Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Backflipping MIT Mini Cheetah
March 5th, 2019Via: Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT’S new mini cheetah robot is the first four-legged robot to do a backflip. At only 20 pounds the limber quadruped can bend and swing its legs wide, enabling it to walk either right side up or upside down. The robot can also trot over uneven terrain about twice as […]
Tim Berners-Lee: “The Web Has Been Hijacked by Crooks and Trolls”
March 4th, 2019Via: AFP: Thirty years ago this month, a young British software engineer working at a lab near Geneva invented a system for scientists to share information that would ultimately change humanity. But three decades after he invented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee has warned that his creation has been “hijacked by crooks” that may […]
U.S. Companies Put Record Number of Robots to Work in 2018
February 28th, 2019Via: Reuters: U.S. companies installed more robots last year than ever before, as cheaper and more flexible machines put them within reach of businesses of all sizes and in more corners of the economy beyond their traditional foothold in car plants. Shipments hit 28,478, nearly 16 percent more than in 2017, according to data seen […]
Dr. Martin Pall: “The 5G Rollout Is Absolutely Insane.”
February 25th, 2019Via: Nick Pineault: More: 5G: Great risk for EU, U.S. and International Health! Compelling Evidence for Eight Distinct Types of Great Harm Caused by Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Exposures and the Mechanism that Causes Them by Martin L. Pall, PhD
U.S. Navy Buying Autonomous Submarines
February 24th, 2019Via: U.S. Naval Institute: The Navy awarded Boeing a $43-million contract to build four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) that will become multi-mission for the service, according to a Wednesday Pentagon contract announcement. Boeing based its winning Orca XLUUV design on its Echo Voyager unmanned diesel-electric submersible. The 51-foot-long submersible is launched from […]
China’s Powerful Surveillance State Has Created at Least Four Billionaires
February 23rd, 2019Via: Bloomberg: Before he became a billionaire, Dai Lin would ride his bike to work, pedaling through the streets of Tianjin to the headquarters of Tiandy Technologies Co., the camera maker he built with support from China’s government. When Dai started his company in 1994, roadside surveillance cameras were rare in China. Now they’re everywhere […]
Warning Issued Over Attacks on Internet Infrastructure
February 23rd, 2019Keep this in mind: Russia to Disconnect from Internet to Test Cyber Defenses. Via: AFP: Key parts of the internet infrastructure face large-scale attacks that threaten the global system of web traffic, the internet’s address keeper warned Friday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) declared after an emergency meeting “an ongoing and […]
AI Taking Fast Food Orders
February 22nd, 2019Via: San Francisco Chronicle: “The system takes a lot of friction out of interactions between customers and employees,” Carpenter said, noting that the AI was designed to sound like an amiable woman’s voice. “The AI never gets offended and it will just keep talking to you in a very calm and friendly voice.” There’s an […]
China’s Social Credit System: Millions Banned from Taking Flights, Trains
February 20th, 2019Via: South China Morning Post: Millions of Chinese individuals and businesses have been labelled as untrustworthy on an official blacklist banning them from any number of activities, including accessing financial markets or travelling by air or train, as the use of the government’s social credit system accelerates. The annual blacklist is part of a broader […]
Airplane Seat Cameras Could Be Your New Spy in the Sky
February 20th, 2019Don’t worry, the cameras are disabled. *chortle* In other news: Google says the built-in microphone it never told Nest users about was ‘never supposed to be a secret’ Via: Cnet: Twitter user Vitaly Kamluk shared a photo of what looked like a camera installed directly beneath the inflight entertainment screen on a Singapore Airlines aircraft. […]
