Archive for December, 2013
‘Deep Learning’ Professor to Head Facebook AI Lab
December 16th, 2013Via: New Yorker: Earlier today, Facebook announced that one of the most prominent artificial-intelligence researchers in the world, Yann LeCun, will be joining the company to direct a massive new A.I. effort spread across offices in California, New York, and London. While it might sound like just another Facebook hire, the move, which LeCun describes […]
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Heard Voices in His Head
December 16th, 2013Via: Yahoo: Suspected Boston marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was tormented by voices in his head, according to the Boston Globe, which published the results of a five-month investigation into the attack on Sunday. “He believed in majestic mind control, which is a way of breaking down a person and creating an alternative personality with which […]
Bottled Water Containing Di(2-Ethylhexyl) Fumarate and 24,000+ Other Chemicals
December 14th, 2013Via: Natural Society: Several companies have stopped using BPA in plastic production due to consumer outrage, but just because a plastic container says it is “BPA Free” doesn’t mean it’s free of potentially harmful chemicals. As a matter of fact, recent research out of Germany indicates there are more than 24,000 of such chemicals in […]
China Landed Rover on Moon
December 14th, 2013Update: Chinese Rover Landed on Moon and Launched Successfully Via: CNN: China’s first lunar rover deployed successfully from the unmanned spacecraft Chang’e-3 that landed on the moon Saturday. Jade Rabbit (called Yutu in Chinese) is a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with at least four cameras and two mechanical legs that can dig up soil samples […]
GOOGLE BUYS BOSTON DYNAMICS
December 14th, 2013😯 Via: New York Times: BigDog, Cheetah, WildCat and Atlas have joined Google’s growing robot menagerie. Google confirmed on Friday that it had completed the acquisition of Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed mobile research robots for the Pentagon. The company, based in Waltham, Mass., has gained an international reputation for machines that […]
NASA Unveils ‘Valkyrie’ Robot for DARPA Competition
December 13th, 2013Via: IEEE Spectrum: Valkyrie (officially designated “R5” by NASA) is a 1.9 meter tall, 125 kilogram, 44 degree of freedom, battery-powered humanoid robot. A team from NASA’s JSC in Houston, in partnership with the University of Texas and Texas A&M and with funding from the state of Texas itself, built the robot for the DRC, […]
Air Strike Kills 15 Civilians in Yemen by Mistake
December 13th, 2013This is worth seeing: Via: Reuters: Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy, local security officials said on Thursday. The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and […]
Meet the Robot Telemarketer Who Denies She’s A Robot
December 13th, 2013Via: Time: The phone call came from a charming woman with a bright, engaging voice to the cell phone of a TIME Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer. She wanted to offer a deal on health insurance, but something was fishy. When Scherer asked point blank if she was a real person, or a computer-operated robot […]
ATF Uses Rogue Tactics in Storefront Stings Across Nation
December 13th, 2013Via: Journal Sentinel: The Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of court records, police reports and other documents and interviewed dozens of people involved in six ATF operations nationwide that were publicly praised by the ATF in recent years for nabbing violent criminals and making cities safer. Agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, […]
New Zealand: Customs Seizes Man’s Electronic Equipment
December 13th, 2013Via: New Zealand Herald: A backpacker coming home for Christmas had every bit of electronic equipment stripped from him at the airport. A Customs officer at Auckland International Airport took law graduate Sam Blackman’s two smartphones, iPad, an external hard drive and laptop – and demanded his passwords. Mr Blackman, 27, who was breaking up […]
