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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

When you buy a game console, smartphone, dryer, vacuum cleaner, or any number of other complicated electronics, there’s usually a sticker or a piece of paperwork telling you that trying to repair the device yourself will void your warranty. That’s illegal under the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Companies offering a warranty on their goods aren’t allowed to void that warranty if the user attempts to repair it themself, but that doesn’t stop the company from scaring customers into thinking it’s true.

It’s such a huge problem that US PIRG—a non-profit that uses grassroots methods to advocate for political change—found that 90 percent of manufacturers it contacted claimed that a third party repair would void its warranty [pdf]. PIRG researched the warranty information of 50 companies in the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM)—an industry group of notorious for lobbying to protect is repair monopolies [sic]—and found that 45 of them claimed independent repair would void their warranty.

Source: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9k7mby/45-out-of-50-electronics-companies-illegally-void-warranties-after-independent-repair-sting-operation-finds

Original Submission

quietus writes:

Hurricane Leslie is set to hit Spain and Portugal this Saturday and Sunday. A hurricane hitting land in this location is very unusual.

The previous hurricane to do so was hurricane Vince in 2005. Before that, only one other hurricane is known to have made landfall in the region, in 1842.

Vince was a very unusual hurricane as it developed far away from where tropical cyclones usually develop, at water temperatures considered too low to cause a tropical cyclone, the precursor for a hurricane.

Leslie too is a bit unusual -- first registered on September 23, it has spent three weeks being bumped around by weather systems passing over the North Atlantic. There's still a chance it turns southern after landfall, and might make a run for the record of longest-lived tropical cyclone on record.

Before hitting Spain and Portugal, Leslie will hit Madeira. There are no historical records for such an event happening, since 1420.

martyb writes:

Here's How to see if You're Among the 30 Million Compromised Facebook Users:

The attackers who carried out the mass hack that Facebook disclosed two weeks ago obtained user account data belonging to as many as 30 million users, the social network said on Friday. Some of that data—including phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, searches, location check-ins, and the types of devices used to access the site—came from private accounts or was supposed to be restricted only to friends.

The revelation is the latest black eye for Facebook as it tries to recover from the scandal that came to light earlier this year in which Cambridge Analytica funneled highly personal details of more than 80 million users to an organization supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. When Facebook disclosed the latest breach two weeks ago, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he didn't know if it allowed attackers to steal users' private data. Friday's update made clear that it did, although the 30 million people affected was less than the 50 million estimate previously given. Readers can check this link to see what, if any, data was obtained by the attackers.

On a conference call with reporters, Vice President of Product Management Guy Rosen said that at the request of the FBI, which is investigating the hack, Facebook isn't providing any information about who the attackers are or their motivations or intentions. That means that for now, affected users should be extra vigilant when reading emails, taking calls, and receiving other types of communications. The ability to know the search queries, location check-ins, phone numbers, email addresses, and other personal details of so many people gives the attackers the ability to send highly customized emails, texts, and voice calls that may try to trick people into turning over money, passwords, or other high-value information.

Information wants to be free?

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

New microscope offers 4-D look at embryonic development in living mice

For the first time, researchers can now peek inside a living mouse embryo and watch the gut begin to form and heart cells take their first tentative beats. Over a critical 48-hour window—when rudimentary organs begin to take shape—scientists can follow every embryonic cell and pinpoint where it went, what genes it turned on, and what cells it met along the way.

The new work is "literally a cellular-resolution building plan of the entire mouse," says Philipp Keller, a physicist and biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. He and his colleagues report the results October 11, 2018, in the journal Cell. And they're making the microscope and computational tools, built at Janelia, and all the imaging data free and publicly available.

Such resources are critical for scientists trying to grow or regenerate organs, or to one day fix developmental problems that arise in the womb, says Kate McDole, a Janelia developmental biologist and study coauthor. "To do any of that, you first need to understand how organs form," she says. "You need to actually see what happens in a real embryo."

