Walmart wants to take on Amazon with virtual reality shopping

qz.com - Walmart, the world’s biggest company, is better known for cheap tube socks than its technical wizardry. But the company has thousands of developers plugging away in an airport-sized building at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and has launched a tech incubator, Store No. 8, that is cooking up ways to combat rival Amazon.

One potential front in the retail battle is virtual-reality shopping. Walmart has applied for patents for intellectual property that creates a “virtual showroom,” according to Bloomberg. The technology would give home shoppers with VR headsets and gloves the ability to browse through a (presumably uncrowded and meticulously clean) virtual store, pick up merchandise, and instantly add it to a queue for home delivery.

In theory, the technology would appeal to those attracted to Walmart’s prices and want to handle merchandise before they buy, but who dread visiting its vast supercenters.

Walmart is already starting to thrive online. In 2016, the company spent $3.3 billion to acquire the e-commerce site Jet.com and its CEO Marc Lore (paywall), who was charged with revitalizing Walmart’s online sales. Walmart has also diversified its assortment of goods available online with purchases of companies like Bonobos and ModCloth E-commerce sales surged 40% from last year in the quarter ending June 30, and the company says it expects to finish the year up 40% from 2017. Industry analysts attribute the success to the overhauling of its website.

AliBaba, the giant Chinese e-commerce site, debuted VR shopping with its Buy+ in 2016, and there are hints that Amazon is exploring the concept. But any VR retail strategy will need much wider adoption of headsets and home technology to become viable.

Walmart has made other forays into virtual reality. It uses a VR set to help prepare employees for the crush of Black Friday shoppers, and in February, bought Spatialand, a small VR developer. At the time of the purchase, the company was coy about its intentions for the technology. Now we’re starting to see what Walmart has in mind. ContinueReading

Blue light from mobile phones and computers can cause irreversible damage to eyes: Scientific Reports study

- Blue light from devices such as smartphones and computers can cause irreversible damage to the eyes, a study in the United States has found.

The study, which was published in July by researchers from the University of Toledo (UT) in Ohio, found that blue light from digital devices could cause diseases such as loss of central vision and night blindness.

One of the researchers of the project, Dr Ajith Karunarathne, told the UT website that humans are continuously exposed to blue light because the eye's cornea and lens cannot block or reflect it.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina," she said.

"Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop."

The study was published in Scientific Reports, a free online journal from the publishers of Nature. Nature is a science journal that was first published in 1869.

NASA Unveils Massive Asteroid Impact Preparedness Plan

- It’s not a matter of if, but rather when, a large asteroid or comet impacts Earth. It has happened many times in the past, but Earth has never been home to a spacefaring species before. With enough warning, humanity could potentially avoid impacts, or at least mitigate the effects. NASA just hosted a webcast to unveil the new Near-Earth Object Preparedness Plan. It addresses five goals for the US government to work on in order to save us from the next killer impact.

The preparedness plan involves input from more than a dozen government agencies. including NASA, FEMA, and NOAA. The report begins by stressing the potential danger of near-Earth objects (NEOs). These objects are defined as any asteroid or comet that passes within 30 million miles (48.3 million kilometers) of the planet. The graph below estimates the destructive potential of impactors, as well as how many of them are lurking in the space around Earth. Even small 20-meter objects like the Chelyabinsk, Russia asteroid can cause damage over a wide area. That asteroid exploded before reaching the ground and released 20-30 times more energy than the first atomic bombs.

The report calls on the government to first strengthen detection and tracking technologies. If we can’t see the threat coming sufficiently far in advance, there’s little chance we could prevent or even prepare for the impact. NASA has been surveying NEOs in the range of 1 kilometer or larger since the late 1990s. The plan directs agencies to look at ways to improve NEO detection with upcoming telescope projects, as well as develop new projects with the express purpose of tracking dangerous objects. This includes both ground-based facilities and space missions.

The second goal is to develop new tools for modeling and predicting the effects of impacts. These tools should be available to all agencies to ensure we’re working from the best data in the event of an impending impact. The third goal involves stopping impacts from happening in the first place, which means we’d never have to find out how accurate those models are in real life. The report directs agencies to assess technology that could realistically deflect an incoming asteroid or comet. NASA, the DoD, and the Air Force Space Command should develop these technologies (like the Hammer spacecraft) and work toward demonstration flights in the future.

Step four is mostly an exercise in diplomacy. The report suggests that the State Department and NASA work together to increase international awareness of impact threats, and improve cooperation with other governments to detect and thwart impacts. If none of that works, there’s the fifth and final goal. That’s the one that covers what to do if we can’t stop a NEO or don’t see it until it’s already on top of us. The plan calls on NASA, FEMA, and other agencies to create theoretical scenarios based on plausible impact events. These scenarios will inform the development of protocols for communication, emergency response, and ways to mitigate damage on the ground.

NASA says the 20-page report is a modest effort, but it can “dramatically increase” our preparedness in the event a dangerous object crosses paths with Earth. You can read the full report on the White House website.

Move Over, China: U.S. Is Again Home to World’s Speediest Supercomputer

nytimes.com - The United States just won bragging rights in the race to build the world’s speediest supercomputer.

