SoylentNews

canopic jug writes:

Brian Krebs writes in his blog that Panerabread.com has been collecting and publishing millions of customer records.

Panerabread.com, the Web site for the American chain of bakery-cafe fast casual restaurants by the same name, leaked millions of customer records — including names, email and physical addresses, birthdays and the last four digits of the customer’s credit card number — for at least eight months before it was yanked offline earlier today, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.

[...] Fast forward to early this afternoon — exactly eight months to the day after Houlihan first reported the problem — and data shared by Houlihan indicated the site was still leaking customer records in plain text. Worse still, the records could be indexed and crawled by automated tools with very little effort.

Initially reported as a leak, the records have been freely available online via the company web site for at least eight months.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Hubble peers through cosmic lens to capture most distant star ever seen

The discovery of the star, which astronomers often refer to as Icarus rather than by its formal name, MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1 (LS1), kicks off a new technique for astronomers to study individual stars in galaxies formed during the earliest days of the universe. These observations can provide a rare look at how stars evolve, especially the most luminous ones.

"For the first time ever we're seeing an individual normal star – not a supernova, not a gamma ray burst, but a single stable star – at a distance of nine billion light years," said Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and one of many co-authors of the report. "These lenses are amazing cosmic telescopes."

The astronomy team also used Icarus to test and reject one theory of dark matter – that it consists of numerous primordial black holes lurking inside galaxy clusters – and to probe the make-up of normal matter and dark matter in the galaxy cluster.

Also at NASA.

See also: SN Refsdal

Extreme magnification of an individual star at redshift 1.5 by a galaxy-cluster lens (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0430-3) (DX)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

From NPR:

Police are responding to an active shooter at the headquarters of YouTube. A hospital has received "several" patients from the incident, a spokesman says.

Local TV news reports show pictures of people evacuating a building with their hands over their heads. Each person was being frisked by a police officer, apparently to make sure that they pose no threat.

Local law enforcement officials have not issued any information.

From Reuters:

Police in San Bruno warned people in a Twitter message to stay away from the address where YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc's Google, is based.

"We are responding to an active shooter. Please stay away from Cherry Ave & Bay Hill Drive," San Bruno police said on Twitter.

Lisa Kim, a spokeswoman for Stanford Health Care, said the hospital was receiving between four to five patients from the shooting incident at the YouTube offices.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Marijuana legalization could help offset opioid epidemic, studies find

Experts have proposed using medical marijuana to help Americans struggling with opioid addiction. Now, two studies suggest that there is merit to that strategy.

The studies, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine [open, DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.0266] [DX], compared opioid prescription patterns in states that have enacted medical cannabis laws with those that have not. One of the studies looked at opioid prescriptions covered by Medicare Part D between 2010 and 2015, while the other looked at opioid prescriptions covered by Medicaid between 2011 and 2016.

The researchers found that states that allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes had 2.21 million fewer daily doses of opioids prescribed per year under Medicare Part D, compared with those states without medical cannabis laws. Opioid prescriptions under Medicaid also dropped by 5.88% in states with medical cannabis laws compared with states without such laws, according to the studies.

"This study adds one more brick in the wall in the argument that cannabis clearly has medical applications," said David Bradford, professor of public administration and policy at the University of Georgia and a lead author of the Medicare study. "And for pain patients in particular, our work adds to the argument that cannabis can be effective."

Also at the Washington Post.

Association of Medical and Adult-Use Marijuana Laws With Opioid Prescribing for Medicaid Enrollees (open, DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.1007) (DX)

Previously:
Study: Legal Weed Far Better Than Drug War at Stopping Opioid Overdose Epidemic
Opioid Commission Drops the Ball, Demonizes Cannabis

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Grindr Admits It Shared HIV Status Of Users

The same-sex dating app Grindr responded Monday to revelations that it allowed third parties to view the HIV status of users, saying its customers had the option not to supply sensitive information. Grindr acknowledged that information on users' HIV status, including the date they were last tested for the virus, was shared with two companies – Apptimize and Localytics, who were paid to monitor and analyze how the app was being used.

News that the app was sharing the data first appeared in a story by Buzzfeed on Monday. Buzzfeed wrote: "Because the HIV information is sent together with users' GPS data, phone ID, and email, it could identify specific users and their HIV status, according to Antoine Pultier, a researcher at the Norwegian nonprofit SINTEF, which first identified the issue."

In a point-by-point response on its Tumblr page, Grindr said: "It's important to remember that Grindr is a public forum. We give users the option to post information about themselves including HIV status and last test date, and we make it clear in our privacy policy that if you choose to include this information in your profile, the information will also become public." Grindr also said that the information was encrypted and that the company "has never, nor will we ever sell personally identifiable user information – especially information regarding HIV status or last test date – to third parties or advertisers."

San Francisco's ABC7 spoke to Alec Nygard, a user of the app, who said it allows the option of posting "negative," "negative on PrEp," "positive," or "positive-undetected status."

Also at CNN, The Guardian, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch.

Related: Health Insurer Aetna Accidentally Exposes Customers' HIV Statuses With Transparent Envelope Windows

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Due to the Internet, conspiracy theories are on the rise and playing an increasingly significant role in global politics. Now new research from The Australian National University (ANU) has analysed digital data to reveal exactly who is propagating them and why.

Lead researcher Dr Colin Klein of the ANU School of Philosophy said that conspiracies such as Pizzagate (which falsely claimed high-ranking Democratic Party officials were running a child-sex ring out of a pizza shop) and the anti-vaccination movement are becoming a bigger issue.

Dr Klein and his team used a huge, publicly available dataset of every comment made on the conspiracy section of the world's largest discussion website Reddit from 2007 to mid-2015 to work out exactly who was taking part in spreading these conspiracies and why. He was surprised by the results.

The analysis showed that most conspiracies built traction when a range of different people and groups could connect it to their own preconceived beliefs or agendas.

http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/anu-study-reveals-who-is-spreading-online-conspiracies

[Also Covered By]: Phys.org

[Paper]: Topic Modeling Reveals Distinct Interests within an Online Conspiracy Forum

Does Reddit seem like a good choice for this study?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Want to sound like someone people can trust? This new software could help

People can tell a lot by the sound of your voice—your mood, your hometown, and even whether you're a friend or an enemy. Now, a group of French researchers has figured out which vocal intonations make a person sound more trustworthy or competent, using a new computer program that can transform the pitch patterns of our voices.

First, the researchers built their own voice processing software, which they used to create hundreds of random intonations of a recording of the word "bonjour"—"hello" in French—by both male and female speakers. Then, they asked two groups of about 20 volunteers each to listen to about 700 pairs of recordings; they used their responses to reconstruct optimal pitch patterns for both trustworthiness and competence.

The team found that listeners clearly associated specific intonations with each social trait [open, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1716090115] [DX], regardless of their own gender or that of the speaker, they reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

This week, following three days of live-broadcast peer review sessions, experts concluded that a pair of federal studies show “clear evidence” that cell phone radiation caused heart cancer in male rats.

This substantially changes the debate on whether cell phone use is a cancer risk. Up until this point, the federal government and cell phone manufacturers operated on the assumption that cell phones cannot by their very nature cause cancer, because they emit non-ionizing radiation. Whereas ionizing radiation—the kind associated with x-rays, CT scans, and nuclear power plants, among others—definitely causes cancer at high enough doses, non-ionizing radiation was believed to not emit enough energy to break chemical bonds. That meant it couldn’t damage DNA, and therefore couldn’t lead to mutations that cause cancer.

But the pair of studies by the US National Toxicology Program found “clear evidence” that exposure to radiation caused heart tumors in male rats, and found “some evidence” that it caused tumors in the brains of male rats. (Both are positive results; the NTP uses the labels “clear evidence,” “some evidence,” “equivocal evidence” and “no evidence” when making conclusions.)

Tumors were found in the hearts of female rats, too, but they didn’t rise to the level of statistical significance and the results were labeled “equivocal;” in other words, the researchers couldn’t be sure the radiation is what caused the tumors.

The next scientific step will be to determine what this means for humans. The peer-reviewed papers will be passed on to the US Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for determining human risk and issuing any guidelines to the public, and the Federal Communications Commission, which develops safety standards for cell phones. The FDA was part of the group of federal agencies who commissioned the studies back in the early 2000s.

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

Exclusive new footage of an internal Mobil Oil meeting with employees, obtained by ThinkProgress, shows then chief executive, Lucio Noto, discussing the impact of Mobil's product on climate change a full two decades ago. This admission occurred as the company worked externally to marginalize climate science and reject any responsibility for global warming and its impacts.

Noto's statement took place in 1998--one year prior to Mobil's merger with Exxon--and raises critical questions about top executives' awareness of the company's overall carbon footprint. The answers may have significant implications for the multiple climate lawsuits currently facing ExxonMobil and other oil giants.

[...] archival video footage of a Mobil Oil meeting seen by ThinkProgress indicates that 20 years ago, employees were raising concerns about the company's responsibility for climate change. In response to staff complaints, Noto--the man who would become ExxonMobil's second in command alongside Lee Raymond--appears to acknowledge the impact the company's product has on rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Video

Original Submission

Unarmed Man in His Backyard Shot From Behind 7 Times By Cops

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The World Socialist Web Site reports

On Friday [March 30], the results of an independent autopsy requested by Stephon Clark's family were released to the public, confirming that police shot the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man seven times in the back and side amid a volley of gunfire in his grandparents' backyard.

