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What was highest label on your first car speedometer?

  • 80 mph
  • 88 mph
  • 100 mph
  • 120 mph
  • 150 mph
  • it was in kph like civilized countries use you insensitive clod
  • Other (please specify in comments)

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:47 | Votes:100

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 02 2020, @11:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the does-anyone-have-to-go-outside-to-clean-the-sensors? dept.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/aug/01/3m-price-tag-inside-luxury-doomsday-bunker

Afraid of nuclear war, natural disasters, economic meltdown? The Survival Condo could be the answer

"Mechanical level", "medical level", "store level" the voice announces as the lift descends into the earth. I'd entered at parking lot level, the building's apex. I am travelling through an inverted skyscraper, the floor numbers ascending – third, fourth – as we plumb the building's depths. A hulking man in his late 50s called Larry Hall stands next to me, whistling, black shirt tucked into blue jeans.

When the doors open, I can't suppress a laugh. In front of us, four storeys below central Kansas, is a supermarket complete with shopping baskets, cold cabinets and an espresso machine behind the counter. Hall smiles.

"It's good, isn't it? On the original blueprint for the renovation, it just said 'storerooms' on this level. The psychologist we hired for the project took one look at that and said, 'No, no, no, this needs to feel like a miniature Whole Foods supermarket. We need a tile floor and nicely presented cases, because if people are locked in this silo and they have to come down here and rifle through cardboard boxes to get their food, you'll have depressed people everywhere.'"

I am inside the most lavish and sophisticated private bunker in the world: the Survival Condo. It was once a cold war US government missile silo. Constructed in the early 60s, at a cost of approximately $15m to the US taxpayer, it was one of 72 structures built to protect [against] a nuclear warhead 100 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Many of these silos were blown up and buried after decades of disuse. But not all of them.


Original Submission

posted by takyon on Sunday August 02 2020, @09:21PM   Printer-friendly

Demo-2 safely returns Bob and Doug to Earth to conclude historic start to new Commercial Era

NASA and SpaceX have successfully returned NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour. The return to Earth brought an end to the historic first private-company spaceflight of humans to Earth orbit and the commencement of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico came as expected at 2:48 pm EDT (18:48 UTC) off the southern coast of Alabama and southwest of Pensacola, Florida.

The splashdown culminated the historic Demo-2 flight which launched humans into orbit on the first-ever privately owned and operated rocket and spacecraft from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 30 May 2020.

The launch marked the first time since the final flight of space shuttle Atlantis in 2011 that humans launched into orbit from the United States, and this historic splashdown was the first landing of a spacecraft with humans on board in the Gulf of Mexico.

Moreso, it marked the first end of mission water landing for a U.S. human space flight since Apollo-Soyuz Test Program in July 1975 and the first global human spaceflight water landing since Soyuz 23 accidentally came down in Lake Tengiz on 16 October 1976.

Also at NASA, Space News, BBC, and Teslarati.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 02 2020, @06:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the secure-enclave-isn't dept.

New 'unpatchable' exploit allegedly found on Apple's Secure Enclave chip, here's what it could mean - 9to5Mac:

The Secure Enclave is a security coprocessor included with almost every Apple device to provide an extra layer of security. All data stored on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and other Apple devices is encrypted with random private keys, which are only accessible by the Secure Enclave. These keys are unique to your device and they're never synchronized with iCloud.

[...] It's important to note that although the Secure Enclave chip is built into the device, it works completely separately from the rest of the system. This ensures that apps won't have access to your private keys, since they can only send requests to decrypt specific data such as your fingerprint to unlock an app through the Secure Enclave.

[...] Now, Chinese hackers from the Pangu Team have reportedly found an "unpatchable" exploit on Apple's Secure Enclave chip that could lead to breaking the encryption of private security keys.

[...] The only thing we know so far is that this vulnerability in Secure Enclave affects all Apple chips between the A7 and A11 Bionic [...] Apple has already fixed this security breach with the A12 and A13 Bionic chips


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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 02 2020, @04:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the seriously-cool-maths dept.

IBM completes successful field trials on Fully Homomorphic Encryption:

Yesterday, Ars spoke with IBM Senior Research Scientist Flavio Bergamaschi about the company's recent successful field trials of Fully Homomorphic Encryption. We suspect many of you will have the same questions that we did—beginning with "what is Fully Homomorphic Encryption?"

FHE is a type of encryption that allows direct mathematical operations on the encrypted data. Upon decryption, the results will be correct. For example, you might encrypt 2, 3, and 7 and send the three encrypted values to a third party. If you then ask the third party to add the first and second values, then multiply the result by the third value and return the result to you, you can then decrypt that result—and get 35.

You don't ever have to share a key with the third party doing the computation; the data remains encrypted with a key the third party never received. So, while the third party performed the operations you asked it to, it never knew the values of either the inputs or the output. You can also ask the third party to perform mathematical or logical operations of the encrypted data with non-encrypted data—for example, in pseudocode, FHE_decrypt(FHE_encrypt(2) * 5) equals 10.

[...] Although Fully Homomorphic Encryption makes things possible that otherwise would not be, it comes at a steep cost. Above, we can see charts indicating the additional compute power and memory resources required to operate on FHE-encrypted machine-learning models—roughly 40 to 50 times the compute and 10 to 20 times the RAM that would be required to do the same work on unencrypted models.

[...] Each operation performed on a floating-point value decreases its accuracy a little bit—a very small amount for additive operations, and a larger one for multiplicative. Since the FHE encryption and decryption themselves are mathematical operations, this adds a small amount of additional degradation to the accuracy of the floating-point values.

[...] As daunting as the performance penalties for FHE may be, they're well under the threshold for usefulness—Bergamaschi told us that IBM initially estimated that the minimum efficiency to make FHE useful in the real world would be on the order of 1,000:1. With penalties well under 100:1, IBM contracted with one large American bank and one large European bank to perform real-world field trials of FHE techniques, using live data.

[...] IBM's Homomorphic Encryption algorithms use lattice-based encryption, are significantly quantum-computing resistant, and are available as open source libraries for Linux, MacOS, and iOS. Support for Android is on its way.


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday August 02 2020, @02:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the timing dept.

[20200803_012617 UTC UTC Update 2:]

tl;dr version: Trump threatened to ban TikTok. Then Microsoft said it was in talks to buy TikTok. Then Microsoft said the talks were in doubt after Trump's threats. Now, Microsoft is "continuing discussions."

Microsoft to continue discussions on TikTok purchase after talking to Donald Trump:

After reports US President Donald Trump is considering an order to force Beijing-based tech company ByteDance to divest ownership of popular social-video app TikTok, Microsoft has announced it will be "continuing discussion" on a potential purchase of TikTok after a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the President.

"Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President's concerns," said Microsoft, in a statement. "It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.

[20200802_144217 UTC Update 1; added:]

Microsoft pauses talks on TikTok US deal - reports:

A possible sale of Chinese-owned TikTok's US operations to Microsoft is reportedly on hold after Donald Trump vowed to ban the video-sharing app.

A sale was thought close to agreement, but was put in doubt after the US president's warning on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal said Microsoft had now paused talks despite TikTok owner ByteDance making last ditch efforts to win White House support.

It comes amid criticism of Mr Trump's threat as an attack on free speech.

[...] Late on Friday, Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: "As far as TikTok is concerned we're banning them from the United States."

[Original story follows.--martyb]

TikTok: Trump says he will ban Chinese video app in the US

President Donald Trump has announced he is banning the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok in the US.

He told reporters he could sign an executive order as early as Saturday.

US security officials have expressed concern that the app, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, could be used to collect the personal data of Americans.

[...] Microsoft has reportedly been in talks to buy the app from ByteDance, but Mr Trump appeared to cast doubt that such a deal would be allowed to go through. If the deal went ahead reports say it would involve ByteDance shedding TikTok's US operations.

A TikTok-Microsoft Deal Might Solve Everything (archive)

On Friday, Bloomberg News reported Trump plans to order ByteDance Ltd. to divest its ownership of TikTok. Then later in the afternoon, several media outlets reported Microsoft Corp. is in talks to purchase TikTok's U.S. operations.

[...] There seem to be two active bidders for the app. One is Microsoft. As for the other, Reuters reported earlier this week that some of Bytedance's U.S investors have proposed a bid for a majority stake of TikTok, valuing the company's non-China operations at $50 billion. The offer would be about 50 times TikTok's forecast sales of $1 billion this year, Reuters reported.

