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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Udacity President Sebastian Thrun speaking at Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit.

Prepare for your car to become an intellectual giant -- and for you to like it.

In a highly optimistic forecast at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco, computer scientist Sebastian Thrun said artificial intelligence will radically reshape our lives for the better.

"In the last 200 or 300 years, we have made ourselves into superhumans," able to plow a field a thousand times faster than our ancestors, fly across the Atlantic Ocean and talk to a person in Australia, he said. Artificial intelligence will take us to the next step: "Rather than replacing our muscles, we're going to be making our brains stronger."

That'll start with artificially intelligent cars, said Thrun, who rose to Silicon Valley fame in his former job leading Google's self-driving car project.

"All the unborn cars get born with the full wisdom of their forefathers. AI cars will outpace all of us because they can learn faster," said Thrun, still a Stanford professor and now president of online learning site Udacity.

Artificial intelligence is spreading like wildfire across the technology industry, screening out junk email, labeling our photos, translating foreign languages and helping us type faster. But not everybody is so sanguine about the possibility of AI machines taking over high-skilled jobs.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

A story has gone viral this morning claiming that experts have finally 'solved' the Bermuda Triangle mystery, with the discovery of strange, hexagonal-shaped clouds covering the region.

According to a new Science Channel documentary on the issue, these hexagonal clouds are creating winds of 106 kilometres per hour (65 mph) that act as "air bombs" to sink ships and bring down planes.

But there's one problem - the Bermuda Triangle actually doesn't exist, and there is no 'mystery' to solve. There are actually no extra unexplained plane crashes and shipwrecks in the area, despite what you might have heard.

The name Bermuda Triangle refers to a region of ocean bordered by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, and it was first coined back in the 1950s by a journalist named Edward Van Winkle Jones, who wrote a story for the Associated Press about a large number of ships and planes that had disappeared in the region.

https://www.sciencealert.com/experts-claim-they-might-have-have-solved-the-bermuda-triangle-mystery
https://web.archive.org/web/20161022110103/http://www.sciencealert.com/experts-claim-they-might-have-have-solved-the-bermuda-triangle-mystery

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The research team of Dr. Caghan Kizil at the DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) - Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden, achieved a major advance in Alzheimer's research. They showed how a diseased vertebrate brain can naturally react to Alzheimer's pathology by forming more neurons. Two proteins (Interleukin-4 and STAT6) have been identified to be relevant for this process. This is a big step towards the understanding, prevention or even healing of Alzheimer's disease – a disease with about 170,000 new cases diagnosed every year in Germany. The results have been published in the scientific journal Cell Reports this week.

[...] The study of the laboratory of Dr. Caghan Kizil used the animal model zebrafish, which can regenerate their brain. Zebrafish have an extensive ability to replenish the lost neurons after various types of damage, and the team led by Dr. Kizil showed that it can also do so after Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration. This is an ability humans do not have. Evolutionarily, the zebrafish and human beings are very similar: the cell types in the zebrafish brain and their physiological roles are very similar to humans, and more than 80 percent of the genes humans have are identical in the zebrafish.

Therefore, zebrafish are an ideal model for studying complex diseases of humans in a very simplistic way. "We believe that understanding how zebrafish can cope with neurodegeneration would help us to design clinical therapy options for humans, such as for Alzheimer's disease. Within this study, we observed Alzheimer-like conditions in the fish brain. We found that zebrafish can impressively increase the neural stem cell proliferation and formation of new neurons even after Alzheimer's-like pathology. This is amazing because to treat Alzheimer's we need to generate more neurons. And this all starts with neural stem cell proliferation, which fails in our diseased brains", Caghan Kizil explains.

This study has shown that Alzheimer's disease symptoms can be recapitulated in the zebrafish brain using a short section of human APP protein that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (Amyloid-β42). This protein part causes the death of neurons, inflammation, loss of neuronal connections and deficits in memory formation in zebrafish. Caghan Kizil's research group including the lead author involved in the study, Prabesh Bhattarai, found that the immune-related molecule Interleukin-4 (which is also present in the human brain) is produced by the immune cells and dying neurons in the fish brain.

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martyb writes:

I just happened to see this story appear in our #rss-bot feed. How to Solve the World's Hardest Logic Puzzle. Given that this is the weekend, I thought it might make for an interesting challenge and discussion.

