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hubie writes:

Online art viewing is an untapped source of support for well-being:

Art can have a positive effect on our mood. But does this also work when we look at paintings on a screen? An international research team involving the University of Vienna, the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main decided to investigate this question. The study was funded by the EU Horizon ART*IS Project. The results have now been published as an open access article in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

240 study participants viewed an interactive Monet Water Lily art exhibition from Google Arts and Culture. By filling out a questionnaire, they provided information about their state of mind, how much pleasure they felt when looking at the pictures, and how meaningful they considered the experience to be. The results showed significant improvements in mood and anxiety after just a few minutes of viewing.

The study also found that some participants were more receptive to art than others and were able to benefit more. This advantage could be predicted using a metric called "aesthetic responsiveness."

Journal Reference:
Trupp et al., Who benefits from online art viewing, and how: The role of pleasure, meaningfulness, and trait aesthetic responsiveness in computer-based art interventions for well-being [open], Computers in Human Behavior, 145, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107764

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upstart writes:

YouTube Threatens to Cut Off Ad Blocker Users After Just Three Ad-less Vids:

Google is testing how it can stop users from watching ad-free videos as ad revenue declines.

As first spotted by BleepingComputer, a Reddit user posted a screenshot to the r/youtube subreddit showing the message "Video player will be blocked after 3 videos."

The message further states that YouTube detected the user had an ad blocker installed, and then offered the option to either allow YouTube ads or try YouTube Premium, the $11.99 ad-free subscription service. The service's family plan recently saw a bump in price from $17.99 to $22.99 a month. "Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide," the message reads.

A YouTube spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that it was running a "small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium." The spokesperson added that "Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers."

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JoeMerchant writes:

https://earthsky.org/space/interstellar-meteor-papua-new-guinea-2014-u-s-space-command/

In 2019, two researchers from Harvard University – Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb, both of whom had published on 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov earlier – also wrote a study of this meteor, suggesting its interstellar origins. If true, then this meteor – which predates both 'Oumuamua and Comet Borisov by a few years – would be the first known interstellar object.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/harvard-scientist-avi-loeb-claims-collected-remains-of-extraterrestrial-technology-from-bottom-of-the-pacific-101688188241635.html

Deep-sea explorers found 50 spherules–molten droplets, about half a millimetre in diameter.

Loeb's team collected 35 milligrams of this promising material by dragging a large magnetic sled across the surface of the ocean. The astrophysicist believes that the spherules are most likely made from a steel-titanium alloy

"The spherules were found primarily along the most likely path of IM1 and not in control regions far from it," read his blog. "In the coming weeks, we will analyze their elemental and isotopic composition and report our data in a paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal."

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/summary-of-the-successful-interstellar-expedition-61ff4467070d

These sub-millimeter-sized spheres, which appear under a microscope as beautiful metallic marbles, were concentrated along the expected path of IM1 — about 85 kilometers off the coast of Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

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It's just un-spectacular enough to be believable.

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fab23 writes:

France's browser-based website blocking proposal will set a disastrous precedent for the open internet

In a well-intentioned yet dangerous move to fight online fraud, France is on the verge of forcing browsers to create a dystopian technical capability. Article 6 (para II and III) of the SREN Bill would force browser providers to create the means to mandatorily block websites present on a government provided list. Such a move will overturn decades of established content moderation norms and provide a playbook for authoritarian governments that will easily negate the existence of censorship circumvention tools.

While motivated by a legitimate concern, this move to block websites directly within the browser would be disastrous for the open internet and disproportionate to the goals of the legal proposal – fighting fraud. It will also set a worrying precedent and create technical capabilities that other regimes will leverage for far more nefarious purposes. Leveraging existing malware and phishing protection offerings rather than replacing them with government provided, device level block-lists is a far better route to achieve the goals of the legislation.

[...] Browsers have played a critical role in the growth of the web by serving as user agents that mediate our experiences with the internet. This role, which Mozilla has been an integral actor in for over 25 years via Firefox, is based on some fundamental presumptions that enable browsers to focus on serving the interests of their users while keeping content regulation decisions further up the chain with either network intermediaries (such as ISPs) or service providers (websites).

The two most commonly used malware and phishing protection systems in the industry are Google's Safe Browsing and Microsoft's Smart Screen, where Mozilla (along with Apple, Brave, and many others) use Google's Safe Browsing. The Safe Browsing service has been around since at least 2005 and currently protects close to half the world's online population on various devices and software. It covers malware, unwanted software, and social engineering (phishing and other deceptive sites). It also has broad policies that are fairly robust and is also available via a free API, which makes it a more cost effective way for organisations to protect users.

upstart writes:

Janitor heard 'annoying alarms' and turned off freezer, ruining 20 years of school research worth $1 million, lawsuit says:

A university janitor who turned off a freezer after hearing multiple "annoying alarms," ruined more than 20 years of research, according to a lawsuit filed against his employer by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York.

