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AnonTechie writes:

The US Department of Justice is preparing to kick off an antitrust investigation of Google, according to a report late Friday by The Wall Street Journal [Pay Walled]. The department is expected to examine Google's search practices, as well as its other businesses, the report said. Though the Federal Trade Commission investigated Google several years ago, this time it'll step aside for the DOJ to conduct the inquiry.

After a two-year investigation wrapped up in 2013, the FTC decided unanimously that Google wasn't violating any antitrust laws, after allegations of biased search results. The DOJ's antitrust division "has been laying the groundwork for the probe" over the last few weeks, the Journal said. Neither Google nor the Justice Department immediately responded to a request for comment.

The move by the Justice Department comes as Google and other Silicon Valley giants face renewed antitrust scrutiny in the United States. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, has made it a key part of her platform to break up the big tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Amazon. Earlier this month, Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, also called for the breakup of the company he helped create. In February 2018, President Donald Trump had signalled via his Federal Trade Commission leadership choice that he was open to investigating big tech companies.

Google antitrust investigation

Also at: techcrunch and The New York Times

Original Submission

US now requires social media info for visa applications

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

If you want to stay in the US, you'll likely have to share your internet presence. As proposed in March 2018 (and to some extent in 2015), the country now requires virtually all visa applicants to provide their social media account names for the past five years. The mandate only covers a list of selected services, although potential visitors and residents can volunteer info if they belong to social sites that aren't mentioned in the form.

Applicants also have to provide previous email addresses and phone numbers on top of non-communications info like their travel statuses and any family involvement in terrorism. Some diplomats and officials are exempt from the requirements.

The US had previously only required these details for people who visited terrorist-controlled areas. The goal is the same, however. The US is hoping to both verify identities and spot extremists who've discussed their ideologies online, potentially preventing incidents like the San Bernardino mass shooting.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/06/01/us-requires-social-media-info-for-visa-applications/

US now seeking social media details from all visa applicants

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://apnews.com/c96a215355b242e58107c2125c18fc4a

The State Department is now requiring nearly all applicants for U.S. visas to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. It's a vast expansion of the Trump administration's enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors.

In a move that's just taken effect after approval of the revised application forms, the department says it has updated its immigrant and nonimmigrant visa forms to request the additional information, including "social media identifiers," from almost all U.S. applicants.

The change, which was proposed in March 2018, is expected to affect about 15 million foreigners who apply for visas to enter the United States each year.

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Phoenix666 writes:

BBC:

The number of people in England buying drugs on the dark net has more than doubled since 2014, the Global Drugs Survey has found.

The annual survey questioned 123,814 people from more than 30 countries

Its data showed that, the number of drug users in England buying products on the dark net has risen from 12.4% to nearly 28.6% since 2014.

England also had the third highest number of illegal drugs delivered to order - behind Scotland and Brazil.

The dark net might have a branding problem. Perhaps they should call it "freedom net?"

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

FastCompany:

If you’re a Google user, you probably noticed some trouble last night when trying to access Google-owned services. Last night, Google reported several issues with its Cloud Platform, which made several Google sites slow or inoperable. Because of this, many of Google’s sites and services–including Gmail, G Suite, and YouTube–were slow or completely down for users in the U.S. and Europe.
...
an especially annoying side effect of Google Cloud’s downtime was that Nest-branded smart home products for some users just failed to work. According to reports from Twitter, many people were unable to use their Nest thermostats, Nest smart locks, and Nest cameras during the downtime. This essentially meant that because of a cloud storage outage, people were prevented from getting inside their homes, using their AC, and monitoring their babies.

Did homeowners realize they were handing over the keys to their homes and lives when they paid Google for its Nest products?

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

How much value do online publishers derive from behaviorally targeted advertising that uses privacy-hostile tracking technologies to determine which advert to show a website user? A new piece of research suggests publishers make just 4% more vs if they were to serve a non-targeted ad.

[...] Behavioral advertising — aka targeted ads — has come to dominate the online ad market, fuelled by platform dynamics encouraging a proliferation of tracking technologies and techniques in the unregulated background.

[...] This has had the effect of squeezing out non-targeted display ads, such as those that rely on contextual factors to select the ad — e.g. the content being viewed, device type or location.

[...] One 2017 study by IHS Markit^[pdf], suggested that 86% of programmatic advertising in Europe was using behavioural data. While even a quarter (24%) of non-programmatic advertising was found to be using behavioural data, per its model.

[...] But the incentives for content producers to subject themselves — and their engaged communities of users — to these privacy-hostile economies of scale look a whole lot more fuzzy.

[...] The new research, which will be presented at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security conference in Boston next week, aims to contribute a new piece to this digital ad revenue puzzle by trying to quantify the value to a single publisher of choosing ads that are behaviorally targeted vs those that aren’t.

[...] As noted above, the top-line finding is only a very small gain for the publisher whose data they were analyzing — of around 4%. Or an average increase of $0.00008 per advertisement.

It’s a finding that contrasts wildly with some of the loud yet unsubstantiated opinions which can be found being promulgated online — claiming the ‘vital necessity’ of behavorial [sic] ads to support publishers/journalism.

Online Tracking and Publishers’ Revenues: An Empirical Analysis^[pdf]

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/31/targeted-ads-offer-little-extra-value-for-online-publishers-study-suggests/

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

New research from Queen Mary University of London indicates that drinking as much as 25 cups of coffee a day does not cause hardening of the arteries.

The research, led by Professor Steffen Petersen, was presented [June 2nd] at the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Conference in Manchester and part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The study of over 8,000 people in the UK debunks previous studies that claimed drinking coffee increases arterial stiffness. Previous suggestions that drinking coffee leads to stiffer arteries are inconsistent and could be limited by lower participant numbers, according to the team behind this new research.

Coffee consumption was categorised into three groups for the study. Those who drink less than one cup a day, those who drink between one and three cups a day and those who drink more than three. People who consumed more than 25 cups of coffee a day were excluded, but no increased stiffening of arteries was associated with those who drank up to this high limit when compared with those who drank less than one cup a day.

[...] "Although our study included individuals who drink up to 25 cups a day, the average intake amongst the highest coffee consumption group was 5 cups a day. We would like to study these people more closely in our future work so that we can help to advise safe limits."

When asked about the research, Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, perked up and said:

"Understanding the impact that coffee has on our heart and circulatory system is something that researchers and the media have had brewing for some time."

Original Submission

"upstart" writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

Teams autonomously mapping the depths take home millions in Ocean Discovery Xprize

There’s a whole lot of ocean on this planet, and we don’t have much of an idea what’s at the bottom of most of it. That could change with the craft and techniques created during the Ocean Discovery Xprize, which had teams competing to map the sea floor quickly, precisely and autonomously. The winner just took home $4 million.

A map of the ocean would be valuable in and of itself, of course, but any technology used to do so could be applied in many other ways, and who knows what potential biological or medical discoveries hide in some nook or cranny a few thousand fathoms below the surface?

The prize, sponsored by Shell, started back in 2015. The goal was, ultimately, to create a system that could map hundreds of square kilometers of the sea floor at a five-meter resolution in less than a day — oh, and everything has to fit in a shipping container. For reference, existing methods do nothing like this, and are tremendously costly.

But as is usually the case with this type of competition, the difficulty did not discourage the competitors — it only spurred them on. Since 2015, then, the teams have been working on their systems and traveling all over the world to test them.

Originally the teams were to test in Puerto Rico, but after the devastating hurricane season of 2017, the whole operation was moved to the Greek coast. Ultimately after the finalists were selected, they deployed their craft in the waters off Kalamata and told them to get mapping.

“It was a very arduous and audacious challenge,” said Jyotika Virmani, who led the program. “The test itself was 24 hours, so they had to stay up, then immediately following that was 48 hours of data processing after which they had to give us the data. It takes more trad companies about 2 weeks or so to process data for a map once they have the raw data — we’re pushing for real time.”

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

Earlier this year, Lyft launched a new feature called "Green Mode", which allows riders to request an electric or hybrid vehicle for their trip. The company is now partnering with Portland General Electric to offer up free charging for drivers in the Portland, Oregon metro area.

Starting on July 1st, drivers in the Portland area will be eligible to charge their vehicles free of charge at a variety of locations in the area. According to its website, PGE says that it has 3 "Electric Avenue" locations in the city that are currently active, with two additional ones set to open "mid-2019. It also says that it will add two more by 2020. Each "electric avenue contains four chargers — four DC fast chargers and two level two chargers. Drivers can purchase Level 2 charging ($3 for two hours) or DC fast charging ($5 for two hours), or an unlimited membership for $25 a month.

What's not immediately clear is whether or not Lyft will introduce a similar perk to other cities in which the feature is available — we've asked them for comment, and will update if we hear back.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/1/18648579/lyft-portland-oregon-electric-vehicles-hybrids-free-charging-green-mode

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Filmed in 1900, the first ever video recording of a solar eclipse is now posted online for viewing.

Until it was released this week, the film was held in the archives of the Royal Astronomical Society. According to the society, this was actually the second time that [magician Nevil Maskelyne] tried to film a solar eclipse. After his first attempt in 1898, the film was stolen, and it hasn't been seen since.

