SoylentNews

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Where are you? That's not just a metaphysical question, but increasingly a geopolitical challenge that is putting tech giants like Apple and Alphabet in a tough position.

Countries around the world, including China, Japan, India and the United Kingdom plus the European Union are exploring, testing and deploying satellites to build out their own positioning capabilities.

That's a massive change for the United States, which for decades has had a practical monopoly on determining the location of objects through its Global Positioning System (GPS), a military service of the Air Force built during the Cold War that has allowed commercial uses since mid-2000 (for a short history of GPS, check out this article, or for the comprehensive history, here's the book-length treatment).

[...] Now, a number of other countries want to reduce their dependency on the U.S. and get those economic benefits. Perhaps no where is that more obvious than with China, which has made building out a global alternative to GPS a top national priority. Its Beidou (北斗 – "Big Dipper") navigation system has been slowly building up since 2000, mostly focused on providing service in Asia.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/21/the-gps-wars-have-begun/

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Gizmodo has an article up that The Amazon Alexa Eavesdropping Nightmare Came True

A German Amazon user requested data about his personal activities under the EU's General Data Protection (GDP) regulation.

This individual owned no Alexa devices, but still received over 1700 recordings of what were purportedly his commands.

Some of the files reportedly related to his Amazon searches. But according to the report there were also hundreds of Wav files and a PDF cataloging transcripts of Alexa’s interpretations of voice commands. According to c’t magazine

The recordings revealed the victims’ personal habits, jobs, taste in music, schedule, alarms, social life, and even caught him showering.
The recordings were not of the recipient's voice nor anyone he recognized. When he contacted Amazon, he received no response (other than the link to the file going dead). He then contacted C't Magazine.

Using the information they gathered from the recordings, the magazine contacted the victim of the data leak. He “was audibly shocked,” and confirmed it was him in the recordings and that the outlet had figured out the identity of his girlfriend. He said Amazon did not contact him.

When asked for comment by Gizmodo

Amazon sent Gizmodo the same statement it had shared with Reuters. “This was an unfortunate case of human error and an isolated incident. We have resolved the issue with the two customers involved and have taken steps to further improve our processes. We were also in touch on a precautionary basis with the relevant regulatory authorities.”

While not a common type of mistake, inappropriate sharing of conversations and recording is also hardly unheard of. For example a Portland woman found her Echo had sent a recorded conversation between her and her husband to one of his employees.

As a reminder, you can delete your Amazon Echo recorded history or just parts of it should you wish to do so, as described here.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Crew of three safely lands in Kazakhstan after 197-day space mission – Spaceflight Now

A Russian cosmonaut, a German flight engineer and a NASA astronaut undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth overnight Wednesday, landing on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan to wrap up a six-month mission. Blocked from view by low clouds and wind-blown snow, the Soyuz MS-09/55S spacecraft, suspended beneath a large orange-and-white parachute, touched down on the frigid steppe near the town of Dzhezkazgan at 12:02 a.m. EST Thursday (GMT-5; 11:02 a.m. local time), three-and-a-half hours after departing the space station.

[...] [Alexey] Ovchinin and [Nick] Hague were victims of a launch abort Oct. 11, the first for a Soyuz spacecraft since 1983. Instead of reaching the station and joining Gerst, Prokopyev and Auñón-Chancellor, Ovchinin and Hague were forced to make an emergency landing near Dzhezkazgan, throwing a wrench into the carefully planned crew rotation schedule. Russian engineers quickly traced the problem to the system used to control the separation of the four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters making up the Soyuz FG booster's first stage. A fix was relatively straight forward.

After assessing multiple options, Russian managers opted to move up launch of Kononenko's crew from Dec. 20 to Dec. 3 and to delay the departure of Gerst and his crewmates from Dec. 13 to Dec. 20.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/22/679083038/researchers-show-parachutes-dont-work-but-there-s-a-catch

A study has been done, and the surprising result is that parachutes are no more effective than a backpack in preventing injuries when jumping out of an airplane.

It's "common sense" that parachutes work, so it has been a neglected field of science. This surprising and counter-intuitive result is an excellent example of the importance of doing science.

... or maybe it's a perfect example of how top-line study headlines can be mis-representative, especially when portrayed by the mass-media, and how understanding study scope and methodology is important.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Sprint will pay New York $330 million over unpaid taxes

Sprint is about to write New York state a very, very large check. The carrier has agreed to pay New York $330 million in a settlement over claims it avoided collecting certain local and state taxes on cellular plans between 2005 and 2014. It's the largest ever false claims recovery by a single state, the Attorney General's office said. Allegedly, Sprint willfully misinterpreted a 2002 law to skip collecting a key sales tax based on the nature of its plans, leaving New York $100 million short.

The law required that carriers collect tax on the full portion of a flat-rate wireless service regardless of whether those calls were local, interstate or international. Sprint, however, reportedly decided to collect taxes only for the portion of service involving interstate calls. The network's lawyers were fully aware of what the law required, according to the Attorney General's office, and the state's appeals court had deemed the terms were "unambiguous."

