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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AzumaHazuki:

Tossing vaccine priority list, Biden tells states to open eligibility by May 1:

On the first anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic, US President Joe Biden announced that he will direct states to open vaccine eligibility to all American adults no later than May 1, a dramatic acceleration of the national immunization plan that has been sluggish and, at times, chaotic.

"That's much earlier than expected," Biden said in a televised, prime-time address. It doesn't mean every American over age 18 will have their shot by then, Biden cautioned, but you'll be able to get in line.

The announcement means that carefully crafted prioritizations for vaccines will soon no longer apply. The White House COVID-19 Response Team landed on May 1 for the deadline after concluding that national vaccination efforts would be far-enough along by the end of April to make the prioritizations obsolete anyway.

"If we all do our part, this country will be vaccinated soon," Biden said, "our economy will be on the mend, our kids will be back in school, and we'll have proven once again that this country can do anything."

Also at: CNN and c|net.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for FatPhil:

One researcher's mission to encourage reproducibility in machine learning:

On February 14, a researcher who was frustrated with reproducing the results of a machine learning research paper opened up a Reddit account under the username ContributionSecure14 and posted ther/MachineLearning subreddit: "I just spent a week implementing a paper as a baseline and failed to reproduce the results. I realized today after googling for a bit that a few others were also unable to reproduce the results. Is there a list of such papers? It will save people a lot of time and effort."

The post struck a nerve with other users on r/MachineLearning, which is the largest Reddit community for machine learning.

"Easier to compile a list of reproducible ones...," one user responded.

"Probably 50%-75% of all papers are unreproducible. It's sad, but it's true," another user wrote. "Think about it, most papers are 'optimized' to get into a conference. More often than not the authors know that a paper they're trying to get into a conference isn't very good! So they don't have to worry about reproducibility because nobody will try to reproduce them."

A few other users posted links to machine learning papers they had failed to implement and voiced their frustration with code implementation not being a requirement in ML conferences.

The next day, ContributionSecure14 created "Papers Without Code," a website that aims to create a centralized list of machine learning papers that are not implementable.

"I'm not sure if this is the best or worst idea ever but I figured it would be useful to collect a list of papers which people have tried to reproduce and failed," ContributionSecure14 wrote on r/MachineLearning. "This will give the authors a chance to either release their code, provide pointers or rescind the paper. My hope is that this incentivizes a healthier ML research culture around not publishing unreproducible work."

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

COVID-19 is known to attack multiple organs as well as the vascular system. These attacks can be fatal.

COVID-19 patient dies after rare 3-hour erection in hospital - National:

Doctors say a 69-year-old man died of COVID-19 last year after exhibiting a bizarre and extremely rare side effect of the disease, which they described as a three-hour erection.

The U.S. patient was suffering from priapism, which involves a persistent erection that outlasts or has nothing to do with sexual stimulation, according to the case report published in the January edition of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

[...] According to the case report, the patient had a history of obesity and was suffering from a prolonged cough, congestion, anorexia, weakness and shortness of breath when he went to the emergency room at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, last year. He tested positive for COVID-19 and remained in hospital for several days, during which his health continued to decline. He was eventually sedated, intubated, placed on a ventilator and moved into a prone [(face down)] position to make him more comfortable.

"Nursing noticed an erection" on the afternoon after he was repositioned, doctors wrote in the case study. Health-care workers tried to help by placing ice packs around the man's penis, but it stayed erect for three hours.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Scientists move closer to solving mystery of antikythera mechanism:

Researchers claim breakthrough in study of 2,000-year-old Antikythera mechanism[*], an astronomical calculator found in sea

[...] The hand-powered, 2,000-year-old device displayed the motion of the universe, predicting the movement of the five known planets, the phases of the moon and the solar and lunar eclipses. But quite how it achieved such impressive feats has proved fiendishly hard to untangle.

Now researchers at UCL[**] believe they have solved the mystery – at least in part – and have set about reconstructing the device, gearwheels and all, to test whether their proposal works. If they can build a replica with modern machinery, they aim to do the same with techniques from antiquity.

"We believe that our reconstruction fits all the evidence that scientists have gleaned from the extant remains to date," said Adam Wojcik, a materials scientist at UCL. While other scholars have made reconstructions in the past, the fact that two-thirds of the mechanism are missing has made it hard to know for sure how it worked.

The mechanism, often described as the world's first analogue computer, was found by sponge divers in 1901 amid a haul of treasures salvaged from a merchant ship that met with disaster off the Greek island of Antikythera. The ship is believed to have foundered in a storm in the first century BC as it passed between Crete and the Peloponnese en route to Rome from Asia Minor.

