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takyon writes:

There were 42,249 deaths due to opioid overdoses in 2016, compared to a projected 41,070 deaths from breast cancer in 2017 (42,640 in 2015). U.S. life expectancy has dropped for the second year in a row:

The increase largely stemmed from the continued escalation of deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which jumped to 19,410 in 2016 from 9,580 in 2015 and 5,540 in 2014, according to a TFAH analysis of the report.

[...] The surge in overdose deaths has depressed recent gains in U.S. life expectancy, which fell to an average age of 78.6, down 0.1 year from 2015 and marking the first two-year drop since 1962-1963.

In a separate report, the CDC linked the recent steep increases in hepatitis C infections to increases in opioid injection.

Researchers used a national database that tracks substance abuse admissions to treatment facilities in all 50 U.S. states. They found a 133 percent increase in acute hepatitis C cases that coincided with a 93 percent increase in admissions for opioid injection between 2004 to 2014.

From the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Mortality in the United States, 2016
• Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999–2016

Original Submission

takyon writes:

RZ Piscium is a star 550 light years away that has undergone dimming events. It may be destroying rather than building planets:

A team of U.S. astronomers studying the star RZ Piscium has found evidence suggesting its strange, unpredictable dimming episodes may be caused by vast orbiting clouds of gas and dust, the remains of one or more destroyed planets.

"Our observations show there are massive blobs of dust and gas that occasionally block the star's light and are probably spiraling into it," said Kristina Punzi, a doctoral student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York and lead author of a paper describing the findings. "Although there could be other explanations, we suggest this material may have been produced by the break-up of massive orbiting bodies near the star."

RZ Piscium is located about 550 light-years away in the constellation Pisces. During its erratic dimming episodes, which can last as long as two days, the star becomes as much as 10 times fainter. It produces far more energy at infrared wavelengths than emitted by stars like our Sun, which indicates the star is surrounded by a disk of warm dust. In fact, about 8 percent of its total luminosity is in the infrared, a level matched by only a few of the thousands of nearby stars studied over the past 40 years. This implies enormous quantities of dust.

Also at UCLA.

Is the Young Star RZ Piscium Consuming Its Own (Planetary) Offspring? (DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa9524) (DX)

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aristarchus writes:

So it seems that the Chief of Police in Charlottesville is going to resign.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Alfred Thomas, the police chief in Charlottesville, Virginia, has announced his retirement on Monday after 27 years of law enforcement service. The decision comes just weeks after the release of a critical review of his department's reaction to a violent white nationalist rally over the summer.

[...] Earlier this month, former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy released findings from a monthslong investigation into law enforcement's response to the violent rally in August. The report criticized Thomas' "slow-footed response" and found that police failed on multiple fronts, leading to "deep distrust of government" in the local community. It also found a lack of preparation and coordination between state and city police and a passive response by officers to the chaos.

State police and Charlottesville police were unable to communicate by radio the day of the rally because they were on different channels, the report said, and commanders "instructed their officers not to intervene in all but the most serious physical confrontations."

All I can say, is that it was a good thing the antifa were there to do the job of the police, defending people from violent attack.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google fights fragmentation: New Android features to be forced on apps in 2018

While Apple's app store is heavily regulated, the Google Play Store has mostly lived its life under Google's laissez-faire attitude. As long as you didn't get caught by Google's malware scanning, your app was free to do just about anything.

But lately, Google's hands-off approach seems to be changing. The company tried to restrict Android's powerful accessibility APIs only to accessibility apps, but after a power user revolt, Google is currently rethinking that plan.

The Play Store's biggest change is coming in 2018, though. Recently Google announced it will start setting a minimum API level that new and updated apps will be required to use. This is a technical change but a massive one. Basically, Google will stop accepting old app code from developers. The move won't harm support for devices running old versions of Android, but it will require developers to adopt new Android features and restrictions as they come out.

