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"exec" writes:

Technically Incorrect: A new study reveals some stunning statistics about texting behind the wheel and a parent's role in making it worse.

https://www.cnet.com/news/50-percent-of-parents-admit-to-knowingly-texting-their-teens-while-theyre-driving/

-- submitted from IRC

However, when it comes to texting and driving, how much are the kids really to blame?

I've just been given a new survey that examined, among other things, parents' attitudes toward their kids and the likelihood they will text their kids knowing they're behind the wheel.

There's one statistic that might cause you pause: 50 percent of the 1,000 parents surveyed said that they text their teen kids, even though they know that the teen is driving.

You might want to sympathize these parents, perhaps. They only want to leave a message, not to disturb their kids. Surely.

Well, 29 percent of these parents admitted that they expect their kids to reply before they reach their destination.

I pause for your exclamation.

The study was conducted in April on behalf of Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions.

Oddly, Parents Against Destructive Decisions don't seem to have been involved.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The peace deal negotiated between the Colombian government and FARC rebels has been narrowly rejected by Colombian voters:

Colombians narrowly rejected a peace deal with Marxist guerrillas in a referendum on Sunday, plunging the nation into uncertainty and dashing President Juan Manuel Santos' painstakingly negotiated plan to end the 52-year war. The surprise victory for the "no" camp poured cold water on international joy, from the White House to the Vatican, at what had seemed to be the end of the longest-running conflict in the Americas.

The "no" camp won by 50.21 percent to 49.78 percent. Voter turnout was only 37 percent, perhaps partly owing to torrential rain through the country.

Both sides in the war immediately sought to reassure the world they would try to revive their peace plan. Santos, 65, said a ceasefire already negotiated would remain in place. He vowed to sit down on Monday with the victorious "no" camp to discuss the way forward, and send his chief negotiator back to Cuba to meet with FARC rebel leaders.

Both sides remain committed to peace (for now):

FARC rebels, also known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, released a statement expressing sadness at the vote. "With today's result, we know that our goal as a political movement is even more grand and strong. The FARC maintains the will of peace and reiterates its disposition to only use words as a weapon for constructing the future," the statement said.

Just last week, in a scene generations of Colombians never dreamed of seeing, President Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño used pens made of recycled bullets to sign a deal ending a 52-year-old war. But now it seems the rebels and the Colombian government, facilitated by international leaders, will have to go back to the drawing board to reimagine a peace that is acceptable to victims of murder, extortion and kidnapping. It is largely unclear what the path forward looks like, as rebel fighters were supposed to give up their weapons and rejoin society. Santos, who has said before there is no "plan B" if the deal fails, said a ceasefire will remain in place and negotiations will continue in Havana, Cuba.

[more...]

AnonTechie writes:

The company whose message-scrambling software is being adopted across Silicon Valley has had a first legal test of its commitment to privacy.

Open Whisper Systems—whose Signal app pioneered the end-to-end encryption technique now used by a swathe of messaging services—was subpoenaed for information about one of its users earlier this year, according to legal correspondence released Tuesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Open Whisper Systems, says the company didn't produce the user's name, address, call logs or other details requested by the government.

"That's not because Signal chose not to provide logs of information," ACLU lawyer Brett Kaufman said in a telephone interview. "It's just that it couldn't." Created by anarchist yachtsman Moxie Marlinspike and a crew of surf-happy developers, Signal has evolved from a niche app used by dissidents and protest leaders into the foundation stone for the encryption of huge tranches of the world's communications data.

http://phys.org/news/2016-10-subpoena-privacy-encrypted-messaging-app.html

[More Details At]: New Documents Reveal Government Effort to Impose Secrecy on Encryption Company

[Also Covered By]:
The Washington Post
ABC News

[Legal Correspondence]: Legal correspondence released by the ACLU:

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

David J. Thouless, F. Duncan Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz split the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was split, with one half going to David J. Thouless at the University of Washington, and the other half going to F. Duncan M. Haldane at Princeton University and J. Michael Kosterlitz at Brown University. The Prize was awarded for the theorists' research in condensed matter physics, particularly their work on topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter, phenomena underlying exotic states of matter such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Their work has given new insights into the behavior of matter at low temperatures, and has laid the foundations for the creation of new materials called topological insulators, which could allow the construction of more sophisticated quantum computers.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physics-nobel-awarded-for-breakthroughs-in-exotic-states-of-matter/

Press Release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016

It is great to note that their Wikipedia entries are already updated to include the 2016 Nobel Prize ...

