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upstart writes:

The SAT will drop the pencil and go completely digital by 2024:

The SAT standardized college admissions tests will be taken exclusively on computers starting in 2024, The New York Times has reported. The new system will spell the end to tests taken on paper with No. 2 pencils, a right of passage for American high school students since the SAT was first administered nearly a hundred years ago.

Students will instead complete the exams on laptops or tablets, either their own or devices issued by the school. If students don't have a device, the board will provide one on the test day. And if a student loses power or connectivity, "the digital SAT has been designed to ensure they won't lose their work or time while they reconnect," said the College Board, which administers the tests.

On top of the technical changes, the testing time will be shortened to two hours instead of three. It'll feature shorter reading passages with one question for each, reflecting a wider range of topics more representative of what students will see in college. For the math section, calculators will finally be allowed. And students and teachers will get test scores in days rather than weeks, with educators no longer having to deal with packing, sorting or shipping test materials.

[...] Critics have also noted that the SAT tests handicap students who don't have access to expensive test preparation courses or who can't afford to take the $55 test multiple times. The digital SAT shift "does not magically transform it to a more accurate, fairer or valid tool for assessing college readiness," Schaefer told the NYT. The College Board, meanwhile, has said that SAT scores can actually help students who don't have top-flight grade-point averages.

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upstart writes:

Liquid metal catalyst quickly converts carbon dioxide into solid carbon:

Researchers at RMIT [(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)] have developed a new method for quickly converting carbon dioxide into solid carbon, which can be stored indefinitely or turned into useful materials. The technology works by bubbling CO2 up through a tube of liquid metal, and it's designed to be easy to integrate into the source of emissions.

[...] The RMIT team's new system uses liquid metal, specifically an alloy called Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn), which is heated to between 100 and 120 °C (212 and 248 °F). Then, carbon dioxide is injected into the mix, and as the bubbles rise, the CO2 molecules split into flakes of solid carbon. These float to the top, making it easy to collect the material.

The team says that the design of the system should be relatively easy to scale up and implement at the point of emission. The reaction occurs quickly and efficiently, and the heat required is also relatively low, and could be supplied by renewable sources. All of these are improvements on the team's earlier work, which required more hands-on steps.

[...] Solid carbon, on the other hand, is stable, and could be stored more or less indefinitely without risk of leakage. The team says this could be buried again, or, more promisingly, used for other industrial applications, such as making concrete.

The next steps for the team are to scale up the system to a modular prototype that's about the size of a shipping container.

Journal Reference:
Karma Zuraiqi, Ali Zavabeti, Jonathan Clarke-Hannaford, et al. Direct conversion of CO2 to solid carbon by Ga-based liquid metals, Energy & Environmental Science (DOI: 10.1039/D1EE03283F)

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takyon writes:

NVIDIA to drop its bid for ARM acquisition

NVIDIA faced strong opposition from regulatory bodies in their bid to purchase ARM Holdings, a British company owning the IP of its RISC (reduced instruction set computer) architectures. After numerous attempts to convince the market and governments that could oppose such a transaction, NVIDIA has allegedly given up the plans, which means that it will have to mark a $1.25 billion loss, money that should be considered a breakup fee.

NVIDIA's original plan was to pay 40 billion USD for the company. However, the US chipmaker no longer expects this transaction to close.

Also at Bloomberg and Wccftech.

Previously:

Nvidia Considering Acquisition of ARM for Over $32 Billion
Nvidia Announces $40 Billion Acquisition of Arm Holdings
Nvidia-Branded ARM CPUs; UK Trade Union Speaks Out Against Deal
Nvidia's $40 Billion ARM Acquisition: "All but Dead"?
European Commission Extends Probe of Nvidia's Arm Acquisition
Nvidia Reveals FTC has Expressed Concerns Over $40 Billion Arm Deal
U.S. Federal Trade Commission Sues to Block Nvidia's Arm Acquisition

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upstart writes:

The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its new home at last:

The James Webb Space Telescope has finally arrived at its new home. After a Christmas launch and a month of unfolding and assembling itself in space, the new space observatory reached its final destination, a spot known as L2.

