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Appalbarry writes:

A West Vancouver philanthropist is suing Twitter claiming that the social media company "published defamatory statements about him."

Frank Giustra, the CEO of Fiore Group and founder of Lionsgate Entertainment, says that posts noted in the suit are that he is “corrupt," a “murderous thief,” a “criminal” and that he was involved in Pizzagate, a “discredited and malicious conspiracy theory in which he was labeled a ‘pedophile’.”

Although some tweets were removed, “Twitter has neglected or refused to remove and continues to publish a large number of false, defamatory, abusive and threatening Tweets.” According to the North Shore News, "In the suit, Giustra is asking for a mandatory permanent injunction requiring Twitter to delete the Tweets and to prohibit further publications by its users of materials that are defamatory to him, as well as general damages."

[...] No statement of defense has been filed and the claims have not been heard in court.

Twitter has declined comment on the story.

Original Submission

Fnord666 writes:

P2P Weakness Exposes Millions of IoT Devices

A peer-to-peer (P2P) communications technology built into millions of security cameras and other consumer electronics includes several critical security flaws that expose the devices to eavesdropping, credential theft and remote compromise, new research has found.

The security flaws involve iLnkP2P, software developed by China-based Shenzhen Yunni Technology. iLnkP2p is bundled with millions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including security cameras and Webcams, baby monitors, smart doorbells, and digital video recorders.

iLnkP2P is designed to allow users of these devices to quickly and easily access them remotely from anywhere in the world, without having to tinker with one's firewall: Users simply download a mobile app, scan a barcode or enter the six-digit ID stamped onto the bottom of the device, and the P2P software handles the rest.

But according to an in-depth analysis shared with KrebsOnSecurity by security researcher Paul Marrapese, iLnkP2P devices offer no authentication or encryption and can be easily enumerated, allowing potential attackers to establish a direct connection to these devices while bypassing any firewall restrictions.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

The first laser radio transmitter: Researchers transmit data via a semiconductor laser, opening the door to ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences transmitted a recording of Martin's classic "Volare" wirelessly via a semiconductor laser -- the first time a laser has been used as a radio frequency transmitter.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers demonstrated a laser that can emit microwaves wirelessly, modulate them, and receive external radio frequency signals.

"The research opens the door to new types of hybrid electronic-photonic devices and is the first step toward ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi," said Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering, at SEAS and senior author of the study.

Source: The first laser radio transmitter.

Abstract: Radio frequency transmitter based on a laser frequency comb

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Researchers have observed something that on average takes far longer than the universe has existed.

The XENON1T detector, which is intended to detect dark matter particles:

[...] has now managed to observe an extremely rare process using the detector – the decay of the Xenon-124 atom, which has an enormously long half-life of 1.8 x 10 to the power of 22 years.

Buried 1500 meters below ground in the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy, the detector is shielded from interference by stray radiation.

Until now, researchers using this detector have not yet observed any dark matter particles, but they have now managed to observe the decay of the Xenon-124 atom for the first time. The half-life time measured – i.e. the time span after which half of the radioactive atoms originally present in a sample have decayed away – is over a trillion times longer than the age of the universe, which is almost 14 billion years old.

The decay process starts with what is called a double electron capture:

The atomic nucleus of Xenon-124 consists of 54 positively charged protons and 70 neutral neutrons, which are surrounded by several atomic shells occupied by negatively charged electrons. In double electron capture, two protons in the nucleus simultaneously "catch" two electrons from the innermost atomic shell, transform into two neutrons, and emit two neutrinos. As two electrons are then missing in the atomic shell, the other electrons reorganize themselves, with the energy released being carried away by X-rays. However, this is a very rare process which is usually hidden by signals from the omnipresent "normal" radioactivity – in the sealed-off environment of the underground laboratory, however, it has now been possible to observe the process.

This decay process has occurred 126 times in the detector over the past two years allowing the physicists to calculate the half-life of Xenon-124 at 1.8x10^22 years, making this the slowest process ever measured directly.

Journal reference:
Xenon Collaboration/E. Aprile et al. First observation of two-neutrino double electron capture in 124Xe with XENON1T. Nature. 24 April 2019. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1124-4

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

New Hubble Space Telescope data indicates that the universe is expanding 9% faster than previously predicted.

The data reflects a discrepancy between the trajectory of the Universe 13 billion years ago and today based on early universe measurements by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite and Hubble.

"The Hubble tension between the early and late universe may be the most exciting development in cosmology in decades," said lead researcher and Nobel laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. "This mismatch has been growing and has now reached a point that is really impossible to dismiss as a fluke. This disparity could not plausibly occur just by chance."