The incident began when two police officers responding to a report of someone breaking car windows confronted Clark on March 18. Body camera footage shows that, without identifying themselves, police demanded Clark put his hands up and chased him into his grandparents' backyard. At that point, one of the officers yelled "Gun!" and the two fired 20 shots at Clark, who was holding his cell phone in one hand.

The officers, identified as Terrence Mercadel and Jared Robinet, stood pointing their guns at Clark's corpse for several minutes until backup arrived, then handcuffed his body and made a perfunctory attempt to resuscitate Clark before pronouncing him dead. The officers then turned off their microphones for several minutes, presumably to get their stories straight off the record.

Autopsy results released by a private medical examiner hired by the family's attorney show that [the bullets of] Mercadel and Robinet [hit] Clark a total of eight times. Dr. Bennet Omalu's analysis found that Clark was shot four times in the lower back, twice in the neck, once under an armpit, and once in the front of his thigh.

"You could reasonably conclude that he received seven gunshot wounds from his back", Dr. Omalu told a press conference Friday adding that any one of those would have been fatal on its own. The doctor described extensive damage to Clark's body from the torrent of bullets, which resulted in a collapsed lung and a shattered vertebra.

Dr. Omalu also told reporters that Clark did not die immediately from his injuries but lived another three to 10 minutes after he was shot. He noted that, while it is impossible to say whether Clark would have survived had he received medical attention sooner, "every minute you wait decreases probability of survival." According to video released by the Sacramento Police Department, six minutes elapsed between the firing of the final bullet and the time CPR was administered to Clark's dead body.

The results further discredit the police narrative that Mercadel and Robinet believed Clark posed a danger to their safety and was moving in a menacing manner toward the officers when they gunned him down. In a statement, Clark family attorney Benjamin Crump wrote: "These findings from the independent autopsy contradict the police narrative that we've been told. This independent autopsy affirms that Stephon was not a threat to police and was slain in another senseless police killing under increasingly questionable circumstances."

Body Cam Video of Alton Sterling Killing Released; Officer Sacked

An Anonymous Coward writes:

CBC reports

The videos, released Friday as Baton Rouge's police chief announced the firing of the white officer who shot Sterling six times, came days after the state attorney general declined to bring criminal charges against the two officers involved in the incident.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

LoRdTAW writes:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-02/apple-is-said-to-plan-move-from-intel-to-own-mac-chips-from-2020

Apple Inc. is planning to use its own chips in Mac computers beginning as early as 2020, replacing processors from Intel Corp., according to people familiar with the plans.

The initiative, code named Kalamata, is still in the early developmental stages, but comes as part of a larger strategy to make all of Apple's devices -- including Macs, iPhones, and iPads -- work more similarly and seamlessly together, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The project, which executives have approved, will likely result in a multi-step transition.

The shift would be a blow to Intel, whose partnership helped revive Apple's Mac success and linked the chipmaker to one of the leading brands in electronics. Apple provides Intel with about 5 percent of its annual revenue, according to Bloomberg supply chain analysis.

Intel shares dropped as much as 9.2 percent, the biggest intraday drop in more than two years, on the news. They were down 6.4 percent at $48.75 at 3:30 p.m. in New York.

No interest in Apple hardware but it would be interesting to see how they implement a hybrid Desktop/Tablet OS DE. I'm sure Ubuntu and Gnome will follow.

Original Submission

DavePolaschek and t-3 write:

OpenBSD 6.3 wasn't supposed to be released until April 15th, but everything is done (except the release song - no word on that, yet), so Theo says it's released. Usual raft of new stuff, and better ARM-64 support, which is getting closer to production-ready.

We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 6.3. This is our 44th release. We remain proud of OpenBSD's record of more than twenty years with only two remote holes in the default install.

Original Submission #1   Original Submission #2

tonyPick writes:

There's an article up on Curbed which looks into the surprising number of online mattress-in-a-box companies that have been starting up recently:

Since Casper launched its "mattress in a box" concept in 2014, digital-savvy entrepreneurs have been launching new mattress brands online seemingly every week. Each offers a state-of-the-art mattress made with patented new materials or an innovative design, all compressed into a small box for easy shipping right to your doorstep.
...
It's hard to know just how many online mattress-in-a-box companies are floating around, but one such company's CEO said the number could be as high as 150. Another said the number of mattress manufacturers, which are rarely the startups actually marketing the mattresses to consumers, is close to 500.