For five years, China had the world’s fastest computer, a symbolic achievement for a country trying to show that it is a tech powerhouse. But the United States retook the lead thanks to a machine, called Summit, built for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Summit’s speeds, announced on Friday, boggle the mind. It can do mathematical calculations at the rate of 200 quadrillion per second, or 200 petaflops. To put in human terms: A person doing one calculation a second would have to live for more than 6.3 billion years to match what the machine can do in a second.

Still stupefying? Here is another analogy. If a stadium built for 100,000 people was full, and everyone in it had a modern laptop, it would take 20 stadiums to match the computing firepower of Summit.

China still has the world’s most supercomputers over all. And China, Japan and Europe are developing machines that are even faster, which could mean the American lead is short-lived.

Supercomputers like Summit, which cost $200 million in government money to build, can accelerate the development of technologies at the frontier of computing, like artificial intelligence and the ability to handle vast amounts of data.

Those skills can be used to help tackle daunting challenges in science, industry and national security — and are at the heart of an escalating rivalry between the United States and China over technology.

For years, American tech companies have accused China of stealing their intellectual property. And some Washington lawmakers say that Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei pose a national security risk. ContinueReading

Sex robots with health benefits are a giant tease, experts warn

- If season two of Westworld doesn’t have you rethinking sex and violence with androids, researchers are hoping that some hard and fast data will.

Science fiction aside, advanced sex robots are currently heating up the market, with several companies now offering more and more life-like artificial partners, mostly ones mimicking women. Skeptics fear the desirable droids could escalate misogyny and violence against women, ignite deviant urges in pedophiles, or further isolate the sexually frustrated. Sexbot makers, on the other hand, have been pumping their health claims into advertisements, including that the amorous androids could reduce the spread of sexually transmitted disease, aid in sex therapies, and curb deviant desires in pedophiles and other sex offenders.

So far, those claims are “rather specious,” according to health researchers Chantal Cox-George of St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London and Susan Bewley of King’s College London. In an editorial published Monday in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, the pair highlight that there are virtually no studies that help bang out the validity of the many health arguments surging around sexbots—arguments both for and against them.

That data dry-spell doesn’t let doctors off the hook, though, Cox-George and Bewley write. They call for researchers to get busy setting up studies that will nail the answers. In the meantime, “an absence of evidence does not excuse the medical profession from discussing and debating the issues, as there will inevitably be consequences for physical, mental and social well-being.”

AI Experts Threaten to Boycott a University Over Reports of Killer Robot Research

fortune.com - Dozens of the world’s leading experts on artificial intelligence and robotics have announced a boycott of a major South Korean research university, which has been working with an arms company on integrating artificial intelligence with weaponry.

The university, KAIST, earlier this year set up a joint research center with the defense arm of conglomerate Hanwha. Local news reported at the time that the project would aim to create software for “AI-based” missiles, unmanned submarines and armed quadcopters by the end of 2018.

“At a time when the United Nations is discussing how to contain the threat posed to international security by autonomous weapons, it is regrettable that a prestigious institution like KAIST looks to accelerate the arms race to develop such weapons,” the professors wrote in an open letter.

“We therefore publicly declare that we will boycott all collaborations with any part of KAIST until such time as the President of KAIST provides assurances, which we have sought but not received, that the Center will not develop autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control.”

The more than 50 signatories include luminaries of the AI scene such as Geoff Hinton of the University of Toronto and Toby Walsh of the University of New South Wales. Covering a broad spectrum of universities around the world, their boycott could have a real impact.

However, the boycott may not last long. After the open letter was published, KAIST president Sung-Chul Shin said the university “does not have any intention to engage in development of lethal autonomous weapons systems and killer robots.”

“I reaffirm once again that KAIST will not conduct any research activities counter to human dignity including autonomous weapons lacking meaningful human control,” Shin said. ContinueReading

According to CNN, Walsh responded by saying he was mostly satisfied with the assurance. “I still have a few question marks about what they intend to do but broadly speaking they have responded appropriately,” he said.

A United Nations group will meet next week in Geneva to discuss the issues around lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS. Many people and organizations, from the Red Cross to Elon Musk, have called for either bans or strict limits on such systems.

Revolutionary Robotic Treatment For Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries Now Available In United States

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 2, 2018; Brooks Rehabilitation, an industry leader in post-acute physical rehabilitation, announced today its partnership with Japanese medical and social innovation company, CYBERDYNE, INC., to introduce and make available the world's first advanced robotic treatment device that has been shown to improve a patient's ability to walk. Individuals with spinal cord injuries can now access FDA-cleared HAL, which is short for Hybrid Assistive Limb, at the Brooks Cybernic* Treatment Center in Jacksonville, FL. The Treatment Center is currently the only facility in the U.S. offering this innovative treatment.

“We've already seen the results of improved mobility and ability to walk in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) at several international locations that are providing this technology,” said Dr. Geneva Tonuzi, Medical Director of the Brooks Cybernic Treatment Center. “We are thrilled to finally have this unique technology available here at Brooks Rehabilitation as it opens the door to more research and treatment methods in advancing spinal cord injury treatment.”

