Creating A Quantum Computer

IBM's 2-D Superconducting Qubit Mounted on a Chip IBM Research via Flickr

How It Would Work: Creating a Quantum Computer -- Popular Science

A working, large-scale quantum computer is still a decade away, but researchers are currently turning a critical corner from theory to building the first small quantum systems.

Silicon semiconductors have taken us a dazzling distance along the computing road. But even if they continue unabated to get faster and more powerful (and it’s growing more difficult to make that happen) there’s a limit to what classical computing can do.

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My Comment: A Quantum computer is still a long way-off .... but we are getting there.

Most Convincing 'Robot Woman' Ever

Living Doll? 'Geminoid F' Is Most Convincing 'Robot Woman' Ever - She Has 65 Facial Expressions, Talks And Even Sings -- Daily Mail

It may only be a matter of months before boy bands and teen actresses are replaced by robots - after a talking, singing fem-bot with 65 facial expressions wowed crowds in China.

Geminoid F can produce smiles and even enigmatic, quizzical expressions, using mechanical actuators underneath her rubber 'skin'.

Her creator says his goal is to create a robot that can fool people into believing it's a human being.

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My Comment: Yup .... they are getting better every year.

US Unaffected By Global Warming

US Ecosystems Basically Unaffected By Global Warming, Studies Show -- The Register

Streams fail to dry up as expected at test sites.

Scientists monitoring water flow in streams at test sites across the USA have found, unexpectedly, that the global warming seen in the late 20th century had basically no effect on most of the ecosystems they studied.

The world in general is thought to have warmed up by approximately half a degree C from 1980 to the year 2000, and while the past decade has seen no further increase, most full-time professional climate scientists expect warming to resume in the near future. However there has been much disagreement as to just what effects this could have.

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My Comment: I can guarantee you that this story will have (almost zero play) in the US main stream media.

Making Whiskey In Space

Photo: The unmatured whisky was mixed with charred oak on board the space station to see how low gravity affected the maturation process

Where No Dram Has Gone Before: Whisky Company Matures New Malt In Zero-G On The Space Station -- Daily Mail

* Whisky mixed with charcoal to see how zero-gravity affects flavours
* Mix will remain on Space Station for two years

The astronauts on the International Space Station are used to rocket fuel - but even so, a delivery of a container of rough, unmatured whisky must have come as a surprise.

Thankfully, the delivery was for an experiment, rather than an impromtu celebration, so the astronauts carried out their duties with their usual sober dedication.

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My Comment: It should produce an interesting smell and taste.

Military ‘Battle Lab’ Relies On Solar Energy

Image via U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen

Military ‘Battle Lab’ Cashes In On Solar Savings -- Earth Techling

No one ever said training for battle was easy, nor energy-efficient. The “Battle Lab” is a U.S. military facility in New Jersey where more than 20,000 soldiers prepare and train for battle. The lab includes shooting ranges, vehicle rollover trainers and other high-tech simulators. But those high-tech tools suck up millions of kilowatts of power.

Now, more than a quarter of the training facility’s power is being provided by renewable energy sources. The Army Corps of Engineers along with the help of contractor P & S Construction helped complete a solar power project onsite at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Photovoltaic solar panels were mounted to the roof of the Battle Lab, covering approximately 71,000 square feet.

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Pentagon Is Speeding Up Its Cyberweapon Research

The Pentagon is creating a next-generation cyberweapon.(Reuters / Rick Wilking)

Pentagon To Fast-Track Cyberweapons Acquisition -- Washington Post

The Pentagon is planning to dramatically speed up the development of new cyberweapons, giving it the ability in some cases to field weapons against specific targets in a matter of days, according to a new Pentagon report to Congress.

The rapid acquisition process is designed to respond to “urgent, mission-critical” needs when the risk to operations and personnel is unacceptable if threats are not addressed quickly, according to the 16-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Congress required the Pentagon to prepare the report on how it could accelerate acquisition of cyberweapons.

