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Archive for the ‘government’ category: Page 57

Jun 22, 2022

Space Development Agency plans for ‘enduring’ satellite experimentation testbed

Posted by in categories: government, satellites

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency wants to buy 10 satellites to support a new on-orbit experimentation effort.

The agency released a draft solicitation June 3 for the National Defense Space Architecture Experimental Testbed, or NExT, seeking a satellite provider to integrate government-provided payloads onto 10 satellites that SDA will use to test new capabilities.

The testbed will support SDA’s vision of creating a constellation of hundreds of satellites operating in low Earth orbit and is on track to launch the first of those systems this fall. While the initial solicitation will be for 10 satellites, an SDA official told C4ISRNET June 14 the agency expects NExT to provide an “enduring” test and experimentation capability. The official spoke on background to freely discuss the program.

Jun 21, 2022

Brain wave-scanning helmet developed by scientists to help Chinese censors better detect porn

Posted by in categories: government, robotics/AI

Oh joy. I’d ask snarkaly what could possibly go wrong, but in this case going right IS going wrong, so… 🤯


Chinese scientists have reportedly developed and tested a device that aims to help online censors better police pornography in the country.

Researchers at Beijing Jiaotong University in China created a helmet that can track the brain waves of its wearers. The scientists published their findings in the domestic peer-reviewed Journal of Electronic Measurement and Instrumentation earlier this month.

Continue reading “Brain wave-scanning helmet developed by scientists to help Chinese censors better detect porn” »

Jun 16, 2022

Agricultural Emissions Taxes Are Coming in an Effort to Deal with Methane

Posted by in categories: food, government, sustainability

New Zealand is introducing a flatulence tax on livestock farmers in an effort to reduce methane emissions.


Livestock is the country’s largest source of methane emissions. As a result, the government is introducing a tax to change farm practices.

Jun 15, 2022

Harnessing machine learning to analyze quantum material

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

Electrons and their behavior pose fascinating questions for quantum physicists, and recent innovations in sources, instruments and facilities allow researchers to potentially access even more of the information encoded in quantum materials.

However, these research innovations are producing unprecedented—and until now, indecipherable—volumes of data.

“The information content in a piece of material can quickly exceed the total information content in the Library of Congress, which is about 20 terabytes,” said Eun-Ah Kim, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, who is at the forefront of both research and harnessing the power of to analyze data from quantum material experiments.

Jun 14, 2022

Nigeria to require social media platforms to open local offices

Posted by in categories: computing, government, internet, security

Online platforms like Twitter 0, Facebook and Tiktok will be required to register and open offices in Nigeria and appoint contact persons with the government, draft regulations from the information technology development agency show. The code of practice for “interactive computer service platforms/internet intermediaries” was meant to curb online abuse, including disinformation and misinformation, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said in the regulations posted on its website.

A statement from the agency’s spokesperson dated June 13 said the regulations were developed with input from Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google and TikTok, among others. The platforms are popular in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with more than 200 million people.

NIDTA said the platforms would be required to provide to users or authorised government agencies relevant information, including for purposing of preserving security and public order. They would also have to file annual reports to NITDA with the number of registered users in Nigeria, number of complaints received and content taken down due to disinformation and misinformation.

Jun 13, 2022

DoD space agency to acquire 10 satellites for experiments in low Earth orbit

Posted by in categories: government, military, satellites

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency is looking to acquire as many as 10 satellites to host military payloads for experiments in low Earth orbit.

This new procurement of satellites – known as the NExT experimental testbed – replaces a previous SDA program called T1DES announced last fall.

The T1DES procurement was for 18 satellites hosting industry-developed experimental payloads. The plan was to integrate them with the agency’s 126-satellite broadband constellation known as the Transport Layer Tranche 1 projected to launch in 2024. Under the new plan, SDA will move forward with the deployment of the Transport Layer and will select a separate contractor to produce 10 satellites that will host government-developed payloads for technology experiments.

Jun 12, 2022

Minecraft players built a massive library for censored news

Posted by in categories: government, surveillance

Minecrafts’s Uncensored Library is exploiting a loophole in surveillance technology to sneak the news past government

Jun 12, 2022

Chinese hackers breach ‘major’ telecoms firms, US says

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, government, internet

Chinese government-backed hackers have breached “major telecommunications companies,” among a range of targets worldwide, by exploiting known software flaws in routers and other popular network networking gear, US security agencies warned Tuesday.

“[T]hese devices are often overlooked by cyber defenders, who struggle to maintain and keep pace with routine software patching of Internet-facing services and endpoint devices,” says the advisory from the FBI, the National Security Agency and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The agencies’ statement did not identify the victims of the hacking; the advisory was aimed at defensive measures to help organizations running the devices made by Cisco, Fortinet and other vendors, shore up their networks.

Jun 9, 2022

Chinese hacking group Aoqin Dragon quietly spied orgs for a decade

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, education, government, robotics/AI

Žilvinas DeveikaIt’s much sooner than that. My prediction (that is almost 10 years old now) of an “early” appearance of a strong AGI is 2029. I am completely sure that it will either emerge or will already be there in 2030s.

24 Replies.

Marc O MonfilsAnd what strategies do we have in place to guarantee humanity’s continued relevance in the era of super intelligent machines?

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Jun 9, 2022

Krafft Ehricke: “Lunar Industrialization & Settlement—Birth of Polyglobal Civilization”

Posted by in categories: government, military, nuclear energy, space

During my research, preparing my next presentations, i found this beautiful speech by Krafft Ehricke, in 1984, before he passed away.

Every single word is a precious teaching, a beautiful lecture on natural philosophy.

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