SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Open Source Initiative bans co-founder, Eric S Raymond:

Last week, Eric S Raymond (often known as ESR, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and co-founder of the Open Source Intiative) was banned from the Open Source Intiative[sic] (the "OSI").

Specifically, Raymond was banned from the mailing lists used to organize and communicate with the OSI.

For an organization to ban their founder from communicating with the group (such as via a mailing list) is a noteworthy move.

At a time when we have seen other founders (of multiple Free and Open Source related initiatives) pushed out of the organizations they founded (such as with Richard Stallman being compelled to resign from the Free Software Foundation, or the attempts to remove Linus Torvalds from the Linux Kernel – both of which happened within the last year) it seems worth taking a deeper look at what, specifically, is happening with the Open Source Initiative.

I don't wish to tell any of you what you should think about this significant move. As such I will simply provide as much of the relevant information as I can, show the timeline of events, and reach out to all involved parties for their points of view and comments.

The author provides links to — and quotations from — entries on the mailing list supporting this. There is also a conversation the author had with ESR. The full responses he received to his queries are posted, as well.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

On February 28, SpaceX's SN01 Starship prototype imploded and exploded during a pressurization test (Mk1 failed in November). A day later, Eric Berger from Ars Technica visited SpaceX's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. Some highlights from the story include:

• SN01 was not destined to fly, only to serve as a platform for static fire testing. (Elon Musk had previously tweeted that the wrong settings were used on the welding equipment used to build SN01.)
• SN01's failure has been attributed to bad welding on the thrust puck, which is welded onto the bottom tank dome of Starship and connects the Raptor engines to the rest of the rocket.
• The quality team raised concerns about the thrust puck to an engineer who did not act upon them. They have been instructed to contact Musk directly with design concerns.
• SpaceX went on a hiring spree in February that doubled its workforce in Boca Chica to over 500. The goal is to build a production line for Starships.
• SpaceX aims to build a Starship every week by the end of 2020, with a goal of building one every 72 hours eventually.
• SpaceX engineers have built an in-house x-ray machine to look for imperfections in welds.
• Construction costs for a single Starship could eventually drop to as low as $5 million.
• The Boca Chica site will operate 24/7, with workers alternating between three and four 12-hour shifts per week.
• A 20 km flight is planned for this spring, and an orbital mission could happen before the end of 2020.

In other news:

• SpaceX to Raise Hundreds of Millions of Dollars Through a Funding Round That Will Value It at $36 Billion
• SpaceX Could Earn $30 Billion Annually From Starlink, 10x Of Sending ISS Supplies – Elon Musk
• SpaceX's latest Starship test was uneventful and that's great news for its flight debut
• Astronauts capture SpaceX cargo capsule with robot arm for final time

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In 11 days, DNS overseer ICANN is supposed to rule on the $1.13bn purchase of a critical piece of the internet – the .org registry with its 10 million domain names. But ICANN has yet to even decide what criteria it will use decide whether to green-light the takeover.

Despite two previous postponements, four months' notice, dozens of letters, and a protest outside its headquarters, on Monday this week ICANN refused to say whether it will consider the broader public interest in its decision, or apply the same criteria it used last time the registry changed ownership.

It even refused to say whether it considered the use of so-called "public interest commitments" (PICs) – a format that ICANN had itself devised – would be legally sufficient to address concerns from the non-profit community that the sale of the registry from non-profit Internet Society to an unknown private-equity firm would undermine decades of investment in their .org addresses.

ICANN and its community were supposed to be meeting in person this week in Cancun, Mexico, but the Covid-19 coronavirus forced it to hold the conference virtually. The result was an hour-long Zoom call of frustration as representative after representative raised concerns about the deal and were met with a variation on "thank you for your input, next!"

At one point, after ICANN refused to answer a question about whether any commitments on the future of .org could be subsequently changed without input from .org owners, the virtual chatroom was flooded with people demanding a response from the organization supposedly in charge. They didn't get one.

takyon writes:

Minor convictions for ex-CIA coder in hacking tools case

A former CIA software engineer accused of stealing a massive trove of the agency's hacking tools and handing it over to WikiLeaks was convicted of only minor charges Monday, after a jury deadlocked on the more serious espionage counts against him.

