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takyon writes:

SpaceX set to launch six commercial Moon landers after latest win

After securing yet another contract, SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are now scheduled to launch at least six commercial Moon landers over the next two and a half years.

On May 20th, rocket startup Firefly Aerospace announced that it had selected a SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch its first Blue Ghost Moon lander as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. While Firefly is preparing to launch its own Alpha rocket for the first time later this year, a rocket that is technically capable of launching Blue Ghost with the help of an electric 'space tug,' the company is apparently prioritizing maximum payload delivery and on-time performance.

As a result, Firefly has contracted with a direct competitor to launch its first Moon lander, becoming the sixth company to select SpaceX's Falcon rockets for that purpose.

Also at Space News.

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210514134222.htm

A groundbreaking study led by engineering and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how engineered immune cells used in new cancer therapies can overcome physical barriers to allow a patient's own immune system to fight tumors. The research could improve cancer therapies in the future for millions of people worldwide.

[...] Instead of using chemicals or radiation, immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps the patient's immune system fight cancer. T cells are a type of white blood cell that are of key importance to the immune system. Cytotoxic T cells are like soldiers who search out and destroy the targeted invader cells.

[...] In this first-of-its-kind study, the researchers are working to engineer the T cells and develop engineering design criteria to mechanically optimize the cells or make them more "fit" to overcome the barriers. If these immune cells can recognize and get to the cancer cells, then they can destroy the tumor.

In a fibrous mass of a tumor, the stiffness of the tumor causes immune cells to slow down about two-fold -- almost like they are running in quicksand.

"This study is our first publication where we have identified some structural and signaling elements where we can tune these T cells to make them more effective cancer fighters," said Provenzano, a researcher in the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. "Every 'obstacle course' within a tumor is slightly different, but there are some similarities. After engineering these immune cells, we found that they moved through the tumor almost twice as fast no matter what obstacles were in their way."

takyon writes:

Apple, Google & Microsoft Have Teamed up to Block the Right-to-Repair Law

Apple, Google & Microsoft Have Teamed up to Block the Right-to-Repair Law:

Bloomberg today released a report on how companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are working together to put a stop to laws that would make it necessary for companies to provide device schematics, genuine repair parts, and repair manuals to independent repair technicians.

Almost 27 states have considered the laws in 2021 alone, but in more than half of them, the laws have been voted down or dismissed. Many lobbyists and trade groups representing tech companies have fought hard against this law with Apple pointing out that such measures could lead to device damage or consumers harming themselves when attempting to repair their devices.

In Washington, for example, Washington House of Representatives Democrat Mia Gregerson sponsored a Right to Repair measure that was fought by Microsoft, Google, Amazon, along with lobbyists representing Apple. Lobbyists later said that Apple would endorse repair programs at local colleges if the bill was dropped.

Also at Bloomberg and MacRumors.

See also: Leaked Apple Documents Inadvertently Helped the Right-to-Repair Movement

Louis Rossmann Starts a GoFundMe to Get "Right to Repair" Legistation Passed Through a Direct Ballot

takyon writes:

TSMC and Partners Develop Key Feature for Sub 1nm Process Technology

According to a publication by TSMC, NTU, and MIT in Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03472-9] [DX] (noticed by Verdict), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and its research partners from the National University of Taiwan (NTU) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have said that they have developed material that will be used for transistor contact electrodes with an upcoming 1nm fabrication process.

[...] The publication indicates that usage of semi-metal bismuth (Bi) as the transistor's contact electrode can greatly reduce the resistance and increase the current. TSMC currently uses tungsten interconnects (made using selective tungsten deposition process), whereas Intel uses cobalt interconnects. Both have their advantages and both require specific factory tools.

In a bid to use semi-metal bismuth (Bi) as transistor's contact electrode, researchers had to use a helium ion beam (HIB) lithography system and design an 'easy deposition process.' This 'process' was only used on an R&D production line, so it is not quite ready for mass production.

Original Submission

mrpg writes:

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-solid-state-batteries-line.html

A new study, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun, postdoctoral research associate Beniamin Zahiri, and Xerion Advanced Battery Corp. director of research and development John Cook, demonstrates how control over the atomic alignment of solid materials can improve the cathode-solid electrolyte interface and stability in solid-state batteries. The results are published in the journal Nature Materials.

"With batteries, it's not just materials that are important, but also how the atoms on the surfaces of those materials are arranged," Zahiri said. "Currently, solid-state battery electrodes contain materials with a large diversity of surface atom arrangements. This leads to a seemingly infinite number of electrode-solid electrolyte contact interface possibilities, all with different levels of chemical reactivity. We are interested in finding which arrangements lead to practical improvements in battery cycle life, energy density and power."

The researchers said an electrolyte's stability controls how many charging and discharging cycles a battery can handle before it starts to lose power. Because of this, scientists are in a race to find the most stable electrolyte materials.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Comcast, one of America's largest broadband providers, has now deployed RPKI on its network to defend against BGP route hijacks and leaks.

BGP route hijacks is a networking problem that occurs when a particular network on the internet falsely advertises that it supports certain routes or prefixes that it, in fact, does not.

This occurs either because of malicious activity or some misconfiguration (the latter is better referred to as "BGP leaks" rather than hijacking).

Left unchecked, a BGP route hijack or leak can cause a drastic surge in misdirected internet traffic that eventually leads to global congestion and a Denial of Service (DoS).

This week, in a move to strengthen the security and robustness of its network, telecom giant Comcast has deployed Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) on its network.

RPKI is a framework designed to secure the Internet's routing infrastructure, primarily Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

Last month, BleepingComputer reported that a major BGP leak had disrupted thousands of networks globally.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Two consortia of companies will be supported by ESA to devise detailed definitions of how to provide telecommunications and navigation services for missions to the Moon, under the agency’s Moonlight initiative.

Dozens of international, institutional, and commercial teams are sending missions to the Moon that envisage a permanent lunar presence. These will become regular trips to Earth’s natural satellite rather than one-off expeditions

Many of these initiatives come from the main space institutions in China, India, Japan, and Russia, alongside other spacefaring nations, as well as private entities across the globe.

A reliable and dedicated lunar communications and navigation service would allow missions to land wherever they wanted. Radio astronomers could set up observatories on the far side of the Moon. Rovers could trundle over the lunar surface more speedily. It could even enable the teleoperation of rovers and other equipment from Earth.

Using a shared telecommunications and navigation service would reduce the design complexity of future individual missions and make them lighter, freeing space for more scientific instruments or other cargo, making each individual mission more cost-efficient.

As many of you noticed, we had a site crash today. From around 1300 until 2200 UTC (2021-05-20).

A HUGE thank you goes to mechanicjay who spent the whole time trying to get our ndb (cluster) working again. It's an uncommon configuration, which made recovery especially challenging... there's just not a lot of documentation about it on the web.

I reached out and got hold of The Mighty Buzzard on the phone. Then put him in touch with mechanicjay who got us back up and running using backups.

Unfortunately, we had to go way back until April 14 to get a working backup. (I don't know all the details, but it appears something went sideways on neon).

We're all wiped out right now. When we have rested and had a chance to discuss things, we'll post an update.

In the meantime, please join me in thanking mechanicjay and TMB for all they did to get us up and running again!

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Charter must pay $19 million for tricking customers into switching ISPs:

A judge has ordered Charter Communications to pay $19.2 million to Windstream for lying to customers in order to trick them into switching from Windstream to Charter's Spectrum Internet service. Charter also faces a $5,279 penalty for shutting off service to hundreds of Windstream's resale customers.

