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upstart writes:

Study: Childhood obesity in U.S. accelerated during pandemic:

A new study ties the COVID-19 pandemic to an "alarming" increase in obesity in U.S. children and teenagers.

Childhood obesity has been increasing for decades, but the new work suggests an acceleration last year — especially in those who already were obese when the pandemic started.

The results signal a "profound increase in weight gain for kids" and are "substantial and alarming," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Alyson Goodman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's also a sign of a vicious cycle. The pandemic appears to be worsening the nation's longstanding obesity epidemic, and obesity can put people at risk for more severe illness after coronavirus infection.

The CDC on Thursday released the study, which is the largest yet to look at obesity trends during the pandemic.

It found:

• An estimated 22% of children and teens were obese last August, up from 19% a year earlier.
• Before the pandemic, children who were a healthy weight were gaining an average of 3.4 pounds a year. That rose to 5.4 pounds during the pandemic.
• For kids who were moderately obese, expected weight gain rose from 6.5 pounds a year before the pandemic to 12 pounds after the pandemic began.
• For severely obese kids, expected annual weight gain went from 8.8 pounds to 14.6 pounds.

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upstart writes:

Scientists find evidence of humans making clothes 120,000 years ago:

[...] Now researchers say they have found some of the earliest evidence of humans using clothing in a cave in Morocco, with the discovery of bone tools and bones from skinned animals suggesting the practice dates back at least 120,000 years.

Dr Emily Hallett, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, the first author of the study, said the work reinforced the view that early humans in Africa were innovative and resourceful.

"Our study adds another piece to the long list of hallmark human behaviours that begin to appear in the archaeological record of Africa around 100,000 years ago," she said.

While skins and furs are unlikely to survive in deposits for hundreds of thousands of years, previous studies looking at the DNA of clothing lice have suggested clothes may have appeared as early as 170,000 years ago – probably sported by anatomically modern humans in Africa.

The latest study adds further weight to the idea that early humans may have had something of a wardrobe.

Writing in the journal i Science, Hallett and colleagues report how they analysed animal bones excavated in a series of digs spanning several decades at Contrebandiers Cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The cave has previously been revealed to contain the remains of early humans.

Journal Reference:
Emily Y. Hallett. A worked bone assemblage from 120,000–90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco, iScience (DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102988)

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upstart writes:

France suspends 3,000 unvaccinated health workers without pay:

Thousands of health workers across France have been suspended without pay for failing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 ahead of a deadline this week, Health Minister Olivier Veran said Thursday.

France's national public health agency estimated last week that roughly 12 percent of hospital staff and around six percent of doctors in private practices have yet to be vaccinated.

"Some 3,000 suspensions were notified yesterday to employees at health centres and clinics who have not yet been vaccinated," Veran told RTL radio.

He added that "several dozens" had turned in their resignations rather than sign up for the jabs.

That compares with 2.7 million health workers overall, Veran said, adding that "continued healthcare is assured."

"A large number of these suspensions are only temporary" and mainly concern support staff, with "very few nurses" among those told to stay home, he said.

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upstart writes:

China is honing its technical skills in sixth-generation communication networks, which are expected to be rolled out commercially as soon as 2030.

China's 6G development had been expected to slow due to sanctions against Huawei Technologies imposed by the U.S. government under former President Donald Trump in 2019, but China has maintained its competitiveness by mobilizing state-run companies and universities.

Nikkei worked with Tokyo-based research company Cyber Creative Institute to survey around 20,000 patent applications for nine core 6G technologies, including communications, quantum technology, base stations and artificial intelligence.

China topped the list with 40.3% of 6G patent filings, followed by the U.S. with 35.2%. Japan ranked third with 9.9%, followed by Europe with 8.9% and South Korea with 4.2%. Countries with more patent filings tend to lead in terms of advanced technology and have a bigger say on industry standards.

owl writes:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/16/home-computing-pioneer-sir-clive-sinclair-dies-aged-81

Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor and entrepreneur who was instrumental in bringing home computers to the masses, has died at the age of 81.

His daughter, Belinda, said he died at home in London on Thursday morning after a long illness. Sinclair invented the pocket calculator but was best known for popularising the home computer, bringing it to British high-street stores at relatively affordable prices.

Many modern-day titans of the games industry got their start on one of his ZX models. For a certain generation of gamer, the computer of choice was either the ZX Spectrum 48K or its rival, the Commodore 64.

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upstart writes:

Black Summer bushfires triggered Southern Ocean algal blooms bigger than Australia:

As Black Summer bushfires devastated huge swathes of south-east Australia, they were seeding new life in the ocean, hundreds of kilometres away. Iron-rich ash and smoke dropped from the atmosphere and into the Southern Ocean, fuelling enormous blooms of algae between New Zealand and South America.

At their biggest, the blooms covered an area larger than Australia, according to a study published today in Nature.

Richard Matear, an oceans and climate scientist with the CSIRO and study co-author, says the work shows how events like bushfires can have profound effects on ecosystems much further afield. "This is kind of a nice example of how the terrestrial biosphere connects to the ocean in an interesting way," Dr Matear said. 'We can't necessarily always treat these things as separate."

upstart writes:

90% of global farm subsidies damage people and planet, says UN:

[...] Almost 90% of the $540bn in global subsidies given to farmers every year are "harmful", a startling UN report has found.

This agricultural support damages people's health, fuels the climate crisis, destroys nature and drives inequality by excluding smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, according to the UN agencies.

The biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as beef and milk, received the biggest subsidies, the report said. These are often produced by large industrialised groups that are best placed to gain access to subsidies.

Without reform, the level of subsidies was on track to soar to $1.8tn (£1.3tn) a year by 2030, further harming human wellbeing and worsening the planetary crisis, the UN said.

Support for the "outsized" meat and dairy industry in rich countries must be reduced, while subsidies for polluting chemical fertilisers and pesticides must fall in lower-income countries, the analysis said.

The report, published before a UN food systems summit on 23 September, said repurposing the subsidies to beneficial activities could "be a game changer" and help to end poverty, eradicate hunger, improve nutrition, reduce global heating and restore nature. Good uses of public money could include supporting healthy food, such as vegetables and fruit, improving the environment and supporting small farmers.

[...] The EU is to pay €387bn (£330bn) in farm subsidies from 2021 to 2027, but last Thursday green MEPs in Brussels said a planned overhaul failed to align agriculture with EU climate change targets.

Journal Reference:
Document card | FAO | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (DOI: 10.4060/cb6562en)

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upstart writes:

Travis CI flaw exposed secrets of thousands of open source projects:

[Travis CI is a popular software-testing tool due to its seamless integration with GitHub and Bitbucket.]

A security flaw in Travis CI potentially exposed the secrets of thousands of open source projects that rely on the hosted continuous integration service. Travis CI is a software-testing solution used by over 900,000 open source projects and 600,000 users. A vulnerability in the tool made it possible for secure environment variables—signing keys, access credentials, and API tokens of all public open source projects—to be exfiltrated.

Worse, the dev community is upset about the poor handling of the vulnerability disclosure process and the brief "security bulletin" it had to force out of Travis.

When you run a build, Travis CI clones your GitHub repository into a brand-new virtual environment and carries out a series of tasks to build and test your code. If one or more of those tasks fail, the build is considered broken. If none of the tasks fail, the build is considered passed and Travis CI can deploy your code to a web server or application host.

But this month, researcher Felix Lange found a security vulnerability that caused Travis CI to include secure environment variables of all public open source repositories that use Travis CI into pull request builds. Environment variables can include sensitive secrets like signing keys, access credentials, and API tokens. If these variables are exposed, attackers can abuse the secrets to obtain lateral movement into the networks of thousands of organizations.

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upstart writes:

Vermont sues oil companies for allegedly falsifying climate info:

Vermont on Tuesday became the latest state to sue some of the country's top fossil fuel companies by alleging they misled the public about the impact their products have on climate change.

The state wants the companies to tell consumers that the use of fossil fuel products harms the environment, Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan said after the lawsuit was filed in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington.

The warnings could be similar to those noting the danger of tobacco products or food products that include nutritional and calorie information, he said.

Donovan, speaking outside the Chittenden County courthouse in downtown Burlington where the lawsuit was filed, said they are not trying to prevent the companies from selling their products in the state and that Vermonters will continue to be able to use fossil fuels.

"What we are saying is that Vermonters have the right to know," Donovan said. "Give Vermonters accurate information. Put a label on the product and let Vermonters decide."

The suit names ExxonMobil Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Sunoco LP, CITGO Petroleum Corporation and other corporations.

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China Has 'Too Many' Electric Vehicle Companies, Minister Says

upstart writes:

China has 'too many' electric vehicle companies, minister says:

China has "too many" electric vehicle (EV) makers and the government will encourage consolidation, Industry and Information Technology Minister Xiao Yaqing said on Monday.

The minister also said China would improve its charging network and develop EV sales in rural markets.

The government's promotion of greener vehicles to cut pollution has prompted electric car makers such as Nio, XPeng and BYD to expand manufacturing capacity in China.

Chinese Tech, EV Stocks Fall on Regulatory Fears; Property Developer Soho China Drops 35% on Failed

upstart writes:

Chinese tech, EV stocks fall on regulatory fears; property developer Soho China drops 35% on failed deal:

Chinese electric vehicle stocks also fell after the country's industry minister said consolidation in the sector is needed as there are "too many" EV makers in China.

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upstart writes:

Astronomers solve 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding Chinese supernova of 1181AD:

A 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding the origins of a famous supernova first spotted over China in 1181 AD has finally been solved, according to an international team of astronomers.

New research published today (September 15, 2021) says that a faint, fast expanding cloud (or nebula), called Pa30, surrounding one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way, known as Parker's Star, fits the profile, location and age of the historic supernova.

There have only been five bright supernovae in the Milky Way in the last millennium (starting in 1006). Of these, the Chinese supernova, which is also known as the "Chinese Guest Star" of 1181 AD has remained a mystery. It was originally seen and documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the 12th century who said it was as bright as the planet Saturn and remained visible for six months. They also recorded an approximate location in the sky of the sighting, but no confirmed remnant of the explosion has even been identified by modern astronomers. The other four supernovae are all now well known to modern day science and include the famous Crab nebula.

The source of this 12th century explosion remained a mystery until this latest discovery made by a team of international astronomers from Hong Kong, the UK, Spain, Hungary and France, including Professor Albert Zijlstra from The University of Manchester. In the new paper, the astronomers found that the Pa 30 nebula is expanding at an extreme velocity of more than 1,100 km per second (at this speed, traveling from the Earth to the moon would take only five minutes). They use this velocity to derive an age at around 1,000 years, which would coincide with the events of 1181 AD.

Journal Reference:
Andreas Ritter, Quentin A. Parker, Foteini Lykou, et al. The Remnant and Origin of the Historical Supernova 1181 AD - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac2253)

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upstart writes:

'Dramatically more powerful': world's first battery-electric freight train unveiled:

The world's first battery-electric freight train was unveiled at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday, amid a fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport in order to address the climate crisis.

Wabtec, the Pittsburgh-based rail freight company, showed off its locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a new venture between the two organizations to develop zero emissions technology to help move the 1.7bn tons of goods that are shipped on American railroads each year.

Perched upon a strip of rail at Carnegie Mellon's technology campus on the banks of the Monongahela River, the cherry red, 75ft-long train provided a striking background to politicians, rail executives and academics who urged a swifter industry transition away from fossil fuels. Dignitaries were allowed to clamber up a vertiginous ladder on to the train to inspect its confines, which included a small driver's cabin in front of 500 lithium-ion battery modules, arrayed in stacks in the heart of the vehicle.

The new train, known as the FLXdrive battery-electric locomotive, underwent successful trials in California earlier this year where it was found to have cut fuel consumption by 11%, which meant reducing the amount of diesel used by 6,200 gallons. Wabtec said that the next iteration of the locomotive, to be rolled out within two years, will be able to cut the consumption of diesel, the fossil fuel traditionally used in freight rail, by nearly a third.

The company also said emissions will be entirely eliminated through the development of accompanying hydrogen fuel cells. If the technology is used worldwide, Wabtec estimates planet-heating emissions could be cut by 300m tons a year, with nearly half of those saved emissions occurring in the US.

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upstart writes:

Influenza cases hit an all-time low in Australia in 2021:

If you have been thinking the flu has virtually disappeared from our lives, you are not wrong.

In 2020, there were more than 20,000 notifications to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) and 37 deaths.

This year, to August 29, just 484 cases were recorded and zero deaths.

Perhaps surprisingly, almost half of those were in Queensland, with 235 cases, but experts do not have an answer as to why.

Victoria recorded just 75 cases, New South Wales recorded 61 and the next highest was just 31 in the Northern Territory.

WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza's deputy director, Professor Ian Barr, said the majority of the cases were detected in quarantine, coming in from overseas, particularly from India.

"They have been having ongoing influenza circulation for the last three or four months," he said.

"It's not surprising we're picking up a few coming from quarantine."

Mal Greig is the treasurer of the Windsor Bowls Club — a place normally impacted by severe influenza seasons — and said the flu was a "non-existent issue" this year.

"The flu used to impact the club and attendances at the club quite dramatically," Mr Greig said.

Now, he said, it was not even spoken about.

[...] "This is the time we should be seeing not a few hundred, a few thousands cases per state, with tens of thousands of cases overall throughout Australia.

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LOLIN S2 Pico – A compact ESP32-S2 board with an OLED display

takyon writes:

LOLIN S2 Pico – A compact ESP32-S2 board with an OLED display

If you're into small MCU boards with an integrated display, you're in luck as LOLIN launched the S2 Pico board with ESP32-S2 and an OLED display about at the time same as LILYGO T-Display RP2040 board we covered yesterday.

Wemos/LOLIN S2 Pico board offers WiFi connectivity, a 128×32 OLED display, USB Type-C port for power and programming, as well as the usual GPIO headers in a compact 50×23 mm form factor.

$10 Raspberry Pi Pico Alternative Comes With LCD Screen

DannyB writes:

Tom's HARDWARE: $10 Raspberry Pi Pico Alternative Comes With LCD Screen

Microcontroller boards based on the RP2040 chipset, the same SoC that powers the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico are becoming very popular among makers. Newer boards are popping up with extra features appearing on them, such as this 1.14 inch color display, the $10 LILYGO T-Display spotted by CNX Software.

It's not the first such board, of course, with the Arducam Pico4ML pulling a similar trick - and with a resolution of 240×135 pixels it's hardly HD - but it comes in at just under $10 with the RP2040 board attached. Along with the ST7789V SPI controller needed to run the screen, you get all the usual Pico accoutrements such as the dual-core Cortex M0+ processor, 2 x UART , 2 x SPI and 2 x I2C connections, along with a generous 4MB of flash storage. Power and data connectivity is via USB-C, a good choice of connector as it is now becoming the norm on maker boards. Where the LILYGO T-Display falls short is the GPIO. The board looks to be wider and a different pin layout to the traditional Raspberry Pi Pico, so creative hacking is required to connect accessories designed for the Pico.

Sadly, a major drawback is that it cannot run Windows 11.

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upstart writes:

LG's outrageous direct-view LED TV tops out at 335 inches, $1.7 million:

[...] Direct View LED is a refreshingly self-explanatory name. You're directly viewing LEDs. It sounds similar to MicroLED, although when we asked whether DVLED actually is MicroLED, LG's reply was somewhat vague (we're seeking clarification and we'll update this article when we get it).

Generally "micro" LEDs are in the range of 0.1mm, often smaller. All LG is discussing is the pixel pitch, which is the distance from the center of one pixel to the next, which includes the size of the pixel but also the space between. The smallest version of LG's DVLED has a pixel pitch of 0.9mm. There are also models with 1.2mm and 1.5mm pixel pitches. So they're small, that's for sure, but perhaps not small enough to qualify as MicroLED.

Why these numbers are important is because of a counterintuitive characteristic of all direct-view LED tech: There's a lower limit to sizes of direct view LED displays. There's a limit to how close they can currently get the pixels, and this is true with LG's DVLED, as well as Samsung and Sony's tech. That's the reason these TVs are all wall-size, at least for now.