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DannyB writes:

They say it's because of audio quality, but it isn't that simple:

It's easy to take for granted amenities in our cars like air conditioning and the radio, which have been standard equipment for longer than many of us have been alive. But the rise of electric vehicles is giving the auto industry the chance to rethink norms and jettison ideas that belong in the past. One of those ideas may be AM radios, which some carmakers say they won't include on future EVs, and which are already unavailable on a few. Car companies blame interference from EVs' drivetrains, but the answer isn't that simple—not by a long shot.

[....] EVs from Audi, BMW, Porsche, Tesla, and Volvo are sold without AM radios, and it's been that way for years.

[....] So are highly complex EVs incompatible with one of the oldest, simplest electronics? BMW and Volvo told me it was due to audio quality problems rooted in electromagnetic interference, of which EVs' drivetrains produce a significant amount. Cars' engines and other complex electronics have always made EM interference, but low-wattage static is relatively easy to shield against. It's not as simple with EVs that may pull hundreds of watts from their batteries

[....] But it's hard to take them at their word when EVs are built with AM radios and in no small numbers. Detroit's Three—Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis—have produced or currently make EVs that include AM radio

Can radio be an addiction? I suppose it depends on the frequency.

Will the FCC cry foul if there is interference? Only if the batter hinders the catcher after a third strike.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

International Space Station has new way to dispose of trash:

Even astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have to take out the trash. Traditionally, garbage from the space station has been loaded into the cargo spacecraft that bring supplies to the station and stay docked there. Then the cargo ship is released to burn up in the atmosphere, with the trash inside. But now, the station has a new method for getting rid of trash — by shooting it out of an airlock.

The new trash disposal system makes use of an airlock called Bishop, part of a commercial module added to the station in 2020. The company Nanoracks which built the module, along with Thales Alenia Space, and Boeing, oversaw the release of trash from the airlock for the first time last weekend, on Saturday, July 2.

When the trash leaves the airlock it will burn up in the atmosphere, so it won't add to the problem of space debris. The trash is put into a special waste container that can hold up to 600 pounds of garbage, and which is mounted in the airlock. The test performed last week was recorded in video footage and shared by Nanoracks, and you can see the trash floating away from various views below:

"Waste collection in space has been a long standing, yet not as publicly discussed, challenge aboard the ISS," said Cooper Read, Bishop Airlock program manager at Nanoracks, in a statement. "Four astronauts can generate up to 2,500 kg of trash per year, or about two trash cans per week. As we move into a time with more people living and working in space, this is a critical function just like it is for everyone at home."

Video 1
Video 2

Didn't Heinlein predict this?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

It is investing $20.4 billion between now and 2030 for a capacity of 240 GWh/year:

Volkswagen Group announced on Thursday that it is consolidating its battery development and production in a new project called Mission SalzGiga. The name refers to Salzgitter in Germany, where VW has built more than 63 million internal combustion engines—it has now broken ground on a massive new battery factory at the site, the first of six planned for Europe. Each plant should be able to accommodate an annual production capacity of 40 GWh, sufficient to power 500,000 electric vehicles.

To that end, the company has set up a new Salzgitter-based business unit called PowerCo that will cover all of the automaker's global battery activities. VW says it will require more than $20.4 billion (20 billion euros) in investment between now and 2030 but with an equal potential in revenue, plus the addition of 20,000 new jobs.

"In building our first in-house cell factory, we are consistently implementing our technology roadmap," said Thomas Schmall, VW board member in charge of technology. "PowerCo will become a global battery player. The company's major strength will be vertical integration from raw materials and the cell right through to recycling. In future, we will handle all the relevant activities in-house and will gain a strategic competitive advantage in the race to take the lead in e-mobility."

[...] VW wants to scale up rapidly, so it has standardized the design of the battery factories, which will use green electricity to operate, incorporating the ability to move to closed-loop recycling once the supply of old EV batteries makes that possible. The Salzgitter site will also have facilities for battery research and development in addition to large-scale production and recycling.

