the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

globinfo freexchange Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss China's superiority in supercomputer power field and the possible impact on China's domination in the CryptoCurrency markets of the future. As Herbert describes based on a related article from Technology Review : If you want to crunch the world’s biggest problems, head east. According to a newly published ranking, not only is China home to the world’s two fastest supercomputers, it also has 202 of the world’s fastest 500 such devices—more than any other nation. Meanwhile, America’s fastest device limps into fifth place in the charts, and the nation occupies just 144 of the top 500 slots, making it second according to that metric. The world’s fastest supercomputer is still TaihuLight, housed at the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, China. Capable of performing 93 quadrillion calculations per second, it’s almost three times faster than the second-place Tianhe-2. The Department of Energy’s fifth-pla...

A secretive British police investigation focusing on journalists who have worked with Edward Snowden’s leaked documents is still active more than four years after it was launched, The Intercept has learned. The investigation – codenamed “Operation Curable” – is being led by a counterterrorism unit within London’s Metropolitan Police, under the direction of the force’s head of Specialist Operations, Mark Rowley. The Metropolitan Police confirmed the status of the investigation last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The disclosure that the probe remains active prompted criticism on Monday from the National Union of Journalists, the U.K.’s largest journalists’ organization. Sarah Kavanagh, a spokesperson for the group, said that news reports based on the Snowden documents had exposed unlawful covert surveillance activities in the public interest. “ The media are often the only group in society able to reveal the intelligence and secur...

Οι ηλεκτρονικοί υπολογιστές που χρησιμοποιούνται για την παραγωγή του κρυπτονομίσματος Bitcoin καταναλώνουν μέσα σε ένα χρόνο όση ενέργεια καταναλώνει ολόκληρη η Ελλάδα σε ένα εξάμηνο. Συγκεκριμένα, σύμφωνα με έρευνα του Digiconomist, οι μηχανές του δικτύου του Bitcoin καταναλώνουν 30,14 TWh (Τεραβατώρες) ανά έτος, τη στιγμή που αντίστοιχη ποσότητα (περίπου 28,2 TWh ) χρειάζεται η Ελλάδα ανά εξάμηνο. Η ιδιαίτερα μεγάλη κατανάλωση οφείλεται στο ότι στο δίκτυο του Bitcoin ιδιαίτερα ενεργοβόρες μηχανές λειτουργούν αδιάκοπα, προκειμένουν να επιβεβαιώσουν τις συναλλαγές που πραγματοποιούνται με το κρυπτονόμισμα. Καθώς η βάση της αξιοπιστίας του είναι ότι οι συναλλαγές επιβεβαιώνονται μέσω αλγορίθμων, η τεράστια κατανάλωση ενέργειας είναι το τίμημα που πρέπει να πληρωθεί για να αποφεύγονται οι απάτες. Για κάθε μία συναλλαγή με Bitcoin υπολογίζεται ότι απαιτούνται περίπου 300KWh. Οι πληροφορίες αυτές κυκλοφορούν λίγες μέρες αφ’ότου η τιμή του Bitcoin έφτασε στα...

This article reassesses the relationships of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense with the American entertainment industry. Both governmental institutions present their relationships as modest in scale, benign in nature, passive, and concerned with historical and technical accuracy rather than politics. The limited extant commentary reflects this reassuring assessment. However, we build on a patchy reassessment begun at the turn of the 21st century, using a significant new set of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. We identify three key facets of the state-entertainment relationship that are under-emphasized or absent from the existing commentary and historical record: 1. The withholding of available data from the public; 2. The scale of the work; and 3. The level of politicization. As such, the article emphasizes a need to pay closer attention to the deliberate propaganda role played by state agencies in promoting the US national s...

Part 3 The idea of a universal basic income for all citizens, regardless of employment status, is an attractive one. Few would disagree with the idea of creating a safety net to ensure that someone who is down on their luck or unemployed could afford food, shelter and clothing at a minimum. However, extending universal basic income to the entire working population of a large country could be less feasible than introducing it in certain cities or for select populations. For example, there are presently around 32 million employed adults in the UK plus almost another nine million economically inactive individuals aged 16-64. If each of these roughly 40 million people received, say, £500 each month, this would equate to almost £20 billion a month or £240 billion a year – approximately double the annual NHS budget. It’s difficult to imagine this occurring at a time when governments across Europe are taking every opportunity to implement austerity. Billionaire...

Part 4 In a 2007 paper titled “Of Networks and Nations,” John Arquilla, an expert of new patterns of warfare at the Naval Postgraduate School, argued that loosely knit sets of global and regional networks, enabled by the internet, had begun to challenge the authority of nation-states in the same way that nation-states had challenged the authority of empires a century earlier. In recent years, transnational militant groups, civil society activists, and hackers have all been able to inflict defeats on lumbering state adversaries, in part by leveraging the speed of connectivity and communication afforded by the internet. “ The networks came to push, to prod, and to confront. They came to solve the supranational problems of injustice, inequity and environmental degradation that a nation-based capitalist system could never, in their view, deal with adequately, ” wrote Arquilla. “ In short, the networks came to change things, and they came not in peace but with swor...

globinfo freexchange Kit Walsh, a staff attorney at EFF, working on free speech, net neutrality, copyright, coders' rights, and other issues, spoke to Aaron Mate and The Real News about the latest developments on Trump administration's attempt to kill Net Neutrality. Walsh gave an example of how the corporate cartel on the Internet field will attempt to sabotage independent websites that are not aligned with the mainstream media narratives, in case that the plan of the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, will pass through Congress. Walsh also revealed that there is a continuous fierce fight between the public who overwhelmingly supports free Internet and the corporate monopolies who seek to impose a covert censorship through a new McCarthyism in order to silent the truly independent information inside the Web. Walsh describes the kind of blackmail and sabotage against an independent news website like the Real News: For instan...

του Αρη Χατζηστεφάνου Η δήλωση του υπουργού Άμυνας ότι η Ελλάδα ανήκει «στον ίδιο άξονα με τη Σαουδική Αραβία» αποτελεί τη δημόσια παραδοχή μιας πολιτικής που οικοδομείται στην Αθήνα από την πρώτη στιγμή της διακυβέρνησης ΣΥΡΙΖΑΝΕΛ. Τώρα, με δεδομένες τις εκρηκτικές εξελίξεις που πυροδοτεί η κατάρρευση του μετώπου του ISIS στη Μέση Ανατολή, αυτή η σύμπραξη απειλεί να σύρει τη χώρα σε εξαιρετικά επικίνδυνα μονοπάτια τόσο για την εξωτερική όσο και την εσωτερική της ασφάλεια. Τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες η Ουάσινγκτον αποτελούσε ταυτόχρονα σύμμαχο του Ισραήλ και της Σαουδικής Αραβίας – δυο χωρών που θεωρητικά τουλάχιστον βρίσκονταν σε ανειρήνευτη αντιπαράθεση από τις αρχές της δεκαετίας του ’70 με τον πόλεμο του Γιομ Κιπούρ και τον πετρελαϊκό αποκλεισμό που αποφάσισε ο ΟΠΕΚ. Όπως έχουμε εξηγήσει όμως πολλές φορές στο παρελθόν το Ριάντ και το Τελ Αβίβ αποφάσισαν εδώ και χρόνια να ενώσουν τις δυνάμεις τους απέναντι στον βασικό τους εχθρό, το Ιράν. Οι πρώτες επαφές...

Beijing’s Dongfeng-41 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test was broadcast over China Central Television on Sunday, about one week after images of the multi-warhead missile went viral across Chinese social media platforms. The missile has been tested eight times, according to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, which reported that the most recent launch took place early November somewhere in China's western desert region. DF-41 is one of the farthest traveling ICBMs in the world, rubbing shoulders with Israel's Jericho 3, Russia's RS-26 Rubezh and the US' LGM-30 Minuteman III. According to Chinese state media, the ICBM has a range of 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles), can strike within 328 feet (100 meters) of its intended target, and cruises faster than Mach 10 (7,672 miles per hour). The missile measures approximately 16.5 meters (54 feet) in length and 2.78 meters in diameter (9.1 feet) and carries up to 10 warheads...

Paris is seeking to establish closer working ties with its former colonies in West Africa. Speaking to Sputnik, some African observers characterized French President Emmanuel Macron's African tour as a sign of "transition" in relations, while others insist that Africa needs to gain independence from French dominance. French President Emmanuel Macron has embarked on a three-day tour to visit Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast and Ghana in order to present a new model of relations with the continent based on "education, investment and business development." Still, critics say that Macron's strategy is new in name only. The continent's student associations and trade unions cite the fact that Paris' repeated promises to modernize Franco-African relations have yet to be fulfilled. Meanwhile, citing Radio France International, Reuters wrote Tuesday that a grenade was thrown at French soldiers injuring three civilians in the Burkin...

This article reassesses the relationships of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense with the American entertainment industry. Both governmental institutions present their relationships as modest in scale, benign in nature, passive, and concerned with historical and technical accuracy rather than politics. The limited extant commentary reflects this reassuring assessment. However, we build on a patchy reassessment begun at the turn of the 21st century, using a significant new set of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. We identify three key facets of the state-entertainment relationship that are under-emphasized or absent from the existing commentary and historical record: 1. The withholding of available data from the public; 2. The scale of the work; and 3. The level of politicization. As such, the article emphasizes a need to pay closer attention to the deliberate propaganda role played by state agencies in promoting the US national s...

Part 2 Ongoing advancements in technology are expected to lead to further job losses in future. Accountancy firm PwC predict that in the UK up to 30 percent (10 million) existing, mostly low-skilled and manual jobs could be taken over by robots within the next 15 years. Economies with comparable figures are the US (38 percent), Germany (35 percent) and Japan (21 percent). According to PwC’s chief economist John Hawksworth “ jobs where you've got more of a human touch, like health and education, ” which do not easily lend themselves to automation are expected to be somewhat protected. Some job losses could be offset as new industries develop on the back of the growth in robotics and AI. However, there are concerns that workers lacking the necessary skills to prosper in the coming years could be left behind in this 21st century industrial revolution, leading to greater income inequality. Introducing a universal basic income for all citizens, to create a saf...

Part 3 During the initial upsurge of enthusiasm about the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions, observers noted how effectively social media had been used as an organizing tool by young activists. While it would be overstating the case to attribute the revolutions themselves to social media (as some of the more breathless analyses did at the time), the impact that online social networks, cellphones, and new satellite television stations had on mobilizing and informing people in these societies was undeniable. The idea of young people using social media to topple dictatorships played into the narrative of “tech-utopianism,” still in vogue at the time, stimulating the idea that future political changes might be organized from below through the liberating power of the internet. The grim years that followed the initial uprisings have mostly dispelled this narrative. While liberal activists were adept at organizing online, so were political Islamists and jihadist groups. These groups...

The WIKILEAKS Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents released by the US State Department systematic declassification review. globinfo freexchange A cable from April 2008 gives details about an Israeli operation to destroy a Syrian nuclear reactor under construction. Three interesting remarks are: 1st, the fact that the cable describes that Israel acted without th...