[...] At the center of the Janelia researchers' microscope, a clear, acrylic cube houses the embryo imaging chamber. Two light sheets illuminate the embryo, and two cameras record images. Those components let researchers spy the once-unseen world of early organ development, revealing dynamic events in high-resolution detail no one has seen before.

[...] The microscope's brain is equipped with a suite of algorithms that track the embryo's position and size. These algorithms map how the light sheet moves through the sample and then figure out how to get the best-looking images—keeping the embryo focused and centered in the field of view.

Because the embryo is constantly changing, the microscope must constantly adapt, making decisions in milliseconds, over hundreds of images, at hundreds of different time points. "I wouldn't say our microscope is smarter than a human," Keller says, "but it's capable of doing things that a human operator would not be able to do."

In Toto Imaging and Reconstruction of Post-Implantation Mouse Development at the Single-Cell Level (DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.09.031)

Original Submission

martyb writes:

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory Enters Safe Mode; Investigation Underway:

At approximately 9:55 a.m. EDT on Oct. 10, 2018, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory entered safe mode, in which the observatory is put into a safe configuration, critical hardware is swapped to back-up units, the spacecraft points so that the solar panels get maximum sunlight, and the mirrors point away from the Sun. Analysis of available data indicates the transition to safe mode was normal behavior for such an event. All systems functioned as expected and the scientific instruments are safe. The cause of the safe mode transition (possibly involving a gyroscope) is under investigation, and we will post more information when it becomes available.

Chandra is 19 years old, which is well beyond the original design lifetime of 5 years. In 2001, NASA extended its lifetime to 10 years. It is now well into its extended mission and is expected to continue carrying out forefront science for many years to come.

Has anyone heard from Opportunity lately?

But seriously, it's amazing how many probes keep running so far beyond their designed life span. Take a look, for instance, at the Mars Rovers. And then consider the two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 which are still in operation!

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Clues that suggest people are lying may be deceptive, study shows

Researcher Jia Loy, from the University of Edinburgh, created a computerised two-player game in which 24 pairs of players hunted for treasure. Players were free to lie at will.

Researchers coded more than 1100 utterances produced by speakers against 19 potential cues to lying -- such as pauses in speech, changes in speech rate, shifts in eye gaze and eyebrow movements.

The cues were analysed to see which ones listeners identified, and which cues were more likely to be produced when telling an untruth.

The team found listeners were efficient at identifying these common signs.

Listeners make judgements on whether something is true within a few hundred milliseconds of encountering a cue.

However, they found that the common cues associated with lying were more likely to be used if the speaker is telling the truth.

Cues to Lying May be Deceptive: Speaker and Listener Behaviour in an Interactive Game of Deception. Journal of Cognition, 2018; 1 (1): 42 DOI: 10.5334/joc.46

Original Submission

martyb writes:

FDA Issues Stiff Warning to E-Cig Seller who put Viagra in Vape Liquid:

The US Food and Drug Administration made clear on Thursday, October 11, that it has a major bone to pick with an electronic-cigarette vendor that illegally pumped prescription erectile dysfunction drugs into unapproved e-liquid products intended for vaping.

The cocky company, HelloCig Electronic Technology Co. Ltd, even advertised the vape liquids with labels and images using drug brand names. For instance, it sold one of the vaping liquids as "E-Cialis HelloCig E-Liquid" alongside an image of a bottle and tablets of Eli Lilly's erectile dysfunction drug Cialis. It also sold a product with the brand of an anti-obesity drug that had been pulled from the market in Europe for causing psychiatric disorders. The e-liquid really contained the erectile dysfunction drug in Viagra, the FDA found.

