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darkfeline writes:

Russ Cox, who developed the dependency/package management system for Go, writes about the problems with software dependencies. A choice excerpt:

Dependency managers now exist for essentially every programming language. [...] The arrival of this kind of fine-grained, widespread software reuse is one of the most consequential shifts in software development over the past two decades. And if we’re not more careful, it will lead to serious problems.

A package, for this discussion, is code you download from the internet. Adding a package as a dependency outsources the work of developing that code [...] to someone else on the internet, someone you often don’t know. By using that code, you are exposing your own program to all the failures and flaws in the dependency. Your program’s execution now literally depends on code downloaded from this stranger on the internet. Presented this way, it sounds incredibly unsafe. Why would anyone do this?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

15-inch, 4K OLED laptops are coming thanks to new displays from Samsung:

Larger OLED laptop screens are coming sooner than we anticipated. Samsung Displays announced that it has made a 15.6-inch 4K laptop display and will begin producing the panels next month. The company plans on providing them to other manufacturers to put into their premium notebooks.

[...] Samsung's 15.6-inch display has a brightness range of 0.0005 to 600 nits, and its spectrum of 34 million colors is double that of similar, 15-inch LCD panels. Samsung claims that its panel can produce blacks that are 200 times darker than those of LCD panels, and whites will be more than twice as bright. These attributes contribute to the HDR capabilities of the panel, and the company claims that the panel passes VESA's new DisplayHDR TrueBlack standard.

The cost? Don't ask.

Also at Engadget.

Related: SEL Develops 8K OLED Displays for Tablets and Laptops
VESA Expands DisplayHDR Specification to Include OLED and Emissive Displays

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martyb writes:

US Appeals Court Says California Can Set its Own Low Carbon Fuel Standard:

Late last week, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit published an opinion (PDF) stating that California's regulation of fuel sales based on a lifecycle analysis of carbon emissions did not violate federal commerce rules.

Since 2011, California has had a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program, which requires fuel sellers to reduce their fuel's carbon intensity by certain deadlines. If oil, ethanol, or other fuel sellers can't meet those deadlines, they can buy credits from companies that have complied with the standard.

California measures "fuel intensity" over the lifecycle of the fuel, so oil extracted from tar sands (which might require a lot of processing) would be penalized more than lighter oil that requires minimal processing. Ethanol made with coal would struggle to meet its carbon intensity goals more than ethanol made from gas.

Plaintiffs representing the ethanol and oil industries have challenged these rules in the court system. Most recently, they challenged California's 2015 version of the rules. (In September 2018, the state's Air Resources Board announced new amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard rules, but those are not discussed in the 9th Circuit's most recent opinion.)

[...] The opinion noted:

The California legislature is rightly concerned with the health and welfare of humans living in the State of California... These persons may be subjected, for example, to crumbling or swamped coastlines, rising water, or more intense forest fires caused by higher temperatures and related droughts, all of which many in the scientific communities believe are caused or intensified by the volume of greenhouse gas emissions.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

CNN is reporting BuzzFeed to Cut 15% of Staff in New Round of Layoffs:

BuzzFeed is preparing to lay off about 15% of its employees. The coming contraction is the latest example of a media company making cutbacks in a difficult operating environment.

The reductions will affect multiple departments, including the news division, according to sources familiar with the matter.

BuzzFeed has about 1,450 employees, so about 220 will be leaving, one of the sources confirmed.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti confirmed the sharp cut on Wednesday after reporters from other news outlets began inquiring.

The layoffs, he said in an internal memo, are part of a broader effort to "put us on a firm foundation and allow us to invest and grow sustainably for years to come."

After "extensive work" in the past few months, "we've developed a good understanding of where we can consolidate our teams, focus in on the content that is working, and achieve the right cost structure to support our multi-revenue model," Peretti wrote.

As Google and Facebook gobble up an increasing share of on-line advertising sales, what do on-line services have to do in order to survive?

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes:

Fox News reports a claim that Drone at Newark Airport Came Within 30 Feet of Aircraft:

Arriving flights were halted at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday when a drone was spotted near a neighboring airport, officials said. And one pilot claims that the drone came as close as 30 feet to his aircraft, according to a new report.

Two airplanes headed to Newark reported seeing a drone around 5 p.m. over Teterboro Airport, a smaller airport located roughly 18 miles northeast of Newark.

The FoxNews report quotes this story at ABC news:

Officials have now resumed operations after a ground stop had been ordered at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey due to drone activity, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Officials received two reports of a drone seen about 3,500 feet above Teterboro Airport in Bergen County, New Jersey, FAA spokesman Greg Martin told ABC News.

[...] "Missed the drone by about 30 feet off our right wing," one pilot said.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

You know how it is, it's a Saturday so you go out into the garden for a quick interface with nature before the next 10 hr Fortnite / Netflix combo binge to find your dog has left numerous piles of digested food all over the place. What do you do? Get online to AirTasker to post a job requesting someone come over to pick up the shit. Yes, seriously, that's what they do these days when help is just a click away. Need a pack of ciggies but are "too unwell" to go get them for yourself? Airtasker! Need a couple of vibrators in a hurry? Yep, someone on there will help you. For a price. Just when we thought with Facebook that humanity had hit rock bottom. How low can we go?

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Up to one-third of pregnant women do not believe cannabis is harmful to their fetus, according to a new review by UBC [(The University of British Columbia)] researchers.

In some cases, women perceived a lack of communication from their health care providers about the risks of cannabis as an indication that the drug is safe to use during pregnancy.

The findings are outlined in a new review, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, in which UBC researchers sought to identify the latest evidence on women's perspectives on the health aspects of cannabis use during pregnancy and post-partum and whether their perceptions influence decision-making about using the drug.

"Our research suggests that, over the past decade, more women seem to be using cannabis during pregnancy than ever before, even though evidence of its safety is limited and conflicting," said lead author Hamideh Bayrampour, assistant professor in the UBC department of family practice and affiliate investigator at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute. "As many jurisdictions around the world, including Canada, legalize cannabis, it's becoming increasingly important for public health officials to understand perceptions of cannabis use and to increase awareness of the health concerns around its use, especially for pregnant women."

Journal Reference:
Hamideh Bayrampour, Mike Zahradnik, Sarka Lisonkova, Patti Janssen. Women's perspectives about cannabis use during pregnancy and the postpartum period: An integrative review. Preventive Medicine, 2019; 119: 17 DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.12.002

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Emergency declared near Portland for measles outbreak in anti-vaccine hotspot

Health officials in Clark County, Washington have declared a public health emergency for a measles outbreak in an area with a high rate of unvaccinated children.

[...] Nearly eight percent of children in Clark County were exempt from standard vaccination for the 2017-2018 school year, according to state records reported by the Washington Post. Breaking down that eight percent, about seven percent of kids had personal or religious exemptions and the remaining one percent or so had medical exemptions. Factoring in the rest of the population, the county is below the 92 percent to 94 percent range some experts consider required to prevent the spread of highly contagious diseases such as measles.

[...] “It’s really awful and really tragic and totally preventable,” Peter J. Hotez told the Post. Hotez is a professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Portland is a total train wreck when it comes to vaccine rates,” he added.

[...] Correction: This article has been updated to correct the state in which Clark County resides. It is in Washington State, not Oregon. 

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

The Charlotte Observer reports on freakish behavior being exhibited by alligators in one swamp in eastern North Carolina.

Alligators in one eastern North Carolina swamp have proven it was no fluke last winter, when they survived a cold snap by freezing themselves in place with their noses above the ice.

It happened again Monday at The Swamp Park, only this time more -- and bigger -- alligators joined in

The video posted by nosey park manager George Howard shows several of the alligators frozen in place here

A few alligators exhibited this behavior last year, surviving a freeze for several days without ill effect. This year more joined in, including one gator 11 feet in length.

