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Archive for the ‘government’ category: Page 108

Nov 14, 2020

Blue Creek Mennonites rebel

Posted by in category: government

Mennonite pastors in Belize and in other nations are also pushing back against worldwide lock-down regulations in an effort to be allowed to continue to worship…


The Mennonite pastor said, “The calling of God is higher than the calling of this government.” He said his church will meet again next Sunday, with permission or not.

Nov 13, 2020

SoftBank eyes smaller bets, bigger returns in Vision Fund rethink

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, finance, government, health, wearables

The quiet shift in strategy, which brings the Vision Fund’s approach closer to that of a traditional venture capital investor, may ease concerns over big, bold bets going sour, a factor that has left a major gap between SoftBank’s market capitalization and the sum of its investments.


TOKYO — SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund is turning to a new strategy as a global pandemic and government stimulus distort tech valuations: Invest smaller in hopes for bigger returns.

After raising nearly $100 billion and investing $85 billion in high-profile companies like Uber Technologies, WeWork and ByteDance over three years, the Vision Fund is now focusing on making smaller bets in early-stage startups.

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Nov 13, 2020

Space solar power station a step closer thanks to government project

Posted by in categories: government, solar power, space, sustainability

Solar power stations in space that beam ‘emission-free electricity’ down to Earth could soon be a reality thanks to a UK government funded project.

Above the Earth there are no clouds and no day or night that could obstruct the sun’s ray – making a space solar station a constant zero carbon power source.

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Nov 12, 2020

‘Robot soldiers could make up quarter of British army

Posted by in categories: finance, government, military, robotics/AI

“I mean, I suspect we could have an army of 120,000, of which 30,000 might be robots, who knows?” Carter said, although he stressed he was not setting any particular target in terms of future numbers.

Investment in robot warfare was to be at the heart of the planned integrated five-year defence review, whose future was thrown into doubt after the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, postponed the cross-government spending review to which it had been linked last month.

Carter said negotiations with Downing Street and the Treasury about salvaging the multi-year defence funding settlement were “going on in a very constructive way” – as he lobbied in public for a long-term financial deal.

Nov 10, 2020

Four Quick Stories on Press Freedoms and Venture Funding: Age of Ingenuity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government, military

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb7o_9CUmiM&feature=youtu.be

Remember to like, comment, share and subscribe to support this vidcast.

Sources cited in this episode include the following:

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Nov 9, 2020

FBI: Hackers stole source code from US government agencies and private companies

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, government

FBI blames intrusions on improperly configured SonarQube source code management tools.

Nov 7, 2020

Under Attack From Iran, Indian Rafale Jets Prefer Mid-Air Refueling Over Stop Over At Al Dhafra Airbase In The UAE

Posted by in categories: government, military

India has decided to fly the three Rafale fighter jets from France directly to India, which are scheduled to arrive on November 4, according to Indian government sources. The Indian Air Force will now have eight of the 36 Rafale jets in operation.

Nov 7, 2020

It is time to return to the Moon, open Free Space and go to Mars

Posted by in categories: government, military, space

This revolution has already started, with wealthy citizens building their own space programs and entrepreneurs building spacecraft on relatively tiny budgets.


This time it must be about people, not governments. Rather than a centrally controlled quasi-military government race to space by two superpowers, we must enable the people themselves to go where they want to go, to do there what they want. If governments decide to return to the Moon — as seems to be the case — it must be to build villages, not bases, and to do it as rapidly as possible, as it needs to be an immediate challenge, not a distant dream. And if some want to go to Mars or mine asteroids, they need to be seen as part of a new frontier community. Thus, with both public and private players doing what they do best where they want to do it, we can make it happen far faster than many might believe.

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Nov 6, 2020

Will Quantum Computing Supercharge Artificial Intelligence?

Posted by in categories: government, mobile phones, quantum physics, robotics/AI, supercomputing

Another argument for government to bring AI into its quantum computing program is the fact that the United States is a world leader in the development of computer intelligence. Congress is close to passing the AI in Government Act, which would encourage all federal agencies to identify areas where artificial intelligences could be deployed. And government partners like Google are making some amazing strides in AI, even creating a computer intelligence that can easily pass a Turing test over the phone by seeming like a normal human, no matter who it’s talking with. It would probably be relatively easy for Google to merge some of its AI development with its quantum efforts.

The other aspect that makes merging quantum computing with AI so interesting is that the AI could probably help to reduce some of the so-called noise of the quantum results. I’ve always said that the way forward for quantum computing right now is by pairing a quantum machine with a traditional supercomputer. The quantum computer could return results like it always does, with the correct outcome muddled in with a lot of wrong answers, and then humans would program a traditional supercomputer to help eliminate the erroneous results. The problem with that approach is that it’s fairly labor intensive, and you still have the bottleneck of having to run results through a normal computing infrastructure. It would be a lot faster than giving the entire problem to the supercomputer because you are only fact-checking a limited number of results paired down by the quantum machine, but it would still have to work on each of them one at a time.

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Nov 4, 2020

Dragon’s cyber hacking operations: State sponsored game-plan

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode, economics, government, military

In the last few years, countless cyber-attacks were reported globally that were linked to the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese cyber-hackers, who target the foreign networks and websites are sponsored by the Chinese government. They are highly trained and have acquired abilities not only to exploit common vulnerabilities but also to discover and even create new vulnerabilities.

The US National Security Agency’s in-depth report of 23rd October points out that one of the greatest threats to the US National Security Systems, Defence Industrial Base and Department of Defence information networks is the “Chinese state sponsored malicious cyber activity”. The report underlines that the Chinese hackers exploit “computer networks of interest that hold sensitive intellectual property, economic, political, and military information.”

In July 2020, US had ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Huston, when it discovered that the Chinese officials there were involved in the intellectual property theft and indicted two Chinese nationals for allegedly hacking hundreds of companies and crucially had attempted to steal coronavirus vaccine research. The United States Department of Justice has charged five Chinese national for their involvement in hacking targets not only in the US governments but also the networks of the Indian and Vietnam government. They also carried out attacks on the UK government network unsuccessfully.