Previously: Bytedance: The World's Most Valuable Startup
Lawmakers Ask US Intelligence to Assess If TikTok is a Security Threat
TikTok and 53 Other iOS Apps Still Snoop Your Sensitive Clipboard Data
India Bans TikTok, WeChat, and Other Chinese-Owned Apps


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday August 02 2020, @11:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the big-money-in-tiny-chips dept.

Nvidia is reportedly in 'advanced talks' to buy ARM for more than $32 billion

SoftBank has been rumored to be exploring a sale of ARM — the British chip designer that powers nearly every major mobile processor from companies like Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, and Huawei — and now, it might have found a buyer. Nvidia is reportedly in "advanced talks" to buy ARM in a deal worth over $32 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Nvidia is said to be the only company that's involved in concrete discussions with SoftBank for the purchase at this time, and a deal could arrive "in the next few weeks," although nothing is finalized yet. If the deal does go through, it would be one of the largest deals ever in the computer chip business and would likely draw intense regulatory scrutiny.

Also at Guru3D and Wccftech.

Previously:
(2020-07-12) Apple Has Built its Own Mac Graphics Processors
(2020-07-11) Nvidia's Market Cap Rises Above Intel's
(2020-06-11) ARM Faces a Boardroom Revolt as it Seeks to Remove the CEO of Its Chinese Joint Venture
(2019-10-29) Fed Up Of Playing Whac-A-Mole With Network Of Softbank-Owned Patent Holders, Intel Goes To Court


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday August 02 2020, @09:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the more-space-junk dept.

FCC Approves Amazon's Internet-from-Space Kuiper Constellation of 3,236 Satellites:

The Federal Communications Commission has approved Amazon's plans for its ambitious Kuiper constellation, which entails sending 3,236 satellites into orbit to beam internet coverage down to Earth. The decision is a crucial regulatory step that paves the way for Amazon to start launching the satellites when they're ready.

The company plans to send the satellites to three different altitudes, and it claims it needs just 578 satellites in orbit to begin service, according to an FCC document announcing the approval. Amazon said it will invest "more than $10 billion" in Project Kuiper in a blog post.

Amazon has not announced which launch provider it plans to use to fly the satellites into orbit yet. While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also owns the rocket company Blue Origin, the launch provider will have to compete to launch the satellites along with other companies.

Ars Technica adds some details in its story Amazon investing $10 billion to compete against SpaceX in satellite broadband:

The FCC approval said Amazon's plan would "provid[e] continuous coverage to customers within approximately 56°N and 56°S latitude, thereby serving the contiguous United States, Hawaii, US territories, and other world regions." The plan calls for using frequencies of 17.7-18.6 GHz and 18.8-20.2 GHz for space-to-Earth communications, and 27.5-30.0 GHz for Earth-to-space transmissions. The FCC said it granted the license because it "would advance the public interest by authorizing a system designed to increase the availability of high-speed broadband service to consumers, government, and businesses."

Amazon filed the FCC application in July 2019—more details on Amazon's plan are available in our story on the application.

The FCC approval includes requirements for minimizing orbital debris and collision risk, prevention of harmful interference, spectrum sharing, and power limits. Amazon's design of the Kuiper satellites is not complete, so the company will need another FCC approval after it submits a final plan for orbital-debris mitigation, collision risk, and "re-entry casualty risk." The FCC approval is also conditioned on Amazon getting a "favorable" rating from the International Telecommunication Union to show compliance with power limits.

Also at cnet.

We previously reported SpaceX was 'Fixing' Brightness from Satellites. There is no mention of astronomical impact requirements for Kuiper satellites.


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday August 02 2020, @07:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the "sting"-operation dept.

'Murder hornet' trapped for the first time in Washington State:

Washington State has trapped its first Asian giant hornet, also known as a "murder hornet."

The insect, believed to be a worker hornet, was found in a Washington State Department of Agriculture trap near Birch Bay in Whatcom County on July 14, officials said Friday. It's the first giant hornet to be detected in a trap, rather than in the environment.

[...] "This is encouraging because it means we know that the traps work," Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist for the state department, said. "But it also means we have work to do."

[...] The insects can grow to at least 3.5 centimetres [~1.4 inches] in length, with a wingspan up to twice as long. They are the largest species of hornet in the world.

Along with their size, Asian giant hornets are also known to prey on honeybees and destroy their hives, leading to their "murder hornet" nickname, though they've also been linked to a few dozen human deaths each year.

The Department of Agriculture hopes to trap and tag the hornets and then follow them back to their nests which they would then destroy.


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday August 02 2020, @04:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the as-for-the-SLS... dept.

More quickly than anyone expected, NASA embraces reuse for human flights:

Weather permitting, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. Forecasters are closely watching conditions due to Hurricane Isaias but are hopeful the mission will find calm seas and light winds offshore from the Florida Panhandle.

[...] Although the company's next human spaceflight, Crew-1, will launch no earlier than late September on a new Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, that will not be the case for the subsequent mission. This Crew-2 flight, due to launch no earlier than spring 2021, will reuse the Falcon 9 first stage from the Crew-1 mission, and the Dragon capsule is expected to splash down this weekend.

[...] The reuse of rockets and spacecraft always seemed like it would be part of SpaceX and NASA's extended plans for human spaceflights, but few anticipated it happening so quickly. NASA's original commercial crew contract with SpaceX called for the first six operational missions to each use new Dragons.

However, a contract modification signed in May allowed SpaceX to introduce reuse much more quickly. In exchange for extending the Demo-2 test flight—carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken—from two weeks to up to 119 days, SpaceX got permission to reuse spacecraft instead of building new ones. This extension allowed Behnken to participate in four spacewalks in recent weeks, swapping out battery packs on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.

The move toward reuse was supported by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "From my perspective, what we're really looking for in all of our missions is sustainability," he said.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday August 02 2020, @02:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the important-decisions dept.

In Historic Opinion, Third Circuit Protects Public School Students' Off-Campus Social Media Speech:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an historic opinion in B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School District, upholding the free speech rights of public school students. The court adopted the position EFF urged in our amicus brief that the First Amendment prohibits disciplining public school students for off-campus social media speech.

B.L. was a high school student who had failed to make the varsity cheerleading squad and was placed on junior varsity instead. Out of frustration, she posted—over the weekend and off school grounds—a Snapchat selfie with text that said, among other things, "fuck cheer." One of her Snapchat connections took a screen shot of the "snap" and shared it with the cheerleading coaches, who suspended B.L. from the J.V. squad for one year. She and her parents sought administrative relief to no avail, and eventually sued the school district with the help of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

In its opinion protecting B.L.'s social media speech under the First Amendment, the Third Circuit issued three key holdings.

  • Social Media Post Was "Off-Campus" Speech
  • Vulgar Off-Campus Social Media Speech is Not Punishable
  • Off-Campus Social Media Speech That "Substantially Disrupts" the On-Campus Environment is Not Punishable

[...] The Third Circuit's opinion is historic because it is the first federal appellate court to affirm that the substantial disruption exception from Tinker does not apply to off-campus speech.

Other circuits have upheld regulating off-campus speech citing Tinker in various contexts and under different specific rules, such as when it is "reasonably foreseeable" that off-campus speech will reach the school environment, or when off-campus speech has a sufficient "nexus" to the school's "pedagogical interests."

The Third Circuit rejected all these approaches. The court argued that its "sister circuits have adopted tests that sweep far too much speech into the realm of schools' authority." The court was critical of these approaches because they "subvert[] the longstanding principle that heightened authority over student speech is the exception rather than the rule."

Because there is a circuit split on this important First Amendment student speech issue, it is possible that the school district will seek certiorari and that the Supreme Court will grant review. Until then, we can celebrate this historic win for public school students' free speech rights.


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Sunday August 02 2020, @12:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the they-otter-check-again dept.

Human sperm swim more like otters than eels, study finds:

For more than 300 years, most scientists have assumed that sperm "swim" through fluids by wriggling their tails back and forth like eels to propel themselves forward. But according to a new paper in Science Advances, this is actually an optical illusion—the result of viewing the creatures from above with 2D microscopes. New observations with 3D microscopy have revealed that human sperm actually roll as they swim, like otters, essentially corkscrewing themselves forward.

"With over half of infertility caused by male factors, understanding the human sperm tail is fundamental to developing future diagnostic tools to identify unhealthy sperm," said co-author Hermes Gadelha from the University of Bristol.

[...] Back in 1977, physicist Edward Purcell did some calculations that showed how animals of different sizes would swim at different Reynolds numbers. The number would be very high for a whale, for instance, which is able to coast a good distance with a single flap of its tail. According to Purcell's calculations, however, bacteria swim at low Reynolds numbers, so they can barely coast any distance at all if you push them to set them in motion. It's akin to a human trying to swim in molasses and moving their arms at slow speeds on par with the movement of a clock's hands. So eels and sperm (or bacteria) would adopt very different swimming strategies by necessity because they are dealing with different Reynolds numbers.

