Amazon Challenges Pentagon’s $10-billion Cloud Award to Microsoft
November 15th, 2019Via: Reuters:
Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it is contesting the Pentagon’s award of an up to $10 billion cloud computing deal to Microsoft Corp, expressing concern that politics got in the way of a fair contracting process.
The company filed notice last Friday that it will formally protest the decision on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud, known as JEDI. In a company-wide meeting on Thursday, Amazon Web Services’ CEO Andy Jassy said it would be challenging for a U.S. agency to award a contract objectively when the president is disparaging one of the contestants, according to an Amazon spokesman.
President Donald Trump has long criticized Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos.
Engineer Created Algorithm That Can Remove Strong Blue-Green Color Cast and Backscatter from Underwater Photographs
November 15th, 2019Not Photoshop levels, hue, saturation, etc.
Wild results.
Via: PetaPixel:
An engineer has developed a computer program that can, in her words, “remove the water” from an underwater photograph. The result is a “physically accurate” image with all of the vibrance, saturation and color of a regular landscape photo.
The technology, called Sea-thru, was developed by oceanographer and engineer Derya Akkaynak while she was a post-doctoral fellow under Tali Treibitz at the University of Haifa, and it has the potential to revolutionize underwater photography. While “remove the water” isn’t the most scientific explanation for how the technology works, as you can see in the Scientific American feature above, that’s more or less what it does.
By automatically removing the color cast and backscatter caused by the way light moves through a body of water, she’s able to capture underwater landscapes as they would look to the human eye on dry land—in other words: if all the water were gone.
70% of Americans Say They Are Struggling Financially
November 14th, 2019Via: CBS:
Many Americans remain in precarious financial shape even as the economy continues to grow, with 7 of 10 saying they struggling with at least one aspect of financial stability, such as paying bills or saving money.
The findings come from a survey of more than 5,400 Americans from the Financial Health Network, a nonprofit financial services consultancy. The project, which started a year ago, is aimed at assessing people’s financial health by asking about debt, savings, bills and wages, among other issues.
How Chilean Protesters Took Down a Drone With Standard Laser Pointers
November 14th, 2019Via: Nextgov:
Video of Chilean protesters using beams of green light to ground a police drone made the rounds on social media Wednesday. But those aren’t tractor beams or Green Lantern rings—the protesters appear to be using run-of-the-mill laser pointers to take down law enforcement-grade technology. How does that work?
Chilean protesters took to the streets last month to speak out against a proposed increase in public transit fares, though the demonstrations have now turned into a countrywide expression of anger over low wages and inequality.
Video posted to Reddit late Tuesday appears to show training laser pointer pens on a police drone in an attempt to bring it to the ground. As more light beams make contact with the unmanned aerial system, or UAS, it falters, then almost escapes before a coordinated effort brings it slowly to Earth.
Medicines Pose Global Environmental Risk
November 14th, 2019Via: AFP:
Residues from billions of doses of antibiotics, painkillers and antidepressants pose a significant risk to freshwater ecosystems and the global food chain, a new analysis said Thursday.
There are growing fears that the unchecked use of antibiotics in both medicine and agriculture will have adverse effects on the environment and on human health.
When animals and humans ingest medicines, up to 90 percent of active ingredients are excreted back into the environment.
Many medicines are simply discarded — in the United States alone an estimated one third of the four billion drugs prescribed each year ends up as waste.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compared data on concentrations of pharmaceutical residue in water samples worldwide as well as prescribing trends and water purification regulations in various countries.
One study cited in its report estimates that 10 percent of all pharmaceuticals are potentially harmful to the environment — including hormones, painkillers and antidepressants.
The OECD said that antibiotic use for livestock is predicted to rocket by more than two thirds in the next decade, stoking concerns over antibiotic resistance.
Human prescriptions are also set to drastically increase, according to the report.
“We’re seeing constant engineering of new pharmaceuticals and seeing clinical practices evolve to include recommendations of earlier treatment and higher doses,” said the lead report author Hannah Leckie.
Federal Deficit Hits $134 Billion in One Month, Overall Debt $23 Trillion
November 14th, 2019Via: The Hill:
The federal deficit reached $134 billion in October, the first month of fiscal 2020, according to data the Treasury Department released Wednesday.
That figure is about 34 percent higher than last October, a sign of a steadily increasing gap between federal spending and revenue.
As a candidate, President Trump had promised to wipe out the nation’s deficit during his time in office, but deficits have only grown since his inauguration.
The Treasury estimated that the deficit for the 2020 fiscal year would surpass $1 trillion for the first time since 2012. The figure came in just below that milestone in fiscal 2019, hitting $984 billion.
The deficit has spiked following the GOP tax law and multiple bipartisan agreements to increase spending on defense and domestic programs. The nation’s overall debt level surpassed $23 trillion for the first time this month.
Ford Will Unveil Electric Mustang on November 17 in Los Angeles
November 14th, 2019Update: Leaked
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Via: Electrek:
Ford’s all-new, all-electric SUV will don the iconic pony badge and the name Mustang Mach-E when reservations for the vehicle open after it is revealed this Sunday.
The all-electric Mustang Mach-E will make its debut Nov. 17 at an event in Los Angeles that will be streamed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Autohome (China).
Top Bolivian Coup Plotters Trained by U.S. Military’s School of the Americas, Served as Attachés in FBI Police Programs
November 14th, 2019Via: The Gray Zone:
The United States played a key role in the military coup in Bolivia, and in a direct way that has scarcely been acknowledged in accounts of the events that forced the country’s elected president, Evo Morales, to resign on November 10.
The So-Called War on Terror Has Killed Over 801,000 People and Cost $6.4 Trillion
November 14th, 2019Via: Common Dreams:
The so-called War on Terror launched by the United States government in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks has cost at least 801,000 lives and $6.4 trillion according to a pair of reports published Wednesday by the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
“The numbers continue to accelerate, not only because many wars continue to be waged, but also because wars don’t end when soldiers come home,” said Costs of War co-director and Brown professor Catherine Lutz, who co-authored the project’s report on deaths.
“These reports provide a reminder that even if fewer soldiers are dying and the U.S. is spending a little less on the immediate costs of war today, the financial impact is still as bad as, or worse than, it was 10 years ago,” Lutz added. “We will still be paying the bill for these wars on terror into the 22nd century.”
China Doesn’t Want You To Know About This Place
November 14th, 2019Via: Laowhy86:
