as crystallization and adsorption with distillation, which are energy-intensive. Globally, the amount of energy used in conventional separation processes for alkyl aromatics is equal to that produced by about 20 average-sized power plants.

"We see this as a potentially disruptive technology in the way we separate xylenes and similar organic compounds," said Benjamin McCool, one of the paper's co-authors and an advanced research associate at ExxonMobil Corporate Strategic Research in Annandale, N.J. "If we can make this work on an industrial scale, it could dramatically reduce the energy required by these separation processes."

Fabrication of the new membrane material begins with hollow polymer fibers approximately 200 microns [0.2 mm] in diameter, slightly thicker than the average human hair. The fibers have pore sizes of less than one nanometer, and are treated via cross-linking before they are converted to carbon through a pyrolysis process. The pore sizes of the fibers can be adjusted during the fabrication process.

[...] Though the membrane has demonstrated promising results, it still faces a number of challenges. The membranes will have to be tested with more difficult separations before they can be considered for commercialization and scale-up. Industrial mixtures normally contain multiple different organic compounds, and they may include materials that can foul membrane systems. The researchers will also have to learn to make the material consistently and demonstrate that it can withstand long-term industrial use.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Zika is growing stronger in Miami, FL:

Mosquitoes have begun spreading the Zika virus in a second part of Miami — the popular tourist destination of Miami Beach — Florida officials announced Friday. As a result, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded its advice to travelers, advising pregnant women to avoid the parts of Miami Beach where the virus is spreading. In addition, women and men who have traveled to the area should wait at least eight weeks to try to get pregnant even if they didn't catch Zika during their visit.

The agency also went a step further, advising pregnant women and their sexual partners "who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure" that they "may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade county." That decision to issue a warning about the entire city was prompted by the agency's concern that there may be other outbreaks in other parts of Miami-Dade that haven't been identified yet, CDC Director Thomas Frieden told reporters during a briefing.

From the Governor's office:

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that the Florida Department of Health (DOH) has learned through one of their investigations that five individuals that have already been confirmed as cases of local transmissions of Zika are connected to the Miami Beach area. DOH believes that active transmission of this virus are only occurring in the area of Miami Beach between 8th and 28th streets (see map below). This is the second area that has been identified as a location where local transmission is occurring and is just under 1.5 square miles.

Release at the CDC.

Previously:
CDC: Up to 157 Pregnant Women in the U.S. Have Zika Virus
"High Likelihood" of Local Zika Virus Transmission in Florida
Quick Summary of Zika in the U.S.

Original Submission

JNCF writes:

The bacteria Geobacter naturally forms nanowires 30,000 times smaller than a human hair, but genetic modification sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has made them 2,000 times more electrically conductive than they previously were.

The headline is stolen from a paywalled journal article. What other uses for these brave new bio-wires can you think of, Soylentils?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Amazon Web Services' "Workspaces" desktop-as-a-service offering can now be paid for by the hour.

Workspaces are a cut of Windows Server 2008 with a Windows 7 skin and are consumed with a custom client application. Until today, the service was sold by the month for a fixed price that included storage.

That's now called the "Always On" mode. There's now also a new "AutoStop" mode in which desktops shut down after you disconnect for a certain amount of time. AWS promises that desktops will emerge from AutoStop in 90 seconds, complete with all data.

[...] The service still needs a device running Windows, Android, iOS, Amazon's own Fire or Chrome OS. There's still no Linux client, which seems an oversight as those considering Workspaces on a PC would surely like the chance to run them without having to worry about Windows licences. Nor is there a way to use Workspaces on a thin client or Raspberry Pi, arrangements that look like matches made in cloud desktop heaven.

But why grump about such things on the day that slightly slow and weird desktops became something that can be rented by the hour? Truly we live in an age of wonders .... ®

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/admits-role-deadly-haiti-cholera-outbreak-160819064248187.html

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Uber will pick up ride-hailing passengers with autonomous cars in a test beginning in Pittsburgh next month. Pittsburgh is the home of Carnegie Mellon University:

Starting later this month, Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved. Google, widely regarded as the leader in the field, has been testing its fleet for several years, and Tesla Motors offers Autopilot, essentially a souped-up cruise control that drives the car on the highway. Earlier this week, Ford announced plans for an autonomous ride-sharing service. But none of these companies has yet brought a self-driving car-sharing service to market.

Uber's Pittsburgh fleet, which will be supervised by humans in the driver's seat for the time being, consists of specially modified Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles outfitted with dozens of sensors that use cameras, lasers, radar, and GPS receivers. Volvo Cars has so far delivered a handful of vehicles out of a total of 100 due by the end of the year. The two companies signed a pact earlier this year to spend $300 million to develop a fully autonomous car that will be ready for the road by 2021.

