MIT Grad Students Vote To Form Labor Union

Graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology overwhelmingly approved forming a union in a two-day vote this week by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. From a report: MIT is the latest Boston-area school where grad students have voted to join a union following pivotal federal ruling in 2016 recognizing grad students as employees with the ability to unionize. In all, 1,785 MIT graduate students voted in favor of unionization and 912 against, a figure confirmed by Jonathan Zong, a grad student organizer, and MIT. Three-fourths of graduate students voted, according to MIT. The vote seeks to join United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, or UE. MIT grad students were pushing for help with affordable housing, support for international students, dental insurance coverage, and a better emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We are grateful to the many members of our community, on all sides of the debate, who have engaged constructively and respectfully in this conversation,” Melissa Nobles, the chancellor, and Ian A. Waitz, the vice chancellor, said in the message to grad students. The memo continued: “Indeed, as we wrote to you during this campaign: We agree that there are areas where MIT can improve, and we share many of the same goals as the MIT Graduate Student Union. … With the election outcome now clear, we will continue to work alongside you to improve MIT for all of our students.” MIT’s Zong said being unionized will be a more democratic and formalized way of making grad students’ concerns heard compared to MIT’s Graduate Student Council. He described the council as more advisory to the school’s administration.

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EU Clears First Autonomous X-Ray-Analyzing AI

An artificial intelligence tool that reads chest X-rays without oversight from a radiologist got regulatory clearance in the European Union last week — a first for a fully autonomous medical imaging AI, the company, called Oxipit, said in a statement. The Verge reports: The tool, called ChestLink, scans chest X-rays and automatically sends patient reports on those that it sees as totally healthy, with no abnormalities. Any images that the tool flags as having a potential problem are sent to a radiologist for review. Most X-rays in primary care don’t have any problems, so automating the process for those scans could cut down on radiologists’ workloads, the Oxipit said in informational materials.

The tech now has a CE mark certification in the EU, which signals that a device meets safety standards. The certification is similar to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in the United States, but they have slightly different metrics: a CE mark is less difficult to obtain, is quicker, and doesn’t require as much evaluation as an FDA clearance. The FDA looks to see if a device is safe and effective and tends to ask for more information from device makers. Oxipit spokesperson Mantas Miksys told The Verge that the company plans to file with the FDA as well.

Oxipit said in a statement that ChestLink made zero “clinically relevant” errors during pilot programs at multiple locations. When it is introduced into a new setting, the company said there should first be an audit of existing imaging programs. Then, the tool should be used under supervision for a period of time before it starts working autonomously. The company said in a statement that it expects the first healthcare organizations to be using the autonomous tool by 2023.

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7,000 Steps Can Save Your Life

Mortality risk was reduced by 50% for older adults who increased their daily steps from around 3,000 to around 7,000, according to new medical research. Axios reports: 7,000 is the new 10,000, in terms of steps you should shoot for, The Lancet medical journal reports. This is all it takes for those 60 and older to dramatically increase their lifespans. Even for younger adults, the benefits of daily walking actually level off around 9,000 steps per day, not 10,000, the researchers found. The risk reduction plateaued beyond that number.

“Walking benefits nearly every cell in the body,” says Amanda Paluch, a kinesiologist and public health expert at UMass Amherst and the lead author of the study. It’s wildly effective. Walking strengthens your heart, improves bone density, relaxes your mind, and helps with muscle-building and pain management. Almost everyone can do it anywhere: your house, the office, outside. Start with 30 minutes and work your way up.”It’s not an all or nothing situation,” says Paluch. Even just boosting daily step count to 5,000 — for 60 and older — and 7,000 — for younger folks — slashed mortality risk by 40%.

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The US Government Has Just 1% of the EV Chargers It Needs

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. government owns about 1,100 charging stations. It may need more than 100,000 charging stations to support widespread EV use in the next decade, according to testimony from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday. The testimony, which was first reported by Reuters, mainly delved into the U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to transition its fleet to EVs and federal fleet transition issues. GAO found that federal agencies like USPS held certain incorrect assumptions about the cost and benefits of using gas versus electric vehicles, namely that USPS used gas prices that are about $2 per gallon less than the current national average in its estimates, and assumed maintenance and acquisition costs that are higher than the reality.

GAO has identified charging infrastructure costs and installation as a key challenge to acquiring EVs for federal fleets. […] The General Services Administration (GSA) said that as of March 10, federal agencies have only ordered an additional 1,854 zero-emission vehicles since its prior report. The U.S. government usually purchases about 50,000 vehicles annually. The federal fleet currently has about 657,000 cars, SUVs and trucks, out of which less than 1% are currently electric, according to GSA data.

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Google Offers Employees Free Electric Scooters To Get Them Back To the Office

Google is preparing to bring its employees back to the office this week, and as an added bonus, it’ll be offering them free electric scooters to help ease the transition. The Verge reports: The tech giant is teaming up with e-scooter maker Unagi to launch a new program called “Ride Scoot,” in which most of Google’s US-based workers can get reimbursed for the full cost of a monthly subscription to Unagi’s stylish Model One scooter. The Model One, which retails for $990, is a lightweight dual-motor scooter with a top speed of 20mph and a range of 15.5 miles. Unagi founder and CEO David Hyman said the idea was to help Google employees get to work — or even just to the closest bus stop. (Google famously provides free shuttle bus service to its employees in Silicon Valley.) “They know there’s apprehension amongst employees,” Hyman said. “People got really accustomed to working from home. And they’re just trying to do everything they can to improve the experience of coming back.”

Unagi won’t just be handing out free scooters to every Google employee, though. Unagi plans on setting up booths at various Google offices to sign up employees for a monthly scooter subscription at the discounted rate of $44.10 per month, plus the $50 enrollment fee — the total of which will be fully reimbursable by Google. Scooter subscriptions will also be added as a transportation option to Google’s internal employee portal. And Google and Unagi will host demo days for employees to try out the Model One at various office locations.

Employees must also use the scooter for at least nine commutes per month to get fully reimbursed for their monthly subscription. (Google plans on using the honor system and won’t be tracking employees’ scooter usage.) In addition to Google’s main headquarters in Mountain View, other eligible locations include Seattle, Kirkland, Irvine, Sunnyvale, Playa Vista, Austin, and New York City.

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Trump’s Truth Social App Branded a Disaster

Donald Trump’s Truth Social has “been a disaster,” says Joshua Tucker, director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics. According to the BBC, “The app launched on Presidents’ Day, 21 February, but six weeks later is beset by problems. A waiting list of nearly 1.5 million are unable to use it.” From the report: Truth Social might look like Twitter, but it isn’t available on Android phones, web browsers or, apparently, to most people outside the US. And a Republican ally of Mr Trump’s, who did not wish to be identified, said: “Nobody seems to know what’s going on.” On 21 February, Truth Social was one of the App Store’s most downloaded apps — but many who downloaded it were unable to use it. There was an assumption this problem would soon be resolved and Mr Trump would start posting his “truths” in the coming days — but neither of those things happened. My attempt to register, this week, was placed at number 1,419,631 on the waiting list.

While YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook are among the 10 most downloaded apps, according to Similar Web, Truth Social is outside the top 100. Users who find their way in can find the app a little empty, as many big voices on the American right have so far stayed away. Another study found downloads have fallen by as much as 95%. And many are feeling frustrated. “Signed up for Truth Social a couple weeks ago and still on a waiting list,” one Twitter user said, on Tuesday. “By the time I’m off the waiting list and on to Truth Social for real, Trump will be President again,” joked another. The report says Mr Trump “has not posted a ‘truth’ for well over a month.”

“Maybe they’re holding him back,” Mr Tucker said. “That’s his last chance to launch it – when suddenly Trump comes in and starts being really active on it, that will get a buzz.”

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Microsoft Brings Arm Support To Azure Virtual Machines

It’s been a long road, but Microsoft announced on April 4 a preview of Arm support on Azure virtual machines via its work with Ampere Computing. ZDNet reports: Ampere is a startup that makes server chips. Ampere announced last year it had signed up Microsoft and Tencent Holdings as major customers. “We are now supporting Arm on Azure as well. This has been a long journey to bring up Ampere on Azure with Windows as the Root Host OS! we are also supporting Windows 11 Arm VMs in preview for developers!” tweeted Hari Pulapaka, the director of PM for Azure Host OS and the Windows OS platform. “FYI all Windows developers who have been asking for VM support in Azure, it’s here now.”

Azure VMs with Ampere Altra Arm-based processors will offer up to 50 percent better price-performance than comparable x86-based VMs for scale-out workloads, Microsoft officials said. These new VMs are also for Web servers, application servers, open-source databases, gaming servers, media servers, and more, they added. The preview is initially available in the West US 2, West Central US, and West Europe Azure regions. Ampere’s announcement of the Azure VM preview is here.

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Paramount+ Releases Trailer for Its 6th Star Trek Series, ‘Strange New Worlds’

The Paramount+ streaming service already has five ongoing Star Trek series (including Discovery and Picard).

But they’ve just released a trailer for another one — and it’s now derived directly from the original 1960s TV show, even including some of its original characters. The upcoming show’s title?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Ars Technica reports:

As we’ve reported previously, one of the highlights of Star Trek: Discovery’s second season was the appearance of classic original series (TOS) characters Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Spock (Ethan Peck). All three reprise their roles for Strange New Worlds….

“If you want to seek out new life, go where the aliens are,” Pike tells us. But that alien life might not be receptive to first contact, as Pike and the Enterprise find themselves under fire by aliens who consider their presence to be “blasphemy.” And romance blooms for both Pike and Spock (separately, not with each other).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts on Paramount+ on May 5, 2022. The streaming platform has already greenlighted a second season, with Paul Wesley (Vampire Diaries ) joining the cast as future Enterprise Capt. James T. Kirk.
Ars Technica reports the cast as:

Babs Olusanmokun playing Dr. M’BengaCelia Rose Gooding filling Nichelle Nichols’ shoes as Cadet Nyota UhuraJess Bush playing Nurse Christine ChapelMelissa Navai playing Lt. Erica OrtegasBruce Orak playing an Aenar named Hemmer.Christina Chong playing La’An Noonien-Singh (a relation of the classic revenge-obsessed Star Trek villain Khan).
And on an unrelated note…

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Google Cloud Security Exec: Government Reliance on Microsoft Is a Security Vulnerability

“Google is taking aim at Microsoft’s dominance in government technology and security,” reports NBC News:

Jeanette Manfra, director of risk and compliance for Google’s cloud services and a former top U.S. cybersecurity official, said Thursday that the government’s reliance on Microsoft — one of Google’s top business rivals — is an ongoing security threat.

Manfra also said in a blog post published Thursday that a survey commissioned by Google found that a majority of federal employees believe that the government’s reliance on Microsoft products is a cybersecurity vulnerability. “Overreliance on any single vendor is usually not a great idea,” Manfra said in a phone interview. “You have an attack on one product that the majority of the government is depending on to do their job, you have a significant risk in how the government can continue to function.”

Microsoft pushed back strongly against the claim, calling it “unhelpful.” The study comes as Google is positioning itself to challenge Microsoft’s dominance in federal government offices, where Windows and Office programs are commonly used….

The blog post comes as hackers continue to discover critical software vulnerabilities at an increasing pace across major tech products, but especially in Microsoft programs. Last year, researchers discovered 21 “zero-days” — an industry term for a critical vulnerability that a company doesn’t have a ready solution for — actively in use against Microsoft products, compared to 16 against Google and 12 against Apple. he most prominent zero-day was used against Microsoft’s Exchange email program, which cybersecurity experts say was first employed by Chinese cyberspies and then quickly adopted by criminal hackers, leading to hundreds of companies becoming compromised.

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Intel Beats AMD and Nvidia with Arc GPU’s Full AV1 Support

Neowin notes growing support for the “very efficient, potent, royalty-free video codec” AV1, including Microsoft’s adding of support for hardware acceleration of AV1 on Windows.

But AV1 even turned up in Intel’s announcement this week of the Arc A-series, a new line of discrete GPUs, Neowin reports:

Intel has been quick to respond and the company has become the first such GPU hardware vendor to have full AV1 support on its newly launched Arc GPUs. While AMD and Nvidia both offer AV1 decoding with their newest GPUs, neither have support for AV1 encoding.

Intel says that hardware encoding of AV1 on its new Arc GPUs is 50 times faster than those based on software-only solutions. It also adds that the efficiency of AV1 encode with Arc is 20% better compared to HEVC. With this feature, Intel hopes to potentially capture at least some of the streaming and video editing market that’s based on users who are looking for a more robust AV1 encoding solution compared to CPU-based software approaches.

From Intel’s announcement:
Intel Arc A-Series GPUs are the first in the industry to offer full AV1 hardware acceleration, including both encode and decode, delivering faster video encode and higher quality streaming while consuming the same internet bandwidth. We’ve worked with industry partners to ensure that AV1 support is available today in many of the most popular media applications, with broader adoption expected this year. The AV1 codec will be a game changer for the future of video encoding and streaming.

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