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Jan 27, 2020

Ring Doorbell App Packed with Third-Party Trackers

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

BREAKING: We’ve confirmed that the Ring doorbell app on Android covertly shares personally identifiable information on its users with third-party companies, including Facebook… Information delivered to Facebook (even if you don’t have a Facebook account)


Ring isn’t just a product that allows users to surveil their neighbors. The company also uses it to surveil its customers.

An investigation by EFF of the Ring doorbell app for Android found it to be packed with third-party trackers sending out a plethora of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). Four main analytics and marketing companies were discovered to be receiving information such as the names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers, and sensor data on the devices of paying customers.

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Jan 27, 2020

ESA’s Galileo satnav system can now reply to SOS signals

Posted by in categories: military, mobile phones, satellites

Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system can now not only receive, relay, and locate distress beacon signals, it can also respond to the SOS, sending back an acknowledgement to those awaiting rescue that their location and call for help has been received and search and rescue services are responding. The new function became operational during the 12th European Space Conference in Brussels, which ran from January 21 to 22, 2020.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have come a long way since the US Military introduced the first, Transit, in the 1960s. The technology not only revolutionized navigation to the point where anyone with a smartphone can pinpoint their location with the touch of an icon, but it’s also having an increasing impact as more functions are added to that of basic navigation.

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Jan 27, 2020

48-Foot Wingspan Autonomous Cargo Delivery Drone to be Unveiled at the 2020 Farnborough International Airshow

Posted by in categories: drones, robotics/AI

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Yates Electrospace Corporation (YEC), whose Silent Arrow platform is bringing disruptive innovation to the heavy payload, unmanned cargo delivery market, today announced the design completion and specifications of a wide-body version of its successful GD-2000 cargo delivery drone, with unveiling set for July 20–24, 2020 at YEC booth 4470, Farnborough International Airshow, UK.

Jan 27, 2020

A practical guide to using AI in aquaculture

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, sustainability

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already making huge improvements to the efficiency and sustainability of global aquaculture, as this practical guide to some of the best systems currently available shows.

Jan 27, 2020

In a Recent Simulation, a Coronavirus Killed 65 Million People

Posted by in categories: finance, security

Three and a half hours later, the group finished the simulation exercise — and despite their best efforts, they couldn’t prevent the hypothetical coronavirus from killing 65 million people.

The fictional coronavirus at the center of the Event 201 simulation — a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the World Economic Forum, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — was called CAPS, and it started with pigs in Brazil before spreading to farmers, not unlike how 2019-nCoV reportedly began with animals before spreading to people.

In the simulation, CAPS infected people all across the globe within six months, and by the 18-month mark, it had killed 65 million people and triggered a global financial crisis.

Jan 27, 2020

CRISPR takes on Huntington’s disease

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

Circa 2018


Gene editing offers the prospect of curing the inherited neurodegenerative condition in a single dose.

Jan 27, 2020

Rebel Supernova Formed in ‘Heavy Metal’ Galaxy

Posted by in category: cosmology

Circa 2017


A superbright type of supernova can form in “heavy metal” areas, using elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, new research suggests.

Jan 27, 2020

Chip Walter, “Immortality, Inc”

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, internet, life extension, Ray Kurzweil, robotics/AI

Chip Walter discusses his book, “Immortality, Inc”, at Politics and Prose.

Living forever has always been a dream, but with today’s science, technology, and visionary billionaires, it may be a distinct possibility. At the very least, as Walter reports in this compelling investigation, immortality researchers are changing the way we view aging and death. Looking at the science, business, and culture of this radical endeavor, Walter, a science journalist, author of Last Ape Standing, and former CNN bureau chief, lays out the latest research into stem cell rejuvenation, advanced genomics, and artificial intelligence; talks to key thinkers such as Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey; and takes us into the Silicon Valley labs of human genomics trailblazer Craig Venter and molecular biologist and Apple chairman Arthur Levinson. Walter is in conversation with Hilary Black, executive editor at National Geographic Books.

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Jan 27, 2020

Lassa fever outbreak kills dozens in Nigeria

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government

At least 29 killed and 195 cases of the disease confirmed in the latest outbreak to hit the country, government says.

Jan 27, 2020

Kubota unveils autonomous electric tractor in Japan

Posted by in categories: business, food, robotics/AI, solar power, sustainability

The X tractor is being presented in commemoration of Kubota’s 130th year in business.


According to agricultural machinery manufacturer Kubota, there are now fewer farmers in Japan, trying to manage increasingly large amounts of land. With that problem in mind, the company recently unveiled a concept for helping those farmers out – a driverless tractor.

Known as the X tractor (a play on “cross tractor”), the vehicle was designed as part of Kubota’s Agrirobo automated technology program. It made its public debut earlier this month, at an exhibition in the city of Kyoto.

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