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Gaaark writes:

Earlier this week Google announced that its advertising tools will soon be closed to websites that promote fake news, a policy that could cut off revenue streams for publications that peddle hoaxes on platforms like Facebook.

The Verge reports:

The decision comes at a critical time for the tech industry, whose key players have come under fire for not taking neccesary steps to prevent fake news from proliferating across the web during the 2016 US election. It's thought that, given the viral aspects of fake news, social networks and search engines were gamed by partisan bad actors intending to influence the outcome of the race.

What constitutes 'fake' news?
Who decides what is 'fake'?
Who is a 'partisan bad actor'?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

When it comes to purging fossil fuels from the global economy by mid-century—our only hope of staving off catastrophic climate change—it turns out that you can't get there from here without a good map.

That's the thinking behind detailed, long-term plans for switching from dirty to clean energy unveiled this week by the United States, Canada, Mexico and Germany at UN climate talks in Marrakesh.

Overcoming sharp internal debate, the German government led the way with sector-by-sector scenarios that would remove up to 95 percent of its CO2 emissions by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

Green groups said there were too many sops to big business, but it was a world-first.

The "three amigos" of North America jointly-released their blueprints on Wednesday, with the 100-page US "mid-century strategy" for the globe's largest economy taking centre stage.

If the US, Canada, and Mexico are the "three amigos," which one is Martin Short?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Some lighter weekend fare:

If it's Friday it must be time for me to file On-Call and then start drinking so you can start the last day of the week with one of our always-amusing tales of nasty jobs done at nasty times.

This week, reader "Kevin" shared a story from his time working a hell desk late shift.

With just a few minutes to go before quitting time, Kevin took a call from user complaining her computer "was stuck". Kevin couldn't remote in, so asked her to turn it off and turn it on again.

The user claimed to have done so, but also reported the machine was still stuck on the same screen.

Kevin felt the user had probably flicked the wrong switch, so asked if there was a PC-shaped box under her monitor.

"Yes, there's a grey one," was the response.

"Can you hold down the power button for about 10 seconds until all the lights go out", Kevin asked.

At which point the user asked where to find the power button

Kevin explained it would be at the front of the PC, have a power symbol and should respond to a quick prod of an index finger.

"I can't find it," said the user.

Kevin asked what lettering, if any, was on the machine, in an effort to figure out the maker and model. As luck would have it, the Compaq model on the user's desk was the same one on Kevin's. So he spent the next 15 minutes describing its case, the grey bezel on the front, and using baby steps to direct her to the power button.

To which the user said the following:

        "Oh you mean the button I use to switch it off with?"

Please, share your hell desk stories. We all need a good laugh.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The poison dart frog has been known to scientists (and locals who have used its skin chemicals as a poison applied to the tips of blow-darts, which led to the name of the frog) for many years and several researchers have attempted to synthesize the batrachotoxin molecule in the toxin responsible for causing heart attacks in its victims. Until now, all have failed, and the task has been complicated in recent years due to the diminishing numbers of the frogs in their native northern Colombian rain forests. In this new effort, the researchers used data from other studies to understand the makeup of the molecules, then used what they found to create an artificial version. The team says the process involved 24 steps and also led to the synthesis of the toxin's chemical mirror image.

The toxin causes problems for victims by forcing sodium ion channels to remain open. When this occurs in heart muscle, the inflow of sodium causes constriction. But because the channels are stuck open, it cannot be released., and the result is cardiac arrest. The toxin also causes problems in other body parts such as the nervous system. Interestingly, after testing, the researchers found that the mirror image molecule was also deadly, but for the opposite reason—it forced sodium ion channels to remain closed, preventing the outflow of sodium necessary for relaxation.

The newly synthesized molecule has a variety of possible applications. Because the effort also resulted in a chiral twin, the work is expected to help researchers better understand the way ion channels function in general. And now that the molecule can be synthesized in a lab, it will be readily available to anyone wishing to study how it works—perhaps even those wishing to create a bio-weapon. And finally, it could play a role in medical science due to its unique impact on sodium ion channels—by serving as a prototype for creating local anesthetics.

Good news! You can break out your blowguns again.

Original Submission

RamiK writes:

Nigel Tao, Chuck Bigelow and Rob Pike announce:

The new face is similar to B&H's popular Lucida Bright & Sans typeface variants but with many adjustments for source code readability:

While the decision to package a default font with a GUI kit is sure to raise a few eyebrows, the choice of Bigelow & Holmes should come as no surprise to those familiar with the Go team's previous work, Plan 9, and it's font offering.

Original Submission

Beanlover and MrPlow both submit the same story, which follows:

Scott Alexander gives a great breakdown of Trump and how the portrayal of him as being "openly white supremacist" is probably (likely) wrong.

