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Category: government – Page 119

Public-private partnerships have been central to the development of cybersecurity over the past decade, through the sharing of threat information between commercial organizations and historically secretive government agencies. The opportunity now exists for a new era of public-private partnership, for a new realm of information sharing.

Cyberattacks continue to be reported as a key business risk. In the recent World Economic Forum’s Regional Risks for Doing Business 2019 report, survey respondents in six of the world’s 10-largest economies identified cyberattacks as their number one risk.

However, as distinct from other risks such as fiscal crises or energy price shocks, cyberattacks have a clear mitigation: cybersecurity. Yet despite a decade of rising spending, respondents do not have confidence in their ability to deliver sufficiently strong cybersecurity to mitigate the risk. Why is this?

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Providence, R.I. — The federal government has told states to prepare for a coronavirus vaccine to be ready to distribute by Nov. 1.

The timeline raised concern among public health experts about an “October surprise” — a vaccine approval driven by political considerations ahead of a presidential election, rather than science.

In a letter to governors dated Aug. 27, Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said states “in the near future” will receive permit applications from McKesson Corp., which has contracted with CDC to distribute vaccines to places including state and local health departments and hospitals.

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Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador interviews Professor Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro, the Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, of the Department of Systems Innovation, in the Graduate School of Engineering Science, at Osaka University, Japan.

Professor Ishiguro is also the Director of the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), a private company supported by industry, government and academia, with the aim of promoting fundamental and innovative R&D activities, as well as contributing to society in a wide range of telecommunication fields, and is active in such fields as neuro- / knowledge science, intelligent robotics, machine language translation, and wireless communication.

He is also Chief Technology Advisor Vstone Co. Ltd., a commercialization / technology transfer organization set up to promote his inventions.

Professor Ishiguro’s lab works at the intersection of computer vision, robotics and artificial intelligence, concentrating on the idea of making a robot that is as similar as possible to a live human being, and believes it may be possible to build an android in the near future that is indistinguishable from a human, at least during a brief encounter.

Professor Ishiguro received his Ph.D. in Robotics and Computer Sciences from Osaka University, and has attended Yamanashi University, Kyoto University, University of California, and Wakayama University, where he has worked in a range of areas from distributed sensor systems and interactive robotics.

On this ideaXme episode we will hear from Professor Ishiguro about:

Continue reading “Dr Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoid Human-Like Robot” | >

A plan to release over 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022 received final approval from local authorities, against the objection of many local residents and a coalition of environmental advocacy groups. The proposal had already won state and federal approval.

“With all the urgent crises facing our nation and the State of Florida — the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, climate change — the administration has used tax dollars and government resources for a Jurassic Park experiment,” said Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety, in a statement released Wednesday.

“Now the Monroe County Mosquito Control District has given the final permission needed. What could possibly go wrong? We don’t know, because EPA unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks, now without further review of the risks, the experiment can proceed,” she added.

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Up to three launches planned this weekend from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now.

Delays have set up the possibility of up to three rocket launches this weekend from different pads along Florida’s Space Coast, including two SpaceX missions on Sunday that could set a company record for the shortest span between two Falcon 9 rocket launches.

But in the world of ever-changing launch schedules, numerous factors such as weather and technical issues could thwart launch plans this weekend.

The first in line is United Launch Alliance’s powerful Delta 4-Heavy rocket, which is scheduled to take off at 2:04 a.m. EDT (0604 GMT) Saturday from pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, which owns the U.S. government’s fleet of clandestine spy satellites.

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A worldwide pandemic, something that has not occurred for over 100 years is, without question, the story of the year. The impact and ripple effect may take years before analysts are comfortable with knowing what exactly happened. In an amazing effort to curb Covid-19 and keep world economics intact, the United States and foreign countries took extraordinary measures, most of which where thought of, designed, and implemented in days or weeks. There will be plenty of critics.

If the world emerges from this pandemic in the next 6 to 18 months, it will be because of a rapid response. Inflation could be an issue, yet monetary policy enacted was necessary to keep the world from falling into a depression. The issues that won’t be talked about are ones that never happened, thanks to aggressive government action.

In the commodity world, much like the equities, great uncertainty leads to wild volatility. Energy prices dropping into negative territory and milk prices dropping sharply only to rally to all-time new highs illustrate the dichotomy of just how demand (or perception thereof) ebbs and flows at unprecedented speeds. These are just two examples of many markets that experienced extreme price moves.

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