Government
Development and Application of Self-Supervised Machine Learning for Smoke Plume and Active Fire Identification from the FIREX-AQ Datasets
LaHaye, Nicholas, Easley, Anistasija, Yun, Kyongsik, Lee, Huikyo, Linstead, Erik, Garay, Michael J., Kalashnikova, Olga V.
Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) was a field campaign aimed at better understanding the impact of wildfires and agricultural fires on air quality and climate. The FIREX-AQ campaign took place in August 2019 and involved two aircraft and multiple coordinated satellite observations. This study applied and evaluated a self-supervised machine learning (ML) method for the active fire and smoke plume identification and tracking in the satellite and sub-orbital remote sensing datasets collected during the campaign. Our unique methodology combines remote sensing observations with different spatial and spectral resolutions. The demonstrated approach successfully differentiates fire pixels and smoke plumes from background imagery, enabling the generation of a per-instrument smoke and fire mask product, as well as smoke and fire masks created from the fusion of selected data from independent instruments. This ML approach has a potential to enhance operational wildfire monitoring systems and improve decision-making in air quality management through fast smoke plume identification12 and tracking and could improve climate impact studies through fusion data from independent instruments.
Davos elite nod along as Trump delivers ultimatum
While he charmed, almost seduced the audience with a credible picture of a booming US economy about to scale new technological heights, he simultaneously menaced with threats of tariffs to those who did not choose to shift their factories into the US. "Your prerogative" he said, with a smile not out of place in a Godfather movie. He awkwardly mumbled about sponsoring the World Cup. In this first week of his second term, most people at Davos were nodding along, as they cannot think what else to do, just yet. Two worlds colliding, as the'America First' President was beamed in like a 30-foot interplanetary emperor, into the beating heart of the rules-based international economic order. It is one thing suggesting that trade deficits are a problem with your domestic electorate.
Israeli drone attack kills two in expanding occupied West Bank operation
An Israeli drone attack on a vehicle near the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya has killed two people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says on the fourth day of a large-scale Israeli operation in and around the nearby city of Jenin. The Israeli military said the air attack on Friday in the Jenin governorate hit a vehicle with what it said was a "terrorist cell" inside, but it gave no further details. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that it was a drone attack that happened just before Israeli forces stormed Qabatiya and began "sweeping operations". The air attack coincided with the ongoing military operation against Palestinian fighters in Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, which has already resulted in the deaths of 14 Palestinians and injured about 50 others, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah. The Israeli military also announced the arrests of 20 people it considers "wanted suspects" and said it had seized weapons.
New footage of mystery drones shows 'glowing orbs' over New York
A New Jersey Mayor has shared new footage of'glowing orbs transforming into drones' over Long Island, adding more intrigue to this ongoing mystery. Michael Melham, the Mayor of Belleville, has been outspoken about the unexplained phenomena plaguing his state and the greater tri-state area since mid-November when the drones first appeared. He shared the bizarre footage on X, saying the clips'appears to show glowing orbs turning into drones. Verified not to be planes via flight tracker. In a recent interview with NewsNation, Melham said he is still getting reports of drone sightings'all over New Jersey, and even Long Island.' 'Here in New Jersey, we are about 500 mayors strong, we are still waiting for answers because our residents are still gravely concerned over what's flying just over our homes,' he said.
How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions
"This could be a truly equalizing breakthrough that is great for researchers and developers with limited resources, especially those from the Global South," says Hancheng Cao, an assistant professor in information systems at Emory University. DeepSeek's success is even more remarkable given the constraints facing Chinese AI companies in the form of increasing US export controls on cutting-edge chips. But early evidence shows that these measures are not working as intended. Rather than weakening China's AI capabilities, the sanctions appear to be driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate in ways that prioritize efficiency, resource-pooling, and collaboration. To create R1, DeepSeek had to rework its training process to reduce the strain on its GPUs, a variety released by Nvidia for the Chinese market that have their performance capped at half the speed of its top products, according to Zihan Wang, a former DeepSeek employee and current PhD student in computer science at Northwestern University.
Reviews: Functional Adversarial Attacks
For the second question, I would like to see more instances of functional attacks, which could be also applied to image classification. Given such results would make this paper stronger. I will keep my original rating. A typical type of functional adversarial attacks is realized by changing the color of images as ReColorAdv. The constrains on this attack and the optimization process is clearly illustrated.
Ukraine claims drone strike on Russian oil refinery
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's centre for countering disinformation, said on Telegram that an oil refinery in Ryazan had been hit, as well as the Kremniy factory in Bryansk that Kyiv says produces missile components and other weapons. Bloggers on Telegram posted images and videos of fires raging at the Ryazan facility, which covers around 6sq km (2.3sq miles). Verified footage shows people fleeing from the site in cars and on foot as a fireball rises into the sky. BBC Verify used video footage to establish the location of two fires at the refinery. One video shows a fire near the northern entrance, whose location was matched by the road layout, signs and fences.
The Morning After: Everything Samsung announced this week (and future devices teased)
Welcome to a new newsletter, with a bit of a new direction. While our mid-week edition tackles news specifics, this end-of-the-week missive combines the biggest news with more context, more things to read and watch, recommendations, easter eggs, inside baseball and stuff that interests our readers, alongside the breaking news, reviews and features you expect from Engadget. We'd love your feedback on what you'd like to see covered in these meatier editions -- hit me up at tma(at)engadget.com. Luckily for me, we kick things off with Samsung's big Unpacked event, launching three new phones and teasing two -- yes, two! -- more coming soon. Everything Samsung announced, including prices and launch dates (February 8 -- I'll save you a click), we collated here, but it was largely a fallow year for Galaxy S hardware, barring a substantially more powerful chip.
Dating Apps Promise to Remain a Rare Haven Following Trump's Executive Order
Mere moments after his swearing in Monday, President Donald Trump made a proclamation to attendees of his inauguration: "It shall henceforth be the policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female." Trump then signed an executive order disparaging what the White House called "gender ideology" and claiming that a person's sex is "not changeable and [is] grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality." Trump's order, which was widely seen as an unscientific attempt to roll back the rights of transgender and gender-expansive people, also instructs federal agencies "to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder's sex," rather than their gender identity. It was one of 78 orders signed on Monday, some of which were part of Trump's attempts to end Biden-era policies that "socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life." While the executive order only affects federal policy, the broader implications are vast.
Trump's AI 'declaration' reminiscent of JFK pledge to put a man on the moon: Former White House IT official
Theresa Payton, the first female Chief Information Officer for the White House during the Bush administration, says Trump's AI push could have enormous economic impact if the right guidelines are set. President Donald Trump's recent AI announcement has the potential to jumpstart a technological "renaissance" in the United States and serve as a strong declaration, similar to former President John F. Kennedy's pledge to put a man on the moon, according to a top former White House information technology (IT) official. During a speech at the White House, Trump announced that Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle have joined forces for Stargate, a project to build data centers in the U.S. for powering AI. The initial investment for the project will be 100 billion, with plans to expand to 500 billion over the next four years. The first data center built under the initiative will be in Texas, and it will eventually expand to other states. Speaking with Fox News Digital, Theresa Payton, the first female White House Chief Information Officer during President George W. Bush's administration, says the news, which Trump calls the "largest AI infrastructure project, by far, in history," has her attention.