With thousands of websites blocked all around the world on copyright grounds, pirates are continuing to innovate. The rise of apps designed to provide free content represents a fairly recent development but one the entertainment industries are keen to stem. The CEO of Warner Music Russia now says his company has infringing apps firmly on the anti-piracy agenda. In some way, shape or form, Internet piracy has always been carried out through some kind of application. Whether that’s a peer-to-peer client utilizing BitTorrent or eD2K, or a Usenet or FTP tool taking things back to their roots, software has always played a crucial role. Of course, the nature of the Internet beast means that software usage is unavoidable but in recent years piracy has swung more towards the regular web browser, meaning that sites and services offering pirated content are largely easy to locate, identify and block, if authorities so choose. As revealed this week by the MPA, thousands of platforms around the world are now targeted for blocking, with 1,800 sites and 5,300 domains blocked in Europe alone. However, as the Kodi phenomenon has shown, web-based content doesn’t always have to be accessed via a standard web browser. Clever but potentially illegal addons and third-party apps are able to scrape web-based resources and present links to content on a wide range of devices, from mobile phones and tablets to set-top boxes. While it’s still possible to block the resources upon which these addons rely, the scattered nature of the content makes the process much more difficult. One can’t simply block a whole platform because a few movies are illegally hosted there and even Google has found itself hosting thousands of infringing titles, a situation that’s ruthlessly exploited by addon and app developers alike. Needless to say, the situation hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has spent the last year (1,2,3) targeting many people involved in the addon and app scene, hoping they’ll take their tools and run, rather than further develop a rapidly involving piracy ecosystem. Over in Russia, a country that will happily block hundreds or millions of IP addresses if it suits them, the topic of infringing apps was raised this week. It happened during the International Strategic Forum on Intellectual Property, a gathering of 500 experts from more than 30 countries. There were strong calls for yet more tools and measures to deal with films and music being made available via ‘pirate’ apps. The forum heard that in response to widespread website blocking, people behind pirate sites have begun creating applications for mobile devices to achieve the same ends – the provision of illegal content. This, key players in the music industry say, means that the law needs to be further tightened to tackle the rising threat. “Consumption of content is now going into the mobile sector and due to this we plan to prevent mass migration of ‘pirates’ to the mobile sector,” said Leonid Agronov, general director of the National Federation of the Music Industry. The same concerns were echoed by Alexander Blinov, CEO of Warner Music Russia. According to TASS, the powerful industry player said that while recent revenues had been positively affected by site-blocking, it’s now time to start taking more action against apps. “I agree with all speakers that we can not stop at what has been achieved so far. The music industry has a fight against illegal content in mobile applications on the agenda,” Blinov said. And if Blinov is to be believed, music in Russia is doing particularly well at the moment. Attributing successes to efforts by parliament, the Ministry of Communications, and copyright holders, Blinov said the local music market has doubled in the past two years. “We are now in the top three fastest growing markets in the world, behind only China and South Korea,” Blinov said. While some apps can work in the same manner as a basic web interface, others rely on more complex mechanisms, ‘scraping’ content from diverse sources that can be easily and readily changed if mitigation measures kick in. It will be very interesting to see how Russia deals with this threat and whether it will opt for highly technical solutions or the nuclear options demonstrated recently.

Following years of increases in the volume of takedown requests, the tide appears to be turning at Google search. The number of received DMCA notices for alleged pirate links has dropped 25% compared to 2016. That's the first downward trend since Google started counting. In recent years Google has had to cope with a continuous increase in takedown requests from copyright holders, which target pirate sites in search results. Just a few years ago the search engine removed ‘only’ a few thousand URLs per day. This has since grown to millions and has kept growing, until recently. Around a year ago Google received a billion takedown requests a year, and for a while, it stabilized at roughly 20 million requests per week. By October last year, Google search had processed over three billion DMCA requests since it started counting. After that, it appears that things calmed down a little. Where Google’s weekly takedown chart went up year after year, it’s now trending in a downward direction. During the past half year, Google received ‘only’ 375 million takedown requests. That translates to roughly 15 million per week or 750 million per year. This is a 25% decrease compared the average in 2016. Does this mean that copyright holders can no longer find enough pirated content via the search engine? We doubt it. But it’s clear that some of the big reporting agencies are sending in less complaints. Degban, for example, which was at one point good for more than 10% of the weekly number of DMCA requests, has disappeared completely. Other big players, such as the Mexican anti-piracy outfit APDIF and Remove Your Media, have clearly lowered their volumes. APDIF’s weekly DMCA volume Of all the big players, UK Music Group BPI has been most consistent. Their average hasn’t dropped much in recent years, but is certainly not rising either. It’s too early to tell whether this trend will hold, but according to the numbers we see now, Google will for the first time have a significant decrease in the number of takedown requests this year. Despite the decrease, Google is under quite a bit of pressure from copyright holders to improve its takedown efforts. Most would like Google to delist pirate site domains entirely. While the search engine isn’t willing to go that far, it does give a lower ranking to sites for which it receives a large volume of takedown requests. In addition, the company recently started accepting ‘prophylactic’ DMCA requests, for content that is not indexed yet.

