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upstart writes:

An update to Google's privacy policy suggests that the entire public internet is fair game for its AI projects:

Google updated its privacy policy over the weekend, explicitly saying the company reserves the right to scrape just about everything you post online to build its AI tools. If Google can read your words, assume they belong to the company now, and expect that they're nesting somewhere in the bowels of a chatbot.

"Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the public," the new Google policy says. "For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google's AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities."

[...] Previously, Google said the data would be used "for language models," rather than "AI models," and where the older policy just mentioned Google Translate, Bard and Cloud AI now make an appearance.

This is an unusual clause for a privacy policy. Typically, these policies describe ways that a business uses the information that you post on the company's own services. Here, it seems Google reserves the right to harvest and harness data posted on any part of the public web, as if the whole internet is the company's own AI playground. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Original Submission

acid andy writes:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/29/a-war-on-nature-rangers-build-mountain-out-of-wildlife-traps-found-in-uganda-park

"Over the past 10 years, we've removed about 47 tonnes of snares and bear traps," says Michael Keigwin, the founder of Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF), a charity that works with the country's wildlife authorities.

Speaking from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Keigwin is referring to a set of photographs showing a 12-tonne pile of tangled snares and metal traps. The images, showing Ugandan government rangers posing with the traps, illustrate an African success story and a world of pain, say those who helped create it.

The pile, nicknamed "snare mountain", was collected over 12 months as part of continuing conservation efforts at Uganda's Murchison Falls national park. At the bottom are so-called bear traps, used by poachers to catch elephants, hippos and lions. At the top are wire snares used for smaller animals.

[...] To put the reusable traps beyond the reach of poachers for good, the pile, like others before it, is being buried in the foundations of the park's new buildings, which include ranger accommodation, an armoury, a veterinary lab and a police station.

As well as funding trap collection, Global Conservation is providing Keigwin's UCF team with close to $1m (£800,000) for park management, ranger and anti-poaching equipment, community development and "ecoguard" training. Ecoguards live in the surrounding communities and their jobs include snare collection and alerting rangers to wildlife that wander out of the park's protected zone and need to be returned.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The sun hasn't produced this many sunspots in a single month since 2002:

The sun produced over 160 sunspots in June, the highest monthly number in more than two decades.

The data confirm that the current solar cycle, the 25th since records began, is picking up intensity at a much quicker pace than NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasted, sparking concerns of severe space weather events in the months and years to come.

While the space agencies predicted a maximum monthly number of sunspots during the 25th solar cycle's maximum to reach a modest 125, the star is now on a trajectory to peak at just under 200 monthly sunspots, and some scientists think this peak may arrive in just one year.

[...] And contrary to the original NASA and NOAA forecast, this maximum might get rather fiery. More sunspots means not only more solar flares but also more coronal mass ejections, powerful eruptions of charged particles that make up solar wind. And that can mean bad space weather on Earth. Intense bursts of solar wind can penetrate Earth's magnetic field and supercharge particle's in Earth's atmosphere, which triggers mesmerizing aurora displays but also causes serious problems to power grids and satellites in Earth's orbit.

upstart writes:

India signing the Artemis Accords is a historic win for space exploration:

A few days after Ecuador signed the Artemis Accords, India signed as well. Not only that, the United States and India will embark on a number of space cooperation initiatives, including a visit to the International Space Station by Indian astronauts.

India is one of the world's most advanced space powers, just behind the United States and China. Russia used to be second, behind the United States, but its status as any kind of space power has steadily deteriorated.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has grown tremendously since its humble beginnings in the 1970s. With the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) (renamed as the Launch Vehicle Mark 3) India has its own launch industry and is therefore not dependent on foreign providers.

[...] All in all, India's space program is a burgeoning powerhouse that is returning value on a number of levels to that South Asia nation. But what does India gain by signing the Artemis Accords? What does NASA gain by the ISRO becoming a closer partner in the quest to return humans to the moon and eventually send them to Mars?

As Space News notes, India's joining the Artemis Accords is just part of an expanded space cooperation regime between that country and the United States. An Indian astronaut will, in short order, visit the International Space Station. India will gain expanded access to NASA technology. Ultimately, that country will be part of the greatest adventure humankind has ever undertaken, the Artemis return to the moon program, provided that Congress doesn't cripple or kill it for budget reasons.

upstart writes:

VMware, Other Tech Giants Announce Push for Confidential Computing Standards:

In conjunction with the 2023 Confidential Computing Summit last week, VMware announced a partnership with tech giants to accelerate the development of confidential computing applications.

Confidential computing relies on a trusted execution environment that ensures the integrity and confidentiality of applications and data, even in the cloud and on third-party infrastructure.

With the emergence of multi-cloud deployments and machine learning, confidential computing is expected to help protect intellectual property and sensitive data, but its adoption lags due to difficulties in creating applications for it.

To help overcome obstacles in implementing confidential computing, VMware has been working on a developer-focused Certifier Framework for Confidential Computing project that now has support from AMD, Samsung, and members of the RISC-V Keystone community.

In a push for the adoption of confidential computing, the open source Certifier Framework provides a standardized, platform-agnostic API for building and operating confidential computing applications, which is paired with a policy evaluation server, the Certifier Service.

[...] The accompanying Certifier Service supports trust management, including attestation evaluation, application upgrade, and other related services.

[...] VMware is inviting the community to review and contribute to the open source Certifier Framework, to standardize the platform-independent APIs and to drive the development of confidential computing code for x86, Arm, and RISC-V ecosystems.

"Confidential Computing has the potential to secure workloads no matter where they run including in multi-cloud and edge settings. The challenge has been to help customers adopt and implement the standard with ease," VMware CTO Kit Colbert said.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

First flying car approved by FAA, now available for preorder:

Under experimental status, the first flying car has officially been cleared for take off.

This week, Alef Aeronautics revealed its flying car "Model A" was granted legal permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to test run the vehicle on the road and in the sky − a move needed before it can be released to the public.

Alef is the first company to receive a Special Airworthiness Certification from the FAA, the company said in a news release. The certification limits the locations and purpose for which the vehicle is allowed to fly.

The vehicle will also need to meet National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration safety standards before taking flight.

But the company's CEO Jim Dukhovny says the company is "hopeful" the certification "will be our next step."

[...] The flying car is now available for preorder, the Santa Clara, California-based company posted on its website. Carrying one or two occupants, the vehicle will sell for about $300,000.

The "Model A" is 100% electric, drivable on public roads and has vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, the company wrote in its release.

The car will be a Low Speed Vehicle, meaning it won't go faster than about 25 miles per hour on a paved surface. If a driver needs a faster route, they will be able to use the vehicle's flight capabilities, according to Alef.

As of Friday, presales were open, with interested customers able to pay a $150 deposit to get on the waiting list, or $1,500 for a priority spot on the list's queue.

[...] Buyers will be able to complete their configuration as production nears, the company, backed by a Tesla investor, said.

The company said it plans to start delivering the vehicles to customers by late 2025.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

On paper, OLED displays can last for 100 years - if it wasn't for one color:

If humans could not see blue colors, then one of the biggest problems of OLED technology would have been quickly solved, namely the short shelf life of blue OLE diodes. If the need for the blue diodes did not exist, OLED panels could last over 100 years, or about a million hours.

That's what University of Michigan professors Stephen R. Forrest and Chris Giebink said at the recent Display Week in Los Angeles during a four-hour short course designed to look at the current state of OLED technology. But since OLED technology is only a little over 35 years old, these numbers are based on aging tests.

That green OLEDs in particular don't have a problem with durability can definitely be judged in practice by now. When Sony installed green OLED displays in its Walkman almost 20 years ago, few would have thought that they would still work. However, the author of these lines owns such an Atrac Walkman himself, whose display still shines in excellent quality.

However, only green (or red) displays would only be suitable for special applications. This includes, for example, the digital signage sector For a real display, it is not possible without the color blue and the problems have not been completely solved even 35 years after the emergence of the technology, although they have been greatly reduced.

The durability of a panel is increased by various tricks. Important for the blue pixels: They have to stay cool. To achieve this, the surface area is increased and the brightness is reduced in relation to the surface area. In turn, green OLEDs, for example, can be very small and shine extremely brightly. As Forrest said, the green OLEDs in an iPhone shine at around 10,000 candela per square meter.

So it's the mix that matters (at the moment). To put that in perspective, even the brightest iPhone Pro only manages 1,600 in HDR mode (2,000 outdoors), and that's only in a small space for peak light. Bright light (and thus high temperatures in the panel) reduces the battery life enormously.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Cash or card? Consumers pay strategically to forget guilty purchases, study shows:

"Will you be paying with cash or card?"

It's a question that's been asked of consumers for decades. And despite the increasing popularity of digital payment methods, cash and card remain the most popular choices worldwide. In 2021, 65 percent of all point-of-sale transactions globally were made using cash or card, according to Fidelity National Information Services.

Past research shows that 90 percent of households use multiple payment methods, but new research from the University of Notre Dame takes a first look into how consumers choose between them. The study finds that the justifiability of a purchase affects how consumers choose to pay.

[...] "When a purchase is difficult to justify — like buying an overpriced bottle of water at the airport, cigarettes or candy — consumers pay with less-trackable methods, like cash, so they can eliminate the paper or electronic trail and 'forget' this guilty purchase," said Bechler, who specializes in consumer behavior and social psychology with an emphasis on attitudes, persuasion and financial decision-making. "When a purchase is easy to justify, consumers have no problem paying with trackable methods like credit cards that create paper or electronic trails."

Despite the vast amount of research on financial decision-making in behavioral economics, consumer behavior and social psychology, this is the first study to take an in-depth look at how consumers choose to pay.

upstart writes:

ECMAScript 2023 spec for JavaScript finalized:

ECMAScript 2023, an update to the official specification for the JavaScript programming language, has been approved by ECMA International. The new spec adds new methods for searching and changing arrays, extends the WeakMap API to allow unique symbols, and introduces some standardization for the use of hashbangs.

Approved on June 27, the ECMAScript 2023 specification cites the following synopsis of improvements:

ECMAScript 2023, the 14th edition, introduced the toSorted, toReversed, with, findLast, and findLastIndex methods on Array.prototype and TypedArray.prototype, as well as the toSpliced method on Array.prototype; added support for #! comments at the beginning of files to better facilitate executable ECMAScript files; and allowed the use of most Symbols as keys in weak collections.

The finished proposals, published by the ECMA TC39 (Technical Committee 39) on GitHub, elaborate on the four features to be published this year:

• Array find from last, a proposal for .findlast() and .findLastIndex() methods on array and typed array. Finding an element in an array is a very common programming pattern, the proposal states. Scenarios under which this feature would be used include when a developer knows that finding an element from last to first may have better performance, or developers care about the order of the elements.
• Permitting symbols as keys in WeakMap keys, a proposal that extends the WeakMap API to allow the use of unique symbols as keys. Currently, WeakMaps are limited to allow only objects as keys.
• Change array by copy, a proposal that provides additional methods on Array.prototype and TypedArray.prototype to enable changes on the array by returning a new copy of it with the change.
• Hashbang grammar, a proposal to match the de facto usage in some CLI JS hosts that allow for Shebangs/Hashbang. These hosts strip the hashbang to generate valid JS source texts before passing to JS engines. This plan would move the stripping to engines and unify and standardize how that is done.

Updated versions of ECMAScript traditionally are finalized by ECMA in June. Last year's ECMAScript 2022 featured class elements and top-level await capabilities.

Original Submission

So, I know its been a bit quiet here, but we're working through getting through the last few items relating to cutting over to newer infrastructure. As such, its been working through the bug list, and there's one issue I want to get some feedback on.

Back in November when the infrastructure was upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04, a few users with older devices stopped being able to connect to SoylentNews. This confused me, since we've been using the same NGINX SSL termination setup that has been in use since at least 2016. Well, I finally found the root cause, and as it turns out, Canonical bumped up the minimum OpenSSL security level, which disabled several ciphers, and broke devices not supporting TLS 1.2 or later.

By testing the site with the SSL Labs site checker, it appears anything older than Android 4.0, or iOS 5 is broken. This mostly seems to be devices that are over a decade old at this point, and won't be able to browse the vast majority of sites on the Internet as is. We discussed this internally a bit, and I'm of the opinion that its not worth re-enabling the older ciphers to allow these devices to reconnect, especially since we're working to modernize the stack, and get it as up to date as we can get it. I also believe we had very few users who were actually affected by this, however, as the editors did get a few emails about SN breaking after the site upgrade, I wanted to poll the community, and make sure this is not a more widespread issue than initially believed.

Ultimately, this is going to be part of a broader discussion on what we will and won't support on SoylentNews going forward, and this seems as good of place as any to get the ball rolling.

~ NCommander

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

Original Submission

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."

Original Submission

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.

-------

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

Original Submission

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.

Original Submission