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upstart writes for SoyCow1984:

Our bodies are fairly fragile biological systems. The human body operates within a fairly small temperature range, requires regular access to water and food and above all oxygen. It has a low tolerance for pollutants like carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a natural byproduct of its metabolism. Rising CO2 levels in the air one breathes eventually leads to hypercapnia (CO2 poisoning).

When it comes to keeping a human alive in a low-oxygen, low-temperature environment such as a mountain climber would experience, we usually reach for warm clothes and thermal underwear to retain as much body heat as possible. For oxygen one would use an oxygen tank and a mask — essentially breathing pure oxygen, or environmental air mixed with extra oxygen. We had the most to learn from deep sea diving which comes closest to the experience of breathing in space. Divers use the open-circuit system, or an advanced ‘rebreather‘ system that scrubs CO2 from the air breathed out by the diver.

For Yuri Gagarin, his SK-1 (Скафандр Космический #1: “Skafandr Kosmicheskiy” or “Space Diving Suit”) spacesuit was pressurized, supplied with fresh oxygen and scrubbed of excess CO2 by the systems built into the spacecraft, with the SK-1 suit connected up to them using hoses. Even then, descending to Earth in a Vostok spacecraft required the cosmonaut to eject at 7 km altitude and parachute down to the surface, as the landing of the spacecraft’s descent module was not deemed survivable due to the extreme deceleration.

In the end, Yuri managed to stay conscious throughout the entire mission, making it safely back onto the Earth’s surface. This showed that manned space missions in Earth orbit are definitely survivable.

Following a number of firsts achieved in Yuri’s historical mission, both the Soviets and the Americans gained experience at keeping their cosmonauts and astronauts alive and comfortable in Earth orbit. In addition to umbilical cord systems to the spacecraft’s oxygen generating, CO2 -scrubbing and temperature regulating facilities, the Soviets developed for Voskhod 2 an open-circuit oxygen-providing backpack good for about 45 minutes. The next big challenge was to take the spacecraft’s complete life support system and turn it into a portable system.

EVAs (extra-vehicular activities) at the time involved staying quite near the spacecraft, but these were all for short flights in orbit. There was no question that using an open-circuit system on the Moon would be exceedingly wasteful and impractical. Using an umbilical cord to the landing craft would also be impractical for many fairly obvious reasons. The picked solution would become the Apollo Portable Life Support System (PLSS).

Read a bunch more at Hackaday.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Ring asks police not to tell public how its law enforcement backend works

Amazon's Ring line of consumer home surveillance products enjoys an extensive partnership with local police departments all over the country. Cops receive free product, extensive coaching, and pre-approved marketing lines, and Amazon gets access to your 911 data and gets to spread its network of security cameras all over the nation. According to a trio of new reports, though, the benefits to police go even further than was previously known—as long as they don't use the word "surveillance," that is.

Gizmodo on Monday published an email exchange between the chief of police in one New Jersey town and Ring showing that Ring edited out certain key terms of a draft press release before the town published it, as the company frequently does.

The town of Ewing, New Jersey, in March said it would be using Ring's Neighbors app. Neighbors does not require a Ring device to use; consumers who don't have footage to share can still view certain categories of crime reports in their area and contribute reports of their own, sort of like a Nextdoor on steroids.

Law enforcement has access to a companion portal that allows police to see an approximate map of active Ring cameras in a given area and request footage from them in the course of an investigation. The town also launched a subsidy program, giving up to 200 residents a $100 discount on the purchase of Ring security products. Members of the police department also received $50 discount vouchers for their own use.

The original draft press release, obtained by Gizmodo, showed that the town used one of Ring's pre-written press release templates and inserted a quote from the chief of police that read, in part, "Security cameras have been proven to be essential in deterring crime, and surveillance systems have assisted in closing cases that may have otherwise gone unsolved."

Ring approved a version with that sentence edited out, telling Ewing police the company avoids using the terms "surveillance" or "security cameras" because that might "confuse residents into thinking this program requires a Ring device or other system to participate or that it provides any sort of direct access to user devices and information."

Police may not be allowed to use the words "surveillance" or "security cameras" in their marketing copy, but another pair of new reports highlights the significant surveillance capabilities Ring-branded security cameras can provide to law enforcement.

Local police departments have asked Ring to share "names, home addresses, and email addresses" of everyone who purchases a subsidized Ring device, Vice Motherboard reported yesterday, with some apparent success.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Valve says turning away researcher reporting Steam vulnerability was a mistake

In an attempt to quell a controversy that has raised the ire of white-hat hackers, the maker of the Steam online game platform said on Thursday it made a mistake when it turned away a researcher who recently reported two separate vulnerabilities.

