China Decides to Abolish 1-Child Policy, Allow 2 Children
October 29th, 2015Via: AP:
China’s ruling Communist Party announced Thursday that the country will start allowing all families to have two children, abolishing an unpopular policy that limited many urban couples to only one child for more than three decades.
The decision is the most significant easing of family-planning policies that were long considered some of the party’s most onerous intrusions into family life and had been gradually relaxed in recent years. The restrictions led to an imbalanced sex ratio because of a traditional preference for boys, and draconian enforcement that sometimes included forced abortions.
Wifi Networks Can Now Identify Who You Are Through Walls
October 29th, 2015Via: Gizmodo:
Who needs a peep hole when a wifi network will do? Researchers from MIT have developed technology that uses wireless signals to see your silhouette through a wall—and it can even tell you apart from other people, too.
The team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab are no strangers to using wireless signals to see what’s happening on the other side of a wall. In 2013, they showed off software that could use variations in wifi signal to detect the presence of human motion from the other side of a wall. But in the last two years they’ve been busy developing the technique, and now they’ve unveiled the obvious — if slightly alarming — natural progression: they can use the wireless reflections bouncing off a human body to see the silhouette of a person standing behind a wall.
Not only that, the team’s technique, known is RF-Capture, is accurate enough to track the hand of a human and, with some repeated measurements, the system can even be trained to recognise different people based just on their wifi silhouette. The research, which is to be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia next month, was published this morning on the research group’s website.
Medication Errors Found in 1 Out of 2 Surgeries
October 29th, 2015Via: Harvard:
The first study to measure the incidence of medication errors and adverse drug events during the perioperative period — immediately before, during and right after a surgical procedure — has found that some sort of mistake or adverse event occurred in every second operation and in 5 percent of observed drug administrations.
The study of more than 275 operations at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which will appear in Anesthesiology, also found that a third of the errors resulted in adverse drug events or harm to patients. The report is being published online to coincide with a presentation at the Anesthesiology 2015 annual meeting in San Diego, Calif., Oct. 24-28.
“We found that just over one in 20 perioperative medication administrations resulted in a medication error or an adverse drug event,” said Karen C. Nanji of the MGH Department of Anaesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, lead author of the report.
“Prior to our study, the literature on perioperative medication error rates was sparse and consisted largely of self-reported data, which we know under-represents true error rates. Now that we have a better idea of the actual rate and causes of the most common errors, we can focus on developing solutions to address the problems.
Google’s Project Loon Internet Balloons to Circle Earth
October 28th, 2015Via: BBC:
Google believes it is on course to have enough internet-beaming balloons in the stratosphere to form a ring over part of the world next year.
It told the BBC the move would let it trial a continuous data service to people living below the balloons’ path.
The declaration coincides with the announcement that three of Indonesia’s mobile networks intend to start testing Project Loon’s transmissions next year.
EU Countries Won’t Be Able to Opt Out of Genetically-Modified Food
October 28th, 2015Wow.
Via: The Journal:
EU LAWMAKERS HAVE rejected a hard-won compromise which would have allowed member states to decide whether or not to import Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for use in food and animal feed.
The European Parliament voted 557 to 75 against on a law which took the European Commission years to negotiate amid deep suspicions about the possible health and safety implications of GMO products.
The outcome, however, turned on a matter of principle – allowing member states to ban GMO products would mean erecting barriers within the EU’s most cherished achievement, its single market of more than 500 million people.
…
…19 of the 28 member states had asked to keep GMOs out of their territory, creating a complicated patchwork even within member states themselves.
Yamaha Shows Motobot Motorcycle-Riding Humanoid Robot
October 28th, 2015Motobot by Yamaha.
Via: Gizmag:
Yamaha produced somewhat of a surprise at the Tokyo Motor Show today when it showed a motorcycle-riding robot. Unlike most two-wheeled debutants, Yamaha’s new Motobot isn’t starting out on a small capacity motorcycle, but release images show the humanoid robot riding Yamaha’s most sporting motorcycle, the 1000cc R1M.
Inside the Pentagon’s Effort to Build a Killer Robot
October 28th, 2015Via: Time:
The defense program DARPA is working to create an artificial brain—but what will it mean for humanity if it succeeds?
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I am headed to the laboratory of Dr. Garrett T. Kenyon, whose program falls under the rubric of synthetic cognition, an attempt to build an artificial brain.
Roboticists define artificial brains as man-made machines designed to be as intelligent, self-aware and creative as humans. No such machine yet exists, but Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) scientists like Dr. Kenyon believe that, given the rapid advances in DARPA technologies, one day soon they will. There are two technologies that play key roles in advancing artificial intelligence, and they are computing, which involves machines, and neuroscience, which involves the human brain.
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DARPA is not primarily in the business of helping soldiers heal; that is the job of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. DARPA’s job is to “create and prevent strategic surprise.” DARPA prepares vast weapons systems of the future. So what are the classified brain programs really for?
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The technologies DARPA is pursuing in its brain and prosthetics programs have dual use in DARPA’s efforts to engineer hunter-killer robots, or lethal autonomous weapons systems. Coupled with the quest for artificial intelligence, all this might explain why DARPA is so focused on looking inside people’s brains.
U.S. Back to Combat in Iraq AND Syria
October 28th, 2015“This is combat and things are complicated,” Carter said.
No shit.
With the Russian imposed no-fly-zone over Syria… How’s this going to work?
Without mushroom clouds, I hope.
Via: NBC:
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday that the U.S. will begin “direct action on the ground” against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria, aiming to intensify pressure on the militants as progress against them remains elusive.
“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting such missions directly whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” Carter said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services committee, using an alternative name for the militant group.
Carter pointed to last week’s rescue operation with Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to free hostages held by ISIS.
Related: Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, U.S. Commando Killed in ISIS Raid, Ran to Gunfight
Carter and Pentagon officials initially refused to characterize the rescue operation as U.S. boots on the ground. However, Carter said last week that the military expects “more raids of this kind” and that the rescue mission “represents a continuation of our advise and assist mission.”
This may mean some American soldiers “will be in harm’s way, no question about it,” Carter said last week.
After months of denying that U.S. troops would be in any combat role in Iraq, Carter late last week in a response to a question posed by NBC News, also acknowledged that the situation U.S. soldiers found themselves in during the raid in Hawija was combat.
“This is combat and things are complicated,” Carter said.
Northrop Grumman Wins Long Range Strike Bomber Contract
October 27th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
Northrop Grumman on Tuesday won the Pentagon contract to build a fleet of stealthy planes known as the Long Range Strike Bomber, a new generation of aircraft designed to reach deep into enemy territory.
Northrop beat out a team of Boeing and Lockheed Martin in the high-stakes competition for a project likely to be one of the Pentagon’s most significant over the next decade.
In announcing the award, valued at nearly $60 billion, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said the program represents a “technological leap” that will allow the United States to “remain dominant.”
Bill Would Give Legal Protection to Firms that Share Data with Government
October 27th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
The Senate on Tuesday passed a cybersecurity bill that would give companies legal immunity for sharing data with the federal government, over the protests of some lawmakers and consumer advocates who say that the legislation does not adequately protect Americans’ privacy.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, must now be reconciled with legislation passed earlier this year by the House.
The Obama administration and lawmakers in both parties have been seeking for years to enact information-sharing legislation, and it now seems likely to become law.
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But privacy activists argue that the bill lacks robust privacy protections. They expressed concerns with provisions that allow the Department of Homeland Security to share information gathered in the program with other government agencies, such as the FBI or the National Security Agency. Critics say that effectively turns the legislation into a backdoor surveillance bill that benefits the intelligence community.