When Windstream filed for bankruptcy in early 2019, Charter began a "literally false and intentionally misleading advertising campaign intended to create the impression, using mailings designed to seem as if they were coming from the Debtors [Windstream], that the Debtors were going out of business," said an order issued Thursday by Judge Robert Drain of US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Charter's goal with the mailings "was to induce the Debtors' customers to terminate their contracts and switch to Charter by sending them literally false and intentionally misleading information about the Debtors' bankruptcy cases and financial wherewithal," the ruling said. Charter premised its ad campaign "on false assertions regarding the Debtors' bankruptcy cases," the ruling said.

"We are gratified that Judge Drain's ruling means Charter will have to pay a significant price for its egregious false advertising," Windstream General Counsel Kristi Moody said, according to a FierceTelecom article. "Charter knew full well what it was doing when it embarked on a dishonest scare-tactic campaign to lure away our customers. At Windstream, we will always aggressively defend ourselves and our customers against predatory schemes and meritless allegations."

Charter declined to comment on the ruling when contacted by Ars today.

As mentioned in a related Gizmodo article:

Ironically, Charter had filed a lawsuit against DirecTV in 2009 for giving its customers a false impression they would lose their service because of Charter's bankruptcy filing.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Verge:

A man who was falsely accused of shoplifting has sued the Detroit Police Department for arresting him based on an incorrect facial recognition match. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of Robert Williams, whom it calls the first US person wrongfully arrested based on facial recognition.

[...] The ACLU claims Detroit police used facial recognition under circumstances that they should have known would produce unreliable results, then dishonestly failed to mention the system's shortcomings — including a "woefully substandard" image and the known racial bias of recognition systems.

[...] Thousands of law enforcement agencies have allegedly used facial recognition tech to identify suspects. But a backlash has led several cities to ban the practice, while Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon have pledged to keep their systems out of police hands.

Also at The Washington Post, The Detroit News, and others.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

It now seems likely that Starliner will not launch crew until early 2022:

The primary issue is the availability of space station docking ports fitted with an "international docking adapter," which are used by SpaceX's Crew Dragon, Cargo Dragon 2, and Starliner vehicles. There are presently two such ports on the station, and for NASA, the priority for access to these ports are crew rotations followed by supply missions. So the question becomes when the Starliner test flight can find an open slot on station.

The Crew-2 mission, carrying four astronauts on SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle, is expected to launch on April 22 and remain attached to one of these ports for about six months. Then, on June 3, a SpaceX cargo supply mission (CRS-22) is due to launch and occupy the other port.

Thus, there will be no docking ports available this summer until about July 20, the approximate date when the CRS-22 Dragon will depart the station and return to Earth. This departure will open an approximately one-month window during which Starliner could make its test flight. Therefore, although NASA and Boeing have not yet made a target date public, we can expect this flight to take place no earlier than late July or early August.

[...] After this repeat test flight, which is officially known as Orbital Flight Test-2, NASA and Boeing will perform a detailed data analysis. One source said that optimistically, this process would require about six months. This would push a crewed test flight into January 2022. Another NASA official said the spacecraft would not fly until the "hardware is ready and it makes the most sense to fly based on station's needs." He added that there is no clock on this crewed flight test, since NASA already has an operational vehicle, Crew Dragon, to meet its astronaut-rotation needs.

[...] Finally, if this crew test flight is successful, Boeing could fly its first "operational" Starliner mission for NASA. This would carry a full complement of four astronauts to the space station for about six months and would happen sometime later in 2022, most likely during the April or September time frames.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for boru

Israel appeared to confirm claims that it was behind a cyber-attack on Iran's main nuclear facility on Sunday, which Tehran's nuclear energy chief described as an act of terrorism that warranted a response against its perpetrators.

The apparent attack took place hours after officials at the Natanz reactor restarted spinning advanced centrifuges that could speed up the production of enriched uranium, in what had been billed as a pivotal moment in the country's nuclear programme.

As Iranian authorities scrambled to deal with a large-scale blackout at Natanz, which the country's Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged had damaged the electricity grid at the site, the Israeli defence chief, Aviv Kochavi, said the country's "operations in the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of the enemy".

