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AnonTechie writes:

The new message is really cool, but we need to have a serious discussion about whether we should be trying to contact extraterrestrials.

An international team of scientists has formulated an updated, binary-coded message that could eventually be transmitted to aliens in our galaxy. It's jam-packed with details, including the chemical makeup of humans, a map of Earth, and even our precise location in the Milky Way. What could possibly go wrong?

The Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG) message, as it's called, is an update to the Arecibo message of 1974. Indeed, it's been nearly 50 years since science popularizer Carl Sagan and SETI pioneer Frank Drake crafted their famous message to extraterrestrials, so an update makes a lot of sense, given the many advancements in digital technology since that time. A paper describing the new message was recently uploaded to the arXiv, and it's currently awaiting peer review.

Gizmodo

[Also Covered By]: VICE, ScienceDaily

Should we broadcast such messages or not ? What do you think ?

Journal Reference:
Jonathan H. Jiang, Hanjie Li, Matthew Chong, et al. A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects, Galaxies (DOI: 10.3390/galaxies10020055)

Original Submission

looorg writes:

https://courieronsunday.com/news/asia-news/a-new-city-built-upon-data-takes-shape-in-south-korea/

Samsung Smart-village in Korea gathering all the data to, what I can only assume, the perfect happy orwellian village/city of the future. All hooked up for friendly data gathering/harvesting on and of the ideal citizens.

[...] Unmanned Solution, a company of 35 employees founded in 2008, is providing cleaning robots for the village, and the South Korean start-up Superbin, with 89 employees, provides garbage disposal services and recycling technology.

K-Water is the major player in this development as it is using its latest technology to not only transform the wetlands (making them developable by bringing in tons of sand and sinking concrete poles), but also to use the water in the Nakdong River for hydropower, drinking water and other uses. The hydropower will energize everything from homes to streetlights to sprinkler systems in the planned public areas.

With extensive data being compiled for help in health care planning, concerns about privacy and the sharing of personal information with governments and businesses have been muted so far.

"I haven't heard of any complaints so far from residents, but I know that all around the world people can be defiant about giving out their personal information," Mr. Min said. Nevertheless, he said, "a committee is drafting privacy guidelines and all of the info is encrypted."

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/a-few-things-to-know-before-you-steal-my-914/

Dear Thief,

Welcome to my Porsche 914. I imagine that at this point (having found the door unlocked) your intention is to steal my car. Don't be encouraged by this; the tumblers sheared-off in 1978. I would have locked it up if I could, so don't think you're too clever or that I'm too lazy. However, now that you're in the car, there are a few things you're going to need to know. First, the battery is disconnected, so slide-hammering my ignition switch is not your first step. I leave the battery disconnected, not to foil hoodlums such as yourself, but because there is a mysterious current drain from the 40-year-old German wiring harness that I can't locate and/or fix. So, connect the battery first. Good luck finding the engine cover release. Or the engine, for that matter.

Now, you can skip your slide hammer. The ignition switch's tumblers are so worn that any flat-bladed screwdriver or pair of scissors will do. Don't tell anyone.

Once you've figured that out and try to start the car, you'll run into some trouble. The car is most likely in reverse gear, given that the parking brake cable froze up sometime during the Carter administration. Since there is not a clutch safety switch on the starting circuit, make sure to press the clutch down before you try to crank the engine. (I don't want you running into my other car in the driveway.) This is doubly necessary because my starter is too weak to crank the clutch-transmission input shaft assembly with any success.

Read on - I enjoyed the laugh!

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Amazon Union Scores Unexpected Win in New York Election, a First in the US:

In a first for the Amazon's US facilities, warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, have voted in favor of joining a union. The union's win, if certified by the federal labor board, adds momentum an organizing movement that's been gaining steam around the country.

The tally of of 2,654 yes votes to 2,131 no votes came after six days of in-person voting at the warehouse and an intense campaign. In the lead up to the vote, the union filed complaints to the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Amazon engaged in unfair labor practices.

The Amazon Labor Union, a new group that was formed by current and former Amazon workers, emerged from workers' efforts to demand better COVID-19 protections in 2020. The group eventually began an organizing bid after some workers involved in planning walkouts were disciplined or fired. That included worker Chris Smalls, who went on to become the face of the organizing movement after his firing.

Separately, a vote on unionization at an Amazon facility in Alabama failed on Thursday, though the result could be affected when hundreds of challenged ballots are resolved.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Pfizer, Moderna vaccines aren't the same; study finds antibody differences:

The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have proven highly effective at priming our immune systems to fight the pandemic coronavirus—preventing substantial amounts of infection, severe disease, and death throughout several waves of variants. But despite their similar design and efficacy, the two vaccines are not exactly the same—and our immune systems don't respond to them in the same way.

