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martyb writes:Recent Salt Vulnerabilities Exploited to Hack LineageOS, Ghost, DigiCert Servers

takyon writes:Here's how to listen as the Supreme Court broadcasts oral arguments for first time ever

hubie writes:Thunderstorms produce quick bursts of energetic gamma rays. These Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) were first discovered in 1992 by NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. These bursts are unpredictable and last less than a millisecond and as such it is very hard to locate them with any decent precision. They are some of the highest energy photons produced in nature, but how they are produced is not known. Some models assume they result from charged particle acceleration in the high electric field region concentrated at the tips of lightning leaders, while other models assume particle acceleration occurs in large-scale thundercloud electric fields.Fairly recently it was noticed that TGFs were often associated with Electro-Magnetic Pulses (EMPs) in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) region. However, it isn't known whether the EMPs are signatures of the lightning that "triggers" the TGFs, or whether they are the RF signatures of the TGFs themselves. Figuring that out requires being able to pinpoint where in the thunderstorm the TGFs originate.A collaborative group of researchers analyzed a five-year data set where TGF signatures were simultaneously measured using space- and ground-based detectors. They were able to show in a paper published in Scientific Reports that the EMPs and TGFs are produced by the same phenomenon, rather than the EMPs being from "regular" lightning in TGF-producing thunderstorms. A popular explanation for the TGF source is the Relativistic Runaway Electron Avalanche (RREA) process where high electric fields accelerate electrons, which collide and knock out more electrons that are accelerated resulting in an avalanche of runaway electrons. When the electrons finally decelerate in the thunderstorm electric field, they produce bremsstrahlung photons, which is what gets detected.Reference:

martyb writes:2020-05-03 Roundup of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus) Storiestotal_count3,565,120total_deaths248,245total_recovered1,153,956active_count2,162,919active_mild_count2,112,878(98%)active_serious_count50,041(2%)closed_outcome1,402,201closed_deaths_count248,245(18%)closed_recovered_count1,153,956(82%)Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

hubie writes:In face-to-face communication the speaker's meaning is conveyed not only with the words that are used, but also with the assistance of visual and verbal cues. If you asked someone what they thought of your new hairstyle, their reply of "I think it looks great" has a lot different meaning if it is delivered with a broad smile and enthusiasm, or with eye-darting after some hemming and hawing. What is more challenging is when communication is performed only through the message without these cues. A sarcastic comments takes on a whole different negative tone without these cues.Over the years various conventions arose to add contextual meaning to a message. Long before people were LOL-ing, amateur radio operators would send "HIHI" over morse code. In the early 80s emoticons were created to add additional meaning to the various interchanges happening on Usenet. And of course, these have evolved into the ubiquitous emoji that we all know and love.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Preserving Optionality: Preparing for the Unknown:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

An Anonymous Coward writes:SeaMonkey version 2.53.2 has been released.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:Raspberry Pi launches camera with interchangeable lens system for $50:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Florida sheriff refuses to stop Americans from witnessing historic manned space launch as NASA urges everyone to watch it online:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Fnord666:YouTube Rippers and Record Labels Clash in US Appeals Court:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Tracking the 'Murder Hornet': A Deadly Pest Has Reached North America:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Tiny Hero shrews have the most extreme spine in nature:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Chesterton's Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking:

takyon writes:Pirated 'DVD Screeners' Will be History After Next Year's Oscars

takyon writes:SpaceX's next Falcon Heavy launch could expend (destroy) the first stage center core, while landing the two side boosters on separate drone ships. This configuration could carry almost as much mass as a launch using a fully expendable Falcon Heavy:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for nutherguy:Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Gravitational waves could prove the existence of the quark-gluon plasma: Computer models of merging neutron stars predicts how to tell when this happens:

stormwyrm writes:With a major pandemic sweeping the world, the standard process of clinical trials for drug approval has come under criticism as a needless source of bureaucracy and delay. Drug discovery chemist Derek Lowe in a blog post explains how clinical trials for drug approval work and the reasons behind the various requirements that the FDA and equivalent organisations around the world generally put in place before approving a new drug. He explains how most of these apparently pointless bureaucratic hurdles are actually there to help protect the integrity of the scientific process and ensure that the human subjects undergoing the trials are treated ethically. While a case can be made for relaxing some of these safeguards, especially in this time of pandemic, it is probably not a good idea to do so without at least understanding what these safeguards are for.Determining how much of a pharmaceutical is needed to prepare for the trial. Ensuring your are actually preparing just that drug and not a polymorph. Proper laboratory and manufacturing practices to ensure the desired drug is actually prepared without impurities and contaminants. Preparing a plan for a drug trial. Demographics — age, gender, weight, current medications being taken. Getting a representative distribution of these as participants. And there's much more.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

