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takyon writes:

D&D Looks To Cut Down On Racial Differences Going Forward

Races and classes have been the central aspects of character creation since the beginning of Dungeons & Dragons – well, not quite the beginning, since Elf used to be a class in original D&D. However, based on a twitter thread by D&D's Jeremy Crawford, it looks like Wizards of the Coast will be moving toward less drastic racial mechanics, especially in regard to races traditionally considered "monster races."

Crawford pointed out the differences between the orcs found in Volo's Guide to Monsters and those found in the Exandria and Eberron settings, saying that the latter reflects the direction that the D&D team is headed in regard to monsters. The Exandria and Eberron orcs lack the -2 penalty to Intelligence and the required evil alignment. This reflects the fact that in these settings orcs are mostly considered another type of people – with all the varieties in personality and temperament that come with that – rather than fodder for player characters to fight.

[...] It is worth noting that this comes on the heels of a Twitter discussion on the racist history of orcs, initially spawned by a screenshot of the description of orcs in Volo's Guide to Monsters. Tolkien initially portrayed orcs as caricatures of Mongolians, and orcs have been racial stereotypes of other races over and over (see World of Warcraft or Bright). Dungeons & Dragons is not immune to this – even outside of the orc issue, races like the Vistani appear as Romani stereotypes.

Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons

Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game—orcs and drow being two of the prime examples—have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated. That's just not right, and it's not something we believe in. Despite our conscious efforts to the contrary, we have allowed some of those old descriptions to reappear in the game. We recognize that to live our values, we have to do an even better job in handling these issues. If we make mistakes, our priority is to make things right.

See also: Dungeons & Dragons Designers Clarify How Gnolls Differ From Other D&D Creatures

Related: Gender and Appearance Stereotypes Travel to World of Warcraft

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Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers create a new class of rate-sensitive mechanical metamaterials:

Researchers at the Department of Biomechanical Engineering of Delft University of Technology have created a new class of metamaterials that can dynamically switch their mechanical behavior. It may form the basis for practical applications such as fall-protective clothing for the elderly.

[...] The team constructed tall pillars that consist of two different materials: one side is made from a material that responds to the speed of deformation while the material of other side does not care about how fast it is deformed. When applying a compressive force along the long axis direction of this "bi-beam," the elasticity of both materials ensures that it doesn't break but rather buckles.

[...] One of potential applications of metamaterials showing such switching behavior is that of protection against falls. Says Zadpoor, "Imagine a wearable layer. Under normal circumstances, it is soft and follows the movements of the body. When an impact occurs, the material switches its behavior, acting as a shock absorber." This might help people suffering from osteoporosis, where bone fractures constitute a major complication.

Shape-changing materials may be coming to a wardrobe near you.

Journal Reference:
S. Janbaz, K. Narooei, T. van Manen, et al. Strain rate–dependent mechanical metamaterials [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0616)

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Phoenix666 writes in with this story from Phys.org:

Masks, visors, gloves or screens ... all are crucial accessories to keep COVID-19 at bay.

Other uses are manifold—from hairdressers using throwaway aprons to UN recommendations that airline food be distributed in blister packs to the bubble tents that allow some relatives to visit elderly and sick loved ones, touching them through a transparent plastic film.

Even California has had partially to lay aside its green credentials by dropping for two months a ban on single use plastic bags. In Saudi Arabia, some retail centres insist customers don wear-and-throw gloves.

Industry has been quick to highlight plastic's versatility. In March, one French plastics group stated that "without single use plastic you will no longer have wrapping to protect your food against germs."

In the long term, will fears over pandemics win out against fears over the environment?

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Loneliness alters your brain's social network: Feeling disconnected from others is reflected by how the brain represents relationships:

A brain region called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) maintains a structured map of a person's social circles, based on closeness. People that struggle with loneliness often perceive a gap between themselves and others. This gap is reflected by the activity patterns of the mPFC.

The researchers had the participants think of different groups of people (self, "close others", acquaintances, and celebrities) while being scanned in an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The perceived closeness of the subject to the imagined targets were revealed in the scans. Further, the lonelier-feeling participants had reduced perception of similarity to others in all categories.