Uber also acquired self-driving truck startup Otto.

It is not clear whether Uber users will be able to opt out of getting the surprise autonomous Volvo SUVs sent to them (due to privacy or safety concerns), but rides in the autonomous cars will be free during the Pittsburgh test.

Also at NYT, WSJ, TechCrunch, and The Verge.

Previously: Uber Testing Driverless Car in Pittsburgh

Original Submission

Ethanol-fueled writes:

Paraphrasing an article by Time Magazine's Joel Stein:

The Internet's personality has changed -- once it was like a geek with lofty ideals about the free flow of information. Now the web is a sociopath with Asperger's. [ Submitter's note: the "Sociopath with Asperger's" comment is not my addition, but a verbatim phrase in the source article ]

The people who relish their online freedom to act under influence of the online disinhibition effect are called "trolls." Trolling is, overtly, a political fight; but it has become the main tool of the alt-right, an Internet-grown reactionary movement that works for men's rights and against immigration. They derisively call their adversaries "social justice warriors" and believe that liberal interest groups purposely exploit their weaknesses to gain pity, which allows them to control the leverage of political power.

When sites are overrun by trolls, they drown out the voices of women, ethic and religious minorities, gays -- anyone who might feel vulnerable. The alt-right argues that if you can't handle opprobrium, you should just turn off your computer. But that's arguing against self-expression, something antithetical to the original values of the Internet.

The article closes with a description of an exchange between Stein and a detractor. In meeting the detractor in real-life, he was surprised by her lack of bravado, to which she responds, "The Internet is the realm of the coward. These are people who are all sound and no fury."

Stein ruminates in response, "Maybe. But maybe, in the information age, sound is as destructive as fury."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently filed a lawsuit challenging Section 1201 of the US's Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which provides legal reinforcement to the technical shackles of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Defective by Design applauds this lawsuit and agrees with the EFF that Section 1201 violates the right to freedom of speech. We hope that excising Section 1201 from US law can be the beginning of the end for DRM.

DRM is regularly cracked, or "circumvented," by skilled technologists. Many of them make tools to automate the process, which, in the hands of the public, can be used to defang DRM on a mass scale. Frustrated by this challenge to their authority, the media lobby and their friends in government created anti-circumvention laws like Section 1201 and others around the world, to make it illegal to circumvent DRM or share tools for circumventing it. Since the 90s, these laws have propped up DRM. Hopefully, when 1201 is gone, circumvention tools will spread more widely and it will be so difficult to restrict users with DRM that companies will just stop trying. To make this a reality of course, others around the world will have to take up the torch from EFF and eliminate anti-circumvention laws that play the role of 1201 in their own countries.

It's certainly easier to implement bad security and make it illegal for anyone to notice than it is to implement good security.

Bruce Schneier

Copyright © 2006—2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 license (or later version) — Why this license?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Katelyn Vincik's parents said their daughter was born with a left hand that was not fully formed. While Katelyn has always known her left hand was a little different than her right, it has not slowed her down.

"She's very determined, she does everything," said Kimberly Vincik. "It's never held her back."

[...] Katelyn has been on a waiting list for more than a year for a functional prosthetic. "It has not been FDA-approved. It's basically tied up in approval and legal," said Katelyn's father, Casey.

Her parents said Katelyn was offered a cosmetic prosthetic hand, but the little girl found it too heavy and generally disliked the way it looked.

[...] Determined to find a hand for Katelyn, the family drove from Victoria to Clear Lake and met with Branch Librarian Jim Johnson and Innovation Lab trainer Patrick Ferrell.

"We let them know we don't know anything about prosthetics. We've never done this before. We just know how to run a 3-D printer," said Ferrell. The fact the lab never printed a hand didn't stop Ferrell and a team of volunteers from diving into the project.

[...] The Vinciks said Katelyn took to her new hand like she'd had it all her life. Kimberly Vincik said some of Katelyn's first words after receiving the hand were directed to her younger sister, Lacey.

"(She said) 'Lacey, we can hold hands now,'" Vincik said.

The polylactic acid material used to make Katelyn's hand was even dyed in Katelyn's favorite colors: pink and purple. The prosthetic attaches to Katelyn's arm and a pulley system opens and closes the hand when Katelyn bends her arm.

Pretty amazing stuff these days eh?

Link: http://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/parents-search-to-find-prosthetic-hand-for-daughter-ends-at-library

Here's a link to the library: http://www.hcpl.net/content/jocelyn-h-lee-innovation-lab-0

Original Submission