Twitter rebuts Sarkozy censorship allegations

The social-networking site implies that the suspension of the accounts that belittled the French president disregarded the site's parody and spam rules. [Read more]

California AG Kamala Harris on app privacy deal (podcast)

Larry Magid chats by phone with California Attorney General Kamala Harris shortly after she announces an agreement with major app companies to protect the privacy of consumers. [Read more]

Data mining's adult challenges

The tools to analyze disparate data sets are getting better and cheaper. But the practice will increasingly bump against the boundaries of privacy comfort zones. [Read more]

Facebook: Ceglia concealed 'getzuck' e-mail account

Social network wants permission to inspect the contents of four previously undisclosed accounts, allegedly in use since 2003. [Read more]

DIY 'Back to the Future' hoverboard actually hovers

Mattel is releasing a replica of the "Back to the Future" hoverboard, but sadly, it doesn't really float. Maybe the company should get in touch with this DIYer. [Read more]

Calif. cracks down on mobile privacy - USA TODAY

USA TODAY

Calif. cracks down on mobile privacy USA TODAY By Michael Liedtke, AP SAN FRANCISCO ? California is clamping down on nosy mobile applications, telling them they must give people advance warning if they want to keep pulling sensitive information from smartphones and computer tablets. California, tech giants agree on mobile app privacyHouston Chronicle California Joins Forces with Tech Giants for Mobile App PrivacyDailyTech Calif. Pledges Better Mobile Privacy DisclosuresABC News Reuters -The Mac Observer all 563 news articles »

HP CEO pleads patience as earnings fall 44 percent - Wall Street Jo…

MiamiHerald.com

HP CEO pleads patience as earnings fall 44 percent Wall Street Journal AP NEW YORK ? Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Meg Whitman pleaded for patience Thursday as she described operational challenges and other internal problems that contributed to a decline in earnings at one of the world's largest technology companies. HP Revenue and Profit Fall; More Trouble Is ExpectedNew York Times After Rocky Q1, HP CEO Whitman Makes Cost Cutting Top PriorityCRN Hewlett-Packard Profit Forecast Misses Estimate as PCs SlumpSan Francisco Chronicle PCWorld all 403 news articles »

Windows on the iPad, and Speedy - New York Times

TechRadar UK

Windows on the iPad, and Speedy New York Times You're probably paying something like $60 a month for high-speed Internet. I'm paying $5 a month, and my connection is 1000 times faster. Your iPad can't play Flash videos on the Web. Mine can. Your copy of Windows needs constant updating and patching ... Ex-Apple Man Streams Flash onto the iPadWired News OnLive offers service to speed up Web browsing on an iPadSan Jose Mercury News you are reading... OnLive delivers ridiculously fast web browsing on the iPadVentureBeat Macgasm -TechCrunch -TechRadar UK all 26 news articles »

Italy: Flaw Found in Neutrino Test - New York Times

ABC News

Italy: Flaw Found in Neutrino Test New York Times Researchers have found a flaw in the technical setup of an experiment that startled the science world last year by appearing to show particles traveling faster than light. The problem may have affected measurements that clocked subatomic neutrino ... Was Einstein wrong - or was the cable loose?Reuters Neutrinos may not travel faster than light, Einstein may have been rightThe State Column Glitch found in faster-than-light setupmsnbc.com Forbes -Wired News all 214 news articles »

Google Files Application to Operate TV Service - Tom's Guide

MyFox Houston

Google Files Application to Operate TV Service Tom's Guide Google may be launching a cable TV subscription service once Google Fiber is up and running. The Kansas City Star reports that Google Fiber, a subsidiary of Google, has filed applications in Missouri and Kansas to operate a video/TV service. Google Aims to Offer Kansas City TVWall Street Journal Google to Launch TV ServiceMashable Google Seeks To Plant Antenna Farm in IowaData Center Knowledge Kansas City Star -CNET -VentureBeat all 83 news articles »

Scientists create potent molecules aimed at treating muscular dystr…

While RNA is an appealing drug target, small molecules that can actually affect its function have rarely been found. But now scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have for the first time designed a series of small molecules that act against an RNA defect directly responsible for the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy.

Faster than light neutrinos? More like faulty wiring

You can shelf your designs for a warp drive engine (for now) and put the DeLorean back in the garage; it turns out neutrinos may not have broken any cosmic speed limits after all.

Researchers build first physical 'metatronic' circuit

(PhysOrg.com) -- The technological world of the 21st century owes a tremendous amount to advances in electrical engineering, specifically, the ability to finely control the flow of electrical charges using increasingly small and complicated circuits. And while those electrical advances continue to race ahead, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are pushing circuitry forward in a different way, by replacing electricity with light.

Less is more: Study of tiny droplets could have big impact on indus…

(PhysOrg.com) -- Under a microscope, a tiny droplet slides between two fine hairs like a roller coaster on a set of rails until — poof — it suddenly spreads along them, a droplet no more.

Surprising diversity at a synapse hints at complex diversity of neu…

A new study reveals a dazzling degree of biological diversity in an unexpected place – a single neural connection in the body wall of flies.

RB3D Hercule robotic exosceleton

Hercule is the name of this robotic exoskeleton developed by RB3D, a French engineering company, under the steering and funding of DGA, the French ministry of defense. Hercule doesn?t need any special training or knowledge skills, the person that wears it just performs his or her usual tasks and the exoskeleton provides the additional support and strength. It is electrically powered (unlike some other similar concepts that used 2 stroke internal combustion engines) and its battery life is about 20km at a moving speed of km/h (a regular walking pace) with the capacity of carrying 100kg. It can be used by the military (silent operation will be quite important) but civilian applications are equally important. Fire fighting, construction, logistics and even medical applications are possible. You can find more on this pdf brochure (2nd page in English) and in this article (in French). (via Innorobo)

A Unique Pop-up Origami Fabrication of Micro Robots

Harvard's Microrobotics Lab has created a new Pop-up Origami style of fabrication for their winged microbots. A carrier is first made out of several layers of carbon fiber, brass, and thin flexible plastic. Then, using fabrication techniques such as laser etching, a design forms and then it is popped into place in sort of a pop-up book and Origami fashion. The robot is then tack soldered to lock the design into place and then laser cut and removed from the carrier material. The Mobee or Monolithic Bee is a very tiny robot at about the size of a Quarter. The video shows this unique assembly process and the finalized Mobee's wings being tested at 1Hz and 30Hz. A must-see very impressive manufacture of winged microbots!

Ryan Calo of Stanford Law School on personal robotics

Ryan Calo talks about personal robotics and their effect on society in two short videos produced by James Temple. Ryan Calo is the director of privacy and robotics at Stanford?s Center for Internet and Society and expert in robots and the law, subject which he actively blogs and tweets about. He was interviewed on Robots Podcast in 2010.

Robots Podcast #97: Carlo Ratti

Robots Podcast #97 (February 10th, 2012) features Carlo Ratti, Associate Professor of the Practice in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Director of MIT's SENSEable City Laboratory, discussing the lab's purpose and several of its projects, which include the Digital Water Pavilion installation in Spain, depicted in the composite photo above. Professor Ratti also presented his work nearly a year ago, at a TED conference.

EcoBot-III Runs On Human Excrement!

Drug Delivery Microchip Implanted in Patients, Passes Human Trial

MIT scientists Michael Cima, left, and Robert Langer, creators of a microchip-based drug delivery system that has passed a trial treating 7 patients.

A remote drug delivery system has successfully been tested in a human trial. A microchip was implanted in 8 women and delivered a drug to treat osteoporosis once a day for 20 days. There were no adverse affects and, compared to a control group of women who injected the drug, the microchip-delivered treatment was just as effective.

The miniature chip, 5 cm long and 3 cm wide, was implanted under local anesthesia in just 30 minutes. It contained 20 tiny reservoirs, each of which holds 600-nanoliters of drug solution, over which a thin layer of platinum or titanium contained the drug. Upon dosing, a current is applied which melted the metal coverings and allowed for drug release. The chip?s actions can be programmed for drug release at specific intervals or on demand with the use of wireless communication link. The bidirectional communication also tells researchers whether the chip is working properly or not.

The drug-delivering chip is the realized 15-year old vision of MIT researchers Michael Cima and Robert Langer, now collaborating with MicroCHIPS Inc. to produce the chips. They published the results of the study in the Feb. 16 online edition of Science Translational Medicine.

An automated drug delivery system is highly desired among health professionals, especially in cases where a drug must be administered frequently, as on a daily basis. Patient compliance ? how closely a patient follows his or her prescribed drug regimen ? is a major problem. The teriparatide that is used to treat osteoporosis patients stimulates bone formation, but it must be taken daily. That typically entails sticking oneself with a needle on a daily basis. According to MicroCHIPS president Robert Farra only about one in four osteoporosis patients actually stick to their daily dose. Because the chip can be programmed to release doses regularly, patient compliance becomes a non-issue ? not to mention they avoid the unsavory daily needle stick.

One concern for the researchers was the possibility that the body?s defenses would cause the implants to be enveloped in a protective, fibrous tissue, and prevent the drug from being released. This turned out to not be a problem as the drug was able to diffuse through the surrounding layer and enter the bloodstream. Before the chip can be widely used, however, researchers will need to demonstrate that it is durable and reliable, John Watson, bioengineer and found of the William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the University of California, said in an editorial about the study. Having the chip unexpectedly dump its entire drug load is a possibility they?d like to rule out as much as possible, as well as failure to release to patients whose life depends on the drug. In the last study one of the devices in fact did fail and was excluded from the data.

Confirming its effectiveness and safety would open the door for using the chip to treat other diseases. Other patients who require regular drug treatments, such as those with chronic pain or diabetes, could have their lives made much easier. The chip would become really handy for diabetics if it had the capability, like the Artificial Pancreas, to both measure blood glucose levels then automatically release the appropriate amount of insulin. And because it has an array of reservoirs, several types of drugs could be placed on the chip to meet all the patient?s pharmaceutical needs. An entire pharmacy under your skin.

Right now the wireless communication has a very limited range of only a few meters. But in the future we could see that range extended. Imagine, your doctor could one day read your blood chemistry and give you a ?shot? from his office. That day?s probably a long way off, but as the company hopes to be in regulation testing by 2014, the day people like osteoporosis patients won’t have to deal with the pain of remembering and suffering injections may not be too far away.

[image credits: Businesswire, MIT]
image 1: MircoCHIPS
image 2: MIT
image 3: chip

Starting March 1st, A Red License Plate in Nevada Means the Driver…

Governor Sandoval of Nevada exits one of Google's robot cars last summer. The bill he signed into law is now allowing automated cars on Nevada roads.

An extended campaign in Nevada by Google has led to a new host of provisions which will allow automated cars to legally drive in the state. Starting March 1st, 2012 innovators like Google can officially apply for a new kind of robot driver’s license that will give them permission to openly test their cars on the road. Automated vehicles will be able to travel the same streets and highways as human drivers, with only a red license plate marking them as robots. Once research on those automated cars is complete (which may take years), the Nevada Department of Motorized Vehicles will issue them a neon green license plate ? an indication that the robot drivers are good to go. Google, whose robotic Prius cars have already driven 200,000+ miles in California quasi-legally, will undoubtedly take full advantage of Nevada’s openness and further develop their technology for general use. Just as important, other states like Hawaii, Florida, and Oklahoma may follow Nevada’s example, paving the way for robot cars to operate all across the United States.

Last June Governor Sandoval signed AB511 into law, making it explicitly legal for cars to drive themselves. That same bill, however, required the Nevada DMV to establish rules and regulations as to how companies would apply for permission to get their robotic vehicles on the road. As of February 15, those guidelines are now in place, and Nevada is ready to hand out red license plates to Google and other robotic car developers. Each vehicle will require a $1-3 million bond to insure against damages and will have to give the Nevada DMV a detailed report on what they are testing with each car. Whether or not those provisions will prove adequate has yet to be seen, but actually having concrete rules on the use of robotic vehicles goes a long way towards legitimizing them. In the eyes of Google and other automated car researchers, Nevada’s become a paradise.

There is some concern however, that the new automated car law could actually stifle innovation. Under some interpretations of the bill, cars with computers that automatically engage brakes may constitute a robotic car and thus need to go through further red tape before the general public can drive them. Such systems, already developed by companies like Volvo, represent a stepping stone towards fully automated cars and it would be a shame if Nevada squashed their use just as the state was opening up further research into robotic vehicles.

Nevada’s new bill will undoubtedly come with complications, but overall it is a very hopeful sign for the future of automated cars. Previously I had been very pessimistic about the legal and social hurdles these vehicles would have to clear before they could be accepted by the general public. Now, however, it seems that at least a few states are trying to prove me wrong, clearing the way for robot cars to take their rightful place on our roads. Along with Nevada, the Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Florida legistlatures are all considering bills to allow automated vehicles on their roads for research purposes (or more). The Florida bills (HB 1207 in the House and SB 1768 in the Senate) seem to have considerable support. It seems possible, perhaps even likely, that robot cars from companies like Google will be able to take over driving for humans much sooner than anyone had anticipated. Such a transition could save thousands or even millions of lives each year.

I’ll leave you with a video featuring Sebastian Thrun, the project lead for Google’s robot car. Both his motivation for automating cars, and his vision for the future are inspiring:

[image credits: Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, Steve Jurvetson (modified)]
[video credits: Google via NPR]
[sources: Nevada DMV, NY Times, NPR]

SH Membership Program Update ? Carl Zimmer, Ray Kurzweil, Ekso Bion…

Go SH!

During the last few weeks the Singularity Hub Membership program has continued to offer an awesome experience for its members.  I wanted to share with you some of what has been going on.  We’d love to have more of you join in on the fun!

Tonight at 6pm PST we will be hosting a Google+ Hangout for SH members with Carl Zimmer.  SH members will be able to watch live as we speak with Zimmer, and many will even have a chance to join us directly on the hangout if they’ve got a webcam.  The hangout will be archived on video for members that want to watch the event at their leisure afterwards.

Tomorrow night at 7pm PST we’ll be hosting yet another Google+ Hangout, this time with Sonia Arrison, author of the recently published book “100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith”.

During the last week or so members had a great time hanging out with Aubrey De Grey and Michael Anissimov, and SH members have been treated to exclusive video coverage of presentations from Ray Kurzweil, Hans Keirstead, Ekso Bionics, Peter Diamandis, and more.

Meanwhile, we’ve got a vibrant email group for members that has immediately become an excellent resource to socialize, discuss, learn, and share.  We’ve got a great membership program, and it is only going to get better.  Thanks to all of you for reading SH, and I hope to see many more of you become part of our membership community soon.

U.S. Being Left In The Dust Of The Global Telecommuting Revolution

The workplace of the future is closer than you think.

A recent poll from Ipsos/Reuters shows the extent of workplace evolution as well as the fallout of globalization. Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) of the over 11,000 users from 24 countries polled online indicated that they work exclusively and/or consistently from home. Telecommuting is most popular in regions with emerging markets, such as Asia-Pacific (24%), the Middle East and Africa (27%), and Latin America (25%), while North America and Europe (both at 9%) lag significantly behind. But the winner is India with 82% telecommuting at least once a week and 57% working remotely on a routine basis. Compare this to the U.S. where 26% are working remotely at least once a week with only 10% respondents doing so consistently. Yet times are changing as the recession has spurred companies and employees to find creative ways to cut costs. More companies are seeing the benefits of telecommuting and some states are now starting to encourage it with tax breaks. Is this the beginning of the end for the physical workplace and, if so, what does a telecommuting world look like?

A closer examination of the poll results affords a picture of what a global telecommuting workforce will look like.

The poll, which was conducted during two weeks in October 2011, collected age, gender, household income, marriage status, and education level of users along with information about employment and whether the user was a business owner. While polling online users has an inherent bias in that not every worker has Internet access, especially in developing nations, the results can be taken as a good indication of where the world currently stands on telecommuting and its demographics.

The following key points serve as signposts for the future of the remote global workforce…call it The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:

The Good

1. Increased productivity ? Two-thirds of workers (65%) claim increased productivity working at home (echoed by a Cisco survey as well), while the other third cite decreased supervision and more distractions as the reason for lower productivity. Countries in which the most workers agreed that telecommuting was more productive include Argentina (77%) and Poland (75%), but it was significantly lower in some countries, such as Japan (44%) and South Korea (51%). This goes against popular stereotypes that remote workers are goofing around all day because no one’s there to tell them what to do as well as casting a poor light on workplace efficiency. Additionally, it suggests that certain cultures are more adaptable to a telecommuting lifestyle, which has the potential of expanding job markets beyond local candidates to broad and diverse international workforce.

2. More female workers ? 83% of all respondents felt (36% strongly agreed, 47% somewhat) that telecommuting keeps talented women in the workforce, instead of leaving temporarily or completely to raise children. U.S. users were slightly more skeptical about this with only 26% strongly agreeing and 53% somewhat. From a globalization point of view, entire workforces that couldn’t come into an office because of the “homemaker” label have increasingly entered the workforce as remote work allows for the multitasking of home and work life. This too expands the global workforce.

3. Less stress ? In terms of commuting, 83% agreed that telecommuters have less stress because they don’t have to get to and from work every day. And less stress is always good.

The Bad

1. The loneliness number ? Six of every ten users (62%) felt that social isolation among telecommuters was a problem, with 15% saying they strongly agree and 48% somewhat agreeing. Does this indicate that a primary benefit of the physical workplace is face-to-face time? Considering that over half of respondents (56%) also said that working remotely hurts the chance for promotion, it reflects the importance of both workplace socializing and office politics. Remote workers can be left out of the loop and miss important, unplanned interactions that become measures of job performance. Furthermore, since many people become friends with their colleagues, it’s hard to imagine that friendless workers are good workers. Technological improvements in video conferencing, however, is likely to improve this gap, but technology can only go so far in replicating real life interactions (the Bruce Willis film Surrogates comes to mind).

2. More opportunities needed ? If the opportunity was made available by their employer, 34% of all respondents said they would be very likely to telecommute full-time. So what’s the problem? Opportunities, or the lack thereof. One-third of the global workforce is basically saying, “Let me work from home” but the option isn’t being provided. Now 21% of all users said that they had jobs that required their physical presence, but technological advances in automation from the Industrial Age to today have increasingly reduced the need for human presence. The big problem is that telecommuting is growing in the very regions where demand is the highest (see the chart below). At some point, the lack of telecommuting opportunities on a large scale is going to handicap economic growth.

The Ugly

1. What price, paradise? ? While the general consensus is that remote workers are better able to achieve a balance between work and family (with 29% strongly agreeing and 49% somewhat agreeing), a majority agreed that telecommuting creates more conflict by reducing the boundaries between work and family life. Taken together, these two statements seem contradictory, but what is more important is what they imply: people seem to be more comfortable with a compartmentalized life, even if its skewed one way or the other. When work and home life become blurry, greater balance may be achieved in managing everything at the expense of family strife.

2. Another two-class system ? In general, telecommuters have higher incomes and are more educated. One way of looking at this is that higher-paying jobs, which are often attained because of higher education, are offering more flexibility to workers who want to telecommute. Another way of looking at this is that the most educated, well paid workers will increasingly be absent from the physical workplace (like the two-thirds of government workers now telecommuting). This has the potential of creating another class system where telecommuting becomes equivalent to privilege afforded to the best or most capable workers, which could turn the workforce into something akin to what’s happening in schools with the segregation of students into gifted and regular learners. This would only exasperate issues related to the recently profiled class struggle that is seeing the withering of the middle class.

In summary, the future of telecommuting is bright, even though it clearly has its disadvantages. But for a long time, a paradigm shift has been occurring in the workforce. Attitudes about telecommuting are changing with very promising results. Considering that workplace environments and worker motivations differ from country to country, it’s no surprise that working remotely will be more successful in some countries that in others. But if telecommuting was made a priority by businesses and governments around the world and the infrastructures were built to support it, how different would the world look?

[Media: sxc]

[Sources: Ipsos, PC World, Reuters]