Day: December 8, 2016

First Dinosaur Tail Found Preserved in Amber

The tail of a beautiful, feathered dinosaur has been found perfectly preserved in amber from Myanmar. It is a huge breakthrough that could help open a new window on the biology of a group that dominated Earth for more than 160 million years. From a report on the National Geographic: The semitranslucent mid-Cretaceous amber sample, roughly the size and shape of a dried apricot, captures one of the earliest moments of differentiation between the feathers of birds of flight and the feathers of dinosaurs. Inside the lump of resin is a 1.4-inch appendage covered in delicate feathers, described as chestnut brown with a pale or white underside. CT scans and microscopic analysis of the sample revealed eight vertebrae from the middle or end of a long, thin tail that may have been originally made up of more than 25 vertebrae. NPR has a story on how this amber was found. An excerpt from it reads: In 2015, Lida Xing was visiting a market in northern Myanmar when a salesman brought out a piece of amber about the size of a pink rubber eraser. Inside, he could see a couple of ancient ants and a fuzzy brown tuft that the salesman said was a plant. As soon as Xing saw it, he knew it wasn’t a plant. It was the delicate, feathered tail of a tiny dinosaur. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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First Dinosaur Tail Found Preserved in Amber

New Voynich Manuscript reproduction uses new photos, looks great

An “authorized” reproduction of the legendary Voynich Manuscript is finally available in print form , published by Yale University from new photographs taken for the purpose. Yale’s Beinecke Library owns the document and has taken its sweet time putting out a decent art book. The quality is better than the popular “unauthorized” edition published last year; that one uses older scans widely available on the web, but I suppose was good enough to force the university’s hand. The first authorized copy of this mysterious, much-speculated-upon, one-of-a-kind, centuries-old puzzle. The Voynich Manuscript is produced from new photographs of the entire original and accompanied by expert essays that invite anyone to understand and explore the enigma. Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the “Voynich Manuscript,” the world’s most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. The book’s language has eluded decipherment, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful. For the first time, this facsimile, complete with elaborate folding sections, allows readers to explore this enigma in all its stunning detail, from its one-of-a-kind “Voynichese” text to its illustrations of otherworldly plants, unfamiliar constellations, and naked women swimming though fantastical tubes and green baths. The Voynich Manuscript [Amazon]

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New Voynich Manuscript reproduction uses new photos, looks great

AT&T customers get $88 million in credits and refunds for illegal charges

Enlarge (credit: Getty | Aurich) Current and former AT&T customers will get refunds or bill credits totaling $88 million within the next 75 days, satisfying the terms of a settlement between AT&T and the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC announced today . The AT&T customers were victimized by “mobile cramming,” charges for third-party services that were placed on their phone bills without the customers’ authorization. AT&T agreed to pay for the refunds and credits in a settlement  announced in October 2014 , and it agreed to notify current customers about the process for applying for refunds. The process, which was led by a third-party contractor that validated each customers’ claim , is finally just about over. Some of the money was also recovered from  Tatto and Acquinity , two companies that were allegedly behind cramming schemes that affected AT&T customers. Customers were allowed to apply for refunds for any unauthorized third-party charges that occurred in 2009 and later. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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AT&T customers get $88 million in credits and refunds for illegal charges

How to Perfectly Fake a Glowing Lightsaber in Photoshop

It’s time to face the facts: lightsabers aren’t real, and they’re simply not going to exist in your lifetime. The closest you can get to realizing your Jedi fantasies is through this excellent tutorial by Mathieu Stern showing you how to properly fake a lightsaber using Photoshop. Read more…

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How to Perfectly Fake a Glowing Lightsaber in Photoshop