[...] Michael Wright, a former curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum in London, pieced together much of how the mechanism operated and built a working replica, but researchers have never had a complete understanding of how the device functioned. Their efforts have not been helped by the remnants surviving in 82 separate fragments, making the task of rebuilding it equivalent to solving a battered 3D puzzle that has most of its pieces missing.

takyon writes:

NASA, Blue Origin Partner to Bring Lunar Gravity Conditions Closer to Earth

At one-sixth that of Earth, the unique gravity of the lunar surface is one of the many variable conditions that technologies bound for the Moon will need to perform well in. NASA will soon have more options for testing those innovations in lunar gravity thanks to a collaboration with Blue Origin to bring new testing capabilities to the company's New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system.

Currently, NASA can approximate the Moon's gravity on parabolic flights and in centrifuges on suborbital vehicles – both invaluable options for maturing promising innovations. But these methods provide only seconds of lunar gravity exposure at a time or limit the payload size, compelling NASA to explore longer-duration and larger size options. Blue Origin's new lunar gravity testing capability – projected to be available in late 2022 – is answering that need.

New Shepard's upgrades will allow the vehicle to use its reaction control system to impart a rotation on the capsule. As a result, the entire capsule essentially acts as a large centrifuge to create artificial gravity environments for the payloads inside. Blue Origin's first flight of this capability will target 11 rotations per minute to provide more than two minutes of continuous lunar gravity, exposing the technologies to this challenging but difficult-to-test condition.

Also at Space News and SYFY Wire.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Data transfer system connects silicon chips with a hair's-width cable:

Researchers have developed a data transfer system that can transmit information 10 times faster than a USB. The new link pairs high-frequency silicon chips with a polymer cable as thin a strand of hair. The system may one day boost energy efficiency in data centers and lighten the loads of electronics-rich spacecraft.

The research was presented at February's IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. The lead author is Jack Holloway '03, MNG '04, who completed his PhD in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) last fall and currently works for Raytheon. Co-authors include Ruonan Han, associate professor and Holloway's PhD adviser in EECS, and Georgios Dogiamis, a senior researcher at Intel.

[...] The team's new link draws on benefits of both copper and fiber optic conduits, while ditching their drawbacks. "It's a great example of a complementary solution," says Dogiamis. Their conduit is made of plastic polymer, so it's lighter and potentially cheaper to manufacture than traditional copper cables. But when the polymer link is operated with sub-terahertz electromagnetic signals, it's far more energy-efficient than copper in transmitting a high data load. The new link's efficiency rivals that of fiber-optic, but has a key advantage: "It's compatible directly with silicon chips, without any special manufacturing," says Holloway.

[...] The new link also beats out copper in terms of size. "The cross-sectional area of our cable is 0.4 millimeters by a quarter millimeter," says Han. "So, it's super tiny, like a strand of hair." Despite its slim size, it can carry a hefty load of data, since it sends signals over three different parallel channels, separated by frequency. The link's total bandwidth is 105 gigabits per second, nearly an order of magnitude faster than a copper-based USB cable. Dogiamis says the cable could "address the bandwidth challenges as we see this megatrend toward more and more data."

In future work, Han hopes to make the polymer conduits even faster by bundling them together. "Then the data rate will be off the charts," he says. "It could be one terabit per second, still at low cost."

Also at Tech Explorist and HotHardware

Original Submission

MrPlow writes in with a submission, via IRC, for TheMightyBuzzard.

Audacity Games is Making New Atari 2600 Titles:

Audacity Games is a newly-announced game developer with a bold vision: it's going to be making brand-new Atari 2600 games. And yes, there will be actual cartridges produced.

The Atari 2600[*] was one of the first home video game consoles to get widespread adoption and it has a pretty big library of games. Some of the very people who worked on popular cartridges for that console — including Pitfall and the Atari 2600 port of Donkey Kong — are now banding together to breathe a bit of new life into a very old video game console.

[...] Audacity Games promises to deliver "completely new" games in a retro style from classic designers David Crane, Garry Kitchen, and Dan Kitchen. Those names may not be immediately familiar to you, but you've probably heard of their work.

[...] Garry Kitchen says that their first wave of releases will also include a download of a digital version compatible with the Stella emulator.

There's no telling what this new developer's first project might be; all we know for now is that its first release will be on the Atari 2600. Other retro consoles may be supported, too, as long as there is "reasonable demand" for a port according to Garry Kitchen.