The new measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope reduce the likelihood of the discrepancy being a statistical fluke (pegged at around 1 in 3000 in earlier readings) to 1 in 100,000.

These most precise Hubble measurements to date bolster the idea that new physics may be needed to explain the mismatch.

[...] "This is not just two experiments disagreeing," Riess explained. "We are measuring something fundamentally different. One is a measurement of how fast the universe is expanding today, as we see it. The other is a prediction based on the physics of the early universe and on measurements of how fast it ought to be expanding. If these values don't agree, there becomes a very strong likelihood that we're missing something in the cosmological model that connects the two eras."

The estimate of the Hubble Constant is now 74 kilometers per second per megaparsec, up from the Planck's predicted 67 kilometers per second per megaparsec.

realDonaldTrump submitted a story which provided inspiration for:

Elderberries Could Help Minimise Flu Symptoms:

[...] a recent study by a group of Chemical and Biomlolecular Engineering researchers from the University of Sydney's Faculty of Engineering and IT has determined exactly how a popular ancient remedy, the elderberry fruit, can help the fight against influenza.

Conducted by Professor Fariba Deghani, Dr Golnoosh Torabian and Dr Peter Valtchev as part of the ARC Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry that was established in the Faculty of Engineering and IT, the study showed that compounds from elderberries can directly inhibit the virus's entry and replication in human cells, and can help strengthen a person's immune response to the virus.

Although elderberry's flu-fighting properties have long been observed, the group performed a comprehensive examination of the mechanism by which phytochemicals from elderberries combat influenza infections.

"What our study has shown is that the common elderberry has a potent direct antiviral effect against the flu virus," said Dr Golnoosh Torabian.

"It inhibits the early stages of an infection by blocking key viral proteins responsible for both the viral attachment and entry into the host cells."

[...] The phytochemicals from the elderberry juice were shown to be effective at stopping the virus infecting the cells, however to the surprise of the researchers they were even more effective at inhibiting viral propagation at later stages of the influenza cycle when the cells had already been infected with the virus.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2019.01.031 Golnoosh Torabian, Peter Valtchev, Qayyum Adil, Fariba Dehghani; Journal of Functional Foods Volume 54, March 2019, Pages 353-360. "Anti-influenza activity of elderberry (Sambucus nigra)"

Entry on Wikipedia cautions:

The dark blue/purple berries can be eaten when fully ripe but are mildly poisonous in their unripe state. All green parts of the plant are poisonous, containing cyanogenic glycosides...

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Antidisestablishment

Adult children are costing many parents their retirement savings

Financial independence, once a hallmark of adulthood, has gone by the wayside as adult children increasingly depend on their parents to help them cover the cost of rent, student loans, health insurance and more. But parents' desire to give their children a financial assist could be misguided — and even backfire in the long run.

Half of American parents are unable to save as much as they'd like to for retirement, and their grown offspring — whom they still count as dependents — are to blame, according to a new Bankrate.com survey.

While they likely mean well, parents who support children into young adulthood often end up encumbered when they reach retirement age. They can inadvertently hamstring their kids, too.

[...] There's a generational divide when it comes to perceptions of parents supporting adult children, the study found. Millennials between the ages of 23 and 38 believe they should be supported for longer, and expect some expenses, like student loans, to be covered up to the age of 23, according to the survey. Baby boomers, meanwhile, think parents should wean children off their bank accounts sooner across almost every category of expense, including cell phone bills, car payments and travel costs.

But the gap narrows when it comes to necessary, bigger ticket expenses like health insurance, which millennials and baby boomers agree young adults should be wholly responsible for by age 23.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Antidisestablishment

Security flaw lets attackers recover private keys from Qualcomm chips

Devices using Qualcomm chipsets, and especially smartphones and tablets, are vulnerable to a new security bug that can let attackers retrieve private data and encryption keys that are stored in a secure area of the chipset known as the Qualcomm Secure Execution Environment (QSEE).

Qualcomm has deployed patches for this bug (CVE-2018-11976) earlier this month; however, knowing the sad state of Android OS updates, this will most likely leave many smartphones and tablets vulnerable for years to come.

The vulnerability impacts how the Qualcomm chips (used in hundreds of millions of Android devices) handles data processed inside the QSEE.

The QSEE is a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), similar to Intel's SGX.

It's a hardware-isolated area on Qualcomm chips where the Android OS and app developers can send data to be processed in a safe and secure environment, where the Android OS and no other app can reach and access the sensitive data, except the application that placed the data there, in the first place.

