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upstart writes:

Germany takes down Hydra, world's largest darknet market:

The servers of Hydra Market, the most prominent Russian darknet platform for selling drugs and money laundering, have been seized by the German police.

The police were also able to seize 543 bitcoins from the profits of Hydra, which are currently worth a little over $25 million.

The confiscated money indicate the size of the Hydra market, which counted around 19,000 registered seller accounts that served at least 17 million customers around the world.

In an announcement today, the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) and Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) estimate that Hydra Market had a turnover of $1.35 billion in 2020, making it the largest darknet market in the world.

[...] Apart from narcotics and money laundering services, which were the main focus, Hydra also offered stolen databases, forged documents, and hacking for hire services.

At the moment, Hydra's homepage shows that the BKA acting on behalf of the Attorney General's Office in Frankfurt am Main seized the market's infrastructure following a coordinated international law enforcement effort.

[...] In the meantime, the seized equipment most likely contains incriminating evidence on Hydra sellers and clients, so a significant number of users could be charged in an upcoming second phase.

Original Submission

owl writes:

http://www.righto.com/2022/04/reverse-engineering-mysterious-univac.html

The IBM 1401 team at the Computer History Museum accumulates a lot of mystery components from donations and other sources. While going through a box, we came across the unusual circuit board below. At first, it looked like an IBM SMS (Standard Modular System) card, the building block of IBM's computers of the late 1950s and early 1960s. However, this board is larger, has double-sided wiring, the connector is different, and the labeling is different.

I asked around about the board and Robert Garner identified it as from the Univac 1004, a plugboard-controlled data processing system from 1963. The Univac 1004 was marketed as a "Card Processor" rather than a computer, designed for business applications that read punch cards and producing output, but still required calculation and logical decisions. Typical applications were payroll, inventory, billing, or accounting.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Decoding Movement and Speech from the Brain of a Tetraplegic Person - Technology Org:

Every year, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are severely disrupted when they lose the ability to move or speak as a result of spinal injury, stroke, or neurological diseases.

At Caltech, neuroscientists in the laboratory of Richard Andersen, James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience, and Leadership Chair and Director of the Tianqiao & Chrissy Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center, are studying how the brain encodes movements and speech, in order to potentially restore these functions to those individuals who have lost them.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are devices that record brain signals and interpret them to issue commands that operate external assistive devices, such as computers or robotic limbs. Thus, an individual can control such machinery just with their thoughts.

For example, in 2015, the Andersen team and colleagues worked with a tetraplegic participant to implant recording electrodes into a part of the brain that forms intentions to move. The BMI enabled the participant to direct a robotic limb to reach out and grasp a cup, just by thinking about those actions.

upstart writes:

Hertz plans to buy 65,000 EVs from Polestar over five years:

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. plans to buy 65,000 electric vehicles from Polestar over the next five years, betting its renters are both EV curious and eager to drive brands beyond Tesla.

The vehicles from Polestar, the all-electric automaker controlled by Volvo Car AB and its owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., will join some 100,000 Teslas that Hertz has said it's buying for more than $4 billion. The new deal delivered a boost to shares of Hertz and Gores Gugenheim Inc., the special purpose acquisition company planning to merge with Polestar.

The Tesla and Polestar purchases give Hertz a steady stream of some of the most coveted battery-powered cars, even as manufacturers scurry to keep up with swelling order books. Polestar expects to double sales this year, delivering 65,000 vehicles globally. It plans to produce 290,000 EVs a year by 2025, a tally Tesla now reaches in less than three months.

"It is our objective to build the largest fleet of electric vehicles, certainly in North America," Hertz Chief Executive Officer Stephen Scherr said.

[...] Hertz has said that, in time, its global fleet of cars — roughly half a million vehicles — will be electric and it intends to work with every EV maker on the market to make that happen.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Revolutionary DNA Nanotechnology Speeds Up Development of Vaccines by More Than One Million Times:

In search of pharmaceutical agents such as new vaccines, industry will routinely scan thousands of related candidate molecules. A novel technique allows this to take place on the nano scale, minimizing use of materials and energy. The work is published in the prestigious journal Nature Chemistry.

More than 40,000 different molecules can be synthesized and analyzed within an area smaller than a pinhead. The method, developed through a highly interdisciplinary research effort in Denmark, promises to drastically reduce the amounts of material, energy, and economic cost for pharmaceutical companies.

The method works by using soap-like bubbles as nano-containers. With DNA nanotechnology, multiple ingredients can be mixed within the containers.

"The volumes are so small that the use of material can be compared to using one liter of water and one kilogram of material instead of the entire volumes of water in all oceans to test material corresponding to the entire mass of Mount Everest. This is an unprecedented save in effort, material, manpower, and energy," illustrates head of the team Nikos Hatzakis, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen.

upstart writes:

Review: Ryzen 5 5500 and 5600 can breathe new life into older AMD PCs:

AMD's Ryzen 5 5500 and 5600 CPUs (which go on sale today for $159 and $199, respectively) are both six-core 12-thread processors aimed squarely at mid-range, price-conscious PCs used for gaming and photo and video editing. The new Ryzens significantly undercut the original $299 asking price of the Ryzen 5 5600X (the 5600X was, for many months, the cheapest way to get Zen 3). And the CPUs finally provide a replacement for the last-gen $199 Ryzen 5 3600.

But the new chips have stiff competition in Intel's Core i5-12400 processor ($210-ish with an integrated GPU, $180-ish without one). Intel's desktop CPUs were saddled with the aging Skylake architecture and/or the aging 14nm manufacturing process for years, but a modern architecture and the Intel 7 process make the 12400 Intel's most appealing mid-range CPU option in a long time. The Ryzen 5 5600X has also seen price cuts recently, falling down to around $230 to make more room for the $300 eight-core Ryzen 7 5700X.

[...] AMD's power efficiency compares well to older 10th- and 11th-generation Intel chips. The Ryzen PCs draw a bit more power at the wall, but they also take less time to complete the work. But the Core i5-12400 manages to catch up and then some, thanks to the Intel 7 process. AMD may well regain its power-efficiency edge with Ryzen 7000 CPUs on TSMC's 5nm process, but for now, Intel has a small advantage (at least when you're not running a Core i7 or i9 CPU with its power limits turned up).

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Fed up with fees? Crypto use is growing for cross-border payments - survey:

A new survey released today by non-profit Stellar Development Foundation and UK-based cryptocurrency payments platform Wirex has revealed a heightened awareness, and increasing use and acceptance, of cryptocurrencies for cross-border payments in four key developed and emerging countries -- United States, United Kingdom, Mexico and Singapore -- indicating that crypto is being used for sending money to, and from, emerging markets in the form of remittances, or money sent by people working overseas to their families back home.

The survey, which gauged nearly 10,000 consumers across Mexico, Singapore, UK and US, suggests that the force behind the shift toward crypto as a form of payment is a frustration with the current financial system for transacting money between developed and emerging countries. More than half of the people surveyed -- 53% -- said they felt they paid too much in fees for international remittances via traditional financial means, such as wiring fiat currencies, while 37% said they didn't know what they paid in fees.

Given these pain points, the Stellar/Wirex survey indicates that cryptocurrencies used in international remittances, especially by people in emerging markets, is growing to the point where 52% surveyed said they see crypto "as a valid alternative to sending money overseas using traditional means," while 45% surveyed said they've already used it for remittances. What's more, the survey revealed that more than 80% of consumers -- in all four countries surveyed -- said they're aware of cryptocurrency.

"For me, the most important finding is that crypto is reaching the mainstream audience, not only in terms of awareness but also with what you can do with this technology to make the movement of money and value faster, cheaper and more efficient," says Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director for Stellar Development Foundation, in an interview with ZDNet.

So what do you think? Have you transferred money across borders and if so, have the fees been too high to you? Have you considered using some form of cryptocurrency as an alternative means of transferring money?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Lockheed Martin, Intel Sign Agreement To Advance 5G-Ready Communications For US, Allied Defense Systems:

The companies are cooperating to produce secure 5G communication systems that will meet the need of both US and allies governmental and defence systems. The announcement was, of course, claiming the companies' past experience and current expertise in this area.

"This collaboration between Intel and Lockheed Martin will help accelerate delivery of secure 5G.MIL solutions to achieve network effects for our customers that will enable prompt, data-driven decisions by military commanders across all operational domains," said Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL Programs at Lockheed Martin. "As security risks evolve and opportunities to leverage 5G emerge, staying ahead of the threat landscape is more critical than ever."

Intel's proven 5G solutions are integrated into Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL Hybrid Base Station, which acts as a multi-network gateway for ubiquitous communications between military personnel and current and emerging platforms such as satellites, aircraft, ships and ground vehicles. Additionally, Lockheed Martin leverages Intel's advanced processor technologies and innovations on network as well as edge, to bring cloud capabilities to the areas of tactical need. This ensures data-driven decision making across air, sea, land, space and cyber domains in support of national security efforts.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Freshwater mussels can inhibit bacterial diseases:

Flavobacteria are a severe problem for fish farming and cause substantial economic losses. The "warm water disease" caused by Flavobacterium columnare is especially problematic since a functional vaccine against the bacterium is not available. The skin and gill damage in diseased individuals can cause high mortality in young salmonids.

Glochidium larvae of the freshwater pearl mussel attach to salmon or trout gills, where they develop and grow for 9 to 11 months until they detach and sink to the river bottom, starting their life as mussels. Glochidium larva is a parasite in the gills of fish. Therefore, it was assumed that glochidia-infested fish would be more prone to bacterial infection.

[...] "Filtering freshwater mussels could be potentially utilized in water treatment applications," says Head of Konnevesi Research Station and LIFE Revives project, professor Jouni Taskinen. "As species disappear, we may lose ecosystem services the species provide -- probably before we have even found them."

Journal References:
Chowdhury, M. Motiur R., Roy, Amitav, Auvinen, Kalle, et al. Glochidial infection by the endangered Margaritifera margaritifera (Mollusca) increased survival of salmonid host (Pisces) during experimental Flavobacterium disease outbreak [open], Parasitology Research (DOI: 10.1007/s00436-021-07285-7)
Hajisafarali, Mahsa, Aaltonen, Sari, Pulkkinen, Katja, et al. Does the freshwater mussel Anodonta anatina remove the fish pathogen Flavobacterium columnare from water? [open], Hydrobiologia (DOI: 10.1007/s10750-021-04769-6)

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Monkeys routinely consume fruit containing alcohol, shedding light on our own taste for booze: Study supports 'drunken monkey' hypothesis: humans inherited love of alcohol from primate ancestors:

The study was led by primatologist Christina Campbell of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and her graduate student Victoria Weaver, who collected fruit eaten and discarded by black-handed spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in Panama. They found that the alcohol concentration in the fruit was typically between 1% and 2% by volume, a by-product of natural fermentation by yeasts that eat sugar in ripening fruit.

Moreover, the researchers collected urine from these free-ranging monkeys and found that the urine contained secondary metabolites of alcohol. This result shows that the animals were actually utilizing the alcohol for energy -- it wasn't just passing through their bodies.

"For the first time, we have been able to show, without a shadow of a doubt, that wild primates, with no human interference, consume fruit-containing ethanol," said Campbell, a CUSN professor of anthropology who obtained her Ph.D. in anthropology from Berkeley in 2000. "This is just one study, and more need to be done, but it looks like there may be some truth to that 'drunken monkey' hypothesis -- that the proclivity of humans to consume alcohol stems from a deep-rooted affinity of frugivorous (fruit-eating) primates for naturally-occurring ethanol within ripe fruit."

Dudley laid out evidence for his idea eight years ago in the book, The Drunken Monkey: Why We Drink and Abuse Alcohol. Measurements showed that some fruits known to be eaten by primates have a naturally high alcohol content of up to 7%. But at the time, he did not have data showing that monkeys or apes preferentially sought out and ate fermented fruits, or that they digested the alcohol in the fruit.

upstart writes:

Pimoroni Announces Servo 2040 Servo Motor Controller:

Although it's slightly weird-looking, we're fairly sure that the image above is not an April Fool prank. UK-based seller of useful things Pimoroni has taken to Twitter to announce the Servo 2040, an 18-channel servo controller "for making things with lots of moving parts".

Servo 2040, as you might expect, is a standalone servo controller making use of the RP2040 microcontroller chip seen in the Raspberry Pi Pico. There are enough pre-soldered pin headers to connect up to 18 servos, current monitoring functionality to keep an eye on power consumption, and six addressable LEDs for visual feedback. You also get pin headers for up to six analog sensors for checking that you're not applying too much pressure to your test subject's head.

[...] Measuring just 62mm x 42mm x 12mm, the Servo 2040 is available now from the Pimoroni website, shipping worldwide. You can also purchase servos, including some that are Lego-compatible to your order, as well as batteries and cables, from the same site.

As a constructor myself, I often use servos to provide controllable movement in my various projects. Usually I rarely use more than half a dozen or so and more commonly only 2 or 3 so I do not see a personal need for a board capable of controlling 18! But I am sure that some constructors will.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The Biggest Deal In Gaming Is Under Fire From U.S. Senators:

Four U.S. senators have torpedoed Microsoft's $69 billion deal for Activision. They believe that the consolidation of the high-tech industry and corporate culture of gender misconduct at Activision could expand by the transaction. Democrat senators think that the planned takeover could undermine employees' calls for accountability over alleged gender and sexual harassment at the game developer.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D), Bernie Sanders (I), Cory Booker (D), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D) are distraught with the fact that Robert Kotick, chief exec of Activision, will remain at the helm of the game company until closing in 2023. With the same head, the culture of misconduct will not go away, they assume. Another point they are concerned about is the consolidation of the high-tech industry in general and its impact on the workforce. Given their concerns, they wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to block the deal.

"We are deeply concerned about consolidation in the tech industry and its impact on workers," the letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal reads. "This lack of accountability, despite shareholders, employees, and the public calling for Kotick to be held responsible for the culture he created, would be an unacceptable result of the proposed Microsoft acquisition."

[...] The senators demand that FTC oppose the deal if it finds that it can worsen the negotiating position between workers and companies (in this case, Microsoft represents both entities).

Previously:
Microsoft Set to Purchase Activision Blizzard in $68.7 Billion Deal

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Europe's Biggest Lithium Mine Is Caught in a Political Maelstrom:

Only red-roofed houses interrupt the vast carpet of fields that surround the village of Gornje Nedeljice, in western Serbia. To resident Marijana Petković, this is the most beautiful place in the world. She's not against Europe's green transition, the plan to make the bloc's economy climate neutral by 2050. But she is among those who believe Serbia's fertile Jadar Valley—where locals grow raspberries and keep bees—is being asked to make huge sacrifices to enable other countries to build electric cars.

Around 300 meters away from Petković's house, according to the multinational mining giant Rio Tinto, there is enough lithium to create 1 million EV batteries, and the company wants to spend $2.4 billion to build Europe's biggest lithium mine here. But Petković and other locals oppose the project, arguing it will cause irreparable damage to the environment. When asked about that claim, a spokesperson for Rio Tinto told WIRED that throughout the project, the company has "recognized that Jadar will need to be developed to the highest environmental standards." Petković is not convinced. "I want the western countries to have the green transition and to live like people in Jadar," she says. "But that doesn't mean that we need to destroy our nature."

Officially, the Jadar mine is not happening. After months of protests against the project, the government conceded, and in January it was canceled. "As far as Project Jadar is concerned, this is an end," Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić said on January 20, after Rio Tinto's lithium exploration licenses were revoked.

fleg writes:

From the Guardian...

The architect Christopher Alexander, who has died aged 85, saw buildings and cities as living frameworks for human beings. Through designing, building, teaching and writing, he sought "to provide a complete working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building and planning".

[...] A housing project in the barrios of Lima, the capital of Peru, in 1969 began with his team living for five weeks with different families on site, observing the details of daily life, to develop what he called a "pattern language" of 67 principles that formed the basis for the design.

[...] His approach provided the basis of an architecture bestseller, A Pattern Language (1977). Each of 253 "patterns", with its own number, describes a helpful relationship between parts of the environment, and consists of a title – such as Public Outdoor Room, South Facing Outdoors or Windows Overlooking Life – explanatory text, diagrams and photographs. The patterns are linked to each other in a network structure, which gave the book an appeal to the software developers among its general readership.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

TSMC Will Reportedly Move Equipment Into Arizona's Fab21 in Q1 2023:

TSMC will start moving equipment into its new US plant by Q1 next year, says a report published by Taiwan's Commercial Times. The financial newspaper cites unnamed industry sources, so please take this information with a pinch of salt. As a reminder, the facility under construction in Arizona will be dubbed Fab21 and will be used for producing TSMC's 5nm process family for its many clients.

The fab TSMC is constructing in Arizona will be outputting chips at 5nm, 5nm Enhanced, and 4nm – what TSMC refers to as its N5, N5P and N4 processes. The world's largest contract chipmaker will have this US-based facility up and running by Q1 2024 pushing out 20,000 wafers per month.

Remember, TSMC will continue to develop its cutting-edge leading fabs in Taiwan. However, it is something of a safety net for it to expand overseas, to places like the US and Japan. Of course, this safety net might be useful with the geopolitical risk facing Taiwan.

Original Submission