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We're a bit late to the party, but for those who haven't seen on the Internet, today is a protest day for Net Neutrality, where sites across the internet are disrupting their normal operations to get the word out and get people to send a message. Ars Technica already has a fairly decent summary of who's doing what, and we stand with them and the rest of the Internet.

Due to real life issues, I was late on getting this together, but for the rest of the day, this article will remain on the top of the page and we will be blacking the theme of the site in protest [Technical issues among others precluded our doing so today --martyb].

If you're a US citizen, and want to get the word out, check Battle for the Net, and get the word out. In addition, there are long discussions going on reddit and other sites throughout the internet

Let's get the word out!

~ NCommander

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has called on Europe to stop demonstrating generosity towards asylum seekers to avoid an overwhelming migrant influx. He also advises European states to make Africans' way to the continent much more difficult.

During an interview Germany's Welt am Sonntag, Gates, one of the richest people on the planet, warned of the grave consequences of exceeding generosity towards refugees coming to Europe, whose numbers would only rise unless something is done.

"On the one hand you want to demonstrate generosity and take in refugees, but the more generous you are, the more word gets around about this – which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa," Gates said.

While Germany has been one of the pioneers of the open door policy, it cannot "take in the huge, massive number of people who are wanting to make their way to Europe." Thus Gates advised European nations to take action in order to make it "more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes."

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/395356-migrants-overwhelm-europe-gates/

Original Submission

frojack writes:

Remember when we discussed Rocks Request Rejection issue back in May? The discussion was nothing if not spirited.

Andrew Snelling, who got a PhD in geology before joining Answers in Genesis, continues working to interpret the canyon in a way that is consistent with his views. In 2013, he requested permission from the National Park Service to collect some rock samples in the canyon for a new project to that end.
...
The National Park Service sent Snelling's proposal out for review, having three academic geologists who study the canyon look at it. Those reviews were not kind. Snelling didn't get his permit. Snelling sued.

Well It turns out the guy gets to harvest his bag-o-rocks because the the National Park Service has decided its easier to give a few rocks than take the religious flack.

That lawsuit was withdrawn by Snelling on June 28. According to a story in The Australian, Snelling withdrew his suit because the National Park Service has relented and granted him his permit. He will be able to collect about 40 fist-sized samples, provided that he makes the data from any analyses freely available.

Further he promises to publish his findings in a peer reviewed journal. Perhaps even his own journal. Perhaps even his own peers.

Original Submission

technoid_ writes:

From https://fedoramagazine.org/fedora-26-is-here/

Hi everyone! I'm incredibly proud to announce the immediate availability of Fedora 26. Read more below, or just jump to download from:

• Get Fedora 26 Workstation
• Get Fedora 26 Server
• Get Fedora 26 Atomic Host ← includes click-to-launch link for Amazon EC2

If you're already using Fedora, you can upgrade from the command line or using GNOME Software — upgrade instructions here. We've put a lot of work into making upgrades easy and fast. In most cases, this will take half an hour or so, bringing you right back to a working system with no hassle.

What's new in Fedora 26?

First, of course, we have thousands of improvements from the various upstream software we integrate, including new development tools like GCC 7, Golang 1.8, and Python 3.6. We've added a new partitioning tool to Anaconda (the Fedora installer) — the existing workflow is great for non-experts, but this option will be appreciated by enthusiasts and sysadmins who like to build up their storage scheme from basic building blocks. F26 also has many under-the-hood improvements, like better caching of user and group info and better handling of debug information. And the DNF package manager is at a new major version (2.5), bringing many new features. Really, there's new stuff everywhere — read more in the release notes.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

A one trillion tonne iceberg – one of the biggest ever recorded - has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The calving occurred sometime between Monday 10th July and Wednesday 12th July 2017, when a 5,800 square km section of Larsen C finally broke away. The iceberg, which is likely to be named A68, weighs more than a trillion tonnes. Its volume is twice that of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes.

http://www.projectmidas.org/blog/calving/

Also at BBC, PBS, The Guardian, and The Verge.

