Soon, Satellites Will be Able to Watch You Everywhere All the Time
June 26th, 2019Via: MIT Technology Review:
Every year, commercially available satellite images are becoming sharper and taken more frequently. In 2008, there were 150 Earth observation satellites in orbit; by now there are 768. Satellite companies don’t offer 24-hour real-time surveillance, but if the hype is to be believed, they’re getting close. Privacy advocates warn that innovation in satellite imagery is outpacing the US government’s (to say nothing of the rest of the world’s) ability to regulate the technology. Unless we impose stricter limits now, they say, one day everyone from ad companies to suspicious spouses to terrorist organizations will have access to tools previously reserved for government spy agencies. Which would mean that at any given moment, anyone could be watching anyone else.
Related: The number of satellites orbiting Earth could quintuple in the next decade
General Electric to Scrap California Power Plant 20 Years Early
June 26th, 2019Via: Reuters:
General Electric Co said on Friday it plans to demolish a large power plant it owns in California this year after only one-third of its useful life because the plant is no longer economically viable in a state where wind and solar supply a growing share of inexpensive electricity.
Related: GE Bet on Fossil Fuels, Lost Nearly $200B in Misjudging Renewable Energy Transition
Apple Buys Self-Driving Car Startup Drive.ai
June 25th, 2019Via: Reuters:
Apple Inc on Tuesday confirmed that it has acquired self-driving shuttle firm Drive.ai.
Technology news website The Information reported earlier this month that the iPhone maker was considering acquiring the firm as a move to bring aboard some of its engineering talent to boost Apple’s own self-driving efforts.
Scientists Have Discovered a Sea of Fresh Water Under the Ocean
June 24th, 2019Via: Quartz:
Thousands of years ago, glaciers covered much of the planet. Oceans receded as water froze in massive sheets of ice blanketing the North American continent. As the ice age ended, glaciers melted. Massive river deltas flowed out across the continental shelf. The oceans rose, and fresh water was trapped in sediments below the waves. Discovered while drilling for oil offshore in the 1970s, scientists thought these “isolated” pockets of fresh water were a curiosity. They may instead prove to be a parched world’s newest source of fresh water.
As told in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Columbia University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution spent 10 days on a research ship towing electromagnetic sensors from New Jersey to Massachusetts. By measuring the way electromagnetic waves traveled through fresh and saline water, researchers mapped out fresh-water reservoirs for the first time.
It turns out the subterranean pools stretch for at least 50 miles off the US Atlantic coast, containing vast stores of low-salinity groundwater, about twice the volume of Lake Ontario. The deposits begin about 600 ft (183 m) below the seafloor and stretch for hundreds of miles. That rivals the size of even the largest terrestrial aquifers.
Mexico Deploys 15,000 Troops to U.S. Border to Slow Illegal Immigration
June 24th, 2019Mmm hmm.
Via: AFP:
Mexico has deployed nearly 15,000 soldiers and National Guardsmen to its border with the United States, the army chief said Monday — admitting they are detaining migrants who try to cross, after the policy triggered backlash.
Under pressure from US President Donald Trump to slow the surge of Central Americans crossing the border, Mexico promised earlier this month to reinforce its southern border with 6,000 National Guardsmen, but had not previously disclosed the extent of the crackdown on its northern border.
“We have a total deployment, between the National Guard and army units, of 14,000, almost 15,000 men in the north of the country,” Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said at a press conference alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Asked whether those forces were detaining migrants to prevent them from crossing, Sandoval replied: “Yes.”
Hundreds Of 737 Max Pilots Sue Boeing Over ‘Unprecedented Cover-Up”
June 24th, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
The lawsuit, filed by a plaintiff who goes by “Pilot X” in court documents out of “fear of reprisal from Boeing and discrimination from Boeing customers,” accuses the Chicago-based aviation giant of “an unprecedented cover-up of the known design flaws of the MAX, which predictably resulted in the crashes of two MAX aircraft and subsequent grounding of all MAX aircraft worldwide.”
…
The lawsuit focuses on the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) anti-stall system, which Pilot X claims gave the aircraft “inherently dangerous aerodynamic handling defects.”
The reason for this handling quirk was by design, as Boeing made the decision to retrofit newer, large fuel-efficient engines onto an existing 737 model’s fuselage, in order to create the MAX.
The larger engines caused a change in aerodynamics which made the plane prone to pitching up during flight, so much so, that it risked a crash as a result of an aerodynamic stall.
To stop this from happening, Boeing introduced MCAS software to the MAX, which automatically tilted the plane down if the software detected that the plane’s nose was pointing at too steep of an angle, known as a high Angle of Attack (AOA). -ABC
Alexa, Eavesdrop On My House All Day Under The Guise Of Protecting Me From A Heart Attack
June 24th, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
Today in “Amazon’s reasons to listen to everything that’s going on inside your household” news, its being reported that products like the Amazon Echo could one day be used to detect signs of cardiac arrest, according to Bloomberg.
The first signs of cardiac arrest are usually irregular gasps of breath, and researchers at the University of Washington have developed an AI powered tool that could be used on smart speakers to detect such noises. From there, the smart speaker could alert emergency services.
All it has to do is eavesdrop on everything going in your house, all the time.
Cashless Monopoly
June 24th, 2019Via: MarketWatch:
Hasbro announced Wednesday it will release a version of the classic board game Monopoly designed for the digital age. But financial experts argue the game’s new design could deprive children of important financial lessons.
In Hasbro’sclatest edition of Monopoly, gone are the paper money and Community Chest cards. Instead, the board game now comes with a voice-controlled, artificial intelligence device shaped like a top hat.
Designed to prevent cheating, players will now press a button on the top hat and dictate commands, such as paying rent or trading properties. The game is set to be released July 1 and is available for pre-order from Walmart and Amazon.
Google Using “Machine Learning Fairness” to Push Crackpot Social Justice Warrior Agenda
June 24th, 2019Update: Google Removed the Video, Of Course
Here’s a backup on Project Veritas.
—
Via: Project Veritas:
Unseen 9/11 Photos Bought at House Clearance Sale
June 24th, 2019Via: BBC:
Archivists who bought a stash of CDs at a house clearance sale found 2,400 photos of Ground Zero in New York taken following the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
They appear to have been taken by an as yet unidentified construction worker who helped to clear up the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers and surrounding area.
The CDs were in poor condition but the data was ultimately retrievable.
The archivists have uploaded the photos to Flickr.
The digital albums include images of Ground Zero itself taken both at ground level and from above, construction staff at work and the damaged interiors of the blocks surrounding the towers.
