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upstart writes:

Intel is officially in the bitcoin mining business now:

Intel has announced its plans to fully embrace blockchain technology and finally enter the bitcoin mining space with brand new chips that will be available later this year.

In a new blog post, the chip giant explained that it has developed a roadmap of energy-efficient accelerators that will ship in 2022.

Intel is also conscious of the fact that "some blockchains require an enormous amount of computing power" which is why the company is focusing its efforts on developing the most energy-efficient computing technologies at scale.

So far, Argo Blockchain, BLOCK (formerly Square) and GRID infrastructure are among its first customers for this new product. As the company's new architecture is implemented on a tiny piece of silicon, it will have a minimal impact to the supply of other Intel processors.

[...] According to a report from Tom's Hardware, quite a bit is already known about the chip giant's new Bitcoin-mining hardware as the news outlet discovered a reference to its Bonanza Mine chips in a listing for a presentation at this year's International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). However, Intel has already moved on to its second generation Bonanza Mine chip which is known as BMZ2.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Android 13 virtualization lets Pixel 6 run Windows 11, Linux distributions

The first Android 13 developer preview may have felt a bit underwhelming, but there's a hidden gem with full virtualization possible on hardware such as the Google Pixel 6 smartphone.

What that means is that it is now possible to run virtually any operating system including Windows 11, Linux distributions such as Ubuntu or Arch Linux Arm on the Google Tensor-powered phone, and do so at near-native speed.

[...] But why did Google enable virtualization in Android? It's unlikely they just wanted to let users install Linux or Windows on the phone. Mishaal Rahman addressed this issue about two months ago:

... This is because hypervisors may or may not be present on a device, and when they are, they're often not even used for their intended purpose, which is to run an operating system in a virtual machine! Instead, they're used for things like enhancing the security of the kernel (or at least trying to) and running miscellaneous code (such as third-party code for DRM, cryptography, and other closed-source binaries) outside of the Android OS.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Biologists Investigate Smallest Propeller on Earth – Used by One of the Fastest Organisms on the Planet:

University of Exeter scientists have discovered new information about the tiny propellers used by single-cell organisms called archaea.

Like bacteria, archaea are found in a vast range of habitats – including inside human bodies – but unlike bacteria they are not known to cause disease.

Some archaea propel themselves to incredible speeds by rotating a spiral-shaped filament called an archaellum. Using a powerful cryo-electron microscope, the new study examined this closer than ever before.

The research team – which included the University of Regensburg – focussed on Methanocaldococcus villosus, a species found near underwater volcanoes off Iceland, where water temperatures can reach about 80°C.

"M. villosus swims at a speed of about 500 body lengths per second," said Dr. Lavinia Gambelli, of Exeter's Living Systems Institute (LSI).

upstart writes:

Drones as Big as 747s Will Fly Cargo Around the World With Low Emissions, Startup Says:

The global supply chain is currently experiencing all kinds of glitches, from material shortages to labor shortages and beyond. Moving goods from point A to point B has become more expensive, and there's no quick fix in sight. But a San Diego-based startup plans to meet some of the demand for air freight with an innovative solution: autonomous cargo drones as big as a Boeing 747. And customers are jumping on board.

Natilus, founded in 2016, this week announced $6 billion worth of pre-orders for over 440 of its aircraft. The company says its blended wing design can fit 60 percent more cargo than existing freight aircraft while cutting costs by 60 percent and with 50 percent less carbon emissions.

Aleksey Matyushev, the company's CEO, pointed out in a press release that moving freight by sea is 13 times cheaper than moving it by air, but takes 50 times as long. "Natilus intends to revolutionize the transport industry by providing the timeliness of air freight at an affordable cost reduction of 60 percent, making air cargo transportation substantially more competitive," he said.

How will they do this? Much of the savings will reportedly come from the aircraft's design.

upstart writes:

A diamondlike structure gives some starfish skeletons their strength:

[...] Beneath a starfish's skin lies a skeleton made of pebbly growths, called ossicles, which mostly consist of the mineral calcite. Calcite is usually fragile, and even more so when it is porous. But the hole-riddled ossicles of the knobby starfish (Protoreaster nodosus) are strengthened through an unexpected internal arrangement, researchers report in the Feb. 11 Science.

[...] Li and colleagues used an electron microscope to zoom in on ossicles from several dozen dead knobby starfish. At a scale of 50 micrometers, about half the width of a human hair, the seemingly featureless body of each ossicle gives way to a meshlike pattern that mirrors how carbon atoms are arranged in a diamond.