In its statement, Valve Corporation references HackerOne, the reporting service that helps thousands of companies receive and respond to vulnerabilities in their software or hardware. The company also writes:

We are also aware that the researcher who discovered the bugs was incorrectly turned away through our HackerOne bug bounty program, where his report was classified as out of scope. This was a mistake.

Our HackerOne program rules were intended only to exclude reports of Steam being instructed to launch previously installed malware on a user's machine as that local user. Instead, misinterpretation of the rules also led to the exclusion of a more serious attack that also performed local privilege escalation through Steam.

We have updated our HackerOne program rules to explicitly state that these issues are in scope and should be reported. In the past two years, we have collaborated with and rewarded 263 security researchers in the community helping us identify and correct roughly 500 security issues, paying out over $675,000 in bounties. We look forward to continuing to work with the security community to improve the security of our products through the HackerOne program.

In regards to the specific researchers, we are reviewing the details of each situation to determine the appropriate actions. We aren't going to discuss the details of each situation or the status of their accounts at this time.

Valve's new HackerOne program rules specifically provide that "any case that allows malware or compromised software to perform a privilege escalation through Steam, without providing administrative credentials or confirming a UAC dialog, is in scope. Any unauthorized modification of the privileged Steam Client Service is also in scope."

Mercedes spies on drivers by secretly installing tracking devices in cars and passing information to

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for FatPhil

Mercedes has sparked a privacy row by admitting it spies on drivers with tracking devices covertly installed in its cars. The secret sensors, fitted to all new and used motors sold by the firm's dealers, pinpoint the vehicle's exact location.

The firm sold more than 170,000 new cars in Britain alone last year. Mercedes will not say how long it has used the sensors. And it insists they are only activated in "extreme circumstances" — when finance customers have defaulted on their payments.

But it admits sharing car owner information and vehicle location details with third-party bailiffs and recovery firms who repossess the cars.

Source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/9756250/mercedes-spies-drivers-tracking-devices/

Mercedes-Benz Tracking Down Customer Cars For Repossession: Report

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3196

British publication The Sun, a sometimes terrible and occasionally entertaining tabloid across the pond, is reporting that concerns are boiling among human rights groups, former government ministers, and some legal experts about Mercedes-Benz using vehicle location data to track down customers who default on their finance program payments.

Source: https://jalopnik.com/brits-are-pissed-about-mercedes-benz-tracking-down-cust-1837449509

See also:

• https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1124662_mercedes-admits-to-tracking-vehicles-in-uk-for-repossessions
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7373639/Mercedes-admits-cars-fitted-secret-sensor-pinpoint-location.html

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3196

Heat shield just 10 atoms thick to protect electronic devices: Atomically thin heat shields could be up to 50,000 times thinner than current insulating materials in cell phones and laptops

Excess heat given off by smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices can be annoying, but beyond that it contributes to malfunctions and, in extreme cases, can even cause lithium batteries to explode. To guard against such ills, engineers often insert glass, plastic or even layers of air as insulation to prevent heat-generating components like microprocessors from causing damage or discomforting users.

Now, Stanford researchers have shown that a few layers of atomically thin materials, stacked like sheets of paper atop hot spots, can provide the same insulation as a sheet of glass 100 times thicker. In the near term, thinner heat shields will enable engineers to make electronic devices even more compact than those we have today, said Eric Pop, professor of electrical engineering and senior author of a paper published Aug. 16 in Science Advances.

"We're looking at the heat in electronic devices in an entirely new way," Pop said.

takyon writes:

YouTube Disables 210 Channels That Spread Disinformation About Hong Kong Protests

YouTube said on Thursday that its site was used to spread disinformation about the mass protests in Hong Kong, days after Twitter and Facebook cracked down on thousands of China-backed accounts that compared the demonstrators to terrorists and accused them of being at the whim of foreign interests.

In a blog post, YouTube said it had disabled 210 channels this week that had uploaded videos about the protests in Hong Kong. The channels had worked in a coordinated fashion to spread disinformation, the company said. YouTube, which is owned by Google, did not specify when the channels were taken down.

Shane Huntley, a software engineer on Google's threat analysis team, said the channels that were removed were "consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter."