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More News On The Pentagon's Quest For Cyberweapons

U.S. accelerating cyberweapon research -- Washington Post
Pentagon creating new-generation cyberweapon -- RT
DoD: Cyber Weapons May Be Better Than Cyber Espionage Tools -- Nextgov
Cyber warfare rules still being written -- Washington Times
DOD working on guidelines for cyberwar operations -- Stars and Stripes
DoD’s cyber rules of engagement -- DoD Buzz
DARPA Director: Cyber Research Needs Innovation, Talent -- Defpro
U.S. Military Readies Cyber 'Rules of Engagement' -- Information Week
3 factors inhibit DOD cyber infrastructure defense -- Defense Systems

Budget cuts put cybersecurity at risk -- Politico

DARPA Wants Humanoid Robots

DARPA's Robotics Challenge is a contest to design robots for dangerous disaster relief situations from natural or industrial disasters. (Credit: DARPA)

Disaster Zone Robot Competition Announced By Pentagon -- BBC

A competition to develop next-generation robots capable of saving lives in disaster zones has been unveiled by the Pentagon's advanced research laboratory.

Darpa says it wants "adaptable robots with the ability to use human tools - from hand tools to vehicles".

It plans to hold a series of emergency response physical challenges.

A $2m (£1.3m) prize is being offered to the team with the best technology. The competition begins in October.

The agency says it hopes software engineers, video game developers and other experts from fields outside robotics will take part "to increase the diversity of innovative solutions".

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More News On DARPA's Quest For A Humanoid Robot

US military offers millions for the first humanoid robot -- MSNBC
Seeking Robots to Go Where First Responders Can’t -- New York Times
DARPA Wants Humanoid Robots That Can Drive Tractors, Open Doors and Save the Day -- Popular Science
DARPA: Build us robots that drive -- and use power tools -- CNET
DARPA Seeking to Build (Friendly) Terminators -- PC Mag
The U.S military wants YOU, to build a humanoid robot -- Ubergizmo
DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters -- Information Week
DARPA wants rescue robots, offers $2M prize -- TG Daily
Humanoid Robots DARPA Hopes Will Save Human Lives -- Atlantic Wire
DARPA's Next Grand Challenge - Humanoid Robots -- The Future Of Things
DARPA's next Grand Challenge to focus on humanoid robots -- Endgadget
Pentagon eyes 'human like' handyman robots: But why? -- RT

Tsunami Projections Raises Concerns In Japan

Tsunami Projections Offer Bleak Fate for Many Japanese Towns -- New York Times

KUROSHIO, Japan — The simulations shocked this sleepy community on the tip of Japan’s Shikoku island: a huge undersea quake could bring a tsunami as high as 112 feet here, a government-appointed expert panel said. The waves could arrive in minutes and engulf most of the town, swallowing up even the foothills that the residents had counted on for high ground.

“We’d never make it if such big waves came,” said Hachiro Okumoto, 70, a fisherman who has worked off the Kuroshio coast for half a century. “It would be a wall of water. It would block out the sun.”

Just a year after a tsunami destroyed much of Japan’s northern Pacific coast, an updated hazard map detailing the damage that could be unleashed by another quake of a similar magnitude has been met with alarm across the country.

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My Comment: You cannot live in fear forever. A tsunami may hit today .... or maybe centuries from now.

The Real World Of Robots Does Not Match Fantasy

Robot Realities Fail Fictional Fantasies -- BBC

Our mental fantasy of what a robot should look like is so clouded by movies that many of us would struggle to identify a real one, writes Quentin Cooper.

Gort in the original The Day The Earth Stood Still; Bender from Futurama; the huge Talos in Jason & The Argonauts; Robby in Forbidden Planet; the Gunslinger in Westworld; Huey, Dewey & Louie in Silent Running; ED-209 from Robocop, and the (admittedly obscure) Yo-Yo in 70s TV series Holmes & Yo-Yo. They’re just a few of my favourite film robots, and that’s without bringing in androids, replicants, cyborgs or semi-sentient computers.

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My Comment: No 'terminator robots' running around in the near future.

Communication Secrets Of Great Leaders

10 Communication Secrets Of Great Leaders -- Forbes

It is simply impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. I hope you noticed the previous sentence didn’t refer to being a great talker – big difference. The key to becoming a skillful communicator is rarely found in what has been taught in the world of academia. From our earliest days in the classroom we are trained to focus on enunciation, vocabulary, presence, delivery, grammar, syntax and the like. In other words, we are taught to focus on ourselves. While I don’t mean to belittle these things as they’re important to learn, it’s the more subtle elements of communication rarely taught in the classroom (the elements that focus on others), which leaders desperately need to learn. It is the ability to develop a keen external awareness that separates the truly great communicators from those who muddle through their interactions with others. In today’s column I’ll share a few of the communication traits, which if used consistently, will help you achieve better communication results.

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My Comment: Unfortunately .... this is not what most leaders follow.

Canada To Have It's Own Crypto-Currency

Canada To Mint Its Own Crypto-Currency -- Technology Review

The Royal Canadian Mint has invented a new, digital currency called MintChip intended to be an alternative to using debit and credit cards.

MintChip is modeled somewhat on Bitcoin, a digital currency invented by an unknown programmer that looked like it might succeed last year before falling prey to a serious of security and regulatory problems. The promo video for MintChip promises that transactions as small as $0.01 will be possible, something not feasible with credit cards due to the fees on each transaction. A competition is underway that will reward programmers with the best demonstration uses for MintChip.

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My Comment: More news on this currency can be read here.

Google's Augmented Reality Glasses

Video: Google's Straight-Out-of-Sci-Fi Augmented Reality Glasses -- Popular Science

Google announced just a month or two ago that they were in the advanced stages of work on a pair of augmented reality glasses--a concept we've been waiting for since some sci-fi writer thought of it in decades ago. The company was short on details or, importantly for our fantasies, imagery, until today, when it posted a concept video showing how these glasses might be used. And it's pretty amazing. Video after the jump.

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My Comment: Awesome.

Population Growth: Fastest Growing Urban Area?

Population Growth: Fastest Growing Urban Area? It May Surprise You -- L.A. Times

It has a smaller population than San Jose, Calif. -- but it’s the fastest growing urban area in the world.

New estimates from the United Nations peg Samut Prakan as the population center expected to grow the most between 2010 and 2015, its population anticipated to surge 9%. The Thai province located south of Bangkok is known for its fishing and boasts that it has the world’s largest crocodile farm.

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Iran Preparing To 'Disconnect' From The Internet

Iranian schoolgirls chat online at an internet cafe. (Photo: Reuters)

Iran To Shut Down Internet Permanently; 'Clean' National Intranet In Pipeline -- International Business Times

Millions of Internet users in Iran will be permanently denied access to the World Wide Web and cut off from popular social networking sites and email services, as the government has announced its plans to establish a national Intranet within five months.

In a statement released Thursday, Reza Taghipour, the Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, announced the setting up of a national Intranet and the effective blockage of services like Google, Gmail, Google Plus, Yahoo and Hotmail, in line with Iran's plan for a "clean Internet."

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Update: Iran expected to permanently cut off Internet by August -- CNET

My Comment: They are already starting to block sites .... including the 2012 Olympics official website.

The U.S. Navy Is Looking For Hackers

The government wants to pay $177,000 for the ability to monitor game systems

Know How To Hack A Video Game Console? The U.S. Navy Wants You! -- Y! Tech

For players just looking to have a good time when gaming online, hackers are a major nuisance. But regardless of how frustrating playing against someone with an unfair advantage can be, the practice of game console hacking has apparently caught the eye of the United States military. It seems the U.S. Navy is looking for a few good hackers to create both hardware and virtual modifications that will allow officials to monitor the messaging functions of specific game consoles — and they're prepared to pay over $150,000 for the final product.

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My Comment: Chinese gamers .... watch out!

Telepathic Troops In 5 Years?

Fiction or reality? The film The Men Who Stare At Goats, starring George Clooney, depicts some of the mind control experiments previously used by military intelligence

Pentagon Plans For Telepathic Troops Who Can Read Each Others' Minds... And They Could Be In The Field Within Five Years -- Daily Mail

he U.S. Army is dedicating millions of research dollars into discovering building helmets to allow soldiers to telepathically communicate with one another on the battlefield.