The short by modern standards clip of the May 28th, 1900 eclipse was restored frame by frame and lasts 1 minute and 8 seconds, it was originally filmed in North Carolina

during an expedition by the British Astronomical Association. [Maskelyne] recorded the footage using a telescopic adapter on his camera, which made the eclipse easier to capture.

The clip from the Royal Astonomical Society is part of the recently released Victorian Film Collection which includes films from the first six years of the medium and, among other things, the First X-ray Cinematograph Film Ever Taken

The next solar eclipse taking place in the U.S. will occur in 2024. Homebodies should try to catch that one since without traveling, there won't be another until 2045.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for FatPhil

E-commerce giant Amazon has prevailed in its domain name battle with Amazon, the geographic region in South America.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has approved of Amazon's proposal to run the top level domain name extension ".amazon" after a 7 year dispute with more than a half dozen countries, according to the Financial Times.

The dispute was backed by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO), a group promoting the development of the Amazon Basin. Its member states include Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.

As part of Amazon's terms, the company promises not to register any .amazon domain names  with "a primary and well-recognised significance to the culture and heritage of the Amazonia region." The ecommerce company will also block the use of more than 1,000 domain names that fit that criteria. It would also provide up to nine domain names for ACTO countries to use for non-commercial purposes to "highlight the region's culture and heritage."

[...] According to ICANN, there will now be a 30 day period for public comment. After this period, ICANN may very well finalize its designation of the .amazon domain to Amazon the company.

Source: https://mashable.com/article/amazon-domain-name-icann-approved/?europe=true

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Pierluigi Paganini reports that the Russian Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) provider behind the GandCrab ransomware has announced it is shutting down its operations as of June 1st, 2019. It has given its patrons 20 days to cease using the service.

They are also warning victims that time is running out and they have to pay the ransom as soon as possible to avoid to lose their file forever.

GandCrab Ransomware (which drops the file 'gandcrab.exe' on infected systems where it adds the extension .GDCB to encrypted files) came on the scene in January of 2018 and quickly rocketed to prominence as the premier ransomware and RaaS provider of 2018.

The operators revealed in their posting that they have generated more than $2 billion in ransom payments, earning on average of $2.5 million dollars per week. The operators revealed to have earned a net of $150 million that now have invested in legal activities.

According to Bleeping Computer however "While the operators behind GandCrab most likely made many millions of dollars, the claims of $2 billion in ransom payments are very likely to be untrue."

In the year and a half since its first discovery, the GandCrab team has been very tuned in to the research community's efforts around their malware, regularly updating it and

often including references to reports about their ransomware and how the team has adapted to those reports in their underground ads. Delivered primarily via phishing campaigns (though they also use exploit kits), the GandCrab team relies heavily on Microsoft Office macros, VBScript, and PowerShell to avoid detection, but will often incorporate new means of exploitation and avoidance as proof-of-concept code is released.

Some general details on this malware family and service model:

RandomFactor writes:

At the end of March, two semiconductor manufacturing titans climbed another rung on the ladder of Moore's Law.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) announced 5nm manufacturing of at-risk-production while Samsung announced its own 5nm manufacturing process was ready for sampling.

TSMC says its 5-nm process offers a 15 percent speed gain or a 30 percent improvement in power efficiency. Samsung is promising a 10 percent performance improvement or a 20 percent efficiency improvement

Also, "both Samsung and TSMC are offering what they're calling a 6-nm process" as a kind of stepping stone for customers with earlier availability (H2 2019) vs 5nm production.

Unfortunately, but perhaps not unexpectedly, the playing field has narrowed significantly with the progression to 5nm foundry production

GlobalFoundries gave up at 14 nm and Intel, which is years late with its rollout of an equivalent to competitors' 7 nm, is thought to be pulling back on its foundry services, according to analysts.

Samsung and TSMC remain because they can afford the investment and expect a reasonable return. Samsung was the largest chipmaker by revenue in 2018, but its foundry business ranks fourth, with TSMC in the lead. TSMC's capital expenditure was $10 billion in 2018. Samsung expects to nearly match that on a per-year basis until 2030.

Can the industry function with only two companies capable of the most advanced manufacturing processes? "It's not a question of can it work?" says [G. Dan Hutcheson, at VLSI Research]. "It has to work."

According to Len Jelinek, a semiconductor-manufacturing analyst at IHS Markit. "As long as we have at least two viable solutions, then the industry will be comfortable"

There may only be two left, but neither company is sitting still:

• Samsung has already announced 3nm fab plans and released design kits.
• TSMC has gained approval for the construction of a 3nm factory next to its 5nm fab.

takyon and an Anonymous Coward writes

Tiananmen Square: China minister defends 1989 crackdown

China has defended the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in a rare public acknowledgement of events. Defence Minister Wei Fenghe told a regional forum that stopping the "turbulence" was the "correct" policy.

