Hipster Churches in Silicon Valley
January 30th, 2015This one made me laugh, but it also reminded me of an old piece on io9: Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid of These Science Fictional Cults.
Via: Guardian:
When raising the issue of how to reach younger Bay Areans, one ministry in particular came up several times: Reality SF, which makes its Sunday home in a middle school auditorium in the Castro district. Reality’s website features a group of shiny young millennials lounging gaily in picturesque Dolores Park (marijuana truffles and beer not pictured). Its teachings, which are published online, address subjects like “re-imagining singleness”, “tech in spirituality” and “wisdom for charity” in a blend of CS Lewis quotes, TED Talk references, and occasional guests from groups like Praxis, a “kingdom-centered” business accelerator.
Intervention in Civil Wars Far More Likely in Oil-Rich Nations
January 29th, 2015
Via: Independent:
Conspiracy theorists have long insisted that modern wars revolve around oil. Now research suggests hydrocarbons play an even bigger role in conflicts than they had suspected.
According to academics from the Universities of Portsmouth, Warwick and Essex, foreign intervention in a civil war is 100 times more likely when the afflicted country has high oil reserves than if it has none. The research is the first to confirm the role of oil as a dominant motivating factor in conflict, suggesting hydrocarbons were a major reason for the military intervention in Libya, by a coalition which included the UK, and the current US campaign against Isis in northern Iraq.
Probiotic Helps People with Peanut Allergy
January 29th, 2015Via: Guardian:
Australian researchers have found a possible key to a cure for people with potentially fatal peanut allergies.
A Melbourne-based study has already transformed the lives of many of the children who took part in the clinical trial.
Researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute gave about 30 allergic children a daily dose of peanut protein together with a probiotic in an increasing amount over an 18-month period.
The probiotic used in the study was Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the dose was equivalent to eating about 20kg of yoghurt each day. At the end of the trial 80% of the children could eat peanuts without any reaction.
“Many of the children and families believe it has changed their lives, they’re very happy, they feel relieved,” said the lead researcher, Mimi Tang. “These findings provide the first vital step towards developing a cure for peanut allergy and possibly other food allergies.”
Almost three in every 100 Australian children have a peanut allergy.
“We focused on peanut allergy because it is usually lifelong and it is the most common cause of death from food anaphylaxis,” Tang said.
Beijing Smog Makes City Unliveable, Says Mayor
January 29th, 2015Via: Guardian:
Beijing’s mayor, Wang Anshun, has called the city “unliveable” because of its noxious smog, according to state media.
“To establish a first-tier, international, liveable and harmonious city, it is very important to establish a system of standards, and Beijing is currently doing this,” he said last Friday, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper.
“At the present time, however, Beijing is not a liveable city.”
AI Will Not Kill Us, Says Microsoft Research Chief
January 28th, 2015Via: BBC:
Microsoft Research’s chief has said he thinks artificial intelligence systems could achieve consciousness, but has played down the threat to human life.
Eric Horvitz’s position contrasts with that of several other leading thinkers.
Last December, Prof Stephen Hawking told the BBC that such machines could “spell the end of the human race”.
Mr Horvitz also revealed that “over a quarter of all attention and resources” at his research unit were now focused on AI-related activities.
“There have been concerns about the long-term prospect that we lose control of certain kinds of intelligences,” he said.
“I fundamentally don’t think that’s going to happen.
“I think that we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we’ll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life.”
Mr Horvitz heads up a team of more than 1,000 scientists and engineers at Microsoft’s research wing.
The division’s work on AI has already helped give rise to Cortana – a voice-controlled virtual assistant that runs on the Windows Phone platform and will shortly come to desktop PCs when Windows 10 is released.
Mr Horvitz said that he believed Cortana and its rivals would spur on development of the field.
“The next if not last enduring competitive battlefield among major IT companies will be artificial intelligence,” he said.
Related: Microsoft’s Bill Gates Insists AI Is a Threat
Litvinenko Post-Mortem: “The Most Dangerous Ever Undertaken in the Western World”
January 28th, 2015Via: BBC:
The post-mortem examination of poisoned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was probably “the most dangerous ever undertaken in the Western world”, a pathologist has said.
Dr Nathaniel Cary told the inquiry into Mr Litvinenko’s death that his body was “very hazardous” and had to be transferred to a secure site for tests.
Mr Litvinenko died from radiation poisoning in a London hospital in 2006.
His death came nearly three weeks after he drank tea laced with polonium.
The former KGB agent had fled to the UK where he became a vocal critic of the Kremlin and worked for the UK intelligence service MI6.
‘Super-Secure’ BlackPhone
January 28th, 2015Your what hurts?
Via: Register:
The maker of BlackPhone – a mobile marketed as offering unusually high levels of security – has patched a critical vulnerability that allows hackers to run malicious code on the handsets.
Attackers need little more than a phone number to send a message that can compromise the devices via the Silent Text application.
The impact of the flaw is troubling because BlackPhone attracts what hackers see as high-value victims: those willing to invest AU$765 (£415, $630) in a phone that claims to put security above form and features may well have valuable calls and texts to hide from eavesdroppers.
Mark Dowd (@mdowd), noted Sydney-based hacker and co-founder of security consultancy Azimuth Security, discovered the flaw during casual research in the latter months of 2014. He shared his findings with The Register while the fix – due to be disclosed today – was being developed.
“Successful exploitation can yield remote code execution with the privileges of the Silent Text application, which runs as a regular Android app, but with some additional system privileges required to perform its SMS-like functionality such as access to contacts, access to location information, the ability to write to external storage, and of course net access,” Dowd said, noting the bug took him about a week to find.
The flaw could also be coupled with a privilege-escalation exploit to gain full control of the vulnerable device, but this was not required to run arbitrary code as an unprivileged user.
1,000 Paratroopers from 82nd Airborne Headed to Iraq
January 28th, 2015Via: Fay Observer:
The 82nd Airborne, and more specifically its 3rd Brigade Combat Team, are no strangers to Iraq.
Since 2003, parts of the brigade have deployed in support of U.S. efforts there on at least three occasions.
Now, more than three years after the U.S. military presence in Iraq was thought over, about a quarter of the Panther Brigade will return with a new mission to help train Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State.
About 1,000 paratroopers from the brigade will deploy this week as part of the Operation Inherent Resolve mission.
The deployment was officially announced in December and is expected to last nine months.
Experts Unmask ‘Regin’ Trojan as NSA Tool
January 27th, 2015Via: Spiegel:
Just weeks ago, SPIEGEL published the source code of an NSA malware program known internally as QWERTY. Now, experts have found that it is none other than the notorious trojan Regin, used in dozens of cyber attacks around the world.
NYSE: Rule 48 At Open
January 27th, 2015MSFT down 10% at the moment.
—
Futures took a dump on earnings numbers…
Via: ZeroHedge:
And what better excuse to stall the opening plunge implied by futures than the “blizzard” which never was… The last time this was invoked was June 2012 (amid a dramatic drop in pre-open futures) and Sept 2011 amid the chaotic 400-point swings in The Dow. Funny they do not use this “Rule” when futures indicate massive upside opens?