Original Submission

stormwyrm writes:

The BBC reports that at least 62 people have been killed and 584 injured after a tsunami hit the coast of Indonesia's Sunda Strait after an eruption of the volcano Krakatoa:

The country's disaster management agency says hundreds of buildings were damaged by Saturday's tsunami.

It says the possible cause of the tsunami was undersea landslides after the Krakatoa volcano erupted.

The strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra, connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean.

[...] Emergency officials are investigating whether the tsunami was caused by Anak Krakatoa, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait.

Volcanologist Jess Phoenix told the BBC that when volcanoes erupt, hot magma pushes underground and can displace and break through colder rock. This can trigger a landslide.

But because part of Krakatoa is underwater, she said "instead of just causing a landslide, you get an undersea landslide which pushes water as it moves." This can then cause a tsunami.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Creator of viral glitter bomb video admits parts of it were staged

This week, it seemed the entire Internet rejoiced after a former NASA engineer created a custom glitter bomb designed to strike back against package thieves. His impressive invention resulted in a hilarious video of would-be criminals being coated in glitter and having their nostrils assaulted with a fart spray. But it seems the clip, which racked up more than 42 million views in just a few days, was a little too good to be true -- its creator admits parts of it were staged, seemingly without his knowledge.

Mark Rober cut around 90 seconds from the video and reuploaded it to remove a segment in which a friend of a friend borrowed the device. As it turns out, that person recruited their own friends to pose as victims. Rober apologized for the ruse.

"Ultimately, I am responsible for the content that goes on my channel and I should have done more here," he wrote in an apology tweet. "I can vouch that the reactions were genuine when the package was taken from my house."

Previously: Hacker Makes a Flawless Booby Trap, Strikes Back Against Package Thieves

Original Submission

martyb writes:

So it's not the end of the world as we know it, but it's nearly the end of the calendar year. How'd we get here, where are we at, and what have we been up to? Oh, and please send us some monies.

takyon writes:

SpaceX's Starlink eyed by US military as co. raises $500-750M for development

In a reasonably predictable turn of events, SpaceX has been awarded a healthy $28.7M contract to study, develop, and test possible military applications of its prospective Starlink internet satellite constellation.

Previously reported by Teslarati in August 2018, FCC applications related to Starlink revealed that SpaceX had plans to develop and test Starlink interconnectivity with conformal antenna arrays installed on aircraft, all but directly pointing to military involvement with a reference to the need for aerial maneuvers "[representative] of a high-performance aircraft."

Around the same time as those FCC documents surfaced, the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) spoke with AviationWeek about plans to experiment with the potential capabilities offered by a flurry of proposed low Earth orbit (LEO) internet satellite constellations, including the likes of SpaceX's Starlink, OneWeb, a Telesat network, and others. While no specific companies were fingered in AFRL's public statements, it was far too convenient to be a coincidence. Four months later, the below transaction was published in the Department of Defense's running list of new contract awards:

"[SpaceX], Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $28,713,994 competitive, firm-fixed-price ... agreement for experimentation ... in the areas of establishing connectivity [and] operational experimentation ... [and] will include connectivity demonstrations to Air Force ground sites and aircraft for experimental purposes. For the proposed Phase 2, the awardee proposes to perform experiments [with] early versions of a commercial space-to-space data relay service and mobile connectivity directly from space to aircraft." – Department of Defense, FBO FA8650-17-S-9300

Previously: FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services
SpaceX Starlink Satellite Prototypes Include Packed, Flexible Solar Arrays
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Fired Managers and Employees in June to Shake Up Starlink Project
Elon Musk's SpaceX Is Raising $500 Million in Funding; Now Valued at $30.5 Billion

Original Submission

takyon writes:

New 8K OLED Displays for Tablets and Laptops: 8.3 and 13.3 Inches

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, a technology developer from Japan, has developed the industry's first 8.3 and 13.3-inch OLED displays featuring an 8K resolution. The monitors use crystalline oxide semiconductor technology and they are likely preliminary designs for future product commercialization. The company also recently showcased a bendable 8.6-inch OLED panel, potentially for a foldable tablet or smartphone.

Both of SEL's OLED panels featuring a 7680×4320 resolution use a color filter that relies on CAAC-IGZO (c-axis aligned crystalline indium gallium zinc oxide) material. The 8.3-inch 8K panel [boasts] a rather high pixel density of 1061 pixels per inch and has a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The larger 13.3-inch 8K panel features a pixel density of 662 PPI, but has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is particularly high for an OLED. The 8.3-inch 8Kp60 OLED was demonstrated last month at SEMICON Japan, whereas the 13.3-inch 8Kp120 OLED currently exists only in SEL's labs.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Planetary Science Institute reports:

By developing a new method for measuring isotopic ratios of water and carbon dioxide remotely, scientists have found that the water in Saturn's rings and satellites is unexpectedly like water on the Earth, except on Saturn's moon Phoebe, where the water is more unusual than on any other object so far studied in the Solar System.

