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upstart writes:

The State Department and 3 other US agencies earn a D for cybersecurity:

Cybersecurity at eight federal agencies is so poor that four of them earned grades of D, three got Cs, and only one received a B in a report issued Tuesday by a US Senate Committee.

"It is clear that the data entrusted to these eight key agencies remains at risk," the 47-page report stated. "As hackers, both state-sponsored and otherwise, become increasingly sophisticated and persistent, Congress and the executive branch cannot continue to allow PII and national security secrets to remain vulnerable."

The report, issued by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, comes two years after a separate report found systemic failures by the same eight federal agencies in complying with federal cybersecurity standards. The earlier report found that during the decade spanning 2008 to 2018, the agencies failed to properly protect personally identifiable information, maintain a list of all hardware and software used on agency networks, and install vendor-supplied security patches in a timely manner.

The 2019 report also highlighted that the agencies were operating legacy systems that were costly to maintain and hard to secure. All eight agencies—including the Social Security Administration and the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education—failed to protect sensitive information they stored or maintained.

upstart writes:

Please, no Moore: 'Law' that defined how chips have been made for decades has run itself into a cul-de-sac:

Feature In 1965, Gordon Moore published a short informal paper, Cramming more components onto integrated circuits.

In it, he noted [PDF] that in three years, the optimal cost per component on a chip had dropped by a factor of 10, while the optimal number had increased by the same factor, from 10 to 100. Based on not much more but these few data points and his knowledge of silicon chip development – he was head of R&D at Fairchild Semiconductors, the company that was to seed Silicon Valley – he said that for the next decade, component counts by area could double every year. By 1975, as far as he would look, up to 65,000 components such as transistors could fit on a single chip costing no more than the 100-component chips at the time of publishing.

He was right. Furthermore, as transistors shrank they used less power and worked faster, leading to stupendous sustained cost/performance improvements. In 1975, eight years after leaving Fairchild to co-found Intel, Moore revised his "law", actually just an observation, to a doubling every two years. But the other predictions in his original paper of revolutions in computing, communication and general electronics had taken hold. The chip industry had the perfect metric to aim for a rolling, virtuous milestone like no other.

Since then, according to Professor Erica Fuchs of Carnegie Mellon University, "half of economic growth in the US and worldwide has also been attributed to this trend and the innovations it enabled throughout the economy." Virtually all of industry, science, medicine, and every aspect of daily life now depends on computers that are ever faster, cheaper, and more widely spread.

damnbunni writes:

Telstra has announced that all of their pay phones will allow free calls to Australian landlines and cell phones starting immediately.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/telstra-makes-public-payphone-calls-free-australia-wide/

Despite the decline in the number of payphones, Telstra boss Andy Penn says they remain the lifeline for many of the country's most vulnerable people and communities, especially those in regional and remote areas.

"You may be wondering who uses them in today's society where everyone's got a smartphone. We in fact still get more than 11 million calls a year through our payphones, and importantly, more than 200,000 of those are to emergency types of sites such as '000' because one of the things I have personally observed is that in times of crisis, in a bushfire, in other natural crisis, for victims of domestic violence, often the payphone is the only lifeline people have, and they play a critical role during the bushfires early last year."

[...] Despite the decline in the number of payphones, Telstra boss Andy Penn says they remain the lifeline for many of the country's most vulnerable people and communities, especially those in regional and remote areas.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Bottled water is 3,500 times worse for the environment than tap water:

Tap water is thousands of times better for the environment than bottled water, according to scientists. In fact, it takes three times as much water to produce a plastic bottle as it can hold.

This might not come as a surprise but researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) have crunched the numbers to work out just how much better it actually is.

The research focused on Barcelona, Spain which is home to around 1.35 million people - nearly 60 per cent of whom consume bottled water at least some of the time.

They used something called a “life cycle assessment” which estimates the environmental impact of an item over its entire lifespan. That includes the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, use and disposal.

[...] Our results show that considering both the environmental and the health effects, tap water is a better option than bottled water, because bottled water generates a wider range of impacts”, says ISGlobal researcher Cathryn Tonne.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The rise of never-ending job interviews:

Some companies are asking candidates to attend multiple interviews. But too many rounds could be a red flag – and even drive candidates away.

Every jobseeker welcomes an invitation to a second interview, because it signals a company's interest. A third interview might feel even more positive, or even be the precursor to an offer. But what happens when the process drags on to a fourth, fifth or sixth round – and it's not even clear how close you are to the 'final' interview?

That's a question Mike Conley, 49, grappled with earlier this year. The software engineering manager, based in Indiana, US, had been seeking a new role after losing his job during the pandemic. Five companies told him they had to delay hiring because of Covid-19 – but only after he'd done the final round of interviews. Another three invited him for several rounds of interviews until it was time to make an offer, at which point they decided to promote internally. Then, he made it through three rounds of interviews for a director-level position at a company he really liked, only to receive an email to co-ordinate six more rounds.

"When I responded to the internal HR, I even asked, 'Are these the final rounds?'," he says. "The answer I got back was: 'We don't know yet'."

upstart writes:

Hawaiian Electric to pay customers for adding battery storage to rooftop solar:

Hawaiian Electric has launched a new programme that will pay customers to add battery storage to an existing or new rooftop solar system.

The 'Battery Bonus' scheme is a one-time cash incentive paid to residential and commercial customers on the island of O'ahu, which Hawaiian Electric hopes will move the state toward its goal of 100% clean energy by 2045.

[...] "The Public Utilities Commission sees the value that solar and batteries can bring to our grid, and have unveiled a new program to accelerate adoption here in Hawaii," said Robert Harris, Sunrun's director of public policy for Hawaii.

Applications will be accepted until June 20, 2023, or until the cap is reached, with customers required to use a contractor. Taxable payments will be made to the solar-plus-storage system owner.

Customers who take part must use or export stored electricity at the contracted amount on a two-hour schedule specified by Hawaiian Electric between 6pm-8pm every day (including weekends and holidays) until December 31, 2023.

After this, they will be given the option to move onto the scheme's next phase – a ten-year programme to be defined by the PUC.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

These Foldable Houses Cost $50k and Go Up in a Day:

3D printing has become the hottest new construction technology of the past few years, with houses being laid down in California, Texas, New York, Mexico, Canada, Italy, and Germany, to name just a few. There's no doubt it's an efficient, low-cost way to build durable homes, with the added bonus of a wow-factor (which may soon expire given how fast the method seems to be proliferating).

But one company is taking a totally different route to affordable, easy-to-build housing: foldable homes.

[...] Like 3D printed homes, Boxabl's innovation seems promising as a source of affordable housing, and could become a major new player in the industry. However, also like its 3D printed counterparts, one of Boxabl's big limitations is that it requires an empty piece of land at ground level—and these are exactly what's scarce in dense urban centers, and often even in surrounding suburbs.

But with more people leaving cities post-pandemic and many companies implementing flexible work policies, we may not see urban populations grow as fast as expected. Either way, don't be too surprised if you see a small, sleek, folded-up house pull into your neighborhood on the back of a truck sometime in the next couple years.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

FDA aiming to give final approval to Pfizer vaccine by early next month -NY Times:

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is aiming to give full approval for the Pfizer (PFE.N) COVID vaccine by early September, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing people involved in the effort.

The FDA gave emergency use authorization to the Pfizer vaccine late last year. Full approval by the FDA could push more Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine as it might reduce their fears about the safety of the shot.

The agency's unofficial deadline for the approval is the Sept. 6 Labor Day holiday, the Times said.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Amazon Unlawfully Confiscated Union Literature, NLRB Finds:

Amazon illegally prohibited an employee from giving workers pro-union literature, confiscated that literature, and gave workers the impression that their organizing activity was being surveilled at the company's Staten Island fulfillment center in New York, according to National Labor Relations Board charges and other documentation reviewed by Motherboard.

An NLRB investigation found that Amazon illegally prohibited Connor Spence, a Staten Island employee involved in union organizing, from distributing pro-union literature in a break room on May 16—and then confiscated the literature—also in violation of U.S. labor law, according to evidence provided by the NLRB to the union’s attorney. 

Connor Spence, a 25-year-old warehouse worker in Amazon's JFK8 fulfillment center in Staten Island, who filed the unfair labor practice charge, told Motherboard that on May 16, he was in the break room distributing leaflets about unions and copies of a notice that Amazon had to post in a Queens warehouse for violating workers’ union rights, when an Amazon security guard approached him and told him he did not have permission to distribute the leaflets.

“He took the union literature away and wouldn’t give it back,” Spence told Motherboard. “I filed the charge so that there’s accountability in place that prevents them from doing this in the future.”

Following the defeat of a high-profile union drive at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama this April, Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island have been busy organizing their own independent union, known as Amazon Labor Union.

upstart writes:

Australian court rules an AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings:

In a case brought by Stephen Thaler, who has filed and lost similar cases in other jurisdictions, Australia's Federal Court last month heard and decided that the nation's Commissioner of Patents erred when deciding that an AI can't be considered an inventor.

Justice Beach reached that conclusion because nothing in Australia law says the applicant for a patent must be human.

As Beach's judgement puts it: "... in my view an artificial intelligence system can be an inventor for the purposes of the Act.

"First, an inventor is an agent noun; an agent can be a person or thing that invents. Second, so to hold reflects the reality in terms of many otherwise patentable inventions where it cannot sensibly be said that a human is the inventor. Third, nothing in the Act dictates the contrary conclusion."

The Justice also worried that the Commissioner of Patents' logic in rejecting Thaler's patent submissions was faulty.

"On the Commissioner's logic, if you had a patentable invention but no human inventor, you could not apply for a patent," the judgement states. "Nothing in the Act justifies such a result."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Wild U.S. deer found with coronavirus antibodies:

White-tailed deer, a species found in every U.S. state except Alaska, appear to be contracting the coronavirus in the wild, according to the first study to search for evidence of an outbreak in wild deer.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) analyzed blood samples from more than 600 deer in Michigan, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania over the past decade, and they discovered that 40 percent of the 152 wild deer tested from January through March 2021 had antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Another three deer from January 2020 also had antibodies.

