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takyon writes:

Nvidia has announced its latest generation of gaming-oriented GPUs, based on the "Ampere" microarchitecture on a customized Samsung "8nm" process node.

The GeForce RTX 3080 ($700) has 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM and will be released on September 17. TDP is up significantly, at 320 Watts compared to 215 Watts for the RTX 2080. The GeForce RTX 3070 ($500) has 8 GB of GDDR6 and a TDP of 220 Watts. The GeForce RTX 3090 ($1500) is the top card so far with a whopping 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM. The GPU is physically much larger than the other two models and it has a 350 Watt TDP.

Nvidia's performance benchmarks should be treated with caution, since the company is often using ray-tracing and/or DLSS upscaling in its comparisons. But the RTX 3070 will outperform the RTX 2080 Ti at less than half the launch price, as it has 35% more CUDA cores at higher clock speeds.

Nvidia also announced some new features such as Nvidia Reflex (4m53s video), Broadcast, Omniverse Machinima, and RTX IO. Nvidia Broadcast includes AI-derived tools intended for live streamers. RTX Voice can filter out background noises, greenscreen effects can be applied without the need for a real greenscreen, and an autoframing feature can keep the streamer centered in frame while they are moving. Nvidia RTX IO appears to be Nvidia's response to the next-generation consoles' use of fast SSDs and dedicated data decompression.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series | Official Launch Event (39m29s video)

Previously: Micron Accidentally Confirms GDDR6X Memory, and Nvidia's RTX 3090 GPU

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Boeing and NASA target December for second try at uncrewed orbital demonstration flight – TechCrunch:

NASA and Boeing have provided some updates around their Commercial Crew plans, which aim to get Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft certified for regular human flight. The CST-100 and Boeing's Commercial Crew aspirations hit a snag last year with a first attempt of an uncrewed orbital flight test, which did not go to plan thanks to a couple of software errors that led to an early mission ending, and a failure to reach the International Space Station as intended.

In a blog post on Friday, NASA said that it and partner Boeing were aiming to fly the re-do of that uncrewed test no earlier than December 2020. This will involve flying the fully reusable Starliner CST-100 without anyone on board, in a live, fully automated simulation of how a launch with crew would go, including a rendezvous and docking with the ISS on orbit, and a return trip and controlled landing and capsule recovery.

[...] Provided OFT-2 goes as intended for Boeing, Starliner could be ferrying its first passengers for a crewed demonstration launch as early as June 2021, with plans for a first operational mission now set for December 2021. All these dates are subject to change, of course.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Study finds insect shows promise as a good, sustainable food source:

With global food demands rising at an alarming rate, a study led by IUPUI [( Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis)] scientists has found new evidence that a previously overlooked insect shows promise as alternative protein source: the yellow mealworm.

The research is based upon a new analysis of the genome of the mealworm species Tenebrio molitor led by Christine Picard, associate professor of biology and director in Forensic and Investigative Sciences program at the School of Science at IUPUI.

[...] "Human populations are continuing to increase and the stress on protein production is increasing at an unsustainable rate, not even considering climate change," said Picard, whose lab focuses on the use of insects to address global food demand.

The research, conducted in partnership with Beta Hatch Inc., has found the yellow mealworm—historically a pest—can provide benefit in a wide range of agriculture applications. Not only can it can be used as an alternative source of protein for animals including fish, but its waste is also ideal as organic fertilizer.

[...] "Mealworms, being insects, are a part of the natural diet of many organisms," said Picard. "Fish enjoy mealworms, for example. They could also be really useful in the pet food industry as an alternative protein source. Chickens like insects—and maybe one day humans will, too, because it's an alternative source of protein."

Journal Reference:
T. Eriksson, et al. The yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) genome: a resource for the emerging insects as food and feed industry [open], Journal of Insects as Food and Feed (DOI: 10.3920/jiff2019.0057)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

CenturyLink outage led to a 3.5% drop in global web traffic:

US internet service provider CenturyLink has suffered a major technical outage on Sunday after a misconfiguration in one of its data centers created havoc all over the internet.

Due to the technical nature of the outage -- involving both firewall and BGP routing -- the error spread outward from CenturyLink's network and also impacted other internet service providers, ending up causing connectivity problems for many more other companies.

The list of tech giants who had services go down because of the CenturyLink outage includes big names like Amazon, Twitter, Microsoft (Xbox Live), EA, Blizzard, Steam, Discord, Reddit, Hulu, Duo Security, Imperva, NameCheap, OpenDNS, and many more.

Cloudflare, which was also severely impacted, said CenturyLink's outward-propagating issue led to a 3.5% drop in global internet traffic, which would make this one of the biggest internet outages ever recorded.

If someone can cause this much chaos accidentally, how much damage could someone deliberately cause?

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Estrogen may lessen severity of COVID-19 symptoms in women, study finds:

There is growing evidence that Covid-19 poses greater risks for men than women¹. Wake Forest School of Medicine has published a review of preclinical data that may indicate a protective effect related to estrogen.

