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martyb writes:

In a story appearing in Innovations Report, researchers reveal that your kitchen cleaning sponge can breed germs, and obvious cleaning techniques are ultimately ineffective:

The first comprehensive study of contamination in used kitchen sponges worldwide has just been published. The high concentration of bacteria found in these cleaning materials is partially cause for concern. Washing the sponge in hot water or putting it in the microwave is not a long-term solution, say the researchers.

[...] These are environmental and water bacteria, but also bacteria which are typical for the human skin. Particularly for people with a weak immune system such as patients and the elderly, bacteria such as Acinetobacter johnsonii, Moraxella osoloensis and Chryseobacterium hominis can lead to infections. The very commonly found Moraxella osloensis bacteria can also cause kitchen sponges to stink. Faecal bacteria and those which cause food poisoning or dysentery however, were scarcely detected.

However the real cause for concern is: in sponges which according to their users were regularly cleaned either in the microwave or through washing, showed considerably higher levels of potentially pathogenic bacteria. The scientists assume that the cleaning of the sponges can lead to a short-term decrease in the number of germs; obviously in the quickly regrowing communities however, the potentially pathogenic bacteria achieve an ever stronger domination, probably due to a higher stress tolerance.

"Sometimes the bacteria achieved a concentration of more than 5 times 10^10 cells per cubic centimetre," ... "Those are concentrations which one would normally only find in faecal samples.

Journal article: Microbiome analysis and confocal microscopy of used kitchen sponges reveal massive colonization by Acinetobacter, Moraxella and Chryseobacterium species.

[MythBusters covered this is in Season 7. - Ed]

Original Submission

Knowledge Troll writes:

Reuters has published that

A U.S. House panel on Wednesday approved a sweeping proposal by voice vote to allow automakers to deploy up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards and bar states from imposing driverless car rules.

Representative Robert Latta, a Republican who heads the Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee overseeing consumer protection, said he would continue to consider changes before the full committee votes on the measure, expected next week. The full U.S. House of Representatives will not take up the bill until it reconvenes in September after the summer recess.

The measure, which would be the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would require automakers to submit safety assessment reports to U.S. regulators, but would not require pre-market approval of advanced vehicle technologies.

Automakers would have to show self-driving cars "function as intended and contain fail safe features" to get exemptions from safety standards but the Transportation Department could not "condition deployment or testing of highly automated vehicles on review of safety assessment certifications," the draft measure unveiled late Monday said.

[...] States could still set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but could not set self-driving car performance standards, under the proposal.

[...] Auto dealers want the final bill to clarify that the measure would not preempt state dealer franchise laws that generally bar automakers from selling vehicles directly to consumers.

I can understand why an autonomous test vehicle doesn't need seat belts but is taking away the ability of a state to regulate this new technology a good idea? What do you think?

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

In what is believed to be a world first, scientists have reversed brain damage in a toddler that drowned in a swimming pool. Using oxygen therapy, scientists were able to restore her ability to walk and talk just months after the accident, in which she spent 15 minutes submerged in a swimming pool and two hours where her heart did not beat on its own.

The accident took place in February 2016. Two-year-old Eden Carlson had managed to get through a baby gate and fall into the family swimming pool and was in the 5 degree Celsius water for up to 15 minutes before being discovered.

After being resuscitated and treated in hospital for just over a month, she was unresponsive to all stimuli. She was immobile and constantly squirmed and shook her head. MRI scans showed deep injury to the brain's gray matter, as well as loss of white and gray matter.

In a bid to reverse the brain damage, researchers at the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and the University of North Dakota School of Medicine began treating her with two types of oxygen therapy.

[...] Concluding, the researchers say that to their knowledge, this is the first reported case of gray matter loss and white matter atrophy (types of brain damage) reversal with any therapy and that treatment with oxygen should be considered in similar cases. "Such low-risk medical treatment may have a profound effect on recovery of function in similar patients who are neurologically devastated by drowning."

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/eden-carlson-brain-damage-reversed-drowning-638628

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Speaking at the International Space Station Research and Development conference, Elon Musk said that a successful maiden flight for Falcon Heavy was unlikely:

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has downplayed the chances of a successful inaugural flight for his Falcon Heavy space launch vehicle, admitting there is a "good chance it would not make it to orbit in its first launch."

Development of the booster rocket, which is powered by 27 engines, has proven to be "way harder than the team initially thought," he told the International Space Station Research and Development conference on Wednesday.

Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket booster in the world, capable of delivering a 54 ton payload into orbit.

Musk said that combining three Falcon 9 rockets together had multiplied vibrations throughout the vehicle making it difficult to test without a launch.

The maiden test flight is due to take place toward the end of the year.

As if watching the inaugural launch of the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V were not tempting enough, how many more people will watch in hopes of seeing it go BOOM!?

Original Submission

bradley13 writes:

Some time ago, I wrote that I had given up on Ethereum. While the problems coming from the DAO hack are now in the past Ethereum has had a few other problems.

Granted, these problems have nothing to do with Ethereum itself. They are all exploits in the surrounding ecosystem. Hacking the CoinDash website to replace their public wallet address was particularly cheeky. This all reminds me of tales of the Wild West, when money was transferred between banks by stagecoach or by train. The technology simply didn't exist to provide the necessary security way the heck out on the prairie.

Seems like that's where we are now. The necessary technology does not exist, to provide the security that currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin really require. Website hacks are a dime a dozen, and when a hack can be worth $millions... The same for software: When professional programmers still write code vulnerable to SQL injection - when our platforms even allow this as a possibility - then we simply do not have the technology to secure the stagecoach.

Previously:
$30 Million Below Parity: Ethereum Wallet Bug Fingered in Mass Heist
Hacker Allegedly Steals $7.4 Million in Ethereum During ICO
Used GPUs Flood the Market as Ethereum's Price Crashes Below $150
Ethereum Mining Craze Leads to GPU Shortages
Ethereum Unusable, DAO Refunds Possible

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

After the ghastly symptoms subside, Ebola may not be done; it may just shift to a clever stealth mode, a new study suggests.

Examining archived tissue samples from infected monkeys, researchers found that Ebola can create a cryptic viral reservoir in certain immune cells and hide in corners of the body where the rest of the immune system has little reach. The study, published this week in Nature Microbiology, echoes the reports from human Ebola survivors who complain of lingering symptoms and complications that researchers have struggled to understand.

Overall, the evidence of persistent infections—which threaten to relapse and spark new outbreaks—adds extra concern for an already alarming pathogen. But researchers are hopeful that the study also provides a way forward for research into defeating this stage of infection.

"Understanding the molecular–virological mechanisms of [Ebola virus] persistence is of paramount importance, including the conditions that favour persistence and reactivation and the time frame in which persistence may occur," the authors conclude. "Our study clarifies that a robust rhesus monkey model for [Ebola virus] persistence could be developed."

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/in-seemingly-healthy-survivors-cryptic-ebola-may-lurk-in-immune-cells/

Original Submission

martyb writes:

A new report from researchers at McMaster University in Canada offers hope for older men who wish to build physical strength — a nutritional supplement:

Whey protein supplements aren't just for gym buffs according to new research from McMaster University. When taken on a regular basis, a combination of these and other ingredients in a ready-to-drink formula have been found to greatly improve the physical strength of a growing cohort: senior citizens.

[...] The deterioration of muscle mass and strength that is a normal part of aging -known as sarcopenia -- can increase the risk for falls, metabolic disorders and the need for assisted living, say researchers.

"Older people who do little to prevent the progression of sarcopenia drift toward a state where they find activities of daily living, like rising from a chair or ascending stairs very difficult or maybe impossible," says lead scientist Stuart Phillips, professor in the Department of Kinesiology and member of McMaster's Institute for Research on Aging.

While a number of isolated nutritional ingredients have been shown to fight sarcopenia, this is the first time such ingredients -- which include whey protein, creatine, vitamin D, calcium and fish oil -- have been combined and tested for this purpose.

For the study, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE, the research team recruited two groups of men aged 70 and older. One group took a protein-based, multi-ingredient nutritional supplement for six weeks without an exercise regimen, while the other group took a placebo. The objective was to evaluate whether daily consumption would result in gains in strength and lean body mass.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

The carbon dioxide we're currently dumping into the atmosphere started out as atmospheric carbon dioxide hundreds of millions of years ago. It took lots of plants and millions of years of geological activity to convert it to fossil fuels. One obvious way of dealing with our atmospheric carbon is to shorten that cycle, finding a way to quickly convert carbon dioxide into a usable fuel.

