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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

Russia claims it has successfully tested its own internet:

Russia has ramped up the balkanization of its technology and infrastructure over the past few months. The government's "sovereign internet" law -- which allows content to be blocked in an "emergency situation" -- took effect in November, and President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law that bans the sale of devices without pre-installed Russian apps. Today, Russia's Ministry of Communications announced that it has successfully tested a countrywide alternative to the internet, according to the BBC. How this network functions isn't clear, but the Ministry of Communications claims that users didn't notice any changes to their typical web use during the testing phase.

Countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia have already restricted what their citizens can access and how they can communicate with one another on the internet. Russia's project -- nicknamed Runet -- presumably follows suit and lets the government filter content through its own censors. Runet "would get ISPs and telcos to configure the internet within their borders as a gigantic intranet, just like a large corporation does," Professor Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey, said to the BBC. This type of infrastructure would even make it difficult for VPNs to access blocked content. With all that said, it's difficult to tell just how successful this test was, or how far along Russia is in its goal to create its own Great Firewall.

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MrPlow writes:

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General Motors has asked regulators to allow it to test a limited number of autonomous cars without a steering wheel. Currently, all self-driving cars have one in place, with most also including a back-up driver ready to step in if something goes awry. The NHTSA is expected to respond to General Motors' request soon.

[...] Cruise, the autonomous-car unit of General Motors, wants to start testing its self-driving cars sans steering wheel. Indeed, it's already produced a video (above) showing what such a design might look like.

Current National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulations, which were created at a time when self-driving cars were the stuff of science fiction, mean that vehicles have to include essential safety features such as a steering wheel and brake pedal. But the emergence of robot cars has put these rules under the spotlight. According to a recent Reuters report, the NHTSA has confirmed it's in talks with GM, which is asking for permission to test a limited number of autonomous cars without steering wheels or any other type of manual controls. GM first raised the idea with the NHTSA at the beginning of 2018, and last week James Owens, the agency's acting administrator, appeared to be warming to the idea. "I expect we're going to be able to move forward with these petitions soon — as soon as we can," Owens told Reuters, adding that it would "definitely" arrive at a decision sometime next year. He described the removal of manual controls from a self-driving car as "a big deal" because it would be the first time for such action to be taken — marking a major milestone in the road to autonomous cars. But U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who has been discussing GM's petition with the NHTSA, sounded a note of caution, noting how on a number of occasions autonomous-car companies have had to reevaluate their ambitious plans. Even GM said recently that it would have to delay the launch of a proposed robo-taxi service because its technology isn't quite ready.

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/gm-requests-green-light-to-ditch-steering-wheel-in-its-self-driving-cars/

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

Amazon wants to patent technology that could identify shoppers by their hands:

Today, visitors to Amazon Go cashierless stores need to scan an app to get in. In the future, Amazon may instead ask to just scan their hands instead.

The US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Amazon on Thursday for a touchless scanning system that would identify people not by their faces but by characteristics associated with the palms of their hands, including wrinkles and veins.

The application filing does not mean the company is definitely developing such technology, but the New York Post reported in September that Amazon was testing technology that would allow Whole Foods customers to scan their hand to pay at checkout rather than swiping a card. If the tech does make it to the real world, it seems the company might be considering using it in its Amazon Go stores: Many of the inventors listed on the application are employees working on Amazon Go, including Dilip Kumar, who has been the head of technology for Amazon Go and is vice president for Amazon's physical retail initiatives.

The filing is a glimpse at Amazon's ideas for putting its own tech-forward spin on how people shop in brick-and-mortar stores, now that it dominates many types of online shopping in the US. But a new potential method for identifying people using biometrics will also likely raise questions for a company that is already facing increased scrutiny over privacy concerns related to its products, ranging from its Alexa voice assistant to its Ring home security gadgets.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

FAA announces new system for remotely identifying and tracking drones:

The Federal Aviation Administration is implementing a new system that will allow comprehensive nationwide tracking of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—commonly known as drones. The new system will enable regulators, law enforcement, and other interested parties to track drone movements and in some cases obtain identifying information. All new drones will be required to comply with the proposed rules within three years after the regulations go into effect—but that's still months away.

The lack of a comprehensive system for drone identification and tracking has been a long-standing barrier to the adoption of commercial drone technology. Companies like Amazon and UPS, for example, have long dreamed of making package deliveries using unmanned vehicles. But such efforts were blocked by law enforcement agencies worried about unidentified drones being used for terrorism, drug smuggling, or other crimes.

The new proposal will create a comprehensive realtime database with information about almost every unmanned vehicle in the sky. That will allow law enforcement to quickly identify registered vehicles. And it will make it easier to catch vehicles that are flying without authorization.

In the new system, each UAV would be assigned a unique identifier. During each flight, a drone will be required to transmit its identity and location over the Internet to an online service provider authorized by the FAA to be part of the location-tracking system. A vehicle flying more than 400 feet from its base station will also need to broadcast this information directly from the aircraft.

To enhance privacy, vehicle operators will have the option to generate a random session ID for each trip instead of broadcasting a vehicle's manufacturer-assigned serial number on every trip. The new system is welcomed by commercial drone operators. Indeed, CNBC reports that the most common complaint from the commercial drone industry is that the FAA is moving too slowly.

Also at:
The FAA wants to track all drones flying in the US
FAA proposes nationwide real-time tracking system for all drones

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

How birds drop 'unnecessary' genes can help us understand evolution:

Humans, the latest tally suggests, have approximately 21,000 genes in our genome, the set of genetic information in an organism. But do we really need every gene we have? What if we lost three or four? What if we lost 3,000 or 4,000? Could we still function? Humans have variation in their genomes, but the overall size does not vary dramatically among individuals, with the exception of certain genetic disorders like Down's syndrome, which is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 and all the genes that it carries.

Each gene in a genome provides the code for a protein that affects our lives, from the growth of our hair to allowing us to digest certain foods. Most of the genes found in the human genome are probably safe for now, but there are some organisms that, over time, have cut down their genome to live in various habitats.

Scientists previously thought that every gene in an organism's genome was essential for survival because humans have little variation in our genome sizes from person to person. However, studies using animals with smaller, streamlined genomes have proven this untrue.

Freeman writes:

The Trump White House is rumored to be working on a beefed-up open access mandate. The potential executive order would require all scientific papers that are based on federally funded research to be made available online free of charge as soon as they are published. That would supersede a 2013 rule issued by the Obama White House that required federally funded papers to become freely available one year after publication.

[...] supporters of the open access model question how much value traditional scientific publishers actually add. The peer-review process is typically carried out by working scientists on a volunteer basis. Meanwhile, you'd expect the Internet to reduce the costs of distributing scientific journals. Instead, the cost of subscribing to scientific journals has been rising much faster than inflation in recent years.

[...] "Research funded by taxpayers should not be locked behind a paywall," one long-time ACM member tweeted.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/publishers-blast-rumored-ban-on-paywalls-for-federally-funded-research/

Also at: Gizmodo

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Certain bacteria can override programmed cell death:

Certain bacteria can override a defense mechanism of the immune system, so called programmed cell death, through inhibition of death effector molecules by their outer membranes components. Shigella bacteria, which cause diarrhea, use lipopolysaccharides (LPS) on their surface to block the effector caspases. Lipopolysaccharides are a component of the bacterial outer membrane. This strategy enables the bacteria to multiply within the cell. This is the result of a study conducted by the molecular immunologist Professor Hamid Kashkar and his team in the institute for Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research at the University of Cologne. The article 'Cytosolic Gram-negative bacteria prevent apoptosis by inhibition of effector caspases through LPS' by Günther et al. appeared in the current issue of Nature Microbiology.

Various bacterial pathogens can escape our immune system by staying and multiplying within our body cells (intracellularly). The intracellular propagation of pathogens later leads to cell breakdown and the release of microorganisms that infect neighboring cells, spread and cause tissue damage and infectious disease. However, the body has a response to this bacterial strategy: programmed cell death, or apoptosis, reacts to cellular stress situations during infections and causes quick suicide of the infected cells.

Due to this rapid self-destruction program of our body cells, pathogens cannot multiply - the immune system successfully eliminates them. Scientists have observed in the past that pathogens can effectively block apoptosis, allowing them to reproduce and spread intracellularly. However, the molecular mechanism responsible for how these bacteria 'outsmarted' the immune system was largely unknown.

Kashkar lab has now showed that the pathogen that causes shigellosis (Shigella), a typical cause of acute inflammatory diarrhea, blocks apoptosis by efficiently blocking certain enzymes, so-called caspases, which act as engines that initiate apoptosis.

Journal reference:

Günther, S.D., et al. (2019) Cytosolic Gram-negative bacteria prevent apoptosis by inhibition of effector caspases through lipopolysaccharide. Nature Microbiology. doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0620-5.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Dutch Filmworks Takes Quest to Identify Alleged Pirates to the Supreme Court - TorrentFreak:

Piracy settlement letters have become a serious threat in countries all round the world. Until now, Dutch Internet users have been spared from this practice but local movie distributor Dutch Filmworks would like that to change.

Two years ago the company received permission from the Dutch Data Protection Authority to track the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who shared pirated movies.

However, that was only the first hurdle. The next step was to identify the subscribers behind the IP-addresses and Dutch Internet provider Ziggo didn't want to share any customer data without a court order. The case went to court, where the movie company requested the personal details of 377 account holders whose addresses were used to share a copy of "The Hitman's Bodyguard".

This didn’t go as planned for Dutch FilmWorks. In February, the Central Netherlands Court denied the company's request for data and last month the Court of Appeal reached the same conclusion.

Both courts concluded that Dutch Filmworks’ plans lacked transparency and it’s not clear what the movie company plans to do with the personal data it obtains. Dutch Filmworks said that it could either warn subscribers or request damages, but the criteria remain a guess.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

Investigation Claims United Arab Emirates Uses The ToTok App To Spy:

The chat app known as ToTok (not to be confused with TikTok) is allegedly a spying tool used by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government to keep an eye on its users.

An investigation by the New York Times purports that the app spies on conversations, movements, relationships, and more. The firm behind ToTok is reportedly a cyberintelligence and hacking company.

The app debuted a few months ago, and is most commonly used in countries within the Emirates, but also has users throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Last week, it was the most downloaded social app in the U.S., according to the research firm App Annie. However, the Times reports that Google and Apple have removed the app from their app stores since finding out about the investigation.

In reference to why Google removed ToTok from its Play Store, a Google spokesperson told Digital Trends, “We take reports of security and privacy violations seriously. If we find behavior that violates our policies, we take action."

We also reached out Apple to comment on why they removed the app, but we haven’t received a response.

According to ToTok's policies, you grant the app access to your location, as well as your phone's microphone, camera, calendar, cellular data and Wi-Fi, and other data once the app is opened. The information that is collected from users who download the app is reportedly sent to intelligence analysts working for the UAE.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

Proposed CO2 capture system could reduce truck emissions by 90 percent:

A significant chunk of carbon dioxide emissions come from the transportation sector, and within Europe nearly 40 percent of transport emissions come from trucks. Now, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) have come up with a new concept for capturing carbon dioxide from truck exhausts which could reduce emissions by up to 90 percent.

In a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Energy Research, the researchers propose capturing carbon dioxide from a truck's exhaust pipe and turning it liquid, which is stored in a tank on the vehicle's roof. This liquid carbon dioxide can then be delivered to a service station where it can be reused in various ways, including being turned into conventional fuel.

The carbon dioxide capture works by first cooling the gases which are emitted from the exhaust pipe. Special absorbent materials developed at EPFL could separate the carbon dioxide from other gases like nitrogen and oxygen. When it is full, the absorbent material is then heated to extract the carbon dioxide, and heat from the vehicle's engine is used to compress the carbon dioxide and turn it into liquid. That liquid can then be stored in a box attached to the vehicle's roof until it can be deposited at a service station when the truck refuels.

The system is more appropriate for large vehicles like trucks or buses than for cars as it is rather bulky, requiring a 2-meter-long capsule and weighing 7 percent of the total payload of a truck. However, the researchers calculate that 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions could be recycled in this way.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Once again, Panama, home of the narrow land bridge that connects North and South America, could play an outsized role in mammal history.

Mammals from both continents crossed the Panamanian Isthmus when it arose 3 to 4 million years ago, an event known as the Great American Biotic Exchange. Camera trap research shows that history may be repeating itself as North American coyotes and South American crab-eating foxes have been detected in eastern Panama. It's the first time these canids, both members of the dog family, have been found in the same landscape.

"We may be seeing the start of the Not-So-Great American Biotic Exchange," says Roland Kays, wildlife biologist at North Carolina State University and corresponding author of a paper about the research in the Journal of Mammalogy.

More information: Allison W Hody et al. Canid collision—expanding populations of coyotes (Canis latrans) and crab-eating foxes (Cerdocyon thous) meet up in Panama, Journal of Mammalogy (2019). DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyz158

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

Travis Kalanick quits Uber's board, sells off all his Uber stock:

Travis Kalanick is leaving the board of Uber, the company he cofounded a decade ago and ran until his 2017 ouster. A spokesperson told CNBC that Kalanick has sold all of his remaining Uber stock, estimated to be worth around $2.5 billion.

[...] "Uber has been a part of my life for the past 10 years," Kalanick said in a Christmas Eve statement released by Uber. "At the close of the decade, and with the company now public, it seems like the right moment for me to focus on my current business and philanthropic pursuits."

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow1337:

Personal computer CPU pioneer Chuck Peddle dies at 82:

Chuck Peddle, one of the most important engineers of the early home computing era, has died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 82. He's best known as the lead designer for MOS Technology's 6502, a low-cost processor (just $25 in 1975) that found its way into first-wave home computers like the Apple II and Commodore PET. Variants of that core design found their way into influential consoles like the Atari 2600 and NES. If you have nostalgia for the days when 8-bit computers were cutting edge, you likely owe a debt of gratitude to Peddle.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

How Cruise Ships Bring 1,200 Tons of Toxic Fumes to Brooklyn a Year:

"Well, that's good," [Mr. Armstrong] finally said. "That's the way it should have been for the last decade since they built this thing."

"This thing" is the $21 million plug-in station that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed to introduce in Red Hook several years ago in an effort to eliminate 1,200 tons of carbon dioxide, 25 tons of nitrous oxide and tons of hazardous particulate matter spewed out each year by cruise ships idling off Brooklyn's coast.

When not using shore power, a single cruise ship docked for one day can emit as much diesel exhaust as 34,400 idling tractor-trailers, according to an independent analysis verified by the Environmental Protection Agency. When a ship is plugged in, the agency said, its exhaust is nearly eliminated.

But the system has hardly been used after going into operation in 2016. And New York City is expected to announce design plans next year that would expand and modernize terminals in Brooklyn and Manhattan to accommodate the world's largest cruise ships, and more of them.

Yet there is no plan to further expand the shore power system.

Neighborhood residents, led by Mr. Armstrong, are sounding the alarm. They want the pollution controls that were promised by the Bloomberg administration. They fault the city and state for failing to force the matter, and the cruise line companies for failing to use the system.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

With countries such as Iceland, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and Norway adopting green energy practices, renewable energy now accounts for a third of the world's power. As this trend continues, more and more countries are looking to offshore energy sources to produce this renewable energy. In an Opinion publishing December 17 in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, researchers identify situations where green technology such as wind turbines, wave energy converters, and other marine renewable energy devices (MREDs) have had negative consequences on marine life.

While the researchers don't want to slow down active responses to climate change, they do encourage those making the decision to implement MREDs into marine habitats to consider the impact of this technology, such as head trauma and hearing loss, on marine animals before beginning construction.

"When people put a wind farm in their back yard, neighbors might complain that it's ugly and want it moved," says first author Andrew Wright, an ocean and ecosystem scientist at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. "So, they think, why not put it off shore where we can't see it and then there's no problems? The assumption there is that it's just an aesthetic problem. But there's a lot more to it."

Journal Reference: Andrew J. Wright, Claryana Araújo-Wang, John Y. Wang, Peter S. Ross, Jakob Tougaard, Robin Winkler, Melissa C. Márquez, Frances C. Robertson, Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Randall R. Reeves. How ‘Blue’ Is ‘Green’ Energy? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.11.002

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