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Alzheimer\'s Drug Lecanemab Hailed As Momentous Breakthrough (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 11:00:00
'); document.write('An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The first drug to slow the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer\'s has been heralded as momentous and historic. The research breakthrough ends decades of failure and shows a new era of drugs to treat Alzheimer\'s -- the most common form of dementia -- is possible. Yet the medicine, lecanemab, has only a small effect and its impact on people\'s daily lives is debated. And the drug works in the early stages of the disease, so most would miss out without a revolution in spotting it. [...] Lecanemab is an antibody -- like those the body makes to attack viruses or bacteria -- that has been engineered to tell the immune system to clear amyloid from the brain. Amyloid is a protein that clumps together in the spaces between neurons in the brain and forms distinctive plaques that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer\'s. The large-scale trial involved 1,795 volunteers with early stage Alzheimer\'s. Infusions of lecanemab were given every fortnight. The results, presented at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer\'s Disease conference in San Francisco and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are not a miracle cure. The disease continued to rob people of their brain power, but that decline was slowed by around a quarter over the course of the 18 months of treatment. The data is already being assessed by regulators in the US who will soon decide whether lecanemab can be approved for wider use. The developers -- the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Biogen -- plan to begin the approval process in other countries next year. There is debate among scientists and doctors about the \"real world\" impact of lecanemab. The slower decline with the drug was noticed using ratings of a person\'s symptoms. It\'s an 18-point scale, ranging from normal through to severe dementia. Those getting the drug were 0.45 points better off. [Prof Tara Spires-Jones, from the University of Edinburgh] said that was a \"small effect\" on the disease, but \"even though it is not dramatic, I would take it.\" Dr Susan Kohlhaas, from Alzheimer\'s Research UK, said it was a \"modest effect... but it gives us a little bit of a foothold\" and the next generation of drugs would be better. There are also risks. Brain scans showed a risk of brain bleeds (17% of participants) and brain swelling (13%). Overall, 7% of people given the drug had to stop because of side effects. A crucial question is what happens after the 18 months of the trial, and the answers are still speculation. [Dr Elizabeth Coulthard, who treats patients at North Bristol NHS Trust] says that people have, on average, six years of living independently once mild cognitive impairment starts. Slow that decline by a quarter and it could equate to an extra 19 months of independent life, \"but we don\'t know that yet\", she says. It is even scientifically plausible that the effectiveness could be greater in longer trials. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Jiang Zemin, Leader Who Guided China Into Global Market, Dies at 96 (msmash)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 09:24:00
'); document.write('Jiang Zemin, the Shanghai Communist kingpin who was handpicked to lead China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and presided over a decade of meteoric economic growth, died on Wednesday. He was 96. From a report: A Communist Party announcement issued by Chinese state media said he died in Shanghai of leukemia and multiple organ failure. His death and the memorial ceremonies to follow come at a delicate moment in China, where the ruling party is confronting a wave of widespread protests against its pandemic controls, a nationwide surge of political opposition unseen since the Tiananmen movement of Mr. Jiang\'s time. Mr. Jiang was president of China for a decade from 1993. In the eyes of many foreign politicians, Mr. Jiang was the garrulous, disarming exception to the mold of stiff, unsmiling Chinese leaders. He was the Communist who would quote Lincoln, proclaim his love for Hollywood films and burst into songs like \"Love Me Tender.\" Less enthralled Chinese called him a \"flowerpot,\" likening him to a frivolous ornament, and mocking his quirky vanities. In his later years young fans celebrated him, tongue-in-cheek, with the nickname \"toad.\" But Mr. Jiang\'s unexpected rise and quirks led others to underestimate him, and over 13 years as Communist Party general secretary he matured into a wily politician who vanquished a succession of rivals. Mr. Jiang\'s stewardship of the capitalist transformation that had begun under Deng Xiaoping was one of his signal accomplishments. He also amassed political influence that endured long past his formal retirement, giving him a big say behind the scenes in picking the current president, Xi Jinping. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Two Minerals Never Before Been Seen On Earth Found Inside 17-Ton Meteorite (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 08:00:00
'); document.write('Two minerals that have never been seen before on Earth have been discovered inside a massive meteorite in Somalia. They could hold important clues to how asteroids form. Live Science reports: The two brand new minerals were found inside a single 2.5 ounce (70 gram) slice taken from the 16.5 ton (15 metric tons) El Ali meteorite, which was found in 2020. Scientists named the minerals elaliite after the meteor and elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton(opens in new tab), the managing director of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative and principal investigator of NASA\'s upcoming Psyche mission, which will send a probe to investigate the mineral-rich Psyche asteroid for evidence of how our solar system\'s planets formed. The researchers classified El Ali as an Iron IAB complex meteorite, a type made of meteoric iron flecked with tiny chunks of silicates. While investigating the meteorite slice, details of the new minerals caught the scientists\' attention. By comparing the minerals with versions of them that had been previously synthesized in a lab, they were able to rapidly identify them as newly recorded in nature. The researchers plan to investigate the meteorites further in order to understand the conditions under which their parent asteroid formed. The team is also looking into material science applications of the minerals. However, future scientific insights from the El Ali meteorite could be in peril. The meteorite has now been moved to China in search of a potential buyer, which could limit researchers\' access to the space rock for investigation. \"Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what\'s been found before,\" Chris Herd, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta, said in a statement. \"That\'s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.\" Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Chinese Astronauts Board Space Station In Historic Mission (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 05:00:00
'); document.write('Three Chinese astronauts arrived on Wednesday at China\'s space station for the first in-orbit crew rotation in Chinese space history, launching operation of the second inhabited outpost in low-Earth orbit after the NASA-led International Space Station. Reuters reports: The spacecraft Shenzhou-15, or \"Divine Vessel\", and its three passengers lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre at 11:08 p.m. (1508 GMT) on Tuesday in sub-freezing temperatures in the Gobi Desert in northwest China, according to state television. Shenzhou-15 was the last of 11 missions, including three previous crewed missions, needed to assemble the \"Celestial Palace\", as the multi-module station is known in Chinese. The first mission was launched in April 2021. The spacecraft docked with the station more than six hours after the launch, and the three Shenzhou-15 astronauts were greeted with warm hugs from the previous Shenzhou crew from whom they were taking over. The Shenzhou-14 crew, who arrived in early June, will return to Earth after a one-week handover that will establish the station\'s ability to temporarily sustain six astronauts, another record for China\'s space program. The Shenzhou-15 mission offered the nation a rare moment to celebrate, at a time of widespread unhappiness over China\'s zero-COVID policies, while its economy cools amid uncertainties at home and abroad. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Military Sim Developer Tired of Its Game Being Used To Fake War Footage (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 03:30:00
'); document.write('An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Bohemia Interactive, the Czech Republic based developer of the military simulator game Arma 3, has published a blog and a video it hopes will help it with a unique problem. Footage from the video game known for its realism has gone viral several times since the game\'s release in 2013 as people have tried to pass off clips of the military simulation as footage of real war. This happens a lot, so often that there are multiple debunking stories on Reuters and the Associated Press specifically about debunking viral clips of war footage. Since Russia\'s invasion of Ukraine in February, the problem has gotten much worse. The invasion is the largest ground war in Europe in a generation and people around the world gobble up every scrap of information they can. Pranksters and fraudsters have taken to uploading clips from Arma 3 to capitalize on that need for information. Arma 3 is a hyper realistic military simulation and sandbox. It\'s meant to be a realistic modeling of real world conflict. It\'s even teamed up with the International Committee of the Red Cross to release DLC that details the after effects of armed conflict. A sister studio, Bohemia Interactive Simulations, broke from the company in 2013 and makes simulations for the Pentagon using similar technology. The game is also a sandbox with a vibrant modding scene (PlayerUnknown\'s Battlegrounds began its life as an Arma 3 mod) that allows players to customize the game however they want. That devotion to realism and open platform has made Arma 3 the perfect platform to use to create fake war footage. \"While it\'s flattering that Arma 3 simulates modern war conflicts in such a realistic way, we are certainly not pleased that it can be mistaken for real-life combat footage and used as war propaganda,\" Pavel Krizka, PR Manager of Bohemia Interactive, said in a November 28 press release. \"It has happened in the past (Arma 3 videos allegedly depicted conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, and even between India and Pakistan), but nowadays this content has gained traction in regard to the current conflict in Ukraine.\" The life cycle is almost always the same. An Arma 3 nerd uploads something to YouTube and other people pull the video, edit it to make it look more realistic, then pass it off as actual footage of the conflict. The footage goes viral then the fact-checkers come in and tell everyone it\'s a video game. Bohemia Interactive issues a statement and then everyone waits for the next fake to come along. \"We\'ve been trying to fight against such content by flagging these videos to platform providers (FB, YT, TW, IG etc.), but it\'s very ineffective,\" Krizka said in the press release. \"With every video taken down, ten more are uploaded each day. We found the best way to tackle this is to actively cooperate with leading media outlets and fact-checkers (such as AFP, Reuters, and others), who have better reach and the capacity to fight the spreading of fake news footage effectively.\" Some of the tells of fake footage include a low resolution, a shaky camera, and/or a night setting. \"They\'re often without sound, don\'t feature people in motion, and sometimes still include the HUD elements from the video game,\" adds Motherboard. \"There\'s typically unnatural particle effects, unrealistic vehicles, uniforms, and equipment.\" \"We have seen many Arma players pointing out mistakenly identified footage, which helps viewers understand what they\'re seeing,\" said Bohemia Interactive. \"Thank you for helping!\" Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Apple\'s iPhone Pro Shipments May Fall 20 Million Units Short of Estimates (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 01:40:00
'); document.write('Apple\'s iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max model shipments could miss market expectations by up to 20 million units in the holiday quarter due to labor unrest at a major Chinese factory, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said. Reuters reports: Kuo is the latest to flag a hit to the world\'s most valuable company from protests over pay and strict COVID-19 curbs at the world\'s biggest iPhone factory, the Foxconn-operated plant in the central city of Zhengzhou. He trimmed his estimate for quarterly iPhone shipments by about 20% to between 70 million and 75 million units, compared with the market consensus of 80 million to 85 million units. Kuo, in a blog post on Tuesday, also predicted that the supply shortfall could erase demand for the more popular Pro models, instead of deferring sales, as consumers also grapple with a weakening economy. In contrast, other Apple analysts expect sales to pick up once production constraints ease and more Pro models become available. Some analysts signaled the possibility of the challenges extending into 2023. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Torrent Site User Who Transferred 120TB of Pirated Content Avoids Prison (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 01:00:00
'); document.write('A torrent site user accused of downloading and uploading at least 120TB of movies, TV shows, eBooks, music and software, has avoided an immediate prison term. The 28-year-old was arrested as part of a police operation against DanishBytes. A member of the same site was sentenced earlier this month after he uploaded Netflix content obtained using hacked credentials. TorrentFreak reports: Early November 2021, Denmark\'s Public Prosecutor for Special Economic and International Crime (SOIK) announced that six people had been arrested following criminal referrals by Rights Alliance. All were members and/or operators of ShareUniversity and DanishBytes. Prosecution of site operators is not uncommon but when it\'s deemed in the public interest, pirate site users can also face charges. Every case is unique so criteria differ, especially across national borders, but when evidence shows large volumes of infringement, successful prosecutions become more likely. That was the case when a former DanishBytes user was sentenced last week. According to Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, the 28-year-old man was a regular site member and wasn\'t involved in running the site. That being said, evidence showed that for the period January 2021 to November 2021, he downloaded and/or uploaded no less than 3,000 copyrighted works, including movies, TV shows, music, books, audiobooks and comics. Information released by the National Unit for Special Crimes (NSK), a Danish police unit focused on cybercrime, organized crime, and related financial crime, reveals that the user\'s traffic statistics interested prosecutors. \"During the period, the man downloaded no less than 100 TB and uploaded no less than 20 TB of copyrighted material,\" NSK says. BitTorrent trackers operating a ratio model usually insist on a better ratio of downloads to uploads but DanishBytes\' situation was out of the ordinary. The site launched in January 2021 in the wake of other sites being shut down, so had to get going from a standing start with no users. Even when arrests were being made, the site still had a relatively small userbase, which can limit opportunities to upload more. That may have been a blessing in disguise. Faced with the evidence, the man decided to plead guilty and was sentenced last week at the Court in Vibourg. In common with similar prosecutions recently, he received a suspended conditional sentence of 60 days\' probation, 80 hours of community service, and confiscation of his computer equipment. The case against the DanishBytes user began with a Rights Alliance investigation and a referral to the police. As part of his sentence, the man must pay the anti-piracy group DKK 5,000 (US$600) in compensation but Rights Alliance director Maria Fredenslund is focused on the deterrent effect of another successful prosecution. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Snap Demands Employees Work In Office 80% of the Time Starting Early Next Year (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-30 00:20:00
