Giraffes in the Netherlands, bison in the United Kingdom, a beach day in Australia, flowers for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the arrival of President Biden’s dogs at the White House, tug-of-war practice in Ireland, scenes from Paris Fashion Week, and much more

South Korean phone manufacturer LG has released a security update last month to fix a vulnerability that impacts its Android smartphones sold over the past seven years. From a report: The vulnerability, tracked under the identifier of CVE-2020-12753, impacts the bootloader component that ships with LG smartphones. In March this year, US software engineer Max Thomas discovered a vulnerability in the bootloader component that had been added to LG smartphones starting with the LG Nexus 5 series. In a technical breakdown of the vulnerability published on Tuesday, Thomas says the bootloader component's graphics package contains a bug that lets attackers sneak in their own code to run alongside the bootloader's graphics under certain conditions, such as when the battery dies out and when the device is in the bootloader's Download Mode. Thomas says that threat actors who perfectly time an attack can gain the ability to run their own custom code, which could allow them to take over the bootloader, and inherently the entire device.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A new study from researchers at the California Institute of Technology suggests that humans can sense the Earth's magnetic field. "We have not as a species lost the magnetic sensory system that our ancestors [millions of years ago] had," said Prof Joseph Kirschvink, leader of the research from the California Institute of Technology. "We are part of Earth's magnetic biosphere." The Guardian reports: Writing in the journal eNeuro, Kirschvink and colleagues in the U.S. and Japan describe how they made their discovery after building a six-sided cage, the walls of which were made of aluminium to shield the setup from electromagnetic interference. These walls also contained coils through which currents were passed to produce magnetic fields of about the same strength as Earth's. Each participant was asked to enter the cage and sit still on a wooden chair in the dark, facing straight ahead towards the north. During the experiment, the team measured the participant's brain waves using an electroencephalogram (EEG). In some experiments the applied magnetic fields were fixed in one direction, while in others they were rotated. In still others the machines were turned on but no magnetic field was produced -- meaning the participant was only exposed to Earth's natural magnetic field. The participant was unaware which experiment was under way. The results, gathered from 34 adult participants, revealed that certain scenarios triggered a drop in participants' alpha brain waves -- a change that is linked to the brain processing information. This occurred if the applied magnetic field was pointed north and then swept upwards or downwards, or directed down while pointing north and rotated anticlockwise. That is similar to a human in the northern hemisphere nodding their head, or turning their head to the right respectively. Kirschvink said the responses showed that the brain was clocking an unexpected change in the environment. "Crucially, he said, it means that humans must be ale to detect such changes -- although the strength of the response varied hugely among participants," reports The Guardian. The authors say the new research suggests the human system can tell north from south via a mechanism involving special cells containing iron-based crystals. "These crystals are thought to rotate rather like the needle of a compass, opening or closing pores in the cells, thereby affecting signals being sent to the brain," the report adds.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(via boywithnojob)

After Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde cut his ties with the notorious torrent site he moved on to several new projects.

The micropayment system Flattr is one of his best-known ventures. With Flattr, people can easily send money to the websites and services they like, without having to enter their payment details time and time again.

Last year Flattr partnered with Adblock Plus to launch a new service Flattr Plus, allowing publishers to generate revenue directly from readers instead of forcing ads upon them.

Flattr Plus is built on the existing micropayment platform that was launched in 2010. Through a new browser add-on it allows users to automatically share money with website owners when an ad is blocked.

Today, the cooperation between the two companies is strengthened even further after eyeo, the parent company of Adblock Plus, aquired Flattr.

“Over the past ten months, we collaborated closely and in fact, became one team with a joint vision. So it was just natural to remove the remaining structural barriers and make it official,” Sunde says, commenting on the announcement.

“We’re excited to continue our work on the Flattr project to give back control to the users of the internet. They should decide how they want to use the internet and how they want to support the content they enjoy.”

Talking to TorrentFreak, Sunde says that he’ll stay on as an unpaid advisor. He has no official stake in Flattr so Hollywood shouldn’t expect to see any of the proceeds of the deal.

That said, he’s put a lot of work in the company over the past eight years, building it from the ground up, so it’s a big step to let someone else take over.

“It’s just that Flattr is my baby and she got married to someone who will take care of her from now,” says Sunde, summarizing his feelings.

Flattr co-founder Linus Olsson will stay on to lead the Flattr operation, and other staff members will keep their jobs as well. Sunde will have an advisory role in the company, and continues to work on various side-projects, including a new privacy service he’ll launch soon.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

On March 30, 1867, the United States gave the government of Russia a check for $7.2 million and took possession of 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 square kilometers) of new land which became the Alaska Territory, and later, in 1959, would become America’s 49th state. In the last 150 years, Alaska has seen several gold rushes, an oil boom, a groundbreaking distribution of lands to Native groups, a disastrous oil spill, a tremendous growth in tourism, and much more. As a former Alaskan tour guide, allow me to relive a past job I loved, and share with you some of this amazing history and phenomenal beauty on Alaska’s sesquicentennial—49 photos of the 49th state.

owlturdcomix:

“No, it’s NOT YOUR TIME YET!!”

image / twitter / facebook / patreon

 

According to an article in Nature, the researchers who developed an inexpensive, reliable field test for the Ebola virus are frustrated by the delay they've seen in actually having that test deployed. Known as the Corgenix test after the company which developed it, this diagnostic tool "could not replace lab confirmation, but it would allow workers to identify infected people and isolate them faster, greatly reducing the spread of disease," according to infectious-diseases physician Nahid Bhadelia. However, though it's been approved both by the US FDA (for emergency use) and the World Health Organization, its practical use has been hampered by country-level regulations. Just why is unclear; the test seems to be at least as effective as other typical tests, and in some ways better. One concern was that the test might fail to detect the virus in some cases of Ebola. But the independent field-validation1 (in Sierra Leone) shows that the kit was as sensitive at catching cases as the gold-standard comparison — a real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test that amplifies and detects genetic sequences that are specific to Ebola in blood and other bodily fluids.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

South African-born tech entrepreneur Elon Musk dreams of a future where people will be travelling to their destinations at almost 1 200km/h in what he had dubbed the Hyperloop. But what started out as a couple of sketches is now moving along into the actual planning phase.

Hyperloop is passenger transportation train that makes use of a low pressure tube mounted on stilts above the ground. Moving away from conventional seating arrangements, Hyperloop will have passengers sit in aluminium pods.

In a couple of tweets Musk detailed that a Hyperloop test track will more than likely be built somewhere in Texas. But this is not the first time that Musk has set up shop in The Lone Star state.

Will be building a Hyperloop test track for companies and student teams to test out their pods. Most likely in Texas.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2015

Tesla’s Gigafactory once considered building it massive plant there, and Musk’s rocket division SpaceX will be operating from Brownsville. Probably taking a leaf from Star Wars, Musk even hinted that there could be pod racing competition, very much the same as the Formula SAE Series.

Also thinking of having an annual student Hyperloop pod racer competition, like Formula SAE http://t.co/HV9BLCoMb8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2015

Who wouldn’t want to see that? Musk’s ultimate goal is to build a fully-functioning Hyperloop in California, which will allow passengers to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles  in 30 minutes.

[Image – Elon Musk]

The post Elon Musk’s Hyperloop test track to be built in Texas appeared first on htxt.africa.

This is a post about workbenches, but not the benches you’re probably thinking about. Workbenches meant for electronics development are simple matters – just about any flat surface, a few shelves for equipment, and an anti-static mat will be fine for every conceivable use.  Workbenches for woodworking are a separate matter entirely. There’s actually quite a bit of history behind the development of the woodworking workbench, but the basic idea is a thick laminated wood top, integrated vices, holes in the work surface for bench dogs, and ergonomics that allow for comfortable use of hand tools. The basic design of these benches hasn’t changed much in several hundred years, and [Dirk] thought the design was ready for a modern update.

Yes. This one moves on its own. It’s a robotic woodworking workbench that lifts the workpiece and table up to a comfortable position. The lifting mechanism is a quartet of Acme threaded rods all powered by an Arduino-controlled stepper motor linked together with sprockets and chain. There’s a remote control to raise and lower the bench, and a few batteries tucked behind the mechanics to allow for off-grid operation.

A bench must be sturdy, and this one has clamps on the frame of to clamp the ‘elevator car’ securely to the bench. Leveling casters make this bench mobile, giving [Dirk] the ability to move it around the shop, or from site to site. An integrate face vise and a twin-screw end vise securely hold the workpiece to the table, and a linseed oil finish make scratches and gouges easily repairable.

The majority of the frame is constructed out of birch plywood cut on a CNC, so if you have a Shopbot or other large router available to you at the local hackerspace, building this bench for yourself is a much simpler matter than the mortise and tenon joinery of a more traditional woodworking workbench. If you end up building this bench, be sure to pick up the casters [Dirk] used; this thing weighs 800 pounds. Massive, heavy, and an excellent bench that can be passed down to your grandkids. Video below.

Filed under: Arduino Hacks, tool hacks

Thanks Gary S

 

Facebook is flooded with pages and statuses of various charities and causes from around the world. Some encourage us to like a photo or status in order to help those in need… but does clicking likes or sharing actually contribute anything towards these causes?

A powerful photographic campaign by Crisis Relief Singapore seeks to dispel the idea that liking and sharing is enough to create change. The campaign features heartbreaking photos of people who are suffering and are surrounded by a number of thumbs ups (symbolising Facebook likes ) but aren’t helping.

Check out the three photos from the campaign below.

[Images: Crisis Relief Singapore]

The post How philanthropy isn’t boosted by Facebook likes appeared first on htxt.africa.

 

 

Thanks Tammy

 

What’s the number one thing kids always dream about for when they have their own house someday? Hidden passages? Revolving bookcases? Closets that lead to Narnia? Secret compartments? Well, [TracRat] has lived out at least one of those dreams by making his very own Myst inspired hidden pantry compartment!

His pantry is located under the stairs and to make use of the awkward space, he decided to build a wine rack. He still had a lot of unused space so he decided to take it a step further. He’s built a wooden puzzle combination lock consisting of four colored knobs that slide back and forth in grooves. When the correct combination is made, pressing on the square symbol at the top rolls the entire wine rack backwards, exposing a secret side cabinet. It’s an absolutely gorgeous piece of woodwork and we’re totally impressed by the perfect execution of it.

Do you love Myst too? Check out this awesome Myst inspired Myst(ery) box [Michael] made for his girlfriend’s birthday! Or how about a leather-bound Myst book that lets you play Myst on a computer inside of it!

Filed under: home hacks

Frozach Submitted

Via

Frozach Submitted

Frozach Submitted

Phone Keypad

I use one of those old phones where you type with numbers—for example, to type "Y", you press 9 three times. Some words have consecutive letters on the same number. When they do, you have to pause between letters, making those words annoying to type. What English word has the most consecutive letters on the same key?

Stewart Bishop

We can answer that question with the following headache-inducing shell command, which finds all words in a given list which use the same key a bunch of times in a row:

cat wordlist.txt | perl -pe 's/^(.*)\$/\L\$& \U\$&/g' | tr 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ' '2223334445556667777888999' | grep -P "(.)\1\1\1\1\1"

The winner, according to this script, is nonmonogamous, which requires you to type seven consecutive letters (nonmono) with the "6" key.[1]It's actually tied with nonmonotonic. These no doubt both lose to more obscure words which weren't in the wordlists I used.

