An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: A health-surveillance system put in place after the terrorist attacks of September 2001 has been used to pinpoint the cause of the vaping-related lung injuries that have killed 54 Americans and sent more than 2,500 people to the hospital. Using this system, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found…
Tag: Wisconsin
Google Hands Feds 1,500 Phone Locations In Unprecedented ‘Geofence’ Search
According to Forbes, Google has sent 1,494 device identifiers to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to help them investigate arsons carried out across Milwaukee, Wisconsin, throughout 2018 and 2019. “The requests, outlined in two search warrants obtained by Forbes, demanded to know which specific Google customers were located in areas covering 29,387 square meters (or 3 hectares)…
World Pinball-Playing Record Broken During Gamers’ Livestreaming-for-Charity Event
haaz (Slashdot reader #3,346) tells us that history has just been made as part of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals annual online game-playing fundraiser, Extra Life: A man from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is trying to play pinball long enough to break the standing Guinness World Record for Longest Marathon Pinball Play of 30 hours 10 minutes. He’s using Extra Life’s gaming/DIY fundraising…
Could A Scalp-Zapping Cap Help Reverse Male Balding?
“An electric patch makes hairless mice grow fur and may reverse balding in men when fitted inside a specially designed baseball cap,” reports New Scientist: At the moment, men who don’t want to go bald can treat hair loss using minoxidil lotion, finasteride pills or hair transplant surgery. But minoxidil doesn’t work for everyone, finasteride can reduce sex drive and fertility,…
1st quarter moon is September 5-6
The 1st quarter moon comes on September 6 at 03:10 UTC. You’ll find the moon high up at sunset on both September 5 and 6. It appears nearly or completely half-illuminated, like half a pie. Source: https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/first-quarter…
All you need to know: Zodiacal light
The zodiacal light is an eerie light extending up from the horizon before true dawn begins. Southern Hemisphere? Look after sunset! Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-zodiacal-light-or-false-dawn…
Could microbes be affecting Venus’ climate?
Unusual dark patches in Venus’ atmosphere – called “unknown absorbers” – play a key role in the planet’s climate and albedo, according to a new study. But what are they? That’s still a mystery. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/could-microbes-be-affecting-venus-climate…
Feds Forced Google To Reveal All Google Users Within 100 Feet of a Bank Robbery
Federal investigators asked Google for help finding two men who’d robbed a Wisconsin bank in October of 2018: They left the bank at 9:09AM, just seven minutes after they entered, carrying the bag full of cash, three drawers from the vault and teller station, and the keys to the bank vault itself. In the months since, police and federal agents have…
Ransomware Hits Hundreds of Dentist Offices in the US
Hundreds of dental practice offices in the US have had their computers infected with ransomware this week, ZDNet reported Thursday. From a report: The incident is another case of a ransomware gang compromising a software provider and using its product to deploy ransomware on customers’ systems. In this case, the software providers are The Digital Dental Record and PerCSoft, two Wisconsin-based…
Critical US Election Systems Have Been Left Exposed Online
Jason Koebler shares a report from Motherboard: For years, U.S. election officials and voting machine vendors have insisted that critical election systems are never connected to the internet and therefore can’t be hacked. But a group of election security experts have found what they believe to be nearly three dozen backend election systems in 10 states connected to the internet over…