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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Over-valued fossil fuel assets creating trillion-dollar bubble about to burst:

A major new report has warned that conventional energy assets including coal, gas, nuclear and hydro power plants have been consistently and "severely" over-valued, creating a massive bubble that could exceed $US1 trillion by 2030.

The report is the latest from Rethinx, an independent think-tank that was co-founded by Stanford University futurist Tony Seba, who is regarded as one of few global analysts to correctly forecast the plunging cost of solar over the last decade.

According to the new report, co-authored by Rethinx research fellow Adam Dorr, analysts and the broader market are still getting energy valuation badly wrong, not just on the falling costs of solar, wind and batteries, or "SWB," but on the true value, or levelised cost of energy, of conventional energy assets.

"Since 2010, conventional LCOE[*] analyses have consistently overestimated future cash flows from coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro power assets by ignoring the impacts of SWB disruption and assuming a high and constant capacity factor," the report says.

Where the analysts are going wrong, according to Seba and co, is in their assumptions that conventional energy plants will be able to successfully sell the same quantity of electricity each year from today through to 2040 and beyond.

AnonTechie writes:

IBM Built an AI Capable of Holding Its Own Against Humans in a Debate:

Over the past few years, AI has gone from a niche topic to an exploding field. AI can improve audio and video quality, animate still images of long-dead people, and identify you from an analprint. One thing it hasn't been able to do? Argue effectively within the context of a formal debate.

To overcome this problem, IBM created Project Debater, an AI development program focused on exactly what it sounds like. Many AI projects, especially those focusing on gaming, have a clear winner and a loser based on the evaluation of numerical criteria, such as pieces captured, lives lost, or the ratio between kills and deaths. Effectively debating a human requires a vastly different skill set.

A recent paper in Nature [PDF] describes the results of a 2019 test between Project Debater and globally recognized debate champion Harish Natarajan. The AI and individual debated whether preschool should be subsidized. Each side was given 15 minutes for prep time without additional internet access, which Project Debater used to sort through its own internal database of content. Both sides gave a four-minute speech, followed by a two-minute closing statement.

[...] The question of who wins a debate will always be subjective, and humans still clearly outperform IBM's Project Debater. For now, we're still a long way from Commander Data — but we've come a long way from Eliza, too.

I think the real test of such debating machines would be their ability to debate politicians.

Journal Reference:
Noam Slonim, Yonatan Bilu, Carlos Alzate, et al. An autonomous debating system, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03215-w)

Original Submission

AnonTechie writes:

Researchers Have Figured Out a Way to Stop People From Sharing Misinformation:

A new study in Nature suggests that shifting reader attention online can help combat the spread of inaccurate information. The study, published on March 17, 2021, found that while people prefer to share accurate information, it is difficult to convince the average social media user to seek it out before sharing. Adding a roadblock in the form of a request to rate information accuracy can actually change the quality of information they share online.

"These findings indicate that people often share misinformation because their attention is focused on factors other than accuracy—and therefore they fail to implement a strongly held preference for accurate sharing," write the authors, suggesting that people usually want to do good but often fail in the heat of the moment. "Our results challenge the popular claim that people value partisanship over accuracy and provide evidence for scalable attention-based interventions that social media platforms could easily implement to counter misinformation online"

[...] In other words, many users don't share fake news because they want to but because they don't think about what they're sharing before they press the button. Slowing down the process by asking users whether or now[sic] they actually trust a headline or news source means they are far more likely to think twice before sharing misinformation.

What do you think? Will this stop people from sharing fake news?

Journal Reference:
Gordon Pennycook, Ziv Epstein, Mohsen Mosleh, et al. Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03344-2)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Cricut Backs Down, Will Now Give Existing Registered Users Unlimited Use of Their Cutting Machines:

After facing several days of backlash from users over a planned update that would severely limit the use of their cutting machines without a paid subscription, Cricut has changed its mind.

In a statement released today, Circut promised existing users unlimited lifetime use of their machines. The policy extends to anyone else who decides to buy one of the machines throughout 2021.

Cricut said:

One of our core values is community — we're listening, and we took your feedback to heart. The foundation of our Cricut community is one of integrity, respect, and trust. It is clear that, in this instance, we did not understand the full impact of our recent decision on our current members and their machines. We apologize.

Here's how we'll move forward.

We will continue to allow an unlimited number of personal image and pattern uploads for members with a Cricut account registered and activated with a cutting machine before December 31, 2021. This benefit will continue for the lifetime of your use of these machines.

Cricut issued a further update and backed down even further:

So, we've made the decision to reverse our previously shared plans. Right now, every member can upload an unlimited number of images and patterns to Design Space for free, and we have no intention to change this policy. This is true whether you're a current Cricut member or are thinking about joining the Cricut family before or after December 31, 2021.

