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takyon writes:

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is funding scientists:

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub has selected its first cohort of investigators. The nonprofit research institute in San Francisco, California, part of Facebook Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's plan to cure, prevent, or manage all diseases, announced today that 47 faculty at three nearby research universities will get no-strings-attached awards to delve into risky new directions.

Biohub is the first concrete piece of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's foray into science, launched last September with a commitment of $3 billion over 10 years from Zuckerberg and Chan, a pediatrician. The institute brings together the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); UC Berkeley; and Stanford University to focus initially on two projects, a cell atlas and infectious diseases. The launch of Biohub's investigator program means each scientist and engineer chosen will receive an average of up to $300,000 per year for 5 years for life sciences research.

All papers produced are required to be freely published online as preprints. Published papers may also be required to be open access.

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Phoenix666 writes:

No, not that kind of electronics:

Day or night, the mean temperature on Venus is about 460 °C, an extreme demonstration of the heat-trapping efficiency of the carbon dioxide that makes up most of the planet's thick atmosphere. At the crushing surface pressure of 9.4 MPa—93 times that on Earth—the gas exists in a supercritical liquid-like state. Overhead, sulfuric acid clouds tens of kilometers thick are blown around the planet in hurricane-force winds.

Of the 44 spacecraft sent to Venus since 1961, only a handful have attempted to land on its harsh surface. In 1982 the Soviet Venera 13 lander sent the image shown above before its instruments failed, despite the protection of a pressurized vessel filled with dry ice, after a mere two hours on the surface. The quick demise is unsurprising, as silicon electronics start to fail at temperatures above 250 °C when too many electrons are thermally excited across the bandgap. In the ensuing decades, silicon carbide materials technology has matured enough to make the heat-resistant semiconductor a more suitable choice for high-temperature applications. In an effort to prolong the life of SiC-based integrated circuits (ICs), a research group led by Philip Neudeck of NASA's Glenn Research Center has for the past several years toughened the metallic interconnects that link transistors; the protective, insulating layers around the interconnects; and other components. The effort has included choosing pure and relatively inert electronic materials that are stable at high temperature and whose thermal expansion coefficients are well matched.

Now Neudeck and colleagues have demonstrated that the robustly made ICs can operate successfully for several hundred hours in a simulated Venus atmosphere—no external cooling or sealed enclosure required.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Five people have been arrested, accused of selling set-top boxes modified to stream subscription football matches, television channels and films for free.

The sale of so-called "fully loaded Kodi boxes" has been called a "top priority" by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact).

The five traders were arrested in early morning raids.

Fact said it believed the suspects had made in the region of £250,000 selling the devices online.

Kodi is free software built by volunteers to bring videos, music, games and photographs together in one easy-to-use application.

Some shops sell legal set-top boxes and TV sticks, often called Kodi boxes, preloaded with the software.

The latest battle in the Forever War...

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takyon writes:

A 12th "Dead Sea Scroll Cave" has been discovered, but no actual scrolls have been found:

In the late 1940s, teenagers explored a cave hidden in the flanks of jagged hills of Wadi Qumran in the Judean Desert. Inside, they discovered fragments of the original Dead Sea Scrolls—ancient collections of text that contain the oldest-known biblical manuscripts. Since then, archaeologists have found 11 Qumran caves that they have extensively excavated in search of the precious scrolls that date back more than 2,000 years ago. Now, a team of archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Liberty University in Virginia have discovered what they believe to be a 12th cave on the cliffs west of Qumran.

The Hebrew University press release writes that in the first wide-scale survey in the area since 1993, the team unearthed storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period (dating from 530 BC to 70 CE) in the cave that some scholars [are] already calling number 12. They also found a pair of iron pickaxe heads that they identified as being from the 1950s, suggesting the cave had been looted.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Back in 2010 Sony Australia's Paul Colley forecasted that a large percentage of Australian viewers would have 3-D televisions by 2014.

In the same year, industry pundits such as Simon Murray predicted that sales of 3-D TVs were set to increase in the years to come.

But others were heralding the death of 3-D TVs and this year the remaining major manufacturers, LG and Sony, have said they will no longer produce 3-D-capable televisions.

So despite all the repeated push and positive predictions, what went wrong with 3-D TV?

Tim Alessi, LG's director of new product development, acknowledged this year that:

[...] 3-D capability was never really universally embraced in the industry for home use, and it's just not a key buying factor when selecting a new TV.

Sales of 3-D TVs have been in decline for several years, according to data from analysts NPD. In 2013, 3-D TVs accounted for 23% of TV purchases in the United States, but this dropped to just 8% in 2016.

Is 3-D TV dead, or will it rise again?

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Phoenix666 writes:

A team of Japanese scientists has discovered a new species of polychaete, a type of marine annelid worm, 9-meters deep underwater near Japan's Syowa Station in Antarctica, providing a good opportunity to study how animals adapt to extreme environments.

International efforts are currently underway in Antarctica to build long-term monitoring systems for land and coastal organisms from an ecological conservation standpoint. To this end, the accumulation of continent-wide fauna information is essential, but Japan is lagging behind in gathering and analyzing such data around Syowa Station, particularly in regard to coastal marine life.

To address this problem, in 2015 a team of researchers, including Keiichi Kakui, a lecturer at Hokkaido University, and Megumu Tsujimoto, a postdoctoral researcher at Japan's National Institute of Polar Research, started researching marine specimens stored at the institute, as well as newly collected specimens. As a part of this process, they conducted microscopic analyses to examine two annelid worms that scuba divers collected 8-9 meters deep on January 16th, 1981, at Nishinoura near Syowa Station.

The worm found 9 meters deep turned out to be a new, unnamed polychaete - a variety with a thick, gel-like coat and conspicuous, long notochaeta. The team named the new species Flabegraviera fujiae, taking after the icebreaker ship "Fuji" used in the expedition in 1981. The specimen collected 8 meters deep was recognized as Flabegraviera mundata, and was deemed to have been collected at the shallowest depth ever recorded for the Flabegraviera genus.

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From the we-don't-need-your-stinkin-GMO department, the Beeb reports that "Scientists have successfully decoded the genome of quinoa, one of the world's most nutritious but underutilised crops." The team was led by Mark Tester in Saudi Arabia.

The South American grain is a hugely popular "super-food" because it is well balanced and gluten-free. However, prices for quinoa have rocketed in recent years as demand exceeded supply. Researchers believe the genetic code will rapidly lead to more productive varieties that will push down costs.

They go on to say that the genome will be used to direct conventional plant breeding methods. Several traits of the 7000 year old South American grain would improve its utility such as reducing the level of saponins which make it bitter. Also, varieties could be bred for other climates. The plant is naturally able to grow in salty soils and another goal is to breed tolerance to irrigation with brackish water (partially desalinated sea water).

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rufty writes:

From the Rackspace blog

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"exec" writes:

HONG KONG/SEOUL Feb 8 A minor fire that broke out at a Samsung SDI Co Ltd factory in China on Wednesday was caused by waste products including faulty batteries, the Korean company and local emergency services said.

The fire broke out at the Samsung Electronics Co Ltd affiliate's factory in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin earlier on Wednesday and has been extinguished, a Samsung spokesman said, adding that there were no casualties or significant impact to the plant's operations.

The fire broke out not on the production line itself but in a part of the facility used for waste, including faulty batteries, said Samsung SDI spokesman Shin Yong-doo. He added that most of the factory was running as normal.

The local fire department, however, said on its microblog that the fire was caused by batteries inside the facility.

The "material that caught fire was lithium batteries inside the production workshops and some half-finished products", the Wuqing branch of the Tianjin Fire Department said in a post on its verified Sina Weibo account. It added it had sent out 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to put out the fire.

http://www.reuters.com/article/samsung-sdi-batteries-fire-idUSL4N1FT3BX

-- submitted from IRC

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Phoenix666 writes:

Exclusive IBM is cracking down on remote workers, ordering unlucky employees to either come into one of six main offices and work "shoulder to shoulder" – or leave for good.

In a confidential video message to staff seen by The Register on Tuesday, chief marketing officer Michelle Peluso told her US marketing troops they must work at "a smaller set of locations" if they want to continue with the company. Staffers have 30 days to decide whether to stay or go.

This means affected IBMers who telecommute, work at a smaller district office, or otherwise work separately from their team, will now have just a few weeks to either quit their jobs, or commit to moving to another part of America. The company's employee badge system will be used to ensure people do come into the office rather than stealthily remain remote workers.

According to sources, the six "strategic" offices US marketing staff must work from are in: Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; and Raleigh, North Carolina. El Reg understands that employees will not get to choose a nearby office, but will instead be assigned a location based on where their team is predominantly situated. The first wave of workers were informed of the changes on Monday. The next wave will be instructed in early March, we're told.

Marissa Mayer has worked wonders at Yahoo and the rest of the tech industry should follow her lead?

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Phoenix666 writes:

I always liked his robot dog:

In a way, Richard Hatch never left the Galactica. The actor, who died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at age 71, was Captain Apollo on the original "Battlestar Galactica" for just one season, but it forever remained a part of his life.

"Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains -- what more could a man want?" Hatch said of his role. "All in all, I feel proud and honored to have been a part of such a fun and highly entertaining show."

And though "Galactica" aired just a year after the mega-success of 1977 film "Star Wars," Hatch defended his show's originality.

"I still feel that our story is no more a rip-off of 'Star Wars' than a western film is derivative of every other western film," he said on his website. "Our show was inspired by 'Star Wars', but it definitely had its own unique characters' flavor and point of view."

Hatch would return to the "Galactica" franchise, playing Tom Zarek, when the show was re-envisioned in 2005, but even before then, he was writing novels, hoping to revive the series. He also created a trailer to try and convince Universal Studios to continue the show, although at the time, they passed.

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takyon writes:

Cable news shows known to be seen by the President of the United States, such as MSNBC's Morning Joe and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, are raising their advertising rates:

The ad rates for "Morning Joe" have more than doubled post-election, according to one veteran media buyer. Trump, who reportedly watches the show most mornings, has a close relationship with "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough, and they talk regularly. Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" and other prime-time programs on Fox News have boosted their rates about 50 percent. Trump also is a frequent viewer of the network's prime-time shows.

"The president's media habits are so predictable, advertisers migrate to those areas," said one media buyer. One prominent D.C. consultant said some of his clients, including a big bank and major pharmaceutical company, were negotiating this week to buy ads on "O'Reilly" and "Morning Joe" because they knew they had a good chance of reaching the president. Trump has also been known to respond directly to what he's watching on television and tweet statistics and topics he sees on-air. Those tweets often drive news coverage during the day.

Also at The Atlantic.

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"exec" writes:

Sanitation crews are working hard to dispose of six months' worth of garbage from a community the size of Wahpeton or Valley City. The mountains of debris need to be moved before the spring thaw occurs.

Making a dent in the immense amount of trash being hauled out of the Oceti Sakowin protest camp is being hindered by the weather. All the garbage that was left behind is now frozen into massive chunks of junk.

In a month, all this trash could become toxic.

[...] It's estimated it will take 250 trucks filled with litter to clear the camp.

-- submitted from IRC

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Phoenix666 writes:

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a cell in the retina that may cause myopia when it dysfunctions. The dysfunction may be linked to the amount of time a child spends indoors and away from natural light.

"This discovery could lead to a new therapeutic target to control myopia," said Greg Schwartz, lead investigator and assistant professor of ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

More than a billion people in the world have myopia, whose incidence is rising and is linked to how much time people spend indoors as children.

The newly discovered retinal cell -- which is highly sensitive to light -- controls how the eye grows and develops. If the cell instructs the eye to grow too long, images fail to be focused on the retina, causing nearsighted vision and a lifetime of corrective glasses or contact lenses.

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takyon writes:

A huge amount of debris has been discovered near the Great Barrier Reef:

Scientists have discovered evidence of a massive ancient undersea landslide next to Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The Gloria Knolls Slide is at least 300,000 years old and 32 cubic km in volume, or 30 times the size of Uluru.

The landslide could also have triggered a large tsunami, said the international team behind the find. The scientists said debris from the landslide, found as deep as 1,350m (4,430ft) below the sea, also provided clues about hidden marine life. The team made the discovery while conducting three-dimensional mapping of ancient reefs in the Queensland Trough, a vast basin adjoining the Great Barrier Reef.

Scientists have reported the discovery of rocks from a "lost continent":

The lost continent of Mauritia likely spanned a great swathe of the Indian Ocean before it was torn apart by indomitable geologic forces and plunged into the sea. Now, a good chunk of it may have been found.

In 2015, researchers visited the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar, to study volcanic rocks. While there, they unearthed something unexpected. Embedded in the rocks were ancient crystals, dated up to three billion years old—300 times older than the island's young volcanic surface. Rocks this old come from Earth's continents, but there aren't any continents around Mauritius. It's surrounded by boundless sea in all directions. There was just one place left for the researchers to look—down. Their findings, published [open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14086] [DX] in the journal Nature Communications, suggest that the curious crystals came from a long-forgotten place buried well beneath the island.

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