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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Supercomputer crunches data on COVID-19:

A genetic study of COVID-19 patients, powered by the Summit supercomputer, may have taken us a step towards understanding how the new coronavirus causes disease.

Summit, located at the Oak Ridge National Lab in the US, analysed 40,000 genes from 17,000 samples earlier this summer in an attempt to understand the virus, AI expert Thomas Smith explained in an article on the Medium platform.

While the machine is the second-fastest computer in the world, the process required it to analyse 2.5 billion genetic combinations — a feat that took over two weeks.

Its results pointed to the fact that bradykinin, a natural chemical compound that regulates blood pressure, could explain many facets of COVID-19 and some of its symptoms.

The findings may shed light on why the virus causes vascular problems in certain patients, from strokes to inflammation of the skin or toes, as well as indicating new potential therapies to treat its worst symptoms.

[...] The researchers suggested that efforts to find a treatment for symptoms should be focussed on curbing bradykinin storms.

"Further experiments identified several existing medicinal drugs that have the potential to be re-purposed to treat the Bradykinin Storm," they wrote.

"A possible next step would be to carry out clinical trials to assess how effective these drugs are in treating patients with COVID-19.

"In addition, understanding how SARS-Cov-2 affects the body will help researchers and clinicians identify individuals who are most at risk of developing life-threatening symptoms."

Also at: Medium.com

Journal Reference:
Michael R Garvin, Christiane Alvarez, J Izaak Miller, et al. A mechanistic model and therapeutic interventions for COVID-19 involving a RAS-mediated bradykinin storm, (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.59177)

[Ed Note: Added link to related story.]

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for aristarchus:

Key coronavirus forecast predicts over 410,000 total U.S. deaths by Jan. 1: 'The worst is yet to come':

In June, IHME predicted that the death toll in the U.S. would reach 200,000 by October, which appears to be on track.

[...] IHME previously projected 317,697 deaths by Dec. 1. The model now predicts that the daily death toll could rise to nearly 3,000 per day in December, up from over 800 per day now, according to Hopkins data.

[...] The most likely [IHME] scenario estimates that Covid-19 will kill 410,450 people in the U.S. by Jan. 1. The worst-case scenario, which assumes that restrictions and mask directives will ease, projects up to 620,028 people in the U.S. will die by then and the best-case scenario, which assumes universal masking, predicts that 288,380 people in the U.S. will die from Covid-19 in 2020.

[...] Despite the drop in new cases, the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 everyday in the U.S. has remained high, at nearly 1,000 new deaths per day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

[The 9/11 terrorist attacks caused 2,977 deaths; the current US COVID-19 fatality rate is like having two 9/11 attacks each week. --Ed.]

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Teen arrested for 8 DDoS attacks that disrupted school's online classes:

A juvenile is accused of using Low Orbit Ion Cannon to shut down online classes of the fourth-largest school district in the US with a series of massive DDoS attacks.

A 16-year old high school student was arrested for allegedly targeting the Florida School district's online learning system and shutting down Miami-Dade public school district's online classes.

The accused is a juvenile; therefore, his name hasn't been revealed by the authorities.

Reportedly, the teenager attends South Miami Senior High School, which is part of Miami-Dade and has admitted to launching eight DDoS attacks using 'Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC)' to take down all the networks of the school district. This included their web architecture My School Online.

Furthermore, as the aftermath of the DDoS attacks, all the Miami-Dade servers got overwhelmed, and the district's virtual classes got disrupted for three consecutive days.

[...] The student will be facing a third-degree felony charge of using a computer to defraud and a second-degree misdemeanor of interfering with an educational institution's services. Most likely, he will be tried in state court by Miami-Dade prosecutors.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Battery-free Game Boy runs forever:

A hand-held video game console allowing indefinite gameplay might be a parent's worst nightmare.

But this Game Boy is not just a toy. It's a powerful proof-of-concept, developed by researchers at Northwestern University and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, that pushes the boundaries of battery-free intermittent computing into the realm of fun and interaction.

Instead of batteries, which are costly, environmentally hazardous and ultimately end up in landfills, this device harvests energy from the sun — and the user. These advances enable gaming to last forever without having to stop and recharge the battery.

"It's the first battery-free interactive device that harvests energy from user actions," said Northwestern's Josiah Hester, who co-led the research. "When you press a button, the device converts that energy into something that powers your gaming."

[...] The teams will present the research virtually at UbiComp 2020, a major conference within the field of interactive systems, on Sept. 15.

[...] The researchers' energy aware gaming platform (ENGAGE) has the size and form factor of the original Game Boy, while being equipped with a set of solar panels around the screen. Button presses by the user are a second source of energy. Most importantly, it impersonates the Game Boy processor. Although this solution requires a lot of computational power, and therefore energy, it allows any popular retro game to be played straight from its original cartridge.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Pentagon takes first step toward building supersonic Air Force One:

Air Force One is already one of the fastest passenger planes in the world — but the Pentagon wants to make it a lot faster.

The U.S. Air Force recently awarded a contract to the aviation firm Exosonic to begin developing a presidential aircraft that can travel at supersonic speeds. The research award, reportedly worth $1 million, will fund work to "modify" Exosonic's existing plans for a supersonic commercial plane into a proposal for a presidential-grade aircraft.

In a Twitter post this week, the Air Force's Life Cycle Management Center said the contract is intended to "develop a low-boom supersonic executive transport aircraft that will allow key decision makers and teams to travel around the world in half the time it takes now!"

The current version of Air Force One, a Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, can travel at a maximum speed of .84 mach[sic], according to Boeing.

[...] Meanwhile, Boeing already is building an updated Air Force One. The Air Force awarded Boeing a $3.9 billion contract to build two 747-8 aircraft to replace the existing 747-200B planes.

The new planes are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Source of International Space Station leak still not found, NASA says - Business Insider:

Officials first noticed a leak last September, but they didn't do anything about it for nearly a year, since the leak wasn't major. Plus, station operations like space walks and crew exchanges kept crew members too busy to collect enough data about the issue.

Recently, however, technicians detected an increase to the already elevated leak rate. So NASA announced on August 20 that the three men aboard the station — NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner — would begin a hunt for the source.

That search is "taking longer than expected," NASA spokesman Daniel Huot told Business Insider last week.

Indeed, Huot said on Tuesday that technical teams were still reviewing the data collected by the crew. They've now ruled out most of the station's modules, Huot added, and should complete their review "in the coming days."

If specialists still can't pinpoint the leak after that, he said, they'll need a new action plan.

[...] In the event of an emergency on the space station, the crew members could return to Earth via the Soyuz MS-16 spaceship that's docked there. In a less extreme scenario, the crew could also cut off the leaking module and isolate it.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

Mass Firing at Lab Zero Leaves Company with No Employees:

Studio head Mike Zaimont of Lab Zero Games laid off the remainder of his staff at the end of August after nearly a quarter of its employees resigned due to sexual harassment accusations lobbed against him. Zaimont now remains the sole employee at the studio.

[...] Following the accusations and resignations, Zaimont was asked by the company's board to step down, but when a deal on his resignation couldn't be reached, Zaimont simply dissolved the board, which was within his powers as temporary studio head.

According to an email from Zaimont featured in a report from Kotaku, the layoffs were due to Lab Zero being unable to meet payroll requirements for its employees, noting that the company had more debt than cash. Details on severance for the terminated workers are apparently still being worked out, and they are able to keep their health insurance through the month of September.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Facebook could be hit with a massive brand new tax if it moves forward with its threat to block all Australian users from sharing news on its platform. In response, Facebook threatened to ban the sharing of news which then resulted in a threat to tax Facebook for news or rather "digital transactions". The Australian government appears to have predicted Facebook's response and had draft legislation drawn up ready to respond.

On Tuesday, the social media giant said it would ban the sharing of news in Australia on Facebook and Instagram if the government pushed forward with changes that would force social media platforms to pay media companies for their content.

But it has since been revealed that such a move from Facebook could actually see the platform hit with a new tax on all digital transactions, which could cost the company millions.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

A Speaker for the Dead is a person who attends a funeral or similar convention to speak on behalf of the deceased as described in the second Ender novel. A funeral director has taken up the path of being a Speaker delivering messages to those who have come to grieve, clearing out parts of the lives for people unable to do so, and arranging mementos for the living.

It's good to see science fiction continue to inspire us.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:

The Moon Is Rusting, and Researchers Want to Know Why:

A new paper in Science Advances reviews data from the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, which discovered water ice and mapped out a variety of minerals while surveying the Moon's surface in 2008. Lead author Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii has studied that water extensively in data from Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument, or M³, which was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Water interacts with rock to produce a diversity of minerals, and M³ detected spectra - or light reflected off surfaces - that revealed the Moon's poles had a very different composition than the rest of it.

Intrigued, Li homed in on these polar spectra. While the Moon's surface is littered with iron-rich rocks, he nevertheless was surprised to find a close match with the spectral signature of hematite[*]. The mineral is a form of iron oxide, or rust, produced when iron is exposed to oxygen and water. But the Moon isn't supposed to have oxygen or liquid water, so how can it be rusting?

The mystery starts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that flows out from the Sun, bombarding Earth and the Moon with hydrogen. Hydrogen makes it harder for hematite to form. It's what is known as a reducer, meaning it adds electrons to the materials it interacts with. That's the opposite of what is needed to make hematite: For iron to rust, it requires an oxidizer, which removes electrons. And while the Earth has a magnetic field shielding it from this hydrogen, the Moon does not.

"It's very puzzling," Li said. "The Moon is a terrible environment for hematite to form in." So he turned to JPL scientists Abigail Fraeman and Vivian Sun to help poke at M³'s data and confirm his discovery of hematite.

Several people have submitted leads to stories about how Ring Smart Doorbells might also alert people to the approach of law enforcement.

FBI: Ring Smart Doorbells Could Sabotage Cops

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Ring is the gift that keeps on giving...

From https://threatpost.com/fbi-ring-smart-doorbells-sabotage-cops/158837/

While privacy advocates have warned against Ring's partnerships with police, newly unearthed documents reveal FBI concerns about 'new challenges' smart doorbell footage could create for cops. The FBI is worried that Ring doorbell owners can use footage collected from their smart devices to keep tabs on police, newly uncovered documents show.

It's interesting to see that the FBI is 'concerned' about this pervasive surveillance being applied to cops for once instead of on 'the plebs', as opposed to sticking to the mantra they've been telling us the whole time: "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear".

It is important to point out that the 'concerns' the FBI has, go way beyond the simple populace being able to check up on cops, so the article is a good read and will no doubt generate an interesting discussion.

Further reading even: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7047194-LES-FBI-Technical-Analysis-Bulletin-Internet-of.html

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery fleet gains FAA approval for trial commercial flights – TechCrunch:

Amazon has been granted an approval by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that will allow it to start trialing commercial deliveries via drone, Bloomberg reports. This certification is the same one granted to UPS and a handful of other companies, and while it doesn't mean that Amazon can immediately start operating a consumer drone delivery service for everyone, it does allow them to make progress toward that goal.

[...] Ultimately, any actual viable and practical system of drone delivery will require fully autonomous operation, without direct line-of-sight observation. Amazon has plans for its MK27 drones, which have a maximum 5 lb carrying capacity, to do just that, but it'll still likely be many years before the regulatory and air traffic control infrastructure is updated to the point where that can happen regularly.

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'Just Passed a Guy in a Jetpack': Sightings at Los Angeles Airport Fuel Concern

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow96:

'Just passed a guy in a jetpack': sightings at Los Angeles airport fuel concern:

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating reports from airline pilots of someone flying a jetpack near Los Angeles international airport over the weekend.

[...] "Tower, American 1997, we just passed a guy in a jetpack," a pilot said.

"American 1997, OK, thank you, were they off to your left side or your right side?" the controller asked.

"Off the left side at maybe 300 yards or so at our altitude," the pilot said. Another pilot also reported a sighting.

"We just saw the guy pass by us in the jetpack," he said. The controller then advised another aircraft flight crew to use caution.

"The FBI is aware of the reports by pilots on Sunday and is working to determine what occurred," the agency said in a statement.

Inquiry Into 'Guy in Jetpack' Flying at LA Airport

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow96:

Inquiry into 'guy in jetpack' flying at LA airport:

The FBI is investigating reports that a "guy in a jetpack" was seen by pilots flying near Los Angeles' LAX airport nearby to where planes were landing.

The incident, which was recorded by air traffic controllers, happened on Sunday evening and was witnessed by pilots on two separate planes.

The apparent culprit was seen flying at an elevation of 3,000ft (915 meters).

[...] JetPack Aviation, based in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, boasts of being able to fly a person to 15,000ft, but the owner of the company told the LA Times on Tuesday that their product is not available for private use.

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Rocket Lab secretly launched its own company-made satellite on latest flight:

Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab says it has successfully flown one of its own satellites, demonstrating that the spacecraft's design holds up in Earth orbit. It's the first time the company has flown its in-house cylindrical spacecraft, known as the Photon, which Rocket Lab hopes to sell to customers for use in ambitious deep-space missions.

The satellite was secretly a part of Rocket Lab's most recent launch. On August 30th, the company's Electron rocket took off from Rocket Lab's primary launch site in New Zealand, lofting a single satellite for the company Capella Space. But once the satellite had separated from the rocket, part of the Electron actually turned into a satellite and remained in orbit around Earth. The satellite was Electron's kick stage — a small platform that sits on top of the rocket, helping to give satellites on the vehicle an extra boost in space. After the satellite was deployed, Rocket Lab sent a command to make it start operating like a satellite.

[...] When asked why the company didn't announce the Photon demonstration prior to launch, Beck said he wanted to make sure they executed and delivered the product first. "Well, I kind of like to just do stuff, and make sure it's all good and it works before announcing it," Beck said during a press conference. He added that he hoped "this one will be a little bit less controversial than the Humanity Star."

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"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

As anyone who has ever straightened their hair knows, water is the enemy. Hair painstakingly straightened by heat will bounce back into curls the minute it touches water. Why? Because hair has shape memory. Its material properties allow it to change shape in response to certain stimuli and return to its original shape in response to others.

What if other materials, especially textiles, had this type of shape memory? Imagine a t-shirt with cooling vents that opened when exposed to moisture and closed when dry, or one-size-fits-all clothing that stretches or shrinks to a person's measurements.

Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a biocompatible material that can be 3-D-printed into any shape and pre-programmed with reversible shape memory. The material is made using keratin, a fibrous protein found in hair, nails and shells. The researchers extracted the keratin from leftover Agora wool used in textile manufacturing.

The research could help the broader effort of reducing waste in the fashion industry, one of the biggest polluters on the planet. Already, designers such as Stella McCarthy are reimagining how the industry uses materials, including wool.

Journal Reference:
Luca Cera et al, A bioinspired and hierarchically structured shape-memory material, Nature Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-020-0789-2

-- submitted from IRC

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