SoylentNews

takyon writes:

Annie Dookhan's falsification of drug lab tests has become a reason for over 21,000 people to celebrate. Massachusetts will drop 21,587 cases in the largest single dismissal of convictions in U.S. history:

Massachusetts formally dropped more than 21,000 tainted drug convictions Thursday that were linked to a disgraced state chemist who in 2013 admitted to faking test results.

It's the largest single dismissal of convictions in U.S. history, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Thursday's dismissals by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had been expected after several district attorneys on Tuesday submitted lists of 21,587 cases they said they would be unwilling or unable to prosecute, The Associated Press reports.

Previous Coverage:
Massachusetts: Tens of Thousands of Drug Convictions to be Overturned After Fraudulent Lab Tests.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

USA Today reports:

"Russia's Supreme Court formally banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist organization Thursday and ordered the state to seize its property in Russia, according to Russian news media."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/20/russian-court-bans-jehovahs-witnesses-extremist-group/100701524/

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Despite considerable concerns about the safety of flying cars, two-thirds of Americans say they would like to ride in or operate their own airborne vehicle.

A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute shows that 41 percent of adult respondents to an online survey are "very interested" in riding in a fully autonomous (self-driving and self-flying) flying car. That compares to 26 percent of those who are "very interested" in operating the aerocar themselves after obtaining an appropriate pilot license.

"Until recently, flying cars have existed primarily in the realm of science fiction, although patents for such vehicles extend to the early years of aviation," said Michael Sivak, a research professor at UMTRI. "However, recently there has been a rapid increase in interest in flying cars from companies ranging from large, international manufacturers to a variety of startups.

"In addition to major technological, traffic-control and licensing issues that still will need to be addressed, a big unknown is what consumers think of the concept of flying cars, and what the desirable parameters are for such a novel approach to mobility."

We already had flying cars in the 70's. Some of them sported the Stars and Bars, others were driven by a man named Evel.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

[Michael] Tang, a chemist who was feeling frustrated with his 8-year-old son for cheating on homework, decided to teach him an important life lesson – that money is hard to earn and slacking off at school could mean not having a home someday. Tang dropped Isaac off in a parking lot one mile from home and told him to walk the rest of the way. It was 7:45 p.m. in Corona, a city near Los Angeles, and the sun had barely set. Isaac knew the route home and was familiar with using pedestrian crossings.

When Tang sent his father to get Isaac after 15 minutes, the child already been picked up by police, alerted by someone who thought he was in danger because he was alone. Tang was arrested and spent the night in jail; but the punishment did not end there. Reason reports:

"A jury later convicted him of child endangerment, and the judge sentenced him to parenting classes and a 56-day work release program picking up trash and doing other menial work."

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Among scientists, there is a remarkable consensus that the current [food] policy direction cannot continue. These contradictions are unbearable – literally so, because if the world continues the trend to eat like the West, the burdens on ecosystems, healthcare systems and finance will be unsupportable. That, at least, is the uncomfortable conclusion one must draw, when one looks at the evidence.

But since when has the politics of consumption been about evidence? The few studies conducted into consumers' response to this big picture about unsustainable diets show that consumers become a little indignant when they find out. A careful study by Which? found consumers asking: why weren't we told about this? They want to know more. Rightly so, but how, and from whom?

Hard-pressed teachers turn to commerce for fact sheets. Parents are too often in the dark, if truth be told. Nor could any food label convey the depth and scale of what consumers really need to know. Giant food companies have replaced schools and parents as sources of public "education". They are the Nanny Corporations, replacing the fictitious Nanny State. They filter what people are to know. Coca-Cola's annual marketing budget is US$4billion (£3.18 billion), twice the entire World Health Organisation annual budget in 2014-15, and much more than its budget for non-communicable diseases ($0.32 billion) or for promoting health through the life-course ($0.39 billion).

How can this by unlocked? Consumers buying food too often without knowing the consequences. Politicians distancing themselves from this unfolding disaster. Workers and companies vying with each other to produce more for less. This is crazy ecological economics – self-defeating food culture. It piles up burdens on public health.

It's obvious really – a new politics of food has to unfold in which academics treat consumers with dignity and tell them the truth. Politics follows the public, not the other way round. So it's the public which must be helped. The neoliberal rhetoric is of consumer sovereignty, yet everywhere they are kept in the dark.

That must be why authorities are encouraging entomophagy: "Let them eat bugs!"

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Now, as a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, [Raul Polit-Casillas] is still very much in the world of textiles. He and his colleagues are designing advanced woven metal fabrics for use in space.

These fabrics could potentially be useful for large antennas and other deployable devices, because the material is foldable and its shape can change quickly. The fabrics could also eventually be used to shield a spacecraft from meteorites, for astronaut spacesuits, or for capturing objects on the surface of another planet. One potential use might be for an icy moon like Jupiter's Europa, where these fabrics could insulate the spacecraft. At the same time, this flexible material could fold over uneven terrain, creating "feet" that won't melt the ice under them.

The prototypes that Polit-Casillas and colleagues have created look like chain mail, with small silver squares strung together. But these fabrics were not sewn by hand; instead, they were "printed," created in one piece with advanced technologies.

