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canopic jug writes:

Fraudulent billing is a rising trend hitting Uber riders. Sometimes it is for rides they never got, but increasingly they are billed for cleaning of messes that never happened, often false claims of vomit.

So what happens if there was never any vomit?

Some passengers have to send three or four emails to resolve their complaints. They must tell Uber that there was no incident, and then wait for the company to investigate and, if it agrees, reimburse their money.

Several victims told el Nuevo Herald about their vomit fraud cases.

[...] Vomit fraud is not the only way that some Uber drivers are cheating customers.

Some drivers never pick up the passenger but then charge for the trip. Some combine frauds and report incidents of vomit in trips that never took place.

Source: The Miami Herald : It's called vomit fraud. And it could make your Uber trip really expensive

Original Submission

AndyTheAbsurd writes:

Does anyone out there have a favorite Linux program for downloading podcasts? I've been using Chess Griffin's mashpodder but (a) it's now abandonware, and (b) due to the way it identifies files, it doesn't work with modern podcasts where the base name of the file is always "media.mp3" and the earlier parts of the URL change. As such, I'm looking for a replacement, preferably something that I can run as a cron job so that it fires every day without any intervention on my part and where the configuration lives in a file that I can edit with a simple text editor like vim. I'm considering rolling my own in Python just to get more experience with that language, but I thought I'd see if any Soylentils had suggestions for me to check out before I went to the effort of doing that.

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takyon writes:

Samsung's 'unbreakable' display survives UL scrutiny

Phone makers have promised unbreakable phone screens for years, but they tend to involve awkward compromises like soft, scratchable surfaces. Samsung Display might just fulfill that promise, though. Underwriters Laboratories certified an "unbreakable" Samsung panel (not yet pictured) as capable of surviving military-grade durability tests without damage. This included dropping it 26 times from a height of four feet [1.2 meters] and subjecting it to extreme temperatures. It even survived a drop test at 6 feet [1.8 meters] without any battle scars.

Update: Samsung Display posted a video of its new screen [1m55s video], showing how its lightweight plastic cover compares to traditional glass. In the video it survives several strikes from a hammer with no damage to show for it.

Also at The Verge.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Horizontally-opposed engines are often referred to as “boxer” engines because the motion of the pistons sort of resembles a boxer, punching. Really, though, if any engine should be named for a boxer, it’s the other kind of opposed engine: the kind where the pistons actually “punch” right at each other. They’re called opposed-piston engines, and they’re fascinating.

Opposed-piston engines are not new at all; they’ve been around since the late 1800s, and even earlier in steam form. In fact, the famous Civil War ironclad USS Monitor used a variant of an opposed-piston engine known as a “vibrating lever” engine.

Essentially, an opposed-piston internal combustion engine is a two-stroke engine with no cylinder head, two separate crankshafts, onto which two sets of pistons are connected, with the pistons sharing one cylinder.

The pistons meet (well, nearly meet) at the center of the cylinder, the top dead center (TDC) for both pistons. ports on the sides of the cylinder let fuel/air in and exhaust out, and are exposed by the motion of the piston.

[...] What’s especially notable about the engines is that, in three-cylinder (remember, six-piston) form, the Achates Power vertically-oriented opposed-piston diesel engine shown in the video there managed to obtain thermal efficiencies in the high 40s/low 50s percent. Keep in mind that a conventional four-stroke diesel engine will only be about 35 percent thermally efficient, on average. That’s a big bump.

Source: https://jalopnik.com/its-time-to-learn-about-wonderful-and-weird-opposed-pis-1827804895

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Guardian reports:

An "unprecedented" heatwave in Japan has killed at least 65 people in one week, government officials have said, with the weather agency classifying the record-breaking weather as a natural disaster.

The deaths in the week to Sunday were due to heatstroke, while another 22,647 people were admitted to hospital, the Japanese fire and disaster management agency said.

[...] The agency said on Tuesday that 80 people had died from the heat since the beginning of the month, and more than 35,000 had been admitted to hospital.

[...] The city of Kumagaya set a national heat record on Monday, with temperatures hitting 41.1C (106F).

[...] The high temperatures follow record rainfall that caused floods and landslides in western and central Japan, killing more than 220 people.

[...] The extreme weather has revived concerns about the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which will be held in July and August.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google unwraps its gateway drug: Edge TPU chips for IoT AI code; Custom ASICs make decisions on sensors as developers get hooked on ad giant's cloud

Google has designed a low-power version of its homegrown AI math accelerator, dubbed it the Edge TPU, and promised to ship it to developers by October. Announced at Google Next 2018 today, the ASIC is a cutdown edition of its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) family of in-house-designed coprocessors. TPUs are used internally at Google to power its machine-learning-based services, or are rentable via its public cloud. These chips are specific[ally] designed for and used to train neural networks and perform inference.

Now the web giant has developed a cut-down inference-only version suitable for running in Internet-of-Things gateways. The idea is you have a bunch of sensors and devices in your home, factory, office, hospital, etc, connected to one of these gateways, which then connects to Google's backend services in the cloud for additional processing.

Inside the gateway is the Edge TPU, plus potentially a graphics processor, and a general-purpose application processor running Linux or Android and Google's Cloud IoT Edge software stack. This stack contains lightweight Tensorflow-based libraries and models that access the Edge TPU to perform AI tasks at high speed in hardware. This work can also be performed on the application CPU and GPU cores, if necessary. You can use your own custom models if you wish.

The stack ensures connections between the gateway and the backend are secure. If you wanted, you could train a neural network model using Google's Cloud TPUs and have the Edge TPUs perform inference locally.

Google announcement. Also at TechCrunch, CNBC, and CNET.

Related: Google's New TPUs are Now Much Faster -- will be Made Available to Researchers
Google Renting Access to Tensor Processing Units (TPUs)
Nvidia V100 GPUs and Google TPUv2 Chips Benchmarked; V100 GPUs Now on Google Cloud

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takyon writes:

Babies die after mums given Viagra in Dutch trial

A Viagra in pregnancy trial has been urgently stopped after 11 newborn babies died. Women taking part in the Dutch study had been given the anti-impotence tablets to improve growth of their unborn children because they had poorly developed placentas.

It appears the drug, which promotes blood flow, may have caused lethal damage to the babies' lungs. Experts say a full investigation is needed to understand what happened. There is no suggestion that there was any wrong-doing.

Earlier trials in the UK and Australia and New Zealand did not find any evidence of potential harm from the intervention. But they also found no benefit.

[...] Foetal growth restriction caused by an underdeveloped placenta is a serious condition that currently has no treatment. It can mean babies are born prematurely, with a very low birth weight and poor chances of survival. A medication that could improve weight or prolong the time to delivery could have significant advantages for these very sick babies.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

TheJournal.ie reports:

Because of poor weather most spring crops were planted between 6 and 8 weeks later than normal.

Farmers were banking on a perfect growing season for these crops to achieve a normal yield, however the drought set in shortly after planting and many crops have received almost no rain since they were placed in the ground.

Total cereal production is set to drop by 27% while, with production set to fall by a staggering 58%, the worst performing crop is forecast to be wheat planted in the spring.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Bloomberg is covering a report from the Institute for the Future (IFTF) on an attempt to describe the phenomenon of state-sponsored trolling from a qualitative and quantitative standpoint. While partially conflating trolling with astroturfing in the body of the report, the IFTF defines online trolling as deliberately targeting an individual for "hate" and harassment. Since it is only occasionally possible to attribute the attacks, the IFTF's aim with the report is to empower individuals, researchers, and policy makers to spot the phenomenon in the wild and at least attempt to combat it.

The report itself is entitled, State-Sponsored Trolling: How Governments Are Deploying Disinformation as Part of Broader Digital Harassment Campaigns (warning for PDF)

Ed: How accurate does the report appear to be and are the suggested countermeasures harmful or helpful or both?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Court: Native American tribe can't be a "sovereign" shield during patent review

In a unanimous decision, an appellate court has resoundingly rejected the legal claim that sovereign immunity, as argued by a Native American tribe, can act as a shield for a patent review process. On July 20, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found in a 3-0 decision that the inter partes review (IPR) process is closer to an "agency enforcement action"—like a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission—than a regular lawsuit. IPR is a process that allows anyone to challenge a patent's validity at the United States Patent and Trademark Office—it was used famously in 2017 to reject the "podcasting patent."

"This win is a victory in our ongoing efforts to stop patent abuses by brand companies and to help drive access to more affordable medicine," Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said in a statement on July 20. "Today's ruling reaffirms that Allergan's attempt to leverage the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe for patent protection represents another inappropriate tactic to delay the availability of generic medicines for patients who need them."

This case, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Allergan Inc. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals et al, really began in September 2015. That was when Allergan, a pharma company, sued rival Mylan, claiming that Mylan's generics infringed on Allergan's dry eye treatment known as Restasis. Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe was initially filed in the Eastern District of Texas, known as a judicial region that is particularly friendly to entities that are often dubbed patent trolls.

Previously: Allergan Pulls a Fast One
Congress Will Investigate Drug Company That Gave Its Patents to Mohawk Tribe
Bill Introduced to Close Allergan's Native American "Sovereign Immunity" Patent Loophole

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The duck boat that sank in a Missouri lake last week, killing 17 people, was built based on a design by a self-taught entrepreneur who had no engineering training, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

The designer, entrepreneur Robert McDowell, completed only two years of college and had no background, training or certification in mechanics when he came up with the design for "stretch" duck boats more than two decades ago, according to a lawsuit filed over a roadway disaster in Seattle involving a similar duck boat in 2015.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

WKBW-TV reports:

Some new numbers are showing that the U.S. has more than 2.5 billion lbs [1.1 million metric tons] of meat in cold storage warehouses, and it's all because Americans aren't eating enough to keep up with supply.

Another reason is that the trade situation is chipping away at global demand.

[...] The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects the industry will produce a record 102.7 billion pounds of meat this year.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Irish Independent reports:

Campsites and lodges have emptied out after disappointed tourists were ordered to leave the heart of Yosemite National Park as firefighters battle to contain a huge wildfire.

The blaze just to the west has threatened the park's forest and sent up smoke that obscured grand vistas [...]

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25% contained on Tuesday.

The US National Park Service has a web page dedicated to the fire; the latest installment reports:

Beginning noon today, July 25, 2018, Yosemite Valley, Wawona, and the Mariposa Grove will be closed to all visitors due to the ongoing impacts of the Ferguson Fire. These closures include all hotels, campgrounds, and visitor services in Yosemite Valley and Wawona. The temporary closure is expected to last until Sunday, July 29, 2018.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The death toll from Greece's deadliest wildfires in decades climbed to 74 Tuesday as rescue crews searched on land and sea for those who sought to escape the blazes that engulfed popular summer resort spots near Athens.

The number of victims appeared set to go even higher, with crews checking charred homes and vehicles and the coast guard scouring beaches and deeper waters. There was no definitive count of the missing.

Meanwhile, in a later story, The Guardian reports:

The number of deaths from the worst forest fires in Greece for more than a decade has risen to 80 as rescue workers intensified efforts to locate those who had gone missing.

Officials said crews were going from house to house and car to car in seaside communities ravaged by the wildfires near Athens on Wednesday.

The death of an 84-year-old, who had been one of an estimated 187 people injured, pushed the count up from 79 officially pronounced dead by the fire service.

At least nine people were in intensive care and 11 children had been taken to hospital, authorities said.

[...] Constantine Michalos, who heads the Athens chamber of commerce and industry, said the dead fires were spread by gale-force winds of up to 77mph and were “changing direction on a minute-by-minute basis”, making rescue operations particularly difficult.

The story also provides a link to a map of the fires.

Also at The Washington Post.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Leaked benchmarks show Intel is dropping hyperthreading from i7 chips

Benchmarks found in the SiSoft Sandra database list a Core i7-9700K processor. This increases the core count from the current six cores in the 8th generation Coffee Lake parts to eight cores, but, even though it's an i7 chip, it doesn't appear to have hyperthreading available. Its base clock speed is 3.6GHz, peak turbo is 4.9GHz, and it has 12MB cache. The price is expected to be around the same $350 level as the current top-end i7s.

For the chip that will sit above the i7-9700K in the product lineup, Intel is extending the use of its i9 branding, initially reserved for the X-series High-End Desktop Platform. The i9-9900K will be an eight-core, 16-thread processor. This bumps the cache up to 16MB and the peak turbo up to 5GHz—and the price up to an expected $450.

Below the i7s will be i5s with six cores and six threads and below them, i3s with four cores and four threads.

Meanwhile, AMD's 7nm Ryzen 2 is rumored to boost instructions per clock (IPC) by 10-15% and increase the number of cores per core complex (CCX) from 4 to 8, potentially resulting in mainstream 16 core, 32 thread CPUs.

Original Submission

fritsd writes:

The Mars Express mission orbiting Mars (not the Beagle 2 part that crash-landed) has discovered liquid water in the south polar region of Mars.

The orbiter has been patiently circling Mars since 2003, using its ground-penetrating radar to map the surface up to a certain depth.

And now the ESA scientists have found a bright spot that they think is an underground lake.

Also at BBC, Science Magazine, Sky & Telescope, Ars Technica, and National Geographic.

Original Submission