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Category: government – Page 212

Americans believe in the importance of a good day’s work. And so it’s understandable that the prospect of a universal basic income (UBI), in which the government would issue checks to cover the basic costs of living, rubs some people the wrong way. Writing in The Week in 2014, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry envisions a UBI dystopia in which “millions of people” are “listing away in socially destructive idleness,” with “the consequences of this lost productivity reverberating throughout the society in lower growth and, probably, lower employment.”

This is a reasonable concern. After all, the most successful anti-poverty programs in the US thus far, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, have been carefully designed to promote work –not enable people to avoid it. But based on the evidence we have so far, there’s little reason to believe that a UBI would lead people to abandon work in droves. And even if some people did indeed opt to give up their day jobs, society might wind up reaping untold rewards from their free time in the long run.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the US and Canada were seriously considering the possibility of instating a UBI. During that time, the US government commissioned a series of experiments across six states to study the effects of guaranteed income, particularly its effects on work. The Canadian government introduced a similar experiment in the town of Dauphin.

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It would provide humankind with near limitless energy, ending dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity.

US Government physicists have backed plans to create ‘a star in a jar’ — replicating on Earth the way the sun and stars create energy through fusion.

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) revealed their plan for a next generation fusion device in a paper published in the journal Nuclear Fusion.

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I have been seeing this for the recent weeks; I find it interesting and another step in China’s own move to be a global leader of tech. Could be either good or bad in the longer term.

China is taking a more inclusive tack in instituting cybersecurity standards for foreign technology companies, allowing them to join a key government committee in an effort to ease foreign concerns over the controls.

The committee under the government’s powerful cyberspace administration is in charge of defining cybersecurity standards. For the first time, the body earlier this year allowed select foreign companies— Microsoft Corp. MSFT −0.39 %, Intel Corp. INTC 0.43 %, Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO 0.14 % and International Business Machines Corp.—to take an active part in drafting rules, rather than participating simply as observers, said people familiar with the discussions.

How much influence the foreign companies will have over committee deliberations remains to be seen, these people said. Over the past few months, the committee’s seven working groups—which focus on encryption, big data and other cybersecurity issues—have each met at least once.

Continue reading “China Sets New Tone in Drafting Cybersecurity Rules” | >

CISO & CSO at many companies are certainly going to have their work cut out for them in the long-term future as more and more new tech such as 3D Printing, Synthetic Bio, etc. are adopted into companies; really brings a new level of security concerns not only in government; but also the private sector.

He pointed out that while there were international organisations to prevent the spread of nuclear and chemical weapons, there was no such agency to deal with biological weapons.

Speaking at the Council debate on weapons of mass destruction (WMD), he sought to expand its definition beyond nuclear, chemical and biological to embrace the threats arising from 21st century science, technology and globalisation.

Information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and synthetic biology have the potential massive destruction, he said. “The nexus between these emerging technologies and WMD needs close examination and action.”

Continue reading “World not prepared for biological attacks, new technology threats: Ban Ki-moon” | >

Hope they’re working with QC researchers in Los Alamos and DARPA; it is the US Government which is known for its silos and multi-layer bureaucracies.

Quantum computing is a novel way to build computers — one that takes advantage of the quantum properties of particles to perform operations on data in a very different way than traditional computers. In some cases, the algorithm speedups are extraordinary.

Specifically, a quantum computer using something called Shor’s algorithm can efficiently factor numbers, breaking RSA. A variant can break Diffie-Hellman and other discrete log-based cryptosystems, including those that use elliptic curves. This could potentially render all modern public-key algorithms insecure. Before you panic, note that the largest number to date that has been factored by a quantum computer is 143. So while a practical quantum computer is still science fiction, it’s not stupid science fiction.

(Note that this is completely different from quantum cryptography, which is a way of passing bits between two parties that relies on physical quantum properties for security. The only thing quantum computation and quantum cryptography have to do with each other is their first words. It is also completely different from the NSA’s QUANTUM program, which is its code name for a packet-injection system that works directly in the Internet backbone.)

Continue reading “The NSA Plans for a Post-Quantum World” | >

A first step in establishing repair standards on satellite in space; wonder could we eventually see a version of the EPA or in space.

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Defense Research Projects Agency plans to establish a consortium to discuss standards and practices for on-orbit satellite servicing as a corollary to Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites (RSGS), an effort to develop robotic spacecraft to inspect, repair and move other satellites.

“Our fear was that we would create a robotic servicing capability through RSGS and when our industry partner went to Lloyds of London for insurance, someone would say, ‘You have no authority to conduct that mission,’” said Brad Tousley, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

Through the construction and operation of the International Space Station, the international community has established laws and regulations concerning government spacecraft conducting rendezvous and proximity operations with other government spacecraft as well as government spacecraft conducting rendezvous and proximity operations with commercial spacecraft.

Continue reading “DARPA to establish satellite-servicing consortium to discuss on-orbit repair standards” | >

I can see ads now with Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” playing in the background.

There’s no doubt India needs faster trains. The NDA government has set the ball rolling by launching the Gatimaan Express. Trials are on with the Spanish Talgo trains on the Delhi-Mumbai route and Japan has agreed to provide soft loans for the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. But, for achieving a one-time quantum jump in technology, the possibility of introducing the Hyperloop—Tesla’s Elon Musk’s concept of moving people and goods at high speeds in capsules within tubes using powerful magnets—could be a game-changer. Going by current speeds, Hyperloop can crunch a one-way Delhi-Mumbai trip to just one hour. The advantages are numerous—much faster travel, limited land acquisition and lower building cost that could lead to cheaper travel.

It is still early days as far as Hyperloop is concerned. Two companies, Hyperloop Technologies and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, are in talks with 10 countries including China and India for introduction.

India’sinfrastructural issues could find faster resolution with Hyperloop’s faster build-out compared to the bullet train where land acquisition could be a problem. India is considering various options to speed up the Railways—this is one that the government should look at closely, given the technological leap-frogging it provides in high-speed connectivity between cities.

Continue reading “Indian Railways eyeing speed with Gatimaan Express, Talgo trains, but Tesla chief Elon Musk’s Hyperloop is a game changer” | >

August 19th, 2016 – Creative Peptides, a professional supplier of peptides manufacturing upon academic, clinical, commercial and government laboratories in diverse applications, has released its efficient Glycopeptide Synthesis service, to help speed up the advance in solid phase methods.

Nowadays, glycopeptides have played a pivotal role in a myriad of organisms and systems, such as biology, physiology, medicine, bioengineering and technology, etc. As is known, synthetic glycopeptides are able to offer an unique frontier for research in glycobiology and proteomics as well as for drug discovery & development, drug delivery & targeting, diagnostics development and biotechnological applications, which also promotes the development of modern biomarker discovery process.

Based on rapid achievements in peptides research, increasing number of scientists are trying to discover more effective methods in modern scientific research, such as deslorelin acetate, aviptadil acetate, Chimeric Peptides, and so on. Technically, the Glycan chains of glycopeptides are involved in numerous biological recognition events, including protein folding, cell-cell communication and adhesion, cell growth and differentiation, as well as bacterial and viral infection. Actually, a framework of probing human implicit intentions for the purpose of augmented cognition has been described at Creative Peptides in recent days, which helps more and more people gain new insights in peptide application.

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