[...] The lab's freezer contained over 20 years of research, including cell cultures and samples, to which a "small temperature fluctuation of three degrees would cause catastrophic damage," according to the lawsuit filed with the Rensselaer County Supreme Court.

[...] The lawsuit states that cell cultures and specimens in the freezer needed to be maintained at -80 degrees Celsius and a small fluctuation of 3 degrees would cause damage, so alarms would sound if the temperature increased to -78 degrees or decreased to -82 degrees.

K.V. Lakshmi, a professor and director of the school's Baruch '60 Center for Biochemical Solar Energy Research who oversaw the research, noticed the freezer alert went off on or around September 14, 2020, because its temperature had risen to -78 degrees, according to the suit.

Despite the alarm, Lakshmi and her team determined that the cell samples would be safe until emergency repairs could be done, the suit said. While Lakshmi waited for the freezer's manufacturer to come perform repairs, her team added a safety lock box around the freezer's outlet and socket. A warning was posted on the freezer, according to the court filing.

[...] But, on September 17, the janitor heard what he later called "annoying alarms," according to the suit. In apparent attempt to be helpful, he flipped the circuit breakers, which provided electricity to the freezer, mistakenly turning them from "on" to "off," according to the lawsuit. It said the freezer's temperature rose to -32 degrees Celsius.

The next day, research students found the freezer switched off and despite attempts to preserve the research, a majority of the cultures were "compromised, destroyed, and rendered unsalvageable demolishing more than twenty years of research," the lawsuit states.

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upstart writes:

Rocky Strikes Back At Red Hat:

The world of Linux has seen some disquiet over recent weeks following the decision of Red Hat to restrict source code distribution for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to only their paying customers. We're sure that there will be plenty of fall-out to come from this news, but what can be done if your project relies upon access to those Red Hat sources?

The Red-Hat-derived Rocky Linux distro relies on access to RHEL source, so the news could have been something of a disaster. Fortunately for Rocky users though, they appear to have found a reliable way to bypass the restriction and retain access to those RHEL sources. Red Hat would like anyone wanting source access to pay them handsomely for the privilege, but the Rocky folks have spotted a way to bypass this. Using readily available cloud images they can spin up a RHEL system and use it to download their sources, and they can do this as an automated process.

We covered this story as it unfolded last week, and it seemed inevitable then that something of this nature would be found, as for all Red Hat's wishes a GPL-licensed piece of code can't be prevented from being shared. So Rocky users and the wider community will for now retain access to the code, but will Red Hat strike back? It's inevitable that there will be a further backlash from the community against any such moves, but will Red Hat be foolhardy enough to further damage their standing in this regard?

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Not the iPhone maker's first think-of-the-children rodeo:

Apple has joined the rapidly growing chorus of tech organizations calling on British lawmakers to revise the nation's Online Safety Bill – which for now is in the hands of the House of Lords – so that it safeguards strong end-to-end encryption.

"End-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats," Apple argued in a statement to the media.

"It also helps everyday citizens defend themselves from surveillance, identity theft, fraud, and data breaches. The Online Safety Bill poses a serious threat to this protection, and could put UK citizens at greater risk."

Apple, you may remember, announced in December 2022 that it will provide end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for most iCloud services.

"Apple urges the government to amend the bill to protect strong end-to-end encryption for the benefit of all," the iGiant's statement on the internet bill continued.

[...] As the draft law is currently written, the UK's communications watchdog Ofcom will have the power to instruct chat app makers and other tech companies to monitor conversations and posts for child sexual abuse material and terrorism content. Such data should be blocked or deleted when found, and potentially even reported to the cops, the government hopes.

If that doesn't lead to apps watering down or backdooring their E2EE so that data can be inspected in transit, it may bring about automated on-device scanning, which could end up censoring people's private chats or leaking them to the authorities – whether illegal activity was correctly or incorrectly detected. Such technology would be government-accredited, which means the app makers may have little choice over its eventual implementation.

upstart writes:

The quantum equivalent to shooting your own feet:

A few weeks ago, Iran broke through worldwide media due to its announcement that the country had successfully developed and deployed quantum computing products to aid in its military operations. But even as Iran's Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari smiled at the cameras present in the announcement, the tech world was quick to notice that the gold-plaqued board being showcased as an example of the country's work on quantum computing was nothing more than an Amazon-available, ARM-based FPGA (Field-Programable Gate Array) development board.

It seems Iran took a bit longer than one would expect to actually run the numbers on its "quantum computing product." Only recently, the country issued an official withdrawal statement admitting that there was no quantum at all to its quantum announcement.

