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Submission + - Edward Snowden is not alone! (cnn.com) 2

Submitted by bobbied
bobbied writes: Apparently Edward Snowden is not alone. CNN is reporting http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/... that recent leaked documents published by "the Intercept" (a website that has been publishing Snowden's leaked documents) could not have been leaked by Snowden because they didn't exist prior to his fleeing the USA and he couldn't possibly have accessed them. Authorities are said to be looking for a new leaker.

Submission + - X-Ray vision for Robots: Seeing Through Concrete Walls with only WiFi 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Hi,

Here is an interesting press release from UCSB today, that I would like to share with you.

Imagine unmanned vehicles arriving behind thick concrete walls. They have no prior knowledge of the area behind these walls. But they are able to see every square inch of the invisible area through the walls, fully discovering what is on the other side with high resolution. Now, imagine robots doing all these with only WiFi signals and no other sensors. Researchers at UCSB have shown how to do this.

UCSB press release page: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/...

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The technology can also be extended for implementation on any WiFi-enabled gadget. At its core, it allows users to see the space on the other side and find the position and geometry of the occluded objects, without any prior knowledge of the area. Additionally, it has the potential to classify the material type of each occluded object, e.g., human, metal, wood, etc.

Potential applications range form robotics, search and rescue, classification of material type from behind walls, detecting occupancy level from behind walls, medical imaging using WiFi, and archeological exploration with less digging, among others.

Best,

Submission + - Why Morgan Stanley Is Betting That Tesla Will Kill Your Power Company

Submitted by Jason Koebler
Jason Koebler writes: One major investment giant has now released three separate reports arguing that Tesla Motors is going to help kill power companies off altogether.
Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley stirred up controversy when it released a report that suggested that the increasing viability of consumer solar, paired with better battery technology—that allows people to generate, and store, their own electricity—could send the decades-old utility industry into a death spiral. Then, the firm released another one. Now, it's tripling down on the idea with yet another report that spells out how Tesla and home solar will "disrupt" utilities.

Submission + - Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Facility: Weapons-grade uranium, mercury, and revenge-porn (thebulletin.org)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: This is simply astonishing. Bob Alvarez describes the fiscal, environmental, health, and safety problems that have for decades defined the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. From insane levels of mercury pollution that has gotten into local waterways, to chronic fires and explosions, the arrest of a trespassing nun, and an airplane that came low enough over the facility to drop a large load of revenge-porn, Y-12 is a major disaster waiting to happen.

‘Years of leaking roofs have created chronic safety problems, including standing water in fissile material storage areas and water accumulation near electric control panels. In March 2014, a large portion of a concrete ceiling collapsed in a building that was once part of the weapons operation’

And recently, the Government Accountability Office ‘reported that one of the primary justifications for stockpiling excess canned sub-assemblies at Y-12 is “for potential use in planetary defense against earthbound asteroids.”’ In 2005, a task force at the Department of Energy recommended the closure of Y-12, citing a lack of ‘modern-day production technology,” and urged the DOE to begin an immediate site selection process elsewhere. That set the Tennessee congressional delegations into an uproar, so the DOE decided to modernize ‘in-place.” It can't happen too soon..

Submission + - Why fat grizzly bears don't get diabetes (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Every fall, grizzly bears pack on the pounds in preparation for their winter hibernation. In humans, such extreme weight gain would likely lead to diabetes or other metabolic diseases, but the bears manage to stay healthy year after year. Their ability to remain diabetes-free, researchers have now discovered, can be chalked up to the shutting down of a protein found in fat cells. The discovery could lead to new diabetes drugs that turn off the same pathway in humans.

Submission + - China Conducts 3rd Anti-Satellite Missile Test

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Diplomat reports that the U.S. is accusing China of secretly conducting an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test last week.

China originally claimed that it had conducted a ballistic missile defense test but the State Department says it was actually a non-destructive ASAT missile test. Both use hit-to-kill technologies but China has previously differentiated between them. Washington also called on Beijing to refrain from further tests.

Submission + - Energy Firm Accused of Silencing Youtube Video with Bogus Copyright Claim (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: One of India's biggest power companies has been accused of attempting to censor a critical YouTube video by an activist group using tactics "almost too dirty to believe".

GetUp!, an Australian online activist group, claim their video which described energy company Adani as having a "record of environmental destruction across the world" was taken down as a result of bogus copyright claims.

The video, entitled Don't trust this company with our Great Barrier Reef, dismisses the company's plans to create a coal mine off the coast of Australia in Queensland's Galilee Basin.

Submission + - Twitter has been blocked an account of famous Twitter in Russia (dailynewscompany.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Twitter has been blocked an account of famous Twitter in Russia as a result of a request from the Government, only a week after the company denied it would suppress accounts of the extremists "in the country. Global Voices Reports, that the account @ boltai, Russian Anonymous type that regularly publishes Government leaks and other confidential State documents, is not accessible to local users.

A check on Twitter of Russia shows the account is indeed blocked in the country — using the function of specific censure of the location of Twitter — in accordance with a request of the Government of Russia, which is recorded in the Chilling Effects website.

A representative for Twitter says The Next Web company "[is not] any comment on individual accounts, for reasons of privacy and security", but the movement appears to have been in response to a demand that is cited in the application documents for the Russian Government censorship.

A Court of Petersburg awarded the block due to a case not specified in connection with "personal data", according to the document, despite Global Voices points out that there is little information about the demand in the public domain.

Users in Russia can have access to the account to change your global settings to a different country, while an account is no mirror (@ b0ltai2) is not blocked.

A representative for the Government of Russia, said last week that Twitter had agreed to block a maximum of 10 accounts, but at this time, Chilling Effects displays only this sole demand.

Submission + - Almost 1 in 10 Android Apps Are Now Malware

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Cheetah Mobile Threat Research Labs analyzed trends in mobile viruses for Q1 and Q2 of 2014. Pulling 24.4 million sample files they found that 2.2 million files had viruses, roughly 9% of the total. Compared to previous years, this is a 153% increase from the number of infected files in 2013. Asia and select parts of Western Europe have undoubtedly had the highest rates of infection during the past six months. This is due in part to the prevalence of third party app stores in these regions, which have very lax checks to ensure that applications do not contain viruses.

Submission + - USA's record-breaking high speed flagship could be saved from the scrapyard (forasach.ie)

Submitted by fiannaFailMan
fiannaFailMan writes: The SS United States is the fastest ocean liner ever built. A far cry from the heyday of these great ships that were made obsolete by jet travel, her gutted hulk has been rusting in Philadelphia since 1996. However, like the majestic Queen Mary that now serves as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, there are plans afoot to finally find the "big U" a permanent home in New York as part of a waterfront redevelopment.

Submission + - US Navy sonar causing whale deaths (wired.com)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: US Navy's sonar is so loud that it is causing whales' brain to hemorrhage and blood vessels bursting, and when that happened, whales go up to the shallow waters and sometimes ended up beaching themselves.That happened in the Bahamas, back in March, 2000

On the morning of March 15, 2000, 17 beaked whales stranded themselves on beaches in the northern Bahamas. It was an terrible and extraordinary event: Beaked whales are the world’s deepest-diving mammals, and these creatures had spent most of their lives in deep undersea canyons. For even one to show up in shallow water would be extremely unusual, for 17 to strand was almost inconceivable

It just so happened that just a few feet away from one of the beaches lived Ken Balcomb, a beaked whale researcher who more than anyone in the world was equipped to find out what happened. Long before Mr. Balcomb started studying whales he had served two tours of duty in the Navy, where he’d done classified work with submarine-detecting sonar. He knew just how loud it could be, and in days following the stranding he photographed Navy destroyers in Bahamian waters

Mr. Balcomb had several of the dead whales’ heads sent for autopsies—and when they returned evidence of hemorrhages, he knew what happened. The whales had fled to shallow water to escape noise so concussively loud it burst blood vessels in their brains.

“I believe the Navy did it,” Balcomb soon announced at a press conference. With that began an epic legal and scientific battle to make the Navy admit what happened, and then to do something about it. Against all odds, it’s a battle in which Balcomb and environmentalists have been largely successful, winning commitments from the Navy to research sonar’s effects on whales and to consider them when planning training exercises

Submission + - New treatment stops type II diabetes (sciencedaily.com)

Submitted by multicsfan
multicsfan writes: Injection of protein FGF1 stops weight induced diabetes in its tracks in mice. There appear to be no side effects. The cure lasts 2 days at a time. Future research and human trials are needed to both better understand and create a working drug. There are no signs of hypoglycemia.

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