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butthurt writes:

Taiwan's Council of Grand Justices (大法官) ruled that the current civil law banning same sex marriage is unconstitutional and that the legislature has two years to either amend the law or create a new law.

—Taiwan News

Legislation enforcing the court's ruling is already working its way through the legislature, where both the ruling and major opposition parties support legalisation as do a majority of Taiwanese people and President Tsai Ing-wen.

—news.com.au (News Corp)

A large percentage of the public in Taiwan has accepted the idea of same-sex marriage because leaders have elevated liberal social causes to show the island's democratic credentials in the face of China, a political rival that restricts free speech and association.

—Los Angeles Times

But the debate has prompted a backlash, with mass protests by conservatives in recent months.

—BBC News

Additional coverage:

• The Washington Post
• The Washington Times
• NPR
• CNN
• The New York Times
• Reuters
• Reuters (on reaction in PRC)
• Voice of America (U.S. government)
• The Sydney Morning Herald (opinion)
• Taiwan News (on media reaction)

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to give Wikimedia a chance to legally challenge the NSA's mass surveillance as being unconstitutional. The government has previously argued that the NSA's Upstream warrantless spying is authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [...]

The ruling yesterday reversed a lower court's ruling which found Wikimedia, which publishes the internet behemoth Wikipedia, couldn't prove the NSA's "Upstream" surveillance program was secretly monitoring its communications, vacuuming the communications right off the internet backbones – even with leaked Snowden documents showing Wikipedia as an NSA target.

[...] due to the sheer size of Wikimedia, the judges found that the NSA probably had seized at least some of their communications.

—Computerworld (hyperlinks in original)

"Wikimedia has plausibly alleged that its communications travel all of the roads that a communication can take, and that the NSA seizes all of the communications along at least one of those roads," U.S. Circuit Judge Albert Diaz wrote. "Thus, at least at this stage of the litigation, Wikimedia has standing to sue for a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And, because Wikimedia has self-censored its speech and sometimes forgone electronic communications in response to Upstream surveillance, it also has standing to sue for a violation of the First Amendment."

—Courthouse News Service

Further reading:
Wikipedia article on Upstream
Wikipedia article on Albert Diaz

looorg writes:

A gigantic new research submarine designed by Russia will travel underneath ice floes, mapping its underwater surroundings with a pair of huge plane-like wings. The sub will help Moscow exploit its Arctic frontier as it prepares to harvest previously untouchable natural resources.

The Arctic Research Submarine was designed by the famous Rubin Design Bureau, which was also responsible for the Typhoon-class missile submarines, the largest subs ever built. This vessel will weigh in at 13,280 tons, making easily the largest civilian research submersible ever built, and will be 442 feet long. The sub will have a maximum speed of 12.6 knots and a crew of 40.

The most striking detail is the presence of two sets of wing-like sonar receivers that give the sub a futuristic appearance. The "wings," which retract into the hull like the blade of a pocket knife, are meant to receive sonar signals broadcast from the ship's hull. This allows the Arctic Research Submarine to image its surroundings in all directions as it cruises along underwater at a leisurely 3 knots.

Probably then also great for tapping underwater cables (Operation Ivy Bells)

Source: Popular Mechanics

[Ed. note: Javascript may be required to view pictures]

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Ford Motor Co. this week tapped Jim Hackett—a former office furniture chief executive who has been running its ride- and vehicle-sharing division since March 2016—to assume leadership of the company.

Hackett's assignment: to transform the 114-year-old automaker from a company that designs and sells vehicles driven by their owners into one that makes autonomous vehicles (see "What to Know Before You Get In a Self-Driving Car"). He quickly got to work announcing a series of executive shifts, including the return of Sherif Marakby, who had left the car maker for Uber last year, to oversee Ford's self-driving and electric car businesses.

Today carmakers sell to individual drivers through an extensive network of dealers, which makes profits both selling and servicing cars. In a world of self-driving vehicles, individuals could stop buying cars, and instead use fleets owned and operated by a third party. Ford and its competitors could become the manufacturer and third-party owner, a seller of rides as well as vehicles.

