Saturday, January 6, 2018
Friday, January 5, 2018
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.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: The politicians and their campaign managers are going to love this.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Science In Review 2017
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.”
Read more ....
CSN Editor: It has been an interesting year.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
If Great Scientists Had Logos
If great scientists had logos https://t.co/Xmwg8qjQd8 pic.twitter.com/ucK6VHMOXj
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 29, 2017
Wednesday, December 27, 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.
Read more ....
CS Editor: This has got to be the worst job in technology .... by far.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Two Microsoft Employees Are Claiming That Microsoft Gave Them PTSD
FOX News: Two employees are suing Microsoft, alleging their jobs gave them PTSD
Two Microsoft employees claim the company made them look at photos and videos "designed to entertain some of the most twisted and sick minded people in the world." Now they're suing.
Courthouse News reports Henry Soto and Greg Blauert were part of Microsoft's online safety team whose job was to figure out what online content should be taken down and when it should be reported to police.
In that position, Soto and Blauert say they had to look at images of child pornography, murder, bestiality, and "indescribable sexual assault." They filed a lawsuit against Microsoft last month, accusing the company of negligence, disability discrimination, and violation of the Consumer Protection Act.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: They are claiming that Microsoft didn't warn them about what to expect in the job and didn't provide psychological support. I find this hard to believe. Unless they have lived in a bubble for most of their life .... everyone knows that the internet has a lot of garbage that is not for the faint of heart.
Tweet For Today
Demonstration of 4 color printing with acrylic slides pic.twitter.com/q2BBqWdurU— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) January 16, 2017
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The Riemann Hypothesis
Jørgen Veisdal, Medium: The Riemann Hypothesis, explained
In loving memory of John Forbes Nash Jr.
You remember prime numbers, right? Those numbers you can’t divide into other numbers, except when you divide them by themselves or 1? Right. Here is a 3000 year old question:
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, p. What is p? 31. What is the next p? It’s 37. The p after that?41. And then? 43. How, but… …how do you know what comes next?
Present an argument or formula which (even barely) predicts what the next prime number will be (in any given sequence of numbers), and your name will be forever linked to one of the greatest achievements of the human mind, akin to Newton, Einstein and Gödel. Figure out why the primes act as they do, and you will never have to do anything else, ever again.
Read more ....
This Professor Is Teaching The NSA's Best Hackers
PPP group photo after winning @Defcon CTF 2016 pic.twitter.com/BpDYmMH7nA— David Brumley (@thedavidbrumley) August 8, 2016
Cyber Scoop: Meet the man responsible for teaching some of the NSA’s best young hackers
The National Security Agency is an enormous organization by nearly any corporate standard, with more than 35,000 employees. Former Deputy Director Chris Inglis once joked that the spy agency is “the biggest employer of introverts.” More frequently though, the NSA refers to itself as the largest employer of mathematicians. In recent years, while the U.S. has continuously confronted new threats in cyberspace, the agency has increasingly become a training ground for young, talented, highly educated computer security professionals.
Underlining the NSA’s race to hire the best and brightest is a list of 213 universities that the spy agency has designated as “National Centers of Academic Excellence.”
These schools offer a myriad of computer security training programs, each providing a stepping stone into the secretive agency. In this context, Carnegie Mellon University is to the NSA what the University of Alabama is to the NFL. And Professor David Brumley is CMU’s Nick Saban.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: His Twitter page is interesting (the link is here).
Americans Love Their Internet And Smartphones
The Pew Research Center survey found 77 percent of American adults owning a smartphone in late 2016, more than double the level of 2011, when 35 percent said they used such devices
Phys.org: Smartphone, internet use at record high in US: survey
More than three-fourths of American adults now use a smartphone, helping to boost internet adoption to a record level, a survey showed Thursday.
The Pew Research Center survey found 77 percent owning a smartphone in late 2016, more than double the level of 2011, when 35 percent said they used such devices.
The rise was fueled by a "sharp uptick" in smartphone use by those with low incomes and those 50 and older, Pew said.
"Smartphones are nearly ubiquitous among younger adults," said Pew researcher Aaron Smith, noting that 92 percent of adults under 29 own one.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I am surprised that only 77% own a smartphone .... I thought it was closer to 90%.
The European Parliament Wants To Give Robots Legal Status By Calling Them 'Electronic Persons'
The report proposes a kill switch on robots. © Francois Lenoir / Reuters
A European Parliament committee has voted in favor of a draft report that proposes granting legal status to robots, categorizing them as “electronic persons”.
The draft report, approved by 17 votes to two and two abstentions by the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs, proposes that “The most sophisticated autonomous robots could be established as having the status of electronic persons with specific rights and obligations, including that of making good any damage they may cause.”
Authored by Luxembourg MEP Mady Delvaux, the report proposes definitions and outlines rules to govern how robots interact with humans “now that humankind stands on the threshold of an era” that it claims will see artificial intelligence (AI) “unleash a new industrial revolution.”
Read more ....
WNU Editor: I will not be surprised if this is past by the EU parliament.
A U.S. Bee Species Has Been Placed On The Endangered Species List.
AFP: Bee placed on endangered list after US habitat loss
Miami (AFP) - US officials for the first time have placed a bee found in the continental United States on the endangered species list.
Authorities said Wednesday the move was taken after a precipitous decline in the rusty patched bumblebee population, due to pesticides, disease and climate change.
These once common bumblebees are now "balancing precariously on the brink of extinction," said a statement from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Abundance of the rusty patched bumble bee has plummeted by 87 percent, leaving small, scattered populations in 13 states and one province," down from 28 states in the 1990s.
The final rule listing the rusty patched bumble bee as endangered appeared in the January 11 edition of the Federal Register and takes effect on February 10.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I expect other bee species to be placed on this list.
Tweet For Today
This is how a dental implant is installed pic.twitter.com/NlckkkOt0I
— Science World (@ScienceworId) January 11, 2017
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
An AI Robot To Combat Loneliness
Elli.Q reminds lonely elderly people to take medication, talk to family and stay active
The Telegraph: AI robot 'friend' launched to chat and play games with lonely elderly
A talking robot which chats to elderly people, reminding them to take their medication and stay active, has been launched in London.
Elli.Q, which is one of the most advanced social companion robots in the world, has been designed to convey emotion through different speech tones, lights and body language to be as engaging as possible.
The little robot suggests activities such as reading, going for a walk, playing games to keep mentally active or phoning friends and family.
And she is programmed to learn what her owner enjoys, gradually tailoring her programming to fit.
Elli.Q has been developed by Intuition Robotics to prevent older people feeling socially isolated, and keep them connected to family and friends.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: I can see this being valuable for seniors who live alone.
World Economic Forum Warns That Artificial Intelligence Needs Strong Governance
Computer Weekly: World Economic Forum warns of AI business risk
Ahead of its annual meeting in Davos, the World Economic Forum warns that artificial intelligence needs strong governance
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2017 has highlighted risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI).
Based on a survey of 750 experts, the report warned that AI, biotech and robotics have among the highest benefits to society, but they also require the most legislation.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: No one is ready for the large scale unemployment that the adoption of AI would create.
The World Economic Forum Releases Its Top Global Risks For 2017
CNBC: Top five global risks for 2017: WEF
The World Economic Forum's (WEF) flagship annual report surveyed 750 experts to identify the most significant global concerns. Here are the top five:
Read more ....
Update: Zero Hedge has a good summary .... These Are The Top Global Risks For 2017 According To The World Economic Forum (Zero Hedge).
CSN Editor: The World Economic Forum's report is here.
More News And Details On The iPhone 8 Are Becoming Known
The latest rumor to hit the web comes from an ‘upstream supply chain’ that says the Cupertino company is ditching the aluminium back cover. Instead, it will be designed with a stainless steel forging process .Pictured is an iPhone 8 concept render
Daily Mail: iPhone 8 to have stainless steel frame, all glass front and back and 'invisible' speakers and cameras
* Latest iPhone 8 rumor suggests Apple is ditching the aluminium back cover
* Instead will be designed with new stainless steel forging process
* Will bring together two reinforced glass panels supported by a metal frame
* Apple also received patent to hide components under the screen
It may still be months away, but speculations about Apple’s iPhone 8 are sweeping the internet.
The latest rumor came from an ‘upstream supply chain’ that suggests the Cupertino company is ditching the aluminium back cover.
Instead, it will be designed with a stainless steel forging process that brings together two reinforced glass panels supported by a metal frame.
Read more ....
CSN Editor: It looks sharp.
Tweet For Today
The world's movement of people – in one map https://t.co/vKRtNs3NaQ #migration pic.twitter.com/SvtNyE5a8b
— World Economic Forum (@wef) January 10, 2017
Monday, January 9, 2017
The Inside Story Of The First iPhone
BBC: 'Sweating bullets' - The inside story of the first iPhone
"Steve had expressly told me it was totally top secret. He said he was going to fire anyone who tells the world.
"I was sweating bullets."
Tony Fadell was pondering just how he was going to explain to Steve Jobs that he'd lost the prototype of what would become the most successful technology product of all time, the Apple iPhone which launched 10 years ago on Monday.
He'd just got off a plane, felt his pockets, and... nothing.
"I was walking through every scenario thinking about what could happen," he told me. None of them ended well.
After two hours, relief - thanks to the efforts of a search party that didn’t know what it was trying to find.
"It fell out of my pocket and it was lodged in between the seats!"
Read more ....
CSN Editor: The above video is Steve Jobs announcing the first iPhone in 2007
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