Previously: Google Pauses Crackdown on Apps That Use Accessibility Features

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hubie writes:

Most of the coffee consumed is prepared using hot water, but recently there has been a very large rise in the popularity and market share of cold brewed coffee. Cold brew is coffee that is prepared using room temperature water and steeping times that range from 8 to 24 hours (this is not the same as iced coffee, which is hot-brewed coffee that is served over ice), and this is supposed to alter the flavor, aroma, and compounds of the finished product. Major coffee chains such as Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have jumped in with various products to capitulate on this market complete with claims of delivering a rich, smooth coffee with an inherently sweeter flavor reminiscent of dark chocolate and producing a drink that is not as acidic as that made using hot water. As with many food fads that first hit the scene, there are many strongly held claims made about the importance of things like the steeping times ("9.95 hours at 1 drip per every 0.8 seconds") or grind type based upon reasonably-sounding science, but very few claims that are supported by actual evidence.

In a recent paper in Nature Scientific Reports, Megan Fuller and Niny Rao at Thomas Jefferson University investigated the differences in the concentrations of caffeine and acid (3-chlorogenic acid) in four different coffee samples when brewed both by hot and cold methods. They took medium and dark roast coffees in both medium and coarse grinds.

Their results found:

• Acid and caffeine were found at higher concentrations in cold brew coffee made with medium roast over dark roast
• Grind size did not significantly impact the acid or caffeine level in cold brew
• Caffeine was substantially higher in cold brew over hot brew for coarse grind, but not statistically significantly higher for medium grind
• Acid concentration and pH levels were comparable between hot and cold brew methods
• Acid and caffeine concentrations reached equilibrium in only 6 or 7 hours instead of 10+ hours that some suggest is necessary

Previously: How Cold Brew Has Changed the Coffee Business

Original Submission

takyon writes:

First step toward CRISPR cure of Lou Gehrig's disease

University of California, Berkeley scientists have for the first time used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to disable a defective gene that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, in mice, extending their lifespan by 25 percent.

[...] The mice were genetically engineered to express a mutated human gene that in humans causes about 20 percent of all inherited forms of the disease and about 2 percent of all cases of ALS worldwide. Though the genetic cause is not known for all cases of ALS, all are accompanied by the premature death of motor neurons in the brain stem and spinal cord. The neurons allow the brain to control muscles, so loss of this connection means loss of muscle control.

[...] The UC Berkeley research team used a virus that Schaffer's team engineered to seek out only motor neurons in the spinal cord and deliver a gene encoding the Cas9 protein into the nucleus. There, the gene was translated into the Cas9 protein, a molecular scissors that cut and disabled the mutant gene responsible for ALS.

In this case, Cas9 was programmed to knock out the mutated gene SOD1 (superoxide dismutase 1). The onset or start of the disease was delayed by almost five weeks, and mice treated by the gene therapy lived about a month longer than the typical four-month lifespan of mice with ALS. Healthy mice can live a couple of years.

Lou Gehrig's disease = amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

In vivo genome editing improves motor function and extends survival in a mouse model of ALS (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aar3952) (DX)

Previously: New Therapy Halts Progression of Lou Gehrig's Disease in Mice

Original Submission

jimbrooking and Freeman inform us of a story:

The Long Island Iced Tea Corporation is exactly what it sounds like: a company that sells people bottled iced tea and lemonade. But today the company announced a significant change of strategy that would start with changing its name to "Long Blockchain Corporation."

The company was "shifting its primary corporate focus towards the exploration of and investment in opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology," the company said in a Thursday morning press release. "Emerging blockchain technologies are creating a fundamental paradigm shift across the global marketplace," the company said.

[...] The company isn't getting out of the iced tea business. "The Company will continue to operate Long Island Brand Beverages, LLC as a wholly-owned subsidiary," the company writes in its press release.

[...] The former Long Island Iced Tea Company is following the lead of other companies that have seen their value skyrocket after announcing blockchain-related moves. One small financial technology company saw its value skyrocket after it announced a blockchain-related acquisition. In October, a biotech company saw its value skyrocket after it renamed itself "Riot Blockchain."

Iced tea company rebrands as "Long Blockchain" and stock price triples

$24 million iced tea company says it's pivoting to the blockchain, and its stock jumps 200%

Update: Bitcoin Tumbles Below $14,000 as Investors Face ‘Reality Check'

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Sites like Amazon, eBay, and Gumtree (UK online classifieds) sell miniaturized 2G mobile phones with minimal metallic components that can be conveniently stored in the human rectum. UK Member of Parliament, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain David Lidington wants to put a stop to that:

Justice secretary David Lidington has called on Amazon, eBay and Gumtree to block all sales of miniature mobile phones. These tiny handsets, often less than eight centimetres long, can be bought for £25 online and easily smuggled into prisons. Many are advertised with the slogan "Beat the BOSS," a reference to the Body Orifice Security Scanners (BOSS) used by prison officers to detect knives, firearm components and other small metallic objects. During a speech for the British think tank Reform, Lidington said he had written to all three asking them to take down products clearly intended to "evade detection measures in prison."

"It's pretty clear to me that these miniature phones are being manufactured and sold with the purpose of being smuggled into prisons," he said. "Why after all are they also advertised as being without any metal components?" Lidington said everyone, including retailers, had an interest in tackling organised crime. Miniature phones can be sold for up to £500 in prison, forcing desperate inmates into a lifetime of crippling debt.

Also at Boing Boing.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Khronos Group has released a specification for a format intended to allow the transfer of trained neural networks between different frameworks and hardware. It is expected to be finalized within 3-6 months:

Today the Khronos Group, the industry consortium behind OpenGL and Vulkan, released a v1.0 provisional specification for its Neural Network Exchange Format (NNEF). First announced last year, this provisional stage is aimed at getting industry feedback on real-world use. While its name encapsulates its purpose, more specifically NNEF will act as a compatible format that can transfer trained neural networks between frameworks or to a wide range of inferencing hardware. Khronos is hoping that NNEF will act as a common format for all the myriad frameworks, such as Caffe, TensorFlow, Theano, and Torch, and be as ubiquitous in neural network porting in the same way PDFs are used for documents.

Much of the strength of NNEF comes from its bifurcated file structure, where there is a general and compatible flat level along with a complicated and optimizable compositional level. NNEF has also been designed with the understanding that deep learning is still a young and rapidly advancing field, where certain AI or neural network methods or framework types may become quickly displaced.

NNEF will also complement Khronos' OpenVX, a high-level graph-based API intended for cross-platform use in computer vision, and both working groups have already been collaborating. The upcoming releases of OpenVX will feature a NNEF Import extension, which would provide more flexibility to the format. As a specification, NNEF does not include tools, and Khronos is pursuing an open source strategy, with current projects on an NNEF syntax parser/validator and exporters for specific frameworks.

Khronos site and press release. Github.

EE Times article from May.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

The only thing better than total police state camera networks is total police state camera networks that are poorly secured:

Two Romanian hackers infiltrated nearly two-thirds of the outdoor surveillance cameras in Washington, DC, as part of an extortion scheme, according to federal court documents.

In a criminal complaint filed last week in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the US government alleges that the two Romanian hackers operating outside the United States infiltrated 65% of the outdoor surveillance cameras operated by DC city police — that's 123 cameras out of 187 in the city. The alleged hacking occurred during a four-day period in early January.

The hacking suspects, Mihai Alexandru Isvanca and Eveline Cismaru, are also accused of using the computers behind the surveillance cameras to distribute ransomware through spam emails, according to an affidavit by Secret Service agent James Graham in support of the government's criminal complaint. The affidavit alleges the hackers meant to use the malware to lock victims' computers and then extort payments from them to regain access.

DC should ask Bucarest to get Comrade Detective on the case.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Magic Leap has announced an augmented reality/mixed reality display. The price is unknown, but Magic Leap says it will ship in 2018:

After more than three years, Magic Leap has unveiled what it describes as a "creator edition" of its augmented reality system. The Magic Leap One consists of a pair of oversized cyberpunk-y goggles, a puck-shaped external computer called a Lightpack, and a handheld controller. It's supposed to accept "multiple input modes including voice, gesture, head pose and eye tracking," and maps persistent objects onto the environment — "place a virtual TV on the wall over your fireplace and when you return later, the TV will be right where you left it," the site promises. An SDK is supposedly coming in early 2018, and the hardware is supposed to ship at some point next year.

