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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

The entertainment industries are growing increasingly frustrated with major Internet platforms that, in their view, are not doing enough to tackle online piracy.

This was also the topic of a speech given by MPAA chief Charles Rivkin, during the TPI Aspen Forum yesterday.

[...] "I want to address one of the most vibrant and interconnected ecosystems in human history. That, of course, is the internet. And as we meet, the healthy and vibrant internet that we all want is in serious jeopardy," Rivkin says.

[...] While the complaints about Internet piracy are not new, the MPAA ties piracy in with more recent debates about fake news, election meddling, and hate speech. From Cambridge Analytica to Infowars.

Rivkin calls for a national conversation on how to return the Internet to a place of vibrant but civil discourse. A place where fake news, hate speech, and piracy are properly dealt with.

Eventually, this leads the MPAA's boss to Silicon Valley. Rivkin sees a major role for Internet platforms to do more to stop piracy and other types of abuse. If that doesn't happen voluntarily, the US Government could step in, he suggests

[...] The widespread problem of online piracy is a sign of worse to come, the MPAA chief suggests.

"Online piracy is also the proverbial canary in a coal mine. The same pervasive theft that my industry faces is part of a continuum of toxic developments that harm all of us in this ecosystem – consumers, creators, and commercial operators alike," he says.

In his speech, Rivkin refers to the "broken windows" theory to illustrate his point. This theory suggests that an atmosphere of lawlessness is created when small crimes are left unpunished. Seeing broken windows in the streets makes it more likely that others will start vandalizing as well.

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-the-internets-canary-in-the-coal-mine-mpaa-chief-says-180821/

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canopic jug writes:

Jarkko Oikarinen wrote Internet Relay Chat (IRC) at the Department of Information Processing Science of the University of Oulu, in Finland, 30 years ago. Even today, people are still using IRC and it is an essential communication tool for many distributed teams.

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takyon writes:

Verizon tries to douse criticism, touts "priority access" for first responders -- Firefighters don't like their mobile hotspots slowed to a "dial-up modem from 1995."

Verizon officials were contrite and apologetic during a California State Assembly committee hearing that was convened Friday to examine mobile Internet throttling experienced by firefighters during recent blazes. "We all make mistakes from time to time, the true measure of leadership is how soon we admit it, own it," Rudy Reyes told the Select Committee on Natural Disaster, Response, Recovery, and Rebuilding after reading from a statement that the company released hours earlier.

In that statement, Verizon said it would be introducing a "new plan" with truly unlimited data and "priority access" for first responders nationwide. "As of yesterday, we removed all speed cap restrictions for first responders on the West Coast and in Hawaii to support current firefighting and Hurricane Lane efforts," the company said. "Further, in the event of another disaster, Verizon will lift restrictions on public safety customers, providing full network access."

The executives spoke shortly after hearing from Santa Clara County Fire Chief Tony Bowden who said that his agency had experienced similar throttling in December 2017. The Santa Clara department had tried to address it with the Verizon accounts manager at the time.

See also: Verizon stops throttling more firefighters, plans unlimited data "with no caps"
California State Assembly plans hearing on Verizon throttling of firefighters' data

Previously on SN: Verizon Throttled Fire Department's "Unlimited" Data During California Wildfire

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takyon writes:

No alcohol safe to drink, global study confirms

A large new global study published in the Lancet has confirmed previous research which has shown that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. The researchers admit moderate drinking may protect against heart disease but found that the risk of cancer and other diseases outweighs these protections. A study author said its findings were the most significant to date because of the range of factors considered.

The Global Burden of Disease [open, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31310-2] [DX] study looked at levels of alcohol use and its health effects in 195 countries, including the UK, between 1990 and 2016.

Analysing data from 15 to 95-year-olds, the researchers compared people who did not drink at all with those who had one alcoholic drink a day. They found that out of 100,000 non-drinkers, 914 would develop an alcohol-related health problem such as cancer or suffer an injury. But an extra four people would be affected if they drank one alcoholic drink a day. For people who had two alcoholic drinks a day, 63 more developed a condition within a year and for those who consumed five drinks every day, there was an increase of 338 people, who developed a health problem.

One of the study authors, Prof Sonia Saxena, a researcher at Imperial College London and a practising GP, said: "One drink a day does represent a small increased risk, but adjust that to the UK population as a whole and it represents a far bigger number, and most people are not drinking just one drink a day."

Related: The Truth We Won't Admit: Drinking is Healthy
Study Shows 3 Drinks a Day May Cause Liver Cancer
Even Moderate Drinking Linked to a Decline in Brain Health
American Society of Clinical Oncology: Alcohol Use Increases Risk of Cancer

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a direct link between the protein aggregation in nerve cells that is typical for neurodegenerative diseases, and the regulation of gene expression in Huntington's disease. The results pave the way for the development of new treatment strategies for diseases that involve impairment of the basic mechanism by which the body's cells can break down and recycle their own component parts. This process, called autophagy, is disrupted in for example Huntington's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The research, which is based on studies using cell culture and mouse models as well as human tissue from deceased individuals with Huntington's disease, is published in Cell Reports.

Like diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, Huntington's is characterised by the accumulation of misfolded proteins, known as protein aggregates, in the brain's nerve cells. The cells' function is impaired and signal pathways are lost. In Huntington's, an inherited and incurable neurodegenerative disease, this results in a combination of neurological, motoric, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms.

"We know very little about why protein aggregates arise or in what way they are involved in the development of the disease. However, our study shows that expression of the mutated Huntingtin [sic] gene impairs the nerve cells' ability to break down and recycle cellular material, which results in an accumulation of the protein AGO2," says Johan Jakobsson, researcher in molecular neurogenetics and leader of the study.

By activating the mechanism in the brain that breaks down and recycles material, known as autophagy, accumulation of the protein AGO2 could be blocked. As AGO2 is an important protein in the function of microRNAs, the researchers saw that changes in the autophagy mechanism also resulted in extensive changes in microRNA activity. MicroRNA (miRNA) are very small, but powerful, molecules that have an important role in the regulation of genes, i.e. they have an influence on whether a certain gene is active or not -- in this context how much of certain proteins is to be produced in the cells.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180821112021.htm

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

The encrypted chat app is partnering with a circumvention service.

As encrypted chat apps grow more popular, they’re also becoming more popular targets for state-level blocks. Whether it’s brief interruptions in Brazil and Egypt or long-term censorship in China and Iran, countries are testing out their ability to block traffic at a national level, and apps are having to get creative to stay online.

Wickr’s latest solution is a partnership with the circumvention service Psiphon, which will be available to enterprise users starting today and rolling out to free users in the weeks to come. Similar to a VPN, Psiphon will disguise Wickr traffic through proxies and other routing protocols designed to make the traffic hard to spot and even harder to block.

Emerging from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, Psiphon already provides anti-blocking services for a number of digital rights tools, most notably in Iran. “The systems doing network disruptions are very sophisticated,” says Psiphon’s Michael Hull. “So you have to have a smarter kind of VPN to perform under the various kinds of filters and attacks.”

That’s a particularly valuable service now that it’s harder to hide your traffic among larger networks. In recent months, both Amazon and Google have disallowed a practice called domain-fronting, which allowed apps like Wickr to forward their traffic through the larger network as a way of evading censorship. Botnets also sometimes used the technique to avoid detection, which ultimately inspired the broader networks to shut down the practice.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/23/17770384/wickr-psiphon-partnership-internet-censorship

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

Our brains have an "auto-correct" feature that we deploy when re-interpreting ambiguous sounds, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings, which appear in the Journal of Neuroscience, point to new ways we use information and context to aid in speech comprehension.

"What a person thinks they hear does not always match the actual signals that reach the ear," explains Laura Gwilliams, a doctoral candidate in NYU's Department of Psychology, a researcher at the Neuroscience of Language Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, and the paper's lead author. "This is because, our results suggest, the brain re-evaluates the interpretation of a speech sound at the moment that each subsequent speech sound is heard in order to update interpretations as necessary.

A bot called Arthur has collected the following story from the RSS feeds:

The first British case of a rare flesh-eating sexually transmitted infection has been diagnosed in Southport – England's golf capital and home of The Register's financial and HR office.

The Lancashire Evening Post reports that a woman between the age of 15 and 25 was found in the Merseyside town to be suffering from Donovanosis. That's nothing to do with 1980s Aussie crooner and Neighbours superstar Jason, but rather a sexually transmitted infection that in its later stages can cause genital ulcers that eventually rupture and eat the surrounding flesh.

[...] The diagnosis, made within the last 12 months, is the first in the UK for a disease that is normally only seen in Papua New Guinea, southern Africa, Brazil, and southeast India. Researchers with pharmacy site chemist-4-u.com found out about the case after making a freedom-of-information submission while compiling a study on STIs in the UK.

While "good news" is a relative term when discussing an infection that causes your genitals to be consumed by flesh-eating ulcers, anyone afflicted with the condition will be pleased to know that Donavanosis can be treated with a course of antibiotics and that, when caught early, the flesh-eating part can be avoided.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram & SoyCow4408

Vulnerability:

A critical remote code-execution vulnerability in Apache Struts 2, the popular open-source framework for developing web applications in the Java programming language, is threatening a wide range of applications, even when no additional plugins have been enabled. Successful exploitation could lead to full endpoint and eventually network compromise, according to researchers – who said that the flaw is more dangerous than the similar vulnerability used to compromise Equifax last year.

The vulnerability (CVE-2018-11776) was patched by the Apache Software Foundation yesterday and affects all supported versions of Struts 2: Users of Struts 2.3 should upgrade to 2.3.35; users of Struts 2.5 need to upgrade to 2.5.17. They should do so as soon as possible, given that bad actors are likely already working on exploits, according to the Semmle research team's Man Yue Mo, who uncovered the flaw.

[...] The vulnerability is caused by insufficient validation of untrusted user data in the core of the Struts framework, according to the team's findings.

Exploit:

On Friday, proof-of-concept code was released on GitHub along with a Python script that allows for easy exploitation, according to Allan Liska, senior security architect with Recorded Future.

"[We have] also detected chatter in a number of Chinese and Russian underground forums around the exploitation of this vulnerability," he wrote in a post.

[...] Liska said the Apache Struts 2 vulnerability is potentially even more damaging than a similar 2017 Apache Struts bug used to exploit Equifax.

[...] The fact that a patch is available to fix the vulnerability should give cold comfort to companies potentially impacted by the flaw, said Oege de Moor, chief operating officer at Semmle.

"The Equifax breach happened not because the vulnerability wasn't fixed, but because Equifax hadn't yet updated Struts to the latest version. If this is a true working PoC, then any company who hasn't had the time to update their software, will now be at even greater risk," de Moor said.

[Update: Additional coverage on Brian Krebs website - Ed.]

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takyon writes:

Intel reportedly convinced Microsoft not to choose ARM for Surface Go

Microsoft launched its new Surface Go device earlier this month with an Intel Pentium Gold processor inside. It's been one of the main focus points for discussions around performance and mobility for this 10-inch Surface, and lots of people have wondered why Microsoft didn't opt for Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors and Windows on ARM. Paul Thurrott reports that Microsoft wanted to use an ARM processor for the Surface Go, but that Intel intervened.

Intel reportedly "petitioned Microsoft heavily" to use its Pentium Gold processors instead of ARM ones. It's not clear why Microsoft didn't push ahead with its ARM plans for Surface Go, but in my own experience the latest Snapdragon chips simply don't have the performance and compatibility to match Intel on laptops just yet. Microsoft has been working hard to improve this though, despite Intel's threats it would sue competitors like Qualcomm if they attempt to emulate Intel's x86 instruction set architecture.

Wintel looms large.

Previously: The Surface Go Reviews Are In, and... They're a Bit All Over the Place

Related: Intel Hints at Patent Fight With Microsoft and Qualcomm Over x86 Emulation
First ARM Snapdragon-Based Windows 10 S Systems Announced
Snapdragon 1000 ARM SoC Could Compete With Low-Power Intel Chips in Laptops
ARM Aims to Match Intel 15-Watt Laptop CPU Performance

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A bot called Arthur has collected the following story from the RSS feeds:

Volkswagen is reversing course on the use of controversial weather-altering technology at a major Mexican car plant after local farmers complained that the system caused drought by preventing rainfall.

The German carmaker had installed hail cannons, which fire shockwaves into the atmosphere, at its Puebla site to prevent the formation of ice stones that had been damaging finished vehicles parked outside its facility.

But local farmers said the devices, which were set to fire automatically under certain weather conditions, caused a drought during the months that should have been Mexico’s rainy season.

Gerardo Perez, a farmers’ representative in the area, told the AFP agency that the cannons meant the “sky literally clears and it simply doesn’t rain”.

A group of local farmers claimed that 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of crops were affected, and filed a suit claiming 70 million pesos (€3.2m) in damages from the carmaker, AFP reported.

In response, VW said it would install netting above the cars to protect them from hailstorms in the future.

[...] The carmaker invested in the hail cannon technology to prevent damage to its vehicles earlier this year.

[...] Hail storms present significant problems for car manufacturers, which often have large numbers of finished vehicles parked outside at distribution centres or plants.

Also at UPI, C|Net, MSN, and Business Insider:

takyon writes:

Russian trolls 'spreading discord' over vaccine safety online

Bots and Russian trolls spread misinformation about vaccines on Twitter to sow division and distribute malicious content before and during the American presidential election, according to a new study.

