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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Nerve-like 'optical lace' gives robots a human touch

A new synthetic material that creates a linked sensory network similar to a biological nervous system could enable soft robots to sense how they interact with their environment and adjust their actions accordingly.

The stretchable optical lace material was developed by Ph.D. student Patricia Xu through the Organics Robotics Lab at Cornell University.

"We want to have a way to measure stresses and strains for highly deformable objects, and we want to do it using the hardware itself, not vision," said lab director Rob Shepherd, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the paper's senior author. "A good way to think about it is from a biological perspective. A blind person can still feel because they have sensors in their fingers that deform when their finger deforms. Robots don't have that right now."

Shepherd's lab previously created sensory foams that used optical fibers to detect such deformations. For the optical lace project, Xu used a flexible, porous lattice structure manufactured from 3-D-printed polyurethane. She threaded its core with stretchable optical fibers containing more than a dozen mechanosensors and then attached an LED light to illuminate the fiber.

When she pressed the lattice structure at various points, the sensors were able to pinpoint changes in the photon flow.

"When the structure deforms, you have contact between the input line and the output lines, and the light jumps into these output loops in the structure, so you can tell where the contact is happening," Xu said. "The intensity of this determines the intensity of the deformation itself."

More information: P.A. Xu el al., "Optical lace for synthetic afferent neural networks," Science Robotics (2019). robotics.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.aaw6304

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

JUMP pulled its bikes from a number of markets in the last few months – TechCrunch

Uber-owned JUMP pulled its bikes and scooters from a handful of markets over the last few months. The latest city affected is San Diego, where JUMP’s bikes and scooters will no longer be available as of September 19, with the exception of two naval bases in the city.

“We understand this may have a huge impact on your day-to-day commuting and we regret the fact that we can no longer provide this service to you,” JUMP wrote in an email to its San Diego customers.

The decision was in light of San Diego councilperson Barbara Bry calling for a moratorium on scooters in the city until it could figure out a fiscally responsible and thoughtful plan.

“We agree with local elected officials in San Diego who've said current micromobility regulations foster an unsustainable operating environment, which is why we're ending our operations as of today,” an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We look forward to working with the city to develop more sensible regulations.”

Earlier this week, JUMP removed its bikes from Providence following acts of vandalism and misuse.This month, JUMP is also removing its bikes from Atlanta after operating in the city for just nine months. Its scooters, however, will remain.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3997

Two security contractors were arrested in Adel, Iowa on September 11 as they attempted to gain access to the Dallas County Courthouse. The two are employees of Coalfire—a "cybersecurity advisor" firm based in Westminster, Colorado that frequently does security assessments for federal agencies, state and local governments, and corporate clients. They claimed to be conducting a penetration test to determine how vulnerable county court records were and to measure law enforcement's response to a break-in.

Unfortunately, the Iowa state court officials who ordered the test never told county officials about it—and evidently no one anticipated that a physical break-in would be part of the test. For now, the penetration testers remain in jail. In a statement issued yesterday, state officials apologized to Dallas County, citing confusion over just what Coalfire was going to test:

"The scope is everything," Roseblatt explained.  If the scope is only vaguely defined, "you could find yourself exposed to legal liability."

Coalfire's Justin Wynn and Gary Demercurio, who are still in jail [Update: They appear to have made bail on Thursday], have been charged with third-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools. Their bond has been set at $50,000, and they are scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on September 23—in the same courthouse they were caught breaking into.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/check-the-scope-pen-testers-nabbed-jailed-in-iowa-courthouse-break-in-attempt/

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wirelessduck writes:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/13/new-zealand-man-copywriter-clown-redundancy

An Auckland advertising copywriter brought a clown to his redundancy meeting, as first reported in the New Zealand Herald on Friday. New Zealand legally requires employers to allow workers the option of bringing a support person to serious disciplinary meetings, usually relating to an employee's prospective dismissal.

After FCB New Zealand lost a significant client and began layoffs, Josh Thompson, who had reportedly been with the company for five months, received an ominous email from his bosses that read: "Bad news. We're having a meeting to discuss your role."

Faced with the task of securing an appropriate support person for the potentially tense meeting, Thompson, a comedian who performs under the name Joshua Jack, said: "I thought it's best to bring in a professional, and so I paid $200 and hired a clown."

The clown, who Thompson refers to as "Joe", crafted balloon animals throughout the meeting, including a poodle. His antics were squeaky, and Thompson's bosses had to request he quieten down several times.

