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Submission + - Wrong chemical dumped into Olympic pools made them green (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes:

After a week of trying to part with green tides in two outdoor swimming pools, Olympic officials over the weekend wrung out a fresh mea culpa and yet another explanation—neither of which were comforting. According to officials, a local pool-maintenance worker mistakenly added 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide to the waters on August 5, which partially neutralized the chlorine used for disinfection. With chlorine disarmed, the officials said that “organic compounds”—i.e. algae and other microbes—were able to grow and turn the water a murky green in the subsequent days. The revelation appears to contradict officials’ previous assurances that despite the emerald hue, which first appeared Tuesday, the waters were safe.

I would personally have avoided using the green pools, but that's just me.

Submission + - Amazon Debuts A Dedicated Shop For Kickstarter Products (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Today, Amazon announced it’s teaming up with Kickstarter to offer those successful Kickstarter products a way to reach more customers through a dedicated section on Amazon’s website. Via www.amazon.com/launchpad/kickstarter, the online retailer is now featuring a group of over 300 Kickstarter products across a variety of categories, like electronics, books, home and kitchen, movies and tv, and more. The products can also be browsed by theme, like STEM products, “Always be Learning,” “Exquisite Objects,” “Inventing the Future,” and “Public Benefit,” for example. The new Kickstarter section is actually an expansion on Amazon’s Launchpad platform, launched a year ago. In July 2015, the retailer debuted a dedicated portal that offered both marketing and sales for hardware and physical goods from younger tech companies. Today, Amazon says it has now worked with over 100 VCs, accelerators and crowdfunders and has helped more than 1,000 launch products across the U.S., the U.K., China, Germany, and France. All startups who participate in Launchpad receive custom product pages, a comprehensive marketing package, and access to Amazon’s global fulfillment network, the retailer notes.

Submission + - Indian Supreme Court Dismisses WhatsApp Ban

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Supreme Court of India has denied a petition which sought to ban secure messaging platform WhatsApp on the basis that it poses a threat to national security, deferring the complaint to the government's executive branch. Petitioner Sudhir Yadav also sought bans on Viber, Hike and Secure on the basis that they violate key provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 and the Information Technology Act of 2000 by providing zero-knowledge secure services.

Submission + - China Tells App Developers To Increase User Monitoring

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Cyberspace Administration of China has imposed new regulation for the mobile app community, requiring that developers keep a close watch over users and keep a record of their activities. However, the proposed legislation would also prevent apps from requesting unnecessary access to users’ contacts, camera, microphone and other spurious installation requests. The regulator introduced the new laws in the name of cracking down on illegal use of mobile platforms for the distribution of pornography, fraud and the spread of ‘malicious’ content.

Submission + - Judge rules No-Fly list unconstitutional

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A federal judge ruled last week that the method by which the federal government places people on the no-fly list is inherently unconstitutional, and must either be changed, or cease.

Specifically, U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said the process doesn’t give Americans on the list an effective way to challenge their inclusion. The Oregonian reports: “In a 65-page opinion issued Tuesday Brown ordered the government to come up with a new way for the 13 plaintiffs to contest their inclusion on the list that prohibits them from flying in or through U.S. airspace. The government must provide notice to the plaintiffs that they are on the roster and give the reasons for their inclusion, Brown wrote. She also ordered that the government allow the plaintiffs to submit evidence to refute the government’s suspicions.

“The decision marks a big win for the plaintiffs, all U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued the case on their behalf. The plaintiffs have all been denied boarding due to their placement on the list, they argue, despite never having been charged with a terrorism-related offense.”

Submission + - BBC: Britain Votes To Leave The EU (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The UK has voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union after 43 years in a historic referendum, a BBC forecast suggests. London and Scotland voted strongly to stay in the EU but the remain vote has been undermined by poor results in the north of England. Voters in Wales and the English shires have backed Brexit in large numbers. The referendum turnout was 71.8% — with more than 30 million people voting — the highest turnout since 1992. London has voted to stay in the EU by around 60% to 40%. However, no other region of England has voted in favor of remaining. Britain would be the first country to leave the EU since its formation — but a leave vote will not immediately mean Britain ceases to be a member of the 28-nation bloc. That process could take a minimum of two years, with Leave campaigners suggesting during the referendum campaign that it should not be completed until 2020 — the date of the next scheduled general election. The prime minister will have to decide when to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would give the UK two years to negotiate its withdrawal. Once Article 50 has been triggered a country can not rejoin without the consent of all member states.

