Long-time Slashdot reader b0s0z0ku quotes Ars Technica:
A previously undetected piece of malware found on almost 30,000 Macs worldwide is generating intrigue in security circles, which are still trying to understand precisely what it does and what purpose its self-destruct capability serves. Once an hour, infected Macs check a control server to see if there are any new commands the malware should…
Tag: circles
Devious sperm ‘poison’ their rivals, forcing them to swim in circles until they die
Mouse sperm carrying a genetic sequence called the t-haplotype will poison their competitors, then make an ‘antidote’ only for themselves, new research finds. Source: https://www.livescience.com/mouse-sperm-poison-t-haplotype.html
Despite Funny Name Ideas, US Space Force Has a Serious Mission
Friday the U.S. military released 400 other names it considered for Space Force’s soliders (before settling on the word “guardians.”) Politico writes that the names were “crowdsourced” from the U.S. military’s space workforce, and “Troops clearly had fun with their submissions, which included Space Cadet, Spacies, Anti-Gravity Gang, Homo Spaciens and Spacefolk.” But the Space Force had more science fiction-inspired names…
Salt marsh fairy circles go from rings to bullseyes to adapt to stress
Transient fairy circles – rings of grass that can morph into a bullseye shape – found in Chinese salt marshes can indicate that the ecosystem is resilient to climate change Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2266985-salt-marsh-fairy-circles-go-from-rings-to-bullseyes-to-adapt-to-stress/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
A New Lens Technology Is Primed To Jump-Start Phone Cameras
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: A new company called Metalenz, which emerges from stealth mode today, is looking to disrupt smartphone cameras with a single, flat lens system that utilizes a technology called optical metasurfaces. A camera built around this new lens tech can produce an image of the same if not better quality as traditional lenses, collect…
Look for Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper
Watch the celestial clock and its 2 great big hour hands – Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper – as they swing around the North Star every night! Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/cassiopeia-and-big-dipper…
FTC Settlement With Ever Orders Data and AIs Deleted After Facial Recognition Pivot
The maker of a defunct cloud photo storage app that pivoted to selling facial recognition services has been ordered to delete user data and any algorithms trained on it, under the terms of an FTC settlement. TechCrunch reports: The regulator investigated complaints the Ever app — which gained earlier notoriety for using dark patterns to spam users’ contacts — had applied…
What are these ghostly circles out in space ?
Astronomers have been attempting to explain a strange phenomenon involving ghostly circular ‘smoke rings’. Professor Ray Norris of the School of Scien… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/342301/what-are-these-ghostly-circles-out-in-space…
Google CEO Pledges To Investigate Exit of Top AI Ethicist
Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized Wednesday for the company’s handling of the departure of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru and said he would investigate the events and work to restore trust, according to an internal memo sent companywide and obtained by Axios. From the report: Gebru’s exit has provoked anger and consternation within Google as well as in academic circles, with…
Ghostly circles in the sky can’t be explained. And astronomers are excited.
Ghostly circles of radio emission, hanging out in space like cosmic smoke-rings, can’t be explained by current theories. And astronomers are excited to figure them out. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ghostly-circles-puzzle-astronomers.html