Data processed inside the QSEE usually includes private encryption keys and passwords, but the QSEE can handle anything an app wants to hide from prying eyes.

In March last year, Keegan Ryan, a security researcher with the NCC Group, discovered that Qualcomm's implementation of the ECDSA cryptographic signing algorithm allowed for the retrieval of data processed inside the QSEE secure area of Qualcomm processors.

Further, Ryan also points out that the QSEE was designed to prevent situations where attackers had full control over the device, meaning that the QSEE was failing at the primary function it was designed for.

"This should not be possible, since the hardware-backed keystore is supposed to prevent any sort of key extraction, even against an attacker who has fully compromised the Android OS," Ryan said.

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

In less than two years, the band Dadabots has ten albums to its name and has been streaming live 24x7 for a month without stop. Death Metal bands are weird. But this one is different.

Dadabots has no humans in it.

Dadabots is an AI that creates technical Death Metal genre music, and does it well enough that its creators have now decided that the algorithmically generated music is of sufficient quality that it can be streamed in real time at creation. Give it a listen here. Love it or hate it, it's true to the genre and has been streaming non-stop since last month.

Dadabots is the brainchild of CJ Carr and Zack Zukowski, a couple of musicians with a strong interest in algorithmically-generated music. For a couple of years now the duo has been working on developing a recurrent neural network that can produce original compositions after being trained on specific datasets from singular musical genres. Early experiments incorporated a variety of different genres, before the duo discovered metal and punk in particular seemed to be better suited to the erratic and often random nature of the algorithm.

"We observed that electronic music and hip-hop instrumentals did not seem to train as well as organic, electro-acoustic ensembles of musicians," Carr and Zukowski write in their most recent paper. "Music genres like metal and punk seem to work better, perhaps because the strange artifacts of neural synthesis (noise, chaos, grotesque mutations of voice) are aesthetically pleasing in these styles. Furthermore, their fast tempos and creative use of loose performance techniques translate well to SampleRNN's rhythmic distortions."

Dadabot's free albums are available here. The album covers and song titles were also, naturally, algorithmically created.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

MongoDB announced today that it is acquiring Realm, an open-source database geared for mobile applications, for $39 million. The startup had raised just over $40 million before being acquired today. Not exactly a staggering return on investment.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/24/mongodb-to-acquire-open-source-mobile-database-realm-startup-that-raised-40m/

Realm and MongoDB are a natural fit because we share a vision that when developers can interact naturally with data, they are happier and more productive, and because our products are complementary. We're excited to get to work crafting our shared roadmap and will be ready to announce concrete details at our annual global conference, MongoDB World, held June 17-19 in New York City.

https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-and-realm-make-it-easy-to-work-with-data-together

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Adam Savage holds the remote controller and is ready to launch the Panjandrums' first test on his new show, Savage Builds. 

Former MythBusters co-host Adam Savage will be back on TV in June with a new show called Savage Builds. 

The eight-episode series on the Science Channel features Savage making epic creations like a 3D-printed titanium suit of armor that's inspired by the Iron Man films and actually flies.

Each Savage Builds episode will focus on one project as Savage collaborates with experts, colleagues and friends who include filmmaker Peter Jackson, former MythBusters cast member Tory Belleci and others, according to a series of tweets from Savage Wednesday.

[...] "This new series is a culmination of sorts, as I get to work with some of the most brilliant minds out there as we attempt to solve really absurd ideas that I've had in my head for a long time, but have never had the opportunity to dive into," Savage said in a statement. "Of course, the most absurd ideas are often what generates the most innovative engineering."

Savage Builds debuts in June on Science Channel and later on Discovery.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Ford invests $500 million in electric pickup startup Rivian, will make an EV together

Ford announced today that it is investing $500 million in electric pickup startup Rivian and the automaker will use the startup's platform to make an all-electric vehicle.

Just two months ago, Rivian, an electric vehicle startup better known for developing an electric pickup, announced that it raised a $700 million round of investment led by Amazon. At the time, there were rumors that GM was going to participate in the round, but it didn't end up happening.

Now we learn that another big automaker is actually investing in the company: Ford. [...] Along with the investment, Ford confirmed that it will use Rivian's electric platform to develop a Ford-branded all-electric vehicle.

Also at CNBC.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Scientists Take a Step Toward Decoding Thoughts

Stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other medical conditions can rob people of their ability to speak. Their communication is limited to the speed at which they can move a cursor with their eyes (just eight to 10 words per minute), in contrast with the natural spoken pace of 120 to 150 words per minute. Now, although still a long way from restoring natural speech, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have generated intelligible sentences from the thoughts of people without speech difficulties.