Magic Leap invited Rolling Stone to try out some demos, which include virtual characters that can react to eye contact, a floating virtual comic book, and a virtual live performance using volumetric camera capture. The piece seems to refute rumors that Magic Leap was having difficulty shrinking its technology to goggle size while keeping performance up, saying that "there was no stuttering or slowdowns, even when I walked around the performance, up close and far away."

The "puck-sized" tethered computer is an interesting compromise. It doesn't look like it would hinder mobility that much (you could compare it to a Walkman plus headphones), and it's much smaller than "VR backpack" concepts. However, it could be a good sign that you should not be an early adopter of Magic Leap One (which is actually the ninth generation of their hardware internally, according to Rolling Stone).

Some still call it vaporware. There is no video footage of the device being worn, and images have been retouched to "edit out some sensitive IP".

Will it take privacy seriously?

Again, not to be confused with Leap Motion.

Also at BBC, Tom's Hardware, Road to VR, Engadget, BGR, 9to5Google.

Previously: Developers Race to Develop VR Headsets that Won't Make Users Nauseous
Magic Leap Bashed for Being Vaporware

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to observe giant "bubbles" (granulation cells/patterns) extending from the surface of the red giant π¹ Gruis (aka Pi1 Gruis):

Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have for the first time directly observed granulation patterns on the surface of a star outside the Solar System — the ageing red giant π¹ Gruis. This remarkable new image from the PIONIER instrument reveals the convective cells that make up the surface of this huge star, which has 350 times the diameter of the Sun. Each cell covers more than a quarter of the star's diameter and measures about 120 million kilometres across. These new results are being published this week in the journal Nature.

Located 530 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Grus (The Crane), π¹ Gruis is a cool red giant. It has about the same mass as our Sun, but is 350 times larger and several thousand times as bright. Our Sun will swell to become a similar red giant star in about five billion years.

An international team of astronomers led by Claudia Paladini (ESO) used the PIONIER instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to observe π¹ Gruis in greater detail than ever before. They found that the surface of this red giant has just a few convective cells, or granules, that are each about 120 million kilometres across — about a quarter of the star's diameter. Just one of these granules would extend from the Sun to beyond Venus. The surfaces — known as photospheres — of many giant stars are obscured by dust, which hinders observations. However, in the case of π¹ Gruis, although dust is present far from the star, it does not have a significant effect on the new infrared observations.

Also at EarthSky.

Large granulation cells on the surface of the giant star π¹ Gruis (DOI: 10.1038/nature25001) (DX)

Open access version of the above paper: Convective pattern on the surface of the giant star π¹ Gruis

Related: Very Large Telescope Interferometer Captures Best Ever Image of Another Star (Antares)
ALMA Captures Best-Ever Image of Red Giant W Hydrae

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Trump administration has imposed a 300% tariff on the import of Bombardier CSeries jet airliners. Airbus and Bombardier recently announced a partnership to build the planes in Mobile, Alabama that would sidestep the tariff:

The Trump administration on Wednesday recommended steep anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier Inc's CSeries jets, setting up the next round of a fierce international trade dispute between the United States and Canada. The U.S. Commerce Department announcement to impose duties of nearly 300 percent stems from a complaint by Boeing Co that Bombardier had been unfairly and illegally subsidized by the Canadian government, allowing the planemaker to dump its newest jetliner in the U.S. market below cost.

"Today's decision validates Boeing's complaints regarding Bombardier's pricing in the United States, pricing that has harmed our workforce and U.S. industry," Boeing said in a statement on the decision, which was generally expected within the aerospace industry.

Delta Air Lines, the second largest U.S. carrier by passenger traffic, has an order for 75 of the 100-to-150 seat CSeries jets. The aircraft starts at $79.5 million, according to list prices, or some $5.9 billion for the total order, but carriers typically receive steep discounts. If imposed, the duties would more than triple the cost of a CSeries aircraft sold in the United States, based on Boeing's assertion that Delta received the planes for $20 million each, well below an estimated cost of $33 million and what Bombardier charges in Canada.

