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upstart writes:

Axon Wants Its Body Cameras To Start Writing Officers' Reports For Them:

Taser long ago locked down the market for "less than lethal" (but still frequently lethal) weapons. It has also written itself into the annals of pseudoscience with its invocation of not-an-actual-medical condition "excited delirium" as it tried to explain away the many deaths caused by its "less than lethal" Taser.

These days Taser does business as Axon. In addition to separating itself from its troubled (and somewhat mythical) past, Axon's focus has shifted to body cameras and data storage. The cameras are the printer and the data storage is the ink. The real money is in data management, and that appears to be where Axon is headed next. And, of course, like pretty much everyone at this point, the company believes AI can take a lot of the work out of police work. Here's Thomas Brewster and Richard Nieva with the details for Forbes.

On Tuesday, Axon, the $22 billion police contractor best known for manufacturing the Taser electric weapon, launched a new tool called Draft One that it says can transcribe audio from body cameras and automatically turn it into a police report. Cops can then review the document to ensure accuracy, Axon CEO Rick Smith told Forbes. Axon claims one early tester of the tool, Fort Collins Colorado Police Department, has seen an 82% decrease in time spent writing reports. "If an officer spends half their day reporting, and we can cut that in half, we have an opportunity to potentially free up 25% of an officer's time to be back out policing," Smith said.

If you don't spend too much time thinking about it, it sounds like a good idea. Doing paperwork consumes a large amounts of officers' time and a tool that automates at least part of the process would, theoretically, allow officers to spend more time doing stuff that actually matters, like trying to make a dent in violent crime — the sort of thing cops on TV are always doing but is a comparative rarity in real life.

[...] Then there's the AI itself. Everything at use at this point is still very much in the experimental stage. Auto-generated reports might turn into completely unusable evidence, thanks to the wholly expected failings of the underlying software.

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2024-05-lego-bumblebees-reveal-insect-collaboration.html

A new study reveals that cooperation by bumblebees isn't simply a result of accumulated individual efforts. Rather, these miniature-brained creatures are not just hard-working pollinators, but also show signs of being master collaborators.

The study, conducted at the University of Oulu in Finland and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, demonstrates the role of teamwork for bumblebees in novel cooperative challenges.

It has previously been thought that understanding the role of a partner in a cooperative task is a complex phenomenon that is mainly characteristic of big-brained mammals such as humans and chimpanzees. But new research shows that even insects can learn and adapt to cooperative tasks. Understanding how collaboration has become so important for humans requires comparisons with other species.

"The study's findings challenge conventional notions of insects, and the ability to work together towards a common goal is present even in the miniature brain of bumblebees," says lead researcher, Associate Professor, Dr. Olli Loukola.

In the study, pairs of bumblebees were trained in two different cooperative tasks. Bees learned to simultaneously push a Lego block in the middle of an arena, or to simultaneously push a door at the end of a transparent double tunnel to gain access to rewarding nectar.

Bumblebees' behaviors suggest their efforts towards solving the cooperative tasks were influenced by the presence, absence, and movement direction of their partner. When their partner was delayed, bees tended to take longer than controls to initiate pushing and were more likely to push only when their partner pushed with them.

In short, bees trained on cooperative tasks seemed to wait for their partner. The bumblebees in the control group, which had been trained alone, did not show similar behavior.

In the study, pairs of bumblebees were trained in two different cooperative tasks. Bees learned to simultaneously push a Lego block in the middle of an arena, or to simultaneously push a door at the end of a transparent double tunnel to gain access to rewarding nectar.

Bumblebees' behaviors suggest their efforts towards solving the cooperative tasks were influenced by the presence, absence, and movement direction of their partner. When their partner was delayed, bees tended to take longer than controls to initiate pushing and were more likely to push only when their partner pushed with them.

In short, bees trained on cooperative tasks seemed to wait for their partner. The bumblebees in the control group, which had been trained alone, did not show similar behavior.

