SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Newly discovered stone tools drag dawn of Greek archaeology back by a quarter-million years:

Deep in an open coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the antiquities-rich country's oldest archaeological site, which dates to 700,000 years ago and is associated with modern humans' hominin ancestors.

The find announced Thursday would drag the dawn of Greek archaeology back by as much as a quarter of a million years, although older hominin sites have been discovered elsewhere in Europe. The oldest, in Spain, dates to more than a million years ago.

[...] It was found to contain rough stone tools from the Lower Palaeolithic period—about 3.3 million to 300,000 years ago—and the remains of an extinct species of giant deer, elephants, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and a macaque monkey.

[...] The artifacts are "simple tools, like sharp stone flakes, belonging to the Lower Paleolithic stone tool industry," the co-directors said in comments e-mailed to The Associated Press.

They said it's possible the items were produced by Homo antecessor, the hominin species dating from that period in other parts of Europe. Homo antecessor is believed to have been the last common ancestor of modern humans and their extinct Neanderthal cousins, who diverged about 800,000 years ago.

"However, we will not be able to be sure until hominin fossil remains are recovered," the project directorss said. "(The site) is the oldest currently known hominin presence in Greece, and it pushes back the known archaeological record in the country by up to 250,000 years."

[...] The area has long been known as a source of fossils, and in ancient times huge prehistoric bones dug up there were linked with the Greek myths of a long-vanished race of giants that fought the gods of Olympus. Some ancient writers cited Megalopolis as the site of a major battle in that supernatural war.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Twitter's second head of trust and safety under owner Elon Musk has resigned, according to reports:

Ella Irwin took the post when previous head Yoel Roth left in November 2022 - a month after Mr Musk took over the company.

The head of trust and safety is tasked with content moderation, a topic which has come under the spotlight since Mr Musk's takeover.

The BBC has approached Twitter and Ms Irwin for comment.

She confirmed to both Reuters and the Wall Street Journal that she has stepped down. The reason for her resignation is unclear.

However, it comes a day after Mr Musk publicly criticised a content moderation decision made at Twitter.

He called the decision to limit the visibility of a video over allegations of misgendering, "a mistake by many people at Twitter".

"Whether or not you agree with using someone's preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws," he wrote.

It comes a week after the social media platform pulled out of the European Union's voluntary code to fight disinformation.

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liar writes:

CUPERTINO, California, June 5 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) unveiled an augmented-reality headset called the Apple Vision Pro at its annual software developer conference on Monday, its first big move into a new product category since the introduction of the Apple Watch nine years ago.

CEO Tim Cook described it as "spatial computing" with the device controlled by your eyes, hands and voice.

"It's the first Apple product you look through, not at," Cook said.

Apple's human interface chief Alan Dye said that users will select content inside the goggles with their eyes, tap their fingers together to click and gently flick to scroll.

The device also has an exterior display that shows the user's eyes to people on the outside world. The exterior screen goes dark when a user is fully immersed in a virtual world. When a person approaches a user who is in full virtual mode, the headset will show both the user and the outside person to each other. "You're never isolated from people around you," Dye said. "You can see them, and they can see you."

For work uses, Apple showed how the headset can be used with a trackpad and keyboard to work like a traditional computer with multiple displays.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-expected-reveal-mixed-reality-headset-developer-conference-2023-06-05/

Original Submission

hubie writes:

In mice, the treatment decreased infections caused by the Influenza A virus:

Inhaling low concentrations of ethanol vapor can disable the influenza A virus in mice, without harmful side effects, says a new study by scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). The scientists believe it may also treat similar viruses such as the one that causes Covid-19.

[...] "Ethanol is an effective disinfectant for body surfaces, so we wanted to know whether ethanol could also be effective inside the body," said Dr. Miho Tamai, a scientist in Prof. Ishikawa's lab.

Using a humidifier to produce ethanol vapor in a small container, they found that when mice infected with influenza A inhale the vapor for ten minutes, the virus is inactivated. The study is published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Influenza A viruses accumulate in a thin fluid layer covering lung cells that protect the surface of the airway. The scientists think that the ethanol vapor must increase ethanol concentrations in the fluid to 20% to successfully treat the infection. This concentration is not toxic to lung cells the scientists created in the lab to mimic human cells. At body temperature, 20% ethanol can not only inactivate the influenza A virus outside of the cells in one minute, but also stop the virus from replicating inside these cells.

[...] Influenza A is a virus that has an outer membrane, called an envelope. "Ethanol vapor may also inactivate other enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2," Prof. Ishikawa said, and so far, all viruses that have caused pandemics have been enveloped. "Once the next pandemic happens, maybe we can quickly apply the ethanol vapor inhalation therapy to prevent or cure the disease," he explained.

