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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:

Virgin Galactic's spaceship flies from its new home base for the first time:

The pieces are finally starting to come together for Virgin Galactic's space tourism — the company has flown SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America for the first time. It was just a glide test from 50,000 feet up, but the flight let the spaceport fulfill its intended purpose and gave pilots familiarity with the New Mexico airspace. This will also help Virgin compare performance against similar maneuvers from earlier tests.

From https://www.geekwire.com/2020/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-makes-first-gliding-test-flight-new-mexico/ we read:

Unity was carried to a height of 50,000 feet by its WhiteKnightTwo mothership, VMS Eve, and then released to glide back to the spaceport's runway. Virgin Galactic said Unity achieved a glide speed of Mach 0.70 and completed all test objectives with pilots Dave Mackay and CJ Sturckow at the controls. Michael Masucci and Kelly Latimer piloted Eve.

Further test flights will clear the way for passengers to start flying suborbital space trips as early as this year. More than 600 customers from 60 countries have paid as much as $250,000 for a reservation, and Virgin Galactic resumed taking deposits for trips in February.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:

Woman Who Sold Access to Pirated Books on Dropbox Handed Suspended Sentence:

Pirated textbooks are relatively easy to find on the open web and via dedicated pirate sites. However, some people are creating their own libraries in an effort to make money, offering online access to such material in exchange for a fee.

[...] According to the [Rights Alliance (Rettighedsalliancen)] group, which acts on behalf of a wide range of copyright holders, publishers included, routine monitoring for pirated content drew its attention to an advert placed on Den Blå Avis (The Blue Newspaper), Denmark's largest buying and selling site.

For a fee of 20 kronor (US$2.91) it offered access to 115 digital copies of books usually sold by publishers including Gyldendal, Lindhardt and Ringhof, University of Southern Denmark, and Social Literature. The books were conveniently stored on Dropbox, with customers able to download them with minimum fuss. With assistance from local police, Rights Alliance was able to have the advert quickly removed but also managed to identify the seller, a woman from the Vanløse district of Copenhagen. The group said that the woman admitted to the unlawful distribution of the content, which included books dedicated to physiotherapy.

This week her fate was decided by a court in Nykøbing Falster, which reopened for business on Monday after a closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Following a guilty plea, the court handed down a suspended sentence of 20 days in prison accompanied by a financial confiscation order.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:

Frontier, amid bankruptcy, is suspected of lying about broadband expansion:

Small Internet providers have asked for a government investigation into Frontier Communications' claim that it recently deployed broadband to nearly 17,000 census blocks, saying the expansion seems unlikely given Frontier's bankruptcy and its historical failure to upgrade networks in rural areas.

The accuracy of Frontier's claimed expansion matters to other telcos because the Federal Communications Commission is planning to distribute up to $16 billion to ISPs that commit to deploying broadband in census blocks where there isn't already home Internet service with speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. An entire census block can be ruled ineligible for the $16 billion distribution under the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) even if only one or a few homes in the block have access to 25/3Mbps broadband.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Hertz Seeking to Avoid Bankruptcy After Missing Lease Payment, Report Says:

Quarantines and other recent coronavirus measures have decimated travel, both globally and domestically. Of course, this has a ripple effect on tangential industries, as well, like car rentals. As developments continue, one report claims that a car-rental giant might be facing some big financial issues.

Hertz has failed to make a lease payment and is exploring a possible bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reports [$], citing sources familiar with the matter. In a statement to Roadshow, Hertz confirmed its financial situation: "We are reducing expenses, deferring capital expenditures, and adjusting fleet levels and staffing based on the significant decline in travel demand," said a Hertz spokesperson via email. "Importantly, conversations with our lenders are ongoing and we remain in discussions with the US Treasury for support."

[...] According to the WSJ report, Hertz is currently holding $17 billion in debt, an overwhelming majority of which is attributed to car notes on its rental fleet. Hertz, like competitors such as Enterprise, have laid off staff and tried to get the money together to continue operating during these lean times.

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calmond writes:

Scientists have discovered a microbe that completely protects mosquitoes from being infected with malaria.

Scientists have discovered a microbe that completely protects mosquitoes from being infected with malaria. The team in Kenya and the UK say the finding has "enormous potential" to control the disease.

Malaria is spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes, so protecting them could in turn protect people.

The researchers are now investigating whether they can release infected mosquitoes into the wild, or use spores to suppress the disease.

