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hubie writes:

Scientists have devised a new technique for finding and vetting possible radio signals from other civilizations in our galaxy:

Most of todays SETI searches are conducted by Earth-based radio telescopes, which means that any ground or satellite radio interference ranging from Starlink satellites to cellphones, microwaves and even car engines can produce a radio blip that mimics a technosignature of a civilization outside our solar system. Such false alarms have raised and then dashed hopes since the first dedicated SETI program began in 1960.

Currently, researchers vet these signals by pointing the telescope in a different place in the sky, then return a few times to the spot where the signal was originally detected to confirm it wasn't a one-off. Even then, the signal could be something weird produced on Earth.

The new technique, developed by researchers at the Breakthrough Listen project at the University of California, Berkeley, checks for evidence that the signal has actually passed through interstellar space, eliminating the possibility that the signal is mere radio interference from Earth.

canopic jug writes:

Google has rolled out plans to drop the Ogg Theora video codec from its Chrome web browser starting M123. The removal of that open standard for video will trickle down through Chromium and its derivatives.

Chrome will deprecate and remove support for the Theora video codec in desktop Chrome due to emerging security risks. Theora's low (and now often incorrect) usage no longer justifies support for most users.

Notes:
- Zero day attacks against media codecs have spiked.
- Usage has fallen below measurable levels in UKM.
- The sites we manually inspected before levels dropped off were incorrectly preferring Theora over more modern codecs like VP9.
- It's never been supported by Safari or Chrome on Android.
- An ogv.js polyfill exists for the sites that still need Theora support.
- We are not removing support for ogg containers.

Our plan is to begin escalating experiments turning down Theora support in M120. During this time users can reactivate Theora support via chrome://flags/#theora-video-codec if needed.

The tentative timeline for this is (assuming everything goes smoothly):
- ~Oct 23, 2023: begin 50/50 canary dev experiments.
- ~Nov 1-6, 2023: begin 50/50 beta experiments.
- ~Dec 6, 2023: begin 1% stable experiments.
- ~Jan 8, 2024: begin 50% stable experiments.
- ~Jan 16th, 2024: launch at 100%.
- ~Feb 2024: remove code and chrome://flag in M123.
- ~Mar 2024: Chrome 123 will roll to stable.

Google is going with unstable and insecure WebP. In contrast, Ogg Theora is both patent-free and mature. The last CVE for Theora was in 2011. Any word as to which patents affect WebP?

Original Submission

hubie writes:

'This significantly increases the chances of finding environments where life could, in theory, develop.'

The chances of finding alien life may have just gotten a significant boost.

A new analysis of exoplanets suggests that there is a much greater chance than previously thought of these worlds hosting liquid water, an essential ingredient for life on Earth.

The universe could therefore be filled with more habitable planets than scientists had previously believed, with a greater chance of these worlds possessing environments in which alien life could develop, even if they have icy outer shells.

"We know that the presence of liquid water is essential for life. Our work shows that this water can be found in places we had not much considered," research leader and Rutgers University scientist Lujendra Ojha said in a statement. "This significantly increases the chances of finding environments where life could, in theory, develop."

[...] "Before we started to consider this subsurface water, it was estimated that around one rocky planet [in] every 100 stars would have liquid water," Ojha explained. "The new model shows that, if the conditions are right, this could approach one planet per star. So we are 100 times more likely to find liquid water than we thought."

Because there are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, "that represents really good odds for the origin of life elsewhere in the universe," he added.

How icy worlds could hold on to liquid water

The researchers investigated planets found around the most common type of stars in our galaxy, red dwarfs, which are smaller and cooler than the sun. Not only do red dwarfs, also known as M-dwarfs, make up about 70% of the stars in the Milky Way, but they are also the stars around which the majority of Earth-like rocky worlds have been found.

[...] Not only has this effect made Europa and Enceladus prime candidates for finding life elsewhere in the solar system, but it has implications for life-maintaining environments on worlds orbiting other stars.

NASA will soon explore at least one ice world, albeit within the bounds of the solar system: Its Europa Clipper probe is scheduled to launch toward the Jovian system in 2024 and arrive six years later.

[...] "The prospect of oceans hidden under ice sheets expands our galaxy's potential for more habitable worlds," Méndez said. "The major challenge is to devise ways to detect these habitats by future telescopes."

Journal Reference:
Ojha, L., Troncone, B., Buffo, J. et al. Liquid water on cold exo-Earths via basal melting of ice sheets. Nat Commun 13, 7521 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35187-4

Original Submission

upstart writes:

I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta because I teach Python:

I'm a full-time instructor in Python and Pandas, teaching in-person courses at companies around the world (e.g., Apple and Cisco) and with a growing host of online products, including video courses and a paid newsletter with weekly Pandas exercises. Like many online entrepreneurs, I've experimented with a host of different products over the years, some free and some paid. And like many other online entrepreneurs, I've had some hit products and some real duds.

A number of years ago, I decided to advertise some of my products on Facebook. I ran a bunch of ads, none of which were particularly successful, mostly because I didn't put a lot of effort into them. I decided to try other things, and basically forgot about my advertising account.

It was only a year or so ago that I thought that maybe, just maybe, I should do some advertising on Facebook (now Meta). I went to my advertising page, and was a bit surprised to see that my account had been suspended for violating Meta's advertising rules. I decided that this was weird, but didn't think about it too much more, and went on to do other, more productive things.

Just a few months ago, I again visited my ad management page, and again saw the notice that I was not allowed to advertise because I had violated their rules. This time, for whatever reason, I decided that I was going to look into this further. [...] I got e-mail from Meta saying that they had reviewed my case, I had definitely violated their policy, and now I was banned for life from ever advertising on a Meta platform.

All of this seemed utterly bizarre to me. What could I possibly have said or done that would get me permanently restricted? And is there any way that I can get out of this situation?

[...] The good news? I got an answer right away from a friend on LinkedIn. He told me that he also had problems advertising his Python training courses on Meta platforms because — get this — Meta thought that he was dealing in live animals, which is forbidden.

hubie writes:

Tiny fish called Trinidadian guppies have surprised scientists when faced with the so-called "volunteer's dilemma":

Tiny fish called Trinidadian guppies have surprised scientists when faced with the so-called "volunteer's dilemma".

The idea of the dilemma is that individuals are less likely to cooperate if they are in a large group.

Various studies have demonstrated this in humans – but guppies appear to buck the trend.

"When faced with a possible predator, guppies have to balance risks," said Rebecca Padget, from Exeter's Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour.

"At least one guppy needs to approach, to find out if there is a threat.

"An individual that does this could get eaten. However, if none of the guppies take this risk, the whole group is in danger.

"In this 'volunteer's dilemma', mathematical models suggest that individuals in larger groups should be less willing to cooperate.

"In a larger group, there's more chance another guppy will take the risk."

To test this, the researchers placed a clay model of a pike cichlid (a natural predator of guppies) in a tank containing small (5), medium (10) and large (20) groups of guppies.

[...] "We can't be sure why guppies in large groups cooperated more," Padget said.

"We know guppies have different personalities, so it could be that larger groups are more likely to contain more cooperative individuals – and others then follow their lead."

Journal Reference:
Padget Rebecca F. B., Fawcett Tim W. and Darden Safi K. 2023 Guppies in large groups cooperate more frequently in an experimental test of the group size paradox, Proc. R. Soc. B 290: 20230790 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0790

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Everybody’s coming for Google, but Google is doing just fine, according to parent company Alphabet’s third quarter earnings on Tuesday.

While Google has been dealing with fierce competition on all sides and is investing a lot into infusing AI into as many products as it can, its ads business, the company’s bread and butter, is still humming along. The Search business earned $44 billion, an 11 percent jump year over year. 

The big question coming up is how Google’s focus on AI will impact that core business. Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience [SGE] is still only available on an opt-in basis, so we don’t yet know how much it’ll impact the company’s ad business.

Google is already moving to head off that problem. On Google’s earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company would be experimenting with new formats native to the way SGE works — the company has already shown off some ideas — so perhaps we’ll start to see some of those formats debut in the coming weeks and months. Later in the call, chief business officer Philipp Schindler added that “it’s extremely important to us that in this new experience, advertisers still have the opportunity to reach potential customers along their search journeys.”

As the company rolls out SGE, “we are making sure the product works well, and we’re generating value for our ecosystem and that ads transition well,” Pichai said.

Infusing AI in search is a long-term play for Google. Pichai said he sees an opportunity to “evolve search and Assistant over the next decade ahead.” Last quarter, he declared that over time, SGE will “just be how search works,” and given the comments about ads on Tuesday’s call, it seems the company is starting to think seriously about how to make its AI-powered search into more of a business.

[...] There’s also a shadow over Google due to the Department of Justice’s huge antitrust trial against the company, which kicked off in September.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

UCalgary-led study, published in the medical journal Pediatrics, can reduce parental fears:

The angst parents feel when their children sustain injuries is surely one of the universal conditions of parenthood. That anxiety is heightened greatly when those injuries involve concussions. But a new study led out of the University of Calgary, published July 17 in the medical journal Pediatrics, may set worried parental minds slightly at ease.

The findings — taken from emergency room visits in children's hospitals in Canada and the United States — show that IQ and intelligence is not affected in a clinically meaningful way by paediatric concussions.

[...] "Obviously there's been a lot of concern about the effects of concussion on children, and one of the biggest questions has been whether or not it affects a child's overall intellectual functioning," says Dr. Keith Yeates, PhD, a professor in UCalgary's Department of Psychology and senior author of the Pediatrics paper. Yeates is a renowned expert on the outcomes of childhood brain disorders, including concussion and traumatic brain injuries.

"The data on this has been mixed and opinions have varied within the medical community," says Yeates. "It's hard to collect big enough samples to confirm a negative finding. The absence of a difference in IQ after concussion is harder to prove than the presence of a difference."

[...] "Understandably, there's been a lot of fear among parents when dealing with their children's concussions," Ware says. "These new findings provide really good news, and we need to get the message to parents."

upstart writes:

First module of new space station to be launched in 2027:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a project to build an Orbital Station following a meeting regarding the development of the country's space industry. Moscow mouthpiece TASS reported the move, and lurking within the grandstanding about space station ambitions was an admission of how much Russia's human spaceflight program still depends on the International Space Station (ISS).

Roscosmos boss Yuri Borisov said the funds have been allocated and the green light given to start work on the project. This is convenient because the prospects for Russian human spaceflight will start to look bleak once the ISS hurtles back to Earth around 2030. According to TASS, Borisov said that ensuring the continuity of Russia's program was a "pressing task" and he added that there was a genuine risk of a situation where "the ISS is no longer there, and the Russian station is not yet there."

Considering the lengthy delays associated with space programs, the timelines are ambitious. The first component – the scientific and energy module – is supposedly planned for late 2027 and will be followed by others between 2028 and 2030.

The plan calls for the first crew to be launched six months after the first module launch.

[...] According to the timelines reported by TASS, Russia intends to construct, test, and launch the first element of its space station in four years. Hopefully, with a puncture repair kit on board.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Researchers at Stockholm University have unveiled the hidden intricacies of how sperm go from passive bystanders to dynamic swimmers. This transformation is a pivotal step in the journey to fertilization, and it hinges on the activation of a unique ion transporter. Their research has been published in Nature.

Imagine sperm as tiny adventurers on a quest to reach the ultimate treasure, the egg. They don't have a map, but they make use of something even more extraordinary: chemo-attractants. These are chemical signals released by the egg that act as siren call, directing and activating the sperm. When these signals bind to receptors on the sperm's surface, it triggers a series of events, starting their movement towards the egg. And in this intricate scenario, one key player is a protein known as "SLC9C1."

It's exclusively found in sperm cells, and it is usually not active. However, when the chemo-attractants interact with the sperm's surface, everything changes.

[...] The activation of SLC9C1 is driven by a change in voltage that occurs when chemo-attractants attach to the sperm. To accomplish this, SLC9C1 uses a unique feature called a voltage-sensing domain (VSD). Typically, VSD domains are associated with voltage-gated ion channels. But in the case of SLC9C1, it's something truly exceptional in the realm of transporters.

Researchers, led by David Drew, have unveiled the secrets behind SLC9C1's inner workings and provides the first example of voltage-sensing domain activation of a transporter and its connection via an unusually long voltage-sensing (S4) helix.

[...] "Transporters work very differently than channels and, as such, the VSD is coupled to the sperm protein in a way that we have just never seen before, or even imagined. Its exciting to see how nature has done this and perhaps, in the future, we can learn from this to make synthetic proteins that can be turned-on by voltage or develop novel male contraceptives that work by blocking this protein," David Drew notes.

Journal Reference:
Yeo, H., Mehta, V., Gulati, A. et al. Structure and electromechanical coupling of a voltage-gated Na+/H+ exchanger. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06518-2

Original Submission

U.S. Govt Mulls Blocking China's Access To Cloud GPUs

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

One less loophole.

Although the U.S. government has restricted sales of advanced AI and HPC GPUs to Chinese entities, it did not block access of Chinese companies to such processors in the cloud. As a result, Chinese firms can continue to train large language models or do other performance-demanding tasks using services like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. But the American government is considering patching this hole, reports Nikkei. There is a catch, though: the U.S. cannot block access to cloud services not in the U.S.

The United States is evaluating the imposition of restrictions to hinder China’s access to U.S.-based cloud computing services, a move driven by concerns over Beijing’s use of artificial intelligence in military operations, said Alan Estevez, U.S. under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. If the decision is made, it will come as part of a broader initiative to regulate technological resources that could facilitate advancements in military AI applications by China.

[...] The enhanced regulatory measures symbolize a concerted U.S. effort to mitigate the risk associated with the potential utilization of American technological resources in promoting Chinese military innovations, specifically in AI. There is a significant catch that almost nullifies the effort. The U.S. government does not seem to be able to block access of Chinese entities to cloud services provided by non-American companies. There are prominent cloud services in Europe and the Middle East, so Chinese companies will start using them instead of AWS or Azure.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As the utility of AI systems has grown dramatically, so has their energy demand. Training new systems is extremely energy intensive, as it generally requires massive data sets and lots of processor time. Executing a trained system tends to be much less involved—smartphones can easily manage it in some cases. But, because you execute them so many times, that energy use also tends to add up.

Fortunately, there are lots of ideas on how to bring the latter energy use back down. IBM and Intel have experimented with processors designed to mimic the behavior of actual neurons. IBM has also tested executing neural network calculations in phase change memory to avoid making repeated trips to RAM.

Now, IBM is back with yet another approach, one that's a bit of "none of the above." The company's new NorthPole processor has taken some of the ideas behind all of these approaches and merged them with a very stripped-down approach to running calculations to create a highly power-efficient chip that can efficiently execute inference-based neural networks. For things like image classification or audio transcription, the chip can be up to 35 times more efficient than relying on a GPU.

It's worth clarifying a few things early here. First, NorthPole does nothing to help the energy demand in training a neural network; it's purely designed for execution. Second, it is not a general AI processor; it's specifically designed for inference-focused neural networks. As noted above, inferences include things like figuring out the contents of an image or audio clip so they have a large range of uses, but this chip won't do you any good if your needs include running a large language model.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/10/iphone-privacy-feature-hiding-wi-fi-macs-has-failed-to-work-for-3-years/

Three years ago, Apple introduced a privacy-enhancing feature that hid the Wi-Fi address of iPhones and iPads when they joined a network. On Wednesday, the world learned that the feature has never worked as advertised. Despite promises that this never-changing address would be hidden and replaced with a private one that was unique to each SSID, Apple devices have continued to display the real one, which in turn got broadcast to every other connected device on the network.
[...]
In 2020, Apple released iOS 14 with a feature that, by default, hid Wi-Fi MACs when devices connected to a network. Instead, the device displayed what Apple called a "private Wi-Fi address" that was different for each SSID. Over time, Apple has enhanced the feature, for instance, by allowing users to assign a new private Wi-Fi address for a given SSID.

On Wednesday, Apple released iOS 17.1. Among the various fixes was a patch for a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-42846, which prevented the privacy feature from working. Tommy Mysk, one of the two security researchers Apple credited with discovering and reporting the vulnerability (Talal Haj Bakry was the other), told Ars that he tested all recent iOS releases and found the flaw dates back to version 14, released in September 2020.

"From the get-go, this feature was useless because of this bug," he said. "We couldn't stop the devices from sending these discovery requests, even with a VPN. Even in the Lockdown Mode."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA is considering alternative ways to bring back samples from Mars after its budget and schedule for the sample return mission was deemed unrealistic in a recent report by an independent review board.

[...] In late September, an independent review board issued its final report on NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission (MSR). The space agency’s quest to collect samples from the Red Planet and bring them back to Earth was referred to as a “highly constrained and challenging campaign,” with “unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning.”

[...] NASA has been struggling to manage the budget of its highly complex mission so that it can launch it on schedule. In fact, the report stated that there’s a “a near zero probability” that the lander and orbiter would be ready for launch in 2028. The report also suggested that the mission’s full lifecycle cost will likely range between $8 billion and $11 billion, far more than what NASA had originally planned for.

The mission received $822.3 million in the 2023 spending bill and NASA requested $949.3 million for Mars Sample Return in its budget proposal for 2024. In April, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed that the Mars Sample Return mission needs an additional $250 million in the current fiscal year, plus another $250 million in 2024, in order to stay on track for launch in 2028.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

EU legislators on Tuesday voted to slash use of pesticides by half across the bloc, despite opposition from some conservative groups. But green politicians were left to regret the rejection of a proposed symbolic declaration calling for a complete ban on controversial weedkiller glyphosate.

A parliamentary commission rejected making a declaration a month before the 27 member states are due to decide on appeal whether to extend the use of glyphosate, something the WHO fears could be carcinogenic.

Earlier this month the bloc failed to agree to do so as divisions emerged and the matter will now go to an appeals committee in early November. Tuesday saw the EU's environment committee vote by a narrow majority—47 votes to 37—to set binding targets on reduced pesticide use that targets a 50-percent reduction by 2030.

The pesticides judged the most hazardous will see use pared back by two-thirds compared with 2013-2017. The committee has also banned use of pesticides in designated sensitive areas, including public parks, around schools and at Natura 2000 protection sites.

Among those voting against were the rightwing European People's Party and the far right, while farmers and agri-cooperatives are opposed to seeing the EU impose too tight a set of regulations in the sector.

[...] Austrian Green MEP Sarah Wiener, leading the campaign on the issue, said she was pleased at an outcome bringing agreement "on feasible compromises in an ideologically-charged and industry-dominated discussion." Belgian Socialist lawmaker Marie Arena said the outcome would benefit farmworkers and the environment alike as "abusive use of pesticides makes people sick," as well as decimating bee numbers.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

A carbon tax based on the purpose of using goods and services would be fairer and more likely to deliver climate justice, say ecological economists:

Presently most carbon taxes are uniform across all economic sectors - and in the developed nations, their impact disproportionately affects people on lower incomes and are not extensive enough to have a "profound impact on emissions".

The researchers say a differentiated carbon tax system would be fairer as the tax would set higher rates for users of luxury goods and services, which are predominantly consumed by the better off.

Under the theoretical model described in the paper, the revenues generated from the carbon tax could be used to retrofit insulation in the homes of poorer families to reduce domestic energy consumption.

[...] "The scheme we are proposing will introduce a higher carbon tax for luxury goods, such as flying long-haul or driving a high-performance car, and a lower carbon tax for goods and services that meet basic human needs, such as providing housing, cooking and healthcare."

But the study team warn that if a luxury goods taxation scheme is to work and deliver significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, in line with those set out in the Paris Agreement, it needs to be introduced "promptly, universally and with high and rapidly rising carbon prices as compared to any policy currently in place".

[...] A fair and luxury-focused carbon taxation system is needed because technological solutions alone will not deliver the reduction in carbon emissions that are needed to keep global warming within 1.5 °C. If those solutions do come along, the researchers say the taxation system could then be suitably amended.

"It cannot remain status quo to continue environmentally damaging luxury activities unabated while awaiting a technology fix," they say.

Journal Reference:
Yannick Oswald et al., Luxury-focused carbon taxation improves fairness of climate policy [open], One Earth, Volume 6, ISSUE 7, P884-898, July 21, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.05.027

Original Submission