[...] The researchers believe that ethanol vapor inhalation treatment has great potential as a versatile and cost-effective new therapy against various respiratory infectious diseases. But Prof. Ishikawa cautioned that people should not try using ethanol as a therapy on their own. "That may lead to serious side-effects or explosion risks," he said. "The efficacy and safety of this new treatment on humans and other mammals should be carefully evaluated in the future."

Journal Reference:
Miho Tamai et al., Effect of Ethanol Vapor Inhalation Treatment on Lethal Respiratory Viral Infection With Influenza A, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2023; https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiad089

Original Submission

gawdonblue writes:

Full story here.

Imagine what an airport terminal would be like for a blind person. Unable to see the signs telling you where to go — a great cavernous space full of rushing strangers.

"There's just so much noise from all the travellers and suitcases around you echoing off the floor and walls," says Mick Curran, who has been completely blind since he was 15. "Airports can be pretty overwhelming."

But Mick has had to get used to airports. He and his childhood friend Jamie Teh, who is also blind, are rock stars of the software world and they get around.

"I have learned to roll with it," Jamie tells Australian Story. "Take it as it comes."

Mick and Jamie's disabilities have not been a barrier to success.

The pair created screen-reading software called NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) when they were fresh out of university. Seventeen years later, it's now used by 275,000 people in 175 countries and has been translated into 50 languages.

[...] NVDA had the potential to make them very rich but from the outset, they were determined that the software would be free and open source.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

TeamGroup is demonstrating at Computex 2023 what it claims to be the world's first all-in-one liquid cooling system for hot-running M.2 SSDs:

In a sign of the times in the high-end SSD space, TeamGroup has developed a high-end liquid cooler just for M.2 SSDs. The T-Force Siren GD120S, an all-in-one closed loop liquid cooler with a fairly large M.2 compatible water block and a 120mm radiator. This cooling system will be the company's range-topping cooler for solid-state drives that will guarantee that they are going to hit their maximum performance – by giving them nothing less than an overkill amount of cooling.

For reference, the M.2 spec tops out at a sustained power draw of 14.85W (3.3v @ 4.5A), with momentary excursions as high as 25W. So even with a high-end SSD like a current-generation E26-based drive, the actual cooling needs are limited. However in keeping with true PC style, sometimes you just want to go big – and in those cases there's the Siren.

[...] TeamGroup has been particularly vocal about using liquid cooling for solid-state drives. The company's first liquid-cooled T-Force Cardea Liquid relied on the concept that largely resembled a vapor chamber. Then, the company introduced its T-Force Cardea Liquid II with an all-in-one LCS, but this device has never made it to the market and eventually transformed into a dual CPU and SSD cooler. Now, the company is finally ready to go with a dedicated AIO liquid cooler for M.2 SSDs.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Scientists detected light emitted when a special type of thorium nucleus decayed:

Hickory dickory dock, this nucleus could make a great clock.

A special variety of the element thorium hosts an atomic nucleus that could be used to keep time, scientists say. In a first, researchers have measured a type of decay of this thorium nucleus that releases a single particle of light. The measurement of the energy released in the decay is seven times as precise as estimates based on different types of decays, researchers report in the May 25 Nature. The improved energy measurement could galvanize work toward the first nuclear clock, which would follow in the footsteps of atomic timepieces.

"We have already amazing atomic clocks which run very precisely," says nuclear physicist Sandro Kraemer of KU Leuven in Belgium. Those atomic clocks are based on the physics of the electrons that surround an atom (SN: 10/5/17). A nuclear clock would be based on the atom's nucleus. Some scientists believe nuclear clocks could be even more precise than atomic clocks, which are already such powerful tools that they're used in everything from GPS satellites to experiments that test whether fundamental laws of physics hold true (SN: 6/4/21).

The well-established technology of atomic clocks is based on how an atom's electrons jump into a higher energy state. It takes a specific frequency of light, with just the right amount of energy, to initiate the jump. The oscillation of that light acts like the ticking of a clock. A nuclear clock would be based on similar energy jumps made by a nucleus.

Most atomic nuclei have energy levels too far apart to allow scientists to set the jump off with a laser — a necessity for building a clock. But a particular variety, or isotope, of thorium called thorium-229 has two energy levels unusually close together — about 8 electron volts. Still, no one has been able to initiate the jump with a laser, because the size of that energy gap wasn't precisely known until now.

upstart writes:

No vintage cameras were harmed in the making of this project:

When it comes to historical re-enactments, one thing you don't want to do is break immersion. That's where TankArchives' latest Raspberry Pi project comes into play. Using a Raspberry Pi Zero , he's turned a vintage 1940s Argust [sic] A camera digital thanks to a Raspberry Pi High Quality camera module. Best of all, the original camera was not damaged during the creation of the project. Using this Pi-powered digital camera, TankArchives can capture images while retaining the appropriate look and feel of the era.

The camera used in this project, the Argust A, isn't a terribly expensive antique to acquire. TankArchives explains that you can find a working model for around $50. That said, it's still a historical relic and being a re-enactment fan, it's no surprise TankArchives wanted to preserve it as much as possible.

[...] The software used to capture images was created using a mixture of Python 3 and libcamera2. Picamera2 can also be used and provides a Pythonic means to interact with the camera. According to TankArchives, capturing images is somewhat slow and the unit takes a minute or so to completely boot. Taking a photo requires a couple of seconds to fully capture.

If you want to recreate this Raspberry Pi project or just get a closer look at how it goes together, check out the original thread shared to Reddit by TankArchives.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Comet C/2023 A3 Could Be the Next Great Comet:

Earlier this year, shortly after the excitement of comet C/2022 E3, astronomers found another icy visitor grazing through their images. This comet, C/2023 A3 ( Tsuchinan-Atlas), was discovered independently by ATLAS in South Africa and Tsuchinsan Observatory in China - and given their namesake. But will this one be the great naked-eye comet of the decade we've been waiting for?

[...] Currently , C/2023 A3 is very faint as it flies outside Jupiter's orbit, but the fun will peak next year when it skims closely past the Earth and the Sun. Its perigee, or closest approach to Earth, will occur on October 13 placing the comet less than 0.5 Earth-Sun distances (AU) from our planet. Perihelion will occur shortly before, on September 24 , 2024.

Interestingly, both of these points in the comet's orbit will position it between the Earth and Sun. This "forward scattering event" may bolster the comet's brightness. In this case, sunlight coming from behind the comet, according to our perspective on Earth , is scattered off of dust particles in the comet's coma towards our eyes . As a result, the comet could appear brighter than we would expect, but there is a caveat – its sandwiching between the Earth and the Sun means the best viewing will occur during the evening or morning instead of the darkness of night.

All in all, it is still too soon for us to know precisely what C/2023 A3 will do. Astronomers are still unsure of the comet's size, which could determine whether it breaks apart during an outburst of sublimation or stays intact. The type of ices and their distribution in the comet's nucleus can also affect how its brightness will change. However, with the help of Unistellar Citizen Astronomers, these unknowns aren't keeping SETI scientists from trying to predict how C/2023 A3 will act.

[...] As long as it survives its trip around the Sun, comet C/2023 A3 is bound to ignite a spark in the new generations on our planet. Even Graykowski's conservative estimates, shown in yellow, place the peak brightness at -0.1, which is still brighter than all but a handful of stars in the sky.

[...] As C/2023 A3 journeys closer to our corner of the solar system, researchers and citizen scientists will continue to gather data and watch it intently. Through the diligent efforts of astronomers and the power of the SETI Institute/Unistellar Network, we have obtained valuable glimpses into the early stages of this comet's trek across the solar system to inform us about its future. Stay tuned for 2024!

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Woodpecker helps managers promote new life in burned forests:

"Gigantic, severe fires are becoming the new norm in California due to drought, longer burn seasons and dense forests. But birds do really well in landscapes that are 'pyrodiverse' – areas where fire results in uneven patches burned at high, medium, and low severity," Stillman said.

Black-backed woodpeckers love pyrodiversity. They prefer to build their nest cavities in newly burned areas after high severity fires. But they also like to be adjacent to areas that burned at low intensity, where their young can hide from predators among living trees that still provide cover. Because of the species' unique habitat associations, they are sensitive to the removal of trees after fire, and forest managers use information on the woodpecker to guide their post-fire planning.

After a wildfire, forest managers face difficult decisions about how best to protect and restore the burned areas while balancing the needs of people and wildlife. Sometimes there isn't time to survey wildlife in burned areas, making it hard to choose where to invest in wildlife conservation. To address this need, the researchers developed an online tool to predict the potential abundance of black-backed woodpeckers after fire. Incorporating new information on the value of pyrodiversity made the underlying models more accurate.

"The tool we've created uses data from 11 years of surveys to predict where woodpeckers could be found in the greatest numbers using data available within months after a fire burns," Stillman said. "The birds move in to take advantage of a boom in juicy beetle larvae in the burned trees."

[...] "A burned forest is a unique, incredible and complicated ecosystem that bursts with new life," Stillman said. "At first you think everything is dead. The ground is ash. The trees are black. But as you start walking around, you find that the place is alive. It's not dead, just changed."

Journal Reference:
Andrew N. Stillman, Robert L. Wilkerson, Danielle R. Kaschube, et al., Incorporating pyrodiversity into wildlife habitat assessments for rapid post-fire management: A woodpecker case study, Ecol. App., 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2853

Original Submission

SoylentNews PBC had a proper business meeting on Friday, to discuss events since the shutdown notice was posted.