[...] One such strategy might be to break the symmetry of the stroke to create more drag on the power stroke than on the recovery stroke. A creature could do this by changing the shape of the "paddle"—for example, the cilia that cells use to propel themselves forward. Bacteria and sperm, in contrast, have helical tails they can use as a corkscrew-like propeller. This latest study sheds some intriguing light on precisely how this works for human sperm. (Of course, as Bhatia pointed out, "Don't expect to see human swimmers doing 'the corkscrew' anytime soon. This strategy works only at low Reynolds number, where water 'feels' as thick as cork, so you can push against it effectively.")

Fertility clinics today still rely on 2D views when examining sperm movement, so this new work provides a better understanding of how the sperm tail moves, which could in turn lead to better diagnostic tools. "This discovery will revolutionize our understanding of sperm motility and its impact on natural fertilization," said co-author Alberto Darszon from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, who pioneered the 3D microscopy technique with his colleague and co-author Gabriel Corkidi. "So little is known about the intricate environment inside the female reproductive tract and how sperm swimming impinge on fertilization. These new tools open our eyes to the amazing capabilities sperm have."

Journal Reference:
Osborne Reynolds. An experimental investigation of the circumstances which determine whether the motion of water shall be direct or sinuous, and of the law of resistance in parallel channels, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (DOI: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstl.1883.0029)

E. M. Purcell. Life at low Reynolds number, American Journal of Physics (DOI: 10.1119/1.10903)

Hermes Gadêlha, Paul Hernández-Herrera, Fernando Montoya, et al. Human sperm uses asymmetric and anisotropic flagellar controls to regulate swimming symmetry and cell steering [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5168)


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Saturday August 01 2020, @09:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-long-would-it-take-to-flap-its-wings? dept.

[From ESO (European Southern Observatory).]

Stunning Space Butterfly Captured by ESO Telescope:

Resembling a butterfly with its symmetrical structure, beautiful colours, and intricate patterns, this striking bubble of gas — known as NGC 2899 — appears to float and flutter across the sky in this new picture from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). This object has never before been imaged in such striking detail, with even the faint outer edges of the planetary nebula glowing over the background stars.

NGC 2899's vast swathes of gas extend up to a maximum of two light-years from its centre, glowing brightly in front of the stars of the Milky Way as the gas reaches temperatures upwards of ten thousand degrees. The high temperatures are due to the large amount of radiation from the nebula's parent star, which causes the hydrogen gas in the nebula to glow in a reddish halo around the oxygen gas, in blue.

This object, located between 3000 and 6500 light-years away in the Southern constellation of Vela (The Sails), has two central stars, which are believed to give it its nearly symmetric appearance. After one star reached the end of its life and cast off its outer layers, the other star now interferes with the flow of gas, forming the two-lobed shape seen here. Only about 10–20% of planetary nebulae [1] display this type of bipolar shape.

Astronomers were able to capture this highly detailed image of NGC 2899 using the FORS instrument installed on UT1 (Antu), one of the four 8.2-metre telescopes that make up ESO's VLT in Chile. Standing for FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph, this high-resolution instrument was one of the first to be installed on ESO's VLT and is behind numerous beautiful images and discoveries from ESO. FORS has contributed to observations of light from a gravitational wave source, has researched the first known interstellar asteroid, and has been used to study in depth the physics behind the formation of complex planetary nebulae.

[...] [1] Unlike what their common name suggests, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. The first astronomers to observe them merely described them as planet-like in appearance. They are instead formed when ancient stars with up to 6 times the mass of our Sun reach the end of their lives, collapse, and blow off expanding shells of gas, rich in heavy elements. Intense ultraviolet radiation energises and lights up these moving shells, causing them to shine brightly for thousands of years until they ultimately disperse slowly through space, making planetary nebulae relatively short-lived phenomena on astronomical timescales.


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday August 01 2020, @07:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the chip-shot dept.

Is Your Chip Card Secure? Much Depends on Where You Bank:

Traditional payment cards encode cardholder account data in plain text on a magnetic stripe, which can be read and recorded by skimming devices or malicious software surreptitiously installed in payment terminals. That data can then be encoded onto anything else with a magnetic stripe and used to place fraudulent transactions.

