Scientists created a monoclonal antibody that can defeat the new coronavirus in the lab, an early but promising step in efforts to find treatments and curb the pandemic's spread. From a report: The experimental antibody has neutralized the virus in cell cultures. While that's early in the drug development process -- before animal research and human trials -- the antibody may help prevent or treat Covid-19 and related diseases in the future, either alone or in a drug combination, according to a study [PDF] published Monday in the journal Nature Communications. More research is needed to see whether the findings are confirmed in a clinical setting and how precisely the antibody defeats the virus, Berend-Jan Bosch of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and colleagues wrote in the paper. The antibody known as 47D11 targets the spike protein that gives the new coronavirus a crown-like shape and lets it enter human cells. In the Utrecht experiments, it didn't just defeat the virus responsible for Covid-19 but also a cousin equipped with similar spike proteins, which causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

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An anonymous reader writes: Hackers have gained access to the core infrastructure of LineageOS, a mobile operating system based on Android, used for smartphones, tablets, and set-top boxes. The intrusion took place on Saturday night at around 8 pm (US Pacific coast), and was detected before the attackers could do any harm, the LineageOS team said in a statement published less than three hours after the incident. The LineageOS team said the operating system's source code was unaffected, and so were any operating system builds, which had been already paused since April 30, because of an unrelated issue. Signing keys, used to authenticate official OS distributions, were also unaffected, as these hosts were stored separately from the LineageOS main infrastructure. LineageOS developers said the hack took place after the attacker used an unpatched vulnerability to breach its Salt installation.

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Microsoft is confirming today that it's planning to refocus Windows 10X on single-screen devices. "The world is a very different place than it was last October when we shared our vision for a new category of dual-screen Windows devices," explains Panos Panay, Microsoft's Windows and devices chief. From a report: "With Windows 10X, we designed for flexibility, and that flexibility has enabled us to pivot our focus toward single-screen Windows 10X devices that leverage the power of the cloud to help our customers work, learn and play in new ways." Microsoft isn't saying exactly when single-screen devices like laptops will support Windows 10X, nor when dual-screen devices will launch with the OS. However, Windows 10X will launch on single-screen devices first. "We will continue to look for the right moment, in conjunction with our OEM partners, to bring dual-screen devices to market," says Panay. Microsoft is reprioritizing Windows 10X for laptops and single-screen devices because of the coronavirus pandemic. The software maker has seen a 75 percent year-over-year increase in the time spent in Windows 10. More people are turning to using their laptops or PCs instead of a smartphone or tablet during the lockdowns we've seen worldwide to work or study.

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Academics from an Israeli university have published new research last week showing how an attacker could turn a computer's power supply unit into a rudimentary speaker that can secretly transmit data from an infected host using audio waves. From a report: The technique, named POWER-SUPPLaY, is the work of Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. Over the last half-decade, Guri has been pioneering research into new covert data exfiltration channels. The techniques Guri has been developing can be used for stealing data through unconventional means. Guri has been developing these techniques specifically for extracting data from air-gapped systems -- computers isolated on local networks with no internet access. Such computers are often used on government or corporate networks to store sensitive data, such as classified files or intellectual property. Air-gapped systems are protected by several layers of defenses, on top of the "air gap," and you need novel data transmission techniques to go around these defenses. For example, some air-gapped systems don't have speakers, because it's been proven in the past that speakers could be abused to leak information from a secure system using inaudible sound waves.

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Lincoln Project: Mourning in America.

In June 2019, a group of cybersecurity researchers notified Google of more than 1,000 potentially malicious apps on the company's Play Store that can be used to surveil, monitor, and harass users. Their findings, which have not previously been reported, eventually led to one of the largest ever mass removals of Android apps. Less than a year later, there are signs that the "creeperware," as the researchers called it, is returning. From a report: The label comprises a broad category of abusable apps, including tools for spying, spoofing phone numbers, and secretly recording video and audio. Some of those programs banned by Google have now rebranded or added disclaimers and returned to the Play Store. Meanwhile, new programs with overtly abusive purposes have slipped through the company's automated monitoring systems. The initial 1,095 apps flagged by researchers came in a variety of forms. Catch Cheating Spouse and its ilk offered stalkerware packages: Once installed on a victim's phone, the user could track the device's location, read messages, listen to calls, remotely record through the microphone, or log passwords. Many of the programs had innocuous names but hostile purposes. Spoof Text Message, for example, advertised itself with a video using the tagline "Don't like your buddy's girlfriend? Well, break them up!" Others, like GirlFriend Cell Tracker, were more explicit in their motivation. "When we reported these apps to Google initially, it felt like they didn't really know what to do with them," said Kevin Roundy, the technical director of NortonLifeLock's research group, and one of the lead members of the team that uncovered the malicious apps last June.

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Think about the moment in 2008 when future-president Obama spoke to explain what happened when his pastor was discovered to have said some true but unpleasant things about race in America.

Obama put it in context, honestly, sympathetically, passionately, forcefully and presidentially. We need a moment like that, for gender. To validate the grievances of women, but also to test every accusation carefully, with justice, in the way envisioned by our Constitution.

In something as consequential as a presidential election, there has to be a time when you must speak or forever hold your peace. To make the accusation at the point when it can do the greatest damage not just to the candidate, but to the country, even to the world, we can't allow that. Even if Biden did what he's accused of, the choice of timing, when it was sure to do the greatest damage, is a much greater abuse with much larger consequences.

The press only looks at these things from the point of view of the two parties, and as a result the conversations we have about it often ignore our own point of view. With all the death and disease and economic hardship, all the fear and a complete void of leadership in the US government, we can't ignore our own interests.

We have to stay on course to at least have a chance to right this by November if not sooner. This is not the time to stop and self-destruct. We have to be smarter and more willful than that.

McGruber shares a report: Tim Bray, a well known senior engineer and Vice President at Amazon has "quit in dismay" because Amazon has been "firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19." In an open letter on his website, Bray, who has worked at the company for nearly six years, called Amazon "chickenshit" for firing and disparaging employees who have organized protests. He also said the firings are "designed to create a climate of fear." Bray is one of the co-authors of XML specification.

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Sooner than expected, Apple has announced a new 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Magic Keyboard. It features optional Intel 10th Gen processors and starts at $1,299. In one sense, it is a minor spec-bump upgrade for the existing lineup of 13-inch MacBook Pros. But it also represents the end of an era: Apple no longer sells any new laptops with the much-maligned butterfly keyboard mechanism. From a report: Apple has moved relatively quickly to cycle out the butterfly keyboard from its lineup. The 16-inch MacBook Pro was announced in November 2019, followed by a refreshed MacBook Air with Magic Keyboard this past March. In the span of six months, Apple has completely swapped out its entire laptop lineup with models that use better scissor-switch keyboards. Compare that to the five years it spent trying to make the butterfly keyboard mechanism work since the 2015 MacBook (now discontinued). As with the last MacBook Pro, Apple is sticking with Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C connectors, two or four of them in total (plus a headphone jack). The Touch Bar also remains for better or worse, alongside a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and -- praise be -- a real, physical Esc key. The RAM can be upgraded to 32GB and the storage can be specced all the way up to 4TB. Apple says that 10th Gen Intel processors have a turbo boost up to 4.1Ghz and that the new Intel Iris graphics support the Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution.

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My SNL-awareness is spotty. I didn't learn about Kate McKinnon or Bill Hader until they had already been on the show for years. Same with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and so many others. Well, over the weekend, I discovered the Whiskers R We series. OMG. They're so good. Two lesbian cat rescue ladies, a different partner for McKinnon's character, Barbara DeDrew. every time.

Think about the moment in 2008 when future-president Obama spoke to explain what happened when his pastor was discovered to have said some true but unpleasant things about race in America.

Obama put it in context, honestly, sympathetically, passionately, forcefully and presidentially. We need a moment like that, for gender. To validate the grievances of women, but also to test every accusation carefully, with justice, in the way envisioned by our Constitution.

In something as consequential as a presidential election, there has to be a time when you must speak or forever hold your peace. To make the accusation at the point when it can do the greatest damage not just to the candidate, but to the country, even to the world, we can't allow that. Even if Biden did what he's accused of, the choice of timing, when it was sure to do the greatest damage, is a much greater abuse with much larger consequences.

The press only looks at these things from the point of view of the two parties, and as a result the conversations we have about it often ignore our own point of view. With all the death and disease and economic hardship, all the fear and a complete void of leadership in the US government, we can't ignore our own interests.

We have to stay on course to at least have a chance to right this by November if not sooner. This is not the time to stop and self-destruct. We have to be smarter and more willful than that.

Scientists say the microbe - found in the wild near Lake Victoria - has enormous potential.

The "intermediate host" animal that passed the coronavirus from bats to humans may never be found.

An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press: They wanted the campus experience, but their colleges sent them home to learn online during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, students at more than 25 U.S. universities are filing lawsuits against their schools demanding partial refunds on tuition and campus fees, saying they're not getting the caliber of education they were promised. The suits reflect students' growing frustration with online classes that schools scrambled to create as the coronavirus forced campuses across the nation to close last month. The suits say students should pay lower rates for the portion of the term that was offered online, arguing that the quality of instruction is far below the classroom experience. Colleges, though, reject the idea that refunds are in order. Students are learning from the same professors who teach on campus, officials have said, and they're still earning credits toward their degrees. Schools insist that, after being forced to close by their states, they're still offering students a quality education... Some of the suits draw attention to schools' large financial reserves, saying colleges are unfairly withholding refunds even while they rest on endowments that often surpass $1 billion. "You cannot keep money for services and access if you aren't actually providing it," argues a lawyer for several students in South Carolina. One student there complains that some classes are now taught almost entirely with recorded videos, while a legal action filed against the University of California at Berkeley "says some professors are simply uploading assignments, with no video instruction at all."

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How the outside world can be good for body and mind - with expert tips on making the most of it.