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Phoenix666 writes:

Google's use of Brits' medical records to train an AI and treat people was legally "inappropriate," says Dame Fiona Caldicott, the National Data Guardian at the UK's Department of Health.

In April 2016 it was revealed the web giant had signed a deal with the Royal Free Hospital in London to build an artificially intelligent application called Streams, which would analyze patients' records and identify those who had acute kidney damage.

As part of the agreement, the hospital handed over 1.6 million sets of NHS medical files to DeepMind, Google's highly secretive machine-learning nerve center. However, not every patient was aware that their data was being given to Google to train the Streams AI model. And the software was supposed to be used only as a trial – an experiment with software-driven diagnosis – yet it was ultimately used to detect kidney injuries in people and alert clinicians that they needed treatment.

Dame Caldicott has told the hospital's medical director Professor Stephen Powis that he overstepped the mark: it's one thing to create and test an application, it's another thing entirely to use in-development code to treat people. Proper safety trials must be carried out for medical systems, she said.

We are going to see many more stories like this.

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takyon writes:

WikiLeaks announced Friday it is prepared to pay $100,000 for any tapes of conversations between President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey. The message was sent out from its Twitter account just hours after Trump sent out his own tweet apparently warning Comey not to leak information to the media because of tapes he has of their meetings.

Update: U.S. lawmakers ask Trump to turn over any Comey tapes. Background on Comey's firing.

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takyon writes:

Hackers have obtained a copy of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and are threatening to release portions of it unless Disney pays a Bitcoin ransom:

Although Iger did not mention the movie by name during the meeting, Deadline reports that it's a copy of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.'

[...] The "ransom" demand from the hacker is reminiscent of another prominent entertainment industry leak, where the requested amount of Bitcoin was not paid. Just a few weeks ago a group calling itself TheDarkOverlord (TDO) published the premiere episode of the fifth season of Netflix's Orange is The New Black, followed by nine more episodes a few hours later.

[...] There is no indication that the previous and threatened leaks are related in any way. TorrentFreak has seen a list of movies and TV-shows TDO said they have in their possession, but the upcoming 'Pirates' movie isn't among them.

Disney has refused to pay a ransom and is cooperating with the FBI.

Previously: Claim: Hackers Leak 'Orange is the New Black' after Netflix Did Not Pay Ransom

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

"These flies have highly specialized ears that provide the most acute directional hearing of any animal," says Andrew Mason, a professor of biology at U of T Scarborough. "The mechanism that makes their hearing so exceptional has even led to a range of bio-inspired technology, like the mini directional microphones used in hearing aids."

[... W]hat makes the fly truly remarkable is its mechanically-coupled ears. Unlike most animals that have two separate ears, both of Ormia's eardrums are connected together, kind of like a seesaw with a rigid joint in the middle that can bend. When one of eardrums vibrates from a sound wave it pushes the other, and the tiny time difference it takes to activate one ear drum allows the fly to figure out which direction the sound is coming from.

"It's interesting that something so small can be sensitive to the direction of sound," says Mason. "They're tiny relative to the wavelength of sound they're able to localize, so they shouldn't be able to do what they do but they can because of the mechanical coupling."

Engineers are interested in using the same principle found in Ormia's coupled eardrums to develop artificial sensors. These sensors could better locate signals for a range of uses where the size of the object relative to the signal might be a limiting factor -- from hearing aids, to gunshot detectors, to different types of radar.

-- submitted from IRC

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

At the start of my teaching career, when I was fresh out of graduate school, I briefly considered trying to pass myself off as a cool professor. Luckily, I soon came to my senses and embraced my true identity as a young fogey.

After one too many students called me by my first name and sent me email that resembled a drunken late-night Facebook post, I took a very fogeyish step. I began attaching a page on etiquette to every syllabus: basic rules for how to address teachers and write polite, grammatically correct emails.

Over the past decade or two, college students have become far more casual in their interactions with faculty members. My colleagues around the country grumble about students' sloppy emails and blithe informality.

[...] Sociologists who surveyed undergraduate syllabuses from 2004 and 2010 found that in 2004, 14 percent addressed issues related to classroom etiquette; six years later, that number had more than doubled, to 33 percent. This phenomenon crosses socio-economic lines. My colleagues at Stanford gripe as much as the ones who teach at state schools, and students from more privileged backgrounds are often the worst offenders.

-- submitted from IRC

Source: The New York Times

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

There is no vaccine. No medication. And, no quick, reliable test for Zika virus ... until now. Babies born with the virus often have lifelong, devastating birth defects. Testing for the virus currently involves trained medical staff drawing and mailing blood samples to a lab, a process that can take up to four weeks.

"Most adults with Zika have mild flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all. Couples trying to conceive might not even know if they are infected and at risk," Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak urology scientist Laura Lamb, Ph.D., said.

Dr. Lamb and her Beaumont colleagues developed a quick, simple test for Zika virus so easy to administer, you don't even need a doctor. It's a urine test that produces results in under 30 minutes.