Society for Creative Anachronism, space chapter, soon to follow?

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

Information security company Tanium is a relatively well-established "next-generation" cybersecurity vendor that was founded 10 years ago—far ahead of the wave of the venture capital-funded newcomers, like Cylance, who have changed the security software space. (Tanium has reached a market valuation of more than $3 billion, though there are no indications of when it will make an initial public offering.)

Starting in 2012, Tanium apparently had a secret weapon to help it compete with the wave of newcomers, which the company's executives used in sales demonstrations: a live customer network they could tap into for product demonstrations. There was just one problem: the customer didn't know that Tanium was using its network. And since the customer was a hospital, the Tanium demos—which numbered in the hundreds between 2012 and 2015, according to a Wall Street Journal report—exposed live, sensitive information about the hospital's IT systems. Until recently, some of that data was shown in publicly posted videos.

In 2010, Tanium's software was installed at Allscripts Healthcare Solutions' El Camino Hospital (which markets itself as "the hospital of Silicon Valley") in Santa Clara County, California. The hospital no longer has a relationship with Tanium. While Tanium did not have access to patient data, the demos showed desktop and server management details that were not anonymized.

"The hospital did not authorize desktop management data or other information to be used in any product demonstration and was not previously aware of these demonstrations or videos," El Camino Hospital told the Journal's Rolfe Winkler. "We are dismayed to learn that desktop and server management information was shared. We are thoroughly investigating this matter and take our responsibility to maintain the integrity of our systems very seriously."

[...] CEO Hindawi: "Viewers didn't connect demo to that customer for years."

Additional Coverage: WSJ, BI, HealthDataManagement, Ars Technica, Bloomberg.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

In 2014, consumers around the world discarded about 42 million metric tons of e-waste, according to a report by the United Nations University. This poses an environmental and human threat because electronic products are made up of many components, some of which are toxic or non-degradable. To help address the issue, Xinlong Wang and colleagues sought to develop a degradable material that could be used for electronic substrates or insulators.

The researchers started with polylactic acid, or PLA, which is a bioplastic that can be derived from corn starch or other natural sources and is already used in the packaging, electronics and automotive industries. PLA by itself, however, is brittle and flammable, and doesn't have the right electrical properties to be a good electronic substrate or insulator. But the researchers found that blending metal-organic framework nanoparticles with PLA resulted in a transparent film with the mechanical, electrical and flame retardant properties that make the material a promising candidate for use in electronics.

Original Study: DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.6b04204

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Microsoft blocked the delivery of Windows Updates recently to Windows 7 and 8.1 devices powered by a next-generation processor.

The company announced the support change in January 2017. Broken down to the essentials, it means that Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Bristol Ridge processors are only support by Windows 10, and not older versions of Windows.

To hammer that home, Microsoft made the decision to block Windows Update on Windows 7 or 8.1 PCs with those next generation processors.

The company introduced patches, KB4012218 and KB4012219 for instance, which introduced process generation and hardware support detection on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems.

Windows users who run Windows Update get the unsupported hardware error prompt when they try to scan for and download the latest patches for their -- still supported -- operating system.

GitHub user zeffy made the decision to take a closer look at how the actual blocking is done on the operating system level.

Details on exactly what was done are available in the article.

Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/04/18/bypass-for-windows-update-lock-for-modern-processors-found/

This will be especially handy for those whose machines were entitled to updates but were mistakenly blocked from receiving them.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Deprived of oxygen, naked mole-rats can survive by metabolizing fructose just as plants do, researchers report this week in the journal Science.

Understanding how the animals do this could lead to treatments for patients suffering crises of oxygen deprivation, as in heart attacks and strokes.

[...] In humans, laboratory mice, and all other known mammals, when brain cells are starved of oxygen they run out of energy and begin to die.

But naked mole-rats have a backup: their brain cells start burning fructose, which produces energy anaerobically through a metabolic pathway that is only used by plants -- or so scientists thought.

In the new study, the researchers exposed naked mole-rats to low oxygen conditions in the laboratory and found that they released large amounts of fructose into the bloodstream. The fructose, the scientists found, was transported into brain cells by molecular fructose pumps that in all other mammals are found only on cells of the intestine.

[...] At oxygen levels low enough to kill a human within minutes, naked mole-rats can survive for at least five hours... They go into a state of suspended animation, reducing their movement and dramatically slowing their pulse and breathing rate to conserve energy. And they begin using fructose until oxygen is available again.

[...] The scientists also showed that naked mole-rats are protected from another deadly aspect of low oxygen -- a buildup of fluid in the lungs called pulmonary edema that afflicts mountain climbers at high altitude.

The scientists think that the naked mole-rats' unusual metabolism is an adaptation for living in their oxygen-poor burrows. Unlike other subterranean mammals, naked mole-rats live in hyper-crowded conditions, packed in with hundreds of colony mates. With so many animals living together in unventilated tunnels, oxygen supplies are quickly depleted.

