Archive for April, 2018
“INTERROGATING ZUCKERBERG” – A Bad Lip Reading
April 24th, 2018Via: Bad Lip Reading:
Scientists Plan Huge European AI Hub to Compete with U.S.
April 24th, 2018Via: Guardian: Leading scientists have drawn up plans for a vast multinational European institute devoted to world-class artificial intelligence (AI) research in a desperate bid to nurture and retain top talent in Europe. The new institute would be set up for similar reasons as Cern, the particle physics lab near Geneva, which was created after […]
World Wine Output Falls to 60-Year Low
April 24th, 2018DOOOOOOOM! Via: Reuters: Global wine output fell to its lowest level in 60 years in 2017 due to poor weather conditions in the European Union that slashed production in the bloc, international wine organization OIV said. Wine production totaled 250 million hectoliters last year, down 8.6 percent from 2016, data from the Paris-based International Organisation […]
Headphones?
April 24th, 2018VERY OFF TOPIC! — I’m going to give my Audio-Technica ATH-M50s to my wife to replace her 17 year old, nearly-dead-and-not-good-to-start-with ATH-M20s. I was pretty amazed with the sound of the M50s when I got them back in 2010—at least for the first few minutes. After that, I went through multiple phases of modifying the […]
Amazon Designing Some Sort of Home Robot
April 23rd, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Ten years ago, Amazon introduced the Kindle and established the appeal of reading on a digital device. Four years ago, Jeff Bezos and company rolled out the Echo, prompting millions of people to start talking to a computer. Now Amazon.com Inc. is working on another big bet: robots for the home. The retail […]
Bill Gates Backs Space Based Video Surveillance System for Entire Planet
April 20th, 2018Via: TechCrunch: A new space imaging startup called EarthNow aims to provide not just pictures of the planet on demand, but real-time video anywhere a client desires. Its ambition is matched only by its pedigree: Bill Gates, Intellectual Ventures, Airbus, SoftBank and OneWeb founder Greg Wyler are all backing the play. Its promise is a […]
New Zealand: Billion-Dollar Soils Washing Into Rivers
April 19th, 2018Via: Newsroom: We’re losing soil at an alarming rate, but there are some gaping holes in our knowledge about why and where from, reports Eloise Gibson You can’t grow a lot of food without soil, certainly not in a dairy-, wine- and vege-hungry nation like New Zealand. Yet dirt – the foundation of our food […]
Palantir Using War on Terror Tools to Track American Citizens
April 19th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: The LAPD uses Palantir’s Gotham product for Operation Laser, a program to identify and deter people likely to commit crimes. Information from rap sheets, parole reports, police interviews, and other sources is fed into the system to generate a list of people the department defines as chronic offenders, says Craig Uchida, whose consulting […]
Mentally Ill Woman Wearing a Wig and Carrying a Loaded Gun, a Passport, and $100,000 in Cash Arrested After Driving to CIA Headquarters
April 18th, 2018Via: WTOP: A woman who drove into the CIA headquarters compound in McLean, Virginia, with a loaded gun, a passport and $100,000 in cash while wearing a wig is being held without bond. Charging documents said Beth Huth drove her white Kia Soul onto CIA property in Langley last Friday afternoon past signs restricting access […]
Arming the World: Inside Trump’s ‘Buy American’ Drive to Expand Weapons Exports
April 18th, 2018Via: Reuters: In a telephone call with the emir of Kuwait in January, U.S. President Donald Trump pressed the Gulf monarch to move forward on a $10 billion fighter jet deal that had been stalled for more than a year. Trump was acting on behalf of Boeing Co, America’s second-largest defense contractor, which had become […]