'); document.write('Snapchat\'s parent company is asking workers to return to the office 80% of the time, or the equivalent of four days a week, beginning early next year, in the latest sign of tech employees receiving less flexibility nearly three years after the pandemic took hold and amid a wave of industry cost cutting. CNN reports: \"After working remotely for so long we\'re excited to get everyone back together next year with our new 80/20 hybrid model,\" a spokesperson for Snap (SNAP) confirmed to CNN in a statement Tuesday. \"We believe that being together in person, while retaining flexibility for our team members, will enhance our ability to deliver on our strategic priorities of growing our community, driving revenue growth, and leading in [augmented reality].\" The new policy will take effect at the end of February. News of Snap\'s stricter in-office policy was first reported by Bloomberg, which cited an internal memo from CEO Evan Spiegel telling employees they may have to \"sacrifice\" some amount of \"individual convenience\" but it will benefit \"our collective success.\" Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Dropbox Acquires Boxcryptor Assets To Bring Zero-Knowledge Encryption To File Storage (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 23:40:00
'); document.write('An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Dropbox has announced plans to bring end-to-end encryption to its business users, and it\'s doing so through acquiring \"key assets\" from Germany-based cloud security company Boxcryptor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dropbox is well-known for its cloud-based file back-up and sharing services, and while it does offer encryption for files moving between its servers and the destination, Dropbox itself has access to the keys and can technically view any content passing through. What Boxcryptor brings to the table is an extra layer of security via so-called \"zero knowledge\" encryption on the client side, giving the user full control over who is allowed to decrypt their data. For many people, such as consumers storing family photos or music files, this level of privacy might not be a major priority. But for SMEs and enterprises, end-to-end encryption is a big deal as it ensures that no intermediary can access their confidential documents stored in the cloud -- it\'s encrypted before it even arrives. Moving forward, Dropbox said that it plans to bake Boxcryptor\'s features natively into Dropbox for business users. \"In a blog post published today, Boxcryptor founders Andrea Pfundmeier and Robert Freudenreich say that their \'new mission\' will be to embed Boxcryptor\'s technology into Dropbox,\" adds TechCrunch. \"And after today, nobody will be able to create an account or buy any licenses from Boxcryptor -- it\'s effectively closing to new customers.\" \"But there are reasons why the news is being packaged the way it has. The company is continuing to support existing customers through the duration of their current contracts.\" Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
\'I Don\'t Even Know How To Code\': FTX\'s Sam Bankman-Fried Has Long, Candid Talk With Vlogger (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 23:03:00
'); document.write('Former FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) selected cryptocurrency vlogger Tiffany Fong for a series of lengthy and candid telephone interviews. In the two interviews that had been released on YouTube at press time, SBF speaks about many of the major questions connected with the collapse of FTX. CoinTelegraph reports: The first interview was conducted Nov. 6 and released Nov. 29 on YouTube. [...] The recording began with SBF saying, \"You don\'t get into the situation we got in if you, like, make all the right decisions.\" Taking her cue from that, Fong started her interview by asking about the \"backdoor\" that allowed SBF \"to execute commands that could alter the [FTX] company\'s financial records without alerting others.\" SBF expressed surprise at the very idea. \"And this is something I would be doing?\" he asked. \"That I can tell you is definitely not true. I don\'t even know how to code. [...] I literally never even opened the code for any of FTX.\" This set the tone for the rest of the conversation, in which Fong politely asked hardball questions and SBF answered with seeming openness. SBF went on to comment on FTX\'s FTT coin. \"I think it had real value. That being said, there are a few problems. [...] This was f*****g embarrassing given my background. [...] I think it was basically more legit than a lot of tokens in some ways. Its was more economically underpinned than the average token was,\" he said. \"Illiquidity didn\'t cause the crash,\" SBF continued. Rather, it was \"the massive correlation of things during market moves, especially when they are triggered by fear over the position itself.\" SBF agreed with Fong that \"the recovery looks pretty slim\" for international customers, while \"U.S. is a hundred percent. If its Amazon account had not been turned off, \"they could already be withdrawing.\" Speaking about his political activities, SBF said, \"I donated about the same to both parties. [...] All of my Republican donations were dark.