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takyon writes:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/jp-morgan-quorum-zcash-privacy,34477.html

The Zerocoin Electric Coin Company (ZECC), which developed the Zcash digital currency, announced a partnership with J.P. Morgan to integrate Zcash technology into the financial company's enterprise blockchain platform, Quorum.

Last year, Zcash was introduced as the first truly private digital currency, also called by its founders the "HTTPS for money." The high degree of privacy is afforded by recent breakthroughs in cryptographic technologies called "zero knowledge proofs." The privacy of the payments and of the sender and receiver is guaranteed mathematically. Only the fact that a transaction was made remains transparent to the network. Even the amount of the transaction remains private.

[...] J.P. Morgan's Quorum platform will implement Zcash's zero-knowledge security layer (ZSL) in the same way the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol was implemented by websites in the early days of the internet to secure transactions. The ZSL layer will give Quorum the same privacy features of Zcash, but it will also allow J.P. Morgan to scale down some privacy protections if necessary to comply with government regulations.

Zcash and Quorum.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Guardian has posted a number of documents in connection with their investigation of Facebook's policies:

Facebook's secret rules and guidelines for deciding what its 2 billion users can post on the site are revealed for the first time in a Guardian investigation that will fuel the global debate about the role and ethics of the social media giant.

The Guardian has seen more than 100 internal training manuals, spreadsheets and flowcharts that give unprecedented insight into the blueprints Facebook has used to moderate issues such as violence, hate speech, terrorism, pornography, racism and self-harm. There are even guidelines on match-fixing and cannibalism.

The Facebook Files give the first view of the codes and rules formulated by the site, which is under huge political pressure in Europe and the US.

They illustrate difficulties faced by executives scrabbling to react to new challenges such as "revenge porn" – and the challenges for moderators, who say they are overwhelmed by the volume of work, which means they often have "just 10 seconds" to make a decision. "Facebook cannot keep control of its content," said one source. "It has grown too big, too quickly."

Many moderators are said to have concerns about the inconsistency and peculiar nature of some of the policies. Those on sexual content, for example, are said to be the most complex and confusing.

Dominik Joe Pantůček writes:

A shameless self-promotion for a first submitted story.

As a part of my MSc studies in computing, during writing an assignment for the Computer and Network Security module, one of the tasks was to explain how public key infrastructure (PKI) works in layman terms. Given the fact my work revolves around information security (and especially cryptography) since 1999 and I am a musician, my advisor joked I could write a song about it. I told him he's nuts and that there's just no way you can write a song about PKI.

Few days later I couldn't stop thinking about it and actually composed something. My advisor created a (quite generic) video and uploaded the thing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp9JriLfH1w

As I learned later, the song become quite accepted within various security and cryptography communities. The only downside is the video.

The audio is - of course - CC-BY-SA. Composing, recording, vocals and everything made by me (I noted it upfront this is gonna be a shameless self-promotion).

On a side note, the whole thing was composed on Gentoo Linux in emacs (yes, I am one of those) and recorded using Rosegarden, FluidSynth, jack-audio-connection-kit, generic M-Audio Oxygen61 MIDI keyboard and Audix OM-6 microphone. It was never meant to be actully published so generic Intel HDA codec was used. If anyone could produce a decent video, I can re-record the audio tracks in better quality in my garage studio. The current version - including microphone audio tracks - were recorded in the computer lab. And yes, the bass line should be polished. I know.

If any of the Soylentils could create a video that would actually fit the lyrics, it might become - with is short duration - a useful explanation of how PKI works. And being one of Solentils, contacting me is as easy as writing a comment under the story. Rest assured, I am here all the time :)

[Ed. Note: We don't usually run stories whose sole content is a video, but this seems like it could spark interesting discussion. It would be helpful if the author could post the lyrics in a comment.]

[Ed. Note 2: This puts me in mind of the Dance Your Ph.D. contest they run over at Science Magazine.]

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The federal government has, in recent years, paid debt collectors close to $1 billion annually to help distressed borrowers climb out of default and scrounge up regular monthly payments. New government figures suggest much of that money may have been wasted.

Nearly half of defaulted student-loan borrowers who worked with debt collectors to return to good standing on their loans defaulted again within three years, according to an analysis by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For their work, debt collectors receive up to $1,710 in payment from the U.S. Department of Education each time a borrower makes good on soured debt through a process known as rehabilitation. They keep those funds even if borrowers subsequently default again, contracts show. The department has earmarked more than $4.2 billion for payments to its debt collectors since the start of the 2013 fiscal year, federal spending data show.

[...] Officials at the CFPB say the government should reexamine whether the loan program, and the lucrative contracts it bestows on private firms, is working for the millions of Americans struggling to repay their taxpayer-backed student debt.

