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Aug 30, 2018

Small leak discovered on Russian side of International Space Station, NASA says

Posted by in category: space

Small leak discovered on Russian side of International Space Station, NASA says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A small pressure leak was discovered on the International Space Station, according to NASA.

Flight controllers at mission control centers in Houston and Moscow began seeing signs of the leak Wednesday night when the six-member crew aboard the orbital outpost were asleep. Flight controllers monitored the situation until the crew awakened at their normal time Thursday morning since they were in “no danger,” NASA said in a press release.

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Aug 30, 2018

New Horizons snags image of distant Kuiper Belt target a month early

Posted by in category: space

After NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft collected a trove of data from its six-month-long flyby of Pluto, it set its sights on a much smaller object in the Kuiper Belt — an object dubbed 2014 MU69. Scientists believe MU69 will likely be a rather preserved outer solar system object, one that could provide clues as to how dwarf planets like Pluto may have formed billions of years ago. Now the New Horizons team reports that it has snapped a picture of its distance target and it did so weeks before MU69 was expected to be visible to the spacecraft.

New Horizons is still about 100 million miles away from MU69 and the researchers didn’t think they’d be able to see the small object with New Horizons’ onboard cameras until around mid-September. “We thought it’s worth giving it a shot a month early,” Hal Weaver, the lead scientist working with the New Horizons’ long distance camera, told the New York Times. Through a few dozen images, they were able to make out the very faint MU69, an object under 30-miles wide. Being able to see it will help scientists refine New Horizons’ trajectory, though since the object was right where they expected it to be, it appears the spacecraft’s path is already pretty spot on. “The whole team is jazzed now,” said Weaver.

The spacecraft is expected to reach MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, on January 1st, 2019. It will mark the first close-up exploration of a small Kuiper Belt object and will be the most distant exploration of a planetary body to date. “It really is like finding a needle in a haystack,” Weaver said in a statement about the images collected earlier this month. “In these first images, Ultima appears only as a bump on the side of a background star that’s roughly 17 times brighter, but Ultima will be getting brighter — and easier to see — as the spacecraft gets closer.”

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Aug 30, 2018

DNA editing before birth could one day massively expand lifespans

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, futurism

If it becomes possible to make dozens of changes to DNA, future generations could live much longer before they succumb to diseases of old age such as cancer.

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Aug 30, 2018

Amid record-high STD rates, ‘super gonorrhea’ could be coming to a town near you

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Like getting it on? NICE! But, um, still protect yourself. Times are tough, and the CDC is warning people about the increasing rates of STDs. Oh, also gonorrhea is starting to become more resistant to antibiotics. Have fun, but take care!

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Aug 30, 2018

Beware: Hackers are trying to scam your company with this attack

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

Business email compromise attacks have led to billions in fraud losses in recent years, according to a Barracuda report. Here’s how to avoid them.

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Aug 30, 2018

Google Titan Security Key Kit Now on Sale for $50

Posted by in category: security

Starting today, Google’s Titan Security Keys are now on sale via the Google Store for $50. The kit provides buyers with two security keys, one of which can act as a backup, in case you lose the other.

Titan Security Keys look and function like any other security keys on the market, so don’t expect anything game-changing. But Google’s keys can help you protect your Google, Facebook, or Dropbox accounts from sophisticated phishing attacks.

A security key is a device that essentially adds another step to the account sign-in process. To break in, a hacker would need your password and the physical key, which can sign a digital authentication request to unlock your account.

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Aug 30, 2018

Notorious cyber crime gang behind global bank hacking spree returns with new attacks

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

The Cobalt Group is suspected of vast numbers of attacks which have caused over a billion in damages — and they’re not done yet.

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Aug 30, 2018

A species of fish has passed the mirror test for the first time

Posted by in category: futurism

By Yvaine Ye

The cleaner wrasse is only the size of a human finger but it has become the first fish ever to pass the mirror test – a classic experiment used to gauge self-awareness in animals.

Until now, only relatively intelligent animals – including apes, dolphins, elephants and magpies – have passed the test, which demonstrates whether an individual can recognise itself. But in 2016, two manta rays were filmed checking out their reflections in a mirror in a fish tank, suggesting that fish may be able to …

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Aug 30, 2018

Scientists Discover Possible First Proof of Parallel Universes

Posted by in category: cosmology

We can’t entirely rule out that the Spot is caused by an unlikely fluctuation explained by the standard model.


A study on the strange Cold Spot in space may prove that we live in a multiverse.

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Aug 30, 2018

China Is Quickly Becoming an AI Superpower

Posted by in categories: government, robotics/AI

While the White House report got modest news coverage and a mildly enthusiastic response from the AI community, this was barely a hiccup in comparison to China’s clarion call. When the CCP speaks, everyone listens.

Within a year, Chinese VC investors were pouring record sums into AI startups, surpassing the US to make up 48 percent of AI venture funding globally. Over the past decade, Chinese government spending on STEM research has grown by double digits year on year.

And China’s political system is set up such that local officials are incentivized to outcompete others for leadership in CCP initiatives, each striving to lure in AI companies and entrepreneurs with generous subsidies and advantageous policies.

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