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martyb writes:

Donald Trump acquitted by Senate in second impeachment trial:

The Senate has voted to acquit the former president of the United States after the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump concluded Saturday. The vote came after a five-day trial where arguments centered around whether Trump incited the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, and whether it is constitutional to hear the impeachment trial of a former president who is now a private citizen.

Despite a compelling prosecution, an acquittal isn't unexpected. While the Senate is split 50/50, with Vice President Kamala Harris to cast a tie-break vote as president of the Senate when necessary, the impeachment trial required a two-thirds supermajority for conviction.

This meant 17 Republican senators would have had to vote to convict Trump, an unlikely ask from the beginning. This was indicated in a Jan. 25 vote led by Sen. Rand Paul on whether the impeachment trial of a former president was "unconstitutional," during which just five Republicans voted against the motion. The first day of the impeachment trial this week then saw a similar vote, during which six Republicans voted with Democrats to continue the trial.

In the end, the vote was 57-43 to convict Trump, with all 48 Democrats, two independents and seven Republicans finding Trump guilty. The only members of the GOP who voted alongside the Democrat senators were Sens. Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey, Bill Cassidy and Richard Burr.

Also at: CNN, Al Jazera, Time, BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series laptop shortages likely as Ethereum hunters in China turn to mobile mining:

It was predicted that cryptocurrency miners might go mobile thanks to Nvidia's powerful GeForce RTX 30 series Laptop GPUs, and now there is physical evidence of this happening. A Weibo blogger has shared some images of mining rigs that are configured from gaming laptops fitted with one of the new RTX 30 series chips. Dozens of laptops can be seen piled high with the sole purpose of making some crypto profits, with Ethereum being one of the likely candidates for mass mobile mining attempts.

[...] A content creator in China has already demonstrated how easy it was to mine Ethereum on an RTX 3060-powered laptop by casually earning enough money in a coffee shop to pay for their beverage and not incur any power bills.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Open source video player VLC will get a new UI this year with 4.0 launch:

News website Protocol ran an extensive piece on the history and status of the popular open source video player VLC, and the story includes new details about the next major version of the software. Among other things, VLC 4.0 will bring a complete user interface overhaul.

"We modified the interface to be a bit more modern," VideoLAN foundation President Jean-Baptiste Kempf told the publication. Kempf had previously shown some version of a new interface about two years ago, but it's unclear at this point how much that one resembles the one the team plans to introduce with VLC 4.0.

While the article doesn't list every change coming, it does outline a couple other possible directions and priorities for VLC.

Read the article for more details.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious:

In the 1870s, Jesse Hiatt, an Iowa farmer, discovered a mutant seedling in his orchard of Yellow Bellflower trees. He chopped it down, but the next season, it sprang back through the dirt. He chopped it down again. It sprang back again. "If thee must grow," he told the intrepid sprout, "thee may."

A decade later, Hiatt's tree bore its first fruit. The apples were elongated globes with red-and-gold striped skin, crisp flesh, and a five-pointed calyx. In 1893, when Stark Brothers' Nursery of Louisiana, Missouri, held a contest to find a replacement for the Ben Davis—then the most widely planted apple in the country, strapping and good-looking but bland—Hiatt submitted his new variety, which he called the Hawkeye. "My, that's delicious," Clarence Stark, the company's president, reportedly said after his first bite.

[...] With its hardy rootstocks and juicy, curvaceous fruit, the Red Delicious quickly became a favorite of growers and consumers from coast to coast—and as its commercial success grew, so did its distance from Hiatt's Hawkeye. In 1923, a New Jersey orchardist wrote to the Starks to report that one limb of a tree he had purchased from the nursery was producing crimson apples while those on the other limbs remained green. A chance genetic mutation that made the apples redden earlier had also given them a deeper, more uniform color, and customers were lining up for a taste. Paul Stark, one of Clarence's sons, travelled up from Missouri and laid down $6,000 for the limb.

hubie writes:

Biological swarms are fascinating and even mesmerizing things to watch, as hundreds or even thousands of individual entities behave in a manner such that their collective behavior can act almost as a great organism that responds to its immediate environment. A large and diverse number of organisms exhibit collective behavior, so it is generally assumed that this permits tasks to be achieved that are well beyond what a single individual can achieve while operating without the need for top-down control. There has long been significant interest in understanding how to exploit this in engineered systems such as drone or bot swarms.

The challenge in understanding collective behavior is that one normally has to assume a priori a mathematical model to simulate, which means trying to extract rules for how the individual entities interact, and their relative interactions can change depending upon their changing environment. A new paper studied swarms of midges and they argued the case for not worrying about the individual particles, but treating it as a thermodynamics problem.