Guiding the telescope to L2 is "an incredible accomplishment by the entire team," said Webb's commissioning manager Keith Parrish in a January 24 news conference announcing the arrival. "The last 30 days, we call that '30 days on the edge.' We're just so proud to be through that." But the team's work is not yet done. "We were just setting the table. We were just getting this beautiful spacecraft unfolded and ready to do science. So the best is yet to come," he said.

The telescope can't start doing science yet. "We're a month in and the baby hasn't even opened its eyes yet," said Jane Rigby of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Everything we're doing is about getting the observatory ready to do transformative science. That's why we're here."

There are still several months' worth of tasks on Webb's to-do list before the telescope is ready to peep at the earliest light in the universe or spy on exoplanets' alien atmospheres (SN: 10/6/21).

"That doesn't mean there's anything wrong," says astronomer Scott Friedman of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who is managing this next phase of Webb's journey. "Everything could go perfectly, and it would still take six months" from launch for the telescope's science instruments to be ready for action, he says.

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upstart writes:

Vodafone is switching off its 3G network to boost 4G and 5G:

Vodafone will retire its 3G network next year and refarm the spectrum to improve the speed and coverage of its 4G and 5G services.

The company's 3G network launched 17 years ago and has coexisted with Vodafone's 4G and 5G infrastructure in order to provide additional coverage in areas that LTE can't reach and to customers whose handsets are not compatible with modern standards.

However, as 4G has become increasingly available, the need for 3G and its inferior speeds and capacity is significantly reduced. Most mobile data in developed markets is transmitted via 4G, while Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology means such networks can also handle the majority of calls.

Vodafone says just 4% of all customer data is carried by its 3G network compared to 30% five years ago. Meanwhile demand for 4G data and the ongoing rollout of 5G means the 3G service is using valuable resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.

Vodafone's 3G switch off will be in phases and the company will launch a communication campaign to ensure that any customer still reliant on a 3G device is aware of the retirement. Although only a small part of the company's susbcriber base falls into this category, these customers are typically less tech-savvy than those using more modern handsets.

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upstart writes:

Microsoft: Now we're switching off Excel 4.0 macros by default:

Microsoft has disabled Excel 4.0 macros by default in the latest release of its spreadsheet software to help customers protect themselves against related security threats.

That setting, released as an optional configuration in Excel Trust Center setting in July, is now the default when opening Excel 4.0 macros (XLM), Microsoft said in a blogpost.

[...] The move to restrict Excel 4.0 macros is an attempt to counter a rise in ransomware and other malware groups using Excel 4.0 macros as part of an initial infection. State-sponsored and cybercriminal attackers started experimenting with legacy Excel 4.0 macros in response to Microsoft in 2018 cracking down on macro scripts written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

The initial Excel Trust Center settings targeted organizations that wanted VBA and legacy macros to run via the setting "Enable Excel 4.0 macros when VBA macros are enabled". This allowed admins to control the behavior of macros without impacting VBA macros.

Macros are now disabled by default in Excel in build 16.0.14427.10000 and later. Admins can still configure the setting in Microsoft 365 applications policy control.

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upstart writes:

Julian Assange can ask Supreme Court to consider extradition case:

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has won the right to ask the Supreme Court to block his extradition to the US.

The High Court ruled on Monday he had an arguable point of law that Supreme Court justices may want to consider.

The ruling means Mr Assange can petition the UK's highest court for a hearing, stalling any extradition from the UK for now.

[...] But Mr Assange has no guarantee of a hearing despite being able to petition the Supreme Court. In practice this means his case may take many more months to come to a conclusion.

[...] Massimo Moratti, from Amnesty International, said while the organisation welcomed the High Court's decision on the matter of US assurances, it was "concerned" the court had "dodged its responsibility" on ensuring issues of public importance were fully considered by the judiciary.

He added: "The courts must ensure that people are not at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. This was at the heart of the two other issues the High Court has now effectively vetoed."

Mr Moratti added that the Supreme Court should have had the chance to consider and rule on all the points of law raised by Mr Assange, adding: "If the question of torture and other ill-treatment is not of general public importance, what is?

upstart writes:

Google deceived consumers about how it profits from their location data, attorneys general allege in lawsuits:

Attorneys general from D.C. and three states plan to sue Google on Monday, arguing that the search giant deceived consumers to gain access to their location data.

The lawsuits, expected to be filed in the District of Columbia, Texas, Washington and Indiana, allege the company made misleading promises about its users' ability to protect their privacy through Google account settings, dating to at least 2014. The suits seek to stop Google from engaging in these practices and to fine the company.

The complaints also allege the company has deployed "dark patterns," or design tricks that can subtly influence users' decisions in ways that are advantageous for a business. The lawsuits say Google has designed its products to repeatedly nudge or pressure people to provide more and more location data, "inadvertently or out of frustration." The suits allege this violates various state and D.C. consumer protection laws.

"Google uses tricks to continuously seek to track a user's location," said D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D). "This suit, by four attorneys general, on a bipartisan basis, is an overdue enforcement action against a flagrant violator of privacy and the laws of our states."

State and D.C. attorneys general from both parties are increasingly taking a more active role by investigating and bringing legal challenges against tech giants.

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upstart writes:

Misled by a Mars Mirage: Hope for Present-Day Martian Groundwater Dries Up:

Liquid water previously detected under Mars' ice-covered south pole is probably just a dusty mirage, according to a new study of the red planet led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Scientists in 2018 had thought they were looking at liquid water when they saw bright radar reflections under the polar cap. However, the new study published today (January 24, 2022) in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that the reflections matched those of volcanic plains found all over the red planet's surface.

The researchers think their conclusion — volcanic rock buried under ice — is a more plausible explanation for the 2018 discovery, which was already in question after scientists calculated the unlikely conditions needed to keep water in a liquid state at Mars' cold, arid south pole.

"For water to be sustained this close to the surface, you need both a very salty environment and a strong, locally generated heat source, but that doesn't match what we know of this region," said the study's lead author, Cyril Grima, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG).

The south polar mirage dissolved when Grima added an imaginary global ice sheet across a radar map of Mars. The imaginary ice showed how Mars' terrains would appear when looked at through a mile of ice, allowing scientists to compare features across the entire planet with those under the polar cap.

Grima noticed bright reflections, just like those seen in the south pole but scattered across all latitudes. In as many as could be confirmed, they matched the location of volcanic plains.

Journal Reference:
C. Grima, J. Mouginot, W. Kofman, et al. The Basal Detectability of an Ice‐Covered Mars by MARSIS, Geophysical Research Letters (DOI: 10.1029/2021GL096518)

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upstart writes:

Kids won't stop launching DDoS attacks against their schools:

The cybercrime unit of the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) is stepping up a program designed to educate children about the ramifications of DDoS attacks.

As explained in a post on the NCA website, the initiative is informed by recent research that suggests kids as young as nine are guilty of launching DDoS attacks against their school networks, websites and other services.

According to the report, the volume of such attacks has risen sharply during the pandemic, presumably causing disruption to online learning activities.

upstart writes:

Ireland's data centers are an economic lifeline. But environmentalists say they're wrecking the planet:

In the west of Ireland lies a medieval market town, its roots steeped in legend. Beyond the labyrinth of narrow streets of the center are the chimney stacks of housing developments that still puff coal and peat. Past those homes, on the outskirts of Ennis, is an unremarkable but huge plot of land, nestled between a power station and farmland where cattle and sheep graze. This is where a mysterious company has applied to develop a new data center the size of 22 American football fields.

[...] The €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) investment is likely to be welcomed by the Irish government, which has included large data centers as part of its "strategic infrastructure development," despite concerns growth in data centers could undermine the country's commitment to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Ireland's temperate climate helps reduce the amount of energy needed to cool servers, but its corporate tax rates — some of the lowest in the world — and friendly regulatory environment are what makes it so attractive to big companies, such as Google (GOOGL), Meta (FB) (Facebook), Intel (INTC) and Apple (AAPL), who all have their European headquarters here.

Despite that favorable climate, Ireland's data centers eat up a significant amount of electricity, leaving how their operations square with the country's ambitious climate goals in question. According to state-owned power operator EirGrid, they are on track to have consumed 17% of power generated in Ireland in 2021.

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upstart writes:

Researchers provide insight into how the brain multitasks while walking:

"This research shows us that the brain is flexible and can take on additional burdens," said David Richardson, an MD/PhD student in his fifth year in the Pathology & Cell Biology of Disease Program, and first author of the study recently published in the journal NeuroImage. "Our findings showed that the walking patterns of the participants improved when they performed a cognitive task at the same time, suggesting they were actually more stable while walking and performing the task than when they were solely focused on walking."

During these experiments, researchers used a Mobile Brain/Body Imaging system, or MoBI, located in the Del Monte Institute's Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab. The platform combines virtual reality, brain monitoring, and motion capture technology. While participants walk on a treadmill or manipulate objects on a table, 16 high speed cameras record the position markers with millimeter precision, while simultaneously measuring their brain activity.

The MoBI was used to record the brain activity of participants as they walked on a treadmill and were cued to switch tasks. Their brain activity was also recorded as they performed these same tasks while sitting. Brain changes were measured between the cued tasks and showed that during the more difficult the tasks the neurophysiological difference was greater between walking and sitting -- highlighting the flexibility of a healthy brain and how it prepares for and executes tasks based on difficulty level.

Journal Reference:

David P. Richardson, John J. Foxe, Kevin A. Mazurek, et al. Neural markers of proactive and reactive cognitive control are altered during walking: A Mobile Brain-Body Imaging (MoBI) study. NeuroImage, 2022; 247:, (DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118853)

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upstart writes:

After 7 years, a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage is on course to hit the Moon:

SpaceX launched its first interplanetary mission nearly seven years ago. After the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage completed a long burn to reach a transfer orbit, NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory began its journey to a Sun-Earth LaGrange point more than 1 million km from the Earth.

By that point, the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage was high enough that it did not have enough fuel to return to Earth's atmosphere. It also lacked the energy to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system, so it has been following a somewhat chaotic orbit since February 2015.

Now, according to sky observers, the spent second stage's orbit is on course to intersect with the Moon. According to Bill Gray, who writes the widely used Project Pluto software to track near-Earth objects, asteroids, minor planets, and comets, such an impact could come in March.

upstart writes:

Apple fires back in Ericsson 5G legal battle:

Apple has countersued Ericsson and is seeking an important ban on the import of the Swedish telecoms equipment manufacturer's base stations into the US as part of a long-running legal dispute over the use of 5G patents.

The two companies previously signed a seven-year licensing agreement for the use of Ericsson's Standards Essential Patents (SEPs) in Apple's products such as the iPhone but have been in the courts ever since negotiations about an extension broke down.

SEPs are innovations that have been contributed to industry standards, such as 5G, and can be used by anyone else provided they pay a fair price for the privilege. These rates are known as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

In effect, this means anyone that uses an SEP in their product pays a royalty to the owner of the patent – typically a few dollars per device.

upstart writes:

Microsoft marches toward its 'One Outlook' rollout:

A year ago, word leaked about Project Monarch, Microsoft's effort to consolidate its many different versions of its Outlook mail and calendar product. At that time, as first reported by Windows Central, Microsoft was planning to roll out its so-called "One Outlook" product and strategy in 2021. Monarch is still happening, but now it seems the bulk of the new One Outlook strategy and deliverables will be rolling out this year instead.

Microsoft currently has different versions of Outlook for Windows, Mac, the Web, iOS, and Android devices (based on the Acompli technology it acquired), all of which its officials (confusingly) tend to refer to as plain-old "Outlook." The new One Outlook -- which also is expected to be branded as plain-old "Outlook" once it's available -- will work on the Windows Desktop (Win32/UWP; Intel and Arm), on the Web, and the macOS Desktop. The new Outlook will look and feel a lot like Outlook for the Web, I hear.

Microsoft has been testing Monarch/One Outlook for several months internally with increasingly large rings of employees. My sources say the company is planning to make an official announcement about One Outlook this spring. Microsoft could be ready to get a test version of the new Outlook to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels by late March or early April 2022, my contacts say. By late July or August this year, Microsoft is hoping to be able to get it to Insiders in the Slow Channel, though this target date could slip until the fall, my contacts said.

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