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takyon writes:

HIV vaccine shows promise in human trial

An HIV vaccine that has the potential to protect people around the world from the virus has shown promising results.

The treatment, which aims to provide immunity against various strains of the virus, produced an anti-HIV immune system response in tests on 393 people, a study in the Lancet found [DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31364-3] [DX]. It also protected some monkeys from a virus that is similar to HIV. More testing is now needed to determine if the immune response produced can prevent HIV infection in people.

[...] Nevertheless, the promising results of the study mean researchers will next test the treatment on 2,600 women in southern Africa who are at risk of getting the illness - one of only five vaccines to make it to this stage of so-called efficacy trials. Only one vaccine has ever shown evidence of protecting against HIV. A vaccine tested in Thailand lowered the rate of human infection by 31%, but the effect was considered too low to advance it to common use.

Also at The Lancet, CNN, and Engadget.

See also: A new step towards an HIV/AIDS vaccine (DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31548-4) (DX)

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takyon writes:

NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Pauses Science Observations to Download Science Data

Earlier this week, NASA's Kepler team received an indication that the spacecraft fuel tank is running very low. NASA has placed the spacecraft in a hibernation-like state in preparation to download the science data collected in its latest observation campaign. Once the data has been downloaded, the expectation is to start observations for the next campaign with any remaining fuel.

[...] To bring the data home, the spacecraft must point its large antenna back to Earth and transmit the data during its allotted Deep Space Network time, which is scheduled in early August. Until then, the spacecraft will remain stable and parked in a no-fuel-use safe mode. On August 2, the team will command the spacecraft to awaken from its no-fuel-use state and maneuver the spacecraft to the correct orientation and downlink the data. If the maneuver and download are successful, the team will begin its 19th observation campaign on August 6 with the remaining fuel.

Also at The Verge and Engadget.

Related: Google Researchers Discover an 8th Planet in the Kepler-90 System
Citizen Scientists Credited for Discovery of Multi-Planet System
Kepler's K2 Mission Going Strong With Another 95 New Exoplanets Confirmed
NASA's TESS Mission Set to Launch on Wednesday, April 18

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takyon writes:

South Korean women protest in Seoul over hidden sex cameras

Tens of thousands of women gathered in Seoul on Saturday calling for a crackdown on spy cam pornography, in one of the country's biggest ever female-only protests.

Perpetrators film or photograph women with hidden cameras in public spaces. Although distributing pornography is illegal in South Korea, the videos and pictures are shared widely online. Organisers say women live in constant fear of being photographed or filmed without their knowledge.

[...] Demonstrators said around 55,000 women took part, although police put the figure at around 20,000.

The recent protests began after police arrested a 25-year-old woman in May for secretly photographing a male colleague who posed nude for university art students. She then shared the picture online. Demonstrators believe police only acted so swiftly because it was a female perpetrator, and pointed to instances of police closing cases with female victims because they could not find the photographers or track them online, [or] because they posted on foreign servers. While the law mandates a maximum five-year prison term or 10 million won ($8,970; £6,770) fine for creating sexual images, and a maximum seven year sentence and 30 million won ($26,900; £20,200) fine for distributing them for profit, protesters say many receive far lighter punishments.

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takyon writes:

Google's Duplex AI could kill the call center

Google is reportedly shopping its Duplex AI system around as a tool for call centers, according to The Information, including a large insurance company.

Duplex would handle simple calls for the insurance company, and if the customer started asking complex questions the bot can't handle a human would step in, according to the report. However, it's unlikely that AI research will cease after mastering simple conversations, meaning call centers could one day be largely automated using this technology.

[...] Update: A Google spokesperson reiterated that Duplex is only being tested as a consumer technology for now, and that the company isn't testing it for enterprise. The entire statement is below:

We're currently focused on consumer use cases for the Duplex technology and we aren't testing Duplex with any enterprise clients. As we shared last week, Duplex is designed to operate in very specific use cases, and currently we're focused on testing with restaurant reservations, hair salon booking, and holiday hours with a limited set of trusted testers. It's important that we get the experience right and we're taking a slow and measured approach as we incorporate learnings and feedback from our tests.

Also at Techspot and CNET.

Previously: Google Duplex: an AI that Can Make Phone Calls on Your Behalf
Google Starts "Limited Testing" of Google Duplex AI System

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canopic jug writes:

Mutt and Neomutt users now have a trick available in their toolbox to mess with senders who try to embedd web pages in their e-mail. A guide entititled (Neo)mutt fuckery with multipart messages walks through the steps to get either client to turn regular e-mails into MIME multipart messages by tacking a lame message on as text/html.

