SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

After a ridiculously long sixteen months (or roughly ten years in pandemic time) I'm excited to announce that OnionShare 2.3 is out! Download it from onionshare.org.

This version includes loads of new and exciting features which you can read about in much more detail on the brand new OnionShare documentation website, docs.onionshare.org. For now though I'm just going to go over the major ones: tabs, anonymous chat, and better command line support.

In the olden days, OnionShare only did one thing: let you securely and anonymously share files over the Tor network. With time we added new features. You could use it as an anonymous dropbox, and then later to host an onion site.

But what if you wanted to, for example, run your own anonymous dropbox as well as share files with someone? If your OnionShare was busy running a service, you couldn't run a second service without stopping the first service. This is all fixed now thanks to tabs.

[...] Another major new feature is chat. You start a chat service, it gives you an OnionShare address, and then you send this address to everyone who is invited to the chat room (using an encrypted messaging app like Signal, for example). Then everyone loads this address in a Tor Browser, makes up a name to go by, and can have a completely private conversation.

[...] OnionShare 2.3 finally de-couples the command line and the graphical versions. You can install onionshare-cli on any platform, including headless Linux servers, using pip:

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

Background on the Roboticist that guided Perserverance to Mars,

In yet another proud moment, NASA has successfully landed its Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021. Adding to the excitement was the way in which the rover landed on the planet as expected and the high-resolution image was taken during its landing. With an ever-transforming image of NASA from being the white man's club to a more gender-inclusive workplace, the Mars 2020 mission is historic in more ways than one with quite a few women scientists and engineers on board. While Indian-origin Dr. Swati Mohan took the internet by storm for narrating the landing events from inside mission control as the Perseverance rover landed on Mars, another Indian gem from the team is space roboticist Vandana or 'Vandi' Verma.

The Chief Engineer for Robotic Operations for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, Verma was responsible for driving the Mars rovers – Curiosity and Perseverance – using software including PLEXIL – an open-source programming language now used in many automation technologies of NASA – that she co-wrote and developed.

Open-source? Hooray!

Born and raised in Punjab's Halwara, Verma grew up as an army kid as her father was a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force. Unarguably for a person who grew up in Punjab, she had once told the media that the first motorized vehicle she ever operated was a tractor. "I must've been 11 years old at the time," she says. Now she drives rovers on the Red Planet – Curiosity which landed on Mars in 2012 and now Perseverance.

An electrical engineering graduate from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, Verma went to gain a master's degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the United States, followed by a Ph.D. in 2005. Her thesis was entitled 'Tractable Particle Filters for Robot Fault Diagnosis'.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Concept for a new storage medium:

Using nanoscale quantum sensors, an international research team has succeeded in exploring certain previously uncharted physical properties of an antiferromagnetic material. Based on their results, the researchers developed a concept for a new storage medium published in the journal Nature Physics. The project was coordinated by researchers from the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel.

Antiferromagnets make up 90 percent of all magnetically ordered materials. Unlike ferromagnets such as iron, in which the magnetic moments of the atoms are oriented parallel to each other, the orientation of the magnetic moments in antiferromagnets alternates between neighboring atoms. As a result of the cancelation[sic] of the alternating magnetic moments, antiferromagnetic materials appear non-magnetic and do not generate an external magnetic field.

Antiferromagnets hold great promise for exciting applications in data processing, as the orientation of their magnetic moment -- in contrast to the ferromagnets used in conventional storage media -- cannot be accidentally overwritten by magnetic fields. In recent years, this potential has given rise to the budding research field of antiferromagnetic spintronics, which is the focus of numerous research groups around the world.

[...] "Next, we plan to look at whether the domain walls can also be moved by means of electrical fields," Maletinsky explains. "This would make antiferromagnets suitable as a storage medium that is faster than conventional ferromagnetic systems, while consuming substantially less energy."

Related YouTube video.

Journal Reference:
Natascha Hedrich, Kai Wagner, Oleksandr V. Pylypovskyi, et al. Nanoscale mechanics of antiferromagnetic domain walls, Nature Physics (DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-01157-0)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Humans had never seen a spacecraft land on another planet:

Never before, in all of our millions of years, have humans directly observed a spacecraft landing on another planet. Until now.

On Monday, NASA released a video (embedded below) that included several viewpoints from the descent of Mars Perseverance to the surface of the red planet last week. A camera on the back shell captured a view of the parachute deploying, and cameras on the descent stage and rover itself captured the final seconds of the landing.

