Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Virginia Police Have Been Secretively Stockpiling Private Phone Records
October 20th, 2014Via: Wired: While revelations from Edward Snowden about the National Security Agency’s massive database of phone records have sparked a national debate about its constitutionality, another secretive database has gone largely unnoticed and without scrutiny. The database, which affects unknown numbers of people, contains phone records that at least five police agencies in southeast Virginia […]
New Lithium Ion Batteries Charge 70 Percent in 2 Minutes
October 16th, 2014Via: cNet: The freedom to hold computers in our hands, pop wireless headphones in our ears and pilot drones through our backyards is all brought to us by batteries — especially rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The portable powerhouses are a critical component of our march toward tech mobility, yet most require hours of being plugged […]
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
October 16th, 2014Via: Aviation Week: Hidden away in the secret depths of the Skunk Works, a Lockheed Martin research team has been working quietly on a nuclear energy concept they believe has the potential to meet, if not eventually decrease, the world’s insatiable demand for power. Dubbed the compact fusion reactor (CFR), the device is conceptually safer, […]
Facebook, Apple Pay for Female Workers to Freeze Eggs
October 14th, 2014Via: New Zealand Herald: Facebook and Apple are covering the costs for female employees to freeze their eggs to delay childbearing that could hamper their careers, NBC News reports. The companies are covering up to $US20,000 ($NZ25,526) for the procedure and annual storage costs, NBC said on Tuesday, citing sources at the Silicon Valley firms. […]
NSA Core Secrets: “Exceptionally Compartmented Information,” or ECI
October 11th, 2014Via: First Look: The National Security Agency has had agents in China, Germany, and South Korea working on programs that use “physical subversion” to infiltrate and compromise networks and devices, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents, leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, also indicate that the agency has used “under cover” operatives […]
Documentary Film Claims That There Is Another NSA Leaker with Higher Rank Than Snowden
October 11th, 2014Via: The Hollywood Reporter: A second National Security Agency whistleblower exists within the ranks of government intelligence. That bombshell comes toward the end of Citizenfour, a new documentary from filmmaker Laura Poitras about NSA informant Edward Snowden that had its world premiere on Friday at the New York Film Festival. In the key scene, journalist […]
Microsoft’s Quantum Mechanics
October 10th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: In 2012, physicists in the Netherlands announced a discovery in particle physics that started chatter about a Nobel Prize. Inside a tiny rod of semiconductor crystal chilled cooler than outer space, they had caught the first glimpse of a strange particle called the Majorana fermion, finally confirming a prediction made in […]
Tesla Model S Gains Autopilot
October 10th, 2014Via: cNet: …Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced at an event in Los Angeles that every car manufactured over the last two weeks comes with new sensor hardware to enable what he calls Autopilot capabilities. … The Autopilot hardware includes forward-looking radar and camera, combined with all-around long-range ultrasonic sensors. A software update being sent […]
UW Fusion Reactor Concept Could Be Cheaper Than Coal
October 8th, 2014Via: University of Washington: Fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true – zero greenhouse gas emissions, no long-lived radioactive waste, a nearly unlimited fuel supply. Perhaps the biggest roadblock to adopting fusion energy is that the economics haven’t penciled out. Fusion power designs aren’t cheap enough to outperform systems that use fossil fuels […]
Rolls-Royce to Add ‘Robotic’ Chauffeur
October 7th, 2014Via: Drive: Rolls-Royce is set to join the race to delete the driver – and the chauffeur too. The iconic British luxury car maker is looking to its parent company, BMW, to adopt autonomous driving technologies before the end of the decade.
