Daily Archives: June 21, 2020

The world is sliding into a new cold war.

Once again, it pits a dictatorial political system against democracy, but now it is China against the West. This looming struggle is very different to the tense tussle that overshadowed the first half of my life. The Communists in Beijing offer much greater challenge than their counterparts ever did in the Kremlin. The giant Asian nation is many times stronger economically, allowing it to almost double military spending in a decade, while its leadership is far more sophisticated having seen the fall of the Soviet Union and how to exploit globalisation.

Last week this conflict erupted in medieval style when Chinese and Indian troops fought in hand-to-hand combat on a freezing Himalayan mountainside. They used stones and studded clubs as weapons since banned from firing guns in the border zone under a previous accord, yet with 20 Indian soldiers dying this was still their most lethal such conflict for half a century. It was another sign of Beijings growing aggression under President Xi Jinping, alongside the crushing of freedom in Hong Kong and creation of militarised islands in the South China Sea.

Slowly but surely, the challenge is being seen across the political divide. At the core of this struggle that will dominate the coming decades lies the fight for technological superiority. If one side triumphs, they control the lifeblood of the digital age. Even the rush to find a pandemic vaccine plays into the contest, since leadership in the field of biosciences is a central part of the equation. We should support Australia when it comes under state-based cyber attacks after calling for proper inquiry into origins of the coronavirus. And heed warnings from former Google chief Eric Schmidt, now chair of the Pentagons Defence Innovation Board, when he tells us to prioritise the creation and exploitation of new technologies.

Much of the focus in Britain is on Huaweis involvement in the 5G network. It seems astonishing there is even debate on this issue. Beijing helped build the new African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, then every night for five years all the bodys data was downloaded in the middle of the night until the hacking was discovered. Another Chinese telecoms firm helped the repressive former regime in Ethiopia monitor activists and journalists. Huawei itself has worked with police in Xinjiang, where technology is central to the hideous control and detention of Uighur Muslims.

Yet the West has shown great naivety over China. First there was belief that trade and integration would corrode its autocracy. Then we thought the internet would destroy dictatorship. Now prominent names pocket cheques to promote Huaweis cause, helping the firm pretend to be independent from the state. Its billionaire boss Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in the Peoples Liberation Army, denies they assist the security apparatus. Yet one executive was caught spying in Poland. Last week, two Canadians were charged with spying in China, assumed to be a reaction to Rens daughter the firms finance chief being detained in Canada for sanctions busting.

Yet these issues go far beyond Huawei. Since taking power eight years ago Xi has eliminated any slivers of space for free expression, placed the party firmly back at centre of public life, demanded total obedience and imposed his nationalist vision on the country. New laws demand support for the security services from all citizens and firms. Jack Ma, the telegenic boss of Alibaba Chinas version of Amazon is a top Communist Party member.

Along with the heads of other major technology firms such as Tencent and Baidu, he is also a vice-president of the China Federation of Internet Societies, a body set up two years ago to promote the party in their sector and, according to state media, implement Xis online vision.

For all the talk about the Great Firewall of China, their approach is smarter than simply erecting a barricade as shown by veteran German reporter Kai Strittmatter in We Have Been Harmonised, his superb book exposing their descent into Orwellian totalitarianism. China built up its own hardware and software systems, allowing it to embrace the digital world at high speed while ruthlessly controlling content.

These firms oversee citizens spending, their online thoughts, even their steps in the street as the country hurtles forward in facial and speech recognition technologies. They assist Chinas development of Social Credit, intended to protect against negative behaviour with those failing to follow state diktats excluded from best schools, jobs and even transport services.

We have seen all too often how Western firms seeking a share of the huge Chinese market shame themselves by capitulating to the Communist Party stance on issues such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. Meanwhile the state exports its digital Leninism to other dictatorships, aided by dire leadership and lack of confidence in democracies.

Beijing is pumping cash into winning the global battle of ideas in the arts, media and universities while also pouring vast sums into artificial intelligence with Xi demanding they occupy the commanding heights in this area. Here is the space race of this new cold war but China has been increasing spending on research four times faster than the United States.

