NSA Speech to Text Systems Makes Conversations Searchable
May 5th, 2015Via: FirstLook:
Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record.
But even as they increasingly use apps that understand what they say, most people don’t realize that the words they speak are not so private anymore, either.
Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored.
The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called “Google for Voice” nearly a decade ago.
Though perfect transcription of natural conversation apparently remains the Intelligence Community’s “holy grail,” the Snowden documents describe extensive use of keyword searching as well as computer programs designed to analyze and “extract” the content of voice conversations, and even use sophisticated algorithms to flag conversations of interest.
The documents include vivid examples of the use of speech recognition in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in Latin America. But they leave unclear exactly how widely the spy agency uses this ability, particularly in programs that pick up considerable amounts of conversations that include people who live in or are citizens of the United States.
Spying on international telephone calls has always been a staple of NSA surveillance, but the requirement that an actual person do the listening meant it was effectively limited to a tiny percentage of the total traffic. By leveraging advances in automated speech recognition, the NSA has entered the era of bulk listening.
And this has happened with no apparent public oversight, hearings or legislative action. Congress hasn’t shown signs of even knowing that it’s going on.
Texas: 2 Gunmen Killed Outside Muhammad Cartoon Contest
May 4th, 2015Update: Elton Simpson: Alleged Garland Shooting Suspect Was Known to FBI
Fascinating.
Via: Independent:
Police were on Monday morning said to be searching an apartment block in Arizona linked to the men believed of launching the attack on the Texas cartoon exhibition as reports named one of the gunmen as Elton Simpson – an individual already known to the authorities.
…
Five years ago, a court heard testimony from an FBI informer who said that Mr Simpson had spoken of his wish to engage in jihad, or holy war, saying: “If you get shot, or you get killed, it’s [heaven] straight away.”
—
Via: AP:
Two gunmen were killed Sunday after opening fire on a security officer outside a provocative contest for cartoon depictions of Prophet Muhammad in Texas and a bomb squad was called in to search their vehicle as a precaution, authorities said.
The men drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland as the contest was scheduled to end and began shooting at a security officer, the City of Garland said in a statement. Garland police officers returned fire, killing the men.
The Age of Drone Vandalism Begins
May 1st, 2015Via: Wired:
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the age of robotic graffiti was born. KATSU, a well-known graffiti artist and vandal, used a hacked Phantom drone to paint a giant red scribble across Kendall Jenner’s face on one of New York City’s largest and most viewed billboards. By all accounts, it is the first time that a drone has been deployed for a major act of public vandalism.
Whatever Tesla Announces Today… Wait
April 30th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in NZ.
—
Tesla Powerwall Press Kit Leaks Before Presentation
The Powerwall Home Battery increases the capacity for a household’s solar consumption, while also offering backup functionality during grid outages.
The Powerwall is available in 10kWh, optimized for backup applications or 7kWh optimized for daily use applications. Both can be connected with solar or grid and both can provide backup power. The 10kWh Powerwall is optimized to provide backup when the grid goes down, providing power for your home when you need it most. When paired with solar power, the 7kWh Powerwall can be used in daily cycling to extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar into the night when sunlight is unavailable.
Tesla’s selling price to installers is $3500 for 10kWh and $3000 for 7kWh. (Price excludes inverter and installation.) Deliveries begin in late Summer.
—
Tesla Powerwall Announcement Livestream Scheduled Start 8:30pm PST
—
Solar panel and inverter technologies are mature, safe and economically viable for millions of people in lots of places and circumstances. When it comes to large capacity, high power density battery systems, on the other hand, we’re at the very beginning of an exciting new paradigm.
Whatever Tesla announces today, my personal and professional advice (all of my grid-tie PV customers are now asking about batteries) for the average residential solar user is to wait at least until Tesla’s Gigafactory has ramped production.
What?
Wait two or three more years?
Yep. Definitely. Wait.
The R&D effort that has been going into batteries recently is akin to multiple Manhattan Projects. Dozens of companies are going to bloody themselves competing against each other to convince you (and/or your company) to go with their nextgen energy storage systems over the next few years.
Whatever Tesla is going to show today should be thought of as merely a hint of what’s to come. This is probably going to go down as the energy storage system equivalent of the Motorola DynaTAC:
On October 13, 1983, David D Meilahn placed the first commercial wireless call on a DynaTAC from his 1983 Mercedes 380SL to Bob Barnett, former president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, who then placed a call on a DynaTAC from inside a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell who was in Germany for the event. The call, made at Soldier Field in Chicago, is considered by many as a major turning point in communications. Later Richard H. Frenkiel, the head of system development at Bell Laboratories, said about the DynaTAC: “It was a real triumph; a great breakthrough.”
Motorola DynaTAC
The same Wikipedia article states, “The DynaTAC’s retail price, $3,995 (about $9500 in present-day terms).”
So sit back, enjoy the show, but hold on to your wallet.
Related: Tesla’s Gigafactory Could be Obsolete Before It Even Opens
Scientists Achieve Critical Steps to Building First Practical Quantum Computer
April 29th, 2015Via: PhysOrg:
IBM scientists today unveiled two critical advances towards the realization of a practical quantum computer. For the first time, they showed the ability to detect and measure both kinds of quantum errors simultaneously, as well as demonstrated a new, square quantum bit circuit design that is the only physical architecture that could successfully scale to larger dimensions.
With Moore’s Law expected to run out of steam, quantum computing will be among the inventions that could usher in a new era of innovation across industries. Quantum computers promise to open up new capabilities in the fields of optimization and simulation simply not possible using today’s computers. If a quantum computer could be built with just 50 quantum bits (qubits), no combination of today’s TOP500 supercomputers could successfully outperform it.
The IBM breakthroughs, described in the April 29 issue of the journal Nature Communications, show for the first time the ability to detect and measure the two types of quantum errors (bit-flip and phase-flip) that will occur in any real quantum computer. Until now, it was only possible to address one type of quantum error or the other, but never both at the same time. This is a necessary step toward quantum error correction, which is a critical requirement for building a practical and reliable large-scale quantum computer.
IBM’s novel and complex quantum bit circuit, based on a square lattice of four superconducting qubits on a chip roughly one-quarter-inch square, enables both types of quantum errors to be detected at the same time. By opting for a square-shaped design versus a linear array – which prevents the detection of both kinds of quantum errors simultaneously – IBM’s design shows the best potential to scale by adding more qubits to arrive at a working quantum system.
Chipotle Removes All GMO Ingredients From Its Menu
April 28th, 2015Via: Guardian:
Chipotle will no longer use genetically modified food in its stores, the company announced on Monday. The fast-growing Mexican restaurant chain will be the first US company to use only non-GM ingredients.
“There is a lot of debate about genetically modified foods,” Steve Ells, the founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle, said. “Though many countries have already restricted or banned the use of GMO crops, it’s clear that a lot of research is still needed before we can truly understand all of the implications of widespread GMO cultivation and consumption. While that debate continues, we decided to move to non-GMO ingredients.”
Marin County School Nixes Sedentary Education With Standing Desks For Students
April 28th, 2015Knowing that I sit too much, I ran the standing desk idea past my chiropractor. She rolled her eyes like, “Oh god, here’s another one.”
Sitting too much. Bad.
Standing too much. Bad.
She likes the idea of a desk that switches between sitting and standing positions and changing every half hour with a walk around the house in between.
So, I pretty much still sit too much. But I am thinking about getting a DeskCycle.
Via: CBS:
A lot of people say we should stand up for education but, at Vallecito Elementary in San Rafael, they’re actually doing it.
“To me, this is the wave of the future,” says 4th grade teacher Maureen Zink.
In four of the school’s classrooms, chairs have been removed and students spend the day standing at their desks. Some parents, concerned about how sedentary kids have become, donated money for the new desks.
A lot of the kids thought the change was weird and it took a few weeks for legs to stop being sore.
But then something really weird started happening — the kids began to like it.
Baltimore: Weeklong Citywide Curfew
April 28th, 2015Via: Baltimore Sun:
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced a weeklong, citywide 10 p.m. curfew starting Tuesday night to quell riots and looting that broke out on Baltimore’s west side Monday.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency and requested the Maryland National Guard to assist Baltimore police and several other state and local agencies in enforcing the curfew.
Like Shale Oil, Solar Power Is Shaking Up Global Energy
April 27th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in NZ.
—
Unlike shale oil, however, solar power isn’t an unmitigated environmental disaster.
Via: Reuters:
One by one, Japan is turning off the lights at the giant oil-fired power plants that propelled it to the ranks of the world’s top industrialized nations. With nuclear power in the doldrums after the Fukushima disaster, it’s solar energy that is becoming the alternative.
Solar power is set to become profitable in Japan as early as this quarter, according to the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), freeing it from the need for government subsidies and making it the last of the G7 economies where the technology has become economically viable.
Japan is now one of the world’s four largest markets for solar panels and a large number of power plants are coming onstream, including two giant arrays over water in Kato City and a $1.1 billion solar farm being built on a salt field in Okayama, both west of Osaka.
…
Wood Mackenzie expects solar costs to fall more as “efficiencies are nowhere near their theoretical maximums.”
Solar is already well-entrenched in Europe and North America, but it is the expected boom in Asia that is lifting it out from its niche.
China’s new anti-pollution policies are making the big difference. Because of these policies, Beijing is seeking alternatives for coal, which makes up almost two-thirds of its energy consumption.
China’s 2014 solar capacity was 26.52 gigawatt (GW), less than 2 percent of its total capacity of 1,360 GW.
But the government wants to add 17.8 GW of solar power this year and added 5 GW in the first quarter alone, with plans to to boost capacity to 100 GW by 2020.
Maryland Governor Declares State of Emergency, Activates National Guard
April 27th, 2015Via: Baltimore Sun:
The Maryland National Guard has been activated in response to violence following the funeral of Freddie Gray Monday, the governor’s office said.
Gov. Larry Hogan signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency and said he would hold a press conference Monday evening to address the situation.
“Today’s looting and acts of violence in Baltimore will not be tolerated,” Hogan said in an earlier statement. “I strongly condemn the actions of the offenders who are engaged in direct attacks against innocent civilians, businesses and law enforcement officers.”
Gray was injured during an arrest on April 12 and died in the hospital a week later. His funeral was in Baltimore Monday. In the afternoon clashes broke out between school students and police, starting at Mondawmin Mall and spreading across the city.