Recently implemented in Japan, Germany and other countries, HAL fits to the patient's lower limbs and trunk, and operates using internal signals from the body. This powered lower extremity exoskeleton is unique from any other exoskeleton treatment available today because the device's movements are neurologically-controlled by the patient's volition, and use of its secondary Biofeedback Device features allows the patient to see and adjust the signals they are producing. This functional integration of human neural pathways with modern technology is a landmark advancement for SCI patients nationwide. ContinueReading

Results of cellphone radiation study come back mixed; human implications unclear

- The long-awaited results of a $25 million National Institutes of Health study on the effects of cellphone radio frequency radiation exposure on animals is out, and the results are mixed. They showed a higher risk of tumors, DNA or tissue damage and lower body weight in some groups of rodents, but no obvious ill effects in others, and no clear implications for human health.

John Bucher, a senior scientist involved in the 10-year study, was cautious in his interpretation of the results in a conference call with journalists Friday. Given the inconsistent pattern of the findings, the fact that the subjects were rats and mice rather than people, and the high level of radiation used, he said he could not extrapolate from the data to potential health effects on humans.

“At this point we don’t feel that we understand enough about the results to place a huge degree of confidence in the findings,” he said.

Bucher also said that, “I have not changed the way I use a cellphone, no.”

The study by the National Toxicology Program is believed to be the most comprehensive assessment of the health effects of such radiation on rats and mice and involved 3,000 test animals. A draft report was released Friday for public comment and peer review, in advance of an external expert review from March 26 to 28. Among other things, reviewers will examine whether some of the results might be statistical noise.

The issue of cellphone radiation’s impact on human health is one that has been hotly debated for years. In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission came under fire after it dropped a long-standing recommendation that consumers buy phones with lower radiation emissions. And in 2015, the city council in Berkeley, Calif., approved a disclosure ordinance that directed sellers to let buyers know of the risk of carrying devices too close to their bodies. The CTIA, which represents the wireless industry, has sued, saying the warnings are “ill-informed” and violate retailers’ First Amendment rights.

The strongest finding in the new study involved male rats — but not female rats or male or female mice — which developed tumors in the nerves surrounding their hearts. Researchers also saw increases in damage to heart tissue in both male and female rats. If these results are confirmed, Bucher said, they appear to suggest that this type of radiation could be a “weak” carcinogen.

The male rat tumors were so-called malignant schwannomas. Based on limited research that shows a potentially elevated risk of schwannomas near the brain in people, the International Agency for Research on Cancer currently lists radio-frequency fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

The new NIH study showed tumors in rats and mice in other parts of the body — the brain, prostate, liver and pancreas — but the scientists said it was unclear if these were related to the radiation.

The experiment involved placing rats and mice into special chambers and exposing them to different levels of radiation that mimic 2G and 3G phones, which were standard when the study was launched, for 9 hours a day. Bucher emphasized that even the lowest levels used in the study were much higher than the maximum exposure even a frequent cellphone user would get. While the United States has transitioned to 4G, 4G-LTE and 5G networks in recent years, the 2G and 3G frequencies are still used in voice calls and texting.

In addition to cancer, the study looked at other health effects, such as evidence of tissue damage from the heat of cellphones, DNA damage and changes in body weight. They said they found some tissue and DNA issues but “we don’t feel (we have) sufficient understanding to comment on their biological significance.”

For example, Bucher said, “The patterns of damage to brain in tissues in these animals are not particularly consistent with tumor outcomes.”

As for the weight issue, they saw changes in newborn rats and their mothers when exposed to high levels at the time of pregnancy and lactation. But they said the study was not designed to tease out whether this was a direct effect on the babies or if it affected how the mothers cared for their young.

“We don’t have any idea really,” Bucher said. On the other hand, he added, the babies did grow to normal size.

Some health and environmental groups immediately seized on the findings as more evidence of the dangers of cellphones. The Environmental Working Group’s Olga Naidenko, a senior science adviser, for instance, in a news release said the study “should raise alarms for policymakers and awareness for all Americans.”

The CTIA had a different interpretation, pointing out that when partial results of the same study were released in 2016 numerous international and U.S. health organizations “maintained their long-standing conclusion that the scientific evidence shows no known health risk due to the [radio-frequency] energy emitted by cellphones.”

The response from the Food and Drug Administration, which commissioned the study in the first place, was more muted.

Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement that the agency’s preliminary understanding of the results “is that the study found mostly equivocal, or ambiguous, evidence that whole body radio-frequency energy exposures given to rats or mice in the study actually caused cancer in these animals.” He noted some additional unusual findings in the study, and said his team is continuing to assess them, but emphasized that based on all available scientific information the agency does not believe there are adverse health effects in humans caused by cellphone radiation.

”Even with frequent daily use by the vast majority of adults, we have not seen an increase in events like brain tumors,” he said. “Based on this current information, we believe the current safety limits for cellphones are acceptable for protecting the public health.” ContinueReading

Discovery In India Suggests An Early Global Spread Of Stone Age Technology

- Somewhere around 300,000 years ago, our human ancestors in parts of Africa began to make small, sharp tools, using stone flakes that they created using a technique called Levallois.

The technology, named after a suburb of Paris where tools made this way were first discovered, was a profound upgrade from the bigger, less-refined tools of the previous era, and marks the Middle Stone Age in Africa and the Middle Paleolithic era in Europe and western Asia.

Neanderthals in Europe also used these tools around the same time. And scientists have thought that the technology spread to other parts of the globe much later — after modern humans moved out of Africa.

But scientists in India recently discovered thousands of stone tools made with Levallois technique, dating back to 385,000 years ago. These latest findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggest the Levallois technique spread across the world long before researchers previously thought.

The Indian team uncovered these tools at one of India's best known archaeological sites — Attirampakkam, which is located near the present-day city of Chennai in southern India.

"It has a very, very long history of occupation of different prehistoric cultures in this one site," says Shanti Pappu, an archaeologist at the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in Chennai and one of the lead authors of the new study.

The oldest artifacts from the site — big hand axes and cleavers — date back all the way to 1.5 million years ago, and are associated with the older Acheulian culture of the Early Stone Age.

The more recent tools, which date between 385,000 to 172,000 years ago, are small and clearly made with Levallois technique; it relies on first creating a starter stone in the shape of a turtle shell, then hitting that preformed stone to create a flake with sharp edges.

The flakes were used as knives and scrapers, scientists say; the technique gave the toolmakers more control over the size and shape of the tool.

"It's a very specific technology, very clearly identifiable and very similar to what you see in Africa," says Pappu.

The more than 7,000 artifacts discovered at the site run counter to what's been the prevailing theory about when the technology first reached the region.

"It was believed that this particular cultural or behavioral package perhaps came to India about 125,000 years ago, by modern humans dispersing out of Africa," says Pappu. Another hypothesis suggested that the technology came even later to India, around 70,000 years ago.

"The findings of this paper clearly knock those ideas out of the water," says paleoanthropologist Rick Potts, the head of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, who wasn't involved in the study. "It has to be earlier."

"This is a marvelous discovery," says Michael Petraglia, at the Max Planck Institute for The Science of Human History, who also had no role in the recent research. "It fills a very important gap in our knowledge of cultural history of humans in South Asia between 400,000 to 175,000 years ago."

The team in India found no human or hominin fossils at the site, which makes it hard to know what ancestral human species lived here and made these tools. ContinueReading

Amazon.com to Buy Target Corporation?

Actually, it Makes Some Sense.

investorplace.com: It remains to be seen if the eye-opening prediction that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) will acquire Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) this year was just a savvy publicity stunt, or an actual expectation. With TGT stock jumping nearly 2% on the mere mention of the idea though, the market may well be leaning towards the latter.

It was Loup Venture co-founder Gene Munster’s, by the way (yes, the same Munster that used to handicap stocks for Piper Jaffray), that made the call. He explained within a report dissecting a total of eight predictions for 2018 “Target is the ideal offline partner for Amazon for two reasons, shared demographic and manageable but comprehensive store count.”

It’s an idea that would have been laughable just a couple of years ago. While few could argue that Amazon isn’t the king of e-commerce, moving into the brick-and-mortar world wasn’t quite Jeff Bezos’ milieu.

In light of some recent acquisitions though — not the least of which was buying grocery chain Whole Foods Market — the idea doesn’t seem far-fetched at all today. More important, to current Target shareholders, such a deal may be the last bastion of hope for a graceful exit of an increasingly-troubled trade. Munster also thinks, should a deal go through, Amazon’s offer would be on the order of 15% more than the current per-share price of TGT stock.

With that as the backdrop, there are more arguments in favor of this proposed pairing then Munster laid out.

FDA approved Spark Therapeutics’ gene therapy Luxturna™(voretigene neparvovec-rzyl) for treating children and adults with the rare inherited blindness disorder biallelic RPE65 mutation-associated retinal dystrophy. Approval of the one-time adeno-associated virus vector (AAV)-delivered gene therapy, which FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., described in a statement as “a milestone that reinforces the potential of this breakthrough approach in treating a wide-range of challenging disease,” marks the first gene therapy approval for a genetic disease. Spark has not confirmed the cost of treatment, although some commentators are anticipating a $1 million per patient price tag. Luxturna is currently under review by the European Medicines Agency.

FDA clearance of Luxturna marks the third approval by the agency for a gene therapy, but the first for an AAV-based treatment. In August this year, the U.S. regulator cleared Novartis’ cell-based chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) gene therapy Kymriah™ (tisagenlecleucel) for treating refractory or relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In October, Kite Pharma’s CAR-T therapy Yescarta™(axicabtagene ciloleucel) was given the FDA nod for treating refractory or relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Dr. Gottlieb further commented, “Today’s approval marks another first in the field of gene therapy—both in how the therapy works and in expanding the use of gene therapy beyond the treatment of cancer to the treatment of vision loss….The culmination of decades of research has resulted in three gene therapy approvals this year for patients with serious and rare diseases. I believe gene therapy will become a mainstay in treating, and maybe curing, many of our most devastating and intractable illnesses.”

