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takyon writes:

Astronomers ponder possible life adrift in Venus' clouds

[...] Neighboring Venus is a hostile world. Heat trapped by its dense atmosphere makes it hot enough on its surface to melt lead. But a series of space probes – launched between 1962 and 1978 – showed that temperatures and pressures at comparable heights in Venus' atmosphere (25 miles or 40 km up) don't preclude the possibility of microbial life. Now an international team of researchers has laid out a case for the atmosphere of Venus as a possible niche for extraterrestrial microbial life.

The paper [open, DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1783] [DX] was published online March 30, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Astrobiology.

From the abstract:

The lower cloud layer of Venus (47.5–50.5 km) is an exceptional target for exploration due to the favorable conditions for microbial life, including moderate temperatures and pressures (∼60°C and 1 atm), and the presence of micron-sized sulfuric acid aerosols. Nearly a century after the ultraviolet (UV) contrasts of Venus' cloud layer were discovered with Earth-based photographs, the substances and mechanisms responsible for the changes in Venus' contrasts and albedo are still unknown. While current models include sulfur dioxide and iron chloride as the UV absorbers, the temporal and spatial changes in contrasts, and albedo, between 330 and 500 nm, remain to be fully explained. Within this context, we present a discussion regarding the potential for microorganisms to survive in Venus' lower clouds and contribute to the observed bulk spectra. In this article, we provide an overview of relevant Venus observations, compare the spectral and physical properties of Venus' clouds to terrestrial biological materials, review the potential for an iron- and sulfur-centered metabolism in the clouds, discuss conceivable mechanisms of transport from the surface toward a more habitable zone in the clouds, and identify spectral and biological experiments that could measure the habitability of Venus' clouds and terrestrial analogues. Together, our lines of reasoning suggest that particles in Venus' lower clouds contain sufficient mass balance to harbor microorganisms, water, and solutes, and potentially sufficient biomass to be detected by optical methods. As such, the comparisons presented in this article warrant further investigations into the prospect of biosignatures in Venus' clouds.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

We love Festo because every year they invest an entirely appropriate amount of time and money into bio-inspired robots that are totally cool and very functional but have limited usefulness. More often than not, it seems like Festo is able to take some of what it learns from designing and constructing these things and create practical new revenue-generating products. Which is good for them, and means they'll keep making cool stuff. Over the last few years, we've met ants, butterflies, flying jellyfish and penguins, kangaroos, seagulls, and much more.

Festo has just announced its two newest bionic learning network robots—one is a very convincing flying fox, and the other is a walking, tumbling robot inspired by a Saharan spider.

The rolling spider robot video is very cool, definitely worth watching.

Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/festo-bionic-learning-network-rolling-spider-flying-fox

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canopic jug writes:

Previously the State Department had required only visitors to the US who where coming from specific regions to turn over more social control media information. Now Engadget and CNN tell of the following proposed changes which are now posted in the Federal Register and entering their 60 period for public comment.

From Engadget:

In documents that the department will file to the Federal Register tomorrow [ed: 2018-03-30], it proposes that nearly every individual applying for a US visa be required to hand over any social media handles used on certain platforms in the past five years as well as submit any telephone numbers and email addresses used during that same time period.

The State Department will accept public comments until near the end of May.

Sources:
Engadget: US visa applications may soon require five years of social media info
CNN: US to require would-be immigrants to turn over social media handles

[ed: no actual DS-160 or DS-156 forms seem to be available for download or review.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/forms/ds-160-online-nonimmigrant-visa-application.html ]

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

There is patent activity afoot to cover Alexa and Google Assistant mining for more than activation words:

Amazon and Google, the leading sellers of such devices, say the assistants record and process audio only after users trigger them by pushing a button or uttering a phrase like "Hey, Alexa" or "O.K., Google." But each company has filed patent applications, many of them still under consideration, that outline an array of possibilities for how devices like these could monitor more of what users say and do. That information could then be used to identify a person's desires or interests, which could be mined for ads and product recommendations.

mrpg writes:

A mysterious orange landscape has turned Russia's Winter Olympics site into a "Martian landscape", according to shocked skiers who took to the bizarre slopes.

Orange snow hit Sochi over the weekend as a sandstorm from the Sahara desert changed the colour of the landscape.

[...] Meteorologists said the phenomenon was likely caused by sand from the Sahara desert mixing with snow.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/mystery-orange-snow-thats-created-12257480

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mrpg writes:

https://news.sky.com/story/mummy-found-in-empty-coffin-could-be-egyptian-high-priestess-11307248

For 150 years, an Australian university thought the coffin in its display case was empty.

