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takyon writes:

Intel's Customized SoC for HP: Amber Lake-Y with On-Package LTE Modem

Announced earlier this week, HP's Spectre Folio convertible notebook already looks remarkable due to its leather exterior. As it appears, the system is as impressive inside as it is on the outside, as it incorporates a custom Intel's Amber Lake-Y multi-chip-module that features an LTE modem.

According to a report from PC World, the internal design of the Spectre Folio PC convertible notebook was co-developed by HP and Intel engineers under Intel's Innovation Excellence Program, which is aimed at enabling PC makers to bring state-of-the-art designs to the market. The product uses a tiny, jointly-designed motherboard that measures only 12,000 mm² and is based around a unique multi-chip module that carries Intel's Amber Lake-Y SoC, a PCH (platform controller hub), and Intel's Intel XMM 7560 LTE Advanced Pro Cat16/Cat 13 modem.

[...] Intel is not new to selling complete platforms comprised of a CPU, a chipset, and a communication module. Back in 2000s the company made a fortune selling its Centrino-branded sets containing the aforementioned elements. By selling multiple chips at once, Intel naturally increases its revenue, whereas system vendors ensure compatibility. Therefore, platform-level integration is a win-win for all parties. With that said, this is the first time we've seen Intel put a CPU, a PCH, and a cellular modem onto one multi-chip-module in this fashion. So this may be the start of a trend for the company.

Related: Apple Could Switch From Qualcomm to Intel and MediaTek for Modems
Intel Announces Development of 5G Modems (Due in 2019)
AMD Creates Quad-Core Zen SoC for Chinese Console Maker
ARM Aims to Match Intel 15-Watt Laptop CPU Performance

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation reports:

Just a third of Americans can pass a multiple choice "U.S. Citizenship Test", fumbling over such simple questions as the cause of the cold war or naming just one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for.

And of Americans 45 and younger, the passing rate is a tiny 19 percent, according to a survey done for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Worse: The actual test only requires that 60 percent of the answers be correct. In the survey, just 36 percent passed.

Among the embarrassing errors uncovered in the survey of questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test and conducted by Lincoln Park Stragtegies:

• 72 percent of respondents either incorrectly identified or were unsure of which states were part of the 13 original states.
• 24 percent could correctly identify one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for, with 37 percent believing he invented the lightbulb.
• 12 percent incorrectly thought WWII General Dwight Eisenhower led troops in the Civil War.
• 2 percent said the Cold War was caused by climate change.

Also at Sputnik and The Tri-City Herald

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Sleep-deprived teens more apt to drink, smoke and have unsafe sex:

Teens who get too little sleep may be more likely to engage in risky behaviors like drinking, smoking, and unprotected sex than their peers who get enough rest at night, a study of U.S. high school students suggests.

Roughly seven in 10 American high school students average less than eight hours of sleep a night, falling short of the recommended eight to 10 hours adolescents need for optimal physical and mental health, the study found.

Compared with teens who got at least eight hours of sleep, high school students who got less than six hours were twice as likely to drink alcohol, almost twice as likely to use tobacco, and more than twice as likely to use other drugs or engage in risky sexual activity.

High school students who got less than six hours of sleep a night were also more than three times more likely to engage in self-harm activities or to contemplate or attempt suicide, compared to teens who got eight hours or more of sleep on a typical night.

While the study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how sleep might directly impact teen behavior, it’s possible that insufficient sleep leads to changes in the brain that make risky behavior more likely, said lead study author Matthew Weaver of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

[...] One limitation of the study is that it relied on teenagers to accurately report their sleeping habits and risky behaviors, the authors note. It’s also possible that factors not measured in the study might impact both sleep times and risky behaviors.