More information: Olli J. Loukola et al, Evidence for socially influenced and potentially actively coordinated cooperation by bumblebees, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0055

Original Submission

upstart writes:

China Launches Mission To Far Side Of The Moon As US Claims A New Space Race Has Begun:

On May 3, China launched Chang’e 6, its latest mission to the Moon. Similar to its predecessor, it is a sample retrieval mission, expected to collect up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of lunar material from the far side of the Moon, the portion that is always facing away from Earth. The whole mission is expected to last 53 days.

China has already broken records on the far side by becoming the first and only nation to soft-land there with Chang’e 4 in 2019. That mission landed in the Von Kármán crater, which is 180 kilometers (110 miles) across and sits within the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Chang’e 6 is targeting another area of the basin: the Apollo crater, which is three times as wide as the Von Kármán.

The interest in this area lies in the distant past of the Moon. Underneath this region, there is a massive structure, potentially part of the colossal object that slammed into the Moon and created the basin 4 billion years ago. The jackpot would be to find portions of the lunar mantle and bring them back to Earth.

In an attempt to achieve this, Chang’e 6 is equipped with a scoop to collect soil and rocks from the surface, as well as a drill to collect subsurface samples. An ascent vehicle will launch the samples into orbit, where it will rendezvous with an orbiter and come back to Earth.

That is not the only focus of the mission, however. The lander and orbiter include scientific payloads from other countries too, which aim to understand dust and outgassing on the Moon, studying lunar magnetism, among other goals.

[...] In the US, China’s plans are being seen with increased anxiety. On April 17, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies held a hearing about the NASA Budget for 2025. Both the chair, representative Harold Rogers (R-KY), and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson made reference to a new space race.

“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958 in response to the so-called Space Race with the Soviet Union to land the first man on the Moon. Today we find ourselves in yet another space race, this time with China,” Rogers stated during the hearing.

“We are in a race,” Nelson replied to a question from Rogers on Chinese plans. “The latest date they've said they're going to land [on the moon] is 2030 but that keeps moving up.”

[...] Nelson also said that he believes that the Chinese civilian space program is actually a military program. The comments have been seen as venting a frustration about the comparatively limited budget NASA operates. Others have considered Nelson’s comments as coming across as hypocritical given NASA’s many links to the military-industrial complex and the Department of Defense.

Original Submission

Audioguy was one of the original team who created the existing SoylentNews site. He has stayed with us since that time and has served the community as a sys-admin for over 10 years. It is no exaggeration to say that over the last year or two he has played an almost single-handed role in keeping this site working.

Audioguy has suffered a series of significant personal and medical events over the last 6 months or so. He is now about to commence ophthalmic surgery tomorrow (Wednesday) and is facing other potentially life changing medical issues in the near future. He has, quite understandably and reluctantly, been forced to stand down from his role which was effective from late last week. Unfortunately that has meant that we have lost the ability to correct the current certificates problem. Access to the Linode servers is still controlled by the existing Board and we have experienced additional problems accessing one of our servers by the usual methods. This appears to be common to many staff and has further exacerbated the current problem.

I have written an email to NCommander requesting his assistance in updating the certificates so that the site becomes fully operational again. Your patience is appreciated. What might appear to many in the community to be a relatively minor issue is, behind the scenes, a major blow to the existing team. We have other sys-admins who are ready to pick up the challenge but they do not yet have the necessary access, nor are they yet experienced in managing the beast that that is Slashd.

Returning to audioguy, I am sure that the entire community would wish to join me in thanking him for a decade of support to the site, and to wish him well for the upcoming surgery. He remains one of this community and evidence of his past contributions can be found in numerous bits of code and associated documentation. He has also, for example, been the manager of the technical wiki which has been vital to the support team for all of that period. We are indebted to him.

Good luck for the future, audioguy. Take it easy. Best wishes to you and your family.

upstart writes:

Tech CEO Gets 6 Years for Selling Fake Cisco Gear on Amazon, eBay:

A Miami-based CEO will serve over six years in prison for selling counterfeit Cisco equipment to numerous buyers on Amazon and eBay, with some of the shoddy hardware ending up in sensitive US government systems.