Phone Keyboard Sentences

It's rare for a word to have all its letters on the same key; the longest common ones are only a few letters.[2]Like "tutu". Nevertheless, using only these words, we can write a high def MMO on TV, a phrase whose words use only one number key each.

There are plenty of other phrases like this, although some of them are a bit of a stretch:

Typing issues like this aren't limited to old phone keyboards. For any text input system, you can find phrases which are weird to type.

QWERTY Keyboards

It's a well-known piece of trivia among word geeks that "stewardesses" is the longest common word you can type on a QWERTY keyboard using only the left hand.

In fact, it's possible to write entire sentences with just the left hand. For example, try typing the words We reserved seats at a secret Starcraft fest. Weird, huh?

Let's take a look at a few more sentences—written with the help of some even messier shell commands and Python scripts[3]I constructed these sentences by searching text logs for sentence fragments that fit a particular constraint, then randomly connecting those groups together using a technique called Markov chaining. You can see the code I used here.—which follow various constraints:

Left hand only

Right hand only

Home row only

Top row only

And lastly, if anyone wants to know why you're not more active on social media, you only need the top row to explain that you're ...

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Scott Jaschik writes in Inside Higher Education that the academic job market is structured in many respects like a drug gang, with an expanding mass of outsiders and a shrinking core of insiders and with income distribution within gangs extremely skewed in favor of those at the top, while the rank-and-file street sellers earned even less than employees in legitimate low-skilled activities. According to Alexandre Afonso, academic systems rely at least to some extent on the existence of a supply of 'outsiders' ready to forgo wages and employment security in exchange for the prospect of prestige, freedom and reasonably high salaries that tenured positions entail. 'What you have is an increasing number of brilliant PhD graduates arriving every year into the market hoping to secure a permanent position as a professor and enjoying freedom and high salaries, a bit like the rank-and-file drug dealer hoping to become a drug lord,' says Afonso. 'To achieve that, they are ready to forgo the income and security that they could have in other areas of employment by accepting insecure working conditions in the hope of securing jobs that are not expanding at the same rate.' The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on adjunct lecturers who rely on food stamps to make ends meet. Afonso adds that he is not trying to discourage everyone from pursuing Ph.D.s but that prospective graduate students need to go in with a full awareness of the job market."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ons het op 'n lekker document op die interwebs afgekom en gaan dit nou met julle outjies share. Alles wat jy oor eTolls behoort te weet en alles wat SANRAL nie wil hê jy moet weet nie. Suid-Afrikaners verloor lekker hulle kak as die regering nuwe, faktap reels uitbring maar aan die einde van die dag wen complacency. Dink bywoorbeeld aan die platiesak fokop. Almal het in hulle rokker gekak toe daar way back in 2006 aangekondig is dat almal extra moet betaal vir hulle Checkers sakke. Toe rol almal om en vat dit in die poeper. Lekker loop jy nou rond met jou tampons en tamatiesous in jou plastic sakke. Fair enough, daar was nie juis 'n ander uitweg nie en die natuur kak nogsteeds af. eTolls is effens anders – jy hoef dit nie in die poeftonnel te vat nie. Nie hierdie keer nie…

Check veral op op die vyfde bladsy/image vir tips oor hoe om SANRAL te handle. As jy klaar hierdie outjie uitgecheck het, share dit met al jou fokken maatjies op Facebook en Twitter en what-what. Click net op die een van die share options onder aan hierdie post en gaan bos. Hoe meer mense weet, hoe vinniger kan die eTolls mense agterkom daar word 'n vet fokken middelvinger in hulle general direction gegooi. Daar is 'n link vir 'n PDF doc ook aan die einde as jy dit wil download en versprei soos 'n veldbrand.

(Jy gaan op die pics moet click om full size te kyk. Ons het hulle lekker groot gemaak)

PDF document: sanral

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