\" [...] In the second, undated, phone interview, SBF addressed the use of FTX customer funds by Alameda Research. Struggling for words, SBF said that he should have thought more about \"what a hyper-correlated cross-scenario looks like. It\'s the oldest game in the book in finance. [...] There was no one person in charge of monitoring risk positions at FTX.\" Fong pressed for specifics from the situation, with little success. SBF took a moderate position on the role of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in the FTX downfall. \"Things would certainly be a lot more stable and there would be a lot more ability to generate liquidity [...] and I don\'t know for sure.\" Asked about the impact of the collapse of FTX and surrounding scandal on him, SBF said, \"I wake up each day and think about what happened, and I have hours per day to ruminate on it. [...] It\'s different than what it seems to other people.\" Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Anker\'s Eufy Cameras Caught Uploading Content To the Cloud Without User Consent (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 22:25:00
'); document.write('Anker\'s popular Eufy-branded security cameras appear to be sending some data to the cloud, even when cloud storage is disabled and local only storage settings are turned on. MacRumors reports: The information comes from security consultant Paul Moore, who last week published a video outlining the issue. According to Moore, he purchased a Eufy Doorbell Dual, which was meant to be a device that stored video recording on device. He found that Eufy is uploading thumbnail images of faces and user information to its cloud service when cloud functionality is not enabled. Moore demonstrates the unauthorized cloud uploading by allowing his camera to capture his image and turning off the Eufy HomeBase. The website is still able to access the content through cloud integration, though he had not signed up for cloud service, and it remains accessible even when the footage is removed from the Eufy app. It\'s important to note that Eufy does not appear to be automatically uploading full streaming video to the cloud, but rather taking captures of the video as thumbnails. The thumbnails are used in the Eufy app to activate streaming video from the Eufy base station, allowing Eufy users to watch their videos when away from home, as well as for sending rich notifications. The problem is the thumbnails are uploaded to the cloud automatically even when the cloud functionality is not active, and Eufy also seems to be using facial recognition on the uploads. Some users have taken issue with the unauthorized cloud uploads because Eufy advertises local-only service and has been popular among those who want a more private camera solution. \"No Clouds or Costs,\" reads the Eufy website. Moore suggests that Eufy is also able to link facial recognition data collected from two separate cameras and two separate apps to users, all without camera owners being aware. Moore received a response from Eufy in which Eufy confirmed that it is uploading event lists and thumbnails to AWS, but said the data is not able to \"leak to the public\" because the URL is restricted, time limited, and requires account login. There is also another issue that Moore has highlighted, suggesting Eufy camera streams can be watched live using an app like VLC, but little information on the exploit is available at this time. Moore said that unencrypted Eufy camera content can be accessed without authentication, which is alarming for Eufy users. There\'s a dedicated Reddit thread where other Eufy users are reporting the same thing happening. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Influencers Were Paid By Google To Promote a Pixel Phone They Never Used (BeauHD)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 21:45:00
'); document.write('An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google and iHeartMedia -- the US\'s biggest radio station operator -- are being hit with a false advertising lawsuit for ads they ran about the Pixel 4 [...]. The FTC and four states say the companies aired \"nearly 29,000 deceptive endorsements by radio personalities\" during 2019 and 2020, with Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine saying that \"Google and iHeartMedia paid influencers to promote products they never used, showing a blatant disrespect for truth-in-advertising rules.\" The two companies have settled the lawsuit and will be required to pay $9.4 million in penalties. Google\'s ads had on-air personalities give first-hand accounts of how much they liked the Pixel 4, but, to quote the FTC\'s press release, \"the on-air personalities were not provided with Pixel 4s before recording and airing the majority of the ads and therefore did not own or regularly use the phones.\" Therefore the first-person claims made in the ads, like, \"It\'s my favorite phone camera out there, especially in low light, thanks to Night Sight Mode,\" \"I\'ve been taking studio-like photos of everything,\" and \"It\'s also great at helping me get stuff done, thanks to the new voice-activated Google Assistant that can handle multiple tasks at once,\" can\'t be true. [...] As part of the settlement, Google and iHeartMedia are barred from \"misrepresenting that an endorser has owned or used, or about their experience with, certain products.\" The agreement is subject to a public comment period of 30 days, after which the commission will vote on whether to make the proposed consent orders final. A Google spokesperson commented to TechCrunch, saying, \"We are pleased to resolve this issue. We take compliance with advertising laws seriously and have processes in place designed to help ensure we follow relevant regulations and industry standards.\" Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