On Wednesday, 40-year-old Onur Aksoy was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for raking in at least $100 million from the counterfeit sales.

Aksoy committed the fraud from at least 2013 to 2022 — the year he was arrested— by buying the fake Cisco equipment from suppliers in China. The counterfeits were then resold as legitimate Cisco products for an estimated retail value of over $1 billion.

"Aksoy sold hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of counterfeit computer networking equipment that ended up in US hospitals, schools, and highly sensitive military and other governmental systems, including platforms supporting sophisticated US fighter jets and military aircraft," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri said in a statement.

The scheme persisted for nearly a decade, with Aksoy selling the counterfeit gear through 19 companies, along with 15 Amazon storefronts and at least 10 eBay storefronts, according to the Justice Department. But the fake hardware performed poorly once installed.

canopic jug writes:

Papers, Please!, a privacy and freedom spin off from the Identity Project, explores the combining of radio and visual tracking of motor vehicles. Most new motor vehicles, whether cars, suburban utility vehicles, or light trucks are heavily loaded with wireless devices. These include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low-Energy and each blast unique identifiers out to the nearby environs. Furthermore, the driver and any passengers are very likely carrying 'smart' phones and other devices, such as headphones or earbuds, which do the same. These identifiers can easily be linked and, eventually, tagged to an individual, which then makes it very easy to follow movement of the devices' bearer:

According to responses to requests for information about bids for government contracts from Jenoptik, the supplier of this system of detectors and databases:

Jenoptik’s Trafficatch wireless device detection is a value add addition to its Vector fixed ALPR solution. Trafficatch records wireless device Wifi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal identifiers that come within range of the device to record gathered information coupled with plate recognition in the area. This can provide additional information to investigators trying to locate persons of interest related to recorded
crimes in the area.

This should be illegal without a warrant, but current case law leaves enough uncertainty that police may feel that they can get away with this sort of tracking without a warrant.

According to the report by NOTUS, this vehicle and device tracking data is being shared through NLETS (the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications Network). The unusual status of NLETS makes it almost impossible to tell how this data is being used. It could be used to track people and vehicles across state lines or other jurisdictional boundaries, including to identify and track people traveling to obtain abortions.

This is on top of the 25 GB of surveillance data generated per hour by new vehicles which are basically "smartphones on wheels" in the worst sense. Normally, this level of surveillance and tracking would require a warrant. However, the population acts willing and even eager to waive their rights when computers become involved. In this case these are computers, actually whole computer networks, which you put your body into and travel with.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Court Supports NY State’s Quest To Require $15 Broadband For Poor People, Much To Big Telecom’s Horror:

When the Trump administration killed net neutrality, telecom industry giants convinced them to push their luck and declared that not only would federal regulators no longer try to meaningfully oversee telecom giants like Comcast and AT&T, but that states couldn’t either. They got greedy.

The courts didn’t like that much, repeatedly ruling that the FCC can’t abdicate its authority over broadband consumer protection, then turn around tell states what they can or can’t do.

The courts took that stance again last week, with a new ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit restoring a New York State law (the Affordable Broadband Act) requiring that ISPs provide low-income state residents $15 broadband at speeds of 25 Mbps. The law was blocked in June of 2021 by a US District Judge who claimed that the state law was pre-empted by the federal net neutrality repeal.

Giant ISPs, and the Trump administration officials who love them, desperately tried to insist that states were magically barred from regulating broadband because the Trump administration said so. But the appeals court ruled, once again, those efforts aren’t supported by logic or the law:

“the ABA is not conflict-preempted by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 order classifying broadband as an information service. That order stripped the agency of its authority to regulate the rates charged for broadband Internet, and a federal agency cannot exclude states from regulating in an area where the agency itself lacks regulatory authority. Accordingly, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court and VACATE the permanent injunction.”

This ruling is once again good news for future fights over net neutrality and broadband consumer protection, Stanford Law Professor and net neutrality expert Barbara van Schewick notes in a statement:

“Today’s decision means that if a future FCC again decided to abdicate its oversight over broadband like it did in 2017, the states have strong legal precedent, across circuits, to institute their own protections or re-activate dormant ones.”

Telecom lobbyists have spent years lobbying to ensure federal broadband oversight is as captured and feckless as possible. And, with the occasional exception, they’ve largely succeeded. Big telecom had really hoped they could extend that winning streak even further and bar states from standing up to them as well, but so far that really hasn’t gone as planned.

One of the things that absolutely terrifies telecom monopoly lobbyists is the idea of rate regulation, or that government would ever stop them from ripping off captive customers stuck in uncompetitive markets. It’s never been a serious threat on the federal level due to regulatory capture and lobbying, even though it’s thrown around a lot by monopoly apologists as a terrifying bogeyman akin to leprosy.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Researchers suggest cylinder to prevent astronauts losing muscle mass in low gravity environment:

As humans prepare to return to the moon after an absence of more than half a century, researchers have hit on a radical approach to keeping astronauts fit as they potter around the ball of rock.

To prevent lunar explorers from becoming weak and feeble in the low gravity environment, scientists suggest astronauts go for a run. But, this being space, it's not just any kind of run – researchers have advised astronauts run several times a day around a "lunar Wall of Death".

Using a rented Wall of Death – a giant wooden cylinder used by motorcycle stunt performers in their gravity-defying fairground act – a 36m-high telescopic crane, and some bungee cords, researchers showed it was possible for a human to run fast enough in lunar gravity not only to remain on the wall, but to generate sufficient lateral force to combat bone and muscle wasting.

"I'm amazed that nobody had the idea before," said Alberto Minetti, professor of physiology at the University of Milan. "This could be a convenient way to train on the moon." And easier than building a spinning moon base that generates the force, like the giant wheel of Space Station One in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[...] The hostile lunar environment presents several challenges, from ensuring astronauts have air, food and water to being well protected against space radiation. But without normal gravity to work against, astronauts lose bone and muscle mass, along with the fine nervous system control needed for coordinated movements, making measures to combat "deconditioning" a priority.

[...] To test the idea, two researchers ran around a 10m-wide Wall of Death while attached to a bungee cord suspended from the crane. The set-up emulated lunar gravity by taking five-sixths off their body weight. Combined with treadmill data, the scientists conclude that running for a couple of minutes at the start and end of each day, should generate enough lateral force, or "artificial gravity" to keep bones and muscles strong and maintain good nervous system control.

Rather than transporting an actual Wall of Death to the moon, astronauts could be housed in circular habitats, allowing them to run around the walls of their off-world homes, the team write in Royal Society Open Science.

Journal Reference:
Minetti Alberto E., Luciano Francesco, Natalucci Valentina and Pavei Gaspare 2024 Horizontal running inside circular walls of Moon settlements: a comprehensive countermeasure for low-gravity deconditioning? R. Soc. Open Sci. 11231906 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231906

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-baby-bird-cars.html

[...] Bird embryos develop outside the mother's body and can be artificially incubated, so it is possible to manipulate an embryo's experience without manipulating the mother.

The research team, led by Dr. Alizée Meillère and Dr. Mylene Mariette from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University (Australia) and Doñana Biological Station (Spain), took advantage of this by playing sounds to the eggs of an Australian native bird, the zebra finch.

They discovered that—under otherwise optimal incubation conditions—eggs are less likely to hatch when exposed to traffic noise for five days before hatching, than when exposed to the species native song.

"Both traffic noise and song were played at the same moderate amplitude—65 decibels, which is similar to a conversation level—but something about the acoustic characteristics of the noise caused embryonic death," said Dr. Mariette.

[...] "Nestlings exposed to noise rather than song were slower to grow and showed more severe signs of cellular damage," said Dr. Mariette. "These negative effects were the result of both previous noise exposure before hatching and current exposure during the nestling stage."

