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frojack writes:

According to the AP, NY Times and a boat load of other AP carriers, the country boasting the loudest about how much of their energy needs are fulfilled by renewable sources, coal may be about to win out over one of the oldest forests still standing in Germany:

BERLIN (AP) — A court in western Germany says an ancient forest near the Belgian border can be chopped down to make way for a coal strip mine.

Cologne's administrative court ruled Friday against a legal complaint brought by the environmental group BUND that wanted to halt the clearance of much of the Hambach forest.

Hambach forest has become a focus of environmental protests against the expansion of a vast mine that supplies much of the coal used in nearby power plants.

The coal, a light brown variety called lignite, is considered one of the most polluting forms of fossil fuel.

Meanwhile their reactors are being systematically shut down and dismantled. But dirty coal use shows almost no decline.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://blog.backslasher.net/ssh-openvpn-tunneling.html

The Story

I was asked to take care of a security challange - setup Redis replication between two VMs over the internet.
The VMs were in different continents, so I had keep the bandwidth impact to a minimum. I thought of 3 options:

        stunnel, which uses tunnels TCP connections via SSL
        SSH, which has TCP tunneling over it's secure channel (amongst its weponary)
        OpenVPN, which is designed to encapsulate, encrypt and compress traffic among two machines

I quickly dropped stunnel because its setup is nontrivial compared to the other two (no logging, no init file...), and decided to test SSH and OpenVPN.
I was sure that when it comes to speed, OpenVPN will be the best, because:

        The first Google results say so (and they even look credible)
                http://superuser.com/a/238801
                http://security.stackexchange.com/a/68367
                http://support.vpnsecure.me/articles/tips-tricks/comparison-chart-openvpn-pptp-ssh-tunnel
        Logic dictates that SSH tunneling will suffer from TCP over TCP, since SSH runs over TCP, [while] OpenVPN, being a VPN software, is solely designed to move packets from one place to another.

I was so sure of that, that I almost didn't test [but, after testing, the results showed that as] long as you only need one TCP port forwarded, SSH is a much faster choice, because it has less overhead. I was quite surprised.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Shares of Amazon rose enough to make Jeff Bezos worth an estimated $100.3 billion:

The Amazon.com Inc. founder's fortune is up $2.4 billion to $100.3 billion, as the online retailer's shares jumped more than 2 percent on optimism for Black Friday sales. Online purchases for the day are up 18.4 percent over last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics, and investors are betting the company will take an outsized share of online spending over the gifting season.

The $100 billion milestone makes Bezos, 53, the first billionaire to build a 12-figure net worth since 1999, when Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates hit the mark.

Meanwhile, Amazon merchants are scrambling to cheat each other as they peck at Bezos's scraps. Even (e-)books aren't safe.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Amazon Merchants Continue to Find Ways to Cheat

Mike Molson Hart, who sells toys on Amazon.com Inc.'s marketplace, realized earlier this month something was amiss. His company's popular disc-shaped plastic building set, called Brain Flakes, had dropped precipitously in the ranks of Amazon's best-selling toys as the critical gift-giving season approached.

He visited the product page on Amazon.com and suspected he was the victim of "sniping," when one merchant sabotages another by hiring people to leave critical reviews of their goods and then voting those reviews as being helpful, making them the most prominent feedback seen by shoppers. Freelancers in China and Bangladesh willing to do this for $10 an hour are easily found online. Even though the toy has a 4.8 star rating out of 5 based on more than 1,100 reviews, shoppers first see a string of critical one-star reviews and many may get scared away.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

Intel is planning to end "legacy BIOS" support in their new platforms by 2020 in requiring UEFI Class 3 or higher.

Making rounds this weekend is a slide deck from the recent UEFI Plugfest. Brian Richardson of Intel talked about the "last mile" barriers to removing legacy BIOS support from systems.

By 2020, they will be supporting no less than UEFI Class 3, which means only UEFI support and no more legacy BIOS or CSM compatibility support mode. But that's not going to force on UEFI Secure Boot unconditionally: Secure Boot enabled is considered UEFI Class 3+.

Intel hasn't removed legacy BIOS / CSM support yet due to many customers' software packages still relying upon legacy BIOS, among other reasons. Removing the legacy BIOS support will mitigate some security risks, needs less validation by vendors, allows for supporting more modern technologies, etc.

Source: Intel Planning To End Legacy BIOS Support By 2020

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

A major oil-by-rail terminal proposed on the Columbia River in Washington state poses a potential risk of oil spills, train accidents and longer emergency response times due to road traffic, an environmental study has found.

Many of the risks could be decreased with certain mitigation measures, but the study released Tuesday outlined four areas where it said the impacts are significant and cannot be avoided.

The study said that while "the likelihood of occurrence of the potential for oil spills may be low, the consequences of the events could be severe."

[...] The study identified the four risks that could not be avoided as train accidents, the emergency response delays, negative impacts of the project on low-income communities and the possibility that an earthquake would damage the facility's dock and cause an oil spill.

Washington state panel outlines risk of oil-by-rail terminal

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Germany could hold new elections if Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union fails to form a stable coalition government:

The breakdown of the coalition talks last weekend has done more than dent Ms. Merkel's seeming invulnerability and raise the prospect of new elections, analysts say. Although the Social Democrats agreed on Friday to meet with the chancellor's party next week — raising hopes for, if not a coalition, then a tolerated minority government — the current situation may well signal the breakdown of Germany's postwar tradition of consensus and the dawn of a messy and potentially unnerving politics.

"The distinctive political tradition of the Federal Republic of Germany is change through consensus," said Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at the University of Oxford. That was what was at stake, he said. "It hasn't worked so far this time."

The leader of the Social Democrats has said that the party's members would have to vote on joining a coalition led by Merkel.

Also at DW (alternate), BBC, The Hill, and NYT (11/20 editorial).

Related: Germany's jubilant far-right has Merkel in its sights

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Chainmail tires re-invent the wheel to get future NASA rovers rolling.

NASA has developed chainmail tires with a memory and thinks they'll do the trick for future rovers.

As readers of The Register's coverage of the Curiosity Rover may recall, the vehicle has experienced considerable wheel damage that has led to changes to its route in 2014 and a 2017 software update to preserve the wheels and provide better grip.

Throw in the fact that it's not yet possible to send a spare wheel to Mars and have it fitted, and NASA has a clear need for more robust tires.

Enter a technology called "spring tires" that use a tubular structure of steel mesh – think tire-shaped chainmail - to cushion rovers as they roll. Spring tires have many fine qualities as the mesh forms a pattern that provides good grip on many surfaces. Mesh is also light by nature and can survive some damage. But spring tires don't deform well: if one rolls over a sharp rock, it can acquire a dent - or "plastic deformation" as NASA boffins put it.

The tires use a nickel titanium alloy that can endure plastic deformation.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes in with an interesting piece from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/business/laptops-not-during-lecture-or-meeting.html:

Step into any college lecture hall and you are likely to find a sea of students typing away at open, glowing laptops as the professor speaks. But you won't see that when I'm teaching.

Though I make a few exceptions, I generally ban electronics, including laptops, in my classes and research seminars.

That may seem extreme. After all, with laptops, students can, in some ways, absorb more from lectures than they can with just paper and pen. They can download course readings, look up unfamiliar concepts on the fly and create an accurate, well-organized record of the lecture material. All of that is good.

But a growing body of evidence shows that over all, college students learn less when they use computers or tablets during lectures. They also tend to earn worse grades. The research is unequivocal: Laptops distract from learning, both for users and for those around them. It's not much of a leap to expect that electronics also undermine learning in high school classrooms or that they hurt productivity in meetings in all kinds of workplaces.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://hackaday.com/2017/11/24/modder-puts-computer-inside-a-power-supply/

When building a custom computer rig, most people put the SMPS power supply inside the computer case. [James] a.k.a [Aibohphobia] a.k.a [fearofpalindromes] turned it inside out, and built the STX160.0 – a full-fledged gaming computer stuffed inside a ATX power supply enclosure.

While Small Form Factor (SFF) computers are nothing new, his build packs a powerful punch in a small enclosure and is a great example of computer modding, hacker ingenuity and engineering.

The finished computer uses a Mini-ITX form factor motherboard with Intel i5 6500T quad-core 2.2GHz processor, EVGA GTX 1060 SC graphics card, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 250GB SSD, WiFi card and two USB ports — all powered from a 160 W AC-DC converter. Its external dimensions are the same as an ATX-EPS power supply at 150 L x 86 H x 230 D mm. The STX160.0 is mains utility powered and not from an external brick, which [James] feels would have been cheating.

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

FBI releases 1971 letter that D.B. Cooper sleuth says could be from notorious hijacker

Newly released FBI documents pertaining to the D.B. Cooper hijacking case include a letter that may only deepen the mystery surrounding the notorious unsolved crime which marks its 46th anniversary this week. "I knew from the start that I wouldn't be caught," says the undated, typewritten letter from a person claiming to be the man who said he had a bomb and commandeered a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle on Nov. 24, 1971. After releasing passengers and crew members, the man then ordered the pilots to fly to Mexico, only to parachute out the back door somewhere over Washington's rugged wooded terrain with $200,000.

"I didn't rob Northwest Orient because I thought it would be romantic, heroic or any of the other euphemisms that seem to attach themselves to situations of high risk," he said. "I'm no modern-day Robin Hood. Unfortunately (I) do have only 14 months to live."

The carbon-copy letter was turned over to the FBI three weeks after the hijacking by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and the Seattle Times, which were each mailed a copy and published stories about its contents. The letter was in an envelope with a greater Seattle area postmark.

Last month, the FBI released a copy of the letter that was sent to The Post in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by acclaimed D.B. Cooper sleuth Tom Colbert, a Los Angeles TV and film producer. He believes the letter is real. "We have no doubt it's from Cooper and the reason is that he cites he left no fingerprints on the plane," he said. "The reason that's critical is because it's absolutely true. There were no prints found in the back of plane," Colbert said. "They found 11 partial prints that's all, sides, fingers, tips and palm. But no prints of value were found."

More about D.B. Cooper. Also at Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Previously: D.B. Cooper: Case Closed

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Yuri Milner, the Russian billionaire backer of Breakthrough Initiatives and Breakthrough Prizes, has set his sights on Saturn's moon Enceladus:

Milner founded the $100 million Breakthrough Starshot project, an attempt to send small probes to Alpha Centauri. Now, he has announced plans to explore funding a mission to Enceladus.

[...] "Can we design a low-cost, privately funded mission to Enceladus which can be launched relatively soon, and that can look more thoroughly at those plumes, try to see what's going on there?" Milner asked the New Space Age conference in Seattle this week.

A probe to Enceladus could be done for well under $1 billion, but it likely wouldn't be able to drill through the icy surface.

The Cassini spacecraft already flew as close as 49 km above the surface of Enceladus, and flew through a plume of water vapor released by the satellite. A proposed mission such as the Enceladus Life Finder could repeatedly fly through plumes and use better sensors to attempt to detect evidence of organic materials or microbes.

Two upcoming missions will be studying Jupiter's moon Europa: the ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer and NASA's Europa Clipper. Europa is easier for spacecraft to reach than Enceladus, but has thicker ice blocking its internal ocean.

Also at Newsweek.

Related: NASA Releases Europa Lander Study 2016 Report
Hydrogen Emitted by Enceladus, More Evidence of Plumes at Europa
Could a Dedicated Mission to Enceladus Detect Microbial Life There?
How the Cassini Mission Led a 'Paradigm Shift' in Search for Alien Life
Cassini Spacecraft Post-Mortem
Porous Core Could be Keeping Enceladus Warm

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

As reported by CNBC, on Oct. 27, ETF Managers Group filed for a new ETF, the Alternative Agroscience ETF. This ETF will mimic an index as closely as possible that tracks cannabis cultivators, producers and distributors, cannabinoid drugmakers, fertilizer producers, and tobacco companies.

But there's an interesting catch behind its "inception." The Alternative Agroscience ETF won't really be a new ETF at all. ETF Managers Group is switching the focus and tracking index of an existing ETF, the Tierra XP Latin America Real Estate ETF (NYSEMKT: LARE), which tracks the Solactive benchmark of real estate in Mexico and Brazil, to an ETF that predominantly follows cannabis companies.

[...] According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the switch to a cannabis-based index will occur on Dec. 26, so there's still a few weeks to go before investors will have an ETF that truly tracks marijuana stocks.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/11/20/say-hello-to-very-first-marijuana-etf-can-buy-in-u-s.html

What is an ETF? "An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a marketable security that tracks an index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund. Unlike mutual funds, an ETF trades like a common stock on a stock exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold. ETFs typically have higher daily liquidity and lower fees than mutual fund shares, making them an attractive alternative for individual investors."

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/etf.asp

Original Submission

takyon writes:

(Update: The Capitol Police are investigating the release of the photo.)

Texas Congressman Joe Barton has confirmed that an explicit image circulating on social media shows him exposing himself. Barton claims to be a victim of "revenge porn", which was outlawed in Texas in 2015:

Sarah Dodd of Dodd Communications, who is helping Barton respond to the image, confirmed that the image is of him and on Wednesday the Congressman apologized for not using "better judgment" while separated from his wife and in consensual relationships with women. "While separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women," Barton said in a statement first reported by The Texas Tribune. "Each was consensual. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down."

[...] Wednesday evening, an unnamed woman came forward to The Washington Post [archive], telling the newspaper that Barton sent her lewd photos, videos and messages when they had two sexual encounters over the course of five years.

In a 2015 phone call, Barton allegedly confronted the woman over her communications with other women, including her decision to share explicit materials he had sent, the Post reported. The woman shared that secretly recorded phone call with the paper and, according to the Post, in that call, he warned her against using the explicit images he had sent her, in a way that would negatively affect his career -- vowing that he would go to the Capitol Hill police over her actions. The woman told the Post she took that phone call as a threat, and she never had any intention to use the materials to retaliate against Barton.

Barton, in a statement released through a spokesman, says it was to stop her from publicly releasing the images as "revenge porn." Revenge porn -- when sexually explicit images are posted online without consent -- was outlawed in Texas in 2015.

takyon writes:

SoftBank learned of a data breach at Uber while it was attempting to invest in the company:

Uber Technologies Inc said on Thursday that it discussed a massive data breach with potential investor SoftBank Group Corp ahead of going public with details of the incident on Tuesday.

The ride-hailing service is trying to complete a deal in which the Japanese company would invest as much as $10 billion (£7.52 billion) for at least 14 percent of Uber, mostly by buying out existing shareholders.

"We informed SoftBank that we were investigating a data breach, consistent with our duty to disclose to a potential investor, even though our information at the time was preliminary and incomplete," Uber said in a statement.

"We also made clear that our forensic investigation was ongoing," Uber said. "Once our internal inquiry concluded and we had a more complete understanding of the facts, we disclosed to regulators and our customers in a very public way."

Maybe they should wait for the stock to collapse first.

Also at Bloomberg.

Previously: SoftBank to Invest Billions in Uber

Original Submission