I stick to my thesis from October 2015. There is no evidence that Donald Trump is more racist than any past Republican candidate (or any other 70 year old white guy, for that matter). All this stuff about how he's "the candidate of the KKK" and "the vanguard of a new white supremacist movement" is made up. It's a catastrophic distraction from the dozens of other undeniable problems with Trump that could have convinced voters to abandon him. That it came to dominate the election cycle should be considered a horrifying indictment of our political discourse, in the same way that it would be a horrifying indictment of our political discourse if the entire Republican campaign had been based around the theory that Hillary Clinton was a secret Satanist. Yes, calling Romney a racist was crying wolf. But you are still crying wolf.

I avoided pushing this point any more since last October because I didn't want to look like I was supporting Trump, or accidentally convince anyone else to support Trump. But since we're past the point where that matters any more, I want to present my case.

He further states: "I realize that all of this is going to make me sound like a crazy person and put me completely at odds with every respectable thinker in the media, but luckily, being a crazy person at odds with every respectable thinker in the media has been a pretty good ticket to predictive accuracy lately, so whatever."

So do his claims hold up under scrutiny, is he manipulating the figures, or is he just a 'crazy person' ?

Original Submission

GreatAuntAnesthesia writes:

As a result of a social media campaign, last week makers of the famous geek-popular toy highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system the Lego Group has stopped giving away polybags with print copies of the Daily Mail, something it has done for years in occasional promotions.

The Daily Mail is frequently criticised for its right-wing stance and critics often claim that many of the stories are either inaccurate or utterly fabricated, as the quote below from the " Stop Funding Hate" campaign shows:

While I disagree with their political stand I can accept their right to have it. But lately their headlines have gone beyond offering a right wing opinion. Headlines that do nothing but create distrust of foreigners, blame immigrants for everything, and as of yesterday are now having a go at top judges in the U.K. for being gay while making a legal judgment.

Another article from The Independent has more background.

Lego spokesperson Roar Rude Trangbaek told The Independent: "We spend a lot of time listening to what children have to say. And when parents and grandparents take the time to let us know how they feel, we always listen just as carefully.

"[...] The agreement with The Daily Mail has finished and we have no plans to run any promotional activity with the newspaper in the foreseeable future."

Other targets of "Stop Funding Hate" include John Lewis, Waitrose, and Marks & Spencer.

Is this a case of the liberal left shouting and screaming to enforce a kind of corporate self-censorship, or simply free markets and freedom of speech working together as they should?

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for chromas

The Clinton presidential campaign used a complex computer algorithm called Ada to assist in many of the most important decisions during the race.

According to aides, a raft of polling numbers, public and private, were fed into the algorithm, as well as ground-level voter data meticulously collected by the campaign. Once early voting began, those numbers were factored in, too.

What Ada did, based on all that data, aides said, was run 400,000 simulations a day of what the race against Trump might look like. A report that was spit out would give campaign manager Robby Mook and others a detailed picture of which battleground states were most likely to tip the race in one direction or another — and guide decisions about where to spend time and deploy resources.

Of course, the results are only as good as the data. Since the outcome of the election was different than most poll predictions, it seems like Ada may have had a Garbage In, Garbage Out problem.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes in with an article from Ars Technica about the closure of music torrent site what.cd:

It took nearly 10 years, but authorities have finally targeted and taken down What.cd, which had risen to become the Internet's largest invite-only, music-trading torrent site.

The news was confirmed by the tracker's official Twitter account on Thursday via two posts: "We are not likely to return any time soon in our current form. All site and user data has been destroyed. So long, and thanks for all the fish."

Those posts, whose text was duplicated on the site's official front page, noted "recent events," which is a mild way of describing French authorities apparently seizing the site's full load of servers. French technology news site Zataz reported on Thursday [Ed: English translation, ymmv] that the nation's National Gendarmerie office nabbed the servers that hosted the site's database, IRC, and trackers.

[...]Ars has received a response from the operator of What.cd's Twitter account. The respondent would only identify him or herself as "an administrator" of the former site, but the person alleges that the torrent site's operation was shut down by its administrators, not a police or government force.

The more they tighten their grip, the more systems will slip through their fingers.

Additional reporting on this story was submitted separately via IRC. You can find the TorrentFreak story here.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes in with an article from Science Daily about research into epigenetic processes:

Scientists have established comprehensive maps of the human epigenome, shedding light on how the body regulates which genes are active in which cells. Over the last five years, a worldwide consortium of scientists has established epigenetic maps of 2,100 cell types. Within this coordinated effort, the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine contributed detailed DNA methylation maps of the developing blood, opening up new perspectives for the understanding and treatment of leukemia and immune diseases.

One of the great mysteries in biology is how the many different cell types that make up our bodies are derived from a single cell and from one DNA sequence, or genome. We have learned a lot from studying the human genome, but have only partially unveiled the processes underlying cell determination. The identity of each cell type is largely defined by an instructive layer of molecular annotations on top of the genome -- the epigenome -- which acts as a blueprint unique to each cell type and developmental stage.

