SoylentNews

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

CNN Wire reports via KTLA TV in Los Angeles

Hillary Clinton's campaign is being urged by a number of top computer scientists to call for a recount of vote totals in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

[...] The computer scientists believe they have found evidence that vote totals in the three states could have been manipulated or hacked and presented their findings to top Clinton aides [on November 17].

The scientists, among them J. Alex Halderman, the director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society, told the Clinton campaign they believe there is a questionable trend of Clinton performing worse in counties that relied on electronic voting machines compared to paper ballots and optical scanners.

[...] [It was noted that] Clinton received 7 percent fewer votes in counties that relied on electronic voting machines, which the group said could have been hacked.

Their group told Podesta and Elias that while they had not found any evidence of hacking, the pattern needs to be looked at by an independent review.

[...] A former Clinton aide declined to respond to questions about whether they will request an audit based on the findings.

Additionally, at least three electors have pledged to not vote for Trump and to seek a "reasonable Republican alternative for president through Electoral College" according to a [November 16 statement] from a group called the Hamilton Electors, which represents them.

"The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College as the last line of defense", one elector, Michael Baca, said in a statement, "and I think we must do all that we can to ensure that we have a reasonable Republican candidate who shares our American values."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A new application that promises to be the "Photoshop of speech" is raising ethical and security concerns. Adobe unveiled Project Voco last week. The software makes it possible to take an audio recording and rapidly alter it to include words and phrases the original speaker never uttered, in what sounds like their voice.

One expert warned that the tech could further undermine trust in journalism. Another said it could pose a security threat. However, the US software firm says it is taking action to address such risks.

[...] "It seems that Adobe's programmers were swept along with the excitement of creating something as innovative as a voice manipulator, and ignored the ethical dilemmas brought up by its potential misuse," he told the BBC. "Inadvertently, in its quest to create software to manipulate digital media, Adobe has [already] drastically changed the way we engage with evidential material such as photographs.

"This makes it hard for lawyers, journalists, and other professionals who use digital media as evidence.

"In the same way that Adobe's Photoshop has faced legal backlash after the continued misuse of the application by advertisers, Voco, if released commercially, will follow its predecessor with similar consequences."

The risks extend beyond people being fooled into thinking others said something they did not. Banks and other businesses have started using voiceprint checks to verify customers are who they say they are when they phone in. One cybersecurity researcher said the companies involved had long anticipated something like Adobe's invention.

Original Submission

charon writes:

Doctors are concerned that stocks of anti-venom are running low around the world.

Dr. Richard Clark from UC San Diego Health is an expert in treating snake bite victims. He said, "I think the big deal about antivenoms and shortages in the world right now is that drug companies that make any kind of pharmaceutical product, only make it if it's profitable. And the problem with antivenoms is they tend to be fairly expensive to produce."

It's expensive to produce and there is not enough demand -- so little in fact, that the pharmaceutical company that produced antivenom products stopped making them in 2003. The Food and Drug Administration stepped in and extended the expiration dates of the last remaining supplies to last until June 2016. Clark says it will likely last even longer.

"So, there's still expired antivenom around that we know still works. One day that will be gone unless a company starts to make the coral snake antivenom again," said Clark.

In a case of a lifesaving drug, is it unreasonable to expect a pharmaceutical company to continue making it even though they would make higher profits elsewhere? Is this a good place for governmental incentives?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

There aren't many companies that insist staff start work every day at such an oddly specific time as Pivotal Software.

Employees at the US firm's 20 global offices all have to be at work and ready to go at exactly 9.06am. At that precise time a cowbell is rung, or a gong is hit, and all workers gather for a brief stand-up meeting that lasts for between five and 10 minutes. Then the firm's programmers hit their computers, with no other meetings or distractions for the rest of the day.

Pivotal's founder and chief executive Rob Mee says it is all about making the working day as efficient as possible.

"I realised that programmers, if left to their own devices, may roll in at 10am," he says. "And if they haven't eaten adequately they will be hungry by 11am, so they'll stop for food, which then makes the afternoon too long. It is not very efficient. "So we thought, 'let's provide breakfast for everyone.' It gives them a reason to get here." So all employees get a free breakfast before work starts at 9.06am.

But why 9.06am? "We thought that if we made it 9am, developers psyching themselves up for the day would think, 'well if it is 9am I'll be late,'" says Mr Mee. "So then we thought, 'why don't we make it 9.05am,' but that is too precise, as programmers don't like over-optimising, so we went with 9.06am. Then it became something fun."

And at the end of the day everyone has to leave the office at 6pm sharp because staff aren't allowed to work into the evening. Mr Mee explains the reasoning: "Programmers don't programme well if they are too tired, so we don't want them working late into the night."

While Pivotal's approach to morning punctuality may seem endearingly nerdish, the business is in fact one of the most successful companies most people have never heard of. Valued at $2.8bn (£2.4bn), its investors include computer groups Dell Technologies and Microsoft, conglomerate General Electric, and car giant Ford.

Do you think it is a good idea? Would it be acceptable to you?

Original Submission

AthanasiusKircher and Thrashnardnow both write in with similar stories:

The Washington Post published an interview [...] with Paul Horner, who has made his living off of writing viral news hoaxes on sites like Facebook for the past several years. "But in recent months, Horner has found the fake-news ecosystem growing more crowded, more political and vastly more influential: In March, Donald Trump's son Eric and his then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, even tweeted links to one of Horner's faux-articles. His stories have also appeared as news on Google."

Although Horner compares himself to parody and satire sites like The Onion (though less obvious), he's now concerned about the influence of fake news. A few excerpts from the interview:

On why he has seen greater popularity recently:

Honestly, people are definitely dumber. They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore — I mean, that's how Trump got elected. He just said whatever he wanted, and people believed everything, and when the things he said turned out not to be true, people didn't care because they'd already accepted it. It's real scary. I've never seen anything like it.

How he thinks people should treat his fake news:

I thought they'd fact-check it, and it'd make them look worse. I mean that's how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it's false, then they look like idiots. [... But] they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything!

On the recent push by Facebook and Google to target fake news sites:

Yeah, I mean — a lot of the sites people are talking about, they're just total BS sites. There's no creativity or purpose behind them. I'm glad they're getting rid of them. I don't like getting lumped in with Huzlers. I like getting lumped in with the Onion. The stuff I do — I spend more time on it. There's purpose and meaning behind it. I don't just write fake news just to write it.

[...] I'm glad they're getting rid of those sites. I just hope they don't get rid of mine, too.

Related reporting from Alternet.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

dbe writes:

Ever wonder why iPhone users often seem to have the same personality, or why you could never understand an Android fan?

UK researchers finally developed a test that could predict what kind of cellphone a user is likely to have, and here are the conclusions:

A comparison of both Android and iPhone users revealed that iPhone users are more likely to be:

        Younger
        More than twice as likely to be women
        More likely to see their phone as a status object
        More extraverted
        Less concerned about owning devices favoured by most people

In contrast, Android users were more likely to be:

        Male
        Older
        More honest
        More agreeable
        Less likely to break rules for personal gain
        Less interested in wealth and status

The full article is paywalled but an abstract is avilable.

Now if only there was a way to separate correlation and causation...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161121144206.htm

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Snopes reports

On 20 November 2016, the Dakota Access pipeline protests reached new proportions when an ongoing demonstration turned into a violent [assault on protesters by] law enforcement officials.

Pipeline protesters say 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky was critically injured when she was struck with a concussion grenade thrown by Morton County sheriff's deputies while she was handing out water. As a result, she has been hospitalized and now faces the prospect of having her left arm amputated.

On 21 November 2016, Wilansky's father, Wayne Wilansky, [...] told reporters that she may need as many as 20 surgeries and that, aside from her arm injury, Sophia had welts all over her body from being shot by rubber[-coated steel] bullets, and that it took hours for an ambulance to reach her because of roadblocks.

Heavy.com continues

A statement from The Standing Rock Medic & Healing Council stated:
"Sophia was heading to bring water to the unarmed people who were being attacked for several hours by Morton County Sheriff forces. The Morton County Sheriff's Department has stated that she was injured by a purported propane explosion that the Sheriff's Department claimed the unarmed people created.

"These statements are refuted by Sophia's testimony, by several eye-witnesses who watched police intentionally throw concussion grenades at unarmed people, by the lack of charring of flesh at the wound site, and by the grenade pieces that have been removed from her arm in surgery and will be saved for legal proceedings."

Snopes also notes:

A total of 26 protesters were hospitalized and more than 300 were injured.

Previously:
Water Cannons Used in Sub-Freezing Temperatures at Standing Rock

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

An American satellite abandoned in 1967 suddenly came back online and began transmitting again for the first time in 50 years:

Amateur astronomers first suspected that they'd found the satellite in 2013, but needed years to confirm that it was still occasionally transmitting. The satellite, dubbed LES1, was built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and launched into space in 1965.

A mistake in the satellite's circuitry caused it to never leave its circular orbit, and it eventually stop transmitting in 1967. The satellite's signal now fluctuates widely in strength, meaning that it's likely only transmitting when its solar panels are in direct sunlight. Scientists expect that the satellite's onboard batteries have disintegrated.

Original Submission

mcgrew writes:

Title: Black Bead
Author: J.D. Lakey
164 pages
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Available in hardcover, paperback, and ePub

I met the book's author and her illustrator at this year's Worldcon [The World Science Fiction Convention -Ed.]. They were raffling off a hardcover copy of Black Bead, so I left my email on the list. A few weeks later the illustrator, Dylan Drake, emailed me, saying I didn't win the hardcover but he attached an ePub version. We've exchanged a few emails.

It's the first book in a series, but like Frank Herbert's Dune or Isaac Asimov's Foundation, it stands by itself. It's the only book in the series I've read so far, as I still have a couple of other books laying around unread.

I liked this book. Some call it "young adult" fiction, probably because someone with an eighth grade education could easily read it, and partly because the main characters are children. But I'm far from young; I'm eligible for Medicare next year, and I enjoyed it. It was what I look for in a book—a fun read.

Dylan said some people saw it as fantasy even though it's intended to be science fiction, probably because the main character has psionic powers. I won't spoil it, but in a later book she has yet to publish, the psi is explained scientifically.

It seems that some SF is fantasy in disguise. Maybe all SF is; I'm at the beginning of Stephen King's 11/22/63, and it's the only time-travel story I've read that has absolutely no science; at least, that I've run across so far (it's a very fat book). Dylan's is science fiction that only feels like fantasy. The writing style reminds me vaguely of Tolkien, and perhaps that's why.

It's a primitive setting in an alien, dangerous world with some very imaginative and often scary flora and fauna, including fruit that causes inebriation, obviously becoming wine on the vine.

Again, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll be reading more of these books.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A newly discovered giant valley on the planet Mercury makes the Grand Canyon look tiny by comparison. Located by scientists at the University of Maryland, the Smithsonian Institution, the German Institute of Planetary Research and Moscow State University, the expansive valley holds an important key to the geologic history of the innermost planet in our solar system.

Discovered using stereo images from NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, the "great valley" lies in the planet's southern hemisphere and overlaps the Rembrandt Basin—a large crater formed by a relatively recent impact from an asteroid or other such body. But the "great valley" formed in a much different way, according to a research paper published online November 16, 2016 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters .

Unlike Earth, which has a crust and upper mantle (collectively known as the lithosphere) divided into multiple tectonic plates, Mercury has a single, solid lithosphere that covers the entire planet. As the planet cooled and shrank early in its history, roughly 3-4 billion years ago, Mercury's lithosphere buckled and folded to form the valley, much like the skin of a grape folds as it dries to become a raisin.

[...] The valley is about 250 miles wide and 600 miles long, with steep sides that dip as much as 2 miles below the surrounding terrain. To put this in perspective: if Mercury's "great valley" existed on Earth, it would be almost twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and reach from Washington, D.C. to New York City, and as far west as Detroit.

Thomas R. Watters et al. Fault-bound valley associated with the Rembrandt basin on Mercury.  Geophysical Research Letters, 2016; DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070205

Original Submission

dbe writes:

If you think 3D printing is limited to plastic gizmos, wait until you see what a team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has managed to do.

The team has been studying ways to get a human analog model for the rare condition called Hirschsprung's disease. They were able to make stem cells evolve to intestinal cells, then inject them at the right moment into other stem cells that have been treated to be nerve precursors. This resulted in both types of cells creating a complex structure that was very close to a human intestine.