Unfortunately, carbon dioxide is a very stable molecule, so it takes a lot of energy to split it. Most reactions that do so end up producing carbon monoxide, which is more reactive and a useful starting material, but it's far from a fuel. Now, though, researchers have discovered a catalyst that, with a little help from light, can take CO2 and make methane, the primary fuel in natural gas. While the reaction is slow and inefficient, there are a number of ways it could be optimized.

The work started out with a catalyst that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide when supplied with a source of electrons. The catalyst is a complex ring of carbon-based molecules that latch on to an iron atom at the center. The iron interacts with carbon dioxide, allowing hydrogen atoms from water to break one of the carbon-oxygen bonds, liberating water. The iron loses some electrons in the process, and these have to be re-supplied for the cycle to start again. Typically, that supply comes in the form of a separate chemical that readily gives up some electrons.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/cheap-catalyst-takes-sunlight-and-carbon-dioxide-makes-methane/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

A vulnerability in Parity's Ethereum wallet software has been exploited by thieves to rob victims on a massive scale.

A few hours ago, Parity told its users to move their ETH holdings from their in-browser wallets to more secure accounts immediately:

The warning came after three transactions appeared on Etherscan.io, in which accounts were drained of 150,000 coins worth just over US$30 million at the current price. It's understood a trivial programming blunder in Parity's code allowed crooks to hijack strangers' wallets at will.

Coindesk reports 377,000 more Ether were at risk of theft, but were drained into holding accounts by white hats. That gallant action was outlined by Kurt Knudsen on Parity's Gitter channel:

The White Hat Group were made aware of a vulnerability in a specific version of a commonly used multisig contract. This vulnerability was trivial to execute, so they took the necessary action to drain every vulnerable multisig they could find as quickly as possible. Thank you to the greater Ethereum Community that helped finding these vulnerable contracts. The White Hat account currently holding the rescued funds is [here].

Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/20/us30_million_below_parity_ethereum_bug_leads_to_big_coin_heist/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

In recent weeks, there have been rumors that SpaceX is no longer planning to send an uncrewed version of its Dragon spacecraft to Mars in 2020, or later. Now those rumors about the Red Dragon concept have been largely confirmed.

The company had planned to use the propulsive landing capabilities on the Dragon 2 spacecraft—originally developed for the commercial crew variant to land on Earth—for Mars landings in 2018 or 2020. Previously, it had signed an agreement with NASA to use some of its expertise for such a mission and access its deep-space communications network.

On Tuesday, however, during a House science subcommittee hearing concerning future NASA planetary science missions, Florida Representative Bill Posey asked what the agency was doing to support privately developed planetary science programs. Jim Green, who directs NASA's planetary science division, mentioned several plans about the Moon and asteroids, but he conspicuously did not mention Red Dragon.

After this hearing, SpaceX spokesman John Taylor didn't return a response to questions from Ars about the future of Red Dragon.

So the real question becomes how DO they plan to land it?

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/spacex-appears-to-have-pulled-the-plug-on-its-red-dragon-plans/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Mozilla wants to crowdsource thousands of hours of voice recordings for an open source voice recognition engine:

The Mozilla Foundation launched "Common Voice," which is a crowdsourced initiative to build an open source data set for voice recognition applications.

Many technology companies believe that voice control will be embedded into most devices in the future. This is why Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, and others are all trying to put their own voice-controlled artificial intelligence assistants into as many devices as they can and as fast as they can, in order to gain market share before the competition.

The problem with this, according to Mozilla, is that voice controlled technologies could end up being dominated by proprietary technology and data sets, which aren't made available to startups and academics. As some large companies already benefit from billion-dollar revenues, it could later become too difficult for startups to catch up with the big players. Though[sic] Common Voice, Mozilla aims to democratize voice recognition technology.

You could use this to build (the easy part of) a personal assistant that either does not use the cloud, or does so on your terms.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

In response to increased demand, Samsung is increasing production of the densest HBM2 DRAM available:

Samsung on Tuesday announced that it is increasing production volumes of its 8 GB, 8-Hi HBM2 DRAM stacks due to growing demand. In the coming months the company's 8 GB HBM2 chips will be used for several applications, including those for consumers, professionals, AI, as well as for parallel computing. Meanwhile, AMD's Radeon Vega graphics cards for professionals and gamers will likely be the largest consumers of HBM2 in terms of volume. And while AMD is traditionally a SK Hynix customer, the timing of this announcement with AMD's launches certainly suggests that AMD is likely a Samsung customer this round as well.

Samsung's 8 GB HBM Gen 2 memory KGSDs (known good stacked die) are based on eight 8-Gb DRAM devices in an 8-Hi stack configuration. The memory components are interconnected using TSVs and feature over 5,000 TSV interconnects each. Every KGSD has a 1024-bit bus and offers up to 2 Gbps data rate per pin, thus providing up to 256 GB/s of memory bandwidth per single 8-Hi stack. The company did not disclose power consumption and heat dissipation of its HBM memory components, but we have reached out [to] Samsung for additional details.

Previously:
Samsung Announces Mass Production of HBM2 DRAM
CES 2017: AMD Vega GPUs and FreeSync 2
AMD Launches the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Let's Encrypt is the largest certificate authority by volume doling out more than 100,000 free domain certificates a day. The non-profit fulfills a noble mission of securing website communications that is applauded across the internet; it has raised the bar on SSL and TLS security, issuing 100 million HTTPS certificates as of June 2017.

However, despite industry accolades by privacy activists and praise from those in the security community for its mission, some critics are sounding alarm bells and warning that Let's Encrypt might be guilty of going too far, too fast, and delivering too much of a good thing without the right checks and balances in place.

[...] "Unsuspecting users might think they are communicating with trustworthy sites because the identity of the site has been validated by a CA, without realizing that these are just domain validation certificates with no assurance about the identity of the organization that owns the site," said Asif Karel, director of product management at Qualys.

[...] "Let's Encrypt can absolutely be abused," said Josh Aas, executive director of the Internet Security Research Group, the organization that oversees Let's Encrypt. "But so can't any other certificate authority. People act like Let's Encrypt is the first CA to be abused. This is preposterous."

[...] Jett and others applaud the accomplishments of Let's Encrypt, but believe the organization, founded by Mozilla, Cisco and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is in a unique position to take a leadership role that could be used to crack down on certificate abuse when it comes to better vetting of applicants in order to weed out criminals.

Source: https://threatpost.com/free-certs-come-with-a-cost/126861/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Companies manufacturing iPhones for Apple have filed lawsuits against Qualcomm Inc., as Qualcomm has filed new patent suits against Apple in the EU:

Apple Inc. and its Asian contract manufacturers are hitting back at Qualcomm Inc. with legal claims that try to undermine the chipmaker's attempt to force them to pay licensing fees.

Qualcomm is asking for payments in excess of what it would normally receive, Apple, Compal Electronics Inc., Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and others said early Wednesday in court filings. If successful, the counter-claims could cost Qualcomm billions of dollars in refunded fees and damages, Apple said.

Also Wednesday, Qualcomm said it had filed two new patent-infringement suits against Apple, this time in Germany. The patents, for ways to transmit information without draining battery life, are the European counterparts to those that are part of a case Qualcomm filed with a trade agency in Washington seeking to halt imports of Apple products into the U.S. market.

The filings, in California as well as Germany, represent the latest escalation in the dispute between Apple and Qualcomm over fees the San Diego-based company charges on all modern phones, even if the device doesn't have one of its chips. That revenue stream has made it one of the richest companies in the industry.

Also at ITWorld, The Register, and 9to5Mac.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has a new service that takes requests over SMS and sends them back over MMS:

Text 572-51 with the words "send me" followed by a keyword, a color, or even an emoji and you'll receive a related artwork image and caption via text message. For example "send me the ocean" might get you Pirkle Jones' Breaking Wave, Golden Gate; "send me something blue" could result in Éponge (SE180) by Yves Klein; and "send me 💐" might return Yasumasa Morimura's An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Collar of Thorns). Each text message triggers a query to the SFMOMA collection API, which then responds with an artwork matching your request.

Also in Smithsonian Magazine

Original Submission