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Comment Re:Cherry picking. (Score 1, Informative) 387

That makes a lot of sense. Another way is to look at excessive deaths as a pandemic would be expected to raise the death rate beyond normal as, for example the Black Death did. However, US deaths are inline with normal years: https://webcache.googleusercon... showing: 2,487,350 deaths in the US in 2020 until November 14th, 2020. Deaths in previous years for the whole year: 2018 2,839,205 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fasta... 2017 2,813,503 2016 2,744,248

Submission + - Nano-diamond self-charging batteries using C14 radioactive waste (newatlas.com) 1

Heart44 writes: There is a lot of C14 radioactive waste from graphite rods that is expensive to store. This graphite according to the article can be converted to C14 diamonds covered in C12 diamonds. C14 has a half-life of 5,700 years, so such batteries would last a long time and are supposedly safe. Sounds like an April fool but ...

Comment Re:Tell that to strangers (Score 2) 179

I was in an airplane, had my hands full and stifled a sneeze. The semi-slipped disc that resulted meant a few days of quite intense pain. It got fixed by connective tissue treatments but I didn't enjoy the overnight stay in the hotel and my wife had to carry all the luggage.

Submission + - Samsung hails 'graphene ball' battery success (nature.com)

Heart44 writes: A number of outlets are reporting a Samsung laboratory breakthrough allowing smaller and faster charging lithium-ion batteries using three-dimensional graphene. Original article is in Nature https://www.nature.com/article..., news sources: https://www.digitaltrends.com/... and https://www.ft.com/content/5a6... (paywalled, but with interesting comments about commercialisation issues).

Submission + - Google Says AI Better Than Humans At Scrubbing Extremist YouTube Content (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Google has pledged to continue developing advanced programs using machine learning to combat the rise of extremist content, after it found that it was both faster and more accurate than humans in scrubbing illicit content from YouTube. The company is using machine learning along with human reviewers as part of a mutli-pronged approach to tackle the spread of extremist and controversial videos across YouTube, which also includes tougher standards for videos and the recruitment of more experts to flag content in need of review. A YouTube spokesperson said: “While these tools aren’t perfect, and aren’t right for every setting, in many cases our systems have proven more accurate than humans at flagging videos that need to be removed. Our initial use of machine learning has more than doubled both the number of videos we’ve removed for violent extremism, as well as the rate at which we’ve taken this kind of content down. Over 75% of the videos we’ve removed for violent extremism over the past month were taken down before receiving a single human flag.”

Submission + - Senators Propose Bill Targeting Websites That Facilitate Sex Trafficking (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that aims to make it easier to sue and criminally prosecute operators of online classified sites like Backpage.com that have been used to advertise sex workers. The proposed bill would amend the Communications Decency Act to eliminate a provision that shields operators of websites from being liable for content posted by third-party users. In addition to removing liability protections for websites that facilitate “unlawful sex acts with sex trafficking victims,” lawmakers are seeking to amend the CDA to allow state prosecutors — not just federal law enforcement — to take action against individuals and businesses that use websites to violate federal sex trafficking laws.

Submission + - SPAM: Scientists produce robust catalyst to split water into hydrogen, oxygen 2

schwit1 writes: The electrolytic film produced at Rice and tested at Houston is a three-layer structure of nickel, graphene and a compound of iron, manganese and phosphorus. The foamy nickel gives the film a large surface, the conductive graphene protects the nickel from degrading and the metal phosphide carries out the reaction.

Rice chemist Kenton Whitmire and Houston electrical and computer engineer Jiming Bao and their labs developed the film to overcome barriers that usually make a catalyst good for producing either oxygen or hydrogen, but not both simultaneously.

"Regular metals sometimes oxidize during catalysis," Whitmire said. "Normally, a hydrogen evolution reaction is done in acid and an oxygen evolution reaction is done in base. We have one material that is stable whether it's in an acidic or basic solution."

Whitmire said the material is scalable and should find use in industries that produce hydrogen and oxygen or by solar- and wind-powered facilities that can use electrocatalysis to store off-peak energy.

Link to Original Source

Comment Re:Who acquired what now? (Score 1) 25

Actually, I had a look at Product Hunt and liked it - lots of good ideas. No, I have no association with either companies and have never heard of either before this slashdot post. I am quite happy to have a slashvertisement that is this interesting.

Submission + - Australian Census website shut down on census night after 4 DDoS attacks (smh.com.au)

Heart44 writes: News sites are reporting that the Australian census website has been shut down until further notice. This happened on census night, Tuesday (Australian time) August 9th, 2016. This is the first attempt at an online census where online is the default data collection method. You had to call an often busy number to get a paper form.

This is on top of a long running controversy that the Australian Bureau of Statistics will keep the names and addresses of everyone for five years. I presume more useful links will appear over time.

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