Author: kenmay

County sheriff warrantlessly used stingray 500+ times, claims to have no records

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD), the largest law enforcement agency in California’s capital region, has operated a stingray at least 500 times without a warrant in the last decade. But if you asked SCSD directly, even recently they wouldn’t give you a definite figure. As part of an ongoing investigation into stingray use nationwide, Ars filed a public records request with the SCSD  this year. And at the end of April, the SCSD responded. The department claimed that “no responsive documents exist,” essentially saying that there are no  records  detailing how many times its stingray has been used. That seemed a bit odd because in 2013,  local Sacramento television station News 10  obtained a Homeland Security grant application written by the SCSD. The proposal aimed to upgrade  the department’s stingray capabilities, and as part of its justification, the SCSD claimed to know how successful its device has been: Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

More:
County sheriff warrantlessly used stingray 500+ times, claims to have no records

A drop of blood reveals every disease you’ve ever had

This stock image is just for illustration, you do not need this much blood to take the new test. Every disease that you’ve ever encountered is cataloged within your DNA, and now a team from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute has worked out how to access that data. It’s part of a project called VirScan that, it’s hoped, will revolutionize medical testing and help Doctors catch illnesses long before they manifest. Even better, is that it’s not even an expensive procedure, with each test slated to cost just $25 — well, at least before your hospital slaps on their own fee on top. The project has been led by Stephen Elledge, who says that Doctors normally treat viral infestions with a trial-and-error system of testing based on symptoms. By comparison, VirScan can just examine every nasty thing your body has come into contact with and center in on what’s causing the trouble. The technique could become critical in finding and solving conditions with a very long incubation time, like HIV and hepatitis C. As part of the research, the team also discovered that most people’s bodies deal with infections in a similar way, and that the system could help develop vaccines for previously un-treated conditions. Elledge also believes that the technology is going to help researchers investigate if there’s a link between viral infections and non-viral conditions like diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The good news doesn’t stop there, either, since it could also make medical research across borders significantly easier. With a VirScan device, scientists could easily compare and contrast the infection rates for various diseases across the globe. [Image Credit: Getty] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Washington Post Source: HHMI , Science

Originally posted here:
A drop of blood reveals every disease you’ve ever had

NAND Flash Shrinks To 15/16nm Process, Further Driving Prices Down

Lucas123 writes: Both Micron and Toshiba are producing NAND flash memory based on 15 and 16 nanometer process technology, which reduces die area over a 16GB MLC chip by 28% compared with previous die technology. Additionally, Micron announced its upcoming consumer USB flash drives and internal SSDs will also use triple-level cell NAND flash (a technology expected to soon dominate the market) storing three bits instead of two for the first time and further reducing production cost. The advancement in NAND flash density has been driving SSD pricing down dramatically over the past few years. In fact, over the last year, the average price for 128GB and 256GB SSDs have dropped to $50 and $90, respectively, for system manufacturers, according to DRAMeXchange. And prices for consumers have dropped to an average of $91.55 for a 128GB SSD and $164.34 for a 256GB SSD. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More here:
NAND Flash Shrinks To 15/16nm Process, Further Driving Prices Down

Quick Charge 2.0 is coming to USB charging stations

Isn’t it annoying when some smartphones boast Quick Charge 2.0 but only come with a regular USB charger? Given the option, we’d rather spend the money on something more practical, like a multi-port USB charging station that supports Quick Charge. And yes, we managed to stumble upon one at Computex, courtesy of Hong Kong’s Magic-Pro. The Power Station Super 4 comes with — you guessed it — four USB ports, two of which can automatically switch to either 9V or 12V for faster charging on compatible devices , while the third port offers the common 5V/2.4A output, and the last one does 5V/3A as the company anticipates a new wave of tablets that can take the higher current. Better yet, the hub comes with a car charger and a Quick Charge 2.0-friendly micro-USB data cable, so not bad at all for a $65 package. Expect this to hit the markets at around the end of this month. For those who want a smaller USB station with ample power output, Magic-Pro’s Charging Station Cube comes in at just 50 x 50 x 41 mm, but still offers four ports: two with dedicated 2.4A each, and two with 1A each. This is due to launch in pink, white and blue later this month for about $35. Last but not least, we spotted this beast alongside the other minions on the table. Like its predecessor, the Power Station 10+ comes with 10 USB ports, but instead of delivering just 1A to each, you get a generous 2.4A even when all ports are occupied! Alas, there’s no price nor date just yet. Filed under: Peripherals Comments

Visit link:
Quick Charge 2.0 is coming to USB charging stations

Microdia Somehow Fit 512GB Onto A MicroSD Card

MicroSD cards are ridiculously, laughably, annoyingly tiny. (No, seriously: they’re small enough to be stolen by three slightly strong ants.) They’re about the same size of your baby fingernail, only with half a terabyte of storage now crammed in there. Read more…

Originally posted here:
Microdia Somehow Fit 512GB Onto A MicroSD Card

A $25 Blood Test Could Detect Every Virus That’s Ever Infected You 

Every time a virus gets you sick, your immune system keeps a record. This essentially becomes a kill list that lets your body recognize and readily dispatch of any virus that tries to invade again. Scientists have now created $25 test blood test that prints out this list—an easy and cheap way to find out every virus that’s ever made you sick. Read more…

Read the original post:
A $25 Blood Test Could Detect Every Virus That’s Ever Infected You 

High-yield yeast converts 97 percent of a plant to biofuel

The Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center announced a major breakthrough in the biofuel field yesterday: a newly developed strain of yeast capable of producing more than three times the amount of fuel from plant matter as the current record holder. The Center has teamed with Mascoma LLC to develop the new strain, dubbed C5 FUEL. Existing biofuel yeast strains generally only convert about 30 percent of a plant’s sugars and cannot effectively convert tough xylose sugars. C5 however can ferment up to 97 percent of plant sugars into ethanol, including the xylose that other strains can’t break down. What’s more, it does all that in just 48 hours as opposed to the multiple days or weeks that other strains require. The BESC team presented its findings at the 31st International Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Minneapolis on Thursday morning. They hope that the discovery will help make ethanol-based biofuels more accessible to the consumer market. “Driving down the cost to develop, verify and consolidate bioprocessing was at the heart of the BESC effort when we began in 2007, and this achievement allows us to advance to the next challenge, ” BESC Director Paul Gilna said in a statement. “This accomplishment represents a clearly impactful example of how our partnering with industry can accelerate the translation of our research capabilities and findings into commercial products.” Up next, the BESC hopes to perform the same biochemical gymnastics with thermophilic bacteria , which would produce fuel directly from biomass in just one step. [Image Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images (Top) – ORNL (inline)] Filed under: Science Comments Source: Oak Ridge National Lab

Continued here:
High-yield yeast converts 97 percent of a plant to biofuel

Spider Silk Finally Ready For Commercialization

An anonymous reader writes: We’ve been hearing about little bits of progress for decades, but spider silk fibers are finally ready to be delivered at commercial scale, thanks to three scientist-founders and large investments ($40M) from SF and SV venture capitalists. Who’ll be the first to build a web slinger? Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read More:
Spider Silk Finally Ready For Commercialization

Open garage-doors in less than a minute with a hacked kid’s toy

Applied Hacking’s Samy Kamkar ( previously ) has released Opensesame , an app for hacked IM-ME texting toys that can open millions of fixed-code garage doors in less than a minute. Read the rest

Read More:
Open garage-doors in less than a minute with a hacked kid’s toy