Archive for the '[???]' Category
Chicago: “Array of Things”
August 29th, 2016Via: USA Today: The Windy City has begun installing what sounds and looks a whole lot like a Fitbit that can measure the vitals of a bustling metropolis. Chicago, which partnered on the project with researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory and several corporations, last week installed the first two of […]
Amazon and the CIA Want to Teach AI to Interpret Satellite Imagery
August 25th, 2016Via: MIT Technology Review: Why can’t computers watch the Earth from above and automatically map our roads, buildings, and trash heaps? Satellite operator DigitalGlobe is teaming up with Amazon, the venture arm of the CIA, and chipmaker Nvidia to try to make it happen. In a joint project, DigitalGlobe today released satellite imagery depicting the […]
‘Mind-Controlled Nanobots Could Release Drugs Inside Your Brain’
August 25th, 2016Hmm. Via: New Scientist: A man has used thought alone to control nanorobots inside a living creature for the first time. The technology released a drug inside cockroaches in response to the man’s brain activity – a technique that may be useful for treating brain disorders such as schizophrenia and ADHD. Getting drugs to where […]
US Air Force Wants to Plasma Bomb the Sky Using Tiny Satellites
August 23rd, 2016Via: New Scientist: CAN you hear me now? The US Air Force has plans to improve radio communication over long distances by detonating plasma bombs in the upper atmosphere using a fleet of micro satellites. Since the early days of radio, we have known that signals that cannot be picked up by day may be […]
Germany to Tell People to Stockpile Food and Water in Case of Attacks
August 22nd, 2016Via: Reuters: For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday. Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by […]
U.S. Army Fudged Its Accounts by Trillions of Dollars
August 19th, 2016Via: Reuters: The United States Army’s finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced. The Defense Department’s Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone […]
Organisms Might Be Quantum Machines
August 18th, 2016Via: BBC: [Quantum effects] might be at work behind some very familiar processes, from the photosynthesis that powers plants – and ultimately feeds us all – to the familiar sight of birds on their seasonal migrations. Quantum physics might even play a role in our sense of smell.
The Tunguska Event
August 18th, 2016Via: BBC: On 30 June 1908, an explosion ripped through the air above a remote forest in Siberia, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska river. The fireball is believed to have been 50-100m wide. It depleted 2,000 sq km of the taiga forest in the area, flattening about 80 million trees. The earth trembled. Windows smashed in […]
Justice Department to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons
August 18th, 2016Didn’t see that coming… Via: The Globe and Mail: The U.S. Justice Department plans to phase out its use of privately-operated prisons, which it called less safe and less effective than government-run facilities, according to a memo released publicly by the department on Thursday. In a move that hammered corrections company share prices, the Justice […]
Mock Human Sacrifice at CERN
August 18th, 2016Via: Guardian: The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) has launched an investigation into a video filmed at night on its Geneva campus depicting a mock ritual human sacrifice. The video, which circulated online, shows several individuals in black cloaks gathering in a main square at Europe’s top physics lab, in what appears to be […]