[...] The throbbing mad agency issued a stiff warning and firmly threatened "civil money penalties, criminal prosecution, seizure, and/or injunction" if HelloCig didn't pull its products out of the market immediately. The company has 15 days to respond.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb blasted the company in a statement, saying:

"There are no e-liquid products approved to contain prescription drugs or any other medications that require a doctor's supervision. Prescription drugs are carefully evaluated and labeled to reflect the risks of the medications and their potential interactions with other medicines, and vaping active drug ingredients is an ineffective route of delivery and can be dangerous. There are no e-liquids that contain prescription drugs that have been proven safe or effective through this route of administration."

The jokes almost write themselves.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

We will find you: DNA search used to nab Golden State Killer can home in on about 60% of white Americans

If you're white, live in the United States, and a distant relative has uploaded their DNA to a public ancestry database, there's a good chance an internet sleuth can identify you from a DNA sample you left somewhere. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that by combining an anonymous DNA sample with some basic information such as someone's rough age, researchers could narrow that person's identity to fewer than 20 people by starting with a DNA database of 1.3 million individuals.

Such a search could potentially allow the identification of about 60% of white Americans from a DNA sample—even if they have never provided their own DNA to an ancestry database. "In a few years, it's really going to be everyone," says study leader Yaniv Erlich, a computational geneticist at Columbia University.

The study was sparked by the April arrest of the alleged "Golden State Killer," a California man accused of a series of decades-old rapes and murders. To find him—and more than a dozen other criminal suspects since then—law enforcement agencies first test a crime scene DNA sample, which could be old blood, hair, or semen, for hundreds of thousands of DNA markers—signposts along the genome that vary among people, but whose identity in many cases are shared with blood relatives. They then upload the DNA data to GEDmatch, a free online database where anyone can share their data from consumer DNA testing companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com to search for relatives who have submitted their DNA. Searching GEDMatch's nearly 1 million profiles revealed several relatives who were the equivalent to third cousins to the crime scene DNA linked to the Golden State Killer. Other information such as genealogical records, approximate age, and crime locations then allowed the sleuths to home in on a single person.

Even if you can convince your entire immediate family to not use these services, you could still be vulnerable. And the success rate is likely to climb over time for all racial groups. Maybe the tests could be subsidized to get more of the population to give up the goods.

Also at LA Times

Related: DNA From Genealogy Site Led to Capture of Golden State Killer Suspect
GEDmatch: "What If It Was Called Police Genealogy?"
DNA Collected from Golden State Killer Suspect's Car, Leading to Arrest
Another Alleged Murderer Shaken Out of the Family Tree
'Martyr of the A10': DNA Leads to France Arrests Over 1987 Murder
Indiana Murder Suspect Found by Using Genealogical Website

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Microsoft Windows 10 October update giving HP users BSOD

Reports of update inflicted file deletion and loss of internet connectivity for Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Store apps have died down. But users of some HP machines tell of seeing the blue screen of death (BSOD) after attempting to update their desktops and laptops.

"After installing KB4464330 (build 17763.55) my HP EliteDesk 800 G3 the machine refuses to boot, ending with BSOD WDF_VIOLATION," wrote a user identified as "Mikael Sillman," who also reports hearing from Microsoft support that Dell machines have been affected too.

The error code refers to an issue with the Windows Driver Framework.

A post to HP's support forum had a similar tale.

"After doing updates, this machine blue screens with the error message WDF_VIOLATION," wrote an individual identified as "PhilBJSPC." "I cannot boot to safe mode and it does not allow me to do a system restore before the updates have gone through. ..."

In the discussion of the issue on the Microsoft support forum, it's been suggested that KB4464330 conflicts with the HP keyboard driver file HpqKbFiltr.sys. Renaming the file is floated as a potential fix.

From the command prompt, this involves navigating to c:\windows\system32\drivers and renaming the file – ren HpqKbFiltr.sys HpqKbFiltr.sys_old – and rebooting.

But in a thread on Reddit, changing the file fails to fix the problem for some.