Their presence means that deer likely had encountered the virus and then fought it off. The animals didn't appear sick, so they probably had asymptomatic infections, the agency says. Roughly 30 million white-tailed deer live in the U.S.

"The risk of animals spreading SARS-CoV-2 to people is considered low," the USDA told National Geographic in a statement. Still, the results may suggest that "a secondary reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 has been established in wildlife in the U.S." says Jüergen Richt, a veterinarian and director of the Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at Kansas State University who was not involved in the USDA's work. If the virus is circulating in other species, it could continue to evolve, perhaps in ways that make it more severe or transmissible, undermining efforts to slow the pandemic.

Journal Reference:
Mitchell V. Palmer, Mathias Martins, Shollie Falkenberg, et al. Susceptibility of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to SARS-CoV-2 [open], (DOI: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JVI.00083-21)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Damage control: Microsoft deletes all comments under heavily criticized Windows 11 upgrade video:

Windows 11 is still one of the hottest topics in the world of technology. A few days after we reported on a new video which discusses the Windows 11 upgrade in more detail, Microsoft has now dealt with the reactions from countless upset customers.

[...] Due to the large amount of negative reactions, Microsoft has closed the comment section under the YouTube video, which included the deletion of all previously posted comments. Before they were erased, users shared speculations that Microsoft introduced the overly stringent system requirements in order to sell more new devices, from which the Redmond-based software company would benefit greatly due to the included Windows licenses. Considering that the video has garnered almost 1000 dislikes and less than 100 likes so far, it's likely that this was not Microsoft's final battle in its effort to gain control over the narrative that is revolving around the controversial Windows 11 upgrade requirements.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Every Car Made After 2027 May Have Drunk Driving Monitoring System:

Buried deep in the 2,700-page bipartisan infrastructure bill is a provision that mandates all cars manufactured from 2027 onwards be equipped with a drunk driver monitoring system, in the hopes of ending a behavior that results in about 10,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. If passed with this provision, the bill would give a firm release date to a research program the federal government and an automotive industry group have collaborated on for more than a decade.

Since 2008, an alphabet soup of acronym organizations have been working on a public-private partnership to invent a new technology that can prevent drunk driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) partnered with the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS), an industry group representing all the major automakers, to form the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety Program, which goes by the unfortunate acronym of DADSS.

upstart writes:

Scientists launching Blob the slime mold into space:

Blob is a naturally occurring slime mold with the scientific name Physarum polycephalum. But the European Space Agency, which is sending Blob to the ISS so it can be observed in microgravity, clearly understands that calling it by its nickname makes it way likelier the mold will snag a movie deal.

"Composed of just one cell, the brainless blob is still able to move, feed, organize itself and even transmit knowledge to like-minded slime molds," says the ESA

[...] Blob is scheduled to launch to the ISS on Aug. 10 on Northrop Grumman's 16th NASA commercial resupply mission. Once it arrives, ESA astronaut and space photographer Thomas Pesquet will add water to Blob to wake it up, and then he'll take pictures of it under two scientific protocols. One will study how two Blobs respond alongside each other in an environment without food. Another will analyze Blobs when food is available (oat flakes, naturally).

Primary, middle and high school students down on Earth will conduct similar experiments, comparing their results to a time-lapse video from space to observe differences in Blob's speed, shape and growth up there and down here.

[...] The experiment will last seven days. During that time, a four-second video of Blob will automatically be recorded on a micro SD-card every 10 minutes.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Laser pincers generate antimatter by recreating neutron star conditions:

In principle, antimatter sounds simple – it’s just like regular matter, except its particles have the opposite charge. That basic difference has some major implications though: if matter and antimatter should ever meet, they will annihilate each other in a burst of energy. In fact, that should have destroyed the universe billions of years ago, but obviously that didn’t happen. So how did matter come to dominate? What tipped the scales in its favor? Or, where did all the antimatter go?

[...] But now, researchers have designed a new method that could produce antimatter in smaller labs. While the team hasn’t built the device yet, simulations show that the principle is feasible.

The new device involves firing two powerful lasers at a plastic block, one from either side in a pincer motion. This block would be crisscrossed by tiny channels, just micrometers wide. As each laser strikes the target, it accelerates a cloud of electrons in the material and sends them shooting off – until they collide with the cloud of electrons coming the other way from the other laser.

That collision produces a lot of gamma rays and, because of the extremely narrow channels, the photons are more likely to also collide with each other. This in turn produces showers of matter and antimatter, specifically electrons and their antimatter equivalent, positrons. Finally, magnetic fields around the system focus the positrons into an antimatter beam, and accelerate it to an extremely high energy.

Journal Reference:
He, Yutong, Blackburn, Thomas G., Toncian, Toma, et al. Dominance of γ-γ electron-positron pair creation in a plasma driven by high-intensity lasers [open], Communications Physics (DOI: 10.1038/s42005-021-00636-x)

Original Submission