Day: November 15, 2019

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Astronauts’ Exercise Programs Could Help Cancer Patients Endure Chemotherapy

https://gizmodo.com/astronauts-exercise-programs-could-help-cancer-patients-1839888377

In a new paper this week, researchers are making a novel argument: Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and astronauts in space suffer similar health problems—including bone and muscle loss—and as such could benefit from similar training regimens.

Author Jessica Scott, a senior scientist at the NASA Johnson Space Center who’s studied how spaceflight affects the human body, said the genesis of the paper came during an academic conference. She met a fellow scientist who studied cancer, and as they got to talking, they realized how eerily similar the experiences of NASA astronauts up in space and cancer patients on chemotherapy and radiation were.

“Both astronauts and cancer patients are exposed to what we call ‘multiple hits,’” Scott told Gizmodo via email.

Both groups, she noted, can have baseline risk factors that influence how well they respond to space or cancer treatment, such as high blood pressure. And both the harsh environment of space as well as chemotherapy can directly and indirectly affect the body from head to toe. Astronauts can’t really stand up in space due to microgravity, for instance, while a patient’s treatment regimen can make them fatigued and sedentary.

“When you put these multiple hits together, almost every system in the body is impacted. For example, astronauts experience something called ‘space fog,’ which is similar to what cancer patients call ‘chemo brain,’ and both astronauts and cancer patients may have decreases in bone, muscle, and heart size.”

In their paper, published in Cell on Thursday, Scott’s team also cited evidence showing that both groups experience a similar drop in their ability to breathe and pump blood throughout the body, otherwise known as decreased cardiorespiratory fitness.

For decades, NASA has meticulously studied how the rigors of space can break down the body (even on a genetic level). As a result, scientists like Scott have developed a countermeasures program to stave off these effects—most prominently, an exercise regimen for their astronauts before, during, and after a mission. But while cancer therapies have become more effective and less toxic over the years, exercise often isn’t part of the recommended treatment plan. And many patients might not even know that exercise would be helpful for them.

Scott and her co-authors aren’t advocating that every cancer patient necessarily run a triathlon. Currently, patients with conditions that need longer-term management like cancer are advised to exercise three to five days a week, anywhere from 20 minutes to a hour, doing activities that raise their heart rate between 55 percent to 75 percent of their typical max.

But any exercise plan for cancer patients, much like they are for NASA astronauts, needs to be personalized, “just like patients receive different types, doses, and schedules of chemotherapy,” Scott said.

It isn’t just NASA’s love of exercise that Scott’s team is hoping to translate to cancer care. They also think more research needs to be done to characterize the harsh side-effects chemotherapy can cause throughout a person’s treatment course, not just at one point in time, like at the end of therapy. The more information we have about these “therapy-related toxicities,” Scott said, the more likely we’ll be able to prevent them from causing irreversible damage to patients.

Few habits and practices change in medicine without lots of evidence, though. To that end, Scott and her co-authors are already testing out what they’ve preached in their ongoing clinical trials with cancer patients.

“For example, we are using certain assessments that are identical to those used in astronauts, such as assessing cardiorespiratory fitness. We also started delivering treadmills to patients’ homes and conducting supervised exercise sessions from our ‘mission control’ at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer in Manhattan with video conferencing, just as astronauts hundreds of miles above Earth have exercise prescriptions delivered,” Scott said.

This approach, she added, will also need to be compared to the current standard of care.

via Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com

November 15, 2019 at 10:45AM

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La Machine’s Giant Mechanical Fire-Breathing Dragon Roaming The Streets Of Calais, France

https://geekologie.com/2019/11/la-machines-giant-mechanical-fire-breath.php


These are a couple photos and videos of the giant fire-breathing mechanical Dragon de Calais built by La Machine (previously: their giant mechanical spider and minotaur) that recently roamed the streets of Calais, France as part of a live-action performance. The dragon measures 25-meters (~82-feet) long, stands 15-meters (~49-feet) tall, weighs almost 80 tons, and takes 17 people to operate. But *unsheathing sword* only one hero to slay. Speaking of — where, uh, where’s the fair maiden? "There isn’t one." Treasure hoard? "Nope." *resheathing sword* I’ll be at the tavern.
Keep going for the video.
mechanical-dragon-2.jpg
mechanical-dragon-3.jpg
mechanical-dragon-4.jpg

Thanks to Jacques, who agrees it must be exhilarating being the guy sitting in the cockpit right behind the dragon’s head, ready to burninate anything and everything in your way.

via Geekologie – Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome https://geekologie.com/

November 14, 2019 at 08:47AM

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Uber has to pay New Jersey nearly $650 million in employment taxes

https://www.engadget.com/2019/11/14/new-jersey-uber-employment-tax-bill/

Uber may insist that its drivers are contractors and not employees, but New Jersey isn’t buying that argument. The state’s labor department has slapped Uber and its Rasier subsidiary with a nearly $650 million bill for overdue unemployment and disability insurance taxes from the past four years, arguing that the ridesharing firm misclassified drivers. About $523 million of that is actual taxes, while up to $119 million is due in interest and penalties. Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said this was an example of the administration "cracking down on employee misclassification" and that there was "no reason" on-demand workers couldn’t be treated like other flexible staff.