To set the stage for the puzzle, the author provides some background on Raymond Smullyan, the puzzle's composer:

While a doctoral student at Princeton University in 1957, studying under a founder of theoretical computer science, Raymond Smullyan would occasionally visit New York City. On one of these visits, he met a "very charming lady musician" and, on their first date, Smullyan, an incorrigible flirt, proceeded very logically—and sneakily.

"Would you please do me a favor?" he asked her. "I am to make a statement. If the statement is true, would you give me your autograph?"

Content to play along, she replied, "I don't see why not."

"If the statement is false," he went on, "you don't give me your autograph."

"Alright ..."

His statement was: "You'll give me neither your autograph nor a kiss."

It takes a moment, but the cleverness of Smullyan's ploy eventually becomes clear.

A truthful statement gets him her autograph, as they agreed. But Smullyan's statement, supposing it's true, leads to contradiction: It rules out giving an autograph. That makes Smullyan's statement false. And if Smullyan's statement is false, then the charming lady musician will give him either an autograph or a kiss. Now you see the trap: She has already agreed not to reward a false statement with an autograph.

With logic, Smullyan turned a false statement into a kiss. (And into a beautiful romance: The two would eventually marry.)

Clever! But enough with the setup — What's the puzzle?

The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever goes like this:

Three gods A, B, and C are called, in some order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for "yes" and "no" are "da" and "ja," in some order. You do not know which word means which.

The story's author is, himself, a bit of a puzzle-poser. The story tells how to solve the puzzle, but does not actually provide the solution. Are there any Soylentils up to the challenge?

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takyon writes:

Oxygen levels appear to have an effect on jet lag:

A small shift in the oxygen levels in the air could act as a "reset" button for the biological clock, according to a new study in mice. Mice in the study that were exposed to a brief dip in the levels of oxygen in the air that they were breathing adjusted more quickly to a new circadian rhythm than mice that received steady levels of oxygen, the researchers found. In other words, the dip in oxygen levels seemed to help the animals adjust to the mouse equivalent of jet lag, according to the study, which was published today (Oct. 20) in the journal Cell Metabolism [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2016.09.014] [DX].

[...] [In] an experiment in mice, the researchers exposed the animals to either oxygen levels that remained stable at 21 percent (this is the percentage of oxygen in the air we breathe at sea level), or levels that started at 21 percent, dipped down to 16 percent for 12 hours, then rose back to 21 percent, according to the study. [...] However, the researchers noted that oxygen levels on airplanes are lower than oxygen levels on the ground. Because some people report airsickness due to these lower levels, the aviation industry is apparently investigating an increase in oxygen levels on planes to 21 percent. Given the findings of the study, however, doing so could have a negative impact on jet lag, the researchers wrote. In future experiments, the researchers would like to see if higher levels of oxygen could also shift an animal's circadian rhythm. "I believe passengers [on airplanes] might be more enthusiastic to inhale oxygen-enriched air to alleviate jet lag in contrast to low oxygen" air, Asher said in a statement.

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takyon writes:

The satellite and space debris tracking Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) has been handed over to the U.S. Air Force.

The most sophisticated space surveillance telescope ever developed is ready to begin tracking thousands of space objects as small as a softball. It's a boon to space surveillance and science and a new military capability important to the nation and the globe, an Air Force general says. "It's not often we get an opportunity to witness the beginning of an entirely new military capability," Air Force Maj. Gen. Nina Armagno said at the transfer event, "but that's exactly what we're doing here today."

[...] SST has increased space situational awareness from a narrow view of a few large objects at a time to a widescreen view of 10,000 objects as small as softballs, DARPA says. The telescope also can search an area larger than the continental United States in seconds and survey the entire geosynchronous belt in its field of view -- a quarter of the sky -- multiple times in a night. "From a military perspective, any one of those objects could put satellites at risk," Armagno said. "That's why this capability is so important to us in Air Force Space Command." The world and the threat have changed, she noted, adding, "We no longer have the luxury of assuming that we operate in a benign environment [or] that conflict will only be on land or at sea or in the air. Now we must concern ourselves with a conflict that may extend into space."

The SST will soon be moved to Australia:

Since it went online in 2011, the telescope has observed millions of asteroids and has led to the discovery of 3,600 new ones. "SST has become the most prolific tool for asteroid observations in the world," said Darpa's SST telescope manager Lindsay Millard. Currently, the SST is located at the White Sands Missle Range in New Mexico, but it won't be staying there much longer. According to an agreement signed in 2013, the Air Force will move the telescope to Australia at the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station. The Air Force will begin disassembling the telescope in the coming months and will oversee the transportation of the parts to Australia. Once it arrives in Australia, the telescope will be reassembled and ready for service in 2020.

