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China
September 30, 2018 China's finance ministry announced today that it will reduce import tariffs on a variety of products, including textiles and steel. The tariff rate for textiles and metals including steel will fall to 8.4 percent from 11.5 percent, effective Nov. 1, (Source: Examiner)
2018 September A Hong Kong man has developed the world's first ever human case of the rat version of the hepatitis E virus, according to new research from one of the city's leading universities. Rat hepatitis E virus is very distantly related to human hepatitis E virus variants. There had previously been no evidence the disease could jump from rats to humans. The disease was found in a 56-year-old man who persistently produced abnormal liver function tests following a liver transplant. The human version of hepatitis E is a liver disease that affects 20 million people globally each year. Rodent problems in Hong Kong have escalated in recent months because of a sustained spell of hot and humid weather. (Source: Medicalxpress)
26 September 2018 A tiny robot with 'caterpillar' legs could be used to carry drugs inside the human body. The research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) studied the leg structures of hundreds of ground animals including those with two, four, eight or more legs, in particular the ratio between leg-length and the gap between the legs. The robot's body thickness is around 0.15mm, with each conical leg measuring 0.65mm long and the gap between the legs measuring about 0.6mm. The robot is fabricated with a silicon material called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) embedded with magnetic particles which enables it to be remotely controlled by applying electromagnetic force. Controlled by a magnetic manipulator used in experiments, the robot can move in both a flap propulsion pattern and an inverted pendulum pattern, meaning that it can use its front feet to flap forward as well as swinging the body by standing on the left and right feet alternately to advance respectively. The robot's pointed legs have 'greatly reduced' their contact area and hence the friction with the surface. The research team further proved that when facing an obstacle ten times higher than its leg length, the robot, with its deformable soft legs, is able to lift up one end of its body to form an angle of up to 90 degrees and cross the obstacle easily. Scientists are hoping to create a biodegradable robot in the next two to three years so it will decompose naturally after its meds delivery mission.' The robot was described in the journal Nature Communications. (Source: DailyMail)
September 22, 2018 China has shut down more than 4,000 websites and online accounts in a three-month campaign against "harmful" online information. More than 147,000 pieces of harmful information were removed by the end of August, according to China's National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications. (Source: ChannelNewsAsia/ Reuters)
Mongólia
2018. IX. 27. The HU band (Zene, video - feliratos) /Forrás: YouTube/: https://tinyurl.com/rr9wgep
United States
24 September 2018 The foundation run by US billionaire Soros said that it has filed a legal challenge with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg against Hungary's controversial "Stop Soros" laws adopted last June. (Source: France24)
September 21, 2018 The deputy attorney general, Rosenstein, suggested last year that he secretly record President Trump in the White House to expose the chaos consuming the administration, and he discussed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office for being unfit. Rosenstein made these suggestions in the spring of 2017 when Trump’s firing of Comey as FBI director plunged the White House into turmoil. Over the ensuing days, the president divulged classified intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office, and revelations emerged that Trump had asked Comey to pledge loyalty and end an investigation into a senior aide. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president’s dismissal of Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Clinton email investigation. Rosenstein made the remarks about secretly recording Trump and about the 25th Amendment in meetings and conversations with other Justice Department and FBI officials. Rosenstein’s suggestion about the 25th Amendment was similarly a sensitive topic. The amendment allows for the vice president and majority of Cabinet officials to declare the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Rosenstein, 53, is a lifelong public servant. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, he clerked for a federal judge before joining the Justice Department in 1990 and was appointed U.S. attorney for Maryland. Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation because Sessions recused himself because of his role as a prominent Trump campaign supporter. (Source: TheHill/ TheNewYorkTimes)
September 21, 2018 The White House has circulated a draft executive order calling for the executive branch to better police dominant online platforms. The draft is written in two parts - a policy statement and an instruction to all agencies. In the policy statement, the draft says that platforms are central to the flow of information and commerce and need to be held accountable through competition. The second part instructs agencies to enforce against anticompetitive conduct when they have authority, and, if they don’t, to report concerns or issues to the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice. Republicans publicly express more concerns about the tech sector. President Trump last month tweeted that Google in its search results about him prioritized stories from CNN and other "National Left-Wing Media" over more conservative news outlets. While these concerns are considered by many legal analysts to be beyond the scope of competition law, members of Congress such as Senator Hatch, a Utah Republican, have urged the FTC to investigate Google over antitrust concerns. (Source: CapitolForum)
Mexico
September 29, 2018 Ash spewing from the Popocatepetl volcano has reached the southern neighborhoods of Mexico’s capital. (Source: AP)
United Nations
September 25, 2018 “We reject the ideology of globalism and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism". President Trump addresses the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. (video) /Source: YouTube / WhiteHouse): https://tinyurl.com/yamnkef3
Globalization Globalizáció
30th September 2018 YouTube hosted screened DIY videos of how to hack Facebook days after 50 million accounts were breached, including boss Zuckerberg’s. Several clips hosted on the Google-owned video-sharing site explained how users hack profiles. It discussed stealing “access tokens” — a digital key allowing people to log in without passwords. The videos had thousands of views plus comments that “it works”. (Source: TheSun)
(29 September 2018) It’s time to reset the balance of power on the web and reignite its true potential. When Sir Berners-Lee invented the web, it was intended for everyone. The excitement and creativity of its early days were driven from the notion that we can all participate - and the impact was world-changing. But the web has shifted from its original promise - and it’s time to make a change. We can still unlock the true promise of the web by decentralizing the power that’s currently centralized in the hands of a few. How? By using the power of Solid. Solid is the technically potent open-source platform built to decentralize the web. Inrupt is the company that’s helping to fuel Solid’s success. (Source: Inrupt): https://tinyurl.com/yczc5ru3
September 29, 2018 Facebook revealed yesterday that up to 50 million accounts were breached by hackers. The hckers exploited a trio of software flaws to steal "access tokens," the equivalent of digital keys that enable people to automatically log back into the social network. The 50 million figure was the total number of accounts Facebook determined were breached by the attack since July of last year. As a precaution, Facebook is temporarily taking down the "view as" feature -- described as a privacy tool to let users see how their profiles look to other people. The stolen tokens gave hackers complete control of accounts. Facebook reset the 50 million breached accounts, meaning users will need to sign back in using passwords. (Source: AFP)
2018. IX. 23. Tömeges árupusztításra több magyarázat is van. El nem adott ruhák, cipők, táskák, órák elégetése, módszeres széttépkedése vagy egyszerű elásása annyira hétköznapi része a globális divatiparnak, hogy külön kis iparágak épültek ki ennek a perverz igénynek a kiszolgálására. A Burberry azt írta, hogy 2017-ben több mint 36 millió dollár, vagyis mai árfolyamon csaknem 10 milliárd forint értékben semmisítette meg a saját áruját, a H&M pedig 2013 óta 60 tonna ruhát égetett el vagy semmisített meg egyéb módon. De nemcsak a ruhák pusztulnak, az el nem adott ékszerek és órák is a szemétdombon végzik: a Cartier, Piaget és Baume & Mercier márkákat tulajdonló Richemont cég nemrég beismerte, hogy az elmúlt két évben 563 millió dollár értékben semmisített meg órákat és ékszereket, hogy minél hamarabb kijöhessenek az új kollekciókkal, ami így marad exkluzív. Egy részüket erőművekben égetik el, hogy ráfoghassák, hogy energiaként hasznosítják újra. Ami nem ég el, azt módszeresen szétszabdalják és kidobják ugyanazokon a helyeken, ahol elő is állítják a termékeket. Például Indiában (Forrás: Index)
September 22, 2018 Facebook and Google capture 71% of all digital ad spending in Europe. Executive order to protect competition and small businesses from bias in online platforms. Here is the full text of the draft order seen by Business Insider: https://tinyurl.com/yaxh8tv
22 September 2018 All we need is smaller motors, better batteries; once the components advance, the products will come to market. Take something as innocuous as tattoos, which have boomed in popularity roughly in step with the information age. Seen in one light, they’re a faintly retro fashion trend. In another, they show an increased willingness to alter our physical selves. You might think of them as the surgeon’s marks before the real enhancements arrive. Able-bodied people will use prosthetic limbs. Now we’re seeing this interesting social phenomenon where bionic devices have become cool. They’re more embedded in popular culture, more celebrated. We’ve moved from a society that valued conformity to one that celebrates individuality. People are more willing to experiment with their body. It’s wide open. Implants are a small part of our transhuman future. Robotic limbs are still 15 years from being more functional than human limbs – but that won’t stop people who desire to be cyborgs. Robotic limbs can be upgraded as new technology becomes available. The real gamechanger for future human health is bionic organs. Already dozens of medical companies are surgically fitting humans with robotic devices that mimic and replace specific organs, such as the pancreas, eyes and heart. Within 20 years, all these bionic organs will synchronise via personal instruction from one’s smartphone, allowing humans to achieve feats they never imagined: climb Mount Everest at 80, or have wild sex all night. Bionic organs can and will outperform their biological counterparts; by 2030, I expect humans to be regularly going into body shops for upgrades. The future of work is more complicated. Robots threaten to steal all our jobs. Companies in California such as Kernel and Neuralink are already tackling the problem, trying to make humans more efficient workers. They aim to create neural prosthetics that allow the human brain to communicate in real time with machine intelligence, including AI and the internet. And if our thoughts are connected directly to machines – supercomputers can already do 200,000 trillion calculations a second – where does that lead humanity? Transhumanists believe it leads to the Singularity, a moment in time – likely around 2045 – when the exponential evolution of machine intelligence grows beyond the comprehension capacity of the biological brain. Like an ant trying to understand people, homo sapiens won’t understand AI that gets too smart. The only way for humans to stay at the top of the food chain will be to merge directly with AI – by uploading our thoughts and entire personality into it. This future, sometimes called the hivemind – because everyone is jacked into AI and one another simultaneously – is a controversial outcome. To be better than robots, we’ll have to beat them, and that means joining them. There is a 50/50 chance we will have brought ageing under decisive control within 20 years. In 100 years, there’s an 80% or 90% chance we will have achieved that goal. Once we don’t have ageing, our longevity will be defined by other factors. We’ll also be bearing down