For now, fans of retro games have something to look forward to in the coming months and years. You can find out more about Audacity Games on its official website and you can also follow this new game developer on Twitter.

[*] Atari 2600 Wikipedia entry.

[On today's 55-inch UHD screens, how large would a single pixel be? --Ed.]

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

F5 urges customers to patch critical BIG-IP pre-auth RCE bug:

F5 Networks, a leading provider of enterprise networking gear, has announced four critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities affecting most BIG-IP and BIG-IQ software versions.

F5 BIG-IP software and hardware customers include governments, Fortune 500 firms, banks, internet service providers, and consumer brands (including Microsoft, Oracle, and Facebook), with the company claiming that "48 of the Fortune 50 rely on F5."

The four critical vulnerabilities listed below also include a pre-auth RCE security flaw (CVE-2021-22986) which allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on compromised BIG-IP devices:

• CVE-2021-22986: iControl REST unauthenticated remote command execution (9.8/10)
• CVE-2021-22987: Appliance Mode TMUI authenticated remote command execution (9.9/10)
• CVE-2021-22991: TMM buffer-overflow (9.0/10)
• CVE-2021-22992: Advanced WAF/ASM buffer-overflow (9.0/10)

[...] Successful exploitation of critical BIG-IP RCE vulnerabilities could lead to full system compromise, including the interception of controller application traffic and lateral movement to the internal network.

[...] "We strongly encourage all customers to update their BIG-IP and BIG-IQ systems to a fixed version as soon as possible," F5 says in a notification published earlier today.

"To fully remediate the critical vulnerabilities, all BIG-IP customers will need to update to a fixed version."

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Astronomers May Have Found The First Evidence For Tectonic Activity On An Exoplanet:

On Earth, the heat generated from the radioactive decay of elements in Earth's mantle drives convection currents, pushing and dragging large plates of Earth's crust around. When the plates collide, mountains form, and parts of Earth's crust are recycled into the mantle. When the plates are pushed apart, the partially molten mantle rises upward to fill the gap. Plate tectonics is an essential part of the cycle that brings material from the planet's interior to the surface and the atmosphere, and then transports it back beneath the Earth's crust. Tectonics thus has a vital influence on the energy and matter transfer that ultimately makes Earth habitable.

Until now, researchers have found no evidence of global tectonic activity on planets outside our solar system. A team of researchers led by Tobias Meier from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern and with the participation of ETH Zurich, the University of Oxford, and the National Center of Competence in Research NCCR PlanetS has now found evidence of the flow patterns inside a planet, located 45 light-years from Earth: LHS 3844b. Their results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

CMA investigates Apple over suspected anti-competitive behaviour:

The CMA has launched an investigation into Apple following complaints that its terms and conditions for app developers are unfair and anti-competitive.

[...] The probe has been prompted by the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) own work in the digital sector, as well as several developers reporting that Apple's terms and conditions are unfair and could break competition law.

[...] The CMA's investigation will consider whether Apple has a dominant position in connection with the distribution of apps on Apple devices in the UK – and, if so, whether Apple imposes unfair or anti-competitive terms on developers using the App Store, ultimately resulting in users having less choice or paying higher prices for apps and add-ons.

This is only the beginning of the investigation and no decision has yet been made on whether Apple is breaking the law.

[...] Today's announcement follows the CMA's July 2020 report on its market study into online platforms and digital advertising, and the CMA's advice to the Government in December 2020 on the shape of a new pro-competition regulatory regime for digital markets. As the CMA works with the Government on these proposals – which will complement its current enforcement powers – the CMA will continue to use its existing powers to their fullest extent in order to protect competition in these areas.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Eye color genetics not so simple, study finds:

An international team of researchers led by King's College London and Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam have identified 50 new genes for eye colour in the largest genetic study of its kind to date. The study, published today in Science Advances, involved the genetic analysis of almost 195,000 people across Europe and Asia.

These findings will help to improve the understanding of eye diseases such as pigmentary glaucoma and ocular albinism, where eye pigment levels play a role.

In addition, the team found that eye colour in Asians with different shades of brown is genetically similar to eye colour in Europeans ranging from dark brown to light blue.

This study builds on previous research in which scientists had identified a dozen genes linked to eye colour, believing there to be many more. Previously, scientists thought that variation in eye colour was controlled by one or two genes only, with brown eyes dominant over blue eyes.