I think Privatehd application are open always . Correct me if i m wrong.

Thanks for the Invite.

This week several Windows users noticed that the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent was suddenly being flagged as a threat. While details are scarce, Windows Defender and some other anti-virus vendors list the application as "Potentially Unwanted Software." BitTorrent Inc. sees the warnings as false positives but also stopped serving what it believes to be the problematic release. Installed on dozens of millions of devices, uTorrent is the go-to torrent client for people all around the world. While the software usually runs without hassle, many users started to experience problems recently. Several anti-virus tools, including Windows Defender, suddenly labeled the torrent client as dangerous. Microsoft categorizes the affected clients as “Potentially Unwanted Software,” as can be seen below. The company has had a dedicated Utorrent page for a while, labeling it as a severe threat. This week, however, alarm bells started to go off on a broader scale. uTorrent threat It’s unclear what exactly triggered the recent warning. According to VirusTotal, a handful of anti-virus companies label uTorrent as problematic. ESET-NOD32 lists “Web Companion” as the trigger, which likely points to Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware software, which is sometimes bundled with uTorrent. uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc. is aware of the problems but believes they’re false positives triggered by one of their recent releases. “We believe that this passive flag changed to active just hours ago with the Windows patch Tuesday update, when a small percent of users started getting an explicit block,” the company told us. “We had three uTorrent executables being served from our site. Two were going to 95% of our users and were not part of the Windows block. The third, which was going to 5% of users, was part of the Windows block. We stopped shipping that and confirmed we are no longer seeing any blocks.” The issue doesn’t appear to be restricted to new installs only. Several users have reported that their uTorrent application was suddenly quarantined as unwanted software, possibly after an automatic update. We rechecked the VirusTotal result with the most current uTorrent release, and this is still flagged by six anti-virus vendors. VirusTotal results But that’s not all. The uTorrent download page itself also triggers a warning from MalwareBytes’ real-time protection module, which brands the website itself as malicious. Interestingly, when trying to install uTorrent, Windows lists Lavasoft Software Canada as the verified publisher. While Lavasoft’s “Ad-Aware WebCompanion” is regularly bundled with uTorrent as an ‘offer,’ we didn’t get that option when we last tried, nor was it installed. After we installed it during an initial test yesterday, we did notice that WebCompanion was installed around the same time. However, we have been unable to replicate this result. BitTorrent Inc. stresses that any of the offers users get during the install process are optional, Google-compliant, and in accordance with the Clean Software Alliance (CSA) standards. Whatever is causing the red flags at Microsoft and the other companies remains a mystery for now, also for BitTorrent Inc. “Based on our best assessment to date, we’ve found no reason why we would be blocked – especially on some builds and not others which are basically identical,” BitTorrent says. “We are continuing to reach out, though, and hope to have more information,” the company adds.

Last month, Russia's telecoms watchdog told ISPs to block 15 million IP addresses to shut down the encrypted chat app Zello. Most of those IP addresses belonged to Amazon, which responded by asking Zello not to use its servers. With Zello now operating via Google services, instructions have been sent to block 286 IP addresses and 285 domains belonging to the search giant Zello is an encrypted app which acts as a kind of ‘walkie-talkie’, assisting communication between close friends or in groups of up to a thousand people. Zello gained a lot of publicity in 2017 when it was used as an unofficial rescue co-ordination tool while Hurricane Harvey was battering the United States. It soon shot to the top of the download charts after being downloaded a million times in a day. While Zello is a great tool, it is not popular with the Russian government. Under the so-called ‘Yarovaya law‘, services like Zello, plus ISPs and other telecoms companies, are required to pre-register with Russian telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor. They are also required to share encryption keys so that law enforcement can decrypt messages. Zello has reportedly done neither and as a result is being targeted by the Russian government, which has tried to block it more than 70 times since April 2017. As reported last month, local telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor told ISPs to carry out “a new experiment” to block 15 million IP addresses – most of them owned by Amazon – to take the app down. Zello co-founder Zello Alexei Gavrilov later revealed that Amazon had effectively told his company not to use its services anymore. “The latest in this story: let’s block half the Internet for Zello’s sake,” he said. “Half the Internet was not blocked, but nevertheless, it had some effect, and as a result, Amazon came to us, whose service we used, and Amazon asked us not to do what we did to circumvent the blocks using the Amazon platform.” But despite the Amazon ban, Zello still managed to keep operating by using the services of another hosting company. It now transpires that at least in part, Zello is being kept on the air by Google, whose services the comms app now uses. That hasn’t gone unnoticed by Russian authorities who are now taking steps to hit Zello in its new home. Vedomosti reports that telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor has already taken sweeping action by blocking 286 IP addresses and 285 domains belonging to Google, which have now been added to Russia’s national blacklist. “Technical domains and Google addresses have been entered in the register of prohibited resources on the basis of the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office – in connection with the restriction of access to the Zello service,” the publication reports. News site Roskomvoboda reports that the blocking of Google IP addresses and domains was scheduled to go ahead last week, including many under googleusercontent.com, the domain used for loading content from the Google CDN. Telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor insists that blocking the Google addresses won’t affect the operation of other Internet services but a representative from Roskomvoboda said that is impossible to predict or guarantee, given the fluid nature of IP address allocation. In any event, Zello continues to operate so that’s one service that remains unaffected by the drastic action. It seems unlikely that Russia will give up trying to block Zello. While the software has been used for humanitarian causes, it has reportedly been used by workers coordinating strikes and even terrorist groups. The same can be said of any communications system, of course, but since Zello is end-to-end encrypted, the authorities want the ability to listen in. Founded in Russia but now based in the US, Zello doesn’t want to share its keys with Russia, nor does it want to store the telecoms data of 400,000 Russian users as local law now dictates. Amendments to come into force this year requires services like Zello to store the actual content of user communications for six months and metadata (such as who communicated with who, when, and for how long) for three years. At least for now, Zello doesn’t intend being spied upon.

