Trump Says Prepared to Meet North Korea’s Kim in First-Ever Summit
March 8th, 2018Via: Reuters:
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was prepared to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the first U.S.-North Korea summit, marking a potentially dramatic breakthrough in nuclear tensions with Pyongyang.
Kim has committed to “denuclearization” and to suspending nuclear or missile tests, South Korea’s National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong told reporters at the White House after briefing Trump on South Korean officials’ meeting with Kim on Monday.
“A meeting is being planned,” Trump tweeted after speaking to Chung, who announced that Trump expressed a willingness to sit down with Kim in what would be his biggest foreign policy gamble since taking office.
Chung said Trump, in response to Kim’s invitation, had agreed to meet by May, and a senior U.S. official later said it could happen “in a matter of a couple of months, with the exact timing and place still to be determined.”
FBI Used Geek Squad Technicians as Informants
March 8th, 2018Via: EFF:
After the prosecution of a California doctor revealed the FBI’s ties to a Best Buy Geek Squad computer repair facility in Kentucky, new documents released to EFF show that the relationship goes back years. The records also confirm that the FBI has paid Geek Squad employees as informants.
EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last year to learn more about how the FBI uses Geek Squad employees to flag illegal material when people pay Best Buy to repair their computers. The relationship potentially circumvents computer owners’ Fourth Amendment rights.
The documents released to EFF show that Best Buy officials have enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the agency for at least 10 years. For example, an FBI memo from September 2008 details how Best Buy hosted a meeting of the agency’s “Cyber Working Group” at the company’s Kentucky repair facility.
Google’s AI Is Being Used by U.S. Military Drone Program
March 8th, 2018“For non-offensive uses only.”
*snort*
Via: Guardian:
Google’s artificial intelligence technologies are being used by the US military for one of its drone projects, causing controversy both inside and outside the company.
Google’s TensorFlow AI systems are being used by the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Project Maven, which was established in July last year to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyse the vast amount of footage shot by US drones. The initial intention is to have AI analyse the video, detect objects of interest and flag them for a human analyst to review.
Drew Cukor, chief of the DoD’s Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Function Team, said in July: “People and computers will work symbiotically to increase the ability of weapon systems to detect objects. Eventually we hope that one analyst will be able to do twice as much work, potentially three times as much, as they’re doing now. That’s our goal.”
Project Maven forms part of the $7.4bn spent on AI and data processing by the DoD, and has seen the Pentagon partner with various academics and experts in the field of AI and data processing. It has reportedly already been put into use against Islamic State.
A Google spokesperson said: “This specific project is a pilot with the Department of Defense, to provide open source TensorFlow APIs that can assist in object recognition on unclassified data. The technology flags images for human review, and is for non-offensive uses only.”
High Level Government Pedophile Ring in Lithuania
March 8th, 2018I think that this is the main Reddit thread: A family is being persecuted for exposing high ranking pedophiles (2018)
Via: YouTube:
My mom, Neringa Venckien?, a former Lithuanian judge and Parliament member, fled Lithuania with me from political persecution, and we arrived in the U.S.A. in 2013 when I was just 13-years-old. As my mom filed for and has been waiting here for a political asylum hearing to take place, I became more hopeful and at ease because I was not afraid for her safety or mine anymore as was a daily reality back in Lithuania where my uncle (my mom’s brother)
was murdered because he was trying to expose pedophiles among high-ranking Lithuanian officials who molested his daughter Deimant?. My mom became a target after she publicly started speaking about the bribery and corruption in the Lithuanian courts, the government and its media did not succeed in intimidating her. My 8-year- old cousin Deimant?, whose father was murdered, was abducted by government forces from my mother’s care. My mother was her legally appointed guardian at that time. The government called it “a child’s return to her mother operation,” but that was actually an elimination of an inconvenient witness operation with the help of 240 special forces and the intimidation of everyone in Lithuania who sought the truth in the pedophilia and murder case (more people were murdered in this case than just my uncle). My cousin was returned to the person she was testifying against. I was really scared and could not even imagine what is going to happen to Deimant?.
To stop the anti-corruption and truth movement, government forces had to eliminate my mom because she was not intimidated. The Lithuanian people elected her to Parliament to fight against corruption and to seek the truth. She proposed many laws among which there was stricter punishment for pedophiles, but all of them were blocked by the dominant parties in Parliament. When the prosecutors brought charges against my mom, all of her opponents announced that they’ll support the removal of her legal immunity, before the investigation took place. We moved to U.S.A. to find safety and to have a fair hearing,
where she would defend herself and expose the terrible crime in Lithuania that the government was seeking to cover up.
Two weeks ago my mom was was arrested, and the Lithuanian government is seeking her extradition, before the political asylum case is over.
Related:
2012: Lithuanian Police Arrest 39 in Child Custody Case
Wikipedia: Case of Dr?sius Kedys
Tepco’s ‘Ice Wall’ Fails to Freeze Fukushima’s Toxic Water Buildup
March 8th, 2018Mmm hmm.
This was treated like comedy gold on Cryptogon when it was announced.
And now, not only has it not worked, but the problem is worse.
Via: Reuters:
A costly “ice wall” is failing to keep groundwater from seeping into the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, data from operator Tokyo Electric Power Co shows, preventing it from removing radioactive melted fuel at the site seven years after the disaster.
When the ice wall was announced in 2013, Tepco (9501.T) assured skeptics that it would limit the flow of groundwater into the plant’s basements, where it mixes with highly radioactive debris from the site’s reactors, to “nearly nothing.”
However, since the ice wall became fully operational at the end of August, an average of 141 metric tonnes a day of water has seeped into the reactor and turbine areas, more than the average of 132 metric tonnes a day during the prior nine months, a Reuters analysis of the Tepco data showed.
Self Driving Uber Trucks Start Shuttling Goods Across Arizona
March 6th, 2018Via: USA Today:
Uber has been sending self-driving trucks on delivery runs across Arizona since November, the first step in what promises to be a freight transportation revolution that could radically reshape the jobs of long-haul truckers.
After testing its technology earlier in 2017, Uber began contracting with trucking companies to use its own autonomous Volvo big rigs to take over loads as they traverse the state, it disclosed.
In Uber’s current program, a trucker meets the self-driving truck at the Arizona state border, which then takes the load across the state before handing it off to a second conventional trucker for the short-haul trip. During the autonomous trip, an Uber employee rides in the driver seat of the autonomous truck to monitor — but not to drive.
If one day both the technology and regulations play out in favor of self-driving trucks, two scenarios emerge.
The first would find self-driving trucks handling long-haul highway legs with no one at the wheel as they meet up with conventional truckers, who then drive the deliveries into city centers. The other possibility is Uber could sell its technology to trucking owner-operators, who then use it to sleep while the truck handles the bulk of long-distance driving.
42% of Americans Have Less Than $10,000 Stashed Away for Retirement [???]
March 6th, 2018Can this possibly be right?
Via: CNBC:
At this rate, retirement is more of a fantasy than a reality for many people in this country.
About 42 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for when they retire, according to a study by GoBankingRates released Tuesday.
The No. 1 reason most people cited for not stashing more away was because they didn’t earn enough to save, followed by the fact that they were already struggling to pay bills, GoBankRates said. The personal finance site polled more than 1,000 adults online in February.
Is Google Going Underground With Hypersonic Tech?
March 6th, 2018Via: IEEE:
Google is carrying out research on hypersonics, probably for new technologies to slash the cost of geothermal energy and tunneling. It could also be acquiring a Washington-based startup called HyperSciences that has already built prototype devices.
…
The technology being developed by HyperSciences should make it cheaper to reach much higher temperatures even deeper down, up to 7 kilometers below the surface. Every few seconds, a concrete projectile is boosted down the drill shaft at over Mach 5 by a combustible mixture of air and diesel gases. The projectile then vaporizes cleanly at the rock face, breaking it up.
Once the well is complete, pipes containing silicone oil rather than water would transfer heat to the surface, where thermoelectric generators would convert it directly into electricity. HyperSciences says such a system will be more efficient than solar panels or wind turbines, and cheaper than conventional carbon-based power stations.
HyperSciences is also developing a tunneling system using the same hypersonic projectile technology. It claims that its so-called Hyper Tunnel Boring and Mining System will be five times cheaper than today’s tunnel boring machines, and be able to dig tunnels two and a half times faster.
Acquiring HyperSciences would pit Google head to head with Elon Musk. His The Boring Company is trying to dramatically improve the cost and speed of tunnel boring, in order to build tunnels for Hyperloop trains and subterranean networks of car-carrying electric sleds.
Uber and Lyft Drivers’ Median Hourly Wage Is Just $3.37 (Update: Author Admits Flaws)
March 5th, 2018Update: Uber, Lyft Drivers Might Make More than $3.73/Hour, MIT Paper Author Says
Via: USA Today:
After a working paper published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology claimed 74% of Uber and Lyft drivers take home less than minimum wage, the paper’s author said his analysis might be wrong.
The paper suggested median profit for Uber and Lyft drivers is $3.37 per hour after vehicle expenses but before taxes, far less than the federal minimum wage in most states. Findings were based on a survey of more than 1,100 Uber and Lyft drivers.
Uber and Lyft criticized the findings, saying the survey questions were flawed.
Stephen Zoepf, the paper’s lead author, responded to the criticisms Monday, thanking Uber’s chief economist for his feedback.
“In retrospect the survey questions could and should have been worded more clearly,” Zoepf said in a statement. He also called on Uber to make an “honest and public assessment” of the range of ride-hailing driver profit after the cost of acquiring, operating and maintaining a vehicle.
Zoepf proposed two different results. In an adjusted scenario using monthly revenue numbers when available and calculating hourly numbers using the working schedule reported, median profit rises to $8.55. In another method, using reported hourly revenue numbers when available, median profit rises to $10 per hour.
The author said he “will be conducting a thorough revision of the paper.”
In both scenarios, some drivers are still making less than minimum wage in their state and some drivers lose money, according to Zoepf.
—
Via: Guardian:
Uber and Lyft drivers in the US make a median profit of $3.37 per hour before taxes, according to a new report that suggests a majority of ride-share workers make below minimum wage and that many actually lose money.
Researchers did an analysis of vehicle cost data and a survey of more than 1,100 drivers for the ride-hailing companies for the paper published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. The report – which factored in insurance, maintenance, repairs, fuel and other costs – found that 30% of drivers are losing money on the job and that 74% earn less than the minimum wage in their states.
The findings have raised fresh concerns about labor standards in the booming sharing economy as companies such as Uber and Lyft continue to face scrutiny over their treatment of drivers, who are classified as independent contractors and have few rights or protections.
‘Dorm Living for Professionals Comes to San Francisco’
March 5th, 2018The New York Times is promoting Khrushchyovka-style living in San Francisco for $1,400 to $2,400 a month.
Via: New York Times:
Shared bathrooms at the end of the hall and having no individual kitchen or living room is becoming less weird for some of the city’s workers thanks to Starcity, a new development company that is expressly creating dorms for many of the non-tech population.
…
The average one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco rents for $3,300 a month, but Starcity rooms go for $1,400 to $2,400 a month fully furnished, with utilities and Wi-Fi included.
“If you think about the most private things that you do, a lot of them are related to the bathroom,” said Mr. Dishotsky, 34. “So that’s probably the hardest part.”
Related: L.A. Coliving: PodShare
