Daily Archives: June 28, 2017

CMU spinoff uses facial recognition to stop human trafficking – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted: June 28, 2017 at 5:44 am


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
CMU spinoff uses facial recognition to stop human trafficking
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
You've seen the ads online, adhered to a telephone post, on Craigslist. They often promise teens below the legal working age an impressive hourly wage but never specify an employer's name or even their location. Often, they're posted by sex traffickers.

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CMU spinoff uses facial recognition to stop human trafficking - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Ministry: US human trafficking report ‘unfair’ – Bangkok Post

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Authorities round up illegal migrants in a village in tambon Mae Charao of Mae Ramat district, Tak, on Tuesday - a few hours before the release of the US TIP report. (Photo by Assawin Pinitwong)

The latest Trafficking in Persons Report by the US State Department does not do justice to Thailand's efforts to stop human trafficking over the past year, according to the Foreign Ministry.

"Thailand views that the Report has not done justice to the significant and tangible progress Thailand has made in various areas during the past year, including policy initiatives, prosecution of wrong-doers and complicit officials, prevention of potential victims, witness and victim protection, and partnership with various groups of stakeholders, both domestic and abroad," the ministry said in a statement issued on late on Tuesday night just after the TIP reportwas released.

The Thai government remained firmly committed to seriously and strenuously addressing human trafficking, while seeking to further strengthen and expand cooperation with truly concerned partners, with a view to improving its capacity to better prevent and suppress the problem, the ministry said.

The government's efforts were not aimed at any evaluation but to better protect both Thais and foreigners in the country - equal in human dignity - from the menace of human trafficking,while upholding humanitarian principles to which Thailand always adhered, it stated.

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Ministry: US human trafficking report 'unfair' - Bangkok Post

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US human trafficking report promotes Myanmar but demotes China – The Guardian

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A billboard in a Yangon suburb discouraging recruitment of children for the Myanmar military. Photograph: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

The US asserted on Tuesday that Myanmar is no longer one of the worlds worst offenders on human trafficking, removing it and Iraq from a list of countries that use child soldiers.

But in its annual Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department also demoted China to the lowest ranking over its trafficking record, putting it in the same category as North Korea, Zimbabwe and Syria.

Afghanistan was recognised for taking steps to curb trafficking, while Iraq was seen as making insufficient progress on that issue.

Ivanka Trump, the senior White House adviser and daughter of President Donald Trump, said ending human trafficking was in both the moral and strategic interests of the US, describing the effort as a major foreign policy priority for the administration.

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said the roughly 20 million victims of human trafficking globally illustrate how much more work must be done.

Regrettably, our challenge is enormous, Tillerson said. Human trafficking is becoming more nuanced and more difficult to identify. Much of these activities are going underground, and theyre going online.

Myanmar was promoted for its efforts against recruitment of child soldiers and its first prosecution of government officials under a human trafficking law. The south-east Asian nation had been demoted to the lowest tier last year, shortly after it shifted to civilian government, ending decades of oppressive military rule.

Myanmars elevation is a boost for Aung San Suu Kyis administration, which is facing growing criticism from human rights groups. The political transition in the country has been a bumpy one as it wrestles with ethnic conflict and deep-seated discrimination against its Rohingya Muslim minority.

The demotion of China was a particular surprise this year, marking the first major, public rebuke of Beijings human rights record by the Trump administration, which has generally avoided direct, public criticism of the country while seeking its help on North Korea.

The US said that not only was China not meeting minimum standards to stop trafficking, it also was not making significant efforts to do so. The report also said there were indications that Chinas government was still complicit in forced labour, including in some drug rehabilitation centres. The US said Chinas efforts to prosecute traffickers had also fallen.

Chinas foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said it strongly opposed the US using its domestic laws to attack another countrys record, and maintained that the results of Beijings anti-human trafficking efforts are obvious for everyone to see.

As we have said repeatedly, no country has the right to speak irresponsibly on Chinas domestic affairs, Lu said ahead of the reports official launch.

Chinas governments commitment to fighting human trafficking has been resolute and our results have been obvious for everyone to see, he said, adding that China is willing to work with other countries on the basis of mutual respect to combat global human trafficking.

Human Rights Watch said removing Myanmar was premature, and undermined US credibility in ending the use of children in warfare. The group said the UN documented child recruitment by Myanmars armed forces in 2016.

The annual TiP report ranks countries in a three-tier system on their effectiveness in tackling human trafficking and other forms of slavery.

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US human trafficking report promotes Myanmar but demotes China - The Guardian

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New Drone Plans an Ambitious Mission to Plant 100000 Trees a Day – Futurism

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In Brief A system of drones has been developed to help quell the loss of Earth's trees. The system can help plant almost 100,000 trees per day.

The Earth is rapidly losing its forests at a rate muchfaster than humans can replant. Exact figures vary, but according to Scientific American, most analysts attribute upwards of 15 percent [of global carbon emissions] to deforestation. This means that by clearing or burning the Earths forests, we are directly contributing to the rapidly increasing rate of climate change.

One Australian engineer is enlisting technology to fight the battle against deforestation. Dr. Susan Graham has helped develop a pair of drones that can help mitigate some of the damage by planting trees at a rate that far outpaces what is possible to do by hand.

The first dronescans an area of land, searching for an ideal plot to plant. This drone helps to make a 3D map of the area and then special algorithms are employed to find the best places to plant. The second drone then takes that map and its payload of up to 150 seed pods and gets to work shooting the seeds into the ground. Lauren Fletcher, the CEO of BioCarbon Engineering, said: Were firing at one a second, which means a pair of operators will be able to plant nearly 100,000 trees per day 60 teams like this will get us to a billion trees a year.

Drones get a lot of press for their delivery capabilities, but Amazon packages arent the only way to utilize this technology. There are lifesaving drones that can beat EMTs to emergencies, drones that could help to supportdeclining bee populations, and even drones to stand in for backup dancers. All of this and much more is to come, since not even the sky is the limit.

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New Drone Plans an Ambitious Mission to Plant 100000 Trees a Day - Futurism

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Ethereum Lost $4 Billion in Market Value Due to Fake Fatal Car Crash – Futurism

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In Brief A fake news story about the death of Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, caused the cryptocurrency to lose $4 billion. Although Ethereum is retaining much of its value, this highlights the problems of fake news and the market's volatility. Power of Fake News

On Sunday,4Chan, the trolls paradise, was used to post a photo of Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin along with a story of his death in a car crash: Fatal car crash. And now we have our answer. He was the glue. It will be difficult for ETH to recover and the entire crypto sphere is in big trouble.

Ethereum is currently the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. Itis also arguably the hottest cryptocurrency in relative terms, up as much as 4,000 percent this year alone and drawing interest from elites all over the world. At least partially driving this is the fact that other technologies are being built off of Ethereum, whichseems poised to become the blockchainof choice around the world.

The price of Ethereum, despite having risen so much this year thus far, remains volatile, and it was already experiencing a decline yesterday when the news about Buterins death hit the internet. By the days end, about $4 billion dropped from its total market value.

Of course, Buterin wasnt actually dead:

His selfie holding the modern equivalent of the days newspaper a piece of paper with the latest block mined on the Ethereum blockchain written on it put that rumor to bed. If you feel like youve seen that move before, you may be remembering Julian Assanges livestream dispelling rumors of his death the same way back in January.

Despite Sundays fake news emergency, Ethereum is still trading more than30 times higher today than it was in early January, so in some ways this was just a blip in the cryptocurrencys progress. On the other hand, theres little doubt that fake news manipulation has showcased a weakness in Ethereum. Buterin is the well-known face of Ethereum, and it seems that although the cryptocurrency exists independent of any control by him, right now its health is influenced by him to some extent.

Ultimately, this story highlights that all cryptocurrencies are inherently volatile, at least for now. On June 21, for example, a single multi-million dollar sell order caused a flash crash in Ethereum, a symptom of a young and underdeveloped infrastructure. This problem will be repaired over time as the cryptocurrency market evolves, regardless of what happens (or doesnt happen) to founders.

This episode alsoprovide a cautionary tale about the power of fake news. However, that particular problem certainly isnt limited to the cryptocurrency world its an epidemic everywhere, from climate change to politics and election newsto the search for life. Perhaps a strategic combination of critical thinking and technologywill be the answer to the fake news problem; for now, however, were glad both Buterin and Ethereum are alive and well.