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takyon writes:

AT&T is expected to announce on Saturday evening that it will purchase Time Warner Inc. for over $80 billion:

AT&T Inc. has reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Inc. for $86 billion, according to a person familiar with the plans, in a deal that would transform the phone company into a media giant. The wireless carrier agreed to pay $107.50 a share, the person said. The deal is half cash and half stock, according to people familiar with the transaction.

[...] For Time Warner, the deal represents a victory for [Chief Executive Mr. Jeff Bewkes], 64, who took some heat from investors for rebuffing a takeover bid two years ago from 21st Century Fox at $85 a share. [...] A merger of the companies would be the most ambitious marriage of content and distribution in the media and telecom industries since Comcast Corp.'s purchase of NBCUniversal and would create a behemoth to rival that cable giant. A rigorous regulatory review is expected and the acquisition of Time Warner likely wouldn't close until late 2017, people close to the process said.

Donald Trump has said that he would block the proposed merger and other media company mergers.

Also at Washington Post, NYT, CNN, and Reuters.

Update: Confirmed by AT&T.

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Phoenix666 writes:

The phone rang. It wasn't a number she recognized, but distracted by the bleeding thumb, she answered it. Mom always answers the phone.

She heard screaming. It sounded like her 23-year-old daughter's voice, begging for help. Then an unfamiliar voice announced, "We have your daughter."

What followed next was five hours of hell. And it was all a scam...

Police call it a virtual kidnapping — an old scam that is having a renaissance across the country and particularly in the Washington region. The callers target affluent areas and find enough information online to make their ruse plausible.

Mueller, 59, had no idea that she was being played. She believed her daughter's life was at stake and did everything she was instructed to do.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Soon you'll be able to watch NBA games in virtual reality every week. Basketball fans will now be able to really get up close to watch LeBron James slam it home.

In a high-tech alley-oop, NBA Digital and NextVR are teaming up this season to show one game a week in virtual reality. The multiyear deal, announced Thursday, also marks the first time games will shown in VR by a pro sports league on a regular basis.

The tip-off broadcast takes place when the Sacramento Kings host the San Antonio Spurs at the Kings' new tech-splashy arena, the Golden 1 Center on Oct. 27. The games will be available on the NBA's League Pass subscription service, and a full VR viewing schedule will be announced later this month.

Additionally, VOKE VR will stream the Kings-Spurs pregame show on Facebook Live. The Kings own part of VOKE.

Watching these games won't be quite the same as gathering round the big-screen TV or parking yourself in the crowd at your local watering hole. The VR experience requires strapping on a headset that closes out the rest of the world as it pulls you into the action.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

After a rare setback, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is still pushing for votes on plans to reform the cable TV set-top box market and impose new privacy rules on broadband providers.

The FCC was scheduled to vote on the cable TV plan at its last meeting on September 29 but removed it from the agenda when the commission's Democratic majority couldn't agree on all the details. Last-minute negotiations aren't uncommon before FCC meetings, but this was a rare case of Wheeler not having enough votes to move forward with a controversial agenda item.

The cable TV proposal—which would require TV providers to make video applications for third-party set-top boxes—is not on the agenda for next week's FCC meeting. But it could theoretically be passed at any time, as commissioners can vote on it between meetings. It's not clear whether a vote is imminent, but Wheeler touted the plan again in an op-ed on CNET yesterday.

"There is currently a proposal before the FCC that would end the set-top box stranglehold," Wheeler wrote. "If adopted, consumers would no longer have to pay monthly fees to rent a box. Instead, they would be able to access their pay-TV content via free apps on a variety of devices, including smart TVs, streaming boxes, tablets and smartphones. Consumers would also enjoy a better viewing experience thanks to integrated search and new innovation that will flow from enhanced competitive choice."

The TV plan has faced persistent opposition from the cable industry, even though the FCC changed it to assuage some of the industry's concerns. Industry opposition hasn't stopped the FCC from approving other controversial rules, such as the reclassification of broadband and imposition of net neutrality regulations. But in this case, the vote was delayed because Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel seems to be concerned about how cable company applications would be licensed to third-party device makers.

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From 2 very Anonymous Cowards:

Two of us volunteer to manage a private website with about 700 members, constantly rotating in and out (they are mostly undergrad students). For this we use low cost webhosting and recently found out that the email account (same ISP & domain name) only allows 60 outgoing emails/hour. Thus when we want to email the whole membership (a couple of times per year) we are going to have to break the list into a dozen pieces.

It would be nicer if we could submit the whole list at once. We don't mind if the emails are sent "drip feed" with one going out every minute or so.

Anyone ever seen anything like this? I tried a few search strings and didn't find anything, but my Google-fu may be bad today.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

For the first time, scientists were able to correct the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell disease in stem cells.

In a collaborative effort, researchers at UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), and the University of Utah School of Medicine fixed the mutation in modified stem cells from patients with the condition using a CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing approach.

The study, "Selection-free genome editing of the sickle mutation in human adult hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells," was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The scientists hope to re-infuse patients with the modified stem cells and alleviate disease symptoms.

"We're very excited about the promise of this technology," Jacob Corn, senior author on the study and scientific director of the Innovative Genomics Initiative at UC Berkeley, said in a news release. "There is still a lot of work to be done before this approach might be used in the clinic, but we're hopeful that it will pave the way for new kinds of treatment for patients with sickle cell disease."

Source: http://sicklecellanemianews.com/2016/10/18/scientists-correct-gene-mutation-causing-sickle-cell-disease-stem-cells/

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Kaspersky Labs researcher Anton Ivanov says an advanced threat group was exploiting a Windows zero day vulnerability before Microsoft patched it last week.

Microsoft says the graphics device interface vulnerability (CVE-2016-3393) allowed attackers to gain remote code execution and elevation of privilege powers.

Ivanov's analysis reveals a hacking group dubbed FruityArmor was exploiting the vulnerability in chained attacks, using a True Type Font to trigger the bug.

[...] The attack saw browser sandboxes broken and higher privileges attained before a second payload executed with the newly-acquired higher access privileges.

Windows 10's efforts to push font processing into a special user mode that restricts privileges did not stop the exploit.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

A drive-through for your groceries: According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, that's one of Amazon's many ambitions for the next version of its grocery-delivery service, Fresh. The company will set up a series of "convenience stores," the Journal reports, where it will sell basic goods like milk, produce, and meat.

Some locations will also allow people to pick up orders they placed online. Here's how the Journal described that feature:

For customers seeking a quicker checkout, Amazon will soon begin rolling out designated drive-in locations where online grocery orders will be brought to the car, the people said. The company is developing license-plate reading technology to speed wait times.

That detail about the license-plate readers caught my attention. Scanning the license plates of incoming cars makes sense: If your plate is connected to your Amazon account, the system could alert employees working in the store that you've arrived to pick up your grocery order before you even have a chance to park. If someone met you at the curb with your order in hand, you could be in and out of the lot in less than a minute.

But that's not the only reason implementing a license-plate system would be a smart move for Amazon. If the company can convince you to tell it which car is yours, it could link your license plate number to your Amazon account. Then, if it bought data from another company that shows where else your car has traveled, it could potentially use that information to develop an even more complete picture of your habits, preferences, and personality.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/amazon-wants-to-scan-your-license-plate/503747/

My state has a variety of specialty license places available for an extra ~$35 year, one of them has black text on a dark purple background. I picked that plate in order to reduce the accuracy of scanners trying to read my license plate. What other methods have people come up with?

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Anti-malware machine and head of the Shellphish DARPA Grand Challenge bronze-medallist team has won US$100,000 from Google for security research efforts.

University of California Santa Barbara doctor Giovanni Vigna landed Google's Security, Privacy and Anti-Abuse award for his long line of research into malware detection.

Google did not specify the specific work for which he was awarded but Dr. Vigna has co-published dozens of papers in the field among some 200 works spanning Android, networking, and web-based attacks.

This year he and a team of colleagues from his university and Northeastern University detailed in the TriggerScope: Towards Detecting Logic Bombs in Android Applications [PDF] how to detect malware logic bombs on Android platforms.

Logic bombs are a complex and highly obscure mechanism to compromise devices and are favoured by well-resourced advanced attackers, including nation-state actors.

The team produced a prototype platform, named Gerscope, that can identify all tested hitherto hidden logic bombs in a first of its kind work that outpaced all current existing static and dynamic analysis tooling.

Paper authors Dr. Vigna and co-authors Dr. Christopher Kruegel, and Dr. Engin Kirda run security research house International Security Lab where a laundry list of academic security work has been published, and have founded anti-malware firm LastLine.

Original Submission