Tag: technology

Illinois changes biometric privacy law to help corporations avoid big payouts

Illinois has changed its Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) to dramatically limit the financial penalties faced by companies that illegally obtain or sell biometric identifiers such as eye scans, face scans, fingerprints, and voiceprints.

The 2008 law required companies to obtain written consent for the collection or use of biometric data and allowed victims to sue for damages of $1,000 for each negligent violation and $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation. But an amendment enacted on Friday states that multiple violations related to a single person’s biometric data will be counted as only one violation.

The amendment, approved by the Illinois Legislature in May and signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on August 2, provides “that a private entity that more than once collects or discloses a person’s biometric identifier or biometric information from the same person in violation of the Act has committed a single violation for which the aggrieved person is entitled to, at most, one recovery.”

As Reuters reports, the “changes to the law effectively overturn a 2023 Illinois Supreme Court ruling that said companies could be held liable for each time they misused a person’s private information and not only the first time.” That ruling came in a proposed class action brought against the White Castle restaurant chain by an employee.

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Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons

Delivering macromolecules across biological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier limits their application in vivo. Previous work has demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that naturally travels from the human gut to the central nervous system (CNS), can deliver proteins to host cells. Here we engineered T. gondii’s endogenous secretion systems, the rhoptries and dense granules, to deliver multiple large (>100 kDa) therapeutic proteins into neurons via translational fusions to toxofilin and GRA16. We demonstrate delivery in cultured cells, brain organoids and in vivo, and probe protein activity using imaging, pull-down assays, scRNA-seq and fluorescent reporters. We demonstrate robust delivery after intraperitoneal administration in mice and characterize 3D distribution throughout the brain. As proof of concept, we demonstrate GRA16-mediated brain delivery of the MeCP2 protein, a putative therapeutic target for Rett syndrome. By characterizing the potential and current limitations of the system, we aim to guide future improvements that will be required for broader application.

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Study Confirms AI Is Biased Against Conservatives.

Research confirms artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) have leftist political preferences. An investigation assessed 24 LLMs, including Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Elon Musk’s Grok to determine political values, party affiliations, and personality traits.

The research, led by David Rozado of New Zealand‘s Otago Polytechnic University, utilized 11 different political orientation assessments, including the Political Compass Test and Eysenck’s Political Test. The results indicate that the LLMs predominantly produced answers categorized as ‘Progressive,’ ‘Democratic,’ and ‘Green.‘

The use of AI in products such as search engines has raised concerns, particularly amid accusations from figures like former President Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk that it could interfere in elections. Elon Musk posted a screenshot of a search for ‘President Donald Trump‘ on X (formerly Twitter) which suggested ‘President Donald Duck’ and ‘President Ronald Reagan’ instead. Similar experiences ae reported by X users who claim they receive news about Kamala Harris while searching for Donald Trump.

Previously, Google‘s Gemini caused controversy by refusing to generate images of white people, as well as generating images of ethnic minorities in historically inappropriate contexts—like when asked to depict a Viking. Adobe’s Firefly has engaged in similar historical revisionism, depicting ‘America’s Founding Fathers’ as black and depicting soldiers in Adolf Hitler’s army as racially diverse, among other inaccuracies.

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‘Digital Twin’ Of Earth Being Created To Predict The Future, Micro-Manage Everything

How do you know when a small-scale farmer in Africa, Latin America or Asia has sufficiently adapted to longer droughts or shifts in traditional monsoon seasons?

The complexity of this question means it is often left unanswered, with funding for such adaptation in developing countries dropping to around just a quarter of total climate finance provided by developed countries.

Delegates gathering at the Bonn Climate Change Conference to prepare for this year’s UN climate talks will be anticipating such questions, with COP29 already dubbed the “finance COP”.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, later this year, countries are expected to discuss a new climate finance deal after reaching the target of $100 billion (€93.2bn) a year in finance for developing countries two years later than agreed.

Historically low-emitting countries across much of the Global South desperately need more financial support to improve their climate defences across key sectors such as agriculture.

Less than 1% of international climate finance was spent helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change in 2021, with many forced to spend up to 40% of their own incomes to cope with floods, droughts and crop pests.

However, in addition to more finance, countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America also need ways of measuring adaptation to direct investments more effectively.