"The unveiling of the FPGA board in the said conference has conveyed this false mentality to the country's media space that the said board is a quantum processor, which was not the case," said the research vice chancellor for Imam Khomeini University (machine translation via Tasnim News). Note that the issue isn't with the announcement itself and how it was worded. Apparently, the issue was with the country's media.

Even so, the research vice chancellor insisted that Iran is indeed looking into quantum computing as an aid for its armed forces' missions, adding that "the principle of the problem of the proposed algorithm, dealing with the disturbance of surface vessels' positioning systems, is important and approved for the promotion of maritime security."

owl writes:

http://www.righto.com/2023/07/the-complex-history-of-intel-i960-risc.html

The Intel i960 was a remarkable 32-bit processor of the 1990s with a confusing set of versions. Although it is now mostly forgotten (outside the many people who used it as an embedded processor), it has a complex history. It had a shot at being Intel's flagship processor until x86 overshadowed it. Later, it was the world's best-selling RISC processor. One variant was a 33-bit processor with a decidedly non-RISC object-oriented instruction set; it became a military standard and was used in the F-22 fighter plane. Another version powered Intel's short-lived Unix servers. In this blog post, I'll take a look at the history of the i960, explain its different variants, and examine silicon dies. This chip has a lot of mythology and confusion (especially on Wikipedia), so I'll try to clear things up.

The ancestry of the i960 starts in 1975, when Intel set out to design a "micro-mainframe", a revolutionary processor that would bring the power of mainframe computers to microprocessors. This project, eventually called the iAPX 432, was a huge leap in features and complexity. Intel had just released the popular 8080 processor in 1974, an 8-bit processor that kicked off the hobbyist computer era with computers such as the Altair and IMSAI. However, 8-bit microprocessors were toys compared to 16-bit minicomputers like the PDP-11, let alone mainframes like the 32-bit IBM System/370. Most companies were gradually taking minicomputer and mainframe features and putting them into microprocessors, but Intel wanted to leapfrog to a mainframe-class 32-bit processor. The processor would make programmers much more productive by bridging the "semantic gap" between high-level languages and simple processors, implementing many features directly into the processor.

The 432 processor included memory management, process management, and interprocess communication. These features were traditionally part of the operating system, but Intel built them in the processor, calling this the "Silicon Operating System". The processor was also one of the first to implement the new IEEE 754 floating-point standard, still in use by most processors. The 432 also had support for fault tolerance and multi-processor systems. One of the most unusual features of the 432 was that instructions weren't byte aligned. Instead, instructions were between 6 and 321 bits long, and you could jump into the middle of a byte. Another unusual feature was that the 432 was a stack-based machine, pushing and popping values on an in-memory stack, rather than using general-purpose registers.

Original Submission

Potential Genetic Markers of Multiple Sclerosis Severity

upstart writes:

Genes Linked to Most Severe Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis:

In a bid to determine factors linked to the most debilitating forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have identified three so-called "complement system" genes that appear to play a role in MS-caused vision loss. The researchers were able to single out these genes — known to be integral in the development of the brain and immune systems — by using DNA from MS patients along with high-tech retinal scanning.

If further studies confirm the researcher's findings, reported in the September issue of Brain, the investigators say they could serve as markers for monitoring and predicting progression and severity of MS, an unpredictable disorder in which the immune system eats away at protective insulation around nerve cells. This approach, the researchers say, represents the beginning of precision medicine for MS and may ultimately allow designer therapies, as is being done for specific cancers.

In MS, nerve communication breaks down over time between the brain and the rest of the body, causing chronic and/or intermittent muscle spasms, tremors, imbalance, pain, numbness, depression, loss of bladder or bowel control and vision problems. MS is more common in women, and symptoms vary widely.

"Although we have treatments for the type of MS where symptoms come on in bursts — called relapsing-remitting MS — we don't have any way to stop the kind of MS in which the nerve cells start to die, known as progressive MS," says Peter Calabresi, M.D., professor of neurology and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine Center of Excellence for Multiple Sclerosis. "We believe that our study opens up a new line of investigation targeting complement genes as a potential way to treat disease progression and nerve cell death."

For their study, the researchers used optical coherence tomography -- an imaging technique that allowed the researchers to look at the back of each patient's eyes and assess damage to the nerve cells in the retina -- in 374 patients with all types of MS. The patients were an average of 43 years old and mostly women (78%).

liar writes:

NASA's Mars helicopter 'phones home' after no contact for 63 days. https://nordot.app/1047625013294923986?c=592622757532812385

Washington (AFP) - Long time, no speak: NASA has re-established contact with the intrepid Ingenuity Mars Helicopter after more than two months of radio silence, the space agency said Friday

[...] Ingenuity's 52nd flight launched on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California lost contact as it descended to the surface following its two minute, 1,191-foot (363-meter) hop...

