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bob_super writes:

By buying an online pharmacy allowed to deliver in all US states for a billion dollars, Amazon entered a new market and caused incumbents' stocks to plummet. The stock valuations of the traditional players lost 12.8 billion dollars just from the announcement.

Will Amazon help Americans afford their medications? How does it factor in with their announcing a combined healthcare provider with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway, and will it scale to the rest of us from there?

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-mexico-border-history-photos-2017-4:

One of the Trump administration's latest immigration policies has come under fire, after Homeland Security figures revealed that ICE is separating families at the US-Mexico border.

Between May 5 and June 9, border officials separated more than 2,300 children from 2,206 parents, the DHS said Tuesday. The policy, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in early May, enforces "zero-tolerance" regulations on those who enter the US without documentation. Any migrant who attempts to cross the southern border — even those seeking asylum — is now being prosecuted.

Following mounting pressure from both sides of the aisle, Trump signed an executive order that he said will stop family separation at the border. But the fate of immigrant children already in custody remains unclear, and the order still faces legal obstacles.

The goal of establishing a firm physical boundary to separate the US from Mexico is nothing new. In the country that has the world's largest immigrant population, American presidential administrations have tried tightening security along the border for around a century.

Though the divide was formally established in 1824, the US didn't launch its official Border Patrol until 1924. Inspection and holding stations were created after that, followed by the construction of miles of fences with barbed wire and steel barriers over the next few decades.

The included pictures and captions speak of the changing attitudes towards Mexicans and their efforts to cross the border over the years.

Original Submission

Apparition writes:

The Brave Browser by former Mozilla CEO and JavaScript developer Brendan Eich has begun testing opt-in ads and integrating Tor into private tabs.

From gHacks:

One of the key ideas behind Brave was to replace the current advertisement system of the Internet with a better one. Brave wanted to establish its own system that shares the advertisement revenue between publishers, users, and the company.

Brave uses its own currency and platform for that. BAT, Basic Attention Tokens, has been integrated into Brave Payments last year and some users started to use it to distribute BAT to publishers and creators anonymously. Brave funds this currently if you opt-in; this means that you do get a monthly budget of 15 BAT (about 4.41 USD) that you can distribute to websites you visit.

[...] The company announced the start of opt-in advertisement trials yesterday. Users need to leave a comment on the Brave forum and may be selected for the trial when they do.

Brave wants to do things differently in regards to advertisement and the two core difference to the existing advertising model are the following ones:

• Brave pays users about 70% of the gross advertising revenue in BAT. Users can use BAT to reward sites they visit or exchange it for other currency in the future.
• Brave's advertising model values user privacy. Instead of tracking users, it is downloading a set of ads to the user system based on region and language, and displays the most appropriate ad using local matching.

The advertisement option will be opt-in and consent-based according to Brave. Users who don't want to see advertisement don't need to change anything as ads won't be displayed to them.

From PC Gamer:

takyon writes:

California man arrested for threatening to kill FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's family over net neutrality

A 33-year-old resident of Norwalk, California was arrested today for sending threatening emails to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai last year, according to the US Department of Justice. The threats, sent by an individual named Makara Man, were made primarily in the second of three messages sent to Pai's official FCC email accounts in late December, just days after the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality protections.

The first email allegedly accused Pai of causing the suicide of a teenager through his actions that led to the net neutrality vote. The second email contained an explicit threat against members of Pai's family, as well as a listing of three locations in and around Arlington, Virginia where Pai is said to live. The third email allegedly contained a photo of Pai and a separate photo of Pai and his family.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

El Reg reports

Harlan Ellison, the legendary science fiction author who kickstarted the 1970s "New Wave" of science fiction has died in his sleep at the age of 84 at his home in Los Angeles.

Ellison was one of the giants of the genre, the winner of eight Hugo awards (including an unbeaten record of three short story prizes), four Nebula awards, five Bram Stoker awards for his horror writing, and numerous other honours. He wrote what is widely considered to be the best episode of the original Star Trek, The City on the Edge of Forever, was a consultant on Babylon 5, and was credited for James Cameron's The Terminator--albeit after a lawsuit.

Born in 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio, Ellison was an early starter, selling his first story at the age of 15. He never stopped writing, producing over 1,700 stories, film [scripts,] and TV scripts. His early writing career coincided with the heyday of pulp science fiction magazines. Those mags paid as little as a penny word, so he couldn't initially afford to write full time.

This led to a very broad résumé. He worked as a cab driver, tuna fisherman, crop harvester, and--briefly--as an armed bodyguard for a paranoid friend. He also had a two-year spell in the US army.

[...] In one anecdote, Ellison was one of the writers called in to pitch ideas for a Star Trek movie. Idea after idea was shot down by the film exec as not "thinking big enough". Finally Ellison suggested the Enterprise would warp out to the edge of the universe only to find a solid wall. After rerouting all power to the weapons system, the spaceship would blast though the wall and gaze at the face of God. When the exec told him he still wasn't thinking big enough Ellison gave him the finger and walked out.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

New evidence of ancient child sacrifice found in Turkey

Remains of young people who were ritually sacrificed have been found from Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Led by Museum scientific associate Dr Brenna Hassett, a team examined burial practices at Başur Höyük, a Bronze Age cemetery in Turkey. It contains a series of individuals who were buried between 3100 and 2800 BCE. The site dates to 500 years before the famous Royal Cemetery of Ur, a luxurious series of tombs that form the resting place of Mesopotamian rulers.

An excavation of Başur Höyük [DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2018.63] [DX] uncovered a large, coffin-like stone tomb that contained multiple burials, with an unprecedented number of high-status grave goods for the period and region.

In three graves were found the remains of at least 11 people, male and female, ranging from age 11 to young adults. Several people were buried outside the tomb with elaborate ornaments and grave goods. Brenna says, 'The burials are remarkable because of the youth of the individuals, the number that were buried and the large wealth of objects that were buried with them.

Also at Live Science and Newsweek.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Oculus will pay ZeniMax $250 million for copyright infringement

Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media has always been a little sue-happy. But maybe a recent decision from its case against Oculus (and by extension, Facebook) will cool its jets a bit. A jury recently decided that Zuckerberg and Co. will only pay $250 million of the initial $500 million claim from ZeniMax that when John Carmack left Bethesda-owned id Software for Oculus, he stole his former employer's intellectual property, according to Bloomberg.

Judge Ed Kinkeade ruled that Oculus would have to pay out $200 million for breach of contract and then and additional $50 million for copyright infringement. Additionally, Kinkeade declined ZeniMax's demand that sales of Oculus headsets be banned.

Previously: Facebook/Oculus Ordered to pay $500 Million to ZeniMax

Original Submission

takyon writes:

This device will literally tell you how much you stink

There's so much bad technology in the world that Japan even has a beautiful word for pointless gadgets: "chindogu." There's another splendid Japanese term, one that companies are apparently holding training sessions on how to combat: "sumeru harasumento," or in English, "smell harassment." To help keep offensively stinky people in check, Tanita is releasing a gizmo that figures out how bad your body odor is.

All you have to do with the Tanita ES-100 is turn it on, flip out the sensor and point it to a part of your body you're concerned is exuding too much musk. It measures particulate matter and after 10 seconds, will display how intense your odor is on a 0-10 scale (0, you don't smell; 10, you don't have friends). Level 5 and above means it's time for "smell care," though it might be more effective if it just told you to take a dang shower.

The stench scale goes both ways: if you've applied too much deodorant or cologne, the pocket-sized ES-100 will let you know if you should tone down the aftershave a little. The replaceable sensor is good for 2,000 uses, or about a year.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Billionaire Space Race Is Making Life Difficult for Airlines

On Feb. 6, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its largest rocket into the blue Florida sky. Onboard was "Starman," a dummy strapped into the billionaire's cherry red Tesla roadster. Minutes later, fans cheered as Musk topped himself by nailing a simultaneous landing of the Falcon Heavy's boosters. It was arguably a turning point for the commercial space age.

Airlines were somewhat less thrilled. On that day, 563 flights were delayed and 62 extra miles added to flights in the southeast region of the U.S., according to Federal Aviation Administration data released Tuesday by the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA.

America's airspace is a finite resource, and the growth of commercial launches has U.S. airlines worried. Whenever Musk or one of his rivals sends up a spacecraft, the carriers which operate closer to the ground must avoid large swaths of territory and incur sizable expenses.

Most of the commercial activity to date has been focused on Cape Canaveral, the Air Force post on Florida's Atlantic coast, where Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin LLC base their stellar operations. It is one of 22 active U.S. launch sites, and a number of other locales—including Brownsville, Texas; Watkins, Colorado; and Camden County, Georgia—are pursuing new spaceport ventures to capitalize on commercial space activity.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

UK criticised over role in US rendition

The Intelligence and Security Committee said British agencies continued to supply intelligence to allies despite knowing or suspecting abuse in more than 200 cases.

Committee chairman Dominic Grieve said agencies knew of incidents that were "plainly unlawful".

The findings have sparked fresh calls for an independent, judge-led inquiry.

The two parliamentary reports, published following a three-year investigation, examine how far Britain's intelligence agencies were aware of the mistreatment of terrorism suspects.

Original Submission

Just a quick note, as previously noted, our SSL certificates were due to expire. Due to various headaches involving issues changing our DNS records, and my personal unavailability, we were unable to renew our certificates in time. Right now, soylentnews.org is running on a LetsEncrypt certificate that was issued after quite a bit of pain. We're still trying to fix the fundamental issues that prevented us from being issued a two year Gandi certificate. Currently, I'm unable to resolve this issue more in-depth, but I've granted access to TheMightyBuzzard to be able help handle the necessary issues that caused the downtime. I will try to get a full writeup of the situation, but for the time being, the main site is up. Secondary services remain down due to the same renewal issues.

Apologies for any inconvenience,

NCommander

realDonaldTrump writes:

Equifax must implement tougher cybersecurity measures following a massive data breach last year, according to an agreement with state regulators.

The consent order will require the credit-reporting agency to bolster its data security defenses, establish an internal audit program and issue a report to state regulators by the end of July.

[...] The hack, which Equifax disclosed in September, exposed names, addresses and Social Security numbers for nearly 148 million Americans. Federal investigators have launched probes into the incident, and a bill recently signed by President Donald Trump includes a provision that requires credit-reporting firms to offer free credit freezes.

States order Equifax to bolster cybersecurity

Also at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

[...] It hasn't previously been feasible to use capacitive sensing on extremely flexible, thin materials because they've needed to resist electrostatic forces that can either damage them or impede their movement.

"Researchers want the sensor to move with small forces from sound, without being affected by the electrostatic forces," Miles said.

In this most recent work, Miles has found a design that allows the thin, flexible sensor -- which could be spider silk or any other material just as thin -- to swing above two fixed electrodes.

"Because the sensor is at a 90-degree angle from the electrodes, the electrostatic forces don't affect its movement," said Miles.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180626113435.htm

Original Submission

c0lo writes:

ArsTechnica

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 was approved unanimously by the state Senate and Assembly today and was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

A legislative bill summary says the law will give Californians "the right to know what PI [personal information] is being collected about them and whether their PI is being sold and to whom; the right to access their PI; the right to delete PI collected from them; the right to opt-out or opt-in to the sale of their PI, depending on age of the consumer; and the right to equal service and price, even if they exercise such rights."

The Consumers Union

Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, was an early supporter of the ballot initiative. While the organization said it was pleased that many of the initiative’s provisions were included in the new law, it urged changes to certain aspects of the law that are different from the ballot initiative, and pledged to work for more substantial reforms.

Justin Brookman, the Director of Consumer Privacy and Technology Policy for Consumers Union, said, “We appreciate that this law advances consumer protections in several ways. It gives people access to the information that companies have about them. It extends the right to control the sale of your data, and it provides new security protections in the wake of the Equifax breach.

“However, we have serious concerns about how this legislation introduces very troubling concepts into law. We oppose a provision in the law that allows companies to charge higher prices to consumers who decline to have their information sold to third parties. The California state constitution grants people an inviolable right to privacy. Consumers should not be charged for exercising that right.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

'OK Google, give everybody in America a free speaker'

Alphabet Inc. should give every household in America a free Google Home Mini smart speaker, a Morgan Stanley analyst suggested Thursday.

The speakers currently retail for $49 each, which would mean spending about $3.3 billion. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak wrote Thursday that would be a "small price to pay" for Google-parent Alphabet. He estimated that the company could compensate for that cost about five times over through the operating profits it generates more generally from retail search over the next five years.

Nowak worries that Google is losing ground to Amazon.com Inc. when it comes to retail search queries, given that more purchases are being made through voice commands and Amazon is widely thought to have a lead on Google in terms of smart-speaker penetration. He projects that roughly 70% of households will have speakers by 2022, and that Amazon will have 1.3 times more speakers in homes than Google will at that point, absent any dramatic action.

Also at VentureBeat and CNBC.

Related: Amazon Dominates Voice-Controlled Speaker Market
Voice-Powered Smart Speakers to be in 55% of U.S. Homes by 2022
Bluetooth Hack Affects 20 Million Amazon Echo and Google Home Devices

Original Submission