[...] "It's a new discovery. We are very excited by its potential for malaria control. It has enormous potential," Prof Steven Sinkins, from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, told the BBC.

This concept of disease control using microbes is not unprecedented. A type of bacteria called Wolbachia has been shown to make it harder for mosquitoes to spread dengue fever in real-world trials.

The scientists need to understand how the microbe spreads, so they plan to perform more tests in Kenya.

However, these approaches are relatively uncontroversial as the species is already found in wild mosquitoes and is not introducing something new.

It also would not kill the mosquitoes, so would not have an impact on ecosystems that are dependent on them as food. This is part of other strategies like a killer fungus that can almost completely collapse mosquito populations in weeks.

Journal Reference
Herren, J.K., Mbaisi, L., Mararo, E. et al. A microsporidian impairs Plasmodium falciparum transmission in Anopheles arabiensis mosquitoes, Nat Commun 11, 2187 (2020) (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16121-y)

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

In April of 2018, the Twin Galaxies video game scoreboard announced its finding that well-known classic game score-chaser Billy Mitchell did not achieve his Donkey Kong high scores on unmodified arcade hardware, stripping him of all his accumulated records in the process. Since then, Mitchell has oft claimed that he would fight the decision every way he could. And in September 2019, Mitchell and his lawyers said in a statement they would be forced to "resort to legal recourse" if Twin Galaxies didn't rescind its decision and reinstate Mitchell's scores.

But court filings obtained by Ars Technica show that Mitchell had already filed suit against Twin Galaxies in a Los Angeles County court as early as April 2019.

Mitchell's defamation lawsuit—misfiled as "William James Mitchell vs. Twin Galexies, LLC [sic]" and not reported in previous press accounts—has been slowly building to a planned July anti-SLAPP hearing, where Twin Galaxies will make use of a statute that lets defendants quickly strike down lawsuits that threaten "public participation." Twin Galaxies says in court filings that its statements regarding Mitchell's scores were not defamatory and that finding in Mitchell's favor "would have chilling effects on the freedom of speech."

"My law firm and I are fully confident that we will establish a prima face [sic] case for all parts of the lawsuit," Mitchell told Ars Technica in a Twitter Direct Message.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

What price are you willing to pay for food? As humans, we face this challenge each time we shop, but for some seals and dolphins this may be a life or death decision.

Modern medical scanning reveals the steep price some marine mammals are willing to pay for food, after a stranded fur seal was discovered with more than a dozen facial wounds inflicted by its seafood prey.

The extreme dangers facing hungry marine mammals are revealed in a new study published in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, led by marine biologist Dr. David Hocking from the Monash University School of Biological Sciences.

"Marine mammals like whales, seals and dolphins need to eat seafood to survive," Dr. Hocking said. "But, we seldom consider what the fish think of this situation. Obviously, they are less than enthusiastic about being eaten, and some of them have evolved elaborate defence systems to help them fight off would-be predators."

Journal Information: DP Hocking et al, Inferring diet, feeding behaviour and causes of mortality from prey-induced injuries in a New Zealand fur seal, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (2020). DOI: 10.3354/dao03473

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Oil Wells Done Rube-Goldberg Style: Flatrods And Jerk Lines:

The news is full of the record low oil price due to the COVID-19-related drop in demand. The benchmark Brent crude dipped below $20 a barrel, while West Texas intermediate entered negative pricing. We've all become oil market watchers overnight, and for some of us that's led down a rabbit hole of browsing to learn a bit about how oil is extracted.

Many of us will have seen offshore oil platforms or nodding pumpjacks, but how many of us outside the industry have much more than a very superficial knowledge of it? Of all the various technologies to provide enlightenment of the curious technologist there's one curious survivor from the earliest days of the industry that is definitely worth investigation, the jerk line oil well pump. This is a means of powering a reciprocating pump in an oil well not through an individual engine or motor as in the pump jacks, but in a system of rods transmitting power over long distances from a central location by means of reciprocating motion. It's gloriously simple, which has probably contributed to its survival in a few small-scale oil fields over a century and a half after its invention.

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Kitsune008 writes:

One of the issues involving nuclear power has been what to do with the waste materials. What if there was a way to not only convert the problematic materials into a safer storage form, but also enable that same storage form to be used as fuel in newer nuclear power generators? Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?
That may have changed:
https://phys.org/news/2020-05-reveals-single-step-strategy-recycling-nuclear.html

I would prefer more 'green' sources of energy production, but this is something that may be useful to help that along, making coal and petroleum energy production a part of history.