"When student loan companies know that nearly half of their highest-risk customers will quickly fail, it's time to fix the broken system that makes this possible," said Seth Frotman, the consumer bureau's top student-loan official.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

"cafebabe" writes:

In 2009, after undergoing the Daily Mail's rigorous investigation and fact-checking process, the Daily Mail reported that social networks (such as Facebook) reduce levels of interaction leading to reduced oxytocin and increased stress. In 2017, the Daily Mail reported that social networks (such as Facebook) encourage excessive tanning in an effort to improve appearance in selfies.

Soylentils are advised to avoid social networks, the Daily Mail, oxytocin, oxycontin, daylight, nightlight, selfies and the JavaScript which runs the Daily Mail headline generator.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the this economics whitepaper discussing the many ways in which American workers get underpaid.:

For the past four decades, the majority of American workers have been shortchanged by economic policymaking that has suppressed the growth of hourly wages and prevented greater improvements in living standards. Achieving a secure, middle-class lifestyle has become increasingly difficult as hourly pay for most workers has either stagnated or declined. For millions of the country's lowest-paid workers, financial security is even more fleeting because of unscrupulous employers stealing a portion of their paychecks.

Wage theft, the practice of employers failing to pay workers the full wages to which they are legally entitled, is a widespread and deep-rooted problem that directly harms millions of U.S. workers each year. Employers refusing to pay promised wages, paying less than legally mandated minimums, failing to pay for all hours worked, or not paying overtime premiums deprives working people of billions of dollars annually. It also leaves hundreds of thousands of affected workers and their families in poverty. Wage theft does not just harm the workers and families who directly suffer exploitation; it also weakens the bargaining power of workers more broadly by putting downward pressure on hourly wages in affected industries and occupations. For many low-income families who suffer wage theft, the resulting loss of income forces them to rely more heavily on public assistance programs, unduly straining safety net programs and hamstringing efforts to reduce poverty.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A father and son team inspired by the Transformers film series have turned their Russian-made Lada into a shape-shifting robot with fully-functioning automatic weapons.

Gennadiy Kocherga and his son Sergey, spent almost six months turning their VAZ-2110 Lada into their own version of a character from the popular movie franchise. And their efforts went on full display at the Oryol stunt show in Russia this week.

The Youtube video is interesting, if for nothing other than the lack of special effects.

Source: https://www.rt.com/viral/389064-lada-gun-tranformer-robot/

Original Submission

martyb writes:

SoyentNews is staffed by volunteers who give of their time and knowledge to provide a forum where people can discuss stories submitted by the community. We have no outside funding source.

Per our advance announcement on Saturday, May 20th, we completed our site update... one day ahead of schedule! And, even more amazingly, the community came together and we had over four dozen people subscribe since then! THANK YOU! Read on for more details.

Fnord666 writes:

Delta is testing a face-scanning kiosk for baggage check.

The machine allows passengers to bypass check-in agents. It uses facial recognition technology to match your identity to your passport photo. You tag your own bags, pay the fee and drop your luggage on a conveyor belt.

Passengers without passports can still check their own bags, but they need a Delta agent to confirm their identities.

Delta will test four of the machines at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this summer. The airline spent $600,000 on the four kiosks.

Delta said the kiosks could allow the airline to move twice as many passengers per hour through check-in.

Source: CNN

Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-station-idUSKBN18H0XQ

A pair of astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station as early as Tuesday for an emergency space walk to replace a failed computer, one of two that control major U.S. systems aboard the orbiting outpost, NASA said on Sunday.

The primary device failed on Saturday, leaving the $100 billion orbiting laboratory to depend on a backup system to route commands to its solar power system, radiators, cooling loops and other equipment.

The station's current five-member crew from the United States, Russia and France were never in any danger, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement.

NASA expects to make a decision later on Sunday about which astronauts aboard the station will make the two-hour space walk and when the assignment will take place.

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Patients would no longer have to wake up in the middle of the night to take their pills, Purdue told doctors. One OxyContin tablet in the morning and one before bed would provide "smooth and sustained pain control all day and all night."

When Purdue unveiled OxyContin in 1996, it touted 12-hour duration.

On the strength of that promise, OxyContin became America's bestselling painkiller, and Purdue reaped $31 billion in revenue.

But OxyContin's stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. OxyContin is a chemical cousin of heroin, and when it doesn't last, patients can experience excruciating symptoms of withdrawal, including an intense craving for the drug.

The problem offers new insight into why so many people have become addicted to OxyContin, one of the most abused pharmaceuticals in U.S. history.

Over the last 20 years, more than 7 million Americans have abused OxyContin, according to the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The drug is widely blamed for setting off the nation's prescription opioid epidemic, which has claimed more than 190,000 lives from overdoses involving OxyContin and other painkillers since 1999.

The internal Purdue documents reviewed by The Times come from court cases and government investigations and include many records sealed by the courts. They span three decades, from the conception of OxyContin in the mid-1980s to 2011, and include emails, memos, meeting minutes and sales reports, as well as sworn testimony by executives, sales reps and other employees.

The documents provide a detailed picture of the development and marketing of OxyContin, how Purdue executives responded to complaints that its effects wear off early, and their fears about the financial impact of any departure from 12-hour dosing.

takyon writes:

The New York Times reports that the Central Intelligence Agency faced one of its worst intelligence gathering setbacks in decades when many of its informants in China were killed or imprisoned between 2010 and 2012. To this day, it is unknown how the identities of the informants were compromised:

From the final weeks of 2010 through the end of 2012, according to former American officials, the Chinese killed at least a dozen of the C.I.A.'s sources. According to three of the officials, one was shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of a government building — a message to others who might have been working for the C.I.A.

Still others were put in jail. All told, the Chinese killed or imprisoned 18 to 20 of the C.I.A.'s sources in China, according to two former senior American officials, effectively unraveling a network that had taken years to build.

Assessing the fallout from an exposed spy operation can be difficult, but the episode was considered particularly damaging. The number of American assets lost in China, officials said, rivaled those lost in the Soviet Union and Russia during the betrayals of both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, formerly of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., who divulged intelligence operations to Moscow for years.

The previously unreported episode shows how successful the Chinese were in disrupting American spying efforts and stealing secrets years before a well-publicized breach in 2015 gave Beijing access to thousands of government personnel records, including intelligence contractors. The C.I.A. considers spying in China one of its top priorities, but the country's extensive security apparatus makes it exceptionally hard for Western spy services to develop sources there.

Also at BBC, which notes:

Last year, China warned government officials to watch out for spies - and not fall in love with them

This CIA story really helps put that "Don't date a foreigner!" campaign in perspective. You don't want to see your significant other bleeding out in the street, do you? DO YOU?!

Update: Chinese paper applauds anti-spy efforts after report CIA sources killed

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Several people in California have been affected by a botulism outbreak originating at a gas station. Botulinum bacteria are anaerobic and can contaminate improperly canned foods, such as a gas station's nacho cheese:

An outbreak of severe food poisoning in Sacramento, California, that left nine people in hospital has been linked to cheese sauce sold on nacho crisps at a family-run petrol station.

[...] Cases of botulism, a rare and sometimes fatal form of food poisoning, were first reported on 5 May and in total nine people are confirmed to have it. One of the victims is reportedly so ill she cannot speak or keep her eyes open.

[...] Botulism poisoning is caused by toxins released by a type of bacteria called Clostridium botulinum. Human digestive processes cannot break down the toxic chemical, which moves to the nervous system. Symptoms emerge in adults 18-36 hours after eating contaminated food.

Also at CBS and The Sacramento Bee.

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

IBM, one of the earliest companies to embrace the concept of employees working en masse from home or small satellite offices, has informed thousands of employees that it's time to return to the mothership—or find a new job. As The Wall Street Journal reports, this week is the deadline for remote employees—who make up as much as 40 percent of IBM's workforce—to decide whether to move or leave.

IBM once heralded the savings and productivity gains it won from its "Mobility Initiative." The company has also made untold millions over the past two decades selling software and consulting services, such as its Sametime instant messaging and voice products, to companies looking to support far-flung workforces.

Earlier this month, IBM touted research from IBM's Smarter Workforce Institute that found "remote workers... were highly engaged, more likely to consider their workplaces as innovative, happier about their job prospects and less stressed than their more traditional, office-bound colleagues."

But even as IBM was selling the magic of remote workforces to its customers, the company was dismantling its own "telework" program.

The story notes this might be a way to reduce staffing and avoid worker layoff protection laws at the same time.

Source: ArsTechnica

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Appearing first in Google Assistant and Google Photos, Google Lens uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to specifically identify things in the frame of a smartphone camera.

In Google's demo, not only did Google Lens identify a flower, but the species of flower. The demo also showed the automatic login to a wireless router when Google Lens was pointed at the router barcodes. And finally, Google Lens was shown identifying businesses by sight, popping up Google Maps cards for each establishment.

Google Lens is shiny and fun. But from the resulting media commentary, it was clear that the real implications were generally lost.

The common reaction was: "Oooh, look! Another toy for our smartphones! Isn't A.I. amazing!" In reality, Google showed us a glimpse of the future of general-purpose sensing. Thanks to machine learning, it's now possible to create a million different sensors in software using only one actual sensor -- the camera.

In Google's demo, it's clear that the camera functions as a "super-sensor." Instead of a flower-identification sensor, a bar-code reader and a retail-business identifier, Google Lens is just one all-purpose super-sensor with software-based, A.I.-fueled "virtual sensors" built in software either locally or in the cloud.

Talking about the Internet of Things (IoT) four years ago, the phrase "trillion sensor world" came into vogue in IT circles. Futurists vaguely imagined a trillion tiny devices with a trillion antennas and a trillion batteries (that had to be changed a trillion times a year).

In this future, we would be covered in wearable sensors. All merchandise and machinery would be tagged with RFID chips that would alert mounted readers to their locations. Special purpose sensors would pervade our homes, offices and workplaces.

We were so innocent then -- mostly about the promise and coming ubiquity of A.I. and machine learning.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission