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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.

Submission + - MIT may have just solved all your data center network lag issues (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: A group of MIT researchers say they’ve invented a new technology that should all but eliminate queue length in data center networking. The technology will be fully described in a paper presented at the annual conference of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication. According to MIT, the paper will detail a system – dubbed Fastpass – that uses a centralized arbiter to analyze network traffic holistically and make routing decisions based on that analysis, in contrast to the more decentralized protocols common today. Experimentation done in Facebook data centers shows that a Fastpass arbiter with just eight cores can be used to manage a network transmitting 2.2 terabits of data per second, according to the researchers.

Submission + - Japan arrests woman for making a printable 3d model of her vagina

Submitted by antifoidulus
antifoidulus writes: The BBC is reporting that a Japanese woman has been arrested for making a 3d model of her vagina that can be printed using a 3d printer. Megumi Igarashi had sent the printable model to people who sent her money to create it. A police spokesman told AFP news agency she had distributed data that could "create an obscene shape". While giant phalluses are a common spectacle at Japanese fertility festivals, apparently vaginas are still considered "taboo". Ms. Igarashi is fighting the charges.

Submission + - FAA-2014-0396: Only a 8 more days to comment. (regulations.gov)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: There's only 8 days left to comment on the FAA's proposed rule — (FAA 2014-0396) "The Interpretation of the Special Rule for Model Aircraft" — also known as the "Retribution for we lost the Trappy Case Interpretation" — to prevent the FAA from implementing draconian regulations on owners, flyers, and operators of radio control aircraft.

Submission + - Australia's web censorship law to be scrutinized

Submitted by Bismillah
Bismillah writes: A government inquiry has been launched into whether or not Australian authorities are using Section 313 of the Telecommunications Act inappropriately.

Last year, the Australian securities watchdog used Section 313 powers to force ISPs to block quarter of million web sites — this in order to prevent access to just 1,200 sites the authority deemed harmful.

Submission + - Fossils of Cambrian predator preserved with brain impressions

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers on Wednesday described fossilized remains unearthed in China showing in fine detail the brain structures of a bizarre group of sea creatures that were the top predators more than half a billion years ago. The 520-million-year-old creature, one of the first predators of its day, sported compound eyes, body armor and two spiky claws for grabbing prey. "The animals of the Cambrian are noted for being a collection of oddballs that are sometimes difficult to match up with anything currently living on Earth. But even among these oddities, Anomalocarids stand out (as their name implies). The creatures propelled themselves with a series of oar-like paddles arranged on their flanks, spotted prey with enormous compound eyes, and shoveled them into a disk-like mouth with large arms that resided at the very front of their bodies—although some of them ended up as filter feeders."

Submission + - US Marines Demonstrate Ultra Heavy-lift Amphibious Connector Prototype (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: In a recent demonstration carried out during RIMPAC 2014, the US Marines displayed and tested a fully-functional, half-scale prototype of its new amphibious transport vehicle. In its proposed full-size version the Ultra Heavy-Lift Amphibious Connecter (UHAC) concept is designed to power across the water with a payload of nearly 200 tons (180 tonnes) at up to 20 knots (23 mph/37 km/h) and be capable of driving up on to the shore and over the top of obstructions up to 10 ft (3 m) high.

Submission + - Can dogs sniff out computer memory like drugs? (providencejournal.com) 1

Submitted by FriendlySolipsist
FriendlySolipsist writes: A dog can be trained to detect computer memory, say the Rhode Island State Police in taking delivery of the second such dog in the nation from the Connecticut State Police. Being able to find hidden computer flash memory cards hidden in drawers and over ceiling tiles will aid their fight against child porn, the police say.

But is there any scientific evidence that such a thing is even possible? Computer parts are made from plastic and metal like almost everything else in a home or office, and computer parts unlike organic plants give off no odor. Without any plausible scientific explanation for how a dog can detect computer parts, is this all just a legal sham to bypass Fourth Amendment probable cause warrant requirements, allowing the human handler to signal the dog based on exactly the kind of "police intuition" that violates constitutional rights?

Submission + - When Beliefs and Facts Collide

Submitted by schnell
schnell writes: A New York Times article discusses a recent Yale study that shows that contrary to popular belief, increased scientific literacy does not correspond to increased belief in accepted scientific findings when it contradicts their religious or political views. The article notes that this is true across the political/religious spectrum and "factual and scientific evidence is often ineffective at reducing misperceptions and can even backfire on issues like weapons of mass destruction, health care reform and vaccines." So what is to be done? The article suggests that "we need to try to break the association between identity and factual beliefs on high-profile issues – for instance, by making clear that you can believe in human-induced climate change and still be a conservative Republican." But given the propensity of all humans towards cognitive bias and even magical thinking, should we just resign ourselves to the idea that democracies will never make their decisions based purely on science?

Submission + - Study: Rats Regret Making the Wrong Decision

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered that rats in a decision making experiment showed three behaviors consistent with regret. David Redish and his graduate student Adam Steiner '...trained rats to do a task they call “restaurant row.” The rat ran around a circle past a series of four spokes, each leading to a different flavor of food. As the rat came to the entrance of each spoke, a tone sounded that indicated how long it would have to wait to receive that specific flavor of food. The rat could choose whether to stay or go, depending on how much it liked that food and how long it would have to wait...The rats showed three behaviors consistent with regret. First, the rats only looked backwards in the regret conditions, and not in the disappointment conditions. Second, they were more likely to take a bad deal if they had just passed up a good deal. And third, instead of taking their time eating and then grooming themselves afterwards, the rats in the regret conditions wolfed down the food and immediately took off to the next restaurant.'

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