107971622
submission
Major Blud writes:
A newly discovered extinct species of human has been found in the Philippines. It's been named Homo Luzonensis, after the island of Luzon where it was found.
Homo Erectus has long thought to have been the first member of our direct line to leave the African homeland — around 1.9 million years ago. The physical features of Homo Luzonensis are a mixture of those found in very ancient human ancestors and in more recent people. This could mean primitive human relatives left Africa and made it all the way to South-East Asia, something not previously thought possible, since Luzon was only ever accessible by sea.
107944826
submission
Major Blud writes:
New York's mayor has declared a public health emergency following a measles outbreak. All residents in the affected areas have been told to get vaccinated or face a fine. Under the order, any person living in the affected areas who has not been vaccinated must be immunised within 48 hours. Parents of children older than six months must get them vaccinated or show proof of immunisation.
There have been 285 cases in the area since 30 September. Of those infected, 246 were children, New York health commissioner Oxiris Barbot said.
102618798
submission
Major Blud writes:
Multiple news outlets are reporting that Theranos, the company that promised to revolutionize healthcare with new blood testing devices, is closing shop. The company was unable to sell itself and is now looking to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash of about $5 million in the upcoming months. The CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, and President/COO Ramesh Balwani recently settled a civil suit with the SEC, which charged them with massive fraud related their seeking investment based on misleading information regarding the accuracy of their "Edison" diagnostic equipment.
99653251
submission
Major Blud writes:
CNBC is reporting that Amazon Business, which considered selling pharmaceutical products after considering it last year, has put it's plans to do so on hiatus.
The change in plan comes partly because Amazon has not been able to convince big hospitals to change their traditional purchasing process, which typically involves a number of middlemen and loyal relationships. Amazon was able to gain licensing in 47 out of the 50 U.S. states, but has struggles to land contracts with large hospital networks.
"The setback illustrates the challenges of getting into the medical supply and pharmaceutical space, even for a company as big as Amazon. Several health-care and pharmaceutical distribution companies saw their stock take a nosedive following recent reports of Amazon potentially getting into the space, but it will likely take some time before those concerns turn into real threats."
83542239
submission
Major Blud writes:
Theranos, the company valued at $9 billion that promised to revolutionize the way blood testing is done, has just announced that it has withdrawn all of the test done using it's Edison machine that have been performed in 2014 and 2015. The company has recently come under fire from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the inaccuracy and unreliability of the machine, and threatened to revoke the company's license as well as ban CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes, and its president and COO, Sunny Balwani, from blood testing.
83111129
submission
Major Blud writes:
TiVo, maker of one of the first consumer DVR's has been purchased by IP powerhouse Rovi (formerly known as Macrovision) for $1.1 Billion. The combined company will go by the TiVo name. Shares of Rovi (ROVI) were up 3.7% to $17.99 in premarket trading. TiVo (TIVO) shares closed Thursday up 2% to $9.42.
71840345
submission
Major Blud writes:
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the Fair Play Fair Pay Act today that would end regulations that don't require terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to artists and labels. Currently, AM/FM radio stations aren't required to pay royalties to publishers and songwriters. The proposed measure requires stations that earn less than $1 million a year in revenue to pay $500 annually. For nonprofit public, college and other non-commercial broadcasters, the fee would be $100 per year — religious and talk stations being exempt from any payments. Larger radio companies like iHeartMedia (858 stations in the US) would have to pay more.
"The current system is antiquated and broken. It pits technologies against each other, and allows certain services to get away with paying little or nothing to artists. For decades, AM/FM radio has used whatever music it wants without paying a cent to the musicians, vocalists, and labels that created it. Satellite radio has paid below market royalties for the music it uses, growing into a multibillion dollar business on the back of an illogical ‘grandfathered’ royalty standard that is now almost two decades old,” said Congressman Nadler.
61336071
submission
Major Blud writes:
Harley-Davidson unveiled their first electric motorcycle today. The bike is currently not for sale and detailed specifications are scarce, but Harley plans on taking it on a demonstration tour of the U.S. for the next year to gather customer feedback.
55451317
submission
Major Blud writes:
CNet is reporting that Radionomy has purchased both Winamp and Shoutcast from AOL for an undisclosed sum. Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian said in a statement. "Its role is clear in the future evolution of online media — we plan to make the player ubiquitous, developing new functionalities dedicated to desktop, mobile, car systems, connected devices, and all other platforms."
8922074
submission
Major Blud writes:
CNN is running an opinion piece on their front page from security technologist Bruce Schneier in which he suggest that "In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access."
His opinion piece is short on sources, and the common belief is that a flaw in IE was the main attack method. Has this come up elsewhere?
