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Ad-Hoc Committee on Auburns Agriculture and Natural …

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Study to Support and Enhance Auburns Agricultural and Resource Sector

The City of Auburn values its agricultural heritage, protects the natural beauty of its land, and promotes locally grown food, raising livestock, managing forests and natural resource-based businesses.

Rural Auburn has a unique Agricultural and Resource Protection (AGRP) zoning district, which has been in place since the early 1960s that contains over 40% of the citys land area, or over 20,000 acres. The purpose and intent of the AGRP zoning regulations has been to manage development and to promote food, agricultural, timber and natural resource production and uses. The AGRP zoning regulations have significantly restricted development for the last 50 plus years. Today however, the nature and trends of farming and food production have drastically changed. In response, Auburn desires to strengthen its natural resource-based economy (farming, timber, food businesses, etc) and better integrate this sector into community planning and City-wide priorities. In order to do so, the City requires a better understanding rural land owner needs and goals; the identification of opportunities for additional support and/or investment, and greater understanding of existing barriers and potential solutions and strategies.

The Ad-Hoc Committee on Auburn's Agriculture and Natural Resource was established to serve in an advisory role to the City Council, Planning Board and city staff during the length of the contract term with Crossroads Resource Center (the consultant). Committee Members are the primary volunteer liaisons with Crossroads Resource Center and will meet at a time, place and such frequency as the Committee and the consultant deem necessary. Any final report and/or recommendations from the work of the consultant will come to the City Council and/or Planning Board by way of votes of the Committee. The Committee may select a chair or vice-chair, if necessary, and shall determine as a group and with guidance from the consultant the best way to facilitate their meetings. It is expected that the Committee is not the only means of public input and involvement in the study, but they may provide guidance to city staff and the consultant on approaches to public engagement throughout the study period. Any continuation of this Committee beyond the term of the consultants contract will be at the discretion of the Mayor at the time or vote of the City Council.

Final Ag Economy Committee Report

Auburn Economic Data

Consultant Recommendations

Auburn Economic Data PowerPoint Presentation

MAPS: Building Age - Current Use Taxation - Land Cover - Agricultural Soils - Zoning

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Ad-Hoc Committee on Auburns Agriculture and Natural ...

NSA | Define NSA at AcronymFinder

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

NSANational Security Agency (US government)NSANational Speakers AssociationNSANo Strings AttachedNSANaval Support ActivityNSANaczelny Sad Administracyjny (Polish: Supreme Administrative Court)NSANetwork Security Appliance (Sonicwall)NSANotary Signing AgentNSANational Security AdvisorNSANot Seasonally AdjustedNSANational Security ArchiveNSANon-Stand Alone (5G solution)NSANational Security ActNSANon-Standard Auto (insurance)NSANational Society of AccountantsNSANational Sheriffs' Association (Alexandria, VA, USA)NSANetwork Systems Administrator (various organizations)NSANational Security AffairsNSANational Snow Analyses (US NOAA)NSANational Sports Academy (various locations)NSANetwork Security AdministratorNSANetwork Storage Appliance (computing)NSANo Sugar AddedNSANational Space AgencyNSANational Stuttering AssociationNSANational Supervisory Authority (EU)NSANational Stroke AssociationNSANetwork Spinal AnalysisNSANational Spiritual Assembly (Institution of the Baha'i Faith)NSANational Survey of AdolescentsNSANorwegian Shipowners AssociationNSANorth Slope of AlaskaNSANational Sheep Association (Malvern, Worcestershire, UK)NSANew Small Airplane (Boeing)NSANational Safety AssociatesNSANational Scrabble AssociationNSANon-State Actor (international relations)NSANippon Surfing Association (Japan)NSANational Student AssociationNSANorth Star AcademyNSANeed Special AssistanceNSANational Smokejumper AssociationNSANew Saint Andrews College (Moscow, Idaho)NSANational Sunflower AssociationNSANetwork Security AgreementNSANew Student Ambassadors (various schools)NSANational Stone Association (Washington, DC)NSANative Speakers of ArabicNSANational Stereoscopic AssociationNSANegative Security AssurancesNSANational Steeplechase AssociationNSANational Sound ArchiveNSANational Security AreaNSANATO Standardization AgencyNSANational Smokers AllianceNSANebraska Statewide ArboretumNSANon Standard Ammunition (munitions)NSANational Statistical Authorities (EU)NSANordic Securities Association (est. 2008)NSANegotiated Service Agreement (US postal service)NSANational Security Agents (gaming clan)NSANo Secrets AssociationNSANon-Standard AnalysisNSANew Settlement Apartments (New York, NY)NSANeil Stewart Associates (UK)NSANational Seniors Australia (est. 1976)NSANuclear Science AbstractsNSANormalized Site AttenuationNSANashville School of the Arts (Tennessee)NSANational Storytelling AssociationNSANatural Systems AgricultureNSANetwork Simplex AlgorithmNSANational Slag Association (Alexandria, VA)NSANon-Self-AlignedNSANorthern Study AreaNSANavy Support ActivityNSANational Skateboard AssociationNSANoise Sensitive AreaNSANikkei Stock AverageNSANational Shipping AuthorityNSANational School of Administration (China)NSANon-surgical Sperm AspirationNSANunavut Settlement AreaNSANew Statistical Account (Reports on the conditions of Scotland, with reports on each parish, in the 1830s)NSANouvelle Substance Active (French: New Active Substance; Canada)NSANational Supers Agency (fictional from the movie The Incredibles)NSANational Safety AssociationNSANational Security Anarchists (hacker group)NSANational Sprint Association (UK)NSANatuurwetenschappelijke Studievereniging Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam Physics Department student organization)NSANebraska Soybean AssociationNSANational Scrapbooking AssociationNSANaperville Soccer AssociationNSANippon Software Industry Association (Japan)NSANo Smoking AreaNSANetwork Supported Account (Cisco)NSANever Standing AloneNSANippon Steel AustraliaNSANational Softball Association, Inc.NSANorcross Soccer Association (Georgia)NSANaval Supervising ActivityNSANational Singles Association (Atlanta, Georgia)NSANavy Stock AccountNSANight Stalker AssociationNSANational Success AssociationNSANational Shuffleboard AssociationNSANational Software AllianceNSANo Significant Abnormalities (disease assessment)NSANorthern Slope of AlaskaNSANational Service Alliance, LLCNSANon Semi Auto (concealed handgun license; Texas)NSANon Standard Area (of a database)NSANantucket Shellfish Association (Nantucket, MA)NSANational Scout AssociationNSANational Standard ApplicationNSANarrow-Slot ApproximationNSANational Sentinel AuditNSANet Sales AreaNSANode Switching AssemblyNSANikkei Student AssociationNSANetwork Search AlgorithmNSANuclear Support AgencyNSANaval Systems AnalysisNSANet Sellable Area (real estate)NSANational Sex AuthorityNSANetwork South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)NSANeutron Source AssemblyNSANichiren Shosu of AmericaNSANippon Supporters Association (Japan)NSANorwegian Security ActNSANet Server AssistantNSANabelschnurarterie (German: Umbilical Cord Artery)NSANarrow Slot ApertureNSANikkei Siam Aluminium Limited (Pathumtani, Thailand)

NSA Spying | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

The US government, with assistance from major telecommunications carriers including AT&T, has engaged in massive, illegal dragnet surveillance of the domestic communications and communications records of millions of ordinary Americans since at least 2001. Since this was first reported on by the press and discovered by the public in late 2005, EFF has been at the forefront of the effort to stop it and bring government surveillance programs back within the law and the Constitution.

