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Submission + - Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine just got a lot easier to transport and distri (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by FrankOVD
FrankOVD writes: The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech now has less stringent and extreme transportation requirements than it debuted with. Originally, the mRNA-based vaccine had to be maintained at ultra-low temperatures throughout the transportation chain in order to remain viable – between -76F and -112F. New stability data collected by Pfizer and BioNTech, which has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for review, allow it to be stored at temps between 5F and -13F – ranges available in standard medical freezers found in most clinics and care facilities.
The vaccine should remain stable for up to two weeks at that temperature, which vastly improves the flexibility of its options for transportation, and last-mile storage in preparation for administration to patients. To date, the vaccine has relied largely on existing “cold-chain” infrastructure to be in place in order for it to be able to reach the areas where it’s being used to inoculate patients. That limitation hasn’t been in place for Moderna’s vaccine, which is stable at even higher, standard refrigerator temperatures for up to a month.

Submission + - Xiaomi Sues U.S. Seeking to Reverse Investment Ban (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: Xiaomi Corp. sued the U.S. Defense and Treasury departments, challenging a blacklisting that blocks American investors from buying the Chinese smartphone giant’s securities.

The lawsuit came after the Defense Department determined earlier this month that China’s biggest smartphone maker was affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army. Beijing-based Xiaomi called the blacklisting “unconstitutional” and seeks a court ruling to reverse the designation, which was made in the waning days of the Trump administration.

“Xiaomi faces imminent, severe, and irreparable harm if the Designation remains in place and the restrictions take effect,” the company said in the filing in the U.S. district court of Columbia. The lawsuit also named Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as defendants.

Submission + - Drug Reverses Age-Related Mental Decline Within Days (ucsf.edu) 3

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: Just a few doses of an experimental drug can reverse age-related declines in memory and mental flexibility in mice, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists. The drug, called ISRIB, has already been shown in laboratory studies to restore memory function months after traumatic brain injury (TBI), reverse cognitive impairments in Down Syndrome, prevent noise-related hearing loss, fight certain types of prostate cancer, and even enhance cognition in healthy animals.

In the new study, published Dec. 1, 2020, in the open-access journal eLife, researchers showed rapid restoration of youthful cognitive abilities in aged mice, accompanied by a rejuvenation of brain and immune cells that could help explain improvements in brain function.

“ISRIB’s extremely rapid effects show for the first time that a significant component of age-related cognitive losses may be caused by a kind of reversible physiological “blockage” rather than more permanent degradation,” said Susanna Rosi, PhD, Lewis and Ruth Cozen Chair II and professor in the departments of Neurological Surgery and of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science.

Submission + - Scientists Uncover Billions Of Gallons Of Hidden Fresh Water Off Hawaii (inverse.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Using a new technique that relies on tracing electrical resistance, a team of geohydrologists has discovered a never-before-seen way the islands’ volcanic soil collects and hides away freshwater beneath the ocean’s salty surface.

Accessing this freshwater could give Hawaii and other volcanic islands a more sustainable and future-proof solution to collecting water during times of need.

Submission + - FAA chief '100% confident' of 737 MAX safety as flights to resume (yahoo.com) 1

Submitted by Hmmmmmm
Hmmmmmm writes: U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Steve Dickson is "100% confident" in the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX but says the airplane maker has more to do as it works to improve its safety culture.

Dickson on Wednesday signed an order to allow the best-selling plane to resume flights after it was grounded worldwide in March 2019 following two crashes that killed 346 people and led to Boeing's biggest crisis in decades.

The order will end the longest grounding in commercial aviation history and paves the way for Boeing to resume U.S. deliveries and commercial flights by the end of the year.

"We've done everything humanly possible to make sure" these types of crashes do not happen again," FAA Administrator Dickson told Reuters in a 30-minute telephone interview, adding the design changes "have eliminated what caused these particular accidents."

The FAA is requiring new training to deal with a key safety system called MCAS that is faulted for the two fatal crashes as well as significant new safeguards and other software changes.

Dickson suggested Boeing has more to do to improve safety.

"They have taken some actions, but it's going to take more then putting new processes in place and moving boxes around the organization chart. Cultural changes take a long time to take effect and we've got to be skeptical," he said.

Boeing said it is "committed to learning from our mistakes to build a safer future so accidents like this never happen again."

Submission + - Occidental Is First US Oil Major To Target Net Zero Emissions (bnnbloomberg.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Occidental Petroleum Corp. became the first major U.S. oil producer to aim for net zero emissions from everything it extracts and sells, accelerating an industry trend that’s become commonplace in Europe. The Houston-based company announced a target to reach net zero emissions from its own operations by 2040 and an ambition to do the same from customers’ use of its products by 2050, Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub said during a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. The plan relies heavily on capturing carbon dioxide and burying it, a technology that’s so far been prohibitively expensive.

Occidental’s announcement is significant because the company has one of the biggest footprints in the Permian Basin, the sprawling oil field beneath Texas and New Mexico that produces more crude than any other region on the continent. [...] Occidental is aiming to reduce all three categories of emissions. Scope 1 involves pollution emanating directly from company operations, while Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from utilities selling power to the company, and similar sources. Scope 3 — the category most U.S. oil drillers have so far excluded — involves pollution farthest removed from a company’s control, such as consumers burning refined fuels like gasoline. It would be the first major U.S. oil company to target Scope 3 emissions, according to BloombergNEF.

Submission + - SPAM: Researchers 3-D print biomedical parts with supersonic speed

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Forget glue, screws, heat or other traditional bonding methods. A Cornell University-led collaboration has developed a 3-D printing technique that creates cellular metallic materials by smashing together powder particles at supersonic speed.

This form of technology, known as "cold spray," results in mechanically robust, porous structures that are 40% stronger than similar materials made with conventional manufacturing processes. The structures' small size and porosity make them particularly well-suited for building biomedical components, like replacement joints.

The team's paper, "Solid-State Additive Manufacturing of Porous Ti-6Al-4V by Supersonic Impact," published Nov. 9 in Applied Materials Today.

"We only focused on titanium alloys and biomedical applications, but the applicability of this process could be beyond that," Moridi said. "Essentially, any metallic material that can endure plastic deformation could benefit from this process. And it opens up a lot of opportunities for larger-scale industrial applications, like construction, transportation and energy."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: How to get root on Ubuntu 20.04 by pretending nobody's /home exploit 2

Submitted by Hmmmmmm
Hmmmmmm writes: A vulnerability in GNOME Display Manager (gdm) could allow a standard user to create accounts with increased privileges, giving a local attacker a path to run code with administrator permissions (root).

Although certain conditions are necessary, the bug is easy to exploit. The process involves running a few simple commands in the terminal and modifying general system settings that do not require increased rights.

[spam URL stripped]...
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Scientists 3D print microscopic Star Trek spaceship that moves on its own (cnn.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: A team of physicists at a university in the Netherlands have 3D-printed a microscopic version of the USS Voyager, an Intrepid-class starship from Star Trek.

The miniature Voyager, which measures 15 micrometers (0.015 millimeters) long, is part of a project researchers at Leiden University conducted to understand how shape affects the motion and interactions of microswimmers.

Microswimmers are small particles that can move through liquid on their own by interacting with their environment through chemical reactions. The platinum coating on the microswimmers reacts to a hydrogen peroxide solution they are placed in, and that propels them through the liquid.

"By studying synthetic microswimmers, we would like to understand biological microswimmers," Samia Ouhajji, one of the study's authors, told CNN. "This understanding could aid in developing new drug delivery vehicles; for example, microrobots that swim autonomously and deliver drugs at the desired location in the human body."

Submission + - Starlink Maintains Performance In The Rain

Submitted by Rei
Rei writes: After having recently moved from a private to a public beta, the numbers of SpaceX Starlink users receiving their hardware (dubbed "Dishy McFlatface" by SpaceX) has increased, and along with it, the number of people reporting speed tests. Of particular interest has been performance in adverse weather. While the network is still being deployed, Pacific Northwest have been reporting rainy-weather download speeds ranging from ~95-140Mbps, upload from 9-18mbps, and ping times from 32-34ms. The upper range is surprisingly not that different from other November clear-weather data (which, while dramatically higher than September reports, is still supposed to improve over the coming year). The tolerance to adverse weather is likely due multiple satellite paths as well as phased array tuning overcoming wind buffeting. SpaceX does plan to add additional higher frequency V-band transmission to future Starlink satellites, but this should suffer more bad-weather attenuation than the current Ka/Ku-band.

Submission + - AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors Set A New Performance Bar Over Intel (hothardware.com)

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: AMD made bold claims when the company unveiled its new Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 series processors early last month. Statements like "historic IPC uplift" and "fastest for gamers" were waved about like flags of victory. However, as with most things in the computing world, independent testing is always the best way to validate claims. Today AMD lifted the embargo on 3rd party reviews and, in testing, AMD's new Ryzen 5000 series CPUs set a new performance bar virtually across the board, and one that Intel currently can't touch. There are four processors in the initial Ryzen 5000 series lineup, though it's a safe bet more will be coming later. The current entry point is the Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core / 8-thread processor, followed by the 8-core / 16-thread Ryzen 7 5800X, 12-core / 24 thread Ryzen 9 5900X, and the flagship 16-core / 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X. All of these new CPUs are backwards compatible with AMD socket AM4 motherboards. In comparison to Zen 2, Zen 3 has a larger L1 branch target buffer and improved bandwidth through multiple parts of its pipeline with additional load/store flexibility. Where Zen 2 could handle 2 load and 1 store per cycle, Zen 3 can handle 3 load and 2 stores. All told, AMD is claiming an average 19% increase in IPC with Zen 3, which is a huge uplift gen-over-gen. Couple that IPC uplift with stronger multi-core scaling and a new unified L3 cache configuration, and Zen 3's performance looks great across a wide variety of workloads for both content creation and gaming especially. AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X will be priced at $799, $549, $449 and $299, respectively and should be on retail and etail shelves starting today.

Submission + - Kite Expands Its AI Code Completions From 2 To 13 Programming Languages

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Kite, which suggests code snippets for developers in real time, today added support for 11 more programming languages, bringing its total to 13. In addition to Python and JavaScript, Kite’s AI-powered code completions now support TypeScript, Java, HTML, CSS, Go, C, C#, C++, Objective C, Kotlin, and Scala. (The team chose the 11 languages by triangulating the StackOverflow developer survey, Redmonk's language rankings, and its own developer submissions.)

AI that helps developers is growing in popularity, with startups like DeepCode offering AI-powered code reviews and tech giants like Microsoft trying to apply AI to the entire application developer cycle. Kite stands out from the pack with 350,000 monthly developers using its AI developer tool.

Submission + - How Ransomware Puts Your Hospital at Risk (nytimes.com)

Submitted by nickwinlund77
nickwinlund77 writes: In March, several cybercrime groups rushed to reassure people that they wouldn’t target hospitals and other health care facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The operators of several prominent strains of ransomware all announced they would not target hospitals, and some of them even promised to decrypt the data of health care organizations for free if one was accidentally infected by their malware. But any cybersecurity strategy that relies on the moral compunctions of criminals is doomed to fail, particularly when it comes to protecting the notoriously vulnerable computer systems of hospitals.

So it’s no surprise that Universal Health Services was hit by ransomware late last month, affecting many of its more than 400 health care facilities across the United States and Britain. Or that clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine have been held up by a similar ransomware attack disclosed in early October. Or that loose-knit coalitions of volunteers all over the world are working around the clock to try to protect the computer systems of hospitals that are already straining under the demands of providing patient care during a global pandemic.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the potential consequences of these cyberattacks are terrifying. Hospitals that have lost access to their databases or had their networks infected by ransomware may not be able to admit patients in need of care or may take longer to provide those patients with the treatment they need, if they switch to relying on paper records [...]

Submission + - Sweden's New Car Carrier Is the World's Largest Wind-Powered Vessel (cnn.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Oceanbird might look like a ship of the future, but it harks back to ancient maritime history — because it's powered by the wind. The transatlantic car carrier is being designed by Wallenius Marine, a Swedish shipbuilder, with support from the Swedish government and several research institutions. With capacity for 7,000 vehicles, the 650 foot-long vessel is a similar size to conventional car carriers, but it will look radically different. The ship's hull is topped by five telescopic "wing sails," each 260 feet tall. Capable of rotating 360 degrees without touching each other, the sails can be retracted to 195 feet in order to clear bridges or withstand rough weather.

The sails, which will be made of steel and composite materials, need to be this size to generate enough propulsive power for the 35,000-ton ship. Although "the general principles of solid wing sails is not new," designing the Oceanbird's sails has been a challenge, says Mikael Razola, a naval architect and research project manager for Oceanbird at Wallenius Marine. That's because these are the tallest ship sails that have ever been constructed. "This ship, at the top of the mast, will be more than 100 meters (328 feet) above the water surface," says Razola. "When you move up into the sky that much, wind direction and velocity change quite a lot."

Submission + - Avoid using hotel Wi-Fi for your telework, FBI warns

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: A recent FBI study shows that hotel Wi-Fis aren't exactly the safest place from which you can perform sensitive online operations, especially when it comes to working.
There have been a lot of questions about the security risks involved when working from home.
Furthermore, working from a public Wi-Fi is that much more dangerous.Here's what the FBI had to say:
Guests are largely unable to control, verify, or monitor network security. Cybercriminals can take advantage of this environment to monitor a victim’s Internet browsing or redirect victims to false login pages.
That being said, using hotel Wi-Fis, in general, is not safe at all, and if you have no other choice, then you might as well give VPN services a try.

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