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Submission + - Psychiatric issues in a fifth of COVID-19 patients - scientists investigate why (theguardian.com)

Submitted by AleRunner
AleRunner writes: "Nearly one in five people who have had Covid-19 are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of testing positive for the virus"
Natalie Grover writes in the Guardian. Although "people with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis" are 65% more likely to get COVID so is may be that this is partly explained by doctors diagnosing illness that would otherwise be missed, the article states that "the rate is double the rate for influenza" and unexpectedly high so other explanations are needed and the cause is now under investigation. The scientists state that it's "not at all implausible that Covid-19 might have some direct effect on your brain and your mental health" especially after studies showing neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of Covid-19. “It’s difficult to judge the importance of these findings" says the article however they will add very much to existing worries about long COVID and potential long term economic and social damage from COVID-19.

Submission + - NAT Slipstreaming: Visiting Malicious Site Exposes Access To Local Network (samy.pl)

Submitted by nemesisrocks
nemesisrocks writes: Although not a security feature per se, NAT makes it harder for attackers to reach vulnerable systems on internal networks.

Security Researcher Samy Kamkar's multi-stage "NAT Slipstreaming" attack exploits web browsers such as Chrome to load malicious code that is able to discover internal IP addresses via the Web Real Time Communications (WebRTC) protocol on victim machines. For browsers that don't reveal IP addresses via WebRTC like Apple's Safari, or ones that don't support the protocol such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, a web-based transmission control protocol timing attack can be performed to map the internal network of the victim.

The attack makes use of a commonly "feature", enabled by default on most routers called NAT ALG (Application Level Gateway), where the gateway implements "just enough" of a protocol, such as SIP, to open arbitrary ports and forward them back to an internal machine.

Kamkar's attack spoofs a SIP packet that has an internal LAN IP address to trigger ALG connection tracking, allowing the attacker to open any TCP or UDP port on victim systems remotely.

"[An] attacker can now bypass victim NAT and connect directly back to any port on [the] victim's machine, exposing previously protected/hidden services," Kamkar wrote.

Visiting a malicious website in a modern browser is all that is needed to expose an internal machine.

Submission + - How a fake persona laid the groundwork for a Hunter Biden conspiracy deluge (nbcnews.com) 2

Submitted by ArchieBunker
ArchieBunker writes: One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake "intelligence" document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business in China.

The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of President Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake "intelligence firm" called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents.

Submission + - SpaceX is replacing 2 rocket engines for its next astronaut launch for NASA (space.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Crew-1 mission is on track for a Nov. 14 liftoff.

NASA wants to see another Falcon 9 fly before the astronaut launch — specifically, the one that will loft the GPS satellite that was supposed to go up on Oct. 2 (and which also got a two-Merlin swap), said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The GPS launch, which will take place from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, is currently targeted for no earlier than Nov. 4, according to Spaceflight Now.

Processing of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that will carry the four Crew-1 astronauts — NASA's Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins and Japan's Soichi Noguchi — to the space station for a 6-month stay is coming along nicely, Stich said.

If all goes according to plan, NASA and SpaceX will conduct a flight readiness review for Crew-1 on Friday (Oct. 30) and start loading propellant this weekend into the Crew Dragon, which its riders have named "Resilience," Stich said.

Submission + - How a tiny bit of lacquer grounded new Falcon 9 rockets for a month (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Originally scheduled to launch on Halloween, NASA delayed the launch of the Crew-1 mission that will carry four astronauts to the International Space Station after an engine issue aborted an October 2 launch attempt of a Falcon 9 rocket, at T-2 seconds, carrying a GPS III satellite for the US Air Force.

Two of the rocket's nine first-stage engines ignited early during the early-October launch attempt, and this triggered an automatic abort of the engines. (Had the abort not triggered, it is likely that nothing bad would have occurred, but SpaceX's Hans Koenigsmann said that under certain extreme scenarios, rattling from an early ignition may cause significant damage to the Merlin engines.)

SpaceX technicians removed the two engines and shipped them from Florida to the company's test site in McGregor, Texas, where they were able to replicate the problem. They found that a relief valve within the gas generator—a tiny rocket within the engine that starts up and powers its machinery—was clogged with a masking lacquer akin to nail polish. They were able to show that removing the lacquer from the vent hole allowed the engines to start up normally.

This lacquer is applied during an anodizing process to treat aluminum components of the gas generator. It is supposed to be subsequently removed, but in the case of these two engines, a tiny amount of the material had been trapped within a bore hole less than 2mm across.

NASA and SpaceX confirmed on Wednesday, October 28, that they are targeting November 14.

Submission + - Activists Turn Facial Recognition Tools Against the Police (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In early September, the City Council in Portland, Ore., met virtually to consider sweeping legislation outlawing the use of facial recognition technology. The bills would not only bar the police from using it tounmask protestersand individuals captured in surveillance imagery; they would also prevent companies and a variety of other organizations from using the software to identify an unknown person. During the time for public comments, a local man, Christopher Howell, said he had concerns about a blanket ban. He gave a surprising reason. “I am involved with developing facial recognition to in fact use on Portland police officers, since they are not identifying themselves to the public,” Mr. Howell said. Over the summer, with the city seized by demonstrations against police violence, leaders of the department had told uniformed officers that they couldtape over their name. Mr. Howell wanted to know: Would his use of facial recognition technology become illegal?

Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, told Mr. Howell that his project was “a little creepy,” but a lawyer for the city clarified that the bills would not apply to individuals. The Council then passed the legislation in a unanimous vote. Mr. Howell was offended by Mr. Wheeler’s characterization of his project but relieved he could keep working on it. “There’s a lot of excessive force here in Portland,” he said in a phone interview. “Knowing who the officers are seems like a baseline.” Mr. Howell, 42, is a lifelong protester and self-taught coder; in graduate school, he started working with neural net technology, an artificial intelligence that learns to make decisions from data it is fed, such as images. He said that the police had tear-gassed him during a midday protest in June, and that he had begun researching how to build a facial recognition product that could defeat officers’ attempts to shield their identity. Mr. Howell is not alone in his pursuit. Law enforcement has used facial recognition to identify criminals, using photos from government databases or, through a company calledClearview AI, from the public internet. But now activists around the world are turning the process around and developing tools that can unmask law enforcement in cases of misconduct.

Submission + - Second 'key' used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter into human cells discovered 2

Submitted by Kiuas
Kiuas writes: Researchers from the Technical university of Munich and the University of Helsinki have discovered a second receptor (called neuropilin-1) which is used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter into human cells via the nasal cavity. The discovery is important as it helps explain the rapid spread of the virus, and also helps define a potential target for antirviral intervention. Quoting a university of Helsinki press release on the discovery:

“That SARS-CoV-2 uses the receptor ACE2 to infect our cells was known, but viruses often use multiple factors to maximize their infectious potential” says Dr. Giuseppe Balistreri, head of the research group Viral Cell Biology at the University of Helsinki involved in the study. “Unlike the main receptor ACE2, which is present in low levels, Neuropilin-1 is very abundant in the cells of the nasal cavity. This is a strategically important localization possibly contributing to the efficient infectivity of this new coronavirus, which has caused a major pandemic, spreading rapidly around the world”, Balistreri explains. — -

By specifically blocking neuropilin-1 with antibodies, the researchers were able to significantly reduce infection in laboratory cell cultures. “If you think of ACE2 as a door lock to enter the cell, then neuropilin-1 could be a factor that directs the virus to the door. ACE2 is expressed at very low levels in most cells. Thus, it is not easy for the virus to find doors to enter. Other factors such as neuropilin-1 might help the virus finding its door”, says Balistreri. — -

Balistreri cautiously concludes “it is currently too early to speculate whether blocking directly neuropilin could be a viable therapeutic approach, as this could lead to side effects. This will have to be looked at in future studies. Currently our laboratory is testing the effect of new molecules that we have specifically designed to interrupt the connection between the virus and neuropilin. Preliminary results are very promising and we hope to obtain validations in vivo in the near future.”

The study itself was published in the Science magazine on the 20th of October.

Submission + - NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft touches down on asteroid Bennu (cnet.com)

Submitted by rminsk
rminsk writes: Four years after launching from Earth, NASA's Osiris-Rex on Tuesday made a historic and brief landing on potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu, over 200 million miles away.

The spacecraft traveled all that way to perform a short touch-and-go maneuver with the goal of collecting a sample from the asteroid's surface and transporting it back to Earth for study.

We won't know until Wednesday whether Osiris-Rex succeeded in grabbing a space science souvenir, but on Tuesday, NASA TV reported the spacecraft's robotic sampling arm, named Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (Tagsam), successfully touched down on Bennu for about 15 seconds.

Submission + - Who cut the fiber cable in Virginia? (pcmag.com)

Submitted by gavron
gavron writes: Normally after a fiber cut the carrier involved puts out information that informs the customers as to the following items. But in this particular case, NO information was released.

It's weird that none of the usual information is being provided. Was this a simple "roadside construction" event or was it a politically motivated cut... or terrorism... or what?

Even now — days later — all we have is "roadside utilities project". (ABC: https://abcnews.go.com/Politic...)
- who owns this fiber optic cable, and if leased or IRUd, to whom?
- when did it happen
- what happened (if known, updated later)
- estimated time of crews on site
- estimated time of repair (ETR) when known
- how many strands of fiber were cut (helps estimate complexity of issue)

Submission + - SPAM: Trump's Taxes Show Chronic Losses and Years of Income Tax Avoidance 1

Submitted by Hmmmmmm
Hmmmmmm writes: The Times obtained Donald Trump’s tax information extending over more than two decades, revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.

Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750.

He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made.

The tax data examined by The Times provides a road map of revelations, from write-offs for the cost of a criminal defense lawyer and a mansion used as a family retreat to a full accounting of the millions of dollars the president received from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Together with related financial documents and legal filings, the records offer the most detailed look yet inside the president’s business empire. They reveal the hollowness, but also the wizardry, behind the self-made-billionaire image — honed through his star turn on “The Apprentice” — that helped propel him to the White House and that still undergirds the loyalty of many in his base.

Ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Electrify America shuts down charging network over Labor Day weekend (insideevs.com)

Submitted by Geoffrey.landis
Geoffrey.landis writes: According to Electric Vehicle site InsideEVs, Electrify America, a company that operates public charging stations for electric vehicles, decided to shut down their charging network for a 500 mile stretch of the east coast, from the middle of Virginia to the southern edge of South Carolina, for upgrades to "improve performance". All the stations at once. During Labor Day weekend.
Possibly picking one of the busiest travel holiday-weekends of the year was not the wisest choice for a time to shut the charge network down?
Anyone road-tripping from New York to Florida in an electric car, or anywhere in between, would really have no way to make it. (unless they owned a Tesla). The company's response to questions was "We regret any inconvenience to our customers."

Submission + - Why Disney's new 'Mulan' is a scandal (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The most devastating part of “Mulan,” Disney’s much-anticipated live-action remake of the 1998 animated film , isn’t the story. It’s the credits. The film retells the ancient Chinese tale of Hua Mulan, a filial daughter who dresses as a man to join the army, honor her father and save the emperor. While the film engenders pride for China, it does so with a subtle touch: Besides a few mentions of defending the Silk Road, a favorite trading route of Chinese Communist Party leaderXi Jinping, little links it to the modern-day country. The New York Times called it “lightly funny and a little sad, filled with ravishing landscapes.”

But there’s a dark side to those landscapes. Disney filmed “Mulan” in regions across China (among other locations). In the credits, Disney offers a special thanks to more than a dozen Chinese institutions that helped with the film. These include four Chinese Communist Party propaganda departments in the region of Xinjiang as well as the Public Security Bureau of the city of Turpan in the same region — organizations that are facilitating crimes against humanity. It’s sufficiently astonishing that it bears repeating: Disney has thanked four propaganda departments and a public security bureau in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China that is the site of one of the world’s worst human rights abuses happening today.

More than a million Muslims in Xinjiang, mostly of the Uighur minority, have been imprisoned in concentration camps. Some have been released. Countless numbers have died. Forced sterilization campaigns have caused the birth rate in Xinjiang to plummet roughly 24 percent in 2019 — and “ imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” fits within the legally recognized definition of genocide. Disney, in other words, worked with regions where genocide is occurring, and thanked government departments that are helping to carry it out.

Submission + - FAA Reviewing Quality Control Issues With Boeing Dreamliner Going Back A Decade (wsj.com)

Submitted by phalse phace
phalse phace writes: The FAA has begun looking into quality-control problems at Boeing for their Dreamliner that goes back almost a decade.

The WSJ reports that "the plane maker has told U.S. aviation regulators that it produced certain parts at its South Carolina facilities that failed to meet its own design and manufacturing standards, according to an Aug. 31 internal Federal Aviation Administration memo.

As a result of “nonconforming” sections of the rear fuselage, or body of the plane, that fell short of engineering standards, according to the memo and these people, a high-level FAA review is considering mandating enhanced or accelerated inspections that could cover hundreds of jets.

The memo, a routine update or summary of safety issues pending in the FAA’s Seattle office that oversees Boeing design and manufacturing issues, says such a safety directive could cover as many as about 900 of the roughly 1,000 Dreamliners delivered since 2011."

(non-paywalled source)

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