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Submission + - SPAM: Hidden Impacts of Ferocious Volcanic Eruption Finally Revealed

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Undersea volcanic eruptions account for more than three-quarters of all volcanism on Earth, but rarely do we see the impacts.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption of 2022 was a dramatic exception. Its furious explosion from shallow waters broke the ocean surface and punched through the stratosphere, generating supercharged lighting and an atmospheric shock wave that circled the globe several times. . . .

Their analyses show at least 6 cubic kilometers (km3) of seafloor was lost from within the caldera – 20 times the eruptive volume of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption – and an additional 3.5 km3 of material was blasted out of the Hunga volcano’s submerged flanks.

To put that in perspective, previous studies of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption estimated that 1.9 km3 (or 2,900 megatonnes) of material was ejected into the atmosphere.

That leaves roughly four-fifths of the ejected material in the ocean; material that was funneled into fast-moving density flows that scoured out tracks 30 meters deep in the seafloor and accumulated 22 meters (72 feet) thick in some places.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Pentium 5 - A Rare Look Into The CPU That Could Have Been But Never Was (wccftech.com)

Submitted by alaskana
alaskana writes: In late 2022 it was revealed that early samples of what was to be the 'Pentium 5' processor, codenamed Tejas and Jayhawk was in development and made it as far as being released to board partners for evaluation. A few of these samples made it (of course) onto Ebay and then — not surprisingly — into the hands of a YouTuber. To be fair, tech site Anandtech arguably got the first scoop on this P4 successor way back in 2004, but that story seemingly never gained much traction at that time.

Intel Prescott CPUs could hit 5GHz+ but had huge power and temperature numbers, but Tejas was expected to clock higher than Prescott — with Intel chasing the huge 10GHz CPU clocks within 10 years between 2000 and 2011 — but it ended up not happening at all."

In what was supposed to be a continuation of the 'GHz is king' days of the early aughts, the Pentium 5 was in spirit a continuation of the 'faster-is-better' philosophy of the P4 architecture, efficiency be damned. Speeds in excess of 7 GHz(!), and a pipeline upwards of 50 stages were rumored to be targeted by Intel, but reality (and physics) reared their ugly heads as always.

Intel engineer Steve Fischer, who was involved with the project, added: "The thing had a pipeline depth of around 50 stages and an expected clock target at one point north of 7 GHz. I call the thing "the Death Star of processors" and half-jokingly reasoned that consumer acceptance of liquid-cooled chassis would not be a big deal." Intel kicked off Project Tejas in 2003, expected in 2004 and later pushed into 2005 after issues forced Intel to redesign the chip. Before the company could do that, the Tejas Project was shelved on May 7, 2004.

In the end efficiency and parallelization was to be the rule of future CPU development, but the fact that Intel had (at least briefly) had planned on taking the P4 paradigm just a wee bit further with a true Pentium 5 is a fascinating look into the past of a future that never was to be for the venerable Pentium line.

Submission + - Biochip could detect multiple viruses, cancers, or toxins in minutes (science.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Rapid COVID-19 tests gave many people a firsthand appreciation for the value of quick and cheap diagnostics. Now, researchers have shown how to conduct thousands of rapid molecular screenings simultaneously, using light to identify target molecules snared on top of an array of tiny silicon blocks. In theory, the tool could be used to spot 160,000 different molecules in a single square centimeter of space. Developed to spot gene fragments from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other infectious organisms, the technology should also be able to identify protein markers of cancer and small molecules flagging toxic threats in the environment.

Submission + - SPAM: CNN Poll: Three out of four adults think Facebook is making society worse

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Americans say, 76% to 11%, that Facebook makes society worse, not better, according to the survey. Another 13% say it has no effect either way. That broadly negative appraisal holds across gender, age and racial lines. Even frequent Facebook users — those who report using the site at least several times a week — say 70% to 14% that the social network harms, rather than helps, US society. Although majorities across parties say Facebook is doing more harm than good, that feeling spikes among Republicans (82%).

Facebook should be treated like cigarettes.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: A Bitcoin Mine in Navajo Nation Flares Tensions 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just outside of Shiprock, New Mexico, on land belonging to the Navajo Nation, a Bitcoin mine owned and operated by a Canadian investment company consumes seven megawatts of power each month — enough to power 19,600 homes. The operation is run by a firm called WestBlock Capital and mines between 23 and 25 bitcoins per month, equivalent to roughly $1.4 to $1.6 million USD, with a majority of its power coming from renewable solar energy. According to a press release from the mine’s parent company, Luxxfolio, the mine accesses these resources “at significantly reduced cost in the bottom decile of global power costs.”

But all around the mine, Dine—citizens of the Navajo Nation—live without electricity or running water in their homes. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), the nation’s non-profit utility enterprise that initially partnered with Calgary, Alberta blockchain company WestBlock on the mine project, is working to connect more homes on the nation to basic utilities. A short documentary detailing the project by Bitcoin mining hosting company Compass was released last week, framing the mine as a means to achieve sovereignty and economic prosperity for the nation. But some Dine are bristling at the idea of a foreign Bitcoin mining company getting access to dirt cheap electricity while residents in Navajo Nation live without basic utilities like power and running water.

Tyler Puente, who commented on a since-deleted Facebook post from Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez’s Facebook page about the mine's groundbreaking ceremony that Navajo leadership are allowing outsiders to take advantage of Dine, told Motherboard that he sees the Bitcoin mine as a form of “financial colonialism.” “I think Bitcoin companies prey on communities like my own,” said Puente. “My perspective is that we’re being used.” To some Dine, WestBlock project resembles a form of crypto-colonialism, a term that describes the exploitation of lands and resources by cryptocurrency and blockchain interests, often under the guise of progressive or egalitarian rhetorics for the host communities.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - New company develops vacuum centrifuge to launch satellites into orbit (spinlaunch.com)

Submitted by Camel Pilot
Camel Pilot writes: SpinLaunch is developing a launch system that uses kinetic energy as a cheap method to launch a projectile into orbit. They propose using a vacuum-sealed centrifuge spinning the projectile at near escape velocity speeds and releasing into orbit. A rocket engine would still be used to maneuver and position the satellite. They have built a 1/10th scale prototype in the New Mexican desert and have already launch test objects 10s of thousands of feet.

CEO Jonathan Yaney said in a recent interview "I find that the more audacious and crazy the project is, the better off you are just working on it – rather than being out there talking about it"

Submission + - SPAM: Researchers Demonstrate Complete Solar-Powered Hydrocarbon Production

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Carbon capture. Hydrogen production. Synthetic fuels. All of these technologies have been proposed as potential resources for dealing with the crises created by our carbon dioxide emissions. While they have worked in small pilot demonstrations, most of them haven't demonstrated that they can scale to provide the economical solutions we need. In the meantime, a group of European researchers sees the methods as part of a single coherent production platform, one that goes from sunlight and air to kerosene. Thanks to a small installation on the roof of a lab in Zurich, the team has been producing small amounts of different fuels using some mirrors and a handful of reaction chambers. While the full production process would also need to demonstrate that it can scale, the researchers calculate that the platform could fuel the entire commercial aircraft industry using a small fraction of the land in the Sahara.
[...]
Overall, the results are clear: The process can work, but it's not productive enough to matter in its current state, so a large portion of the paper considers optimization and scale. Optimization is mostly a matter of many little improvements, like the better use of waste heat to ensure all the necessary heat is provided by the solar reflectors. Other targets include better catalysts and more efficient means of storing the gasses between steps. Then there's a matter of scale. To fuel a daily round-trip flight between New York City and London, the researchers estimate, it would take 10 mirror farms directing sunlight at reaction chambers in an area that gets strong and consistent sunlight. That translates to covering around 3.8 square kilometers of the desert with mirrors. (For context, that's about a quarter of the size of California's Ivanpah solar facility.) Providing for all of commercial aviation's fuel needs would require taking over half of one percent of the surface of the Sahara Desert. And that means a lot of mirrors.

The researchers suggest we will likely see the sort of dramatic cost reductions seen in other renewable resources, including technologies like concentrating solar power. That mirror-based tech saw prices drop by 60 percent over a recent 15-year period. But it's questionable whether the sorts of price drops we've seen with photovoltaics are possible, given the large material costs of all those mirrors and their associated hardware, plus the maintenance costs of keeping them clean. The flipside is that concentrating solar power costs have continued to come down, and a lot of those savings could probably be applied to heat-driven chemistry like this. And it's possible that this basic concept—solar-powered green chemistry—could be adapted to produce fuels with a higher value than kerosene.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Anonymous: We've leaked disk images stolen from far-right-friendly web host Epik (theregister.com)

Submitted by slack_justyb
slack_justyb writes: As previously reported the web host Epik was hacked by a group identifying themselves with the group Anonymous. However, in the most recent leaks from this group the scale of data that was stolen is becoming apparent, and signs point to a wholesale theft of data with no stone left unturned.

We're told the dump is a 70GB archive of files and “several bootable disk images of assorted systems” that represent Epik's server infrastructure. Journalist Steve Monacelli, who broke the news of the first data release, said the latest leak expands to 300GB. "This leak appears to be fully bootable disk images of Epik servers, including a wide range of passwords and API tokens," he added.

WhiskeyNeon, a Texas-based hacker and cybersecurity expert who reviewed the file structure of the leak, told the Daily Dot how the disk images represented Epik’s entire server infrastructure. “Files are one thing, but a virtual machine disk image allows you to boot up the company’s entire server on your own,” he said. “We usually see breaches with database dumps, documents, configuration files, etc. In this case, we are talking about the entire server image, with all the programs and files required to host the application it is serving.”

Daily Dot brings some word on Epik CEO Rob Monster response to the latest news:

Epik CEO Rob Monster, who did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Dot, would go on to hold a more than four hour long live video conference online to address the initial hack. The meeting would see Monster break out into prayer numerous times, make attempts to vanquish demons, and warn viewers that their hard drives could burst into flames due to “curses” placed on the hacked data.

Submission + - Babylon 5 Reboot Being Helmed By Original Creator J. Michael Straczynski (variety.com) 1

Submitted by Jaegs
Jaegs writes: According to many sources and the Babylon 5 creator/writer/director/producer himself, J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) The CW—partly owned by the original Babylon 5 producer and rights holder, WarnerMedia—will be rebooting the popular franchise. JMS will be writing and executive producing the series. Per JMS:

[W]e will not be retelling the same story in the same way... There would be no fun and no surprises. Better to go the way of Westworld or Battlestar Galactica where you take the original elements that are evergreens and put them in a blender with a ton of new, challenging ideas, to create something fresh yet familiar. To those asking why not just do a continuation, for a network series like this, it can’t be done because over half our cast are still stubbornly on the other side of the Rim.

The last part refers to the recent passing of Mira Furlan (Delenn), as well as the untimely deaths of other primary cast members after the conclusion of the original run of the series: Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin), Michael O'Hare (Jeffrey Sinclair), Jerry Doyle (Michael Garibaldi), Stephen Furst (Vir Cotto), Jeff Conway (Zack Allan), and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar).

Submission + - China's growing power crunch threatens more global supply chain chaos (cnn.com)

Submitted by Hmmmmmm
Hmmmmmm writes: A growing power supply crunch in China is triggering blackouts for households and forcing factories to cut production, threatening to slow the country's vast economy and place even more strain on global supply chains.

Companies in the country's industrial heartlands have been told to limit their energy consumption in order to reduce demand for power, state media has reported. And supply has been cut to some homes, reportedly even trapping people in elevators.

An "unexpected and unprecedented" power cut hit three northeastern provinces on Monday, according to the Global Times, a state-run tabloid. The newspaper reported Tuesday that power rationing in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces has "resulted in major disruptions to the daily lives of people and business operations."

Power shortages have also hit the southern province of Guangdong, a major industrial and shipping hub. Local officials said Monday that many firms are trying to reduce demand by working two or three days per week.

China's State Grid Corporation said Monday that it would "go all out to fight the tough battle of power supply," making every effort to secure residential consumption.

China was hit by a similar power crunch in June, but the situation is getting worse because of a perfect storm. Its industries are facing huge pressure from soaring energy prices, and from Beijing to tackle carbon emissions.

The world's biggest polluter is trying to meet a pledge that its carbon emissions will peak before 2030. That requires its provinces to use less fossil fuel for each unit of economic output, for example by burning less coal to generate power. At the same time, demand for Chinese-made goods has surged as the global economy emerges from the pandemic. The result: not enough power to go round.

The shock is even prompting economists to cut growth expectations this year for the world's second largest economy.

Submission + - SPAM: Washington Post Hacked into a Chevy Volt to Show How Much Cars Are Spying on You 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It's easy to count up the benefits to connected cars. From using your phone to warm up the cabin on a winter day to setting speed limits for the new teenage drivers in your household, telematics can make life a bit easier. But you're probably not surprised to hear that these upsides come with some potential downsides as well.

This was proven in a big way by Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler (pictured above), who dug into just how much information his test car, a 2017 Chevrolet Volt, is collecting. Perhaps more important, though, Fowler wanted to see just how much information GM is getting from its connected cars. It's one thing for your car to store your favorite Starbucks in the nav system. It's another if the car company collects that information. The reporter made it clear that this is not a Volt thing, or a Chevy thing; nearly all new cars now have connectivity, including onboard internet connections.

For now, exactly what information goes where is a bit of an unknown by anyone other than the automakers themselves. As Fowler writes, "My Chevy's dashboard didn't say what the car was recording. It wasn't in the owner's manual. There was no way to download it."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Committee may recommend organizational changes at Boeing after 737Max Crashes (nytimes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A small committee of Boeing’s board is expected to call for several meaningful changes to the way the company is structured. The commitee may recommend that Boeing change aspects of its organizational structure, call for the creation of new groups focused on safety and encouraging the company to consider making changes to the cockpits of future airplanes to accommodate a new generation of pilots, some of whom may have less training.

Currently, Boeing's top engineers report primarily to the business leaders for each airplane model, and secondarily to the company’s chief engineer. Under this model, engineers who identify problems that might slow a jet’s development could face resistance from executives whose jobs revolve around meeting production deadlines. The committee recommends flipping the reporting lines, so that top engineers report primarily to Boeing’s chief engineer, and secondarily to business unit leaders.

Another key recommendation calls for establishing a new safety group that will work across the company.

Though the committee did not investigate the two crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max jet, their findings represent the company’s most direct effort yet to reform its internal processes after the accidents, which killed 346 people.

Alternate source without paywall: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/1...

Submission + - A Boeing Code Leak Exposes Security Flaws Deep In a 787's Guts (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: LATE ONE NIGHT last September, security researcher Ruben Santamarta sat in his home office in Madrid and partook in some creative googling, searching for technical documents related to his years-long obsession: the cybersecurity of airplanes. He was surprised to discover a fully unprotected server on Boeing's network, seemingly full of code designed to run on the company's giant 737 and 787 passenger jets, left publicly accessible and open to anyone who found it. So he downloaded everything he could see. Now, nearly a year later, Santamarta claims that leaked code has led him to something unprecedented: security flaws in one of the 787 Dreamliner's components, deep in the plane's multi-tiered network. He suggests that for a hacker, exploiting those bugs could represent one step in a multistage attack that starts in the plane’s in-flight entertainment system and extends to highly protected, safety-critical systems like flight controls and sensors.

At the Black Hat security conference today in Las Vegas, Santamarta, a researcher for security firm IOActive, plans to present his findings, including the details of multiple serious security flaws in the code for a component of the 787 known as a Crew Information Service/Maintenance System. The CIS/MS is responsible for applications like maintenance systems and the so-called electronic flight bag, a collection of navigation documents and manuals used by pilots. Santamarta says he found a slew of memory corruption vulnerabilities in that CIS/MS, and he claims that a hacker could use those flaws as a foothold inside a restricted part of a plane's network. An attacker could potentially pivot, Santamarta says, from the in-flight entertainment system to the CIS/MS to send commands to far more sensitive components that control the plane's safety-critical systems, including its engine, brakes, and sensors. Boeing maintains that other security barriers in the 787's network architecture would make that progression impossible.

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