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takyon writes:

Wearable baby monitors that can send real time updates to smartphones are unregulated devices that may be causing stress and unnecessary hospital visits, according to an article published in JAMA:

Specifically, the authors cite the Baby Vida, MonBaby, Owlet, Snuza Pico, and Sprouting wearables, which cost anywhere from $150 to $300 each. The idea is that if you're in the next room over while your baby is napping, you can simply look at your phone for reassurance that your baby is still breathing without you staring at them.

The devices are not regulated by the FDA, researchers point out, and in order to stay that way (and presumably, also avoid problems with the Federal Trade Commission) they don't make specific claims about their ability to prevent sudden infant death or distress. Owlet, for example, says, "We can't promise to prevent SIDS right now, it's an unknown issue but... we believe notifying parents when something's wrong maybe can help." That's similar to Baby Vida, which states in its marketing, "What sound does your baby make if he or she stops breathing?"

New parents, often sleep-deprived and navigating a haze of contradictory advice from well-intentioned sources, are particularly susceptible to doing everything they can "just in case." "These devices are marketed aggressively to parents of healthy babies, promising peace of mind about their child's cardiorespiratory health," pediatrician Dr. Christopher P. Bonafide, with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said. "But there is no evidence that these consumer infant physiological monitors are life-saving or even accurate, and these products may cause unnecessary fear, uncertainty and self-doubt in parents."

For starters, the authors note that nobody actually knows if the apps even work properly. Wearable sensor tech may not be entirely accurate for adults, let alone kids. One blood pressure app, the authors write, inaccurately told nearly 80% of participants with hypertension that their blood pressure was in the normal range.

Also at CBS.

The Emerging Market of Smartphone-Integrated Infant Physiologic Monitors (DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.19137) (DX)

Original Submission

charon writes:

Every few seconds, our eyelids automatically shutter and our eyeballs roll back in their sockets. So why doesn't blinking plunge us into intermittent darkness and light?

New research led by UC Berkeley shows that the brain works extra hard to stabilize our vision despite our fluttering eyes.

[...] In a study published today in the online edition of the journal Current Biology, they found that when we blink, our brain repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused on what we're viewing.

When our eyeballs roll back in their sockets during a blink, they don't always return to the same spot when we reopen our eyes. This misalignment prompts the brain to activate the eye muscles to realign our vision, said study lead author Gerrit Maus, an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Target Displacements during Eye Blinks Trigger Automatic Recalibration of Gaze Direction. Current Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.029

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Snopes reports

Six journalists could spend up to 10 years in prison after being arrested during protests against President Donald Trump's inauguration.

The Guardian identified the journalists as freelancer Aaron Cantú; Vocativ senior producer Evan Engel; Jack Keller, producer for the online documentary Story of America; independent journalists Matt Hopard and Shay Horse; and RT America reporter Alex Rubinstein.

The group was charged under a District of Columbia statute penalizing "every person who willfully incited or urged others to engage" in a riot causing more than $5,000 in property damage with the potential 10-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $25,000. More than 200 people in total were arrested the day of the 20 January 2017 inauguration; they were reportedly arraigned the following day and will be back in court in February and March.

[...] Another independent journalist and documentarian, Tim Pool, said on Twitter that he and two NBC News journalists were also arrested during the 20 January 2017 demonstrations but released without charges. Pool said that a supervising officer told him "no less than three times" that they were under arrest. NBC News has not responded to our request for comment regarding Pool's account.

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

At least four senior officials in President Trump's White House have active accounts on a private Republican National Committee (RNC) email system, according to a new report.

Counselor Kellyanne Conway, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, chief strategist and senior counselor Stephen Bannon and senior adviser Jared Kushner — Trump's son-in-law — all have rnchq.org email accounts, Newsweek reported Wednesday.

Trump repeatedly attacked 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last year for using a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State.

[...] Newsweek added the rnchq.org email system caused controversy during former President George W. Bush's administration.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accused Bush White House staffers in 2007 of using the system to evade transparency.

The rnchq.org email system was involved in the loss of 22 million Bush administration emails, Newsweek reported, many from around the start of the Iraq War.

Former President Obama’s administration found the lost emails after private lawsuits were filed, it added.

Those messages are now in the National Archives, according to Newsweek, but remain under the national security shield and have not been seen by the public.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316130-trump-wh-senior-staff-have-private-email-accounts-report

[Update:] Newsweek updated its story and is now reporting:

Since this story was published, the RNC has deleted the emails of Bannon, Kushner and Conway. RNC spokesman Ryan Mahoney told Newsweek Wednesday night that the emails were set up only for distribution lists, “There is nothing wrong with having an RNC account if it is not used for any official government business,” he said. “In this case, the officials previously employed by the Trump campaign never had functional email accounts with the RNC. The RNC has various distribution lists to communicate with state parties or campaigns, and as a byproduct these contact groups are assigned RNCHQ.org addresses that only forward to external accounts at their respective organizations.”

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

The Chrome browser extension for Cisco Systems WebEx communications and collaboration service was just updated to fix a vulnerability that leaves all 20 million users susceptible to drive-by attacks that can be carried out by just about any website they visit.

A combination of factors makes the vulnerabilities among the most severe in recent memory. First, WebEx is largely used in enterprise environments, which typically have the most to lose. Second, once a vulnerable user visits a site, it's trivial for anyone with control of it to execute malicious code with little sign anything is amiss. The vulnerability and the resulting patch were disclosed in a blog post published Monday by Tavis Ormandy, a researcher with Google's Project Zero security disclosure service.

Martijn Grooten, a security researcher for Virus Bulletin, told Ars:

If someone with malicious intentions (Tavis, as per Google's policy, disclosed this responsibly) had discovered this, it could have been a goldmine for exploit kits. Not only is 20 million users a large enough number to make it worthwhile in opportunistic attacks, I assume people running WebEx are more likely to be corporate users. Imagine combining this with ransomware!

Source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2017/01/ciscos-webex-chrome-plugin-opens-20-million-users-to-drive-by-attacks/

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

CNN Money reports:

When the submitter visited amazon.com, the book was ranked #3.

Additional coverage:

• Los Angeles Times
• The New York Times (may be pay-walled)
• 9News
• The Washington Post (owned by the founder of amazon.com)
• The Guardian
• The Man Who Invented the Science Fiction Paperback

Related stories:

Washington DC's Public Library Will Teach People How to Avoid the NSA
George Orwell's "1984" Telescreens are Here...
Traveling to Thailand? Don't Pack George Orwell's "1984"

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) claim to have created the first stable semisynthetic organism with extra bases added to its genetic code. The single-celled organism is also able to continually replicate the synthetic base pair as it divides, which could mean that future synthetic organisms may be able to carry extra genetic information in their DNA sequences indefinitely.

The cells of all organisms contain genetic information in their DNA as a two-base-pair sequence made up of four molecules – A, T, C, G (Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine, and Guanine). Each of these is known as a nucleotide (consisting of a a nitrogenous base, a phosphate molecule, and a sugar molecule) and are specifically and exclusively paired, so that only A is coupled to T and C is coupled with G. These nucleotides are connected in a chain by the covalent (electron-coupled) bonds between the sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate of the next, which creates an alternating sugar-phosphate "backbone."

The team from TSRI have added two synthetic bases that they call "X" and "Y" into the genetic code of a E.coli carrier organism – a single-cell bacteria – and then chemically tweaked it to live, replicate, and survive with the extra DNA molecules intact.

The paper is available via PNAS:
Yorke Zhang, et al.,A semisynthetic organism engineered for the stable expansion of the genetic alphabet (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1616443114)

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The Paris-Dakar Rally is one of the toughest tests in international motorsport, pitting cars against blazing heat and shifting sand dunes. Acciona has become the first team to survive the torture test in an all-electric car, completing the 2017 event in the (catchily named) Acciona 100% EcoPowered.

The EcoPowered draws on a 250 kW (340 hp) synchronous electric motor, attached to all four wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox. There are six fast-charging lithium-ion batteries totalling 150 kWh within the chassis, supplemented by a 100 W solar panel on the roof. Each battery pack can be charged individually for faster pit stops, crucial in the fast and furious world of racing, while low-rolling resistance tires help to improve range.

This was the third time Acciona has tried to complete the Dakar. Having failed to complete the race in 2015, the team shifted focus and managed to complete the OiLybia International Morocco Rally. Using lessons learned in that competition, the 100% EcoPowered managed to complete 80 percent of the 2016 Dakar, but still fell short of the finish line.

It's a decent milestone for Electric Vehicles (EVs). How soon until such headlines disappear because EVs are so commonplace?

Original Submission

"exec" writes in with this story from Phoronix

Arch Linux is moving ahead with preparing to deprecate i686 (x86 32-bit) support in their distribution.

Due to declining usage of Arch Linux i686, they will be phasing out official support for the architecture. Next month's ISO spin will be the last for offering a 32-bit Arch Linux install. Following that will be a nine month deprecation period where i686 packages will still see updates.

Any Soylentils still making major use of 32-bit x86? And any of you using Arch Linux? Distrowatch still lists Arch Linux as a top 10 distribution.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

A European Space Agency satellite risks colliding with a piece of space debris about 15 centimeters (a half-foot) long this week, forcing ESA's flight control to plan a rare evasive maneuver.

A piece of an old Russian satellite called Cosmos-375 is forecast to miss Swarm-B, one of ESA's three Swarm satellites that measure Earth's magnetic fields, by just over the length of a football field. But the margin of error for that forecast is around 1,000 meters (3,280 feet or more like three football fields).

ESA has been working with data from the US armed forces' Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), located at Vandenberg Air Force base in California, to plan a collision avoidance maneuver that would be uploaded to the satellite Wednesday.

If the satellite is able to alter its orbit as planned, the piece of junk should pass 746 meters (2,448 feet) in front of Swarm-B and 56 meters (184 feet) below it.

Pretty interesting that they are able to track a 15cm piece of debris.

Source:
https://www.cnet.com/news/european-space-agency-orbiter-russian-satellite-space-junk-this-week/

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

takyon writes:

D-Wave has announced the availability of the D-Wave 2000Q, a 2,000-"qubit" quantum annealer that it says can be used for optimization problems and machine learning. The first customer of the new machine will be Temporal Defense Systems Inc., a "cutting-edge cyber security firm". Aside from the boost in qubits, D-Wave is also touting faster annealing time and an "anneal offsets control feature":

Back in fall, last year, D-Wave announced its new 2,000-qubit quantum annealing computer that was up to 1,000 times faster than its previous 1,000-qubit computer. The company officially launched the new computer, as well as announced its first customer, Temporal Defense Systems, which is a cybersecurity company trying to use quantum computation to improve its security solutions.

"The combined power of the TDS / D-Wave quantum cyber solution will revolutionize secure communications, protect against insider threats, and assist in the identification of cyber adversaries and attack patterns," said James Burrell, TDS Chief Technology Officer and former FBI Deputy Assistant Director. "Combining the unique computational capabilities of a quantum computer with the most advanced cyber security technologies will deliver the highest level of security, focused on both prevention and attribution of cyber attacks," he explained.

The cost? $15 million.

Nature contends that some researchers have found uses for D-Wave's annealers, but there is a need for greater connectivity between the qubits.

D-Wave Press release, and new white papers.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Formula 1 auto racing became a force to be reckoned with thanks in large part to Bernie Ecclestone. Through a series of cunning acquisitions and negotiations he gradually gathered more control over F1 and created a racing empire that made him one of the richest men in the UK. His actions brought the racing series to a position of eminence, and some would argue led to decisions that in recent years have adversely affected the actual enjoyment of watching a race.

