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upstart writes:

How Detroit residents are building their own internet:

Detroit has historically been one of the least connected cities in America, with about 40 percent of Detroit residents lacking any home internet access at all. Things are changing, though, thanks in large part to projects like the Equitable Internet Initiative (EII), a collaboration between the Detroit Community Technology Project and a network of community organizations.

EII has an ambitious goal: to strengthen neighborhoods by building low-cost, high-speed internet for the underserved communities of Detroit, to increase digital literacy, and to train residents to be "digital stewards." And against all odds, they are succeeding.

Over the past six years, EII has built and maintained an impressive internet network across large swaths of Detroit, training digital stewards from the community to set up and install wireless access points, fiber hookups and hotspots, and educating residents on how to safely and effectively use the internet.

The onslaught of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdowns around the country exacerbated an issue that has been pervasive for decades: the digital divide. As many Americans logged into Zoom to conduct business, chat with their family and watch Netflix, millions of others were offline and disconnected, struggling to find information about COVID-19, schedule vaccine appointments and apply for unemployment. This is the digital divide: the gap between those who have digital connectivity, and those who do not. This disparity is especially pronounced in communities of color, as well as low income communities.

[...] "Access to information is like liberty. Whenever that is restricted or limited for the sake of capitalism, it's so symbolic of oppression because people can't make up their own minds," says Shahmir. "When they don't have that information, can they really make the best decisions for themselves?"

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upstart writes:

China-led study finds way to reverse a loss of eyesight:

A joint study by researchers from China and Australia has developed a new treatment that could prevent hundreds of millions of people from losing their eyesight – without the need for ongoing injections into their eyes.

In the short term, the study’s findings suggest current treatments for conditions like macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy can be made more effective and the number of injections into the eye reduced to just one.

About 450 million people worldwide are affected by loss of vision due to age or chronic disease. It was once regarded as a natural process, but in recent years scientists have found most of the blindness is caused by an excessive growth of new blood vessels at the back of the eye.

[...] The growth of young blood vessels relies heavily on a protein known as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Some pharmaceutical companies have developed antibodies that can be injected into the eye and bind with the VEGF protein.

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4th Person in US Mysteriously Stricken With Deadly Bacteria From South Asia

upstart writes:

4th person in US mysteriously stricken with deadly bacteria from South Asia:

A fourth person in a fourth US state has mysteriously contracted a deadly South Asian bacterium without leaving the continental US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.

Two of the four cases have been fatal, including the latest one identified in Georgia late last month during a post-mortem exam.

CDC investigators determined that all four cases are connected and they suspect a so-far-unknown imported product may be to blame. The CDC had released an advisory on June 30 about the three earlier cases.

CDC Probes How People Contracted a Dangerous Infection Found in the Tropics

upstart writes:

CDC probes how people contracted a dangerous infection found in the tropics:

When a 63-year-old Texas man who had not left the United States in 30 years sought treatment for a fever, chest pain and difficulty breathing in November 2018, doctors discovered a surprising culprit: a bacteria that is endemic to Southeast Asia and northern Australia.

Nearly three years later, doctors and researchers remained flummoxed by the man’s melioidosis diagnosis, because nothing in his medical or personal history suggested that he had been exposed to soil or water infected with the disease-causing bacteria called Burkholderia pseudomallei.

[...] They also urged further investigation because some scientists have theorized that the American southwest could have “suitable habitats for B. pseudomallei” that could allow the bacteria to live naturally in the soil.

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upstart writes:

New poo, new you? Fecal transplants reverse signs of brain aging in mice:

As you age, your brain slows down. You may forget where you left your glasses or have trouble picking up a new skill. Now there’s hope from rodent experiments that some of these declines could be reversed—but it takes guts. New research shows a transplant of gut microbes, in the form of feces, from young mice to old ones can turn back the clock on the aging brain.

[...] The bacteria in our intestines influence everything from our daily moods to our overall health. This “gut microbiome” also changes over the course of our lives. But whereas some studies have shown young blood can have rejuvenating effects on old mice, the microbiome’s impact on age-related declines hasn’t been clear.