New Jersey gave Uber a $54 million bill back in 2015, but it’s not certain if the company ever paid that.

Not surprisingly, Uber is contesting the bill. It told Engadget it was "challenging this preliminary but incorrect determination," insisting that drivers are "independent contractors." The company believes the bill overestimate its business in the state and that the process is still early. Uber has previously claimed that treating drivers as employees would limit their flexibility to work when they like, but critics have argued that this lets Uber avoid minimum wage and other labor guarantees.

Uber may face an uphill battle, though. Like other states, New Jersey has a test to determine if people are contractors, and it believes they are — it doesn’t buy Uber’s claim that the ridesharing platform, not transportation, is its main business. So long as the state maintains that view, it’ll continue to demand back taxes and might take legal action if Uber still refuses to pay.

Source: Bloomberg Law

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

November 14, 2019 at 01:48PM

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The latest Xbox One update adds Google Assistant voice controls

https://www.engadget.com/2019/11/15/latest-xbox-one-update-adds-google-assistant-voice-controls/

Xbox One’s November update is here, bringing with it a bunch of new features and tools designed, as always, to improve your gaming experience. First up, and probably most notable, is the roll-out of Google Assistant voice controls. We’ve known this was coming for a while, and after a brief spell in beta, it’s now available to all Xbox users. If you’ve got a Google Assistant Home-enabled device, you’ll be able to turn your console on and off, launch games and apps and control videos using your voice, and the usual "Hey, Google…" command.

Also in the update are gamertag improvements for console, following the PC update that saw the addition of 13 worldwide alphabets and a new display option. These are now supported on profiles, friends lists, messages, clubs and more. Current players can keep their existing Xbox tag without having to do anything.

Xbox has also introduced customizable text filters, so you get to decide what’s acceptable and what isn’t in the text-based messages you receive. There are four filter levels, ranging from friendly (keep it clean), through medium, mature and unfiltered (where anything goes). Xbox is keen to stress that players can still report messages that violate community standards, though, regardless of the filter level you choose. Configure your message safety by going to Settings > General > Online safety & family > Privacy & online safety > Message safety.

Other update changes include Mixer viewing improvements — you can move Mixer chat around your screen or hide it altogether — plus additional languages support for voice-to-text dictation, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, Norweigian, Portuguese, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. More are set to arrive with future updates.

Elsewhere, the Settings menu has had a makeover in aid of simplicity and ease of use, and a number of new console set up improvements mean that from now onwards, gamers who buy a brand new Xbox One will have the option to customize their Xbox One’s language, time zone, power settings, and more through the Xbox app for iOS or Android while the Xbox console is installing the latest system update. So that’s less time messing around, and more time gaming.

Source: Xbox

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

November 15, 2019 at 10:12AM

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Google is Done Waiting for Carriers, Rolls Out RCS to US in Messages Today

https://www.droid-life.com/2019/11/14/google-is-done-waiting-for-carriers-rolls-out-rcs-in-messages-today/

Google Messages RCS

Google is doing it, they are finally doing it. RCS is broadly rolling out to the US through Google’s Messages app starting today.

Google shared the news with us this morning in a somewhat striking turn of events. You may recall that as they began rolling out RCS to the UK, France, and Mexico earlier this year, they would not commit to doing the same in the US without the help of US carriers. But we can’t help but wonder if this new forced rollout is happening because all of the carriers announced a few short weeks ago that they were teaming up to do their own RCS thing, without Google’s participation.

Not familiar with RCS? I don’t know where you’ve been for the past year, but Rich Communication Services (RCS) is the new advanced messaging service that Google, carriers, and phone makers have been supposedly trying to push for years as the replacement for standard text messaging. It allows you to get read receipts, see if others are typing, share high-res imagery and video, and participate in better group sessions. It works with your carrier number and is being referred to as “Chat.”

Starting today, RCS or “Chat” works within Google’s own Messages app. There is a chance that other messaging apps will gain these RCS abilities, but this is where we are starting. Also, as I mentioned above, the carriers are teaming up to push their own RCS service and app that will more than likely be awful and filled with spammy business integrations.

Speaking of that carrier option, we asked Google if their approach changed since that announcement and a Google spokesperson shared the following:

We’ve been in close touch with the carriers on this step and continue to work with them to provide a consistent and interoperable experience for everyone on Android.

It’s technically possible for us to migrate to partner RCS services and we are committed to working with our partners to ensure that users have a great experience, and are happy to interop with their service, including migrating to their service.

For you to get RCS from Google, you’ll simply need to install the Google (Android) Messages app from Google Play. If you don’t see it almost immediately, a prompt will show up in the coming weeks asking if you’d like to enable “Chat” features. You can try and manually turn on “Chat” ahead of time by opening Messages, tapping the top right menu, then Settings, then “Chat features.”

RCS Chat Messages

What if you forced your way into RCS a few weeks back, thanks to that nifty little trick that made the internet rounds? You should be fine and everything you should continue to work if not better. If you are worried, you could clear data on the Messages app (you won’t lose your text messages) and then re-enroll officially without the need of that Activity Launcher app.