The final result was then transplanted into mice with suppressed immune systems to confirm that it would perform correctly, displaying bowel movements and processing nutrients.

This proves that we can now create more complex organs, not only to study diseases, but also to test if drugs have any effect on human digestive tracts. This is also the first step to be able to "print" part of an intestinal tract system for people that need them. As they would be coming from stem cells, these type of transplants are the holy grail of medicine because they would not trigger an immune system response.

https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/news/release/2016/hirschsprungs-intestinal-nerve-disorder

Original Study

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Seeking ways to make military vehicles less vulnerable to blast damage, BAE Systems is looking to one of the toughest insects in nature – the frighteningly hard to kill ironclad beetle. The defense contractor is developing a new bendable titanium alloy suspension system that not only does away with springs, but snaps back into shape after taking on landmines.

Based on a quarter century of conflivt[sic] experience, engineers have become very adept at armoring up military vehicles against mines, IEDs, and similar nasties. The good news is that modern armor can make these incidents ones to walk away from. The bad news is it's often literally a matter of walking away because, though the passenger's survive, the suspension ends up hopelessly mangled and the vehicle useless until towed back to the shop. This not only ties up other vehicles to conduct rescue operations, but leaves the mission one vehicle short.

What's needed is a vehicle that's more robust over all, so BAE Systems turned to the ironclad beetle inspiration. Ironclads are fungivores native to Texas and South America and they possess one of the hardest exoskeletons of any arthropod. Step on one and it will probably just give a coleopteran shrug and walk away. And if you catch one and want to add it to your collection, find a drill, because it's almost impossible to drive a pin through its body.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The head of Volkswagen's core brand is sketching out a broad restructuring emphasizing electric cars and digital technology such as autonomous vehicles and car-sharing.

Volkswagen division head Herbert Diess said Tuesday at a news conference at company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany that the goal is "to fundamentally change Volkswagen" as it bounces back from a scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

The plan foresees new investments in electric-car technology and in software that would enable new ways of using and sharing cars over the longer term.

Would all this upheaval in the auto industry be happening without Tesla?

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

A specifically designed collection of gears is soft on one end and rigid on the other. These robust properties hold even in the event of manufacturing imperfections. This emerging research may lead to new ways of designing geared devices like satellite trackers or watches, and the study has been reported in Physical Review X.

Imagine two connected gear wheels. Turning one clockwise causes the other to turn counterclockwise. Connecting a third gear to both causes the system to get stuck. Leiden physicists Anne Meeussen and Jayson Paulose now have developed a complex assembly of gears that sticks in one place, but which operates in another. Considered as a new metamaterial, it is rigid on one end and soft on the other.

In the video below, this remarkable mechanism seems like magic, but the researchers mathematically devised it. 'The beauty of this principle is that it's a robust system,' says group leader Prof. Vincenzo Vitelli. 'We can decide which parts are soft or rigid, and the mechanism keeps working even if the gears are imperfect. This property is often called topological robustness.'

The video referenced in the story is available on YouTube.

Original Submission

arslan writes:

A report from a team of scientists from the University of Central Florida (UCF) tells of how they have developed a new process for creating flexible supercapacitors that can store more energy and be recharged more than 30,000 times without degrading.

Scientists have been studying the use of nanomaterials to improve supercapacitors that could enhance or even replace batteries in electronic devices. It's a stubborn problem, because a supercapacitor that held as much energy as a lithium-ion battery would have to be much, much larger. The team at UCF has experimented with applying newly discovered two-dimensional materials only a few atoms thick to supercapacitors.

[...] [The] team has developed supercapacitors composed of millions of nanometer-thick wires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials. A highly conductive core facilitates fast electron transfer for fast charging and discharging. And uniformly coated shells of two-dimensional materials yield high energy and power densities.

[...] Supercapacitors that use the new materials could be used in phones and other electronic gadgets, and electric vehicles that could benefit from sudden bursts of power and speed. And because they're flexible, it could mean a significant advancement in wearable tech, as well.

Although not yet commercially ready, the team has been working with UCF's Office of Technology Transfer to patent the new process.

The full journal article in ACS Nano is paywalled but the abstract is available,

Original Submission