The work provides a proof of principle that it should one day be possible to turn imagined words into understandable, real-time speech circumventing the vocal machinery, Edward Chang, a neurosurgeon at U.C.S.F. and co-author of the study published Wednesday in Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1119-1] [DX], said Tuesday in a news conference. "Very few of us have any real idea of what's going on in our mouth when we speak," he said. "The brain translates those thoughts of what you want to say into movements of the vocal tract, and that's what we want to decode."

But Chang cautions that the technology, which has only been tested on people with typical speech, might be much harder to make work in those who cannot speak—and particularly in people who have never been able to speak because of a movement disorder such as cerebral palsy.

YouTube video (48s) comparing a person speaking a sentence to the synthesized audio created from brain wave patterns.

Also at UCSF and TechCrunch.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Intel 9th Gen Core Processors: All the Desktop and Mobile 45W CPUs Announced

Dubbed 'Coffee Lake Refresh', the 9th generation of Intel's Core CPU product line is a direct refresh of its 8th generation Coffee Lake hardware, with minor enhancements such as a better thermal interface on the high end processors, support for up to 8 cores, and newer chipsets with integrated USB 3.1 Gen2 (10Gbps) and CNVi-enabled Wi-Fi. The hardware is still fundamentally the original 6th Gen Skylake microarchitecture underneath, from 2016, but built on Intel's latest 14nm process variant, in order to extract additional frequency and efficiency, and with more cores at the high-end.

Intel may continue to be largely stuck on a "14nm" process for years to come:

Intel CPU 2018-2021 Roadmap Leaks Out – Up To 10 Core Comet Lake-S Desktop CPUs in 2020, 14nm Rocket Lake-S in 2021, No 10nm LGA Parts Till 2022

The latest roadmaps come from Tweakers and detail both the Client Commercial CPU products and the Client Mobile CPU products which would be introduced in the future. The authenticity of these roadmaps cannot be confirmed but they are referenced back to the Intel's SIP program and DELL so there might be some legitimacy to them.

[...] It looks like Intel will stick with 14nm++ for a while as the roadmap reveals. Around Q2 2020, Intel will launch their Comet Lake-S processors, featuring up to 10 core SKUs. These would be followed by Intel's Rocket Lake-S parts which would also be based on an optimized 14nm process node. It looks like we can expect a 10nm or sub-10nm part from Intel only around 2022 which is about the same time Intel is expected to launch their Ocean Cove CPU architecture.

Ocean Cove is a future chip architecture under development at Intel which will launch after Golden Cove (2021), the successor to Willow Cove (2020) which itself is the successor to Intel's Sunny Cove (Ice Lake) core's architecture.

The roadmap shows Intel using "10nm" sooner for some mobility (laptop) CPUs.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Kohl's, an American department store retail chain, will accept Amazon returns at all of its 1,150 locations starting in July. But what will each company get out of the relationship?

Shoppers don't like returning items in the mail, so services provided by companies like Narvar and Happy Returns have become more popular. For Kohl's, the benefits to joining with Amazon are clear. This deal drives foot traffic through Kohl's doors. And if those shoppers, now with a little more cash in their wallets, see something they like after they drop off their package, Kohl's gets to ring up the sale.

But Amazon gets something out of this also. "Amazon looks to be enticing customers to bring returns to a limited number of known Kohl's addresses, instead of picking up returns at an endless number of home or office addresses," said Pete Madden, a director in the AlixPartners LLP retail practice. "This likely saves Amazon money because customers are absorbing Amazon's transportation cost by doing the driving and Kohl's would be acting as Amazon's consolidator." For example, Kohl's is screening the items and putting them into a single shipment. Kohl's is likely being compensated, Madden said, but at a rate that makes it a win-win for both companies.

Amazon is already spending billions to get items to customers. Amazon's shipping costs in 2018 were $27.7 billion, according to the company's 10-K, up from $21.7 billion the year before. "We seek to mitigate costs of shipping over time in part through achieving higher sales volumes, optimizing our fulfillment network, negotiating better terms with our suppliers, and achieving better efficiencies," the 10-K reads. "We believe that offering low prices to our customers is fundamental to our future success, and one way we offer lower prices is through shipping offers."

Madden also thinks the partnership provides a way for Kohl's and Amazon to keep customers from spending their money with the competition. "Amazon is likely hoping to figure out new ways to keep their common customers with Kohl's away from mutual rivals such as Walmart," he said. "Keeping a customer locked in with you is priceless."

Kohl's press release.

Original Submission