If you're wondering what this is all about:

Cricut Now Wants Users to Pay Extra for Unlimited Use of the Cutting Machines They Already Own

Also at Ars Technica.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Photographer Spends 12 Years, 1250 Hours, Exposing Photo of Milky Way:

Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsavainio has released a Milky Way photo that took him nearly 12 years to create. The 1.7-gigapixel image has a cumulative exposure time of 1,250 hours.

Metsavainio began shooting for the project back in 2009. For the next 12 years, he focused on different areas and objects in the Milky Way, shooting stitched mosaics of them as individual artworks. To complete the ultra-high-resolution view of the Milky Way as a whole, Metsavainio then set out to fill in the gaps that weren't covered by his original artworks.

"I think this is a first image ever showing the Milky Way in this resolution and depth at all three color channels (H-a, S-II, and O-III)," Metsavainio tells PetaPixel.

The photo is 100,000 pixels wide and comprises 234 individual panels stitched together.

[...] You can find more of Metsavainio's work on his website and Facebook.

Original Submission

aristarchus writes:

Seems Google is going to start mass-producing Googlers, but not in the traditional fashion.

Inside Google's $240 Plan to Disrupt the College Degree:

This morning, Google is announcing the next steps in its plan to disrupt the world of education, including the launch of new certificate programs that are designed to help people bridge any skills gap and get qualifications in high-paying, high-growth job fields--with one noteworthy feature:

No college degree necessary.

The new tools could be a game changer for a growing number of people who consider the current educational system broken, or for the millions of Americans who are currently unemployed, much due to fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The pandemic has led to a truly horrible year," Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai tells Inc. in an interview. "But it has also created profound shifts along the journey to digital transformation in ways no one could have imagined."

The plan includes:

• The release of three new Google Career Certificates on Coursera in project management, data analytics, and user experience (UX) design
• A new Associate Android Developer Certification course
• Over 100,000 need-based scholarships
• Partnerships with more than 130 employers working with Google to hire graduates of its certificate program
• A new Google Search feature that makes it easier for people to find jobs for their education level, including no degree and no experience

Most enrollees will finish in six months or less, putting the cost at about $240 for U.S. students. Some may need only three months, cutting that cost in half. Google is offering 100,000 need-based scholarships in the U.S.

Not sure if this is like Burger U (McDonald's), or Trump University, or MSCE (Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert). But, Big Tech proves once again, it don't need no Badgers, nor Liberal Arts, or AI Ethicists.

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Back in November 2020, the NATO Stratgic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga, Latvia published an analysis of the coordinated online harassment of Finnish government ministers. The conclusion is that the attacks and astroturfing are largely free from automated activity, aka bots. The report includes statistics, lots of analysis, and several illustrative graphs. The main topics triggering the online abuse were the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, immigration, EU relations, and social policies. Finland is not a NATO member but the lessons learned from studying the coordinated harrassment can be generalized to the alliance.

This report is informed by the findings of three recent Finnish studies, one of which investigated the extent and effects of online hate speech against politicians while the other two studied the use of bots to influence political discourse during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary eleections. The first study released by the research branch of the Finnish govenment in Novemeber 2019, found that a third of municipal decision-makers and nearly half of all membes of Finnish Parliament have been subjected to hate speech online.

[...] As social media platforms continue to grow in political importance, so does their use as a means for engaging with and criticising individual government officials with little or no consequences. An additional aim of our study was to determine the role, if any, bot accounts play in disseminating abusive messages, and whether such bot activity displayed characteristics of coordination. Based on previous Finnish studies analysing the impact of bots during election periods, we hypothesised that we would observe low levels of automation and coordination. Our findings confirmed this theory; our algorithm attributed less than 3% of abusive messages to bot-like accounts. However, the more significant finding was that over half of abusive messages were sent by anonymous accounts. Anonymity erases accountability online. This can have the effect of emboldening users to voice their dissatisfaction with ministers through unfiltered, abusive messages. It is possible for people to operate many anonymous accounts. However, our data do not show clear patterns indicating single users sending abusive messaging from multiple fake accounts. The unfortunate conclusion is that much of the offensive, sexually explicit, expletive-filled abuse targeting government officials is written and published by individuals.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Elon Musk wants to send a Starship to orbit as soon as July:

SpaceX is targeting July to take its next big step on the path toward Mars. That's when Elon Musk says he hopes to launch a Starship prototype that includes the "full stack" of the main spacecraft riding atop the company's new Super Heavy rocket booster.

Stripped-down Starship prototypes with three Raptor engines have made a series of three high-altitude flights over the past four months. All these flights have ended in dramatic explosions and none have yet taken a Starship beyond Earth's atmosphere.

A full-stack flight would likely be the first attempt at sending a Starship prototype to orbit. On Tuesday, Musk confirmed a timeline, first reported by NASASpaceflight.com, that has SpaceX targeting a first full-stack flight by July.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

The bald truth: Altered cell divisions cause hair thinning:

The basis for new hair growth is the proper function of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs). HFSCs undergo cyclic symmetric and asymmetric cell divisions (SCDs and ACDs). SCDs generate two identical cells that go on to have the same fate, while ACDs generate a differentiating cell and a self-renewing stem cell. The combination ensures that the stem cell population continues to exist, yet how those contribute to the loss of HFSC function due to aging is not yet completely understood.

"For proper tissue function, symmetric and asymmetric cell divisions have to be in balance," says corresponding author of the study Emi Nishimura. "Once stem cells preferentially undergo one of either or, worse yet, deviate from the typical process of either type of cell division, the organ suffers. In this study, we wanted to understand how stem cell division plays into hair grows during aging."

[...] But why does the mode of cell division change so drastically during aging? To answer this question, the researchers focused on hemidesmosomes, a class of protein that connect the cells to the extracellular matrix (ECM; proteins surrounding cells). Cell-ECM have long been known to confer polarity to cells, i.e., that the cells can sense their localization within a given space through the action of specific proteins. The researchers found that during aging both hemidesmosomal and cell polarity proteins become destabilized, resulting in the generation of aberrantly differentiating cells during division of HFSCs. As a result, HFSCs become exhausted and lost (leading to hair thinning and hair loss) over time.

Journal Reference:
Hiroyuki Matsumura, Nan Liu, Daisuke Nanba, et al. Distinct types of stem cell divisions determine organ regeneration and aging in hair follicles, Nature Aging (DOI: 10.1038/s43587-021-00033-7)

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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Energy companies have left Colorado with billions of dollars in oil and gas cleanup:

When an oil or gas well reaches the end of its lifespan, it must be plugged. If it isn’t, the well might leak toxic chemicals into groundwater and spew methane, carbon dioxide, and other pollutants into the atmosphere for years on end.

But plugging a well is no simple task: Cement must be pumped down into it to block the opening, and the tubes connecting it to tanks or pipelines must be removed, along with all the other onsite equipment. Then the top of the well has to be chopped off near the surface and plugged again, and the area around the rig must be cleaned up.

There are nearly 60,000 unplugged wells in Colorado in need of this treatment—each costing $140,000 on average, according to the Carbon Tracker, a climate think tank, in a new report that analyzes oil and gas permitting data. Plugging this many wells will cost a lot —more than $8 billion, the report found.

Companies that drill wells in Colorado are legally required to pay for plugging them. They do so in the form of bonds, which the state can call on to pay for the plugging. But as it stands today, Colorado has only about $185 million from industry—just 2 percent of the estimated cleanup bill, according to the new study. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) assumes an average cost of $82,500 per well—lower than the Carbon Tracker’s figure, which factors in issues like well depth. But even using the state’s more conservative number, the overall cleanup would cost nearly $5 billion, of which the money currently available from energy companies would cover less than 5 percent.

DannyB writes:

Facebook shows off mind-reading technology it hopes to use one day with smart glasses:

Facebook has unveiled its mind-reading wrist device and an augmented reality keyboard that would allow users to replace the mouse and keyboard in future hardware products.

[...] The wrist device is capable of reading neurological signals sent from a users’ brain down to their hands. It could theoretically read these signals to get a sense of what a user wants to do and replicate the action in a virtual or augmented reality environment.

“You actually have more of your brain dedicated to controlling your wrist than any other part of your body, probably twice as many neurons controlling your wrist and the movement of your hands than is actually dedicated to your mouth for feeding and for speech,” said TR Reardon, director of research science at Facebook Reality Labs.

The Facebook researchers demonstrated “force” actions where a user could pinch with their fingers in real life to hold and control virtual, far-away objects in augmented reality. The name of the action is a reference to the Star Wars franchise where certain characters can use the Force to control and move people or objects that are far away from them.

[...] Additionally, the company demonstrated electromyography wristbands that users could wear to type on any surface as though they were typing on a physical keyboard. Though there’s no keyboard [...]

Facebook’s development of these technologies comes as the company prepares to release its first smart-glasses later this year.

Users everywhere cheer that Facebook will be able to know whatever they are doing with their wrists and simulate it in a virtual world.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Microbes Unknown to Science Discovered on The International Space Station:

Researchers from the United States and India working with NASA have now discovered four strains of bacteria living in different places in the ISS – three of which were, until now, completely unknown to science.

Three of the four strains were isolated back in 2015 and 2016 – one was found on an overhead panel of the ISS research stations, the second was found in the Cupola, the third was found on the surface of the dining table; the fourth was found in an old HEPA filter returned to Earth in 2011.

All four of the strains belong to a family of bacteria found in soil and freshwater; they are involved in nitrogen fixation, plant growth, and can help stop plant pathogens. Basically, good bacteria to have around if you're growing things.

[...] One of the strains – the HEPA-filter find – was identified as a known species called Methylorubrum rhodesianum. The other three were sequenced and found to all belong to the same, previously unidentified species, and the strains were named IF7SW-B2T, IIF1SW-B5, and IIF4SW-B5.

[...] "The whole genome sequence assembly of these three ISS strains reported here will enable the comparative genomic characterization of ISS isolates with Earth counterparts in future studies," the team writes in their study.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Five Reasons Why COVID Herd Immunity is Probably Impossible:

As COVID-19 vaccination rates pick up around the world, people have reasonably begun to ask: how much longer will this pandemic last? It’s an issue surrounded with uncertainties. But the once-popular idea that enough people will eventually gain immunity to SARS-CoV-2 to block most transmission — a ‘herd-immunity threshold’ — is starting to look unlikely.

That threshold is generally achievable only with high vaccination rates, and many scientists had thought that once people started being immunized en masse, herd immunity would permit society to return to normal. Most estimates had placed the threshold at 60–70% of the population gaining immunity, either through vaccinations or past exposure to the virus. But as the pandemic enters its second year, the thinking has begun to shift. In February, independent data scientist Youyang Gu changed the name of his popular COVID-19 forecasting model from ‘Path to Herd Immunity’ to ‘Path to Normality’. He said that reaching a herd-immunity threshold was looking unlikely because of factors such as vaccine hesitancy, the emergence of new variants and the delayed arrival of vaccinations for children.

takyon writes:

Micron Abandons 3D XPoint Memory Technology

In a sudden but perhaps not too surprising announcement, Micron has stated that they are ceasing all R&D of 3D XPoint memory technology. Intel and Micron co-developed 3D XPoint memory, revealed in 2015 as a non-volatile memory technology with higher performance and endurance than NAND flash memory.

Intel has been responsible for almost all of the commercial volume of 3D XPoint-based products, under their Optane brand for both NVMe SSDs and persistent memory modules in the DIMM form factor. Micron in 2016 announced their QuantX brand for 3D XPoint products, but never shipped anything under that brand. Their first and only real product based on 3D XPoint was the X100 high-end enterprise SSD which saw very limited release to close partners. Micron has now decided that further work to commercialize 3D XPoint memory isn't worth the investment.

[...] Micron is now putting that 3D XPoint fab up for sale, and is currently engaged in discussions with several potential buyers. Intel is the most obvious potential buyer, having recently begun the long process of selling their NAND flash and flash-based SSD business to SK hynix while keeping their Optane products. Intel has already moved their 3D XPoint R&D to Rio Rancho, NM but has not built up any 3D XPoint mass production capacity of their own; buying the Lehi, UT fab would save them the trouble of equipping eg. their NAND fab in Dalian, China to also manufacture 3D XPoint.

Micron exercised its contract right to buy out the Utah fab in 2019, Intel paid Micron to manufacture 3D XPoint memory (likely with a price hike in 2020), and now Intel may be buying back the entire fab.

See also: Micron's 3D XPoint departure is not good news for Intel Optane
3D XPoint Memory At The Crossroads

Also at Tom's Hardware.

Previously: Intel and Micron Announce 3D XPoint, A New Type of Memory and Storage
Micron: 96-Layer 3D NAND Coming, 3D XPoint Sales Disappoint
Micron Buys Out Intel's Stake in 3D XPoint Joint Venture
Micron Follows Through, Buys Out Intel's Stake in NAND and 3D XPoint Joint Venture
Intel and Micron Sign a New 3D XPoint Agreement

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Google to Face $5B Lawsuit Over Tracking Users in Incognito Mode

Google Chrome's Incognito Mode is at the forefront of a $5 billion class-action lawsuit which alleges users are being tracked during private browsing sessions.

The lawsuit alleges Google is in violation of wiretapping and privacy laws for intercepting, tracking, and collecting communications when Chrome's Incognito mode is in use.

Google has been trying to get the lawsuit dismissed since it was filed last June. A federal judge ruled the lawsuit must go forward.

In the judge's ruling it's stated Google does not adequately inform users that their data can be collected in Incognito mode.

Also at Ars Technica and Wccftech.

Original Submission