Facebook Friends Could Change Your Credit Score
August 26th, 2013Via: CNN:
Choose your Facebook friends wisely; they could help you get approved — or rejected — for a loan.
A handful of tech startups are using social data to determine the risk of lending to people who have a difficult time accessing credit. Traditional lenders rely heavily on credit scores like FICO, which look at payments history. They typically steer clear of the millions of people who don’t have credit scores.
But some financial lending companies have found that social connections can be a good indicator of a person’s creditworthiness.
One such company, Lenddo, determines if you’re friends on Facebook (FB) with someone who was late paying back a loan to Lenddo. If so, that’s bad news for you. It’s even worse news if the delinquent friend is someone you frequently interact with.
“It turns out humans are really good at knowing who is trustworthy and reliable in their community,” said Jeff Stewart, a co-founder and CEO of Lenddo. “What’s new is that we’re now able to measure through massive computing power.”
Bayou Corne: The Biggest Ongoing Disaster In The U.S. You Haven’t Heard Of
August 26th, 2013Via: Mother Jones:
What could possibly go wrong when miners, frackers, and drillers reshape the geology beneath our feet? Talk to the evacuees of Bayou Corne, Louisiana.
Obama Appoints Cass Sunstein to Review NSA Programs
August 26th, 2013Via: Guardian:
The review of US surveillance programs which Barack Obama promised would be conducted by an “independent” and “outside” panel of experts looks set to consist of four Washington insiders with close ties to the security establishment.
The president announced the creation of the group of experts two weeks ago, in an attempt to stem the rising tide of anger over National Security Agency surveillance techniques disclosed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Obama trumpeted what he said would be a “high-level group of outside experts” tasked with assessing all of the government’s “intelligence and communication technologies”.
However a report by ABC News, which has not been denied by the administration, said the panel would consist of Michael Morell, a recent acting head of the CIA, and three former White House advisers.
The list of apparent panel members prompted criticism among privacy and civil liberty advocates, who said the review would lack credibility and was unlikely to end the controversy over US surveillance capabilities.
…
In addition to Morell, who was deputy director of the CIA until just three months ago, the panel is believed to consist of former White House officials Richard Clarke, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire.
None responded to requests for comment, however sources close to Sunstein and Swire said they understood them to have been selected. A formal White House announcement is expected soon.
Sunstein, a Harvard law school professor who has been described as an intellectual inspiration for Obama, only left his job as White House’s “regulatory czar” last year.
Sunstein is a particularly controversial appointment. In a paper in 2008, he appeared to propose the US government employing covert agents to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and activist websites that advocate theories that are considered false and conspiratorial.
He has also proposed reformulating the first amendment, arguing that in some instances it goes too far in protecting damaging forms of speech.
Related: Obama Pick for NSA Review Panel Wanted Paid, Pro-Government Shills in Chat Rooms
A Lexicon for Understanding the Words U.S. Intelligence Officials Use to Mislead the Public
August 26th, 2013Via: Slate:
When it comes to discussing government surveillance, U.S. intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirection—a language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another. The assignment of unconventional meanings to conventional words allows officials to imply that the NSA’s activities are narrow and closely supervised, though neither of those things is true. What follows is a lexicon for decoding the true meaning of what NSA officials say.
Hank Bought A Bus
August 24th, 2013Some inspiration for the growing ranks of Cryptogon readers who are full-time vehicle dwellers/campers.
Via: Hank Bought a Bus:
The bus was purchased on Craigslist for $3000, and has had about $6000 in improvements. It’s not pocket change, but it’s less than a down payment on a home, and it’s less than I paid in tuition for my last semester of grad school. The majority of the work was completed in 15 weeks, just in time for my final review (although the first seven weeks were almost entirely design and prototyping, with the bulk of the construction completed in the last month and a half of the semester).
It’s not an original premise, but I don’t feel the opportunities have been explored very thoroughly and I wanted to show people the the potential in converting an existing vehicle.
Australia: Giant Robotic Mining Trucks Haul Iron Ore
August 24th, 2013😯
Via: Medium:
In the dusty red earth of Western Australia, robot trucks haul iron ore.
The trucks themselves weigh about 500 tons when loaded—they are truly massive. They operate more or less on their own, navigating mining roads connecting the sprawling Pilbara iron mines with a guidance system provided by global positioning satellites, radars and lasers. It’s part of $13 billion mining operation by Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining firms.
The robots are proliferating. Meanwhile, it’s the kind of technology the Pentagon has been seeking for supply trucks and convoys on the battlefield. This could be a test case.
Computer Can Read Letters Directly from the Brain
August 24th, 2013Via: Radboud University:
By analysing MRI images of the brain with an elegant mathematical model, it is possible to reconstruct thoughts more accurately than ever before. In this way, researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen have succeeded in determining which letter a test subject was looking at.
‘Either Write the Software that Eats the World, or Be Eaten’
August 24th, 2013Via: TechCrunch:
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything will be fine. Maybe the “widening gap between rich and poor” is temporary. Maybe the steady growth in the proportion of jobs that are part-time and/or low-paid will soon reverse.
Or maybe the idea that all the homeless need are old laptops and a few JavaScript textbooks is not unlike the claim that new technologies automatically create new jobs for everyone. Maybe, unless something drastic changes, most people are totally screwed.
Related: Australia: Giant Robotic Mining Trucks Haul Iron Ore
Documentary: Terms and Conditions May Apply
August 23rd, 2013Via: Terms and Conditions May Apply:
Costa Rica’s President Flew Narco-Jet to Hugo Chavez Funeral
August 23rd, 2013Via: Mad Cow Morning News:
An American-registered drug plane has been plying the airspace over Central and South America carrying cargoes of cocaine for a good long while (authorities admit they’ve been “investigating” it since 2011) without apparent incident, until recently, when a newspaper in Costa Rica reported that the President of Costa Rica had been seen using it to fly to Hugo Chavez’s funeral, as well as the recent wedding of the son of Peru’s Vice-President in Lima.
Related:
Up in Smoke? 24 Tons of Cocaine in “No Peek Burn Run”
