Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Nano-Spike Catalysts Convert Carbon Dioxide Directly Into Ethanol
October 20th, 2016Via: PhysOrg: In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol. Their finding, which involves nanofabrication and catalysis science, was serendipitous. “We discovered somewhat by […]
Tesla: Self-Driving Car Navigates Around Palo Alto, Drives Through Intersections, Finds Parking Spot
October 20th, 2016“Google’s cars drive around like that,” you might say. Yep, but you can’t buy one of those, and Google is nowhere near having a car for sale. My guess is that Tesla’s practice of iterating their AI from cars that actual customers are driving is causing their lead over everyone else to keep widening. Watching […]
NSA Contractor’s Alleged Theft ‘Breathtaking’ in Scope
October 20th, 2016Via: Baltimore Sun: The alleged theft of classified documents by a former NSA contractor from Glen Burnie was “breathtaking” in its scope, federal authorities said in a court filing Thursday, including information produced over two decades that detailed some of the country’s most sensitive intelligence operations. … Authorities seized some 50,000 gigabytes of digital information […]
Watch DARPA’s Robot Copilot Fly a Cessna
October 20th, 2016Via: Popular Mechanics: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—DARPA, that is—is currently working on a robotic copilot called the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS). The project is designed to decrease the number of airmen needed to fly military missions as a method of reducing cost. Aurora Flight Sciences recently tested the robotic arm by […]
Microsoft Speech Recognition Achieves ‘Human Parity’
October 20th, 2016Via: Newsweek: A “historic” landmark in artificial intelligence research has been reached by Microsoft, which has announced a new speech recognition technology that it claims is the first to be on par with humans. Details of the software were published this week in a paper titled ‘Achieving Human Parity in Conversational Speech Recognition,’ authored by […]
All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Hardware Capable of Level 4 Autonomy
October 19th, 2016A validation period of unspecified length will be required before the fully autonomous features become available. Here’s a sentence in the press release that’s worth noting: Before activating the features enabled by the new hardware, we will further calibrate the system using millions of miles of real-world driving to ensure significant improvements to safety and […]
UK Security Agencies Unlawfully Collected Data for 17 Years, Court Rules
October 18th, 2016Via: Guardian: British security agencies have secretly and unlawfully collected massive volumes of confidential personal data, including financial information, on citizens for more than a decade, senior judges have ruled. The investigatory powers tribunal, which is the only court that hears complaints against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, said the security services operated an illegal regime […]
Feds Walk Into A Building, Demand Everyone’s Fingerprints To Open Phones
October 18th, 2016Via: Forbes: In what’s believed to be an unprecedented attempt to bypass the security of Apple iPhones, or any smartphone that uses fingerprints to unlock, California’s top cops asked to enter a residence and force anyone inside to use their biometric information to open their mobile devices. FORBES found a court filing, dated May 9 2016, in which the Department of Justice sought […]
Half of American Adults Already In Facial Recognition Network
October 18th, 2016Via: Vocativ: Half of all American adults are already in some sort of facial recognition network accessible to law enforcement, according to a comprehensive new study. Conducted over a year and relying in part on Freedom of Information and public record requests to 106 law enforcement agencies, the study, conducted by Georgetown Law’s Center on […]
Bloomberg: Apple Rethinking Car Plans
October 17th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Apple Inc. has drastically scaled back its automotive ambitions, leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car, according to people familiar with the project. Hundreds of members of the car team, which comprises about 1,000 people, have been reassigned, let go, […]