We argue that the essential nature of the group functionality is encoded in its properties—and therefore that understanding these properties both allows one to quantify the purpose of the collective behaviour and to predict the response of the group to environmental changes. As recent work has demonstrated, a powerful way to characterize these properties is to borrow ideas from other areas of physics. For groups on the move such as human crowds, hydrodynamics is a natural choice, and empirically measured constitutive laws have allowed the formulation of equations of motion that accurately predict how crowds flow. But for stationary groups such as insect swarms, where the group as a whole does not move even though its constituent individuals are continuously rearranging, thermodynamics is a more natural framework, as it allows one to precisely describe the state of the system irrespective of its net motion. The most fundamental relationship for doing so is the equation of state, which links the state variables that describe the macroscopic properties of the system and encodes how they co-vary in response to environmental changes.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

World's First 3D Bioprinted And Cultivated Ribeye Steak Is Revealed:

The world's first 3D bioprinted and cultivated ribeye steak was made without genetic engineering. Created by Aleph Farms Ltd. and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, the steak also did not require the slaughter of any animals. Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, shared more in an interview.

3D bioprinting uses cells instead of ink or plastic to make things. The cultivated ribeye from Aleph Farms has many similarities to a regular steak, such as real muscles and fat. To create the meat, researchers used 3D bioprinting and real cow cells. The technology allows them to print living cells that can grow and interact in a vascular-like system helping nutrients move and resembling real steak.

"Our 3D bioprinting is an approach where we assemble a structured piece of meat bottom up outside of the animal from its natural building blocks, which are different types of living animal cells. Our cells are natural, non-GMO and non-immortalized. The 3D bioprinted tissue is then incubated where the cells develop and interact in a similar manner as in nature, granting the tissue the texture and qualities of a steak," Toubia said.

[...] Aleph Farms wants its first products to reach the marketplace in the second half of 2022.

However, the company must first overcome regulatory hurdles before it can start selling the meat in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversee cell-based meat products but have not issued regulatory approval.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Monday is the 75^th annivesary of the introduction of the ENIAC, which is regarded the first general-purpose, fully electronic computer. The original six programmers, Jean Jennings Bartik, Frances "Betty" Snyder Holberton, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence worked with a physical interface of switches and wires to implement programs they designed on paper. The process of rewiring the machine could take days. The purpose was mainly to calculate ballistic tables.

On February 15, 1946, the Army revealed the existence of ENIAC to the public. In a special ceremony, the Army introduced ENIAC and its hardware inventors Dr. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The presentation featured its trajectory ballistics program, operating at a speed thousands of time faster than any prior calculations. The ENIAC women's program worked perfectly - and conveyed the immense calculating power of ENIAC and its ability to tackle the millennium problems that had previously taken a man 100 years to do. It calculated the trajectory of a shell that took 30 seconds to trace it. But, it took ENIAC only 20 seconds to calculate it - faster than a speeding bullet! Indeed!

Work on constructing the ENIAC went from 1943 to 1946.

When the United States entered World War II, the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania undertook the building of an electronic computing machine for the Ballistic Research Laboratory. The principal designers were J. Presper Eckert, an electrical engineer at the Moore School, and John Mauchly, a physicist who had become interested in calculating devices from his efforts to apply statistical methods to meteorological data. Eckert and Mauchly designed the machine to compute ballistic tables, but recognized that it could be applied to a very wide range of problems.

ENIAC contained 20 electronic accumulators, each of which could store a 10-digit decimal number. Its logic circuits were also electronic. The sequence of operations was set by the placement of patchcords in plugboards. ENIAC also had read-only memory of about 300 numbers, which were entered by turning switches. An IBM card reader and an IBM cardpunch provided input and output. All together there were 18,000 tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1500 relays, and 6000 manual switches. This equipment consumed 140 kW of power and filled a room 20 feet by 40 feet.

Previously:
(2017) Software Engineers Are the Heroes of New Computer History Museum Exhibit

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Microsoft's Big Win in Quantum Computing Was an 'Error' After All:

Dutch physicist and Microsoft employee Leo Kouwenhoven published headline-grabbing new evidence that he had observed an elusive particle called a Majorana fermion.

Microsoft hoped to harness Majorana particles to build a quantum computer, which promises unprecedented power by tapping quirky physics. Rivals IBM and Google had already built impressive prototypes using more established technology. Kouwenhoven's discovery buoyed Microsoft's chance to catch up. The company's director of quantum computing business development, Julie Love, told the BBC that Microsoft would have a commercial quantum computer "within five years."