This meeting was attended by myself, Matt Angel, and kolie. I was on the phone for about two hours, combined with multiple follow ups in DMs.

Let's get the good news out first.

SN PBC has agreed to continue operations for SoylentNews.

We also had a very long extended discussion on what the future may look like and some points brought up by staff or members of the community were discussed.

Let's cover all the major points below.

upstart writes:

Amazon workers walk out to protest return to office mandates and the company's climate impact:

Two employee groups at Amazon have joined together to stage a corporate walk out today, uniting to protest the company's return-to-office policy and to raise concerns about Amazon's climate impact.

Standing in front of Amazon's Seattle Headquarters, the group streamed the event live on Twitter — featuring speakers for both groups advocating for their united cause. Some speakers vented their frustrations with the company's policy to have workers return to the office for at least three days a week, telling stories about how the remote work kicked off by the COVID pandemic bought them precious hours at home with their family and saved them from hours of daily commute time. Another speaker married this idea to the company's climate goals, highlighting how remote work allowed more families to become one-car households. This dovetails into some of the groups' complaints that Amazon is failing to meet its own goals in its climate pledge of reaching zero emissions by 2040.

[...] "We continue to push hard on getting to net carbon zero by 2040, and we have over 400 companies who've joined us in our Climate Pledge. While we all would like to get there tomorrow, for companies like ours who consume a lot of power, and have very substantial transportation, packaging, and physical building assets, it'll take time to accomplish. We remain on track to get to 100% renewable energy by 2025, and will continue investing substantially, inventing and collaborating both internally and externally to reach our goal.

[...] Amazon also estimated that about 300 of the 65,000 corporate and tech employees in the Puget Sound HQ participated in the walkout; it doesn't look like the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice account has yet provided their own estimate for how many people participated.

---

Original Submission

RunningWithWind writes:

https://www.bluesnews.com/

Imagine firing up your brand-new Intel 486DX and waiting those several minutes to show Windows, Open American Online and connect to go to your favorite site about Quake – Blue's News. One of the oldest and still operated Gaming Websites in the world, it is using crowd sourcing for it's articles and editors similar to SoylentNews to share what is happening in the gaming community. Passing it's 25 year anniversary recently, Blue's News continues to give the latest on Diablo to Science related news. Congrats Blue's News!

[Editor's Comment: There are certainly some news items that we haven't covered that will be of interest to our community. But I am never sure - how big IS our gaming community? Hands up please... JR]

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Can ET Detect Us?

What would the Earth look like to an alien civilization located light years away? A team of researchers from Mauritius and Manchester University has used crowd-sourced data to simulate radio leakage from mobile towers and predict what an alien civilization might detect from various nearby stars, including Barnard's star, six light years away from Earth. Ramiro Saide, currently an intern at the SETI Institute's Hat Creek Radio Observatory and M.Phils. student at the University of Mauritius, generated models displaying the radio power that these civilizations would receive as the Earth rotates and the towers rise and set. Saide believes that unless an alien civilization is much more advanced than ours, they would have difficulty detecting the current levels of mobile tower radio leakage from Earth. However, the team suggests that some technical civilizations are likely to have much more sensitive receiving systems than we do, and the detectability of our mobile systems will increase substantially as we move to much more powerful broadband systems.

[...] The team is eager to extend their research to include other contributors to the Earth's radio leakage signature. The next step is to include powerful civilian and military radars, new digital broadcast systems, Wi-Fi networks, individual mobile handsets and the swarm of satellite constellations now being launched into low Earth orbit, such as Elon Musk's Starlink system. According to Garrett, "Current estimates suggest we will have more than one hundred thousand satellites in low Earth orbit and beyond before the end of the decade. The Earth is already anomalously bright in the radio part of the spectrum; if the trend continues, we could become readily detectable by any advanced civilization with the right technology."

arXiv Reference:
Ramiro C. Saide, Michael A. Garrett, Nalini. Heeralall-Issur, Simulation of the Earth's radio leakage from mobile towers as seen from selected nearby stellar systems, arXiv:2304.13779

Original Submission

RunningWithWind writes:

https://www.callapple.org/software/apple-ii-desktop-1-3-alpha-7-released/

Joshua Bell has been quietly working on updating the Apple II Desktop and with the most recent release this month there 18 updates to the GUI. Polishing an OS from long ago shows how much people love retro computing and how it still has a place in people's lives.

[...] He has also announce[d] that there may be a potential Beta of the program next week sometime but for now the Alpha 7 release is available for free download from the Apple II Desktop Github page at:
https://github.com/a2stuff/a2d/releases/tag/v1.3-alpha7

The entire source for the program as well as releases in a variety of languages and localizations are available for download from the page as well as several different storage formats. Documentation for the Apple II Desktop and accessories is available at:
https://www.a2desktop.com/docs

Original Submission