Hackett, 62, lands the job right as the auto industry seems on the verge of a cyclical downturn in sales following six straight years of unit-sales increases, and following several years of poor stock performance for the company. Unlike the man he is replacing—Mark Fields, a 28-year Ford veteran who guided the automaker for less than three years—Hackett does not have a conventional résumé for an auto industry chief executive. He is best known for running Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Steelcase Inc., once a maker of desks and filing cabinets. He gained a reputation in Silicon Valley as a creative thinker skilled at leading comprehensive organizational change, and attracted the attention of Bill Ford Jr., the automaker's executive chairman. After Steelcase he spent 17 months as interim athletic director at the University of Michigan—where he had played football under the legendary Bo Schembechler—overhauling a struggling football program.

Wake me when they have self-driving bicycles.

Original Submission

butthurt writes:

According to a report by the Congressional Research Service (PDF hosted on Cloudflare; archived copy here),

Although life expectancy has generally been increasing over time in the United States, researchers have long documented that it is lower for individuals with lower socioeconomic status (SES) compared with individuals with higher SES. Recent studies provide evidence that this gap has widened in recent decades. For example, a 2015 study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found that for men born in 1930, individuals in the highest income quintile (top 20%) could expect to live 5.1 years longer at age 50 than men in the lowest income quintile. This gap has increased significantly over time. Among men born in 1960, those in the top income quintile could expect to live 12.7 years longer than men in the bottom income quintile. This NAS study finds similar patterns for women: the life expectancy gap between the bottom and top income quintiles of women expanded from 3.9 years for the 1930 birth cohort to 13.6 years for the 1960 birth cohort.

Apparently, all the advances in medical science and healthy living that occurred during this rolling 30-year interval were visited upon the rich a lot more than on the poor.

—The American Prospect

According to a different study (open; DOI 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.0918; archived copy here) in JAMA Internal Medicine,

[...] inequalities in life expectancy among counties are large and growing, and much of the variation in life expectancy can be explained by differences in socioeconomic and race/ethnicity factors, behavioral and metabolic risk factors, and health care factors.

In 2014, there was a spread of 20.1 years between the counties with the longest and shortest typical life spans based on life expectancy at birth.

—NPR

additional coverage:

• Boston Globe (about CRS report)
• WPVI-TV (about JAMA study)
• Time (about JAMA study; Javascript required)
• WESA-FM (about JAMA study)
• The Park Record (about JAMA study)

• ---

  Original Submission

takyon writes:

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/creationist-geologist-sues-us-park-service-after-it-rejects-request-collect-samples

The Interior Department is facing a lawsuit from a Christian geologist who claims he was not allowed to collect rocks from Grand Canyon National Park because of his creationist beliefs.

In the suit filed earlier this month, the Australian geologist, Andrew Snelling, says that religious discrimination was behind the National Park Service's (NRS's) decision to deny him a permit to gather samples from four locations in the park.

Snelling had hoped to gather the rocks to support the creationist belief that a global flood about 4,300 years ago was responsible for rock layers and fossil deposits around the world.

NPS's actions "demonstrate animus towards the religious viewpoints of Dr. Snelling," the complaint alleges, "and violate Dr. Snelling's free exercise rights by imposing inappropriate and unnecessary religious tests to his access to the park."

The lawsuit was filed May 9 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. NPS has yet to respond to the allegations.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-26/apple-said-to-plan-dedicated-chip-to-power-ai-on-devices

Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company's devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn't been made public. Apple declined to comment.

[...] Apple devices currently handle complex artificial intelligence processes with two different chips: the main processor and the graphics chip. The new chip would let Apple offload those tasks onto a dedicated module designed specifically for demanding artificial intelligence processing, allowing Apple to improve battery performance.

Should Apple bring the chip out of testing and development, it would follow other semiconductor makers that have already introduced dedicated AI chips. Qualcomm Inc.'s latest Snapdragon chip for smartphones has a module for handling artificial intelligence tasks, while Google announced its first chip, called the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), in 2016.

Google will supposedly put mini TPUs into smartphones in the coming years.

Previously:
Google's New TPUs are Now Much Faster -- will be Made Available to Researchers

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Raspberry Pi is merging with a "global coding skills network":

We've got some great news to share today: the Raspberry Pi Foundation is joining forces with the CoderDojo Foundation, in a merger that will give many more young people all over the world new opportunities to learn how to be creative with technology.

CoderDojo is a global network of coding clubs for kids from seven to 17. The first CoderDojo took place in July 2011 when James Whelton and Bill Liao decided to share their passion for computing by setting up a club at the National Software Centre in Cork. The idea was simple: provide a safe and social place for young people to acquire programming skills, learning from each other and supported by mentors.

[...] The CoderDojo Foundation will continue as an independent charity, based in Ireland. Nothing about CoderDojo's brand or ethos is changing as a result of this merger. CoderDojos will continue to be platform-neutral, using whatever kit they need to help young people learn.

Also at VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and ZDNet.

Original Submission

charon writes:

[Update: Thanks to an AC who pointed out this is a dupe of a story we previously ran: "Surfing the Internet… From My TRS-80 Model 100". As folks have already commented on this story, we'll leave it up should you wish to post new insights. --martyb]

There will always be, shall we say, driven people who want to connect ancient computer hardware to something more modern. Their Frankenstein's monster-like creations are amusing and amazing and slightly appalling. Witness: The TRS-80 Model 100!

In case you're not familiar with it or perhaps have confused it in some way with the slightly more famous TRS-80 desktop, the TRS-80 Model 100 (affectionately known among retro-computing buffs as the "T100") is the Radio Shack-branded version of an early "laptop" computer developed by Kyocera and Microsoft. It was the last system for which Bill Gates wrote a significant amount of code. As we reported in our initial hands-on tour of the Model 100, he considered it his favorite machine ever. (Sadly, Gates was unavailable to take this trip with us down memory lane.)

The machine has some nostalgic significance to me as well—I filed one of my first assignments as a technology journalist with a Model 100, connecting to MCI Mail over dial-up in a phone booth using acoustic couplers. At the time, the machine was a reporter's dream: 20 hours or more of life on four AA batteries plus built-in text editing, address book, calendar, and communications applications burned into an onboard ROM chip. It was easy to overlook the fact that even the top-end Model 100 only had 24 kilobytes of RAM. Literally any modern device surpasses that figure.

My current Model 100 came with a bit of a handicap; it didn't include the AC power supply, the original cables, or the cassette drive used to store and retrieve programs. The documentation was a photocopied, ring-bound duplicate for NEC's version of the same system, so there were a few minor but significant differences. And while many current Model 100 enthusiasts have upgraded the ROM of their systems to extend their capabilities, this one came with the stock ROM from 1984.

To date, I have a well-documented history of trying to drag 1980s technology into the 21st Century. I wasn't going to let a little thing like "no possible way of loading a TCP/IP stack" get in my way.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Serious problems with British Airways' IT systems have led to thousands of passengers having their plans disrupted, after all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick were cancelled.

Passengers described "chaotic" scenes at the airports, with some criticising BA for a lack of information.

The airline has apologised, and told passengers not to come to the airport.

BA chief executive Alex Cruz said: "We believe the root cause was a power supply issue."

In a video statement released via Twitter, he added: "I am really sorry we don't have better news as yet, but I can assure you our teams are working as hard as they can to resolve these issues."

Mr Cruz said there was no evidence the computer problems were the result of a cyber attack.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers from the University of Seville have published the study "To take or not to take the laptop or tablet to classes, that is the question", which has been selected for publication by the internationally recognised review Computers in Human Behavior, which deals with the social implications of new technology. In the article, the socio-economic factors that determine the use of laptops and tablets in university classrooms in Seville are analysed, as well as the factors that limit their use. It also explains the possible Trojan horse effect that inappropriate use of such devices might have, especially tablets, on a lack of academic engagement.

The study, carried out by the researchers José Ignacio Castillo Manzano, Mercedes Castro Nuño, Lourdes López Valpuesta, Teresa Sanz Díaz and Rocío Yñiguez Ovando, concludes that the profile of the laptop user in the classroom is different from that of the tablet user. In the first case, maturity takes precedence, that is to say, they are students who have experience in the use of laptops in pre-university education or who have been at the university for several years: as well as having different socio-economic characteristics like living away from their parents, without having any family member to look after. For their part, tablet users are usually female, they live with their parents and they have just left school.
...
For the authors, the high correlation between student tablet use and greater activity on social networks is worrying. For the teacher José Ignacio Castillo, these devices, especially the tablets, "are a double-edged sword, and, as other studies have also highlighted, they can be the Trojan horse in which online entertainment invades the classroom in a massive way. It would be justifiable to evaluate limiting access to university Wi-Fi for contents that have little or no academic value, at least during class hours, if we don't want the utopia to become a dystopia".

The study also showed that there are no intellectual or technical barriers to the use of these devices in a generation of clearly digital natives, so their use is not linked to the students' technical knowledge, nor even to the marks they obtained at school.

