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Phoenix666 writes:

MasterCard's "selfie pay" will be coming to Europe next year after trials in the US, Canada and the Netherlands.

The financial services firm is rolling out biometric technologies that will allow European consumers to authenticate their identity without a password, but with a selfie, in order to provide customers with a more convenient method to sign in and a faster checkout process. Security firms view the development as another sign of the mainstream availability of biometric authentication, comparing it to the introduction of TouchID fingerprint authentication technology in the iPhone.

Javvad Malik, security advocate at enterprise security tools firm AlienVault, said that "selfie pay" is seemingly an attempt to bridge the gap between a fully authenticated method, such as chip and PIN – and unauthenticated payments methods such as contactless.

Original Submission

NotSanguine writes:

From the do-taze-me-bro dept.

An article over at Medical Xpress details study results published on 4 October, 2016 in Nature Scientific Reports [Full paper], from a group of neuroscientists investigating the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), using MRI imaging.

From the Medical Xpress article:

Rather than taking medication, a growing number of people who suffer from chronic pain, epilepsy and drug cravings are zapping their skulls in the hopes that a weak electric current will jolt them back to health.

This brain hacking—"transcranial direct current stimulation" (tDCS)—is used to treat neurological and psychiatric symptoms. A do-it-yourself community has sprouted on Reddit, providing unconventional tips for how to use a weak electric current to treat everything from depression to schizophrenia. People are even using commercial tDCS equipment to improve their gaming ability. But tDCS is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and scientists are split on its efficacy, with some calling it quackery and bad science.

Here's the issue: Until now, scientists have been unable to look under the hood of this do-it-yourself therapeutic technique to understand what is happening. Danny JJ Wang, a professor of neurology at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, said his team is the first to develop an MRI method whereby the magnetic fields induced by tDCS currents can be visualized in living humans. Their results were published Oct. 4 in Scientific Reports, a Nature Publishing Group journal.

"Although this therapy is taking off at the grassroots level and in academia [with an exponential increase in publications], evidence that tDCS does what is being promised is not conclusive," said Wang, the study's senior author. "Scientists don't yet understand the mechanisms at work, which prevents the FDA from regulating the therapy. Our study is the first step to experimentally map the tDCS currents in the brain and to provide solid data so researchers can develop science-based treatment."

People in antiquity used electric fish to zap away headaches, but tDCS, as it is now known, was introduced in 2000, said Mayank Jog, study lead author and a graduate student conducting research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"Since then, this noninvasive, easy-to-use, low-cost technology has been shown to improve cognition as well as treat clinical symptoms," Jog said.

So what say you, Soylentils? Ready to cut that electrical cord, plug it into the wall and stick it in your ear? I'm sure there are quite a few who'd be willing to assist!

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Hurricane Matthew is a Category 4 major hurricane that is expected to hit the east coast of the U.S.:

With the Category 4 hurricane expected to brush up to the US East Coast later this week after its deadly assault on the Caribbean, state officials warned residents and visitors to start preparing for some miserable times. Up to 1 million people could face evacuation in South Carolina. Matthew is an "extremely dangerous" storm, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said, one that made landfall in western Haiti on Tuesday morning. It then headed over eastern Cuba with winds of 140 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, before losing some of its force. The Bahamas are next. The forecast is that Matthew will ride along the US coast from Florida through the North Carolina Outer Banks from Thursday evening through Saturday. It could make landfall at any point and all areas should be on guard.

Original Submission

NotSanguine writes:

Phys.Org is reporting on the results of a recent study by University of Washington oceanographers. The paper, published 28 July, 2016 in Geophysical Research Letters [abstract only, full text paywalled] details research pointing to a cause of the slowdown in the Atlantic Ocean circulation currents.

From the Phys.org article:

The ocean circulation that is responsible for England's mild climate appears to be slowing down. The shift is not sudden or dramatic, as in the 2004 sci-fi movie "The Day After Tomorrow," but it is a real effect that has consequences for the climates of eastern North America and Western Europe.

Also unlike in that movie, and in theories of long-term climate change, these recent trends are not connected with the melting of the Arctic sea ice and buildup of freshwater near the North Pole. Instead, they seem to be connected to shifts at the southern end of the planet, according to a recent University of Washington study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"It doesn't work like in the movie, of course," said Kathryn Kelly, an oceanographer at the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory. "The slowdown is actually happening very gradually, but it seems to be happening like predicted: It does seem to be spinning down."

The study looked at data from satellites and ocean sensors off Miami that have tracked what's known as the Atlantic overturning circulation for more than a decade. Together they show a definite slowdown since 2004, confirming a trend suspected before then from spottier data.

[...] "It appears that this 10-year slowdown is not related to salinity," Kelly said. In fact, despite more ice melt, surface water in the Arctic is getting saltier and therefore denser, she said, because of less precipitation. "That means the slowdown could not possibly be due to salinity—it's just backwards. The North Atlantic has actually been getting saltier."

[More...]

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Forget fraud, Société Générale and Groupe BPCE's new bank cards are about to change everything about fraud.

Part of the problem is that once your card details are stolen – whether through a phishing attack or by someone copying the digits on the back – fraudsters are free to go on a spending spree until you notice something's up.

They're getting away with millions, and it's a problem affecting over half a million people in the first half of 2016 alone.

Normally by the time you get around to actually cancelling your card, it's all too late. But what if the numbers on your card changed every hour so that, even if a fraudster copied them, they'd quickly be out of date?

That's exactly what two French banks are starting to do with their new high-tech ebank cards.

On the back of each card is a 3 digit security number which you must quote to validate any online or telephone purchase. If this number is compromised then there is nothing to prevent the card being used by anyone else. But on the new card the digits are displayed on a small LCD 7-segment display:

The three digits on the back of this card will change, every hour, for three years. And after they change, the previous three digits are essentially worthless, and that's a huge blow for criminals.

Providing that you still have the card in your possession, then whoever has access to the current security number has less than 1 hour to make use of the card. No details are given on how the card issuer and businesses keep synchronised with the current valid card number.

Source: http://www.thememo.com/2016/09/27/oberthur-technologies-societe-generale-groupe-bpce-bank-this-high-tech-card-is-being-rolled-out-by-french-banks-to-eliminate-fraud/

Original Submission

[Ed's Note: Edited to show LCD display rather than LED. Apologies for my error.]

takyon writes:

Orbital ATK will attempt its first launch of an Antares booster since a launch failure in 2014:

NASA and Orbital ATK officials have set Oct. 13 as the target date for the first Antares launch in nearly two years, giving approval for ground crews to load final cargo into the mission's Cygnus supply carrier heading for the International Space Station. [...] This month's launch campaign is the first for Orbital ATK's Antares booster since a catastrophic launch failure on Oct. 28, 2014, destroyed a Cygnus supply ship loaded with equipment for the space station. The mishap also damaged the Antares launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a facility owned by the government of Virginia at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

The launch could be delayed by Hurricane Matthew.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Johnson & Johnson has issued a security warning about one of its products:

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday issued a warning about a possible cybersecurity issue with its Animas OneTouch Ping Insulin Infusion Pump. The problem was first reported by Reuters.

Computer security firm Rapid 7 discovered that it might be possible to take control of the pump via its an unencrypted radio frequency communication system that allows it to send commands and information via a wireless remote control. The company alerted Johnson & Johnson, which issued the warning. Getting too high or too low a dose of insulin could severely sicken or even kill. There have been no instances of the pumps being hacked, Johnson & Johnson said.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iceland-election-idUKKCN11Z1RV

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Cassini gravity measurements and a new model indicate that Dione may have a subsurface ocean like several other bodies in the solar system:

Saturn's moon Dione has joined the growing list of watery bodies in our solar system. Data from NASA's Cassini probe indicate that a liquid ocean some 20 miles deep exists far below the icy surface of the moon. This means that its interior looks similar to two other Saturnian moons, Titan and Enceladus, both of which hide vast oceans beneath a thin crust of ice. Dione is likely different in at least one respect though: the data indicate it's ocean buried much deeper.

The researchers based their analysis on gravity measurements taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it flew by Dione, tracking subtle shifts in the trajectory of the craft due to Dione's gravitational pull. Similar methods have been used before, but the data always seem to indicate that Dione had no such subterranean ocean. The new data, combined with a revised model of how the moon's crust should behave, changes that assumption. [...] Dione now joins Titan, Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede and Pluto as the solar system's wettest places — beyond Earth. And, given that we seem to find new bodies of liquid water every time we take a closer look at our solar system, more are likely to come.

Dione and Enceladus.

Enceladus' and Dione's floating ice shells supported by minimum stress isostasy (DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070650) (DX)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Federal agents have persuaded police officers to scan license plates to gather information about gun-show customers, government emails show, raising questions about how officials monitor constitutionally protected activity.

Emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers—devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars—at gun shows in Southern California, including one in Del Mar, not far from the Mexican border.

Agents then compared that information to cars that crossed the border, hoping to find gun smugglers, according to the documents and interviews with law-enforcement officials with knowledge of the operation.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/gun-show-customers-license-plates-come-under-scrutiny-1475451302

First they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Muslim.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/us/flint-hit-with-bacterial-illness-as-residents-shun-city-water.html

See the Wikipedia article on Shigellosis for more details on transmission and symptoms.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.rdmag.com/news/2016/10/3d-printed-robots-shock-absorbing-skins

[This] week researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) will present a new method for 3-D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements—and that could be used to improve the durability of drones, phones, shoes, helmets, and more. The team's "programmable viscoelastic material" (PVM) technique allows users to program every single part of a 3-D-printed object to the exact levels of stiffness and elasticity they want, depending on the task they need for it.

For example, after 3-D printing a cube robot that moves by bouncing, the researchers outfitted it with shock-absorbing "skins" that use only 1/250 the amount of energy it transfers to the ground. "That reduction makes all the difference for preventing a rotor from breaking off of a drone or a sensor from cracking when it hits the floor," says CSAIL Director Daniela Rus, who oversaw the project and co-wrote a related paper. "These materials allow us to 3-D print robots with visco-elastic properties that can be inputted by the user at print-time as part of the fabrication process."

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37551415

Yahoo secretly scanned millions of its users' email accounts on behalf of the US government, according to a report. Reuters news agency says the firm built special software last year to comply with a classified request.

"Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States," the tech firm said in a statement provided to the BBC.

The allegation comes less than a fortnight after Yahoo said hackers had stolen data about many of its users. Yahoo is in the process of being taken over by Verizon Communications in a $4.8bn (£3.8bn) deal. The telecoms provider declined to comment on the report.

Original Submission

mechanicjay writes:

Security researcher and MateSSL founder, Andrew Ayer has uncovered a bug which will either crash or make systemd unstable (depending on who you talk to) on pretty much every linux distro. David Strauss posted a highly critical response to Ayer. In true pedantic nerd-fight fashion there is a bit of back and forth between them over the "true" severity of the issue and what not.

Nerd fights aside, how you feel about this bug, will probably largely depend on how you feel about systemd in general.

The following command, when run as any user, will crash systemd:

NOTIFY_SOCKET=/run/systemd/notify systemd-notify ""

After running this command, PID 1 is hung in the pause system call. You can no longer start and stop daemons. inetd-style services no longer accept connections. You cannot cleanly reboot the system. The system feels generally unstable (e.g. ssh and su hang for 30 seconds since systemd is now integrated with the login system). All of this can be caused by a command that's short enough to fit in a Tweet.

Edit (2016-09-28 21:34): Some people can only reproduce if they wrap the command in a while true loop. Yay non-determinism!

Original Submission

"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