Site is dead now.

Welcome to Invitehawk , Nice to have you here.

Welcome to Invitehawk . Nice to have you here.

Ok , thanks for the inform.

@heaven send me 2 ratio and 1 seedbox or speedtest proof.

@godfader4 send me 2 Ratio and 1 seedbox or speedtest proof.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, according to the Kremlin press service. The two leaders discussed the development of the “exclusive strategic partnership between Russia and India” and agreed to maintain contacts in the future. The phone call was initiated by the Indian side, the press service stated.

Yulia Skripal has refused contact with the Russian Embassy and her Moscow-based cousin, Viktoria, and asked for no one else to speak on her behalf, in a statement released by Scotland Yard after she was discharged from hospital. Despite leaving Salisbury hospital on Monday, Skripal said that she is “still suffering with the effects of the nerve agent used against us,” adding that her father, former double agent Sergei, remains “seriously ill.” "I find myself in a totally different life than the ordinary one I left just over a month ago, and I am seeking to come to terms with my prospects, whilst also recovering from this attack on me,” the statement said. Skripal, a Russian citizen, said that she has been given contacts at the Russian Embassy in the UK, but said that at “the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services,” adding that “if I change my mind I know how to contact them.” Explaining that she is “not strong enough to give a full interview to the media,” Skripal insisted “that no one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves.” She specifically asked her cousin, Viktoria, who has appeared extensively on Russian television and requested to see Yulia through diplomatic channels, “not to visit me or try to contact me,” underlining that “her opinions and assertions are not mine and they are not my father's.” Hours earlier, a Russian Embassy source in London accused UK authorities of “forcibly detaining” Yulia and her father and said that Moscow diplomats would continue to try to arrange a meeting with her. “The UK side continues to deny us information about her true health status, wishes or location,” the source told RIA news agency. “It is apparent that she is being isolated, eyewitness evidence is being concealed, and obstacles are being erected in the path of an objective and independent investigation.” Skripal and her father fell into a coma for several weeks, following what appeared to be a poisoning on March 4 in the city of Salisbury, where Sergei lived after being exchanged in a spy swap in 2010. The UK insists that Russia was behind the attack, a claim the Kremlin has staunchly denied. Britain and its allies have expelled over 100 Russian diplomats over the incident, with mirror measures being applied by Moscow.

1518295696.jpg MOSCOW, April 11 (Itar-Tass) - RIA Novosti. The direction of the aircraft carrier strike group of the US Navy to the Mediterranean, the strengthening of the destroyer group there testifies to the build-up of forces in the region and the intention of the United States to deal a powerful blow to Syria, said former commander of the Black Sea Fleet (1998-2002), Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov. What forces does the United States have? According to the newspaper Pentagon Stars & Stripes, the shock group is nominated from the permanent bases in Virginia in the Mediterranean Sea. In its composition, in addition to the aircraft carrier "Harry Truman," includes the missile cruiser Normandy, missile destroyers Arly Burke, Balckley, Forest Sherman and Farragut. They will join the destroyers "Jason Dunham" and "Sullivans". The Pentagon called the campaign in the Mediterranean a planned event in the rotation. According to the agency, the group "will operate in the zones of responsibility of the US Navy's 5th and 6th Fleets, carrying out operations to ensure maritime safety and security cooperation in the theater of action together with allies and partners." The zone of responsibility of the 6th US Navy fleet includes, in particular, the Mediterranean region; The 5th Fleet - the Middle East, including the Persian Gulf. According to the newspaper The Wall Street Journal, the United States already has one missile destroyer Donald Cook with 60 cruise missiles Tomahawk (firing range - up to two thousand kilometers) in the eastern Mediterranean, from where he can participate in any attack on the Syria. The second American destroyer - Porter - can arrive in the area near Syria for several days. In addition, according to open sources, the United States can use the Florida nuclear submarine in the Mediterranean, carrying more than 150 Tomahawks, and aviation based in the region. The US is preparing an attack - what to do? "The direction of the aircraft carrier strike group of the US Navy led by the aircraft carrier Harry Truman to the Mediterranean, the strengthening of the destroyer group there is not just a provocation, but evidence of a build-up of forces in the region and the serious intention of the United States to deal a powerful blow to Syria," said Komoedov RIA News on Wednesday. President of the United States Donald Trump, in connection with the situation in Syria, canceled the previously planned trip, and "this is very serious," the agency's interlocutor said. According to the admiral, in the event of a threat of the death of Russian servicemen, air defense assets in Syria (according to the earlier statement of the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Army Valery Gerasimov) should be used to shoot down attacking missiles and their carriers. "The missiles to the Syrians, under unified control, must be shot down." As for their carriers, ships and planes, this is a complicated question. "Such a strike would mean a war," Komoedov believes. Do not underestimate the enemy, especially if it's the US, the admiral said. "The Americans have 11 nuclear aircraft carriers, 95 airplanes each, 60 of them, the depth of defense of the AUG is 1.5 thousand kilometers." The naval war requires a very serious outfit, we do not have such an outfit in the region. air, sea, in the second echelon they have - NATO, "the Russian admiral said. "The Americans, of course, are the most important provocateurs - they do not want to hear our arguments, accept evidence of non-involvement in the use of chemical weapons, and they are ready to punish the uninvolved by inflicting a powerful blow," Komoyedov said. In his opinion, "in this situation, it is necessary to declare combat readiness number one, first of all to Russian diplomats, so that they agree with our opponents." What do politicians think US President Donald Trump said last Monday that he would decide on the actions of the United States in connection with reports of a chemical attack in Syria in the next day or two. Answering the question whether he does not exclude military actions, President Trump said: "Nothing is out of the question." In response to threats from the environment of the US President, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled Russia's obligations to Syria. Earlier, a number of opposition Internet portals and Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera published messages with reference to militants about the use of chlorine by the Syrian army in the city of Dumas (suburb of Damascus East Guta), which allegedly killed dozens of civilians. Russia denied the information about the bomb with chlorine. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the goal of the throw-in on the use of poisonous substances by the troops of Syria is to shield the terrorists and justify possible power strikes from outside. The Syrian Foreign Ministry found the allegations unconvincing. The Permanent Representative of this country to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, recalled that Damascus does not possess chemical weapons (it is exported under the control of the OPCW) and condemns its use. Link: https://ria.ru/syria_chronicle/20180411/1518389043.html

Hulu and Spotify unveiled a new subscription bundle for avid streaming fans Wednesday: The plan, “Spotify Premium, now with Hulu,” combines a full Spotify a la carte subscription with Hulu’s entry-level on-demand service for $12.99 per month. Bought individually, both plans would have a combined price tag of close to $18. The new bundle is initially available only to existing Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S., who also get a chance to try out Hulu for three months for just 99 cents. The companies said they plan to make the offer available to consumers who don’t currently subscribe to Spotify later this summer. This isn’t the first time Hulu and Spotify have worked together on a joint plan. Last September, the duo teamed up on a bundled plan for students, providing access to Spotify Premium and Hulu’s entry-level subscription for a combined price of just $4.99 per month — the same as Spotify’s previous student subscription. At the time, the partners said they would roll out additional bundles aimed at a mass market. “Our student launch with Hulu was incredibly well received and we are excited to extend our reach by bringing Hulu to more of our Premium members in the U.S.,” Spotify chief premium business officer Alex Norstrom said in a statement. “With this exclusive Spotify offer, we are bundling two top media platforms for an unbeatable price.” Hulu’s senior VP Tim Connolly echoed the sentiment, saying: “Based on the outstanding performance of the Spotify and Hulu student package, it’s clear that consumers love to combine their music and television experiences together.” Bundling two subscriptions in one plan can make economic sense for both companies, even with a sizable discount. The partnership promises to let Hulu and Spotify grow their overall subscriber base. Both companies also use these bundled plans to steer subscribers away from third-party billing agreements, which can eat up as much as 30% of a service’s monthly fee. Spotify’s terms for these bundles specifically spell out that users who bill their monthly subscription through Apple’s App Store or Google Play are not eligible to receive the discounted Hulu add-on. What’s more, Hulu is betting that subscribers will eventually graduate to more expensive plans, including its $11.99 monthly commercial-free on-demand offering and its $39.99 monthly live TV service (which includes access to Hulu’s SVOD lineup).

1517883733.jpg MOSCOW, April 11 (Itar-Tass) - RIA Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone discussed Syrian issues, including in connection with the Israeli Air Force rocket attacks on the airfield "Tifor" in the province of Homs, the Kremlin's press service said. It is noted that the conversation took place on the initiative of Israel. The parties discussed the situation in Syria, including the incident at the airfield "Tifor". The Russian president drew attention to the need to respect the sovereignty of the UAR, and also called for refraining from actions that could destabilize the situation in the country. In addition, in the light of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, the sides confirmed that the revision of the results of the Second World War, as well as the falsification of history, are unacceptable. Netanyahu also mentioned that on May 9 this year, Israel will officially celebrate Victory Day for the first time. On Monday night, it became known about the missile strike at Tifor airbase (T-4), located in the Syrian province of Homs. According to the Syrian media, seven Iranian advisers became the victims of the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that two F-15 fighters of the Israeli Air Force fired at the base - three missiles flew to the target, the remaining five were shot down. Adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei said that Israel "will have to answer" for the blow. The political leadership and the army command of Israel do not confirm or deny involvement in the attack on the airfield T-4. In February, the Air Force of Israel already bombed this base, where, they claimed, the Iranian control center for unmanned aircraft was located. Then the fire from the ground was shot down fighter F-16, participated in the raid, - the pilot and navigator managed to catapult. In response to the loss of the aircraft, the Israeli Air Force attacked a number of targets near Damascus, including air defense batteries. Earlier it became known that Israeli Ambassador Harry Koren was invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry to discuss the incident at the base of "Tifor". According to him, the meeting in the foreign policy department was "regular regular conversation." The Ambassador did not comment on its results. Link: https://ria.ru/politics/20180411/1518428690.html

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Stonehenge may be finally solved, why did people drag massive stones tens of miles to erect Stonehenge? It has been a question anthropologists have grappled with for decades and now, it appears, the answer is because two of the giant stones were already in place for millions of years. One of the longstanding mysteries surrounding Stonehenge is why that specific location was selected to erect the massive stone blocks, called sarsens. Previously, it was thought that the source of the stones was 20 miles away at Marlborough Downs, leaving archaeologists puzzled as to why people moved each stone 20 miles to Salisbury Plain when they could have simply erected the stones in Marlborough Downs. Archaeologist Mike Pitts recently published his findings regarding the origin of Stonehenge in the Journal of British Archaeology. After extensive archaeological research, Mr. Pitts believes he has found the answer. Two of the largest stones appear to have been in place for millions of years, long before humans arrived to create Stonehenge. The largest stone in Stonehenge, the heel stone, weighs 60 tonnes and is uniquely not shaped or dressed like many of the other stones. In addition, while excavating around the heel stone Mr. Pitts found evidence for a relict hole that would be big enough for the heel stone. This relict hole, Mr. Pitts believes, was the original location of the heel stone, which was dug out and erected but never moved a substantial distance. During further excavation, Mr. Pitts found evidence for another filled in hole nearby stone 16. Mr. Pitts believes this relict hole was once the original location of another of the largest stones in Stonehenge, stone 16. So if these two massive unshaped and undressed stones originated in place at Salisbury Plain, what prompted people to erect these stones and drag over a dozen other stones 20 miles to Salisbury Plain? It appears the answer lies in the initial orientation of the two stones, which aligned with sunrise during the summer solstice and sunset during the winter solstice. The Tertiary aged stones are a result of repeated frost wedging during warm and cold periods in Earth's history. The story begins to fall into place that the two massive sandstone boulders existed in place for millions of years. The unique presence of the two boulders and their orientation with sunrise and sunset appears to have been the significance behind the Stonehenge location.

Hypothetical subatomic particles called axions get their chance to shine GPccgc4.jpg EVERY AXION HAS ITS DAY Physicist Gray Rybka of the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues have created a detector sensitive enough to potentially find hypothetical dark matter particles called axions. Scientists playing peekaboo with dark matter have entered a new stage of the game. For the first time, physicists are snooping on some of the likeliest hiding places for hypothetical subatomic particles called axions, which could make up dark matter. So far, no traces of the particles have been found, scientists with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment, ADMX, report April 9 in Physical Review Letters. But the researchers have now shown that their equipment is sensitive enough to begin searching in earnest. An ethereal substance that makes up much of the matter in the universe, dark matter is necessary to explain the motions of stars within galaxies, among other observations. Scientists don’t know what dark matter is, but axions, extremely lightweight particles that may permeate the cosmos, are one of the major contenders. Most past searches for dark matter particles have focused on a different candidate particle, known as a weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP. But those efforts have so far come up empty . Now, the spotlight is on the underdog axions. “We have to make sure we are considering all the possibilities,” says theoretical physicist Matthew Buckley of Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., who was not involved with the new result. Axions, he says, are a plausible candidate for dark matter. Axions would produce incredibly feeble signals, so pinning down evidence for the minuscule particles is no easy undertaking. But ADMX, located at the University of Washington in Seattle, is now up to the task, says ADMX member Aaron Chou, a physicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. Previous experiments have searched for axions, but those efforts weren’t sensitive enough to have a good chance of detecting the particles. “It’s an experimental tour de force; it’s amazing work,” says theoretical physicist Helen Quinn of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., who was not involved with the research. ADMX uses what is essentially a supersensitive radio, isolated from external sources of radio waves and cooled to temperatures near absolute zero (‒273.15° Celsius). Scientists use the apparatus to search for axions converting into radio waves in a strong magnetic field. If axions exist, they are expected to interact with photons, particles of light, from the magnetic field. In the process, they would produce radio waves at a frequency that depends on the axion’s mass, which is unknown. Like scanning the dial for a good oldies station, scientists will gradually change the frequency at which they search, trying to “listen in” on the axion signal. While the new study came up empty, scientists scanned only a small range of frequencies, ruling out some possible masses for axions, from 2.66 to 2.81 microelectron volts. Those tiny masses are less than a billionth of an electron’s mass. In the future, ADMX will study other possible masses. “There’ll be a lot of excitement in the next few years,” Chou says. “A discovery could come at any time.” mXRq743.jpg

You don't need to be alive for your microbiome to be useful to science. After years of studying the populations of bacteria on living people, researchers are now turning their sights on the dead. And they're finding that the "postmortem microbiome" is useful not only for forensic investigations, but also for understanding the health of large communities of people, and this could benefit the living. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health] In a new study, published today (April 10) in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, researchers found that a person's postmortem microbiome could predict certain health conditions, such as heart disease. This means that studying the postmortem microbiome may help researchers survey the public's health, which "could be an effective tool for assessing the health of living populations," lead study author Jennifer Pechal, a forensic entomologist and microbial ecologist at Michigan State University, said in a statement. Partner Series After Death, Your Microbiome Could Still Help the Living Credit: Shutterstock You don't need to be alive for your microbiome to be useful to science. After years of studying the populations of bacteria on living people, researchers are now turning their sights on the dead. And they're finding that the "postmortem microbiome" is useful not only for forensic investigations, but also for understanding the health of large communities of people, and this could benefit the living. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health] In a new study, published today (April 10) in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, researchers found that a person's postmortem microbiome could predict certain health conditions, such as heart disease. This means that studying the postmortem microbiome may help researchers survey the public's health, which "could be an effective tool for assessing the health of living populations," lead study author Jennifer Pechal, a forensic entomologist and microbial ecologist at Michigan State University, said in a statement. In the study, researchers analyzed the postmortem microbiome of 188 cases seen at the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office in Detroit. The investigators found that different sites on the body had distinct populations of bacteria. For example, the bacteria that tended to inhabit the mouth were different from those found in the eyes, nose and ears. Such discrete populations of bacteria have also been found in living people. The researchers also found that the postmortem microbiome tended to change over time. It was relatively stable for the first 48 hours after a person died, but then showed marked changes, such as a reduction in the overall diversity of bacteria found. "The microbial stopwatch, as it has been recently called, is a telling timepiece that can assist us in determining when someone died," said study co-author Eric Benbow, also a forensic entomologist at Michigan State University. After death, a person's microbiome is different after two days, Benbow said. A person's postmortem microbiome also gave evidence for whether the individual had heart disease when they were alive. That is, researchers found a link between heart disease and reduced diversity of bacteria in the postmortem microbiome. What's more, in people who'd had heart disease, the postmortem microbiome tended to have higher levels of a bacteria called Rothia, which has been linked with heart infections. In the future, analyzing the microbiome after death might help researchers survey the population's health, particularly in areas that are underserved and understudied by the medical community, the scientists said. "As this and future data sets expand, it is conceivable that resulting data from the postmortem microbiota could provide insights into the health of the community and even public health intervention if warranted," the researchers wrote in their paper.

Are there intelligent aliens living on the cigar-shaped, interstellar object that's zooming through our solar system? To find out, astronomers in the outback of Western Australia used the Murchison Widefield Array telescope to eavesdrop on the rocky visitor. Their finding? No cigar — there was no evidence of little green men sending out signals, according to a new study. "We found no such signals with non-terrestrial origins," the researchers wrote in the paper. Researchers learned about the mysterious, reddish space rock last year when it was spotted by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii on Oct. 19, 2017, Live Science's sister site Space.com previously reported. Scientists named it 'Oumuamua, Hawaiian for "a messenger from afar arriving first." The name highlights 'Oumuamua's unique background; it's the first direct evidence of an object that originated in another star system and that has passed through our own solar system, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement at the time. 'Oumuamua's peculiar, seemingly cigar-like shape and unusual orbital characteristics prompted some people to wonder whether it was an interstellar spacecraft, the researchers of the new study said. So, they decided to "examine our data for signals that might indicate the presence of intelligent life associated with 'Oumuamua," they wrote in the study. To investigate, the astronomers turned to the Murchison Widefield Array, a telescope located in Western Australia's remote Murchison region, far away from the buzz of human activity and radio interference. They looked back at data produced by the Murchison Widefield Array during November, December and early January, when 'Oumuamua was between 59 million and 366 million miles (95 million and 590 million kilometers) from Earth. In particular, the astronomers checked for radio transmissions coming from the roughly quarter-mile-long (400 meters) 'Oumuamua between the frequencies of 72 and 102 megahertz, a range that is similar to the frequencies used in FM radio broadcasts. "These transmitter powers are well within the capabilities of human technologies, and are therefore plausible for alien civilizations," the researchers wrote in the study. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us] The results added more evidence that 'Oumuamua is not a complex alien ship — or if it is, it's not talking on those frequencies. Rather, it's most likely the fragment of a comet that lost much of its surface water after being bombarded by cosmic rays on its lengthy trek through interstellar space, the researchers said. Even though the team didn't hear any transmissions that might have been produced by intelligent alien life, the research was an important step in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the astronomers said. "If advanced civilizations do exist elsewhere in our galaxy, we can speculate that they might develop the capability to launch spacecraft over interstellar distances and that these spacecraft may use radio waves to communicate," study lead researcher Steven Tingay, deputy executive director at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia, said in a statement. here could be more than 46 million similar interstellar objects crossing through the solar system every year, research shows. The majority of these objects are too distant for the Murchison Widefield Array to study, but future telescopes, including the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which is expected to be built in Australia and South Africa, could help astronomers examine these interstellar interlopers, the researchers said. The study, which is posted on the preprint site ArXiv, has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

From above, Greenland's ice sheet looks like a vast field of brilliant white — for the most part. In the summer months, the western margin is shaded by a dark zone that seems to have gotten darker in recent years, threatening to speed up the rate of melting. A new study offers an explanation for the phenomenon, putting the blame on impurities like carbon and ice-dwelling algae. "What we show is that the dark zone is covered in a finely distributed layer of dust and black carbon, which provide nutrition for dark-colored algae," study co-author Alun Hubbard, a professor at Norway's Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, said in a statement. The ice sheet covers more than 80 percent of Greenland's landmass —about 656,000 square miles (1.7 million square kilometers), an area three times the size of Texas, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The ice is more than a mile thick on average, and it holds 8 percent of the world's fresh water. If it melts completely, global sea levels would rise about 23 feet (7 meters), according to NASA. Because of that disastrous prospect, scientists have been trying to understand why the shrinking of Greenland's ice sheet has been accelerating over the past few decades. Blindingly white snow and ice have high reflectivity, or albedo, meaning they reflect more of the sun's energy than they absorb. Dark patches and meltwater, however, absorb more energy and can induce a positive feedback that leads to even more melting in an ice sheet. So, the dark zone in Greenland has become a focus of some recent research. "The fact that a large portion of the western flank of the Greenland ice sheet has become dark means that the melt is up to five times as much as if it was a brilliant snow surface," Hubbard said. Hubbard and his colleagues went to Greenland in August 2014 and used a hand-launched drone to capture high-resolution images of a section of the dark zone. While crevasses and pools of meltwater explained some of the dark spots, the researchers observed that the majority of the shadowy surfaces had a uniform coating of impurities. These impurities include trapped dust and soot that have accumulated over the years from faraway fires and factories, as well as dark-colored algal blooms from microbes that, scientists recently discovered, can thrive in Greenland's harsh environment. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications last month. The scientists wrote that the nature and drivers of the impurities in the ice sheet are not yet fully understood. But some recent research has suggested that there could be another complex feedback effect in the dark zone: algal blooms fueled by some of the impurities that get trapped in the ice. "The algae need nutrients and food, essentially dust, organic carbon and water," Hubbard explained in the statement. "In summer, these are plentiful, and the algal bloom takes off. Because algae are dark in color, they reinforce the dark zone. Thereby you get a positive feedback effect where the ice sheet absorbs even more solar radiation, producing yet more melt."

Since January, about 100 Egyptian workers have been excavating an area in the western valley of Egypt's Valley of the Kings that may contain the tomb of King Tut's wife. So far, archaeologists have remained tight-lipped about their findings. However, the Discovery Channel, which is funding the research, has released a photo of these excavations taking place in an area where a radar reading suggests a tomb entrance is located. A royal entrance? Previous excavations in the area had revealed four foundation deposits that contained pottery, flint blades and the skull of a cow. Deposits like these were often buried by the ancient Egyptians before they began construction of a tomb, archaeologistssay. Additionally, radar scans near those deposits showed a structure that may be the entrance to a tomb. The deposits are located near the tomb of Ay (who reigned from 1327 B.C. to 1323 B.C.), a pharaoh who succeeded Tutankhamun(who reigned from 1336 B.C. to 1327 B.C.). After King Tut's death, his wife, Ankhesenamun, remarried Ay, and archaeologists have speculated that if an undiscovered tomb is present, it could belong to her. Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist and former Egyptian antiquities minister who is leading the excavations, told Live Science that he cannot comment publicly about what his team has found at this time. In Egypt, archaeologists often wait until the antiquities ministry gives them permission to announce a discovery. According to a statement from the Discovery Channel that was emailed to Live Science, the company has "exclusive" access to film the excavations, which they hope to turn into a series of documentaries. There could be several undiscovered royal tombs in the western valley, the Discovery statement said. Hawass and other archaeologists have told Live Science in the past that this is possible, although the current excavations are focusing on finding just one tomb — the one whose entrance may have shown up in radar scans. "Led by renowned archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, the crew of more than one hundred Egyptian workers are digging in the largely untouched western portion of the valley, where leading archaeologists believe several royal tombs lie hidden," Discovery Channel representatives said. Hawass will also discuss the team's excavations in a lecture scheduled for April 20 in Tucson, Arizona, during the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt. Multiple tombs? According to a statement from the Discovery Channel that was emailed to Live Science, the company has "exclusive" access to film the excavations, which they hope to turn into a series of documentaries. There could be several undiscovered royal tombs in the western valley, the Discovery statement said. Hawass and other archaeologists have told Live Science in the past that this is possible, although the current excavations are focusing on finding just one tomb — the one whose entrance may have shown up in radar scans. "Led by renowned archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, the crew of more than one hundred Egyptian workers are digging in the largely untouched western portion of the valley, where leading archaeologists believe several royal tombs lie hidden," Discovery Channel representatives said. Hawass will also discuss the team's excavations in a lecture scheduled for April 20 in Tucson, Arizona, during the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt.