[...] So for many decades it sat in the Nicholson Museum's education room, overshadowed by more famous coffins, never holding pride of place.

But a group of experts recently removed the coffin's lid and changed all of that.

Inside were the remains of a mummy, a noblewoman identified by the ghosted hieroglyphs on the coffin lid as Mer-Neith-it-es.

Academics believe she was a high priestess in 600BC, and that she worked in the Temple of Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess.

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

An octogenarian artist has charmed the internet with her pretty paintings — which she makes entirely with MS Paint.

Concha Garcia Zaera lives in Valencia, Spain with her husband. As a hobby, the 87-year-old likes to create artwork — but a while ago, she had to abandon the oil paints she preferred because the chemical smell contributed to her husband's health issues.

So the 21st-century grandma found a somewhat modern solution: She began fiddling with Microsoft's primitive Paint program, turning out surprisingly complex works of art with just a mouse and a screen.

She used facebook to share the drawings but her granddaughter said "there are only old people there" so she set her up with an Instagram account.

Dailymail

Also at metro

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

An exasperated Amazon customer has posted a video of 62ft of wrapping paper snaking through his house - that was used to "protect" dog food.

Nick Taylor said the box used to deliver the bag of food was "big enough to live in" and claimed the food didn't need to be packaged at all.

Nick laid out the 19-metres of packaging paper in his home in Bath and posted the video to Amazon's Facebook page.

The trail starts in what appears to be a utility room and leads in to a dining area before entering the kitchen itself.

From there the paper enters the hall, where the dog food can be glimpsed in its heavy plastic packaging.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/exasperated-amazon-customer-films-62-12259048

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

In a big win for the biotech industry, the US Department of Agriculture says it won’t regulate plants whose genomes have been altered using gene-editing technology.

The official statement quotes the following:

Under its biotechnology regulations, USDA does not regulate or have any plans to regulate plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they are not plant pests or developed using plant pests. This includes a set of new techniques that are increasingly being used by plant breeders to produce new plant varieties that are indistinguishable from those developed through traditional breeding methods. The newest of these methods, such as genome editing, expand traditional plant breeding tools because they can introduce new plant traits more quickly and precisely, potentially saving years or even decades in bringing needed new varieties to farmers.

"With this approach, USDA seeks to allow innovation when there is no risk present," said Secretary Perdue. "At the same time, I want to be clear to consumers that we will not be stepping away from our regulatory responsibilities. While these crops do not require regulatory oversight, we do have an important role to play in protecting plant health by evaluating products developed using modern biotechnology. This is a role USDA has played for more than 30 years, and one I will continue to take very seriously, as we work to modernize our technology-focused regulations."

"Plant breeding innovation holds enormous promise for helping protect crops against drought and diseases while increasing nutritional value and eliminating allergens," Perdue said. "Using this science, farmers can continue to meet consumer expectations for healthful, affordable food produced in a manner that consumes fewer natural resources. This new innovation will help farmers do what we aspire to do at USDA: do right and feed everyone."

Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610723/crispr-plants-wont-be-regulated/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Sopranica is an open source, DIY cell network that allows users to make phone calls, send text messages and browse the internet with total anonymity.

JMP is the first phase of the Sopranica network. JMP gives you real phone numbers for sending picture and text messages from a Jabber account.It is a way of using XMPP, to communicate over voice and text from an anonymous phone number.

The next phase -called-WOM-will create the physical infrastructure for cell network with a community radio network. This will essentially involve people hosting small, inexpensive radio devices in their home that plug into their routers to provide internet access points to Sopranica users in the area.

Idea for a federated cellular network...but for now it seems like it's only XMPP semi-obscured by a phone number.

Source: https://trendbin.org/what-is-sopranica/

Original Submission

Apparition writes:

Valve quietly removed the Steam Machine section from Steam.

Previously on Steam, if you hovered over the Hardware category there was a Steam Machines link in the drop-down, which is now gone while the links to the Steam Controller, Steam Link and Vive remain. In fact, the entire Hardware page on Steam is now gone and anyone using the link is redirected to a basic search page. Looking back on it and doing a bit of quick research, it seems the change came this month.

I'm not surprised they did this, since currently no one is announcing new machines and the whole Steam Machine idea from Valve never really gained any steam. While it didn't really do the big splash many were hoping, it has done quite a lot of good for Linux gaming overall. As a result of the initial push from Valve, many developers and game engines have moved into doing regular Linux support. This is important, because many of the barriers involved in getting games on Linux have been removed.

We know for a fact that porting companies like Aspyr Media and Feral Interactive started doing Linux versions thanks to SteamOS and Steam Machines, with them both still continuing the effort. It's also likely what pushed GOG to support Linux on their store too, since they didn't want to miss out on the possibility of more Linux gamers to buy games.

Realistically and looking back on it all, the time just wasn't right. There were long delays, not enough "big" games to make people truly interested in the platform (especially when the likes of The Witcher 3 was confirmed and then never happened—still hurts) and various other reasons.

The question remains: What will become of SteamOS?

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Australia's Privacy Commissioner has ruled that the Australian Department of Health unintentionally breached Australian Privacy law when it published the possessively de-identified health data of 10 per cent of the population from Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

When researchers at the University of Melbourne re-identified the data they matched at least seven well known Australians including members of parliament by crossing the data with other sources such as Wikipedia, Facebook and news websites. The Australian Health department must in future review and enhance its data governance and release processes with oversight from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. The dataset containing the health data was around 3 billion lines long covering 2.5 million people and was downloaded around 1500 times.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

As of March 31^st, Mozilla has turned two decades old.

Netscape Communications made two important announcements on January 23rd, 1998:

• First, that the Netscape Communicator product would be available free of charge;
• Second, that the source code for Communicator would also be free.

On March 31st, the first developer release of the source code to Communicator was made available.

Sources:
mozilla.org is 20 years old
Mozilla marks 20th anniversary with commitment to better human experiences online

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

Gone are the heady days of cashiers asking if you want your order "supersized."

Not only has the infamous upgrade gone by the wayside, but cashiers at fast-food restaurants are becoming increasingly uncommon. McDonald's started rolling out ordering kiosks at its US locations in 2015, and the chain hasn't looked back since: by 2020, most of its 14,000 locations will have kiosks installed.

Panera Bread has also committed to digital ordering. Admittedly, when I first tried it in 2015, I found it had decidedly dystopian vibes. But it ended up being a fairly pleasant and painless experience.

A recent poll conducted by Business Insider's partner MSN suggests that diners aren't big fans of automated kiosks: 78% of customers said they would be less inclined to go to a restaurant that has automated ordering kiosks.

The popular narrative is that kiosks and mobile ordering are here to take jobs and hours away from underpaid cashiers, ultimately saving companies money in the face of rising labor costs — but the data suggests that isn't true. It may be true for some, but most chains are simply reallocating labor behind the scenes. And with such a tight labor market, many chains are struggling to hire and retain customer-facing employees.

Americans don't seem too threatened by automation in general. Nationally, only 21% of responders to MSN's poll believe their job may one day be done by machines. And restaurants like automated ordering for its increased accuracy and efficiency as more chains look towards cashless options.

But for now, a question remains: are kiosks, in fact, better for customers?

Source: Business Insider

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A scientific study conducted at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo State, Brazil, has identified genetic factors associated with the severity of acute viral bronchiolitis. The study was supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation -- FAPESP. Its results were published in the journal Gene.

Principal investigator for the study and a professor at UNICAMP's Medical School (FCM-UNICAMP), José Dirceu Ribeiro recalls that bronchiolitis is the most common disease during the first year of life, and also the leading cause of hospitalization during this period of infancy worldwide.

Bronchiolitis, which is basically an infection of the respiratory tract that causes acute inflammatory damage to the bronchioles, is mostly a disease with minor consequences. However, 1%-3% of its patients require hospitalization, with some of them needing supplemental oxygen. A smaller proportion requires ICU treatment including mechanical ventilation.

"Detecting genetic associations in cases of acute viral bronchiolitis is the first step toward the development of tests to predict the possible clinical outcome for each patient diagnosed with the disease soon after arrival at the emergency room," said Fernando Augusto de Lima Marson, a researcher at FCM-UNICAMP and one of the authors of the article.

The new study set out to find correlations between genetic factors and the severest forms of acute viral bronchiolitis in patients that did not present any of the risk factors, such as prematurity, a history of lung disease, and passive smoking. "A very significant proportion of patients present with no risk factors, and the question arises in these cases of how to explain progression of the disease to its most severe form," Ribeiro said.

Alfonso Eduardo Alvarez, et. al. Association between single nucleotide polymorphisms in TLR4 , TLR2 , TLR9 , VDR , NOS2 and CCL5 genes with acute viral bronchiolitis. Gene, 2018; 645: 7 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2017.12.022

Original Submission