Unlike the genome the epigenome changes as cells develop and in response to changes in the environment. Defects in the factors that read, write, and erase the epigenetic blueprint are involved in many diseases. The comprehensive analysis of the epigenomes of healthy and abnormal cells will facilitate new ways to diagnose and treat various diseases, and ultimately lead to improved health outcomes.

How far away from direct editing our genome are we, then?

Paper referenced in TFA.

Related topics:
Epigenetics, CRISPR Gene Editing, DNA Methylation

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

China's Shenzhou-11 spacecraft returned to earth Friday, bringing home two astronauts from the rising power's longest-ever orbital mission in a milestone for its vaulting ambitions.

China's state broadcaster CCTV showed the return capsule's separation from the Tiangong-2 space lab 393 kilometres (244 miles) above the earth, and its descent through the atmosphere to its landing on the grassland of Inner Mongolia.

After it landed, ground personnel rushed to plant two flapping red flags beside the capsule while observers applauded in China's mission control.

CCTV did not show the men emerging, but said they had been taken to a space centre by helicopter, and the official Xinhua news agency said they were in good health.

The manned space programme's commander in chief Zhang Youxia announced that the mission was a "complete success".

Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong spent the 33-day mission orbiting the earth carrying out experiments including cultivating silkworms, growing lettuce, and testing brain activity.

Congratulations to China on a successful mission.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Jay W. Forrester, an electrical engineer whose insights into both computing and organizations more than 60 years ago gave rise to a field of computer modeling that examines the behavior of things as specific as a corporation and as broad as global growth, died on Wednesday at his home in Concord, Mass. He was 98.

The cause was complications of prostate cancer, his son Nathan said.

Professor Forrester, who grew up on a Nebraska cattle ranch, was working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s when he developed the field of system dynamics modeling to help corporations understand the long-term impact of management policies.

R.I.P., Jay.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A new attack tool that can compromise locked computers will leave you wishing you could take your machine with you everywhere you go.

Dubbed PoisonTap, the tool consists of a Raspberry Pi Zero controller with a USB or Thunderbolt plug, loaded with open source software. All in all, this setup can be achieved by anyone who has $5 to spare.

What is PoisonTap capable of, you ask?

Plugged into a locked/password protected computer, it can hijack all Internet traffic from the machine, open the internal router to the attacker, collect HTTP cookies and sessions from web browsers, install a web-based backdoor in HTTP cache for hundreds of thousands of domains, install a backdoor into the machine that does not depend on the device being plugged in, and more. It is capable of compromising Macs and PCs running Windows.

There is also a YouTube video (5m22s).

Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/11/17/poisontap-compromise-locked-computers/

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Something is wrong when asking for help leads to the police ransacking your home. Found on techdirt is this story for our times: Appeals Court To Cops: If You 'Don't Have Time' For 'Constitutional Bullshit,' You Don't Get Immunity:

A disabled vet with PTSD accidentally called a suicide prevention hotline when intending to dial the Veterans Crisis Line. Within hours, he was dealing with DC Metro's finest, dispatched to handle an attempted suicide. This brief quote from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals opinion [PDF] -- part of veteran Matthew Corrigan's first conversation with responding officers -- sets the tone for the next several hours of Constitutional violations.

The officer who had asked for his key told him: "I don't have time to play this constitutional bullshit. We're going to break down your door. You're going to have to pay for a new door." Corrigan Dep. 94:15–18. Corrigan responded, "It looks like I'm paying for a new door, then. I'm not giving you consent to go into my place." Id. 94:19–21.

This is as much respect as the responding officers had for Corrigan's Constitutional rights. The rest of the opinion shows how they handled the supposed suicide case with the same level of care.

From there it gets worse, much worse.

[Continues...]

takyon writes:

A terminally ill 14-year-old girl from the London area recently won a legal battle that allowed her to be cryogenically preserved in the U.S. against her father's wishes:

A 14-year-old girl who wanted her body to be frozen so she could be brought back to life, won an historic legal fight shortly before her death. The girl, who was terminally ill with a rare cancer, was supported in her wish to be cryogenically preserved by her mother - but not by her father. A High Court judge ruled that the girl's mother should be allowed to decide what happened to the body.

The girl, who died in October, has now been taken to the US and frozen. The details of her case have just been released. The teenager - who cannot be named - and who lived in the London area, used the internet to investigate cryonics during the last months of her life.

[...] The teenager's letter to the judge

"I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. I am only 14 years old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die. I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time. I don't want to be buried underground. I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance. This is my wish."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The base pairs found in DNA are key to its ability to store protein-coding information, but they also give the molecule useful structural properties. Getting two complementary strands of DNA to zip up into a double helix can serve as the basis of intricate physical mechanisms that can push and pull molecular-scale devices.

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed nanoscale "muscles" that work on this principle. By carefully incorporating strands of custom DNA into different layers of flexible films, they can force those films to bend, curl and even flip over by introducing the right DNA cue. They could also reverse these changes by way of different DNA cues.

One day, the flexing of these muscles could be used in diagnostic devices, capable of signaling changes in gene expression from within cells.

Original Submission