[...] "This study delivers the genetic knowledge needed to improve eye colour prediction from DNA as already applied in anthropological and forensic studies, but with limited accuracy for the non-brown and non-blue eye colours."

Journal Reference:
Mark Simcoe, Ana Valdes, Fan Liu, et al. Genome-wide association study in almost 195,000 individuals identifies 50 previously unidentified genetic loci for eye color [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd1239)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Molson Coors brewing operations disrupted by cyberattack:

The Molson Coors Beverage Company has suffered a cyberattack that is causing significant disruption to business operations.

Molson Coors is well-known for its iconic beer brands, including Coors Light, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, Blue Moon, Peroni, Killian's, and Foster's.

In a Form-8K filed with the SEC today, Molson Coors disclosed that they suffered a cyberattack on March 11th, causing significant disruption to their operations, including the production and shipment of beer.

"On March 11, 2021, Molson Coors Beverage Company (the "Company") announced that it experienced a systems outage that was caused by a cybersecurity incident. The Company has engaged leading forensic information technology firms and legal counsel to assist the Company's investigation into the incident and the Company is working around the clock to get its systems back up as quickly as possible.

"Although the Company is actively managing this cybersecurity incident, it has caused and may continue to cause a delay or disruption to parts of the Company's business, including its brewery operations, production, and shipments," Molson Coors disclosed in the Form-8K filing.

This is thought to be a ransomware attack.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

OVH data center burns down knocking major sites offline:

In a major unprecedented incident, data centers of OVH located in Strasbourg, France have been destroyed by fire.

OVH is the largest hosting provider in Europe and the third-largest in the world. The cloud computing company provides VPS, dedicated servers, and other web services.

Customers are being advised by the company to enact their disaster recovery plans after the fire has rendered multiple data centers unserviceable, impacting websites around the world.

[...] OVH, the world's third-largest and Europe's largest hosting provider has been impacted by a disaster.

Its French data centers, SBG1, SBG2, SBG3, and SBG4 located in Strasbourgh were shut down to contain the damage from a fire that started in SBG2.

A statement provided by OVH on their status page reads:

We are currently facing a major incident in our DataCenter of Strasbourg with a fire declared in the building SBG2.
Firefighters were immediately on the scene but could not control the fire in SBG2.
The whole site has been isolated, which impacts all our services on SBG1, SBG2, SBG3 and SBG4.
If your production is in Strasbourg, we recommend to activate your Disaster Recovery Plan.
All our teams are fully mobilized along with the firefighters.
We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

[...] OVH data centers page no longer shows SBG2 and SBG3.

OVH has released an official statement.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Keppel and Sumitomo to develop ammonia as ship fuel in Singapore:

Singapore's Keppel, Japan's Sumitomo, Denmark's Maersk and three other companies have joined forces to develop ammonia fuel for ships in a new green energy initiative, the group announced on Thursday.

The companies hope to turn the venture into a new business in Singapore, the world's largest marine refueling hub. The project includes developing a specialized ammonia tanker and infrastructure for refueling operations in the ocean.

The other participants in the project include Norwegian fertilizer maker Yara International and Hong Kong's Fleet Management.

Ammonia does not produce carbon dioxide when it burns, which makes it an attractive option as a green fuel. It is also less complicated to transport than hydrogen because it can be liquefied more easily.

Also at Maersk and Sumitomo Corp.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Biden signs $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, making $1,400 checks and child tax credit official:

President Joe Biden on Thursday signed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes a third stimulus check, for up to $1,400, and an expanded child tax credit. The IRS and Treasury will begin to send the new stimulus checks as soon as this weekend, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday at a press briefing.

The bill signing comes just one day after the amended bill passed in the House by a vote of 220-211. The House initially passed the bill on Feb. 26, and the Senate approved it last week, albeit with some changes.

[...] Democrats had been pushing to get the stimulus package signed into law before current unemployment benefits expire March 14. Biden was originally scheduled to sign the bill on Friday, but it got moved forward after Congress sent the final bill to the president more quickly than anticipated, Psaki said on Thursday.

The stimulus package, called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, includes changes made by the Senate last week, such as reducing income limits for the third stimulus payment and lowering proposed weekly unemployment benefits from $400 a week to $300 a week (though they'd extend through Sept. 6 rather than the end of August). The Senate also dropped a federal minimum wage increase from the legislation, but proponents say they'll reintroduce that at a later date.

How to watch President Biden's national address tonight.

DeathMonkey writes:

House passes $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, sends it to Biden to sign:

[...] Here are the proposal's major pieces: