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upstart writes:

Sony bolsters PlayStation, buying Destiny game maker Bungie for $3.6 billion:

Sony has reached a deal to buy Halo creator and Destiny maker Bungie, marking an escalation of efforts for the biggest game makers to expand their lineup with some of the most popular franchises in the industry.

The agreement, confirmed Monday by both companies after an earlier Bloomberg report, brings one of the most well respected game makers in the industry under Sony's control. Bungie, which makes the online game Destiny, is also known for creating the early gaming hit Halo, which is now owned by Microsoft.

"Bungie has created two of gaming's most iconic franchises, Halo and Destiny, and has deep expertise in bringing incredible immersive experiences at great scale to the community through games that evolve and develop over time, and has a hugely impressive road map for future content," Jim Ryan, head of Sony's PlayStation division, said in a blog post Monday.

Sony didn't say how much it paid for the game maker, but Bloomberg reported the price to be $3.6 billion. The move comes after two other large game industry acquisitions this month, when Microsoft announced plans to buy Call of Duty and World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and Take-Two Interactive said it planned to buy FarmVille developer Zynga for $12.7 billion.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Imagine Regrowing Lost Limbs – It's a Step Closer With New Treatment That Helped Frogs Regenerate Amputated Legs:

A new treatment helped frogs regenerate their amputated legs – taking science one step closer to helping people regrow their body parts, too.

Our bodies connect us to the world. When people lose parts of their bodies to disease or traumatic injury, they often feel that they've lost a part of who they are, even experiencing a grief akin to losing a loved one. Their sense of personal loss is justified because unlike salamanders or snarky comic book characters like Deadpool, adult human tissues generally do not regenerate – limb loss is permanent and irreversible.

While there have been significant advances in prosthetic and bionic technologies to replace lost limbs, they cannot yet restore a sense of touch, minimize the sensation of phantom pains or match the capabilities of natural limbs. Without reconstructing the limb itself, a person won't be able to feel the touch of a loved one or the warmth of the sun.

[...] Our recent study in the journal Science Advances showed that just 24 hours of a treatment we designed is enough to regenerate fully functional and touch-sensitive limbs in frogs.

upstart writes:

Seagate starts shipping enormous 22TB hard drives to "some customers":

Whereas NVMe SSDs tend to focus on getting faster, good old spinning hard drives are intent on getting larger. Tom's Hardware reports that hard drive manufacturer Seagate announced on a recent earnings call that it is shipping huge 22TB hard drives to some of its customers. The company uses shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology to squeeze a couple more terabytes out of its biggest drives.

The highest-capacity drives most people can currently buy top out at 20TB; the Seagate Ironwolf Pro or WD Gold are two such drives, and they both generally retail for over $600. In its NAS drives, Seagate uses conventional magnetic recording (CMR) technology, which provides better random read and write speeds than SMR disks but at a lower density—this is fine for archival storage but not so much for servers where multiple users are regularly accessing and modifying data.

[...] But as of early 2021, Seagate said it was aiming for 30TB drives by 2023, 50TB drives in 2026, and 100TB drives by 2030.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The PC is back again. But for how long?:

In the last few years, PC sales have been in gradual decline for the obvious reason that, with the advent of smartphones and tablets, the one-size-fits-all approach offered by the PC didn't seem so relevant anymore - particularly for consumers.

That changed with the pandemic as many people rapidly realised that while tablets and smartphones are useful for watching video or sending a few messages, they are a lot less useful for long hours of working or learning.

Until we come up with something better, that old combination of screen and keyboard is just better for creative tasks than a screen alone. As a result, the PC has seen the biggest growth in a decade, with PC sales up 14% to 350 million this year.

