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DannyB writes:

The Trump administration is "taking a look" at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government, Larry Kudlow, President Trump's economic adviser, said Tuesday outside the White House.

"We'll let you know," Kudlow said. "We're taking a look at it."

The announcement puts the search giant squarely in the White House's crosshairs amid wider allegations against the tech industry that it systematically discriminates against conservatives on social media and other platforms.

Kudlow's remark to reporters came hours after Trump fired off a series of predawn tweets complaining about Google search results for "Trump News."

[...] Google, in a statement, said its searches aren't politically biased: "When users type queries into the Google Search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds. Search is not used to set a political agenda and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology.

"Every year, we issue hundreds of improvements to our algorithms to ensure they surface high-quality content in response to users' queries," Google said. "We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment."

The White House has not responded to requests for further comment.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/28/trump-wakes-up-googles-himself-and-doesnt-like-what-he-sees-illegal/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for takyon

Inside the United Nations' effort to regulate autonomous killer robots

Amandeep Gill has a difficult job, though he won't admit it himself. As chair of the United Nations' Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) meetings on lethal autonomous weapons, he has the task of shepherding 125 member states through discussions on the thorny technical and ethical issue of "killer robots" — military robots that could theoretically engage targets independently. It's a subject that has attracted a glaring media spotlight and pressure from NGOs like Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, which is backed by Tesla's Elon Musk and Alphabet's Mustafa Suleyman, to ban such machines outright.

[...] The CCW will meet for the third time for discussions on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), from August 27th through 31st, after which it will likely issue a report and decide upon continuing discussions next year. The Verge spoke to Gill about Hollywood depictions of dangerous machines, weapons that already exist or are in development, and a potential ban on killer robots.

Also at CBS.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Motherboard has an article about how how a WWW livestream of a fish tank helped shape the Web.

This janky little 40-gallon tank became the test platform for a lot of Netscape's features, and tools that would shape the world wide web for decades: Looping animated GIFs, the ability to upload photos to the internet, various protocols like those in modern RSS and social network feeds, and dynamic HTML pages were all influenced by feedback from people around the world watching a couple dozen online fishes.

When Montulli and a few friends moved to Mountain View, there was a now-closed fish store down the block from their offices called Seascapes (which Montulli speculated could have influenced the naming of Netscape.) They'd walk by the store almost every day, he said. "Eventually I said 'Screw it, I'll just buy a tank and move it into in my office.'"

[...] Montulli was inspired by the now-defunct Trojan Room coffee pot webcam that computer scientists at the University of Cambridge in England started streaming in 1991. According to its website, the original Fishcam used an SGI Indycam attached to a SGI Indy workstation, a powerful computer at the time. Back in 1994 it produced a 640 by 480 pixel image and took nearly 20 seconds of CPU power to capture, overlay with text, and post to the web.

[...] "People hadn't really had the opportunity to see live video over the internet before." Visitors to the offices would suggest new features, and the original page had a feedback section where viewers could contact Montulli directly. It got so popular that Montulli added a browser shortcut to get to Fishcam—you could use the hotkeys CTRL+ALT+F in Netscape Navigator to get to the cam.

Here is a direct link to the fishcam live image.

Original Submission

CoolHand writes:

https://www.sciencealert.com/rosehip-neuron-discovery-absent-in-mouse-models

It's compact, bushy, and responsible for telling other neurons to shush. Beyond that, nobody is entirely sure what a newly discovered variety of brain cell called a rosehip neuron does.

What makes this finding particularly intriguing is that so far the neuron has only been discovered in humans.

That could quickly change now that we know what to look for in other species, of course, but for now it's a reason to pause and rethink how we apply animal models in neurology.

A collaboration between teams of researchers identified this unusual cell in brain tissues donated by two male adults while cataloguing cells based on their anatomical and genetic fingerprints.

Interestingly, the initial findings were made twice by two different groups of researchers, each stumbling on the cell through a different method. Rather than compete, the two joined forces to analyse their discovery.

Samples were taken from 'Layer 1' of the neocortex – the wrinkled outside part of the brain that is responsible for turning sensations into perceptions and carrying out a variety of other highly complex tasks.

Stained and observed under the microscope, these cells do look a little odd. They appear rather compact with a bushy shape, reminiscent of a rose with its petals removed according to some of the study's researchers.

