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Submission + - European court decision: Websites are liable for users' comments (arstechnica.co.uk)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: In a surprise decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has ruled that the Estonian news site Delfi may be held responsible for anonymous and allegedly defamatory comments from its readers. As the digital rights organisation Access notes, this goes against the European Union’s e-commerce directive, which "guarantees liability protection for intermediaries that implement notice-and-takedown mechanisms on third-party comments." As such, Peter Micek, Senior Policy Counsel at Access, says the ECHR judgment has "dramatically shifted the internet away from the free expression and privacy protections that created the internet as we know it."

Submission + - European Court: Websites Are Responsible For Users' Comments (arstechnica.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A new ruling from the European Court of Human Rights found it perfectly acceptable to hold websites responsible for comments left by users. Experts are worried the ruling will encourage websites to censor content posted by users out of concern that they're opening themselves up to legal liability. The judgment also seems to support the claim that "proactive monitoring" can be required of website owners. Peter Micek of digital rights group "Access" said, "This ruling is a serious blow to users’ rights online. Dissenting voices will have fewer outlets in which to seek and impart opinions anonymously. Instead, users at risk will be dragged down by a precedent that will keep them from accessing the open ocean of ideas and information."

Submission + - Aura: Harnessing the power of IoT devices to create local clouds (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A computer science researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has devised an architecture, called Aura, that would let people harness all the unused computer cycles generated by their smart home devices. With Aura, “everybody will become a cloud services provider,” said Ragib Hasan, an assistant professor and director of the university’s Secure and Trustworthy Computing Lab (SECRETLab). Aura, created by a team led by Hasan, can connect dozens or even hundreds of devices to make them work as a single computational resource.

Submission + - Past a certain critical temperature, the Universe will be destroyed

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: If you take all the kinetic motion out of a system, and have all the particles that make it up perfectly at rest, somehow even overcoming intrinsic quantum effects, you’d reach absolute zero, the theoretically lowest temperature of all. But what about the other direction? Is there a limit to how hot something can theoretically get? You might think not, that while things like molecules, atoms, protons and even matter will break down at high enough temperatures, you can always push your system hotter and hotter. But it turns out that the Universe limits what’s actually possible, as any physical system will self-destruct beyond a certain point.

Submission + - US hacking: Military and intelligence data 'accessed' (bbc.com) 1

Submitted by middleclassjobs
middleclassjobs writes: Details of a major hack emerged last week, but officials have now given details of a potential second breach. Hackers with suspected links to China appear to have accessed sensitive data on US intelligence and military personnel, American officials say. Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press (AP) news agency, believe the attackers have targeted the forms submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances.
The document includes personal information — everything from eye color, to financial history, to past substance abuse, as well as contact details for the individual's friends and relatives.

Submission + - Billionaire Bunkers: Look Inside the World's Largest Planned Doomsday Escape (forbes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: For the very first time, a modern day Noah's Ark has opened its doors for an exclusive inside look offering up plans for the ultimate Billionaire bunker and doomsday escape.

Vivos founder and CEO Robert Vicino announced Vivos Europa One which will be an invitation only, five star, underground survival complex, similar to an underground cruise ship for the elite. Each family will be provided a private 2,500 square foot of floor area, capable of two story improvements for a total of 5,000 square feet of private living quarters. With fit and finish comparable to a mega-yacht, each member family will hire their own architect and contractor to build out their living quarters to the custom standard they desire.

The expansive shelter is located in Germany and is one of the most fortified and massive underground survival shelters on Earth. Originally built by the Soviets during the Cold War, this shelter was a fortress for military equipment and munitions. After the DDR was merged with Germany, the German government inherited this relic and intended to use it for the same purpose of weapons storage. However, due to a law prohibiting the storage of ammunition near a major highway, the German Government soon realized they could not continue with their plans and decided to auction this 76 acre complex. A wealthy investor purchased the entire property, along with all of its improvements, both above and below ground. Vicino says "We are proud to bring this epic project forward in these increasingly dangerous times."

Submission + - Toshiba introduces a Cortana keyboard button for Windows 10 (windows10update.com) 1

Submitted by Ammalgam
Ammalgam writes: In what seems like a really pivotal moment for computing, Toshiba have indicated that they will be introducing a new button to their line of keyboards. This key would be dedicated to summoning Microsoft’s virtual assistant in Windows 10 — Cortana. A dedicated Cortana key would be one of the more significant changes to the keyboard since the Windows key was added at about the time Windows 95 was introduced, in 1995. What do you guys think, fad or real innovation?

Submission + - LibreSSL 2.2.0 Released

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After another 3 months of work a new version of LibreSSL (2.2.0) has been released.

This will likely be the last 2.2.x release with support for SSLv3, as it will be removed entirely from the main LibreSSL tree.

Release Notes.

Submission + - How to convert Linux into an embedded system (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Experienced roboticist David Kohanbash takes you through the steps you should take when converting Linux to an embedded system for your robotics project, and goes over questions such as whether you really need a real-time system. Gives a pretty thorough overview, and offers follow up links as well in case you need more detail. nice resource!

Submission + - New Gens of bots that tough out injuries (eurekalert.org)

Submitted by Taco Cowboy
Taco Cowboy writes: Most of the bots that we have right now stop working properly they suffer damages, — The Yutu lunar explorer of China is a perfect example: It stopped functioning when problems developed in the mechanisms which deploy its solar panel

Researchers from the University of Wyoming, in collaboration with their colleagues from Pierre and Marie Curie University of France, have developed bots which can figure out how to continue to function within minutes, despite suffering injuries

The researchers got their inspiration from the amazing ability of animals to adapt to injury, There are many three-legged dogs that can catch Frisbees, for example, and if your ankle is sprained, you quickly figure out a way to walk despite the injury

"When injured, animals do not start learning from scratch," senior author Jean-Baptiste Mouret said. "Instead, they have intuitions about different ways to behave. These intuitions allow them to intelligently select a few, different behaviors to try out and, after these tests, they choose one that works in spite of the injury. We made robots that can do the same"

The breakthrough isn't based solely on the robots themselves — we've had robots capable of advanced movement for some time. What's key is a new algorithim that lets the robot figure out different gaits and motions much faster. Normally when a particular approach stops being effective, the robot tests various ways of moving until it finds one works

"If the robot has to search through the space of all possible behaviors," Clune said. "It’s going to be larger than the number of molecules on planet earth, it’s like finding one of a few needles in a field of haystacks"

The process can take hours, so Clune and his team found a more effective method: Giving the robot a simulated "childhood"

Before it is deployed, the robot uses a computer simulation of itself to create a detailed map of the space of high-performing behaviors. This map represents the robot's "intuitions" about different behaviors it can perform and their predicted value. If the robot is damaged, it uses these intuitions to guide a learning algorithm that conducts experiments to rapidly discover a compensatory behavior that works despite the damage. The new algorithm is called "Intelligent Trial and Error"

The scientists' robot has solved this by trying to mimic animals — by discovering which leg is broken and then then using trial and error to figure out the best way to continue walking

"Locomotion is a major challenge," Dr Iida said. "It's an issue of energy efficiency. Robots are unusually very inefficient compared to animals"

The bots from University of Wyoming is not the first one to mimic animals, as there are bots from other companies are also trying to mimic animals, such as Boston Dynamics, which is now owned by Google

It makes a variety of robots, including the internet sensation Big Dog, which can attain locomotion on a variety of different and difficult terrains

"Each behavior it tries is like an experiment and, if one behavior doesn't work, the robot is smart enough to rule out that entire type of behavior and try a new type," Cully continues. "For example, if walking, mostly on its hind legs, does not work well, it will next try walking mostly on its front legs. What's surprising is how quickly it can learn a new way to walk. It's amazing to watch a robot go from crippled and flailing around to efficiently limping away in about two minutes"

The same Intelligent Trial and Error algorithm allows robots to adapt to unforeseen situations, including adapting to new environments and inventing new behaviors. Jeff Clune explains that "technically, Intelligent Trial and Error involves two steps:
(1) creating the behavior-performance map, and
(2) adapting to an unforeseen situation"

The map in the first step is created with a new type of evolutionary algorithm called MAP-Elites. Evolutionary algorithms simulate Darwinian evolution by hosting "survival of the fittest" competitions in computer simulations to evolve artificially intelligent robots. The adaptation in the second step involves a "Bayesian optimization" algorithm that takes advantage of the prior knowledge provided by the map to efficiently search for a behavior that works despite the damage

"We performed experiments that show that the most important component of Intelligent Trial and Error is creating and harnessing the prior knowledge contained in the map," Clune says

This new technique will help develop more robust, effective, autonomous robots. Danesh Tarapore provides some examples

"It could enable the creation of robots that can help rescuers without requiring their continuous attention," he says. "It also makes easier the creation of personal robotic assistants that can continue to be helpful even when a part is broken"

While these engineers are focused on self-learning robots, others are developing robots and materials that can "heal themselves" when they are damaged

BAE Systems said recently that in the future, it could build drones that contained a lightweight fluid that would allow jets to heal themselves from damage sustained in flight, as well as on-board 3D printers that can make new parts, while a new plastic that can fix itself has been developed by engineers at the University of Illinois

Additional reports from
http://www.bbc.com/news/techno...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...
http://www.escapistmagazine.co...
http://cacm.acm.org/news/17732...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

A Youtube clip on the bots is available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?...


Submission + - Cure for cancer one step closer after 'spectacular' breakthrough (newsweek.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The treatment, known as immunotherapy, uses the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells. Researchers say it could replace chemotherapy as the standard treatment for cancer within five years.

A series of studies show that the drugs are effective against some of the most deadly tumours, including those of the lung, bowel, liver and head.

Patients who could expect to live for just a matter of months under existing treatments, could see their tumours completely destroyed and go on to enjoy a normal lifespan under the new treatment.

Submission + - Scientists Discover Sawfish escape extinction through "virgin births"

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The first known virgin births in smalltooth sawfish have been documented in the wild among the critically endangered fish in Florida. Researchers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission used DNA fingerprinting to show that three percent of a Florida sawfish population was created by female-only reproduction. Dr Warren Booth, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Tulsa, who previously discovered an instance of parthenogenesis in snakes, said: “This is basically a very extreme form of inbreeding. Most people think of inbreeding as bad, but it could be helpful in purging deleterious mutations from a population.” The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.

Submission + - US airport screeners missed 95% of weapons, explosives in undercover tests

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An internal investigation by the TSA found that 95% of those testing airport checkpoints were able to bring weapons through at dozens of airports. In one case, an alarm sounded, but during the pat down, the screener failed to detect a fake plastic explosive taped to the undercover agent's back. ABC reports: "Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was apparently so frustrated by the findings he sought a detailed briefing on them last week at TSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, according to sources. U.S. officials insisted changes have already been made at airports to address vulnerabilities identified by the latest tests. 'Upon learning the initial findings of the Office of Inspector General's report, Secretary Johnson immediately directed TSA to implement a series of actions, several of which are now in place, to address the issues raised in the report,' the DHS said in a written statement to ABC News."

Submission + - GlowBowl Lighting Makes Your Tinkle Twinkle At Night (hothardware.com) 1

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: It's definitely not as creepy as Tony The Toilet Buddy from Better Call Saul, this latest Kickstarter project is definitely puts the "whiz" in gee-whiz. GlowBowl is an LED-light for your toilet that is seems to be aimed at males, because females probably won't have a use for such a product (and probably think it's too childish to boot), that bathes your toilet water in seven selectable colors. The GlowBowl simply attaches to your toilet bowl like any garden variety toilet fresher and serves as a night light so you don't have to sear your retinas with the fancy pants LED lighting in your overhead bathroom fixtures during late night pee runs. And if you simply can't settle on one single color for your last night "exit stream," there is a carousel mode that will cycle through all seven colors every four seconds.

Submission + - World's first Ocean Cleanup Array will start removing plastic from the seas (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by catzia
catzia writes: While still in his teens, Dutch inventor Boyan Slat conceived of an Ocean Cleanup Array that he believed could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste currently polluting waters around the globe. Now just two years after we broke the news of Slat’s groundbreaking—and somewhat controversial—idea, the very first Ocean Cleanup is in development, and is set to be deployed in waters between Japan and South-Korea in the second quarter of 2016.

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