Gene Patents Probably Dead Worldwide Following Australian Court Decision
October 9th, 2015Via: Ars Technica:
Australia’s highest court has ruled unanimously that a version of a gene that is linked to an increased risk for breast cancer cannot be patented. The case was brought by 69-year-old pensioner from Queensland, Yvonne D’Arcy, who had taken the US company Myriad Genetics to court over its patent for mutations in the BRCA1 gene that increase the probability of breast and ovarian cancer developing, as The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Although she lost twice in the lower courts, the High Court of Australia allowed her appeal, ruling that a gene was not a “patentable invention.”
The court based its reasoning (PDF) on the fact that, although an isolated gene such as BRCA1 was “a product of human action, it was the existence of the information stored in the relevant sequences that was an essential element of the invention as claimed.” Since the information stored in the DNA as a sequence of nucleotides was a product of nature, it did not require human action to bring it into existence, and therefore could not be patented.
Although that seems a sensible ruling, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry has been fighting against this self-evident logic for years.
Fukushima Thyroid Cancer Rate in Children 20 to 50 Times Normal
October 8th, 2015Via: AP:
A new study says children living near the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a rate 20 to 50 times that of children elsewhere, a difference the authors contend undermines the government’s position that more cases have been discovered in the area only because of stringent monitoring.
Most of the 370,000 children in Fukushima prefecture (state) have been given ultrasound checkups since the March 2011 meltdowns at the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The most recent statistics, released in August, show that thyroid cancer is suspected or confirmed in 137 of those children, a number that rose by 25 from a year earlier. Elsewhere, the disease occurs in only about one or two of every million children per year by some estimates.
“This is more than expected and emerging faster than expected,” lead author Toshihide Tsuda told The Associated Press during a visit to Tokyo. “This is 20 times to 50 times what would be normally expected.”
Syrian Forces Begin Ground Offensive Backed by Russian Air and Sea Power
October 7th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
Russia’s Caspian Sea fleet on Wednesday launched a complex cruise missile strike against Syrian rebels from nearly 1,000 miles away, a potent exhibition of Moscow’s firepower as it backs a government offensive in Syria’s multi-faction civil war.
The bombardment was the first naval salvo of Russia’s week-old military intervention in Syria, where it has already launched more than 100 airstrikes against the Islamic State and factions of Islamist and U.S.-backed rebel forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
The attack showcased Russia’s advanced military capabilities and closer coordination with the governments of Iran and Iraq, whose airspace the missiles traversed before striking targets in Syria held by the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of al-Qaeda.
CITE: The $1 Billion City That Nobody Calls Home
October 7th, 2015Via: CNN:
In the arid plains of the southern New Mexico desert, between the site of the first atomic bomb test and the U.S.-Mexico border, a new city is rising from the sand.
Planned for a population of 35,000, the city will showcase a modern business district downtown, and neat rows of terraced housing in the suburbs. It will be supplied with pristine streets, parks, malls and a church.
But no one will ever call it home.
The CITE (Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) project is a full-scale model of an ordinary American town. Yet it will be used as a petri dish to develop new technologies that will shape the future of the urban environment.
The $1 billion scheme, led by telecommunications and tech firm Pegasus Global Holdings, will see 15-square-miles dedicated to ambitious experiments in fields such as transport, construction, communication and security.
CITE will include specialized zones for developing new forms of agriculture, energy, and water treatment. An underground data collection network will provide detailed, real-time feedback.
Who is Behind Al-Nusra Front (aka Al-Qaeda in Syria)?
October 7th, 2015This is a flyer that the Russians are dropping on the Syrian cities Rastan and Talbiseh.
Via: Daily Mail:
Dire warning: The leaflets (pictured) being dropped by Russian jets warn people to get out of the zone of ‘special operations’ – and one implies that terror group al-Nusra Front are backed by America and Israel
Hacking Risks to Nuclear Power Plants
October 6th, 2015haha. Somehow, I thought the control systems for nuclear power plants were air-gapped.
This article says that’s a, “Pervading myth.”
Via: Computer World:
The risk of serious cyber-attacks on nuclear power plants is growing, according to a new report by think-tank Chatham House. If you follow this type of news, then this is probably not a big shocker, but did you know there have been around 50 cyberattacks on nuclear plants?
One unnamed expert quoted in the Chatham report (pdf) claimed, “What people keep saying is ‘wait until something big happens, then we’ll take it seriously’. But the problem is that we have already had a lot of very big things happen. There have probably been about 50 actual control systems cyber incidents in the nuclear industry so far, but only two or three have been made public.” The report claimed that there is limited incident disclosure and a “need to know” mindset that further limits collaboration and information-sharing.