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Sen. Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice concerning disruptions to 911 emergency services caused by law enforcement's use of cell-site simulators (CSS, also known as IMSI catchers or Stingrays). In the letter, Sen. Wyden states that:

Senior officials from the Harris Corporation—the manufacturer of the cell-site simulators used most frequently by U.S. law enforcement agencies—have confirmed to my office that Harris' cell-site simulators completely disrupt the communications of targeted phones for as long as the surveillance is ongoing. According to Harris, targeted phones cannot make or receive calls, send or receive text messages, or send or receive any data over the Internet. Moreover, while the company claims its cell-site simulators include a feature that detects and permits the delivery of emergency calls to 9-1-1, its officials admitted to my office that this feature has not been independently tested as part of the Federal Communication Commission's certification process, nor were they able to confirm this feature is capable of detecting and passing-through 9-1-1 emergency communications made by people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disabled using Real-Time Text technology.

The full text of the letter can be read here.

Researchers of CSS technology have long suspected that using such technologies, even professionally designed and marketed CSS's, would have a detrimental effect on emergency services, and now—for the first time—we have confirmation.

So not only does it snoop on all calls in the area, it also disrupts emergency calls. And why is everything about Stingrays, even their existence, such a huge secret, even to the point of dropping prosecutions?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Opinion: Now would be the time for Apple to buy Tesla, and kick Musk out of the driver's seat

Elon Musk has put an end to his idea to take Tesla private, but still has a tough road ahead to meet profitability and production projections, especially as Tesla handles expected investigations and lawsuits stemming from Musk's ridiculous "funding secured" misadventure. Apple, meanwhile, has billions in cash to burn, manufacturing prowess, obvious interests in entering the car market and finding new form factors beyond the smartphone — and the pull to tell Musk his services are no longer needed.

[...] Apple does have a lot more money than Tesla, which is running out of cash fast. It also has a chief executive in Tim Cook who knows about dealing with supply chains, mass manufacturing and all the other processes that sound easy when Musk describes them but are nearly impossible when Tesla attempts to perform them.

[...] On Monday, Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster played down the theories that Apple might attempt some sort of deal, saying that if Tesla becomes profitable, the notion is just a fairy tale. "If we're wrong, and Tesla fails to reach profitability in the next year, Apple gains the upper hand and becomes the most likely investor or buyer," Munster wrote in a blog post.

[...] Apple knows a little something about building a strong profit margin with a premium product sold through its own retail outlets, and could handle many of the other issues that will continue to beset Musk and Tesla. In his now legendary tearful interview with the New York Times, Musk admitted that Tesla has sought another executive to handle operations, and even said that "anyone who can do a better job" could have the CEO role.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for takyon

There are a couple of key features that make a turtle a turtle: its shell, for one, but also its toothless beak. A newly-discovered fossil turtle that lived 228 million years ago is shedding light on how modern turtles developed these traits. It had a beak, but while its body was Frisbee-shaped, its wide ribs hadn't grown to form a shell like we see in turtles today.

"This creature was over six feet long, it had a strange disc-like body and a long tail, and the anterior part of its jaws developed into this strange beak," says Olivier Rieppel, a paleontologist at Chicago's Field Museum and one of the authors of a new paper in Nature. "It probably lived in shallow water and dug in the mud for food."

The new species has been christened Eorhynchochelys sinensis -- a mouthful, but with a straightforward meaning. Eorhynchochelys ("Ay-oh-rink-oh-keel-is") means "dawn beak turtle" -- essentially, first turtle with a beak -- while sinensis, meaning "from China," refers to the place where it was found by the study's lead author, Li Chun of China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

The fact that Eorhynchochelys developed a beak before other early turtles but didn't have a shell is evidence of mosaic evolution -- the idea that traits can evolve independently from each other and at a different rate, and that not every ancestral species has the same combination of these traits. Modern turtles have both shells and beaks, but the path evolution took to get there wasn't a straight line. Instead, some turtle relatives got partial shells while others got beaks, and eventually, the genetic mutations that create these traits occurred in the same animal.

[...] The study's authors say that their findings, both about how and when turtles developed shells and their status as diapsids, will change how scientists think about this branch of animals. "I was surprised myself," says Rieppel. "Eorhynchochelys makes the turtle family tree make sense. Until I saw this fossil, I didn't buy some of its relatives as turtles. Now, I do."

This study was contributed to by Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, the CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, National Museums Scotland, the Field Museum, and the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180822131011.htm

Original Submission

takyon writes:

GlobalFoundries has halted development of its "7nm" low power node, will fire 5% of its staff, and will also halt most development of smaller nodes (such as "5nm" and "3nm"):

GlobalFoundries on Monday announced an important strategy shift. The contract maker of semiconductors decided to cease development of bleeding edge manufacturing technologies and stop all work on its 7LP (7 nm) fabrication processes, which will not be used for any client. Instead, the company will focus on specialized process technologies for clients in emerging high-growth markets. These technologies will initially be based on the company's 14LPP/12LP platform and will include RF, embedded memory, and low power features. Because of the strategy shift, GF will cut 5% of its staff as well as renegotiate its WSA and IP-related deals with AMD and IBM. In a bid to understand more what is going on, we sat down with Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries.

