A Compilation of Robots Falling Down at the DARPA Robotics Challenge
June 6th, 2015Yes! Robots can reliably imitate the behavior of falling-down-drunk humans. Go team!
Via: IEEE:
On Thursday, the day before the competition was to officially start, DARPA allowed the teams to conduct a dress rehearsal, putting their robots through the course to see how they’d do. During that dry run, not many robots fell over, so we went into Day 1 of the Finals thinking that falls would be rare. They weren’t. Lots of robots fell over, and a bunch of robots fell over multiple times. As much as nobody wanted to see a robot fall, everybody wanted to see a robot fall, and the possibility of falls (and reality of falls) kept everyone watching on the edge of our seats.
Holding Your Breath in India
June 6th, 2015Via: New York Times:
We gradually learned that Delhi’s true menace came from its air, water, food and flies. These perils sicken, disable and kill millions in India annually, making for one of the worst public health disasters in the world. Delhi, we discovered, is quietly suffering from a dire pediatric respiratory crisis, with a recent study showing that nearly half of the city’s 4.4 million schoolchildren have irreversible lung damage from the poisonous air.
Reporter Says Pentagon Agreed to Give Up Docs If He Never Submits Another FOIA Aequest
June 6th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
Leopold: The Office of Net Assessment (ONA) is the Pentagon’s in-house think tank. They spend millions and millions of dollars putting together reports — reports that they contract out about perhaps some futuristic warfare, or what the situation in the Middle East is going to look like with regards to oil. I asked for those reports. I filed a FOIA request; they refused to comply with my FOIA request. They said it was too broad. I narrowed it, they still said it was too broad. I sued them. Recently they said that ‘We’ll give you some documents as long as you promise to never file a FOIA request again and don’t have anyone else file a FOIA request on your behalf.’
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.): How is that legal?
Leopold: I don’t know but they put this in writing and I’m really looking forward to the day when I write this story up.
Data Hacked from U.S. Government Dates Back to 1985
June 5th, 2015Via: Reuters:
Data stolen from U.S. government computers by suspected Chinese hackers included security clearance information and background checks dating back three decades, U.S. officials said on Friday, underlining the scope of one of the largest known cyber attacks on federal networks.
The breach of computer systems of the Office of Personnel Management was disclosed on Thursday by the Obama administration, which said records of up to 4 million current and former federal employees may have been compromised.
A total of 2.1 million current U.S. government workers were affected, according to a source familiar with the FBI-led investigation into the incident.
Accusations by U.S. government sources of a Chinese role in the cyber attack, including possible state sponsorship, could further strain ties between Washington and Beijing. Tensions are already heightened over Chinese assertiveness in pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The hacking also raises questions about how the United States would respond if it confirmed that the Chinese government was behind it.
Several U.S. officials, who requested anonymity, said the hackers were believed to have been based in China but that it was not yet known if the Chinese government or criminal elements were involved.
Another U.S. official said the breach was being investigated as a matter of national security, meaning it may have originated from a foreign government.
“Amazon, Google Race to Get Your DNA Into the Cloud”
June 5th, 2015Via: Reuters:
Amazon.com Inc is in a race against Google Inc to store data on human DNA, seeking both bragging rights in helping scientists make new medical discoveries and market share in a business that may be worth $1 billion a year by 2018.
Academic institutions and healthcare companies are picking sides between their cloud computing offerings – Google Genomics or Amazon Web Services – spurring the two to one-up each other as they win high-profile genomics business, according to interviews with researchers, industry consultants and analysts.
That growth is being propelled by, among other forces, the push for personalized medicine, which aims to base treatments on a patient’s DNA profile. Making that a reality will require enormous quantities of data to reveal how particular genetic profiles respond to different treatments.
Already, universities and drug manufacturers are embarking on projects to sequence the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people. The human genome is the full complement of DNA, or genetic material, a copy of which is found in nearly every cell of the body.
Massive Breach of Federal Personnel Data at Agency Handling Security Clearances
June 4th, 2015Via: AP:
The Obama administration is scrambling to assess the impact of a massive data breach involving the agency that handles security clearances and employee records, U.S. officials said Thursday.
A congressional aide familiar with the situation, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to discuss it, said the Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department were hacked. A second U.S. official who also declined to be identified said the data breach could potentially affect every federal agency.
NSA Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border
June 4th, 2015Via: New York Times:
Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents.
Leaked TISA Documents Reveal Privacy Threat
June 4th, 2015Via: Forbes:
Under the draft provisions of the latest trade deal to be leaked by Wikileaks, countries could be barred from trying to control where their citizens’ personal data is held or whether it’s accessible from outside the country.
…
And the contents of TISA make interesting reading, particularly for anybody concerned about privacy. Under the draft agreement, the EU would be barred from requiring the personal data of its citizens to be held within European borders, an idea currently under discussion in Germany.
“No Party may require a service supplier, as a condition for supplying a service or investing in its territory, to: (a) use computing facilities located in the Party’s territory,” the leaked draft stipulates.
“No Party may require a service supplier, as a condition for supplying a service or investing in its territory, to: (a) use computing facilities located in the Party’s territory.”
Related: Latest WikiLeaks TiSA Releases
29 Percent of Elderly Americans Have No Retirement Savings
June 4th, 2015Via: CNBC:
How bad is America doing when it comes to retirement savings? The Government Accountability Office looked into the question, and its answer is sobering.
A new GAO analysis finds that among households with members aged 55 or older, nearly 29 percent have neither retirement savings nor a traditional pension plan.
Two More Finance Firm Employees Dead
June 3rd, 2015They’re starting to go two at a time now.
Thomas Hughes: Investment Banker Jumps To His Death In NYC
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