Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Mercedes Gives Up on Home Energy Storage, Can’t Compete with Tesla
May 3rd, 2018Man oh man. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Via: GTM: Mercedes-Benz will stop manufacturing residential batteries and dissolve its U.S. energy subsidiary, ending a short-lived challenge to Tesla’s energy storage empire.
Chinese Firms Use ‘Mind-Reading’ Devices to Monitor Workers’ Emotions
April 30th, 2018As I’ve always said (recent example) re: EEG data and these sorts of claims: I doubt it works at all, but the fact that they’re trying is disturbing enough. Via: Sydney Morning Herald: Workers in China are being hooked up with brain-reading devices that feed information about their moods to their employers, raising fears about […]
Radio Frequency Vehicle Stopper
April 29th, 2018Via: Defense One: The Defense Department’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program, or JNLWD, is pushing ahead with a new direct energy weapon that uses high-powered microwaves to stop cars in their tracks without damaging the vehicle, its driver, or anyone else. The jammer works by targeting the car’s engine control unit causing it to reboot over […]
Britain: Students Can’t Read Analog Clocks, Traditional Clocks, “Could Be a Cause of Unnecessary Stress”
April 29th, 2018Prediction: Students won’t be able to write, so they will need screens to take the exams. Via: Telegraph: Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, a head teachers’ union has said. Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained […]
Electric Buses Are Hurting the Oil Industry
April 24th, 2018Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Where’s the electricity coming from to charge up those buses? A lot of it is still coming from coal, but China’s coal use has peaked: The real game changer is clean energy. The price of solar photovoltaic is at an all-time low, enough to compete […]
Scientists Plan Huge European AI Hub to Compete with U.S.
April 24th, 2018Via: Guardian: Leading scientists have drawn up plans for a vast multinational European institute devoted to world-class artificial intelligence (AI) research in a desperate bid to nurture and retain top talent in Europe. The new institute would be set up for similar reasons as Cern, the particle physics lab near Geneva, which was created after […]
Amazon Designing Some Sort of Home Robot
April 23rd, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Ten years ago, Amazon introduced the Kindle and established the appeal of reading on a digital device. Four years ago, Jeff Bezos and company rolled out the Echo, prompting millions of people to start talking to a computer. Now Amazon.com Inc. is working on another big bet: robots for the home. The retail […]
Bill Gates Backs Space Based Video Surveillance System for Entire Planet
April 20th, 2018Via: TechCrunch: A new space imaging startup called EarthNow aims to provide not just pictures of the planet on demand, but real-time video anywhere a client desires. Its ambition is matched only by its pedigree: Bill Gates, Intellectual Ventures, Airbus, SoftBank and OneWeb founder Greg Wyler are all backing the play. Its promise is a […]
Palantir Using War on Terror Tools to Track American Citizens
April 19th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: The LAPD uses Palantir’s Gotham product for Operation Laser, a program to identify and deter people likely to commit crimes. Information from rap sheets, parole reports, police interviews, and other sources is fed into the system to generate a list of people the department defines as chronic offenders, says Craig Uchida, whose consulting […]
These Ex-Spies Are Harvesting Facebook Photos For A Massive Facial Recognition Database
April 17th, 2018Via: Fortune: When Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica revelations, he tried to describe the difference between “surveillance and what we do.” “The difference is extremely clear,” a nervous-looking Zuckerberg said. “On Facebook, you have control over your information… the information we […]
