Free Republic

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday confirmed plans for his newest company, called Neuralink Corp., revealing he will be the chief executive of a startup that aims to merge computers with brains so humans could one day engage in “consensual telepathy.” Speaking to writer Tim Urban on the explainer website Wait but Why, Mr. Musk confirmed a Wall Street Journal report last month that Neuralink aims to implant a tiny brain...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that cigarette prices in the city would go up $2.50 to $13 which, de Blasio bragged, would be "the highest price in the country." . . . Council Member Fernando Cabrera, who introduced the bill to create the licensing requirement for e-cigarette retailers, described the proposal as "a major step to limit the use of e-cigarettes, which are dangerous nicotine delivery systems that can lead to nicotine and potentially drug addiction."

A new report finds that, under the guise of “personalized learning,” school-issued computer devices — now distributed to one-third of K-12 students in schools across the United States — are serving to collect and store an unprecedented amount of personal data on children without their parents’ notice or consent. A newly released investigation by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reveals student use of technology in school has grown at a profound rate, especially with free or low-fee devices issued by schools.

Obama aide talks about gathering intelligence on trump aides starting after 5 minutes. She says "That's why you have leaking...People are WORRIED."

And no surveillance (including wiretapping) on Trump?

A facial recognition app that can identify strangers from a photograph has been created by a British entrepreneur.Facezam can identify people by matching a photo of them with their Facebook profile. All users have to do is take a picture of someone on the street and run it through the app, which will tell them who it thinks the person in the photo is.

WikiLeaks' release of documents that provide details of alleged CIA hacking operations will be investigated by federal authorities, CNN reports. Citing several U.S. officials, CNN claims the FBI and the CIA will coordinate their reviews of how WikiLeaks acquired the documents, which officials said are in CNN's words "largely genuine," and if more will follow. The officials have yet to determine how much of the release is accurate or if any have been altered before being released.

The Environmental Protection Agency will announce a change in automobile emissions standards next week, undoing a last minute effort by the Obama administration to lock in the rules through 2025. The NY Times reports: The tailpipe pollution regulations were among Mr. Obama’s major initiatives to reduce global warming and were put forth jointly by the E.P.A. and the Transportation Department. They would have forced automakers to build passenger cars that achieve an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, compared with about 36 miles per gallon today

For some 15 years, airport security has become steadily more invasive. There are ever more checkpoints, ever more requests for documents as you make your way from the airport entrance to the airplane. Passengers adapt to the new changes as they come. But my latest flight to Mexico, originating in Atlanta, presented all passengers with something I had never seen before. We had already been through boarding pass checks, passport checks, scanners, and pat downs. At the gate, each passenger had already had their tickets scanned and we were all walking on the jet bridge to board. It’s at this...

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Florida law restricting doctors from asking patients whether they own guns restricts the right to free speech. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law violated doctors’ First Amendment right to free speech, and concluded that the state failed to prove that physicians were infringing on patients’ Second Amendment rights. A previous decision by a three-judge panel by the 11th Circuit upheld the law, but those suing the state asked for the full circuit court to re-consider the case. ... The Republican-controlled Florida state legislature passed a law in...

An official watchdog in Germany has told parents to destroy a talking doll called Cayla because its smart technology can reveal personal data. The warning was issued by the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), which oversees telecommunications. Researchers say hackers can use an unsecure bluetooth device embedded in the toy to listen and talk to the child playing with it. But the UK Toy Retailers Association said Cayla "offers no special risk". In a statement sent to the BBC, the TRA also said "there is no reason for alarm". The Vivid Toy group, which distributes My Friend Cayla, has previously said...

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed deep-seated concerns that the tide is turning against globalisation.In an interview with the BBC, the Facebook founder said that fake news, polarised views and "filter bubbles" were damaging "common understanding".He said people had been left behind by global growth, sparking demands to "withdraw" from the "connected world".In a call to action, he said people must not "sit around and be upset", but act to build "social infrastructures"."When I started Facebook, the mission of connecting the world was not controversial," he told me."It was as if it was a default assumption that people had; every year the...

It could be a robotic guardian angel for anyone on a first date who fears they may be boring. Scientists have created a gadget that is worn like a wristwatch and uses artificial intelligence to assess a conversation’s tone. It can differentiate between happy, sad and neutral, but some versions could also tell whether your delivery is boring or awkward. It could be installed in smartphones or watches that would vibrate if the conversation went downhill during a date or interview, researchers said. Please click on link for full article)

Heading back to CBS46 Monday but going to be changes. Biggest one, this page will go dark Tzuday, Feb 1. Those who know me, trust me.

It just got a lot harder to evade browser fingerprinting: a bunch of boffins have worked out how to fingerprint the machine behind the browser, using only information provided by browser features.Like so many ideas, it's obvious once someone's thought of it: activities that aren't processed in the browser are treated the same whether the page is rendered in (say) Chrome, Firefox, IE or Edge. The group – Yinzhi Cao and Song Li of from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and Erik Wijmans Washington University in St. Louis – have worked out how to access various operating system and hardware-level features...

Unsurprisingly, the FBI also has a number of paid informants. Some of these informants apparently work at Best Buy -- Geek Squad by day, government informants by… well, also by day... The case is already on very shaky ground, with the presiding judge questioning agents' "odd memory losses," noting several discrepancies between the FBI's reports and its testimony, and its "perplexing" opposition to turning over documents the defense has requested... Underneath it all is the perplexing and disturbing aversion to adhering to the Fourth Amendment we've seen time and time again from law enforcement agencies, both at local and federal...

Law enforcement has a number of informants working for it and the companies that already pay their paychecks, like UPS, for example. It also has a number of government employees working for the TSA, keeping their eyes peeled for "suspicious" amounts of cash it can swoop in and seize. Unsurprisingly, the FBI also has a number of paid informants. Some of these informants apparently work at Best Buy -- Geek Squad by day, government informants by… well, also by day. According to court records, Geek Squad technician John "Trey" Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally located on Rettenmaier's computer...

We are the most religious democracy in the world, and our Judeo-Christian ethic demands that we take care of the downtrodden. But we are also the only advanced democracy without universal health coverage. Are we confused . . . or just hypocrites? My bet is that we are very confused. The public’s reaction to Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) is a prime example of our confusion. Most Americans are preoccupied with making a living and raising a family, and rightly so. They have no time to fully examine health care policy issues. Surveys show that...

For 25 years, China Fun was renowned for its peerless soup dumplings and piquant General Tso’s chicken. What left a bad taste in the mouths of its owners and loyal patrons was the restaurant’s sudden Jan. 3 closing, blamed by management on suffocating government demands. “The climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it’s difficult to justify taking risks and running — nevermind starting — a legitimate mom-and-pop business,” read a letter posted by the owners in the restaurant’s front door. “The state and municipal governments, with their punishing rules and regulations, seems to...

The world-renown MD Anderson Cancer Center has announced a workforce reduction by 1,000, the CEO of the center said on Thursday. The cancer hospital has had $110 million in operating losses from September through November this year, reported the Houston Chronicle. [Snip] The local publication reported that the financial problems began in the spring when the hospital implemented a new electronic medical-record system. Doctors and staff members at the center spent a great deal of time getting up to speed in using the program and that took time away from their patients.