A new study suggests the prehistoric reptiles could fly right after hatching. It’s an ability no other flying animal living today, or in the history of life as we know it, has been able to replicate. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/baby-pterodactyls-could-fly-from-birth…
Tag: database
Do Google and Facebook Threaten Our ‘Ambient Privacy’?
This week Pinboard founder Maciej Ceglowski (also a web developer and social critic) asked readers of his blog to consider an emerging threat to ambient privacy. He defines it as “the understanding that there is value in having our everyday interactions with one another remain outside the reach of monitoring, and that the small details of our daily lives should pass…
World’s Largest Plant Survey Reveals Alarming Extinction Rate
The world’s seed-bearing plants have been disappearing at a rate of nearly 3 species a year since 1900 — which is up to 500 times higher than would be expected as a result of natural forces alone, according to the largest survey yet of plant extinctions. From a report: The project looked at more than 330,000 species and found that plants…
Genealogy companies could struggle to keep clients’ data from police
Police probably won’t stop searching DNA family trees to find crime suspects. New restrictions on database searches could spur more fights over privacy. Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/forensic-genetic-genealogy-companies-police-privacy4…
Police Use of DNA Leads To Backlash, Policy Change For GEDmatch
Police investigators have used popular online DNA databases to solve at least 50 open murder and rape cases, reports the Associated Press. But now, “complaints about invasion of privacy have produced a backlash, leading the Florida-based database known as GEDmatch to change its policies.”
The nonprofit website’s previous practice was to permit police to use its database only to solve homicides and…
Microsoft and Oracle Link Up Their Clouds
Microsoft and Oracle announced a new alliance today that will see the two companies directly connect their clouds over a direct network connection so that their users can then move workloads and data seamlessly between the two. This alliance goes a bit beyond just basic direct connectivity and also includes identity interoperability. TechCrunch reports: This kind of alliance is relatively unusual…
Watchdog Says FBI Has Access To About 640M Photographs
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: A government watchdog says the FBI has access to about 640 million photographs — including from driver’s licenses, passports and mugshots — that can be searched using facial recognition technology. The figure reflects how the technology is becoming an increasingly powerful law enforcement tool, but is also stirring fears about the potential for authorities to intrude on the lives…
China’s CRISPR Babies Could Face Earlier Death
A new report finds that the CRISPR babies created by Chinese scientist He Jiankui last year may be at risk of an early death. It finds that genetic mutations similar to those He created, to a gene called CCR5, shortens people’s lives by an average of 1.9 years. MIT Technology Review reports: “It’s clearly a mutation of quite strong effect,” says…
Relatives’ DNA Leads To Arrest — For a 1976 Double Murder
“You gotta be kidding me,” said a Wisconsin man, when police arrested his 82-year-old next-door neighbor “old Ray” — the guy who would occasionally come over to fix his lawnmower. An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press:
Ray Vannieuwenhoven was his next-door neighbor — a helpful, 82-year-old handyman with a gravelly voice and a loud, distinctive laugh, the kind of guy who…
New York Schools Will Test Facial Recognition On Students Despite Objections From State
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: A New York school district will move forward with its facial recognition pilot program next week, despite an explicit order from the New York State Education Department that it wait until a standard for data privacy and security for all state educational agencies is finalized. On Friday, the Lockport school district said…