History of NSA Spying Information since 2005 (See EFFs full timeline of events here)

News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americans phone calls and Internet communications. Those news reports, combined with a USA Today story in May 2006 and the statements of several members of Congress, revealed that the NSA is also receiving wholesale copies of American's telephone and other communications records. All of these surveillance activities are in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the US Constitution.

In early 2006, EFF obtained whistleblower evidence (.pdf) from former AT&T technician Mark Klein showing that AT&T is cooperating with the illegal surveillance. The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails web browsing and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed, this isnt a wiretap, its a country-tap.

Secret government documents, published by the media in 2013, confirm the NSA obtains full copies of everything that is carried along major domestic fiber optic cable networks. In June 2013, the media, led by the Guardian and Washington Post started publishing a series of articles, along with full government documents, that have confirmed much of what was reported in 2005 and 2006 and then some. The reports showed-and the government later admittedthat the government is mass collecting phone metadata of all US customers under the guise of the Patriot Act. Moreover, the media reports confirm that the government is collecting and analyzing the content of communications of foreigners talking to persons inside the United States, as well as collecting much more, without a probable cause warrant. Finally, the media reports confirm the upstream collection off of the fiberoptic cables that Mr. Klein first revealed in 2006. (See EFFs How It Works page here for more)

EFF Fights Back in the Courts

EFF is fighting these illegal activities in the courts. Currently, EFF is representing victims of the illegal surveillance program in Jewel v. NSA,a lawsuit filed in September 2008 seeking to stop the warrantless wiretapping and hold the government and government officials behind the program accountable. In July 2013, a federal judge ruled that the government could not rely on the controversial "state secrets" privilege to block our challenge to the constitutionality of the program. On February 10, 2015, however, the court granted summary judgment to the government on the Plaintiffs allegations of Fourth Amendment violations based on the NSAs copying of Internet traffic from the Internet backbone. The court ruled that the publicly available information did not paint a complete picture of how the NSA collects Internet traffic, so the court could not rule on the program without looking at information that could constitute state secrets. The court did not rule that the NSAs activities are legal, nor did it rule on the other claims in Jewel, and the case will go forward on those claims.This case is being heard in conjunction with Shubert v. Obama, which raises similar claims.

In July, 2013, EFF filed another lawsuit, First Unitarian v. NSA, based on the recently published FISA court order demanding Verizon turn over all customer phone records including who is talking to whom, when and for how longto the NSA. This so-called metadata, especially when collected in bulk and aggregated, allows the government to track the associations of various political and religious organizations. The Director of National Intelligence has since confirmed that the collection of Verizon call records is part of a broader program.

In addition to making the same arguments we made in Jewel, we argue in First Unitarian that this type of collection violates the First Amendment right to association. Previously, in Hepting v. AT&T,EFF filed the first case against a cooperating telecom for violating its customers' privacy. After Congress expressly intervened and passed the FISA Amendments Act to allow the Executive to require dismissal of the case,Hepting was ultimately dismissed by the US Supreme Court.

In September of 2014, EFF, along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, joined the legal team for Anna Smith, an Idaho emergency neonatal nurse, in her challenge of the government's bulk collection of the telephone records of millions of innocent Americans. In Smith v. Obama, we are arguing the program violated her Fourth Amendment rights by collecting a wealth of detail about her familial, political, professional, religious and intimate associations. In particular, we focus on challenging the applicability of the so-called third party doctrine, the idea that people have no expectation of privacy in information they entrust to others.

First Unitarian v. NSA: EFFs case challenging the NSAs phone metadata surveillance

Jewel v. NSA: EFFs case challenging the NSAs dragnet surveillance

Hepting v. AT&T: EFFs case that challenged AT&Ts complicity in illegal NSA spying

Smith v. Obama: EFF's appeal with the ACLU of an Idaho nurse's challenge to the NSA's phone metadata surveillance.

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NSA Spying | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Its Time to End the NSAs Metadata Collection Program | WIRED

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

If it aint broke, dont fix it, the adage goes. But for the sunset of Patriot Act authorities later this yearincluding Section 215, a controversial provision that allows the National Security Agency to collect records, including those about Americans phone callsthe more applicable phrase may be If it keeps breaking, throw it out.

Jake Laperruque is senior counsel for the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight.

In 2015, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act to reform Section 215 and prohibit the nationwide bulk collection of communications metadata, like who we make calls to and receive them from, when, and the call duration. The provision was replaced with a significantly slimmed-down call detail record program, known as CDR. Rather than gathering information in bulk, CDR collects communications metadata of specific surveillance targets and individuals with one or two degrees of separation (called two hops) from targets. But this newer system appears to be no more effective than its predecessor and is highly damaging to constitutional rights. Given this combination, its time for Congress to pull the plug and end the authority for the CDR program.

Its unsurprising that just last week a bipartisan group in Congress introduced a bill to do so. Last month, The New York Times reported that a highly placed congressional staffer had stated that the CDR program has been out of operation for months, and several days later, NSA director Paul Nakasone issued comments responding to questions about the Times story by saying the NSA was deliberating the future of the program. If accurate, this news is major but not shocking; this large-scale collection program has been fraught with problems. Last year, the NSA announced that technical problems had caused it to collect information it wasnt legally authorized to, and that in response, the agency had voluntarily deleted all the call detail records it had previously acquired through the CDR programwithout even waiting for a court order or trying to save some of the dataindicating that the system was unwieldy and the data being collected was not important to the agency.

Since its inception, we have not seen a single publicized instance of the program providing any unique security valueand in fact, the program has damaged privacy significantly. In its most recent transparency report, the NSA announced that it collected a staggering 534,396,285 call detail records during the 2017 calendar year; the agency said that number includes duplicates, but it provided no information on how significant the duplication issue is. Without knowing that or the average number of CDRs per person, its hard to say how many Americans this affects. The NSA claims it is unable to determine thisdespite statutory requirement to do so and publicly disclose itbut the number is certainly enormous. Our communications metadata can be highly sensitive and can reveal intimate details of our lives. Americans should not be subject to this type of surveillance absent suspicion, particularly if the program conducting it has not yielded any demonstrated value in preventing or investigating terrorism.

When the issues are taken togethersevere costs to privacy, no evidence of security value, technical flaws, the NSAs willingness to broadly discard data it has collected, and a recent media report that the program has been shut downthey indicate that we are better off without this program.

But its important that Congress does more than just end the CDR program. Many in the privacy and civil liberties community worry that if the Section 215 metadata collection authority is no longer in use, the CDR program could still be active but justified with a different legal provision, and out of the publics view. The public can only have confidence that congressional reforms are effective and not a meaningless game of whack-a-mole if lawmakers and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board conduct rigorous oversight to find out whether such a shift happened with the CDR program. And if Congress does end the program, it should build in legal restrictions to ensure that the program cannot be restarted under a different authority.

The problems with the CDR program seem to be a continuation of the governments misplaced faith in the nationwide bulk collection program that the CDR program replaced. After the governments vehement defense of the need for bulk collection, the Presidents Review Group on Surveillance, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and eventually even the intelligence communitys top-ranking official stated that it had not provided unique value and was not necessary to fulfill counterterrorism goals.

As the December sunset approaches for several Patrior Act authorities, including Section 215, it is clear that the failed experiment of large-scale metadata collection needs to end. Prohibiting nationwide bulk collection received strong bipartisan support in 2015 during the USA Freedom Act debate. In the House, 196 Republicans and 142 Democrats voted for the billand most of those who voted against it did so because they felt the bills reforms did not go far enoughwhile over two-thirds of US senators also supported the bill. Further limiting mass surveillance of communications metadata is likely to receive bipartisan support again, especially given the lack of evidence that it aids security.

Congress should also go beyond ending the CDR authority to take on additional critical reforms. In the wake of the Snowden disclosures, public faith in the intelligence community and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that rules on data-collection efforts under Section 215 has degraded. And more recent inaccurate and unsubstantiated criticisms of these entities have harmed trust further. The USA Freedom Act took important steps toward restoring that faith by requiring that significant FISA court opinions be declassified, and creating a special advocate to represent privacy concerns in the courts proceedings. But these provisions should be strengthened. For years, the Constitution Project has advocated for creating a more robust special advocate; strengthening provisions for FISA court declassifications would be a critical change as well.

Congress should also consider a range of other reforms during this years Patrior Act debate, relating to minimizing data retention of non-targets, civil rights, and transparency. But the first problem to address, and the one with the clearest solution, is authority for the CDR. Its long past time to pull the plug.

WIRED Opinion publishes pieces written by outside contributors and represents a wide range of viewpoints. Read more opinions here. Submit an op-ed atopinion@wired.com

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Its Time to End the NSAs Metadata Collection Program | WIRED

Director of the National Security Agency – Wikipedia

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

The Director of the National Security Agency (DIRNSA) is the highest-ranking official of the National Security Agency, which is a Defense Agency within the U.S. Department of Defense. The Director of the NSA also concurrently serves as Chief of the Central Security Service (CHCSS) and as Commander of U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). As DIRNSA/CHCSS the officeholder reports through the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and as CDRUSCYBERCOM, to the Secretary of Defense.

According to 10 U.S.C.201 of the United States Code, the Director of the NSA is recommended by the Secretary of Defense and nominated for appointment by the President. The nominee must be confirmed via majority vote by the Senate. In accordance with Department of Defense Directive 5100.20, dated 23 December 1971, the Director of the NSA must always be a commissioned officer of the military services. Because the assignment is currently part of a tri-hatted position, the Director of the NSA is appointed to the grade of a four-star general or admiral during the period of his incumbency. The Deputy Director is always a technically experienced civilian.[1]

The Armed Forces Security Agency was the predecessor to the National Security Agency and existed from 1949 to 1952.

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Director of the National Security Agency - Wikipedia

Health care – Wikipedia

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

The delivery of modern health care depends on groups of trained professionals and paraprofessionals coming together as interdisciplinary teams.[3] This includes professionals in medicine, psychology, physiotherapy, nursing, dentistry, midwifery and allied health, along with many others such as public health practitioners, community health workers and assistive personnel, who systematically provide personal and population-based preventive, curative and rehabilitative care services.

While the definitions of the various types of health care vary depending on the different cultural, political, organizational and disciplinary perspectives, there appears to be some consensus that primary care constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process and may also include the provision of secondary and tertiary levels of care.[4] Health care can be defined as either public or private.

Primary care refers to the work of health professionals who act as a first point of consultation for all patients within the health care system.[4][6] Such a professional would usually be a primary care physician, such as a general practitioner or family physician. Another professional would be a licensed independent practitioner such as a physiotherapist, or a non-physician primary care provider such as a physician assistant or nurse practitioner. Depending on the locality, health system organization the patient may see another health care professional first, such as a pharmacist or nurse. Depending on the nature of the health condition, patients may be referred for secondary or tertiary care.

Primary care is often used as the term for the health care services that play a role in the local community. It can be provided in different settings, such as Urgent care centers which provide same day appointments or services on a walk-in basis.

Primary care involves the widest scope of health care, including all ages of patients, patients of all socioeconomic and geographic origins, patients seeking to maintain optimal health, and patients with all types of acute and chronic physical, mental and social health issues, including multiple chronic diseases. Consequently, a primary care practitioner must possess a wide breadth of knowledge in many areas. Continuity is a key characteristic of primary care, as patients usually prefer to consult the same practitioner for routine check-ups and preventive care, health education, and every time they require an initial consultation about a new health problem. The International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) is a standardized tool for understanding and analyzing information on interventions in primary care based on the reason for the patient's visit.[7]

Common chronic illnesses usually treated in primary care may include, for example: hypertension, diabetes, asthma, COPD, depression and anxiety, back pain, arthritis or thyroid dysfunction. Primary care also includes many basic maternal and child health care services, such as family planning services and vaccinations. In the United States, the 2013 National Health Interview Survey found that skin disorders (42.7%), osteoarthritis and joint disorders (33.6%), back problems (23.9%), disorders of lipid metabolism (22.4%), and upper respiratory tract disease (22.1%, excluding asthma) were the most common reasons for accessing a physician.[8]

In the United States, primary care physicians have begun to deliver primary care outside of the managed care (insurance-billing) system through direct primary care which is a subset of the more familiar concierge medicine. Physicians in this model bill patients directly for services, either on a pre-paid monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, or bill for each service in the office. Examples of direct primary care practices include Foundation Health in Colorado and Qliance in Washington.

In context of global population aging, with increasing numbers of older adults at greater risk of chronic non-communicable diseases, rapidly increasing demand for primary care services is expected in both developed and developing countries.[9][10] The World Health Organization attributes the provision of essential primary care as an integral component of an inclusive primary health care strategy.[4]

Secondary care includes acute care: necessary treatment for a short period of time for a brief but serious illness, injury, or other health condition. This care is often found in a hospital emergency department. Secondary care also includes skilled attendance during childbirth, intensive care, and medical imaging services.

The term "secondary care" is sometimes used synonymously with "hospital care". However, many secondary care providers, such as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, most dental specialties or physiotherapists, do not necessarily work in hospitals. Some primary care services are delivered within hospitals. Depending on the organization and policies of the national health system, patients may be required to see a primary care provider for a referral before they can access secondary care.

In countries which operate under a mixed market health care system, some physicians limit their practice to secondary care by requiring patients to see a primary care provider first. This restriction may be imposed under the terms of the payment agreements in private or group health insurance plans. In other cases, medical specialists may see patients without a referral, and patients may decide whether self-referral is preferred.

In other countries patient self-referral to a medical specialist for secondary care is rare as prior referral from another physician (either a primary care physician or another specialist) is considered necessary, regardless of whether the funding is from private insurance schemes or national health insurance.

Allied health professionals, such as physical therapists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and dietitians, also generally work in secondary care, accessed through either patient self-referral or through physician referral.

Tertiary care is specialized consultative health care, usually for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional, in a facility that has personnel and facilities for advanced medical investigation and treatment, such as a tertiary referral hospital.[11]

Examples of tertiary care services are cancer management, neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, plastic surgery, treatment for severe burns, advanced neonatology services, palliative, and other complex medical and surgical interventions.[12]

The term quaternary care is sometimes used as an extension of tertiary care in reference to advanced levels of medicine which are highly specialized and not widely accessed. Experimental medicine and some types of uncommon diagnostic or surgical procedures are considered quaternary care. These services are usually only offered in a limited number of regional or national health care centers.[12][13] Quaternary care is more prevalent in the United Kingdom.[citation needed]

Many types of health care interventions are delivered outside of health facilities. They include many interventions of public health interest, such as food safety surveillance, distribution of condoms and needle-exchange programs for the prevention of transmissible diseases.

They also include the services of professionals in residential and community settings in support of self care, home care, long-term care, assisted living, treatment for substance use disorders among other types of health and social care services.

Community rehabilitation services can assist with mobility and independence after loss of limbs or loss of function. This can include prosthesis, orthotics or wheelchairs.

Many countries, especially in the west, are dealing with aging populations, so one of the priorities of the health care system is to help seniors live full, independent lives in the comfort of their own homes. There is an entire section of health care geared to providing seniors with help in day-to-day activities at home such as transportation to and from doctor's appointments along with many other activities that are essential for their health and well-being. Although they provide home care for older adults in cooperation, family members and care workers may harbor diverging attitudes and values towards their joint efforts. This state of affairs presents a challenge for the design of ICT (information and communication technology) for home care.[14]

Because statistics show that over 80 million Americans have taken time off of their primary employment to care for a loved one,[15] many countries have begun offering programs such as Consumer Directed Personal Assistant Program to allow family members to take care of their loved ones without giving up their entire income.[citation needed]

With obesity in children rapidly becoming a major concern, health services often set up programs in schools aimed at educating children about nutritional eating habits, making physical education a requirement and teaching young adolescents to have positive self-image.[citation needed]

Health care ratings are ratings or evaluations of health care used to evaluate the process of care and health care structures and/or outcomes of health care services. This information is translated into report cards that are generated by quality organizations, nonprofit, consumer groups and media. This evaluation of quality is based on measures of:

Health care extends beyond the delivery of services to patients, encompassing many related sectors, and is set within a bigger picture of financing and governance structures.

A health system, also sometimes referred to as health care system or healthcare system is the organization of people, institutions, and resources that deliver health care services to populations in need.

The health care industry incorporates several sectors that are dedicated to providing health care services and products. As a basic framework for defining the sector, the United Nations' International Standard Industrial Classification categorizes health care as generally consisting of hospital activities, medical and dental practice activities, and "other human health activities." The last class involves activities of, or under the supervision of, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, scientific or diagnostic laboratories, pathology clinics, residential health facilities, patient advocates[16] or other allied health professions.

In addition, according to industry and market classifications, such as the Global Industry Classification Standard and the Industry Classification Benchmark, health care includes many categories of medical equipment, instruments and services including biotechnology, diagnostic laboratories and substances, drug manufacturing and delivery.

For example, pharmaceuticals and other medical devices are the leading high technology exports of Europe and the United States.[17][18] The United States dominates the biopharmaceutical field, accounting for three-quarters of the world's biotechnology revenues.[17][19]

The quantity and quality of many health care interventions are improved through the results of science, such as advanced through the medical model of health which focuses on the eradication of illness through diagnosis and effective treatment. Many important advances have been made through health research, biomedical research and pharmaceutical research, which form the basis for evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice in health care delivery.

Health services research can lead to greater efficiency and equitable delivery of health care interventions, as advanced through the social model of health and disability, which emphasizes the societal changes that can be made to make populations healthier.[20] Results from health services research often form the basis of evidence-based policy in health care systems. Health services research is also aided by initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence for the development of systems of health assessment that are clinically useful, timely, sensitive to change, culturally sensitive, low burden, low cost, built into standard procedures, and involve the patient.[21]

There are generally five primary methods of funding health care systems:[22]

In most countries there is a mix of all five models, but this varies across countries and over time within countries. Aside from financing mechanisms, an important question should always be how much to spend on healthcare. For the purposes of comparison, this is often expressed as the percentage of GDP spent on healthcare. In OECD countries for every extra $1000 spent on healthcare, life expectancy falls by 0.4 years.[citation needed] A similar correlation is seen from analysis carried out each year by Bloomberg. [23]Clearly this kind of analysis is flawed in that life expectancy is only one measure of a health system's performance, but equally, the notion that more funding is better is not supported.

In 2011, the health care industry consumed an average of 9.3 percent of the GDP or US$ 3,322 (PPP-adjusted) per capita across the 34 members of OECD countries. The US (17.7%, or US$ PPP 8,508), the Netherlands (11.9%, 5,099), France (11.6%, 4,118), Germany (11.3%, 4,495), Canada (11.2%, 5669), and Switzerland (11%, 5,634) were the top spenders, however life expectancy in total population at birth was highest in Switzerland (82.8 years), Japan and Italy (82.7), Spain and Iceland (82.4), France (82.2) and Australia (82.0), while OECD's average exceeds 80 years for the first time ever in 2011: 80.1 years, a gain of 10 years since 1970. The US (78.7 years) ranges only on place 26 among the 34 OECD member countries, but has the highest costs by far. All OECD countries have achieved universal (or almost universal) health coverage, except the US and Mexico.[24][25] (see also international comparisons.)

In the United States, where around 18% of GDP is spent on health care,[23] the Commonwealth Fund analysis of spend and quality shows a clear correlation between worse quality and higher spending.[26]

The management and administration of health care is vital to the delivery of health care services. In particular, the practice of health professionals and operation of health care institutions is typically regulated by national or state/provincial authorities through appropriate regulatory bodies for purposes of quality assurance.[27] Most countries have credentialing staff in regulatory boards or health departments who document the certification or licensing of health workers and their work history.[28]

Health information technology (HIT) is "the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making."[29]

Health information technology components:

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Health care - Wikipedia

Bitcoin Rise: Is the Recent Bitcoin Price Surge a Sign of Things to Come or Another Misdirection?

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

What You Need to Know About the Bitcoin Price Rise
It wasn't that long ago that Bitcoin (BTC) dominated headlines for its massive growth, with many cryptocurrency millionaires being made. The Bitcoin price surged ever upward and many people thought the gravy train would never stop running—until it did.

Prices crashed, investors abandoned the space, and lots of people lost money. Cut to today and we're seeing another big Bitcoin price surge; is this time any different?

I'm of a mind that investors ought to think twice before jumping back in on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin made waves when it once again crested above $5,000. Considering that it started 2019 around $3,700,.

The post Bitcoin Rise: Is the Recent Bitcoin Price Surge a Sign of Things to Come or Another Misdirection? appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Bitcoin Rise: Is the Recent Bitcoin Price Surge a Sign of Things to Come or Another Misdirection?

Australia Proposes Bill to Stop “Weaponization” of Social Media

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Australia has proposed a new bill that would punish social media companies that don't do enough to prevent the weaponization of their platforms.

Spreading Hate

Australia is considering a bill designed to prevent the “weaponization” of social media — the kind of activity the Christchurch terrorist engaged in before an attack that killed 50 people in the nearby nation of New Zealand in March.

“We will not allow social media platforms to be weaponised by terrorists and violent extremists who seek to harm and kill,” Australia’s Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield said in a press release announcing the bill, “and nor would we allow a situation that a young Australian child could log onto social media and watch a mass murder take place.”

Facebook’s Failure

On March 15, a white nationalist attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, livestreaming the first 17 minutes of the shooting on Facebook Live.

Once police alerted them to it, Facebook removed the video, according to a tweet from Facebook’s newsroom, as well as the shooter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

However, the fact that the horrific livestream went on for 17 minutes — and that Facebook had to find out about it from a third party — confirms that its internal team of human moderators and artificial intelligence software is not enough to prevent the weaponization of its platform.

Taking Responsibility

To that end, Australia plans to introduce into Parliament this week the Criminal Code Amendment (Unlawful Showing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Bill 2019, a bill Australia’s Attorney-General Christian Porter said was designed to “put responsibility back on the social media giants to prevent their platforms being co-opted by terrorists, criminals, and violent extremists.”

If passed into law, the bill would make it a criminal offense for social media platforms “not to remove abhorrent violent material expeditiously,” with violators facing up to three years in prison or fines equivalent to up to 10 percent of their company’s annual turnover.

Social media companies would also face fines of up to A$840,000 (US$597,706) for not notifying the Australian Federal Police if they find out their platforms are “streaming abhorrent violent conduct that is happening in Australia.”

“Big social media companies have a responsibility to take every possible action to ensure their technology products are not exploited by murderous terrorists,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in the press release. “It should not just be a matter of just doing the right thing. It should be the law.”

READ MORE: Countries Want to Ban ‘Weaponized’ Social Media. What Would That Look Like? [The New York Times]

More on Facebook: Former Content Moderators Are Suing Facebook Over PTSD and Trauma

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NASA and MIT Debut Shape-Shifting Airplane Wing

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

An airplane wing created from hundreds of identical cube-like structures has the ability to change shape automatically depended on the phase of flight.

Flying Light

A team from NASA and MIT has created a new type of airplane wing — and it could make air travel far more efficient.

In a paper published in the journal Smart Materials and Structures on Monday, the researchers describe how they built an airplane wing from hundreds of identical, lightweight cube-like structures, all bolted together and then covered with a thin polymer material.

The design allows the wing to change shape automatically, adjusting itself to whatever configuration is optimal for the current phase of flight — with one configuration for take-off, for example, and another for landing.

Bigger and Better

The wing the researchers created and tested for the new paper is about the same size as what you’d find on a single-seater plane, according to MIT News, but they’d already demonstrated their design’s feasibility with a smaller wing several years ago.

Not only does this new wing show that the concept scales up to a size that could carry a person, but it also demonstrates a new manufacturing process that cuts the time needed to produce each individual structure down from several minutes to just 17 seconds.

“The research shows promise for reducing cost and increasing the performance for large, light weight, stiff structures,” Aurora Flight Sciences structures researcher Daniel Campbell, who wasn’t involved in the research, told MIT News. “Most promising near-term applications are structural applications for airships and space-based structures, such as antennas.”

READ MORE: MIT and NASA engineers demonstrate a new kind of airplane wing [MIT News]

More on airplane design: See a Mini Prototype of a Weird Plane With Connected Wings in Action

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Astronomers Are Teasing the First-Ever Photo of a Black Hole

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Event Horizon

The international team behind the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project is gearing up for a huge announcement next week — and according to ScienceAlert‘s analysis, it’s likely to be the first-ever photo of a black hole’s event horizon.

If that prediction is correct, the April 10 event will be a monumental moment for science — providing a glimpse of one of the most epic objects in the known universe.

Media Blitz

The EHT is a network of telescopes around the globe. For several years, astronomers have been using it to peer into Sagittarius A*, the monster black hole at the center of our galaxy with the goal of looking past the space debris to see its event horizon, the point at which matter and light can no longer escape.

An advance briefing on the April 10 announcement does little to temper expectations that the team has succeeded in that effort, promising a “groundbreaking result” from the EHT.

It also notes that six major press conferences will be held around the world and encourages the creation of satellite events “due to the importance” of the finding, which has the potential to upend astrophysics forever.