I've been using Mutt, and then Neomutt, as an email client on my laptops for a while (I generally use Evolution on my desktop, because it runs on GNOME, while the laptops run on i3wm). Today while talking with colleagues who also use a TUI, text-only email client, we realized we had one shared pain about this, which was receiving multipart emails where the text/plain part was either the HTML source of the text/html part or a single line saying "This email has no plain text version, refer to the HTML version" (If you don't know how multipart emails and MIME work, wikipedia has a good primer).

We thought it might be fun as retaliation to send multipart emails, with the text/html part saying "This email has no HTML version, please refer to the plain text". An hour and a few curses at mutt's documentation later, I'd come up with this solution: [...]

[...] P.S.: I know I shouldn't have to say this but please don't actually use this to annoy people who use graphical email clients. We're the weird ones, basically everyone uses a graphical email client, and they're clearly the standard now, plus it's clearly a dick move to do this. Please refrain. Thank you for your understanding ❤️

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takyon writes:

Dawn spacecraft captures new images of Ceres' Occator Crater

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has entered into its final planned orbital position from which it will study the dwarf planet Ceres, the lowest the probe has descended to the tiny world since it arrived in orbit on March 6, 2015.

The probe is powered by three xenon ion thrusters and it enter[ed] into its new orbit around the dwarf planet on June 6, 2018. Since then, the spacecraft has begun beaming back to Earth stunning new and closer images of this tiny worldlet.

One of Dawn's targets is Occator Crater. While the name might not ring a bell even among space enthusiasts, the "bright spots" contained within the crater should. These deposits are thought to be salt from briny water that erupted from the dwarf planet's surface before sublimating. It was found that the bright regions were comprised of sodium carbonate. On Earth, these salts are left behind when water evaporates.

Dawn was instructed to fire its ion engine—for what could be the last time—last week. By carrying out this maneuver, the probe flew closer to the dwarf planet's Cerealia Facula. This is the region of Occator Crater that contains a large deposit of sodium carbonate.

Perhaps more important than the cool photographs will be the data collected by the spacecraft's two other instruments, and particularly the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND).

Previously: Ceres Bright Spots Seen Closer Than Ever
Life On Ceres? Mysterious Changes in the Bright Spots Still Baffle Scientists
Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity
Evidence of a Seasonal Water Cycle and Surface Changes Found on Ceres
Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: A New Low
Dawn's Orbit Around Ceres: First Images

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-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

At the end of [the week of June 30] in Quriyat, a small fishing village on the northeast coast of Oman, people experienced 51 straight hours of temperatures above 108.7°F--making this the hottest low temperature recorded on earth.

[...] Keene, New Hampshire's daily record of 100°F, first set in 1913, was broken on July 1 when temperatures there reached 102°F. A new record was also set that day in Allentown, Pennsylvania with 98°F. And Burlington once again tied its daily record high (96°F) [and] the temperature streak continued for six days.

The trend of cities breaking their records continued on Monday, July 2, in Montreal (97.8°F record daily high), Burlington (80.6°F, its record warmest low temperature ever), and Mount Washington, New Hampshire (59.9°F, tied for its all-time warmest low temperature). Also on July 2, Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, reached a record high for the month when temperatures hit 107.6°F.

[...] Many are asking: is this climate change?

Just like with extreme storms, no single record can be specifically attributed to climate change. However, taken together, these more than 20 different heat records spanning the globe this past week are consistent with what scientists say can be expected from climate change.

[...] Yet, during the midst of the week's scorching weather, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportedly scrubbed mentions of climate change's impact [PDF] on occupational safety and health, including how extreme weather could have negative health impacts.

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canopic jug writes:

Digital Trends has an article about the rights of people with software and hardware emedded in their bodies in devices often upon which their lives depend. It's a hot topic as more people depend on medical devices while manufacturers dodge and weave to avoid providing answers about software engineering and their products. Silence is common as is presenting false dilemmas.

Karen Sandler has a complicated relationship with her pacemaker. On the one hand, the device has the power to save her life. On the other, it sometimes suddenly and unnecessarily shocks her, mistaking a slight aberration in her heartbeat as a call for help.

Sandler was pregnant during two of those occasions, when the pacemaker detected her heart palpitations (which aren't abnormal in expecting mothers) and delivered an unwarranted jolt. Worried that the device would misfire again, Sandler asked the manufacturer for access to its source code, hoping to reconfigure the implant to suit her condition. The manufacturer denied her request.

[...] "Right now we basically have the worst of both worlds," Sandler says. "We have no real security on these devices, which means that anyone with over-the-counter equipment can take control and deliver even fatal shocks ... And we have code that is not available for us to review. So we have no transparency and no security."

Earlier on SN: Hey, Did You Ever Get the Source Code to that Thing Attached to Your Heart?

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takyon writes:

Rocket Report: Japanese rocket blows up, NASA chief ponders purpose of SLS (and other news)

NASA Administrator ponders what to do with the SLS rocket. During a Q&A with Politico, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was asked about how the space agency views commercial launch vehicles. His response: "As we move forward, we're going to have to maybe rethink... at what point do we start taking advantage of those commercial capabilities to the extent that they drive down cost, give us more capability, and what do we do with SLS?... We're not there yet, but certainly there's a horizon here. Is it 10 years? I don't know what the answer is, but what we can't do in my view is give up our government capability, our national capability, when we don't have an alternative."

Speaking of timelines ... NASA doesn't exactly have the "national capability" of the SLS rocket yet in the heavy-lift class, either. We've heard rumors of a slip to 2021 for the first launch date, in which case Blue Origin's New Glenn has a fighting chance to fly first, as SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has already done.

Blue Origin targets Moon landing by 2023. Blue Origin's business development director, A.C. Charania, said at a conference that the company's Blue Moon program is "our first step to developing a lunar landing capability for the country, for other customers internationally, to be able to land multi metric tons on the lunar surface." The company has not said what role its large orbital rocket under development, New Glenn, would play in a mission to the Moon.

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

BFR is a privately funded next-generation reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft system developed by SpaceX. It was announced by Elon Musk in September 2017.[8][9] The overall space vehicle architecture includes both launch vehicles and spacecraft that are intended to completely replace all of SpaceX's existing space hardware by the early 2020s as well as ground infrastructure for rapid launch and relaunch, and zero-gravity propellant transfer technology to be deployed in low Earth orbit (LEO). The large payload to Earth orbit of up to 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) makes BFR a super heavy-lift launch vehicle. Manufacture of the first upper stage/spacecraft prototype began by March 2018, and the ship is projected to begin testing in early 2019.[5]

Related: First SLS Mission Will be Unmanned
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
SpaceX BFR vs. ULA Vulcan Showdown in the 2020s
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
NASA Could Scale Down First Manned Flight of the SLS
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Serious About Returning to the Moon
Jeff Bezos Details Moon Settlement Ambitions in Interview
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway

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takyon writes:

China Finds Zen: Begins Production Of x86 Processors Based On AMD's IP

Chinese-designed "Dhyana" x86 processors based on AMD's Zen microarchitecture are beginning to surface from Chinese chip producer Hygon. The processors come as the fruit of AMD's x86 IP licensing agreements with its China-based partners and break the decades-long stranglehold on x86 held by the triumvirate of Intel, AMD and VIA Technologies. Details are also emerging that outline how AMD has managed to stay within the boundaries of the x86 licensing agreements but still allow Chinese-controlled interests to design and sell processors based on the Zen design.

AMD's official statements indicate the company does not sell its final chip designs to its China-based partners. Instead, AMD allows them to design their own processors tailored for the Chinese server market. But the China-produced Hygon "Dhyana" processors are so similar to AMD's EPYC processors that Linux kernel developers have listed vendor IDs and family series numbers as the only difference. In fact, Linux maintainers have simply ported over the EPYC support codes to the Dhyana processor and note that they have successfully run the same patches on AMD's EPYC processors, implying there is little to no differentiation between the chips.

The new chips are surfacing against the backdrop of the trade war between the US and China that could escalate quickly, likely reinforcing China's long-held opinion that a lack of native processor production could be a strategic liability. Today's wars are won with chips, and their strategic importance certainly isn't lost on those in the halls of power. In fact, the Obama administration blocked Intel from selling Xeon processors to China in 2015 over concerns the chips were fueling the country's nuclear programs, and subsequent actions by the US have largely prevented China from achieving the technical know-how and equipment to develop its own chips through acquisitions and mergers.

That makes it even more surprising that AMD has managed to establish a franchise that allows Chinese processor vendors to develop and sell x86 processors in spite of US regulations and the licensing restrictions with Intel, but now more information is coming to light about how AMD pulled off the feat.

Related: Intel Launches New Chips in China as US Bans Sales to Supercomputing Centers
Intel Hints at Patent Fight With Microsoft and Qualcomm Over x86 Emulation
Data Centers Consider Intel's Rivals
Tencent Chairman Pledges to Advance China Chip Industry After ZTE "Wake-Up" Call

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The World Socialist Web Site reports

A report issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) July 4 finds what hundreds of millions of workers are experiencing in their daily lives: nearly a decade after the worst financial crash since the Great Depression of the 1930s, wages are stagnating and the benefits of economic "recovery" are going to the corporate elite.

The OECD countries--26 in Europe plus the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Turkey--accounted for more than 60 percent of world GDP in 2017. The grouping includes seven of the ten largest national economies, excluding only China, India, and Brazil.

The report begins with an editorial bearing the striking headline: "Wageless growth: Is this time different?" It points to the fact that the current economic "recovery" differs from previous rebounds from capitalist slumps because, despite lower unemployment rates and a record number of job vacancies in the euro area, the United States, and Australia, "wage growth is still missing in action".

The bulk of the 300-page document is devoted to drilling down into the figures detailing the paradox of "tight" labor markets and stagnant wages in country after country, as well as selected industry groups, but the basic conclusion appears early on: wages are being held down because of the lingering effects of the 2008 crash and the proliferation of low-wage and part-time jobs, particularly for those workers who were laid off in the worst years of the economic crisis.

The initial editorial states, "involuntary part-time employment has risen significantly in a number of countries since the crisis, and this has been accompanied by a deterioration in the relative earnings of part-time workers".

The report underscores the fact that the 2008 global financial crisis was used by the capitalist class and governments of every stripe around the world to accelerate the decades-long assault on the social position of the working class. In country after country, higher paid full-time positions with a modicum of job protection and health and pension benefits have increasingly been replaced with low-wage and precarious employment.

I think it's obvious that when government unemployment rate numbers are low but wages aren't rising, somebody is lying.

Original Submission

requerdanos writes:

The Seattle Times reports:

SAN FRANCISCO -- [At] Souvla, a Greek restaurant with a devoted following... there are no servers to wait on you here, or at the two other San Francisco locations that Souvla has added — or, increasingly, at other popular restaurants that have opened in the past two years.
[...]
Commercial rents have gone up. Labor costs have soared. And restaurant workers, many of them priced out by the expense of housing, have been moving away. Restaurateurs who say they can no longer find or afford servers are figuring out how to do without them. And so in this city of staggering wealth, you can eat like a gourmand, with real stemware and ceramic plates. But first, you’ll have to go get your silverware.
[...]
On July 1, the minimum wage in San Francisco [was increased to] $15 an hour, [and the city] requires employers with at least 20 workers to pay health-care costs... in addition to paid sick leave and parental leave.

Despite those benefits, many workers say they can’t afford to live here or to stay in the industry. And partly as a result of those benefits, restaurateurs say they can’t afford the workers who remain. A dishwasher can now make $18 or $19 an hour. And because of California labor laws, even tipped workers like servers earn at least the full minimum wage, unlike their peers in most other states.

The TL;DR might be summed up as "San Francisco, one of the first places to see a $15 an hour minimum wage, is reaping the rewards of the progress. By pricing low-wage workers right out of their jobs."

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

Maybe [the Hip-Hop duo] Insane Clown Posse isn't your thing, but if you're headed to a protest any time soon, you might want to consider that familiar black and white makeup.

Two years ago, a Georgetown Law report found that half of all American adults are recorded in police facial recognition databases. The databases are, according to the report, made up of "overwhelmingly...non-criminal entities" and are built on state driver's licenses, passports, and visa applications, giving the government the ability to track more than 117 million adults using unregulated software.

In 2016[1], the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told The Guardian that police in Maryland were using the software to identify protesters from photos and that the database is essentially racist, as it relies on mugshots--disproportionately taken of people of color--that remain in the system, even if the people in the photos weren't charged.

A study from last year found that increasingly intelligent software is even learning how to identify protesters who wear hats and use scarves to cover their faces. The software identifies key parts of a face and makes estimates so the software can recreate a covered face.

[...]Here's where the Juggalos come in.

mrpg writes:

US Declaration of Independence Labeled Hate Speech by Facebook Bots

Facebook's content-cleansing bots have flagged the United States Declaration of Independence as hate speech. The Liberty County Vindicator, a newspaper serving Liberty, Texas, posted "small bites" from the Declaration on its Facebook page in the leadup to the USA's Fourth of July Independence Day, "to make it a little easier to digest that short but formidable historic document."

[...] The incident highlights two things. Firstly, The Vindicator says the takedown was automated. As Facebook's pledged to clean up hate speech and fake news with automation, The Social Network™ clearly has work to do to get this right.

Second, The Vindicator wrote that "... the removal of this morning's post puts The Vindicator in a quandary about whether to continue with posting the final two parts of the Declaration scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday. Should Facebook find anything in them offensive, The Vindicator could lose its Facebook page." [...] Which shows, again, that Facebook's decisions can change the fate of a business. And now those decisions are being made by tone-deaf robots.

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An Anonymous Dog writes:

[...] The cartoon symbolizes an understanding of Internet privacy that stresses the ability of users to send and receive messages in general anonymity. Lawrence Lessig suggests "no one knows" because Internet protocols do not force users to identify themselves; although local access points such as a user's university may, this information is privately held by the local access point and is not an intrinsic part of the Internet transaction.

It also shows how Internet communication is liberated from familiar constraints. Sociologist Sherry Turkle elaborates: "You can be whoever you want to be. You can completely redefine yourself if you want. You don't have to worry about the slots other people put you in as much. They don't look at your body and make assumptions. They don't hear your accent and make assumptions. All they see are your words."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog

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