[...] The first thing the team noticed was that the gut microbiomes of the old mice given young mouse microbes began to resemble those of the younger ones. The common gut microbe Enterococcus became much more abundant in old mice, just as it is in young mice, for example.

There were changes in the brain as well. The hippocampus of old mice—a region of the brain associated with learning and memory—became more physically and chemically similar to the hippocampus of young mice. The old mice that received young mouse poop also learned to solve mazes faster and were better at remembering the maze layout on subsequent attempts, the team reports today in Nature Aging. None of these effects was seen in old mice given old mouse feces.

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aristarchus writes:

Got Plans For Sept. 24, 2182? This Big Asteroid Might, Too:

A potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu has a 1 in 1,750 chance of hitting Earth between now and the year 2300.

That's according to the most precise calculations of an asteroid's trajectory ever made, and the odds are slightly worse than NASA previously thought.

[...] there is a 99.94% probability that Bennu is not on an impact trajectory.

[...] Bennu is a "rubble-pile asteroid" that's shaped like a spinning top, and it's wider than the Empire State Building is tall. It was discovered in 1999 and telescopes have been keeping tabs on it ever since; NASA considers Bennu and another asteroid called 1950 DA to be the two most hazardous known asteroids in our solar system.

Previous coverage.

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upstart writes:

A new way to treat PTSD?:

Exposure to a traumatic experience can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an incapacitating disorder in susceptible persons with no reliable therapy. Particularly puzzling is understanding how transient exposure to trauma creates persistent long- term suffering from PTSD and why some people are susceptible to PTSD while others that were exposed to the same trauma remain resilient.

[...] The researchers first mapped 'epigenetic DNA methylation marks' in a brain region which is important for PTSD. They found distinct epigenetic differences between animals that were exposed to trauma and were resilient, and those animals that were exposed to trauma and were susceptible and developed PTSD-like behavior. The researchers found that an important 'epigenetic' enzyme that transfers methyl groups onto DNA, DNMT3A, is reduced in animals that are susceptible to PTSD. The researchers also searched for groups of genes whose methylation is altered in the PTSD susceptible animals and found that one group of genes is controlled by the retinoic acid receptor which is activated by vitamin A. Indeed, delivering DNMT3A or retinoic acid orphan receptor gene into the animal brains reverses the PTSD-like phenotypes, suggesting that these genes that are differentially methylated are responsible for PTSD behavior.

Injecting brains with genes is still not a feasible therapeutic option. Therefore, the authors tested whether nutritional supplements that mimic the activity of these genes could treat and reverse PTSD in susceptible animals. Since DNMT3A increases DNA methylation, the researchers used a natural product that donates methyl groups S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) and to activate the retinoic acid receptor they treated the animals with vitamin A.  They found that combined treatment with the methyl donor SAM and retinoic acid reversed PTSD-like behaviors.

upstart writes:

Norton And Avast Are Merging Into An $8 Billion Antivirus Empire - The Verge:

NortonLifeLock and Avast are merging in a deal worth more than $8 billion. The deal will see NortonLifelock acquire all of Avast’s shares, and create a much larger cyber security firm. “With this combination, we can strengthen our cyber safety platform and make it available to more than 500 million users,” says Vincent Pilette, NortonLifeLock CEO.

[...] The combination should lead to antivirus products that include the benefits of Avast’s focus on privacy and NortonLifeLock’s experience in identity, all at a time when cyber security is critical for both consumers and businesses.

[...] Avast, which was founded in the Czech Republic, has been creating software for consumers and small businesses for 11 years, and acquired AVG five years ago. NortonLifeLock is the former consumer side of Symantec, which was left behind after Broadcom acquired Symantec’s enterprise security business two years ago. Norton antivirus has existed in various forms since 1991, and has remained a popular option for consumers for 30 years.

