Illinois-based LanzaTech and Virgin Atlantic have been working on an alternative fuel source for Sir Richard Branson’s flagship airline since 2011. This week, the two companies announced a breakthrough that could drastically reduce the airline industry’s carbon emissions. LanzaTech has produced 1, 500 US gallons of jet fuel derived from the industrial gases given off by steel mills. The LanzaTech fuel was created by capturing these gases, which would have otherwise been dispersed into the atmosphere, and converting them to a low-carbon ethanol called “Lanzanol” through a fermentation process. As the New Zealand Herald reports , the Lanzanol was produced in China at the Roundtable of Sustainable Biomaterials-certified demonstration center in Shougang and then converted to jet fuel using a process developed alongside the Pacific Northwest National Lab and the US Department of Energy. While initial tests show the Lanzanol fuel could result is as much as 65 percent less carbon emission than conventional jet fuel, it will need to pass a few more tests before it can be used in an commercial setting. Still, Branson believes Virgin Atlantic could make a Lanzanol-powered “proving flight” as early as 2017. According to LanzaTech, the company could implement their technology at 65 percent of the world’s steel mills, allowing the company to produce 30 billion gallons of Lanzanol annually. That’s enough to create 15 billion gallons of cleaner-burning jet fuel and replace about one-fifth of all the aviation fuel used yearly worldwide. Source: Virgin , New Zealand Herald
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Virgin Atlantic turned industrial waste into greener jet fuel
Earlier this year, we heard rumors that Microsoft was interested in purchasing the popular team-chat app Slack for as much as $8 billion. The deal never happened, so naturally, Microsoft has decided to make a Slack-like app. Microsoft-centric news blog MSPowerUser reports: Meet Skype Teams. Skype Teams is going to be Microsoft’s take on messaging apps for teams. Skype Teams will include a lot of similar features which you’ll find on Slack. For example, Skype Teams will allow you to chat in different groups within a team, also known as “channels”. Additionally, users will be able to talk to each other via Direct Messages on Skype Teams. Skype Teams will also feature Threaded Conversations, which is a major feature that’s lacking on Slack. With Threaded Conversations, you can simply reply to a message on a channel by clicking on the reply button and anyone else can join the thread whenever they want — just like Facebook Comments, or Disqus Comments. Microsoft, of course, isn’t leaving out some of the core features of Skype on Skype Teams. Similar to Skype itself, teams will be able to make video calls in a channel or privately. To take this even further, the company is adding the ability to schedule online meetings, which can be quite useful for large teams. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: A Wi-Fi router manufactured and sold only in China can easily run for the title of “most insecure router ever made.” The BHU router, whose name translates to “Tiger Will Power, ” has a long list of security problems that include: four authentication bypass flaws (one of which is just hilarious); a built-in backdoor root account that gets created on every boot-up sequence; the fact that it opens the SSH port for external connections after every boot (somebody has to use that root backdoor account right?); a built-in proxy server that re-routes all traffic; an ad injection system that adds adverts to all the sites you visit; and a backup JS file embedded in the router firmware if the ad script fails to load from its server. For techies, there’s a long technical write-up, which gets funnier and scarier at the same time as you read through it. “An attacker authenticating on the router can use a hardcoded session ID (SID) value of 700000000000000 to gain admin privileges, ” reports Softpedia. “If he misspells the SID and drops a zero, that’s no problem. The BHU router will accept any value and still grant the user admin rights.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Canonical announced on Friday that Ubuntu forums have been hacked. The company adds that data such as IP address, username, and email address of over two million users have been compromised. BetaNews reports: Keep in mind, this does not mean that the operating system has experienced a vulnerability or weakness. The only thing affected are the online forums that people use to discuss the OS. Still, such a hack is embarrassing as it happened due to Canonical’s failure to install a patch.In a blog post, Jane Silber, Chief Executive Officer, Canonical said, “after some initial investigation, we were able to confirm there had been an exposure of data and shut down the Forums as a precautionary measure. Deeper investigation revealed that there was a known SQL injection vulnerability in the Forumrunner add-on in the Forums which had not yet been patched.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
An anonymous reader writes: In an effort to hunt for materials, China is planning to build a manned deep-sea platform in the South China Sea. The lab may also serve for military purposes in the disputed waters as well. The lab would be located as much as 3, 000 meters (9, 800 ft) below sea level, according to a recent Science Ministry presentation viewed by Bloomberg. Bloomberg writes: “The project was mentioned in China’s current five-year economic plan released in March and ranked number two on a list of the top 100 science and technology priorities.” There are few public details specifying the timeline of the project, any blueprints, costs or where exactly it will be located. China’s President Xi Jinping considers more than 80 percent of the waters its sovereign territory. The country has even created several artificial islands in the South China Sea covering 3, 200 acres. Last year, the NYT posted a fascinated piece showing clear satellite imagery of the new islands being built. Read more of this story at Slashdot.