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Submission + - Autism should not be seen as single condition with one cause, say scientists (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'Those diagnosed as small children typically have distinct genetic profile from those diagnosed later, study finds'

So there's more than one condition out there that's being diagnosed as 'autism'. This, of course, messes with the debate about causes; one version of autism may be caused by something for which the evidence is very weak overall... ;)

Submission + - French troops boarded Russian tanker (dailymail.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: French troops have boarded the deck of a tanker alleged to be from Russia's 'shadow fleet' and suspected of involvement in drone flights over Denmark last month.

Submission + - Apple Fitness Chief Accused of Toxic Workplace Culture and Harassment (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Jay Blahnik was a fitness superstar with a book and nearly two decades of work with Nike before he was hired in 2013 to work on the Apple Watch. He became known inside Apple as the creator of the watch’s signature fitness feature: three circular bands that people could complete through the day by exercising, standing and burning calories. Marketed with the tagline “Close Your Rings,” the concept helped galvanize sales of Apple’s first breakout product after Steve Jobs’s death. But along the way, Mr. Blahnik created a toxic work environment, said nine current and former employees who worked with or for Mr. Blahnik and spoke about personnel issues on the condition of anonymity. They said Mr. Blahnik, 57, who leads a roughly 100-person division as vice president for fitness technologies, could be verbally abusive, manipulative and inappropriate. His behavior contributed to decisions by more than 10 workers to seek extended mental health or medical leaves of absence since 2022, about 10 percent of the team, these people said.

When confronted with Mr. Blahnik’s behavior, Apple moved to protect him after an internal investigation. The company settled one complaint alleging sexual harassment by Mr. Blahnik and is fighting a lawsuit by an employee, Mandana Mofidi, who said he had bullied her. Mr. Blahnik stayed in his job after company officials said their investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing, according to interviews and Ms. Mofidi’s lawsuit, which she filed against Mr. Blahnik and Apple last year in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The tension inside Mr. Blahnik’s division speaks to workplace dysfunction at the heart of one of Apple’s signature health initiatives. These employees said the company was more willing to protect a star executive than address the concerns of rank-and-file workers.

Submission + - "Real Genius" star Val Kilmer Dead at 65 (imdb.com)

Submitted by EmagGeek
EmagGeek writes: Val Kilmer, star of the iconic 90's science-comedy film "Real Genius," has died at the age of 65 from complications due to pneumonia. Many of us remember his breakout role in the cult classic, where he starred as brilliant yet unmotivated student Chris Wright, whose intellect overshadowed his professor and archenemy Prof. Jerry Hathaway, played by William Atherton, another notable film actor known for his roles in blockbuster films such as Ghostbusters and popular Christmas movie Die Hard. He had many other notable roles including his brilliant portrayal of Jim Morrison in "The Doors," and also many forgettable appearances in B-movies such as Top Gun and a movie in The Batman series.

He was a versatile actor who enjoyed the craft and refused to be typecast. We'll miss him.

Comment Signature requirement during voting (Score 1) 117

What's with the requirement of signatures and their verification during the voting process in United States? In other democracies, people are automatically registered to vote, and automatically included in voter rolls based on where they live. In paper-based voting, people sign in a separate book (a voter roll, if you will) only to inform the state, that they have voted.

Estonia, which has the world's most advanced voting system, has Internet-based voting with digital ID cards (in addition to paper), which enables people to vote from their home and worldwide, particularly when traveling, or living out of country. It's also handy during inclement weather, or when an otherwise sane and lucid person is unable to move around too much to reach the voting precinct. (of course, this may include a can of other worms.)

Submission + - Post Office senior executive suspended over allegations of destroying evidence (computerweekly.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Statement to public inquiry reveals that investigation is underway over allegations that a senior Post Office executive instructed staff to destroy evidence

The Post Office is investigating allegations that a senior executive instructed staff to destroy or conceal documents that could be of interest to the Post Office scandal public inquiry.

Submission + - Southwest Airlines Outdated Computers Keep Company Running (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: Nearly every flight in the U.S. is grounded right now following a CrowdStrike system update error that’s affecting everything from travel to mobile ordering at Starbucks — but not Southwest Airlines flights. Southwest is still flying high, unaffected by the outage that’s plaguing the world today, and that’s apparently because it’s using Windows 3.1.

Comment Power adapters can fail, too (Score 1) 49

Check if the power adapter is at fault. Those do also fail after long-term usage.

I have a friend who continues to use a very old operator-provided Thomson (now Arris) TG-series Wi-Fi router -- there's a neat phone, Internet, and tv package.

According to the friend, it seemed, as if it was the router that was going to give up the ghost, because the connected landline wouldn't work.

Fortunately, he had exactly the same model router he got from another friend. The friend, who wouldn't bother too much, replaced only the router, and not the power adapter.

Turned out, that the newer same-model router wouldn't work.

The friend then switched off the newer router, and connected it using that router's power adapter, and turned it all on. The indicators lit up, the Internet worked. But it wasn't configured for the phone.

Then the friend came to the bright idea to test the old router with the newer, less-used power adapter, and lo and behold, the old router worked, bells and whistles and all.

I think this happened in early 2024. The friend reported, that the particular power adapter had been in nearly continual use since about December 2010, so, thirteen years and then some.

Submission + - A 19x Energy Jump in Capacitors May Be the Beginning of the End for Batteries (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It opens the door to a new era of electric efficiency.

Researchers believe they’ve discovered a new material structure that can improve the energy storage of capacitors.

The structure allows for storage while improving the efficiency of ultrafast charging and discharging.

The new find needs optimization but has the potential to help power electric vehicles.

A battery’s best friend is a capacitor. Powering everything from smartphones to electric vehicles, capacitors store energy from a battery in the form of an electrical charge and enable ultrafast charging and discharging. However, their Achilles’ heel has always been their limited energy storage efficiency.

Now, Washington University in St. Louis researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking capacitor design that looks like it could overcome those energy storage challenges.

In a study published in Science, lead author Sang-Hoon Bae, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, demonstrates a novel heterostructure that curbs energy loss, enabling capacitors to store more energy and charge rapidly without sacrificing durability.

While batteries excel in storage capacity, they fall short in speed, unable to charge or discharge rapidly. Capacitors fill this gap, delivering the quick energy bursts that power-intensive devices demand. Some smartphones, for example, contain up to 500 capacitors, and laptops around 800. Just don’t ask the capacitor to store its energy too long.

Within capacitors, ferroelectric materials offer high maximum polarization. That’s useful for ultra-fast charging and discharging, but it can limit the effectiveness of energy storage or the “relaxation time” of a conductor. “This precise control over relaxation time holds promise for a wide array of applications and has the potential to accelerate the development of highly efficient energy storage systems,” the study authors write.

Bae makes the change—one he unearthed while working on something completely different—by sandwiching 2D and 3D materials in atomically thin layers, using chemical and nonchemical bonds between each layer. He says a thin 3D core inserts between two outer 2D layers to produce a stack that’s only 30 nanometers thick, about 1/10th that of an average virus particle.

“Initially, we weren’t focused on energy storage, but during our exploration of material properties, we found a new physical phenomenon that we realized could be applied to energy storage,” Bae says in a statement, “and that was both very interesting and potentially much more useful.”

The sandwich structure isn’t quite fully conductive or nonconductive. This semiconducting material, then, allows the energy storage, with a density up to 19 times higher than commercially available ferroelectric capacitors, while still achieving 90 percent efficiency—also better than what’s currently available.

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