The loss of communications was expected, because a hill stood between Ingenuity and Perseverance, which acts as a relay between the drone and Earth.

"Ingenuity is designed to take care of itself when communication gaps like this occur, but we all still had a sense of relief finally hearing back."

Data so far indicates that the heli is in good shape. If further health checks also come back normal, Ingenuity will be all set for its next flight, westward toward a rocky outcrop the Perseverance team is interested in exploring.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

First of its kind study quantifies mental and physical health value of urban parks:

A new framework developed by University of Waterloo researchers demonstrates the significant economic health savings and benefits from urban park investments.

In the first case study of its kind in Canada, researchers looked at Peterborough's new Quaker Foods City Square park, which cost taxpayers $6.4 million, and have estimated the economic value of physical and mental health benefits that could come from it at more than $4 million per year. The framework considers the health savings associated with improved mental health and better air quality, the avoided economic burden of physical inactivity and higher life satisfaction.

The study demonstrates the value of developing and enhancing urban parks as a strategy to improve population health and well-being, and as a means of cost savings to the medical system.

"Investments in urban parks are among the soundest financial decisions a community can make," said Jeffrey Wilson, professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development. "When you consider the population health benefits, the value of lessening climate-related impacts and the role of parks to support economic development, we see how parks provide a large payback."

Journal Reference:
Wilson, Jeffrey, and Xiao Xiao. 2023. "The Economic Value of Health Benefits Associated with Urban Park Investment" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 6: 4815. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064815

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Drone deployed to fight mosquitoes in Southern California:

A drone flies over a peaceful Southern California marsh and unleashes a rain of larvae-killing bacterial spore pellets. Its target: a surging population of mosquitoes that can spread diseases to humans.

The drone is the latest technology deployed by the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District to attack mosquito development in marshes, large ponds and parks.

[...] Common methods of applying anti-mosquito treatments involve use of backpack sprayers, trucks, airplanes and helicopters. The drone allows more precise treatments and avoids the need to trample through sensitive lands, according to the district.

[...] The drone is flown higher than all nesting birds and allows access to places that can't be reached by a person with a backpack sprayer or trucks, Nguyen said.

Nguyen said the drone is able to treat 1 acre (0.4 hectares) of land in under two minutes, a task that would take more than an hour of hiking by a worker with a backpack.

[...] The anti-mosquito treatment is not harmful to other wildlife.

"The mosquito larvae are filter feeders, so they feed on the bacteria," Savage said. "It enters their gut and it's a growth regulator. So essentially—if you guys have seen the movie 'Alien'—it blows their stomach out."

[...] So far this year, West Nile has not been detected in the Orange County district but Nguyen is nowhere near declaring victory over the pests.

"It's more of a battle," he said. "You're not going to win the war against mosquitoes, but you can gain some ground. And with advancements in technology, we're gaining ground."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Virgin Galactic's First Commercial Spaceflight Is A Success - SlashGear:

Virgin Galactic, the private space tourism company, announced today that it has completed its first ever commercial space flight without a hitch. This mission, titled "Galactic 01," was crewed by six people total, including members of the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy.

[...] In August, Virgin Galactic plans on launching the "Galactic 02" mission, and thereafter begin monthly flights.

The VSS Unity reached speeds of Mach 2.88 and an apogee (greatest distance of an orbiting object) of 52.9 miles. This successful flight comes after test flights resumed last month, nearly two years after no successful space missions were conducted. Virgin Galactic sets itself apart from more conventional space missions that utilize large multi-stage rockets like the ones used by NASA, and other private space companies like SpaceX.

[...] If you want to take part in a Virgin Galactic space mission, you can sign up, and it will set you back a cool $450,000.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/06/its-summer-and-that-means-disturbing-swim-advisories-heres-our-top-5/

It's summer, and that means health organizations will be periodically showering Americans with reminders of how public swimming venues are actually nightmarish cesspits teeming with microbes that can burn your eyes, ravage your intestines, and eat your brains.

In attempts to communicate some pretty basic health advice—like, don't pee or poop in a public pool and try to avoid gulping toxic algae from lakes—health organizations create a mesmerizing fountain of hilarious, graphic, disturbing, clumsy, and sometimes perplexing advisories.

Given this wellspring of vomitus summer fun, here are our picks for the top five public health advisories bobbing in the waters this summer.
[...]
3. The dipstick test

If swimming pools suddenly seem too confining and ill-equipped to handle the loaded loads we're plunging, maybe a swim in a nice, big, natural lake sounds nice this summer? Think again.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services wants to ensure you don't swim in any toxin-toting blooms of blue-green algae. In helpful, picture-based tips, the department advises against swimming in water that looks like green pea soup or green latex paint—in case any of those options seemed enticing. Dead fish and "floating scum, globs, or mats" are also (apparently not obvious) signs to stay away.

Original Submission