"I can, and have, watched those videos for hours," said NASA's Al Chen, the lead for the entry, descent, and landing for Perseverance. "I find new stuff every time. I invite you to do so as well."

[...] Capturing this visceral footage was not mission critical, but it was a bonus. The space agency used ruggedized, off-the-shelf hardware to take this imagery. All told, about 30GB of data was captured during the descent, totaling 23,000 images. Now that NASA has this information, it will be used to sharpen knowledge about future entry, descent, and landing technology on Mars and other worlds in the Solar System.

One landing issue brought into sharp focus in the new footage is the dust kicked up by the descent stage as it nears the surface of Mars and drops off the lander. It entirely shrouds Perseverance in a thick cloud. This will be an important issue as NASA contemplates landing larger spacecraft, and eventually human missions, on the red planet.

Descending into a rocket-induced dust and sand storm. And look at the large flying rock in the last frame! #PerseveranceRoverpic.twitter.com/7MEnqRhLj3

— Dr. Phil Metzger (@DrPhiltill) February 22, 2021

[...] There were more than just visual treats released on Monday during the Perseverance news conference. For the first time, a rover recorded audio and transmitted it back to Earth, capturing what sounded like a wind gust. "Who is going to compose the first piece of music with actual Mars sound?" asked Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's chief of science. Who, indeed.

Original Submission

Japan Grounds Boeing 777s After United Jet Engine Failure

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-21/ana-jal-ordered-to-ground-boeing-777s-after-united-jet-failure:

Japan Airlines Co. and ANA Holdings Inc. have been ordered to ground their Boeing Co. 777 planes after an engine failure on a United Airlines jet Saturday that rained debris over a Denver suburb.

Japan's transport ministry ordered the grounding Sunday while safety checks are conducted. ANA operates 19 planes and JAL 13 with the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine that failed on the United Airlines flight.

Also at: NPR and RT.

After Saturday's Engine Failure, Boeing Says Many 777s Should be Grounded

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

After Saturday's engine failure, Boeing says many 777s should be grounded:

While the National Transportation Safety Board investigates an aircraft engine failure that occurred in flight on Saturday, manufacturer Boeing has recommended that airlines suspend flying certain versions of the 777 wide-body airliner.

"Boeing is actively monitoring recent events related to United Airlines Flight 328," the company stated on Sunday. "While the NTSB investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines until the FAA identifies the appropriate inspection protocol."

There are versions of the 777 aircraft with engines built by three different manufacturers. For about the last 15 years, new 777s have all been delivered with GE-made engines. So this recommendation applies to older models of the aircraft still in service.

Europe is planning to label flights according to their carbon footprint:

When I take a train in Europe, the ticket shows exactly how much carbon I'll be responsible for putting into the atmosphere (3.8 kilograms on my usual route). Now, the EU's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) plans to create similar eco-ranking labels for the airline industry, according to a report from Germany's Welt am Sonntag. The idea is to provide "reliable, comparable and verifiable information," so passengers can make sustainable flying decisions.

The EU is reportedly trying to counterbalance potential "greenwashing" from airlines who may promote exaggerated claims of flights being eco-friendly. Aviation adds 3.5 percent of the pollution responsible for global warming, according to a recent international study.

[...] EASA reportedly plans to use high-speed trains as a benchmark for consumer labels.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Elon Musk: SpaceX will double Starlink's satellite internet speeds in 2021:

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter Monday that his company's satellite internet service, Starlink, will offer speeds close to 300 Mbps later in 2021. That's roughly twice as fast as currently advertised, and would represent a significant step forward for the service as it seeks to deliver high-speed internet to underserved regions across the globe.

[...] Latency, a measure of how long it takes your internet signal to travel to space and back, will also drop to around 20ms this year, Musk added.

[...] Musk went on to reply to another user who asked for a coverage map, telling them that Starlink will cover "most of Earth by end of year, all by next year." From there, Musk said, it's all about "densifying coverage," though he noted that the satellite internet coverage is best suited for regions with low to medium population density.

[...] The $99-per-month service, which also charges $500 as the initial equipment cost, is accepting preorders for customers in parts of Canada, the UK and the northwest US between latitudes 45 and 53 degrees North, as well as other select locations.

Original Submission

SpaceX's first private flight will carry the youngest ever American to orbit:

SpaceX recently announced that it would send four civilians into orbit aboard its Crew Dragon capsule, marking the first time that a crew without a single professional astronaut would fly into space. One of those private citizens will be Hayley Arceneaux, who at 29 years old will be the youngest-ever American to fly into space, the NY Times has reported.