Complete Calving Coverage:

Antarctic Larsen C Ice Shelf to Calve; Halley VI Research Station Plans Move
Antarctic Ice Rift Close to Calving, After Growing 17km in 6 Days
Delaware-Sized Iceberg Could Break Off of Antarctica at Any Moment
Larsen C Rift Branches as it Comes Within 5 km of Calving

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Multics Wiki

MR12.6f was released on 04/02/2017. New features in this release can be found in the Software Release Bulletin (SRB):

• MR12.6f Software Release Bulletin

"Release 1.0 of the simulator is now available, along with Multics release 12.6f" - http://www.multicians.org/simulator.html
via
The Register

Seminal time-sharing OS Multics - the Multiplexed Information and Computing Service - has been resurrected in a new simulator.

As The Register reported in 2011, Multics' sprang from MIT's decision to eschew an IBM mainframe, buy one from GE instead and write an OS for the machine. The operating system's source code was released in 2007, when we noted Multics' place in history as one of the first OSes "...to introduce concepts such as a hierarchical file system and dynamic linking. It was also the first to use the modern standard of per-process stacks in the kernal, with a separate stack for each security ring."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute has filed a lawsuit against President Trump for blocking seven users on Twitter, claiming that the action violates the users' First Amendment right to participate in a public political forum:

The institute filed suit today on behalf of seven Twitter users who were blocked by the president, which prevents them from seeing or replying to his tweets. It threatened legal action in a letter to Trump in June, and now "asks the court to declare that the viewpoint-based blocking of people from the @realDonaldTrump account is unconstitutional."

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, elaborates on the Knight Institute's earlier letter. It contends that Trump's Twitter account is a public political forum where citizens have a First Amendment right to speak. Under this theory, blocking users impedes their right to participate in a political conversation and stops them from viewing official government communication. Therefore, if Trump blocks people for criticizing his political viewpoints, he'd be doing the equivalent of kicking them out of a digital town hall.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google has been found to "recommend" torrent and unauthorized streaming sites in response to search queries:

Google is an excellent search engine. The company does its best to present users with relevant information wherever it can. With a reel of popular torrent sites, for example, when users search for it. Or a handy overview of streaming sites such as Netflix, Hulu, Putlocker and Movie4k.to. Whether Hollywood will appreciate this service doubtful though.

[...] When you type in "best torrent sites" or just "torrent sites," Google.com provides a fancy reel of several high traffic indexers.

The search engine displays the names of sites such as RARBG, The Pirate Bay and 1337x as well as their logo. When you click on this link, Google brings up all results for the associated term.

While it's a thought provoking idea to think that Google employees are manually curating the list, the entire process is likely automated. Still, many casual torrent users might find it quite handy. Whether rightsholders will be equally excited is another question though.

The automated nature of this type of search result display also creates another problem. While many people know that most torrent sites offer pirated content, this is quite different with streaming portals.

This leads to a confusing situation where Google lists both legal and unauthorized streaming platforms when users search for "streaming sites."

The screenshot below shows the pirate streaming site Putlocker next to Hulu and Crackle. The same lineup also rotates various other pirate sites such as Alluc and Movie4k.to.

This has SHOCKED Express, which has loudly warned about the UK "Kodi" menace in recent months.

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

Australian Broadcast Corporation publishes an interview with Al Gore, in which Gore says US "is going to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement, regardless of what Donald Trump says or does".

In Australia to promote his latest film, An Inconvenient Sequel, the climate campaigner and one-time presidential candidate said Mr Trump was out of step domestically and internationally.

"The country as a whole is going to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement, regardless of what Donald Trump says or does," Mr Gore told 7.30.

"He has isolated himself. He's not irrelevant, I won't pretend that, but it's encouraging to me that the country is moving forward without him."

Every G20 country, except the United States, recently signed a declaration to make binding the Paris climate agreement to eventually cut net emissions to zero.

Mr Gore argued it showed the rush towards renewables was unstoppable.

"There is a distinction between Donald Trump and the United States of America, especially on the climate issue," he said.

"The country as a whole is moving forward, the progress cannot be stopped.