on car accidents, pandemics, asteroids – so it makes no sense to put a number on how long people will live on average. We were sea creatures, then we were living in the trees, then we became human. Soon we will become something else. But we are acquiring solar technology, desalination, many things that will reduce the harm we do to the planet and therefore increase its capacity. There’s no reason it couldn’t house 70 billion people. We’re moving into an age where we can use technology to perceive things we couldn’t otherwise. It’s exciting that everyone will be able to design their own senses. To hear colour waves. To detect atmospheric pressure to predict the weather. Access to perceptions that are beyond usual human perception revealing a reality that already exists. We feel closer to the planet. We can be inspired by other creatures and how they perceive reality. Artificial intelligence and gene-editing technology mean the human being has become a design space. Our individual identities have become a new battle space – and the implications for cognition are huge. Everything we learn about the brain shows how flawed our decision-making processes are, particularly when we’re under stress. Our cognition is not as effective as we think. The modern information environment is far more complex and faster than anything we’ve experienced. People are responding by falling back into simple narratives and identity politics as a defence against this complexity. Malign actors are learning how to manipulate these identities. If we can survive this moment, we will move towards a world where man is no longer the measure of all things. It will turn out we’re simply components of large operating systems. Look at any city street. At least half the people are looking at their phones. We’re already integrated into networks beyond our physical environment. imagine a scenario where we can quantify our brain activity in “attebytes”. At the end of the day, you can download a pie chart of your brain’s neuro-processes. You might find you’ve allocated 737,000 attebytes of attention to a conversation about the future. Think of it as a step counter for the brain. f that data goes online, what would happen? If we could establish a single priority for the human race, it would be improving our cognition. Everything depends on our cognitive processes. (Source: TheGuardian): https://tinyurl.com/y8yoy6el
09.21.18. Facebook is reportedly planning to announce a smart display device next week. The main feature will be video chat, and Facebook will use facial recognition to tag users and follow them around the room. (Amazon’s Echo Show and Google-powered smart displays don’t identify users’ faces). The device will have a privacy shutter to disable the camera tracking. Portal could come in small and large sizes for $300 and $400, respectively. Recent polls have shown that a majority of Americans don’t trust Facebook to protect their personal information. (Source: FastCompany)
September 21, 2018 Emails show Google staffers chatting about methods to alter the company’s algorithm to point users to pro-immigration organizations, lawmakers and agencies that fit the staffers’ political beliefs. Google's internal company emails made public by Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” yesterday appear to show employees wanted to curate Google's algorithm to boost left-leaning political views on immigration. The emails were written on Jan. 29, 2017 -- two days after Trump signed the initial travel order. “Overall idea: Leverage search to highlight important organizations to donate to, current news, etc. to keep people abreast of how they can help as well as the resources available for immigrations [sic] or people traveling,” an email sent by a marketing employee said. “I know this would require a full on sprint to make happen, but I think this is the sort of super timely and imperative information that we need as we know that this country and Google, would not exist without immigration,” a product manager responded. An employee called the situation a “highly political issue,” while a separate email detailed a “large brainstorm” that was apparently taking place throughout the company. "These emails were just a brainstorm of ideas, none of which were ever implemented." - Google spokesperson. "It is scary that manipulating the search to push a liberal agenda was even discussed.” - Media Research Center Vice President Gainor. Trump’s initial travel ban temporarily stopped immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries. According to the email chain, Google staffers suggested actively countering “islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms ‘Islam,’ ‘Muslim,’ ‘Iran,’ etc.” and countering ‘prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results” regarding the words “Mexico,” “Hispanic” and “Latino.” “Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of results on ‘Trump News’ are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good,” Trump tweeted last month. Attorney General Sessions is scheduled to meet with state attorneys next week about the alleged conservative censorship. (Source: FoxNews)
Space
September 27, 2018 Thermosphere Climate Index. SABER instrument onboard NASA’s TIMED satellite monitors infrared emissions from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a key role in the energy balance of air 100 to 300 kilometers above our planet’s surface. By measuring the infrared glow of these molecules, SABER can assess the thermal state of gas at the very top of the atmosphere–a layer - “the thermosphere, which always cools off during Solar Minimum. It’s one of the most important ways the solar cycle affects our planet. When the thermosphere cools, it shrinks, literally decreasing the radius of Earth’s atmosphere. The “Thermosphere Climate Index” (TCI) is a number expressed in Watts that tells how much heat NO molecules are dumping into space. The state of the thermosphere can be discussed using a set of five plain language terms: Cold, Cool, Neutral, Warm, and Hot. During Solar Maximum, TCI is high (“Hot”); during Solar Minimum, it is low (“Cold”). SABER is currently measuring 33 billion Watts of infrared power from NO. That’s 10 times smaller than we see during more active phases of the solar cycle. TCI depends on other variables such as geomagnetic activity and the sun’s UV output. (Source: SpaceWeatherArchive): https://tinyurl.com/y8pbzbyy
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