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looorg writes:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/m1022-ecoli-outbreak.html
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/ten-people-hospitalized-e-coli-infections-linked-mcdonalds-quarter-pounder-says-2024-10-22/
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/22/mcdonalds-shares-fall-after-cdc-says-e-coli-outbreak-linked-to-quarter-pounders.html

49 people from 10 states have gotten sick from the same strain of E. coli O157:H7. Most sick people are from Colorado (27) or Nebraska (9).

10 people have been hospitalized. One older person in Colorado has died. Additionally, one child is hospitalized with complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS.

Everyone interviewed has reported eating at McDonald's before their illness started, and most specifically mentioned eating a Quarter Pounder hamburger.

The specific ingredient linked to illness has not yet been identified, but investigators are focused on two ingredients in particular: fresh slivered onions, and fresh beef patties.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

The bad news continues as the rental giant tries to untangle itself from its failed electric vehicle strategy:

Ryan Brinkman, automotive equity research analyst with J.P. Morgan, downgraded Hertz Global Holdings from neutral to underweight Monday.

The assessment, Seeking Alpha reports, comes as the company tries to reverse course from its failed EV strategy, which has cost the company as much as $1 billion. The losses stem from the vehicle's high depreciation rates and high collision repair costs. The lack of spare parts for repairs is also undermining utilizations of the company's electric fleet.

As reported on Yahoo! News:

The challenges don't stop there. Hertz's heavy debt load is tying its hands, potentially forcing the company to navigate choppy waters without the lifeline of share buybacks. With used-vehicle prices on shaky ground and high refinancing costs, Hertz is bracing for more cash outflows. Throw in a recent adverse court ruling that resurrected litigation risks from its bankruptcy, and the financial landscape looks even more daunting. The path to stability isn't just steep; it's laden with obstacles.

Previously:

• Hertz is Selling 20,000 Electric Vehicles to Buy Gasoline Cars Instead
• Hertz to Purchase 175,000 General Motors EVs Over the Next Five Years
• Hertz Plans to Buy 65,000 EVs From Polestar Over Five Years

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA showed off a telescope prototype for a new gravitational wave detection mission in space. The telescope is part of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission led by the European Space Agency (NSA) in partnership with NASA.

The goal of the LISA mission is to position three spacecraft in a triangular orbit measuring nearly 1.6 million miles on each side. The three spacecraft will follow the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Each spacecraft will carry two telescopes to track their siblings using infrared laser beams. Those beams can measure distances down to a trillionth of a meter.

Gravitational waves are created during a collision between two black holes. They were first theorized by Albert Einstein in 1916 and detected almost a century later by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration from the National Science Foundation, Caltech and MIT. A gravitational wave is detected when the three spacecraft shift from their characteristic pattern.

The LISA mission is scheduled to launch in the mid-2030s. The detection of gravitational waves could provide “enormous potential” to better our understanding of the universe, including events like black holes and the Big Bang that are difficult to study through other means, according to the official mission website.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Few people are fans of stink bugs, mosquitoes, or boll weevils, but insects play a key role in the circle of life that makes up the planet's environment. In fact, world-renowned biologist E. O. Wilson famously declared that if insects vanished, our environment would collapse.

Scientists have noted that insect behavior has been changing, and their populations are declining—on average 2-3% per year. This has prompted them to investigate the potential causes of this change, such as habitat loss due to overdevelopment, climate change, and chemical use.

EMBL researchers and collaborators recently investigated how pesticides, herbicides, and other agrochemicals affect insect populations. They systematically exposed fruit fly larvae to more than 1,000 molecules contained within EMBL's unique chemical library, which stores a variety of agrochemicals in a format readily usable for large-scale screens.

These fruit fly larvae came from multiple geographic locations, and the researchers followed their developmental time, behavior, and long-term survival for the duration of their life cycle. They found that 57% of the tested chemicals altered fruit fly larvae behavior significantly even in amounts known not to be fatal. A higher level of chemicals compromised long-term survival of the flies after this same kind of exposure.

"We found that when we exposed larvae to very low doses of chemicals, the exposure caused widespread changes in physiological processes that are at the heart of how they develop and behave," said Lautaro Gandara, first author of a paper reporting these findings in the journal Science and postdoctoral fellow in EMBL's Crocker research group.

"These changes were exacerbated when we increased the temperature in the growing chambers by four degrees—a decision born from the idea that global temperatures have been on the rise and might affect how pesticides affect the larvae."

The scientists started by raising the temperature in the growing environment by two degrees (from 25°C/77°F to 27°C/80.6°F). When they didn't see much difference, they increased the temperature further to 29°C/84.2°F, which is still representative of summer temperature ranges for much of the world. At that point, they saw a pronounced impact.

"Further, we mixed some of the most commonly detected airborne chemicals, at ecologically relevant doses, again exposing fruit flies from when they first hatched. We then saw a much stronger effect," said Justin Crocker, EMBL Group Leader and senior author of the recent scientific paper. "We observed a 60% drop in egg-laying rates, foreshadowing population decline but also other altered behaviors, such as more frequent hunching, a behavior rarely seen in the untreated groups."

'Hunching' is when larvae bend or curl their bodies in an exaggerated manner. It can signal stress or discomfort, but more importantly, underlying issues such as toxicity, neurological effects, or physiological processes that have been disrupted.

owl writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/lawsuit-city-cameras-make-it-impossible-to-drive-anywhere-without-being-tracked/

Police use of automated license-plate reader cameras is being challenged in a lawsuit alleging that the cameras enable warrantless surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The city of Norfolk, Virginia, was sued yesterday by plaintiffs represented by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public-interest law firm.

Norfolk, a city with about 238,000 residents, "has installed a network of cameras that make it functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked, photographed, and stored in an AI-assisted database that enables the warrantless surveillance of their every move. This civil rights lawsuit seeks to end this dragnet surveillance program," said the complaint filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Like many other cities, Norfolk uses cameras made by the company Flock Safety. A 404 Media article said Institute for Justice lawyer Robert Frommer "told 404 Media that the lawsuit could have easily been filed in any of the more than 5,000 communities where Flock is active, but that Norfolk made sense because the Fourth Circuit of Appeals—which Norfolk is part of—recently held that persistent, warrantless drone surveillance in Baltimore is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment in a case called Beautiful Struggle v Baltimore Police Department."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

First reported by ABC News Australia, owners of robot vacuums across multiple U.S. states experienced invasive hacking of their devices by individuals who took physical control of the cleaning bots and used their internal audio features to shout racial slurs at people in their homes. Owners first heard garbled voices coming from their devices, then noticed the vacuum's live feed camera and remote controls were turned on via the device's app.

All of the affected devices were manufactured by brand Ecovac, specifically the company's Deebot X2 model. The hack was confirmed to one customer after they filed a complaint through customer support.

[...] In a statement to TechCrunch at the time of it's release, Ecovacs said it wouldn't fix the uncovered flaws, saying that users could "rest assured that they do not need to worry excessively about this." The company has a history of security breaches, including hacked device cameras that allowed cyberattackers to spy on owners, and has stirred concern over how it handles user data stored on cloud servers.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Recent headlines have proclaimed that Chinese scientists have hacked "military-grade encryption" using quantum computers, sparking concern and speculation about the future of cybersecurity. The claims, largely stemming from a recent South China Morning Post article about a Chinese academic paper published in May, was picked up by many more serious publications.

However, a closer examination reveals that while Chinese researchers have made incremental advances in quantum computing, the news reports are a huge overstatement:

"Factoring a 50-bit number using a hybrid quantum-classical approach is a far cry from breaking 'military-grade encryption'," said Dr. Erik Garcell, Head of Technical Marketing at Classiq, a quantum algorithm design company.

While advancements have indeed been made, the progress represents incremental steps rather than a paradigm-shifting breakthrough that renders current cryptographic systems obsolete.

"This kind of overstatement does more harm than good," Dr. Garcell said. "Misrepresenting current capabilities as 'breaking military-grade encryption' is not just inaccurate—it's potentially damaging to the field's credibility."

Originally spotted on Schneier on Security. Dept. stolen from AC.

Previously: Chinese Researchers Claim Quantum Encryption Attack

Original Submission

looorg writes:

https://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M136279841

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has discovered the largest known prime number, 2136,279,841-1, having 41,024,320 decimal digits. Luke Durant, from San Jose, California, found the prime on October 12th.

The new prime number, also known as M136279841, is calculated by multiplying together 136,279,841 twos, and then subtracting 1. It is over 16 million digits larger than the previous record prime number, in a special class of extremely rare prime numbers known as Mersenne primes. It is only the 52nd known Mersenne prime ever discovered, each increasingly more difficult to find. Mersenne primes were named for the French monk Marin Mersenne, who studied these numbers more than 350 years ago. GIMPS, founded in 1996, has discovered the last 18 Mersenne primes. Volunteers download a free program to search for these primes, with a $3000 award offered to anyone lucky enough to find a new prime. Prof. Chris Caldwell founded an authoritative web site on the largest known primes which is now maintained by volunteers, and has an excellent history of Mersenne primes.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Researchers cut to the chase on the physics of paper cuts:

If you have ever been on the receiving end of a paper cut, you will know how painful they can be.

[...] To find out why paper is so successful at cutting skin, Jensen and fellow DTU colleagues carried out over 50 experiments with a range of paper thicknesses to make incisions into a piece of gelatine at various angles.

Through these experiments and modelling, they discovered that paper cuts are a competition between slicing and "buckling". Thin paper with a thickness of about 30 microns, or 0.03 mm, doesn't cut so well because it buckles – a mechanical instability that happens when a slender object like paper is compressed. Once this occurs, the paper can no longer transfer force to the tissue, so is unable to cut.

Thick paper, with a thickness greater than around 200 microns, is also ineffective at making an incision. This is because it distributes the load over a greater area, resulting in only small indentations.

The team found, however, a paper cut "sweet spot" at around 65 microns and when the incision was made at an angle of about 20 degrees from the surface. This paper thickness just happens to be close to that of the paper used in print magazines, which goes some way to explain why it annoyingly happens so often.

[...] ensen notes that the findings are interesting for two reasons. "First, it's a new case of soft-on-soft interactions where the deformation of two objects intertwines in a non-trivial way," he says. "Traditional metal knives are much stiffer than biological tissues, while paper is still stiffer than skin but around 100 times weaker than steel."

The second is that it is a "great way" to teach students about forces given that the experiments are straightforward to do in the classroom. "Studying the physics of paper cuts has revealed a surprising potential use for paper in the digital age: not as a means of information dissemination and storage, but rather as a tool of destruction," the researchers write.

Journal Reference: Sif Fink Arnbjerg-Nielsen, Matthew D. Biviano, and Kaare H. Jensen, Competition between slicing and buckling underlies the erratic nature of paper cuts, Phys. Rev. E 110, 025003 – Published 23 August 2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.110.025003

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A report by Knowable Magazine provides a rather insightful glimpse into the rise of mass timber and its benefits. The technique basically uses massive engineered wood elements instead of concrete and steel to build higher than ever before. As of 2024, mass timber buildings have climbed to almost unbelievable heights, with the 25-story Ascent tower in Milwaukee leading the pack.

The building is far from the only one in the category. The report states that there were 84 completed or under-construction mass timber buildings of eight stories or higher worldwide by 2022, with another 55 proposed. Europe dominates with 70% of these, but North America is catching up with around 20%.

As for what's driving this wooden renaissance, there are multiple reasons. For starters, mass timber could be an answer for reducing concrete and steel's massive carbon footprint, which alone makes up a whopping 15% of global emissions.

[...] But what about issues like raw strength and fire resistance, which have historically held wooden buildings back? Well, mass timber uses elements like cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels that can match steel's strength pound-for-pound, thanks to layering and high-pressure gluing techniques.

Modern mass timber also passes rigorous fire testing. In the event of a fire, a protective char layer forms on the wood's surface, insulating the interior from flames long enough for evacuation and firefighter response.

Likely taking these perks into account, a 2021 update to the International Building Code gave mass timber a huge vote of confidence, allowing such constructions up to 18 stories in many places.

Of course, moisture poses risks that need careful management to prevent fungus and pests. But proponents are confident mass timber can be a sustainable solution if done right.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A Chinese industry group has accused Intel of backdooring its CPUs, in addition to other questionable security practices while calling for an investigation into the chipmaker, claiming its products pose "serious risks to national security."

The Cybersecurity Association of China (CSAC), in a lengthy post on its WeChat account on Wednesday described Intel's chips as being riddled with vulnerabilities, adding that the American company's "major defects in product quality and security management show its extremely irresponsible attitude towards customers."

The CSAC also accused Intel of embedding a backdoor "in almost all" of its CPUs since 2008 as part of a "next-generation security defense system" developed by the US National Security Agency. 

This allowed Uncle Sam to "build an ideal monitoring environment where only the NSA is protected and everyone else is 'naked,'" the post continued. "This poses a huge security threat to the critical information infrastructure of countries around the world, including China," the industry group claims.

The infosec org also recommends the Cyberspace Administration of China open an investigation into the security of Intel's products sold in the country "to effectively safeguard China's national security and the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese consumers."

[...] The calls for a government investigation into the American chipmaker follow a series of accusations from the White House accusing Chinese spies of burrowing into US networks and critical infrastructure systems, all of which China has denied, and a proposed ban on Chinese connected vehicle technology.

[...] Intel this year inked deals with several Chinese state-linked agencies for its Xeon processors to be used in AI workloads, according to Reuters. Considering a little over a quarter of Intel's revenue last year came from China, a security review of its products — and potential restrictions — could be a major blow to its ongoing recovery efforts.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As exciting as genAI software might be, it also has side effects that we all need to be aware of. Since AI programs also offer human-like voice modes, it might be easy to have one of these AI models make calls for nefarious purposes.

One such scenario involves an AI impersonating a “very polite and professional” Google representative calling you from a spoofed number. The call is part of a hacker’s attempt to take over your Gmail account. The hack also involves creating fake Gmail recovery emails and fake support emails meant to further convince the victim they’re the target of an ongoing attack.

You might avoid falling prey to the attack if you’re tech-savvy enough. But unsuspecting Gmail users afraid that their account is in danger might end up giving the hacker their password by eventually “verifying” their Gmail account on a fraudulent site.

Sam Mitrovic was one of the targets of a Gmail account takeover hack. Luckily for him, he’s an experienced IT engineer who knew what to look for when prompted with the “evidence” that his account was in danger. He detailed his experience on his blog (via PCMag), explaining the simple steps you should take to reduce the risk of falling for the scam.

Initially, the engineer received a notification to approve a Gmail account recovery attempt that he ignored. Some 40 minutes later, he had a missed call with a “Google Sydney” caller ID.

Exactly a week later, the same thing happened. This was when he decided to pick up the call without realizing he might be talking to an AI made to sound like a human:

It’s an American voice, very polite and professional. The number is Australian.

He introduces himself and says that there is suspicious activity on my account.

He asks if I’m travelling, when I said no, he asks if I logged in from Germany to which I reply no.

He says that someone has had access to my account for a week and that they have downloaded the account data (I then get a flashback of the recovery notification a week before).

looorg writes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/

Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they're assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames's students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester.

It's not that they don't want to do the reading. It's that they don't know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.

Twenty years ago, Dames's classes had no problem engaging in sophisticated discussions of Pride and Prejudice one week and Crime and Punishment the next. Now his students tell him up front that the reading load feels impossible. It's not just the frenetic pace; they struggle to attend to small details while keeping track of the overall plot.

Failing to complete a 14-line poem without succumbing to distraction suggests one familiar explanation for the decline in reading aptitude: smartphones.

Students at elite collages(sic) such as Columbia can't read books anymore. It's not that they can't read but they can apparently only read short texts in short bursts of time. Their attention span have been ruined by smartphones, modern technology and a few decades of modern teaching methods that prioritize small texts.

What makes it extra bad is that these are apparently students that are taking courses in literature. These should be the avid readers. I guess we'll see more college books with large text, more pictures and being "for dummies" (it used to be a joke, not anymore I guess).

Original Submission

looorg writes:

https://mashable.com/article/penguin-random-house-ai-protections-copyright-page
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/18/24273895/penguin-random-house-books-copyright-ai

PRH's changing of its copyright wording to combat AI training makes it the first of the Big Five publishers to take such an action against AI, at least publicly.

The clause also notes that Penguin Random House "expressly reserves this work from the text and data mining exception" in line with the European Union's laws.

In August, Penguin Random House published a statement saying that the publisher will "vigorously defend the intellectual property that belongs to our authors and artists."

Penguin Random House will amend their copyright notice with "no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.".

Will it work? Have they just created more job for themselves trying to litigate to all the LLM trainers? How much is to much or enough for it to be distinct from their books or just not words other people have expressed to?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The experiment involved participants utilizing specialized equipment including sensors and earbuds. On September 24, one participant sleeping at home induced lucid dreaming, a state in which you are aware that you are dreaming. It is apparently a trainable skill, although I have only ever personally experienced it a handful of times throughout my life.

On the night of the 24th when the REMspace participant entered this state, the connected hardware they were wearing pinged a remote server that generated a random Remmyo word (Remmyo is a type of dream language that is detectable using sensors). The word was sent to the earbuds the person was wearing, and they repeated it in their dream.

The dreamer's response – the Remmyo word – was then captured and stored on the server. Eight minutes later, another participant entered a lucid dream and received the stored message from the first user. When she woke, she confirmed the word – successfully demonstrating the first-ever "chat" exchange between two dreaming participants.

REMspace said two other participants were also able to communicate with its server while dreaming.

The startup's founder and CEO, Michael Raduga, said communicating in dreams seemed like science fiction yesterday. "Tomorrow, it will be so common we won't be able to imagine our lives without this technology," the executive added.

Raduga said the capability opens the door to countless commercial applications, but stopped short of giving any specific examples. "We believe that REM sleep and related phenomena, like lucid dreams, will become the next big industry after AI," he noted.

While no doubt fascinating, it is also a bit frightening. The idea of commercializing dreams sounds ripe for misuse and if we're being force-fed content even while we are sleeping, when will we ever be able to truly unplug and get any actual rest?

Original Submission