Archived threads in /news/ - Current News - 212. page

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http://www.sciencealert.com/the-deepmind-ai-can-now-learn-how-to-use-its-own-memory

>The DeepMind artificial intelligence (AI) being developed by Google's parent company, Alphabet, can now intelligently build on what's already inside its memory, the system's programmers have announced.

>Their new hybrid system – called a Differential Neural Computer (DNC) – pairs a neural network with the vast data storage of conventional computers, and the AI is smart enough to navigate and learn from this external data bank.

>What the DNC is doing is effectively combining external memory (like the external hard drive where all your photos get stored) with the neural network approach of AI, where a massive number of interconnected nodes work dynamically to simulate a brain.

>"These models... can learn from examples like neural networks, but they can also store complex data like computers," write DeepMind researchers Alexander Graves and Greg Wayne in a blog post.

>At the heart of the DNC is a controller that constantly optimises its responses, comparing its results with the desired and correct ones. Over time, it's able to get more and more accurate, figuring out how to use its memory data banks at the same time.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-shot-george-zimmerman-sentenced-20-years-article-1.2833615

>The Florida man who fired a gunshot at perpetual menace George Zimmerman was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for attempted murder.

>Matthew Apperson, 37, had testified that he shot in self-defense during a road rage incident with Zimmerman last year.

>He said Zimmerman's intimidating reputation — especially for his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin — made him fear for his life.

>But a Seminole County jury convicted Apperson last month of attempted second-degree murder, as well as shooting into an occupied vehicle and aggravated assault.

>Zimmerman and Apperson both accused each other of beginning a confrontation and car chase in May 2015.

>Zimmerman testfied that Apperson was shooting to kill without provocation. He said Apperson appeared to be glad when he believed his shot hit and killed Zimmerman, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
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This guy is lucky to be breathing.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-police-officers-killed-des-moines-ambush-style-attacks-n676681

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http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/astounding-archaeology-discovery-places-inland-human-occupation-of-australia-at-49000-years-20161102-gsg4ox.html

>Archaeologists working with traditional Aboriginal owners in the northern Flinders Ranges have discovered astounding evidence of the earliest human habitation of inland, arid Australia.

>The find has pushed back the date of such occupation by 10,000 years to about 49,000 years ago.

>One of the traditional owners of the area, Clifford Coulthard, who is a co-author of the study, said the findings weren't really a surprise to him.

>"Our old people know we've been here a long time," he said.

>The site, the Warratyi rock shelter in the traditional lands of the Adnyamathanha people, also has evidence of extinct megafauna, including the diprotodon.

>The authors of the study, published on Thursday in Nature, said it finally settles the question of whether humans and megafauna overlapped chronologically.
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http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/11/windows-zero-day-exploited-by-same-group-behind-dnc-hack/

>On Oct. 31, Google's Threat Analysis Group revealed a vulnerability in most versions of Windows that is actively being exploited by malware attacks.

>"Today, Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices group, acknowledged the exploit was being used actively by a sophisticated threat group—the same threat group involved in the hacks that led to the breach of data from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. And while a patch is on the way for the vulnerability, he encouraged customers to upgrade to Windows 10 for protection from further advanced threats.
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"Want to Know Julian Assange’s Endgame? He Told You a Decade Ago"
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/want-know-julian-assanges-endgame-told-decade-ago/
>“The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive ‘secrecy tax’) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaptation.”

however, when one confuses "secretive" for "unjust" you forget that sometimes the powers that be are unjust and the people fighting for justice are the ones who have to be secretive.

WikiLeaks Dump Method: Sociologist Says Not All Leaked Passes Public Interest Test
http://www.npr.org/2016/10/22/498954190/wikileaks-dump-method-destroys-privacy-sociologist-says-not-all-leaked-pass-publ
>there's a lot of personal information that is being exposed. What this does - and this is what scares me - is that this method is going to be used in the future to any political organization - dissident organizations - that are trying to challenge power. And what they're going to end up seeing is that their personal information is going to be dumped for the world.
>It looks like the method that started as a way to bring more challenge to secretive elites is actually now evolving into a method that is going to be very destructive to the ecology of dissent.

