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Submission + - China-based hacker stole crucial data from MH370 investigators (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An expert hacker, allegedly from China, has stolen crucial data from the computers of the investigators probing the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370's disappearance the day after the airliner went missing. The sophisticated hackers are believed to have sent malicious executable files morphed as news articles to several officials in various law enforcement agencies on 9 March, shortly after the jetliner went missing.

Submission + - Robot helicopter lifts robot reconnaissance vehicle (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Lockheed Martin, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), successfully conducted a fully autonomous resupply, reconnaissance, surveillance and target-acquisition demonstration using its Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) unmanned ground vehicle, K-MAX unmanned helicopter and Gyrocam optical sensor.

Submission + - If fusion is the answer, we need to do it quickly (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Yale's Jason Parisi makes a compelling case for fusion power, and explains why fusion is cleaner, safer, and doesn't provide opportunities for nuclear smuggling and proliferation. The only downside will be the transition period, when there are both fission and fusion plants available and the small amount of "booster" elements (tritium and deuterium) found in fusion power could provide would-be proliferators what they need to boost the yield of fission bombs: 'The period during which both fission and fusion plants coexist could be dangerous, however. Just a few grams of deuterium and tritium are needed to increase the yield of a fission bomb, in a process known as “boosting.”' Details about current research into fusion power and an exploration of relative costs make fusion power seem like the answer to a civilization trying to get away from fossil fuels.

Submission + - Solar plant sets birds on fire as they fly overhead (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Elledan
Elledan writes: Federal investigators in California have requested that BrightSource — owner of thermal solar plants — halt the construction of more, even bigger plants until the impact of these plants on wildlife has been further investigated. The BrightSource solar plant in the Mojave Desert which was investigated reportedly kills between 1,000 and 28,000 birds a year with the concentrated solar energy from its 300,000 mirrors, charring and incinerating feathers of passing birds. This isn't the first report of negative environmental impact by this type of solar plant either.

Submission + - Robotic Vehicles Team Up on First Fully Autonomous Mission Demonstration (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: While aircraft such as the X-47B are paving the way for unmanned aircraft filling combat roles, autonomous aircraft are also being developed to tackle more mundane – but still dangerous – military operations. To this end, the first fully autonomous resupply, reconnaissance, surveillance and target-acquisition demonstration using the Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) unmanned ground vehicle, K-MAX unmanned helicopter and Gyrocam optical sensor was recently conducted at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Submission + - Hackers Steal Data On 4.5 Million US Hospital Patients (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Community Health Systems said the attack occurred in April and June of this year, but it wasn't until July that it determined the theft had taken place. Working with a computer security company, it determined the attack was carried out by a group based in China that used 'highly sophisticated malware' to attack its systems. The hackers got away with patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers of the 4.5 million people who were referred to or received services from doctors affiliated with the company in the last five years. The stolen data did not include patient credit card, medical or clinical information.

Submission + - Research Unveils Improved Method To Let Computers Know You Are Human

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CAPTCHA services that require users to recognize and type in static distorted characters may be a method of the past, according to studies published by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Researchers focused on a broad form of gamelike CAPTCHAs, called dynamic cognitive game, or DCG, CAPTCHAs, which challenge the user to perform a gamelike cognitive task interacting with a series of dynamic images. For example, in a “ship parking” DCG challenge, the user is required to identify the boat from a set of moving objects and drag-and-drop it to the available “dock” location. The puzzle is easy for the human user to solve, but may be difficult for a computer program to figure out. Also, its gamelike nature may make the process more engaging for the user compared to conventional text-based CAPTCHAs.

Submission + - Don't Fear the Robot Car Bomb (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Patrick Lin writes about a recent FBI report that warns of the use of robot cars as terrorist and criminal threats, calling the use of weaponized robot cars "game changing." Lin explores the many ways in which robot cars could be exploited for nefarious purposes, including the fear that they could help terrorist organizations based in the Middle East carry out attacks on US soil. 'And earlier this year, jihadists were calling for more car bombs in America. Thus, popular concerns about car bombs seem all too real.' But Lin isn't too worried about these threats, and points out that there are far easier ways for terrorists to wreak havoc in the US.

Submission + - How a small-time handicapper concocted a wild MLB game-fixing tale (si.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: This is a pretty fantastic story about how a sports handicapper got revenge over a Major League Baseball pitcher by concocting a game-fixing story and spreading it around. Great read, and interesting discussion points about what exactly MLB gets excited about and what they let slide.

Submission + - How California's Carbon Market Actually Works (sagepub.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Almost 10 years ago, California’s legislature passed Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. AB 32 set the most ambitious legally binding climate policy in the United States, requiring that California’s greenhouse gas emissions return to 1990 levels by the year 2020. The centerpiece of the state’s efforts—in rhetorical terms, if not practical ones—is a comprehensive carbon market, which California’s leaders promote as a model policy for controlling carbon pollution. Over the course of the past 18 months, however, California quietly changed its approach to a critical rule affecting the carbon market’s integrity. Under the new rule, utilities are rewarded for swapping contracts on the Western electricity grid, without actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. Now that the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to regulate greenhouse gases from power plants, many are looking to the Golden State for best climate policy practices. On that score, California’s experience offers cautionary insights into the challenges of using carbon markets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Comment Correction to post (Score 1) 1

by Lasrick (#47671655) Attached to: Making viruses in the lab deadlier and more able to spread
Please note that this section is incorrect: '... in 2009, a group of Chinese scientists created a viral strain of flu virus that escaped the lab and created a pandemic, killing thousands of people.' I misread the sentence. The Chinese scientists created a new virus by combining '...the H5N1 avian influenza virus and the H1N1 human flu virus that triggered a pandemic in 2009 and claimed several thousand lives.' It was the H1N1 the scientists used that caused a pandemic, not the creation of the new virus. My apologies.

Submission + - Making viruses in the lab deadlier and more able to spread (thebulletin.org) 1

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: A scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison published an article in June revealing that he had taken genes from the deadly human 1918 Spanish Flu and inserted them into the H5N1 avian flu to make a new virus—one which was both far deadlier and far more capable of spreading than the original avian strain. In July it was revealed that the same scientist was conducting another study in which he genetically altered the 2009 strain of flu to enable it to evade immune responses, 'effectively making the human population defenseless against re-emergence.' In the U.S. alone, biosafety incidents involving pathogens happen more than twice per week. These 'gain-of-function' experiments are accidents waiting to happen, with the possibility of starting deadly pandemics that could kill millions. It isn't as if it hasn't happened before: in 2009, a group of Chinese scientists created a viral strain of flu virus that escaped the lab and created a pandemic, killing thousands of people. 'Against this backdrop, the growing use of gain-of-function approaches for research requires more careful examination. And the potential consequences keep getting more catastrophic.' This article explores the history of lab-created pandemics and outlines recommendations for a safer approach to this type of research.

Submission + - Scientists who smuggle radioactive materials (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: Although the complicity of scientists in the smuggling of radioactive materials has been a long-standing concern, smuggling-prevention efforts have so far failed to recognize a key aspect to the problem: scientists are often sought out to test the quality and level of the material well before it is taken to the black market. Egle Murauskaite of the US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) describes why concentrating on this aspect of the smuggling process, long considered less egregious than the actual selling of the material, could really make a difference in keeping radioactive materials off the black market in the first place.

Submission + - Energy secretary vows to get N.M. nuke dump working (lasvegassun.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is vowing to get southeastern New Mexico's troubled nuclear waste dump back in operation as soon as possible after a mysterious radiation leak that has indefinitely shuttered the nation's only permanent repository for waste from decades of nuclear bomb building.

During a town hall meeting packed with state and community officials, and many supporters of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, Moniz said, "If you stick with us, were sticking with you."

About a dozen community leaders and residents were at the Carlsbad airport to welcome Moniz and show their continued support for the plant, which employs about 650 people.

At least one speaker, however, said the leak showed the 15-year-old, multi-billion dollar project has failed and should be abandoned. Others complained about a lack of information and the slow pace of identifying the cause of the leak.

Submission + - Hiroshima Memories: the many retrospectives of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists posts a retrospective of sorts for the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (August 6) and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki (August 9). The Bulletin links to various articles both current and from the past, including a piece in its own pages that condemned the Nagasaki bombing, but not the bombing of Hiroshima. First person accounts are included in this moving compilation of Hiroshima memories.

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