"When we discovered we could reliably detect Zika virus in urine, we knew we had the potential to change lives all over the world," Dr. Lamb said.

-- submitted from IRC

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Japanese scientists have figured out how ladybugs fold their wings by transplanting a transparent artificial wing onto the insect and observing its underlying folding mechanism. The study's findings, which help explain how the wings can maintain their strength and rigidity during flight, while becoming elastic for compact folding and storage on the ground, provide hints for the innovative design of a wide range of deployable structures, from satellite antennas to microscopic medical instruments to articles for daily use like umbrellas and fans.

Ladybugs are highly mobile insects that can switch between walking and flying with ease and speed because they can quickly deploy and collapse their wings. Their wings consist of the hardened elytra, the forewings with the familiar spots, and the soft-membrane hindwings used for flight, which are covered and protected by the elytra.

Previous studies have suggested that up-and-down movements in the abdomen and complex origami-like crease patterns on the wings play an important role in the folding process, but how the simple motion produces such an intricate folded shape remained a mystery. Ladybugs close their elytra before wing folding, preventing observation of the detailed process, and as the elytra are essential elements for folding, they also cannot be removed to reveal what lies underneath.

To study the folding mechanism and structure, a Japanese research group constructed a transparent artificial elytron from ultraviolet light-cured resin -- often applied in nail art -- using a silicon impression of an elytron they removed from a Coccinella septempunctata spotted ladybug, and transplanted it to replace the missing forewing.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Math is hard. Indeed, much of the modern infrastructure for secure communication depends heavily on the difficulty of elementary mathematics — of factoring, to be exact. It's easy to reduce a small number like 15 to its prime factors (3 x 5), but factoring numbers with a few hundred digits is still exceedingly difficult. For this reason, the RSA cryptosystem, an encryption scheme that derives its security from the difficulty of integer factorization, remains a popular tool for secure communication.

Research suggests, however, that a quantum computer would be able to factor a large number far more quickly than the best available methods today. If researchers could build a quantum computer that could outperform classical supercomputers, the thinking goes, cryptographers could use a particular algorithm called Shor's algorithm to render the RSA cryptosystem unsalvageable. The deadline to avert this may arrive sooner than we think: Google recently claimed that its quantum computers will be able to perform a calculation that's beyond the reach of any classical computer by the end of the year. In light of this, cryptographers are scrambling to find a new quantum-proof security standard.

Yet perhaps RSA isn't in as much trouble as researchers have assumed. A few weeks ago, a paper surfaced on the Cryptology ePrint Archive that asked: "Is it actually true that quantum computers will kill RSA?" The authors note that even though a quantum computer running Shor's algorithm would be faster than a classical computer, the RSA algorithm is faster than both. And the larger the RSA "key" — the number that must be factored — the greater the speed difference.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

takyon writes:

China's President has pledged $124 billion for a new "Silk Road" connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe:

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged major multilateral institutions to join his new Belt and Road Initiative, stressing the importance of rejecting protectionism in seeking global economic growth.

Addressing other world leaders at a summit on the initiative in Beijing, Xi said it was necessary to coordinate policies with the development goals of institutions including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN, African Union and the European Union.

Xi pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his new Silk Road which aims to bolster China's global leadership ambitions by expanding links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond, as U.S. President Donald Trump promotes "America First".

What is OBOR?

No one is totally sure. At the most basic level, One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is a collection of interlinking trade deals and infrastructure projects throughout Eurasia and the Pacific, but the definition of what exactly qualifies as an OBOR project or which countries are even involved in the initiative is incredibly fuzzy. "It means everything and it means nothing at the same time," said Christopher Balding, a professor of economics at Peking University. [...] According to Chinese state media, some $1 trillion has already been invested in OBOR, with another several trillion due to be invested over the next decade.

Fuzzier story at CNN. More at Wikipedia.

Related: China Plans World's Longest Tunnel
China to Spend $182 Billion on Network Infrastructure
China Invests $45 Billion in Megacity Project
China Finances and Builds $13 Billion Railway in Kenya
China Plans $503 Billion Investment in High-Speed Rail by 2020

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Lyft and Waymo have signed a deal to bring autonomous cars into mainstream use:

As the race to bring self-driving vehicles to the public intensifies, two of Silicon Valley's most prominent players are teaming up. Waymo, the self-driving car unit that operates under Google's parent company, has signed a deal with the ride-hailing start-up Lyft, according to two people familiar with the agreement who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The deal calls for the companies to work together to bring autonomous vehicle technology into the mainstream through pilot projects and product development efforts, these people said.

[...] The deal between Waymo and Lyft has competitive implications for Uber, the world's biggest ride-hailing company, which has recently had to confront a spate of workplace and legal problems. Lyft is a distant No. 2 to Uber among ride-hailing services in the United States, and the two companies are bitter rivals. Waymo is also competing fiercely with Uber in the creation of technology for autonomous cars and is embroiled in a lawsuit over what it says is Uber's use of stolen Waymo trade secrets to develop such technology.

Details about the deal between Waymo and Lyft were scant. The companies declined to comment on what types of products would be brought to market as a result of it or when the public might see the fruits of the collaboration.

Also at The Verge.

Previously: Uber and Lyft: Settlements, Racism, and Auto Partnerships
Google Waymo Vehicles to Hit the Road This Month
GM and Lyft to Test Thousands of Self-Driving Electric Cars in 2018
Google Spin-Off Waymo Accuses Uber of Stealing Self-Driving Tech
Lyft Pays $27M to Settle Driver Classification Suit
Uber Tracked Lyft Drivers
Uber Engineer Must Reveal Reason for Pleading the Fifth to Judge
Uber Could Face Injunction Stopping It From Testing Driverless Cars

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n1 writes:

Google has taken a major step toward turning Android into a complete operating system for cars that doesn't require the use of a phone. The company announced partnerships with Audi and Volvo today, ahead of this week's I/O developer's conference, that will see those carmakers build new branded infotainment systems using Android 7.0 Nougat.

The manufacturer-tweaked versions of Google's operating system will power the cars' main touchscreen displays, as well as the digital dashboards behind the steering wheel. They will add new services like Google Assistant to the apps and integrations already available on Android Auto. But Android will now also control basic functions like heating and cooling, seat position, or opening and closing the windows. (It won't go as far as controlling critical safety systems like brakes, though, according to Google.) Volvo says it plans to launch its Android on new models within two years, while Audi will show its version off in the new Audi Q8 Sport concept.

Audi is owned by the Volkswagen Group based in Germany. Since the 2010 sale by Ford Motor Company, Volvo Cars has been owned by Geely, a Chinese automotive manufacturer.

Source: The Verge

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takyon writes:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday that he has directed his federal prosecutors to pursue the most severe penalties possible, including mandatory minimum sentences, in his first step toward a return to the war on drugs of the 1980s and 1990s that resulted in long sentences for many minority defendants and packed U.S. prisons.

[...] In the later years of the Obama administration, a bipartisan consensus emerged on Capitol Hill for sentencing reform legislation, which Sessions opposed and successfully worked to derail.

In a two-page memo to federal prosecutors across the country, Sessions overturned former attorney general Eric H. Holder's sweeping criminal charging policy that instructed his prosecutors to avoid charging certain defendants with offenses that would trigger long mandatory minimum sentences. In its place, Sessions told his more than 5,000 assistant U.S. attorneys to charge defendants with the most serious crimes, carrying the toughest penalties.

More at Washington Post, Fox News, Huffington Post, The Hill

Memorandum on Department Charging and Sentencing Policy - US Department of Justice PDF

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ticho writes:

Google Project Zero researchers Tavis Ormandy and Natalie Silvanovich claim to have found a critical vulnerability in Windows. The details of the flaw will likely be disclosed in 90 days from now even if a patch is not available.

Ormandy announced over the weekend on Twitter that he and Silvanovich had discovered "the worst Windows remote code exec [vulnerability] in recent memory."

The expert has not shared any details, but he has clarified that the exploit they created works against default Windows installations, and the attacker does not need to be on the same local area network as the victim. He also said the attack is "wormable."

[Ed - According to ghacks.net and ArsTechnica the vulnerability was in Windows Defender and has been patched by Microsoft - fnord]

Original Submission

takyon writes:

AMD is rumored to be releasing a line of Ryzen 9 "Threadripper" enthusiast CPUs that include 10, 12, 14, or 16 cores. This is in contrast to the Ryzen lines of AMD CPUs that topped out at the 8-core Ryzen 7 1800X with a base clock of 3.6 GHz.

Meanwhile, Intel is supposedly planning to release 6, 8, 10, and 12 core Skylake-X processors under an "Intel Core i9" designation. Two Kaby Lake-X, a quad-core and another quad-core with hyper-threading disabled, are also mentioned.

Finally, AMD's 32-core "Naples" server chips could be succeeded in late 2018 or 2019 by a 48-core 7nm part nicknamed "Starship". GlobalFoundries plans to skip the 10nm node, and where GF goes, AMD follows. Of course, according to Intel, what really matters are transistors per square millimeter.

All of the processors mentioned could be officially announced at Computex 2017, running from May 30 to June 3. Expect the high end desktop (HEDT) CPUs to be in excess of $500 and as high as $1,500. Intel may also announce Coffee Lake CPUs later this year including a "mainstream" priced 6-core chip.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Turkish police arrested the online editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper on Friday, an unidentified police official said.

Oguz Guven, the editor-in-chief of cumhuriyet.com.tr, was taken to Istanbul police headquarters, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The official said an arrest warrant was issued for Guven after the online edition published an article about the death of Mustafa Alper, the chief prosecutor of Denizli province, in southwest Turkey, who was killed in a car crash on Wednesday.

Early on Friday, Guven tweeted, "I am being taken into custody", without elaborating further.

Sigh. Poor Turkey.

Original Submission