Archive for the 'Technology' Category
A Third of Cash Is Owned by 5 U.S. Companies
May 20th, 2016Via: USA Today: The rising cash holdings of U.S. corporations is increasingly in the hands of a few U.S. companies, with just five tech firms having grabbed a third of it. And nearly three-quarters of cash held by non-financial U.S. companies is stashed overseas, outside the long arm of Uncle Sam. Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), […]
Portugal Runs on Wind, Solar and Hydro-Generated Electricity Alone for Four Days
May 19th, 2016Via: Guardian: Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures. Electricity consumption in the country was fully covered by solar, wind and hydro power in an extraordinary 107-hour run that lasted from 6.45am on […]
Lockheed Martin Wants Orbital Laboratory for Mars
May 18th, 2016Via: Popular Science: Before our species set foot on the moon, we orbited it first. The same will probably be true for Mars, and on Wednesday, Lockheed Martin plans to unveil its vision for a spacecraft that could make it happen. The “Mars Base Camp,” as the company is calling it, would set up a […]
FindFace
May 18th, 2016Via: Guardian: If the founders of a new face recognition app get their way, anonymity in public could soon be a thing of the past. FindFace, launched two months ago and currently taking Russia by storm, allows users to photograph people in a crowd and work out their identities, with 70% reliability. It works by […]
Visitor Logs Show Google’s Unrivaled White House Access
May 18th, 2016Via: watchdog.org: A project examining White House visitor logs shows the Obama administration has extended an open door to Google. Johanna Shelton, Google’s director of public policy — in effect, the company’s top lobbyist — has visited White House officials 128 times since President Barack Obama took office in 2009. To put that in perspective, […]
Google, Apple, Tesla Veterans: Startup Developing Self-Driving Truck Kits
May 17th, 2016Via: The Verge: Former employees of Google, Apple, Tesla, Cruise Automation, and others — 40 people in total — have formed a new San Francisco-based company called Otto with the goal of turning commercial trucks into self-driving freight haulers. Prominent staffers include former Google Maps lead Lior Ron and Anthony Levandowski of Google’s self-driving car […]
Stanford Quantifies the Privacy-Stripping Power of Metadata
May 17th, 2016Via: Tech Crunch: More proof, if proof were needed, of the privacy-stripping power of metadata. A multi-year crowdsourced study, conducted by Stanford scientists and published this week, underlines how much information can be inferred from basic phone logs cross-referenced with other public datasets. (Reminder: the former director of the NSA and the CIA, General Michael […]
Battelle Fielding 100 Drone Zappers to Pentagon, Homeland Security
May 17th, 2016Via: Defense Tech: The military has turned to a directed energy frequency jammer mounted on an assault rifle-type frame to deal with the growing threat of small drones to military bases and troops in the field. Officials of Battelle, the non-profit research and development organization based in Columbus, Ohio, said Monday the Defense Department and […]
Pentagon Wants AI to Read Social Media and Draw Up Lists of People for Lethal Autonomous Robots to Kill
May 16th, 2016Via: Medium: “LARs [lethal autonomous robots] have the unique potential to operate at a tempo faster than humans can possibly achieve and to lethally strike even when communications links have been severed. Autonomous targeting technology will likely proliferate to nations and groups around the world. To prevent being surpassed by rivals, the United States should […]
UK Developing Digital Driving Licence
May 16th, 2016Via: BBC: The UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is working on a smartphone version of its driving licence. Chief executive Oliver Morley tweeted a photo showing a “prototype” using Apple’s Wallet app on an iPhone. He says it will be an “add-on” to the plastic card rather than a replacement. Research Credit: Jb