Journal Reference
Jeffrey D. Einkauf, Jonathan D. Burns. Recovery of Oxidized Actinides, Np(VI), Pu(VI), and Am(VI), from Cocrystallized Uranyl Nitrate Hexahydrate: A Single Technology Approach to Used Nuclear Fuel Recycling, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c00381)

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Why are we all forgetting what day it is?:

Google searches for "what day is it?" have been steadily rising throughout lockdown as people desperately try to recover a semblance of normality.

Likewise, the phrase has been trending on social media, with more than 307,600 posts under the hashtag #WhatDayIsIt on Instagram demonstrating how many people are struggling with the phenomenon.

Struggling with time is only normal given the pandemic has ruptured our sense of routine, says Mary E. McNaughton-Cassill, clinical psychology professor at the University of Texas.

"During normal times our days, weeks and months follow predictable patterns," she tells The Independent. "How we dress, what we eat, when we go to bed and when we wake up are all dictated by our work, school and leisure routines."

[...] But in lockdown, of course, many of these cues have been eliminated. Our homes are no longer places to unwind. They are our schools, nurseries, offices, cafes, co-working spaces, bars and cinemas.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

"If you were to ask me what the key risk in the 2020 election is, I would say it's not deepfakes," said Kathryn Harrison, the founder and CEO of the DeepTrust Alliance, a coalition fighting deepfakes and other kinds of digital disinformation (that is: intentional, malicious false info). "It's actually going to be a true video that will pop up in late October that we won't be able to prove [whether] it's true or false."

This is the bigger, more devious threat, what's known as the Liar's Dividend. The term, popular in deepfake-research circles, means the mere existence of deepfakes gives more credibility to denials. Essentially, deepfakes make it easier for candidates caught on tape to convince voters of their innocence -- even if they're guilty -- because people have learned they can't believe their eyes anymore.

[...] "I don't think anyone's going to see a piece of video content, real or fake, and suddenly change their vote on Election Day," said Clint Watts, distinguished research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who testified to Congress last year about deepfakes and national security. "Trying to convince people Joe Biden touches people too much or whatever….I don't see how people's opinions can be really shaped in this media environment with that."

What worries him more are deepfakes that undermine election integrity -- like an authoritative figure reporting misinformation about turnout, polling site disruptions or voting machines changing your ballot.

Another worry: Deepfakes could destabilize the vote on US soil by causing havoc at a US outpost abroad. Imagine a fake that triggers an attack like the one on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, which became a political flashpoint in the US. State actors like China or Russia, for example, could find an effective strategy in forged videos that endanger US soldiers or US diplomats, particularly in war-torn regions or countries ruled by a dictator, where populations are already struggling to separate truth from propaganda and rumor.

[...] No matter what form an election deepfake tries to take, the time to be on highest alert is right before you cast your vote.

"If it happens 48 hours out of the Election Day," Watts said, "we may not have a chance to fix it."

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Scientists have used the same methods that will soon be used to search for evidence of life on Mars to look for evidence of the earliest forms of life on Earth at a location in South Australia.

[...] Ms Teece, along with scientists from Macquarie University and University of Missouri, replicated the methods that the Perseverance Rover will use to select Martian rocks for analysis for biomarkers—naturally occurring molecules indicating evidence for microbial life. The team examined samples collected from the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

"The Flinders Ranges is a perfect site to do a lot of Mars-related research in, because it's a dry, dusty, and windy area that is very barren and so a really good analogue for looking for life on Mars," Ms Teece says. "We wanted to use the same techniques that are on the Rover to pinpoint the best areas for looking for life and show that these techniques work together well."

[...] By mimicking the technology available on Perseverance, Ms Teece says the team was able to pinpoint which samples had undergone the most degradation and which would be less likely to still preserve these organics. The team used analogous tools to identify the rocks in the Flinders terrain that may be good for analysis, which they then collected by hand.

[...] "When sediments are buried and lithified to become rocks, they are heated up because the interior of Earth is hot—for approximately every kilometer under the surface that we descend, the temperature heats up by 25oC. This heat also destroys organic compounds, so knowing the maximum temperature of the rock is essential when canvassing for organics."

[...] "What is interesting is that we did find signs of ancient microbial life from the Cambrian period—which is when animals first evolved on earth. We found biomarkers, we found organic compounds and we found physical fossils and minerals that are associated with biology on Earth," she says.

[...] NASA has designated a window to launch the Perseverance Rover from July 17 to August 5, 2020.

Journal Reference:
Bronwyn L. Teecem, et al. Mars Rover Techniques and Lower/Middle Cambrian Microbialites from South Australia: Construction, Biofacies, and Biogeochemistry, Astrobiology (DOI: 10.1089/ast.2019.2110)

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martyb writes:

Recent Salt Vulnerabilities Exploited to Hack LineageOS, Ghost, DigiCert Servers

Over the past several days, hackers have exploited two recently disclosed Salt vulnerabilities to compromise the servers of LineageOS, Ghost and DigiCert.

Managed by SaltStack, Salt is an open-source configuration tool to monitor and update the state of servers in both datacenters and cloud environments. Called minions, agents installed on servers connect to a master to deliver state reports (to a "request server") and receive updates (from a "publish server").

Last week, F-Secure security researchers disclosed two vulnerabilities in Salt (CVE-2020-11651 and CVE-2020-11652) that could allow remote attackers to execute commands as root on "master" and connected minions. The most severe of the bugs has a CVSS score of 10.

The vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to bypass authentication and authorization controls, "and publish arbitrary control messages, read and write files anywhere on the 'master' server filesystem and steal the secret key used to authenticate to the master as root," F-Secure said last week.

The security firm warned that attackers would likely devise exploits for the vulnerabilities within 24 hours after the report became public: "Patch by Friday or compromised by Monday," F-Secure Principal Consultant Olle Segerdahl said on Thursday.

Over the weekend, attacks looking to exploit the two security flaws were observed, with LineageOS, Ghost, and DigiCert being among the first to fall victim.

[...] SaltStack released patches for the vulnerabilities last week, with Salt version 3000.2 addressing them. Salt version number 2019.2.4, which was released for the previous major version of the tool, also includes the patches.

Related: Critical Vulnerability in Salt Requires Immediate Patching

See notices from LineageOS, Ghost, and DigiCert.

Also at: The Register.

Separately, RamNode, who hosts our backups server, sent an email reporting they also got hit:

takyon writes:

Here's how to listen as the Supreme Court broadcasts oral arguments for first time ever

The Supreme Court will broadcast an oral argument live on Monday for the first time in its 230-year history.

C-SPAN will livestream the audio on television, online and on the C-SPAN Radio app.

Monday's case is a fight over whether Booking.com can trademark its name. The format of the arguments, which will be conducted over the phone, has proven even more controversial.

For years, activists and lawmakers have pushed unsuccessfully for the court to stream its arguments live to the public. Those efforts failed, but the spreading coronavirus finally persuaded the justices to make a change.

With the Covid-19 crisis forcing the court to shut its doors, the justices agreed to a live audio broadcast for 10 arguments, all via teleconference, in the first two weeks of May.

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hubie writes:

Thunderstorms produce quick bursts of energetic gamma rays. These Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) were first discovered in 1992 by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. These bursts are unpredictable and last less than a millisecond and as such it is very hard to locate them with any decent precision. They are some of the highest energy photons produced in nature, but how they are produced is not known. Some models assume they result from charged particle acceleration in the high electric field region concentrated at the tips of lightning leaders, while other models assume particle acceleration occurs in large-scale thundercloud electric fields.

Fairly recently it was noticed that TGFs were often associated with Electro-Magnetic Pulses (EMPs) in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) region. However, it isn't known whether the EMPs are signatures of the lightning that "triggers" the TGFs, or whether they are the RF signatures of the TGFs themselves. Figuring that out requires being able to pinpoint where in the thunderstorm the TGFs originate.

A collaborative group of researchers analyzed a five-year data set where TGF signatures were simultaneously measured using space- and ground-based detectors. They were able to show in a paper published in Scientific Reports that the EMPs and TGFs are produced by the same phenomenon, rather than the EMPs being from "regular" lightning in TGF-producing thunderstorms. A popular explanation for the TGF source is the Relativistic Runaway Electron Avalanche (RREA) process where high electric fields accelerate electrons, which collide and knock out more electrons that are accelerated resulting in an avalanche of runaway electrons. When the electrons finally decelerate in the thunderstorm electric field, they produce bremsstrahlung photons, which is what gets detected.

Reference:
Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 7286 (2020)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63437-2

Original Submission