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Phoenix666 writes:

Space.com:

For more than a month now, a European orbiter circling Mars has been watching a long, plume-like cloud on the Red Planet.

The cloud has remained in place over a mountain called Arsia Mons near the Martian equator since Sept. 13, according to a statement released by the European Space Agency (ESA). But that location is just a coincidence, the agency adds. No volcanic process is producing the cloud — the volcano hasn't been active in about 50 million years, scientists believe.

What are those rascally Martians up to?

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takyon writes:

Water Abundance Xprize's $1.5M winner shows how to source fresh water from the air

The goal of the program was to collect "a minimum of 2,000 liters of water per day from the atmosphere using 100 percent renewable energy, at a cost of no more than 2 cents per liter." No simple task! In fact, I would have guessed it was an impossible one.

But many teams made the attempt anyway, and with a variety of approaches at that. For instance, the runner-up and $150K prize winner, Hawaii's JMCC Wing, combined a large, super-efficient wind turbine with a commercial condenser unit.

The winner was Skysource/Skywater Alliance, which has already deployed many of its units abroad (and, apparently, at Miranda Kerr's house). They can run off the grid or alternative power sources, and use an extremely efficient adiabatic distillation method. The one for the contest was a new prototype they call Wood-to-Energy Deployed Emergency Water, or WEDEW. It's cheaper and more efficient than desalination, and doesn't require the presence of nearby water sources or rain. Skywater boxes, which range from somewhat smaller to rather larger than a refrigerator, can produce up to 300 gallons per day; that's about 1135 liters, so two of them would meet the contest's requirements if the cost was low enough and it was running on renewables.

Xprize release. Also at Popular Mechanics and Engadget.

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Phoenix666 writes:

From the University of Chicago:

As the number of hacks and security breaches rapidly climbs, scientists say there may be a way to make a truly unhackable network by using the laws of quantum physics.

To explore the concept, scientists are creating a network in the Chicago area that taps the principles of quantum physics to send information. Such a link could one day form the basis for a truly secure network, which would have wide-ranging impact on communications, computing and national security. The federal government estimates that malicious cyber activity cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016.

The quantum network, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will stretch between the DOE's Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Acceleratory Laboratory, a connection that is expected to be among the longest in the world to send secure information using quantum physics. The experiment will "teleport" information across a 30-mile distance, as particles change their quantum states instantaneously rather than traveling between two points.

Phoenix666: Ansibles, here we come? takyon: No. :(

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canopic jug writes:

The EFF has blogged about an appeals court decision which tells the state of Georgia that State laws can’t be copyrighted. The problem arose from many state codes simply pointing to proprietary specifications. While this can have the benefit of standardizing codes across states, the downside is that it was locking the laws behind paywalls.

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit handed down a powerful opinion [PDF] that struck down the state of Georgia’s attempt to use copyright to suppress publication of its own laws. The ruling, which gives Georgians the right to read and publish the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, or OCGA, may also improve public access to legislative documents in other states. It’s just in time for this year’s Open Access Week, a time to celebrate the social benefits that we all reap when information is readily accessible.

The case originated when Georgia’s Code Revision Commission threatened, and ultimately sued, open records activist Carl Malamud and his organization Public.Resource.Org (PRO). In an effort to make Georgia’s official laws easily accessible, Malamud had bought a hard copy of the OCGA, paying more than $1,200 for it. (The 11^th Circuit opinion reports that a copy currently costs $404, although it isn’t clear if that price applies to non-residents.) Malamud then scanned the books, and sent each Georgia legislator a USB stick with two full copies—one of the scanned OCGA, and another encoded in XML format.

The court decision is a major step forward in the larger fight to free law from copyright. It is important to bring up the fact that copyright, as written into the US Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 8), is meant to spur the production of new works, not to stifle it nor to create profit motives around the work of public employees.

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Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

People who need to make a good impression on dates or in job interviews should concentrate on communicating the hard work and effort behind their success, rather than just emphasising their talent, new research from Cass Business School has found.

In Impression (Mis) Management When Communicating Success, published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Dr. Janina Steinmetz investigated how people attribute their success on dates and job interviews, and whether these attributions were successful with their audiences.

She found—contrary to what many of us think—that success alone may not be enough to make a positive impression. Instead, she suggests that people should ensure they talk about the struggle behind their story to appear more likeable.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2018.1500289 (paywalled).