Newer, chip-based cards employ a technology known as EMV that encrypts the account data stored in the chip.

[...] Virtually all chip-based cards still have much of the same data that’s stored in the chip encoded on a magnetic stripe on the back of the card.

[...] But there are important differences between the cardholder data stored on EMV chips versus magnetic stripes. One of those is a component in the chip known as an integrated circuit card verification value or “iCVV” for short — also known as a “dynamic CVV.”

The iCVV differs from the card verification value (CVV) stored on the physical magnetic stripe, and protects against the copying of magnetic-stripe data from the chip and the use of that data to create counterfeit magnetic stripe cards.

[...] However, for EMV’s security protections to work, the back-end systems deployed by card-issuing financial institutions are supposed to check that when a chip card is dipped into a chip reader, only the iCVV is presented; and conversely, that only the CVV is presented when the card is swiped. If somehow these do not align for a given transaction type, the financial institution is supposed to decline the transaction.

The trouble is that not all financial institutions have properly set up their systems this way. Unsurprisingly, thieves have known about this weakness for years. In 2017, I wrote about the increasing prevalence of “shimmers,” high-tech card skimming devices made to intercept data from chip card transactions.

More recently, researchers at Cyber R&D Labs published a paper detailing how they tested 11 chip card implementations from 10 different banks in Europe and the U.S. The researchers found they could harvest data from four of them and create cloned magnetic stripe cards that were successfully used to place transactions.

There are now strong indications the same method detailed by Cyber R&D Labs is being used by point-of-sale (POS) malware to capture EMV transaction data that can then be resold and used to fabricate magnetic stripe copies of chip-based cards.


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday August 01 2020, @05:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-look-at-the-elephant-in-the-room^W-library dept.

Internet Archive Tells Court its Digital Library is Protected Under Fair Use

The Internet Archive has filed its answer and affirmative defenses in response to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by a group of publishers. Among other things, IA believes that its work is protected under the doctrine of fair use and the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.

[...] The statement spends time explaining the process of CDL – Controlled Digital Lending – noting that the Internet Archive provides a digital alternative to traditional libraries carrying physical books. As such, it "poses no new harm to authors or the publishing industry."

[...] "The Internet Archive has made careful efforts to ensure its uses are lawful. The Internet Archive's CDL program is sheltered by the fair use doctrine, buttressed by traditional library protections. Specifically, the project serves the public interest in preservation, access and research—all classic fair use purposes," IA's answer reads.

"As for its effect on the market for the works in question, the books have already been bought and paid for by the libraries that own them. The public derives tremendous benefit from the program, and rights holders will gain nothing if the public is deprived of this resource."

Internet Archive's Answer and Affirmative Defenses (PDF).

Previously: Internet Archive Suspends E-Book Lending "Waiting Lists" During U.S. National Emergency
Authors Fume as Online Library "Lends" Unlimited Free Books
Publishers Sue the Internet Archive Over its Open Library, Declare it a Pirate Site
Internet Archive Ends "Emergency Library" Early to Appease Publishers
EFF and California Law Firm Durie Tangri Defending Internet Archive from Publisher Lawsuit


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Saturday August 01 2020, @02:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the any-correlation-with-Wooly-Bear-Caterpillars? dept.

North Atlantic climate far more predictable following major scientific breakthrough:

A team of scientists led by UK Met Office has achieved a scientific breakthrough allowing the longer-term prediction of North Atlantic pressure patterns, the key driving force behind winter weather in Europe and eastern North America.

[...] Published in Nature, the study analyzed six decades of climate model data and suggests decadal variations in North Atlantic atmospheric pressure patterns (known as the North Atlantic Oscillation) are highly predictable, enabling advanced warning of whether winters in the coming decade are likely to be stormy, warm and wet or calm, cold and dry.

However, the study revealed that this predictable signal is much smaller than it should be in current climate models. Hence 100 times more ensemble members are required to extract it, and additional steps are needed to balance the effects of winds and greenhouse gasses. The team showed that, by taking these deficiencies into account, skillful predictions of extreme European winter decades are possible.

Journal Reference:
D. M. Smith, A. A. Scaife, R. Eade, et al. North Atlantic climate far more predictable than models imply, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2525-0)


Original Submission