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Oct 29, 2022

No Hiding Place for Lazy Soccer Defenders

Posted by in category: futurism

Network theory can show how successfully a soccer team performs when it’s on the defense.

Oct 29, 2022

A Möbius Strip for Light

Posted by in categories: materials, physics

A ring-shaped waveguide with a particular pattern of notches can force a light wave to make two round trips before completing an integer number of wave cycles.

Light can travel along a closed path inside a ring of glass or similar material, reflecting repeatedly from the interior surface. Although such closed-loop waves generally have integer values of angular momentum, researchers using a small gear-shaped ring have now demonstrated an ability to generate similar waves with unusual fractional values of angular momentum [1]. As in a Möbius strip, the waves must make two round trips to return to their initial configuration. The ability to tune the angular momentum in this way could give researchers more precise control of light in advanced devices such as single-photon emitters.

Physicists refer to the closed-loop waves as whispering gallery modes, named after an acoustic effect in round rooms, where sounds reflect multiple times off the walls. Ordinarily, a wave of this kind moves around a single closed loop before retracing its earlier path. The phase of the electric field associated with the wave front must go through an integer number M of cycles in making one loop. Technically, this condition also implies that the photons associated with the wave will carry an integer number M units of angular momentum.

Oct 29, 2022

These Dropper Apps On Play Store Targeting Over 200 Banking and Cryptocurrency Wallets

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, evolution, finance, internet, security

Five malicious dropper Android apps with over 130,000 cumulative installations have been discovered on the Google Play Store distributing banking trojans like SharkBot and Vultur, which are capable of stealing financial data and performing on-device fraud.

“These droppers continue the unstopping evolution of malicious apps sneaking to the official store,” Dutch mobile security firm ThreatFabric told The Hacker News in a statement.

“This evolution includes following newly introduced policies and masquerading as file managers and overcoming limitations by side-loading the malicious payload through the web browser.”

Oct 29, 2022

Researchers Uncover Stealthy Techniques Used by Cranefly Espionage Hackers

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, internet

A recently discovered hacking group known for targeting employees dealing with corporate transactions has been linked to a new backdoor called Danfuan.

This hitherto undocumented malware is delivered via another dropper called Geppei, researchers from Symantec, by Broadcom Software, said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

The dropper “is being used to install a new backdoor and other tools using the novel technique of reading commands from seemingly innocuous Internet Information Services (IIS) logs,” the researchers said.

Oct 29, 2022

NASA Psyche Asteroid Mission Will Go Forward

Posted by in categories: government, space

The mission team continues to complete testing of the spacecraft’s flight software in preparation for the 2023 launch date.

On Friday, October 29, NASA

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Its vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.” Its core values are “safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion.”

Oct 29, 2022

The Invention of The Exodus Story — Dr. John J. Collins

Posted by in category: innovation

John J. Collins is Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School and has served as president of both the Society of Biblical Literature and Catholic Biblical Association. His many other books include “Apocalypse, Prophecy, and Pseudepigraphy; Beyond the Qumran Community; and The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism.

Apocalyptic literature evokes an imaginative world that is set in deliberate counterpoint to the experiential world of the present. Apocalypticism thrives especially in times of crisis, and it functions by offering a resolution of the relevant crisis, not in practical terms but in terms of imagination and faith.

Continue reading “The Invention of The Exodus Story — Dr. John J. Collins” »

Oct 29, 2022

World’s largest government grant for cellular agriculture

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, government, solar power

“We are very pleased that we can now start with the first activities to stimulate and consolidate cellular agriculture in the Netherlands,” said Ira van Eelen, CEO of KindEart. Tech and a board member of Cellular Agriculture Netherlands. “With this we can guarantee that the Netherlands remains the ideal place for cellular agriculture to thrive. We have a rich history in cellular agriculture and are a global leader in biotechnology, alternative proteins and food innovation. Supported by this visionary leadership that the Dutch government is showing again today, we will expand our team in the coming months and roll out the first activities around public research, scaling up, and education.”

Indeed, the Netherlands has been demonstrating considerable progress in developing cultured meat. In July, for example, Dutch company Meatable revealed its first lab-grown sausages, which are expected to go on sale to consumers by 2025. The addition of €60 million in government funding will make the Netherlands an even more attractive location for companies in the sector.

Currently a niche and miniscule part of the overall food market, cultured meat has potential to become another “exponential” technology – much like the semiconductor industry, solar energy, genome sequencing, and so on. The benefits in terms of animal welfare, climate change, food safety, antibiotic resistance, land and water usage could be substantial.

Oct 29, 2022

Picking your nose could put you at risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Picking your nose might seem harmless albeit gross, but new research is showing it may have some devastating consequences, according to a press release published by Griffith University Friday.

A direct path to the brain

The new research demonstrates that a bacteria can travel through the olfactory nerve in the nose and into the brain in mice, where it creates markers that are a tell-tale sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

Oct 29, 2022

Tech war: How the US chip embargo is eroding China’s research base

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Semiconductors are small, ubiquitous, and underappreciated. They are the brains of every modern device.

When Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan in August, it made front-page news around the world and raised the specter of an all-out war between the U.S. and China.

Early in October, the Biden administration made a far more decisive move against China — but it barely made the news in Australia.

Continue reading “Tech war: How the US chip embargo is eroding China’s research base” »

Oct 29, 2022

Why “generative AI” is suddenly on everyone’s lips: it’s an “open field”

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, robotics/AI

If you’ve been closely following the progress of Open AI, the company run by Sam Altman whose neural nets can now write original text and create original pictures with astonishing ease and speed, you might just skip this piece.

If, on the other hand, you’ve only been vaguely paying attention to the company’s progress and the increasing traction that other so-called “generative” AI companies are suddenly gaining and want to better understand why, you might benefit from this interview with James Currier, a five-time founder and now venture investor who cofounded the firm NFX five years ago with several of his serial founder friends.

Currier falls into the camp of people following the progress closely — so closely that NFX has made numerous related investments in “generative tech” as he describes it, and it’s garnering more of the team’s attention every month. In fact, Currier doesn’t think the buzz about this new wrinkle on AI isn’t hype so much as a realization that the broader startup world is suddenly facing a very big opportunity for the first time in a long time. “Every 14 years,” says Currier, “we get one of these Cambrian explosions. We had one around the internet in ’94. We had one around mobile phones in 2008. Now we’re having another one in 2022.”