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hubie writes:

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) removed a clinical trial registry whose aim is to revive brain-dead accident victims. An orthopedic surgeon, Himanshu Bansal, at Anupam Hospital in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand had planned to give 20 brain-dead people a mix of interventions including injections of stem cells, peptides, and laser and median nerve stimulation. There is a scattering of evidence that these individual treatments can improve the conditions of people who have suffered massive head trauma, but none as yet for those who have suffered brain death. Last spring Bansal stated his goal was to bring brain-dead people back to a "minimally conscious state" in which patients show flickers of consciousness.

One of the ethical concerns raised was that these treatments have not even been tested on animal models. In addition, even if the experiment succeeds, it would be highly traumatic to the families and it leaves open the issue of the responsibility of the long-term care of the patient.

In a press statement, Bansal argued that there are no good animal models for human brain death. Asked in a June interview for The Wire what he planned to do if patients were brought back to a minimally conscious state but did not regain further function, Bansal responded that his team "had not planned for it" initially, but that he had since purchased an insurance policy to cover the costs of full-time care of such patients. Still, the ReAnima team has struggled to convince family members to allow brain-dead accident victims to be enrolled in the trial, says Ira Pastor, chief executive officer of Bioquark.

The peptides that were to be used was going to be supplied by Bioquark, a Philadelphia biotech firm. Ira Pastor, the chief executive officer of Bioquark, said that this rejection is only a minor setback and that this research will continue, in a different country if necessary:

"We are in no major rush, in that it represents a 'Google Moonshot'–style project," he says. "Many road blocks, no doubt, will pop up. But the project will go on."

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Phoenix666 writes:

A nerve-zapping headset caused people to shed fat in a small preliminary study.

Six people who had received the stimulation lost on average about 8 percent of the fat on their trunks in four months, scientists reported November 12 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

The headset stimulated the vestibular nerve, which runs just behind the ears. That nerve sends signals to the hypothalamus, a brain structure thought to control the body's fat storage. By stimulating the nerve with an electrical current, the technique shifts the body away from storing fat toward burning it, scientists propose.

Six overweight and obese people received the treatment, consisting of up to four one-hour-long sessions of stimulation a week. Because it activates the vestibular system, the stimulation evoked the sensation of gently rocking on a boat or floating in a pool, said study coauthor Jason McKeown of the University of California, San Diego.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Declining consumption of coal in the US last year played a significant role in keeping down global emissions of carbon dioxide, according to a new report.

The Global Carbon Project annual analysis shows that CO2 emissions were almost flat for the third year in a row, despite a rise in economic growth.

The slowdown in the Chinese economy since 2012 has also been a key factor limiting carbon.

Experts believe it is too early to say if global CO2 emissions have peaked.

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An Apple photo book... for $300?!?!

Gaaark writes:

For the die-hardiest of die-hardiest of die-hard Apple fans, comes the $300 Apple photo book: a book... selling for $300 for 450 photos of Apple products.

The link says it all. And more. Soooo much more.
Yup.
Yupper!
Just in time for Christmas, when you may just have too much money in your pocket.

Yup.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/15/13635788/apple-coffee-table-book-products-images

Ooooorrrrr...... give the money to Soylentnews? ^{or to me, heh heh?}

Apple Releases Book of Product Photos for $200-300

takyon writes:

Do you like the smooth, curvy rectangles and sleek designs of Apple products? Now you can have all of them on your coffee table:

Apple today announced the release of a new hardbound book chronicling 20 years of Apple's design, expressed through 450 photographs of past and current Apple products. "Designed by Apple in California," which covers products from 1998's iMac to 2015's Apple Pencil, also documents the materials and techniques used by Apple's design team over two decades of innovation.

The book is dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs.

It makes the perfect holiday gift for the Apple lover in your life. And it even comes printed on "special paper":

The heavily illustrated book looks at Apple products from 1998's iMac to 2015's Apple Pencil. It documents the materials and techniques that Apple's designers used to make them. Photographer, Andrew Zuckerman, took the images. The title is dedicated to Steve Jobs. And it is, "printed on specially milled, custom-dyed paper with gilded matte silver edges, using eight color separations and low-ghost ink," Apple states. Special. Paper.

"The idea of genuinely trying to make something great for humanity was Steve's motivation from the beginning, and it remains both our ideal and our goal as Apple looks to the future," said Jony Ive, Apple's chief design officer (interestingly, Apple now seems to like to make job titles lower case).

Also at The Verge.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.medicaldaily.com/marijuana-use-linked-rare-sudden-weakening-heart-muscles-broken-heart-syndrome-404324

Marijuana use may increase the chances of developing an often temporary but still frightening heart condition, suggests new preliminary research presented this week at the annual American Heart Association Meeting.

