The U.S. Government Can Now Unlock Your iPhone

Apple Inc.

Forbes: The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence -- UPDATED

In what appears to be a major breakthrough for law enforcement, and a possible privacy problem for Apple customers, a major U.S. government contractor claims to have found a way to unlock pretty much every iPhone on the market.

Cellebrite, a Petah Tikva, Israel-based vendor that's become the U.S. government's company of choice when it comes to unlocking mobile devices, is this month telling customers its engineers currently have the ability to get around the security of devices running iOS 11 (right up to 11.2.6). That includes the iPhone X, a model that Forbes has learned was successfully raided for data by the Department for Homeland Security back in November 2017, most likely with Cellebrite technology.

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CSN Editor: We all knew that it was just a matter of time.

This Human-Controlled Robot Is 13 Feet Tall

CNBC: This 13-foot robot cost over $100 million to develop and looks like it's straight out of a sci-fi movie

Giant human-controlled robots aren't just for Hollywood anymore.

CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin tried out the Method-2, a 1.6-ton, 13-foot tall robot made by Hankook Mirae Technology in South Korea. It's the same robot that made an impression on Jeff Bezos at Amazon's MARS conference last year.

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CSN Editor: This is one hell of a big robot (and expensive).

Websites Designed by Artificial Intelligence

From YouTube: Henri Bergius, VP engineering at The Grid, an AI that builds your website based on its content, hacker and occasional adventurer, is the creator of Create.js and NoFlo.

In this second talk of the session Artificial Intelligence, Technology without Alternative? at Lift16, Henri Bergius reveals for the first time how he and his team are automating design processes and how the use of such an AI could radically change the way websites such as the amazon catalog or no-budget blogs look like.

How do you teach a machine to understand beauty, color matching, smart use of blank space? Enter the world of AI-designed websites with Henri Bergius!

CSN Editor: They still have a lot of work ahead of them.

World's 5 Largest Gold Nuggets

The world’s second largest nugget in existence, the Great Triangle, was excavated in 1842 in the Miass area of the Russian Urals. The triangular-shaped nugget, owned by the Russian state, weighs of 36.2 kg, including a fine gold content of 32.94 kg, or 1,059 troy ounces. The Great Triangle is on display in the Russia’s ‘Diamond Fund’ collection in the Moscow Kremlin. © Yu. Levyant / Reuters

RT: World's 5 largest gold nuggets that haven't been melted down

Gold has been an attractive asset throughout much of human history. Today's investors use it as a safe haven against market volatility. But where did gold mining start and what does the precious metal look like on extraction?

Humanity learned to extract gold centuries ago. The oldest known gold artifacts were reportedly found in the Varna Necropolis on the territory of modern Bulgaria. The graves allegedly date back to 4200 BC, which shows that gold mining might be at least 7,000 years old.

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CSN Editor: The bigger story is mankind's fascination with gold since the beginning of time.

3000 Years Of Art In Just 3 Minutes

Kotte: 3000 years of art in just three minutes

This short film from 1968, set to Classical Gas, shows 3000 years of fine art in just three minutes. As the final frame of the film says:

You have just had all of the Great Art of the World indelibly etched in your brain. You are now cultured.

As mesmerizing as the film is, especially for 1968, the backstory is perhaps even more interesting. Mason Williams, who wrote and recorded Classical Gas, saw this film by UCLA film student Dan McLaughlin and arranged, with McLaughlin’s permission, to have the original soundtrack replaced with his song and to have it aired on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS, then the number one show on TV in America.

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CSN Editor: Love the music. What is amazing is that this video/movie was done in 1968.

25 Hurricanes Hit The USA In The 1880s

Next Big Future: Was there global warming in the 1880s? Because 25 hurricanes hit the USA in that decade

A total of 293 Atlantic tropical cyclones have produced hurricane-force winds in every state along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, as well as Pennsylvania. Florida more than any other hurricane.

CNN and Jeffrey Sachs are blaming the three hurricanes that hit the USA this year on climate change. The 1880s were the most active hurricane decade for the United States, with a total of 25 hurricanes affecting the nation. Does this mean that 1880s had the most climate change hurricanes?

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CSN Editor: Another example on why more research on understanding climate change needs to be done.

Amazon's List Of HQ2 Contenders Is Now Down To 20 Finalists

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

The top 20 finalists. (Madison McVeigh/CityLab)

City Lab: Amazon Whittles Down List of HQ2 Contenders to 20 Finalists

The list skews toward larger cities and metropolitan areas along the Eastern corridor, stretching as far north as Toronto and as far south as Miami. And it looks like some of the economic incentives might be paying off.

We’re one step closer to finding out where Amazon’s coveted HQ2 will call home. The company has whittled down the list of 238 cities to 20, it announced Thursday morning. The list of finalists skews toward larger cities and metropolitan areas along the Eastern corridor, stretching as far north as Toronto and as far south as Miami.

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CSN News: My money is on Dallas/Austin or Atlanta.

This Oil Spill Is Like No Other

The Sanchi engulfed in flame on January 13. China Daily via Reuters

The Atlantic: The World Has Never Seen an Oil Spill Like This

A tanker that sank off the Chinese coast was carrying “condensate,” a mix of molecules with radically different properties than crude.

Over the last two weeks, the maritime world has watched with horror as a tragedy has unfolded in the East China Sea. A massive Iranian tanker, the Sanchi, collided with a Chinese freighter carrying grain. Damaged and adrift, the tanker caught on fire, burned for more than a week, and sank. All 32 crew members are presumed dead.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities and environmental groups have been trying to understand the environmental threat posed by the million barrels of hydrocarbons that the tanker was carrying. Because the Sanchi was not carrying crude oil, but rather condensate, a liquid by-product of natural gas and some kinds of oil production. According to Alex Hunt, a technical manager at the London-based International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, which assists with oil spills across the world, there has never been a condensate spill like this.

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CSN Editor: This is as bad as it gets.

China Wants To Be A Leading Player In Artificial Intelligence

BBC: Tech Tent: China's AI ambitions

On this week's Tech Tent we hear why China's determination to be a leading player in artificial intelligence could lead to tensions with the United States.

We have two other reports on this week's programme. In a compelling interview with Jane Wakefield, YouTube star Chrissy Chambers talks about her court battle against a former boyfriend who uploaded explicit videos featuring her to a pornography website. Her victory is being seen as a key moment in the battle against the internet scourge known as revenge porn.

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CSN Editor: China has the resources, people, and ambition to be a leader in AI. I would take them very seriously.

These Small Rockets Are Designed To Launch Small Satellites

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket is smaller than most, built to carry tiny CubeSats. Rocket Lab

Wired: The Little Rocket That Could Sends Real Satellites to Space

The launch company Rocket Lab has amusing names for its missions. The first, in May, was called “It’s a Test” (it was). When the staff debated what to call the second launch of their diminutive Electron rocket, so sized (and priced) specifically to carry small satellites to space, they said, “Well, we’re still testing, aren’t we?”

They were. And so “Still Testing” became the name of Rocket Lab’s second launch, which took place on January 20, at around 8:45 pm Eastern Standard Time. In December, the company canceled multiple attempts before rescheduling the launch window for 2018. The livestreamed rocket lifted off from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, headed for someplace with an even better view.

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CSN Editor: They want the small payload-satellite niche. More signs on how the commercialization of space continues.

Tweet For Today

Watch this MINDBLOWING Hubble flight visualization pic.twitter.com/19dcFCOCsa

— RT (@RT_com) January 21, 2018

Blood Test Can Now Detect 8 types Of Common Cancers

The Guardian: Blood test could use DNA to spot eight of the most common cancers, study shows

DNA and biomarkers could be used to detect and identify cancers, including five types for which there is currently no screening test.

Scientists have made a major advance towards developing a blood test for cancer that could identify tumours long before a person becomes aware of symptoms.

The new test, which is sensitive to both mutated DNA that floats freely in the blood and cancer-related proteins, gave a positive result approximately 70% of the time across eight of the most common cancers when tested in more than 1,000 patients.

In the future, such a test could be used in routine screening programmes to significantly increase the proportion of patients who get treatment early, at a time before cancer would typically show up on conventional scans.

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CSN Editor: Only being able to spot 8 common cancers .... and giving a positive result 70% of the time .... that is progress, albeit slow.

How Much Water Should A Person Drink?

Water Canada

Live Science: How Much Water Do You Really Need To Drink?

You are what you eat — but if you want to get literal about it, you are mostly what you drink. So, how much of that should be water?

About 60 percent of the average adult human body is made of water, according to a National Institutes of Health report. This includes most of your brain, heart, lungs, muscles and skin, and even about 30 percent of your bones. Besides being one of the main ingredients in the recipe for humankind, water helps us regulate our internal temperature, transports nutrients throughout our bodies, flushes waste, forms saliva, lubricates joints and even serves as a protective shock absorber for vital organs and growing fetuses.

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CSN Editor: The answer is .... Drink up when you're thirsty, and drink more when you sweat more. Your body will take it from there.

The Pentagon Wants To Build A Real 'SkyNet'?

Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John Richardson, gives a keynote address during the Naval Future Force Science and Technology (S&T) Expo, July 21, 2017. This is a slide from his presentation.

Patrick Tucker, Defense One: The Future the US Military is Constructing: a Giant, Armed Nervous System

Service chiefs are converging on a single strategy for military dominance: connect everything to everything.

Leaders of the Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines are converging on a vision of the future military: connecting every asset on the global battlefield.

That means everything from F-35 jets overhead to the destroyers on the sea to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the multiplying devices in every troops’ pockets. Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. The effect: an unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world’s most sophisticated weaponry.

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SCN Editor: A must read on what could be the weapon systems of the future.

The Pentagon Is Using Software To Hunt Down Terrorists

Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One: The Pentagon’s New Artificial Intelligence Is Already Hunting Terrorists

After less than eight months of development, the algorithms are helping intel analysts exploit drove video over the battlefield.

Earlier this month at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, computers using special algorithms helped intelligence analysts identify objects in a video feed from a small ScanEagle drone over the battlefield.

A few days into the trials, the computer identified objects — people, cars, types of building — correctly about 60 percent of the time. Just over a week on the job — and a handful of on-the-fly software updates later — the machine’s accuracy improved to around 80 percent. Next month, when its creators send the technology back to war with more software and hardware updates, they believe it will become even more accurate.

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CSN Editor: The age of using software to pinpoint and target the enemy is now with us .... and it does not take much of an imagination to know that this is only going to become more effective (and deadlier) with time.

This Is How Machines Learn (Video)

Google Street View May Give An Indication On How People Vote

Timnit Gebru led the research effort at Stanford University that analyzed 50 million images and location data from Google Street View, the street-scene feature of the online giant’s mapping service. Credit Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times

New York Times: How Do You Vote? 50 Million Google Images Give a Clue

What vehicle is most strongly associated with Republican voting districts? Extended-cab pickup trucks. For Democratic districts? Sedans.

Those conclusions may not be particularly surprising. After all, market researchers and political analysts have studied such things for decades.

But what is surprising is how researchers working on an ambitious project based at Stanford University reached those conclusions: by analyzing 50 million images and location data from Google Street View, the street-scene feature of the online giant’s mapping service.

For the first time, helped by recent advances in artificial intelligence, researchers are able to analyze large quantities of images, pulling out data that can be sorted and mined to predict things like income, political leanings and buying habits. In the Stanford study, computers collected details about cars in the millions of images it processed, including makes and models.

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CSN Editor:  The politicians and their campaign managers are going to love this.

Science In Review 2017

FEE: 2017 Was a Year of Amazing Advances for Humanity

The end of 2017 is barely a week away. So now is the perfect time to reflect on the positive difference humanity has made to the world over the past 12 months. How have we advanced as a species?

We often underestimate the progress we make because it is incremental: an algorithm here, a genetic tweak there… but all these things combine to improve our future.

As Kevin Kelly from Wired wrote, “Ever since the Enlightenment and the invention of Science, we’ve managed to create a tiny bit more than we’ve destroyed each year… That few percent positive difference is compounded over decades into what we might call civilization… [Progress] is a self-cloaking action seen only in retrospect.”

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CSN Editor: It has been an interesting year.

If Great Scientists Had Logos

If great scientists had logos https://t.co/Xmwg8qjQd8 pic.twitter.com/ucK6VHMOXj

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 29, 2017

This Has Got To Be The Worst Job In Technology

Shaka Tafari saw graphic photos of bestiality or people killing dogs while working as a contractor for messaging app Whisper. Photo: Nick Agro for The Wall Street Journal

Lauren Weber and Deepa Seetharaman, Wall Street Journal: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

Social-media giants hire legions of contractors to hunt for pornography, racism and violence in a torrent of posts and videos

By her second day on the job, Sarah Katz knew how jarring it can be to work as a content moderator for Facebook Inc. FB 1.10% She says she saw anti-Semitic speech, bestiality photos and video of what seemed to be a girl and boy told by an adult off-screen to have sexual contact with each other.

Ms. Katz, 27 years old, says she reviewed as many as 8,000 posts a day, with little training on how to handle the distress, though she had to sign a waiver warning her about what she would encounter. Coping mechanisms among content moderators included a dark sense of humor and swiveling around in their chairs to commiserate after a particularly disturbing post.

She worked at Facebook’s headquarters campus in Menlo Park, Calif., and ate for free in company cafeterias. But she wasn’t a Facebook employee. Ms. Katz was hired by a staffing company that works for another company that in turn provides thousands of outside workers to the social network.

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CS Editor: This has got to be the worst job in technology .... by far.