Archive for December, 2013
NSA: Office of Tailored Access Operations
December 29th, 2013I always thought that this was called Special Collection Service. Maybe this TAO thing is Double Plus Special. Via: Spiegel: The NSA’s TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors […]
Recovery: One Million U.S. Jobless to Lose Financial Aid
December 28th, 2013Via: BBC: More than a million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits after an emergency federal programme expires on Saturday. Lawmakers failed to agree on an extension of the scheme before the US Congress began its winter recess. Former President George W Bush introduced the assistance plan in 2008 at the start of the recession. […]
Recovery: New York City Homeless Shelters Fill as Rent Aid Disappears
December 28th, 2013Via: Wall Street Journal: New York City homeless shelters—swelling with record-high populations not seen since the Great Depression—are increasingly being sought out by people who participated in a now-defunct rent-subsidy program designed to reduce homelessness, according to a report to be released Saturday. The author of the report, the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit […]
Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience
December 28th, 2013Here’s one for your Omni-Magazine-Déjà-vu-Moments file folder. Via: New York Times: Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head. The first commercial version of the new kind of computer chip is scheduled to be released […]
Michigan: Cars with Self Drive Mode Allowed on Roads; On Board Human Supervision Required
December 28th, 2013Via: CBS: Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a law allowing companies to test driverless cars on Michigan roads. But there’s a key point: Someone must be in the car. In a statement Friday, Snyder says the law is important to keep Michigan involved in research and development of car technology. He also mentioned a need […]
Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap 2013-2038
December 28th, 2013Via: U.S. Department of Defense: 4.1.5 Autonomy and Cognitive Behavior Nearly all unmanned systems require active control of basic vehicle operations and behavior that affects communications, manpower, and system effectiveness. One of the largest cost drivers in the budget of DoD is manpower. A significant amount of that manpower, when it comes to operations, is […]
Identifying People Reflected in the Pupils of Portrait Subjects
December 27th, 2013Via: Los Angeles Times: Can the eyes of photographed crime victims help authorities spot their victimizers? According to new research published Thursday in the journal PLOS One, high-resolution photographs can be “mined” for hidden information. Specifically, the authors said that photographs of faces can reveal enough visual information on bystanders to identify them. In a […]
“The bodies of the poor, when they are not captive, are worth little to corporations. But bodies behind bars can each generate $40,000 to $50,000 a year for corporate coffers.”
December 27th, 2013Via: Truthdig: Shares in the Philadelphia-based Aramark Holdings Corp., which contracts through Aramark Correctional Services to provide the food to 600 correctional institutions across the United States, went public Thursday. The corporation, acquired in 2007 for $8.3 billion by investors that included Goldman Sachs, raised $725 million last week from the sale of the stock. […]
Neural Net Learns Breakout Then Thrashes Human Gamers
December 27th, 2013Via: Medium: The Atari 2600 games console has a special place in the hearts of any gamers who grew up in the 1970s. It popularised a number of games that changed the games industry for ever, such as Pong, Breakout and Space Invaders. Today, these games have legendary status and still play an important role […]
‘We Are Creating Walmarts of Higher Education’
December 27th, 2013Via: The Atlantic: Universities in South Dakota, Nebraska, and other states have cut the number of credits students need to graduate. A proposal in Florida would let online courses forgo the usual higher-education accreditation process. A California legislator introduced a measure that would have substituted online courses for some of the brick-and-mortar kind at public […]