Submission + - Brexit (bbc.com)

Submitted by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite
ISayWeOnlyToBePolite writes: With only a few votes left to count it is now clear that Britain has voted to leave the EU.
Financial markets are in turmoil and the pound has dropped 10%.

Submission + - 'Women In the Workplace' Emojis Rejected By Unicode Consortium (themarysue.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: The Unicode Consortium has spoken and a woman's place is not in workplace emojis — except in the traditional roles like dancer, princess, and mom-to-be. This might not seem like a very big deal, except when you consider that a 2014 survey found that '76% of American workers admit they have used emoji in digital communications to people in their professional life.' Add that to a growing body of research showing that 'You can't be what you can't see,' as Sheryl Sandberg famously asserted when launching a collection of stock photos depicting women at work. So, yes, even in emojis, representation matters.

Submission + - Attorney held liable for using "generic" E-Mail?

Submitted by bbsguru
bbsguru writes: An attorney in New York is being sued for using an AOL email account. The plaintiffs accuse their Real Estate attorney of "negligently using a "notoriously vulnerable" AOL email account that was hacked by cybercriminals who then stole nearly $2 million".
Aside from this possible risk, what does it tell you when your [attorney | broker | accountant | financial advisor] has a generic email account?

Submission + - SPAM: Common espresso machine can perform complex chemical analysis

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: hemical analyses often take lots of time and require expensive equipment, not to mention substantial volumes of harsh solvents. But not if you use an espresso machine. Researchers have utilized an off-the-shelf, countertop coffeemaker to quickly and cheaply extract cancer-causing contaminants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from samples of polluted soil. Despite requiring hoses, seals, and other internal connections to be replaced regularly, the off-the-shelf espresso machine ends up being a low-cost option for quick analyses, the team notes. Currently, the brewmasters are checking to see whether their espresso machine can also be used to detect and measure pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and detergents in food or soil samples.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - LIGO detects another black hole crash, more gravitational waves (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: The biggest discovery in science this year—the observation of ripples in space-time called gravitational waves—was no fluke. For a second time, physicists working with the two massive detectors in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have detected a pulse of such waves, the LIGO team reported on 15 June at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, California. Once again the waves emanated from the merger of two black holes, the ultraintense gravitational fields left behind when massive stars collapse into infinitesimal points. The new observation suggests that after fine-tuning, LIGO will spot dozens or even hundreds of the otherwise undetectable events each year.

Submission + - High cholesterol 'does not cause heart disease' new research finds (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Cholesterol does not cause heart disease in the elderly and trying to reduce it with drugs like statins is a waste of time, an international group of experts has claimed.

A review of research involving nearly 70,000 people found there was no link between what has traditionally been considered “bad” cholesterol and the premature deaths of over 60-year-olds from cardiovascular disease.

Published in the BMJ Open journal, the new study found that 92 percent of people with a high cholesterol level lived longer.

So much for settled science.

Submission + - SpaceX to launch commercial satellites Wednesday (floridatoday.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: SpaceX will attempt another commercial launch on Wednesday morning, this time putting two satellites into orbit.

They will once again try to land the first stage in what they say are difficult circumstances. They are also picking up the launch pace, with this the second commercial launch in less than three weeks. It will also be their sixth launch of the year, matching what they did in each of the last two years, with more than half the year to go.

Boosters have landed at sea on SpaceX's last three missions. Two of those were launches to very high orbits, like Wednesday’s, for which landings are considered more challenging.

Submission + - The Biggest Maker of Raspberry Pis Has Been Acquired For $871 Million (theverge.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The biggest manufacturer of the Raspberry Pi minicomputer, Premier Farnell, has been acquired by Swiss industrial component supplier Daetwyler Holding AG for roughly $871 million. According to Bloomberg, the deal will reportedly help both companies compete better in the components market. "By combining forces, we significantly increase our competitiveness and extend our product range," Daetwyler Chairman Ulrich said in a statement, "facilitating a one-stop shopping experience for our wide range of customers from a multitude of industries." Premier Farnell is one of the only companies with a license to design and distribute Raspberry Pis. The Wall Street Journal says the Raspberry Pi devices are a big part of the company's business, as the division in charge of the Pi raked in 16 percent of the company's total revenue last year.

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