Joshua Schulte, who worked as a coder at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, was convicted by a jury of contempt of court and making false statements after a four-week trial in Manhattan federal court that offered an unusual window into the CIA's digital sleuthing and the team that designs computer code to spy on foreign adversaries.

After deliberating since last week, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the more significant charges. They had notified U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty on Friday that they had reached consensus on two counts, but were unable to reach a verdict on eight others.

Previously: Suspect Identified in C.I.A. Leak was Charged, but Not for the Breach

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Dustin Kirkland has written a blog post about telecommuting for over two decades. He goes into a lot of detail about his particular setup. He closes asking what other people's remote offices look like and what, if anything, he missed.

In this post, I'm going to share a few of the benefits and best practices that I've discovered over the years, and I'll share with you a shopping list of hardware and products that I have come to love or depend on, over the years.

I worked in a variety of different roles -- software engineer, engineering manager, product manager, and executive (CTO, VP Product, Chief Product Officer) -- and with a couple of differet companies, big and small (IBM, Google, Canonical, Gazzang, and Apex). In fact, I was one of IBM's early work-from-home interns, as a college student in 2000, when my summer internship manager allowed me to continue working when I went back to campus, and I used the ATT Global Network dial-up VPN client to "upload" my code to IBM's servers.

If there's anything positive to be gained out of the COVID-19 virus life changes, I hope that working from home will become much more widely accepted and broadly practiced around the world, in jobs and industries where it's possible. Moreover, I hope that other jobs and industries will get even more creative and flexible with remote work arrangements, while maintaining work-life-balance, corporate security, and employee productivity.

See similar article at the BBC.

How much, if any, can you work from home? What tools are on your "gotta have it" list? What cautions, suggestions, and resources do you suggest for your fellow Soylentils?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow4275:

New US Bill Aims to Protect Researchers who Disclose Govt Backdoors:

New legislation has been introduced that amends the Espionage Act of 1917 to protect journalists, whistleblowers, and security researchers who discover and disclose classified government information.

The goal of the new legislation is to amend the Espionage Act of 1917 so it cannot be used to target reporters, whistleblowers, and security researchers who discover and publish classified government secrets.

Concerned that the current laws are being used for partisan prosecution, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D - California) introduced the new legislation to Congress on March 5th, 2020 and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D - Oregon) will soon introduce it to the Senate.

"My bill with Senator Wyden will protect journalists from being prosecuted under the Espionage Act and make it easier for members of Congress, as well as federal agencies, to conduct proper oversight over any privacy abuses. Our nation's strength rests on the freedom of the press, transparency, and a functioning system of checks and balances. This bill is a step toward ensuring those same principles apply to intelligence gathering and surveillance operations," said Rep. Ro Khanna.

"This bill ensures only personnel with security clearances can be prosecuted for improperly revealing classified information," Senator Wyden stated.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Scientists monitor brains replaying memories in real time: Our brains use distinct firing patterns to store and replay memories:

In a study of epilepsy patients, researchers at the National Institutes of Health monitored the electrical activity of thousands of individual brain cells, called neurons, as patients took memory tests. They found that the firing patterns of the cells that occurred when patients learned a word pair were replayed fractions of a second before they successfully remembered the pair. The study was part of an NIH Clinical Center trial for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy whose seizures cannot be controlled with drugs.

"Memory plays a crucial role in our lives. Just as musical notes are recorded as grooves on a record, it appears that our brains store memories in neural firing patterns that can be replayed over and over again," said Kareem Zaghloul, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon-researcher at the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and senior author of the study published in Science.

Dr. Zaghloul's team has been recording electrical currents of drug-resistant epilepsy patients temporarily living with surgically implanted electrodes designed to monitor brain activity in the hopes of identifying the source of a patient's seizures. This period also provides an opportunity to study neural activity during memory. In this study, his team examined the activity used to store memories of our past experiences, which scientists call episodic memories.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

One step closer to understanding the human brain:

An international team of scientists led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has launched a comprehensive overview of all proteins expressed in the brain, published today in the journal Science. The open-access database offers medical researchers an unprecedented resource to deepen their understanding of neurobiology and develop new, more effective therapies and diagnostics targeting psychiatric and neurological diseases.

[...] "As expected the blueprint for the brain is shared among mammals, but the new map also reveals interesting differences between human, pig and mouse brains," says Mathias Uhlén, Professor at the Department of Protein Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Visiting professor at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and Director of the Human Protein Atlas effort.

The cerebellum emerged in the study as the most distinct region of the brain. Many proteins with elevated expression levels in this region were found, including several associated to psychiatric disorders supporting a role of the cerebellum in the processing of emotions.

[...] When comparing the neurotransmitter systems, responsible for the communication between neurons, some clear differences between the species could be identified.

"Several molecular components of neurotransmitter systems, especially receptors that respond to released neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, show a different pattern in humans and mice," says Dr. Jan Mulder, group leader of the Human Protein Atlas brain profiling group and researcher at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. "This means that caution should be taken when selecting animals as models for human mental and neurological disorders."

Evelina Sjöstedt, et. al. An atlas of the protein-coding genes in the human, pig, and mouse brain. Science, 2020; 367 (6482): eaay5947 DOI: 10.1126/science.aay5947

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Downsizing the McMansion: Study gauges a sustainable size for future homes:

What might homes of the future look like if countries were really committed to meeting global calls for sustainability, such as the recommendations advanced by the Paris Agreement and the U.N.'s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Much wider adoption of smart design features and renewable energy for low- to zero-carbon homes is one place to start -- the U.N. estimates households consume 29% of global energy and consequently contribute to 21% of resultant CO2 emissions, which will only rise as global population increases.

However, a new scholarly paper authored at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) assesses another big factor in the needed transformation of our living spaces toward sustainability -- the size of our homes.

The paper published in the journal Housing, Theory & Society makes the case for transitioning away from the large, single-family homes that typify suburban sprawl, offering new conceptions for what constitutes a more sustainable and sufficient average home size in high-income countries going forward.

The article surveys more than 75 years of housing history and provides estimates for the optimal spatial dimensions that would align with an "environmentally tenable and globally equitable amount of per-person living area" today. It also spotlights five emerging cases of housing innovation around the world that could serve as models for effectively adopting more space-efficient homes of the future.

"There is no question that if we are serious about embracing our expressed commitments to sustainability, we will in the future need to live more densely and wisely," said Maurie Cohen, the paper's author and professor at NJIT's Department of Humanities. "This will require a complete reversal in our understanding of what it means to enjoy a 'good life' and we will need to start with the centerpiece of the 'American Dream,' namely the location and scale of our homes.

"The notion of 'bigger is better' will need to be supplanted by the question of 'how much is enough?' Fortunately, we are beginning to see examples of this process unfolding in some countries around the world, including the United States."

Maurie J. Cohen. New Conceptions of Sufficient Home Size in High-Income Countries: Are We Approaching a Sustainable Consumption Transition? Housing, Theory and Society, 2020; 1 DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2020.1722218

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Argonne's pioneering user facility to add magic number factory:

One of the big questions in physics and chemistry is, how were the heavy elements from iron to uranium created? The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is being upgraded with new capabilities to help find the answer to that question and many others.

[...] Since its inception, ATLAS has brought together the world's leading scientists and engineers to solve some of the most complex scientific problems in nuclear physics and astrophysics. In particular, it has been instrumental in determining properties of atomic nuclei, the core of matter and the fuel of stars.

The forthcoming N = 126 factory will be generating beams of atomic nuclei with a "magic number" of neutrons, 126. As Savard explains, "Physics has seven magic numbers: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126. Atomic nuclei with these numbers of neutrons or protons are exceptionally stable. This stability makes them ideal for research purposes in general."

Scientists at ATLAS will be generating N = 126 nuclei to test a reigning theory of astrophysics—that the rapid capture of neutrons during the explosion and collapse of massive stars and the collision of neutron stars is responsible for the formation of about half the heavy elements from iron through uranium.

The N = 126 factory will be accelerating a beam composed of a xenon isotope with 82 neutrons into a target composed of a platinum isotope with 120 neutrons. The resulting collisions will transfer neutrons from the xenon beam into a platinum target, yielding isotopes with 126 neutrons and close to that amount. The very heavy neutron-rich isotopes are directed to experimental stations for study.

"The planned studies at ATLAS will provide the first data on neutron-rich isotopes with around 126 neutrons and should play a critical role in understanding the formation of heavy elements, the last stage in the evolution of stars," said Savard. "These and other studies will keep ATLAS at the frontier of science."

G. Savard et al, The N = 126 factory: A new facility to produce very heavy neutron-rich isotopes, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2019.05.024

A.A. Valverde et al. A cooler-buncher for the N=126 factory at Argonne National Laboratory, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2019.04.070

Original Submission

edIII writes:

Max Von Sydow has passed away on 8 March 2020 at the age of 90 at his home in Provence, France.

A film icon, versatile actor, Max Von Sydow was part of many sci-fi movies now cult classics. Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Strange Brew, Dune, The Minority Report, and The Exorcist to name just a few. Some may also remember him as the voice of Vigo the Carpathian, in Ghost Busters II.

I will always remember him as Ming the Merciless.

R.I.P.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Led Zeppelin have triumphed in a long-running copyright dispute after a US appeals court ruled they did not steal the opening riff in Stairway To Heaven.

The British rock legends were accused in 2014 of ripping off a song called Taurus by the US band Spirit.

Taurus was written in 1968, three years before Stairway To Heaven.

Now, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has upheld a 2016 trial verdict that found Led Zeppelin did not copy it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51805905

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Functionally graded materials (FGM) allow diverse applications in multidisciplinary fields from biomedicine to architecture. However, their fabrication can be tedious relative to gradient continuity, interfacial bending and directional freedom. Most commercial design software does not include property gradient data—hindering the exploration of design space suited for FGMs. In a new report on Science Advances, Pedro A.G.S. Giachini and a research team in architecture and urban planning, physical intelligence and medicine, in the U.S., Germany and Turkey designed a combined approach of materials engineering and digital processing. The method facilitated extrusion-based multimaterial, additive manufacturing of cellulose-based, tunable viscoelastic materials.

The constructs maintained continuous, high-contrast and multidimensional stiffness gradients. Giachini et al. established a method to engineer sets of cellulose-based materials with similar compositions, yet with distinct mechanical and rheological properties. The team also parallelly developed a digital workflow to embed gradient information into design models with integrated fabrication path planning. The team combined the physical and digital tools to achieve similar stiffness gradients through multiple pathways to achieve open design possibilities that were previously limited to rigid coupling of material and geometry.

The new technique could be applied toward low-cost, bio-degradable products.

More information: P. A. G. S. Giachini et al. Additive manufacturing of cellulose-based materials with continuous, multidirectional stiffness gradients, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay0929

Daniela Rus et al. Design, fabrication and control of soft robots, Nature (2015). DOI: 10.1038/nature14543

Falguni Pati et al. Biomimetic 3-D tissue printing for soft tissue regeneration, Biomaterials (2015). DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.05.043

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

The discovery of a 14th century underground burial site deep in Gabon's tropical forest may shed light on a little known period in Africa's history.

Hundreds of mediaeval artefacts are scattered with human remains at the bottom of a cave in the southeast of the country, discovered by a French geo-archaeologist in 2018.

[...] Almost 30 skeletons have been discovered on three levels, with more than 500 metallic artefacts made mostly of iron and ranging from knives, axes and spear tips to bracelets and collars. Researchers also found 39 pierced teeth from hyenas and panthers.

[...] Some researchers wonder whether Africa was struck by the Great Plague, over the same decades as it ravaged Europe and Asia. Maybe the Iroungou bones hold an answer.

Soil in Sub-Saharan Africa is acidic and decomposes remains quickly, so this is a rare find. Local inhabitants had no idea the cave was there or what it contained, which means there might be a lot of exciting archaeological discoveries in the future that are hiding next door.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

SingularityHub:

Become partially android for a couple of years while your body heals itself.

It may sound far-fetched, but for patients needing reconstructive surgery, this could soon be the pitch from Danish startup Particle3D. The company is pioneering a novel method for 3D printing lightweight, customized bone implants that fuse with your skeleton before slowly disappearing.

The technology carries a lower risk of infection and the implants are tailored to your body (and the method could soon be heading to space with astronauts!).

[...] Traditional implants generally consist of non-degradable materials such as polymer or titanium. Particle3D uses a "bio-ink" made from tricalcium phosphate (TCP) powder particles and fatty acids. TCP [has] been used in reconstructive surgery for decades, but is normally manually sculpted by surgeons from solid blocks into the desired implant shape. This approach can limit the potential positive effects of TCP, for example, when it comes to stimulating natural bone growth.

Three words: retractable Wolverine claws.

Original Submission