“In a worst-case scenario, cyberattacks could lead to a release of ionizing radiation with potentially disastrous impacts on local populations.” In fact, “something as simple as employees installing a personal device onto a nuclear facility’s internal network could open it up to attacks,” Caroline Baylon, a cybersecurity researcher at Chatham House, told Newsweek. She explained, “Let’s say the people in the plant want to install a router so they can check their emails. That might all of a sudden open up a vulnerability.”
It is also a “pervading myth” that nuclear power plants are air-gapped – not connected to the Internet – and can’t be hacked. Yet executives controlling the purse strings at some plants are in denial; a source said they consider a cyberattack just “a movie scenario, maybe in the future. They think it is just states against states, not everybody wants to hack us, and also it won’t happen here.”
U.S. Says BP to Pay $20 Billion in Fines for 2010 Oil Spill
October 6th, 2015Via: Reuters:
BP Plc will pay more than $20 billion in fines to resolve nearly all claims from its deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill five years ago, marking the largest corporate settlement of its kind in U.S. history, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Monday.
The agreement, first outlined in July, adds to the $43.8 billion BP had previously set aside for criminal and civil penalties and cleanup costs. The company has said its total pre-tax charge for the spill is now around $53.8 billion.
The total penalties Lynch announced on Monday sounded higher than the $18.7 billion deal reached to this summer, in part because she included $1 billion in restoration work BP had agreed to long beforehand.
BP’s shares rose nearly 3 percent in New York to $33.45 each. Investors have praised the agreement as essentially capping liabilities that could have been much larger.
New British Killer Drone Called “Protector”
October 6th, 2015Maybe “Reaper Overkill Edition” didn’t do so well in focus groups.
Via: Janes:
The UK is to receive 20 new ‘Protector’ unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as part of a wider ramp-up of unmanned, surveillance, and special forces capabilities to combat militant Islam in the Middle East, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on 3 October.
Speaking to the Telegraph newspaper, Cameron said that the 10 General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B) medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAVs currently fielded by the Royal Air Force (RAF) will be replaced by double the number of the Protector UAVs “to keep us safe and to give us the intelligence and information and potentially give us the capacity to hit people who are potentially planning to hit us”.
There is no UAV known to be in development or service known as Protector, and Cameron provided little detail except to say that it will be able to fly longer distances, is quieter and can carry more sophisticated weapons and equipment than the incumbent Reaper.
The Era Of Automatic Facial Recognition And Surveillance Is Here
October 5th, 2015Via: Forbes:
ID checks were a common response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but they’ll soon be obsolete. You won’t have to show your ID, because you’ll be identified automatically. A security camera will capture your face, and it’ll be matched with your name and a whole lot of other information besides. Welcome to the world of automatic facial recognition. Those who have access to databases of identified photos will have the power to identify us. Yes, it’ll enable some amazing personalized services; but it’ll also enable whole new levels of surveillance. The underlying technologies are being developed today, and there are currently no rules limiting their use.
Walk into a store, and the salesclerks will know your name. The store’s cameras and computers will have figured out your identity, and looked you up in both their store database and a commercial marketing database they’ve subscribed to. They’ll know your name, salary, interests, what sort of sales pitches you’re most vulnerable to, and how profitable a customer you are. Maybe they’ll have read a profile based on your tweets and know what sort of mood you’re in. Maybe they’ll know your political affiliation or sexual identity, both predictable by your social media activity. And they’re going to engage with you accordingly, perhaps by making sure you’re well taken care of or possibly by trying to make you so uncomfortable that you’ll leave.
Walk by a policeman, and she will know your name, address, criminal record, and with whom you routinely are seen. The potential for discrimination is enormous, especially in low-income communities where people are routinely harassed for things like unpaid parking tickets and other minor violations. And in a country where people are arrested for their political views, the use of this technology quickly turns into a nightmare scenario.
A Robot at Best Buy Sells CDs, DVDs, Games
October 5th, 2015Service with a smile.
Via: Fox 5:
Best Buy is experimenting with full automation — in the form of a robot — to sell a decidedly old-fashioned medium: CDs and DVDs. I’m in my 40s, so yes I remember vinyl records, tapes and even 8-tracks. So I still do like buying at least some of my music on that soon-to-no-longer-exist format called the compact disc.
When I walked into Best Buy in Chelsea recently to get Chris Cornell’s latest album (“Higher Truth” — it’s pretty good), I was surprised to see a row of ATM-like kiosks in front of a glassed-in compartment housing a yellow robot. That robot’s name is Chloe. And its job is to sell you music, movies, games, and accessories.
