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New Microchip Can Mimic How a Human Brain Thinks
Researchers from the University of Zurich, have created neuromorphic chips that can mimic the way a human brain will process information in real-time.
With the assistance of an artificial sensory processing system, these chips are able to display cognitive abilities.
Giacomo Indiveri, professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, explained that the goal of the team was to “emulate the properties of biological neurons and synapses directly on microchips.”
With the creation of artificial neuromorphic neurons that can perform specified tasks, the researchers are able to further advancement toward a complex sensorimotor that can complete tasks in real-time.
Shockingly, behavior can be replicated by input formulated in a finite-state machine that could be transferred into neuromorphic hardware.
Indiveri stated: “The network connectivity patterns closely resemble structures that are also found in mammalian brains.”
Researchers at the University of Berkley have suggested implanting mind-reading “neural dust” into human brains to facilitate connectivity of man to machine.
If this dust were sprinkled onto a human brain, it could form an “implantable neural interface system that remains viable for a lifetime.”
This dust would consist of particles no more than 100 micrometers across that would Full Article Here
No snow in Siberia? Locals marvel – and worry – at the ‘snow shortage’
These extraordinary pictures give graphic new evidence of climate change.
Recently, experts have sounded warnings about the impact of climate change, with one warning that the energy-rich Yamal Peninsula in Siberia could be flooded due to a rise in sea levels – along with some famous cities. Picture from Barnaul, Western Siberia, courtesy Sergey Scherbin, Barnaul.fm
We highlight December images taken in recent days in two Siberian cities Krasnoyarsk and Barnaul showing scenes that locals insist are unprecedented in living memory. The startling pictures from Krasnoyarsk show an almost total absence of snow yet as every school child around the world knows, snow is what Siberia is all about.
No more, it seems. The images of the River Yenisei with ducks splashing in the water, and grass in the parks, could be from autumn rather than deep in the winter in a city where December temperatures have gone as low as minus 47C, and the daily mean in minus 13C at this time of year, with plenty of snow on the ground.
As in many areas of Siberia this winter, the thermometer is reluctant to plummet to customary bone-chilling temperatures. Last night when we checked outside, it was a mere minus 3C. Day time temperatures lately have been warmer. As mother-of-two Anastasia said from Krasnoyarsk: ‘I’m reading a book to my children and I hear the tapping of the rain in my ear. Rain? Rain??? Rain in the middle of December? In Siberia?’ Full Article Here
Christians face ‘organised persecution’ from Islamists in Middle East, says Prince Charles
Christians in the Middle East are being “deliberately attacked” in a campaign of persecution led by Islamist militants, Prince Charles said.
Prince Charles and Prince Ghazi bin Mohammad of Jordan (right) arrive for a visit to a Syriac Orthodox Church in London (Reuters) According to BBC News reports, Prince Charles said he felt deeply troubled by what he heard from victims yesterday.
Many minority religious organisations have fled the region in the turmoil following the Arab Spring, and in Egypt particularly violence against Coptic Christians saw a marked increase after Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi was overthrown.
Yesterday the Prince of Wales visited a number of British branches of churches based in the region, and heard from members whose families had suffered from religiously-motivated violence and murder.
Accompanied by Prince Ghazi of Jordan, he spoke to people at the Egyptian Coptic Church centre in Stevenage and the Syriac Orthodox cathedral in west London, before a reception at Clarence House with the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster and the Chief Rabbi.
“We cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are, increasingly, being deliberately attacked by Read more…
China Moon Landing A Military Threat
China’s December 15th soft-landing of an unmanned spacecraft on the moon was celebrated by the Xinhua news agency as, “The dream for lunar exploration once again lights up the China Dream.” China’s neighbors saw the action as a nightmare demonstration of China’s ability to launch a Multiple Reentry Vehicle ballistic missile, whose payload can deploy multiple nuclear warheads aimed to hit a group of targets. China’s provocative moves are creating a muscular arms race in Asia.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a major report last May arguing China would be a “coercive power” in enforcement of its way with Japan, but emphasized that economic interdependence with the United States and the rest of Asia would prevent a major Cold-War style confrontation with China in the region. Carnegie claimed that despite hawkish rhetoric from Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s economic troubles and political paralysis would prevent it from countering China’s increasing military capabilities. Carnegie obviously failed to consider Japan’s last two decades of increasing militarization. When it comes to intimidation, Japan and an increasing number of Asian nations will aggressively confront China.
As I reported on December 3rd in “Energy Drives Asian Military Confrontation,” China and other Asian export economies are at risk of losing tens of millions of manufacturing jobs due to America’s huge advantage in energy cost from fracking more than offsetting Asia’s traditional labor cost advantage. China announced last month that it would begin enforcing an expanded offshore Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) as sovereign territory that would capture the Full Article Here
A&E Kicks Phil Robertson off Duck Dynasty for Comparing Homosexuality to Bestiality
New Russian Air-to-Air Missiles Will Field Almost Perfect Accuracy
Russia’s new T-50-variant Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (PAK FA) may feature the most accurate air-to-air missile system ever devised. The new system specifically targets the ability of skilled fighter pilots to engage in violent maneuvers to break missile locks in older-generation technology, based on a radar system held within the nose of the missile.
The new missile, pegged the K-77M, was described by Russia Today as an “absolute killer.” It notes that what sets the K-77M’s technology apart from its counterparts is the implementation of a “active phased array antenna (APAA)” which essentially solves the lock-on problem by addressing the radar’s “field of view” problem. Previously, this limitation allowed pilots to swing their jets out of the range of a tailing guided missile when in close proximity, evading the scope of the radar’s view. The K-77M essentially implements a solution similar to the Raytheon’s Patriot surface-to-air (SAM) missile system, according to Russia Today.
Russia Today explains the technology in more detail: “An active phased array antenna consists of Full Article Here
The sound made by your computer could give away your encryption keys…
One of the first computers I was ever allowed to use all on my own was a superannuated ICL-1901A, controlled from a Teletype Model 33.
One of the processor’s address lines was wired up to a speaker inside the teletype, producing an audible click every time that address bit changed.
The idea was that you could, quite literally, listen to your code running.
Loops, in particular, tended to produce recognisable patterns of sound, as the program counter iterated over the same set of memory adresses repeatedly.
This was a great help in debugging – you could count your way through a matrix multiplication, for instance, and keep track of how far your code ran before it crashed.
You could even craft your loops (or the data you fed into them) to produce predictable frequencies for predictable lengths of time, thus producing vaguely tuneful – and sometimes even recognisable – musical output.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
So it was with considerable amusement that I read a Full Article Here
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