The trip came about thanks to Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who purchased the debut commercial astronaut rocket launch from SpaceX. He'll get one Crew Dragon seat on the Inspiration 4 mission, but he also donated three others. One will go to the winner of a contest sponsored by his company Shift4 and another to a St. Jude's Hospital sweepstakes winner. A fourth seat, however, was meant for a frontline St. Jude's Hospital worker who symbolizes hope, and that person is Hayley Arceneaux.

From the linked article at The New York Times:

Ms. Arceneaux [...] will also be the first person with a prosthetic body part to go to space. She was a patient at St. Jude nearly 20 years ago, and as part of her treatment for bone cancer, metal rods replaced parts of the bones in her left leg.

In the past, that would have kept her firmly on the ground, unable to meet NASA's stringent medical standards for astronauts. But the advent of privately financed space travel has opened the final frontier to some people who were previously excluded.

Also at AP News and The Advocate.

Previously:
Elon Musk's SpaceX Announces a Spaceflight Intended to Raise Money for St. Jude Hospital/

Original Submission

A ferret is the first North American endangered animal to be cloned:

Animal cloning might just become a valuable tool in preserving species that might otherwise go extinct. BBC News says US Fish and Wildlife Service has successfully cloned a black-footed ferret — the first genetic copy of a North American endangered species. Elizabeth Ann, born on December 10th, was produced from the frozen cells of Willa, a ferret that lived over 30 years ago. A team at ViaGen Pets & Equine created embryos and implanted them in a domestic ferret surrogate.

The black-footed ferret is North America's only native ferret, and was thought to have gone extinct until a Wyoming rancher found a small group of them in 1981. They've since been part of a captive breeding program.

A short video and some pics of Elizabeth Anne are available on twitter.

Also at: c|net and Mashable.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Dogecoin: Inside the joke cryptocurrency that somehow became real:

It is June 22, 2014. Jackson Palmer, a self-identified "average geek," is high in the stands at a Nascar race at the Sonoma Raceway in California. He is an Australian man in his 20s. He has zero interest in racing. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine it would come to this.

He surveys the scene.

Below him: a tremendous crowd. The overwhelming blare of engines. Hurtling round at tremendous speeds: the #98 Moonrocket, a high-performance racing car. No different from the other cars on the track, except for one crucial detail.

On the bonnet of the car: a dog. A Shiba Inu, more commonly known as a "Shibe," the dog made famous in the Doge meme that was popular in 2013.

Emblazoned on top: the word "DOGECOIN" in all caps. Below: "digital currency".

Palmer describes the situation using words like "crazy," "surreal" and "nuts." He remembers this moment as a "reality check." Dogecoin was a tweet, then it was a cryptocurrency worth money in the real world. Six months later, he watched as a joke that he'd made in passing somehow manifested itself into something tangible. A Dogecar in full flight.

It reminded Palmer how insane the world could be.

This is the story of Dogecoin, the joke that became too real for its own good.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

UK Supreme Court says Uber drivers are not independent contractors:

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has ruled that Uber drivers are legally workers, not self-employed contractors as Uber has argued in courts around the world. The ruling means that drivers in Britain and Northern Ireland are eligible for additional benefits and protections, including a minimum wage.

Uber claims that it merely acts as a technology provider and broker between independent drivers and their customers—much as eBay facilitates sales between buyers and sellers. In Uber's view, this means that it doesn't owe its drivers benefits like unemployment insurance, doesn't need to reimburse drivers for their costs, and isn't bound by minimum wage and overtime rules. Uber emphasizes that its drivers are free to decide when, where, and how much they work.

But critics point out that Uber exerts a lot more control over its drivers—and over the driver-passenger relationship—than a conventional platform like eBay or Airbnb. Uber sets fares, collects payments from customers, deducts its own fee, and remits the remainder to the driver. It requires drivers to accept a large majority of the rides they are offered. It handles customer complaints and kicks drivers off the platform if their average rating falls too low.

So the UK Supreme Court ruled Friday that Uber drivers are legally Uber workers, not independent business owners who happen to get most of their business from Uber.

"Drivers are in a position of subordination and dependency in relation to Uber such that they have little or no ability to improve their economic position through professional or entrepreneurial skill," said Lord George Leggatt, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, as he handed down the ruling.