Next year, the FDA aims to start rolling out a series of what it calls disease-specific guidance documents on the development of specific gene therapy products. These will “lay out modern and more efficient parameters—including new clinical measures—for the evaluation and review of gene therapy for high-priority disease where the platform is being targeted,” Dr. Gottlieb stated. “We’re at a turning point when it comes to this novel form of therapy, and, at the FDA, we’re focused on establishing the right policy framework to capitalize on this scientific opening.” (ontinueReading

World's First Electric Ship in China Is Hauling Coal

Newsweek - PR China has launched its first all-electric cargo ship. The 230-foot-long ship runs a mere eight miles per hour, but the vessel has zero emissions of waste gas pollutants. The irony, however, is that the ship is going to haul coal, more than 2,000 tons worth, in the inland section of the Pearl River.

The all-electric ship is powered with enough lithium batteries to power 40 cars—a battery capacity of 2,400 kilowatt hours. After two hours of charging, the ship can run for 50 miles.

Chen Ji, the general manager of Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Ltd., which manufactured the ship, said it will reduce shipping costs for electric power operators.

“The cost of electric power is less than that (of) traditional fuel,” Chen said, as reported by China Daily. “The main cost of the new energy cargo ship depends on how much lithium battery it is equipped with.”

The ship can carry over 2,000 tons of goods—or for this ship, coal.

“As the ship is fully electric powered, it poses no threat to the environment,” Huang Jialin, the chairman and general manager of Hangzhou Modern Ship Design & Research Co., which designed the ship, said. The technology will soon be used in passenger or engineering ships.

But even as the ship itself will not produce any new emissions, it carries coal down the Pearl River in the Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong province. Both shipyards will be equipped with charging stations that can recharge the battery in two hours—about the time it takes to load and unload the ship, reported Electrek.

“This kind of ship takes into consideration the harmony between humans and nature and can protect water quality and marine life, and should be copied by other ships sailing on local rivers,” Wang Yongchen, a Beijing environmentalist, told the Global Times last month.

The environmental costs of cargo ships are hefty. The shipping industry is responsible for 3 percent of global emissions, reported the Huffington Post. That number is expected to rise to 17 percent by 2050 as global trade and the speed of ships increase.

Low-grade marine fuel oil contains 3,500 times more sulfur than road diesel, and one-third to half of air pollution in Hong Kong, for instance, is caused by large ships, according to a Nature commentary article published last year. Massive ships can reach around 1,300 feet long. For reference, the electric cargo ship is a mere 230 feet. (ontinueReading

Smartphones can literally change your brain, study says

CNN - You may be one of the growing number of Americans (or global citizens) who has a bit of nomophobia.

"Nomophobia?" you mutter as you read this on your ever-present smartphone. "Of course not."

"NO MObile PHOne phoBIA" is a 21st-century term for the fear of not being able to use your cell phone or other smart device. Cell phone addiction is on the rise, surveys show, and a new study released Thursday adds to a growing body of evidence that smartphone and internet addiction is harming our minds — literally.

How do you know if you're addicted? There's an online (of course) quiz to find out, which has been translated into Spanish, Italian and Turkish.

Take the quiz here.

Rate your responses on a scale of 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) and add your score. According to Caglar Yildirim, an assistant professor of human computer interaction who created the scale for use in his research at State University of New York at Oswego, a score of 20 or below means you're not an addict; a score of 21 to 60 means you're mildly nomophobic; and a score of 61 to 99 means you probably can't go long without checking your phone.

"It might be a good idea to be conscious of that," Yildirim said, "but we are only concerned if it starts to interfere with your daily life."

Did you score between 100 and 200? You're probably struggling with severe anxiety when you can't access your cell phone, he said.

"This might negatively affect your social life and relationships with friends and family," Yildirim said. "There are studies that show those who score high on the test tend to avoid face-to-face interactions, have high levels of social anxiety and maybe even depression.

"It might affect your ability to work or study, because you want to be connected to your smartphone all the time," he added. "So if any of this applies to you, then it's time to start looking at your behavior and level of anxiety."

SecurEnvoy, a two-factor authentication company, conducted research using a polling panel (which is not as scientific as a randomized poll) and found that 66 percent of people in the United Kingdom have some form of nomophobia. Notably, 41 percent of the participants said they had two or more phones to make sure they stayed connected.

Surveys by the Pew Research Center this year showed that 77 percent of Americans own smartphones, up from 35 percent in 2011. Ninety-five percent own a cell phone of some kind.

What's wrong with being a cell phone junkie?

Obviously, there are some serious ramifications to having a cell phone habit. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mobile phone use is partially to blame for the distracted driving that kills an estimated nine people each day and injures more than 1,000.

The prevalence of texting while driving has reached epidemic proportions. A 2010 study by the Pew Research Center said nearly half of US adults admit reading or sending a text message while driving. The news is worse for teens: Nearly one in three 16- or 17-year-olds said they have texted while driving.

Millennials are the worst offenders, according to Pew. Fifty-nine percent of people between the ages of 18 and 33 reported texting while driving, compared with 50 percent of Gen Xers (age 34 to 45) and only 29 percent of baby boomers.

It's not just driving. A study of pedestrians in midtown Manhattan found that 42 percent of those who entered traffic during a "Don't Walk" signal were talking on a cell phone, wearing headphones or looking down at an electronic device. A 2013 study found a tenfold increase in injuries related to pedestrians using cell phones from 2005 to 2010.

Other health ramifications include text neck — that cramping, stabbing pain that comes after looking down at your phone too long — and poor posture, which can affect your spine, respiratory functions and even emotions. Researchers have also found that the blue light emitted from our cell phones and other internet devices can disrupt melatonin production and therefore our sleep. (ontinueReading

Germany Freaks Out And Bans Kid Smartwatches Over Eavesdropping And Privacy Concerns

hothardware.com - Germany's regulatory arm for electricity, gas, telecommunications, post, and railway markets, has issued a ban on smartwatches designed for children over concerns that they can be used by parents to spy on their kids and teachers. Furthermore, the regulatory office is urging parents to go a step further and physically destroy these smartwatches, should their children own one. The agency has also taken action against several firms that offer smartwatches designed for children.

"Via an app, parents can use such children's watches to listen unnoticed to the child's environment and they are to be regarded as an authorized transmitting system," said Jochen Homann, president of the Federal Network Agency. "According to our research, parents' watches are also used to listen to teachers in the classroom."

A large number of providers in Germany sell smartwatches designed for children between the ages of 5-12 years old. Most of the watches have a SIM card and limited telephone capabilities. They are set up and controlled with a companion app, and it appears that is where the Federal Network Agency takes issue, though it did not specifically reference potential vulnerabilities in software.

Just last month, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) reported that some childrens' watches had security flaws, such as storing and transmitting unencrypted data. Without encryption, hackers would have an easier time hacking these devices, and could potentially track a child's location. Using basic hacking techniques, malicious agents could even make it appear as though a child was in a different location than what his or her smartwatch reports.

"This ban sends a strong signal to makers of products aimed at children that they need to be safer," Finn Myrstad, head of digital policy at NCC, told BCC.

Ken Munro, a security expert at Pen Test Partners, agrees with that assessment.

"Poorly secured smart devices often allow for privacy invasion. That is really concerning when it comes to kids' GPS tracking watches— the very watches that are supposed to help keep them safe," Ken Munro added. "There is a shocking lack of regulation of the 'Internet of things', which allows lax manufacturers to sell us dangerously insecure smart products."

He called the ban a "game changer," saying it will stop manufacturers from "playing fast and loose" with kids' security. And it probably will have that effect, though it is interesting that the Federal Network Agency largely ignored that angle, choosing instead to focus on parents having the ability to spy on their kids and especially their teachers (along with anyone else in the vicinity). The same could be said of smartphones, though perhaps not as slyly as through a smartwatch.
Read more Here

Scientists find $1.8m worth of gold in Swiss wastewater

- Switzerland’s gold refineries may want to consider starting a recycling programme.

Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology estimate that about 43 kilograms of gold — worth about $1.8 million — passes through the country’s wastewater every year.

In some sites in the southern Ticino region, “concentrations of gold in sewage sludge are sufficiently high for recovery to be potentially worthwhile,” the researchers said in a report published Tuesday. “This can be attributed to the presence of several gold refineries in the region.”

The study involving 64 water treatment plants also found about 3,000 kilograms of silver — equivalent to about $1.7 million — going to waste every year, much of it residue from the chemical and medical industries.

Switzerland is major gold-refining hub. About 70% of the world’s gold passes through the country’s refineries on average every year. (ontinueReading

Work makes you free: A 31-year-old's 'death from overwork' causes Japan to rethink work-life balance

businessinsider.com - In Japanese the word is karoshi, or "death from overwork."

The latest victim to be announced as a case of karoshi is 31-year-old Miwa Sado, who worked for the Japanese news network NHK and reportedly logged 159 overtime hours in one month before she died of heart failure in July 2013. She had taken just two days off the prior month, the Guardianreports.

Japan's government has been trying desperately over the past several years to change the cultural attitudes toward work. In early 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched a "work style reform" panel seeking to make time off more alluring for Japanese workers.

Though the results have been mixed, some private companies have started to make changes.

Japanese ad agency Dentsu, for its part, now requires people to take at least five days off every six months. It also shuts the lights off every night at 10 p.m. as an incentive for people to head home.

The move came in response to the death of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old employee who committed suicide on Christmas Day 2015, after logging 105 hours of overtime in one month. At work Takahashi tried to maintain appearances, but on Twitter she spoke the truth. "It's 4 a.m. My body's trembling," she reportedly said in one post. "I'm going to die. I'm so tired."

Dentsu President and CEO, Tadashi Ishii, announced his resignation in March 2016.

Other companies have opted to shift their allowable overtime hours to the morning. The trading house Itochu Corp. opens its doors at 5 a.m. for anyone who wants to avoid staying late at the office. Employees who show up early get treated to a light breakfast and earn the same extra wages they would have gotten at the end of the day.

But as Abe's reform signals, the country has larger issues related to overtime that it must address for the sake of public health.

A 2016 report examining karoshi cases and their cause of death found that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month. In the US, 16.4% of people work an average of 49 hours or longer each week. In Japan, more than 20% do, according to the report. Half of all respondents said they don't take paid vacations.

As per the report, many of the overwork deaths were caused by suicide, heart failure, heart attack, or stroke — all of which can be brought on by excessive stress.

