Google Unveils Neural Network with “Superhuman” Ability to Determine the Location of Almost Any Image
February 28th, 2016Via: MIT Technology Review:
Here’s a tricky task. Pick a photograph from the Web at random. Now try to work out where it was taken using only the image itself. If the image shows a famous building or landmark, such as the Eiffel Tower or Niagara Falls, the task is straightforward. But the job becomes significantly harder when the image lacks specific location cues or is taken indoors or shows a pet or food or some other detail.
Nevertheless, humans are surprisingly good at this task. To help, they bring to bear all kinds of knowledge about the world such as the type and language of signs on display, the types of vegetation, architectural styles, the direction of traffic, and so on. Humans spend a lifetime picking up these kinds of geolocation cues.
So it’s easy to think that machines would struggle with this task. And indeed, they have.
Today, that changes thanks to the work of Tobias Weyand, a computer vision specialist at Google, and a couple of pals. These guys have trained a deep-learning machine to work out the location of almost any photo using only the pixels it contains.
Their new machine significantly outperforms humans and can even use a clever trick to determine the location of indoor images and pictures of specific things such as pets, food, and so on that have no location cues.
Wealthy Republicans Planning to Run Third Party Candidate to Stop Trump
February 27th, 2016Some other flunky Republican-as-3rd-Party candidate would simply take votes from Trump, making it more likely that Clinton would win. These guys don’t think that their candidate will have a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning.
In other words, these Republicans would rather have Clinton for President than Trump, and they’re working to make that happen.
And if some vote fraud happens on election day… *meh* I guess the 3rd party candidate took some votes away from the Donald.
Remember the line from Good Fellas?
“And that’s that.”
Via: Politico:
Conservative donors have engaged a major GOP consulting firm in Florida to research the feasibility of mounting a late, independent run for president amid growing fears that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination.
A memo prepared for the group zeroes in on ballot access as a looming obstacle for any independent candidate, along with actually identifying a viable, widely known contender and coalescing financial support for that person. The two states with the earliest deadlines for independent candidates, Texas and North Carolina, also have some of the highest hurdles for independents to get on the ballot, according to the research.
“All this research has to happen before March 16, when inevitably Trump is the nominee, so that we have a plan in place,” a source familiar with the discussions said. March 16 is the day after the GOP primary in Florida, a winner-take-all contest that Marco Rubio supporters have identified as a must-win to stop Trump’s early momentum.
“It’s critical some serious attention is given to this,” the source said.
The document, stamped “confidential,” was authored by staff at Data Targeting, a Republican firm based in Gainesville, Fla. The memo notes that “it is possible to mount an independent candidacy but [it] will require immediate action on the part of this core of key funding and strategic players.”
Data Targeting did not respond to a request for comment on the memo.
Mercedes-Benz Swaps Robots for People on Its Assembly Lines
February 26th, 2016Sure, for luxury items.
Will a customer look at the price of a Mercedes and think, “They should have made a more standardized car so I could save a couple grand.”
No. a Mercedes customer will not think that.
Many luxury brands, from clothes to watches to yachts to planes, rely on human labor. Overall, though, the adoption of machine labor marches on.
Via: Guardian:
Bucking modern manufacturing trends, Mercedes-Benz has been forced to trade in some of its assembly line robots for more capable humans.
The robots cannot handle the pace of change and the complexity of the key customisation options available for the company’s S-Class saloon at the 101-year-old Sindelfingen plant, which produces 400, 000 vehicles a year from 1,500 tons of steel a day.
The dizzying number of options for the cars – from heated or cooled cup holders, various wheels, carbon-fibre trims and decals, and even four types of caps for tire valves – demand adaptability and flexibility, two traits where humans currently outperform robots.
Markus Schaefer, Mercedes-Benz’ head of production told Bloomberg: “Robots can’t deal with the degree of individualisation and the many variants that we have today. We’re saving money and safeguarding our future by employing more people.”