Journal Reference:
Andrea L. Courtney, Meghan L. Meyer. Self-other representation in the social brain reflects social connection [$], Journal of Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2826-19.2020)

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Robotron writes:

Over 70 data harvesting apps in the Chrome Web Store have been discovered by researchers at Awake Security. Chrome users had downloaded the malware some 32 million times; several of the apps boasted of privacy protecting features, but instead forwarded the Chrome user's browsing data to a network of 15,000 websites hosted by Israeli web registrar Galcomm. Scott Westover, a representative for Google, had this to say: "When we are alerted of extensions in the Web Store that violate our policies, we take action and use those incidents as training material."

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martyb writes:

Engineers develop new fuel cells with twice the operating voltage as hydrogen fuel cells:

Liquid-fueled fuel cells are an attractive alternative to traditional hydrogen fuel cells because they eliminate the need to transport and store hydrogen. They can help to power unmanned underwater vehicles, drones and, eventually, electric aircraft — all at significantly lower cost. These fuel cells could also serve as range-extenders for current battery-powered electric vehicles, thus advancing their adoption.

Now, engineers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have developed high-power direct borohydride fuel cells (DBFC) that operate at double the voltage of conventional hydrogen fuel cells. Their research was published June 17 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

The research team, led by Vijay Ramani, the Roma B. and Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished University Professor, has pioneered a reactant: identifying an optimal range of flow rates, flow field architectures and residence times that enable high power operation. This approach addresses key challenges in DBFCs, namely proper fuel and oxidant distribution and the mitigation of parasitic reactions.

Importantly, the team has demonstrated a single-cell operating voltage of 1.4 or greater, double that obtained in conventional hydrogen fuel cells, with peak powers approaching 1 watt/cm2. Doubling the voltage would allow for a smaller, lighter, more efficient fuel cell design, which translates to significant gravimetric and volumetric advantages when assembling multiple cells into a stack for commercial use. Their approach is broadly applicable to other classes of liquid/liquid fuel cells.

[...] The key to improving any existing fuel cell technology is reducing or eliminating side reactions. The majority of efforts to achieve this goal involve developing new catalysts that face significant hurdles in terms of adoption and field deployment.

Journal Reference:
Zhongyang Wang, Shrihari Sankarasubramanian, Vijay Ramani. Reactant-Transport Engineering Approach to High-Power Direct Borohydride Fuel Cells, Cell Reports Physical Science (DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100084)

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Phoenix666 writes:

New discovery allows 3D printing of sensors directly on expanding organs

In groundbreaking new research, mechanical engineers and computer scientists at the University of Minnesota have developed a 3D printing technique that uses motion capture technology, similar to that used in Hollywood movies, to print electronic sensors directly on organs that are expanding and contracting. The new 3D printing technique could have future applications in diagnosing and monitoring the lungs of patients with COVID-19.

[...] The researchers started in the lab with a balloon-like surface and a specialized 3D printer. They used motion capture tracking markers, much like those used in movies to create special effects, to help the 3D printer adapt its printing path to the expansion and contraction movements on the surface. The researchers then moved on to an animal lung in the lab that was artificially inflated. They were able to successfully print a soft hydrogel-based sensor directly on the surface. McAlpine said the technique could also possibly be used in the future to 3D print sensors on a pumping heart.

Journal Reference:
Zhijie Zhu, Hyun Soo Park, Michael C. McAlpine. 3D printed deformable sensors [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5575)

What could possibly go wrong?

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Phoenix666 writes:

New York MTA is battling COVID-19 with UV lights and infrared sensors:

New York City may be opening back up for business, but that doesn't mean everybody's ready to hop aboard its trains and buses yet. While daily ridership on subways and buses is up 380,000 compared with the period before the June 8 reopening date, that's still a fraction of the millions of riders who commuted in the pre-pandemic days.

[...] Last month, the MTA began shutting down the subway system between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.daily -- the first time it's ever done so -- to disinfect the cars. Foye made the point that it wasn't simply a cleaning, but actually disinfecting the cars, and noted it happens twice a day.