Additional coverage at bbc.co.uk

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

How Should We Calculate the Social Cost of Carbon? Researchers Offer Roadmap in New Analysis

In a newly published analysis, a team of researchers lists a series of measures the administration should consider in recalculating the social cost of carbon--a cost-benefit metric that places a monetary value on the impact of climate change.

The Biden administration is revising the social cost of carbon (SCC), a decade-old cost-benefit metric used to inform climate policy by placing a monetary value on the impact of climate change. In a newly published analysis in the journal Nature, a team of researchers lists a series of measures the administration should consider in recalculating the SCC.

[...] The revised SCC will be created by the federal government's Interagency Working Group (IWG), which includes the Council of Economic Advisors, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

[...] the authors [...] list several recommendations for the IWG to consider in devising the new SCC. Among them are the following:

• Reinstating the estimated economic cost of CO2 emitted to $50 a ton, which the Trump administration lowered to $1-7 a ton
• Updating the damage functions that tally how climate change affects human welfare, from crop losses to heat impacting student learning and worker productivity
• Incorporating the inequitable effects of climate change within and across countries
• Reviewing discount rates—the ways in which the cost of future climate-related damages are priced in today's dollars—in order to better inform today's budgetary processes
• Updating forecasts for both economic and population growth—both of which affect predictions of emissions and related environmental impact

Journal Reference:
Gernot Wagner, David Anthoff, Maureen Cropper, et al. Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/d41586-021-00441-0)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Severe forms of malaria such as Plasmodium falciparum may be deadly even after treatment with current parasite-killing drugs. This is due to persistent cyto-adhesion of infected erythrocytes even though existing parasites within the red blood cells are dead. As vaccines for malaria have proved less than moderately effective, and to treat these severe cases of P. falciparum malaria, new avenues are urgently needed. Latest estimates indicate that more than 500 million cases of malaria and more than 400,000 deaths are reported worldwide each year. Anti-adhesion drugs may hold the key to significantly improving survival rates.

Using venom from the Conus nux, a species of sea snail, a first-of-its-kind study from Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine in collaboration with FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and the Chemical Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States Department of Commerce, suggests that these conotoxins could potentially treat malaria. The study provides important leads toward the development of novel and cost-effective anti-adhesion or blockade-therapy pharmaceuticals aimed at counteracting the pathology of severe malaria.

Results, published in the Journal of Proteomics , expand the pharmacological reach of conotoxins/ conopeptides by revealing their ability to disrupt protein-protein and protein-polysaccharide interactions that directly contribute to the disease. Similarly, mitigation of emerging diseases like AIDS and COVID-19 also could benefit from conotoxins as potential inhibitors of protein-protein interactions as treatment. Venom peptides from cone snails has the potential to treat countless diseases using blockage therapies.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

MX Linux Fluxbox Respin Officially Released for Raspberry Pi - 9to5Linux:

The MX Linux team announced today the release and general availability of the MX Linux Fluxbox Community Respin for Raspberry Pi single-board computers.

Initially announced in January 2021, the MX-Fluxbox Raspberry Pi respin is MX Linux's first release for the tiny Raspberry Pi devices. As its name suggests, it uses the ultra-lightweight Fluxbox window manager by default and, just like MX Linux, it's based on the stable Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster" software repositories.

[...] If you want to run MX Linux on your Raspberry Pi computer, you can download MX-Fluxbox Raspberry Pi "Ragout" 21.02.20 right now from the release announcement page. Meanwhile, you can check out my first look article to see it in action and learn about what works and what doesn't.

MX Linux

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Pfizer vaccine doesn't need ultra-cold storage after all, company says:

In a bit of good news, Pfizer and BioNTech announced today that their highly effective COVID-19 vaccine does not require ultra-cold storage conditions after all and can be kept stable at standard freezer temperatures for two weeks.

The companies have submitted data to the US Food and Drug Administration demonstrating the warmer stability in a bid for regulatory approval to relax storage requirements and labeling for the vaccine.

If the FDA greenlights the change, the warmer storage conditions could dramatically ease vaccine distribution, allowing doses to be sent to non-specialized vaccine administration sites. The change would also make it much easier to distribute the vaccine to low-income countries.

"We have been continuously performing stability studies to support the production of the vaccine at commercial scale, with the goal of making the vaccine as accessible as possible for healthcare providers and people across the US and around the world," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. "If approved, this new storage option would offer pharmacies and vaccination centers greater flexibility in how they manage their vaccine supply."

Also at www.pfizer.com

Original Submission