Journal Reference:
Matthew D. Weaver, PhD; Laura K. Barger, PhD; Susan Kohl Malone, PhD, RN, NCSN; et al Lori S. Anderson, PhD, RN, CPNP-PC, NCSN; Elizabeth B. Klerman, MD, PhD JAMA Pediatr. Published online October 1, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.2777 Dose-Dependent Associations Between Sleep Duration and Unsafe Behaviors Among US High School Students

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Digital Shadows reports Business Email Compromise Made Easy for Cybercriminals as 12.5 Million Company Email Inboxes and 33,000 Finance Department Credentials Openly Accessible on the Web:

Digital Shadows, the leader in digital risk management and relevant threat intelligence, has today announced the findings of new research revealing the diversity of methods used to infiltrate company emails. The FBI has estimated that scams resulting from business email compromise – such as fake invoices and wire fraud – have cost businesses $12bn globally over the last five years.

While phishing is a common means of attack, the research reveals criminals are resorting to a wide variety of methods to access business email accounts. But in many cases, companies are inadvertently making it easy for cybercriminals. Digital Shadows discovered entire company email inboxes exposed – over 12 million email archive files (.eml, .msg, .pst, .ost, .mbox) publicly available across misconfigured rsync, FTP, SMB, S3 buckets, and NAS drives. By improperly backing up these archives, employees and contractors are unwittingly exposing sensitive, personal and financial information – Digital Shadows discovered 27,000 invoices, 7,000 purchase orders, and 21,000 payment records.

Finance professionals, in particular, are in the firing line. 33,568 finance department email addresses have been exposed in third-party breaches and are circulating on criminal forums. Of these, 83% (27,992) have passwords associated with them. Digital Shadows detected criminals specifically searching for company emails that contained common accounting domains such as "ap@," "ar@", "accounting@," "accountreceivable@," "accountpayable@" and "invoice@." These credentials are considered so valuable that one individual is offering up to $5,000 for a single username and password pair.

[...] Digital Shadows recommends... seven steps for organizations that want to reduce their risk

[...] The full report entitled 'Pst! Cybercriminals on the Outlook for Your Emails' is available to download at: http://bit.ly/BECresearch [( https://info.digitalshadows.com/BECResearchReport_Reg-PressRelease.html )]

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

Atom Smasher Detects Hints of New Unstable Particle

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest atom smasher, just discovered at least two previously unknown particles.

The 17-mile (27 kilometers) underground ring near Geneva recently discovered two baryons and a hint of another particle, according to a statement from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which runs the LHC. Baryons are fundamental subatomic particles that are each made up of three quarks. The quarks, in turn, are even smaller particles that come in different "flavors": up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm.

[...] The first, named Σb(6097)+, is made up of one bottom quark and two up quarks, while the second, named Σb(6097)-, is made up of one bottom quark and two down quarks. [...] As for the third potential particle, the researchers discovered only hints that it exists. Named Z sub c-(4100), this particle could be a weird meson, a type of unstable particle that briefly flits into existence during high-energy collisions and that consists of two quarks and two antiquarks.

Original Submission

hellcat writes:

Chinese spy chips are found in hardware used by Apple, Amazon, Bloomberg says; Apple, AWS say no way

The chips, which Bloomberg said have been the subject of a top secret U.S. government investigation starting in 2015, were used for gathering intellectual property and trade secrets from American companies and may have been introduced by a Chinese server company called Super Micro that assembled machines used in the centers.

[...] China has long been suspected — but rarely directly implicated — in en masse spy campaigns based on hardware made there. The majority of electronic components used in U.S. technology are manufactured in China. Companies including component manufacturers Huawei and ZTE, as well as surveillance camera maker Hikvision, have all fallen under intense suspicion and scrutiny from the U.S. government in the past year.

I'd think that the big guys would be designing their own boards. Maybe we should only buy PCBs from South Korea.

Also at Bloomberg and The Guardian.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Animal Study Suggests Deep Space Travel May Significantly Damage GI Function in Astronauts

Simulations with animal models meant to mirror galactic cosmic radiation exposure to astronauts are raising red flags for investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) about the health of astronauts during long voyages, such as to Mars.

Their most recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), suggests that deep space bombardment by galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) could significantly damage gastrointestinal (GI) tissue leading to long-term functional alterations. The study also raises concern about high risk of tumor development in the stomach and colon.

Their previous work has highlighted potential impairment to brain tissue, as well as accelerated aging, on long space trips due to the effect of energetic heavy ions, which don't affect Earthlings due to the protective global magnetosphere.

Also at Engadget.

Space radiation triggers persistent stress response, increases senescent signaling, and decreases cell migration in mouse intestine (open, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1807522115) (DX)

Original Submission

takyon writes:

F.D.A. Seizes Documents From Juul Headquarters

The Food and Drug Administration conducted a surprise inspection of the headquarters of the e-cigarette maker Juul Labs last Friday, carting away more than a thousand documents it said were related to the company's sales and marketing practices.

The move, announced on Tuesday, was seen as an attempt to ratchet up pressure on the company, which controls 72 percent of the e-cigarette market in the United States and whose products have become popular in high schools. The F.D.A. said it was particularly interested in whether Juul deliberately targeted minors as consumers.

"The new and highly disturbing data we have on youth use demonstrates plainly that e-cigarettes are creating an epidemic of regular nicotine use among teens," the F.D.A. said in a statement. "It is vital that we take action to understand and address the particular appeal of, and ease of access to, these products among kids."

Also at CNN and Time.

Previously: Tobacco Roundup (U.S. to Crack Down on Tobacco, Electronic Cigarettes)
E-Cig Maker Juul Valued at $15-16 Billion

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Honda has invested $750 million in General Motors' self-driving car technology subsidiary Cruise, with plans to invest $2 billion more. The two carmakers will jointly develop a mass-produced autonomous car:

Honda will commit $2.75 billion as part of an exclusive agreement with GM and its self-driving technology subsidiary Cruise to develop and produce a new kind of autonomous vehicle. As part of the agreement, Honda will invest $2 billion into the effort over the next 12 years. Honda also is making an immediate and direct equity investment of $750 million into Cruise, which pushes the company's valuation up to $14.6 billion. Honda's investment gives the automaker a 5.7 percent stake in Cruise.

The milestone agreement follows the giant $2.25 billion investment made by SoftBank's vision fund in May.

This new autonomous vehicle, described by GM president Dan Ammann as the "next evolution in the future of transportation," will be produced at high volume for global deployment. Cruise founder and CEO Kyle Vogt didn't elaborate what this next-generation autonomous vehicle might look like. But during a call with TechCrunch on Wednesday he used words like "innovative," "space-efficient" and "multi-purpose." He also noted Honda's expertise in space-efficient design.

Also at Ars Technica, CNBC, and WSJ.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

In an effort to show how politically correct nonsense and evil (but I repeat myself) can get through academic peer review and be published, some academics did just that with seven papers. More are partly through the process.

A particularly funny and horrifying case is the Gender Studies journal Affilia. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf only needed to be translated with wording in the typical style of intersectionality theory, and it passed muster.

Another published paper, considered exemplary scholarship by the journal that published it, contains this whopper: "Dog parks are microcosms where hegemonic masculinist norms governing queering behavior and compulsory heterosexuality can be observed in a cross-species environment."

The Grievance Studies Scandal: Five Academics Respond

Now, three academics have submitted twenty spoof manuscripts to journals chosen for respectability in their various disciplines. Seven papers were accepted before the experiment stopped; more are surviving peer review. This new raid on screamingly barmy pseudo-scholarship is the Alan Sokal Opening, weaponised. Like dedicated traceurs in a Parkour-fest, the trio scrambled over the terrain of what they call Grievance Studies. And they dropped fire-crackers. One published paper proposed that dog parks are "rape-condoning spaces." Another, entitled "Our Struggle is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism" reworked, and substantially altered, part of Mein Kampf. The most shocking, (not published, its status is "revise and resubmit") is a "Feminist Approach to Pedagogy." It proposes "experiential reparations" as a corrective for privileged students. These include sitting on the floor, wearing chains, or being purposely spoken over. Reviewers have commented that the authors risk exploiting underprivileged students by burdening them with an expectation to teach about privilege.

Also at WSJ.

Related: Publishing Stings Find Shoddy Peer Review
Absurd Paper Accepted by Open-Access Computer Science Journal
Media World Fooled with Bogus Chocolate Diet Story

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

chromas (from IRC) writes:

Bold new plan for police pursuits:

Constable Peter McAulay, 24, was hit early [on the morning of Sept. 27] after setting up road spikes to try and stop two teenagers in an allegedly stolen vehicle. A 16-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl have been charged with attempted murder after Constable McAulay was rushed to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital with serious head injuries and broken bones and fractures.

After the horrific crash, Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers is calling for remote vehicle immobilisers to become mandatory in new cars.

"I started in 2012. I have written to three successive prime ministers but it is now time for action, bipartisan support. With remote engine immobilisers there will never be a need for a police pursuit," Mr Leavers told Today. "The primary situation is to protect lives and property. It can improve safety. It is a great thing. It is a no-brainer. We need to change the Australian design regulation. Within five to 10 years there will never be another police pursuit. We will be able to disable any stolen car at any point in time and ensure safety. It is commonsense."

The proposed engine immobilisers wouldn't just be able to stop a car in its tracks, police would also be able to track vehicles through GPS.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Hubble finds compelling evidence for a moon outside the Solar System

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and older data from the Kepler Space Telescope two astronomers have found the first compelling evidence for a moon outside our own Solar System. The data indicate an exomoon the size of Neptune, in a stellar system 8000 light-years from Earth. The new results are presented in the journal Science Advances.

[...] In 2017 NASA's Kepler Space Telescope detected hints of an exomoon orbiting the planet Kepler-1625b. Now, two scientists from Columbia University in New York (USA) have used the incomparable capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study the star Kepler-1625, 8000 light-years away, and its planet in more detail. The new observations made with Hubble show compelling evidence for a large exomoon orbiting the only known planet of Kepler-1625. If confirmed, this would be the first discovery of a moon outside our Solar System.

The candidate moon, with the designation Kepler-1625b-i, is unusual because of its large size; it is comparable in diameter to the planet Neptune. Such gargantuan moons are unknown in our own Solar System.

Other sources put Kepler-1625 at around 4,000 light years away.

Discoveries like this are why we could use as many identical better-than-Hubble space telescopes as we can build and launch.

Also at Sky & Telescope, Cosmos Magazine, The Verge, Axios, NPR, CNN.

Evidence for a large exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav1784) (DX)

Previously: First Exo-Moon Discovered?
First Known Exomoon May Have Been Detected: Kepler 1625b i

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Wi-Fi Alliance rebrands 802.11ac as Wi-Fi 5, picks 802.11ax as Wi-Fi 6

The Wi-Fi Alliance today announced a significant rebranding of the "802.11" Wi-Fi standards that have long served as a source of potential confusion for users: Going forward, the current 802.11ac standard will be known as Wi-Fi 5, while its successor 802.11ax will be known as Wi-Fi 6, establishing a generational terminology that — like Bluetooth 3, 4, and 5 — will be easier for customers to remember and understand.

[...] Today's announcement is significant not just because of its impact on currently popular Wi-Fi standards, but also on one that's been on the fringe: 802.11ad. Also known as WiGig, 802.11ad notably depends on an extra, 60GHz millimeter wave wireless antenna to boost speeds of compatible devices in the same room as the router. A handful of routers and devices, including wireless VR adapters, have adopted 802.11ad over the past year or two.

But the announcement makes clear that the Wi-Fi Alliance sees 802.11ax, not 802.11ad, as the next stage of Wi-Fi's evolution. 802.11ax has no need for the extra antenna, instead making more efficient use of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands already used by 802.11ac — err, Wi-Fi 5. Wi-Fi 6 promises up to 11 Gbps speeds across three or more devices, with a single Wi-Fi 6 device achieving up to 5 Gbps.

