Month: October 2019

Dutch inventor who cleans plastic from oceans unveils device to scoop plastic out of rivers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to clean up floating plastic from the Pacific Ocean by moving into rivers, too, using a new floating device to catch garbage before it reaches the seas. The 25-year-old university dropout Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup to develop and deploy a system he invented when he Read more about Dutch inventor who cleans plastic from oceans unveils device to scoop plastic out of rivers[…]

Scholars Shouldn’t Fear ‘Dumbing Down’ for the Public

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The internet has made it easier than ever to reach a lot of readers quickly. It has birthed new venues for publication and expanded old ones. At the same time, a sense of urgency of current affairs, from politics to science, technology to the arts, has driven new interest in bringing scholarship to the public Read more about Scholars Shouldn’t Fear ‘Dumbing Down’ for the Public[…]

6% of all U.S. adults twitterers account for 73% of tweets from American adults that mention national politics

Posted on by Robin Edgar

For years now, Twitter has been an important platform for disseminating news and sharing opinions about U.S. politics, and 22% of U.S. adults say they use the platform. But the Twitter conversation about national politics among U.S. adult users is driven by a small number of prolific political tweeters. These users make up just 6% Read more about 6% of all U.S. adults twitterers account for 73% of tweets from American adults that mention national politics[…]

Open database leaked 179GB in customer, US government, and military records

Posted on by Robin Edgar

An open database exposing records containing the sensitive data of hotel customers as well as US military personnel and officials has been disclosed by researchers. On Monday, vpnMentor’s cybersecurity team, led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, said the database belonged to Autoclerk, a service owned by Best Western Hotels and Resorts group. Autoclerk is Read more about Open database leaked 179GB in customer, US government, and military records[…]

AI allows paralyzed person to ‘handwrite’ with his mind twice as fast as using a cursor to select letters

Posted on by Robin Edgar

People who are “locked in”—fully paralyzed by stroke or neurological disease—have trouble trying to communicate even a single sentence. Electrodes implanted in a part of the brain involved in motion have allowed some paralyzed patients to move a cursor and select onscreen letters with their thoughts. Users have typed up to 39 characters per minute, Read more about AI allows paralyzed person to ‘handwrite’ with his mind twice as fast as using a cursor to select letters[…]

Google Accused of Creating Spy Tool to Monitor Employees

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Google employees are accusing the company’s leadership of developing an internal surveillance tool that they believe will be used to monitor workers’ attempts to organize protests and discuss labor rights. Earlier this month, employees said they discovered that a team within the company was creating the new tool for the custom Google Chrome browser installed Read more about Google Accused of Creating Spy Tool to Monitor Employees[…]

Maybe It’s Not YouTube’s Algorithm That Radicalizes People but communities forming around the content

Posted on by Robin Edgar

YouTube is the biggest social media platform in the country, and, perhaps, the most misunderstood. Over the past few years, the Google-owned platform has become a media powerhouse where political discussion is dominated by right-wing channels offering an ideological alternative to established news outlets. And, according to new research from Penn State University, these channels Read more about Maybe It’s Not YouTube’s Algorithm That Radicalizes People but communities forming around the content[…]

BBC News launches ‘dark web’ Tor mirror

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The BBC has made its international news website available via the Tor network, in a bid to thwart censorship attempts. The Tor browser is privacy-focused software used to access the dark web. The browser can obscure who is using it and what data is being accessed, which can help people avoid government surveillance and censorship. Read more about BBC News launches ‘dark web’ Tor mirror[…]

SUVs second biggest cause of emissions rise, figures reveal – turns out they are 11% more lethal to driver in an accident too, so maybe just a matter of time before that problem is fixed

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Growing demand for SUVs was the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2018, an analysis has found. In that period, SUVs doubled their global market share from 17% to 39% and their annual emissions rose to more than 700 megatonnes of CO2, more than the yearly total emissions Read more about SUVs second biggest cause of emissions rise, figures reveal – turns out they are 11% more lethal to driver in an accident too, so maybe just a matter of time before that problem is fixed[…]

Microsoft’s visual data explorer SandDance open sourced

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Microsoft just open sourced their data exploration tool known as SandDance: For those unfamiliar with SandDance, it was introduced nearly four years ago as a system for exploring and presenting data using “unit visualizations.” Instead of aggregating data and showing the resulting sums as bar charts, SandDance shows every single row of a dataset (for Read more about Microsoft’s visual data explorer SandDance open sourced[…]

non toxic recyclable Aluminium Air battery with nine times more density than li-ion batteries finally entering production. Tech has been around since around 1999, Navy veteran refused to accept a ‘no’ to his battery invention

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In 1999, at the peak of Hydrogen fuel cell company start ups in California he left BAe to start his own fuel cell company. “My old boss at Rolls Royce pointed out that the Hydrogen needed to come from somewhere. So I looked at other technologies and found metal-air,”he says. Technically described as “(Al)/air” batteries, Read more about non toxic recyclable Aluminium Air battery with nine times more density than li-ion batteries finally entering production. Tech has been around since around 1999, Navy veteran refused to accept a ‘no’ to his battery invention[…]

Junior minister says gov.UK considering facial recognition to verify age of p0rn-watchers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The UK government could use facial recognition to verify the age of Brits online “so long as there is an appropriate concern for privacy,” junior minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Matt Warman said. The minister was responding to an urgent Parliamentary question directed to Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan about the future of Blighty’s Read more about Junior minister says gov.UK considering facial recognition to verify age of p0rn-watchers[…]