An Anonymous Coward writes:https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51799503

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:House panel calls Bezos to testify over Amazon allegedly misleading Congress:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:How hearing loss in old age affects the brain:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:Controversial sale of .org web domain blocked:

martyb writes:Hangovers (aka veisalgia) are nothing new — they were well-known even in biblical times. (See Proverbs 23:29-35.) Countless ideas have been offered over the millennia on how to avoid them or on how to lessen the effect. This colorful discussion offers (conflicting) rhymes to help remember the order one should consume beer, wine, and whiskey.An online search offersnumerousfolkremediesbut there is scant science to support these.Now, just in time for weekend, comes new research that offers hope to the sufferer. The research is published under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and is available on-line for free (PDF link) and seems robust.Are they really on to something? What, if anything, did they miss?What follows is an extract from the BMJ summary. Plant extract combo may relieve hangover symptoms:

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for carny:Elon Musk tweet wipes $14bn off Tesla's value:

Phoenix666 writes:Study discovers how primordial bacteria adapted to arsenic:

Phoenix666 writes:Temple Health:

Phoenix666 writes:Possibly active tectonic system on the Moon:

Phoenix666 writes:Phys.org:

takyon writes:NASA Names Companies to Develop Human Landers for Artemis Moon Missions

An Anonymous Coward writes:Hong Kong has deployed robots to clean public areas in the wake of COVID-19. Developed in Hong Kong, the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) said their airport is the first in the world to use the sterilisation robots, which will roam around and sanitise various areas, including toilets. The airport will also introduce a 'full-body disinfection booth' for humans which perform a temperature check and "a 40-second disinfection and sanitising procedure".Also at: BBC and CNN.Anyone else reminded of the Microbe Eliminator cleaning bot in WALL-E?Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

DannyB writes:Good News:Linux home directory management is about to undergo major change:

takyon writes:Intel's 10th Gen Comet Lake for Desktops: Skylake-S Hits 10 Cores and 5.3 GHz

martyb writes:'Gargantuan' hail in Argentina may have smashed world record:

martyb writes:Back before computers (and cell phones!) regularly sported multi-GHz processors and GBs of memory, there was the 6502 microprocessor. It was the CPU that powered computers made by Apple, Acorn, Atari, BBC Micro, Commodore, and others. Though the 6502 was introduced in 1975, it is far from being a dead parrot!Classic 8-Bit Computing The Atari Way:

An Anonymous Coward writes:YARA version 4.0.0 has been released.YARA is the name of a tool primarily used in malware research and detection. YARA was originally developed by Victor Alvarez of VirusTotal. The name is either an abbreviation of YARA: Another Recursive Acronym, or Yet Another Ridiculous Acronym. YARA by default comes with modules to process PE, ELF analysis, as well as support for the open-source Cuckoo sandbox. [1]From the YARA github page:

takyon writes:DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0 Spec Released: Defining Alt Mode for USB4

Phoenix666 writes:Renewable power surges as pandemic scrambles global energy outlook, new report finds:

"exec" writes:Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:Offspring may inherit legacy of their father's Toxoplasma infection

Runaway1956 provide a submission which inspired this story.Possibly paywalled: There's finally a Supreme Court battle coming over the nation's main hacking law (Alternative URL)

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:Three things in life are certain: Death, taxes, and cloud-based IoT gear bricked by vendors. Looking at you, Belkin:

An Anonymous Coward writes:Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

An Anonymous Coward writes:Ubuntu "mini.iso" Minimal Install .ISO for 20.04 LTS.Compared to the DVD-sized downloads for some distributions, the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS mini.iso is only 74 MB.I prefer using the mini.iso, but they moved it to a legacy directory. You can use the path on their downloads server, which appears to be HTTP only, or you can get an HTTPS connection to download it. Here is an example, from a mirror:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story: