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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Last winter, as an FBI hostage rescue team took up an elevated position to assess an unfolding crisis, agents heard the buzz of small drones approaching.

Soon, the tiny unmanned aircraft had the team surrounded, swooping past in a series of "high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them," Joe Mazel, head of the agency's operational technology law unit, told attendees of the AUVSI Xponential conference in Denver on Wednesday. The swarm caused the group to lose situational awareness of the target.

"We were then blind," Mazel said, according to a Defense One account of the session at the conference focusing on unmanned technologies. "It definitely presented some challenges."

Also at https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/4/17318080/criminals-drones-swarm-fbi-raid

Original Submission

takyon writes:

North Korea has switched from the UTC+08:30 offset, which it has used since 2015, back to UTC+09:00 (Korea Standard Time), matching South Korea in a "first practical step" towards reunification:

North Korea has changed [its] time zone to match the South after last week's inter-Korean summit, according to state media. At 23:30 local time (15:00 GMT) on Friday the country's clocks moved forward 30 minutes to midnight. The reset is "the first practical step" to speed up Korean unification, the official KCNA news agency said.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump says he has a date for his meeting with the North's leader, Kim Jong-Un. "We now have a date and we have a location, we'll be announcing it soon," Mr Trump told US journalists outside the White House on Friday, adding that he was expecting "very, very good things" to come out it. Mr Trump will host South Korea's president Moon Jae-in at the White House on 22 May to discuss the upcoming meeting.

Related: Massachusetts Commission Considering a Potential Move to the Atlantic Time Zone
President Trump Tweets about Nuclear Talks with North Korea
U.S. and North Korean Representatives Holding Secret Talks to Plan for Summit
Kim Jong-un Crosses Into South Korea for Summit
South Korea to Remove Loudspeakers at Border

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

Interesting bit to be found at The Conversation:

Speakers recently flew in from around (or perhaps, across?) the earth for a three-day event held in Birmingham: the UK's first ever public Flat Earth Convention. It was well attended, and wasn't just three days of speeches and YouTube clips (though, granted, there was a lot of this). There was also a lot of team-building, networking, debating, workshops – and scientific experiments.

Yes, flat earthers do seem to place a lot of emphasis and priority on scientific methods and, in particular, on observable facts. The weekend in no small part revolved around discussing and debating science, with lots of time spent running, planning, and reporting on the latest set of flat earth experiments and models. Indeed, as one presenter noted early on, flat earthers try to "look for multiple, verifiable evidence" and advised attendees to "always do your own research and accept you might be wrong".

While flat earthers seem to trust and support scientific methods, what they don't trust is scientists, and the established relationships between "power" and "knowledge". This relationship between power and knowledge has long been theorised by sociologists. By exploring this relationship, we can begin to understand why there is a swelling resurgence of flat earthers.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

NVIDIA Terminates GeForce Partner Program

Just as quickly as it came into being, NVIDIA's GeForce Partner Program has come to an end.

In a short article posted to their website today, NVIDIA's Director of Product Marketing, John Teeple, announced that the program has been cancelled. In making the unexpected decision, Teeple stated "The rumors, conjecture and mistruths go far beyond its [the GeForce Partner Program's] intent. Rather than battling misinformation, we have decided to cancel the program" and that "today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work we're doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming." No further information was provided on just what canceled entails, and what this means for existing program partners.

NVIDIA's GeForce Partner Program is been [sic] divisive, to put it lightly. After news of it broke in March and was confirmed by NVIDIA, the program quickly attracted a good deal of negative attention out of concerns over what it meant for the competitive market, and a general degree of mean spiritedness. Adding fuel to the fire, few details of the program were ever confirmed by NVIDIA – with the company seeing little benefit in doing so – which left a great void open for rumors and unsourced reports of all kinds.

Also at PCWorld.

Previously: AMD Blasts Nvidia Over GeForce Partner Program, G-Sync

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] "Most people are familiar with viruses," said Christopher Schvarcz, the UH Mānoa oceanography graduate student who led the project as part of his doctoral dissertation, "because there are so many that cause diseases in humans. But we are not alone; even the microscopic plankton in the ocean are constantly battling viral infections."

Much of the phytoplankton that grows in the ocean every day gets eaten, thereby sustaining animals in the marine food web. It is common, however, for viral infections to spread through populations of phytoplankton. When this happens, the infected phytoplankton cells disintegrate and are decomposed by bacteria, diverting that food source away from the animals.

[...] Viruses have to replicate inside of cells, putting some constraints on how big they can be, but the known upper size limit of viruses has been creeping upward over the past 15 years as researchers have focused on finding more examples of what are now referred to as "giant" viruses.

"Most viruses are so tiny that we need an electron microscope to see them," said Steward "but these giants rival bacteria in size, and their genomes often code for functions we have never seen in viruses before."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Yale physicists have uncovered hints of a time crystal — a form of matter that “ticks” when exposed to an electromagnetic pulse — in the last place they expected: a crystal you might find in a child’s toy.

The discovery means there are now new puzzles to solve, in terms of how time crystals form in the first place.

Ordinary crystals such as salt or quartz are examples of three-dimensional, ordered spatial crystals. Their atoms are arranged in a repeating system, something scientists have known for a century.

Time crystals, first identified in 2016, are different. Their atoms spin periodically, first in one direction and then in another, as a pulsating force is used to flip them. That’s the “ticking.” In addition, the ticking in a time crystal is locked at a particular frequency, even when the pulse flips are imperfect.

Scientists say that understanding time crystals may lead to improvements in atomic clocks, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, as well as aid in building potential quantum technologies. The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced a program to fund more research into time crystal systems.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

New research from North Carolina State University and the University of Colorado Boulder finds that steep declines in the use of coal for power generation over the past decade were caused largely by less expensive natural gas and the availability of wind energy -- not by environmental regulations.

"From 2008 to 2013, coal dropped from about 50 percent of U.S. power generation to around 30 percent," says Harrison Fell, an associate professor of resource economics at NC State and co-lead author of a paper on the work.

"Coal boosters blamed stiffer regulations, calling it a 'war on coal.' But that same time period saw a steep drop in the cost of natural gas and an increase in wind generation. We wanted to know how big a role each of these factors played in driving down the demand for coal."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Australia's long talked about space agency may come into existence soon:

The government will set aside $50m to fund Australia's first dedicated space agency, according to senior insiders. The ABC on Thursday reported that funding for the space agency was guaranteed in the budget on Tuesday. It is understood $50m will be given to the fledgling agency as "seed funding", with the intention that the majority of the agency's funding will come from the private sector.

Megan Clark, a former head of the [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)] who this year completed a comprehensive review of Australia's space sector, will lead the agency, the ABC reported.

Prof Alan Duffy, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University, said the agency would be primarily focused on research and economic development. "Rather than putting people into space, it will be focused on creating jobs for those people on earth," he said. "Space is a global sector worth some $420bn and grows faster than China's economy – it's something we want to be a part of. The aim is to develop commercial opportunities so Australian start-ups and companies gain access to this very valuable sector."

There are already space-related start-ups in Australia, but the government hopes to boost Australia's share of the growing global space market from 0.8% to 1.8%.

Also at Science Magazine.

See also: Australia is late to the space agency party, but that's not necessarily a bad thing

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Hawaii will ban the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, which have been found to be toxic to coral and algae. The ban would take effect in 2021, and wouldn't apply to prescription sunscreens, online purchases, or sunscreen brought from out of state.

Hawaii bans sunscreens with chemicals that damage coral reefs, but Australia reluctant to follow

But there is far less enthusiasm for a similar ban in Australia, with some experts questioning the evidence behind Hawaii's decision. [...] Hawaii's decision was partly based on a report from 2015.

[...] "It's still a matter of balancing our planet health with human health when we know that two out of three Australians will develop skin cancer in their lifetime," Cancer Council Australia CEO Sanchia Aranda said.

Professor Aranda said there was still no conclusive scientific evidence the chemicals caused coral bleaching. "If there was evidence for marine damage strongly and the TGA, who regulates sunscreen and the chemicals that go into sunscreen, believed that it was harmful, then we would also seek to support that," she said.

2015 study reported at UCF and NPR.

Toxicopathological Effects of the Sunscreen UV Filter, Oxybenzone (Benzophenone-3), on Coral Planulae and Cultured Primary Cells and Its Environmental Contamination in Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands (DOI: 10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7) (DX)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow8317

NT LAN Manager (NTLM) credentials can be stolen via malicious Portable Document Format (PDF) files without user interaction.

PDF files, the security researchers explain, consist primarily of objects, together with Document structure, File structure, and content streams. There are eight basic types of objects, including dictionaries, and a malicious actor can abuse these to steal NTLM credentials.

A dictionary object represents a table containing pairs of objects, called entries, where the first element is the key (a name) and the second element is the value (may be any kind of object). Represented by dictionary objects, the pages of a document are called page objects and consist of required and optional entries.

One of the optional entries is the /AA entry, defining actions performed when a page is opened (/O entry) or closed (/C entry). An action dictionary is held within /O (/C) and consists of 3 required entries: /S, /F, and /D, describing the type of action to be performed – GoToR (Go To Remote) and GoToE (Go To Embedded) –, the location location [sic] of the other PDF, and the location to go to within the document.

"By injecting a malicious entry (using the fields described above together with his SMB server details via the '/F' key), an attacker can entice arbitrary targets to open the crafted PDF file which then automatically leaks their NTLM hash, challenge, user, host name and domain details," Check Point explains.

Source: https://www.securityweek.com/pdf-files-can-silently-leak-ntlm-credentials

Original Submission

cafebabe writes:

D.R. & Quinch are back for Free Comic Book Day 2018. If you're not aware of D.R. & Quinch, they are like Beavis & Butthead but with less toilet humor.

takyon: Free Comic Book Day is a promotional event that started in California in 2002, and has since spread nationwide and internationally. You can use the event's store locator to find a participating shop near you. Some locations will have concurrent events, sales, signings, etc.

Here's a list of comics (with cover images) that will be available, and here's the list sorted by age group. One of the comics is "Defend Comics" by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, containing stories which can "open up a dialogue about the First Amendment with children, but [...] are sure to delight parents and kids alike!"

Previously: "Free Comic Book Day" Event Features Neil Gaiman, The Simpsons

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Facebook engineer and 'professional stalker' reportedly fired over creepy Tinder messages

There's no shortage of Facebook news this week on account of F8, but this creepy Facebook-adjacent event with a good outcome seems worth noting. An engineer accused of abusing his access to data at the company in Tinder messages has been fired, Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch today.

The issue arose over the weekend: Jackie Stokes, founder of Spyglass Security, explained on Twitter that someone she knew had received some rather creepy messages from someone she personally confirmed was a Facebook engineer.

The engineer described themselves as a "professional stalker," which however accurate it may be (they attempt to unmask hackers) is probably not the best way to introduce yourself to a potential partner. They then implied that they had been employing their professional acumen in pursuit of identifying their new quarry.

Also at Motherboard.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/technology/hello-kitty-malware-targets-drupal-to-mine-for-cryptocurrency/ar-AAwGn4C

According to researchers from Imperva's Incapsula, Kitty is the latest malware to attack the Drupal content management system (CMS) for the purpose of cryptojacking.

It has been just over a month since the Drupalgeddon 2.0 (CVE-2018-7600) exploit was published. The vulnerability, deemed "highly critical," is a remote code execution bug present in Drupal versions 7.x and 8.x.

What makes Kitty different is that it is not only the internal network, server, and website itself which may be compromised to mine cryptocurrency, but the malware also targets visitors to compromised domains.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Indian officials lament inaction of cities with world's worst air

Only a handful of India's 100 most polluted cities have drawn up plans to combat air pollution despite being asked to do so three years ago, senior government officials said on Wednesday after a damning report by the World Health Organisation.

India is home to the world's 14 most polluted cities, the WHO said, based on the amount of particulate matter under 2.5 micrograms found in every cubic metre of air.

Environment ministry officials said the WHO's findings were embarrassing but not surprising. "It hurts India's image, hurts the India story, hurts tourism, hurts medical tourism," said one official, ruing that fewer than 30 cities had an action plan ready to fight air pollution. "India will eventually overcome the problem, but my frustration is with the timeline."

The ministry could spend about 7 billion rupees ($105 million) this fiscal year to help cities set up air-quality monitoring systems and buy equipment like water-sprinklers to settle dust, said the officials, who declined to be identified, citing government policy.

Kanpur is the world's most polluted city. #15 is Kuwait.

China breathes a sigh of relief, and then chokes.

WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database (update 2016)

Also at Conde Nast Traveller.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Sprint yesterday announced "the best profitability in company history" thanks to growth in its customer base, just days after saying it needed to merge with T-Mobile USA in order to improve its network.

If Sprint was doing worse, the merger might not have happened. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said that the company's successful turnaround "positioned Sprint for strategic opportunities which led to our proposed merger with T-Mobile." Sprint's profitability and free cash flow was key in giving Sprint the chance to combine with T-Mobile, he said.

In the just-ended fiscal year, Sprint said it had "its highest annual retail phone net additions in five years and the best profitability in company history with its highest annual operating income at $2.7 billion and annual net income for the first time in 11 years, even when excluding the one-time favorable impact from tax reform."

Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/sprint-announces-highest-profit-ever-after-saying-it-needs-t-mobile-merger/

Original Submission