Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Homeland Security’s Massive New Database Will Include Face Recognition, DNA, and Peoples’ “Non-Obvious Relationships”
June 10th, 2018Via: EFF: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly building what will likely become the largest database of biometric and biographic data on citizens and foreigners in the United States. The agency’s new Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) database will include multiple forms of biometrics—from face recognition to DNA, data from questionable sources, […]
“Those People Who Dug the Big Hole Under Switzerland Looking for the Higgs Boson Particle” Bought New Zealand Dairy Farm
June 9th, 2018Everyone knows about the billionaires buying up rural land in New Zealand. They’re not the only ones. CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) is getting in on the act too. Obviously, I expect to receive many nothing-to-see-here emails, but CERN is very strange. Also, I wish Bruce Cathie was still alive. Via: Stuff: The […]
Inside Tesla’s Model 3 Factory
June 9th, 2018There are some interesting photos of the Model 3 assembly line in this piece. Via: Bloomberg: On the Model 3 body line on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, everything is still. Tesla Inc. is just coming off a week of downtime during which workers added a new production line, improved ventilation after a fire […]
Netherlands: 3D Printed Houses
June 9th, 2018Five. It would be much more interesting if the number was 5,000 or 50,000. Well, it’s early days. This reminds me… I recently read an interesting sci-fi/cyberpunk/dystopia novel called Voidstar by Zachary Mason. In the near future, the sprawling favelas that exist between San Francisco and Los Angeles have been 3D printed by autonomous machines. […]
A Mall in China Put in a Traffic Lane Just for People Staring at Their Phones
June 9th, 2018Reader DF sent in this video a few days ago. Via: FastCompany: According to the New York Times, the new lane of traffic was intended to address the needs of the so-called “heads down tribe,” people who find the world around them so dull that they can’t bear to look up from their phones, even […]
Hockey Stick: U.S. Residential Energy Storage Deployments Q1 2018
June 7th, 2018Via: GTM: Ever since GTM Research began tracking storage deployments in 2013, residential batteries appeared as the faintest of slivers on the industrywide bar graph, nonzero but totally insubstantial. Now, for the first time, the smattering of a few kilowatts here and there has nearly overtaken the giants of grid-scale mega-projects. That’s a result both […]
Microsoft Sinks Data Centre Off Orkney
June 6th, 2018I don’t really buy the explanations given in the article. This is way too much hassle for cooling efficiencies. EMP-proof data repositories? The water would fully attenuate the effects of an EMP attack. Hmm… Also, don’t forget: Bill Gates and the “Doomsday Seed Vault”. It’s all very Ernst Blofeld. Via: BBC: Microsoft has sunk a […]
Deep in the Pentagon, a Secret AI Program to Anticipate the Launch of Nuclear Missiles
June 5th, 2018First, we take some W.O.P.R. Next, we stir in a pinch of SkyNet And then… Via: Reuters: The U.S. military is increasing spending on a secret research effort to use artificial intelligence to help anticipate the launch of a nuclear-capable missile, as well as track and target mobile launchers in North Korea and elsewhere. The […]
Amazon Using Over 100,000 Warehouse Robots
June 4th, 2018Warehouse robots to the horizon… Via: MIT Technology Review: Amazon’s fleet of automated warehouse robots, now more than 100,000 machines strong, is working alongside human employees to help meet the e-commerce giant’s massive fulfillment demand. The company’s robots carry inventory around massive warehouse floors, compiling all the items for a customer’s order and reducing the […]
McDonald’s to Add Self-Order Kiosks to 1,000 Stores Each Quarter
June 4th, 2018Via: CNBC: As McDonald’s seeks to modernize its business, the company is placing a big bet on mobile and other tech platforms. McDonald’s has been systematically adding self-service ordering kiosks and table service to stores as it works to “build a better McDonald’s.” “What we’re finding is when people dwell more, they select more,” CEO […]