Researchers analyzed records from the country's largest database on hospital stays, called the National Inpatient Sample (NIS). They looked at over 33,000 people hospitalized with stress cardiomyopathy, better known as "broken heart syndrome," from 2003 to 2011. When they focused on the 210 patients who reported using marijuana soon before they experienced its telltale symptoms, which closely resemble a heart attack, they found noticeable differences between them and the typical sufferer. Not only were these patients often younger men instead of older women, but they had fewer known risk factors for the condition, like high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. They were also slightly more likely to go into cardiac arrest and require an implanted defibrillator to prevent later cardiac events (2.4 percent vs 0.6 percent).

These differences could indicate that marijuana alone can increase the risk of stress cardiomyopathy, the researchers concluded. After accounting for other known factors, they estimated that users were nearly twice as likely to develop it than non-users.

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Phoenix666 writes:

A US road safety body has demanded that electric cars travelling at low speed make a noise to warn pedestrians.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the rule was needed because battery-powered vehicles are very quiet.

It said the rule would particularly help blind pedestrians, or those with a visual impairment, detect electric cars and hybrids on the road.

The new safety rule could help prevent 2,400 injuries a year, said the NHTSA.

The rule demands that the cars make a noise when travelling either forwards or backwards at speeds of less than 30kmh (19mph). The regulation covers vehicles with four wheels that weigh less than 10,000 pounds (4.5 tonnes).

The safety specification requires car makers to use a two-tone signal similar to that currently emitted by heavy vehicles when they are reversing.

It would be more fun if drivers could customize what that sound is, such as "La Cucaracha" or the whine of a Shadow vessel.

An Anonymous Coward also wrote in to tell us:

Electric and hybrid cars are to include a noise generation device for travel at low speeds with no internal combustion engine: http://www.nhtsa.gov/About-NHTSA/Press-Releases/nhtsa_quiet_car_final_rule_11142016.

There goes my quiet electric future.

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Celestial writes:

Security firm Kryptowire discovered that an app in some BLU Android smartphones was transmitting personal user data to a Chinese server every three days.

The unlocked smartphone company BLU has now admitted that several of its handsets have been secretly sending out personal data collected from their owners. The data was transmitted via a third-party app that was installed on six of its phones.

According to The New York Times (paywalled article), the security firm Kryptowire first discovered that an app in some of BLU's phones was transmitting data to a Chinese server every 72 hours. It's not yet clear if the data was being mined for advertising purposes or to collect intelligence for the Chinese government. However, the story adds that the company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology Company, claims the app was made for a Chinese phone manufacturer to monitor users. It also claims it was not meant to be installed on handsets sold to a U.S. audience.

BLU has since admitted that about 120,000 of its phones "had been collecting unauthorized personal data in the form of text messages, call logs, and contacts from customers" via the "Wireless Update" app. The six phone models that were affected are the R1 HD, the Energy X Plus 2, the Studio Touch, the Advance 4.0 L2, the Neo XL, and the Energy Diamond.

Well, maybe that explains why BLU smartphones are so cheap...

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takyon writes:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mazda-recall-idUSKBN13A1TM

Mazda Motor Corp will recall about 70,000 of its RX-8 sports cars from model years 2004 to 2008 in the United States because of an issue with fuel pump sealing rings that may leak and catch fire, U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchYesterdayRecall
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM545898/RCAK-16V793-6707.pdf
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM544279/RCLRPT-16V793-5418.PDF

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Phoenix666 writes:

Samsung Electronics is buying automotive electronics-maker Harman International Industries for $8bn (£6.4bn), as it makes a big push into connected car technologies.

Internet-connected cars will improve in-car entertainment, and be able to help with crash alerts and diagnosing engine problems.

It will also be key for driverless technology.

Samsung said automotive electronics was "a strategic priority".

The deal is the biggest overseas purchase made by a South Korean firm, and comes as Samsung is looking to recover from the withdrawal of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

Something about Samsung connecting cars says "chain lightning" to me.

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CoolHand writes in with a story from Vox about efforts to bring back supersonic passenger jets:

One of the odd aspects of modern air travel is that it's not really getting any faster. Ever since British Airways retired its money-losing supersonic Concorde in 2003, airlines have generally stuck to top speeds of around 615 miles per hour. That'll get you from New York to San Francisco in five or six hours, depending on the winds, but you can't find a plane that will get you there significantly sooner.

We've largely learned to tolerate our slow, boring aircraft. But there's a compelling case that we shouldn't — that air travel should actually be much, much quicker.

Right now there are a host of energetic startups and NASA engineers working on sleek new supersonic jets that could fly twice as fast as today's commercial planes, if not faster. These jets would be major upgrades on the noisy, fuel-squandering Concordes of old, and they could be ready within the decade.

When you talk to people working on these super-fast planes, it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement. Take Blake Scholl, the CEO of Boom, a startup that's working with Virgin Galactic to put a new supersonic business jet into service by the early 2020s. He envisions a day when anyone could cross the Pacific or Atlantic in just a few short hours. "It changes how you think about the world," he tells me.

So what say you, Soylentils? Do the political, environmental, technical and economic challenges standing against these efforts outweigh the benefits of supersonic air travel? Should supersonic flights become common or even ubiquitous?