More on black holes: New Image Confirms a Black Hole is Swallowing Our Galaxy

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Astronomers Found Mars’ Missing Methane

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

A new astronomical study found out where the methane on Mars is coming from, and once again confirmed that it's there at all.

He Who Smelt It

Astronomers finally figured out where the methane on Mars is coming from. The finding resolves a mystery that’s been ongoing since the organic gas was first detected on Mars in 2003 — but which subsequently eluded scientists trying to measure and trace it.

It turns out that an ice sheet on Mars’ surface near Gale Crater, which may have once have been a lake, is likely giving off the planet’s methane, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience — and which could represent yet another puzzle piece in the mystery of whether the Red Planet ever harbored life.

Twin Studies

The research describes two studies that both isolated the same ice sheet as the source of atmospheric methane, using data from two spacecraft and simulations of the Martian atmosphere.

It’s worth noting that the data for these studies was collected in 2013, while the surveys that failed to detect any methane were conducted in 2018. However, the more recent study focused on the upper atmosphere — the scientists behind it conceded that there may be ground-based sources of methane that they simply missed. And since one of the new studies used data from the Curiosity rover’s trek across the Martian landscape, it’s likely that the methane was simply too sparse to measure from an orbital instrument.

Follow That Smell

The presence of methane is often touted as a sign of life, but confirming that Mars has methane isn’t quite the same as confirming that life exists there.

Rather, the combination of atmospheric methane found near body of water opens up the possibility that life may have once existed there — the researchers behind this new study settled the matter of “where” in regards to Martian methane, but their study doesn’t scratch the surface of the “why” or “how.”

READ MORE: Scientists find likely source of methane on Mars [Phys.org]

More on Martian methane: Scientists Need to Solve These Two Mysteries to Find Life on Mars

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Mark Zuckerberg Asks Governments for “New Rules” for the Internet

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg penned an op-ed for The Washington Post asking governments to create new rules for the internet.

Step Up

As the world’s most popular social media network, Facebook has found itself tasked with ensuring the internet remains a safe place for billions of people — a task it’s failed at with seemingly increasing frequency.

Now, the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is asking governments and regulators to step up and share some of that responsibility for keeping their citizens safe online.

“I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Saturday op-ed in The Washington Post. “By updating the rules for the Internet, we can preserve what’s best about it — the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things — while also protecting society from broader harms.”

Law Abiding Netizen

In WaPo, Zuckerberg detailed the four areas of the internet he believes are most in need of new regulations: harmful content, election integrity, privacy, and data portability.

He notes Facebook’s own efforts to address those areas while also citing the need for new standards and regulations related to them — ideally ones that transcend national borders.

“The rules governing the Internet allowed a generation of entrepreneurs to build services that changed the world and created a lot of value in people’s lives,” Zuckerberg wrote. “It’s time to update these rules to define clear responsibilities for people, companies and governments going forward.”

READ MORE: Mark Zuckerberg: The Internet needs new rules. Let’s start in these four areas. [The Washington Post]

More on Facebook: Facebook Stored “Hundreds of Millions” of Passwords as Plain Text

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This Company Is Gamifying Books to Make Them More Like “Fortnite”

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Ebook distributor Overdrive is leveraging its vast collection of library rental data to improve the book reading experience with interactive elements.

High Score

If old-fashioned books are too boring for you, ebook distributor OverDrive wants to gamify them with interactive elements and video game-inspired achievements and badges for kids who finish their reading homework.

“I actually had a team studying how Fortnite became so addictive,” co-founder and CEO Steve Potash told Futurism. “This is why with [OverDrive’s student-focused reading app] Sora we have badges and achievements, and we’re actually in the school market, creating social. We’re not actually saying ‘pick a reading squad and go kill some books,’ but we’re trying to learn from the addictive nature of interactive gaming.”

Publishers are already using OverDrive’s open-source platform to add voiceovers, music, and even Netflix-like “choose your own adventure” elements to their ebooks. Virtual and augmented reality content are on the way too, thanks to the marriage of artificial intelligence tech, big data, and good ol’ fashioned books.

In other words, according to Potash, reading will never be the same.

Book Smarts

OverDrive’s team of engineers has also been leveraging its vast pile of library data, Potash said — the company’s platform streamlines ebook lending for libraries around the world, so the engineers get real-time information on which books people are reading where, and for how long — to develop new AI tools.

While some of these AI developments are being used to improve OverDrive’s smart assistant-style library borrowing app called Libby, others are designed to improve reading habits in tech-savvy schools. That means building algorithms that can predict which books a student will enjoy and want to finish, as well as building new learning tools to enhance the reading experience.

“Sometimes people just want a book with an orange cover,” Potash told Futurism. “If kids will read more because their favorite animal’s on the cover, we want to know that. AI is helping these institutions become more relevant in serving their functions.”

Teachers can even insert quizzes right into the pages of a book — either to streamline homework or to make sure students are reading books at an appropriate age level.

Library Science

The big idea, Potash says, is to make the experience of reading more like a video game or Netflix.

“Everything you can do streaming, you’ll be able to do on the page,” Potash said. “If a user has a broadband connection, that can happen today because any kind of embedded link on the page can be resolved.”

Potash envisions a slew of ways to improve books with AI, like smart assistants that take on the persona of an author, AR content that drops readers inside the historical scene they’re reading about, or games built into books that help students learn new words and concepts.

In the meantime, OverDrive is trudging ahead with backend AI systems, that either help libraries buy books that are more likely to circulate or help teachers find books that actually teach the lessons that they want to work into their curricula.

“This is coming, the biggest excitement we have is not the sexy front-end things I can show [on a demo],” Potash said, “but looking at the 250,000 books we have in the classroom, extracting the themes and concepts and aligning those to the curriculum.”

More on books and AI: Novelists Have a Boring New Gimmick: Writing Dull Books With AI

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NASA: When India Blew up a Satellite, It Endangered Astronauts

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has told the agency's employees that India's satellite destruction test has put the ISS in danger.

“Unacceptable” Threat

On March 27, India tested a satellite-destroying missile by blowing up one of its own satellites, which was orbiting about 186 miles above the Earth.

“The test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris,” the Ministry of External Affairs wrote on its website. “Whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back onto the earth within weeks.”

But NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is publicly disagreeing, telling the agency’s employees during a Monday town hall that 24 pieces of debris are now at an altitude above the International Space Station’s 250 miles, posing an “unacceptable” threat to the astronauts on board.

Dangerous Debris

According to Bridenstine, NASA is now tracking about 60 pieces of debris from India’s satellite, each about six inches or bigger, but other pieces not large enough to track could pose a threat to the ISS as well.

In total, he says India’s satellite test has increased the likelihood of the ISS colliding with debris by 44 percent over a 10-day period.

“That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris at an apogee that goes above the International Space Station,” Bridenstine said. “That kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight.”

More on the satellite: India Just Shot Down a Satellite With a Missile

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A Sticker Can Trick Teslas Into Steering Toward Oncoming Traffic

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Tencent researchers figured out that Tesla's Autopilot mode can be fooled into steering into oncoming traffic just by placing three stickers on the road.

One Job

Tesla’s Autopilot mode might have something of a deathwish.

By attaching just three small stickers to the road that are nearly invisible to a human driver, researchers from Chinese tech corporation Tencent managed to trick the AI of a Tesla Model S 75 into steering towards oncoming traffic, according to the researchers’ report — a worrisome glimpse of how hackers could endanger riders in self-driving cars.

Manual Override

Tesla’s Autopilot mode is the semi-autonomous feature that allows the car to follow road markings and handle some aspects of driving without human intervention — and it already has a history of risky driving maneuvers.

But in this case, Autopilot registered the three small stickers as a lane marking — because the stickers moved off to the left, the car’s AI concluded that the road was shifting to the left when it actually continued straight on.

Achilles’ Heel

This particular exploit is possible because Tesla’s AI engineers designed the system to register lane markings that are crumbled or faded. They trained the Autopilot AI to recognize broken or fading white lines as valid lane markers.

The problem came from the fact that the three white stickers placed in a row registered in the system as enough of a line to make the car change course, according to Tencent’s report — an ironic case of a safety feature gone awry.

More on Autopilot: Tesla Crash Shows Drivers Are Confused By “Autonomous” vs. “Autopilot”

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We Interviewed the Guy Who Dreams up NASA’s Martian Robot Arms

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

To find out what it takes to manipulate a robotic arm on the surface of Mars, Futurism talked to Al Tadros, VP of Space Infrastructure at SSL.

NASA’s InSight lander touched down on the surface of Mars in November. Its mission: to unravel secrets about the creation of the planets in our solar system. Crucial to that mission: a broom-length robotic arm that it slowly extended after landing to place a number of sensitive scientific instruments on the Martian surface — and even drill into the planet itself.

To find out more about what it takes to manipulate a robotic arm on the surface of a distant planet, Futurism talked to Al Tadros, VP of Space Infrastructure and Civil Space at SSL — where he manages the company’s relationship with NASA and helps invent the most sophisticated robot arms ever to leave Earth.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Futurism: There are only five robotic arms on Mars, all five of them built by SSL. How did you become NASA’s go-to contractor for robotic arms?

Al Tadros: There have been five robotic arms operated on Mars and we’ve been fortunate to build all five of those, the most recent of which was the InSight Lander arm. We started out as a spin off from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory about 20 years ago from a core team that was passionate about science and wanted to initiate robotic capabilities that can help JPL.

F: Mars is tens of millions of miles from the nearest repair shop. How do you approach the design of something that absolutely needs to work, even with nobody around to fix it?

AT: Part of the core of the space industry is that it’s necessary to build hardware that functions for years without maintenance. So yes, the robotics are under extreme environmental conditions, but we have a lot of satellites that we build that have to be qualified and operated in extreme conditions as well. So we have processes, suppliers, tests and programs that test the reliability of all of what we build.

The robotics on Mars have some unique environments that they have to withstand. Whereas many of our satellites were built in a cleanroom and launched and operated in the vacuum of space, the Mars landers actually go through a thin atmosphere and land on a dusty surface. When they reach a destination they have to work in a day and night environment meaning that temperature extremes with a slight atmosphere and with dust being blown around. And that does pose unique challenges for robotic or mechanical systems like the Mars landers.

F: How do you simulate the Martian surface? Do you test somewhere on Earth that’s Mars-like?

AT: Good question. First of all, for hardware or spacecraft that we build, we have to put it in a container and take it to a launch site and put it on the rocket. And for the first few minutes when the rocket is going up, it’s being vibrated hard and it has a lot of acoustic vibrations on it — like being at a rock concert — being shaken on a stage. So we literally put it on a vibration stand and shake it in a similar fashion so that we can verify that the design meets and survives the launch.

It’s being vibrated hard and it has a lot of acoustic vibrations on it — like being at a rock concert — being shaken on a stage.

When you don’t have air and you don’t have thermal properties of air, you have different kinds of thermal behavior from your spacecraft. We simulate that in a vacuum chamber called a thermal vacuum chamber for that reason.

F: Let’s talk about the multitasking abilities of InSight. It has a handful of major scientific instruments onboard and the robotic arm plays a pretty crucial role in their deployment. How do you approach an engineering task like this?

AT: These missions are science driven so the lead for these missions will be a scientist who has a primary set of assigned objectives they’re trying to achieve. For the Mars InSight Lander that means placing the critical payloads on the surface of Mars.

For Mars 2020, which is the next mission we are working on now, we’re actually building the Mars sample handling arm which is collecting samples from the surface. And there you want to maintain a pristine sample that might be returned back to Earth, meaning there are unique requirements for that.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin

F: What’s the next phase of the InSight mission specifically that you’re personally most excited to see?

AT: It goes back to the very impetus of the mission — the science. What InSight is doing is studying the inner planets in our solar system. So what we study on Mars has applications here on Earth and the evolution of our own planet. And it helps us understand the solar system in a broader sense.

The unique thing about studying Mars is that humans have populated a lot of the land mass here on Earth and there’s a lot of human induced activities, vibration, and noise pollution that we generate. On Mars you don’t have that. So we can actually study a pristine rocky planet.

F: Do you envision SSL having a role in the human exploration of Mars? There’s a lot of talk about taking humans to the surface of Mars.

AT: It could be decades but people are working on it already — in a number of ways. Even NASA right now is focused on going forward to the Moon but in a sustainable way. But many of the capabilities they’re deploying around the Moon and on the surface of the Moon are to demonstrate and evolve and advance our ability to go to Mars and further.

F: Speaking of sending human astronauts to Mars, do you worry that crewed missions could be leapfrogged by robotic technology?

AT: There are two aspects to that. One is, can we put humans on Mars or on the surface of the Moon? And the other is: what is it that we want us humans to do? There is an exploration gene in humanity — whether it’s getting to the top of Mount Everest or probing the reason for existence or exploring our solar system. Humans are very much an exploratory species, so I think that there will always be that human element. And robotics will be used to push the envelope.

There is an exploration gene in humanity — whether it’s getting to the top of Mount Everest or probing the reason for existence or exploring our solar system.

As you probably noticed last week, we had the first commercial crew capsule that launched and returned to Earth, which was a phenomenal milestone. It harkens back to the start of the aviation industry, when airplanes were very experimental, but became very common place within decades.

F: Do you apply AI technology at all in your robotic arms, especially regarding InSight?

AT: We’re not building the software that operates it. That’s JPL’s job. The rovers and the robotics on Mars are basically given a command to move to a point and wait for the next command. Or a sequence of commands are given and it follows that sequence as long as all the telemetry is green. If it runs into a problem it stops and waits for the operator back on Earth. So it’s a rudimentary type of control, but it’s very conservative and safe because we don’t need to operate quickly.

Once you get humans or other time critical elements involved, there is interest in how you automate it or how you improve the time efficiency — because the astronaut’s time is precious.

We haven’t implemented AI on the Mars arms before, but with software and processing and algorithms now advancing so rapidly I believe that not only Gateway, but all future robotic systems will have some levels of autonomy and artificial intelligence embedded in them.

F: Anything else you wanted to talk about?

AT: One of the most exciting aspects of space robotics right now is the potential to assemble spacecraft, space telescopes, and other platforms in space.

A spacecraft the size of the Space Station could never be built and launched on one launch vehicle. If you open up your thinking to building communication satellites, space telescopes, habitats in space — that’s what I believe that we’re now approaching, which harkens back to the von Braun space station from the 1940s and sci-fi. What we’re going to get to is an era in space where we are not limited by the size of a launch vehicle.

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Nobel Prize Winner: Lasers Could Permanently Destroy Nuclear Waste

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Nuclear Waste

Nuclear power can provide inexpensive electricity with little in the way of emissions, but there’s a catch: it produces horrifying radioactive waste that can remain deadly for thousands of years.

Enter Gerard Mourou, the Nobel Prize-winning subject of a fascinating new Bloomberg profile. He says that high-intensity lasers could one day render nuclear waste harmless in just a few minutes — a concept which, if realized, could make nuclear power a vastly more appealing energy option.

Laser Future

Mourou is the first to admit that his work, which would use powerful lasers to break down radioactive waste into less harmful material at the atomic level, could be decades off.

“Nuclear energy is maybe the best candidate for the future, but we are still left with a lot of dangerous junk,” he said during his Nobel Lecture in December. “The idea is to transmute this nuclear waste into new forms of atoms which don’t have the problem of radioactivity.”

More on nuclear energy: Experts: The Only Way to Save the Planet Is Nuclear Energy

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The U.S. Military Is Hiring Hackers to Kill Small Drones

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Drone Swatters

The U.S. Navy is hiring a new team of hackers, engineers, and scientists to find ways to stop swarms of commercial drones.

Drones are causing problems for militaries around the world, and the Navy wants to make sure it can prevent more issues as the technology gets more sophisticated, according to Defense One — a chilling glimpse of the future of counter-insurgent warfare.

Arms Race

Off-the-shelf drones can already disrupt airports and be used as makeshift bombs, and the military has taken note of the threat, developing lasers and digital tools to counter the emerging threat.

The Navy is now joining forces with the Army on an anti-drone project called JYN (named after, yes, a “Star Wars” character). According to a memo reviewed by Defense One, Navy leadership sees anti-drone efforts as a crucial step to stay on top of new technological weaponry.

Keeping Pace

The Navy is treating this new recruitment drive as a way to make sure that the military stays up to speed on new technology, refreshing not only its own research but also the minds developing it.

“This is necessary to enable the [Navy] to gain a competitive advantage over the commercial advancement of unmanned systems technology and potential for nefarious use against [Navy] facilities and assets,” James Geurts, a Navy assistant secretary, wrote in the memo.

READ MORE: The Navy Is Assembling a Hacker Team to Fight Off Small Drones [Defense One]

More on drones: The British Military is Working on Anti-Aircraft Drone Swarms

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Australia Has a Plan to Mine Moon Water

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

Australia wants to mine water from the surface of the moon and use it to supply crewed missions to Mars or even deeper into space.

To The Moon!

The Australian Space Agency wants to leverage the country’s expertise at mining in remote, inhospitable areas — like, you know, Australia — into a new program that would mine for water and other resources from the Moon.

It’s a bold plan for the fledgling space agency, but one could supercharge Australia’s newfound role in the global space race.

Waypoint

If water, which thinly blankets the moon’s surface, could be harvested in space instead of having to be shuttled up from Earth, the moon could essentially become a jumping-off point — a sort of cosmic fueling station — for missions to Mars and beyond.

“Getting things from the surface of the Earth into orbit or into deep space costs a lot of money,” Australian space engineer Andrew Dempster told Bloomberg. “If you can produce water in space for less than it costs to get there, then you’re ahead.”

Move Fast

The Australian Space Agency is less than a year old, but Dempster believes that its nimble, startup-like attitude that will let it quickly develop new technology and get to the moon as quickly as possible.

“We’re not being weighed down by big lumbering agencies and huge multinationals,” Dempster told Bloomberg. “There’s a lot of agile people with lots of interesting ideas working in this area. Success can occur quite quickly.”

READ MORE: Plan to Mine the Moon Gives Australia Opening in New Space Era [Bloomberg]

More on the Australian Space Agency: Former NASA Astronaut: Virgin Galactic’s Space Flights Are “Dangerous”

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AI’s New Challenge: To Be as Smart as an Animal

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Danzig

The Animal-AI Olympics will see AI agents completing in tasks mimicking ones often used to test the intelligence of animals.

AI vs. Animal

To test cutting-edge artificial intelligences, a team of researchers wants to see how well they handle tasks designed to measure the intelligence of animals. They’re calling their experiment the Animal-AI Olympics, and they’ve giving out more than $10,000 in prizes to high-achieving AIs.

This month, the group plans to release a virtual “playground” they’re developing for the competition and a list of the cognitive abilities they plan to test. At that point, researchers can begin training their AIs to navigate the playground.

In June, the event organizers will begin subjecting each competitor AI to 100 playground tasks they’ve never seen before, each with the same goal usually given to animals in similar intelligence-testing scenarios: retrieve food.

Tough Tests

While the goal may be the same, the various obstacles the AIs will need to overcome to achieve success will vary — they might need to move an object, for example, or demonstrate an understanding of object permanence.

“We expect this to be a hard challenge,” Matthew Crosby, one of the researchers behind the Animal-AI Olympics, told New Scientist. “A perfect score will require a breakthrough in AI, well beyond current capabilities.”

“However,” he continued, “even small successes will show that it is possible, not just to find useful patterns in data, but to extrapolate from these to an understanding of how the world works.”

READ MORE: AIs go up against animals in an epic competition to test intelligence [New Scientist]

More on AI: You Have No Idea What Artificial Intelligence Really Does

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