Disgraced IT worker stole confidential Expedia e-mails even after he left

Enlarge (credit: Klaus with K ) A former IT specialist at Expedia has admitted he used his privileged position to access executives’ e-mails in an insider stock-trading scheme that netted almost $330,000 in illegal profits, prosecutors said. During the two-year span that Jonathan Ly, 28, of San Francisco, worked at the online travel service, he accessed e-mail accounts belonging to the company’s chief financial officer, head of investor relations, and other high-ranking employees, prosecutors with the US attorney’s office in Seattle alleged in a criminal complaint filed late last week. The correspondence included upcoming earnings reports, a draft of an upcoming press release announcing Justice Department approval of Expedia’s acquisition of competitor Orbitz, and other stock-moving developments that weren’t yet public. Ly used the information to buy Expedia stock at a low price and then sell it after the disclosures went public at a much higher price. “Beginning in 2013, and continuing through October 2015, Ly secretly and fraudulently accessed the contents of Expedia executives’ computer files and corporate e-mail accounts in order to obtain material, non-public, and proprietary information belonging to Expedia without the knowledge and permission of the executives or Expedia,” the complaint alleged. “Ly fraudulently obtained the information in order to execute a series of well-timed and lucrative securities trades in Expedia options. As a result of his scheme, Ly obtained through his securities trades net profits in excess of $331,000.” Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Disgraced IT worker stole confidential Expedia e-mails even after he left

Paris Makes All Public Transportation Free In Battle Against ‘Worst Air Pollution For 10 Years’

Paris has barred some cars from its streets and has made public transportation free as it suffers from the worst and most prolonged winter pollution for at least 10 years, the Airparif agency said on Wednesday. The Independent reports: Authorities have said only drivers with odd-numbered registration plates can drive in the capital region on Wednesday. Drivers of even-numbered cars were given the same opportunity on Tuesday, but could now be fined up to 35 EUR if they are caught behind the wheel. More than 1, 700 motorists were fined for violations on Tuesday. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said images of smog blanketing the capital were proof of the need to reduce vehicle use in the city center. The air pollution peak is due to the combination of emissions from vehicles and from domestic wood fires as well as near windless conditions which means pollutants have not been dispersed, the Airparif agency said. “This is a record period (of pollution) for the last 10 years, ” Karine Leger of AirParif told AFP by telephone. For more than a week, Airparif has published readings of PM10 at more than 80 micrograms per cubic meter of air particles, triggering the pollution alert. Along with odd-numbered cars, hybrid or electric vehicles as well as those carrying three or more people will be allowed to roam the roads. Foreign and emergency vehicles will be unaffected. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Paris Makes All Public Transportation Free In Battle Against ‘Worst Air Pollution For 10 Years’

Earth’s Day Lengthens By Two Milliseconds a Century, Astronomers Find

Researchers at Durham University and the UK’s Nautical Almanac Office compiled nearly 3, 000 years of celestial records and found that with every passing century, the day on Earth lengthens by two milliseconds as the planet’s rotation gradually winds down. The Guardian reports: The split second gained since the first world war may not seem much, but the time it takes for a sunbeam to travel 600km towards Earth can cost an Olympic gold medal, as the American Tim McKee found out when he lost to Sweden’s Gunnar Larsson in 1972. For those holding out for a whole extra hour a day, be prepared for a long wait. Barring any change in the rate of slowing down, an Earth day will not last 25 hours for about two million centuries more. Researchers at Durham University and the UK’s Nautical Almanac Office gathered historical accounts of eclipses and other celestial events from 720BC to 2015. The oldest records came from Babylonian clay tablets written in cuneiform, with more added from ancient Greek texts, such as Ptolemy’s 2nd century Almagest, and scripts from China, medieval Europe and the Arab dominions. The ancient records captured the times and places that people witnessed various stages of solar and lunar eclipses, while documents from 1600AD onwards described lunar occultations, when the moon passed in front of particular stars and blocked them from view. To find out how the Earth’s rotation has varied over the 2, 735-year-long period, the researchers compared the historical records with a computer model that calculated where and when people would have seen past events if Earth’s spin had remained constant. The astronomers found that Earth’s spin would have slowed down even more had it not been for a counteracting process. Since the end of the most recent ice age, land masses that were once buried under slabs of frozen water have been unloaded and sprung back into place. The shift caused the Earth to be less oblate — or squished — on its axis. And just as a spinning ice skater speeds up when she pulls in her arms, so the Earth spins faster when its poles are less compressed. Changes in the world’s sea levels and electromagnetic forces between Earth’s core and its rocky mantle had effects on Earth’s spin too, according to the scientists’ report in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Earth’s Day Lengthens By Two Milliseconds a Century, Astronomers Find

Cesarean Births Could Be Affecting Human Evolution, Study Says

CanadianRealist writes: Larger babies delivered by cesarean section may be affecting human evolution. Researchers estimate cases where the baby cannot fit down the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1, 000 in the 1960s to 36 in 1, 000 births today, [according to estimates from researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria.] Science Alert reports: “In the past, larger babies and mothers with narrow pelvis sizes might both have died in labour. Thanks to C-sections, that’s now a lot less likely, but it also means that those ‘at risk’ genes from mothers with narrow pelvises are being carried into future generations. More detailed studies would be required to actually confirm the link between C-sections and evolution, as all we have now is a hypothesis based on the birth data.” Agreed, more studies required part. Cesareans may simply be becoming more common with “too large” defined as cesarean seems like a better idea. It’s reasonable to pose the question based simply on an understanding of evolution. Like it’s reasonable to conjecture that length of human pregnancy is a compromise between further development in utero, and chance of mother and baby surviving the delivery. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Cesarean Births Could Be Affecting Human Evolution, Study Says

A beginner’s guide to total Android customization

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson) We often, and quite rightly, complain about the way device makers customize the “stock” build of Android to suit their own needs. Customizing software is not inherently bad, but Samsung, LG, and others are usually doing it to push their apps and services. These companies frequently make unnecessary aesthetic changes for the sake of being different. You don’t have to put up with the look and feel of Android on your phone, though. You can customize things to better suit your own style and usage patterns—all it takes it a little legwork. The more time you want to spend on it, the more extensive the customization can be. It all starts with the right tools. Wallpapers This is a very basic step, but it’s an important one. You want the wallpaper on your phone to match the style you’re going for with the rest of your customizations. In fact, you can take inspiration from wallpapers to inform the decisions you make regarding icons and widgets. OEMs usually only include a handful of device wallpapers that are, to be frank, lacking. Some of the wallpaper apps on Android aren’t much better, and they often have spammy ads all over. Read 35 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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A beginner’s guide to total Android customization

Windows 10 preview lets Cortana play music, turn off your PC

Cortana is the star of a big new Windows 10 Insider Preview build . Microsoft says that voice control of your PC was one its “top requests, ” so the latest update now lets you shutdown, restart, lock or sleep your system using the voice assistant . You can also use natural language to play music on two apps (iHeartRadio and TuneIn) by saying “Play Drake on iHeartRadio, ” for instance. Once the music starts, you can use your voice to control playback and volume. If you request a song or genre without specifying the app, it’ll remember the last one you used and play it from that. It also lets you find a track name from any music app by saying, “hey Cortana, what song is playing?” Finally, when you say, “hey Cortana, ” from an unlocked PC that’s been idle for over 10 seconds, the app will load in a new full-screen mode, showing information like the weather. The update also includes support for 19 more games in full-screen mode with the Windows Game Bar (including Battlefield 1, Fallout 4 and Dark Souls III). You’ll also get new Windows Ink features, additional Edge extensions, a new Windows Defender dashboard, updated Narrator features, more Windows Update options and new rendering tech for Universal Windows (UWP) apps. In other words, it’s a pretty big update — check the Windows Blog for more information, or, if you’re on the Insider track, you can now get it directly. As usual, beware of the release’s beta nature and the bugs that entails. Source: Microsoft

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Windows 10 preview lets Cortana play music, turn off your PC