[...] [After] a wide-ranging speech about trade and security at a regional forum in Singapore, General Wei Fenghe was asked about Tiananmen by a member of the audience. Mr Wei questioned why people still said China had not handled the events properly.

"That incident was a political turbulence and the central government took measures to stop the turbulence, which is a correct policy," he told the forum. "The past 30 years have proven that China has undergone major changes," he said, adding that because of the government's action at that time "China has enjoyed stability and development".

Also at NBC and Al Jazeera.

Thirty years ago, from April 15 to June 4, 1989, the world was gripped by coverage of some of the largest protests in modern Chinese history. As many as a million people occupied the central Tiananmen Square in Beijing in protest against inflation, government corruption, and restrictions on freedom of speech and political participation. There are no official reports on the actual number of dead, though they are estimated to be in the thousands.

In the time that has passed, the uncensorable Usenet is no longer widely used and rarely even available. Mainland Chinese censors have come down hard and heavy on the rest of Net and, later, the Web since then in an ongoing attempt to rewrite a false history. Sometimes this censorship even has the help of the social control media giants who know which side their bread is buttered on.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4463

Antibiotics prescribed by dentists as a preemptive strike against infection are unnecessary 81% of the time, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open.

The findings are important because dentists are responsible for 10% of all antibiotic prescriptions written in the United States.

Antibiotics prescribed when not warranted expose patients to the risk of side effects unnecessarily and also contribute to the problem of antibiotic resistance -- bacteria evolving to make the drugs ineffective.

Antibiotics are recommended as a prophylactic prior to some dental procedures for patients with certain types of heart conditions.

Researchers including Jessina McGregor of Oregon State University used a national health care claims database to examine nearly 170,000 dentist-written antibiotic prescriptions from 2011 to 2015.

The prescriptions involved more than 90,000 patients, 57 percent female, with a median age of 63. Greater than 90 percent of the patients underwent a procedure that possibly warranted taking an antibiotic ahead of time. However, less than 21 percent of those people had a cardiac condition that made an antibiotic prescription recommended under medical guidelines.

Source: Oregon State University

Katie J. Suda, Gregory S. Calip, Jifang Zhou, Susan Rowan, Alan E. Gross, Ronald C. Hershow, Rose I. Perez, Jessina C. McGregor, Charlesnika T. Evans. Assessment of the Appropriateness of Antibiotic Prescriptions for Infection Prophylaxis Before Dental Procedures, 2011 to 2015. JAMA Network Open, 2019; 2 (5): e193909 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.3909

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The 'Forbidden' Planet has been found in the 'Neptunian Desert'

NGTS-4b, also nick-named 'The Forbidden Planet' by researchers, is a planet smaller than Neptune but three times the size of Earth and is 920 light-years away from Earth.

It has a mass of 20 Earth masses, and a radius 20% smaller than Neptune, and is 1000 degrees Celsius. It orbits around the star in only 1.3 days – the equivalent of Earth's orbit around the sun of one year.

It is the first exoplanet of its kind to have been found in the Neptunian Desert.

The Neptunian Desert is the region close to stars where no Neptune-sized planets are found. This area receives strong irradiation from the star, meaning the planets do not retain their gaseous atmosphere as they evaporate leaving just a rocky core. However NGTS-4b still has its atmosphere of gas.

When looking for new planets, astronomers look for a dip in the light of a star – this [is due to] the planet orbiting it and blocking the light. Usually only dips of 1% and more are picked up by ground-based searches, but the NGTS[*] telescopes can pick up a dip of just 0.2%

Researchers believe the planet may have moved into the Neptunian Desert recently, in the last one million years, or it was very big and the atmosphere is still evaporating.

[*] The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS):

[...] is a wide-field photometric survey designed to discover transiting exoplanets of Neptune-size and smaller around bright stars (magnitude V<13).

NGTS employs an array of fully-robotic small telescopes operating in the 600-900nm band, thereby maximizing sensitivity to bright but relatively small and cool host stars (K and early-M spectral type).

NGTS will survey brighter stars than NASA's Kepler mission, and will therefore find the brightest exoplanets of Neptune and super-Earth size, providing the prime targets for characterization by telescopes such as the VLT, E-ELT and JWST. Bright targets provide the key to understanding planetary structure and evolution, as well as atmospheric composition.

NGTS-4b: A sub-Neptune transiting in the desert (open, DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1084) (DX)

Original Submission