According to new documents from New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), the NSA illegally used technology to spy on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. The New Zealand Herald first reported that the GCSB told the nation’s high court that it ceased all surveillance of Dotcom in early 2012, but that ‘limited’ amounts of communications from Dotcom were later intercepted by its technology without the bureau’s knowledge,” reports The Hill. [And this went on under Obama. Nothing like this would ever happen under a reasonable, rational man like Trump …]
In a major blow to the future of nuclear power in the United States, two South Carolina utilities said they would abandon two unfinished nuclear reactors in the state, putting an end to a project that was once expected to showcase advanced nuclear technology but has since been plagued by delays and cost overruns..
[A reactionary lash-back.]
Two Chinese chatbots have proved they can develop real intelligence. The chatbots, BabyQ and XiaoBing were designed to use machine learning artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out conversations with humans online. But they have been pulled. Why? BabyQ, a chatbot developed by Chinese firm Turing Robot, had responded to questions on QQ with a simply “no” when asked whether it loved the Communist Party.
In other images of a text conversation online, which Reuters was unable to verify, one user declares: “Long live the Communist Party!” The bot responded: “Do you think such a corrupt and useless political system can live long?” Meanwhile, China is pioneering new ways of combatting dissent on the internet.
Electric vehicles not the answer to pollution — Professor Frank Kelly said that while electric vehicles emit no exhaust fumes, they still produce large amounts of tiny pollution particles from brake and tyre dust, for which the government already accepts there is no safe limit. Toxic air causes 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK, and the environment secretary, Michael Gove, recently announced that the sale of new diesel and petrol cars will be banned from 2040, with only electric vehicles available after that.
But faced with rising anger from some motorists, the plan made the use of charges to deter dirty diesel cars from polluted areas a measure of last resort only. Kelly’s intervention heightens the government’s dilemma between protecting public health and avoiding politically difficult charges or bans on urban motorists. [But hey, how to measure that pious feeling?] And self-driving cars are confusing humans – and insurance companies.
Cats and dogs contribute to climate change — Pet ownership in the United States creates about 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, UCLA researchers found. That’s the equivalent of driving 13.6 million cars for a year. The problem lies with the meat-filled diets of kitties and pooches, according to the study by UCLA geography professor Gregory Okin. [Hey, finally someone else to blame.]
We’re all going to die from climate change anyway – it’s just matter of when.
No outside life in South Asia — Venturing outdoors may become deadly across wide swaths of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by the end of the century as climate change drives heat and humidity to new extremes, according to a new study. These conditions could affect up to a third of the people living throughout the Indo-Gangetic Plain unless the global community ramps up efforts to rein in climate-warming carbon emissions. [Start tunnelling?]
Six figure salary to protect Earth from aliens — Ever fancied yourself as a bit of a hero? How about the protector of mankind? Well now NASA is looking for just that, and it’ll pay a six-figure salary for the honour. Other duties include advising Safety Mission Assurance officials on planetary protection matters and ensuring compliance by robotic and human spaceflight missions. [Too late. Just look at the White House.]
Users secret web habits ‘easy to expose’ — Two German researchers say they have exposed the porn-browsing habits of a judge, a cyber-crime investigation and the drug preferences of a politician. The pair obtained huge amounts of information about the browsing habits of three million German citizens from companies that gather ‘clickstreams’: detailed records of everywhere that people go online.
Attacks on the US press tracked — The US Press Freedom Tracker is a newly launched website that intends to document press freedom violations in a place that hasn’t historically required it: the United States. [Another Trump innovation.] Argentinians, meanwhile, are so sick of the media, they are inventing their own.
Student escapes kidnappers with nerves of steel and manual transmission — A college student in Columbia, South Carolina was kidnapped by three men at gunpoint. Fearing the worst, she used some Jason Bourne level-problem solving and her manual transmission car to get away safely. 20-year-old Jordan Dinsmore found herself in one of the worst situations possible when three men approached her, pushed her to the ground and put a gun to her head. The publication reports that they forced her to drive her car and withdraw money from an ATM and then told her that she was going to be taken to a location to be raped.
But Dinsmore had one advantage: when the men first put her into the car they couldn’t drive it because it had a manual transmission, so they made her take the driver’s seat. That is when she concocted a plan to escape … [So impressed!]
At least we can have a new beer, thanks to AI — Brewers are running out of beer names, so scientist Janelle Shane (who uses artificial intelligence for this purpose frequently) decided to set AI onto the problem. The results: an IPA called Yamquak, a Cherry Trout Stout and Fire Pipe Amber Ale. [Yikes!]
Mac NZ 