A woman in Russia died after doctors allegedly gave her an IV drip containing a formaldehyde solution instead of saline, according to news reports. Formaldehyde is sometimes used as part of the embalming process to preserve dead bodies, but what happens if a person is injected with the chemical while they're still alive? And is it possible to survive such a mishap? The woman, 27-year-old Ekaterina Fedyaeva, was undergoing a routine surgery when doctors mistakenly used formalin — a solution containing formaldehyde — in her IV bag, according to The Sun. The woman experienced pain and convulsions before falling into a coma, The Sun reported. She later died, and her funeral was on April 7 A woman in Russia died after doctors allegedly gave her an IV drip containing a formaldehyde solution instead of saline, according to news reports. Formaldehyde is sometimes used as part of the embalming process to preserve dead bodies, but what happens if a person is injected with the chemical while they're still alive? And is it possible to survive such a mishap? The woman, 27-year-old Ekaterina Fedyaeva, was undergoing a routine surgery when doctors mistakenly used formalin — a solution containing formaldehyde — in her IV bag, according to The Sun. The woman experienced pain and convulsions before falling into a coma, The Sun reported. She later died, and her funeral was on April 7. (Fedyaeva's case has not been corroborated by Live Science.) [27 Oddest Medical Cases] Cases of people being accidentally injected with formaldehyde are quite rare, said Dr. Christopher Hoyte, a toxicologist at UCHealth's University of Colorado Hospital's emergency department, who was not involved in Fedyaeva's case. Still, doctors know that formaldehyde can cause a number of harmful effects in living people. If injected into a person, formaldehyde can cause red blood cells to rupture, and it can also lead to a condition called acidosis, in which a person has too much acid in their blood, Hoyte said. This latter effect occurs because one of the biproducts of formaldehyde is an acid (called formic acid). Acidosis can cause numerous health problems, including organ dysfunction, because the body's normal processes can't work properly with too much acid around, Hoyte told Live Science. Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School who was also not involved in the case, said that formalin in the body "is very dangerous to all living tissues and would disrupt the function of nearly every living organ." If this case indeed happened, the outcome of death "is fully predictable," Nelson told Live Science. That said, it's possible for people to survive being injected with formaldehyde, Hoyte said. A person's survival would depend on the dose given, but because this situation is so rare, doctors don't really know what a fatal or non-fatal dose would be. "Because it doesn't happen very often, it's hard to pinpoint what that number is," he added. In 2009, doctors in Poland reported a case of a 33-year-old man who survived an IV injection of formaldehyde, which was given by mistake instead of an antibiotic. The man was injected with 400 milligrams of a 4 percent formaldehyde solution. In another report, a man died after he was given 30 milliliters of a 37 percent formaldehyde solution, Hoyte said. Hospitals typically have policies in place to prevent such errors. For example, health care professionals may need to scan a drug to make sure it's the correct one before administering it; or two people may need to check a medication before it's given, Hoyte said. Nelson questioned how formalin could have ended up in an IV bag. "It's hard to imagine why the formalin would have been in the IV bag," Nelson said. "It is kept around the OR [operating room], usually in small containers, used to preserve tissue while waiting for pathologic analysis." If such an event happened, doctors could attempt several things to try to save a person's life. They could use dialysis to try to remove the toxin from the blood, and they could administer folic acid to help the body metabolize the chemical into something less toxic, Hoyte said.

Hot peppers aren’t just a pain in the mouth — they may be a pain in the head, too. After eating the hottest known pepper in the world, a man suffered from splitting headaches that drove him to the hospital emergency room, and into case-study history. His is the first known instance of reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome — a temporary narrowing of arteries in the brain — to be tied to eating a hot pepper, researchers report April 9 in British Medical Journal Case Reports. Such narrowed arteries can lead to severe pain called “thunderclap headaches” and are often associated with pregnancy complications or illicit drug use. During a hot-pepper-eating contest, the man ate a chili dubbed the Carolina Reaper, named by Guinness World Records as the hottest pepper in the world. The Carolina Reaper is over 200 times as spicy as a jalapeño. About a minute later, he reported experiencing splitting headaches that came and went over two days before he sought treatment. Initial tests failed to find anything out of the ordinary. But a CT scan of blood vessels in the man’s brain showed severely narrowed arteries. After treatment, including hydration and pain medication, the headaches stopped. When the researchers imaged his brain five weeks later, the arteries had returned to their normal size. What a headache After eating a very spicy pepper, a man had severely narrowed arteries in his brain (arrows at left) and pounding headaches. When researchers looked again five weeks later, the arteries had returned to normal size (right). PmIOPWS.jpg Given the immediate onset of symptoms after eating the chili, it’s likely that capsaicin, a main ingredient in hot peppers, was responsible for the headaches, says study coauthor Kulothungan Gunasekaran, an internal medicine expert at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. Capsaicin, a known irritant, is used in pepper sprays, but in smaller doses it can relieve pain. Two previous studies have connected cayenne peppers with heart troubles, including a nonfatal heart attack. Gathering more data to better understand how capsaicin affects the brain could be tricky. The problem, Gunasekaran says, is that such a case is “a very rare occurrence. And no one’s willing to volunteer to eat this Carolina Reaper to see.” Well, almost no one.