13.5 Percent of the Japan’s Housing Stock Vacant or Abandoned
February 26th, 2016I’ve been interested in Japan since I was a child, but I’ve never been there. The closest I’ll probably ever get to Japan is looking around on Google Maps. I pick a random spot and use the Street View function to see what there is to see.
So right up front, this is my disclosure: I might know slightly more about Japan than the average person outside of Japan—in terms of its international relations and military situation—but that’s about it.
Ok, so back to looking around on Google Maps…
I started to notice pretty quickly that there were more than a few homes that seemed to be very poorly maintained, or abandoned altogether. It’s nothing like the wholesale collapse happening in a place like Detroit—not yet anyway. It’s more like the odd house is left to rot while others nearby are perfectly fine. (And no, I’m not talking about Fukushima.) I don’t feel comfortable about posting links to individual properties. I don’t want to potentially cause any problems with local authorities for the owners of these properties, even if the chance of such a thing happening is low. If you doubt that this is happening, however, it would not be hard for you to see it for yourself. Pick a semi rural area outside of Tokyo and go into Street View mode.
I’m embarrassed to admit that these abandoned properties reminded me just a bit of the endless post-collapse visions of Japan that have appeared in various anime for decades. But I’d move on in my little virtual Google Maps tour and think that it was just my imagination, coincidence, nothing-to-see-here. Minutes later, another house with a tree growing through the roof.
This is JAPAN! Land of bullet trains and the life sized Gundam. I don’t know what immediately comes to mind when people think of Japan, but I bet it’s not a large number of abandoned homes and other ruins.
Beyond the brilliant glow of Tokyo, is Japan crumbling?
Again, I don’t know, but here are a few links about what’s apparently happening there:
Japan’s Population Declines for First Time Since 1920s – Official Census
Abandoned Homes Haunt Japanese Neighborhoods
Japan Keeps This Train Station Running for Just One Regular Passenger
In Ageing Japanese Village, Dolls Take Place of Dwindling Population
A Sprawl of Ghost Homes in Aging Tokyo Suburbs
Abandoned Japan Blog (Also seems to have been abandoned.)
Via: CityLab:
When an aging population meets a low birth rate, an awful lot of housing gets left behind.
…
Between the mid-1990s and 2013, the number of vacant or abandoned properties in Japan doubled. These neglected structures now make up an estimated 13.5 percent of the country’s housing stock. The phenomenon of abandoned Japanese homes is so widespread that people have begun writing poetry about it. When the Tokyo Association of Housing and Land Investigators put out a call for satirical haikus on the topic, it received 4,000 responses. “Where we were born, vacant houses gather, for legacy’s sake,” read one. “Watch out! Earthquakes and Thunder! Burning Vacant Homes,” read another.
It’s as though the entire country is facing a U.S. Rust Belt-style population problem. “Tokyo could end up being surrounded by Detroits,” one Japanese real estate expert told The New York Times in August. And like some Rust Belt cities, Japan has taken to dealing with it through legislation.
Passed in May 2015, Japan’s newest Vacant Housing Law is similar to moves in some shrinking U.S. cities that give government more latitude to enforce code violations and tear down structures that have become blighted and potentially dangerous. But the Japanese law’s real innovation, according to Peter Manda, a New Jersey-based fraud investigator with EY (formerly Ernst & Young) who’s working toward an advanced international law degree at Boston University, is its focus on creating a database that not only identifies vacant properties and their owners, but also helps bring those properties into public use.
In the current edition of Cityscape, the journal of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Manda analyzes Japan’s Vacant Housing Law with an eye toward the U.S. experience.
“They’re not just going in and razing the properties,” Manda tells CityLab. “They’re also turning these properties into municipal buildings and affordable housing.”
Scalia Died Among Members of Austrian Elite Society, International Order of St. Hubertus — U.S. Branch Started in 1966 at Bohemian Club
February 25th, 2016Wow. Definitely nothing to see here…
Via: Washington Post:
When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died 12 days ago at a West Texas ranch, he was among high-ranking members of an exclusive fraternity for hunters called the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian society that dates back to the 1600s.
After Scalia’s death Feb. 13, the names of the 35 other guests at the remote resort, along with details about Scalia’s connection to the hunters, have remained largely unknown. A review of public records shows that some of the men who were with Scalia at the ranch are connected through the International Order of St. Hubertus, whose members gathered at least once before at the same ranch for a celebratory weekend.
Members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large cross and the motto “Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes,” which means “Honoring God by honoring His creatures,” according to the group’s website. Some hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior and Knight Grand Officer. The Order’s name is in honor of Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen.
Cibolo Creek Ranch owner John Poindexter and C. Allen Foster, a prominent Washington lawyer who traveled to the ranch with Scalia by private plane, hold leadership positions within the Order. It is unclear what, if any, official association Scalia had with the group.
…
The society’s U.S. chapter launched in 1966 at the famous Bohemian Club in San Francisco, which is associated with the all-male Bohemian Grove — one of the most well-known secret societies in the country.
Dripping Blood, a Severed Arm, & 67 Tons of Cash on a CIA Plane
February 24th, 2016This is a good one.
Via: Mad Cow Productions:
When the ground crew at Harare International Airport comes out to refuel the plane, they’re horrified to see blood dripping down the fuselage. The plane’s crew dismisses it. Its led by two Americans, who claim they hit a bird earlier. Somebody calls the cops.
…
Stacked on pallets in the cargo hold of Western Global Airlines MD-11 wide-body cargo plane is 57 tons of South African currency.
By the time the plane is released, that figures will have increased by another 10 tons.
Research Credit: Wikispooks
Mercedes Coming for Tesla: First of Four Pure EV Models Available in 2018
February 24th, 2016This Mercedes news was from December 2015. I just spotted it because Korean firm SK Innovation was recently selected by Mercedes to supply the lithium ion cells for the vehicles.
Via: Car Magazine:
Mercedes-Benz will launch the first of four electric cars in 2018, as it begins an all-out assault on Tesla. CAR magazine revealed the ‘Ecoluxe’ project a year ago, a €2-billion investment that will sire two zero emission saloons and two crossover SUVs.
Sources have revealed the latest developments: the first car will come to market a year earlier than originally planned, as Mercedes seeks to keep pace with Porsche and Audi’s electric production cars arriving 2018, the Mission E and Q6 e-Tron.
Pregnant Secretary of Pope Francis Found Dead in Her Rome Apartment
February 24th, 2016Via: The Mirror:
The Pope’s pregnant receptionist has been found dead in her apartment on the outskirts of the city.
Miriam Wuolou, a 34-year-old of Eritrean origin, was seven-months pregnant when her body was discovered.
She had worked at Pope Francis’ home and a priests’ guesthouse called Santa Marta for years.
The Italian press reports she worked as a kind of gatekeeper for the Pontiff, as well as for the bishops and cardinals who stay there.
The Pope opted to live at the Santa Marta guesthouse after his appointment in 2013, rejecting the grand papal apartments because he found them too sumptuous and he feared isolation.
Atlas, The Next Generation
February 24th, 2016Via: Boston Dynamics (aka Google, aka Alphabet Inc):
A new version of Atlas, designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings. It is specialized for mobile manipulation. It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain, help with navigation and manipulate objects. This version of Atlas is about 5′ 9″ tall (about a head shorter than the DRC Atlas) and weighs 180 lbs.
Ground Delivery Drones Ready to Roll in England
February 23rd, 2016Via: USA Today:
“Ground drone” delivery robots that could easily be mistaken for toilet bowls on wheels are about to start rolling through London.
Starship Technologies CEO Ahti Heinla says the company’s fleet of “small, safe, practical, free from CO2 emissions, and best of all, earthbound” robots can deliver packages and groceries at a fraction of the cost of vehicles that require drivers.
…
The ground drones are capable of carrying the equivalent of two grocery bags, and customers set the time for the delivery. They travel at a speed of about 4 miles an hour, the equivalent of a brisk walk or slow jog.
