Bost 7 News

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Next-generation single-dose antidotes for opioid overdoses

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Fentanyl's powerful effects are long-lasting, and even tiny amounts of the drug can lead to an overdose. Antidotes, such as naloxone, do not last long enough in the body to fully counter the drug, requiring repeated injections. Now, scientists report that they are developing single-dose, longer-lasting opioid antidotes using polymer nanoparticles. The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society Spring 2019 National Meeting & Exposition.

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Fish slime: An untapped source of potential new antibiotics

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

As current antibiotics dwindle in effectiveness against multidrug-resistant pathogens, researchers are seeking potential replacements in some unlikely places. Now a team has identified bacteria with promising antibiotic activity against known pathogens -- even dangerous organisms, such as the microbe that causes MRSA infections -- in the protective mucus that coats young fish. The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society Spring 2019 National Meeting & Exposition.

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Understanding what makes Tennessee whiskey unique

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Freshly distilled, un-aged whiskey is filtered over charcoal made from the sugar maple tree in a mysterious, but necessary step known as the Lincoln County Process. By law, a product cannot be called Tennessee whiskey without it. Researchers now say they have some clues as to what the process imparts to the final product. The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society Spring 2019 National Meeting & Exposition.

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Pope in Morocco: protect 'multi-religious' Jerusalem

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Joint statement with Moroccan king comes after US President Trump recognised Jerusalem as capital of Israel last year.

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President Bashir's ruling party postpones Sudan convention

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

An NCP leader told reporters the general convention, due to be held next month, has been suspended indefinitely.

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North Korea calls Madrid embassy raid 'terrorist attack'

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Pyongyang says it is closely following rumours of FBI involvement after 10 armed men break into North Korean embassy.

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Paris Dispatch: The ‘Blue Prince of Montmartre,’ at 87, Still Rules Parisian Demimonde

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Dressed habitually in blue, the silver-haired French icon Michou, the owner of Paris’s best-known cross-dressing cabaret, is a showman from a bygone era who still attracts adoring crowds.

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Kazakhstan: What is Nazarbayev's transition plan about?

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

And can it be a model for other countries in the region to follow, namely Russia?

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The #MeToo movement has reached Muslim-majority northern Nigeria

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Survivors of sexual abuse and harassment are sharing their experiences on social media, using the #ArewaMeToo hashtag.

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Saudis 'had access' to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone: investigator

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Investigator hired to look into release of text messages by US tabloid says Saudi government had access to Bezos' phone.

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News Analysis: Countries Want to Ban ‘Weaponized’ Social Media. What Would That Look Like?

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

No established democracies have ever come as close to applying such sweeping restrictions as Australia and New Zealand are considering in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

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Russia Ordered a Killing That Made No Sense. Then the Assassin Started Talking.

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It turned out the killer of a Ukrainian electrician was working for Russian intelligence agents.

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Suzana Caputova elected Slovakia's first female president

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Caputova, a political newcomer, wins 58.3 percent of the ballot beating the ruling party candidate Maros Sefcovic.

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Why Ukrainians want to elect a comedian as president

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The Ukrainian electorate has run out of patience.

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Mozambique: Cholera cases reach 271 in cyclone-hit Beira

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Epidemic fears in Mozambique as the number of cholera cases doubles in 48 hours.

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Does India's Anti-Satellite Missile Test Mean The Weaponization of Space?

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Reuters reports: India expects space debris from its anti-satellite weapons launch to burn out in less than 45 days, its top defense scientist said on Thursday, seeking to allay global concern about fragments hitting objects. The comments came a day after India said it used an indigenously developed ballistic missile interceptor to destroy one of its own satellites at a height of 300 km (186 miles), in a test aimed at boosting its defenses in space. Critics say such technology, known to be possessed only by the United States, Russia and China, raises the prospect of an arms race in outer space, besides posing a hazard by creating a cloud of fragments that could persist for years. G. Satheesh Reddy, the chief of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, said a low-altitude military satellite was picked for the test, to reduce the risk of debris left in space. Space.com shared a reaction from a national security affairs professor at Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. They argued that India's test "likely represents a feeling by other countries, specifically India in this case, that the weaponization of space is forthcoming, and India doesn't want to be left out of the 'have' category if arms-control agreements are eventually reached."

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Supercomputers help supercharge protein assembly

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(University of Texas at Austin, Texas Advanced Computing Center) Using proteins derived from jellyfish, scientists assembled a complex sixteen protein structure composed of two stacked octamers by supercharging alone. This research could be applied to useful technologies such as pharmaceutical targeting, artificial energy harvesting, 'smart' sensing and building materials, and more. Computational modeling through XSEDE allocations on Stampede2 (TACC) and Comet (SDSC) refined measurements of structure.

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Focus on immunotherapy and patient perspective at IASLC 2019 Small Cell Lung Cancer Meeting

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(International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer) While non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the more common form of lung cancer and attracts the lion's share of the research funding, recent developments in small cell lung cancer may be shifting that slightly. In order to capitalize on these recent developments, researchers who focus on small cell lung cancer (SCLC) will gather in New York City at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer April 3-5, 2019, for the IASLC 2019 Small Cell Lung Cancer Meeting.

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$2.9 million grant to help extract clean irrigation water from fracking wastewater

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(Michigan State University) Michigan State University will share almost $3 million to develop a freshwater recovery system to extract clean irrigation water from hydraulic fracturing wastewater. The reclaimed water could help dry western states that need water for crops and livestock.

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Engineering for high-speed devices

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(University of Delaware) A research team from the University of Delaware has developed cutting-edge technology for photonics devices that could enable faster communications between phones and computers.

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Illinois professor contributes to improved care for NICU babies

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(University of Illinois College of Engineering) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Naresh Shanbhag is part of a team, led by former Illinois professor John Rogers, working to replace the wires used to monitor babies in the NICU with a patch that would allow parents to hold their little one while it's being monitored.

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Satellite finds Tropical Cyclone Joaninha slammed by wind shear

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) One day makes a big difference when you're a tropical cyclone. On March 28, Tropical Cyclone Joaninha still maintained an eye, and on March 29, once outside winds ramped up, the storm weakened quickly. NOAA's NOAA-20 satellite provided an image of the storm that showed a large area of thunderstorms were pushed away from the center.

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Ocean visions: Leading institutions gather to cultivate scalable, science-driven solutions

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(Georgia Aquarium ) Leading ocean science and engineering institutions are joining forces to create Ocean Visions, an innovative scientist-driven ocean conservation venture that fosters collaboration between top researchers, conservationists and entrepreneurs committed to solving some of the biggest challenges facing ocean health.

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New methodology enable solid state lighting to measure and self-adjust based on conditions

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics) An article published in the SPIE journal Optical Engineering, 'Arbitrary spectral matching using multi-LED lighting systems,' marks a substantial advance in lighting science and technology. In their paper, the researchers announce a two-pronged approach to both measure and self-adjust the spectral power distributions (SPDs) of LED lighting systems. Their methodology demonstrates the system's ability to maintain consistency and stability over an extended period of time.

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Odd reaction creates a stir in the lab

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(Rice University) Rice University chemists show how PTFE - aka Teflon - in standard lab stir bars affects a chemical reaction used to reduce nanotubes, skewing the results.

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April Fools hoax stories could offer clues to help identify 'fake news'

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(Lancaster University) Academic experts in natural language processing from Lancaster University who are interested in deception have compared the language used within written April Fools hoaxes and fake news stories. They have discovered that there are similarities in the written structure of humorous April Fools hoaxes -- the spoof articles published by media outlets every April 1 -- and malicious fake news stories.

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MSU lands $1.8 million NIH grant to improve brain implants

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(Michigan State University) Michigan State University has landed a $1.8 million National Institutes for Health R01 grant to improve brain implants -- 'electroceuticals' used to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression and traumatic injuries.