Part of that was organisations buying notebooks to replace the desktop PCs locked away in offices they could not access, and part of its was families buying devices to keep them entertained and educated during lockdown.

hubie writes:

Heavy metals contaminate ground and surface waters from a variety of sources such as industrial effluent or fertilizers or pesticide applications. Cadmium and lead are the most common and toxic metals found in aqueous environments. They are persistent, they migrate, they accumulate in biological tissues, and they are carcinogenic. Removing these metals effectively and cheaply has been a big environmental challenge. There are a number of approaches to remove them including reverse osmosis, ion-exchange, chemical precipitation, coagulation, electrochemical treatment, and physical adsorption. Of these, adsorption is seen as very promising due to it being cost-effective, widely available, and easy to implement. There are a wide variety of adsorbent materials from the mundane (activated carbon, diatomaceous earth, polymers, etc.) to the exotic (carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide), but biochar has shown to be very efficient and cost-effective.

upstart writes:

The US plans to reduce roadway deaths with smarter road design:

Statistics help tell stories, and one often touted by technologists and engineers and police officers and even the federal government told a tale. The statistic: 94 percent of US traffic crashes are the result of human error. The number felt right. It also appealed to a very American idea: that individuals are in charge of their own destinies. Rather than place the burden of road safety on systems—the way roads are built, the way cars are designed, the way streets are governed—it placed it on the driver, or the walker, or the cyclist.

The statistic was based on a misunderstanding of a 2015 report from the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is in charge of US road safety. The report studied crashes between 2005 and 2007 and determined that the driver was the "critical reason" behind the vast majority of crashes. But a driver's actions were typically the last in a long chain of events. The driver's fiddly movement of the wheel, in other words, was the final thing to go wrong—a process that started with, perhaps, the surveying of the highway, or the road design laid out on the desk of an engineer, or the policy crafted by lobbyists decades ago that made it impossible for anyone to get across town without a car.

Earlier this month, after pleas from researchers, advocates, and another Biden administration official, the US DOT nixed that 94 percent statistic from its website. And on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg began to tell a very different story about US road deaths. "Human fallibility should not lead to human fatalities," he said during a press conference in Washington, DC. His goal, he said, is zero road deaths.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Over at ACM.org, Robin K. Hill writes Cryptocurs Don't Asportate [*]:

Cryptocurrency cannot be stolen—by definition. We don't need to ask whether crypto is a commodity or a credit vehicle, nor whether the exchange or the client owns the funds [Anderson]. We need only look at the principle behind the arrangement. Most bank accounts have an owner, a vessel (the account), some contents (the money), and some means of access (an account identifier or accountholder's personal identity). AND there is some authority that manages these elements (the bank). Cryptocurrency conflates the vessel and the contents, while rejecting the authority. I claim that cryptocurrency also absorbs the owner into the acess, leaving only two things, the access and the contents.

Note that the term "decentralized finance" might be more precise here, but "crypto" is the coin of the realm, so to speak. We digress to note that cryptocurrency promoters explicitly omit the element of authority, claiming its absence as a feature, not a bug. Yet this doctrine has already, and ironically, been contravened. The government(!) of El Salvador has declared that Bitcoin is legal tender and must be accepted as payment; the IMF (an even broader authority!) urges retraction [IMF]. A long-standing request to the local government for permission to excavate the tip (landfill) in Newport (Wales) has ben rejected by that Council [BBC]. Law enforcement can indeed handle this as a crime [HamiltonPolice]. In all of these situations, a crypto holder has invoked authority to thwart the anarchy of decentralized finance.

upstart writes:

Secret of Lizard Camouflage: A Simple Mathematical Equation:

[...] A complex system is composed of several elements (sometimes only two) whose local interactions lead to global properties that are difficult to predict. The result of a complex system will not be the sum of these elements taken separately since the interactions between them will generate an unexpected behavior of the whole. The group of Michel Milinkovitch, Professor at the Department of Genetics and Evolution, and Stanislav Smirnov, Professor at the Section of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science of the UNIGE, have been interested in the complexity of the distribution of colored scales on the skin of ocellated lizards[*].

[...] The individual scales of the ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus) change color (from green to black, and vice versa) over the course of the animal's life, gradually forming a complex labyrinthine pattern as it reaches adulthood. The UNIGE researchers have previously shown that the labyrinths emerge on the skin surface because the network of scales constitutes a so-called 'cellular automaton'. "This is a computing system invented in 1948 by the mathematician John von Neumann in which each element changes its state according to the states of the neighboring elements," explains Stanislav Smirnov.