Why are men at greater risk than women for more severe symptoms and worse outcomes from COVID-19 regardless of age?

In an effort to understand why this occurs, scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine conducted a review of published preclinical data on sex-specific hormone activity, especially estrogen. The review is published in the September online issue of the journal Current Hypertension Reports.

"We know that coronavirus affects the heart and we know that estrogen is protective against cardiovascular disease in women, so the most likely explanation seemed to be hormonal differences between the sexes," said the lead author of the review, Leanne Groban, M.D., professor of anesthesiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health.

Journal Reference:
Leanne Groban, Hao Wang, Xuming Sun, et al. Is Sex a Determinant of COVID-19 Infection? Truth or Myth? [open], Current Hypertension Reports (DOI: 10.1007/s11906-020-01073-x)

(1) See Also:
Covid Kills More Men Than Women. Experts Still Can't Explain Why
Why Covid-19 Poses Greater Risks for Men Than Women
Why Does the Coronavirus Hit Men Harder? A New Clue

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/another-covid-19-reinfection-this-time-second-infection-was-more-severe/

A 25-year-old resident of Reno, Nevada was infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, two times, about 48-days apart, with the second infection causing a more severe case of COVID-19 than the first and requiring hospitalization and oxygen support.

That's according to a draft study, led by researchers at the University of Nevada and posted online. The study has not been published by a scientific journal and has not been peer-reviewed. Still, it drew quick attention from researchers, who have been examining data from the first confirmed case of a SARS-CoV-2 reinfection, reported earlier this week.
[...]
Amid the more than 24.5 million cases worldwide, it is completely expected to find some recovered patients who are not completely protected by their immune responses and are thus vulnerable to reinfection.

The big question is: how common is this scenario?

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Unredacted suit shows Google's own engineers confused by privacy settings:

In 2018, the Associated Press reported that Maps and some other Google services (on both iPhone and Android) were storing users' location data even when users had explicitly turned Location History off.

"There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people's experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services," a Google spokesperson told the AP at the time. "We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time."

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office launched its own investigation following the AP report, and in May 2020 the state sued Google, alleging that the company violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

The initial lawsuit was heavily redacted, as the Arizona Mirror reports. But following an August 3 petition from trade groups Digital Content Next and the News Media Alliance, the judge has ordered several documents related to the case to be unsealed, and a new, less-redacted version of the suit is now available.

The new version of the suit (PDF) includes a number of employee emails and chat logs where Google employees agreed with the AP story, and these employees highlighted their own frustrations with the settings. Among the highlights:

• "The current UI feels like it is designed to make things possible, yet difficult enough that people won't figure it out."
• "Some people (including even Googlers) don't know that there is a global switch and a per-device switch."
• "Indeed we aren't very good at explaining this to users. Add me to the list of Googlers who didn't understand how this worked and was surprised when I read the article ... we shipped a UI that confuses users."
• "I agree with the article. Location off should mean location off, not except for this case or that case."

"Speaking as a user, WTF?" another employee said, in additional documentation obtained by the Arizona Mirror. "More specifically I **thought** I had location tracking turned off on my phone. So our messaging around this is enough to confuse a privacy focused (Google software engineer). That's not good."

Also at news.com.au

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Single-use N95 respirators can be decontaminated and used again, study finds: Scientists hope new methods can mitigate the chronic shortage of personal protective equipment:

N95 respirators, which are widely worn by health care workers treating patients with COVID-19 and are designed to be used only once, can be decontaminated effectively and used up to three times, according to research by UCLA scientists and colleagues.

An early-release version of their study has been published online, with the full study to appear in September in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

[...] "Although N95 respirators are designed for just one use before disposal, in times of shortage, N95 respirators can be decontaminated and reused up to three times," said James Lloyd-Smith, a co-author of the study and a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "But the integrity of the respirator's fit and seal must be maintained."

[...] The masks treated with vaporized hydrogen peroxide experienced no failures, suggesting they potentially could be reused three times, Lloyd-Smith said. Those treated with ultraviolet light and dry heat began showing fit and seal problems after three decontaminations, suggesting these respirators potentially could be reused twice.

The study authors concluded that vaporized hydrogen peroxide was the most effective method because no traces of the virus could be detected after only a 10-minute treatment. They found that ultraviolet light and dry heat are also acceptable decontamination procedures, as long as the methods are applied for at least 60 minutes.

Journal Reference:
Robert J. Fischer, Dylan H. Morris, Neeltje van Doremalen, et al. Effectiveness of N95 Respirator Decontamination and Reuse against SARS-CoV-2 Virus, (DOI: 10.3201/eid2609.201524)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

It's Official: Africa Has Just Been Declared Free of Wild Poliovirus:

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday declared that Africa was free of wild poliovirus , a landmark in a decades-long campaign to eradicate the notorious disease around the world.

"Today is a historic day for Africa," said Professor Rose Gana Fomban Leke, whose commission certified that no polio cases had occurred on the continent for the past four years, the threshold for eradication.

Poliovirus now joins smallpox on the list of viruses that have been wiped out in Africa, the WHO said.

[...] Poliomyelitis - the medical term for polio - is an acutely infectious and contagious virus which attacks the spinal cord and causes irreversible paralysis in children.

It was endemic around the world until a vaccine was found in the 1950s, though this remained out of reach for many poorer countries in Asia and Africa.

In 1988, when the WHO, UNICEF and Rotary launched the worldwide campaign to eradicate the disease, there were 350,000 cases

[...] Thanks to a global effort and financial backing - some US$19 billion over 30 years - only Afghanistan and Pakistan have recorded cases this year: 87 in total.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

"One of the major challenges to healing after [a] nerve injury is the formation of a glial scar."

A glial scar is formed by cells and biochemicals that knit together tightly around the damaged nerve. In the short term, this protective environment shields the nerve cells from further injury, but in the long term it can inhibit nerve repair.

About two decades ago, scientists discovered that a natural enzyme known as chondroitinase ABC — produced by a bacterium called Proteus vulgaris — can selectively degrade some of the biomolecules that make up the glial scar.

By changing the environment around the damaged nerve, chondroitinase ABC has been shown to promote regrowth of nerve cells. In animal models, it can even lead to regaining some lost function.

But progress has been limited by the fact that chondroitinase ABC is not very stable in the places where researchers want to use it.

"It's stable enough for the environment that the bacteria live in, but inside the body it is very fragile," says [senior author and University of Toronto Engineering professor Molly] Shoichet. "It aggregates, or clumps together, which causes it to lose activity. This happens faster at body temperature than at room temperature. It is also difficult to deliver chondroitinase ABC because it is susceptible to chemical degradation and shear forces typically used in formulations."

RandomFactor writes:

China currently has four launch centers (three inland and one coastal) and is building a floating one.

China is making progress with a spaceport to facilitate sea-based launch activity and development of rockets, satellites and related applications.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the country's main space contractor, is developing the spaceport in Haiyang City on the coast of the eastern province of Shandong.

The 'Eastern aerospace port' will add to China's four established space launch centers and be a base for sea launches of light-lift solid rockets.

Use of a sea based launch site could reduce safety risks to civilians and also decrease visibility of launches.

Launches from inland sites often see spent stages threaten inhabited areas, requiring expensive safety and cleanup operations.

China's intention to buildout a 'satellite internet' is one of multiple infrastructure initiatives likely to benefit from the new launch center.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google Images is making it easier to license photo rights

Google is rolling out an update to Google Images designed to make it easier to license photographs or pictures that are covered by copyright. The change could help publishers, photographers, and artists get in front of their audience, while also helping users find images that they have a right to use.

Images with licensing information provided by the publisher will now appear in search results with a "Licensable" badge over the thumbnail. Clicking on that image will then bring up its licensing requirements and a link to where you're able to buy rights to it, if necessary. Licensors are able to specify a purchasing link that differs from the page the image has been surfaced from.

It'll also be possible to filter image search results by the type of license attached. For example, you could search just for images covered under a less strict Creative Commons license, or look specifically for commercial photos.

Bye, Flickr.

Also at Search Engine Land.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

The month of August is winding to a close. Here are a few updates on site activity. If you are interested, please read on after the fold. Otherwise, a new story will be along shortly.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

FBI warns of an increase in online romance scams:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warns of online romance scams (also known as confidence fraud), an ongoing criminal activity that continues to cause large financial losses along with emotional effects with unpredictable consequences.

[...] "According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which provides the public with a means of reporting Internet-facilitated crimes, romance scams result in greater financial losses to victims when compared to other online crimes." reads the alert published by the FBI. "In 2019, almost 20,000 complaints categorized as romance scams were reported to IC3 (about 1,000 more than the previous year), and the losses associated with those complaints exceeded $475 million."

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

9to5Linux is reporting on the new version of Thunderbird which now supports OpenPGP by default:

Thunderbird 78.2.1 has been released today and it finally enables the OpenPGP feature by default. That's amazing news for privacy and security fans enthusiasts using the open-source email client as they won't have to go to all the trouble of enabling OpenPGP in the latest Thunderbird 78 series.

After you update to Thunderbird 78.2.1, you'll be able to access the OpenPGP Key Manager window from the Tools menu by clicking on the hamburger menu on the right side of the window (see the screenshot above for details).

So as of Thunderbird 78.2.1, it will no longer be necessary to use the Enigmail add-on and that add-on ends on an amicable note. Enigmail for Thunderbird will be supported for 6 months now but will continue for Postbox.

Previously:
(2018) Google Takes Further Steps to Eliminate Third-Party E-Mail

Original Submission