Will Your Driverless Car Kill You So Others May Live?
December 10th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times:
It’s 2025. You and your daughter are riding in a driverless car along the Pacific Coast Highway. The autonomous vehicle rounds a corner and detects a crosswalk full of children. It brakes, but your lane is unexpectedly full of sand from a recent rock slide. It can’t get traction. Your car does some calculations: If it continues braking, there’s a 90 percent chance that it will kill at least three children. Should it save them by steering you and your daughter off the cliff?
This isn’t an idle thought experiment. Driverless cars will be programmed to avoid collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles. They will also be programmed to protect the safety of their passengers. What happens in an emergency when these two aims come into conflict?
ISIS Armed with U.S. Weapons
December 9th, 2015Via: CNN:
A new report from a prominent human rights group has found that ISIS has built a substantial arsenal, including U.S.-made weapons obtained from the Iraqi army and Syrian opposition groups.
Amnesty International’s 44-page report, released late Monday, found that much of ISIS’ equipment and munitions comes from stockpiles captured from the U.S.-allied Iraqi military and Syrian rebels.
Australian Police Raid Sydney Home of Reported Bitcoin Creator
December 9th, 2015Via: Reuters:
Australian police raided the Sydney home and office on Wednesday of a man named by Wired magazine as the probable creator of bitcoin and holder of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency, Reuters witnesses said.
More than a dozen federal police officers entered a house registered on the electoral roll to Craig Steven Wright, whom Wired outed as the likely real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous figure that first released bitcoin’s code in 2009.
Related: Bitcoin’s Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Probably This Unknown Australian Genius
Bank Records Show $28,500 Deposit to Syed Farook’s Account Two Weeks Before the Shooting
December 8th, 2015Via: Fox:
A $28,500 deposit was made to Syed Farook’s bank account from WebBank.com on or about Nov.18, some two weeks before he and his wife Tashfeen Malik carried out the San Bernardino massacre, a source close to the investigation told Fox News Monday.
Investigators are exploring whether the transaction was a loan taken out by Farook, who with his wife killed 14 and wounded 21 when they opened fire at a holiday lunch. He earned $53,000 a year with the county as an environmental health inspector. Investigators are also exploring the possibility that a subsequent cash withdrawal was used to reimburse Enrique Marquez, the man who bought the two AR-15 semiautomatic rifles used in the San Bernardino shootings. Marquez, who could be charged, especially if it is determined that he illegally modified the weapons, is now reportedly answering investigators’ questions.
“Right now our major concern at the FBI, the ATF, and the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) is determining how those firearms, the rifles in particular, got from Marquez to Farook and to Malik,” assistant special agent in charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, John D’Angelo, told reporters in California Monday.
The deposit came via Utah-based WebBank.com, which describes itself as “a leading provider of national consumer and commercial private-label and bank card financing programs” on a nationwide basis. On or about Nov.20, Fox News is told Farook converted $10,000 to cash, and withdrew the money at a Union Bank branch in San Bernardino. Afterwards, in the days before the shooting, there were at least three transfers of $5,000 that appear to be to Farook’s mother.
The loan and large cash withdrawal were described to Fox News by the source as “significant evidence of pre-meditation,” and further undercut the premise that an argument at the Christmas party on Dec. 2 led to the shooting.
American Satellite Started Transmitting 46 Years After Being Abandoned in 1967
December 8th, 2015Via: The Vintage News:
An American satellite, abandoned in 1967 as a piece of Space Junk has begun transmitting again after 46 years.
An Amateur Radio Astronomer in North Cornwall accidentally picked up the signal in 2013 and after cross checking with various lists, has identified it as LES1 built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and launched in 1965. The satellite failed to reach its intended orbit owing to a wiring error and has been drifting out of control ever since.
Phil Williams G3YPQ from near Bude noticed its peculiar signal drift caused by its tumbling end over end every 4 seconds as the solar panels become shadowed by the engine. ‘This gives the signal a particularly ghostly sound as the voltage from the solar panels fluctuates’ Phil says.
It is likely that the on board batteries have now disintegrated and some other component failure has caused the transmitter on 237Mhz, to start up when its in sunlight.
…
Phil says its remarkable to think that electronics built nearly 50 years ago, 12 years before Voyager 1, and long before microprocessors and integrated circuits, is still capable of working in the hostile environs of space.
A Missed Warning?
December 8th, 2015Via: Weekly Standard:
Scanner traffic indicates law enforcement may have investigated San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook a week before the attack.
