SoylentNews

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Global emissions of methane have reached the highest levels on record. Increases are being driven primarily by growth of emissions from coal mining, oil and natural gas production, cattle and sheep ranching, and landfills.

Between 2000 and 2017, levels of the potent greenhouse gas barreled up toward pathways that climate models suggest will lead to 3-4 degrees Celsius of warming before the end of this century. This is a dangerous temperature threshold at which scientists warn that natural disasters, including wildfires, droughts and floods, and social disruptions such as famines and mass migrations become almost commonplace. The findings are outlined in two papers published July 14 in Earth System Science Data and Environmental Research Letters by researchers with the Global Carbon Project, an initiative led by Stanford University scientist Rob Jackson.

In 2017, the last year when complete global methane data are available, Earth's atmosphere absorbed nearly 600 million tons of the colorless, odorless gas that is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over a 100-year span. More than half of all methane emissions now come from human activities. Annual methane emissions are up 9 percent, or 50 million tons per year, from the early 2000s, when methane concentrations in the atmosphere were relatively stable.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

The TLS 1.2 Deadline is Looming, Do You Have Your Act Together?:

In the pantheon of security configuration duties for organizations running internet assets, maintaining the latest TLS encryption protocols to keep the cryptographic apparatus at full strength is one of the most fundamental. TLS provides cover for the most sensitive personal and financial information that moves across the internet. As experts in measuring and monitoring third-party risk, RiskRecon and the data scientists from Cyentia Institute recently published a new report that leveraged unique scan data from millions of web servers around the world, via the RiskRecon platform, to see where the rollout of TLS 1.2[*] is going smoothly and where it is meeting resistance.

Together with its precursor SSL, TLS has long been in the crosshairs of both attackers and security researchers who understand that a weak or non-existent deployment of the protocol makes it trivial enough to carry out man-in-the-middle and other attacks against the vulnerable target.

[...] Sectors such as Education (47%), Energy (40%), and Public Administration (37%) have struggled to implement TLS 1.2 protocols. This revelation led us to ask another question – “Are these hosts collecting and transmitting important information using vulnerable protocols?” The RiskRecon portal also determines web host value by examining whether a website collects and transmits important PII or credential information. If we restrict our view to just these high-value hosts, we can zero in on where the lack of TLS 1.2 represents a substantial risk: 1 in 10 organizations transmit private information over flawed protocols.

While our study found that this fundamental protocol lacks attention from some IT Security teams, it does not need any further introduction to those who would look to exploit any vulnerability in web communications. The clock is ticking to properly secure your lines of internet communications, standard bodies and web browsers have put out their warnings, and there is no time like to present to get up to speed.

[*] The latest version of TLS (Transport Layer Security) is 1.3; see RFC 8446.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Common FDA-approved drug may effectively neutralize virus that causes COVID-19:

A common drug, already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may also be a powerful tool in fighting COVID-19, according to research published this week in Antiviral Research.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, uses a surface spike protein to latch onto human cells and initiate infection. But heparin, a blood thinner also available in non-anticoagulant varieties, binds tightly with the surface spike protein, potentially blocking the infection from happening. This makes it a decoy, which might be introduced into the body using a nasal spray or nebulizer and run interference to lower the odds of infection. Similar decoy strategies have already shown promise in curbing other viruses, including influenza A, Zika, and dengue.

"This approach could be used as an early intervention to reduce the infection among people who have tested positive, but aren't yet suffering symptoms. But we also see this as part of a larger antiviral strategy," said Robert Linhardt, lead author and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Ultimately, we want a vaccine, but there are many ways to combat a virus, and as we've seen with HIV, with the right combination of therapies, we can control the disease until a vaccine is found."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Research brief: Researchers 3D print a working heart pump with real human cells:

In the past, researchers have tried to 3D print cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells, that were derived from what are called pluripotent human stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into any type of cell in the body. Researchers would reprogram these stem cells to heart muscle cells and then use specialized 3D printers to print them within a three-dimensional structure, called an extracellular matrix. The problem was that scientists could never reach critical cell density for the heart muscle cells to actually function.

In this new study, University of Minnesota researchers flipped the process, and it worked.