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upstart writes:

Chinese Scientists Develop World’S Strongest Glass That’s As Hard As Diamond:

Scientists in China have developed the hardest and strongest glassy material known so far that can scratch diamond crystals with ease.

The researchers, including those from Yanshan University in China, noted that the new material – tentatively named AM-III – has “outstanding” mechanical and electronic properties, and could find applications in solar cells due to its “ultra-high” strength and wear resistance.

Analysis of the material, published in the journal National Science Review, revealed that its hardness reached 113 gigapascals (GPa) while natural diamond stone usually scores 50 to 70 on the same test.

[...] While in diamond crystals, the organised internal structure of its atoms and molecules contribute to their immense strength and hardness, in AM-III the researchers found that a combination of order and disorder of its molecules give rise to its strange properties.

[...] To achieve this order of molecules, the scientists crushed and blended the fullerenes together, gradually applying intense heat and pressure of about 25 GPa and 1,200 degrees Celsius in an experimental chamber for about 12 hours, spending an equal amount of time cooling the material.

Journal Reference:
Zhang, Shuangshuang, Li, Zihe, Luo, Kun, et al. Discovery of carbon-based strongest and hardest amorphous material [open], National Science Review (DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwab140)

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DannyB writes:

Hacked Facebook Users Forced To Buy $300 Oculus VR Headset Just To Talk To Customer Support

Back in 2014 when Facebook bought Oculus, there were the usual pre-merger promises that nothing would really change. Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who has since moved on to selling border surveillance tech to the Trump administration, made oodles of promises to that effect before taking his money and running toward the sunset. Among those promises was the promise that users would never be forced to use a Facebook login account just to use your VR headset and its games, and that the company wouldn't track your behavior for advertising.

Like every major merger, those promises didn't mean much. Just about a year ago, Facebook and Oculus announced that users will soon be forced to... use a Facebook account if they want to be able to keep using Oculus hardware, so the company can track its users for advertising purposes.

[...] Facebook users who have their accounts hacked and subsequently locked say it's impossible to get anybody at Facebook support to even listen to them. [...] But if you actually buy something from Facebook they actually at least try to care. [...] hacked Facebook users have been buying $300 VR headsets (then often returning them unopened) just to get help [...] Granted this probably won't work for long.

I'm sure these problems are only temporary since Facebook cares deeply about their customers.

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upstart and fx_68 write:

NSA Awards Secret $10 Billion Contract to Amazon:

The National Security Agency has awarded a secret cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion to Amazon Web Services, Nextgov has learned.

The contract is already being challenged. Tech giant Microsoft filed a bid protest on July 21 with the Government Accountability Office two weeks after being notified by the NSA that it had selected AWS for the contract.

The contract's code name is "WildandStormy," according to protest filings, and it represents the second multibillion-dollar cloud contract the U.S. intelligence community—made up of 17 agencies, including the NSA—has awarded in the past year.

In November, the CIA awarded its C2E contract, potentially worth tens of billions of dollars, to five companies—AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and IBM—that will compete for specific task orders for certain intelligence needs.

Details on the NSA's newly awarded cloud contract are sparse, but the acquisition appears to be part of the NSA's attempt to modernize its primary classified data repository, the Intelligence Community GovCloud.

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upstart writes:

Hackers steal $600m in major cryptocurrency heist:

Hackers have stolen some $600m (£433m) in what appears to be one the largest cryptocurrency heists ever.

Blockchain site Poly Network said hackers had exploited a vulnerability in its system and taken thousands of digital tokens such as Ether.

In a letter posted on Twitter, it urged the thieves to "establish communication and return the hacked assets".

In scale, the hack is on par with huge recent breaches at exchanges such as Coincheck and Mt Gox.

In its letter Poly Network said: "The amount of money you have hacked is one of the biggest in defi [decentralised finance] history. "Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. "The money you stole are [sic] from tens of thousands of crypto community members, hence the people."

[...] About $267m of Ether currency has been taken, $252m of Binance coins and roughly $85 million in USDC tokens.

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upstart writes:

Long-lasting immune abnormalities detected in recovered COVID-19 patients:

Eighteen months into this global pandemic researchers are increasingly investigating the long-lasting effects of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Dubbed "long COVID", growing numbers of patients are reporting persistent symptoms lingering for months following the acute disease.

The Australian research is following 69 recovered COVID-19 patients, the majority of whom (47) only suffered from mild disease. Because of Australia's unique position in the world, having temporarily eliminated the virus from certain regions, the ongoing project can track long-term immune responses to an infection without worrying about re-infection or vaccination status.

This new study, not yet peer-reviewed or published in a journal, outlines the effects of an infection on the peripheral immune system in the six months after initial recovery. Blood samples were taken from each subject at three points in the six-month study.

The researchers investigated levels of around 130 different immune cells, as well as tracking antibody responses and measuring the expression of thousands of different genes relating to immune functions.

stormwyrm writes:

Archaeologists excavating the site of ancient Troy at Hisarlik in Turkey have found pieces of wood in strange form that they suspect might be the remains of the legendary Trojan Horse. The wooden pieces fit the descriptions of the Trojan Horse in Virgil's Aeneid (the most detailed description; it actually isn't mentioned at all in Homer's Illiad which cuts out before the Trojan War ends, and is only briefly alluded to in the Odyssey) and other classical writers. The pieces date from the 12th to 11th centuries BCE, the approximate date of the Trojan War. From the Greek Reporter:

Turkish archaeologists claim they have found what they believe are pieces of the Trojan Horse. According to a report by newsit.gr, Turkish archaeologists excavating the site of the historical city of Troy on the hills of Hisarlik have unearthed a large wooden structure. Historians and archaeologists think what they have discovered are remains of the legendary Trojan Horse.

The excavations brought to light dozens of fir planks and beams up to 15 meters (49 feet) long. The remnants were assembled in a strange form, that led the experts to suspect they belong to the Trojan Horse. The wooden structure was inside the walls of the ancient city of Troy.

Wikipedia.

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DannyB writes:

Elon Musk offers for SpaceX to make NASA spacesuits, after watchdog says program to cost $1 billion:

NASA has spent over $420 million on spacesuit development since 2007 but, even with another $625 million in spending planned, the Inspector General report found that the spacesuits for the agency's lunar missions will "not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest."

Elon Musk offered SpaceX's services to help NASA make its next-generation spacesuits, after a watchdog report on Tuesday said the agency's current program is behind schedule and will cost over $1 billion.

"SpaceX could do it if need be," Musk wrote in a tweet.

[...] Musk's proposal came in response to a report by NASA's Inspector General – which is the investigative office which audits the agency for fraud and mismanagement – on the work being done to develop a new line of Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU), which are informally called spacesuits.

Astronauts on board the International Space Station use spacesuits "designed 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle" program, the report noted. IG also highlighted that those spacesuits have been "refurbished and partially redesigned" over the past decades to continue working.

[...] The spacesuits have a multitude of different components, which the Inspector General noted are supplied by 27 different companies. That's a point Musk also highlighted, saying in a tweet that it "seems like too many cooks in the kitchen."

See also: Elon Musk offers to make moon spacesuits as report calls out NASA lunar delays

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upstart writes:

Smoke from Siberia wildfires reaches north pole in historic first:

Smoke from raging forest fires in Siberia has reached the north pole for the first time in recorded history, as a Russian monitoring institute warned the blazes were worsening.

Devastating wildfires have ripped across Siberia with increasing regularity over the past few years, which Russia's weather officials and environmentalists have linked to climate change and an underfunded forest service.

[...] On Saturday, the US space agency Nasa said its satellite images showed wildfire smoke travelling "more than 3,000km (1,800 miles) from Yakutia to reach the north pole", calling it "a first in recorded history". It added that on 6 August most of Russia was covered in smoke.

Environmentalists blame the authorities for letting large areas burn every year under a law that allows them not to intervene if the cost of fighting fires is greater than the damage caused or if they do not affect inhabited areas.

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