Ideally, a mattress is something you buy once every eight to 10 years, when an old one wears out or a major life event like getting married creates a new household. One can find a quality mattress for around $1,000. Given this is a relatively affordable, infrequent purchase for most households, why do so many companies see an opportunity in the online mattress space?

The article covers the reason for the explosion in the number of these companies, the economics and supply chain behind them, and the longer term survival prospects.

Originally spotted on Hackernews.

Original Submission

Michigan Governor Activates Emergency Operations Center to Monitor China's Tiangong-1 Space Station

takyon writes:

Chinese space station spurs activation of Michigan emergency operations

China's Tiangong-1 space station [was] anticipated to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere [on] April 2 and in response, Gov. Rick Snyder activated Michigan's Emergency Operations Center... to monitor its travels.

Although unlikely, pieces of the 8.5 ton space station have the potential to land in the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, according to the Aerospace Corporation. Debris may contain a highly toxic and corrosive substance called hydrazine.

China's "Heavenly Palace" Returns to Earth and Burns Up

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

China's first space station burnt up in Earth's atmosphere on Sunday night, the US Joint Force Space Component Command reported. Using Space Surveillance Network sensors, US officials said the Tiangong-1 station reentered Earth's atmosphere at 8:16pm ET (00:16 UTC Monday). The station was over the southern Pacific Ocean, northwest of the island of Tahiti.

takyon writes:

SpaceX has launched CRS-14 to the International Space Station (ISS) using a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster and Dragon capsule. This is the second time that both a flight-proven F9 (from CRS-12) and Dragon (from CRS-8) have been used.

The mission is carrying RemoveDebris, which will test technologies for removing space debris (simulated using two CubeSats) from orbit using a harpoon, net, and dragsail.

The Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor (ASIM) is a European Space Agency project to add cameras and sensors to the ISS that will search the upper atmosphere for phenomena such as sprites, jets, and elves, and gamma-ray flashes caused by thunderstorms.

NASA, Tupperware Brands, and Techshot Inc. developed an upgraded system for growing plants in the ISS's "Veggie" facility. The semi-hydroponic Passive Orbital Nutrient Delivery System (PONDS) will ensure that plants (red romaine lettuce, and Mizuna) get just the amount of water that they need. The system is expected to grow tomatoes and peppers in the future.

Material International Space Station Experiments (MISSE) will allow materials experiments to be placed on the outside of the space station, exposed to radiation, temperature swings, and the vacuum of space, serviceable by a robotic arm.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Yahoo News reports

China has increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to certain fruits and nuts, escalating a dispute between the world's biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.

The tariffs, which take effect on Monday, were announced late on Sunday by China's finance ministry and matched a list of possible tariffs on up to $3 billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23.

Soon after the announcement, an editorial in the widely read Global Times newspaper warned that if the United States had thought China would not retaliate or would only take symbolic countermeasures, it could "say goodbye to that delusion".

"Even though China and the U.S. have not publicly said they are in a trade war, the sparks of such a war have already started to fly," the newspaper said.

The Ministry of Commerce said it was suspending its obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reduce tariffs on 120 U.S. goods, including fruit and ethanol. The tariffs on those products will be raised by an extra 15 percent.

Eight other products, including pork and scrap aluminum, would now be subject to additional tariffs of 25 percent, it said, with the measures effective starting April 2.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Jerusalem Post reports

The cabinet on Sunday approved a national digital-health program that is designed to personalize medicine and keep Israel at the forefront of the burgeoning medical-tech field, despite concerns over privacy.

The five-year program will have a budget of nearly NIS 1 billion ($280 million). The funds will go toward digitizing and sharing patient data among the country's health funds, relying on artificial intelligence (AI) tools to more accurately detect abnormalities and find correct diagnoses.

[...] The project will include a community of volunteers who, protected by three levels of privacy, will contribute clinical, genomic and other information about their health and will serve as an infrastructure for developing customized medical solutions and in-depth analysis of big data.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

[Pirate Party] Rick Falkvinge has concluded his 21-post series on analog-equivalent privacy rights. Almost everything that was taken for granted by previous generations regarding privacy has been completely eliminated for the young generations coming up. The series of posts discusses how essential civil liberties have suffered catastrophic erosion in the world's transition to online, digital interaction.

It's going to be a long uphill battle to win back the liberties that were slowly won by our ancestors over about six generations, and which have been all but abolished in a decade.

It's not rocket science that our children should have at least the same set of civil liberties in their digital environment, as our parents had in their analog environment. And yet, this is not happening.

Our children are right to demand Analog Equivalent Privacy Rights — the civil liberties our parents not just enjoyed, but took for granted.

Below the fold are all 21 posts from the last few months:

Original Submission