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Over the last several months, I’ve witnessed many controversial discussions among my friends, in my San Francisco community, and on online forums about James Demore’s memorandum. People of both genders are wrestling with the fact that fewer women go into computer science and trying to find explanations that balance their experience, empathy, and ethical aspirations. I’ve heard lots of good-intentioned people consider discouraging theories of biological superiority because they can’t find any other compelling explanation (like this post on HackerNews, for example). As a woman who studied computer science, worked at some of the top tech firms, and has founded a software startup, I’d like to share my take on why fewer women go into CS and my opinion on how to address the issue.

[...] I graduated from Stanford with a BS in Mathematical & Computational Sciences in 2015, interned at Apple as a software engineer, and worked as an Associate Product Manager at Google 2015-2017. In October, I founded a video editing website called Kapwing and am working on the startup full-time. Although I’m only 25, I’ve already seen many of my female friends choose majors/careers outside of STEM and have been inside of many predominately-male classes, organizations, and teams.

This article is one person’s humble perspective, and I do not speak for every woman in tech. But hopefully having the view of someone who has “been there” can help people trying to understand why there are fewer women in tech.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Barely a week has passed from the last attempt to hide a backdoor in a code library, and we have a new case today. This time around, the backdoor was found in a Python module, and not an npm (JavaScript) package.

The module's name is SSH Decorator (ssh-decorate), developed by Israeli developer Uri Goren, a library for handling SSH connections from Python code.

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/backdoored-python-library-caught-stealing-ssh-credentials/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

CRISPR's MAGESTIC Evolution Makes Gene Editing More Precise

Scientists at the Joint Institute of Metrology and Biology (JIMB)—a collaboration between Stanford University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—have now developed a CRISPR-Cas9–based platform that can make precise, single-nucleotide changes in target DNA at the genome-wide level. The new technology has been dubbed MAGESTIC because it is a "multiplexed, accurate genome-editing" tool that uses "short, trackable, integrated cellular" barcodes. Tests using the MAGESTIC platform to carry out high-throughput, precise gene editing and evaluation in the yeast model Saccharomyces cerevisiae demonstrated fivefold increases in editing efficiency and as well as sevenfold increases in cell survival.

[...] One of the major differentiators of the MAGESTIC platform is that it actively recruits the donor DNA to the double-stranded breaks caused by Cas9 scissors using array-synthesized guide RNA/donor DNA (guide-donor) oligonucleotides. This enables a more than fivefold increase in precision editing efficiency, the authors state. Another of the major features that sets MAGESTIC apart from other multiplexed CRISPR editing approaches is that it uses genome-integrated barcodes that are tagged onto the end of the guide-donor sequence. Using traditional approaches, the barcodes are embedded in the plasmids, which are then inherited by daughter cells and multiply. However, the plasmid barcode system is not completely accurate, and so can give false measures of cell number. Instead, the MAGESTIC platform integrates the barcodes directly into the yeast cell chromosomes, which is a far more stable, easily tracked system, the researchers claim. "...we introduce stable, genome-integrated barcodes instead of plasmid barcodes, thereby enabling marker-free variant tracking and one-to-one correspondence of barcode counts to stain abundance."

Multiplexed precision genome editing with trackable genomic barcodes in yeast (DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4137) (DX)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Three years of planning delays soured Apple on the plan.  

Apple is giving up on plans to build a data center in Ireland after waiting three years for final approval that never came, according to Reuters.

The center, which was expected to cost 850 million euros ($1 billion), was announced in 2015 and was supposed to be built in the town of Athenry on Ireland's west coast. Apple chose the location because of its proximity to renewable energy sources, something the company takes very seriously. In April, Apple announced that 100 percent of its facilities run on clean energy.

Planning appeals by two people caused the delays, although Ireland's High Court ruled in October that the data center could go ahead. The individuals then took their case to the country's Supreme Court, but Apple decided to call time on the project ahead of the hearing, which was set for Thursday.

"Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data center," Apple said in a statement to Reuters.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In an unexpected finding, chemist Sankaran "Thai" Thayumanavan and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst show for the first time how movement of a single chemical bond can compromise a membrane made up of more than 500 chemical bonds. Their system uses light as a switch to create a reversible, on-demand molecular control mechanism.

Thayumanavan explains, "There are many applications that one can imagine developing from these fundamental findings, especially ones that need controlled release. For example, we have shown that two compounds that would readily react with each other can be in the same solution but are separated by a very thin membrane made of a few nanometers and therefore do not react with each other."

"But upon exposure to light, the membrane gets compromised to allow the two components to react with each other," he adds. "The interesting thing is that the membrane is not permanently compromised upon exposure to light, but only when the light is on."

His postdoctoral associate Mijanur Rahaman Molla and doctoral student Poornima Rangadurai conducted most of the experimental work. The UMass Amherst group also collaborated with theoretical chemists Lucas Antony and Juan de Pablo at the University of Chicago, who modeled the system in order to more deeply understand it, Thayumanavan notes. Details are online now in Nature Chemistry.

Such reversible molecular controls that respond only when there is a source of energy are quite rare in artificial systems, he says. Usually in artificial, human-made systems, "materials are in an equilibrium state, so if you have a particle that responds to pH change and you put it into an environment that triggers a change, it stays changed. You can't put the genie back into the bottle."

Mijanur Rahaman Molla, Poornima Rangadurai, Lucas Antony, Subramani Swaminathan, Juan J. de Pablo, S. Thayumanavan. Dynamic actuation of glassy polymersomes through isomerization of a single azobenzene unit at the block copolymer interface. Nature Chemistry, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41557-018-0027-6

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Dogs supposedly trained to detect and respond to potentially life-threatening blood sugar levels in people with diabetes were, in reality, often untrained, un-housebroken puppies with hefty pricetags—currently set at $25,000. At least, that's according to a lawsuit filed this week by Attorney General Mark Herring on behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

According to the lawsuit, the non-profit company Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers and its owner Charles Warren Jr. made extraordinary claims about their "diabetic alert dogs." The company and Warren said that the dogs were highly trained and that their performance was "backed by science."

[...] Virginia has a bone to pick about almost all of that. Though the prices were real, the dogs' abilities were not, according to the lawsuit. Customers said they received "ready" dogs that were not at all trained to detect and respond to blood sugar levels.

[...] Moreover, SDWR's dogs lacked even basic pet training, according to the lawsuit. Some dogs were merely puppies that were not housebroken, struggled to walk on a leash, chewed on things, and didn't respond to their names. They also displayed behaviors incompatible for service animal work, including frequent barking, jumping on people, and being terrified of loud noises.

[...] "[T]hese hopeful and vulnerable consumers receive poorly trained, ill-behaved dogs that are not equipped to help them manage a life-threatening disability and are little more than very expensive pets," the lawsuit concludes.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/25k-diabetic-alert-dogs-were-untrained-un-housebroken-puppies-lawsuit-says/

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The first carbon-rich asteroid found in the Kuiper Belt

It's believed that our solar system's gas giants caused quite a ruckus in their infancies. As they exited their tight orbits and began their outward migrations, their forceful journeys caused small, rocky bodies in the inner solar system to be ejected from their homes, with some making their way all the way out to the Kuiper Belt — an thick and extended ring of comets, asteroids, and other small objects that surrounds the outer solar system. However, due to the billions of miles that lie between Earth and the Kuiper Belt, identifying an inner solar system asteroid in our icy outskirts was far from easy. But now, an international team of astronomers has discovered Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW95 — a carbon-rich asteroid that supports our gas giants' destructive tendencies.

[...] But the research team was able to overcome the obstacles and identify clear signatures of carbon, iron oxides, and phyllosilicates (sheets of silicate minerals), all of which are elements commonly found in the inner solar system that had never been identified in a Kuiper Belt object. From the chemical breakdown, the researchers were able to conclude that Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW95 was likely born in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and made the long journey outward alongside our gas giants.

(120216) 2004 EW₉₅.

Also at ESO.

2004 EW₉₅: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aab3dc) (DX) (Caltech) (arXiv)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

In what may be one of the most controversial studies of the year, researchers at Skidmore College—clearly triggered by a change in the American Psychological Association (APA) style book—sought to quantify the benefits of two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. After conducting an eye-tracking experiment with 60 Skidmore students, Rebecca L. Johnson, Becky Bui, and Lindsay L. Schmitt found that two spaces at the end of a period slightly improved the processing of text during reading. The research was trumpeted by some press outlets as a vindication of two-spacers' superiority.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05/two-spaces-after-period-are-better-than-one-except-maybe-they-arent-study-finds/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney shows that global tourism, a trillion-dollar industry, contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and its carbon footprint is expanding rapidly.