"At first, we tried 3D printing cardiomyocytes, and we failed, too," said Brenda Ogle, the lead researcher on the study and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. "So with our team's expertise in stem cell research and 3D printing, we decided to try a new approach. We optimized the specialized ink made from extracellular matrix proteins, combined the ink with human stem cells and used the ink-plus-cells to 3D print the chambered structure. The stem cells were expanded to high cell densities in the structure first, and then we differentiated them to the heart muscle cells."

What the team found was that for the first time ever they could achieve the goal of high cell density within less than a month to allow the cells to beat together, just like a human heart.

"After years of research, we were ready to give up and then two of my biomedical engineering Ph.D. students, Molly Kupfer and Wei-Han Lin, suggested we try printing the stem cells first," said Ogle, who also serves as director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute. "We decided to give it one last try. I couldn't believe it when we looked at the dish in the lab and saw the whole thing contracting spontaneously and synchronously and able to move fluid."

Journal Reference:
In Situ Expansion, Differentiation, and Electromechanical Coupling of Human Cardiac Muscle in a 3D Bioprinted, Chambered Organoid, Circulation Research (DOI: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.119.316155)

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Virginia Tech researchers have discovered a novel process to 3-D print latex rubber, unlocking the ability to print a variety of elastic materials with complex geometric shapes.

[...] 3-D printed latex has been documented only a handful of times in scientific literature. None of the previous examples come close to the mechanical properties of the latex printed by an interdisciplinary team affiliated with the Macromolecules Innovation Institute (MII), the College of Science, and the College of Engineering.

[...] Even with the custom printer, the fluid latex particles caused scattering outside of the projected UV light on the latex resin surface, which resulted in printing inaccurate parts, so Meenakshisundaram devised a second novel idea. He embedded a camera onto the printer to capture an image of each vat of latex resin. With his custom algorithm, the machine is able to "see" the UV light's interaction on the resin surface and then automatically adjust the printing parameters to correct for the resin scattering to cure just the intended shape.

Now you can print your own complex objects out of latex.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Trump admin caves to Harvard and MIT, won’t deport online-only students:

The Trump administration has rescinded a controversial policy that could have forced the deportation of foreign students who attend colleges that aren't offering in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic.

As we reported last week, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration to block the policy issued by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the policy change announced July 6, foreign students with nonimmigrant (F-1 and M-1) visas would have had to leave the United States or transfer to different schools that offer in-person classes.

But US officials agreed to rescind the new policy in a settlement with Harvard and MIT, as revealed [Tuesday] at a hearing on the case at US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. "At a short hearing Tuesday afternoon, US District Judge Allison Burroughs confirmed that a settlement had been reached," The Wall Street Journal reported. "She said the government would rescind the policy, withdraw an FAQ detailing the rule and return to the status quo of guidance issued in the spring."

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Charter’s hidden “Broadcast TV” fee now adds $197 a year to cable bills:

Charter Communications is raising the "Broadcast TV" fee it imposes on cable plans from $13.50 to $16.45 a month starting in August, Stop the Cap reported.

Charter says the Broadcast TV fee covers the amount it pays broadcast television stations (e.g. affiliates of CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox) for the right to carry their channels. But for consumers, it is essentially a hidden fee because Charter's advertised TV prices don't include it.

Charter has raised the fee repeatedly—it stood at $9.95 in early 2019 before a series of price increases. At $16.45 a month, the fee will cost customers an additional $197.40 per year. Charter sells TV, broadband, and phone service under its Spectrum brand name and is the second largest cable company in the US after Comcast.

Charter imposes a smaller Broadcast TV fee on its streaming TV plans, but is raising that charge from $6 to $8.95 a month, Stop the Cap wrote. Charter is also raising the base price of its TV service. "Spectrum's most popular TV Select package is expected to increase $1.50/month to $73.99/month," Stop the Cap wrote. "Customers on a promotional pricing plan will not see this rate increase until their promotional pricing expires."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The research, published July 10 in the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, shows the drug mifepristone can extend the lives of two very different species used in laboratory studies, suggesting the findings may apply to other species, including human beings.

Studying one of the most common laboratory models used in genetic research -- the fruit fly Drosophila -- John Tower, professor of biological sciences, and his team found that the drug mifepristone extends the lives of female flies that have mated.

[...] During mating, female fruit flies receive a molecule called sex peptide from the male. Previous research has shown that sex peptide causes inflammation and reduces the health and lifespan of female flies.

Tower and his team, including Senior Research Associate Gary Landis, lead researcher on the study, found that feeding mifepristone to the fruit flies that have mated blocks the effects of sex peptide, reducing inflammation and keeping the female flies healthier, leading to longer lifespans than their counterparts who did not receive the drug.

The drug's effects in Drosophila appear similar to those seen in women who take it.

dluttrell writes:

PATCH NOW - SIGRed - CVE-2020-1350 - Microsoft DNS Server Vulnerability:

Yesterday, Microsoft released a patch for CVE-2020-1350, fixing a critical vulnerability in it's[sic] DNS server. The vulnerability is 17 years old. All current versions of Microsoft's server back to 2003 are affected. The vulnerability earned a CVSS score of 10, indicating that it allows a full remote system compromise without any authentication. An exploit could likely spread without user interaction ("wormable").

A server is vulnerable if the DNS role is enabled. Note that Active Directory and Kerberos require DNS, and domain controllers usually have the DNS role enabled. This will put the domain controller at risk!

The vulnerability is triggered by an oversized DNS response containing a "SIG" record.

The basic exploit flow would look like:

• The attacker triggers a DNS query (for example, the victim visits a web page, or the attacker is sending an email to the victim). For a badly configured ("open recursive") name server, the attacker may just send a query to the name server directly.
• The victim DNS server will query the attacker's name server via UDP. By default, name servers will send queries via UDP first.
• The attacker responds with a truncated response, indicating that the response is too large for UDP.
• The victim will now re-send the request via TCP
• The attacker will respond with the exploit.

To trigger the exploit, the size of the response has to exceed 64kBytes. However, this does not mean that the attacker has to send more then 64kBytes (the attacker can't! DNS replies over TCP max out at 64kBytes). Instead, the attacker's response will take advantage of "pointers", to compress the response. It will be expanded (and trigger the exploit) on the victim's DNS server.

For more technical information, see: https://research.checkpoint.com/2020/resolving-your-way-into-domain-admin-exploiting-a-17-year-old-bug-in-windows-dns-servers/

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Microsoft Outlook is crashing worldwide with 0xc0000005 errors, how to fix:

Microsoft Outlook is immediately crashing worldwide when users start the application, with 0xc0000005 errors displayed in the Windows Event Viewer.

These crashes started occurring over the last hour, and reports are flooding in from users all over the world.

Users who examined their Application event logs will see an error log stating that the OUTLOOK.EXE program has crashed with an exception code 0xc0000005.

[...] The Microsoft 365 Status Twitter account has tweeted that this is being caused by new update and that they are investigating the issue.

In an incident status message in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center titled 'EX218604: Users experiencing Outlook connection issues and crashes', Microsoft suggests users use web and mobile clients until the issue is resolved.

[...] If Microsoft Outlook is crashing for you, you can resolve the issue by either starting Microsoft Outlook in Safe Mode or rolling back to a previous version of Microsoft Outlook.

The article provides step-by-step instructions for the workarounds.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Musk, Obama, Biden, Bezos, Gates—bitcoin scam hits Twitter in coordinated blitz:

Twitter accounts of the rich and famous—including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Joe Biden—were simultaneously hijacked on Wednesday and used to push cryptocurrency scams.

As of 3:58 PM California time, the wallet address used to receive victim’s digital coin had received more than $118,000, though it wasn't clear all of it came from people who fell for the scam. It The bitcoin came from 356 transactions all occurred over about a four-hour span on Tuesday. The wallet address appeared in tweets from at least 15 accounts—some with tens of millions of followers—that promoted fraudulent incentives to transfer money.