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Ethereum Lost $4 Billion in Market Value Due to Fake Fatal Car Crash - Futurism

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Volvo Is Rivaling Tesla With Their Own Driverless Car – Futurism

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In Brief Volvo announced new partnerships with both Nvidia and Autoliv in an attempt to become a major player in the autonomous car industry. This is just the latest company to move toward driverless cars, which can only be good for our driverless future. Volvos New Partnerships

After a recent announcement that Volvo will attempt to challenge Tesla in the electric vehicle market, the car manufacturer hasnow also made a gambit to join the autonomous vehicle competition. The Swedish car giant has teamed up with Nvidia for the project, specifically utilizing Nvidias Drive PX, which is capable of processing data from 12video cameras as well as lidar, radar, and ultrasonic sensors.

This news comes in the wake of an announcement from the CEOof Volvo, Hakan Samuelsson, thatthe company intends to square off with Tesla at the expense of diesel engines.Samuelsson explained in an email to Reuters,We have to recognize that Tesla has managed to offer such a car for which people are lining up. In this area, there should also be space for us, with high quality and attractive design.

The software that will govern the driverless system is provided by Autoliv, who Volvo ispartnering with under the new name Zenuity for this venture. Although some parts of the collaboration will be exclusive for Volvo, other aspects that Autoliv will develop couldbe sold to other car makers.

Volvo and Nvidia have teamed up before for Volvos autonomous car pilot program, Drive Me, but this the first time they have teamed up for a commercially available vehicle, which the companyaims to launchin 2021.

The ever growing hype around driverless car technology which has the potential to make our roads safer and fasterhas encouraged several other notable players in the motor vehicle and computerindustries to start developing their own variants of the technology. Volvo is another racehorse in stable of big-name, big-money ventures.

Also joining the race for the future of transport are: Tesla, who arguably pioneereddriverless technology and have a potential industry changer in their hotly anticipated Model 3; Google, who have also entered the fray by launching as Volvo did a separate company called Google Auto LLCto develop their driverless cars; and Ford, who have goneas far to test their cars in snowy conditions last year.

There is, therefore, a huge amount of competition among car makers, which is exciting for our driverless future as it will lead to the best autonomous cars possible on our roads. Competition breeds innovation, after all.

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Noted Futurist Looks Back: How Espionage, Arms Deals and Recent History Sowed the Seeds of Today’s Terrorism – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted: at 5:43 am

Former defense contractor-turned-author and futurist David Treichler -- writing as dhtreichler -- sheds startling light on the twists and turns of the "Armaments Bazaar" process in his new book, and portrays weapons sales to contentious Middle East countries as sometimes problematic -- and even dangerous.

Drawn from Treichler's real-world experiences in the Middle East, it offers insights into espionage, intelligence failures and the cat-and-mouse games played in suppressing the peoples of the region. He details transactions with often life-and-death consequences for both the citizens of these nations -- and their sovereign neighbors.

The fiction-based-on-fact book, called simply, Rik's, is available at http://amzn.to/2q9iDWV. In addition, you can view a video book trailer at https://youtu.be/8u5ZtDX-ToY.

As time has proven, the sale of weapons and intelligence systems can prove pivotal to countries like Iraq, Iran, Turkey and, currently, Syria, under strongman Bashar al-Assad.

Treichler admits he -- like his lead character in the novel -- sometimes had misgivings about the end use of the weapons he sold. But, in the final analysis, following U.S. policy to maintain arms parity in the volatile region was the only option, he says.

The book is about an American State Department official whose day job is to help U.S. companies reach trade agreements.

By night, however, he gathers intelligence and arranges the sale of military hardware to maintain the balance of power in the region. In the novel, he is also the CIA station chief who has fallen in love with a broadcast journalist.

"Five stars for Rik's," writes the Midwest Book Review. "It speaks eloquently about such vital issues as patriotism, comradeship, and the lengths to which love will go. This gritty read will ring true with any follower of America's foreign interventions."

It is also available online at dhtreichler.com.

Media Contact: David Treichler, Author dtreichler1@verizon.net (817) 909-2128 (cell phone)

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/noted-futurist-looks-back-how-espionage-arms-deals-and-recent-history-sowed-the-seeds-of-todays-terrorism-300479353.html

SOURCE dhtreichler

http://dhtreichler.com/

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Noted Futurist Looks Back: How Espionage, Arms Deals and Recent History Sowed the Seeds of Today's Terrorism - PR Newswire (press release)

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