But the diamondlike lattice alone doesn't fully explain how the ossicles stay strong.

upstart writes:

HMRC seizes NFT for first time in £1.4m fraud case:

The UK tax authority has seized three Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) as part of a probe into a suspected a VAT fraud involving 250 alleged fake companies.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said three people had been arrested on suspicion of attempting to defraud it of £1.4m.

The authority said it was the first UK law enforcement to seize an NFT.

NFTs are assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold, but which have no tangible form of their own.

Meanwhile....

upstart writes:

Critical Magento 0-Day Vulnerability Under Active Exploitation:

Adobe on Sunday rolled out patches to contain a critical security vulnerability impacting its Commerce and Magento Open Source products that it said is being actively exploited in the wild.

Tracked as CVE-2022-24086, the shortcoming has a CVSS score of 9.8 out of 10 on the vulnerability scoring system and has been characterized as an "improper input validation" issue that could be weaponized to achieve arbitrary code execution.

It's also a pre-authenticated flaw, meaning it could be exploited without requiring any credentials. But the California-headquartered company also pointed out that the vulnerability is only exploitable by an attacker with administrative privileges.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Some Alder Lake SoCs won't have performance cores

According to an update to a Linux repository that Intel made themselves, found by Japanese outlet Coelacanth Dream, the Alder Lake-based Atom processors will reverse the trend and have up to eight e-cores and no p-cores.

In the update, which contains a partial boot log of an Alder Lake-N part, Intel describes the Atom processors as having two quad-core clusters of e-cores with 2 MB of L2 cache each and a shared L3 cache of an undisclosed size. They also have a 32 EU GPU, the same as the i5-12600.

Alder Lake-N will have up to 8 "Gracemont" cores, while the previous-generation Jasper Lake and Elkhart Lake have only 2 or 4 "Tremont" cores.

Also at CNX Software and Tom's Hardware.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Astronomers now say the rocket about to strike the Moon is not a Falcon 9:

About three weeks ago Ars Technica first reported that astronomers were tracking the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, and were increasingly confident that it would strike the Moon on March 4.

This story set off a firestorm of media activity. Much of this coverage criticized SpaceX for failing to properly dispose of the second stage of its Falcon 9 rocket after the launch of NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory mission, or DSCOVR, in 2015. The British tabloids, in particular, had a field day. Even the genteel European Space Agency tut-tutted, noting that it takes care to preserve enough fuel to put spent rocket stages into stable orbits around the Sun.

However, it turns out we were all wrong. A Falcon 9 rocket is not going to, in fact, strike the Moon next month. Instead, it's probably a Chinese rocket.

[...] Gray wrote. "But I would regard it as fairly convincing evidence. So I am persuaded that the object about to hit the moon on 2022 Mar 4 at 12:25 UTC is actually the Chang'e 5-T1 rocket stage."

Related: After 7 Years, a Spent Falcon 9 Rocket Stage is on Course to Hit the Moon

Original Submission

upstart writes:

MIT Experts Design and Test Technical Research for a Hypothetical Central Bank Digital Currency:

In collaboration with a team at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, MIT experts have begun designing and testing technical research through which further examination of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) can be performed in the U.S.

The effort, known as Project Hamilton, is in an exploratory phase, and the research is not intended as a pilot or for public deployment. Instead, the researchers have explored two different approaches that could be used to process transactions, and thus could indicate the technical feasibility of a potential CBDC model. In a process involving significant design flexibility, the MIT group tested factors such as the volume and speed of transactions, and the resilience of the systems in general, among other requirements for a viable digital currency.

upstart writes:

Frequent Use of Aspirin, Advil, or Tylenol Associated With Higher Risk of Tinnitus:

• Frequent use of NSAIDs or acetaminophen or regular use of COX-2 inhibitors was associated with an almost 20 percent higher risk of tinnitus
• Frequent use of moderate-dose aspirin was associated with a 16 percent higher risk among women under 60, but frequent low-dose aspirin use did not elevate risk

Over-the-counter (OTC) analgesics, such as aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), and acetaminophen, are some of the most commonly used medications, widely available without a prescription, and perceived to be safe. But frequent use — including inadvertently exceeding a recommended dose when taking cold and sinus medications that contain these analgesics — can potentially cause harm. Very high doses of aspirin can lead to reversible tinnitus, but a new longitudinal study, led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital, investigated whether frequent use of typical doses of common analgesics, including low-dose and moderate-dose aspirin, NSAIDs and acetaminophen, or use of prescription COX-2 inhibitors, is independently associated with the risk of developing chronic persistent tinnitus. In a paper published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the researchers report that frequent use of NSAIDs or acetaminophen, or regular use of COX-2 inhibitors, was associated with higher risk of tinnitus. Low-dose aspirin use did not elevate risk, but frequent moderate-dose aspirin use was associated with higher risk of persistent tinnitus among women under 60.

upstart writes:

The jobs Americans want:

A look at the jobs Americans want, according to Google.

A key to figuring out how the workforce is changing could lie in Google search data. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps track of which industries are adding employment, the agency doesn't specify whether people are moving into those fields or simply switching jobs within those fields.

But new data from Google Trends, which looks at changes in what people are searching online, offers a believable snapshot of where some people switching careers might be headed. The list of jobs with the most "how to become" searches in 2021 reads like a rundown of some major pandemic trends, including home-buying, travel (or the lack thereof), and a much-needed focus on mental health. Many of the jobs on the list are relatively well paid, allow people to be their own bosses, and involve helping others.

• real estate agent
• flight attendant
• notary
• therapist
• pilot
• firefighter
• personal trainer
• psychiatrist
• physical therapist
• electrician

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Kids smashing figurines and fighting zombies on the TV - VR headset insurance claims rocket:

Claims for accidental damage involving virtual reality (VR) headsets have surged, according to the UK's largest insurer.

Home contents claims involving the gaming headsets rose by 31% last year and have increased by 68% in five years, said Aviva.

The average value of a VR-related claim sits at about £650, with TVs being the most damaged item.

The Reddit forum "VR to ER" shows the various accidents that can happen while VR gaming, including people accidentally hitting others, walking into walls or throwing controllers across the room.

Aviva said it had already received a handful of claims this year as a result of people falling into or hitting TV screens while wearing VR headsets, and further incidents are expected in the coming months as virtual reality devices proved a popular Christmas gift.

Claims made so far include one customer who threw a controller into a TV when a zombie jumped out during a game, and a child who smashed two designer figurines when he swept them off the mantle piece.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Why Musk's biggest space gamble is freaking out his competitors

Standing in front of the towering Starship rocket at Space X's southwest Texas "Starbase" on Thursday night, Musk pledged that his most ambitious spaceship yet will make its first journey in the coming months.

[...] "It is the kind of thing we used to talk about as 'wouldn't it be great if we could do these kinds of things?'" said Scott Altman, a former astronaut who is now president of ASRC Federal, a space R&D company. But NASA officials — and their longtime aerospace contractors — are watching with a mix of awe and horror. "They are shitting the bed," said a top Washington space lobbyist who works for SpaceX's competitors and asked for anonymity to avoid upsetting his clients.

[...] As Starship progresses, it will further eclipse the argument for sticking with SLS, according to Rand Simberg, an aerospace engineer and space consultant. "Once the new system's reliability is demonstrated with a large number of flights, which could happen in a matter of months, it will obsolesce all existing launch systems," he said. "If SLS is not going to fly more than once every couple of years, it's just not going to be a significant player in the future in space, particularly when Starship is flown," he added.

[...] The potty-mouthed D.C. lobbyist, a longtime detractor of SpaceX, described the reaction among his clients to Musk's presentation on Thursday as "promises, promises, promises." But he said such dismissals are passé. "It's like you keep saying 'he can't do it' but it keeps working. It keeps working. I think people are scared. He's starting to make people who were never believers think he might."

Original Submission

looorg writes:

'Futurama' Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning:

Good news, everyone! "Futurama" is being revived at Hulu.

Variety has learned that the streaming service has ordered 20 new episodes of the adult animated sci-fi comedy series. The revival hails from David X. Cohen and Matt Groening. Cohen developed the original series with Groening, the series creator.

Original series cast members Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman will all return. John DiMaggio, who voiced Bender and several minor characters, is not currently attached. According to an individual with knowledge of the project, the producers are hopeful DiMaggio will return. Should that not happen, Bender will be recast.

Though DiMaggio did not initially make a statement about the revival, he retweeted several posts in which others expressed their desire for him to return. "@TheJohnDiMaggio needs to come back as Bender or this isn't good news, everyone," one retweet read, while another simply said: "Come on, pay the man!"