So...it's attractive to talk about our struggles with our ex's?

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Bot writes:

The Italian antitrust authority has announced a fine of 5M euro and 10M euro against Samsung and Apple respectively, because they forced upon the users of their mobile devices a number of system updates that significantly impaired the performance and the stability of the smartphones, pushing the owners to consider replacement or repair outside warranty coverage of the misbehaving items.

Apparently the two companies failed to underline that the security mentioned in the upgrades was relative to their own cash flow, by creating demand for new models.

It is a first for tech firms to be explicitly fined for the notorious practice called "planned obsolescence".

Also at Fast Company

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Village Roadshow and some film studios including Disney have requested an injunction ordering Australian ISPs to block a number of sites which host subtitles files. Sadly, for the litigants involved, the most that this effort has achieved so far is to cause a Streisand effect advertising the existence of these websites on news sites. The claim being made by Roadshow is that the sites in question have no evident purpose other than providing subtitles that can be used in conjunction with illicitly downloaded movie files. If another purpose for using this type of file is found then this case could fail. This is yet another example of the MPAA trying to tighten the screws in Australia.

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takyon writes:

Smartphone makers are vomiting a torrent of new phones, and we're sick of it

As the dust settled on Huawei's Mate 20 event, we were left wondering about the death of the traditional release cycle for smartphones. The Chinese company unveiled three new phones in the shape of the Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, and the surprise Mate 20 X, all coming hot on the heels of the recently released Mate 20 Lite. This wave of new flagships comes just six months after Huawei unveiled the P20, P20 Pro, and Porsche Design Mate RS. Sifting through these phones to decipher the differences is a confusing exercise. Has anyone taken the time to figure out who each model is supposed to be for? It doesn't feel like it.

This new scattergun approach to smartphone release seems to be infecting much of the industry. And it's joined by a growing tendency to update phones more frequently, immediately rolling out incremental improvements that would have previously been held over for an annual event.

[...] LG has been releasing perplexingly small updates, going from LG V30 to V40 ThinQ, by way of the V30S ThinQ and V35 ThinQ, in just a year, during which it also found time to release the LG G7 ThinQ. [...] It's not just the expensive end of the market that's doing this — perhaps the worst offender over the last year is Motorola, now under Lenovo. We've seen the Moto E5, Moto E5 Play, Moto E5 Plus, Moto G6 Play, Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus, Moto Z3 Play, Moto Z3, and the Motorola One.

[...] The idea that more options can have a detrimental impact on our ability to choose has been confirmed in lots of research over the last few years, but an interesting study published [DOI: 10.1016/j.jcps.2014.08.002] [DX] in the Journal of Consumer Psychology in 2016 tried to break it down further. This comprehensive study analyzed prior research and identified four key situations when less choice boosts sales.

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Mainframe Bloke writes:

A retrenched engineer, lately of carmaker Toyota, has used his redundancy payout to make his own 3D fabrication plant, and now creates prosthetics to order for free. He doesn't even charge postage to send them to their recipients.

See this story for more: 'I don't even charge postage': Phillip Island engineer uses 3D printers to make free prosthetic limbs

An excerpt:

"He splurged his redundancy payout on 3D printers and set up shop in his "man cave" on Phillip Island, 150 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, designing and making cheap prosthetic limbs.

Mr Bowtell, 38, said his lightbulb moment occurred in 2004 when he was studying mechatronics with Monash University on a scholarship in Japan.

"I tried on a $1 million bionic arm and I just thought 'Wow, this is really, really fantastic technology, but who on earth is going to be able to afford it?'" he said."

He accepts orders, including custom colours, for the prosthetics, which are mainly hands and fingers at this stage.

Wish I had the chops to do that. Very commendable use of one's resources. Might be time for some experimentation...it doesn't say how much it all cost him, but crowdfunding seems actually to have some good uses after all...here's a link to one of his pages if you've got some spare cash (no, I'm not a shill, just an interested observer):

https://helpinghand.ecwid.com/

PS...all his designs are Open Source. Just searching bowtell prosthetics brings up quite a list, the ABC were a bit late to the story, so sorry if you've already heard it...