[...] Along with the cancellation of the 7LP, GlobalFoundries essentially canned all pathfinding and research operations for 5 nm and 3 nm nodes. The company will continue to work with the IBM Research Alliance (in Albany, NY) until the end of this year, but GlobalFoundries is not sure it makes sense to invest in R&D for 'bleeding edge' nodes given that it does not plan to use them any time soon. The manufacturer will continue to cooperate with IMEC, which works on a broader set of technologies that will be useful for GF's upcoming specialized fabrication processes, but obviously it will refocus its priorities there as well (more on GF's future process technologies later in this article).

So, the key takeaway here is that while the 7LP platform was a bit behind TSMC's CLN7FF when it comes to HVM – and GlobalFoundries has never been first to market with leading edge bulk manufacturing technologies anyway – there were no issues with the fabrication process itself. Rather there were deeper economic reasons behind the decision.

GlobalFoundries would have needed to use deep ultraviolet (DUV) instead of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for its initial "7nm" chips. It would have also required billions of dollars of investment to succeed on the "7nm" node, only to make less "7nm" chips than its competitors. The change in plans will require further renegotiation of GlobalFoundries' and AMD's Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA).

Meanwhile, AMD will move most of its business over to TSMC, although it may consider using Samsung:

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

[...] Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder. One in four middle-aged adults in Europe and the US will develop atrial fibrillation. 2 It causes 20-30% of all strokes and raises the risk of premature death, but outlook improves dramatically with oral anticoagulation therapy. Undiagnosed atrial fibrillation is common and many patients remain untreated. Opportunistic screening is recommended in over-65s, but has time, logistical, and resource demands.

DIGITAL-AF examined the feasibility and effectiveness of screening for atrial fibrillation with a smartphone app medically certified in the EU to detect the condition. The app was made freely available by publishing an access token in a local newspaper. Within 48 hours, 12,328 adults had scanned the token and enrolled in the study.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180825081735.htm

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/24/17776836/tmobile-hack-data-breach-personal-information-two-million-customers:

T-Mobile was hit by a data breach affecting around 2 million customers

T-Mobile has announced that on August 20th, the company was hit by hackers who were able to gain access to personal information from roughly 2 million customers, including the name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number, and account type of users. According to the company, more sensitive information — financial data, Social Security numbers, and passwords — weren't compromised in the hack.

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Cedars-Sinai investigators have developed a simpler and more accurate method of estimating body fat than the widely used body mass index, or BMI, with the goal of better understanding obesity.

The new method is highlighted in a study published in Scientific Reports, one of the Nature journals.

"We wanted to identify a more reliable, simple and inexpensive method to assess body fat percentage without using sophisticated equipment," said the study leader, Orison Woolcott, MD, of Cedars-Sinai.

While the BMI is commonly accepted, many medical experts in the field of obesity consider it to be inaccurate because it cannot distinguish among bone mass, muscle mass and excess fat. BMI also does not account for the influence of gender -- women generally have more body fat than men.

[...] To determine relative fat mass (RFM), you need to measure your height as well as your waist circumference. To measure your waist, place the tape measure right at the top of the hip bone and reach it around your body for the most reliable result. Next, put those numbers into the relative fat mass equation -- making a ratio out of the height and waist measurements. The formula is adjusted for gender:

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

MostCynical writes:

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia's government on Thursday banned major Chinese telecoms firm Huawei Technologies from supplying equipment for its planned 5G mobile network, citing risks of foreign interference.

The 1000-word statement did not mention China, or the Chinese telecommunications equipment giants Huawei or ZTE. Nor did it plainly state the bombshell decision that they are to be banned from building Australia's new telecommunications network.

The fifth generation mobile telecoms system, or 5G, is a big deal. It's to be the key architecture of an increasingly wired nation, connecting power and water systems, medical and driverless technologies, systems in homes and hospitals, factories and farms, enabling the so-called "internet of things".

If you're getting the impression that the government didn't want to draw attention to the announcement, you're right. After months of careful scrutiny, the cabinet's national security committee had made the decision a week earlier. Then sat on it.

MrPlow writes in with a story submitted (via IRC) for SoyCow1984:

In a role-reversal, Airbnb is the one suing a city, and it's doing so to protect its hosts' privacy. In July, the New York City Council passed a regulation forcing short-term rental services to hand over hosts' names and addresses every month to help a civic crackdown on illegal listings. Airbnb's lawsuit against NYC alleges that the new law violates its users' constitutional rights.