U.S. Drone Whistleblowers Have Their Bank Accounts Frozen
December 7th, 2015Via: Hang the Bankers:
The U.S. Government failed to deter them through threats of criminal prosecution, and clumsy attempts to intimidate their families.
Now four former Air Force drone operators-turned-whistleblowers have had their credit cards and bank accounts frozen, according to human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack.
“My drone operators went public this week and now their credit cards and bank accounts are frozen,” Radack lamented on her Twitter feed (the spelling of her post has been conventionalized). This was done despite the fact that none of them has been charged with a criminal offense – but this is a trivial formality in the increasingly Sovietesque American National Security State.
Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis, who served as drone operators in the US Air Force, have gone public with detailed accounts of the widespread corruption and institutionalized indifference to civilian casualties that characterize the program. Some of those disclosures were made in the recent documentary Drone; additional details have been provided in an open letter from the whistleblowers to President Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and CIA Director John Brennan.
“We are former Air Force service members,” the letter begins. We joined the Air Force to protect American lives and to protect our Constitution. We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruiting tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”
Research Credit: Pookie
How About That ‘Erl!?
December 7th, 2015Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
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Down 6%.
Huge pivot ahead at WTI$33.22, assuming that you pay any attention to candle shadows, which I do. If you just draw your lines on the bodies: That 2009 support is gone.
Best guess: Small bounce ahead, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s eyeing the $20s over the next few weeks.
Via: Reuters:
Crude oil futures tumbled 6 percent on Monday, reaching their lowest in nearly seven years, after OPEC failed to address a growing supply glut, while a stronger dollar made it more expensive to hold crude positions.
Brent and U.S. crude settled at or near February 2009 lows in belated reaction to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) policy meeting on Friday which ended without an agreement to lower production.
OPEC oil ministers dropped any reference to the group’s output ceiling for the first time in decades, highlighting disagreement among members about how to accommodate Iranian barrels once Western sanctions are lifted.
“What matters from here is whether there’ll be any meaningful production cuts in the U.S., which don’t seem to be coming,” said Doug King, chief investment officer in London for the Singapore-based Merchant Commodity Fund. As of Monday, the $220 million hedge fund was flat on the year after its bearish oil views helped it recoup a 10 percent loss through November.
“Price-wise, the market could be going for max pain after this,” King said. “The leader to the downside will be probably be WTI, because that’s where the production cuts have to come.”
WTI, the West Texas Intermediate benchmark for U.S. crude CLc1, settled down $2.32 at $37.65 a barrel. That was its lowest settlement since February 2009, and after reaching a session low of $37.50.
Beijing Red Alert for Smog
December 7th, 2015Via: BBC:
Schools in Beijing are to close and outdoor construction to stop after the Chinese capital issued its first “red alert” over smog levels.
The red alert is the highest possible, and has not been used in the city before, the state-run Xinhua news agency says.
Authorities expect more than three consecutive days of severe smog.
Cars with odd and even number plates will be banned from driving on alternate days.
Current pollution levels in Beijing are actually lower than last week’s, but the red alert has been placed because of levels expected over the coming days.
The order will last from 07:00 local time on Tuesday (23:00 GMT on Monday) until 12:00 on Thursday, when a cold front is expected to arrive and clear the smog.
China’s CCTV news channel reported at the weekend that some parts of Beijing had visibility of only 200m (660 feet).
France Looking at Banning Tor, Blocking Public Wi-Fi
December 7th, 2015Via: Ars Technica:
According to leaked documents from the Ministry of Interior the French government is considering two new pieces of legislation: a ban on free and shared Wi-Fi connections during a state of emergency, and measures to block Tor being used inside France.
The documents were seen by the French newspaper Le Monde. According to the paper, the new bills could be presented to parliament as soon as January 2016. The new laws are presumably in response to the attacks in Paris last month where 130 people were murdered.
The first piece of proposed legislation, according to Le Monde, would forbid free and shared Wi-Fi during a state of emergency. The new measure is justified by way of a police opinion, saying that it’s tough to track people who use public hotspots.
The second proposal is a little more gnarly: the Ministry of Interior is looking at blocking and/or forbidding the use of Tor completely. Blocking people from using Tor within France is technologically quite complex, but the French government could definitely make it difficult for the average user to find and connect to the Tor network. If the French government needs some help in getting their blockade set up, they could always talk to the only other country in the world known to successfully block Tor: China, with its Great Firewall.