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takyon writes:

E-cigarette maker Juul boosts lobbying spending as regulatory scrutiny increases

Leading e-cigarette manufacturer Juul spent half a million dollars on lobbying last quarter — up 167 percent from the previous quarter — as regulators weigh restrictions on the industry to stem a surge in teens using the devices.

In the third quarter, Juul spent $560,000, according to a lobbying disclosure form. That compares with the $210,000 it spent in the previous quarter, according to a filing. The company focused its efforts on e-cigarette and vaping regulation, as well as tariffs on products manufactured in China, it said in the disclosure.

However, the $560,000 is half of the amount the company initially reported spending Tuesday. The company filed an amendment correcting the figure, Juul spokeswoman Victoria Davis told CNBC.

Juul has beefed up its Washington operations amid growing scrutiny that could threaten its business. It has hired Tevi Troy, deputy Health and Human Services secretary in the George W. Bush administration; Jim Esquea, an assistant HHS secretary in the Obama administration; and Ted McCann, a senior policy advisor to House Speaker Paul Ryan, among others.

Also at The Hill.

See also: Juul e-cigarettes pose addiction risk for young users
JUUL's social media campaign resonates alarmingly with teens
Weed Vaping Startup Pax Raises $20 Million
Juul Season is Over

Previously: E-Cig Maker Juul Valued at $15-16 Billion
FDA Raided E-Cigarette Maker Juul to Look for Evidence That the Company Targets Minors

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Bloomberg

If it seems as though the app you deleted last week is suddenly popping up everywhere, it may not be mere coincidence. Companies that cater to app makers have found ways to game both iOS and Android, enabling them to figure out which users have uninstalled a given piece of software lately—and making it easy to pelt the departed with ads aimed at winning them back.

Adjust, AppsFlyer, MoEngage, Localytics, and CleverTap are among the companies that offer uninstall trackers, usually as part of a broader set of developer tools. Their customers include T-Mobile US, Spotify Technology, and Yelp. (And Bloomberg Businessweek parent Bloomberg LP, which uses Localytics.) Critics say they're a fresh reason to reassess online privacy rights and limit what companies can do with user data. "Most tech companies are not giving people nuanced privacy choices, if they give them choices at all," says Jeremy Gillula, tech policy director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocate.

Some providers say these tracking tools are meant to measure user reaction to app updates and other changes. Jude McColgan, chief executive officer of Boston's Localytics, says he hasn't seen clients use the technology to target former users with ads.

[...] Uninstall tracking exploits a core element of Apple Inc.'s and Google's mobile operating systems: push notifications. Developers have always been able to use so-called silent push notifications to ping installed apps at regular intervals without alerting the user—to refresh an inbox or social media feed while the app is running in the background, for example. But if the app doesn't ping the developer back, the app is logged as uninstalled, and the uninstall tracking tools add those changes to the file associated with the given mobile device's unique advertising ID, details that make it easy to identify just who's holding the phone and advertise the app to them wherever they go.

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takyon writes:

Tiny Drones Team Up to Open Doors

In a move inspired by natural engineering, robotics researchers have demonstrated how tiny palm-size drones can forcefully tug objects 40 times their own mass by anchoring themselves to the ground or to walls. It's a glimpse into how small drones could more actively manipulate their environment in a way similar to humans or larger robots.

[...] The "FlyCroTug" drones also represent an evolution for ground-based robots originally developed by David Christensen, a coauthor on the paper who is currently employed at Disney Research. By turning to a custom-built quadrotor drone design, the team created micro air vehicles that combine aerial mobility with greater pulling or pushing strength based on ground anchoring.

Each FlyCroTug drone has a specialized attachment at the end of a long cable that can be payed out and then pulled back in through a winch. That means the drones can attach one end of their cable to an object, fly off, land, and anchor themselves before hauling the heavy load toward them. What might normally be one small step at a time for wasps becomes one giant flying leap at a time for the drones, Estrada explained.

The anchoring mechanisms based on technologies from Stanford's Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab also took inspiration from natural design: microspines capable of attaching to rough stucco or concrete surfaces, and sticky gecko-inspired adhesives for attaching to smooth glass.

[...] As impressive as this all sounds, the FlyCroTug drones still face serious limitations. Their current battery life is sufficient for just five minutes of flight time, which severely limits what they can do. Complex and unknown environments would also require possibly many versions of the drones with different attachments and anchor mechanisms for various surfaces. But the latter may not be a problem, if such flying robots could be made cheaply and be deployed as swarms of disposable drones.

