Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Government


The Latest: Suspicious device checked at NJ train station

Associated Press

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, walks from the scene of an explosion on West 23rd street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, after an incident that injured passers-by Saturday night. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, walks from the scene of an explosion on West 23rd street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, after an incident that injured passers-by Saturday night. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and Mayor Bill de Blasio walk towards the scene of an explosion on West 23rd street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, after an incident that injured passers-by Saturday evening. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, walks from the scene of an explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, after an incident that injured passers-by Saturday night. Crime scene investigators work Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, at the scene of Saturday's explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, in New York.


Nano Sensors Enhancing Warfighters' Situational Awareness

#artificialintelligence

The miniaturization of electronic and electro-mechanical systems, including sensors, computers, and flight controls enable designers to create innovative'flying sensors.' Sensors that can deploy autonomously or under human supervision to extend human perception โ€“ vision, hearing and situational awareness. Given the small dimensions of such platforms, they can be operated by a single person who carries several such pieces in their pouches. Although small drones โ€“ helicopters and multirotor โ€“ are commercially available for several years, they have yet to find their right place in the military. Limited payload weight and endurance, unreliable communications โ€“ particularly over the extended range or in urban terrain, and environment congested electronic interference and limited power on board, are all limiting factors for the military use of commercial systems. Some small multirotor drones are designed specifically for military purposes.


Shanghai Municipal Government : Startup puts on snappy expo display

#artificialintelligence

Latest technologies in artificial intelligence, chip, virtual reality and smart communities were the highlights of the Shanghai International Popular Science Products Expo, which closes today. A Shanghai-based startup has developed a chip system with an artificial intelligence feature that works in a high performance and energy efficiency manner. Developed by Shanghai Westwell, it can be used both in the home and by industrial sectors, such as ports requiring artificial intelligence to recognize product category. During an on-site demo at the expo, Westwell's chip system recognized and classified 1,000 pictures within one second with an accuracy rate of almost 100 percent, compared with traditional methods with an accuracy rate of 86 percent. Smart Rider, a car-sized virtual reality experience device, attracted long queues during the expo.


1,200-acre wildfire at Central California Air Force base forces delay of a satellite launch

Los Angeles Times

A 1,200-acre wildfire at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County has forced officials to postpone the launch of a commercial satellite, authorities said. The Atlas V rocket was scheduled to take off Sunday and carry the WorldView-4, a commercial satellite that snaps high-resolution images of Earth, according to United Launch Alliance, the contractor hired to launch the satellite. But a wildfire broke out Saturday in a remote canyon at the southern end of the military base and quickly spread to nearly two square miles, according to Wayne Seda, the assistant chief of the Vandenberg Fire Department. "It's burning in some very tough vegetation," Seda told reporters Sunday. It jumped roads at times and came out of the containment lines."


Geek Pilgrimage: Bletchley Park and The National Museum of Computing

#artificialintelligence

An easy day trip from London, Bletchley Park reveals there's far more to Britain's wartime code breaking than Alan Turing's battle with the Nazi Enigma machine. There are plenty of cool nerdy places to visit in London, from the British Library to Greenwich, but if you've got a little more time on your hands it's worth the trip up to Bletchley Park to see the how the Brits turned the tide of the war by eavesdropping on Hitler's seemingly uncrackable wartime communications systems. Bletchley Park mansion is roughly an hour's drive north of London, just off the M1. Alternatively you can catch the London Midland train โ€“ the mansion is only a short walk from Bletchley Park station โ€“ or else the Virgin Train to Milton Keynes Central and take a quick train or bus trip back to Bletchley Park. Purchased by MI6 just before the outbreak of the Second World War, the mansion initially served as home to the Government Code and Cypher School.


Putin's party may have just won another victory, but its performance is underwhelming

Los Angeles Times

President Vladimir Putin's ruling party easily outdistanced its rivals in parliamentary elections Sunday, but it was a lackluster victory that suggested the Russian leader's brand may be growing stale. United Russia, the pro-Kremlin behemoth an opposition leader once dubbed the "party of crooks and thieves," won less than 45% of the vote for 450 seats in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, according to preliminary results announced by the Central Election Committee on Sunday night. No other party came close. The nationalist LDPR party and the Communists competed for the second spot with 18% and 17% of the vote, respectively. Still, it was United Russia's lowest result in 15 years โ€“ and came in an election with turnout of less than 40% of eligible voters.


A New AI Learns Through Observation Alone: What That Means for Drone Surveillance

#artificialintelligence

A breakthrough will allow machines to learn by observing. This Turing Learning, as its inventors have named it, promises smarter drones that could detect militants engaging in behavior that could endanger troops, like planting roadside bombs. Still in its infancy, the new machine learning technique is named for British mathematician Alan Turing, whose famous test challenges artificial intelligences to fool a human into thinking he or she is conversing with another human. In Turing learning, a program dubbed the "classifier" tries to learn about a system designed to fool it. In certain ways, Turing Learning resembles many existing machine-learning systems.


Gas prices jump in the Southeast after pipeline rupture in Alabama

Los Angeles Times

States across the Southeast are experiencing sharp jumps in gas prices after a major gasoline pipeline ruptured in central Alabama, spilling as many as 336,000 gallons of fuel upstream from a national wildlife refuge. But thanks to a few strokes of luck, the environmental damage is minimal. The pipeline breached near an old coal mine pit, and much of the fuel flowed into a water retention pond. With local streams dry -- much of central Alabama is suffering from moderate to severe drought -- the gasoline did not find its way down into the Cahaba River, home to 64 rare and endangered plant and animal species, including the Cahaba lily. "We really did bypass the bullet," said Myra Crawford, executive director at Cahaba Riverkeeper, which has been monitoring the area by canoe and foot."It


Militants sneak into Indian army base and mow down sleeping soldiers in Kashmir, killing 17

Los Angeles Times

In the deadliest attack against Indian forces in more than a decade, militants sneaked into an army encampment in the disputed territory of Kashmir early Sunday and opened fire on sleeping soldiers, killing at least 17 and wounding dozens. The four assailants, who also threw grenades that caused tents and temporary shelters to catch fire at the army brigade headquarters at Uri, were killed in a gun battle with security forces that lasted six hours, authorities said. Indian officials blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed for the attack, saying it had recovered weapons from the assailants that carried Pakistani markings. Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, the director of military operations, said he contacted his Pakistani counterpart to convey "serious concerns." Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh was more pointed, saying on Twitter: "Pakistan is a terrorist state, and it should be identified and isolated as such."


Is this still a land of economic opportunity?

#artificialintelligence

Americans who endured the brutal 2007-2009 recession and slow recovery now are seeing an economic sunrise: Wages are up, jobs are growing and more families are lifting themselves up out of poverty. And yet, dark clouds are still hanging over millions of Americans. No set of sunny statistics can help an unemployed coal miner in Kentucky pay the mortgage. Upbeat wage data won't reassure a Michigan factory worker who is nervously watching robots replace his co-workers. In this election cycle, candidates are responding to voters' anger and anxiety about an economy that -- yes, has improved dramatically -- but still feels uneven and unfair to many.