SoylentNews

takyon writes:

Great tits in the UK may be evolving longer beaks to better access bird feeders, compared to their counterparts in the Netherlands:

Setting up a bird feeder is one of the easiest ways to interact with wildlife. But could this seemingly innocent pastime be changing the very shape of our backyard birds? It's still too early to say for sure, says Lewis Spurgin, an evolutionary biologist at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. But he and his colleagues have discovered some truly fascinating clues that a bird called the great tit may be evolving longer beaks to access bird feeders.

"We know that evolution by natural selection produces peacocks' tails and giraffes' necks and that sort of thing," says Spurgin, whose findings were published today in Science. "But it also works in much more subtle ways that are much more difficult to observe."

Also at Newsweek and Science Daily (reprint).

Recent natural selection causes adaptive evolution of an avian polygenic trait (DOI: 10.1126/science.aal3298) (DX)

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Martin Brinkmann reports via gHacks

F-Droid is an alternative application store for Android [...] that provides users with a catalog of free and open source software. [It is] useful for Android users who don't want to link their device and data to the Google ecosystem, and [...] for installing applications that are not offered on Google Play.

Note: The last [pre-1.0] version is offered [...] on the main F-Droid homepage at the time of writing. You need to visit this page on the website to download version 1.0 of the application. Also, note that you need to enable the installation of apps from unknown sources in the settings to install the application.

[...] F-Droid 1.0 comes with a redesigned interface. The application opens a What's New page on start that highlights new releases.

Note that you cannot switch the program language [any more], at least not right now. This means that you are stuck with the Android device's language.

[...] new features are [...]

• Improved tracking protection (HTTP Etag, TLS).
• Background updates with privileged extension. workflow for updating applications overhauled completely.
• Faster index updates.
• A "What's New" section that highlights changes in the current release.
• Screenshots and feature graphics support, if available.
• Fully translatable app summaries and descriptions.
• Support installing media, OTA, Zip and other files.
• Donations to app developers highlighted.

The general feel of the application has not changed, however.

In the comments there, Coriy notes that installed apps are now beneath a tab ("annoying, but livable"); auto-updates to your local repository are now clunkier; and that FOSS app updates have always been slow in reaching F-Droid relative to the stuff at Google Play.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Canada's Communications Security Establishment (CSE) agency announced this week that the source code for one of its malware detection and analysis tools has been made public.

The Python-based tool released as open source by the spy agency is named Assemblyline and it was created within the CSE's Cyber Defence program. The organization says this is one of the tools it uses to protect the country's computer systems against advanced cyber threats.

Assemblyline allows defenders to automate the analysis of malicious files. The analysis process, which has been compared to a conveyor belt, involves assigning a unique identifier to files as they travel through the system, looking for signs of malicious functionality and extracting features for further analysis, generating alerts for malicious files and assigning them a score, and sending data to other protection systems so that identified threats can be neutralized.

[...] The CSE is not the only spy agency to release open source tools. Last year, the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) made available CyberChef, a tool that allows both technical and non-technical people to analyze encryption, compression and decompression, and data formats.

Assemblyline source code

Source: Canada's CSE Spy Agency Releases Malware Analysis Tool

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

When NASA scientists want to follow the path of the Curiosity rover on Mars, they can don a mixed-reality headset and virtually explore the Martian landscape.

Starting today, everyone can get a taste of what that feels like. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, collaborated with Google to produce Access Mars, a free immersive experience. It's available for use on all desktop and mobile devices and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) headsets. That includes mobile-based virtual reality devices on Apple and Android.

The experience was adapted from JPL's OnSight software, which assists scientists in planning rover drives and even holding meetings on Mars. Imagery from NASA's Curiosity rover provided the terrain, allowing users to wander the actual dunes and valleys explored by the spacecraft. Since being rolled out to JPL's scientists in 2015, OnSight has made studying Martian geology as intuitive as turning your head and walking around.