Journal Reference:
Thomas J. Park, et al.. Fructose-driven glycolysis supports anoxia resistance in the naked mole-rat. Science, 2017; 356 (6335): 307 DOI: 10.1126/science.aab3896

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/20/news/gm-venezuela-plant-seized/index.html

General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.

GM described the takeover as an "illegal judicial seizure of its assets."

The automaker said the seizure showed a "total disregard" of its legal rights. It said that authorities had removed assets including cars from company facilities.

"[GM] strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights," it said in a statement.

Authorities in Venezuela, which is mired in a severe economic crisis, did not respond to requests for comment.

It was not immediately clear why authorities seized the GM plant. Huge swaths of Venezuela's economy have been nationalized in the years since former President Hugo Chavez rose to power. Under Chavez, who took office in 1999, the state took control of private oil, telecommunications, energy and cement businesses.

President Nicolas Maduro has continued the tradition, while blaming the United States and its companies for Venezuela's economic and political problems.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

In a recent study, we investigated how many of the wealthiest and most influential people graduated college. We studied 11,745 U.S. leaders, including CEOs, federal judges, politicians, multi-millionaires and billionaires, business leaders and the most globally powerful men and women.

We found about 94 percent of these U.S. leaders attended college, and about 50 percent attended an elite school. Though almost everyone went to college, elite school attendance varied widely. For instance, only 20.6 percent of House members and 33.8 percent of 30-millionaires attended an elite school, but over 80 percent of Forbes' most powerful people did. For whatever reason, about twice as many senators – 41 percent – as House members went to elite schools.

For comparison, based on census and college data, we estimate that only about 2 to 5 percent of all U.S. undergraduates went to one of the elite schools in our study. The people from our study attended elite schools at rates well above typical expectations.

Why waste $150,000 on an education you could get for $1.50 in late fees at the public library?

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

"According to people familiar with the company's plans:"

The ad-blocking feature, which could be switched on by default within Chrome, would filter out certain online ad types deemed to provide bad experiences for users as they move around the web.

[...] In one possible application Google is considering, it may choose to block all advertising that appears on sites with offending ads, instead of the individual offending ads themselves. In other words, site owners may be required to ensure all of their ads meet the standards, or could see all advertising across their sites blocked in Chrome.

Google declined to comment.

The ad-blocking step may seem counter-intuitive given Google's reliance on online advertising revenue, but the move is a defensive one, people familiar with the plans said.

Uptake of online ad blocking tools has grown rapidly in recent years, with 26% of U.S. users now employing the software on their desktop devices, according to some estimates.

Source: Google Plans Ad-Blocking Feature in Popular Chrome Browser

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Demand for the visas far exceeds the 85,000 cap, meaning that the government has to ration them to firms by lottery. Indian outsourcing firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which provides low-cost back-office services, are now the biggest employers of H-1B workers. Analysing data compiled by Théo Négri of jobsintech.io, The Economist found that between 2012 and 2015 the three biggest Indian outsourcing firms—TCS, Wipro and Infosys—submitted over 150,000 visa applications for positions that paid a median salary of $69,500. In contrast, America's five biggest tech firms—Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft—submitted just 31,000 applications, and proposed to pay their workers a median salary of $117,000.

The Economist reassures us that, "Given that the unemployment rate for college graduates sits at 2.5%, it is fair to say that most native workers displaced by H-1Bs land on their feet."

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-19/qualcomm-s-chip-unit-expansion-helps-deflect-lawsuit-concerns

Qualcomm Inc., the biggest maker of chips used in mobile phones, said a push into new markets such as automotive and connected devices bolstered sales in the second quarter, helping relieve concerns that growth will be hurt by legal challenges in its licensing business.

[...] Qualcomm's net income in the fiscal second quarter, which ended March 26, fell to $749 million, or 50 cents a share. Excluding certain items, profit was $1.34 a share, compared with an average estimate of $1.19. Adjusted sales gained 8 percent to $5.99 billion. Analysts had predicted revenue of $5.87 billion.

[...] The results help validate Mollenkopf's decision to acquire NXP Semiconductor Inc. for $47 billion -- the biggest purchase in the company's history, due to close later this year -- to ease Qualcomm's reliance on the smartphone market. The semiconductor maker said its licensing business, which generates the majority of profit, didn't receive full royalty payments associated with phones sold by Apple Inc., which is suing Qualcomm, claiming the company abused its position to create a monopoly in chips. Qualcomm has countersued.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Canadian authorities caught 887 asylum seekers crossing unlawfully into Canada from the United States in March, nearly triple the number in January.

This brings the total number of asylum seekers caught walking across the border to 1,860 so far this year. The new statistics suggest those numbers could rise further as the weather warms.

Canada is on track to see the highest number of asylum claims in six years, given the pace of claims filed so far, as increasing numbers of people cross into Canada to make refugee claims in the wake of US President Donald Trump's election and his crackdown on refugees and migrants.

"The majority of irregular migrants are holders of visas for the United States," according to a statement released Wednesday from the office of Canada's Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

Isn't fleeing to Canada to escape what's happening in the US rather like fleeing to Poland to escape what happened in Germany?

Original Submission