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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

If you have a dog, hopefully you're lucky enough to know that they are highly attuned to their owners and can readily understand a wide range of commands and gestures. But are these abilities innate or are they exclusively learned through training?

To find out, a new study in Frontiers in Psychology investigated whether untrained stray dogs could understand human pointing gestures.

The study revealed that about 80% of participating dogs successfully followed pointing gestures to a specific location despite having never received prior training. The results suggest that dogs can understand complex gestures by simply watching humans and this could have implications in reducing conflict between stray dogs and humans.

Dogs were domesticated 10,000-15,000 years ago, likely making them the oldest domesticated animals on the planet. Humans then bred dogs with the most desirable and useful traits so that they could function as companions and workers, leading to domesticated dogs that are highly receptive to human commands and gestures.

However, it was not clear whether dogs understand us through training alone, or whether this was innate. Can dogs interpret a signal, such as a gesture, without specific training, or even without having met the signaling person previously? One way to find out is to see whether untrained, stray dogs can interpret and react to human gestures.

[...] To investigate, Dr. Anindita Bhadra of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India, and colleagues studied stray dogs across several Indian cities. The researchers approached solitary stray dogs and placed two covered bowls on the ground near them. A researcher then pointed to one of the two bowls, either momentarily or repeatedly, and recorded whether the dog approached the indicated bowl. They also recorded the perceived emotional state of the dogs during the experiment.

Booga1 writes:

Rock Paper Shotgun reports:

As reported by PennLive, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has affirmed the district court's decision that a Pennsylvania man was not discriminated against by being "muted" in an online game.

Amro Elansari filed his original complaint against developer Jagex in July 2019, claiming they "violated his rights to free speech and due process of law." The suit was dismissed by the district court, a decision that has now been upheld by the appeals court for the 3rd Circuit.

Elansari was "muted" in an unnamed online game in March of 2019, according to his "largely handwritten" complaint, says PennLive. Given his suit names Jagex and that Elansari "claimed he had 2,000 hours invested in the game when he was booted out," it seems to follow that he had his account muted in some version of RuneScape.
...
The appeals court says that Elansari has not named a "state actor" for his Fourteenth Amendment claim. His complaint under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was also dismissed with no evidence of a "public accommodations discrimination."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Scientists are trying to explain why people began consuming animals' milk before they developed genetic mutations which enabled them to digest it properly.

The mutations mean people produce lactase—an enzyme which breaks down milk sugars, called lactose—after they reach adulthood. Without the mutations, lactase production stops in childhood, which can lead to lactose intolerance.

"There is at least a 4,000 year gap between when we see the earliest evidence of dairying and when we see first the evidence of any mutations anywhere in the world," said Professor Christina Warinner, head of microbiome sciences at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany.

Only about 35% of the world's population today have lactase persistence mutations. They exist mainly in European populations—especially northwestern Europe—and their descendants, and in parts of the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

"If we can work out the evolutionary history and mechanics of lactose intolerance (how diet, human genetics, and gut microbes interact), we will have a powerful model for how to tackle other complex digestive disorders and food allergies," said Prof. Warinner.

[...] "The reason people were able to eat dairy before we had the ability to process lactose is because of fermentation," said Cheryl Makarewicz, professor at the University of Kiel, Germany.

"It shows the power of this kind of processing and how it can impact how your body reacts to different foodstuffs," she said. Fermented foods contain microbes which may also play a part in people's digestion.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

New insights about the brightest explosions in the Universe:

Swedish and Japanese researchers have, after ten years, found an explanation to the peculiar emission lines seen in one of the brightest supernovae ever observed—SN 2006gy. At the same time they found an explanation for how the supernova arose.

Superluminous supernovae are the most luminous explosions in the cosmos. SN 2006gy is one of the most studied such events, but researchers have been uncertain about its origin. Astrophysicists at Stockholm University have, together with Japanese colleagues, now discovered large amounts of iron in the supernova through spectral lines that have never previously been seen either in supernovae or in other astrophysical objects. That has led to a new explanation for how the supernova arose.

"No-one had tested to compare spectra from neutral iron, i.e. iron in which all electrons are retained, with the unidentified emission lines in SN 2006gy, because iron is normally ionized (one or more electrons removed). We tried it and saw with excitement how line after line lined up just as in the observed spectrum," says Anders Jerkstrand, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University.

"It became even more exciting when it quickly turned out that very large amounts of iron were needed to make the lines—at least a third of the Sun's mass—which directly ruled out some old scenarios and instead revealed a new one."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...]Research on 5,834 U.S. adults by Brigham Young University exercise science professor Larry Tucker, Ph.D., found people who drink low-fat milk experience several years less biological aging than those who drink high-fat (2% and whole) milk.

[...]Tucker investigated the relationship between telomere length and both milk intake frequency (daily drinkers vs. weekly drinkers or less) and milk fat content consumed (whole vs. 2% vs. 1% vs. skim). Telomeres are the nucleotide endcaps of human chromosomes. They act like a biological clock and they're extremely correlated with age; each time a cell replicates, humans lose a tiny bit of the endcaps. Therefore, the older people get, the shorter their telomeres.

And, apparently, the more high-fat milk people drink, the shorter their telomeres are, according to the new BYU study, published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity. The study revealed that for every 1% increase in milk fat consumed (drinking 2% vs. 1% milk), telomeres were 69 base pairs shorter in the adults studied, which translated into more than four years in additional biological aging. When Tucker analyzed the extremes of milk drinkers, adults who consumed whole milk had telomeres that were a striking 145 base pairs shorter than non-fat milk drinkers.

-- submitted from IRC

Larry A. Tucker. Milk Fat Intake and Telomere Length in U.S. Women and Men: The Role of the Milk Fat Fraction. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2019; 2019: 1 DOI: 10.1155/2019/1574021

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Anonymous_Coward:

Cisco Warns of Critical Network Security Tool Flaw:

A critical Cisco vulnerability exists in its administrative management tool for Cisco network security solutions. The flaw could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to gain administrative privileges on impacted devices.

The flaw exists in the web-based management interface of the Cisco Firepower Management Center (FMC), which is its platform for managing Cisco network security solutions, like firewalls or its advanced malware protection service. Cisco has released patches for the vulnerability (CVE-2019-16028), which has a score of 9.8 out of 10 on the CVSS scale, making it critical in severity.

“The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use of the vulnerability that is described in this advisory,” Cisco said in its advisory released Wednesday.

[...] The vulnerability stems from “improper handling” of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authentication responses from an external authentication server. LDAP is an industry standard application protocol used to access and manage directory information over an IP network.

LDAP is used for a variety of functions within FMC, such as FMC Web Management Portal Authentication, Remote Access VPN Authorization, command line interface authorization, and others. This vulnerability impacts only the FMC Web Management Portal if it is configured to authenticate users of the web management portal through an external LDAP server.

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to a vulnerable device, Cisco said.  They could then bypass authentication and gain administrative access to the web-based management interface of the affected device.

[...] According to Omar Santos, principal engineer for the Cisco PSIRT, Cisco customers can do the following to determine whether they are impacted:

• Check if the Cisco FMC Software is configured to authenticate users of the web-based management interface through an external LDAP server;
• Check if external authentication using an LDAP server is configured on the device (System > Users > External Authentication)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/directv-races-to-decommission-broken-boeing-satellite-before-it-explodes/:

DirecTV is scrambling to move a broken Boeing satellite out of its standard orbit in order to limit the risk of "an accidental explosion."

As Space News reported today, DirecTV asked the Federal Communications Commission[(pdf] for a rules waiver so it can "conduct emergency operations to de-orbit the Spaceway-1 satellite," which is at risk of explosion because of damage to batteries. The 15-year-old Boeing 702HP satellite is in a geostationary orbit.

DirecTV, which is owned by AT&T, is coordinating with Intelsat on a plan to move Spaceway-1 into a new orbit. DirecTV already disabled the satellite's primary function, which is to provide backup Ka-band capacity in Alaska. The satellite can operate on power reserves from its solar panels, but that won't be possible during the coming eclipse season

[...] DirecTV described its plan as "de-orbiting" and moving the satellite into a "disposal orbit," which would suggest bringing it closer to Earth and letting it burn up in the atmosphere. But the filing also says the new orbit will be "300km above the geostationary arc," which would make it a graveyard orbit. Assuming that's the case, Spaceway-1 would remain indefinitely in an orbit that's well above other geostationary satellites. We've asked AT&T for clarification on this point.

Also at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/directv-satellite-could-explode-in-space/

Original Submission

DeathMonkey writes:

Mac users are getting bombarded by laughably unsophisticated malware:

Almost two years have passed since the appearance of Shlayer, a piece of Mac malware that gets installed by tricking targets into installing fake Adobe Flash updates. It usually does so after promising pirated videos, which are also fake. The lure may be trite and easy to spot, but Shlayer continues to be common—so much so that it's the number one threat encountered by users of Kaspersky Labs' antivirus programs for macOS.

Since Shlayer first came to light in February 2018, Kaspersky Lab researchers have collected almost 32,000 different variants and identified 143 separate domains operators have used to control infected machines. The malware accounts for 30 percent of all malicious detections generated by the Kaspersky Lab's Mac AV products. Attacks are most common against US users, who account for 31 percent of attacks Kaspersky Lab sees. Germany, with 14 percent, and France and the UK (both with 10 percent) followed. For malware using such a crude and outdated infection method, Shlayer remains surprisingly prolific.

An analysis Kaspersky Lab published on Thursday says that Shlayer is "a rather ordinary piece of malware" that, except for a recent variant based on a Python script, was built on Bash commands. Under the hood, the workflow for all versions is similar: they collect IDs and system versions and, based on that information, download and execute a file. The download is then deleted to remote traces of an infection. Shlayer also uses curl with the combination of options -f0L, which Thursday's post said "is basically the calling card of the entire family."

Another banal detail about Shlayer is its previously mentioned infected method. It's seeded in links that promise pirated versions of commercial software, episodes of TV shows, or live feeds of sports matches. Once users click, they receive a notice that they should install a Flash update. Never mind that Flash has been effectively deprecated for years and that platforms offering warez and pirated content are a known breeding ground for malware.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Chinese Authorities Begin Quarantine Of Wuhan City As Coronavirus Cases Multiply:

Wuhan's public health authorities say they are in a "state of war" as they quarantine the Chinese city in an attempt to halt the spread of a never-before-seen strain of coronavirus. "Strictly implement emergency response requirements, enter into a state of war and implement wartime measures to resolutely curb the spread of this epidemic," urged a committee of Wuhan's top officials. "Homes must be segregated, neighbors must be watched."

Later Thursday, health officials from the World Health Organization decided not to declare the outbreak an international health emergency. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that after two days of meetings in Geneva with the organization's Emergency Committee, the group was divided. "Make no mistake. This is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency," Tedros said. "It may yet become one." The WHO is not recommending any international restrictions on trade or travel, but does recommend exit screenings at airports.

Beginning at 10 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Wednesday ET), authorities in Wuhan, about 500 miles west of Shanghai, started sealing off public transportation, including its metro system, airport, train station and long-haul bus hubs. Livestreamed videos from the city show soldiers wearing face masks barricading the entrances to the city's train station Thursday morning to prevent passengers from entering and leaving the city.

Wuhan, China, is scrambling to build a hospital in just 6 days to treat coronavirus patients as its health system gets overwhelmed:

RandomFactor writes:

Previously collected ice cores taken from a Tibetan glacier have revealed 28 new genera of viruses according to researchers from Ohio State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A genus (plural genera) in biology encompasses multiple species. For example, Lions and Tigers (not bears) belong to the genus Panthera

The ice cores had not been protected from surface contamination when collected from the Guliya ice cap (northwestern Tibetan Plateau, China), so it was first necessary to establish "ultra-clean microbial and viral sampling procedures for glacier ice."

To ensure a pristine sample, the researchers, working in a freezer, first cut off some of the outer layer of each core sample. Each of the samples was then washed with ethanol to melt off approximately 0.2 inches of ice. Each was then washed again with sterile water to melt off another 0.2 inches of ice. The team also created test samples by repeating the same cleaning procedure on ice cores that had first been covered with known viruses and bacteria. The samples that remained were then deemed pristine and ready for study.

The study of the cores revealed a total of 33 groups of viruses with the majority previously unseen. The researchers note the importance of the work exposing the potential of melting glaciers to unleash deadly viruses.

Journal Reference
Zhi-Ping Zhong et al. Glacier ice archives fifteen-thousand-year-old viruses, bioRxiv (2020). DOI: 10.1101/2020.01.03.894675

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Research published in the journal Protein and Cell shows a combination of two experimental drugs reversing the effects of osteoarthritus in rats (as well as in human cartilage cell cultures).

"What's really exciting is that this is potentially a therapy that can be translated to the clinic quite easily," says Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, lead author and a professor in Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory. "We are excited to continue refining this promising combination therapy for human use."

Affecting 30 million adults, osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder in the United States and its prevalence is expected to rise in coming years due to the aging population and increasing rate of obesity. The disease is caused by gradual changes to cartilage that cushions bones and joints. During aging and repetitive stress, molecules and genes in the cells of this articular cartilage change, eventually leading to the breakdown of the cartilage and the overgrowth of underlying bone, causing chronic pain and stiffness.

This could be welcome news indeed for the 630 Million people worldwide (15% of the population) that suffer from the condition, and whose only options now are pain relievers or joint replacement surgery.

Previous research had pinpointed two molecules, alpha-KLOTHO and TGF beta receptor 2 (TGFβR2), as potential drugs to treat osteoarthritis. αKLOTHO acts on the mesh of molecules surrounding articular cartilage cells, keeping this extra-cellular matrix from degrading. TGFβR2 acts more directly on cartilage cells, stimulating their proliferation and preventing their breakdown.

Individually, the two molecules only moderately curb osteoarthritis. However…

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow7701:

Space Force Offers First Peek at Camouflage Uniform:

The official Twitter account of the month-old military service posted[*] a teaser photograph Friday night appearing to show a variant of the Operational Camouflage Pattern used by the Army and Air Force.

Above the left breast pocket in Navy embroidery reads: U.S. Space Force.

[...] The uniform depicts four-star rank, indicating that the uniform belongs to Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, the first commander of U.S. Space Force. It also has the Command Space Operations badge embroidered above the service nametape.

On the left sleeve of the uniform is the United States Space Command patch, denoting the military's newest combatant command, formed shortly before Space Force itself activated Dec. 20. And above that patch is a full-color American flag patch -- a departure from the muted flags that soldiers and airmen typically wear on their right shoulders in OCP uniform.

Many questions remain. Space Force has yet to announce a rank structure, a full system of uniforms or even what to call members of the new service. In a Thursday briefing, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Raymond was developing a plan regarding every detail.

[*] https://twitter.com/SpaceForceDoD/status/1218335200964464650

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

Microsoft's sneaky plan to switch Chrome searches from Google to Bing:

Microsoft announced today that, beginning in February 2020, Office365 Pro Plus installs and updates will include a Chrome extension that forcibly changes the default search engine to Microsoft's own search engine, Bing.

[...] This new policy only takes places in specific geographic areas, as determined by a user's IP address. If you aren't in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, the UK, or the United States, you should be safe—for now

[...] Predictably, the unruly denizens of Reddit's r/sysadmin—arguably, the closest thing the modern Internet has to the scary devil monastery—are unhappy.

[...] Microsoft's actual stated reasoning for the change is to automatically enable Microsoft Search within the user's browser.

[...] Aside from the potential to enrage sysadmins and users alike, we question the wisdom of conditioning users to search for internal, likely confidential data in their Web browser's general-purpose search bar.

LibreOffice + Firefox anyone?

Additional coverage at: searchengineland

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Can the Linux Foundation Speak for Free Software?:

[Emphasis in original. --Ed.]

Although the Linux Foundation seems to represent Linux and the entire Linux user community, many community members have complained for years that the organization has defaulted to representing only the interests of its corporate membership.

This situation might not matter so much if organizations representing the community were strong enough to act as a counter-balance. The trouble is, they are not. In the last decade, the Free Software Foundation has backed away from its former activist tradition, while the Software Freedom Conservancy is almost unknown outside a small circle. Even Debian, while the dominant force among Linux distributions, makes fewer position announcements than it once did. As a result, the Linux Foundation has become the accepted public face of free software without any attempt to represent any except corporate interests.

The kindest interpretation of this situation is that the Linux Foundation has a public relations problem that it is unaware of and is overdue to correct. A more cynical interpretation is that, from its very start, the Linux Foundation has been a slow coup, gradually usurping an authority to which it has no right. Ask me on alternate days which one I believe.

Whatever the case, the solutions are the same. A concerted effort to get community members elected to at-large positions might help, although they would still be a minority. Many, too, might not want to legitimize the foundation by participating in it. A more promising response might be to see that community organizations are strengthened to provide a counter-balance, but that would be a slow solution if it worked at all.

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Capitalism is in trouble – at least judging by recent polls.

A majority of American millennials reject the economic system, while 55% of women age 18 to 54 say they prefer socialism. More Democrats now have a positive view of socialism than capitalism. And globally, 56% of respondents to a new survey agree "capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world."

One problem interpreting numbers like these is that there are many definitions of capitalism and socialism. More to the point, people seem to be thinking of a specific form of capitalism that deems the sole purpose of companies is to increase stock prices and enrich investors. Known as shareholder capitalism, it's been the guiding light of American business for more than four decades. That's what the survey meant by "as it exists today."

As a scholar of socially responsible companies, however, I cannot help but notice a shift in corporate behavior in recent years. A new kind of capitalism seems to be emerging, one in which companies value communities, the environment and workers just as much as profits.

The latest evidence: Companies as diverse as alcohol maker AB InBev, airline JetBlue and money manager BlackRock have all in recent weeks made new commitments to pursue more sustainable business practices.

[...] A 2017 study showed that many companies with climate change goals actually scaled back their ambitions over time as the reality clashed with their lofty goals.

But businesses can't afford to ignore their customers' wishes. Nor can they ignore their workers in a tight labor market. And if they disregard socially responsible investors, they risk both losing out on important investments and facing shareholder resolutions that force change.

The shareholder value doctrine is not dead, but we are beginning to see major cracks in its armor. And as long as investors, customers and employees continue to push for more responsible behavior, you should expect to see those cracks grow.

The Conversation

Original Submission