For Castillo, according to the demands stated by the students in the study, the construction of this new paradigm demands an active role on the part of universities, improving both the physical infrastructure, especially the number of plug sockets in the classrooms, and the virtual infrastructure, especially the quality of the Wi-Fi connection. At the same time, the involvement of teachers has to be encouraged, by financing support programmes for teaching innovation, so that it is easier for teachers to encourage greater use of mobile devices in the way they teach. According to Castillo, the results of the study clearly show that the students want to get greater academic benefits from their devices in the classroom, to compensate not just for the economic investment that they have made in their laptop or tablet, but also for the personal cost of carrying them around every day.

Do laptops and tablets in the lecture hall do anything but distract students from the lesson?

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

Ad blockers, our last hope against the onslaught of malvertising campaigns, appear to have fallen, as today, Malwarebytes published new research detailing a malvertising campaign that successfully bypasses ad blockers to deliver their malicious payload.

This malvertising campaign is named RoughTed based on the initial malicious domain at which it was found back in March 2017, but Jérôme Segura, the Malwarebytes security researcher who came across it, says there are clues to show that RoughTed has been active for over a year.

The campaign is very complex and well designed (from a crook's standpoint), as it leverages multiple tricks of the trade, most of which have allowed it to grow undetected in the shadows for so much time.

The word that describes RoughTed the best is "diversity." The operators of this malvertising campaign not only feature traffic from different types of sources, but also include different user fingerprinting techniques, and very different malicious payloads.

Source: BleepingComputer. Segura's original blog posting and analysis.

Original Submission

Mr. Anonymous Coward writes:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) relied on faulty analysis to justify its refusal to adopt a critical measure for protecting Americans from the occurrence of a catastrophic nuclear-waste fire at any one of dozens of reactor sites around the country, according to an article in the May 26 issue of Science magazine. Catastrophic consequences, which could be triggered by a large earthquake or a terrorist attack, could be largely avoided by regulatory measures that the NRC refuses to implement. Using a biased regulatory analysis, the agency excluded the possibility of an act of terrorism as well as the potential for damage from a fire beyond 50 miles of a plant.

[...] "The NRC has been pressured by the nuclear industry, directly and through Congress, to low-ball the potential consequences of a fire because of concerns that increased costs could result in shutting down more nuclear power plants," said paper co-author Frank von Hippel, a senior research physicist at Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security (SGS), based at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "Unfortunately, if there is no public outcry about this dangerous situation, the NRC will continue to bend to the industry's wishes."

[...] The NRC analysis found that a fire in a spent-fuel pool at an average nuclear reactor site would cause $125 billion in damages. After correcting for errors and omissions, the researchers found that millions of residents in surrounding communities would have to relocate for years, resulting in total damages of $2 trillion—nearly 20 times the NRC's result. Considering the nuclear industry is only legally liable for $13.6 billion, thanks to the Price Anderson Act of 1957, U.S. taxpayers would have to cover the remaining costs.

[...] "In far too many instances, the NRC has used flawed analysis to justify inaction, leaving millions of Americans at risk of a radiological release that could contaminate their homes and destroy their livelihoods," said Lyman. "It is time for the NRC to employ sound science and common-sense policy judgments in its decision-making process."

Source: Phys.org

Nuclear safety regulation in the post-Fukushima era (Science 26 May 2017: Vol. 356, Issue 6340, pp. 808-809 DOI: 10.1126/science.aal4890)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

It's the worst nightmare of anyone who suffers from ophidiophobia. According to a new study, snakes are not the solitary hunters and eaters we perceive them to be. In fact, some of the slithery reptiles coordinate their missions to increase their success rate.

For the study, Vladimir Dinets, a research assistant professor of psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, observed the Cuban boa — the island nation's largest native terrestrial predator — hunting for food in bat caves.

Source: Time

The study, 'Coordinated Hunting by Cuban Boas', was published in the journal Animal Behavior and Cognition. [PDF]

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Who doesn't love a good deal?

If you do, it's time to head on over to your local RadioShack. The iconic retailer is now selling the last of its remaining office supplies as part of a liquidation process brought by a bankruptcy filed in March, and everything must go.

RadioShack is peddling pretty much everything it still owns, including some very questionable items like these waterlogged clipboards (for only 50 cents!) and a giant 50 gallon trash can that frankly has no business being anywhere except for a suburban mall. Still, it's super cheap, so why not pick one up if you have the space for it?

Source: Gizmodo

Original Submission