At the same time, the agency launched a $1 million pilot program to use ultraviolet light to sterilize its cars. The MTA plans to deploy 150 mobile devices at stations and rail yards to test the effectiveness of UV, and Foye said that the early research conducted by Columbia University has been promising.

Meanwhile, cycling naturally enforces distance, is faster, and costs nothing.

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martyb writes:

Are 80 Characters Per Line Still Reasonable In 2020?

[...] In case of the Linux kernel, that's of course [Linus Torvalds], who has recently shaken up the community with a mailing list response declaring an overly common, often even unwritten rule of code formatting as essentially obsolete: the 80-character line limitation. Considering the notoriety of his rants and crudeness, his response, which was initiated by a line break change in the submitted patch, seems downright diplomatic this time.

[Linus]' reasoning against a continuing enforcement of 80-char line limits is primarly the fact that screens are simply big enough today to comfortably fit longer lines, even with multiple terminals (or windows) next to each other. As he puts it, the only reason to stick to the limitation is using an actual VT100, which won't serve much use in kernel development anyway.

Allowing longer lines on the other hand would encourage the use of more verbose variable names and whitespace, which in turn would actually increase readability. Of course, all to a certain extent, and [Linus] obviously doesn't call for abolishing line breaks altogether. But he has a point; does it really make sense to stick to a decades old, nowadays rather arbitrary-seeming limitation in 2020?

The article then gives an overview of the history of how 80 columns became the de facto standard width. Though mentioned briefly in passing, it all really got started with the invention of the punched card dating back to 1804 when "Joseph Marie Jacquard demonstrated a mechanism to automate loom operation". The physical size of the punch card used in the 1890 United States Census was the same as US currency at that time. The cards were then known as "Hollerith cards" after the inventor Herman Hollerith. Later, IBM came to dominate the field.

Phoenix666 writes:

US-China row moves underwater in cable tangle:

An underwater data cable, linking the US to Hong Kong, looks set to be rejected by the US government because of fears of Chinese data theft.

The Pacific Light Cable Network, backed by Google and Facebook, is designed to boost internet speed and capacity.

[...] The new cable was announced in 2016 as a partnership between Google, Facebook, and other companies.

Google said the cable would be 12,800 km long (8,000 miles) and would be the "highest-capacity trans-Pacific route".

[...] The project would also have portions connecting the US with Taiwan and the Philippines.

The cable has been laid, reportedly at a cost of "many millions of dollars", but needs approval to operate.

[...] The committee has recommended approval for the Taiwan and Philippines sections.

But on Wednesday, it recommended the US to Hong Kong section was denied "on national security grounds".

Do we need to boost capacity for Google and Facebook?

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

BofA Phish Gets Around DMARC, Other Email Protections:

A credential-phishing attempt that relies on impersonating Bank of America has emerged in the U.S. this month, with emails that get around secure gateway protections and heavy-hitting protections like DMARC.

The campaign involves emails that ask recipients to update their email addresses, warning users that their accounts could be recycled if this isn’t done.

“The email language and topic was intended to induce urgency in the reader owing to its financial nature,” according to analysis from Armorblox. “Asking readers to update the email account for their bank lest it get recycled is a powerful motivator for anyone to click on the URL and follow through.”

The messages contain a link that purports to take visitors to a site to update their information – but clicking the link simply takes the recipients to a credential-phishing page that closely mirrors a legitimate Bank of America home page, researchers said.

The attack flow also included a page that asked readers for their ‘security challenge questions’, both to increase legitimacy as well as get further identifying information from targets, researchers said in a posting on Thursday.

“With the enforcement of Single Sign On (SSO) and two-factor authentication (2FA) across organizations, adversaries are now crafting email attacks that are able to bypass these measures,” Chetan Anand, co-founder and architect of Armorblox, told Theatpost. “This credential-phishing attack is a good example. Firstly, it phishes for Bank of America credentials, which are likely not to be included under company SSO policies. Secondly, it also phishes for answers to security-challenge questions, which is often used as a second/additional form of authentication. Asking security-challenge questions not only increases the legitimacy of the attack, but also provides the adversaries with vital personal information about their targets.”

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Phoenix666 writes:

Graphdiyne as a Functional Lithium-Ion Storage Material:

Carbon materials are the most common anode materials in lithium-ion batteries. Their layered structure allows lithium ions to travel in and out of the spaces between layers during battery cycling, they have a highly conductive two-dimensional hexagonal crystal lattice, and they form a stable, porous network for efficient electrolyte penetration. However, the fine-tuning of the structural and electrochemical properties is difficult as these carbon materials are mostly prepared from polymeric carbon matter in a top-down synthesis.

Graphdiyne is a hybrid two-dimensional network made of hexagonal carbon rings bridged by two acetylene units (the "diyne" in the name). Graphdiyne has been suggested as a nanoweb membrane for the separation of isotopes or helium. However, its distinct electronic properties and web-like structure also make graphdiyne suitable for electrochemical applications.

Journal Reference:
Chipeng Xie, Xiuli Hu, Zhaoyong Guan, et al. Tuning the Properties of Graphdiyne by Introducing Electron-Withdrawing/Donating Groups, Angewandte Chemie International Edition (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202004454)

Will graphdiyne enable flatter batteries, given its near two-dimensional structure?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Zoom will provide end-to-end encryption to all users:

Zoom's CEO Eric S. Yuan today announced that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) will be provided to all users (paid and free) after verifying their accounts by providing additional identification info such as their phone number.

"We are also pleased to share that we have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform," Yuan said.

"This will enable us to offer E2EE as an advanced add-on feature for all of our users around the globe – free and paid – while maintaining the ability to prevent and fight abuse on our platform."

This update in Zoom's plans comes after the company announced on May 27 that E2EE will be available only to paying customers, with free/basic users to only get access to 256-bit GCM encryption.

[...] To provide all Zoom users with access to E2EE, Yuan says that they will have first verify their accounts through various means such as by verifying their phone numbers via text messages.

Phoenix666 writes:

A deep-learning E-skin decodes complex human motion:

A deep-learning powered single-strained electronic skin sensor can capture human motion from a distance. The single strain sensor placed on the wrist decodes complex five-finger motions in real time with a virtual 3D hand that mirrors the original motions. The deep neural network boosted by rapid situation learning (RSL) ensures stable operation regardless of its position on the surface of the skin.

Conventional approaches require many sensor networks that cover the entire curvilinear surfaces of the target area. Unlike conventional wafer-based fabrication, this laser fabrication provides a new sensing paradigm for motion tracking.

The research team, led by Professor Sungho Jo from the School of Computing, collaborated with Professor Seunghwan Ko from Seoul National University to design this new measuring system that extracts signals corresponding to multiple finger motions by generating cracks in metal nanoparticle films using laser technology. The sensor patch was then attached to a user's wrist to detect the movement of the fingers.

[...] This sensory system can track the motion of the entire body with a small sensory network and facilitate the indirect remote measurement of human motions, which is applicable for wearable VR/AR systems.

Journal Reference:
Kim, K. K., et al. A deep-learned skin sensor decoding the epicentral human motions. Nature Communications, 2020 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16040-y29

The approach could ease VR/AR implementations.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

As oil slumps, Norway explores new fields in the Arctic:

But the move does make you look askance at Norway. This week, MPs in the super-rich oil nation are expected to vote against further protection of one of the world's most important biological hotspots, so enabling continued exploration in the Barents Sea.

This comes off the back of a pledge to delay more than $10bn in taxes for petroleum companies, to spur investment which will help fund drilling in a uniquely biodiverse area called the marginal ice zone.

[...] But then Norway is environmentally at odds with itself.

You have the oil that made it one of the richest nations on earth. Then walk around Oslo and you will see electric cars all over the place - in fact, three out of four cars now sold in Norway are either wholly or partially electric.

And 98 percent of Norway's electricity comes from renewable energy, of which hydropower is the main source. The nation talks highly of its own sustainable prowess. And well it might.

But all those fossil fuels Norway extracts? They go overseas. The nation may not emit too many greenhouse gases, but it exports them on a colossal scale. Norway's wealth is someone else's smog.

Perhaps Norwegians welcome global warming?

Original Submission