Original Submission

q.kontinuum writes:

Some people were wondering (well, I was at least), why Julian Assange seems to take such an active role in the USA presidency election (by publishing delicate emails at a sensitive point in time). While both candidates are somewhat controversial, the current leaks seem to be quite focused on the democrats candidate, Hillary Clinton. A tweet sent from wikileaks twitter-account, referencing this story on truepundit, might shed some light on these animosities between Hillary Clinton and Julian Assange: Allegedly, Clinton suggested in 2010 to kill Assange with a drone:

This might heat up expectations and speculations regarding the announced upcoming leaks. Another interesting question might be, how neutral will the Ecuadorian government stay in this struggle. Afterall, Julian Assange does rely on their hospitality at the moment. Will they stay out of it? Or might they have some vested interest to make sure the future US-president is from the democrats? Or would they actually be interested to see Trump being elected?

takyon: WikiLeaks' Assange signals release of documents before U.S. election

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday the group would publish about one million documents related to the U.S. election and three governments in coming weeks, but denied the release was aimed at damaging Hillary Clinton. Assange, speaking via a video link, said the documents would be released before the end of the year, starting with an initial batch in the coming week. Assange, 45, who remains at the Ecuadoran embassy in London where he sought refuge in 2012 to avoid possible extradition to Sweden, said the election material was "significant" and would come out before the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

[...] "The material that WikiLeaks is going to publish before the end of the year is of ... a very significant moment in different directions, affecting three powerful organizations in three different states as well as ... the U.S election process," he said via a video link at an event marking the group's 10th anniversary. He said the material would focus on war, weapons, oil, mass surveillance, the technology giant Google and the U.S. election, but declined to give any details. "There has been a misquoting of me and Wikileaks publications ... (suggesting) we intend to harm Hillary Clinton or I intend to harm Hillary Clinton or that I don't like Hillary Clinton. All those are false," he said.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The headset, which the company will reveal tomorrow morning [Tuesday] in San Francisco, will likely cost $79, Variety reported Monday. The headset will be manufactured by HTC, the same company rumored to be making the Pixel and Pixel XL, a pair of phones Google is also expected to unveil Tuesday, according to Variety.

The new headset underscores the tech community's growing interest in virtual reality, which promises to transport goggle-wearing users to a computer-generated 3D environment. Alphabet, Google's parent company, is said to be investing big money on content for the platform, much of it going toward development of video games and apps, licensing sports leagues and shooting 360-degree videos.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Roy Schestowitz at TechRights reports

Further reinforcing the current trend, software patents' demise in the United States has just been ascertained again.

[...] The latest decision[PDF] [...] from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) is eye-catching, but either it hasn't caught the eye of legal firms or they're just trying to ignore it, so we'll be covering it more than we usually cover such decisions.

[...] The ruling is very important because it serves to demonstrate a loss for patent trolls and for software patents (or patent trolls that use software patents, which is typical). The decision criticises patent trolling as well.

[...] So far, based on our research, only one press article has been published about this decision. It's titled "Here's Why Software Patents Are in Peril After the Intellectual Ventures Ruling".

The end may be in sight for software patents--which have long been highly controversial in the tech industry--in the wake of a remarkable appeals court ruling that described such patents as a "deadweight loss on the nation's economy" and a threat to the First Amendment's free speech protections.

The ruling, issued on Friday [September 30] by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, found that three patents asserted against anti-virus companies Symantec [...] and Trend Micro were invalid because they did not describe a patentable invention. The patents were owned by Intellectual Ventures, which has a notorious reputation in the tech world as a so-called "patent troll", a phrase that describes firms that buy up old patents and wage lawsuits in order to demand payments from productive companies.

Software Patents as a Threat to Free Speech

Friday's ruling is also significant because Judge [Haldane Robert] Mayer eschews the insider baseball language that typically dominates patent law, and addresses patents in the broader context of technology and government monopolies.

Pointing out that intellectual property monopolies can limit free speech, Mayer notes that copyright law has built-in First Amendment protections such as "fair use" and that patent law must include similar safeguards. He suggests that the safeguard comes in the form of a part of the Patent Act, known as "Section 101", which says some things--including abstract ideas--simply can't be patented in the first place.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is notoriously secretive about the inner workings of its ruling hierarchy, the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles. With an estimated annual income in the billions and assets in the tens of billions, the church does not release financial statements to its members or the general public. The meetings and decision-making processes of the Mormon leaders are similarly undisclosed.

That changed Sunday when a group called Mormon Leaks posted more than a dozen videos to YouTube, containing briefing sessions with the hierarchy. The briefings were apparently recorded "live" and include candid comments and discussion from the apostles in attendance. The leak appeared to be timed to coincide with the church's semi-annual conference that took place over the weekend.

Ironically, one of the briefings discusses WikiLeaks and the possibility of a similar leak targeting the church, but the apostles shown in the video appear to more concerned about Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning's sexuality than they are about threats to their own secrets.

One briefing that is particularly troubling was given by a former U.S. senator from Oregon, Gordon H. Smith. Smith, a member of the church, admits that he values obedience to the hierarchy and loyalty to the church more than he does his office. He also describes using his office and staff to gain political favors for the church, and justifies the Iraq War by claiming that it will allow Mormon missionaries access to Middle Eastern nations. At one point (around the 26 minute mark), Smith possibly reveals classified information to the group, or at least his willingness to do so.

The videos appear to come from the same whistle blower who leaked a trove of church documents on-line about a week ago. Those documents are here and the leaker has announced that many more are coming.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/seven-year-legal-saga-ends-italian-official-cleared-manslaughter-earthquake-trial

We previously discussed the scientists' trial here:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/11/11/023245

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Ohio will adopt a new (classic) execution protocol and resume executions on Jan. 12, 2017:

The state of Ohio plans to resume executions in 2017 with a new three-drug combination. The state will use the drugs midazolam, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride. To make the switch the state is expected to adopt [a] new execution protocol by the end of the week. The state hasn't executed anyone since January 2014.

The new drug mix is really a return to one the state used for 10 years. "The department used a similar combination from 1999 to 2009, and last year, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the use of this specific three-drug combination," said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Ohio has had trouble getting drugs to use for lethal injections in part because pharmaceutical companies don't want their medical products used for killing people. Two years ago European pharmaceutical companies blocked further sales on moral and legal grounds. Ohio has looked for other options, but all have obstacles.

For background, Wikipedia offers: Midazolam, rocuronium bromide, and potassium chloride.

Original Submission

MostCynical writes:

International road safety experts are calling for all vehicles to be fitted with speed warning devices, and drivers who exceed the speed limit may find their accelerators disabled by devices that are being considered in Australia.

According to the experts "Driving too fast causes 1.25 million road traffic deaths a year globally, and is a major contributor to the 6.9 per cent increase in deaths on Australian roads to 1275 in the year ending August 31."

The road safety experts called for all European vehicles to be fitted with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) devices. These use speed sign recognition and satellite information to warn drivers with sounds or message if they exceed the limit.

The council launched a campaign on YouTube to build support for ISA, saying it had a huge potential to save lives.

Some devices, which have already been integrated into some new models of Ford cars, have an override function that can stop speeding drivers from using the accelerator until they return to the speed limit.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/function-to-stop-speedsters-from-using-accelerator-the-way-to-cut-road-deaths-20160929-grrqox.html

Anyone want this fitted to their car? I can see problems...

Original Submission

takyon writes:

One of the world's largest polluters has signed onto the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change:

India, one of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, has ratified the Paris global climate agreement. Under the deal, India has committed to ensuring that at least 40% of its electricity will be generated from non-fossil sources by 2030.

[...] The Paris deal is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement. It will only come into force legally after it is ratified by at least 55 countries which between them produce at least 55% of global carbon emissions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that India would ratify the agreement on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the struggle for independence from Britain.

Also at the UN News Centre, NPR, and DW.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Toyota will sell a miniature version of the robot it sent to the International Space Station in 2013 to Japanese customers next year. The demand for robotic companions in Japan is expected to be strong due to an aging population, plummeting birthrate, and more adults choosing to live alone:

Toyota Motor Corp on Monday unveiled a doe-eyed palm-sized robot, dubbed Kirobo Mini, designed as a synthetic baby companion in Japan, where plummeting birth rates have left many women childless. Toyota's non-automotive venture aims to tap a demographic trend that has put Japan at the forefront of aging among the world's industrial nations, resulting in a population contraction unprecedented for a country not at war, or racked by famine or disease.

"He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated baby, which hasn't fully developed the skills to balance itself," said Fuminori Kataoka, Kirobo Mini's chief design engineer. "This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connection." Toyota plans to sell Kirobo Mini, which blinks its eyes and speaks with a baby-like high-pitched voice, for 39,800 yen ($392) in Japan next year. It also comes with a "cradle" that doubles as its baby seat designed to fit in car cup holders.

The robot also requires a 300-yen ($2.95) monthly subscription.

Also at BBC, TechCrunch, and New York Magazine (nice headline).

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.nature.com/news/medicine-nobel-for-research-on-how-cells-eat-themselves-1.20721
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The National Transportation Safety Board has said that a data recorder recovered from the crash of a New Jersey Transit train in Hoboken recorded no information about the incident:

A data recorder that could have helped investigators answer why a New Jersey Transit train crashed in Hoboken last week was not working, the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday. "Unfortunately, the event recorder was not functioning during this trip," NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said. Investigators said the data recorder was over 20 years old.

The NTSB is looking for a second data recorder from a newer passenger car. The recorder could provide information on the train's speed, use of brakes and throttle position. The train's engineer, identified as Thomas Gallagher, told NTSB investigators the train entered the Hoboken station at 10 mph. Witnesses have said the train was speeding as it entered the station instead of slowing down.

New Jersey Transit had already been under scrutiny for safety issues before the crash. A roof (possibly containing asbestos) which had collapsed on top of the train during the accident is now preventing investigators from inspecting the scene.

Also at Reuters and The Guardian .

Original Submission