Israel imposed no censorship restrictions on coverage as it had often done after similar previous incidents and the apparent attack was widely covered by Israeli media. Public radio took the unusual step of claiming that the Mossad intelligence agency had played a central role.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/11/israel-appears-confirm-cyberattack-iran-nuclear-facility

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Google gamed its ad auction system to favor its own ads, generated $213 million:

Google used a secret program called "Bernanke" that used historical bidding data to give its ad-buying system a major advantage over its rivals, an antitrust lawsuit filing claims, a program that earned the company hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

[...] The antitrust lawsuit centers around how Google's ownership of a platform for selling online advertising, as well as its position as an ad buyer for its own properties, was a problem. By being both an owner and a client, Google was thought to be able to game the system due to having access to data that ad buyers wouldn't necessarily receive.

Google allegedly used this data from publisher ad servers to guide ad buyers to a price they would have to pay to secure a specific ad placement. This knowledge and usage was effectively insider trading to the states, as Google could feasibly pay less to publishers, as well as having a natural advantage over third-party ad-buying systems.

Project Bernanke specifically was a system that used data from historical bids made in Google Ads, massaging the bids of its clients to increase the possibility it will win an advertising auction. This put rival systems at a bigger disadvantage.

In terms of how important it was to Google, an internal presentation from 2013 shows Project Bernanke was anticipated to generate $230 million in revenue for that year alone.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

Genetic Engineering 2.0: An On-Off Switch for Gene Editing:

Over the past decade, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized genetic engineering, allowing scientists to make targeted changes to organisms' DNA. While the system could potentially be useful in treating a variety of diseases, CRISPR-Cas9 editing involves cutting DNA strands, leading to permanent changes to the cell's genetic material.

Now, in a paper published online in Cell on April 9, researchers describe a new gene editing technology called CRISPRoff that allows researchers to control gene expression with high specificity while leaving the sequence of the DNA unchanged. Designed by Whitehead Institute Member Jonathan Weissman, University of California San Francisco assistant professor Luke Gilbert, Weissman lab postdoc James Nuñez and collaborators, the method is stable enough to be inherited through hundreds of cell divisions, and is also fully reversible.

"The big story here is we now have a simple tool that can silence the vast majority of genes," says Weissman, who is also a professor of biology at MIT and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "We can do this for multiple genes at the same time without any DNA damage, with great deal of homogeneity, and in a way that can be reversed. It's a great tool for controlling gene expression."

The project was partially funded by a 2017 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create a reversible gene editor. "Fast forward four years [from the initial grant], and CRISPRoff finally works as envisioned in a science fiction way," says co-senior author Gilbert. "It's exciting to see it work so well in practice."

Journal Reference:
James K. Nuñez, Jin Chen, Greg C. Pommier, et al. Genome-wide programmable transcriptional memory by CRISPR-based epigenome editing, Cell, (DOI: DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.025)

Original Submission

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Facebook takes down official page for the French town of Bitche:

In an unusual turn of events, the Facebook page for Bitche, a small town in northeastern Moselle, France, was taken down on March 19, as Zuck's offensive verbiage police pulled the town's name into the social platform's unusually stringent dragnet.

According to Politico.eu, the Monday takedown temporarily forced Valérie Degouy, the town's communications administrator, to generate a new page labeled after the area postal code, Mairie 57230.

[...] "I already had problems when I created the town's Facebook page. I could not enter the word Bitche; it was impossible," she said. "I had to create a page that I had called Ville fortifiée, and change it afterwards, in the description, to say that it was the official page of the town of Bitche and point out at the same time, the username was Ville de Bitche. At that time in 2016, it was allowed."

[...] At long last, Facebook restored the original page on Tuesday, almost a month later. The mayor, Benoît Kieffer, said in a Facebook post, translated by the Guardian: "The name of our town seems to suffer from a bad interpretation ... the most astonishing thing is that Facebook took so long to correct this."

What overly-aggressive filter blocks have you encountered?

Original Submission