Bombardier criticized the U.S. decision as out of touch, citing the Canadian planemaker's plan to team up with European Airbus to launch assembly of the CSeries from a production line in Mobile, Alabama, making it a domestic product for U.S. buyers.

Also at The Hill and CNBC.

Update: Boeing in talks with Embraer; Brazil backs jetliner alliance

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

The EU is offering cash bounties to improve the security of the VLC media player. The VLC bounties are a proof-of-concept test to learn how to run future bounties via Free and Open Source Software Audit 2 (FOSSA-2). In this trial run, bounties which range from $100 for low-severity bugs and up to $2,000 for critical bugs are offered via HackerOne.

According to Wikipedia: "VLC media player (commonly known as VLC) is a free and open-source, portable and cross-platform media player and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for desktop operating systems and mobile platforms, such as Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone, Android, Tizen, iOS."

Much more information, as well as downloads, are available on the VLC homepage.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

By turning computer circuits into unsolvable puzzles, a University of Michigan team aims to create an unhackable computer with a new $3.6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Todd Austin, U-M professor of computer science and engineering, leads the project, called MORPHEUS. Its cybersecurity approach is dramatically different from today's, which relies on software—specifically software patches to vulnerabilities that have already been identified. It's been called the "patch and pray" model, and it's not ideal.

MORPHEUS outlines a new way to design hardware so that information is rapidly and randomly moved and destroyed. The technology works to elude attackers from the critical information they need to construct a successful attack. It could protect both hardware and software.

In this way, MORPHEUS could protect against future threats that have yet to be identified, a dreaded vulnerability that the security industry called a "zero day exploit." Under MORPHEUS, the location of the bug would constantly change and the location of the passwords would change, he said. And even if an attacker were quick enough to locate the data, secondary defenses in the form of encryption and domain enforcement would throw up additional roadblocks. The bug would still be there, but it wouldn't matter. The attacker won't have the time or the resources to exploit it.

DARPA is aiming to render these attacks impossible within five years. If developed, MORPHEUS could do it now, Austin said.

Unhackable computer under development

[Also Covered By]: Phys.org

So many, so called, unhackable devices were hacked, sometimes within hours of release. How long do you think this would remain unhackable ? Is it even possible to make an unhackable computer ?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

GCHQ are a bunch of over-achievers, save for one achievement: reporting the security flaws they discover in order to get them fixed. Instead, their hacking capabilities have substantially increased:

The UK has substantially increased its hacking capabilities in recent years, an official report says. This includes the ability to attack other country's communications, weapons systems and even infrastructure. The details were revealed in the annual report of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which oversees the work of intelligence agencies. It said GCHQ had "over-achieved", creating double the number of new offensive cyber-capabilities expected.

The report said GCHQ's allocation of effort to develop hacks had increased "very substantially" from 2014. The programme of developing the capabilities is divided into three tranches and GCHQ said that it had just finished the first. "We... actually over-achieved and delivered [almost double the number of] capabilities [we were aiming for," an official from the agency told the committee. The details of the successes are classified in the public version of the report.

GCHQ is also upgrading its supercomputers, an effort referred to as Project Golf:

Project GOLF (£***m over ten years) is a project to enhance the supercomputing capacity that supports much of GCHQ's work. GCHQ has told us that this project is particularly critical, as it predicts that "projected mission needs will exceed existing data centre capacity limits in ***". GCHQ noted that its relationship with the US brought significant benefits ***. GCHQ has reported that this project *** is on track to be fully operational in early 2018.

Here are the annual reports (2016-2017 PDF).

Related: How GCHQ Manipulates Online Opinion
UKs Cyber Emergency Response Unit to Launch
Court Rules UK-US Surveillance Data Sharing was Illegal
GCHQ Tried to Track Web Visits of "Every Visible User on Internet"
GCHQ Tells CEOs They Won't Rat Out Data Breaches

Original Submission