These homegrown technology firms are in the vanguard of Xis drive to export his shuttered vision of society. Yet for all the fuss over Huawei, consider the lack of concern over Hikvision. The Chinese government is the controlling shareholder in this company, which began as a state research unit. Its boss attends the National Peoples Congress, the main body for rubber-stamping Communist Party decisions. It has been blacklisted by the United States for links to human rights violations.

Yet its surveillance systems are used by airports, councils and hospitals across Britain, with more than one millions of its cameras sucking up data and images across the country. How easily we let down our guard on the digital frontline.

Continued here:

The West is being naive about China's use of technology in this looming cold war - iNews

]]> The Italian navy aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) in Civitavecchia, Italy. Credit: Gaetano56.

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Leonardo and Italian shipyard Intermarine have signed an agreement to research and develop new technologies and pursue business opportunities in the military, as well as para-military in the naval industry.

Under the research and development agreement, the companies will renew minesweeper fleets, fast patrol boats, and hydrographic vessels.

The ten-year collaboration will generate business opportunities while focusing on the development of new generation products.

With specialisations in different areas, the industrial integration will strengthen the programmes for the renewal of fleets of hunting vessels, fast patrol boats and hydrographic vessels.

The companies Italian research centre and production plants will invest in robotics, unmanned technology, and naval engineering.

It will also invest in necessary aspects for the production of multirole units for both coastal and offshore vehicles.

The developed systems will have the capability to fight to mine and control the sea, meeting all mission requirements. Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

The development will support defence forces on a national and international level.

Earlier this month, Danish Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation (DALO) selected Leonardo for a potential future upgrade of gun mounts.

The possible upgrade work is part of a framework agreement signed by both parties. The scope of the 20-year deal may see the upgrade of 17 lightweight 76/62 Super Rapid gun mounts.

In June last year, the Italian Navy launched the lead vessel of a new class of multipurpose offshore patrol ships (PPA) at Fincantieris shipyard in Muggiano, La Spezia, Italy.

Known as Paolo Thaon di Revel, the vessel was the first of seven vessels planned to be acquired by the country.

Original post:

Leonardo and Intermarine to research and develop new technologies - Naval Technology

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on June 9 about unemployment insurance during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leah Millis/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The enhanced unemployment benefits supporting household income for millions of jobless Americans will soon lapse.

Lawmakers, scrambling to address the problem, remain at odds over what to do. And a solution that would likely appease both sides seems out of reach due to outdated technology.

Democrats want to extend the federal aid, which tacks an extra $600 a week onto the unemployment checks paid by states, past their scheduled July 31 end date.

Republicans want the aid to expire due to concern that it allows some workers to get unemployment benefits that exceed their lost wages. Some have proposed replacing it with a cash bonus for those who find new jobs.

Their answer would affect a large chunk of the population amid the worst employment crisis since the Great Depression. Nearly 30 million people are collecting jobless benefits.

But some may wonder: Why implement a policy that permits people to earn more while unemployed in the first place?

The answer, according to lawmakers and economists: antiquated technology forced their hand.

Lawmakers alluded to the issue during a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing on unemployment benefits.

Outdated state administrative systems couldn't ensure benefits for unemployed Americans would be capped at 100% of pay from their prior job, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said.

"Throughout negotiations, Secretary [of Labor Eugene] Scalia said that couldn't be done because the states run unemployment programs on Bronze Age technology that cannot crunch the numbers for individual workers," Wyden said.

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That's why lawmakers agreed to the current policy in the CARES Act a flat $600 a week for everyone was administratively more feasible, Wyden said.

States generally replace less than half of lost wages for unemployed workers. The $600 supplement aimed at replacing 100% of wages for the average worker, who makes about $1,000 a week.

It was a "rough justice approach," Wyden said.

Importantly, states likely couldn't accommodate anything more complicated than a flat universal payment after July, said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

They've had enough trouble administering the $600 payments, according to Portman. Indeed, many jobless individuals have had to wait months to receive their benefits.

While states "have made progress from where we were in March," according to Scalia, he didn't offer assurance that states were in the position to ensure 100% wage replacement.

Unemployment offices have been overwhelmed by a flood of applicants to systems whose technology had been calibrated to pre-pandemic times, when joblessness was at lows not witnessed in half a century.

Many systems use a computer-programming language called COBOL that's more than 60 years old and is often used on big, old, mainframe computers.

"Literally, we have systems that are 40 years-plus old, and there'll be lots of postmortems. And one of them on our list will be how did we get here where we literally needed COBOL programmers?" Chris Murphy, governor of New Jersey, said in April.

One state's system was "so arcane" that the governor had to hire computer programmers from Latvia, Scalia said, without mentioning the specific state.

A Labor Department spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.

State technology may not even be the biggest road block, according to some experts.

The vast expansion of unemployment benefits to previously ineligible groups, like self-employed and gig workers offered by the CARES Act, complicates states' ability to administer a benefit formula beyond a flat weekly payment, said Wayne Vroman, an economist at the Urban Institute.

Workers who had traditionally been eligible for unemployment insurance had their wages reported regularly to state unemployment offices by their employers. States use this wage information to gauge the weekly benefit amount workers receive in the event of a layoff.

However, self-employed workers don't provide this information to states like companies do for employees.

States have had to rely on self-reported earnings during the pandemic to pay benefits to self-employed and gig workers and have used a simpler formula in some cases to pay benefits.

Replacing the $600-a-week supplement with a formula capping benefits at 100% of prior wages would be incredibly challenging for these workers as a result, Vroman said.For one, states would need to somehow verify the veracity of their self-reported earnings, he said.

"Until there's reporting on those missing earnings, that's the biggest constraint that's caused problems for the state," Vroman said.

Continued here:

While Dems and GOP squabble over extending $600 unemployment benefits, outdated technology may slow any solution - CNBC

Mysore/Mysuru: ATME College of Engineering (ATMCE), Mysuru, had organised a two-day International Conference on Recent Trends in Science and Technology (ICRTST)-2020 through online meeting platform on June 17 and 18.

The Conference was inaugurated on June 17 by Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar, Vice-Chancellor (VC), University of Mysore in the presence of Dr. Syed Shakeeb Ur Rahman, Executive Council Member, VTU, Belagavi, Dr. Karisiddappa, VC, VTU, Belagavi, Dr. Chidananda Gowda, former VC, Kuvempu University and Management Committee Members.

Prof. Hemantha Kumar, during his address, mentioned that the researchers should get aligned by producing their research findings towards the benefits of the society, and the research works needs to be evaluated based on quality rather than quantity.

Dr. K. Chidananda Gowda stated: Science is the mother of all technology, and is a root for present technology. He further expressed his insights on Unhackable Internet, Quantum Computer, Artificial Intelligence and application in drugs discovery.

L. Arun Kumar, Chairman, ATMECE, in his presidential remarks, mentioned that COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lifestyle of every human being. We need to reorganise and re-orient ourselves in life and COVID-19 has set a reset button in our lives.

During this occasion, abstract of the conference proceeding were released by the dignitaries.

Keynote speaker, Dr. Md. Sultan Mohamed Ali, Professor, Control & Mechatronics Engg. Division, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, spoke on MEMS Actuators, Bio Medical Engineering, Micro Pumps and Micro Actuators.

Dr. Gopalan Jagdeesh, Professor, Department of Aero Space Engineering, IISc., Bengaluru, in his keynote address, spoke on jigsaw puzzles of hypersonic, shock waves and their applications in different field of science and reducing aerodynamic drag using smart coatings.

K. Shivashankar, Secretary, ATMECE, Mysuru, was present. Dr. L. Basavaraj, Principal, ATMECE, welcomed the gathering. Dr. L. Parthasarathy, Organising Chair, Professor and Head of EEE, delivered a report about the Conference. He mentioned that 194 articles out of 306 submissions are scheduled for presentation in the Conference.

The Conference was conducted observing the standard operating procedures mentioned by the Government of Karnataka during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Valedictory: The valedictory function of the Conference was held on June 18. K. Achutha Bachalli, Chairman, Unilog Solutions, was the chief guest. In his address, he spoke about the upcoming trends on technology specific to robotics, speech recognition and emphasised on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Dr. Syed Shakeeb Ur Rahman was the guest of honor. Authors received their presentation certificates on this occasion.