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Hollow structures in 3D

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(University of Freiburg) Freiburg researchers succeed in printing channel structures in glass.

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Quantum optical cooling of nanoparticles

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(University of Vienna) One important requirement to see quantum effects is to remove all thermal energy from the particle motion, i.e. to cool it as close as possible to absolute zero temperature. Researchers at the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are now one step closer to reaching this goal by demonstrating a new method for cooling levitated nanoparticles.

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A new accurate computational method designed to enhance drug target stability

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), and the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a new computational method for the design of thermally stable G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) that are of great help in creating new drugs. The method has already proved useful in obtaining the structures of several principal human receptors.

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The mystery of touch and how we feel about it

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(Nagoya Institute of Technology) The mechanism of tactile sensation has not yet been solved though it is the basic sense of humans. NITech scientists investigated its mechanism and found the important cues in touch could be different for each person. When humans evaluate the roughness, different individuals weigh skin vibration information, spatial information, and other mechanical properties differently. The goal is to establish an estimation model of perceptual roughness ratings involving individual differences in the cognitive weights.

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Live cell imaging: 'Green Glifons' for real-time monitoring of glucose metabolism

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

(Tokyo Institute of Technology) A collaborative study between Tokyo Tech and the University of Tokyo reports a series of green fluorescent protein-based glucose indicators that will aid investigations of energy metabolism in living cells. Named Green Glifons, these indicators are the first of their kind designed to be suitable for live imaging of mammalian cells and for simultaneous imaging alongside other color indicators.

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‘We’re in the Last Hour’: Democracy Itself Is on Trial in Brexit, Britons Say

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Britons on both sides of the issue are angry and embarrassed at the spectacle in Parliament, and they are losing faith in their political system.

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As Venezuelan Economy Unravels, Maduro Opponents Hope Downturn Will Topple Him

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

The prolonged national blackout this month pushed the country closer to the brink of economic collapse. Inflation is expected reach 51 million percent this year.

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Pope Champions Migrants in Morocco, the Chief Departure Point for Europe

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Francis warned against indifference and silence on the crisis during a two-day visit to the North African nation.

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‘In Afghanistan, We Laugh Differently’

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

For a handful of teenage girls, robotics offered a reprieve from their violent, patriarchal country. Now they are back home, with the Taliban poised to gain power.

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Protest at Gaza Fence Is Mostly Peaceful as Both Sides Urge Restraint

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marked the first anniversary of protests that have frequently led to violence. Three Palestinians were killed.

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Ukrainians Vote, in Europe’s Only Country at War

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Five years after a revolution, Ukrainians are less thankful for their new leaders than for the freedom to vote them out of power.

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Italy’s Deal With China Signals a Shift as U.S. Influence Recedes

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Far from being isolated in Europe, the Italians say they are leading the expansion of new relations with China, and fully expect others to follow.

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Afghan National Security Chief Is Sidelined in His Own War

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As the Americans negotiate with the Taliban directly, they are shunning Afghanistan’s national security adviser — and perhaps the president as well.

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Trump Turns U.S. Policy in Central America on Its Head

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

His plan to cut aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is “shooting yourself in the foot,” said one human rights worker. Mexico has urged more funding for development.

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Bezos’s Security Consultant Accuses Saudis of Hacking the Amazon C.E.O.’s Phone

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

The accusations by Gavin de Becker, Mr. Bezos’s longtime security consultant, are the latest twist in a bizarre situation that has also pulled in the largest U.S. tabloid publisher and The Washington Post.

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Zuzana Caputova Is Elected Slovakia’s First Female President

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Riding a wave of popular discontent over widespread corruption, she vowed to return a sense of decency to the country’s often toxic political climate.

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A Leonardo Made a $450 Million Splash. Now There’s No Sign of It.

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Since a Saudi royal, most likely the crown prince, paid $450 million for “Salvator Mundi,” it has vanished from view, and museums hoping to show it say they don’t know where it is.

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How Pain Tolerance and Anxiety Seem to Be Connected

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

An article about the case of a woman who feels little pain or anxiety raised many questions, such as: Do low-anxiety people seem to feel less pain?