Access Mars lets anyone with an internet connection take a guided tour of what those scientists experience. A simple walkthrough explains what the Curiosity rover does and details its dramatic landing in 2012. Users also can visit four sites that have been critical to NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission: Curiosity's landing site; Murray Buttes; Marias Pass and Pahrump Hills. Additionally, the rover's latest location on lower Mt. Sharp will be periodically updated to reflect the mission's ongoing progress.

This I would try VR for.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A Lancet Commission report has found that pollution is now the leading cause of disease and death worldwide:

Exposure to polluted air, water and soil caused nine million premature deaths in 2015, according to a report published Thursday in The Lancet.

The causes of death vary — cancer, lung disease, heart disease. The report links them to pollution, drawing upon previous studies that show how pollution is tied to a wider range of diseases than previously thought.

Those studies observed populations exposed to pollutants and compared them to people not exposed. The studies have shown that pollution can be an important cause of diseases — many of them potentially fatal — including asthma, cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders, birth defects in children, heart disease, stroke and lung disease.

The nine million figure adds up to 16 percent of all deaths worldwide, killing three times more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Pollution is responsible for 15 times more deaths than wars and all other forms of violence. "No country is unaffected," the report notes. But 92 percent of those deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries.

Air pollution deaths in Southeast Asia are expected to double by 2050.

The Lancet Commission on pollution and health (DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32345-0) (DX)

Also at The Guardian and Human Rights Watch.

Related: Pollution responsible for quarter of deaths of young children, says WHO

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Effective immediately, the new release of Ubuntu, 17.10, aka 'Artful Aardvark' has been released!

This release will be supported for 9 months (until 2018) for Long Term Support, stick with release 16.04, instead.

Official flavors (e.g. Kubuntu) are also released.

See the above release notes for a full list of changes and where you can get a copy.

[Full disclosure: the majority of SoylentNews' servers run Ubuntu 16.04 LTS though we have taken steps towards moving to Gentoo.]

Also:

The customized version of GNOME that Ubuntu 17.10 uses is very much in the mould of the (now defunct) Unity desktop, so it won't be to everyone's tastes.

OMGUbuntu

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Many different creatures have roamed the Earth over the years, and scientists now have a better idea of when saber-tooth cats were around... quite possibly at the same time as humans:

Researchers who've analyzed the complete mitochondrial genomes from ancient samples representing two species of saber-toothed cats have a new take on the animals' history over the last 50,000 years. The data suggest that the saber-toothed cats shared a common ancestor with all living cat-like species about 20 million years ago. The two saber-toothed cat species under study diverged from each other about 18 million years ago.

"It's quite crazy that, in terms of their mitochondrial DNA, these two saber-toothed cats are more distant from each other than tigers are from house cats," says Johanna Paijmans at the University of Potsdam in Germany.

Paijmans and colleagues reconstructed the mitochondrial genomes from ancient-DNA samples representing three Homotherium from Europe and North America and one Smilodon specimen from South America. One of the Homotherium specimens under investigation is a unique fossil: a 28,000-year-old mandible recovered from the North Sea.

"When the first anatomically modern humans migrated to Europe, there may have been a saber-toothed cat waiting for them," Paijmans says.

Wikipedia entries on Homotherium and Smilodon.

Why do I have a sudden urge to sing the theme song to The Flintstones?

Journal Reference: Johanna L.A. Paijmans, et al. Evolutionary History of Saber-Toothed Cats Based on Ancient Mitogenomics. Current Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.033

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Privacy of medical results obtained in a clinical setting are protected in the US by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But what about non-clinical medical data gathered by phone apps and wearables such as a FitBit? Not so much. According to a new report, Rice expert: Be concerned about how apps collect, share health data your personal health data may be at risk:

As of 2016 there were more than 165,000 health and wellness apps available though the Apple App Store alone. According to Rice University medical media expert Kirsten Ostherr, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates only a fraction of those. Americans should be concerned about how these apps collect, save and share their personal health data, she said.