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Gaaark writes in with some thoughts on a story from The Verge:

I would love to have a house/AI to keep me organized: to tell me when an important date is coming/arrived; remind me of things i have to do (like the laundry) or of really important things like "you have a family.... go pay attention to them".

But at what cost will that come.

Amazon's Alexa AI (as well as all the other personal assistants being developed) is, seemingly, probably moving from a speaker to the room/house you are standing in. This will eventually help you in life, but will also feed the 'machine' of the corporation developing it.

What would it take to create an open source AI to help me/you with daily life? Would you like to have it come from an RMS point of view, or would a less 'commercial', almost open source alternative be acceptable?

Could you really be accepting of something that coordinates your life and helps you out with occasional advertisements and up-stream collection of 'some' data?

From the referenced article:

While some predict mass unemployment or all-out war between humans and artificial intelligence, others foresee a less bleak future. Professor Manuela Veloso, head of the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon University, envisions a future in which humans and intelligent systems are inseparable, bound together in a continual exchange of information and goals that she calls "symbiotic autonomy." In Veloso's future, it will be hard to distinguish human agency from automated assistance — but neither people nor software will be much use without the other.

[Ed: TFA also includes an interview with Professor Veloso, which provides more detail and discussion]

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takyon writes:

France is seeking an extension of the state of emergency imposed after the Nov. 2015 Paris terrorist attacks until at least May 2017:

The French government will ask parliament for a second extension to the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the November 2015 attacks in Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday. Speaking to lawmakers, Valls said France's upcoming elections and its backing for the Western coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria meant that the threat of further atrocities could not be ignored.

Is French freedom gone for good (or bad)?

Some fear that France itself is adrift, its government unable to defeat the amorphous extremist enemy even as authorities encroach on liberties the French hold dear. While French warplanes are targeting ISIS strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the state of emergency at home allows broadened police powers to search homes and monitor communications. But it could not prevent further attacks on France over the past year, including a truck rampage in Nice by a man claiming allegiance to ISIS. "Yes, terrorism will strike us again," Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned this weekend.

The International Federation for Human Rights warned in a recent report: "France is now in a situation where an 'exceptional' regime is becoming permanent, in the name of combating terrorism. But there is little evidence that this approach is working and it comes at a cost to fundamental rights."

Also at BBC and RT. Here is an older article about the state of emergency.

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takyon writes:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/12/new-emojis-to-include-breastfeeding-a-hijab-and-the-lotus-position

The consortium that approves emojis has signed off on 56 new ones, including a woman breastfeeding a baby, a woman wearing a hijab and a "gender-inclusive" child, adult and older adult.

Among the other emoji that will be released in 2017 by Unicode are a face vomiting, a head exploding and a man and woman practising yoga. A flying saucer, vampire and T-rex also made the cut, as did a sandwich, broccoli and a pair of socks.

Unicode 10.0 will also include 285 hentaigana (obsolete/historical variants of Japanese hiragana) and 3 additional Zanabazar Square characters.

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Phoenix666 writes:

It's barely been a week since New York started allowing people to go online and report vehicles blocking bike lanes, and the city has already logged more than 200 of these annoying and dangerous violations.

As predicted on CityLab, there now exists a map of illegal parking in bike lanes. Based on tips to New York's 311 app and website, the city-produced map shows alleged lane violations occurring mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn with a decent smattering in Queens. Red dots indicate situations where the police "responded to the complaint and took action to fix the condition," according to NYC Open Data. Blue ones denote where police decided "action was not necessary," where the offending vehicle had skedaddled before cops arrived, and complaints with insufficient info from tipsters.

Drivers block bike lanes because city blocks do not have designated unloading zones.

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takyon writes:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/middleeast/aleppo-fighting/

Residents of war-ravaged eastern Aleppo were waiting anxiously on Monday after receiving a terrifying text message telling them to flee or die. The text message sent Sunday to residents warned the sick and wounded to leave before a "strategically planned assault using high precision weapons occurs within 24 hours." It was most likely sent by the Syrian government as the regime is the only party believed capable of sending a text en masse, and has been in a months-long bid to regain control of the area held by rebels. Despite the threat and a worsening humanitarian situation, many are refusing to leave.

[...] In the text message warning, rebels were also given an ultimatum to lay down their arms and renounce their leadership, or be killed. The 24-hour period mentioned in the text has passed, and while witnesses told CNN they saw warplanes swirling the city, there have so far been no reports of airstrikes. But people believe it is still coming.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Despite the best efforts of Mark Zuckerberg to downplay Facebook's role in the election of Donald Trump, the scrutiny of how fake news is spread on the platform has intensified.

Buzzfeed News is reporting that "more than dozens" of Facebook employees have created an unofficial task force dedicated to addressing the issue.

Buzzfeed quoted one member of that task force, who did not want to be named over fears for their job.

"[Mark Zuckerberg] knows, and those of us at the company know, that fake news ran wild on our platform during the entire campaign season," the source said.

The election shook out the way it did because there were ways around the narrative the media was pushing?

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