Three years later, Microsoft's 2018 physics fillip has fizzled. Late last month, Kouwenhoven and his 21 coauthors released a new paper including more data from their experiments. It concludes that they did not find the prized particle after all. An attached note from the authors said the original paper, in the prestigious journal Nature, would be retracted, citing "technical errors."

Two physicists in the field say extra data Kouwenhoven's group provided them after they questioned the 2018 results shows the team had originally excluded data points that undermined its news-making claims. "I don't know for sure what was in their heads," says Sergey Frolov, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, "but they skipped some data that contradicts directly what was in the paper. From the fuller data, there's no doubt that there's no Majorana."

Journal Reference:
Zhang, Hao, de Moor, Michiel W. A., Bommer, Jouri D. S., et al. Large zero-bias peaks in InSb-Al hybrid semiconductor-superconductor nanowire devices, (DOI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.11456)

Original Submission

MrPlow wrote in with a submission for Fnord666.

It reverses a landmark victory for privacy advocates.

Border Agents Can Search Phones Freely Under New Circuit Court Ruling - The Verge:

A US appeals court has ruled that Customs and Border Protection agents can conduct in-depth searches of phones and laptops, overturning an earlier legal victory for civil liberties groups. First Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch declared that both basic and "advanced" searches, which include reviewing and copying data without a warrant, fall within "permissible constitutional grounds" at the American border.

Lynch ruled against a group of US citizens and residents objecting to invasive searches of their electronic devices.

[...] A district court declared that CBP searches violated the Fourth Amendment by not requiring "reasonable suspicion" that the devices contained contraband. Lynch disagreed. "Electronic device searches do not fit neatly into other categories of property searches, but the bottom line is that basic border searches of electronic devices do not involve an intrusive search of a person," she wrote. That lowers the bar for conducting them at the border, where the government's interest in security is "at its zenith."

Appeals courts have issued conflicting opinions on how electronic devices fall under the "border search exception," a rule allowing warrantless searches that might otherwise be unconstitutional. [...] The exception is primarily intended for finding contraband or unauthorized entrants, but it applies to federal agents working within 100 miles of the US border — an area that covers most metropolitan areas.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Sea salt embedded in the dusty surface of Mars and lofted into the planet’s atmosphere has led to the discovery of hydrogen chloride – the first time the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has detected a new gas. The spacecraft is also providing new information about how Mars is losing its water.

A major quest in Mars exploration is hunting for atmospheric gases linked to biological or geological activity, as well as understanding the past and present water inventory of the planet, to determine if Mars could ever have been habitable and if any water reservoirs could be accessible for future human exploration. Two new results from the ExoMars team published today in Science Advances unveil an entirely new class of chemistry and provide further insights into seasonal changes and surface-atmosphere interactions as driving forces behind the new observations.

AnonTechie writes:

Is China trying to make its own version of Captain America? US intelligence has suggested so. But beyond the hype, the possibility of a super soldier is not so outlandish and one that not just China is interested in. With deep pockets, and a desire to get an edge, the world's militaries have often driven technological innovation, from the state-of-the-art to the humble.

[...] Exoskeletons are just one of the promising technologies militaries are exploring to enhance their soldiers. Enhancement is nothing new - since ancient times, troops have been bolstered by advancements in weaponry, kit and training. But today, enhancement could mean much more than merely giving an individual soldier a better gun. It could mean altering the individual soldier.

"One may imagine that a man can create a man with some given characteristics, not only theoretically but also practically. He can be a genius mathematician, a brilliant musician or a soldier, a man who can fight without fear, compassion, regret or pain."
Last year, the former US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), John Ratcliffe, went further with a blunt accusation against China. "China has even conducted human testing on members of the People's Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities. There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing's pursuit of power," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal. China called the article a "miscellany of lies".

Astronomers Confirm Solar System's Most Distant Known Object Is Indeed Farfarout

martyb writes:

Astronomers Confirm Solar System's Most Distant Known Object Is Indeed Farfarout:

With the help of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, and other ground-based telescopes, astronomers have confirmed that a faint object discovered in 2018 and nicknamed "Farfarout" is indeed the most distant object yet found in our Solar System. The object has just received its designation from the International Astronomical Union.

Farfarout was first spotted in January 2018 by the Subaru Telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai'i. Its discoverers could tell it was very far away, but they weren't sure exactly how far. They needed more observations.

"At that time we did not know the object's orbit as we only had the Subaru discovery observations over 24 hours, but it takes years of observations to get an object's orbit around the Sun," explained co-discoverer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science. "All we knew was that the object appeared to be very distant at the time of discovery."

Sheppard and his colleagues, David Tholen of the University of Hawai'i and Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University, spent the next few years tracking the object with the Gemini North telescope (also on Maunakea in Hawai'i) and the Carnegie Institution for Science's Magellan Telescopes in Chile to determine its orbit. [1] They have now confirmed that Farfarout currently lies 132 astronomical units (au) from the Sun, which is 132 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. (For comparison, Pluto is 39 au from the Sun, on average.)

Farfarout is even more remote than the previous Solar System distance record-holder, which was discovered by the same team and nicknamed "Farout." Provisionally designated 2018 VG18, Farout is 124 au from the Sun.

However, the orbit of Farfarout is quite elongated, taking it 175 au from the Sun at its farthest point and around 27 au at its closest, which is inside the orbit of Neptune. Because its orbit crosses Neptune's, Farfarout could provide insights into the history of the outer Solar System.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

United Airlines plans to buy 200 flying electric taxis that it hopes will fly passengers to the airport within the next five years.

The US airline is one of the first major carriers to commit to the purchase of flying taxis.

[...] United and Mesa said they predict using the taxis to fly passengers over congested highways to hub airports.

California-based Archer says the taxis will be capable of flying a distance of 60 miles (95km) at 150 miles an hour (240km/h) and could nearly halve carbon dioxide emissions for passengers travelling to the airport.

"With the right technology, we can curb the impact aircraft have on the planet, but we have to identify the next generation of companies who will make this a reality early and find ways to help them get off the ground," United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby said in a statement.

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Breached water plant employees used the same TeamViewer password and no firewall:

The Florida water treatment facility whose computer system experienced a potentially hazardous computer breach last week used an unsupported version of Windows with no firewall and shared the same TeamViewer password among its employees, government officials have reported.

After gaining remote access [...] the unknown intruder increased the amount of sodium hydroxide—a caustic chemical better known as lye—by a factor of 100. The tampering could have caused severe sickness or death had it not been for safeguards the city has in place.

According to an advisory from the state of Massachusetts, employees with the Oldsmar facility used a computer running Windows 7 to remotely access plant controls known as a SCADA—short for “supervisory control and data acquisition”—system. What’s more, the computer had no firewall installed and used a password that was shared among employees for remotely logging in to city systems with the TeamViewer application.

Massachusetts officials wrote:

The unidentified actors accessed the water treatment plant’s SCADA controls via remote access software, TeamViewer, which was installed on one of several computers the water treatment plant personnel used to conduct system status checks and to respond to alarms or any other issues that arose during the water treatment process. All computers used by water plant personnel were connected to the SCADA system and used the 32-bit version of the Windows 7 operating system. Further, all computers shared the same password for remote access and appeared to be connected directly to the Internet without any type of firewall protection installed.

[....] The revelations illustrate the lack of security rigor found inside many critical infrastructure environments.

It was a 32-bit computer; so they wisely had Windows 7 instead of XP.

See also:
recent SoylentNews article about this, attempt to poison the water supply of residents in Oldsmar, Forida.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Pigs show potential for 'remarkable' level of behavioral, mental flexibility in new study

Pigs will probably never be able to fly, but new research is revealing that some species within the genus Sus may possess a remarkable level of behavioral and mental flexibility. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology [open, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631755] [DX] tested the ability of four pigs to play a simple joystick-enabled video game. Each animal demonstrated some conceptual understanding despite limited dexterity on tasks normally given to non-human primates to analyze intelligence.

The study involved two Yorkshire pigs named Hamlet and Omelette, and two Panepinto micro pigs, Ebony and Ivory. All four animals were trained to approach and manipulate a joystick with their snouts in front of a computer monitor during the first phase of the experiment. They were then taught how to play a video game in which the goal was to move a cursor using the joystick toward up to four target walls on the screen.

Each pig performed the tasks well above chance, indicating the animal understood that the movement of the joystick was connected to the cursor on the computer screen. The fact that these far-sighted animals with no opposable thumbs could succeed at the task is "remarkable," according to the researchers.

Also at The Guardian, Gizmodo, and TechRaptor.

Hat tip to The Mighty Buzzard for his submission which gave us the TechRaptor link!)

Journal Reference:
Candace C. Croney, Sarah T. Boysen. Acquisition of a Joystick-Operated Video Task by Pigs (Sus scrofa), Frontiers in Psychology (DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631755)

Original Submission