Read more from the original source:

Intl. Conference on Recent Trends in Science and Technology held - Star of Mysore

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Methyl Glucose Market by Technology, Application & Geography Analysis & Forecast to 2025 - 3rd Watch News

NHSX, the health service technology unit responsible for the governments failed contact-tracing app, attempted to block rival apps to protect its own, hampering efforts to track the early spread of the coronavirus.

Developers of several apps were urged to stop work by either NHSX or the Ministry of Defence, who told them their apps might distract attention from NHSXs app when it was launched. Last week the app was abandoned after three months, with work beginning on an alternative design without any deadline.

Prof Tim Spector, of Kings College London, said that NHSX had treated his Covid symptom tracker research team as the enemy. We were hampered from the beginning, in March when we first contacted NHSX, he told the Observer. They were very worried about our app taking attention away from theirs and confusing the public.

Lots of signals went to places like the universities, my university, the medical charities and the royal colleges not to back our app because that would interfere with their one.

When the pandemic hit the UK, tech workers, academics and health professionals responded to Boris Johnsons call for a national effort by creating smartphone apps to help track the spread of the virus.

The Covid Sympton Study app has 3.5 million users and has helped chart the emergence of symptoms such as the loss of taste and smell. Evergreen Life, with 800,000 users, has been working with the universities of Liverpool and Manchester and spotted signs of the outbreak in Middlesbrough before tests had been carried out. The governments app, meanwhile, was downloaded by tens of thousands of people on the Isle of Wight and never formally launched.

The rival apps could still form a vital part of the early warning system if, as some scientists fear, a second wave of Covid-19 hits the UK. The Covid Symptom Study app indicates that while the number of people reporting symptoms across the UK has been decreasing, numbers in London have remained static for the past three weeks.

Spector said that although people in the NHS had wanted to work with his team, they told him privately that everything needed to go through NHSX, which was set up by Matt Hancock after he became health secretary, and previously operated outside the main structure of the health service. We naively thought they would sort of take our app over or incorporate them into one, he said. The whole point was to help the NHS, to find the hotspots so they could get the resources to the right hospitals.

Instead, he said he was told the app was a problem. The idea was that this NHSX app was going to be the saviour, another world-beating thing, Spector said. It was going to be an all-singing, all-dancing app that does everything: diagnoses you, it tells you about tests for you and who youve come into contact with.

They were saying: This will make your app redundant. Their app would come out, thered be a huge blaze of publicity and everyone would drop our app. We said: Well, if that does happen, well hand over and work with you, its in the interests of the country. Theirs just got more and more delayed nothing ever happened. Ours got more and more successful, Spector said.

Had ministers backed the app in England, more people would have signed up more quickly, Spector said. We would have got more fine-grained data earlier. Their attitude prevented other branches of government working with us. Users of the Covid Symptom Study who report symptoms can now order a test directly through the app. That would have started earlier, he said.

Spector said he was working with the joint biosecurity centre, which has been set up to create an early warning system for Covid-19 and other diseases. Plenty of people within the NHS have been very helpful, he said, naming Sir Patrick Vallance, the governments chief scientific adviser. Kings will be launching a campaign on Monday to persuade the government to support the app.

The devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland also adopted the app early on. We have proportionally many more users there, he said. I know, from speaking to other people from the Ministry of Defence who were helping out, they put even more pressure on some of the other apps to close them down early.

NHSX has set up Project Oasis to gather data from eight tracking apps. One technology firm characterised the relationship between them as keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Ian Gass of Agitate, which set up Ink C-19, an app designed to make reporting symptoms as simple as possible, said he was approached by the MoD in March and described the interaction as not friendly: Not that it was aggressive, but I got the impression that there was just a lot of panic going on in governmental circles, and they didnt know what to do or how to do it. They intimated that theyre doing stuff, and we dont want others doing it.

Agitate is a leading expert in tech security and Gass tried to advise NHSX in March that its app design, which attempted to use Bluetooth signals to sense when a phone came close to another, was flawed. In theory, the app was supposed to keep a record of other phones, and if a person developed symptoms, the app could send an alert to those phones. Yet the app only recognised 4% of Apple phones using Bluetooth.

The whole overall approach at the moment is this weird, almost paranoid state where the government says publicly that theyre asking for help, but then they dont want it, Gass said.

Read more:

NHS Covid app developers 'tried to block rival symptom trackers' - The Guardian

The coronavirus pandemic has led to an urgent focus on medical research to develop a vaccine or a cure for the deadly pathogen.

But it has also sparked innovation in other areas of technology, as companies and universities have sought to develop products that can help contain the spread of the infection.

While some inventions have been created from scratch, others have stemmed from adapting existing technology.

Here are five examples, developed in the UAE and around the world, that have been inspired by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Contact with contaminated objects can spread the coronavirus, so researchers at UAE University have developed a touchless keypad for elevators.

Already deployed at Abu Dhabi International Airport, the technology uses infra-red sensors to detect fingers when they are 3cm away. The user simply puts his or her finger close to the button without touching it.

We went through different approaches, mainly for selecting the best sensors," said Dr Fady Al Najjar, co-founder of Meta Touch, the company at UAE Universitys Science and Innovation Park that developed the keypad.

"It took about one-and-a-half months. We were working intensively because of the requirement to do this as soon as possible.

We came up with three or four prototypes until we got the current prototype, but its not actually finished. Were trying to develop different types and to enhance it.

The hope is that the system will continue to be deployed after the pandemic, helping to prevent the spread of future infections.

With governments recommending the public to stay at least one metre, or in some cases two metres, apart, inventors have created alarm systems that activate when individuals get too close.

Meta Touch at UAE Universitys Science and Innovation Park has developed a system that uses thermal cameras to detect where people are. The cameras do not record details of faces, so privacy is safeguarded.

It will be just a reminder, like an alarm, that beeps when people get very close to each other," said Dr Al Najjar of Meta Touch. "It will beep to remind people to keep their distance."

New systems have also been developed that can ustilise existing cameras, including CCTV networks.

Scylla, a US and Armenian firm, uses artificial intelligence software to interpret surveillance camera footage and alert controllers if people get too close to one another.

If theyre congregating too much, maybe the tannoy announcer can say, Please be mindful of social distancing and keep two metres apart, said Elliot Zissman, a regional director for the firm.

Temperature sensors are not a perfect way to identify those infected with coronavirus, since some people can be asymptomatic.

Nevertheless, they are able to identify a proportion of individuals with Covid-19 and are widely deployed at borders, schools and other venues.

When vast numbers of people need to be tested, however, scanning a crowd with cameras can become more efficient.

Scyllas system does just that by using a thermal camera and artificial intelligence to identify peoples foreheads and pinpoint individuals with a high temperature.

As people walk across the field of vision of the camera, its taking multiple measurements," said Mr Zissman of manufacturer Scylla.

"What the software allows is to look at all these people walking past and spot the outlier. All of this can be done in less than half a second."

While the coronavirus has led to many high-tech innovations, some are remarkably simple.

None more so than the hygiene hook, a hand-held hook that can open and close doors, eliminating the need to touch them with hands.

Some versions have a small flat surface on the end of them so that they can also be used to push buttons on lifts or punch the keys of an ATM machine.

While these hooks existed before the pandemic, designers have been releasing versions in response to what they expect to be an increase in demand.

The hooks can easily be washed as they are typically made of non-porous materials such as plastic or metal.

Prices range widely, starting at about $1 for the most basic types and going up to about $15 for larger models.

Wristbands are being promoted for their ability to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

One such device is Immunotouch, developed by a company based in Seattle, United States, called Slightly Robot.

Using an algorithm to interpret data from a gravity sensor or gravimeter, the wristband can determine if a persons hand is approaching his or her face and activate a buzzer.

The mouth, nose and eyes are all potential points where the new coronavirus can enter the body, so people can infect themselves if their hands are contaminated.

Originally developed to discourage habits such as nail-biting and hair-pulling, the Immunotouch has found renewed use since the coronavirus emerged.

Other forms of wristband are used to promote social distancing, with built-in alarms set off when the wearer steps too close to another person wearing another device. The carmaker Ford has been trialling their use to keep factory workers apart.

Updated: June 21, 2020 11:32 AM

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Coronavirus: 5 technologies inspired by the pandemic - The National