"The economic realities have changed. The price of electricity from solar and wind and now the price declines in battery storage and the efficiency improvements of all kinds, these are economic realities that are really kicking in in a powerful way.

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

Researchers have brought 3D-printed organ and tissue capabilities a long way, but the technology still faces a few challenges. A major one is how to incorporate blood vessels into bioprinted tissue. Living tissue needs a blood supply nearby because without blood to bring in nutrients and take away waste, biological cells will die. Researchers have been able to print larger blood vessels, but functional small vessels like capillaries have been much harder to create and sustain. However, researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have developed a new technique, published in Biomaterials Science, that might make it possible.

All of our blood vessels are lined with a type of cell called endothelial cells. To form vessels, individual endothelial cells begin to create empty holes in themselves, called vacuoles. They then connect with other endothelial cells that have done the same thing and the linked vacuoles form tubes, which ultimately become capillaries. Here, the researchers took endothelial cells and mixed them with either fibrin -- a protein involved in blood clotting -- or a semi-synthetic material called gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), which can be easily 3D-printed. When mixed with fibrin, the endothelial cells formed tubes fairly easily, but that wasn't the case with the GelMA. However, when the researchers added in another type of cell, a stem cell found in bone marrow, the endothelial cells were then able to form tubes in the GelMA.

"We've confirmed that these cells have the capacity to form capillary-like structures, both in a natural material called fibrin and in a semi-synthetic material called gelatin methacrylate, or GelMA," Gisele Calderon, the lead author of the study, said in a statement, "The GelMA finding is particularly interesting because it is something we can readily 3D print for future tissue-engineering applications."

Source: Engadget

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has claimed to have confirmed information that indicates the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. Russia's Defense Ministry said in mid-June that it may have killed Baghdadi in an airstrike in late May:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had "confirmed information" that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.

The report came just days after the Iraqi army recaptured the last sectors of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which Baghdadi's forces overran almost exactly three years ago.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in June that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of Islamic State commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa. But Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials have been skeptical.

Reuters could not independently verify Baghdadi's death.

A top U.S. general sees no evidence that Baghdadi is alive:

The top American commander in the fight against the Islamic State said Tuesday that the elusive leader of the terrorist group, who has been hunted for years, may finally appear to be, well, no longer alive. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend didn't go so far as to say that he believes Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, but he did acknowledge in a briefing with Pentagon reporters that he has not seen evidence that he is still around.

"I really don't know. ... I don't have reason to believe that he's alive. I don't have proof of life," Townsend said — the furthest U.S. officials have gone in the wake of repeated reports that the terrorist leader has been taken out.

Reuters notes that Baghdadi "has frequently been reported killed or wounded" since 2014.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Microsoft has announced an effort to get broadband access to rural Americans. 34 million Americans do not have broadband Internet access, defined as a 25 Mbps connection by the FCC, and of these, 23.4 million live in rural areas. Microsoft has pledged to connect 2 million rural Americans to the Internet with broadband within five years, and push other companies and regulators to handle the full 23.4 million:

In some rural areas, parents have to drive their kids to the parking lot of the local library so their kids can file homework. In 2017, not being online hurts your education, your job prospects, your civic engagement.

Microsoft plans to use a cheaper technology — something called TV white spaces, which is on the wireless spectrum — to transmit broadband data. The company estimates it costs 80 percent less than building expensive wired infrastructure, and using a mix of technologies to close the rural broadband gap would cost roughly $10 billion.

Microsoft is asking to[sic] Federal Communications Commission to continue ensuring the spectrum needed for this approach, and to collect and publicly disclose data on rural broadband coverage, to guide policymakers and companies.

Also at The Seattle Times, The New York Times, and TechCrunch.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A NASA study of fungi in a simulated Mars habitat found that fungal diversity increased and changed after humans were introduced, with certain fungi increasing or decreasing in presence over a period of 30 days. The results have implications for the cleaning and maintenance of space habitats to ensure the health of astronauts, and may lead to the screening of the mycobiomes of potential spacecraft/habitat occupants:

Three crews of students lived in an inflatable lunar/Mars analog habitat (ILMAH) for 30 days. The ILMAH was closed off from the outside world for the duration of their stay, except for an exchange of filtered air. Prior to habitation, the surfaces were cleaned with a bleach solution, and during the experiment, the surfaces were cleaned weekly with antibacterial wipes. Eight surfaces in the habitat were sampled four times: on day zero, day 13, day 20, and day 30.

By culturing the samples, the researchers uncovered a significant increase in fungal abundance between the collection time points. They also found that the culturable fungal population was higher for the lab area of the ILMAH than the others. In particular, they identified Cladosporium cladosporioides, Epicoccum nigrum, and Aspergillus tubingensis among the culturable fungi.

[...] When they examined the samples over time, they observed variations in abundance and noted that during human occupation of the ILMAH, the fungal diversity changed. For instance, levels of Pleosporaceae varied from 96 percent on day zero to 47 percent on day 20, and up to 70 percent on day 30. While Pleosporaceae decreased on day 20, levels of Davidiellaceae, Dothioraceae, Saccharomycetales, and Trichocomaceae increased, as compared to other time points.

Similarly, Epicoccum, Alternaria, Pleosporales, and Cryptococcus were highly abundant at day zero, but decreased in numbers by day 20 before increasing again by day 30.

They further noted that Alternaria, Cladosporium, and Epicoccum — all of which they uncovered in their study — are common household fungi. Though the researchers said that Cladosporium cladosporioides rarely causes infections, they said it could lead to asthmatic reactions in people with weakened immune systems, such as astronauts.

Also at EurekAlert and CNET.

Human presence impacts fungal diversity of inflated lunar/Mars analog habitat (open, DOI: 10.1186/s40168-017-0280-8) (DX)

Original Submission

zocalo writes:

According to emails from October 2009 obtained by Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley at Bloomberg it appears that Kaspersky Lab has been working with Russian Intelligence. Despite long standing rumours over these connections Eugene Kaspersky has always denied this to be the case, including as recently as last week in response to questions in the US Senate by Florida Republican Marco Rubio when he stated that "Claims about Kaspersky Lab's ties to the Kremlin are "unfounded conspiracy theories" and "total BS,"" on Reddit, and even offering to hand over the source code to the US Government for inspection.

While the exact nature of the co-operation with the FSB is still unclear, in the emails Kaspersky outlines a project undertaken in secret a year earlier "per a big request on the Lubyanka side," a reference to the FSB offices, that "includes both technology to protect against attacks (filters) as well as interaction with the hosters ('spreading' of sacrifice) and active countermeasures (about which, we keep quiet) and so on," Kaspersky wrote in one of the emails. Kaspersky Lab has confirmed that the emails are authentic. Whether this was legitimate work with the FSB in the prevention of cybercrime or securing FSB facilities or something more nefarious, it seems likely that this is not going to alleviate concerns over the use of their software putting further pressure on Kaspersky's business in other countries.

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has sued the city of Albuquerque, seeking records by the city's police department about its use of stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators.

In May 2017, the ACLU of New Mexico filed a public records request to the Albuquerque Police Department (which has been under federal monitoring for years), seeking a slew of information about stingrays. The requested info included confirmation on whether the police had stingrays, "policies and procedures," and contracts with the Harris Corporation, among other materials. Albuquerque denied many of these requests, citing a state law that allows some public records to be withheld on the grounds that they reveal "confidential sources, methods." So, last week, the ACLU of New Mexico sued.

As Ars has been reporting for years, stingrays are used by law enforcement to determine a mobile phone's location by spoofing a cell tower. In some cases, stingrays can intercept calls and text messages. Once deployed, the devices intercept data from a target phone along with information from other phones within the vicinity. At times, police have falsely claimed the use of a confidential informant when they have actually deployed these particularly sweeping and intrusive surveillance tools. Often, they are used to locate criminal suspects.

A lawyer for the police department did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.

APD spokeswoman Celina Espinoza told the Albuquerque Journal in a statement that the department "follows legal standards with the use of any technology," but did not answer further questions.

Source: Ars Technica

Original Submission