“I’m giving back to all my followers,” one now-deleted tweet from Musk’s account said. “I am doubling all payments sent to the Bitcoin address below. You send 0.1 BTC, I send 0.2 BTC back!” A tweet from the Bezos account said the same thing. “Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time,” a Gates tweet said. “I am doubling all payments sent to my BTC address for the next 30 minutes. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000.

Other hijacked accounts belonged to Barack Obama, Apple, Kanye West, and a raft of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.

[...] That so many social media accounts were taken over in such a short time and remained hijacked for so long is extraordinary if not unprecedented.

[...] As the hijackings continued, Twitter said that while it investigated, it was suspending the ability of many but not all Twitter users to tweet or respond to tweets. Accounts belonging to verified users were unable to use the platform except to send direct messages. Instead they got a message that said: "This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can’t complete this action right now. Please try again later." Unverified accounts worked normally.

If it looks too good to be true...

Also at: AlJazeera, BBCTech, CNET, MITTech, SecurityWeek, and Threatpost.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Samsung is planning for the commercialization of 6G wireless technology around 2028-2030, with a peak data rate of 1,000 Gbps (1 Tbps) and a user experienced data rate ("minimum achievable data rate for a user in real network environment") of 1 Gbps (this is set at 100 Mbps download, 50 Mbps upload in the case of 5G):

In the white paper, Samsung expects that the completion of the 6G standard and its earliest commercialization date could be as early as 2028, while mass commercialization may occur around 2030. Both humans and machines will be the main users of 6G, and 6G will be characterized by provision of advanced services such as truly immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram and digital replica.

Whereas 5G requirements mainly focused on performance aspects, Samsung defines three categories of requirements that have to be met to realize 6G services – performance, architectural and trustworthiness requirements. Examples of 6G performance requirements are a peak data rate of 1,000 Gbps (gigabits per second) and air latency less than 100 microseconds (μs), 50 times the peak data rate and one-tenth the latency of 5G.

[...] The white paper also introduces candidate technologies that could be essential to satisfy the requirements for 6G. These include the use of the terahertz (THz) frequency band, novel antenna technologies to enhance the coverage of high frequency band signals, advanced duplex technologies, the evolution of network topology, spectrum sharing to increase the efficiency of frequency utilization and the use of AI in wireless communications.

Samsung's 6G white paper (PDF) mentions 16K resolution VR, as well as "high-fidelity mobile holograms" and "digital replicas/twins" (basically detailed VR avatars) as possible applications:

Another challenge is sufficient wireless capacity. Note that current AR technology requires 55.3 megabits per second (Mbps) to support 8K display (with one million points), which can provide enough user experience on a mobile display. However, in order to provide truly immersive AR, the density should be largely improved and it will require 0.44 gigabits per second (Gbps) throughput (with 16 million points). In addition, XR media streaming may have similar demands to 16K UHD (Ultra High Definition) quality video. For example, 16K VR requires 0.9 Gbps throughput (with compression ratio of 1/400). The current user experienced data rate of 5G is not sufficient for seamless streaming. It is expected that the market sizes for VR and AR will reach $44.7 billion and $87 billion, respectively, by 2030.

[...] Users will be even able to go beyond observation, and actually interact with the digital twins, using VR devices or holographic displays. A digital twin could be a representation of a remotely controlled set of sensors and actuators. In this manner, a user's interaction with a digital twin can result in actions in the physical world. For example, a user could physically move within a remote site by controlling a robot in that space entirely via real-time interactions with a digital twin representation of that remote site.

Also at Wccftech.

Original Submission

Mykl writes:

Lego and Nintendo have teamed up to create a new NES Lego kit. The $US229 kit will let you build your very own Lego NES console and old CRT TV (with stand!). Even better, the kit has a mechanical winch that scrolls the game across the screen.

From TFA:

The set includes an NES console with one controller, along with a game cartridge that fits into the cartridge slot, just like the real thing. While that's pretty neat, I'm more impressed with the little retro TV set, inside of which is part of a level from Super Mario Brothers. As you turn a handle on the side of the TV, the level scrolls by, with Mario jumping over the obstacles in 8-bit glory, bouncing on Koopas and collecting power-ups as he goes. Not only does it look totally awesome, it also appears to use some really interesting building techniques that go to show how far Lego's construction methods have come since the sets of my childhood all those decades ago.

The kit goes on sale from the 1st of August

Original Submission

takyon writes:

DDR5 Memory Specification Released: Setting the Stage for DDR5-6400 And Beyond

We'll start with a brief look at capacity and density, as this is the most-straightforward change to the standard compared to DDR4. Designed to span several years (if not longer), DDR5 will allow for individual memory chips up to 64Gbit in density, which is 4x higher than DDR4's 16Gbit density maximum. Combined with die stacking, which allows for up to 8 dies to be stacked as a single chip, then a 40 element LRDIMM can reach an effective memory capacity of 2TB. Or for the more humble unbuffered DIMM, this would mean we'll eventually see DIMM capacities reach 128GB for your typical dual rank configuration.

[...] For DDR5, JEDEC is looking to start things off much more aggressively than usual for a DDR memory specification. Typically a new standard picks up from where the last one started off, such as with the DDR3 to DDR4 transition, where DDR3 officially stopped at 1.6Gbps and DDR4 started from there. However for DDR5 JEDEC is aiming much higher, with the group expecting to launch at 4.8Gbps, some 50% faster than the official 3.2Gbps max speed of DDR4. And in the years afterwards, the current version of the specification allows for data rates up to 6.4Gbps, doubling the official peak of DDR4.

Of course, sly enthusiasts will note that DDR4 already goes above the official maximum of 3.2Gbps (sometimes well above), and it's likely that DDR5 will eventually go a similar route. The underlying goal, regardless of specific figures, is to double the amount of bandwidth available today from a single DIMM. So don't be too surprised if SK Hynix indeed hits their goal of DDR5-8400 later this decade.

[...] JEDEC is also using the introduction of the DDR5 memory standard to make a fairly important change to how voltage regulation works for DIMMs. In short, voltage regulation is being moved from the motherboard to the individual DIMM, leaving DIMMs responsible for their own voltage regulation needs. This means that DIMMs will now include an integrated voltage regulator, and this goes for everything from UDIMMs to LRDIMMs.

JEDEC is dubbing this "pay as you go" voltage regulation, and is aiming to improve/simplify a few different aspects of DDR5 with it. The most significant change is that by moving voltage regulation on to the DIMMs themselves, voltage regulation is no longer the responsibility of the motherboard. Motherboards in turn will no longer need to be built for the worst-case scenario – such as driving 16 massive LRDIMMs – simplifying motherboard design and reining in costs to a degree. Of course, the flip side of this argument is that it moves those costs over to the DIMM itself, but then system builders are at least only having to buy as much voltage regulation hardware as they have DIMMs, and hence the PAYGO philosophy.

"On-die ECC" is mentioned in the press release and slides. If you can figure out what that means, let us know.

See also: Micron Drives DDR5 Memory Adoption with Technology Enablement Program

Previously: DDR5 Standard to be Finalized by JEDEC in 2018
DDR5-4400 Test Chip Demonstrated
Cadence and Micron Plan Production of 16 Gb DDR5 Chips in 2019
SK Hynix Announces Plans for DDR5-8400 Memory, and More

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Medical Xpress:

When it comes to sex and relationships, the pandemic is creating a situation where people are either living in close proximity (possibly with partners, children or other family members) or are limited in their opportunities to find partners for prolonged periods of time. These circumstances can directly impact our intimacy.

A recent online survey found that a majority of participants in a sample of 1,559 adults reported a decline in the quality of their sex lives (43.5 percent) during the COVID-19 pandemic, while only a minority reported improvements (13.6 percent). Interestingly, however, despite people reporting a decrease in the frequency of sexual behaviours compared to the past year, one in five individuals (20.3 percent) added at least one new activity to their sex life, such as a new sexual position, incorporating pornography or engaging in cybersex. Compared to people who made no change, those who spiced things up were more likely to report improvements in their sex life since the beginning of the pandemic.

"As the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene says: 'You are your safest sex partner.'"

Journal Reference:
Less Sex, but More Sexual Diversity: Changes in Sexual Behavior during the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic, Leisure Sciences (DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2020.1774016)

Original Submission