We’re here, guys! RCS is here, carriers be damned.

Google Play Link

via Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog https://ift.tt/2dLq79c

November 14, 2019 at 11:00AM

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Google Maps translate feature will speak local place-names

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1601995

This new speaker button in Google Maps will verbally speak the location's name and address.
Enlarge /

This new speaker button in Google Maps will verbally speak the location’s name and address.

Traveling the world but don’t speak the local language? Google Maps should be a bit more useful soon, thanks to some new integration with Google Translate.

Typically if you’re in a foreign-language country, Google Maps will show the English place-name followed by the name in the local language below it. Sometime this month, Google Maps will get a new speaker button next to the local place-name, which will fire up Google Translate’s text-to-speech engine. Until now, if you needed to communicate with a driver or ask for directions, you might have handed over your smartphone and let them read the screen. Now, though, you’ll be able to have your phone shout out the pronunciation in a synthesized Google Translate voice, or you can practice pronouncing the name yourself beforehand.

This all happens in a new pop-up window, which lets your phone speak the place-name or address in the local language.There’s also a handy “get more translations” button at the bottom, which will kick you out to the full Google Translate app. The language selection is all based on the locale chosen in your system settings, which is then compared to the local language of the place you’re looking up.

Google says the feature will “be rolling out this month on Android and iOS with support for 50 languages and more on the way.”

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

November 14, 2019 at 10:44AM

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NASA report finds Boeing seat prices are 60% higher than SpaceX

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1602219

People in safety gear work on a spacecraft mockup in the desert.
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Teams from NASA, Boeing, and the White Sands Missile Range rehearse landing and crew extraction from Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.

On Thursday, NASA’s inspector general released a report on the space agency’s commercial crew program, which seeks to pay Boeing and SpaceX to develop vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.

Although the report cites the usual technical issues that the companies are having with the development of their respective Starliner and Dragon spacecraft, far more illuminating is its discussion of costs. Notably, the report publishes estimated seat prices for the first time, and it also delves into the extent that Boeing has gone to extract more money from NASA above and beyond its fixed-price award.

Boeing’s per-seat price already seemed like it would cost more than SpaceX. The company has received a total of $4.82 billion from NASA over the lifetime of the commercial crew program, compared to $3.14 billion for SpaceX. However, for the first time the government has published a per-seat price: $90 million for Starliner and $55 million for Dragon. Each capsule is expected to carry four astronauts to the space station during a nominal mission.

Comparison of Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Dragon vehicles.

Comparison of Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon vehicles.

NASA Inspector General

What is notable about Boeing’s price is that it is also higher than what NASA has paid the Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, for Soyuz spacecraft seats to fly US and partner-nation astronauts to the space station. Overall, NASA paid Russia an average cost per seat of $55.4 million for the 70 completed and planned missions from 2006 through 2020. Since 2017, NASA has paid an average of $79.7 million.

Beyond these seat prices, Inspector General Paul Martin’s report also notes that Boeing received additional funding from NASA, above and beyond its fixed-price award.

“Not consistent”

“We found that NASA agreed to pay an additional $287.2 million above Boeing’s fixed prices to mitigate a perceived 18-month gap in ISS flights anticipated in 2019 and to ensure the contractor continued as a second commercial crew provider, without offering similar opportunities to SpaceX,” the report states.

According to Martin, who had extensive access to NASA officials in the preparation of the report, Boeing in 2016 proposed pricing for its third through sixth crewed missions using the “single 2016 mission price,” which was substantially higher than NASA and Boeing had originally agreed upon. In response to this, NASA’s Office of Procurement determined this was “not consistent with the terms of the contract and did not match the contract’s fixed-price table.”

However, Boeing continued to press NASA for additional funding. After “prolonged negotiations,” according to Martin, Boeing offered some benefits to NASA, such as reduced lead times before the missions and a variable launch cadence. NASA then agreed to pay the additional $287.2 million for these four missions, which are likely to fly in the early 2020s.

Perhaps the most striking rationale for approving the additional funds was that Boeing may have discussed backing out of the commercial crew program (CCP). Martin writes, “According to several NASA officials, a significant consideration for paying Boeing such a premium was to ensure the contractor continued as a second crew transportation provider. CCP officials cited NASA’s guidance to maintain two US commercial crew providers to ensure redundancy in crew transportation as part of the rationale for approving the purchase of all four missions at higher prices.”

A spokesman for Boeing, Josh Barrett, denied that Boeing had threatened to end its commercial crew participation. ”Boeing has made significant investments in the commercial crew program, and we are fully committed to flying the CST-100 Starliner and keeping the International Space Station fully crewed and operational,” he told Ars.

The report notes that as NASA was agreeing to pay Boeing extra for these benefits, a similar deal was not offered to SpaceX. “In contrast, SpaceX was not notified of this change in requirements and was not provided an opportunity to propose similar capabilities that could have resulted in less cost or broader mission flexibilities,” Martin writes.

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

November 14, 2019 at 03:00PM