Science & TechnologyS


Laptop

Apple's massive security flaw: NSA exploit or an honest mistake?

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 22:56 UTC
MacPro
© Apple Inc
If you use Apple products you need to be aware of a very serious bug affecting the operating systems running on their devices. I was first made aware of this on Friday when John Hopkins cryptography professor Matthew Green tweeted the following:
I'm not going to talk details about the Apple bug except to say the following. It is seriously exploitable and not yet under control.

- Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) February 21, 2014
Since I was away for the weekend, I wasn't able to do any research into this until today. Fortunately, I came across an excellent article from Gizmodo. In a nutshell, it appears that Apple has released fixes for mobile devices (iPhones and iPads), but you need to go ahead and perform a software update to iOS 7.0.6. Unfortunately, there is no fix yet for Macs. This means if you are operating a Mac computer and using public wifi you should not use Safari as your browser. It is suggested you use Firefox or Chrome.

Even more terrifying is that although this flaw only became widely known about in the past several days, it has been there since September 2012. This has resulted in some claims of conspiracy.
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Cell Phone

DOD presses for EMF spectrum used by cell phones

Maggie Ybarra
The Washington Times
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© U.S. Air Force via Associated PressThe F-35 stealth jet.

The Pentagon is pressing federal and commercial players to yield as much space as they can on the electromagnetic radiation frequency spectrum to help meet the voracious appetite of the U.S. military's current fleet of drones and its next-generation F-35 stealth jet.

The effort puts the Defense Department in direct competition with the nation's most potent EFM bandwidth competitor: the everyday cellphone user.

"We are not making the assumption that we will have to make do with less spectrum," the Defense Department's chief information officer, Teri Takai, told reporters last week as she unveiled the Pentagon's electromagnetic spectrum strategy.

The spectrum refers to the finite amount of space shared by all radio frequency users - a massive base that consists of the military, federal government agencies, private companies and every person who uses a cellphone or wireless Internet.

The Pentagon wants to reconfigure the spectrum space to accommodate its training and mission needs.
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Magic Hat

Climate Science is Zombie Science

Denis G. Rancourt
Activist Teacher
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 09:39 UTC
Image
Dr. Bruce G. Charlton recently (2012) wrote an informed and polemical book entitled "Not even trying... The Corruption of real science". In this book, Dr. Charlton defines what he calls "Zombie science".

I submit that Dr. Charlton's definition of a "Zombie science" eminently applies to today's climate science. I predict that today's climate science enterprise will, in some future, be universally adopted as a textbook example of Zombie science by historians of science, who will emerge in a next generation of honest academics.

Here is the definition of Zombie science given in the on-line version of Dr. Charlton's book:

Comment: Also see: Climate Change Swindlers and the Political Agenda

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Satellite

U.S. Air Force reveals 'neighborhood watch' spy satellite program

Irene Klotz
Reuters
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 22:09 UTC
Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program
© NASA
The United States plans to launch a pair of satellites to keep tabs on spacecraft from other countries orbiting 22,300 miles above the planet, as well as to track space debris, the head of Air Force Space Command said.

The previously classified Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) will supplement ground-based radars and optical telescopes in tracking thousands of pieces of debris so orbital collisions can be avoided, General William Shelton said at the Air Force Association meeting in Orlando on Friday.

He called it a "neighborhood watch program" that will provide a more detailed perspective on space activities. He said the satellites, scheduled to be launched this year, also will be used to ferret out potential threats from other spacecraft.

The program "will bolster our ability to discern when adversaries attempt to avoid detection and to discover capabilities they may have which might be harmful to our critical assets at these higher altitudes," Shelton said in the speech, which also was posted on the Air Force Association's website.

The two-satellite network, built by Orbital Sciences Corp will drift around the orbital corridor housing much of the world's communications satellites and other spacecraft.
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Info

11 New genetic variants associated with high blood pressure discovered


RedOrbit
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 15:11 UTC
Blood Pressure
© Thinkstock
An international team of researchers has identified 11 new DNA sequence variants associated with blood pressure levels and heart disease, 10 of which could be are in or near genes encoding proteins and appear to be likely targets for drugs that are currently available or in development.

The study, which appears in Thursday's edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, examined the DNA of 87,736 individuals in order to discover genetic variants associated with blood pressure traits. This research led to the identification of 11 new genes, and the sequence variants were later validated in an additional 68,368 subjects.

The researchers confirmed 27 previously discovered gene signals linked to blood pressure, and discovered the 11 novel genetic signals covered in the paper. They narrowed it down to the 10 potential targets for small-molecule drugs using pharmacological databases, and found that the KCNJ11 and NQO1 genes are already being targeted by currently existing, already approved drugs, the study authors said in a statement.

"The fact that most of these new gene signals are 'druggable' targets offers the possibility of expedited pharmaceutical development of therapeutics for high blood pressure, a serious risk factor for cardiovascular diseases," explained co-senior author Dr. Brendan J. Keating of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
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Info

Flashback Scientific journal retracts study exposing GM cancer risk

F. William Engdahl
The Ecologist
Thu, 05 Dec 2013 14:02 UTC
Image
© niderlander / Shutterstock.com.
"Serious defects in the design and methodology of a paper by Séralini et al mean it does not meet acceptable scientific standards and there is no need to re-examine previous safety evaluations of genetically modified maize NK603." The Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology appears to have violated scientific standards by withdrawing a study which found that rats fed on a Monsanto GM corn were more likely to develop cancer than controls. William Engdahl investigates.

Stringent criteria exist for a serious scientific journal to accept a peer-reviewed paper and to publish it. Strict criteria are also defined according to which an article can be withdrawn after publication.

The Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology has apparently decided to violate those procedures, announcing that it is retracting a long-term study, published a year ago, on the toxic effects of NK603 - a genetically modified (GM) variety of maize owned by the biotechnology and agrochemical giant Monsanto.

Comment: Learn more about the increasing Corruption of Science in America:

How pesticide companies silence scientific dissent
There are plenty of indications suggesting that the evidence-based paradigm across sciences is built on quicksand, having been largely bought and paid for by many major multinational corporations.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the chemical industry, where pesticide companies posing as "biotechnology" firms specializing in genetics have peddled their wares based on seriously flawed science from the very beginning.

Increasing numbers of scientists are now speaking out in objection to the rampant scientific misconduct muddling the field. Public mistrust in scientists and the corporations that pay them is also on the rise - and rightfully so. Conflicts of interest have become the norm within virtually all fields of science, which creates a completely unworkable situation in the long run.

Our society is largely built on the idea that science can help us make good, solid decisions. But now we're facing a world so rife with problems caused by the very sciences that were supposed to keep us healthy, safe, and productive, it's quite clear that we're heading toward more than one proverbial brick wall.


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Robot

Robots will be smarter than us all by 2029, warns AI expert Ray Kurzweil

Adam Withnall
The Independent, UK
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 12:49 UTC
Robots
© The Independent, UKWorld’s leading futurologist predicts computers will soon be able to flirt, learn from experience and even make jokes.

By 2029, computers will be able to understand our language, learn from experience and outsmart even the most intelligent humans, according to Google's director of engineering Ray Kurzweil.

One of the world's leading futurologists and artificial intelligence (AI) developers, 66-year-old Kurzweil has previous form in making accurate predictions about the way technology is heading.

In 1990 he said a computer would be capable of beating a chess champion by 1998 - a feat managed by IBM's Deep Blue, against Garry Kasparov, in 1997.

When the internet was still a tiny network used by a small collection of academics, Kurzweil anticipated it would soon make it possible to link up the whole world.

Now, Kurzweil says than within 15 years robots will have overtaken us, having fulfilled the so-called Turing test where computers can exhibit intelligent behaviour equal to that of a human.

Speaking in an interview with the Observer, he said that his prediction was foreshadowed by recent high-profile AI developments, and Hollywood films like Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
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Nebula

The pulsar that munched a billion ton asteroid

Ian O'Neill
Discovery News
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 13:52 UTC
Image
© NASA/JPL-CALTECHAn asteroid gets blasted by the powerful X-rays from a pulsar, turning it into energized particles that interact with the pulsar's magnetic field.
You know when you're having a bad day when you get hit by a billion ton asteroid. But for a pulsar 37,000 light-years away, it's just a another day at the office. And besides, PSR J0738-4042 has an uber-powerful X-ray blaster to deal with errant space rocks.

Astronomers of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) made the pulsar-pounding, asteroid-zapping discovery while using the Parkes Telescope to study the dusty, high-radiation environment surrounding the tiny spinning husk of the dead star. Pulsars are spinning compact stellar objects known as neutron stars that generate powerful beams of radiation from their intensely magnetized poles that, if aligned correctly with Earth, can be observed as ultra-precise radio pulses.

Pulsars are considered the most precise 'clocks' in the universe, but if a pulsar's pulse timings abruptly change, a cataclysmic event likely occurred.
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Comet 2

Comet ISON hosted a rare kind of nitrogen, hinting at reservoirs in young Solar System

Elizabeth Howell
Universe Today
Fri, 21 Feb 2014 13:48 UTC
Comet ISON
© Scott MacNeillPhoto of Comet ISON taken Nov. 15 from Charleston, Rhode Island.
Comet ISON - that bright comet last year that broke up around Thanksgiving weekend - included two forms of nitrogen in its icy body, according to newly released observations from the Subaru Telescope.

Of the two types found, the discovery of isotope 15NH2 was the first time it's ever been seen in a comet. Further, the observations from the Japanese team of astronomers show "there were two distinct reservoirs of nitrogen [in] the massive, dense cloud ... from which our Solar System may have formed and evolved," stated the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
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Rose

Paralyzed skier walks again with help of 3D-printed exoskeleton

Daniel Terdiman
CNET
Tue, 18 Feb 2014 12:55 UTC
The robotic suit, created by 3D Systems and EksoBionics, allows Amanda Boxtel, who was paralyzed in a skiing accident, to walk for the first time since 1992.

3d robotic legs
© 3D Systems
Amanda Boxtel's doctors told her she'd never walk again. But her new 3D-printed exoskeleton says otherwise.

In 1992, Boxtel was paralyzed from the waist down in a catastrophic skiing accident. But 22 years later, thanks to a groundbreaking 3D-printed robotic suit developed by 3D Systems and EksoBionics, she's able to stand up and move around on her own.


Boxtel's new exoskeleton, the first of its kind, was custom-built for her. Designers from 3D Systems scanned her body, digitizing the contours of her spine, thighs, and shins, a process that helped them mold the robotic suit to her. Then they combined the suit with a set of mechanical actuators and controls made by EksoBionics. The result, said 3D Systems, is the first-ever "bespoke" exoskeleton.
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