U.S. Companies Put Record Number of Robots to Work in 2018
February 28th, 2019Via: Reuters:
U.S. companies installed more robots last year than ever before, as cheaper and more flexible machines put them within reach of businesses of all sizes and in more corners of the economy beyond their traditional foothold in car plants.
Shipments hit 28,478, nearly 16 percent more than in 2017, according to data seen by Reuters that was set for release on Thursday by the Association for Advancing Automation, an industry group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Shipments increased in every sector the group tracks, except automotive, where carmakers cut back after finishing a major round of tooling up for new truck models.
Michael Cohen Testifies Before House Oversight Committee
February 27th, 2019Livestream.
Via: CSPAN:
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about various investigations relative to the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
Dr. Martin Pall: “The 5G Rollout Is Absolutely Insane.”
February 25th, 2019Via: Nick Pineault:
Third Most Powerful Man in the Vatican Convicted Sexual Abuse of a Child
February 25th, 2019Year after year.
Decade after decade.
Century after century.
Countless atrocities piled upon countless atrocities.
Maybe a re-brand is necessary.
How about: The Catholic Church of Satan?
Via: Guardian:
Cardinal George Pell, once the third most powerful man in the Vatican and Australia’s most senior Catholic, has been found guilty of child sexual abuse after a trial in Melbourne.
A jury delivered the unanimous verdict on 11 December in Melbourne’s county court, but the result was subject to a suppression order and could not be reported until now.
A previous trial on the same five charges, which began in August, resulted in a hung jury, leading to a retrial.
Pell, who is on leave from his role in Rome as Vatican treasurer, was found guilty of sexually penetrating a child under the age of 16 as well as four charges of an indecent act with a child under the age of 16. The offences occurred in December 1996 and early 1997 at St Patrick’s Cathedral, months after Pell was inaugurated as archbishop of Melbourne.
John Childs: Billionaire Private Equity Firm Owner and Major Republican Donor Charged in the Florida Prostitution Sting
February 24th, 2019Via: Business Insider:
The billionaire owner of a Massachusetts-based private equity firm has been wrapped up in a massive prostitution scandal that has already ensnared the likes of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former Citigroup executive John Havens.
John Childs, the 77-year-old founder of J.W. Childs Associates, has been charged with solicitation of prostitution, according to the Vero Beach Police Department in Florida.
Childs is one of 173 people charged as part of a sweeping, six-month criminal investigation into multiple massage parlors across several Florida jurisdictions.
As of Friday afternoon, Childs hadn’t been arrested. He told Bloomberg News in an interview he hadn’t even been contacted by police.
“The accusation of solicitation of prostitution is totally false,” he said. “I have retained a lawyer.”
Are We On The Road to Civilization Collapse?
February 24th, 2019Via: BBC:
Collapse is often quick and greatness provides no immunity. The Roman Empire covered 4.4 million sq km (1.9 million sq miles) in 390. Five years later, it had plummeted to 2 million sq km (770,000 sq miles). By 476, the empire’s reach was zero.
Our deep past is marked by recurring failure. As part of my research at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, I am attempting to find out why collapse occurs through a historical autopsy. What can the rise and fall of historic civilisations tell us about our own? What are the forces that precipitate or delay a collapse? And do we see similar patterns today?
…
Think of civilisation as a poorly-built ladder. As you climb, each step that you used falls away. A fall from a height of just a few rungs is fine. Yet the higher you climb, the larger the fall. Eventually, once you reach a sufficient height, any drop from the ladder is fatal.
With the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we may have already reached this point of civilisational “terminal velocity”. Any collapse – any fall from the ladder – risks being permanent.
U.S. Navy Buying Autonomous Submarines
February 24th, 2019Via: U.S. Naval Institute:
The Navy awarded Boeing a $43-million contract to build four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (XLUUVs) that will become multi-mission for the service, according to a Wednesday Pentagon contract announcement.
Boeing based its winning Orca XLUUV design on its Echo Voyager unmanned diesel-electric submersible. The 51-foot-long submersible is launched from a pier and can operate autonomously while sailing up to 6,500 nautical miles without being connected to a manned mother ship, according to the Navy. Eventually, the Navy could also use the Orca XLUUV for mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, electronic warfare and strike missions, according to a Navy outline of the system’s capability development.
German Police Lose All Evidence Against Two Pedophiles Who Allegedly Raped More Than 30 Children at Least 1,000 Times
February 23rd, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
German police have admitted to losing almost all the incriminating digital evidence against two paedophiles accused of sexually assaulting least 31 children as young as four, allegedly raping their victims more than 1,000 times.
China’s Powerful Surveillance State Has Created at Least Four Billionaires
February 23rd, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
Before he became a billionaire, Dai Lin would ride his bike to work, pedaling through the streets of Tianjin to the headquarters of Tiandy Technologies Co., the camera maker he built with support from China’s government.
When Dai started his company in 1994, roadside surveillance cameras were rare in China. Now they’re everywhere — part of a high-tech surveillance state that’s stoking privacy and human-rights concerns in the world’s most populous nation, raising thorny questions for international investors, and making well-connected entrepreneurs like Dai extremely rich.
Warning Issued Over Attacks on Internet Infrastructure
February 23rd, 2019Keep this in mind: Russia to Disconnect from Internet to Test Cyber Defenses.
Via: AFP:
Key parts of the internet infrastructure face large-scale attacks that threaten the global system of web traffic, the internet’s address keeper warned Friday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) declared after an emergency meeting “an ongoing and significant risk” to key parts of the infrastructure that affects the domains on which websites reside.
“They are going after the internet infrastructure itself,” ICANN chief technology officer David Conrad told AFP.
“There have been targeted attacks in the past, but nothing like this.”
The attacks date back as far as 2017 but have sparked growing concerns from security researchers in recent weeks, which prompted the special meeting of ICANN.
The malicious activity targets the Domain Name System or DNS which routes traffic to intended online destinations.
ICANN specialists and others say these attacks have a potential to snoop on data along the way, sneakily send the traffic elsewhere or enable the attackers to impersonate or “spoof” critical websites.