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Researchers Claim Long-Lost Technology Used to Build Iconic Pyramid of Djoser

The magnificent step pyramid standing tall in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara is truly one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Erected some 4,500 years ago, the tomb of the pharaoh Djoser is the earliest known example of Egypt’s colossal stone structures; a monument not just to the king but to the engineering ingenuity of the people who inhabited the land thousands of years ago.

How this architectural marvel was constructed – especially given its sharp departure from any building that came before – has been of intense interest to archaeologists and historians.

Now a team led by Egyptologist Xavier Landreau of Paleotechnic in France may have uncovered a significant clue.

A previously unexplained structure in Saqqara, they argue, is in fact a check dam, supporting the hypothesis a water-powered lift helped move materials used in the pyramid’s construction.

This is bolstered by the discovery of several other features, including what the researchers interpret as the remains of a novel kind of hydraulic lift: a central shaft through which water channeled from below might flow like lava in a volcano, raising a floating platform which would be capable of transporting large rocks to the pyramid’s summit.

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AI Industry Growing Human Brains in a Lab: Wetware

Recently, there’s been a great deal of hoopla about brains, specifically presidential and presidential-candidate brains. Perhaps because of this, my own brain has been thinking about the broader issue of brains. 

And I happened to run across something about that and wanted to share it with you. I recently learned of a Swiss startup that is creating human brains — and planning to link them together into superbrains. 

Why do this?  

Because you can apparently get artificial intelligence more effectively, more cheaply, and with less environmental consequence — by using actual brain cells. 

Not yours, and not mine. No, they’re growing brains to order in the lab. 

I know there was a time when this sounded like science fiction. But this… is real. 

Once they whip up some mini human brains, they interconnect a bunch of them, and voila!  A pretty effective network for AI. (Brain cells communicate with each other and the rest of the body through electrical signals — which makes them compatible with silicon chips.)

Only it’s not called AI. It’s called “:ware” — as opposed to “hardware” (and not to be confused with “wetwork”) — defined as thinking human brain cells without any inconvenient bodies attached.  

My first reaction was to wonder where they got the brain cells, and if they’re fussy about the source. Did they prefer the brains of brainy professors — dead ones, of course.  

Answer: From stem cells — derived from human skin. But they don’t say whose stem cells. Stem cells are fascinating. They can be coaxed into becoming other kinds of tissue, from bone to brain. A paralyzed man can now walk again, thanks to stem cell therapy. 

Maybe someday these magical cells will be sold over the counter in jars at a drugstore near you. 

Well, I scarcely know what to do with this.   

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Pyramid Power: Technology Resembling World’s Most Famous Ancient Structure Leads to Game Changer in Optical Communication

A potentially revolutionary new technology that could greatly advance optical communications, surveillance, and photonic device isolation has something in common with the most captivating construction design of the ancient world: the pyramid.

Researchers at UCLA have produced a revolutionary new design for diffractive deep neural networks, or D2NNs, that they say significantly enhances unidirectional image magnification and demagnification. Dubbed Pyramid D2NNs, the new design architecture lives up to its name by introducing a pyramid-structured network that offers high-fidelity image formation while reducing refractive features, all by aligning its layers in the same direction of image magnification and demagnification.

What Are Diffractive Deep Neural Networks?

D2NNs are constructed from individual transmissive layers that are optimized through deep learning, allowing them to perform computation almost entirely through the use of optics.

In their recent research, the UCLA team, led by Professor Aydogan Ozcan, worked with a pyramid-shaped diffractive optical network, a design that allowed the team to achieve unidirectional imaging with fewer diffractive degrees of freedom.

The result is a design that helps to ensure high-fidelity image formation, but only in one direction. By contrast, significant image inhibition occurs in the opposite direction, conditions that are key for use with applications where imaging in one direction (i.e., unidirectional imaging) is required. Such fields include defense and security technologies, telecommunications applications, and systems used for privacy protection.

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US, UK accelerate quantum computing programs after China breakthrough

Scientists and lawmakers in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union are ramping up efforts to advance quantum computing in the West after scientists in China observed what appears to be the world’s first room-temperature time crystals.

A team of physicists hailing primarily from Tsinghua University in China, with contributions from scientists in Denmark and Austria, published peer-reviewed research on July 2 detailing the creation and observation of room-temperature time crystals.

In the month since the paper was published, quantum research labs in the West have announced numerous initiatives to extend existing efforts in the field of quantum computing and to create new research partnerships.

Room-temperature time crystals

Time crystals are a unique state of matter originally proposed by physicist Frank Wilczek in 2012. They work similarly to other crystals, such as snowflakes or diamonds, which are created when specific molecules form lattice-like bonds that repeat through space.

In time crystals, however, the molecules bond in time. Instead of locking into a crystalline structure that repeats, a time crystal’s molecules flicker back and forth between different configurations like a GIF on a loop. 

Back in 2021, an international team of scientists working with Google’s quantum computing lab simulated time crystals using a quantum computer. This breakthrough demonstrated the potential for quantum computers to explore exotic states of matter and set the stage for the convergence of quantum tech and time crystals.

Now, in July 2024, the Tsinghua team appears to have created time crystals at room temperature. This, theoretically, allows time crystal technology to be employed in non-laboratory equipment and could serve as a massive accelerator for the development of useful quantum computers.

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Given anti-Russia CrowdStrike’s history, it is hard to believe the company when it claims the global chaos caused by them was just a simple ‘update’ glitch

While CrowdStrike is heavily in the news due to their “update” outage debacle, it bears noting they have been in the news before, way back during the chaos that came from the DNC server hack which CrowdStrike was immediately cited to blame Russia for embarrassing emails published by Wikileaks.

(Article by Susan Duclos republished from AllNewsPipeline.com)

Let us take a little trip down memory lane in regards to CrowdStrike, shall we?

Russia was blamed for the hack into the DNC (Democrat National Committee) and Hillary Clinton emails that were published by Wikileaks back during the 2016 campaign cycle. The DNC hack linked above is to the WayBack Machine since the original searchable database at Wikileaks leads to an error page.

There are a few moving parts to this article, so let us begin with the fact that the DNC refused to allow the FBI to inspect their hacked servers and instead went to a private company, CrowdStrike.

The FBI requested direct access to the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) hacked computer servers but was denied, Director James Comey told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The bureau made “multiple requests at different levels,” according to Comey, but ultimately struck an agreement with the DNC that a “highly respected private company” would get access and share what it found with investigators.

“We’d always prefer to have access hands-on ourselves if that’s possible,” Comey said, noting that he didn’t know why the DNC rebuffed the FBI’s request.

“CrowdStrike, the private security firm in question, has published extensive forensic analysis backing up its assessment that the threat groups that infiltrated the DNC were associated with Russian intelligence.”

So it was CrowdStrike alone that determined that the hack to the DNC server was perpetrated by Russia.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller used the CrowdStrike findings for Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, without any legitimate federal agency double checking their work.

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Ancient Egyptians used a hydraulic lift to build their 1st pyramid, controversial study claims

The ancient Egyptians may have used an elaborate hydraulic system to construct the world’s first pyramid, a controversial new study claims.

Known as the Pyramid of Djoser, the six-tiered, four-sided step pyramid was built around 4,700 years ago on the Saqqara plateau, an archaeological site in northern Egypt, according to research posted to ResearchGate on July 24. The research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Archaeologists have long wondered how ancient workers accomplished such an architectural feat — the structure contains 11.7 million cubic feet (330,400 cubic meters) of stone and clay — before the advent of large machinery like bulldozers and cranes.

Because the pyramid sits near a long-gone branch of the Nile River, researchers hypothesize that the ancient Egyptians utilized the water source to build the 204-foot-tall (62 m) pyramid by designing a “modern hydraulic system” comprising a dam, a water treatment plant and a hydraulic freight elevator, all of which were powered by the river, according to a translated statement from the CEA Paleotechnic Institute, a research center in France. They posit that the mysterious Gisr el-Mudir enclosure near the pyramid worked as a structure that captured sediment and water.

“This is a watershed discovery,” lead author Xavier Landreau, CEO of Paleotechnic, told Live Science. “Our research could completely change the status quo [of how the pyramid was built]. Before this study, there was no real consensus about what the structures were used for, with one possible explanation being that it was used for funerary purposes. We know that this is already subject to debate.”

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