Other companies have gotten creative with how they encourage people to work less. At the Tokyo-based nursing care business Saint-Works, employees wear purple capes that display the time they should leave the office — an effort to erase all doubt when the day is over.

According to the South China Morning Post, people at the company are working half as many overtime hours since 2012, while profits continue to grow year-over-year.

The research into productivity suggests other firms would see similar gains if they required people to work less. After a certain threshold, extra time spent on tasks doesn't equate to extra output. As Sachio Ichinose told the SCMP, the extra hours make people more burned out.

"New ideas do not pop up after meetings are extended an extra two to three hours," he said. "Work becomes productive when it is balanced out with your private life."

If the new measures are successful, both employers and their workers will come to take that sentiment to heart. (ontinueReading

Earth will face a sixth mass extinction by 2100 thanks to global warming, predicts mathematician

*for entertainment purposes only

- Climate change will have sent Earth on the way to its sixth mass extinction in less than a lifetime, new research warns.

By the year 2100, about 310 gigatons of carbon will have been added to the oceans - a potential 'tipping point' for ecological disaster, according to the study.

When CO2 dissolves into the ocean - as in the case of the End-Permian mass extinction - life on Earth is at risk.

Professor Daniel Rothman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with a simple mathematical formula to predict when the next mass extinction would take place.

The formula predicts that by the end of the century oceans will hold enough carbon to launch a mass extermination of species in the future.

The model showed the critical extra amount required is about 310 gigatons, which is around the best case scenario projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

And it's well below the worst of more than 500 gigatons that would far exceed the line.

In all scenarios the study found by the end of the century the carbon cycle will either be close to, or well beyond, the threshold for catastrophe.

It also found although mass extinction won't soon follow at the turn of the century the world may have tipped into 'unknown territory.'

Professor Rothman says it would take some time, about 10,000 years, for such ecological disasters to play out.

He said: 'This is not saying disaster occurs the next day.

'It's saying - if left unchecked - the carbon cycle would move into a realm which would be no longer stable and would behave in a way that would be difficult to predict.

'In the geologic past this type of behaviour is associated with mass extinction.'

In the modern era CO2 emissions have risen steadily since the 19th century, but deciphering whether this could lead to mass extinction has been challenging.

That's mainly because it's difficult to relate ancient carbon anomalies, occurring over thousands to millions of years, to today's disruptions which have taken place over little more than a century.

Professor Rothman's analysis identified 'thresholds of catastrophe' in the carbon cycle that, if exceeded, would lead to an unstable environment, and ultimately, mass extinction.

He had previously done work on the end-Permian extinction, or Great Dying.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk

China plans to ban sales of fossil fuel cars entirely

via techcrunch.com - China’s big electric vehicle push is about to get even bigger: The country is planning to end the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles entirely, with regulators working currently on a timetable of when the ban will ultimately take effect, according to Bloomberg.

China is the world’s largest auto market, with 28.03 million vehicles sold last year, a boost in demand of 13.7 percent vs. 2015 sales numbers. The nation has already done a lot to incentivize manufacturers to develop and sell new EVs, including allowing foreign automakers to create a third joint venture with local automakers (a standard requirement for doing business in the country for auto OEMs) so long as it’s dedicated to the creation of EVs exclusively.

The government has also created a number of incentive programs for OEMs, including subsidies. This will add to its positive efforts to drive more EV sales in China with the ultimate negative condition on the other side – at some point, automakers just won’t be able to do business at all in the country if they’re still selling a mix of fossil fuel and electrified vehicles.

This isn’t the first time a governing body has said it would eventually phase out the sale of traditional fuel vehicles: France said it will stop selling fossil fuel cars by 2040 in July, and the UK has committed to the same timeline for sales of those vehicles.

Critics have suggested that a ban on fossil fuel vehicles is likely impractical, because it would stretch an already taxed supply chain, which has some hard limits in terms of the volume of lithium available for lithium-ion battery cells, for instance. But automakers are already responding to this rising trend with expanded EV model lineups and, in the case of Volvo for instance, plans to eventually sell exclusively all-electric or hybrid cars.

China’s timeline for establishing this ban will be crucial in terms of how quickly we see the global shift to EVs occur, as it’s going to be an immense lever in terms of automaker strategic planning internationally, as well as in the country. (ontinueReading

FDA approval brings first gene therapy to the United States

via FDA.gov - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a historic action today making the first gene therapy available in the United States, ushering in a new approach to the treatment of cancer and other serious and life-threatening diseases.

The FDA approved Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for certain pediatric and young adult patients with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

“We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. “New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold out the potential to transform medicine and create an inflection point in our ability to treat and even cure many intractable illnesses. At the FDA, we’re committed to helping expedite the development and review of groundbreaking treatments that have the potential to be life-saving.”

Kymriah, a cell-based gene therapy, is approved in the United States for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor ALL that is refractory or in second or later relapse.