More information: Alizée Meillère et al, Pre- and postnatal noise directly impairs avian development, with fitness consequences, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.ade5868

Mylene M. Mariette, Developmental programming by prenatal sounds: insights into possible mechanisms, Journal of Experimental Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1242/jeb.246696

Hans Slabbekoorn, A sound beginning of life starts before birth, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adp1664 , www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp1664

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Microsoft ties executive pay to security following multiple failures and breaches:

It's been a bad couple of years for Microsoft's security and privacy efforts. Misconfigured endpoints, rogue security certificates, and weak passwords have all caused or risked the exposure of sensitive data, and Microsoft has been criticized by security researchers, US lawmakers, and regulatory agencies for how it has responded to and disclosed these threats.

[...] All of this culminated in a report (PDF) from the US Cyber Safety Review Board, which castigated Microsoft for its "inadequate" security culture, its "inaccurate public statements," and its response to "preventable" security breaches.

To attempt to turn things around, Microsoft announced something it called the "Secure Future Initiative" in November 2023. As part of that initiative, Microsoft today announced a series of plans and changes to its security practices, including a few changes that have already been made.

[...] As part of these changes, Microsoft will also make its Senior Leadership Team's pay partially dependent on whether the company is "meeting our security plans and milestones," though Bell didn't specify how much executive pay would be dependent on meeting those security goals.

See also:

• Microsoft, beset by cyberattacks, grapples with issue years in making

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Physicists overcome two key operating hurdles in fusion reactions:

A team of physicists from several institutions across the U.S. working with a colleague from China, at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, in San Diego, California, has devised a way to overcome two key hurdles standing in the way of using fusion as a general power source.

In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they devised a way to raise the density of the plasma in their reactor while also keeping it stable.

[...] It was just in the past couple of years that researchers were able to show that a fusion reaction could be made to sustain itself, and that more power could be produced than was input into such a system.

The next two hurdles to overcome are increasing the density of the plasma in the reactor and then containing it for extended periods of time—long enough for it to be useful for producing electricity. In this new study, the research team has devised a way to do both in a tokamak chamber.

To contain the plasma as its density was increased, the team used additional magnets and bursts of deuterium where needed. They also allowed for higher densities at the core than near the edges, helping to ensure the plasma could not escape. They held it in that state for 2.2 seconds, long enough to prove that it could be done.

[...] The research team acknowledges that their experiment was done in a very small reactor—one with a diameter of just 1.6 meters. For such an achievement to be considered fully successful, it will have to be done in a much larger reactor, such as the one currently under construction in France, which will have a diameter of 6.2 meters.

Journal Reference:
Ding, S., Garofalo, A. M., Wang, H. Q., et al. A high-density and high-confinement tokamak plasma regime for fusion energy [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07313-3)

Original Submission

quietus writes:

The Group of Seven (G7) countries, which include Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, announced at a ministerial meeting that they will shut down coal-fired power plants by 2030-2035, or on a timeline consistent with the 1.5 C degree temperature limit. In addition, the G7 countries announced they will rapidly scale-up battery storage sixfold by 2030 to support electricity grids powered by renewable energy sources.

The latest G7 statement is not entirely surprising if you've been following coal consumption in the countries mentioned. In 2003, the G7 still were the proud owners of a 44% share in global coal-fired electricity. By 2013, that share had lowered to 26.5% -- currently it is down to 11%. But still.

This new ban follows close on the heels of a ban for all (new) petrol/diesel cars in the whole of the European Union + United Kingdom, by 2035 -- like already implemented by individual States within the US.

Now this writeup is about the impact these bans will have on the economic prospects of other countries.

For example, Japan imported just over 110 million metric tons of thermal coal last year, compared to around 330 million tons imported by China and 170 million tons by India. Their current suppliers are Australia, Indonesia, Russia and Canada. Some fast-growing economies elsewhere, including India, the Philippines and Vietnam, may snap up some of the reduced volumes bought by G7 nations over the near term. But in the longer run those and other nations plan to sharply increase clean power generation and cut back on fossil fuel use.