Also at The Verge.

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takyon writes:

Opioid Deaths May Be Starting To Plateau, HHS Chief Says

The American opioid crisis is far from over, but early data indicate the number of deaths are beginning to level off, according to Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, citing "encouraging" results in overdose trends.

[...] In 2017, the number of Americans dying from opioid overdoses rose to 72,000 from 64,000 the previous year. However, according to new provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control, the numbers stopped rising toward the end of 2017, a trend that has continued into the beginning of this year. It is "finally bending in the right direction," Azar said. He added that the death toll flattening out is "hardly a victory," especially at such high levels. Current government statistics show that opioids kill over 115 Americans each day.

[...] On Wednesday, President Trump is expected to sign a bill recently passed by Congress that expands Medicaid opioid treatment programs and workforce training initiatives, and supports FDA research to find new options for non-opioid pain relief.

It's Too Soon to Celebrate the End of the Opioid Epidemic

While we don't know why deaths have begun to fall, experts say there are a few likely reasons. Doctors are prescribing fewer painkillers. More states are making naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses, widely available. And it's possible that more addicts have started medication-assisted therapies like buprenorphine, which is how France solved its own opioid epidemic years ago. Indeed, the states with the biggest declines in overdose deaths were those like Vermont that have used evidence-based, comprehensive approaches to tackling opioid addiction.

[...] Still, it's possible this is a "false dawn," as Keith Humphreys, an addiction expert at Stanford University, put it to me. "Opioid-overdose deaths did not increase from 2011 to 2012, and many people declared that the tide was turning. But in 2013, they began racing up again," he said. Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl are still rising, as are those from methamphetamines.

Related: President Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a National Emergency
U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Decline Due to Opioid Crisis
"Synthetic Opioids" Now Kill More People than Prescription Opioids in the U.S.
Tens or Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Needed to Combat Opioid Crisis?
U.S. House of Representatives Passes Opioid Legislation; China Will Step Up Cooperation
The Dutch Supply Heroin Addicts With Dope and Get Better Results Than USA

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DannyB writes:

Feds Order Google To Hand Over A Load Of Innocent Americans' Locations

Here's how it works: cops send Google specific coordinates and timezones within which crimes were committed. Then Google is asked to provide information on all users within those locations at those times, most likely including data on many innocent people. Those users could be Android phone owners, anyone running Google Maps or any individual running Google services on their cell, not just criminal suspects.

[...] "This fishing expedition infringes on the privacy rights of so many possible people who had the misfortune of being in an area where a crime is alleged to be committed," said Jerome Greco, staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. "We should not allow for such broad access to the data of so many on the mere speculation that a suspect may have used a cellphone near the location of the crime."

[...] Not just Google

Captain John Sherwin of the Rochester Police Department in Minnesota said it wasn't just Google that could furnish cops with a startling mount of detailed location data. Facebook and Snapchat were two others who'd proven useful, he said.

Should we be concerned that government tracks people by their cell phones instead of using mandatory brain implants?

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bob_super writes:

China's president has opened the World's longest sea bridge. The giant infrastructure is 55km total, including 3 suspension bridges, a causeway, a 6.7km undersea tunnel between two artificial islands, and another 1km tunnel, all designed at great cost to resist the local typhoons and earthquakes. It links Macau and ZhuHai (Guangdong province) on one side of the Pearl River, to Hong-Kong new airport on the other.

President Xi Jinping opened the long-delayed and over-budget Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge on Tuesday, billed as a major step forward in China's plan to turn the Pearl River Delta into a technology hub to rival Silicon Valley.

But critics worry the 55km-long bridge connecting the mainland city of Zhuhai with the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau is as much about politics as it is business.

Hong-Kong independentists see the $2.2B investment as another sign of progressive assimilation into the mainland, with the 45 minute link replacing the 4-hour ferry commute.

China is stepping up initiatives to increase trade across the region and at home - the opening of the mega-bridge comes a month after a new high-speed rail link started carrying passengers from Hong Kong to the mainland.

Perhaps tellingly, cars will drive on the right on the 6-lane bridge, as in China, and switch to the left when entering Macau or HK.

Original Submission