Domestic and international tourism account for eight percent of total worldwide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, researchers have found.

The study was based on data from 189 countries around the globe. It showed that the industry's carbon footprint was driven mainly by demand for energy-intensive air travel.

"Tourism is set to grow faster than many other economic sectors," with revenue projected to swell by four percent annually through 2025, said lead-author Arunima Malik, a researcher at The University of Sydney's business school.

Source: https://www.rt.com/business/426248-global-tourism-greenhouse-emissions/

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Associated Press has found evidence that five military wives who received death threats from the self-styled CyberCaliphate were targeted not by jihadists but by the same Russian hacking group, APT28 aka FancyBear, that intervened in the American election and exposed the emails of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta.

The false flag is a case study in the difficulty of assigning blame in a world where hackers routinely borrow one another's identities to throw investigators off track. The operation also parallels the online disinformation campaign by Russian trolls in the months leading up to the U.S. election in 2016.

Links between CyberCaliphate and the Russian hackers — typically nicknamed Fancy Bear or APT28 — have been documented previously. On both sides of the Atlantic, the consensus is that the two groups are closely related.

But that consensus never filtered through to the women involved, many of whom were convinced they had been targeted by Islamic State sympathizers right up until the AP contacted them.

"Never in a million years did I think that it was the Russians," said Ricketts, an author and advocate for veterans and military families. She called the revelation "mind blowing."

"It feels so hilarious and insidious at the same time."

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

A new estimate of the Hubble constant – the rate at which the universe is expanding – is baffling many of the finest minds in the cosmology community

[...] "The fact the universe is expanding is really one of the most powerful ways we have to determine the composition of the universe, the age of the universe and the fate of the universe," said Professor Adam Riess, at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, who led the latest analysis. "The Hubble constant quantifies all that into one number."

In an expanding universe, the further away a star or galaxy is, the quicker it is receding. Hubble's constant – proposed by Edwin Hubble in the 1920s – reveals by how much.

So one approach to measuring it is by observing the redshifts of bright supernovae, whose light is stretched as the very space it is travelling through expands. A challenge, though, is pinpointing the exact distance of these stars.

Riess, who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, is part of a team focussed on developing ultra-precise methods for measuring distances.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

"How is the tor network doing two years after Philipp Winter et al. urged the Tor relay operators to stop using Google's DNS resolver?

With new players like Quad9 and Cloudflare on the "DNS resolver market" asking for your DNS traffic, who are the big DNS players on today's tor network?"

Article: https://medium.com/@nusenu/who-controls-tors-dns-traffic-a74a7632e8ca (Archived at: https://archive.fo/iGQJE)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Tmux is a well-written terminal multiplexer. It allows access to multiple separate terminal sessions inside a single terminal window or remote terminal session. It can do quite a lot when advanced configurations are taken into account. Here Gregory Pakosz' explains his pretty and versatile tmux status bar modifications line by line. His modifications look great and just work, combining form and function.

https://github.com/gpakosz/.tmux/blob/master/README.md

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google has demonstrated an AI assistant that can make phone calls on your behalf, speaking to the human on the other end of the line. The company showed off the capability by playing a recording of a phone call it claims was between its chatbot and a hair salon:

Onstage at I/O 2018, Google showed off a jaw-dropping new capability of Google Assistant: in the not too distant future, it's going to make phone calls on your behalf. CEO Sundar Pichai played back a phone call recording that he said was placed by the Assistant to a hair salon. The voice sounded incredibly natural; the person on the other end had no idea they were talking to a digital AI helper. Google Assistant even dropped in a super casual "mmhmmm" early in the conversation.

Pichai reiterated that this was a real call using Assistant and not some staged demo. "The amazing thing is that Assistant can actually understand the nuances of conversation," he said. "We've been working on this technology for many years. It's called Google Duplex."

There is already a debate about whether this is a good idea:

The selfishness of Google Duplex

Google's AI sounds like a human on the phone — should we be worried?

Google Duplex: Good or Evil?

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Softpedia reports

The patch addresses a total of nine security vulnerabilities

[...] All these flaws could [allow] local attackers to either crash the system or execute arbitrary code, bypass intended access restrictions to the connection tracking helpers list, as well as to inappropriately modify the system-wide operating system fingerprint list. Canonical urges all Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS users using the Canonical Livepatch to update their system immediately. A restart is not required when updating the kernel [using the] live patch.

Original Submission