Facebook and Twitter said on Monday that they had removed thousands of accounts that originated in China and that acted together to amplify messages and images portraying Hong Kong's protesters as violent and extreme. It was the first time that the social media companies had removed accounts linked to disinformation in China. At the time, Twitter said it had "reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation."

Also at The Guardian and Reuters.

See also: The People's War Is Coming in Hong Kong
Hong Kong: British consulate employee Simon Cheng detained in China
China's arrest of a Hong Kong man puts spotlight on a controversial shared rail station

Previously: Extradition Law Amendments Protested in Hong Kong
One Million People Protest a Proposed Extradition Law in Hong Kong; Gov't Acquiesces, for Now
How Hong Kong's Protestors Are Hindering (and Hijacking) the Tools of Surveillance
China Warns Hong Kong Protesters Against "Playing With Fire"
China Says Sino-British Joint Declaration On Hong Kong No Longer Binding
Hong Kong Airport Paralysed for a Second Day by Protesters; US Naval Ships Blocked

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Disney whistleblower told SEC the company inflated revenue for years

A former Walt Disney Co. accountant says she has filed a series of whistleblower tips with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the company has materially overstated revenue for years.

Sandra Kuba, formerly a senior financial analyst in Disney's revenue-operations department who worked for the company for 18 years, alleges that employees working in the parks-and-resorts business segment systematically overstated revenue by billions of dollars by exploiting weaknesses in the company's accounting software.

[...] A Disney spokesperson said the company had reviewed the whistleblower's claims and found that they were "utterly without merit."

Kuba's whistleblower filings, which have been reviewed by MarketWatch, outline several ways employees allegedly boosted revenue, including recording fictitious revenue for complimentary golf rounds or for free guest promotions. Another alleged action Kuba described in her SEC filing involved recording revenue for $500 gift cards at their face value even when guests paid a discounted rate of $395.

[...] Kuba's filing alleges that flaws in the accounting software made the manipulation difficult to trace, though the consequences could be significant. In just one financial year, 2008-09, Disney's annual revenue could have been overstated by as much as $6 billion, Kuba's whistleblower filing alleges. The parks-and-resorts business segment reported total revenue of $10.6 billion in 2009, according to its annual report filed with the SEC.

Also at Deadline and Bloomberg.

Related: Disney Asks Employees to Contribute Towards DisneyPAC, TPP
Disney to Buy 21st Century Fox Assets for $52.4 Billion in Historic Hollywood Merger
Disney May Be Trying to Buy More of Hulu From AT&T's WarnerMedia

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3196

An AI privacy conundrum? The neural net knows more than it says

Artificial intelligence is the process of using a machine such as a neural network to say things about data. Most times, what is said is a simple affair, like classifying pictures into cats and dogs.

Increasingly, though, AI scientists are posing questions about what the neural network "knows," if you will, that is not captured in simple goals such as classifying pictures or generating fake text and images.

It turns out there's a lot left unsaid, even if computers don't really know anything in the sense a person does. Neural networks, it seems, can retain a memory of specific training data, which could open individuals whose data is captured in the training activity to violations of privacy.

For example, Nicholas Carlini, formerly a student at UC Berkeley's AI lab, approached the problem of what computers "memorize" about training data, in work done with colleagues at Berkeley. (Carlini is now with Google's Brain unit.) In July, in a paper provocatively titled, "The Secret Sharer," posted on the arXiv pre-print server, Carlini and colleagues discussed how a neural network could retain specific pieces of data from a collection of data used to train the network to generate text. That has the potential to let malicious agents mine a neural net for sensitive data such as credit card numbers and social security numbers.

Those are exactly the pieces of data the researchers discovered when they trained a language model using so-called long short-term memory neural networks, or "LSTMs."

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Facebook doesn't have the most stellar privacy and security track record, especially given that many of its notable gaffes were avoidable. But with billions of users and a gargantuan platform to defend, it's not easy to catch every flaw in the company's 100 million lines of code. So four years ago, Facebook engineers began building a customized assessment tool that not only checks for known types of bugs but can fully scan the entire codebase in under 30 minutes—helping engineers catch issues in tweaks, changes, or major new features before they go live.

The platform, dubbed Zoncolan, is a "static analysis" tool that maps the behavior and functions of the codebase and looks for potential problems in individual branches, as well as in the interactions of various paths through the program. Having people manually review endless code changes all the time is impractical at such a large scale. But static analysis scales extremely well, because it sets "rules" about undesirable architecture or code behavior, and automatically scans the system for these classes of bugs. See it once, catch it forever. Ideally, the system not only flags potential problems but gives engineers real-time feedback and helps them learn to avoid pitfalls.

