Google Maps a Japanese Nuclear Ghost Town
March 29th, 2013Via: The Atlantic:
Two years after the the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and the following tsunami and nuclear disaster, a large area around the failed Fukushima nuclear plant is still considered an exclusion zone. Namie, a small city just north of the nuclear power plant, was evacuated shortly after the quake, and its 21,000 townspeople have been unable to return since, leaving it a ghost town. At the invitation of local officials, Google recently deployed its camera-equipped vehicles to Namie to create a street view map of the deserted town so residents can see their abandoned homes, and the world can witness the remains of the disaster.
Location Data Can Uniquely Identify Cellphone Users
March 28th, 2013Via: Popular Science:
Just a few data points from a location-tracking cellphone are enough to identify most people, a new study found. It doesn’t matter if those data are “anonymized” so they aren’t linked to any identifiers such as address or phone number. Just four random points are enough to put names to 95 percent of the anonymized users in a cellphone database.
The study fits in with growing evidence that fairly publicly available data—cellphone location data is open to many location-tracking apps, for example—is not as anonymous as you might think.
The research team, including technology researchers from the U.S., Belgium and Chile, looked at 15 months’ worth of location data from 1.5 million cellphone users in a “small European country.” The data weren’t particularly detailed. They simply tagged people by their closest cellphone tower once an hour. Many apps get similar data from Apple and Android.
The team then figured out the math to identify 95 percent of the phone-users from just four randomly selected data points. Given 11 data points, they could identify all of the users.
The danger of being able to identify cellphone users so easily is that you could deduce some pretty private information just from where people go. You could see if someone attends certain religious or political meetings, visits an HIV/AIDS or reproductive clinic, or hangs out with an ex or a business rival.
Mexican Vigilantes Seize Town, Arrest Police
March 28th, 2013Via: AP:
Hundreds of armed vigilantes have taken control of a town on a major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting local police officers and searching homes after a vigilante leader was killed. Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach for Easter week.
Members of the area’s self-described “community police” say more than 1,500 members of the force were stopping traffic Wednesday at improvised checkpoints in the town of Tierra Colorado, which sits on the highway connecting Mexico City to Acapulco. They arrested 12 police and the former director of public security in the town after a leader of the state’s vigilante movement was slain on Monday.
A tourist heading to the beach with relatives was slightly wounded Tuesday after they refused to stop at a roadblock and vigilantes fired shots at their car, officials said.
The vigilantes accuse the ex-security director of participating in the killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of local organized crime groups and dumping his body in a nearby town on Monday. They reported seizing several high-powered rifles from his car, and vigilantes were seen toting a number of sophisticated assault rifles on Wednesday, although it was not clear if all had been taken from the ex-security director’s car.
“We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander,” said Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group.
Russian Authorities Raid Amnesty International and Other NGO Offices
March 28th, 2013Via: New York Times:
The Russian authorities on Monday raided the local headquarters of the human rights group Amnesty International, the latest in a continuing series of office searches intended to put pressure on nongovernmental groups.
The head of Amnesty’s office in Russia, Sergei Nikitin, said in a telephone interview that officials from the general prosecutor’s offices and from the tax police arrived unannounced on Monday morning to conduct what they described as an “audit” and demanded a list of documents, most of which Mr. Nikitin said were already on file with the government.
“They’re sitting and waiting for me to bring the originals and copies,” Mr. Nikitin said. “This is ongoing because we, of course, were not expecting them today.”
He added: “They don’t have any concrete complaints. They say it’s a regular check and other cliché phrases.”
Last week, the authorities conducted a similar raid at the offices of Memorial, an international historical society and human rights group that has operated in Russia and other post-Soviet states for more than two decades.
Pavel Chikov, a member of Russia’s presidential human rights council, said offices of dozens of nonprofit organizations had been searched across Russia in March, including at least 20 organizations on Monday.
“We can definitely say it’s been the most active day for these searches so far,” he said in a telephone interview.
Appeasing The Dictator, 140 Characters At A Time: Twitter Censors Content Within Russia
March 28th, 2013Via: PJ Media:
If you have been following the Internet crackdown underway in Russia, you will not be surprised to learn that Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin has recruited many websites — which are either terrified of his wrath or interested in currying his favor — to help crush and eradicate criticism of his government online.
However, you may be surprised to learn that one of those websites is Twitter.
The Moscow Times reported last week that — according to the Kremlin itself — for the past several weeks Twitter has been blocking Russian access to any tweets designated by the Kremlin as “extremist.” Twitter has also deleted at least one user account at the Kremlin’s request.
On its applicable agency website (known by its acronym Roskomnadzor), the Kremlin praises Twitter’s management team for its “constructive position” in reconfiguring its website in a manner “acceptable to Russian side.”
FBI Wants Real-Time Gmail, Dropbox Spying Power
March 28th, 2013Via: Slate:
Despite the pervasiveness of law enforcement surveillance of digital communication, the FBI still has a difficult time monitoring Gmail, Google Voice, and Dropbox in real time. But that may change soon, because the bureau says it has made gaining more powers to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage a “top priority” this year.
Cyprus Prepares Money Controls Before Banks Reopen
March 27th, 2013Via: AP:
Cypriot authorities are preparing limits on how much money depositors can take out of their accounts a day before banks are set to reopen.
A banking official said Wednesday — on condition of anonymity because the measures have yet to be officially announced — that they include restrictions on large-scale money transfers from the country’s two largest lenders to avoid a run.
But authorities are looking to raise the daily withdrawal limit from 100 euros to 300 euros (from $130 to $386), while payroll payments will be allowed in order to help businesses.
The restrictions will be kept for at least a week.
Drones Visualization: Every U.S. Drone Strike In Pakistan Since 2004
March 27th, 2013Via: Huffington Post:
Pitch Interactive, a Berkeley-based data visualization unit, has created a graphic tracking every drone strike the United States has carried out in Pakistan since 2004.
…
The visualization, seen below, tracks the victims of the strikes using data from the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, specifically noting children and civilian collateral damage. Note the sharp uptick after President Obama takes office in 2009…
More: Pitch Interactive
Research Credit: DG
The Robot Reality: Service Jobs Are Next to Go
March 27th, 2013Via: CNBC:
If you meet Baxter, the latest humanoid robot from Rethink Robotics – you should get comfortable with him, because you’ll likely be seeing more of him soon.
Rethink Robotics released Baxter last fall and received an overwhelming response from the manufacturing industry, selling out of their production capacity through April. He’s cheap to buy ($22,000), easy to train, and can safely work side-by-side with humans. He’s just what factories need to make their assembly lines more efficient – and yes, to replace costly human workers.
But manufacturing is only the beginning.
This April, Rethink will launch a software platform that will allow Baxter to do a more complex sequencing of tasks – for example, picking up a part, holding it in front of an inspection station and receiving a signal to place it in a “good” or “not good” pile. The company is also releasing a software development kit soon that will allow third parties – like university robotics researchers – to create applications for Baxter.
These third parties “are going to do all sorts of stuff we haven’t envisioned,” says Scott Eckert, CEO of Rethink Robotics. He envisions something similar to Apple’s app store happening for Baxter. A spiffed-up version of the robot could soon be seen flipping burgers at McDonalds, folding t-shirts at Gap, or pouring coffee at Starbucks.
Related: Momentum Machines Robots Will Prepare Hamburgers, Eliminate Fast Food Jobs
H5N1 VIRAL-ENGINEERING DANGERS WILL NOT GO AWAY
March 27th, 2013Definitely check out Channel 4’s Utopia. It’s a pretty good documentary series. *grin*
Via: Nature:
Barely two months after a small group of influenza virologists lifted a moratorium on work to make the H5N1 avian flu virus as transmissible between humans as seasonal flu, researchers are at it again. Earlier this month, a Dutch scientist proposed similar experiments with other avian flu viruses, as well as the SARS coronavirus. And a fortnight ago, scientists in Germany and Switzerland reported how they had tweaked canine distemper virus to make it grow in human cells.
The logic behind these kinds of experiments, collectively called gain-of-function (GOF) research, is to identify combinations of mutations that could allow an animal virus to jump to unprepared humans.
…
Second, infectious-disease researchers are fond of saying that microbes do not respect barriers. So who makes the rules and provides oversight? Barely a sound has emerged at the international level. The World Health Organization has held essentially closed-door meetings and has failed singularly to widen the debate.
Third, what if these groups generate a highly pathogenic and transmissible virus — which I suspect, within two years, they will? Then what? Should the virus be shared? Should research on this novel virus strain of catastrophic potential be highly restricted?
