Month: January 2018

Under a new bill introduced this week, every single new car sold in California after 2040 would be an emission-free vehicle. The bill, introduced by San Francisco Assemblyman Phil Ting, is in line with Governor Jerry Brown’s goal for 1.5 million zero-emission cars on the state’s roads by 2025.

In a statement, Ting said that, "We’re at an inflection point: We’ve got to address the harmful emissions that cause climate change", and noted that vehicles that run on fossil fuels are responsible for nearly 40 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions.

If the bill is passed, the sale of new passenger vehicles powered by fossil fuels would be banned from January 1 2040, helping the state to achieve its target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

California is already home to some 300,000 electric vehicles, but eliminating the sale of fossil fuel cars — even within 22 years — seems like an ambitious target. Around 2.1 million vehicles were sold in 2016 and just 1.9 percent of those were zero-emission. However, it’s not entirely unachievable — the UK and Germany have already put similar measures in place. Cost and infrastructure remain top concerns for buyers looking at green vehicles, so legislation like this is at least giving carmakers a renewed focus on these issues.

Via: San Francisco Chronicle

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Apparently, around 2 million Americans can’t work because of tinnitus, and it’s also the most common service-connected disability in veterans. The condition doesn’t have a cure yet, but those suffering from it might not have to endure all the phantom ringing, clicking and hissing for life, thanks to a device developed by researchers from the University of Michigan. Their creation treats tinnitus by using precisely timed sounds and weak electrical pulses designed to persuade damaged nerves in the region of the brainstem called dorsal cochlear nucleus into working correctly again.

Team leader and U-M Medical School professor Susan Shore explained:

"When the main neurons in [the dorsal cochlear nucleus], called fusiform cells, become hyperactive and synchronize with one another, the phantom signal is transmitted into other centers where perception occurs.

If we can stop these signals, we can stop tinnitus. That is what our approach attempts to do…"

The team tested the small, box-like device on guinea pigs first before testing it on 20 tinnitus patients who used it 30 minutes every day for four weeks. It played a sound into the ears and alternated it with precisely timed, mild electrical pulses to the cheek or neck for half the patients. The other half only received sounds. They found that the loudness of the phantom sounds decreased by 12 decibels — that’s as loud as the hum of a light bulb — in some of the patients who received both sounds and electrical pulses. A couple of subjects even said their tinnitus disappeared completely. However, those who only received sounds didn’t report a change in their condition.

Due to the way their device works, it can only treat somatic tinnitus. People who have this variant can modulate the phantom ringing/hissing they hear by pressing a part of their face and forehead or clenching their jaw. Thankfully, studies say two-thirds of tinnitus patients suffer from somatic forms of the condition, making their device a promising treatment for most people. The researchers are trying to find a way to make it work just as well for nonsomatic patients, though. They’re also conducting more studies and tests to figure out how to make its effects last longer, since the testers’ symptoms came back after a couple of weeks.

Shore said:

"We’re definitely encouraged by these results, but we need to optimize the length of treatments, identify which subgroups of patients may benefit most, and determine if this approach works in patients who have nonsomatic forms of the condition that can’t be modulated by head and neck maneuvers."

Source: University of Michigan (1), (2)

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The bill aimed to curb online sex trafficking has gained support from 60 senators, which means it has enough backing to withstand a filibuster once it reaches the floor. Both republican and democrat lawmakers have put their weight behind the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, with three additional members of the GOP backing it this week Bloomberg reports. Previously, the Internet Association (which counts Amazon, Facebook and Google as members) was opposed to any changes to the Communications Decency Act’s Section 230, but in November the organization changed its tune after vague wording was cleared up.

If the bill passes, it’ll mean that a website can’t use safe harbor rules if it "knowingly" aids in sex trafficking, a la Backpage’s sex listings.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been fighting the bill, saying that it will actually undermine law enforcement efforts to combat trafficking. The EFF argues that taking these sites offline would eliminate venues for apprehending johns and purveyors of underage sex.

There’s also a worry that the senate bill and a similar House bill (Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act; FOSTA) passing could harm free speech. The concern is this could lead to a crackdown on posts for any type of sex work, "regardless if there’s any indication of force or coercion, or whether minors were involved," the advocacy group wrote in December.

"Like SESTA, the proposed new FOSTA bill would result in platforms becoming more restrictive in how they manage their online communities," it said. "And like SESTA, it would do nothing to fight sex traffickers."

SESTA’s main supporters, Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are urging colleagues for quick passage. The senators would like to see the bill become law as soon as possible given that the president named January National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month this week.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Rob Portman

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Back in the day, a show leaving Netflix (like the exodus of the beloved Battlestar Galactica reboot in 2014) meant you could only revisit it by buying a collection. But Hulu spent the latter half of 2016 scooping up big-name shows that left Netflix like Bob’s Burgers, Futurama, 30 Rock and Parenthood. Today, they scored another hit show that once enthralled network viewers nationwide: Lost.

It’s been over seven years since the show aired its finale; And yes, Lost has become a byword for mystery shows with huge promises and few answers. But the show was, is, and shall be a treasure — a series that tonally jogged between humor, terror, action and romance with erratic grace and occasional brilliance. In retrospect, Lost is nowhere near as cohesive as other highly-lauded shows, but its cocktail of supernatural events and all-too-human drama was potent enough to rule watercooler conversations for its whole six-season run. (And yes, I have been dying on this hill since it aired.)

You’ll never be able to tune in alongside millions of fans again, but the show’s existential quandaries are timeless. But should you want to fire up the pilot and join the 2004 zeitgeist, you can catch Lost on Hulu now.

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Back in the spring of 2016, the BBC announced it would be axing various periphery websites and apps in an effort to save £15 million in upkeep costs. One of the items on the chopping block was recipe site BBC Food, the news of which sparked a public backlash and petition to save it, reminiscent of the campaign that kept Radio 6 Music on air the previous decade. In reaction to this, the BBC was quick to clarify the catalogue of over 11,000 recipes would remain accessible through the Good Food site, the online complement to the print magazine of the same name, run by commercial arm BBC Worldwide.

Whether the recipes would be easily searchable and filterable by ingredient, chef and programme, as well as what was to happen to other handy features like video tutorials, was unclear. But these questions no longer need answering, as the broadcaster has now confirmed BBC Food is going nowhere, and will remain online and updated just as you’ve always known it.

"We have made the £15m savings we needed to find from our online services, including changes such as stopping the iWonder service, closing the travel site and stopping developing a travel app, and closing the Newsbeat app, and we’re focusing on high quality, distinctive services as we said we would. Following the audience reaction to the BBC Food proposal in 2016, we said we’d preserve the recipes. The savings for closing the site were small compared to the sizable audience impact, and as the public has continued to have an appetite for our recipes, we have kept the site," the BBC said in a statement.

As The Times notes, not all planned closures have been completed on schedule. Regional news index pages were supposed to be replaced by liveblog-style sites linking to stories from local news outlets alongside BBC reports. Currently, both run in tandem. Similarly, while the Newsbeat app is no more, the site is still live and regularly updated. These are all due to go dark within the next few months, however, with the BBC blaming "technical complexities" for the delays.

When the BBC announced it was to cull some sites and services in 2016, the motive wasn’t just to cut running costs. It was also part of an effort to make the broadcaster’s output more "distinctive," making better use of the licence fee in the spirit of the BBC’s Royal Charter. That meant winding down investment in areas where the BBC duplicates information that’s available elsewhere. In the worst cases, a local rag might not survive if people can get the same news from the BBC’s regional teams.

On a less serious note, recipes can be found all over the internet, hence BBC Food being earmarked for archiving. As the broadcaster discovered, however, the site has an adoring audience — and a vocal one at that. So next time you look at the mishmash of ingredients in your fridge with a blank expression, BBC Food will be where it always was, telling you what you can throw together with what you have. And when you decide you’re not in the mood for that, there’s always Deliveroo.

Via: The Times (paywalled)

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Neutrogena has unveiled a device that attaches to your iPhone and can tell you more about your skin issues and convince you to (wait for it) buy more Neutrogena products. The SkinScanner from the Johnson & Johnson-owned company attaches to the top of an iPhone, and can take a magnified image of your skin and measure the moisture content. An AI-enabled app called Skin 360 then analyzes the data and gives your skin a 0 to 100 rating and show how it’s improving over time.

Skin scanners are nothing new, as you can find them in spas and cosmetics stores like Sephora. However, the SkinScanner makes the concept cheaper and more consumer-friendly by sticking it on a smartphone. By doing so, Neutrogena is targeting younger users who are comfortable with tech and don’t necessarily buy creams or cosmetics the traditional way.

The device uses 12 LED lights, a 30x magnifier and a moisture detector at the edge of the camera. To use it, you just open up the Skin 360 app, place it directly against your skin and grab some images. The resulting (very) closeup photos show your pores, wrinkles and moisture in (possibly shocking) detail.

From there, the app’s built-in AI compares your skin to other folks your age and assigns a maximum score of 100 for the aforementioned categories. Clicking on the "improve" button will, naturally, take you to Neutrogena’s store, when you can pick up products to fix your problems.

It’s probably not healthy to obsess on your pores and wrinkles, and as we noted with the Way skin sensor, the solution for dry skin is generally to drink more water. And while the tech is kind of cool, as with much of the beauty industry, it seems designed to make you feel bad about yourself so that you’ll spend more money. Nevertheless, it’s not terribly expensive at $50, so it might be worth a go for some. Neutrogena will be showing it at CES 2018, so we’ll try to get an, um, closer look.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

Source: Neutrogena

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Google’s search engine might be banned in China, but it’s been finding more and more ways to establish its presence in the country. Its latest effort is leading a $120 million investment in Chushou, a Chinese online e-sports platform that specializes in mobile game livestreams. The website is already pretty big, with 8 million users and as many as 250,000 livestreams a day, and it’s unclear what percentage of total funding came from Google. According to CNBC, though, the big G will help the platform grow even bigger, more international, in order to make it look more inviting to potential users outside China.

So far, the number of mobile gamers in China is almost double the number of people in the US, so Chushou definitely has the potential to become a proper Twitch competitor. Livestreaming is immensely popular in China, as well — Chushou rival Douyu TV, for instance, says it has around 30 million daily active users. That makes Google’s new ally look tiny in comparison.

Back in 2015, Google also joined a $75 million funding round for Beijing-based AI startup Mobvoi. It’s a small company, but it’s already released an Assistant-capable smart home device and a decent $100 Android Wear smartwatch. Last year, Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo competed against top Chinese Go players in the province of Zhejiang, and the company also opened an AI lab in Beijing.

Source: CNBC

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