Kymriah is a genetically-modified autologous T-cell immunotherapy. Each dose of Kymriah is a customized treatment created using an individual patient’s own T-cells, a type of white blood cell known as a lymphocyte. The patient’s T-cells are collected and sent to a manufacturing center where they are genetically modified to include a new gene that contains a specific protein (a chimeric antigen receptor or CAR) that directs the T-cells to target and kill leukemia cells that have a specific antigen (CD19) on the surface. Once the cells are modified, they are infused back into the patient to kill the cancer cells.

ALL is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood, in which the body makes abnormal lymphocytes. The disease progresses quickly and is the most common childhood cancer in the U.S. The National Cancer Institute estimates that approximately 3,100 patients aged 20 and younger are diagnosed with ALL each year. ALL can be of either T- or B-cell origin, with B-cell the most common. Kymriah is approved for use in pediatric and young adult patients with B-cell ALL and is intended for patients whose cancer has not responded to or has returned after initial treatment, which occurs in an estimated 15-20 percent of patients.

“Kymriah is a first-of-its-kind treatment approach that fills an important unmet need for children and young adults with this serious disease,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). “Not only does Kymriah provide these patients with a new treatment option where very limited options existed, but a treatment option that has shown promising remission and survival rates in clinical trials.”

The safety and efficacy of Kymriah were demonstrated in one multicenter clinical trial of 63 pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor ALL. The overall remission rate within three months of treatment was 83 percent.

Treatment with Kymriah has the potential to cause severe side effects. It carries a boxed warning for cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which is a systemic response to the activation and proliferation of CAR T-cells causing high fever and flu-like symptoms, and for neurological events. Both CRS and neurological events can be life-threatening. Other severe side effects of Kymriah include serious infections, low blood pressure (hypotension), acute kidney injury, fever, and decreased oxygen (hypoxia). Most symptoms appear within one to 22 days following infusion of Kymriah. Since the CD19 antigen is also present on normal B-cells, and Kymriah will also destroy those normal B cells that produce antibodies, there may be an increased risk of infections for a prolonged period of time.

The FDA today also expanded the approval of Actemra (tocilizumab) to treat CAR T-cell-induced severe or life-threatening CRS in patients 2 years of age or older. In clinical trials in patients treated with CAR-T cells, 69 percent of patients had complete resolution of CRS within two weeks following one or two doses of Actemra.

Because of the risk of CRS and neurological events, Kymriah is being approved with a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS), which includes elements to assure safe use (ETASU). The FDA is requiring that hospitals and their associated clinics that dispense Kymriah be specially certified. As part of that certification, staff involved in the prescribing, dispensing, or administering of Kymriah are required to be trained to recognize and manage CRS and neurological events. Additionally, the certified health care settings are required to have protocols in place to ensure that Kymriah is only given to patients after verifying that tocilizumab is available for immediate administration. The REMS program specifies that patients be informed of the signs and symptoms of CRS and neurological toxicities following infusion – and of the importance of promptly returning to the treatment site if they develop fever or other adverse reactions after receiving treatment with Kymriah.

To further evaluate the long-term safety, Novartis is also required to conduct a post-marketing observational study involving patients treated with Kymriah.

The FDA granted Kymriah Fast Track, Priority Review and Breakthrough Therapydesignations. The Kymriah application was reviewed using a coordinated, cross-agency approach. The clinical review was coordinated by the FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence, while CBER conducted all other aspects of review and made the final product approval determination.

The FDA granted approval of Kymriah to Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. The FDA granted the expanded approval of Actemra to Genentech Inc.

The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines, and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products. (ontinueReading

Domino's and Ford Join Forces to 'Kill' the Pizza Delivery Boy

thestreet.com - Domino's Pizza Inc. (DPZ) is working with Ford Motor Co. (F) on how they may axe the pizza delivery driver. OK, not literally.

Still, the companies' Tuesday, Aug. 28, announcement calls into question how long the pizza delivery boy (or girl) has left to live, as the Grim Reaper of self-driving cars looms.

Through a partnership with Ford, Domino's said on Tuesday that it will begin testing pizza delivery with the Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle. Ford plans to begin production on its self-driving vehicles in 2021.

The test will be conducted over the next several weeks by Domino's and Ford researchers in Ann Arbor, Mich., just west of Detroit. Domino's said it upgraded its delivery tracker to allow randomly selected customers to follow the autonomous car by GPS.

Participants will receive text messages along the way, updating them on the location of their order and how to retrieve it from the car when it arrives. Customers will get a special code via text to use to unlock the Domino's Heatwave Compartment, holding their food.

"As delivery experts, we've been watching the development of self-driving vehicles with great interest as we believe transportation is undergoing fundamental, dramatic change. This is the first step in an ongoing process of testing that we plan to undertake with Ford," Patrick Doyle, Domino's president and CEO, said in a statement on Tuesday.

To be sure, for this test, the self-driving car will be manually driven by a Ford safety engineer. So, customers needn't fret about glitches that could cause them, or their pizza, harm.

Russell Weiner, president of Domino's U.S., said, in a statement, that the company will be focused on how customers react to this test, specifically how they feel about meeting the car to retrieve their order.

"The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience," Weiner said. "We need to understand if a customer's experience is different if the car is parked in the driveway versus next to the curb. All of our testing research is focused on our goal to someday make deliveries with self-driving vehicles as seamless and customer-friendly as possible."(ontinueReading