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Egypt Sentences 30 Men Over Church Attack Plot

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Thirty men were sentenced to between 10 years to life imprisonment for planning a suicide bombing on a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

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What’s the Secret to Reaching 111? ‘Avoid Dying,’ but ‘Porridge Is Helpful’

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Alfred Smith and Bob Weighton were both born on March 29, 1908. But Britain’s oldest men say they’re as puzzled as anyone about the secret to longevity.

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Trips to the toilet at night are a sign of high blood pressure

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Trips to the toilet at night are a sign of high blood pressure, according to results from the Watari study presented today at the 83rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS 2019).

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Gastrointestinal complaints in children could signal future mental health problems

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Columbia University researchers are among the first to link disruption of a child's gastrointestinal microbiome triggered by early-life adversity -- such as parental separation -- with activity in the regions of the brain associated with emotional health.

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Stunning discovery offers glimpse of minutes following 'dinosaur-killer' Chicxulub impact

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

At a site called Tanis in North Dakota's Hell Creek Formation, a team of paleontologists whose headquarters are at the University of Kansas unearthed a motherlode of exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils that were killed suddenly in events triggered by the Chicxulub impact.

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Supercomputers help supercharge protein assembly

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Using proteins derived from jellyfish, scientists assembled a complex sixteen protein structure composed of two stacked octamers by supercharging alone. This research could be applied to useful technologies such as pharmaceutical targeting, artificial energy harvesting, 'smart' sensing and building materials, and more. Computational modeling through XSEDE allocations on Stampede2 (TACC) and Comet (SDSC) refined measurements of structure.

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Uterine artery embolization can be considered for well controlled symptomatic leiomyomas

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

A new study published in the April 2019 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) investigates the safety of uterine artery embolization (UAE) for symptomatic leiomyomas in patients with various autoimmune diseases.

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Contrast-enhanced MRI provides useful findings in discordant core biopsy management

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

An essential part of breast intervention is the process of assessing concordance between imaging findings and core biopsy results. When pathology results are considered benign discordant, current standard of care is surgical excision, even though many of these lesions will ultimately be found benign.

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Lumbar spine MRI reports are too difficult for patients to understand

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As increasing numbers of patients gain online access to their radiology reports, a new study published in the April 2019 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) assesses how thoroughly patients understand these complex documents.

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Patient factors contribute to imaging follow-up rates

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A new study published in the April 2019 issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) considers several potential factors that might have led to disparities in follow-up imaging rates among patients with indeterminate initial abdominal imaging findings.

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66-million-year-old deathbed linked to dinosaur-killing meteor

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Paleontologists have found a fossil site in North Dakota that contains animals and plants killed and buried within an hour of the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. This is the richest K-T boundary site ever found, incorporating insects, fish, mammals, dinosaurs and plants living at the end of the Cretaceous, mixed with tektites and rock created and scattered by the impact. The find proves that dinosaurs survived until the impact.

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Doctors more likely to prescribe preventive therapy if prompted by EMR

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Penn Medicine study shows technology tied to patient records pushing doctors toward a new therapy was more effective than just peer education.

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Can a protein in cord blood predict risk of death, cerebral palsy in preterm infants?

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that some preterm babies born without haptoglobin, a protein in blood cells, have higher odds of brain bleeding, cerebral palsy and death. Their findings suggest that the absence of the protein could serve as a potential biomarker indicating a need for increased monitoring or other preventive interventions.

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Scientists develop way to perform supercomputer simulations of the heart on cellphones

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

You can now perform supercomputer simulations of the heart's electrophysiology in real time on desktop computers and even cellphones. A team of scientists from Rochester Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech developed a new approach that can not only help diagnose heart conditions and test new treatments, but pushes the boundaries of cardiac science by opening up a floodgate of new cardiac research and education.

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Saudis Gained Access to Amazon CEO's Phone, Says Bezos' Security Chief

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

"The security chief for Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Saturday that the Saudi government had access to Bezos' phone and gained private information from it," Reuters reports. But in addition, the National Enquirer's lawyer "tried to get me to say there was no hacking," writes security specialist Gavin de Becker. I've recently seen things that have surprised even me, such as National Enquirer's parent company, AMI, being in league with a foreign nation that's been actively trying to harm American citizens and companies, including the owner of the Washington Post. You know him as Jeff Bezos; I know him as my client of 22 years... Why did AMI's people work so hard to identify a source, and insist to the New York Times and others that he was their sole source for everything? My best answer is contained in what happened next: AMI threatened to publish embarrassing photos of Jeff Bezos unless certain conditions were met. (These were photos that, for some reason, they had held back and not published in their first story on the Bezos affair, or any subsequent story.) While a brief summary of those terms has been made public before, others that I'm sharing are new -- and they reveal a great deal about what was motivating AMI. An eight-page contract AMI sent for me and Bezos to sign would have required that I make a public statement, composed by them and then widely disseminated, saying that my investigation had concluded they hadn't relied upon "any form of electronic eavesdropping or hacking in their news-gathering process." Note here that I'd never publicly said anything about electronic eavesdropping or hacking -- and they wanted to be sure I couldn't.... An earlier set of their proposed terms included AMI making a statement "affirming that it undertook no electronic eavesdropping in connection with its reporting and has no knowledge of such conduct" -- but now they wanted me to say that for them. The contract further held that if Bezos or I were ever in our lives to "state, suggest or allude to" anything contrary to what AMI wanted said about electronic eavesdropping and hacking, then they could publish the embarrassing photos. I'm writing this today because it's exactly what the Enquirer scheme was intended to prevent me from doing. Their contract also contained terms that would have inhibited both me and Bezos from initiating a report to law enforcement. Things didn't work out as they hoped. De Becker instead turned over his investigation's results to U.S. federal officials, then published today's essay warning the National Enquirer and its chairman have "evolved into trying to strong-arm an American citizen whom that country's leadership wanted harmed, compromised, and silenced." He also suggests it's in response to the "relentless" coverage by the Washington Post (which Bezos owns) of the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi. "Experts with whom we consulted confirmed New York Times reports on the Saudi capability to 'collect vast amounts of previously inaccessible data from smartphones in the air without leaving a trace -- including phone calls, texts, emails.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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What's The Correct Way to Pronounce 'GIF'?

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

"Apparently we're all fighting about how to pronounce 'GIF' again on Twitter," writes technology columnist Mike Melanson: I personally find the argument of web designer Aaron Bazinet, who managed to secure the domain howtoreallypronouncegif.com, rather convincing in its simplicity: "It's the most natural, logical way to pronounce it. That's why when everyone comes across the word for the first time, they use a hard G [as in "gift"]." Bazinet relates the origin of the debate as such: "The creator of the GIF image format, Steve Wilhite of CompuServe, when deciding on the pronunciation, said he deliberately chose to echo the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say 'Choosy developers choose GIF(jif)', playing off of Jif's television commercials. If you hear anyone pronounce GIF with a soft G, it's because they know something of this history." Wilhite attempted to settled the controversy in 2013 when accepting a lifetime achievement award at the 17th annual Webby awards. Using an actual animated .gif for his five-word acceptance speech, he authoritatively announced his preferred pronounciation. However, the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary argues that "A coiner effectively loses control of a word once it's out there," adding that "the pronunciation with a hard g is now very widespread and readily understood." One linguist addressed the topic on Twitter this week, noting studies that found past usage of "gi" in words has been almost evenly split between hard and soft g sounds. Their thread also answers a related question: how will I weaponize a trivial and harmless consonant difference to make other people feel bad and self-conscious about themselves? Her response? "Maybe just....don't do this."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mark Zuckerberg Wants The Government To Help Police Internet Content

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

"Mark Zuckerberg says regulators and governments should play a more active role in controlling internet content," according to the BBC, calling for new laws governing harmful content, election integrity, privacy, and data portability. An anonymous reader quotes their report: In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, Facebook's chief says the responsibility for monitoring harmful content is too great for firms alone... "Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree," Mr Zuckerberg writes... In brief, Mr Zuckerberg calls for the following things: - Common rules that all social media sites need to adhere to, enforced by third-party bodies, to control the spread of harmful content - All major tech companies to release a transparency report every three months, to put it on a par with financial reporting - Stronger laws around the world to protect the integrity of elections, with common standards for all websites to identify political actors - Laws that not only apply to candidates and elections, but also other "divisive political issues", and for laws to apply outside of official campaign periods - New industry-wide standards to control how political campaigns use data to target voters online - More countries to adopt privacy laws like the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force last year - A "common global framework" that means these laws are all standardised globally, rather than being substantially different from country to country - Clear rules about who's responsible for protecting people's data when they move it from one service to another Zuckerberg believes the same regulations should apply to all web sites to make it easier to stop the spread of "harmful content." He also says Facebook will be creating "an independent body so people can appeal our decisions" when content is taken.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hoping To Fix College Teaching, CMU Open-Sources Trove of Software

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Wednesday CMU announced the open sourcing of its adaptive-learning software platform -- plus analytics and dozens of other related tools for improving college teaching -- as part of a national push "in an unusual move intended to shake up how college teaching is done around the world," writes EdSurge. Long-time Slashdot reader jyosim shares their report: Officials estimate that developing the software has cost more than $100 million in foundation grants and university dollars. The goal of the software giveaway is to jump-start "learning engineering," the practice of applying findings from learning science to college classrooms. If it takes off, the effort could result in a free, open-source alternative to a growing number of commercial adaptive-learning and learning analytics tools aimed at colleges. One of the biggest concerns by college leaders about buying such tools from commercial vendors is whether colleges will have access to the underlying algorithmic logic -- or whether the systems will be a "black box...." "We need a scientific revolution in education akin to the one that we had in medicine 150 years ago," said Michael Feldstein, coordinator of the Empirical Educator Project, in a statement. "This isn't a silver bullet, and it isn't charity. It's an invitation to the educators of the world for us all to solve big problems together." CMU's Nobel prize-winning economics professor Herbert Simon once argued of colleges that "we must step back and view them with Martian eyes, innocent of their history, to appreciate fully how outrageous their operation is... [W]e find no one with a professional knowledge of the laws of learning, or of the techniques of applying them." Kenneth R. Koedinger, a professor of human computer interaction and psychology at Carnegie Mellon, now argues that "we need to change higher ed from a solo sport to a collaborative research activity."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Are We Experiencing a Burnout Epidemic?

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

"Burnout is everywhere," reports the Washington Post. "Caused in part by social media, the 24-hour news cycle and the pressure to check work email outside of office hours, it could hit you, too -- especially if you don't know how to nip it in the bud..." A recent report from Harvard and Massachusetts medical organizations declared physician burnout a public health crisis. It pointed out the problem not only harms doctors but also patients. "Burnout is associated with increasing medical errors," the paper said... Ninety-five percent of human resource leaders say burnout is sabotaging workplace retention, often because of overly heavy workloads, one [2017] survey found. Poor management contributes to the burnout epidemic. "Organizations typically reward employees who are putting in longer hours and replace workers who aren't taking on an increased workload, which is a systematic problem that causes burnout in the first place," says Dan Schawbel, research director of Future Workplace, the firm that conducted the survey along with Kronos Part of the difficulty of pinpointing true burnout may be because burnout is a nonmedical term -- at least in the United States. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn't list it as an illness. But other countries including France, Denmark and Sweden, do recognize burnout syndrome and consider it to be a legitimate reason to take a sick day from work.... For those who suspect they might be on the road to burnout, there are practical tools to mitigate it. Among others: physical exercise, sleep and positive social connection (the real kind, not the Facebook kind). The Post also ran a follow-up article which suggests that to fight burnout, companies need to set reasonable work hours -- and develop a culture encouraging breaks and vacations.

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The Dangers of Sharing Your Screen With Co-Workers

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"if you must goof off at work, then at the very least manage your notification settings so that your alerts are muted, and aren't broadcast on the big screen when you screen share in the boardroom," warns the New York Times -- offering several examples of what can go wrong. An anonymous reader quotes their follow-up report: Whether it's happened to you or in front of you, many of us are familiar with the screen-share disaster: the accidental exposure of something private while projecting your screen before a group of colleagues. The only surefire way to avoid this is to do as the lawyers recommend and keep your personal things on your personal devices and your work things on you work computer. Sonia Farber, a partner and founder of , acknowledges that may not be feasible for everyone. "But, to the extent that you can keep some separation of church and state, you should make every effort to do that," she said. The Times offers a checklist for "how not to ruin your life (or just die of embarrassment) with a screen share" -- offering common-sense tips like managing desktop notifications and signing out of messaging apps before meetings. (And of course, not leaving open any tell-tale browser tabs.) But have Slashdot's readers seen (or experienced) any screen-sharing disasters in their own lives? Share your stories in the comments. What are the dangers of sharing your screen with co-workers?

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Phone Carrier Apps Can Help Fight Robocalls -- Sometimes, Even For Free

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Friday CNN reported on "what you can do right now to stop robocalls." "Short of throwing your phone in the garbage, there's no way to avoid them altogether. But wireless providers and smartphone developers offer tools to filter out at least some unwanted calls." - Verizon's Call Filter app is free to download on iPhones and Android devices. The company announced Thursday the app will offer some free features -- including auto-blocking calls from known fraudsters, showing warning banners for suspicious calls, and a spam reporting tool. For $2.99 a month per line, the Call Filter app can use a phonebook feature to look up the names of unknown callers, and it can show a "risk meter" for spam calls. - AT&T's Call Protect has similar free features and add-ons with a $3.99 per month subscription. (iOS and Android) - T-Mobile phones come loaded with Scam ID, which warns customers about suspicious phone numbers. It's also free to activate Scam Block, which automatically rejects calls from those numbers. An additional app called Name ID offers premium caller identification for $4 per line monthly. (iOS and Android) - Sprint's Premium Caller ID , which comes pre-installed, looks up unknown numbers and filters and blocks robocalls for $2.99 per line. - Google's Pixel phones also give you the option to have your voice assistant answer suspicious calls for you. The phone can transcribe the conversation and lets you decide whether to answer.

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Missile Defense Test Intercepts ICBM Target, Says Pentagon

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

schwit1 quotes CNBC: In the first test of its kind, the Pentagon on Monday carried out a "salvo" intercept of an unarmed missile soaring over the Pacific, using two interceptor missiles launched from underground silos in southern California. Both interceptors zeroed in on the target -- a re-entry vehicle that had been launched 4,000 miles away atop an intercontinental-range missile, the Pentagon said. The first interceptor hit and destroyed the re-entry vehicle, which in an actual attack would contain a warhead. The second interceptor hit a secondary object, as expected, according to a statement by the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

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Continuing Progress On Babbage Analytical Engine

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

Slashdot reader RockDoctor writes: The project to actually construct Babbage's Analytical Engine, the first design for a general purpose computing machine, continues with the documentation phase of the programme. Since Babbage continued to refine his design almost until the day of his death, working out what he actually wanted to build is quite a task. The last year's work is reported to includes work on a batch of previously unknown and uncatalogued materials discovered since the project's inception in 2011. These decades, people don't think much of producing a new programming language to suit particular tasks — to "scratch an itch" in the vernacular. As with so many things, Babbage was a pioneer, according to the Plan 28 blog: : There have already been significant finds. The Notations for Difference Engine 1, dating from 1834, thought to exist, had never come to light. These have now been found and represent a crucial piece in the puzzle of the developmental trajectory of the symbolic language Babbage developed as a design aid, to describe and specify his engine, and used extensively in the development of the Analytical Engine. RockDoctor adds, "Anyone who has been tasked with taking over a project from someone else (retired, sacked, beheaded, whatever) will recognise this feeling..." The survey so far has identified mis-titled drawings, single drawings that have two unrelated catalogue entries, and drawings known to exist from earlier scholarly work but not located. "The hope of the project is to have a working machine in time for Babbages sesquicentenary in 2021."

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When Charles Babbage Played Chess With the Original Mechanical Turk

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

IEEE Spectrum is publishing a six-part series exploring the human history of AI. the_newsbeagle writes: The 19th century British engineer Charles Babbage is sometimes called the father of the computer. But his first design for a massive computing machine, a contraption called the Difference Engine that had some 25,000 parts, was just a giant calculator intended to handle logarithmic tables. It wasn't until he began designing his first Analytical Engine that he began to dream of a smart machine that could handle more general-purpose computations. This short essay argues that Babbage's creative leap was inspired by an early example of AI hype: A supposed chess-playing machine called The Turk that had astounded onlookers throughout the courts of Europe. Babbage played two games against the Turk, and lost both.

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Casino Accused of Withholding Bug Bounty, Then Assaulting 'Ethical Hacker'

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica: People who find security vulnerabilities commonly run into difficulties when reporting them to the responsible company. But it's less common for such situations to turn into tense trade-show confrontations -- and competing claims of assault and blackmail. Yet that's what happened when executives at Atrient -- a casino technology firm headquartered in West Bloomfield, Michigan -- stopped responding to two UK-based security researchers who had reported some alleged security flaws. The researchers thought they had reached an agreement regarding payment for their work, but nothing final ever materialized. On February 5, 2019, one of the researchers -- Dylan Wheeler, a 23-year-old Australian living in the UK -- stopped by Atrient's booth at a London conference to confront the company's chief operating officer. What happened next is in dispute. Wheeler says that Atrient COO Jessie Gill got in a confrontation with him and yanked off his conference lanyard; Gill insists he did no such thing, and he accused Wheeler of attempted extortion. The debacle culminated in legal threats and a lot of mudslinging, with live play-by-play commentary as it played out on Twitter. Ars Technica calls the story "practically a case study in the problems that can arise with vulnerability research and disclosure," adding "the vast majority of companies have no clear mechanism for outsiders to share information about security gaps." A security research director at Rapid7 joked his first reaction was "man, I wish a vendor would punch me for disclosure. Boy, that beats any bug bounty." But they later warned, "It's on us as an industry not only to train corporate America on how to take disclosure, but also we need to do a little more training for people who find these bugs -- especially today, in an era where bug outings are kind of normal now -- to not expect someone to be necessarily grateful when one shows up."

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Ocean Cleanup Foundation Plans Relaunch of Giant Plastic-Catching Trap

By March 31, 2019 No comments:

On Friday the Ocean Cleanup project posted a status update after their giant U-shaped plastic trap lost a 60-foot section in January and had to be towed back to land: During the first four months that the system was offshore, we were able to confirm many of the key features of the cleanup system. We also encountered some unscheduled learning opportunities; notably 1) the system hasn't been able to retain the plastic it caught, and 2) the floater suffered from a structural failure, causing an 18-meter end section to disconnect from the rest of the system, just before the end of 2018. Its four months in the Pacific ocean validated much of their proposed solution, including the device's U-shaped configuration and its ability to orient with the wind. No harmful environmental impacts were observed, and in fact "Plastic concentrations in and around the system were much higher than in any other location in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; and, although the periods the plastic was retained in the system were not yet of sufficient length, the system did capture and concentrate plastic." The bottom line: they're going to try again: The engineering team is using these conclusions and results to update the design and prepare for relaunch. Using this thorough understanding, we hope to resolve the issues that are known to us and prove our technology, but we do realize that there may still be more unidentified challenges ahead. Only further proving the importance of returning to the patch as soon as possible, so we can continue to learn from and optimize the technology.... We now have all hands on deck and we aim to be ready for relaunch within a matter of months.

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Sunday, March 31, 2019

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