The technology, which seems like something out of a science fiction novel, would use electrodes to pick up code words that soldiers were thinking.

Those codewords would then be transmitted back to a computer where the soldier's position and message- telling, for instance, that it is safe to progress towards a target- which would be transmitted to their peers in the field.

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My Comment: I am skeptical on this one.

Police Use Of Cell Phone Tracking Becoming Routine

A recent study from the ACLU found a high number of law enforcement agencies track cellphone movement. (Michelle Maltais / Los Angeles Times / April 4, 2012)

Police Tracking Of Cellphones Raises Concerns -- L.A. Times

You check in on Foursquare, post geotagged photos on Facebook and tweet every mundane detail of your life. You overshare. But do you really want the cops tracking your cellphone without your knowledge?

A recent review of law-enforcement practices by the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that it's not uncommon for cellphones to be virtually tailed using either the phone's own GPS or cellular triangulation -- without obtaining a warrant or subpoena.

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More News On Police Departments Tracking Cell Phones

ACLU: Police track cellphones, too -- MSNBC
Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool -- New York Times
ACLU: Local police departments tracking cellphones without warrants -- Washington Post
ACLU: Most Police Departments Track Cellphones Without Warrants -- National Journal
More Police Agencies Using Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking in Surveillance -- New American
ACLU report: Warrantless tracking of cellphones ‘pervasive and frequent’ -- The Hill
Big Brother in Your Pocket: How Police Use Your Cell Phone to Track You -- The Atlantic

The 2012 BMW 3 Series Sedan

BMW 3 Series Sedan courtesy BMW

Test Drive: The 2012 BMW 3 Series Sedan -- Popular Science

The classic German sedan gets an exciting upgrade.

When BMW rolls out an all-new 3 Series, it's big news, since these have been the benchmark of German sedans for the last 30 years or more. It also sets off a tectonic shift in the entry-level luxury market, with the Mercedes-Benz C Class, Audi A, not to mention the Cadillac CTS, Infiniti G and the Lexus GS suddenly called upon to step up their game to follow along.

This automotive war of attrition becomes a win for the consumer, as the arms race among the automakers gives the consumer a lot more choice. Really, who can argue with better, faster and safer cars every few years?

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My Comment: Owned a BMW for a few years .... sighh .... it is a great car to drive.

The US Navy's Fire Scout To Be Upgraded To Recognize Somali Pirate Ships

Fire Scout, Now Hunting Pirates U.S. Navy

Navy's Robot Helicopters Are Getting New Onboard Brains That Will Help Them Fight Somali Pirates -- Popular Science

It’s tough being a pirate these days. Facing off with Navy SEALs and missile cruisers on their home turf of the high seas is tough enough for small-arms wielding pirates in diminutive watercraft. Now, the Navy is bringing in the robots. The Office of Naval Research has plans to imbue its Fire Scout unmanned, ship-launched helicopters with electronic brains capable of identifying the small boats generally used by pirates.

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My Comment: Instead of facial recognition for humans .... we now have 'ship recognition'. Quite smart if you ask me.

World’s Biggest Wind Farm Is Being Planned For The South Coast Of England

What lies ahead: A mock-up of the Navitus Bay wind farm, which would cover an area the size of Glasgow

World's Biggest Wind Farm 'To Blight The South Coast' If 200 Near 700ft Turbines Are Erected Just Off Stunning Shore -- Daily Mail

The world’s biggest wind farm is being planned for the South Coast of England.

The 200 turbines would earn Dutch company Eneco billions of pounds in Government subsidies. Critics say they will ruin coastal views, while yachtsmen warn they could cause crashes.

The Royal Yacht Squadron, the prestigious sailing club whose patron is the Queen, has written to 200 sailing clubs on the Isle of Wight and along the South Coast to call for action against the development, named Navitus Bay.

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My Comment: The sailors are going to be pissed.