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

3-in-1 vaccine against traveler's diarrhea

A first-ever vaccine designed to deliver a one-two-three punch against the main causes of traveller's diarrhea worldwide may result from new research published by a University of Guelph chemist.

Prof. Mario Monteiro says his novel three-in-one approach to developing a new vaccine could also save lives in developing countries, where it's estimated that these three common pathogens kill more than 100,000 children under age five each year.

His research was recently published in the journal Vaccine.

The paper discusses Monteiro's so-called conjugate vaccine that yokes together proteins from pathogenic E. coli with sugars from Shigella and Campylobacter jejuni. All three bugs are major causes of bacterial diarrhea globally.

In tests with mice, the vaccine provided immunity against all three pathogens.

Evaluation of a conjugate vaccine platform against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), Campylobacter jejuni and Shigella. Vaccine, 2018; DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.09.052

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Chinese phone giant that beat Apple to Africa

One of China's biggest smartphone makers has never sold a handset in the country. Yet thousands of miles away, it dominates markets across Africa. Unknown in the West, Transsion has left global players like Samsung and Apple trailing in its wake in a continent that's home to more than a billion people.

In cities like Lagos, Nairobi and Addis Ababa, busy streets are awash with the bright blue shopfronts of Transsion's flagship brand, Tecno. In China, the company doesn't have a single store, and its towering headquarters in the southern megacity of Shenzhen goes largely unnoticed among skyscrapers bearing the names of more famous Chinese tech firms.

[...] In 2006, Zhu launched Tecno in Nigeria, targeting Africa's most populous nation first. From the start, the company's motto was "think global, act local," which meant making phones that met Africans' specific needs. "When we started doing business in Africa, we noticed people had multiple SIM cards in their wallet," Chowdhury says. They would awkwardly swap the cards throughout the day to avoid the steep charges operators would levy for calling different networks, says Nabila Popal, who tracks the use of devices in Africa for research firm IDC. "They can't afford two phones," says Chowdhury, "so we brought a solution to them." Zhu made all Tecno handsets dual SIM.

More innovations followed. Transsion opened research and development centers in China, Nigeria and Kenya to work out how to better appeal to African users. Local languages such as Amharic, Hausa and Swahili were added to keyboards and phones were given a longer battery life. Extra juice was important. In Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia, for example, the government frequently shuts off electricity to conserve power, leaving people unable to charge their phones for hours. In less developed markets, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chowdhury says, consumers might have to walk 30 kilometers to charge their phone at the local market -- and have to pay to do so. "For those kind of consumers, longer battery life is a blessing," he adds.

Tecno Mobile and itel Mobile.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Turkey 'has recording proving Saudi murder'

Turkish officials have audio and video evidence that shows missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured and killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the BBC has learned.

Mr Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, has not been seen since he entered the building on 2 October.

Turkish intelligence had "documented evidence" of the murder, a source close to the investigation said.

Saudi Arabia denies the allegations. It says the journalist left the building.

Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance and reported death have prompted international outrage and dented business confidence in Saudi Arabia. Tycoon Sir Richard Branson has halted talks over $1bn Saudi investment in Virgin space firms and several top business leaders have pulled out of a Saudi investment conference later this month.

Also at CNN.

See also: CNBC withdraws from Saudi conference over concerns about journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance

Original Submission

takyon writes:

If a Moon Has a Moon, Is Its Moon Called a Moonmoon?

A few years ago, an astronomer's son asked the type of question only kids and genius astrophysicists come up with: Can a moon have a moon? Juna Kollmeier of the Carnegie Institution Observatories couldn't answer her child's query, but she realized that investigating the idea could help answer questions about how moons form and even reveal some of the hidden history of the Solar System, reports Ryan F. Mandelbaum at Gizmodo.

The results, which she co-authored with astronomer Sean Raymond of the University of Bordeaux, were recently published in a short paper titled "Can Moons Have Moons?" on the preprint server arXiv.org, which hosts yet-to-be peer reviewed research. The study, however, has raised an even bigger question that now has the scientific Twitterverse riled up. Just what do you call the moon of a moon?

In their study, Kollmeier and Raymond looked at what would happen to a small submoon orbiting another moon. According to the paper, what they found is that in most cases there's just not enough space for a submoon to orbit another moon. Tidal forces would pull the little moon toward the host planet, ripping the mini moon to pieces.

For a submoon to survive, it needs to be small—about six miles in diameter or less. It also needs to orbit a large moon with enough gravity to hold it in place and must be far enough away from the host planet to complete its own orbit. It turns out that several moons in our own solar system fit the bill and could host submoons, including Titan and Iapetus, which orbit Saturn, and Callisto, which orbits Jupiter. Even our own moon is the right size and distance from Earth to potentially host its very own moon.

Subsatellite.

Also at ScienceAlert, Quartz, and Know Your Meme.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The dirty word: 'Android' wasn't said a single time during the Google Pixel 3 event

Android is the world's most ubiquitous OS and one of the most important parts of Google's business. But it's becoming clearer that the company no longer wants the word associated with its phones. The latest evidence is in the transcript for its event this week in New York City.

"Android" wasn't said a single time during the Made by Google 2018 keynote. It marks the first time ever that Google has held a public-facing hardware event like this — since the introduction of the operating system in 2008 — without at least mentioning it by name.

[...] While Android went unsaid, Google had no shame talking Chrome OS, which powers the new Pixel Slate tablet. Google told an entire story around Chrome OS, where it's come from, why it makes sense on the tablet, and touted it as a great desktop alternative to Windows and macOS. To me it seemed Chrome OS was clearly marketed as a standout feature of the Pixel Slate. To add insult to injury for Android, the "universe" of Android apps that can now run on Chrome were referred to as simply "apps" or "apps from the Google Play Store" during the keynote.

[...] It's understandable that, given the Android brand's association with "lower quality" non-premium phones that Google doesn't want to associate the name of that OS with its phones — at least not in terms of the public-facing marketing message. Android phones are made by dozens of scattered manufacturers, all with varying approaches to their products, their design, their features, etc. — which has lead to an arguably good thing: immense diversity of phones running Android today. But that means "Android" doesn't really have much meaning other than just being not-iPhone. [...] And it doesn't want the baggage of the Android connotation mucking up the image of a phone that competes with the iPhone and costs upwards of $1,000.

About that Pixel Slate...

Also at BGR.

Related: Now Is the Time to Start Planning for the Post-Android World

Original Submission

takyon writes:

C-section births rise rapidly to more than 20 percent worldwide

Rates of caesarean section births almost doubled between 2000 and 2015 – from 12 to 21 percent worldwide - new research has found, with the life-saving surgery unavailable to many women in poor countries while often over-used in richer ones.

The research, published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday, found that 60 percent of countries overuse C-sections and 25 percent under-use them, suggesting that recommendations for their use in cases of medical need are widely ignored.

In at least 15 countries, more than 40 percent of all babies born are delivered by C-section. The highest rate, of 58.1 percent, was in the Dominican Republic.

Experts estimate that between 10 and 15 percent of births medically require a C-section due to complications such as bleeding, foetal distress, hypertension or a baby being in an abnormal position.

While the procedure can save lives - of both mothers and newborns - it can also create complications and side effects, including higher risks for future births.

"The large increases in C-section use – mostly in richer settings for non-medical purposes – are concerning because of the associated risks for women and children," said Marleen Temmerman, an expert from Aga Khan University in Kenya and Ghent University in Belgium who co-led the research.

Also at BBC, EurekAlert!, The Guardian, and Voice of America.

See also: New WHO guidance on non-clinical interventions specifically designed to reduce unnecessary caesarean sections

Global epidemiology of use of and disparities in caesarean sections (DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31928-7) (DX)

Original Submission #1   Original Submission #2