Episode38
From Technolotics
Contents |
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Bush to set up domestic spy service
- George Bush has announced a new Intelligence agency to be set up within the FBI - the National Security Service
- The agency will be empowered to sieze the property of those suspected of spreading WMD
- This story ironically comes shortly after GB intervened to prevent the controversial supreme court decision allowing so called 'eminent domain'
- where local governments to enact compulsory purchase orders for private developments
- The FBI will restucture to include a new
- The NSS will consolidate the bureau's counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and intelligence duties
- The expantion of the FBI's duties from crime fighting to domestic surveilance seems clear
- The agency will be headed up by John Negraponte, the controversial former US amassador to Hondoras
- alleged to have been involved in the training and aid to Nicaraguan Contras death squads
- Actions that would later result in the conviction of the United Stated in the UN International Court of Justice for unlawful use of forse
- additionally he is alleged to have been involved in the running of CIA trained Honduran death squads - responsible for the deaths of opponents of the US supported regieme
- and the establishment of secret detention and tortue facilities in Honduras
- One potentially positive move is the establishment of a counter-proliferation center - to prevent the spread of chemical / biological / nuclear weapons
- The changes are being marked as a reaction to the Silverman-Robb Commission report on the "Intelligence Failures" in Iraq - which led to the 'mistakes' on WMD
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Links
- BBC News Article
- Associated Press - Bush Limits Property Siezure
- Sourcewatch profile of John Negroponte
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Scientist Unite To Attack Creationism
- The Inter Academy Panel on International Issues - of the International Council for Science has released a strong condemnation of anti scientific / anti evolutionary education
- The statement attacks the denial of evolution - and the confusion of untestable beliefs with scientific hypotheses
- It urges parents and educators to teach children about the scientific method and scientific discoveries
- It also lists a variety of evidence based statements in support of evolution and the scientific method
- The statement is signed by representatives of 68 International scientific representative bodies
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Links
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ACLU hounds NSA on brain scan misuse
- In a story right from the pen of Philp K. Dick - The ACLU have accused the NSA of adapting functional neuroimaging in the questioning of suspects domestically and internationally
- FMRI likely to be the technology involved
- The technology works by capturing statistical alterations in oxygenated bloodflow to various brain regions in response to activity
- which is assumed to correllate with brain activity
- When hemoglobin - the bloods oxygen transporter - is oxygen rich, it become magnetic in response to the application of external magnetic fields - allowing the recording of blood oxygen level dependent images of neural activity
- Images are mathamatically transformed into meaningful analogues of brain activity
- MRI and fMRI techniques are revolutionizing neuroscience - however the very idea of a 'lie region' in any individuals brain is absurd - although it might be possible to present individuals with stimuli (e.g.: photographs) and observe their brains activation in response
- The ethics of subjecting suspects (or even convicted criminals) to unnecessary medical proceedures in order to extract information, is highly dubious
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Links
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Short Stories
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Warner to sell movies via GUBA.com
- Studio Giant Warner Bros. (a subsidiary of Time Warner) have announced a deal with startup GUBA.com
- Interestingly the studio is not persuing horizontal integration with TM owned America Online
- Warner are experimenting with a variety of distribution mechanisms - having already signed a deal with bittorrent creator Bram Cohen
- Pricing
- Movie - 24 hour rental - $1.99
- Movie - 'Permanent' DRM'd download - $19.99 / $9.99 - same day DVD release
- TV shows - $1.79 per episode
- Compatibility - Windows media PC's, networks and portable devices
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Links
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Google launches Paypal rival
- Google has finally launched its long awaited PayPal rival checkout #
- If the service proves popular - it could ultimately be an even greater income generator than adwords
- Signing up is as simple as filling in a single page form with credit card / billing details
- Each user can store an unlimited number of credit card / billing address combinations
- Google have cleverly linked the tech into adwords adds - with a shopping cart icon indicating support for the service
- Order / shipping status & fraud protection are included
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Links
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Canadian Scientists Regrow Teeth and Bones Eh
- Canadian Scientists are using ultrasound to fix fractured & diseased teeth
- The wireless device - inserted like a cap above teeth stimulate the gum and roots to produce growth
- The technology may one day allow bone growth to increase height
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Links
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Java may go open source in months
- Sun have announced their intention to Open Source their Java virtual machine / programming environment
- The move may save the beliegered language which has come under attack from new tech
- Like Microsofts .Net and C# technologies
- It could additionally provide a huge boon to embeded devices running Linux
- Move comes 2 years after it was suggested by IBM & Eric S. Raymond
- Compatibility & forking issues may delay the move for several months
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Links
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Media Pimp
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Gareth
- An interesting article I almost wholly disagree with Artificial General Intelligence and its Potential Role in the Singularity - by ben gortzel
- AGI is unlikely to be developed - primarily because humans don't have General Intelligence - but rather a wide variety of modular intelligences
- Evolutionary computing - rather than a grand design is likley to produce the first highly intelligent AI - but as this process involves problem solution - and the solution space of general category problems is huge - we shouldn't expect to be able to comprehend the thoughts - or even the perspective of such a creature
- After all - from one perspective, language enabled memes can be percieved as globally active artificial intelligences
- Podcatcher Matrix Compare Podcasting Clients
- Scientology Orientation Video
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Daniel
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Jonah
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