In the case of the ocellated lizard, the scales change state — green or black — depending on the colors of their neighbors according to a precise mathematical rule. Milinkovitch had demonstrated that this cellular automaton mechanism emerges from the superposition of, on one hand, the geometry of the skin (thick within scales and much thinner between scales) and, on the other hand, the interactions among the pigmentary cells of the skin.

fliptop writes:

Starting this summer, you'll need to provide a video of your face to access the agency's website. It's a major expansion of the use of facial recognition software by the government, and Congress is not amused:

Millions of Americans could soon have to scan their faces to access their Internal Revenue Service tax accounts, one of the government's biggest expansions yet of facial recognition software into people's everyday lives.

For now, taxpayers can still file their returns the old-fashioned way; the IRS began accepting returns for 2021 earnings on Monday, encouraging electronic filing.

But by this summer, anyone wanting to access their records — including details about child tax credits, payment plans or tax transcripts — on the IRS website could be required to record a video of their face with their computer or smartphone, and send it to the private contractor ID.me to confirm their identity.

[...] The partnership with ID.me has drawn anger from some members of Congress, including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who tweeted that he was "very disturbed" by the plan and would push the IRS for "greater transparency." Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) called it "a very, very bad idea by the IRS" that would "further weaken Americans' privacy." The Senate Finance Committee is working to schedule briefings with the IRS and ID.me on the issue, a committee aide said.

"No one should be forced to submit to facial recognition as a condition of accessing essential government services," Wyden said in a separate statement. "I'm continuing to seek more information about ID.me and other identity verification systems being used by federal agencies."

A Treasury official said Friday that the department was "looking into" alternatives to ID.me, saying Treasury and the IRS always are interested in improving "taxpayers experience."

Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.

Also at CNet, Bloomberg, and The Verge.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

SpaceX could attempt three Falcon 9 rocket launches in next two days:

The first liftoff is set for Monday, when a rocket topped with an Italian surveillance satellite is currently scheduled to leave Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:11 p.m. PT (6:11 p.m. ET). Then, a Starlink launch is on tap Tuesday from adjacent Kennedy Space Center, followed by mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from California Wednesday.

[...] Things weren't supposed to line up this way. Monday's launch was originally planned for last week, but got pushed back a few days by poor weather. A Sunday evening attempt then got scrubbed at the literal last minute due to a cruise ship in the  launch exclusion zone.

[...] The Starlink launch has also been pushed back a few times and was set to happen Monday, but Sunday's scrub appears to have postponed it again to Tuesday.

[...] Whenever the next mission does get off the ground it will be the fourth of 2022 for SpaceX. All three flights will be livestreamed starting about 10 minutes before launch. Check back for updates as the situation evolves.

Launches are generally live-streamed on YouTube and other sites on-line.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

BT data centres will give London Underground 4G a welcome boost:

BT [*] has secured a multi-million-pound contract with BAI Communications [**] to deliver data centre services that will help power 4G and Wi-Fi services across the entire London Underground [***].

BAI has a 20-year concession from Transport for London (TfL) to build and operate a neutral host network available to all four major mobile operators, with the first stations coming online as soon as 2022.

BT's data centres will play a critical role in delivering the neutral host network and operators will be able to collocate their equipment in these facilities. BT itself has already signed up through EE, while BAI has also signed up Three and Vodafone as customers.

[..] The London Underground has long been the UK's most high profile 'mobile not spot' with previous attempts to bring mobile connectivity to the capital's subterranean railway network all ending in failure.

Under the terms of its 20-year concession, BAI has joined as a long-term investor, and there are no upfront costs for TfL. All revenues generated by the authority reinvested back into London's transport system.

[*] BT was formerly known as British Telecom.
[**] BAI Communications on Wikipedia.
[***] Colloquially known as The Tube.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

GNOME Network: Worldwide Coordinated Search for Dark Matter:

An international team of researchers with key participation from the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) has published for the first time comprehensive data on the search for dark matter using a worldwide network of optical magnetometers. According to the scientists, dark matter fields should produce a characteristic signal pattern that can be detected by correlated measurements at multiple stations of the GNOME network. Analysis of data from a one-month continuous GNOME operation has not yet yielded a corresponding indication. However, the measurement allows to formulate constraints on the characteristics of dark matter, as the researchers report in the prestigious journal Nature Physics.

GNOME stands for Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic Physics Searches. Behind it are magnetometers distributed around the world in Germany, Serbia, Poland, Israel, South Korea, China, Australia, and the United States. With GNOME, the researchers particularly want to advance the search for dark matter – one of the most exciting challenges of fundamental physics in the 21st century. After all, it has long been known that many puzzling astronomical observations, such as the rotation speed of stars in galaxies or the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation, can best be explained by dark matter.

upstart writes:

Researchers use GPU fingerprinting to track users online:

A team of researchers from French, Israeli, and Australian universities has explored the possibility of using people's GPUs to create unique fingerprints and use them for persistent web tracking.

The results of their large-scale experiment involving 2,550 devices with 1,605 distinct CPU configurations show that their technique, named 'DrawnApart,' can boost the median tracking duration to 67% compared to current state-of-the-art methods.

This is a severe problem for user privacy, which is currently protected by laws that focus on acquiring consent to activate website cookies.

These laws have led unscrupulous websites to collect other potential fingerprinting elements such as the hardware configuration, OS, timezones, screen resolution, language, fonts, etc.

upstart writes:

Mega Iceberg – One of the Largest on Record – Released 150 Billion Tons of Freshwater Near Island:

In July 2017, a giant iceberg, named A-68, snapped off Antarctica's Larsen-C ice shelf and began an epic journey across the Southern Ocean. Three and a half years later, the main part of iceberg, A-68A, drifted worryingly close to South Georgia. Concerns were that the berg would run aground in the shallow waters offshore. This would not only cause damage to the seafloor ecosystem but also make it difficult for island wildlife, such as penguins, to make their way to the sea to feed.

[...] For the first two years of its life, A-68A stayed in the cold waters of the Weddell Sea close to its parent ice shelf. Here, it experienced little in the way of melting. However, once the berg began its northward journey across the Drake Passage, it traveled through increasingly warm waters and began to melt.

[...] Tommaso Parrinello, ESA's CryoSat Mission Manager, said, "Our ability to study every move of the iceberg in such detail is thanks to advances in satellite techniques and the use of a variety of measurements. Imaging satellites record the shape of the iceberg and data from altimetry missions like CryoSat add another important dimension as they measure the height of surfaces – which is essential for calculating changes in volume."

The new study reveals that A-68A collided only briefly with the sea floor and broke apart shortly afterward, making it less of a risk in terms of blockage. By the time it reached the shallow waters around South Georgia, the iceberg's keel had reduced to 141 meters below the ocean surface, shallow enough to just avoid the seabed which is around 150 meters deep.

[Ed note: I've provided a brief list of alternative sources for streaming free music and podcasts at the end of this story. Please help out your fellow Soylentils by mentioning your favorite Soundcloud alternative in the comments. --martyb]

upstart writes:

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in ditching Spotify over COVID misinformation:

Joni Mitchell has turned up the volume on demands for music and podcast streamer Spotify to address misinformation on its platform. Joining protests by a group of medical professionals and by rocker Neil Young, the iconic singer-songwriter says she plans to pull her work off Spotify over false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

"I've decided to remove all my music from Spotify," Mitchell said Friday in a brief post on her website. "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."

l...] Young sparked a #DeleteSpotify movement earlier this week when he yanked his catalog off the service and cited a letter by more than 250 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators who criticized Spotify and its most popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, for spreading vaccine misinformation.

In her post, Mitchell, the artist behind songs like Big Yellow Taxi, Help Me and A Case of You, included a link to that same letter. It calls out an episode of Rogan's podcast that featured virologist and vaccine skeptic Dr. Robert Malone, points to a critical post about Malone on fact-checking site PolitiFact, and urges Spotify to establish a policy on misinformation.

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in having her music pulled off Spotify: