Grandmother killer whales boost survival of calves BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:30 pm)

The "grandmother effect" was even stronger with grandmothers that had gone through the menopause.
NHS Gives Amazon Free Use of Health Data Under Alexa Advice Deal Slashdotby msmash on medicine at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2019, 11:05 pm)

Amazon has been given free access to healthcare information collected by the NHS as part of a contract with the government. The material, which excludes patient data, could allow the multinational technology company to make, advertise and sell its own products. From a report: In July the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said a partnership with the NHS that allowed Amazon Alexa devices to offer expert health advice to users would reduce pressure on "our hard-working GPs and pharmacists." But responses to freedom of information requests, published by the Sunday Times, showed the contract will also allow the company access to information on symptoms, causes and definitions of conditions, and "all related copyrightable content and data and other materials." Amazon, which is worth $863bn and is run by the world's richest person, Jeff Bezos, can then create "new products, applications, cloud-based services and/or distributed software," which the NHS would not benefit from financially. It can also share the information with third parties. Labour's shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, told the Sunday Times that the government was "highly irresponsible" and "in the pocket of big corporate interests."

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Is India's proposed citizenship law anti-Muslim? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:00 pm)

Government says the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill will protect minorities, opponents say it discriminates.
Florida city hit with cyberattack after deadly naval base attack AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:00 pm)

Officials expressed caution about linking the two incidents, while keeping possibility of connection open.
US officials privately voiced concerns about Afghan war: report AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:00 pm)

Documents from a federal project obtained by The Washington Post examine the failures of the long-running war.
Does Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed deserve the Nobel Prize for Peace? AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:00 pm)

Ethiopian prime minister set to receive award in Norway's capital, but his win has generated a mixed reaction.
'Brexit identity' more important to voters than party allegiance AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:00 pm)

The 2016 referendum left the UK deeply divided.
EU's new chief diplomat urged to consider Palestine statehood AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 11:00 pm)

Josep Borrell should restart the debate over recognising Palestine's statehood, said Luxembourg's foreign minister.
Scientists Dodge FDA To Offer a $1 Million Anti-Aging Treatment in Colombia Slashdotby msmash on business at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2019, 10:35 pm)

Would you pay $1 million and fly to South America for a chance to live longer? From a report: Libella Gene Therapeutics, a Kansas-based company that says it is developing a gene therapy that can reverse aging by up to 20 years, is hoping your answer is yes. In an interview with OneZero, the company says it is ready to give an experimental anti-aging therapy to older people at a clinic north of Bogota, Colombia. But that's not all -- it's also charging people $1 million to participate. Scientists and ethicists say the company's experiment is not only dubious but it also raises concerns about how anti-aging treatments should be tested in people. The aim of Libella's therapy is to lengthen a person's telomeres, which sit at the tips of chromosomes like caps on the end of shoelaces. First discovered in the 1970s, telomeres have been linked to aging because they seem to shorten as a person gets older. By delivering a gene called TERT to cells, which in turn makes a telomere-rebuilding enzyme called telomerase, Libella thinks it can prevent, delay, or even reverse aging. "I know what we're trying to do sounds like science fiction, but I believe it's a science reality," Jeff Mathis, CEO of Libella Gene Therapeutics, tells OneZero. Libella's therapy is based on studies published by American geneticist Ronald DePinho in 2010 and Spanish scientist Maria Blasco in 2012, which found that telomerase gene therapy could reverse signs of aging in mice. While intriguing, many have dismissed the idea of using gene therapy to reverse aging in humans because it would involve a permanent change to a person's DNA, a risk that's hard to justify in someone who's healthy. Behind Libella's technology is Bill Andrews, a molecular biologist who, 20 years ago, led a research group at the Bay Area biotech firm Geron to identify the human telomerase enzyme. He tells OneZero that he developed a telomerase gene therapy and licensed the technology to Libella. "I can't say it's the only cause of aging, but it plays a role in humans," he says about telomere shortening.

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Pete Frates, man who championed ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, dies AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 10:30 pm)

Frates is credited with popularising the viral challenge that raised more than $220m for ALS research.
The Price of Recycling Old Laptops: Toxic Fumes in Thailand's Lungs Slashdotby msmash on earth at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2019, 10:05 pm)

The e-waste industry is booming in Southeast Asia, frightening residents worried for their health. Despite a ban on imports, Thailand is a center of the business. From a report: Crouched on the ground in a dimly lit factory, the women picked through the discarded innards of the modern world: batteries, circuit boards and bundles of wires. They broke down the scrap -- known as e-waste -- with hammers and raw hands. Men, some with faces wrapped in rags to repel the fumes, shoveled the refuse into a clanking machine that salvages usable metal. As they toiled, smoke spewed over nearby villages and farms. Residents have no idea what is in the smoke: plastic, metal, who knows? All they know is that it stinks and they feel sick. The factory, New Sky Metal, is part of a thriving e-waste industry across Southeast Asia, born of China's decision to stop accepting the world's electronic refuse, which was poisoning its land and people. Thailand in particular has become a center of the industry even as activists push back and its government wrestles to balance competing interests of public safety with the profits to be made from the lucrative trade. Last year, Thailand banned the import of foreign e-waste. Yet new factories are opening across the country, and tons of e-waste are being processed, environmental monitors and industry experts say. "E-waste has to go somewhere," said Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network, which campaigns against trash dumping in poor countries, "and the Chinese are simply moving their entire operations to Southeast Asia."

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When a DNA Test Says You're a Younger Man, Who Lives 5,000 Miles Away Slashdotby msmash on crime at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2019, 10:05 pm)

After a bone marrow transplant, a man with leukemia found that his donor's DNA traveled to unexpected parts of his body. A crime lab is now studying the case. From a report: Three months after his bone marrow transplant, Chris Long of Reno, Nev., learned that the DNA in his blood had changed. It had all been replaced by the DNA of his donor, a German man he had exchanged just a handful of messages with. He'd been encouraged to test his blood by a colleague at the Sheriff's Office, where he worked. She had an inkling this might happen. It's the goal of the procedure, after all: Weak blood is replaced by healthy blood, and with it, the DNA it contains. But four years after his lifesaving procedure, it was not only Mr. Long's blood that was affected. Swabs of his lips and cheeks contained his DNA -- but also that of his donor. Even more surprising to Mr. Long and other colleagues at the crime lab, all of the DNA in his semen belonged to his donor. "I thought that it was pretty incredible that I can disappear and someone else can appear," he said. Mr. Long had become a chimera, the technical term for the rare person with two sets of DNA. The word takes its name from a fire-breathing creature in Greek mythology composed of lion, goat and serpent parts. Doctors and forensic scientists have long known that certain medical procedures turn people into chimeras, but where exactly a donor's DNA shows up -- beyond blood -- has rarely been studied with criminal applications in mind.

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Iraqis rally for slain activist as Baghdad summons Western envoys AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 10:00 pm)

Fahem al-Tai was killed in a drive-by shooting in Iraq's shrine city of Karbala while returning home from protests.
Microsoft Will Shut Down To-do App Wunderlist on May 6 Slashdotby msmash on microsoft at January 1, 1970, 1:00 am (cached at December 9, 2019, 9:35 pm)

Over two and a half years after Microsoft said it'd one day kill to-do service Wunderlist in favor of its own To Do app, it has revealed when it'll drop the ax: May 6th. From a report: After that time, Wunderlist's to-do lists won't sync anymore and you'll have a limited time to export lists from there into To Do. As of today, Microsoft won't accept any more sign-ups for Wunderlist. Microsoft bought Wunderlist creator 6Wunderkinder in 2015 and announced To Do (or To-Do, as it was known then) in April 2017. It launched a redesigned version of To Do in September, which brought the service closer in line with Wunderlist's feature set while deepening its integration with several Microsoft services, including Outlook, Microsoft Planner and Cortana. Further reading: Wunderlist Founder Wants To Buy His App Back.

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Two years after ISIL defeat, Mosul still in ruins AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)(cached at December 9, 2019, 8:30 pm)

The victory over ISIL is overshadowed by the slow pace of reconstruction and lack of services in the Sunni north.