Howard says the alligators seem to sense when the water is at the freezing point and they respond by poking their nose above the surface “at just the right moment.”

Once frozen, they enter “a state of brumation, like hibernating,” until the water thaws

No word on how many ice hockey rinks across the swamp is. According to The Spruce Pets Brumation is a dormant state in reptiles similar, but not identical to hibernation in mammals:

During hibernation, a mammal is sleeping and does not have to eat or drink. But brumation is not a true sleep and the reptile still needs to drink water. A brumating reptile may have days where it will awake, show some activity, drink water, and then go back to its dormant state. Hibernating mammals, on the other hand, are in a deep sleep where they don't need to eat or drink.

I believe I mastered brumation around my sophomore year.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

1TB `Power Users' Double to 4.12% of All Households:

According to OpenVault, both average and median data usage for year end 2018 increased when compared with year end 2017 statistics. Importantly, the rate of growth for median usage continued to far exceed the growth rate for average usage, indicating that consumption is growing across service providers' entire subscriber bases, rather than only among heavy users.

OpenVault's year end 2018 data showed that:

• Average usage for all households was 268.7GB/HH in 2018, up from 226.4GB/HH at the end of June 2018 and a 33.3% increase over the YE 2017 average of 201.6GB/HH.
• Median usage was 145.2GB/HH in 2018, up from 116.4GB/HH in June 2018 and a 40% increase over the YE 2017 median of 103.6GB/HH.
• The percentage of power users – defined as those households using 1TB or more – almost doubled in 2018, rising to 4.12% of all households from 2.11% in 2017, while the percentage of households exceeding 250GB rose to 36.4% from 28.4% during the same timespan.

How much data do YOU use each month?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

U.S. ramping up probe against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks says

American federal prosecutors have been pressing witnesses in the U.S. and abroad to testify against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, WikiLeaks says, offering further evidence that the Justice Department is building a criminal case against the man who leaked Democratic emails hacked by the Russians in the 2016 election.

In a new submission to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, based in Washington, WikiLeaks is urging the Justice Department to unseal the charges that appear to have been secretly filed against Assange in the Eastern District of Virginia. A mistake in a Justice Department court filing in November inadvertently suggested the existence of those charges.

Previously: Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange

Original Submission

MostCynical writes:

The Sydney Morning Herald has a report about a badly configured baby monitor.

[A mother in the Australian state of Western Australia] purchased the Uniden Smart Baby Monitor for $250 so her fly-in, fly-out partner could stay connected to their eight-month-old daughter

The device allows a user to view their child on their smart phone from anywhere in the world using a QR scan code and generic password.

However [the mother] said she was concerned about the security around the product, after it logged her into another stranger's nursery.

"I logged in through what the instructions told me to and it wasn't my daughters bedroom, it was somebody else's bedroom," she said.

[...] Uniden did not reveal if it had received any similar complaints about the smart camera.

Is any IoT device secure?

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

Philosophers deal with real, empirical, questions! From Quartzy, the ethical question of male facial hair.

Those who believe growing a beard is a personal fashion choice need to reconsider. The bristly facial hair of men is, in fact, the physical embodiment of deep ethical and aesthetic considerations. Henry Pratt, philosophy professor at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote a detailed analysis of such philosophical conundrums in his aptly titled paper, “To Beard or Not to Beard: Ethical and Aesthetic Obligations and Facial Hair.”

Why now: well, it all goes back to the "fool says in his heart" guy, St. Anselm.

In this paper, presented at the January 2019 eastern division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in New York, Pratt considers the premise set out by Saint Anselm of Canterbury, an 11th century philosopher. Anselm writes:

Not having a beard is not dishonorable for a man who is not yet supposed to have a beard, but once he ought to have a beard, it is unbecoming for him not to have one. In the same way, not having justice is not a defect in a nature that is not obligated to have justice, but it is disgraceful for a nature that ought to have it.

The take-away:

However, one surprising consequence of my philosophical work on pogonotrophy is that I now find myself thinking that the choices made by myself and others about what to grow on our faces are actually pretty important. I find myself wondering whether I should worry about the masculinity projected by my beard, and the effects thereof. I also consider whether friends and associates should have the facial hair they grow. But just as it’s a bad idea to tell other parents they’re raising their kids wrong, I think it’s a bad idea to tell others that their beards are wrong. So far.

Other relevant sources:
The Philosophy of Beards: A Lecture Physiological, Artistic and Historical, by Thomas Gowing; 1875;
The Philosopher’s Beard
Beard Taxes!
The Gentleman Lawyer’s Guide to Facial Hair
"Law of Conservation of Facial Hair" still applies.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The Government's Secret UFO Program Funded Research on Wormholes and Extra Dimensions

The Department of Defense funded research on wormholes, invisibility cloaking, and "the manipulation of extra dimensions" under its shadowy Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, first described in 2017 by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

On Wednesday, the Defense Intelligence Agency released a list of 38 research titles pursued by the program in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

[...] One such research topic, "Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy," was led by Eric W. Davis of EarthTech International Inc, which describes itself as a facility "exploring the forefront reaches of science and engineering," with an interest in theories of spacetime, studies of the quantum vacuum, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Another project called "Invisibility Cloaking" was helmed by German scientist Ulf Leonhardt, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Leonhardt's research pertains to theoretical quantum optics, and in 2006 his work on theoretically creating "an invisible 'hole' in space, inside which objects can be hidden" was cited by Nature.

Yet another title, "Warp Drive, Dark Energy, and the Manipulation of Extra Dimensions," was attributed to theoretical physicist Richard Obousy, director of the nonprofit Icarus Interstellar, which claims to be "researching technologies that will enable breakthroughs in interstellar travel." Obousy was credited by Gizmodo in 2009 for creating "a scientifically accurate warpship design" that could hypothetically be propelled through space by manipulating dark energy.

Also at Teslarati.

Previously: Pentagon's UFO Investigation Program Revealed
UFO Existence 'Proven Beyond Reasonable Doubt': Former Head Of Pentagon Program
Newly-Released Video Shows 2015 U.S. Navy Sighting of UFO

Related: Are We Alone? The Question is Worthy of Serious Scientific Study

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Microsoft is trying to fight fake news with its Edge mobile browser

Microsoft has started warning users of its Edge mobile browser about untrustworthy news sites. The software giant has partnered with NewsGuard to provide warnings in its Edge browser for iOS and Android, and this functionality has been added this week as an optional setting. NewsGuard was founded by journalists Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and rates sites based on a variety of criteria including their use of deceptive headlines, whether they repeatedly publish false content, and transparency regarding ownership and financing.

Microsoft first started offering an optional NewsGuard browser extension for Edge on the desktop version of Windows 10 last year, but the move to build this directly into the mobile version suggests the company may be looking to make this a core part of Edge in the future. The Guardian reports that Edge mobile is now warning users that the Daily Mail's website, Mail Online, "generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability."

WhatsApp Tries To Curb Misinformation, And Annoying Aunts And Uncles

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging platforms in the world. With about 1.5 billion users, it's a free way to text and place international voice and video calls.

But recently the platform, which is owned by Facebook, has faced accusations of being used to spread misinformation — with serious consequences. Last year in India, rumors spread mostly on WhatsApp led to mob killings. In the run-up to Brazil's recent elections, misinformation and conspiracy theories also went viral on the messaging app.

WhatsApp is now limiting the number of people users can forward messages to, to five. [...] WhatsApp "carefully evaluated this test and listened to user feedback over a six-month period," a company spokesperson told NPR. "The forward limit significantly reduced forwarded messages around the world. We'll continue to listen to user feedback about their experience, and over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content."

Original Submission