Obviously, Airbnb has some skin in the game. When San Francisco implemented a similar regulation earlier this year, listings for the rental company fell by half. Airbnb sued the west coast city, and a settlement required the company to register its hosts before they're allowed to post listings, which is intended to reduce illegal housing situations. It's possible that Airbnb is aiming for a similar compromise here. Their legal filing (PDF) nevertheless attacks the NYC law's permissions and motivations, portraying it as "an extraordinary act of government overreach."

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/25/airbnb-sues-nyc-avoid-sharing-host-data/

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180816081500.htm:

National birth cohort study finds DDT metabolites in the blood of pregnant women are associated with elevated odds of autism in offspring

A study of more than 1 million pregnancies in Finland reports that elevated levels of a metabolite of the banned insecticide DDT in the blood of pregnant women are linked to increased risk for autism in the offspring. An international research team led by investigators at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the Department of Psychiatry published these results in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The study, conducted in collaboration with investigators at the University of Turku and the National Institute of Health and Welfare in Finland, is the first to connect an insecticide with risk for autism using maternal biomarkers of exposure.

Researchers identified 778 cases of childhood autism among offspring born from 1987 to 2005 to women enrolled in the Finnish Maternity Cohort, representing 98 percent of pregnant women in Finland. They matched these mother-child pairs with control offspring of mothers and offspring without autism. Maternal blood taken during early pregnancy was analyzed for DDE, a metabolite of DDT, and PCBs, another class of environmental pollutants.

The investigators found the odds of autism with intellectual disability in offspring were increased by greater than twofold for the mother's DDE levels in the top quartile. For the overall sample of autism cases, the odds were nearly one-third higher among offspring exposed to elevated maternal DDE levels. The findings persisted after adjusting for several confounding factors such as maternal age and psychiatric history. There was no association between maternal PCBs and autism.

Journal Reference:
Alan S. Brown et al. Association of Maternal Insecticide Levels With Autism in Offspring From a National Birth Cohort. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2018 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17101129

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Weight-loss drug lorcaserin found to be safe in new study

A major study has found promising results for the safety of a weight-loss drug available in the US.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, says adults using the drug lorcaserin lost an average of 4kg (8.8lb) over 40 months.

It says the drug, which works by suppressing appetite, does not put people at greater risk of heart issues.

But experts emphasise the importance of long-term lifestyle changes in achieving effective weight loss.

Lorcaserin has been available in the US for several years under the name Belviq, but it has yet to be approved for use in Europe.

1 kg per 10 months. Not exactly a miracle drug, is it?

Related: Microbead Injection Leads to Appetite Control and Weight Loss in Human Subjects

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A single pill with two drugs could transform blood pressure treatment, according to the 2018 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Guidelines on arterial hypertension published online today in European Heart Journal, and on the ESC website.

The guidelines recommend starting most patients on two blood pressure lowering drugs, not one. The previous recommendation was for step-wise treatment, which meant starting with one drug then adding a second and third if needed. This suffered from "physician inertia," in which doctors were reluctant to change the initial strategy despite its lack of success. At least 80% of patients should have been upgraded to two drugs, yet most remained on one drug.

It is now recognised that a major reason for poor rates of blood pressure control is that patients do not take their pills. Non-adherence increases with the number of pills, so administering the two drugs (or three if needed) in a single tablet "could transform blood pressure control rates," state the guidelines.

Professor Bryan Williams, ESC Chairperson of the Guidelines Task Force, University College London, UK, said: "The vast majority of patients with high blood pressure should start treatment with two drugs as a single pill. These pills are already available and should massively improve the success of treatment, with corresponding reductions in strokes, heart disease, and early deaths."

More than one billion people have hypertension (high blood pressure) worldwide. Around 30-45% of adults are affected, rising to more than 60% of people over 60 years of age. High blood pressure is the leading global cause of premature death, accounting for almost ten million deaths in 2015, of which 4.9 million were due to ischaemic heart disease and 3.5 million were due to stroke. High blood pressure is also a major risk factor for heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, peripheral artery disease, and cognitive decline.

[...] Professor Giuseppe Mancia, ESH Chairperson of the Guidelines Task Force, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy, said: "We have effective treatments and, theoretically, 90-95% of patients should have their blood pressure under control, but in reality only 15-20% achieve target levels. The 2018 Guidelines aim to improve these poor rates of blood pressure control by introducing a treatment strategy that is simple and easier to follow."

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission