canopic jug writes:The Helsinki Times reports that Finland's Minister of Finance suggested during a recent foreign policy speech that Finland and the EU could pursue self-sufficiency in computing, in particular to avoid over dependence on just a handful of companies. She pointed out that this overreliance on said companies has become so severe that company policy has already started to override existing relevant legislation. The topic had earlier been brought up by President Sauli Niinistö. So far, though, not even Russia has made progress in that direction despite over a decade passing since announcing plans.
An Anonymous Coward writes:Clinical trials of remdesivir, an experimental drug to treat COVID-19, have begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha. More detail is provided in an article posted by the National Institutes of Health. The initial trial will involve 400 patients and will be conducted internationally but is beginning in Nebraska. There are currently 15 patients being monitored at UNMC, 13 of whom have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the daily update from UNMC, all of the 15 patients are now in the National Quarantine Unit, which has 20 beds. Previously, some of the patients had been in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, which is the largest facility of its kind in the country and had previously been used to treat ebola patients.Note: The February 25 edition of the daily update mentioned the clinical trial, so there's a good possibility that additional updates will be posted in UNMC's daily update. The additional discussion may help explain why the trial is beginning in Nebraska even though there haven't been any cases that reported there -- all of the COVID-19 patients at UNMC were either sent there originally or were previously quarantined at Camp Ashland or were transported there from elsewhere.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
kazzie writes:A recent murder trial involving the most medieval of weapons has recently concluded with a guilty verdict, thanks to some high-tech sleuthing.From the BBC's report:
New Temporary Moon in Earth OrbitJoeMerchant writes:On February 15th 2020 a magnitude 20 object designated 2020 CD3 was observed and projected to be in a 47 day elliptical orbit of the Earth. Projections do not all agree yet, but the orbit is believed to be unstable and should not last more than about 3 years. 2020 CD3 is estimated to be between 1 and 6 meters in diameter, though reportage varies wildly on the size estimates. Nobody seems to be commenting on perigee, though the simulation images suggest it is approximately at lunar orbit distance - of course with the 47 day period apogee is well beyond lunar orbit.This is only the second "captured asteroid" to be observed in Earth orbit, 2006 RH120 was observed to be in Earth orbit from September 2006 to June 2007 - although 1991 VG was weakly captured for a month in 1992 and is expected to return in the future.Many stories have already been published elsewhere - Wikipedia has already been updated; but, nobody seems to be asking the important questions like: if Pluto can be disqualified as a planet, how can 2020 CD3 be called a moon? ;-) EarthSky was unable to be consulted, perhaps due to the traffic spike, but other astronomers have referred to the object as a TCO - Temporarily Captured Object, while some question if 2020 CD3 is in fact an artificial object like a spent Apollo era booster stage.Earth has a new mini-moon -- but it's only temporaryGaaark writes:
fliptop writes:Clearview AI, which contracts with law enforcement after reportedly scraping 3 billion images from the web, now says someone got "unauthorized access" to its list of customers:
There have been several significant developments in the battle against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and the resulting illness COVID-19. This story gathers a selection of stories from across the web.WHO Director-General's Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19 - 24 February 2020upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 24 February 2020:
An Anonymous Coward writes:Music charts have them, Rotten Tomatoes is built on them, it's why we vote on polls, and now Netflix will show the top 10 shows for users to see and will badge shows with their top 10 number in the listings.
Car & Driver and other outlets report on the latest customization available (for a price) when you order a Porsche, https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a31082234/porsche-911-fingerprint-paint-customized/
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow4275_:Apple drops a bomb on long-life HTTPS certificates: Safari to snub new security certs valid for more than 13 months:
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for SoyCow4275_:Mathematicians propose new way of using neural networks to work with noisy, high-dimensional data:
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AnonymousCoward:Canadian Privacy Commissioners to Investigate Creepy Facial Recognition Firm Clearview AI: