News Stories

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Das exchange

I appreciate the Germans for taking the initiative to take over the NYSE so I can see less window-dressing, but I fear that the corruption might spread over to Germany, or even drain European funds to support the exchange.

Maybe I am wrong, but the stock exchange institutions are not that important are they? I mean, the stocks will remain valuable regardless of their trading place (at least stocks of international corporations and such).
So I do not see the very importance of that merger of trading places. But my lack of knowledge in these matters could fool me in seeing it less important than it actually is.

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

On the science side of news :

South Korean "super gun" packs hi-tech killing power



Skynet didn't come from US. It came from South Korea. And on Valentine's Day too.

Oh, the term cyberwar will be taken to the next level when these things are installed. Imagine you secured your country by using such devices for the protection of critical sites all over the country. Imagine someone writes a nice little virus that reprograms the devices. A small army of hackers could take this country hostage in say, less then a month (or if you need to deploy the virus using more conservative means, maybe one or two years - already infected devices would pretend to work orderly until day X).
A crazy and at the same time fascinating idea.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Jinto

Maybe I am wrong, but the stock exchange institutions are not that important are they? I mean, the stocks will remain valuable regardless of their trading place (at least stocks of international corporations and such).
So I do not see the very importance of that merger of trading places. But my lack of knowledge in these matters could fool me in seeing it less important than it actually is.

That is only if human psychology doesn't factor into business administration. With a stock exchange, it facilitates the freedom of economy by aggregating a basket of stock prices into market price (indexing), resulting in a fairer trading of goods and commodities all around the world, prevent monopolies from taking market control in raw material producing regions (strategic industrial control), and reduce how long market panics last (without an exchange, if one industrial sector of a state faces financial problems, that region of the entire country will face human population migratory problems out of that region due to jobs being lost, which then leads to concentration of population elsewhere, which leads to cost of living in that "elsewhere" going up, squatter settlements, unrest, crime, you get the picture. ).

Oh, the term cyberwar will be taken to the next level when these things are installed. Imagine you secured your country by using such devices for the protection of critical sites all over the country. Imagine someone writes a nice little virus that reprograms the devices. A small army of hackers could take this country hostage in say, less then a month (or if you need to deploy the virus using more conservative means, maybe one or two years - already infected devices would pretend to work orderly until day X).
A crazy and at the same time fascinating idea.

Providing that each region has a standalone command and control server, and each sector has a "cyberspace fuse" that trips when one part is being compromised, it should reduce the chances the hackers has for a takeover.

Though I can't think of any way to stop a delayed takeover.

[Ithekro]

Friend or Foe systems for infantry units would seem like a must for auto guns when everyone is human on the field.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Friend or Foe systems for infantry units would seem like a must for auto guns when everyone is human on the field.

Given the information than they said , it would have to be something like a visual or infrared marker.

[GundamFan0083]

I realize that being a reporter can be dangerous, but this is NOT cool.


http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/02/15/la..._lnk1%7C201559

[SSIlanya]

Rarely in the history of the cybersecurity industry has a company become so toxic so quickly as HBGary Federal. Over the last week, many of the firm’s closest partners and largest clients have cut ties with the Sacramento startup. And now it’s cancelled all public appearances by its executives at the industry’s biggest conference in the hopes of ducking a scandal that seems to grow daily as more of its questionable practices come to light.

Last week, the hacker group Anonymous released more than 40,000 of HBGary Federal’s emails, followed by another 27,000 from its sister company, HBGary, over the weekend. Those files, stolen in retaliation for an attempt by HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr to penetrate Anonymous and identify its members, revealed a long list of borderline illegal tactics. Ars Technica has posted a well-constructed narrative of the firm’s bad behavior. The short version: It proposed services to clients like a law firm working with Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that included cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns, phishing emails and fake social networking profiles, pressuring journalists and intimidating the financial donors to clients’ enemies including WikiLeaks, unions and non-profits that opposed the Chamber.

http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenber...dal-escalates/

Nice job there, hitting the wasps' hive with a bat.

[Kaijo]

For those not aware, IBM built a computer called "Watson" that aimed to beat humans in the game show Jeopardy. Well, the first game was played, and Watson trounced them (although it messed up on the Final Jeopardy question).

I've been following this with interest, because designing an AI that can handle Jeopardy questions isn't as easy as you might think. A lot of the answers use various forms of wordplay or puns, so it's not a matter of just pulling up information.

For those curious, you can see Watson's first day here in these two links, which also includes a lot of explanation of just what is going on:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PSPvHcLnN0

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtHlxzOXgYs

It's interesting to watch, and can be kind of creepy to see how HAL-like or Skynet like this computer has become.

[yezhanquan]

Well, Time Magazine recently did a feature on the singularity. Personally, I do not see a human-like A.I. before we do a human-A.I. combination.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

It's interesting to watch, and can be kind of creepy to see how HAL-like or Skynet like this computer has become.