"It's further understood," reported the Herald, "that the clown mimed crying when the redundancy paperwork was handed over."

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for AzumaHazuki

Bone, not adrenaline, drives fight or flight response

When faced with a predator or sudden danger, the heart rate goes up, breathing becomes more rapid, and fuel in the form of glucose is pumped throughout the body to prepare an animal to fight or flee.

These physiological changes, which constitute the "fight or flight" response, are thought to be triggered in part by the hormone adrenaline.

But a new study from Columbia researchers suggests that bony vertebrates can't muster this response to danger without the skeleton. The researchers found in mice and humans that almost immediately after the brain recognizes danger, it instructs the skeleton to flood the bloodstream with the bone-derived hormone osteocalcin, which is needed to turn on the fight or flight response.

"In bony vertebrates, the acute stress response is not possible without osteocalcin," says the study's senior investigator Gérard Karsenty, MD, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

"The view of bones as merely an assembly of calcified tubes is deeply entrenched in our biomedical culture," Karsenty says. But about a decade ago, his lab hypothesized and demonstrated that the skeleton has hidden influences on other organs.

The research revealed that the skeleton releases osteocalcin, which travels through the bloodstream to affect the functions of the biology of the pancreas, the brain, muscles, and other organs.

A series of studies since then have shown that osteocalcin helps regulate metabolism by increasing the ability of cells to take in glucose, improves memory, and helps animals run faster with greater endurance.

More information: "Mediation of the acute stress response by the skeleton," Cell Metabolism (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.08.012

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Phil Dougherty has a side hustle as a friendly hacker. By day, he's a software developer at the University of Wisconsin, building free educational games and conducting research on the ways people play them. Meanwhile, back at home, Dougherty is the shepherd of a program that's constantly running down ways to break into other people's cryptocurrency wallets.

Dougherty works with folks who have lost, forgotten or incorrectly written down their Ethereum passwords, locking themselves out of their wallets and forfeiting the digital cash that's lurking within. These people are, essentially, shit out of luck. There's no customer support hotline for Ethereum, no security questions to answer, no "Forgot password?" link.

[...] Dougherty got his start in cryptocurrency cracking in 2017, after reading a Reddit post from someone who wanted to brute force their way into their own Ethereum wallet. The Redditor remembered part of their password and generally what it looked like, handing Dougherty a puzzle perfectly suited to his interpersonal coding skills. He and five other programmers ended up racing to crack this user's password. Dougherty won.

"I successfully unlocked that guy's password, and then straight from that post I started getting, 'Well wait, hey, could you try to help me with that?'" Dougherty said. "Things organically grew from there."

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/13/forgot-password-ethereum-cryptocurrency-lost-expandpass/

Original Submission

Update: DannyB adds: United States Files Civil Lawsuit Against Edward Snowden

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/edward-snowden-nsa-cbs-this-morning-interview-today-2019-09-16/

When pressed on whether he considers what he did unlawful, Snowden refused to take a position but said "it's not hard to make the argument that I broke the law." He went on to say that the government continues to allege that his disclosures caused harm but, according to Snowden, has yet to show evidence of that harm.

"They never show evidence for it even though we're now more than 6 years on, it would be the easiest thing in the world to show. We've never heard that story," he said. "If they had some classified evidence that a hair on a single person's head was harmed, you know as well as I do, it would be on the front page of The New York Times by the end of the day."

Snowden also took issue with the common refrain that leaking classified documents violated the oath of secrecy he took upon entering the CIA. He said an oath of secrecy does not exist.

"One of the common misconceptions in one of the earlier attacks, that we heard in 2015, that we don't hear of so much anymore is that I violated this oath of secrecy. That does not exist. There is a secrecy agreement, but there is also an oath of service. An oath of service is to support and defend, not an agency, not even the president, it is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies – direct quote – foreign and domestic. And this begs the question, what happens when our obligations come into conflict."

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

The Cars lead singer Ric Ocasek dead at 75

Ric Ocasek, best known as the founder and frontman of the iconic new wave band The Cars, has died, the New York Police Department confirmed Sunday.

He was found unresponsive at his East 19th Street residence in Manhattan on Sunday, according to reports from the NYPD. The NYPD didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ocasek released seven studio albums with the Cars between 1978 and 2011, beginning with their hit self-titled album featuring the singles "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Good Times Roll."

Ocasek also released several solo albums, including Beatitude (1982), Fireball Zone (1990), Troublizing (1997) and Nexterday (2005). He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on April 14, 2018.

Fans and friends took to Twitter to honor the late rock star.

Also at:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/09/15/ric-ocasek-cars-found-dead-75/2338279001/
https://variety.com/2019/music/news/ric-ocasek-dead-dies-the-cars-1203336527/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ric-ocasek-dead-the-cars-frontman-rock-star-dies-in-70s-cause-of-death-unclear-2019-09-15/

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

How astronomers detected water on a potentially habitable exoplanet for the first time

K2-18 b was discovered in 2015 and is one of hundreds of "super-Earths"—planets with a mass between Earth and Neptune—found by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is a planet with eight times the mass of the Earth that orbits a so called "red dwarf" star, which is much cooler than the sun.

However, K2-18b is located in the "habitable zone" of its star which means it has the right temperature to support liquid water. Given its mass and radius, K2-18 b is not a gaseous planet, but has a high probability of having a rocky surface.

We developed algorithms to analyze the starlight filtered by this planet using transit spectroscopy, with data provided by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This enabled us to make the first successful detection of an atmosphere with water vapor around a non-gaseous planet, which is also located within the habitable zone of its star.

In order for an exoplanet to be defined as habitable, there is a long list of requirements that need to be satisfied. One is that the planet needs to be in the habitable zone where water can exist in liquid form. It is also necessary that the planet has an atmosphere to protect the planet from any harmful radiation coming from its host star.

Another important element is the presence of water, vital for life as we know it. Although there are many other criteria for habitability, such as the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere, our research has made K2-18b the best candidate to date. It is the only exoplanet to fulfil three requirements for habitability: the right temperatures, an atmosphere and the presence of water.

However, we cannot say, with current data, exactly how likely the planet is to support life. Our data are limited to an area of the spectrum—this shows how light is broken down by wavelength—where water dominates, so other molecules can unfortunately not be confirmed.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow2718

Kickstarter is facing blowback after firing two employees involved in its ongoing unionization effort, as first reported by Slate. Both employees were dismissed over the past eight days, leading to concerns that the firings may be part of a broader retaliation effort. US labor law forbids employers from firing or otherwise reprimanding employees for taking part in unionization efforts.

One of the employees, Taylor Moore, told The Verge that he believed he had been fired in connection with his unionizing efforts. "This morning after six years of pouring my life into the mission, people, and creators of Kickstarter, I was fired for union organizing," Moore said. "Last week another member of the union organizing committee was fired and we have reason to believe that more are being targeted."

"The union busting campaign that Kickstarter management is engaging in is illegal and wrong," Moore continued, "and is a dramatic abandonment of the values of an organization that I have loved and served with my whole heart."

Reached by The Verge, Kickstarter denied any retaliatory motive and said the company felt "obligated to correct the record." It said both employees had been fired because they "failed to correct performance issues that were documented and discussed in detail with them over the course of several months."

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/12/20863149/kickstarter-union-organizer-fired-retaliation-opeiu

Original Submission

martyb writes:

The Far Side Could Be Back from Extinction, and the Timing's So Right:

Everyone in the US who read the newspaper funny pages from 1980-1995 will likely remember the witty, single-panel comic The Far Side by Gary Larson. Well, good news. According to the official Far Side website, more Far Side comics are on the way.

The website, run by Andrews McMeel Universal, posted a Far Side comic illustration with the sentence "Uncommon, unreal, and (soon-to-be) unfrozen. A new online era of The Far Side is coming!" The website didn't provide any additional information on when or how Larson's comic will return, and Andrews McMeel Universal didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

But at a time when tragedy and cruelty seem to dominate headlines, one this is certain: We could use Larson's oddball humor now more than ever. The Far Side pointed out the ludicrous side of being human, and the secret genius of animals. Cows drove cars when farmers weren't looking. Scientists played hilarious tricks on one another.

[...] The Far Side was first published in 1980 and ran until 1995, when Larson retired. In 1999, Larson wrote an open letter to fans asking them not to post his Far Side cartoons on the internet.

Original Submission

"An anonymous coward" writes:

National grocery chain Whole Foods, which is owned by multibillion-dollar corporation Amazon, is cutting medical benefits for hundreds of part-time employees, Business Insider reported today. The decision, according to the company, is designed "to better meet the needs of our business and create a more equitable and efficient scheduling model," a Whole Foods spokesperson told BI.

[...] Whole Foods claims that the percentage of its workforce that'll be affected by the cost-cutting measure, and therefore no longer eligible to purchase employer-provided health care, is less than 2 percent. (That equates to nearly 2,000 people.) One affected employee, who's worked for Whole Foods for 15 years, told BI they were "in shock," as the company's benefits options were why they held on to the job.

Ironically:

Last month, Amazon joined a number of other tech companies and Fortune 500 firms in signing a letter outlining the purpose of a corporation as something not just designed to return shareholder value, but also to serve employees and the community. "Each of our stakeholders is essential," the pledge read. "We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country."

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/13/20864636/amazon-whole-foods-medical-benefits-part-time-workers-jeff-bezos

Original Submission

Richard M. Stallman Resigns as FSF President and from its Board of Directors

martyb writes:

https://www.fsf.org/news/richard-m-stallman-resigns (emphasis from original retained):

On September 16, 2019, Richard M. Stallman, founder and president of
the Free Software Foundation, resigned as president and from its board
of directors.

The board will be conducting a search for a new president, beginning
immediately. Further details of the search will be published on
fsf.org.

For questions, contact FSF executive director John Sullivan at
johns@fsf.org.

Copyright © 2004-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Privacy Policy.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 license (or later version) — Why this license?

Computer Scientist Richard Stallman Resigns from MIT Over Epstein Comments

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

Computer Scientist Richard Stallman Resigns From MIT Over Epstein Comments

Famed free software advocate and computer scientist Richard Stallman has resigned from MIT, according to an email he published online. The resignation comes after Stallman made comments about victims of child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, including that the victims went along with the abuse willingly.

"I am resigning effective immediately from my position in CSAIL at MIT," Stallman wrote in the email, referring to MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. "I am doing this due to pressure on MIT and me over a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations."

[...] Last week, Motherboard published the full email thread in which Stallman wrote that the "most plausible scenario" is that Epstein's underage victims in his campaign of trafficking were "entirely willing." Stallman also argued about the definition of "rape" and whether the term applies to the victims.

[Ed.'s note - just because Vice say things in the above blockquote does not mean that SoylentNews or its editors consider it a demonstrably provable representation of reality. We're just reporting that they are reporting, nothing more. At least this Ed. finds out-of-context quoting of short inflamatory phrases to be particularly disingenuous, and perhaps even a warning sign that manipulation of a quote has taking place. -- FP.]

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Eternal_Mainframe.html

In the computer industry, the Wheel of Reincarnation is a pattern whereby specialized hardware gets spun out from the "main" system, becomes more powerful, then gets folded back into the main system. As the linked Jargon File entry points out, several generations of this effect have been observed in graphics and floating-point coprocessors.

In this essay, I note an analogous pattern taking place, not in peripherals of a computing platform, but in the most basic kinds of "computing platform." And this pattern is being driven as much by the desire for "freedom" as by any technical consideration.

"Revolution" has many definitions. From the looks of this, I'd say "going around in circles" comes closest to applying...

-Richard M. Hartman

A funny thing happened on the way to the future. The mainframe outlasted its replacements.

[Ed. Note: This story submission was my first exposure to the linked essay. Though dated from 2013, I found the essay eminently readable as well as making insightful observations of how dramatically the concepts and capabilities of mainframes have persisted for so many years. --martyb[

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12267795

Danielle Rizzo's son is screaming. He is planted in the middle of the lobby of his elementary school, clinging to rainbow-coloured blocks as she gently explains that she is here - off schedule, in the middle of the day - to take him to a doctor's appointment. But the first-grader is not listening.

"Happy Meal," he repeats over and over again. "Happy Meal!"

His little brother, who is also going to the appointment, is nearby, not moving. Rizzo is relieved that the two of them are not melting down at the same time, which happens all too often, and firmly guides them out the door.

Rizzo's children, ages 7 and 6, were at the center of one of the most ethically complex legal cases in the modern-day fertility industry. Three years ago, while researching treatment options for her sons, Rizzo says she made an extraordinary discovery: The boys are part of an autism cluster involving at least a dozen children scattered across the United States, Canada and Europe, all conceived with sperm from the same donor. Many of the children have secondary diagnoses of ADHD, dyslexia, mood disorders, epilepsy and other developmental and learning disabilities.

The phenomenon is believed to be unprecedented and has attracted the attention of some of the world's foremost experts in the genetics of autism, who have been gathering blood and spit samples from the families.

Original Submission