Scientists at George Washington University, in Washington DC, made the discovery while trying to improve social media communications for public health workers, researchers said. Instead, they found trolls and bots skewing online debate and upending consensus about vaccine safety.

The study discovered several accounts, now known to belong to the same Russian trolls who interfered in the US election, as well as marketing and malware bots, tweeting about vaccines.

Russian trolls played both sides, the researchers said, tweeting pro- and anti-vaccine content in a politically charged context. "These trolls seem to be using vaccination as a wedge issue, promoting discord in American society," Mark Dredze, a team member and professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins, which was also involved in the study, said. "By playing both sides, they erode public trust in vaccination, exposing us all to the risk of infectious diseases. Viruses don't respect national boundaries."

Also at NYT.

Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate (DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567) (DX)

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

A company that markets cell phone spyware to parents and employers left the data of thousands of its customers—and the information of the people they were monitoring—unprotected online.

The data exposed included selfies, text messages, audio recordings, contacts, location, hashed passwords and logins, Facebook messages, among others, according to a security researcher who asked to remain anonymous for fear of legal repercussions.

Last week, the researcher found the data on an Amazon S3 bucket owned by Spyfone, one of many companies that sell software that is designed to intercept text messages, calls, emails, and track locations of a monitored device.

[...] The researcher said that the exposed data contained several terabytes of "unencrypted camera photos."

"There's at least 2,208 current 'customers' and hundreds or thousands of photos and audio in each folder," he told Motherboard in an online chat. "There is currently 3,666 tracked phones."

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

The Renaissance anatomist Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica ('On the fabric of the human body') is a foundational work of medicine in the West. Its more than 200 woodcuts revolutionized how people pictured the human body, flayed and cut to reveal musculature, nerves, organs and bones. Even now, 475 years after it was first published, the bold images of skeletons and skinless 'muscle men' in sinuous poses (by illustrator Jan Steven van Calcar) beguile.

More than 700 copies survive from the 1543 and 1555 editions, which Vesalius supervised. Of these, roughly two-thirds contain comments in the margins, bizarre doodles, and coloured-in and even defaced images, as we reveal in our book The Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius. Early readers, on evidence, studied Vesalius's treatise diligently, yet had no compunction about scribbling in a hugely expensive volume.

Looking deeper, the marginalia tell two stories. One is that some found the images baffling, and attempted to clarify them in innovative ways. Another is that the pious found the figures' necessary nudity scandalous, and felt impelled to weigh in with ink and scissors. Our study of the reactions of hundreds of readers has taught us that medical communities do not always adopt innovative solutions quickly, even when they are presented in such an elegant format as the Fabrica. It takes time to get used to novelty. And we have learnt that even the most ingenious scientific minds can fail to predict how political and religious institutions will respond to their work.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05941-0

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

In the realm where science fiction, horror and fantasy meet lives the work of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who endures as one of the world's most imaginative writers. His mythos of interstellar deities and sinister forces has inspired generations of storytellers, with the word "Lovecraftian" used today to describe a specific, chilling tale. As with most people who are posthumously labeled geniuses in their fields, Lovecraft's work never took off during his short lifetime. Only after his death in 1937 did he gain the kind of popularity that's made him one of the most famous writers in the world.

[...] He created the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, and the fictional Miskatonic University, which show up again and again in his stories about the Necronomicon, a forbidden book of dark magic, and the Old Ones — the most famous of which, Cthulhu, is practically a meme. His stories appeared in pulp magazines like Weird Tales, sometimes serialized, never particularly popular while he lived, and he died having used up the remains of an inheritance down to the last penny. He was a visionary (with, uh, documented racist views); his work was influenced by a post-World War I awareness of the horrors men can inflict on other men, which inspired his darkest, most chilling tales of murder, suspense, and otherworldly evil.

Lovecraft was a pioneer of the "speculative fiction" genre, and started the Cosmicism movement, which is marked by the belief that there are interstellar beings far outside the realm of human perception, and humans are an insignificant part of a very large, very terrifying universe. His narrators are unreliable, often addicted to substances, their minds altered and broken by the horrors they've witnessed. Lovecraft's work traditionally features humans catching glimpses of a bigger universe our minds were never built to comprehend.

If you've ever wanted to dip a toe into this universe but never knew where to start, we've compiled a list of Lovecraft's best, weirdest, and most iconic tales to keep you up at night, questioning the nature of what's real and what's just your imagination.

Source: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/23/17762378/hp-lovecraft-books-cthulhu-necronomicon-stories

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