"Every time an engineer makes a proposed change to our codebase, Zoncolan will start running in the background, and it will either report to that engineer directly or it will flag to one of our security engineers who's on call," says Pieter Hooimeijer, a security engineering manager at Facebook. "So it runs thousands of times a day, and found on the order of 1,500 issues in calendar year 2018."

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-zoncolan-static-analysis-tool/?verso=true

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Da Vinci Hidden Painting | New 'Virgin of the Rocks' Painting

Thanks to books and movies like The da Vinci Code, the name Leonardo da Vinci isn't just associated with being a polymath and a historically important genius, but also a mystery. The National Gallery in England has been working on such a mystery since 2005, and now it's come closer to understanding the secrets of da Vinci's hidden painting.

Fourteen years ago, a team of scientists, conservators, and curators all teamed up to examine da Vinci's "The Virgin of the Rocks." Originally made as a commission for a church, the Gallery owns the second version of the painting da Vinci made, likely as a replacement for the first. da Vinci believed that the church wasn't offering adequate payment for the second version, so he sold it.

Now, none of this is out of the ordinary. Older art is regularly examined, and da Vinci had several financial complications in his life. When the second "Virgin" was brought out to study, the scientists expected to find an underdrawing. But thanks to a modern technique known as infrared reflectography (IRR), they found a hidden painting underneath.

The surprised researchers reached out to a now-closed consortium group known as Access, Research, and Technology for the Conservation of the European Cultural Heritage (EU-ARTECH) for further study. Teams from Italy came with high-resolution digital infrared scanners to further confirm the second painting.

Now, National Gallery says in a press release, after 15 years of technological improvements, "more of these details have been identified."

Original Submission

martyb writes:

SpaceX is planning to attempt its highest hop ever of its new Starhopper prototype. This rocket is designed to test out certain capabilities and performance characteristics that will inform the development of SpaceX's upcoming Starship rocket (formerly known as BFR — Big 'Falcon' Rocket).

It looks like Elon Musk's Starship prototype, dubbed "Starhopper," has the green light to make its highest hop yet as soon as Monday.

SpaceX had planned to test the single-engine version of its eventual Mars vehicle with its second short flight last week, but the launch was abruptly canceled. Musk later tweeted that the Federal Aviation Administration required a bit more "hazard analysis" and Starhopper "should be clear to fly soon."

Now the FAA has posted a new airspace closure for the area around the SpaceX test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, beginning Monday afternoon and running through Wednesday night.

So it looks like we could finally see Starhopper make some serious maneuvers. Its last test hop was a short, nighttime 20-meter (66 feet) liftoff, hover and landing that was mostly obscured from view by fire, smoke and darkness.

This time the hope is that Starhopper will reach an altitude of around 650 feet (198 meters) before returning to the ground.

The NOTAM (Notices to Airmen) linked above specifies:

Reason for NOTAM : TO PROVIDE A SAFE ENVIROMENT FOR ROCKET LAUNCH AND RECOVERY

[...] Altitude: From the surface up to and including 8000 feet MSL

[...] Effective Dates:
From August 26, 2019 at 1900 UTC To August 27, 2019 at 0500 UTC
From August 27, 2019 at 1900 UTC To August 28, 2019 at 0500 UTC
From August 28, 2019 at 1900 UTC To August 29, 2019 at 0500 UTC

Also at: space.com.

Original Submission

Anonymous Coward writes:

I was going to post this to a particular story, but thought this might generate more attention and discussion as a general submission.

Seriously, what is going on with all these troll mods? Just because you disagree with someone, thus earning a "disagree" mod, does not mean that person is a "troll." To steal a definition from Urban Dictionary:

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

Just because you disagree with someone, does not mean they are trying to do the above. Be faster on the "disagree" and slower on the "troll." Under such abuse, it is hard to have a good discussion and, in itself, is trollish behavior by "generally disrupt[ing] normal on-topic discussion." Other than people disciplining themselves, a concerted effort to police such abuses, or making moderation logs public on the bottom of a comment where the score is shown now, I'm unsure of what to do about. As it stands, it is getting increasingly ridiculous to read what discussion is here on any topic remotely controversial, and is expanding outside of even those. It is starting to drive me away from the site, and I'm somewhat confident it is doing the same for others. I'd be interested to see what others think about the depth of the problem, if they even believe it even exists at all, and what solutions you all have for it.

[Ed note. This story is published exactly as received. First off, it bears repeating that complaining about moderations in the comments often leads (rightly) to an off-topic moderation. That is a contributing factor to my decision to run this story. Secondly, moderation is something that I on occasion have found I've fat-fingered and given a different moderation than expected. Thirdly, in the grand scheme of things, a comment's moderation is — relatively speaking — small potatoes. It is NOT a measure of your IQ or value as a human being. or standing in the community. Just accept that stuff happens and that as likely as not, someone will be along to moderate it the other way. Which is a good opportunity to say: PLEASE USE YOUR MOD POINTS! Lastly, if you think a comment was moderated in error, then send the CID (Comment ID) link e.g. "(#876543)" in an email to admin (at) soylentnews (dot) org. Keep in mind however that we are all volunteers here and there most likely will be a delay between when you send out an email and when we can get around to it. --martyb]

[Updated: 20190823_111312 UTC See comment from JR who far more precisely and eloquently expressed the idea I was attempting to. I concur with his assessment. If I want people to upmod a comment of mine that I believe was unfairly downmodded, then I need to be willing to upmod other's mis-modded comments. For perspective, so far this month, anywhere from ~150-~350 mod points were used in any given day. It bears repeating: use your mod points!]

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow3196.

Chandrayaan-2 Latest Updates:

August 20, 2019

Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019). The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds beginning from 0902 hrs IST. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.

Following this, a series of orbit maneuvers will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.

Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enters into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon. Then, it will perform a series of complex braking maneuvers to soft land in the South polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019.

The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru. All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 are healthy.

The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled tomorrow (August 21, 2019) between 1230-13:30 hrs IST.

August 21, 2019

Second Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 21, 2019) beginning at 1250 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 1228 seconds. The orbit achieved is 118 km x 4412 km.

All spacecraft parameters are normal.

The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled on August 28, 2019 between 0530 - 0630 hrs IST.

Previously:
Chandrayaan-2 Launch: How to Watch First Mission to the Moon's South Pole Mon 20190722 @ 0913 UTC
Scrubbed Chandrayaan 2 Mission to Moon's South Pole to Launch on Mon July 22 0913 UTC
India's Lunar Spacecraft Launches Sunday on First-Ever Mission to Moon's South Pole
India to Launch Combined Orbiter/Lander/Rover Mission

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Employees Connect Ukranian Nuclear Plant to the Internet to Mine Cryptocurrency:

According to authorities, the incident took place in July at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, located near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk, in southern Ukraine.

It's unknown how the scheme was discovered, but on July 10 the SBU raided the nuclear power plant, from where it seized computers and equipment specifically built for mining cryptocurrency.

This equipment was found in the power plant's administration offices, and not on its industrial network.

Confiscated equipment included two metal cases containing basic computer parts, but with additional power supplies, coolers, and video cards. According to court documents [1, 2], one case held six Radeon RX 470 GPU video cards, and the second five.

Further, the SBU also found and seized additional equipment[1, 2] that looked like mining rigs in the building used as barracks by a military unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, tasked with guarding the power plant.

Several employees have been charged for their involvement in the scheme, but not yet arrested. It's unclear if any military staff was charged.

Officials believe the suspects attempted their scheme because of a recent spike in cryptocurrency trading prices, after a long period during which they fell.

Ukrainian news site UNIAN first reported the investigation.

"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." Thomas Macaulay

Original Submission

FatPhil writes:

https://www.fudzilla.com/news/49241-french-solar-road-was-a-failure

A one kilometre "solar road" project paved with photovoltaic panels in France is "too noisy, falling apart, and doesn't even collect enough solar energy".

Le Monde describes the road as "pale with its ragged joints", with "solar panels that peel off the road and the many splinters [from] that enamel resin protecting photovoltaic cells".

It's a poor sign for a project the French government invested €5 million, or $5,546,750. The noise and poor upkeep aren't the only problems facing the Wattway. Through shoddy engineering, the Wattway isn't even generating the electricity it promised to deliver...

Normandy is not historically known as a sunny area. At the time, the region's capital city of Caen only got 44 days of strong sunshine a year, and not much has changed since.

Storms have wreaked havoc with the systems, blowing circuits. But even if the weather was OK it appears the panels weren't built to capture them efficiently... Solar panels are most efficient when pointed toward the sun. Because the project needed to be a road as well as a solar generator, however, all of its solar panels are flat. So even within the limited sun of the region, the Wattway was further limiting itself.

Also: Turns out a Road Made of Solar Panels Was, in Fact, a Bad Idea

Original Submission