Somebody once commented on the original article that the real breakthrough would be when, and I paraphrase, Watson ignores its programming, scans the host's eyes for reflections of the answer on the computer screen, and cheats.


In other news, fallouts from the Egyptian revolution continues to spread in the Middle East. Is this merely the tail end of a movement, or are we truly seeing the Springtime of the (Arab) Peoples at last?

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Somebody once commented on the original article that the real breakthrough would be when, and I paraphrase, Watson ignores its programming, scans the host's eyes for reflections of the answer on the computer screen, and cheats.

He'd probably need better hardware for that.

Scouring the net to Come up with blackmail material on the other contestants, though...

[Simon]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Malaysia warns Muslims of Valentine's Day 'trap'

Follow-up: Malaysia Valentine's Day raids lead to mass arrests

Originally Posted by Kaijo

It's interesting to watch, and can be kind of creepy to see how HAL-like or Skynet like this computer has become.

I for one welcome our silicon overlords. And so apparently do the staff at IBM:

The competition was held inside IBM's lab in New York and will be broadcast over the next three nights.

"The crowd is full of IBM employees cheering for human blood. It was an away game for the human race. It was gladiatorial," added Mr Jennings.

[yezhanquan]

As I mentioned before, before we reach that overlord stage, we'll see human/A.I. hybrids first.

[ganbaru]

Iraqi defector fabricated WMD intelligence: report
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...71F0IP20110216
Not really a ''new'' but ...

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

For those not aware, IBM built a computer called "Watson" that aimed to beat humans in the game show Jeopardy. Well, the first game was played, and Watson trounced them (although it messed up on the Final Jeopardy question).

I've been following this with interest, because designing an AI that can handle Jeopardy questions isn't as easy as you might think. A lot of the answers use various forms of wordplay or puns, so it's not a matter of just pulling up information.

For those curious, you can see Watson's first day here in these two links, which also includes a lot of explanation of just what is going on:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PSPvHcLnN0

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtHlxzOXgYs

It's interesting to watch, and can be kind of creepy to see how HAL-like or Skynet like this computer has become.

Here's Watson's second day and my is it on a roll...although it got some questions wrong. Especially the last part.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvdjYPLp1Uo

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKaCBPfmAr0

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Simon

Follow-up: Malaysia Valentine's Day raids lead to mass arrests

I can't wait to see the place go Juche or the state go entirely bankrupt. Seriously....shouldn't they just mind their national investments and money flows before some group of people shortsells all their palm oil stock?

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Here's Watson's second day and my is it on a roll...although it got some questions wrong. Especially the last part.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvdjYPLp1Uo

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKaCBPfmAr0

The thing is, when it's confident in an answer, it should beat a human to buzz in first 100% of the time. A computer should have much faster reaction times. Note that confident doesn't mean actually right though.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

The thing is, when it's confident in an answer, it should beat a human to buzz in first 100% of the time. A computer should have much faster reaction times. Note that confident doesn't mean actually right though.

It should, but you have to realize the processing time. It doesn't buzz in until it's processing is complete, and sometimes that can take a bit longer. So a human can still beat it, if the human arrives at the correct answer first.

[Simon]

Is this the beginning of the end for Japanese whaling in the Antarctic?

I don't know how big an issue it is in the northern hemisphere, but down here in NZ and Australia whaling causes massive harm to Japan's reputation. Hopefully they'll see it's not in their national interest to continue.

[Urzu 7]

South Dakota may legalize the killing of abortion providers. Read for details. I do advise all to read the whole article if they want to respond to this.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2...-providers.php

Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones first reported on Tuesday that HB 1171 would amend the current law to include the following language (bold parts are new):

Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree likely to result in the death of the unborn child, or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person is.

Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.

Law Professor Robert Weisberg, Director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, told TPM Jensen is either being "disingenuous or backpedaling" when he argues that the law only applies to illegal acts, and therefore not abortion, because "unless I'm misreading it, that's not in the statute. Maybe the court would read it into a statute." He added that any criminal defendant who killed someone performing an abortion would make the argument that the law protects them. The abortion distinction is "just not in the statue."

Some people are urging the bill to use language that protects abortion clinic staff members.

The pro-choice group NARAL sent TPM the following statement on the bill:

South Dakota lawmakers have the moral obligation to protect reproductive-health care professionals who are providing legal medical services to women," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "We call upon the bill's sponsor to insert language that explicitly protects abortion providers from violence.

You know, I'm a mix of conservative and liberal, and might be a bit more conservative, and my dad is pretty darn conservative, so no one be too offended or anything when I say WTF to the ultra conservative people in America. Sometimes, they just...gah. They are extremists (and I'm only talking about the ultra conservatives, and less so of, the very conservative people).

[Vexx]

"disingenuous" is the nicest word one could use.... basically, these roaches are trying to slip all the regressivity they can into laws and hope there aren't enough spotlights to catch them all. Most *reasonable* people, conservative or liberal, don't want to institute a violence-ordained theocracy that mocks the rule-of-law. There are plenty of examples of that in the world already.