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The Obama administration is lying to the public as usual. They along with the mainstream media are trying to promote the narrative of the North Dakota pipeline being protected by state police. First off the judge who made the decision that the pipeline could be continued to be constructed is an Obama appointee. The news articles do not disclose the case was in the Federal jurisdiction. The officers who have committed violence, reported the truth but were labeled "rioters", who was enforced a no fly drone zone in order to keep the public's view at bare minimum are dressed similar to sheriff officers yet in the beginning they all wore Envornomental agency patches. Now, we see the automobiles they are using and the arms they have and it is undoubtedly military (UN). Obama was the one who enacted a Presidential Executive order to let UN soldiers on the ground in any cases of American civil unrest. Now, the media tries to distract Americans from the Hilary Clinton scandal by giving a false sense that these are state police and the violence is being committed by them. Meanwhile, establishment conservative and liberal Congressman on both sides of the aisle have been silent while we watch these soldiers and police assault, jail, and persecute Native Americans and American civilians. It is completely repulsive that Americans are being lied to daily and the media which is owned by the elite who will profit enormously of this oil pipeline brainwash the American public.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/10/28/police-arrest-141-people-in-north-dakota-oil-pipeline-protest.html

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Based on radiocarbon dating of about 30 chicken bones unearthed at the site of an ancient farming village in present-day Ethiopia, the findings shed new light on how domesticated chickens crossed ancient roads — and seas — to reach farms and plates in Africa and, eventually, every other corner of the globe.

“Our study provides the earliest directly dated evidence for the presence of chickens in Africa and points to the significance of Red Sea and East African trade routes in the introduction of the chicken,” said Helina Woldekiros, lead author and a postdoctoral anthropology researcher in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

The main wild ancestor of today’s chickens, the red junglefowl Gallus gallus is endemic to sub-Himalayan northern India, southern China and Southeast Asia, where chickens were first domesticated 6,000-8,000 years ago. Now nearly ubiquitous around the world, the offspring of these first-domesticated chickens are providing modern researchers with valuable clues to ancient agricultural and trade contacts.

The arrival of chickens in Africa and the routes by which they both entered and dispersed across the continent are not well known. Previous research based on representations of chickens on ceramics and paintings, plus bones from other archaeological sites, suggested that chickens were first introduced to Africa through North Africa, Egypt and the Nile Valley about 2,500 years ago.

The earliest bone-based evidence of chickens in Africa dates to the late first millennium B.C., from the Saite levels at Buto, Egypt — approximately 685-525 B.C.

This study, published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, pushes that date back by hundreds of years.

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/11/how-the-chicken-crossed-the-red-sea/113083

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http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/online-ad-industry-threatened-by-security-issues-a-9488
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>Earlier this month, a digital ad industry group, the Trustworthy Accountability Group, or TAG, released the first-ever set of guidelines for how ad companies can scan their content to ensure they're not distributing malware. The recommendations are voluntary, but mark an important step forward if the industry wants to keep regulators at bay.

>Governments "are starting to understand that the delivery vector for ransomware is the internet - it's not email, it's the web," says Chris Olson, co-founder and CEO of The Media Trust, a security and compliance vendor focused on digital media.

>Privacy and data security have become top issues for regulators around the world, which are moving toward stricter laws that govern how companies handle data.

>The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is increasingly taking action against companies for failing to protect customers even before a data breach or malware infection and has recently filed 60 enforcement actions. That is worrying the ad industry, which is realizing that change, whether it wants it or not, is on the horizon.

>The FTC is even considering whether failing to apply quick security patches may run afoul of the law, Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in early September.

>"Businesses play a critical role in ensuring that they adequately protect consumers' information, particularly as security threats like ransomware escalate," Ramirez said.

>The ad industry is also taking note of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, which could impose fines of 4 percent of revenue or €20 million ($22.5 million) - whichever is greater - for violations. The GDPR "is finally being paid attention to," Olson says (see Mandatory Breach Notifications: Europe's Countdown Begins).
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https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/45954

The leaked email describes the concerns and goverment donations to the Clinton foundations. Some of these funds were donated to the endowment. Meaning they werent donated for scheduled projects. These countries include United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.

Probably reading too much into this email so I will let you decide its meaning.

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Top left: tool used to grind ochre from the middle stone age levels of porc-epic cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia; top right: residues of ochre on the same object; bottom left: modified ochre lumps from the same levels; bottom right: photo of the cave. Credit d.e. Rosso and f. D'errico


Middle Stone Age humans in East Africa may have employed varied techniques to process ochre for functional and symbolic uses, according to a study published November 2, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniela Rosso from the University of Bordeaux, France, and colleagues.

Ochre fragments-which are rocks containing iron oxides, red or yellow in color-have often been found at Middle Stone Age sites and have played a role in shaping the cultures of early African Homo sapiens.

Some researchers suggest that ochre was used for utilitarian purposes, for example in glue to adhere handles to tools, whilst others believe that the pigment was used for symbolic purposes, such as body painting or creating meaningful patterns. However, few ochre processing tools have been studied in detail to understand how this material was processed.

The authors of the present study used microscopy, spectroscopy and X-ray techniques to analyze 21 ochre-processing tools and two ochre-stained artefacts from the Porc-Epic Cave, a 40,000-year-old Middle Stone Age site in Ethiopia.


http://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/11/middle-stone-age-ochre-processing-tools-reveal-cultural-and-behavioural-complexity/113077

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http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/02/africa/south-africa-pretoria-zuma-protests/

>Pretoria, South Africa (CNN)A damning report into corruption allegations against South African President Jacob Zuma was published Wednesday as demonstrators calling for him to quit marched in the streets of the capital.

>The 355-page "State of Capture" report contains allegations, and in some instances evidence, of cronyism, questionable business deals and ministerial appointments, and other possible large-scale corruption at the very top of government. The Public Protector, appointed to investigate complaints of government misconduct, compiled the report.

>The report came out on the order of a court in Pretoria hours after Zuma abandoned a legal bid to delay its release.

>The President, his son Duduzane Zuma, government ministers, the board of South Africa's state power utility, Eskom, and the Gupta family -- brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta -- are all implicated in what the report said could be breaches of ethics codes and in some cases criminal allegations.

>The report recommends that Zuma appoint a commission of inquiry headed by a judge within 30 days to investigate the allegations.

>Zuma has always denied any wrongdoing. He has maintained the support of the governing African National Congress despite repeated scandals.

>Zuma's spokesman said his office was considering the report and whether to take legal action over it.
The ANC also said it would look at the report and comment on it Thursday.

>The latest developments will add to the mounting pressure the President faces from South Africa's political opposition, business groups, civil society and legal quarters to step aside.
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http://www.kmov.com/story/33597998/st-louis-named-murder-capital-of-america

This is where I'm from. It's a city full of people hanging out doing good rest stuff. Been teaching my daughter street smarts seriously since she was nine. The Lou is definitely a good place to get a PHD in street smarts. Starting on January 1st, no licence is needed for concealed carry. Next year might be even more interesting. Now all the good people can be ready to dish out lethal, legal force when necessary, not just the hood rats.

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Senior FBI officials were informed about the discovery of new emails potentially relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server at least two weeks before Director James B. Comey notified Congress, according to federal officials familiar with the investigation.

The officials said that Comey was told that there were new emails before he received a formal briefing last Thursday, although the precise timing is unclear.

The information goes beyond the details provided in the letter that Comey sent to lawmakers last week declaring that he was restarting the inquiry into whether Clinton mishandled classified material during her tenure as secretary of state. He wrote in the Friday letter that “the investigative team briefed me yesterday” about the additional emails.

The people familiar with the investigation said that senior officials had been informed weeks earlier that a computer belonging to former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) contained emails potentially pertinent to the Clinton investigation. Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, shared the computer with her husband, from whom she is now separated.

Comey did not notify Congress as soon as he learned about the emails because officials wanted additional information before proceeding, the officials said.

Even after Comey received the desired information, major questions still remain — for instance, how many emails are related to Clinton or contain classified information. Since notifying Congress, Comey has drawn intense criticism from lawmakers in both parties as well as prominent former law enforcement officials for publicizing the investigation so close to the election when so little was known.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-fbi-officials-were-told-of-new-emails-in-early-october-but-wanted-more-information-before-renewing-clinton-probe/2016/11/02/7884dede-a134-11e6-8832-23a007c77bb4_story.html

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High court says parliament must vote on triggering article 50

No 10 says it still intends to invoke article 50 before the end of March

Farage says he fears UK heading for a 'half Brexit'

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2016/nov/03/article-50-high-court-ruling-high-court-set-to-rule-on-whether-mps-should-vote-on-triggering-article-50-politics-live