Amazon ran a commercial on this year’s Super Bowl that pretended its digital assistant Alexa had temporarily lost her voice. While the ad riffed on what Alexa can say to users, the more intriguing question may be what she and other digital assistants can hear. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/business/media/amazon-google-privacy-digital-assistants.html Amazon and Google, the leading sellers of such devices, […]
China said it will begin applying its so-called social credit system to flights and trains and stop people who have committed misdeeds from taking such transport for up to a year. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-credit/china-to-bar-people-with-bad-social-credit-from-planes-trains-idUSKCN1GS10S People who would be put on the restricted lists included those found to have committed acts like spreading false information about terrorism and […]
Adrian Lamo, a computer hacker best known for passing on information that led to the arrest of Chelsea Manning, has died aged 37.http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43438352 In online messaging conversations, Manning confided in him, describing confidential military material Manning had sent to Wikileaks. Wikileaks published the video of a US helicopter strike that killed seven people, including a […]
A small group of people turning their phone screens to grayscale — cutting out the colors and going with a range of shades from white to black. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/technology/grayscale-phone.html First popularized by the tech ethicist Tristan Harris, the goal of sticking to shades of gray is to make the glittering screen a little less stimulating. Silicon […]
A former Tennessee police officer who was arrested outside the White House on Sunday had a cache of weapons in his car and told authorities he came for help removing a chip that had been implanted in his head, according to court documents. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/person-arrested-near-white-house-had-firearms-us-secret-service-said/2017/09/25/5ff88c3e-a1e3-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html?utm_term=.2d98f6891c3c Several of the firearms were loaded and some were described as […]
Charlie Rose’s full interview of Steve Bannon. Watch full interview Part 1 https://charlierose.com/videos/30951 Part 2 https://charlierose.com/videos/30956 Part 3 https://charlierose.com/videos/30964 Part 4 https://charlierose.com/videos/30969 Part 5 https://charlierose.com/videos/30974 Full Transcript 00:12 Charlie Rose: Steve Bannon is executive Chairman of Breitbart News. Until recently he was chief strategist at the White House for President Trump. During the campaign, he […]
Like the indefatigable maid Rosie on “The Jetsons,” the officious droid C-3PO in “Star Wars” and the tortured “host” Dolores Abernathy in “Westworld,” the robotic helpmates of popular culture have been humanoid in form and function. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/opinion/sunday/household-robots-alexa-homepod.html A robot invasion of our homes is underway, but the machines — so-called smart speakers like Amazon Echo, […]
A company called Clear is using fingerprints and iris scans to spare passengers the first phase of the T.S.A.’s security airport screening process — the document-verification checkpoint and its line. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/business/airport-security.html Clear says it can move fliers through checkpoints while maintaining tight security. But the rollout process has been slow — Clear is available only […]
A Missouri lawmaker is being investigated by the US Secret Service for saying she hopes President Donald Trump will be assassinated. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40973209 Democratic state senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal posted the comment on Facebook but later deleted it. The Secret Service has confirmed they are “looking into the comments” and say “all threats against the President” will […]
The German government plans to introduce fines of up to €2,500 (£2,178; $2,806) for parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40056680 Health Minister Hermann Gröhe said it was necessary to tighten the law because of a measles epidemic. He was speaking to the popular daily Bild. “Continuing deaths from measles cannot leave anyone […]
A mother travels to Syria to find her son after he ran away to join the Islamic State. A black-clad matron tells teenage girls to rest up before they are raped by extremist fighters. A convert to Islam plots to blow up a church. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/world/middleeast/isis-ramadan-tv-drama.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fworld&action=click&contentCollection=world®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront These frighteningly familiar stories of life under the Islamic State in […]
Scientists have been able to keep premature lambs alive for weeks using an artificial womb that looks like a plastic bag. http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39693851 It provides everything the foetus needs to continue growing and maturing, including a nutrient-rich blood supply and a protective sac of amniotic fluid. The approach might one day help premature human babies have […]
If lawmakers have their way, police in one US state could soon be using drones as lethal weapons against the citizens they’re supposed to protect. http://gizmodo.com/cops-just-got-one-step-closer-to-killing-americans-by-d-1793893015 On Thursday, Connecticut’s judiciary committee approved a new drone regulation bill that, if passed, would make it the first state in the union to let cops use deadly drones […]
A U.S. State Department employee with access to sensitive information was accused of failing to report contacts with Chinese foreign intelligence agents who provided her with gifts in exchange for diplomatic and economic information, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intelligence-state-charges-idUSKBN1702U8 Candace Claiborne, 60, was charged in a Washington federal court with obstruction of justice and […]
President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed removing from the US a Muslim cleric wanted by Turkey, according to ex-CIA director James Woolsey. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39391911 Turkey accuses the cleric, Fethullah Gulen, and the US of orchestrating last July’s failed coup. In a video interview, Mr Woolsey told the Wall Street Journal he was present […]
For years, the development of real-time face recognition has been hampered by poor video resolution, the angles of bodies in motion, and limited computing power. But as systems begin to transcend these technical barriers, they are also outpacing the development of policies to constrain them. https://theintercept.com/2017/03/22/real-time-face-recognition-threatens-to-turn-cops-body-cameras-into-surveillance-machines/Civil liberties advocates fear that the rise of real-time face […]
At cocktail parties where the Champagne flows, financiers have expressed bewilderment over the rise of populist groups that are feeding a backlash against globalization. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/business/dealbook/world-economic-forum-davos-finance.html?emc=eta1&_r=0 In the halls of the Davos Congress Center, where many of the meetings this week are taking place, investors have tried to make sense of the political upheaval. The world […]
Hollywood films about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings shot on location last year to bring the story to the silver screen, but not all the for-profit productions have been forthcoming about the taxpayer-funded benefits they’re seeking or have already received for filming in Massachusetts. https://www.apnews.com/30540a0b784e423caad2681c5d3da76d “Patriots Day,” the $40 million film starring Mark Wahlberg that […]
The US electoral college is expected to certify Donald Trump as president on Monday, despite a last-minute effort to thwart the elected Republican by Democrats. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38364137 As the institution’s 538 electors will vote at state capitols nationwide, a handful of Democratic electors have been organising to persuade their Republican counterparts to cast ballots against Mr […]
Nearly 15 years after the United States adopted a program to interrogate terrorism suspects using techniques now widely considered to be torture, one lawsuit has gone further than any other in American courts to fix blame. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/27/us/lawsuit-aims-to-hold-2-contractors-accountable-for-cia-torture.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront The suit, filed in October 2015 by two former detainees in C.I.A. secret prisons and the representative of […]
Dirty Babylon 