Now 86 years old, it's time to say "Bye Bye, Bernie." Ars Technica reports Here's how Formula 1 will change, now that Bernie Ecclestone is out the door:

In September 2016, news emerged that Formula 1 was changing hands, with a proposed sale from CVC Capital Partners to Liberty Media. Despite a couple of hurdles—including the sport's regulator standing to make a hefty profit from the sale—everything looks to have sailed through without a hitch. On Monday we learned that the sale was final and that the new owners have made an immediate change, for Bernie Ecclestone will no longer run the show.

We've known since last year that Chase Carey would be Chairman, with Ecclestone staying on as CEO for the near term. Evidently near-term meant four months, because as of Monday, Carey is the CEO. Ecclestone has been made Chairman Emeritus, and according to a press statement will "be available as a source of advice for the board of F1."

That advice comes from decades of experience, because Ecclestone is the man behind F1's commercial success. He consolidated the broadcast rights from individual races, negotiating on behalf of the other teams. Bit by bit, he took charge of everything, turning the F1 Grand Prix into the well-oiled machine it is today. The FIA was still the sport's organizing body and would still set the rules, but it gave Ecclestone the commercial rights. Tracks would pay to host a race and could keep any profits from ticket sales. But the rest—all that trackside advertising included—would go through his companies.

[Continues...]

shipofgold writes:

Interesting story at vocative.com

Demonic sounds are usually related to evil spirits, but researchers have found a way to turn them into "hidden voice commands" for Android devices.

A group of Ph.D. candidates at Georgetown and University of California, Berkeley developed a series of voice commands that can be recognized and executed by smartphone virtual assistants, but not very easily by human ears.

Some of the things these hidden commands can potentially do include sending a tweet, making a phone call, or even using Venmo to transfer money. Or, in a cyberattack scenario, a hidden command could open a website that automatically downloads malware, which then leads to hackers having full control of your device.

[...] A similar situation occurred earlier this month when a child accidentally ordered a $150 doll house from Amazon by simply asking Amazon's Alexa, "Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?"

Those assistants need to recognize who is speaking...

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

A disabled man has won a Supreme Court case after a dispute with a woman with a buggy over wheelchair space on a bus.

[...] Wheelchair user Doug Paulley brought his case after he was refused entry to a FirstGroup bus in 2012, when a mother with a pushchair refused to move.

[...] The court said the company should consider further steps to persuade non-wheelchair users to move, without making it a legal duty to move them.

[...] However, the judgement fell short of making it a legal requirement for bus companies to compel non-wheelchair passengers to move from the space.

[Continues...]

takyon writes:

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has acquired Meta, an "AI-powered" search engine for science papers. The tool will be made free later in the year:

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's $45 billion philanthropy organization is making its first acquisition in order to make it easier for scientists to search, read and tie together more than 26 million science research papers. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is acquiring Meta, an AI-powered research search engine startup, and will make its tool free to all in a few months after enhancing the product.

Meta could help scientists find the latest papers related to their own projects, while assisting funding organizations to collaborate with researchers and identify high-potential areas for investment or impact. What's special about Meta is that its AI recognizes authors and citations between papers so it can surface the most important research instead of just what has the best SEO. It also provides free full-text access to 18,000 journals and literature sources.

Previously: David Plouffe Tapped by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to Lead its Policy and Advocacy Team

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, has launched a list to shame other pharmaceutical companies:

This week, a pharmaceutical trade group stepped up its efforts to distance itself from Martin Shkreli, the disgraced ex-CEO of several drug companies who gained notoriety for an eye-popping drug price increase and an indictment for securities fraud. The trade group even made a television ad to try to bolster its image and make clear that it is different—better—than the likes of Shkreli and his greedy ways.

Is it, though? If you ask Shkreli, it's not. And he's made a website to try to convince you.

On the bare-bones Pharmaskeletons.com, an angry and vengeful Shkreli lists instances of greed, criminal behavior, and other sleaziness of individual members of the pharmaceutical trade group PhRMA. Not all his claims are backed up, explained, or accurate. But the site still offers an embarrassing catalogue of bad deeds, which Shkreli told STAT he would continually update.

Original Submission