Archive for August, 2015
IBM: Digital Rat Brain
August 19th, 2015Via: Quartz: In August 2014, IBM announced that it had built a “brain-inspired” computer chip—essentially a computer that was wired like an organic brain, rather than a traditional computer. These chips are designed to work like neurons—the brain’s nerve cells. Wired reported on Aug. 17 that the team working on the brain chips recently hit […]
U.S. Crude Hits 6.5 Year Low on Surprise Stock Build
August 19th, 2015Down nearly 5% right now. Via: Reuters: Oil prices fell about 4 percent on Wednesday, with U.S. crude hitting 6-1/2 year lows and threatening to break below $40, after a huge unexpected stockpile build in the United States reinforced concerns about a growing global oil glut. U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels last […]
First Almost Fully-Formed Human Brain Grown in Lab, “For Military Research”
August 19th, 2015Via: Guardian: An almost fully-formed human brain has been grown in a lab for the first time, claim scientists from Ohio State University. The team behind the feat hope the brain could transform our understanding of neurological disease. Though not conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful […]
Even When Told Not To, Windows 10 Won’t Stop Talking to Microsoft
August 18th, 2015Via: ArsTechnica: For example, even with Cortana and searching the Web from the Start menu disabled, opening Start and typing will send a request to www.bing.com to request a file called threshold.appcache which appears to contain some Cortana information, even though Cortana is disabled. The request for this file appears to contain a random machine […]
Long Range Strike Bomber Already a Snowballing Disaster
August 18th, 2015Via: Fiscal Times: The price on the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation bomber was just raised. Again. Last year, Air Force officials told Congress that the cost for the 10-year research and development phase for the Long-Range Strike Bomber would be $33.1 billion between fiscal years 2015 through 2025. But this year the price skyrocketed. The […]
Pentagon Planning Sharp Increase in Drone Flights by 2019
August 17th, 2015Via: Reuters: The Pentagon is planning a sharp increase in daily drone flights over conflict zones around the globe in the next four years as it tries to meet the reconnaissance and air strike needs of combatant commanders, a spokesman said on Monday. Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, said the number of […]
Long Term Data Storage in DNA
August 17th, 2015Via: Independent: DNA has the advantage over hard drives in that it is an extremely dense form of data storage with the potential to survive for long periods of time. An external hard drive for instance is about the size of a paperback book, can store about five terabytes of data and might last 50 […]
Two Women Make History by Passing Army’s Elite Ranger School
August 17th, 2015Via: NBC: For the first time ever, two women have successfully completed the Army’s elite Ranger school, one of the toughest combat training courses in the world, the Army said Monday. The female soldiers weren’t identified beyond being described as West Point-trained officers. They were among 96 soldiers who will graduate Friday at Fort Benning, […]
Minimum-Wage Offensive Could Speed Arrival of Robot-Powered Restaurants
August 17th, 2015“Enjoy any higher minimum wages while you can because the Rise of the Machines grinds steadily onward, and the goal is to eliminate as many human workers from corporate payrolls as possible.” —Seattle Hikes Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour Via: Washington Post: The avalanche of rising costs is why franchisers are aggressively looking for […]
Fab11: Making Robots
August 16th, 2015Via: YouTube:
