Mastercard and Microsoft Have a Frightening Plan to Create Universal “Digital Identities”
December 4th, 2018Via: FastCompany:
Sometimes a business inadvertently drops the pretense and just tells the world its real intentions. We saw this yesterday, when Amazon bragged about how it “allowed” an employee to lose 100 pounds by endlessly delivering boxes. Amazon saw this as a heartwarming tale about how great it is to work for the e-commerce juggernaut. It completely missed the subtext: Who needs a gym when someone can physically labor for their corporate overlord and lose weight?
Now we have another, possibly darker example. Mastercard announced a new partnership with Microsoft that is tackling “digital identities.” Here’s how it described the project in a tweet:
Voting, driving, applying for a job, renting a home, getting married and boarding a plane: what do these all have in common? You need to prove your identity. In partnership with @Microsoft, we are working to create universally-recognized digital identity. https://t.co/He5syqa5g7
— Mastercard News (@MastercardNews) December 3, 2018
Essentially, the tweet described every action an adult human takes that is both highly intimate and requires sharing personal and confidential details. The companies are building a solution that would create a “universally-recognized digital identity.” To the corporations, this is a brilliant solution! To everyone else, it may feel more than a bit dystopian.
France Delays Fuel Tax Rises for Six Months
December 4th, 2018Via: BBC:
Fuel tax rises which had led to weeks of violent protests in France have been suspended for six months.
PM Edouard Philippe said that people’s anger must be heard, and the measures would not be applied until there had been proper debate with those affected.
Space X: Same First Stage Successfully Used for Third Launch
December 3rd, 2018Via: CBS:
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using a first stage making a record third flight vaulted away from the California coast Monday, boosting 64 small satellites into orbit for a wide variety of government, academic and private-sector users — including artists — in a commercial launch chartered by Seattle-based Spaceflight.
The Falcon 9’s well-traveled first stage returned to Earth and safely landed on an off-shore drone ship — the “Just Read the Instructions” — to chalk up SpaceX’s 32nd recovery of a spent booster, the first to have flown three times.
Related: SpaceX Broke Four Records During Today’s Falcon 9 Rocket Launch
Robot Janitors Are Coming to Mop Floors at a Walmart Near You
December 3rd, 2018Via: MSN:
Robots are coming to a Walmart Inc. near you, and not just as a gimmick.
The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. The autonomous janitors can clean floors on their own even when customers are around, according to the San Diego-based startup.
The US Military Is Genetically Engineering New Life Forms To Detect Enemy Subs
December 3rd, 2018Via: Defense One:
How do you detect submarines in an expanse as large as the ocean? The U.S. military hopes that common marine microorganisms might be genetically engineered into living tripwires to signal the passage of enemy subs, underwater vessels, or even divers.
It’s one of many potential military applications for so-called engineered organisms, a field that promises living camouflage that reacts to its surroundings to better avoid detection, new drugs and medicines to help deployed forces survive in harsh conditions, and more. But the research is in its very early stages, military officials said.
The Naval Research Laboratory, or NRL, is supporting the research. Here’s how it would work: You take an abundant sea organism, like Marinobacter, and change its genetic makeup to react to certain substances left by enemy vessels, divers, or equipment. These could be metals, fuel exhaust, human DNA, or some molecule that’s not found naturally in the ocean but is associated with, say, diesel-powered submarines. The reaction could take the form of electron loss, which could be detectable to friendly sub drones.
Old Coal Mines Can be ‘Perfect’ Underground Food Farms
December 3rd, 2018Via: BBC:
Abandoned coal mines across the UK could be brought back to life as huge underground farms, according to academics.
Mine shafts and tunnels are seen as “the perfect environment” for growing food such as vegetables and herbs.
The initiative is seen as a way of providing large-scale crop production for a growing global population.
Huge Unexplored Cave in British Columbia
December 3rd, 2018Via: Canadian Geographic:
A massive pit that was spotted in a remote high alpine valley in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park earlier this year is the entrance to a previously unexplored cave of “national significance,” say two members of a Canadian team that helped conduct a preliminary exploration of the site in September.
China ‘Is the Only One in the Race’ to Make Electric Buses, Taxis and Trucks
December 3rd, 2018“Chinese makers produced 99% of electric buses deployed globally from 2014 to 2017.”
Via: Wall Street Journal:
A national project to replace millions of gasoline-fueled taxis, buses and trucks with new electric models is boosting China’s ambitions to lead the global shift to battery-powered transportation.
Signs of progress can already be found on American, as well as Chinese, roads in the form of electric buses and vans built by Chinese makers.
“China is the only one in the race; it’s all Chinese manufacturers,” said Sandra Retzer, the Beijing-based head of sustainable mobility at the German Agency for International Cooperation, which is working with the Chinese government to develop green transportation, referring to the commercial electric-vehicle market. “German cities are tendering for electric buses now, and there’s no German offer.”
U.S. Navy Admiral Scott Stearney Found Dead in Apparent Suicide
December 2nd, 2018Via: CBS:
Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, who oversaw U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, was found dead Saturday in his residence in Bahrain, officials said. Defense officials told CBS News they are calling it an “apparent suicide.”
Stearney was the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, the deputy commander of Fifth Fleet, has assumed command, the Navy said in a statement.
“Scott Stearney was a decorated Naval warrior. He was a devoted husband and father, and he was a good friend to all,” the statement said.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Bahraini Ministry of Interior are investigating Stearney’s death, the Navy said, but foul play is not suspected.
France: “State of Insurrection” as Fuel Tax Riots Engulf Central Paris
December 1st, 2018There are many images at Daily Mail.
Via: Reuters:
Rioters ran amok across central Paris on Saturday, torching cars and buildings, looting shops, smashing windows and clashing with police in the worst unrest in more than a decade, posing a dire challenge to Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.
The authorities were caught off guard by the escalation in violence after two weeks of nationwide protests against fuel taxes and living costs, known as the “yellow vest” movement after fluorescent jackets kept in all vehicles in France.
In Paris, police said they had arrested almost 300 people while 110 were injured, including 20 members of the security forces. Police fired stun grenades, tear gas and water cannon at protesters at the top of the Champs-Elysees boulevard, at the Tuilleries Garden near the Louvre museum and other sites.
In some areas there was virtually no police presence at all, as groups of masked men roamed in the shadows of the capital’s fabled landmarks and through its fanciest shopping districts, smashing the windows of designer boutiques.