It seems calling a factory that makes batteries a "battery factory" doesn't cut it these days.

Original Submission

upstart writes with a story about how to avoid back pain if you spend a lot of time sitting for your job:

Simple stretches and strengthening exercises can leave you less stiff:

I am sure you've been told you should stand up and move away from your work stations or use a standing desk where possible. One of the major benefits of doing this is to activate and stretch the hip flexor area.

[...] Hip flexors are the powerful muscles located at the front of your hip. [...] Hip flexors are activated when you draw your knee towards your chest. They are important for walking and running.

Weak hip flexors may make climbing stairs, running or even walking on a flat surface difficult or painful. It can also can cause other muscles in the area to work hard to compensate. This changes your gait (the way you walk).

Tight hip flexors can make walking and standing difficult because they pull your spine down. This makes you lean forward, which puts strain on your lower back muscles (which work in opposition to keep you upright).

An imbalance between the hip flexors and the opposing muscles pulling your torso in the opposite direction can lead to lower back pain.

[...] As with all muscles, hip flexors lose strength and mass through lack of exercise.

Another contributing factor is sitting for long periods, which keeps the psoas muscles relaxed in a shortened position for a long time.

This is particularly important for those of us who spend long periods seated at a work desk, and is why many health-care professionals advise taking a break from sitting or opting for a standing desk.

[...] Failure to look after your hip flexors can lead to an altered gait, posture problems, injury and back pain.

Original Submission

Three submitted stories on different aspects of the breakdown of the Musk/Twitter tale.

upstart writes first about the forming storm clouds:

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in peril:

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in serious jeopardy, three people familiar with the matter say, as Musk's camp concluded that Twitter's figures on spam accounts are not verifiable.

[...] The spam accounts are not the only reason Musk might try to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter's share price has fallen dramatically since his takeover bid in April, leading to the impression that he is overpaying. And Musk also runs two other major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, along with some start-ups.

[...] Musk likely grasps the difficulty of backing out at this stage, prompting him to find legal reasons to justify an exit, according to Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond.

After raising the bot issue, for example, Musk said Twitter's figures could constitute a "material adverse misstatement," a likely reference to a contractual clause that gives him the ability to back out of the deal in the event of a significant event that fundamentally changes the business.

"I think it's an excuse," Tobias said. "It doesn't seem to me that a court would find that persuasive." Tobias cited Musk's own waiving of due diligence in his hasty acceptance of the deal. "It does seem to me that it undercuts a lot of arguments he could try to make otherwise," he said.

upstart then writes about the storm:

Musk cancels Twitter deal:

Elon Musk has notified Twitter the $44 billion buyout is off, citing "false and misleading representations"

hubie writes:

A new computer model uses publicly available data to predict crime accurately in eight U.S. cities:

Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have sparked interest from governments that would like to use these tools for predictive policing to deter crime. Early efforts at crime prediction have been controversial, however, because they do not account for systemic biases in police enforcement and its complex relationship with crime and society.

Data and social scientists from the University of Chicago have developed a new algorithm that forecasts crime by learning patterns in time and geographic locations from public data on violent and property crimes. The model can predict future crimes one week in advance with about 90% accuracy.

In a separate model, the research team also studied the police response to crime by analyzing the number of arrests following incidents and comparing those rates among neighborhoods with different socioeconomic status. They saw that crime in wealthier areas resulted in more arrests, while arrests in disadvantaged neighborhoods dropped. Crime in poor neighborhoods didn't lead to more arrests, however, suggesting bias in police response and enforcement.

[...] The new model isolates crime by looking at the time and spatial coordinates of discrete events and detecting patterns to predict future events. It divides the city into spatial tiles roughly 1,000 feet across and predicts crime within these areas instead of relying on traditional neighborhood or political boundaries, which are also subject to bias. The model performed just as well with data from seven other U.S. cities: Atlanta, Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland, and San Francisco.

This strikes me as something more useful for determining where to improve crime prevention strategies (better lighting, etc.) than it is for catching perps in action.

Journal Reference:
Rotaru, V., Huang, Y., Li, T. et al. Event-level prediction of urban crime reveals a signature of enforcement bias in US cities. Nat Hum Behav (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01372-0

This AI Algorithm Supposedly Predicts Big City Crime Before it Happens. Is That a Good Idea?

looorg also made a submission on the same software but using a different sources:

Claims to predict future crimes a week in advance with 90% accuracy. So much for free will and all that ...

https://www.fastcompany.com/90766642/this-ai-algorithm-supposedly-predicts-big-city-crime-before-it-happens-is-that-a-good-idea

Original Submission

DannyB writes:

Alder Lake-Powered Linux Laptop Arrives With 14 Hours of Battery Life

System76, the Colorado-based Linux laptop, desktop, and server specialist, has announced a new highly portable laptop with an Intel Alder Lake processor inside. The new Lemur Pro is a "lighter than Air" 14-inch form factor laptop with excellent battery life and attractions such as open firmware (powered by Coreboot) and a 180-degree hinge. In addition, buyers can choose to go with Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS pre-installed.

Coreboot, known initially as LinuxBIOS, is significant as it is an open-source BIOS implementation embraced by Linux users. It is lightweight, flexible, and feature-rich. Sadly, not many modern laptops or desktop PCs support Coreboot, but it seems to have gained momentum in recent times. We reported on Coreboot being made available for MSI Z690-A WiFi motherboards in April. More recently, in a demonstration of Coreboot's flexibility for tinkerers, we reported on a port of Doom being released as a Coreboot payload.

Now if only emacs could be a Coreboot payload, you could run the rich set of applications written in emacs lisp.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

'Yu-Gi-Oh!' manga creator Kazuki Takahashi found dead at sea:

Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga comic and trading card game, has died, apparently while snorkeling in southwestern Japan, the coast guard said Friday.

The body of Takahashi, 60, was found Wednesday floating about 330 yards off the coast of Okinawa, by a person running a marine leisure business, according to an official at the Naha Coast Guard Nago station.

The coast guard and the fire department went by boat and watercraft and found the body, face down and wearing a snorkeling mask. He may have been dead for a day or two, according to the coast guard official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because their job did not allow them to be quoted by name.

The body showed signs of being attacked by a marine creature, possibly sharks, but the cause of death was still under investigation, the official said.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Accused of 'unfair' practices, Apple faces App Store court battle in UK:

Depending how you look at it, Apple is gaining a fresh opportunity to explain why the charges it levies at the App Store are fair, or regulators are getting the chance to decide what the future shape of online business will be by defining what constitutes an acceptable profit margin in digital sales.

In either case, these decisions set precedents which can, presumably, be applied against other forms of business and retail. After all, if regulators define acceptable profit margins for one line of business, then they must adopt a consistent approach that can be applied across all industries. Right now, Apple seems to believe that for most transactions, the fair figure is zero or 15%, with those with the broadest shoulders paying more to support others.

What's happening is that the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal has decided to permit a Collective Proceedings Order (CPO, basically equivalent to a class action) to go to trial.

The action was brought in May 2021 by Dr. Rachael Kent, a lecturer in Digital Economy and Society Education at King's College, London. It argues that Apple is engaged in unfair business practices by forcing developers to use its own payment systems and taking up to 30% commission. If the case succeeds, approximately 19.6 million UK customers who have purchased apps from the App Store will get a share of up to £1.5 billion compensation. More information concerning the background to this case is available at the UK Apple App Store Claim site.

fliptop writes:

Places like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter are swimming in data, but their problem is that a lot of it is untrustworthy and shilled. But you don't need to use all the data. Toss big data happily, anything suspicious at all, false positives galore accidentally marking new accounts or borderline accounts as shills when deciding what to input to the recommender algorithms. Who cares if you do?

Lately I've been thinking about recommender algorithms and how they go wrong. I keep hitting examples of people arguing that we should ban the fewest accounts possible when thinking about what accounts are used by recommender systems. Why? Or why not the opposite? What's wrong with using the fewest accounts you can without degrading the perceived quality of the recommendations?

The reason this matters is that recommender systems these days are struggling with shilling. Companies are playing whack-a-mole with bad actors who just create new accounts or find new shills every time they're whacked because it's so profitable -- like free advertising -- to create fake crowds that manipulate the algorithms. Propagandists and scammers are loving it and winning. It's easy and lucrative for them.

So what's wrong with taking the opposite strategy, only using the most reliable accounts? As a thought experiment, let's say you rank order accounts by your confidence they are human, independent, not shilling, and trustworthy. Then go down the list of accounts, using their behavior data until the recommendations stop improving at a noticeable level (being careful about cold start and the long tail). Then stop. Don't use the rest. Why not do that? It'd vastly increase costs for adversaries. And it wouldn't change the perceived quality of recommendations because you've made sure it wouldn't.

Previously:
Amazon Still Hasn't Fixed Its Problem with Bait-and-Switch Reviews
Amazon's Top UK Reviewers Appear to Profit From Fake 5-Star Posts

Original Submission

upstart writes:

According to genetic tests conducted by academics at the University of Queensland, drinking a daily latte or long black does not raise the risk of pregnancy:

Genetic analysis of coffee drinking behavior by Drs. Gunn-Helen Moen, Daniel Hwang, and Caroline Brito Nunes from the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience revealed that limited coffee consumption during pregnancy did not increase the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature birth.

"Current World Health Organisation guidelines say pregnant women should drink less than 300mg of caffeine or two to three cups per day," Dr. Moen said.

"But that's based on observational studies where it's difficult to separate coffee drinking from other risk factors like smoking, alcohol, or poor diet. We wanted to find out if coffee alone really does increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, and the research shows this isn't the case."

Dr. Hwang said coffee-drinking behavior is partly due to genetics, with a specific set of genetic variants affecting how much coffee we drink.

"We showed that these genetic variants not only affect coffee consumption in the general population but also in pregnant women," he said.

[...] The researchers emphasize the study only looked at certain adverse pregnancy outcomes, and it is possible caffeine consumption could affect other important aspects of fetal development.

"For that reason, we don't recommend a high intake during pregnancy, but a low or moderate consumption of coffee," Dr. Moen said.

Journal Reference:
Brito Nunes, Caroline, Huang, Peiyuan, Wang, Geng, et al. Mendelian randomization study of maternal coffee consumption and its influence on birthweight, stillbirth, miscarriage, gestational age and pre-term birth [open], International Journal of Epidemiology, 2022. (DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyac121)

Original Submission

hubie writes:

An ongoing study reveals the multiple ways people now seek information about genetic relatives:

People conceived by sperm and egg donation, as well as their parents and donors, are making use of commercial genetic DNA testing in a variety of ways little considered in earlier reports, according to the interim results of a qualitative study presented here at ESHRE's 38th annual meeting in Milan. The widespread availability of commercial DNA databanks 'is transforming how people involved in donor conception seek information about genetic relatives', said the study's first author Dr Lucy Frith, Reader in Bioethics at the University of Manchester, UK.

With the emerging availability of commercial genetic testing and the possibility of tracking family history via a saliva sample matched against a database of DNA sequences, it has been noted that the 'anonymity' of sperm and egg donors whose gametes have been used in donor conception can no longer be guaranteed.(1) Similarly, donor-conceived children whose parents have not told them of their origins could be exposed to the possibility of accidental and potentially distressing revelations. [...]

The many ways in which commercial consumer genetic testing services are now being used to gather donor information - as illustrated by this study – have huge implications. Donor-conceived people can use these services to conduct a DNA test to search for their genetic parent; recipient parents can test the child to identify the donor and any other half-siblings; and donors themselves can also take a DNA test to search for the offspring of their donations. And crucially for the implications of these possibilities, the donor (or the donor-conceived child) need not be in a database to be identified – as a close genetic relative may be in the database and thereby traceable.

These developments, said Dr Frith, have been rapid and seemingly irrevocable, even in the fast-moving world of fertility. They have also meant that the fertility sector itself is now suddenly faced with a new responsibility to ensure that both gamete recipients and donors are aware of the wide-ranging possibilities of identification and that those who are unexpectedly exposed to that risk have access to adequate support and counselling.

If you made an anonymous donation many years ago, would you want to be contacted?

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

The new law goes into effect Thursday:

Posting "online insults" will be punishable by up to a year in prison time in Japan starting Thursday, when a new law passed earlier this summer will go into effect.

People convicted of online insults can also be fined up to 300,000 yen (just over $2,200). Previously, the punishment was fewer than 30 days in prison and up to 10,000 yen ($75).

The law will be reexamined in three years to determine if it's impacting freedom of expression — a concern raised by critics of the bill. Proponents said it was necessary to slow cyberbullying in the country.

The issue of online harassment has gained prominence in the past few years, with growing calls for anti-cyberbullying laws after the death of professional wrestler and reality television star Hana Kimura:

Kimura, 22, who was known for her role in the Netflix show "Terrace House," died by suicide in 2020. The news triggered grief and shock nationwide, with many pointing to online abuse she had received from social media users in the months leading up to her death.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/youtube-flags-horror-video-as-for-kids-wont-let-creator-change-rating/

Google's wonderful content moderation bots are at it again. After previously doing things like including suicide instructions in a children's video, and the whole Elsagate problem, YouTube is now flagging a horror video as "for kids." Worst of all, this is against the creator's wishes. The video was previously flagged as for ages 18 and up, and YouTube decided it was for kids and won't let the creator restore its content rating.

The video in question is from horror series Local58TV. The creator, Kris Straub, checked his account over the weekend to find that his not-for-kids content has been spotted by YouTube's content moderation AI, and automatically marked for kids.

[Ed's Comment: AC Friendly withdrawn. You can blame you-know-who for the spamming]

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Thriving in a Series of Sudden Global Chills That Killed Competitors:

Many of us know the conventional theory of how the dinosaurs died 66 million years ago: in Earth's fiery collision with a meteorite, and a following global winter as dust and debris choked the atmosphere. But there was a previous extinction, far more mysterious and less discussed: the one 202 million years ago, which killed off the big reptiles who up until then ruled the planet, and apparently cleared the way for dinosaurs to take over. What caused the so-called Triassic-Jurassic Extinction, and why did dinosaurs thrive when other creatures died?

We know that the world was generally hot and steamy during the Triassic Period, which preceded the extinction, and during the following Jurassic, which kicked off the age of dinosaurs. However, a new study turns the idea of heat-loving dinosaurs on its head: It presents the first physical evidence that Triassic dinosaur species—then a minor group largely relegated to the polar regions—regularly endured freezing conditions there. [...]

"Dinosaurs were there during the Triassic under the radar all the time," said Paul Olsen, a geologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and lead author of the study. "The key to their eventual dominance was very simple. They were fundamentally cold-adapted animals. When it got cold everywhere, they were ready, and other animals weren't."

[...] How did they do it? Evidence has been building since the 1990s that many if not all non-avian dinosaurs including tyrannosaurs had primitive feathers. If not for flight, some coverings could have used for mating display purposes, but the researchers say their main purpose was insulation. There is also good evidence that, unlike the cold-blooded reptiles, many dinosaurs possessed warm-blooded, high-metabolism systems. Both qualities would have helped dinosaurs in chilly conditions.

[...] The findings defy the conventional imagery of dinosaurs, but some prominent specialists say they are convinced. "There is a stereotype that dinosaurs always lived in lush tropical jungles, but this new research shows that the higher latitudes would have been freezing and even covered in ice during parts of the year," said Stephen Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh. "Dinosaurs living at high latitudes just so happened to already have winter coats [while] many of their Triassic competitors died out."

Journal Reference:
Paul Olsen, Jingeng Sha, Yanan Fang, et al., Arctic ice and the ecological rise of the dinosaurs [open], Sci Adv, 8, 26, 2022. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6342

Original Submission