On Oct. 26 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will host a gathering of national experts to discuss "Data Privacy in the Digital Age." Ostherr, who is a professor of English and director of Rice's Medical Futures Lab, has been doing research on health and medical media for over 20 years, from "old" media like celluloid films used for medical education to "new" media like smartphone apps. She will present "Trust and Privacy in the Ecosystems of User-Generated Health and Medical Data" during a panel discussion.

[...] She said apps that make medical or therapeutic claims are considered a medical device and must go through the FDA procedures for approval and regulation. For some companies, that process is worth the time and effort, because their product could become covered by insurance.

But the vast majority of apps provide "helpful hints" in response to user-entered data, such as ideas for alleviating symptoms of a migraine.

[...] "If your app carefully sidesteps claiming any kind of medical intervention, then it's a health and wellness app and not a medical device — and it is not regulated," Ostherr said.

Regardless of whether an app is regulated, Ostherr said, they are all "capturing tons of personal data, some of which would be classified as personal health information if it were subject to oversight by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act."

Original Submission

realDonaldTrump writes in with notice of progress on prototypes of his proposed wall:

The last two of eight prototypes for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall took shape Thursday at a construction site in San Diego.

The prototypes, including one built by Israeli defense firm Elta, form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels, including one with sharp metal edges on top.

[...] The models, which cost the government up to $500,000 each, were spaced 30 feet (9.1 meters) apart. Slopes, thickness and curves vary. One has two shades of blue with white trim. The others are gray, tan or brown — in sync with the desert.

Bidding guidelines call for the prototypes to stand between 18 and 30 feet (5.5 and 9.1 meters) high and be able to withstand at least an hour of punishment from a sledgehammer, pickaxe, torch, chisel or battery-operated tools.

Features also should prevent the use of climbing aids such as grappling hooks, and the segments must be "aesthetically pleasing" when viewed from the US side.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

What will we do when we can't send our junk to China?

The dominant position that China holds in global manufacturing means that for many years China has also been the largest global importer of many types of recyclable materials. Last year, Chinese manufacturers imported 7.3m metric tonnes of waste plastics from developed countries including the UK, the EU, the US and Japan.

However, in July 2017, China announced big changes in the quality control placed on imported materials, notifying the World Trade Organisation that it will ban imports of 24 categories of recyclables and solid waste by the end of the year. This campaign against yang laji or "foreign garbage" applies to plastic, textiles and mixed paper and will result in China taking a lot less material as it replaces imported materials with recycled material collected in its own domestic market, from its growing middle-class and Western-influenced consumers.

The impact of this will be far-reaching. China is the dominant market for recycled plastic. There are concerns that much of the waste that China currently imports, especially the lower grade materials, will have nowhere else to go.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Are you game?

Developers that want to stop cheaters in their Windows games are getting a little additional system-level help from Microsoft via TruePlay, a new API being rolled out through Windows 10's Fall Creators Update.

The feature, which is now documented on the Windows Dev Center, lets developers easily prioritize a game as a protected process, cutting off some of the most common cheating methods by essentially preventing outside programs from looking at or altering the game's memory. TruePlay also "monitor[s] gaming sessions for behaviors and manipulations that are common in cheating scenarios," looking at usage patterns on a system level to find likely cheaters.

[...] Windows users will have to explicitly opt in to TruePlay monitoring through a system setting, which first showed up in preview builds as "Game Monitor" back in June. Users that don't opt in won't be able to play games with TruePlay implemented, though; as the settings page notes, "turning this off may limit the games you can play."

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy have written to Apple CEO Tim Cook to ask ten questions about Apple's recent removal of VPN apps from its Chinese app store:

Two US senators have written to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking why the company reportedly removed VPN apps from the company's store in China. "If these reports are true," the senators wrote, "we are concerned that Apple may be enabling the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance of the Internet."

[...] On or around July 29, Apple removed many of the most-used VPN applications from its Chinese app store. In a short email from the company, VPN providers were informed that VPN applications are considered illegal in China.

"We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines," Apple informed the affected VPNs.

[...] Now, in a letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook, US senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy express concern at the move by Apple, noting that if reports of the software removals are true, the company could be assisting China's restrictive approach to the Internet.

"VPNs allow users to access the uncensored Internet in China and other countries that restrict Internet freedom. If these reports are true, we are concerned that Apple may be enabling the Chines[sic] government's censorship and surveillance of the Internet."

The letter to Tim Cook.

Leahy and Cruz were cosponsors of the USA Freedom Act.

Previously: Apple Capitulates, Removes Unlicensed VPN Apps From China App Store
Russia Bans VPNs and Tor, Effective November 1

Original Submission

takyon writes:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a gene therapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (blood cancer):

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the second in a radically new class of treatments that genetically reboot a patient's own immune cells to kill cancer.

The new therapy, Yescarta, made by Kite Pharma, was approved for adults with aggressive forms of a blood cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, who have undergone two regimens of chemotherapy that failed.

The treatment, considered a form of gene therapy, transforms the patient's cells into what researchers call a "living drug" that attacks cancer cells. It is part of the rapidly growing field of immunotherapy, which uses drugs or genetic tinkering to turbocharge the immune system to fight disease. In some cases the treatments have led to long remissions.

"The results are pretty remarkable," said Dr. Frederick L. Locke, a specialist in blood cancers at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, and a leader of a study of the new treatment. "We're excited. We think there are many patients who may need this therapy."

He added, "These patients don't have other options."

About 3,500 people a year in the United States may be candidates for Yescarta. It is meant to be given once, infused into a vein, and must be manufactured individually for each patient. The cost will be $373,000.

Also at The Associated Press, CNN, and STAT News.

Previously: FDA Approves a Gene Therapy for the First Time
FDA Committee Endorses Gene Therapy for a Form of Childhood Blindness

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Climate change caused by volcanic eruptions has been linked to the downfall of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30 BC:

A series of volcanic eruptions may have helped bring about the downfall of the last Egyptian dynasty 2,000 years ago.

By suppressing the monsoons that swelled the Nile River each summer, triggering flooding that supported the region's agriculture, the eruptions probably helped usher in an era of periodic revolts [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00957-y] [DX], researchers report online October 17 in Nature Communications. That upheaval ultimately doomed the dynasty that ruled Egypt's Ptolemaic Kingdom for nearly 300 years until the death of Cleopatra.

[...] Manning and colleagues pored over historical texts from Ptolemaic Egypt, comparing periods of unrest with the volcanic record in the ice cores. Eruptions coincided with the onset of many recorded revolts. Political instability, famine and drought may have come to a head around 44 B.C., when Italy's Mount Etna erupted explosively. The Ptolemaic dynasty soon came to a close in 30 B.C. with Cleopatra's suicide.

Also at Live Science and The Washington Post (archive).

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers will each invest $5 million in a tech partnership called TitletownTech in Green Bay, Wisconsin:

In an unusual pairing of a giant tech company and a football team, Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers are trying to spur innovation in Wisconsin by forming a $10 million partnership that will make investments, give workspace to startups and encourage innovation among local businesses.

Called TitletownTech and located next to the Packer's Lambeau Field, it will include an 18-week accelerator for companies, a venture capital fund that will invest in those startartups and a lab to help existing business to inject innovation into their firms.

"By combining the Green Bay Packers' deep engagement in this community and our expertise in helping businesses digitally transform, we believe TitletownTech will be a valuable resource for Wisconsin and a model for fostering economic development in other parts of the country," said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, in a statement.

The TitletownTech building is planned to open next fall.

Green Bay Packers press release. Also at Reuters, Green Bay Press-Gazette, and WILX.

Original Submission