Archive for January, 2016
DARPA: Bridging the Bio-Electronic Divide
January 20th, 2016Via: U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency: A new DARPA program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world. The interface would serve as a translator, converting between the electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the […]
Neurosurgeon Claims Successful Head Transplant on Monkey
January 20th, 2016Via: Independent: The scientist who claims to be about to carry out the first human head transplant says that he has successfully done the procedure on a monkey. Maverick neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has tested the procedure in experiments on monkeys and human cadavers, he told New Scientist. Dr Canavero says that the success shows that […]
IBM Watson Head Mike Rhodin On The Future Of Artificial Intelligence
January 20th, 2016Did you ever read, The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson? Do you remember Nell’s copy of the Primer? But to call it a book does not really do it justice — it is really a massively parallel computer in which each page can dynamically rearrange itself to tell a story. Check this out, from the […]
Not The Onion: Lamb Chop Weight Enforcers Want Warrantless Access to Australians’ Metadata
January 20th, 2016Via: Guardian: If you are in the business of selling lamb chops, make sure you are weighing them properly: the National Measurement Institute wants warrantless access to Australians’ metadata to help them hunt down supermarkets skimping on portions. The NMI is one of 61 agencies that has applied to the attorney general, George Brandis, to […]
The Planet’s Fisheries Are In Even Worse Shape Than We Thought
January 20th, 2016Via: Huffington Post: The world’s oceans have been overfished far more than reported, according to a new study. The report, published in the journal Nature Communications, reanalyzed worldwide catch data and compared it to information that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations uses. Researchers found that from 1950 to 2010, up to […]
Hillary Clinton’s Private Email Server Contained Information of Special Access Programs
January 20th, 2016Via: NBC: Emails from Hillary Clinton’s home server contained information classified at levels higher than previously known, including a level meant to protect some of the most sensitive U.S. intelligence, according to a document obtained by NBC News. In a letter to lawmakers, the intelligence community’s internal watchdog says some of Clinton’s emails contained information […]
Delhi: The Sleep Mafia
January 18th, 2016Via: New York Times: When midnight approaches in Old Delhi and a thick, freezing fog settles over the city, the quilt-wallah Farukh Khan sits on his corner, watching the market for his services come to life. They shuffle up one by one, men desperate for sleep. The bicycle rickshaw pullers, peeling one of his 20-rupee, […]
Big Banks Brace for Oil Loans to Implode
January 18th, 2016Via: CNN: Big banks are cringing as crude oil is crumbling. Firms on Wall Street helped bankroll America’s energy boom, financing very expensive drilling projects that ended up flooding the world with oil. Now that the oil glut has caused prices to crash below $30 a barrel, turmoil is rippling through the energy industry and […]
Mistake? Refiner Bids -50 Cents Per Barrel for Low Grade Oil
January 18th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Oil is so plentiful and cheap in the U.S. that at least one buyer says it would pay almost nothing to take a certain type of low-quality crude. Flint Hills Resources LLC, the refining arm of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch’s industrial empire, said it offered to pay $1.50 a barrel Friday […]
Rise of the Robots Will Eliminate More Than 5 Million Jobs
January 18th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Over five million jobs will be lost by 2020 as a result of developments in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics and other technological change, according to World Economic Forum research.