An early hint of this came from some real-world data that found startling differences in the effectiveness of the two vaccines, despite both shots performing nearly identically in Phase III clinical trials, with efficacies of 95 percent and 94 percent. Amid last year's delta wave, a Mayo Clinic study found that Pfizer's effectiveness against infection dipped to 42 percent while Moderna's fell to 76 percent.

Both vaccines generate strong levels of neutralizing antibodies, which can bind to the virus and prevent it from infecting cells. But according to the study, the vaccines generated different antibody profiles overall. Specifically, the antibody response to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine skewed to a class of antibodies called IgG and IgM, which are often found in the blood. The Moderna vaccine, meanwhile, generated relatively elevated levels of IgA antibodies, a class of antibodies generally found on mucosal surfaces, such as the respiratory tract—where SARS-CoV-2 infections begin. Additionally, the Moderna vaccine spurred relatively higher levels of antibodies that activate immune cells called natural killer cells. It also generated higher levels of antibodies that activate immune cells called neutrophils to ingest and kill (phagocytize) invading germs.

Journal Reference:
Fernando P. Polack, Stephen J. Thomas, Nicholas Kitchin, et al. Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine [open], New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034577)
Lindsey R. Baden, Hana M. El Sahly, Brandon Essink, et al. Efficacy and Safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine [open], New England Journal of Medicine (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2035389)
Just a moment..., (DOI: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abm2311)

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Following up on the initial release, NASA has added more samples and more hi-res data to its research-grade Astromaterials 3D platform. The site doesn't seem to have a New/News link, so here's part of the informal release statement:

[We are] excited to announce the public release of several exciting new features on Astromaterials 3D!

1. 20 new samples from NASA's Apollo Lunar and Antarctic Meteorite Collections
2. NASA Pins—a curated selection of surface and XCT features with brief descriptions written by NASA's Curation scientists, visible in the Pins section of the Explorer
3. The much-anticipated public release of the actual high-resolution 3D model files, now available for download from every rock's Details page

Launched to the public in December 2020, Astromaterials 3D is an information-rich visualization tool for researchers and the general public. Combining high-resolution photography, structure-from-motion photogrammetry and X-ray computed tomography, the project succeeds at producing research-grade interactive 3D models of the exterior and interior of samples in a single coordinate system. At its core, Astromaterials 3D intends to provide greater access to NASA's astromaterials collections and the incredible stories these rocks from space reveal through the study of them.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

This new ransomware targets data visualization tool Jupyter Notebook:

A new strain of Python ransomware is targeting environments using Jupyter Notebook.

Jupyter Notebook is an open source web environment for data visualization. The modular software is used to model data in data science, computing, and machine learning. The project supports over 40 programming languages and is used by companies including Microsoft, IBM, and Google, alongside numerous universities.

Aqua Security's Team Nautilus recently discovered malware that has honed in on this popular data tool.

While Jupyter Notebook allows users to share their content with trusted contacts, access to the app is secured through account credentials or tokens. However, in the same way that businesses sometimes do not secure their AWS buckets, leaving them open for anyone to view, Notebook misconfigurations have also been found.

The Python ransomware targets those that have accidentally left their environments vulnerable.

[...] A Shodan search reveals several hundred internet-facing Jupyter Notebook environments are open and accessible (although some may also be honeypots.)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

AI helps radiologists detect bone fractures:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an effective tool for fracture detection that has potential to aid clinicians in busy emergency departments, according to a study in Radiology.

Missed or delayed diagnosis of fractures on X-ray is a common error with potentially serious implications for the patient. Lack of timely access to expert opinion as the growth in imaging volumes continues to outpace radiologist recruitment only makes the problem worse.

AI may help address this problem by acting as an aid to radiologists, helping to speed and improve fracture diagnosis.

[...] Dr. Kuo cautioned that research into fracture detection by AI remains in a very early, pre-clinical stage. Only a minority of the studies that she and her colleagues looked at evaluated the performance of clinicians with AI assistance, and there was only one example where an AI was evaluated in a prospective study in a clinical environment.

"It remains important for clinicians to continue to exercise their own judgment," Dr. Kuo said. "AI is not infallible and is subject to bias and error."

Journal References:
Rachel Y. L. Kuo, Conrad Harrison, Terry-Ann Curran, et al. Artificial Intelligence in Fracture Detection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Radiology (DOI: 211785)
Jérémie F. Cohen, Matthew D. F. McInnes. Deep Learning Algorithms to Detect Fractures: Systematic Review Shows Promising Results but Many Limitations, Radiology (DOI: 212966)

Original Submission

owl writes:

http://www.lupinia.net/writing/tech/scammed.htm

When discussing scams and social engineering attacks, it's easy for security researchers and experts to present information in a way that implies the victims of these attacks should have known better. It's an attitude borne of biases that many engineers have - myself included - but it's unhelpful and counter-productive. And, as much as we may like to think we'd handle these situations so much better, that's just not true. Security experts - even those with professional experience in social engineering - are not immune to scams. As an example of this, I'd like to share the story of a scam I fell for recently.

The Call

In the early afternoon, after starting my day with an extremely tiring 2-hour meeting, I kicked back for a much-needed break before digging into some writing projects. However, my meditation was interrupted by my phone ringing. Which, in and of itself, was noteworthy - I use a complex web of forwarding numbers and obfuscation to avoid giving out a real phone number as much as possible, and the only people who have my real phone number rarely call me, especially during the day. I checked the caller ID, and it was my bank, Wells Fargo (I know, I know; trust me, they were not my first choice).

I answered, the guy said he was calling from Wells Fargo's Fraud Prevention Department, calling to verify some transactions. He verified my name, he had the last four digits of my debit card number, and everything generally seemed to follow the normal script of a transaction verification call. He rattled off three separate transactions, totalling close to a thousand US dollars, all of which were things I didn't recognize, in a city I've never been to, 1300 miles (2100km) from where I live. So, yeah, definitely fraudulent transactions. He said they'd cancel my debit card and send a new one, and verified the address on file - which he also already had, without me needing to provide it. I've had a bunch of these calls over the years, so nothing weird so far. I figured we were about finished with a very routine and normal fraud call, but it turned out we were just getting started.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Folding design leads to heart sensor with smaller profile:

As advances in wearable devices push the amount of information they can provide consumers, sensors increasingly have to conform to the contours of the body. One approach applies the principles of kirigami to give sensors the added flexibility.

Researchers want to leverage the centuries-old art of cutting paper into designs to develop a sensor sheet that can stretch and breathe with the skin while collecting electrocardiographic data. In Applied Physics Reviews, the sensor made by researchers in Japan uses cuts in a film made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) printed with silver electrodes to fit on a person's chest to monitor his or her heart.

"In terms of wearability, by applying kirigami structure in a PET film, due to PET deformation and bending, the film can be stretchable, so that the film can follow skin and body movement like a bandage," said author Kuniharu Takei, from Osaka Prefecture University. "In addition, since kirigami structure has physical holes in a PET film, skin can be easily breathed through the holes."

Unlike the related origami, which involves strictly paper folding, the art of kirigami extends its methods to paper cutting as well. Such a technique allows relatively stiff materials, like PET, to adapt to their surfaces.

Journal Reference:
Yan Xuan, Hyuga Hara, Satoko Honda, et al. Wireless, minimized, stretchable, and breathable electrocardiogram sensor system, Applied Physics Reviews (DOI: 10.1063/5.0082863)

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://hackaday.com/2022/03/30/replaceable-batteries-are-coming-back-to-phones-if-the-eu-gets-its-way/

Back in the day, just about everything that used a battery had a hatch or a hutch that you could open to pull it out and replace it if need be. Whether it was a radio, a cordless phone, or a cellphone, it was a cinch to swap out a battery.

These days, many devices hide their batteries, deep beneath tamper-proof stickers and warnings that state there are "no user serviceable components inside." The EU wants to change all that, though, and has voted to mandate that everything from cellphones to e-bikes must have easily replaceable batteries, with the legislation coming into effect as soon as 2024.

Once upon a time, most batteries in common use were primary cells – single-use items that could not be recharged and were intended to be discarded after use. Naturally, this meant that appliances relying on battery power had provisions to make swapping cells out a quick and easy process.

Fast forward to the modern day. Many of our appliances, and particularly our phones, rely on rechargeable lithium batteries. Since they're rechargeable, manufacturers decided we no longer needed to replace them, and started sealing them away inside devices where they were free from the meddling fingers of the unwashed masses.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

China to launch Einstein Probe in 2023 to observe violent cosmic events - SpaceNews:

A Chinese wide-field x-ray space observatory has passed a major review and is expected to launch next year to detect flashes from cataclysmic cosmic events.

The Einstein Probe is expected to launch around mid-2023 to observe distant, violent interactions such as tidal disruption events—in which stars are pulled apart by supermassive black holes—supernovae, and detect and localize the high-energy, electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events.

A March 25 review session organized by the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) approved the mission to proceed to the spacecraft assembly, integration and testing phase, ahead of an expected launch next year.

The roughly 1,400-kilogram spacecraft will be launched into a 600-kilometer altitude, low inclination orbit. From there it will observe the sky with a Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) with a field of view of 3,600 square degrees, using cutting edge "lobster eye" optics to allow the probe to view X-ray events more widely than previously possible.

The spacecraft will feature onboard data processing and autonomous followup capabilities, meaning the probe's Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT), developed in Europe, can be quickly brought to bear after WXT detects an X-ray event.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Crypto Hacker Siphons $625 Million From Axie Infinity's Ronin Sidechain:

Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity, announced it was the target of a $625 million hack. Taking advantage of vulnerabilities in the Ronin sidechain implementation, the hacker has shimmied away with around 173,600 ETH (valued at $594.6 million) and $25.5 million in U.S. dollars. Experts expect this to be one of the biggest hacks in the relatively short-lived history of cryptocurrency when all cards hit the proverbial table, but it's far from the first.

Axie Infinity is so popular that it's the number one marketplace for NFT collectibles. That puts it ahead of famous marketplaces such as OpenSea, which saw the introduction of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs — of which the least expensive one currently goes for ~130 ETH ($356K).

Sidechains (also referred to as L2 chains) are solutions built alongside L1 chains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Algorand. These solutions help skirt blockchain congestion by offloading transactions that would occur on the L1 chain to the speedier, usually custom-built sidechains. Also known as Bridges or Wormholes, these allow users to bring their L1 chain funds (in this case, Ethereum) to other blockchain ecosystems. Crypto moved to these chains is locked as collateral, and an equivalent value is minted in whatever token the chain uses to operate. Being relatively stationary targets whose locked value tends to only increase over time, Bridges are particularly attractive targets for bad actors.

upstart writes:

Severe drought and mandatory water cuts are pitting communities against each other in Arizona:

As the climate crisis intensifies, battle lines are beginning to form over water. In Arizona -- amid a decades-long megadrought -- some communities are facing the very real possibility of losing access to the precious water that remains.

Outside the city limits of Scottsdale, where the asphalt ends and the dirt road begins, is the Rio Verde Foothills community. Hundreds of homes here get water trucked in from Scottsdale, but those deliveries will end on January 1, 2023.

That's because last summer, for the first time ever, drought conditions forced the federal government to declare a tier 1 water shortage in the Colorado River, reducing how much Arizona can use.

[...] "We are what I call the 'sacrificial lamb' for the bigger areas," Irwin told CNN. "In my opinion, look somewhere else -- we need to be able to sustain ourselves."

The scarcity of water in the state is pitting small towns against fast-growing metropolitan communities.

[...] Arizona's population growth and extreme drought have increased demand for water in limited supply. Kathleen Ferris, a senior research fellow with the Kyl Center for Water Policy in Arizona, says water scarcity in the state has resulted in the "haves" and the "have nots," and likened the coming water battles to the days of the Wild West. "Once you have your water rights, you defend it," Ferris said. "That's the way it works."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Why using the oceans to suck up CO2 might not be as easy as hoped:

The world's oceans are amazing carbon sponges. They already capture a quarter of human-produced carbon dioxide when surface waters react with the greenhouse gas in the air or marine organisms gobble it up as they grow.

[...] Other research groups have also recently found that dissolving olivine in filtered and artificial seawater produced less of an increase in alkalinity than expected, the study noted. Still another recent preprint paper found similarly confounding results for other minerals that had been expected to boost ocean alkalinity.

Meanwhile, several additional studies recently raised doubts about a different ocean-based approach: growing seaweed and sinking it to suck up and store away carbon.

Finding viable ways to pull down greenhouse gases will be vital in the coming decades. A National Academies report in December on ocean-based carbon removal noted that the world may need to suck up an additional 10 billion tons annually by midcentury to limit warming to 2 ˚C.

Boosting ocean alkalinity could theoretically remove tens of billions of tons each year on its own, according to the research group Ocean Visions. But the National Academies panel noted that it will require extracting, grinding, and shipping rocks on roughly similar scales, all of which would have substantial environmental consequences as well.

The new studies haven't delivered the final, definitive word on whether any of these methods will be feasible ways of helping to reach those carbon removal targets.

Journal Reference:
Fuhr, Michael, Geilert, Sonja, Schmidt, Mark, et al. Kinetics of Olivine Weathering in Seawater: An Experimental Study, Frontiers in Climate (DOI: 10.3389/fclim.2022.831587)

Original Submission