What will happen to OPEC and coal exporting countries after 2035?

It is a hard fate ... to be banned ... by the world, only because one has sought to be wiser than the world is.— Edward Bulwer Lytton

Original Submission

AI Engineers Report Burnout and Rushed Rollouts as 'Rat Race' to Stay Competitive Hits Tech Industry

fliptop writes:

Artificial intelligence engineers at top tech companies told CNBC that the pressure to roll out AI tools at breakneck speed has come to define their jobs:

Late last year, an artificial intelligence engineer at Amazon was wrapping up the work week and getting ready to spend time with some friends visiting from out of town. Then, a Slack message popped up. He suddenly had a deadline to deliver a project by 6 a.m. on Monday.

There went the weekend. The AI engineer bailed on his friends, who had traveled from the East Coast to the Seattle area. Instead, he worked day and night to finish the job.

But it was all for nothing. The project was ultimately "deprioritized," the engineer told CNBC. He said it was a familiar result. AI specialists, he said, commonly sprint to build new features that are often suddenly shelved in favor of a hectic pivot to another AI project.

[...] The tech workers spoke to CNBC mostly on the condition that they remain unnamed because they weren't authorized to speak to the media. The experiences they shared illustrate a broader trend across the industry, rather than a single company's approach to AI.

[...] A common feeling they described is burnout from immense pressure, long hours and mandates that are constantly changing. Many said their employers are looking past surveillance concerns, AI's effect on the climate and other potential harms, all in the name of speed. Some said they or their colleagues were looking for other jobs or switching out of AI departments, due to an untenable pace.

Related: UK Workers Support AI But Want Greater Organizational Transparency

upstart writes:

Ancient DNA Reveals People Caught Leprosy From Adorable Woodland Critters In Medieval England:

Red squirrels – yes, the cute ones with furry ears from children's books – have become the first identified animal host of one of the oldest diseases in recorded history. It seems these unassuming critters were responsible for spreading leprosy to people in medieval England.

The red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is now a rare sight in the UK, having been largely replaced by their gray cousins, but that wasn't the case in the Middle Ages. Back then, humans and squirrels rubbed shoulders fairly often – not the best news for the squirrels, mind you, which were prized for their fur and sometimes captured and kept as pets.

In their own way, though, it seems they fought back, as a new genetic analysis of ancient human and squirrel remains has provided the best proof yet of a theory that squirrels spread leprosy-causing bacteria to medieval humans.

"With our genetic analysis we were able to identify red squirrels as the first ancient animal host of leprosy," said senior study author Verena Schuenemann, a professor at the University of Basel, in a statement.

Leprosy is caused by strains of bacteria from the species Mycobacterium leprae. Accounts of the disease, which primarily affects the skin and peripheral nervous system, appear in ancient writings across various civilizations, but you may be surprised to learn that the World Health Organization still records over 200,000 new cases every year.

Nowadays, leprosy is treatable with a long course of three antibiotics, but if people are unable to access this treatment the condition can progress to cause permanent disability. And it's not just the physical effects – leprosy patients have always endured stigma and discrimination, and this continues even though we now understand that it's much less contagious than our forebears believed.

upstart writes:

Rare Interviews with Enigma Cryptanalyst Marian Rejewski - Schneier on Security:

The Polish Embassy has posted a series of short interview segments with Marian Rejewski, the first person to crack the Enigma. Details from his biography.

From the Schneier link:

I just noticed a series of nine rare interviews were posted in June 2023 by the Polish Embassy in London.

Each has only a couple hundred views on YouTube despite significance of the subject. They feature war hero Marian Rejewski, the 1st person to crack the Enigma code, describing major breakthroughs before and during WWII (which the British rarely, if ever, gave proper credit to Poland):

[Links to short video clips follows]

Related: Rebuilding the Polish Engima-Cracker

Original Submission