Mercedes-Benz app glitch exposed car owners’ information to other users

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Mercedes-Benz car owners have said that the app they used to remotely locate, unlock and start their cars was displaying other people’s account and vehicle information. TechCrunch spoke to two customers who said the Mercedes-Benz’ connected car app was pulling in information from other accounts and not their own, allowing them to see other car Read more about Mercedes-Benz app glitch exposed car owners’ information to other users[…]

Japanese hotel chain sorry that hackers may have watched guests through bedside robots

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Japanese hotel chain HIS Group has apologised for ignoring warnings that its in-room robots were hackable to allow pervs to remotely view video footage from the devices. The Henn na Hotel is staffed by robots: guests can be checked in by humanoid or dinosaur reception bots before proceeding to their room. Facial recognition tech will Read more about Japanese hotel chain sorry that hackers may have watched guests through bedside robots[…]

Your Smart Speaker’s Skills Might Be a Huge Privacy Problem

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As with browser add-ons, you’re entirely at the mercy of a developer. And should they use their powers for evil, you could be giving up everything you’re saying to your device to some random person. At least, that’s the scenario presented by Germany’s Security Research Labs (SRLabs), who built a number of dummy Skills (Amazon) Read more about Your Smart Speaker’s Skills Might Be a Huge Privacy Problem[…]

Google And Facebook Are Reading Your License Plates and making them searchable

Posted on by Robin Edgar

For years I’ve gone back and forth over the practice of obscuring license plates on photos on the internet. License plates are already publicly-viewable things, so what’s the point in obscuring them, right? Well, now I think there actually is a good reason to obscure your license plates in photos because it appears that Google Read more about Google And Facebook Are Reading Your License Plates and making them searchable[…]

Facebook Under Investigation by 47 Attorneys General

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Forty-seven state attorneys general have now joined a sweeping investigation into Facebook’s business practices aimed at determining whether the company has engaged in anti-competitive behavior, ignored privacy laws, or violated any other laws, according to the New York Attorney General’s office. In a statement on Tuesday, Letitia James, the Democratic attorney general of New York, Read more about Facebook Under Investigation by 47 Attorneys General[…]

Hyperstealth: a Real-Life Invisibility Cloak

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Earlier in October, Hyperstealth filed a patent for the material, which doesn’t require a power source and is both paper-thin and inexpensive — all traits that could make it appealing for use on the battlefield. According to a press release, it works by bending the light around a target to make it seemingly disappear. This Read more about Hyperstealth: a Real-Life Invisibility Cloak[…]

USAF awards 7 companies $6.4bn for mock dogfighting services

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As part of the Combat Air Forces Contracted Air Support programme, the companies will fly their own fleets of fighter aircraft against USAF types during Red Flag-series exercises, the USAF says in an online award notice posted on 18 October. Such activities are meant to help the service improve its performance fighting against a growing Read more about USAF awards 7 companies $6.4bn for mock dogfighting services[…]

The Samsung Galaxy S10’s Fingerprint Lock works for everyone if you put a piece of transparent plastic on the sensor

Posted on by Robin Edgar

It was recently discovered that the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ have a major security flaw that makes it easy to bypass their fingerprint locks. On a scale of “one” to “not good,” we are definitely towards the right on this one. To be fair, fingerprint sensors and other biometric security features aren’t ironclad; hackers Read more about The Samsung Galaxy S10’s Fingerprint Lock works for everyone if you put a piece of transparent plastic on the sensor[…]

Germany’s cyber-security agency recommends Firefox as most secure browser

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Firefox is the only browser that received top marks in a recent audit carried out by Germany’s cyber-security agency — the German Federal Office for Information Security (or the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik — BSI). The BSI tested Mozilla Firefox 68 (ESR), Google Chrome 76, Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, and Microsoft Edge 44. Read more about Germany’s cyber-security agency recommends Firefox as most secure browser[…]

DoNotPay app waits on hold for you, cancels subscriptions, helps you out of parking tickets

Posted on by Robin Edgar

DoNotPay helps you get out of parking tickets and cancel forgotten subscriptions, and now it can call you when it’s your turn in a customer service phone queue. The app today is launching “Skip Waiting On Hold.” Just type in the company you need to talk to, and DoNotPay calls for you using tricks to Read more about DoNotPay app waits on hold for you, cancels subscriptions, helps you out of parking tickets[…]

The Creators Of Pokémon Go Mapped The World. Now They’re Mapping You – how companies are monetising your location data

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Today, when you use Wizards Unite or Pokémon Go or any of Niantic’s other apps, your every move is getting documented and stored—up to 13 times a minute, according to the results of a Kotaku investigation. Even players who know that the apps record their location data are usually astonished once they look at just Read more about The Creators Of Pokémon Go Mapped The World. Now They’re Mapping You – how companies are monetising your location data[…]

“BriansClub” Hack finds 26M Stolen Cards

Posted on by Robin Edgar

“BriansClub,” one of the largest underground stores for buying stolen credit card data, has itself been hacked. The data stolen from BriansClub encompasses more than 26 million credit and debit card records taken from hacked online and brick-and-mortar retailers over the past four years, including almost eight million records uploaded to the shop in 2019 Read more about “BriansClub” Hack finds 26M Stolen Cards[…]

International Space Station Crew 3D-Prints Meat In Space For The First Time!

Posted on by Robin Edgar

For the first time ever, meat was created in space — but no animals were harmed in the making of this 3D bioprinted “space beef.” Aleph Farms, an Israeli food company, announced today (Oct. 7) that its experiment aboard the International Space Station resulted in the first-ever lab-grown meat in space. The company focuses on Read more about International Space Station Crew 3D-Prints Meat In Space For The First Time![…]