In a statement to VentureBeat, the Alliance explained how Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig will coexist:

"Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig, based on 802.11ad and eventually 802.11ay, will continue to evolve in parallel and remain strong complements to one another within the Wi-Fi portfolio of technologies. We fully expect some products to integrate Wi-Fi 6 and WiGig, which will remain a distinct brand to indicate products that support 60 GHz Wi-Fi for multi-gigabit, low-latency connectivity."

Also at Ars Technica, The Verge, and Tom's Hardware.

Related: Wi-Fi Alliance Approves 802.11ah "HaLow" Standard for the 900 MHz Band
D-Link Joins Hands With Microsoft to Give 'Super Wi-Fi' a Push
Intel to Cease Shipments of Current WiGig Products, Focus on WiGig for VR

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Japanese spacecraft drops box-shaped robot on asteroid's surface

Overnight, Japan's asteroid-sampling spacecraft Hayabusa2 deployed its third robot onto the surface of an asteroid named Ryugu more than 186 million miles from Earth. This time, the robotic explorer is a tiny, box-shaped lander crafted by Germany and France's space agencies, dubbed MASCOT. While on the asteroid, the robot will hop around slowly and study the surface in detail, measuring things like temperature and the composition of nearby rocks.

[...] MASCOT is also able to move around in a similar way to Rover-1A and Rover-1B. In fact, engineers already opted to move the lander once it had reached the surface last night because they found that it was sitting at a bad angle. The mission team switched on MASCOT's mobility system, shifting the robot's position and placing it in a much more favorable orientation. The German space agency DLR says that now all of MASCOT's instruments are working just fine and are continuing to collect data.

The lander has a suite of four instruments on board to characterize Ryugu. These will allow MASCOT to take pictures, measure temperatures, figure out the different minerals on the asteroid, and measure the space rock's magnetic field. However, MASCOT's time on the surface of Ryugu is limited. It doesn't have any solar panels, so it's operating entirely off of an internal battery that lasts just 16 hours. The mission team says that, as of this morning, the lander has under seven hours left to complete its work.

• Navigation Images from the MASCOT deployment operation
• The small asteroid lander, MASCOT
• Information on the MASCOT lander

Also at NPR.

Previously: Hayabusa2 Reaches Asteroid 162173 Ryugu
Japan's Hopping Rovers Capture Amazing Views of Asteroid Ryugu

Original Submission

takyon writes:

After more speculation about cause of ISS leak, NASA issues another statement

A thorough Russian investigation of a leak that occurred in August in the orbital module of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which is attached to the International Space Station, will not be completed until November. But this week, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos reignited controversy about the leak with some comments during a television appearance.

A preliminary investigation, according to Russia's chief spaceflight official, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, "concluded that a manufacturing defect had been ruled out which is important to establish the truth." So if it wasn't a manufacturing defect, then what was it? As Rogozin did not say, this re-fueled speculation in some media reports that the hole was intentionally drilled by NASA astronauts in space. This theory is nonsensical, but it appears to play well to Russian audiences.

After these latest comments and with an imminent Soyuz spacecraft launch on October 11 that will carry NASA astronaut Nick Hague to the International Space Station, the US space agency felt the need to put out a new statement on Wednesday. It reads:

On Aug. 29, 2018 a small hole was discovered on the International Space Station. This resulted in a pressure leak. The hole has been identified and fixed by space station crew.

Russian media recently reported that General Director Rogozin said the hole was not a manufacturing defect. Ruling out a manufacturing defect indicates that this is an isolated issue which does not categorically affect future production.

This conclusion does not necessarily mean the hole was created intentionally or with mal-intent. NASA and Roscosmos are both investigating the incident to determine the cause. The International Space Station Program is tentatively planning a spacewalk in November to gather more information.

On October 11, American Astronaut Nick Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will launch to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Administrator Bridenstine is scheduled to attend the launch and plans to meet with Mr. Rogozin. This will be their first in-person meeting. They had a telephone call on September 12 during which they discussed the International Space Station leak.

Previously: Russian Space Chief Vows to Find "Full Name" of Technician Who Caused ISS Leak
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors

Original Submission