An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: A study published today in JAMA Pediatrics warns that kids’ literacy and language skills suffer with screen use, and MRI scans of their brains appear to back up the findings. Forty-seven 3- to 5-year-olds took a test to measure their cognitive abilities, and their parents were asked to answer a detailed…
Tag: authors
Google Asks Three Mobile Security Firms To Help Scan Play Store Apps
Google announced today that it partnered with three private cyber-security firms — ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium — to start a new project called the App Defense Alliance. From a report: The purpose of this new project, Google said, was to unify malware and threat detection engines and improve the security scans that Android apps go through before being published on the…
One Bitcoin ‘Whale’ May Have Fueled the Currency’s Price Spike in 2017
A single Bitcoin holder — called a “whale” in cryptocurrency parlance — likely manipulated the market and helped fuel the big rise in Bitcoin’s price in 2017, according to researchers. That year, Bitcoin’s price jumped from under $1,000 in January to more than $19,000 in December. From a report: Last year, University of Texas professor John Griffin and Amin Shams, an…
Giant planet HR 5183b would look 15 times brighter than Venus
Contrary to previous thought, a giant planet in a wild orbit doesn’t mean there can’t be an Earth-like planet in the same system. What’s more, the view from that Earth-like world as its giant neighbor moves past would be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/giant-planet-hr5183b-15-times-brighter-venus…
Digital Authoritarianism Is On the Rise Around the World, Report Warns
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: Internet freedom declined for a ninth consecutive year as governments around the world used social media to monitor citizens and manipulate elections, according to a new study that warned of creeping “digital authoritarianism.” Thirty-three of the 65 countries surveyed were found to have experienced worsening internet freedom since June 2018, compared with 16…
The Internet Archive Is Making Wikipedia More Reliable
The operator of the Wayback Machine allows Wikipedia’s users to check citations from books as well as the web. From a report: The reason people rely on Wikipedia, despite its imperfections, is that every claim is supposed to have citations. Any sentence that isn’t backed up with a credible source risks being slapped with the dreaded “citation needed” label. Anyone can…
How the 2018 Olympic Cyberattack Was Traced To Russian Hackers
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: In a lengthy article, Wired tells a newly detailed narrative of the cyberattack on the 2018 Winter Olympic games, which hit the Olympics network during the opening ceremony. The piece details how the malware used in that attack was designed to incorporate multiple sophisticated false flags, and how forensic analysts overcame those red herrings to eventually trace the attack…
Does The Green Economy Create More Jobs Than The Fossil Fuel Industry?
“Whereas the fossil fuel industry employs about 900,000 people in the U.S., green economy jobs — those associated with non-oil energy — number about 9.5 million,” writes long-time Slashdot reader DavidHumus, citing a new study by two researchers at University College London. On Ars Technica the study’s authors shared their analysis of America’s emerging green economy: According to new data, by…
Why Ants Are Practically Immune To Traffic Jams
ScienceAlert reports on a new study published in the journal eLife that explains for the first time how ants are immune to traffic jams, even under crowded conditions. From the report: By cooperating in a self-organized system, researchers have found that Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) can adapt to different road conditions and prevent clogging from ever occurring. All it takes is…
How small is the smallest habitable exoplanet?
Where can we expect to find life beyond Earth? A new study has redefined the lower limit in mass for habitable exoworlds. It suggests that low-mass waterworlds might exist and might be a place to look. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/small-rocky-exoplanets-can-still-be-habitable…