Amazon\'s New Chip Moves AWS Into High-Performance Computing (msmash)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 19:02:00
'); document.write('Amazon\'s cloud-computing unit is rolling out new chips designed to power the highest-end of computing, supporting tasks such as weather forecasting and gene sequencing. From a report: Amazon Web Services, the largest provider of over-the-internet computing, on Monday said it would let customers rent computing power that relies on a new version of its Graviton chips. Peter DeSantis, a senior vice president who oversees most of AWS\'s engineering teams, said in an interview that the product is a springboard for making what the industry calls high-performance computing more readily available. The newest chip is the latest piece of Amazon\'s effort to build more of the hardware that fills the massive data centers that power AWS. Amazon says making its own chips will give customers more cost-effective computing power than they could get by renting time on processors built by the likes of Intel Corp., Nvidia Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices. The move has put AWS in direct competition with those companies, which are also among its biggest suppliers. DeSantis said the chipmakers remain \"great partners,\" and that AWS plans to continue to offer high-performance computing services based on chips made by other companies. On Tuesday, AWS Chief Executive Officer Adam Selipsky announced a new version of the Inferentia chip, which is designed to draw inferences from vast amounts of data. Inferentia2 is built to handle bigger sets of data than its predecessor, enabling things like software-generated images or detecting and interpreting human speech, Amazon said. [...] The latest version of AWS\'s line of Graviton processors, the Graviton3E, will have twice the ability of current versions in one type of calculations needed by high-performance computers, DeSantis said. When combined with other AWS technology, the new offering will be 20% better than the previous one. Amazon didn\'t say when services based on the new chip would be available. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
China Launches Astronauts To Newly Completed Space Station (msmash)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 18:11:00
'); document.write('Tall as a 20-story building, a rocket carrying the Shenzhou 15 mission roared into the night sky of the Gobi Desert on Tuesday, carrying three astronauts toward a rendezvous with China\'s just-completed space station. From a report: The rocket launch was a split-screen event for China, the latest in a long series of technological achievements for the country, even as many of its citizens have been angrily lashing out in the streets against stringent pandemic controls.The air shook as the huge white rocket leaped into a starry, bitterly cold night sky shortly before the setting of a waxing crescent moon. The expedition to the new space station is a milestone for China\'s rapidly advancing space program. It is the first time a team of three astronauts already aboard the Tiangong outpost will be met by a crew arriving from Earth. The Chinese space station will now be continuously occupied, like the International Space Station, another marker laid down by China in its race to catch up with the United States and surpass it as the dominant power in space. With a sustained presence in low-Earth orbit aboard Tiangong, Chinese space officials are preparing to put astronauts on the moon, which NASA also intends to revisit before the end of the decade as part of its Artemis program. \"It will not take a long time; we can achieve the goal of manned moon landing,\" Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China\'s crewed space program, said in an interview at the launch center. China has been developing a lunar lander, he added, without giving a date when it might be used. The launch of Shenzhou 15 comes less than two weeks after NASA finally launched its Artemis I mission following many delays. That flight has put its uncrewed Orion capsule into orbit around the moon. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('
FTX-backed DEX Serum Calls Itself \'Defunct,\' Promotes Community Fork (msmash)
'); document.write('2022-11-29 17:28:00
'); document.write('Serum, a decentralized crypto exchange backed by FTX, notified its 215,000 Twitter followers the project is \"defunct\" after the crypto exchange giant\'s sudden collapse -- while pointing users towards a community-led fork of the project. From a report: \"The Serum program on mainnet became defunct\" following FTX\'s implosion, Serum tweeted. \"As upgrade authority is held by FTX, security is in jeopardy, leading to protocols like Jupiter and Radium moving away,\" it added, referring to two DeFi projects on the Solana blockchain. Earlier this month, the now-bankrupt FTX exchange was hacked for more than $400 million, which is said to have compromised the security of Serum\'s code. This is because the \"update authority\" for its code was held solely in the hands of insiders at the FTX exchange, Serum explained. The team also commented on its native Serum (SRM) token, stating its future was \"uncertain\" and that developers have proposed to scrap its use due to exposure to FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research. Read more of this story at Slashdot.'); document.write('