The results [...] mean we need to change models of the formation of the Solar System because the new results are in conflict with existing models.

Isotopes are different forms of elements but with differing numbers of neutrons. Adding a neutron adds mass to the element, and that can change processes of how a planet, comet, or moon is formed. Water is composed of two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen atom, H₂O. Adding a neutron to one hydrogen atom, then called deuterium (D), increases the mass of a water molecule (HDO) by about 5 percent, and that small change results in isotopic differences in the formation of a planet, moon, or comet, and changes the evaporation of water after formation. The deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H) is a fingerprint of the formation conditions, including temperature and evolution over time. Evaporating water enriches deuterium in the remaining surface.

[...] Some models [of the formation of our solar system] predict the D/H should be 10 times higher for the Saturn system than on Earth. But the new measurements show this is not the case for Saturn's rings and satellites except Saturn's moon Phoebe.

For those who enjoy a little intriguing entertainment, it's worth noting that this finding is consistent with Velikofsky's Cosmos (which is, today, largely synonymous with the Electric Universe).

Isotopic Ratios of Saturn's Rings and Satellites: Implications for the Origin of Water and Phoebe (DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.11.029) (DX)

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Update, Dec 21, 2:47pm: In response to customers' frustration, Logitech issued another statement today with instructions on how to enable private local API controls.

Many users of Logitech's Harmony Hub smart home hub and remote were recently met with a nasty surprise. The device's latest firmware update, version 4.15.206, reportedly cuts off local access for Harmony Hubs. As a result, many users who created home automation and smart home systems using third-party APIs haven't been able to control many, and in some cases, all of their connected IoT devices.

Logitech began pushing out firmware update 4.15.206 last week, its release notes stating that it addresses security and bug fixes. Users immediately flocked to Logitech's community forms to complain once they realized the systems they built up to control their smart home devices essentially became unresponsive. Users with Homeseer and Home Assistant APIs have reported parts of their systems broken, preventing them from controlling things like smart TVs, sound systems, and more using the Harmony Hub and its remote.

Last night, Logitech responded with an official statement on its forums, saying in part that the firmware update addresses "security vulnerabilities" and that those "undocumented" APIs that some have been using for home automation were never officially supported in the first place.

Source: Logitech disables local access on Harmony Hubs, breaks automation systems [Update]

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Science Magazine:

For the 19 December test, U.S. Department of Energy researchers set off a 50-ton chemical explosion roughly 300 meters underground to generate a magnitude-3 or -4 tremor—partly to verify the agency’s ability to detect underground nuclear explosions. But researchers also lofted two helium-filled balloons over the site, one tethered and another free floating, each a few hundred meters above the ground. The balloons carried barometers to measure changes in atmospheric pressure and detect the earthquake’s infrasound waves, low-frequency acoustic vibrations below the threshold of human hearing.

A similar setup could one day float high in the atmosphere of Venus. At the planet’s surface, conditions are infernal: Temperatures are high enough to melt lead, and pressures are so overwhelming that they would crush a submarine. It would be hard for any lander to survive long enough to detect a tremor. But 50 kilometers above the surface, temperatures and pressures are remarkably clement, perfect for a long-lived balloon (aside from a touch of sulfuric acid in the greenhouse atmosphere, which is 96% carbon dioxide). In 1985, the Soviet Union showed it could be done, flying two balloons for 2.5 days in this layer. They only stopped recording data when their batteries ran out.

Five Weeks in a Balloon, Venusian style.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Venture Beat:

The Indian government has authorized 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt data on any computer, sending a shock wave through citizens and privacy watchdogs.

Narendra Modi’s government late Thursday broadened the scope of Section 69 of the nation’s IT Act, 2000 to require a subscriber, service provider, or any person in charge of a computer to “extend all facilities and technical assistance to the agencies.” Failure to comply with the agencies could result in seven years of imprisonment and an unspecified fine.

In a clarification posted today, the Ministry of Home Affairs said each case of interception, monitoring, and decryption is to be approved by the competent authority, which is the Union Home Secretary.

The move should do wonders for the Indian IT industry.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

The roast Christmas dinner is a valued tradition for many families in the UK and across the globe.

The health implications and environmental impacts of our diet have now become a regular discussion topic, with sustainable dietary advice recommending that we reduce meat consumption and increase the amount of plant-based proteins, fruits and vegetables we eat.

But what does this practically mean at Christmas? And how can we make our Christmas dinner more sustainable? Here are some tips to help you reduce the environmental impact of your Christmas feast.

tl;dr; eat turkey, cook it with sous vide, nuke the potatoes and veggies, eat what you take. Thank goodness no more recommendations to eat insects; they must have finally conceded that dog won't hunt...

Original Submission