For a second I thought, OMG they're arming (as in giving weapons) to their supercomputers! I had no idea that Chinese A.I. was so advanced, maybe Elon Musk (and Putin?) are right! (Elon Musk is afraid of the Roboapocalypse and Putin said whoever controls A.I. will control the world).
Anyway, does anyone have an idea how well these systems perform with the native (home grown in China) processors? Are they using the ARM chips as a backup plan or have they even given up on their own efforts? (doubtful). By the way, is China still restricted from access to U.S. Supercomputer technology (seems hardly worth it now) and perhaps that category should be extended to include A.I.?
Finally, does the fact that everyone(?) seems to have settled on this sort of large exa-scale clusters of Von-Neumann processors mean that the debate over which architecture is completely over? A long long time ago, there were some efforts I remember to more closely couple memory and CPU, like in Thinking Machines systems. Are those efforts dead? Is it due to the difficulty in writing software for fundamentally different execution sequences/memory sharing?
or quantum encryption or photographic evidence or eye-witnesses testifying under oath.
People will still believe that Obama wasn't born in America.
Perhaps only if it was in the Bible (and in BOTH testaments and inscribed on the Ten Commandments and the Dead Sea scrolls) would they be willing put aside their prejudices (by the way, that word is derived from PRE JUDGMENT) to face reality. Why? Because these people, and I'll call a spade a spade here, are RACIST. (And I'm not even Black!) No amount of technology can conquer bigotry.:( So don't get your hopes up to high that blockchain will solve all your verification needs.
America (and the World?) has got a long long way to go before racism is eliminated. I'm not holding my breath for it:(
If North Korea is building up a bitcoin stash, then maybe there would be some way for the NSA to cripple the bitcoin currency and wipe out North Korea's savings. (Of course all other bitcoin holders would be bankrupted, sorry!) Either they could find some vulnerability in the blockchain protocols or, through hacking, infiltrate and damage (okay steal) enough digital wallets as to undermine people's confidence in the currency.
Remember that bitcoin, like all money, is only as good as the TRUST people put in it as a store of value. If people can't rely on it, or if it's too easily stolen then that trust goes out the window and the value of the bitcoins will crash.
Of course this assumes that the NSA has the ability to do these things. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But when we see the power of just (presumably) some of their stolen tools, who knows what else they have? I've heard they've got the largest number of mathematicians employed in the world. Hmm... could Bitcoin even be an NSA invention? Perhaps this is a long term trap? (I doubt it though, way too much foresight involved).
Questions: Would a working quantum computer be able to do bitcoin (or other blockchain algorithms) calculations at speeds far greater than conventional or even specialized CPUs? In which case will the first organization to have such a machine be able to profit immensely (before destroying the entire market)?
Is the recent run up of bitcoin prices perhaps due to the North Koreans buying/stealing bitcoins because otherwise they'll have no other way of obtaining hard currency? (It would be ironic if so; they'd be going from "hard" currencies to something that is completely abstract).
I would LOVE to get a copy of this program and, not only try it out on myself and my friends, (I think we're relatively secure in our sexuality) but try it on famous people.
Specifically: Republican lawmakers and perhaps even Christian preachers! (How about Mr. Macho himself, Putin?)
I really, really know I'm going to be down-modded for this but please hear me out. Haven't you wondered why those people who are so against homosexuality often turn out to be gay themselves? (Dennis Hastert and that lawmaker caught in the men's restroom soliciting a cop come to mind). Maybe it's because they are so ashamed that the only way they can bury their feelings is to actively suppress it. That's fine if you don't want to face the truth but the problem is being lawmakers, representatives of God, they infringe on many, many other peoples lives. So let's drag them out of the closet and into the photo booth! (Actually I don't think that'll be necessary, from what little I've read about this algorithm it doesn't require any particular lighting or "orientation" (ha ha) for the photo so many of the pictures of these famous people should be just fine.)
On a more serious note: This is just the latest in a trend of events which a friend of mine has said is "the end of privacy". With technologies like these (soon I'm sure they'll be able to analyze videos to see, by looking at imperceptible* subtle face color flushing and breathing patterns, who is attracted to whom), social media and the hack of personal databases like Equifax, NOTHING will be able to be kept secret. I wouldn't doubt that the CIA is already using some of this stuff to determine, remotely, if someone is lying on camera when they say something. It will be hard to legislature laws to keep it out of business and impossible to keep out of statecraft.
Just wondering, now that they have an 11 story (I think) tall empty, lightweight booster sitting on the pad, will they be able to get in indoors before Irma comes and literally blows it away?
Even if they do, are the structures strong enough to take a direct hit? (I guess so, they've been around since the space age).
Kudo's as always to Space X and their flabbergastingly awesome repeat landings of their booster stages! No matter how cheap the competition (China?) makes their expendable boosters, you can't beat reusing them. I understand that the Falcon Heavy has passed its engine tests (a cluster of three Falcon 9s). Good luck for their November launch! Please, please make getting to orbit 10x then 100x cheaper! (Unrealistic maybe but I can dream).
Too bad that the X-37Bs don't have enough delta-V to get themselves to orbit without using a second stage (with external fuel tanks?). Then we'd have an (almost) completely reusable launch system!
I don't know what level of critical thinking goes into people's objections to Obamacare versus how much they deny Evolution (maybe none). All I'm saying is that there's a very clear correlation (not causation) between people (some conservatives) who for the last seven years have been trying to repeal Obamacare (because, and let me call a spade a spade here, they're RACIST) and those who don't believe in Evolution. (Now that they actually have the opportunity to overturn it, they realize that without the black man behind it, it's not so bad.)
Of course what this article brings up is that these "beliefs", and yes they are beliefs because they are not coming from facts (hence the flip-flop on Obamacare) are based on IDENTITY POLITICS. So the same person who believes that Obama was a muslim, wasn't born in the U.S., is part of a worldwide Jihad, etc. is likely to not believe in Evolution, Climate Change or that Obamacare was a carefully thought out negotiated plan with over 100 public hearings (and still far from perfect but short of completely changing the entire "free-market" medical industry, the best they could do). Of course, beliefs (like religion) Trumps all so when a person has these beliefs they'll bend whatever facts there are to fit them, hence the more certainty against climate change amongst better educated Republicans.
I do hope that perhaps there is a point where facts will overwhelm one's misguided "beliefs" like the assertion that "this storm season isn't anything special" in the face of the fact of possibly TWO 500 year storms happening in a few weeks of each other. (The probability of that occurring in a single year let alone a few weeks is 0.002 x 0.002 or 0.000004. That's four chances in a Million! Do you play the lottery? Do you EXPECT to win?).
That's why misguided beliefs can ruin a nation and one's own finances. If you think otherwise, you should buy waterfront property in Texas or Florida, it'll be cheap and the next storm this big won't be back for another 500 years. The only good thing about the accelerated pace of Climate Change is that, when I started following it more than a decade ago, I didn't think it's effects would be locally obvious while I was still alive (and it was only a problem for our unfortunate children). Now only the most die-hard denialist would think about investing in these properties. Will you? Then give my regards to Bankruptcy court!
Are you willing to go on the PERMANENT record (thanks to the never forgetting Internet) so that people you care about (friends, spouses, children, grandchildren) know that you:
Denied the overwhelming scientific consensus on Climate Change? Thought Obamacare was a disaster? Refused to believe in Evolution? (This is my particular interest, I am a genetic engineer. Now that we can see Evolution happening right down to the molecular level, disputing it is laughable. Not to mention "Nothing in Biology makes sense without it").
Or for that matter: Think the Federal Government was planning to take over Texas in 2015 (The "Jade" something or other exercise)? Believe that there is a Pizza parlor in Washington D.C. that was a front for Democratic pedophiles? Think that because Trump criticized Clinton on Goldman Sachs he wouldn't end up in their pocket?
I could go on but you get the picture. How many times do you have to be proven WRONG and been a victim of FAKE NEWS before you learn some critical thinking? Not only are you hurting the republic by voting for idiots (Bush) or frauds (Trump) but you are really hurting yourselves by believing that these leaders will help you (the working class) instead of just making them and their super rich friends richer, and by making stupid decisions like buying waterfront property in places like Texas and Florida.
Anyway, if thinking won't get you to reflect on your positions; maybe shame will. How about you tell the ones you care about the social media accounts like slashdot where you post things? Assuming you at least have the balls to not post Anonymously, tell them your username. Let them see what you really think. (I have, in fact I'm proud to show them).
Of course if Climate Change really is a hoax, and the Republicans come up with a much better replacement to Obamacare and God LITERALLY created the animals in one go (and forever fixed their attributes), then your friends and children and grandchildren will see you as the genius you are!
another failing satellite. Evidently some of the atomic clocks on the Indian equivalent to the U.S.'s GPS system are failing thus preventing their system from becoming functional. This will probably seriously further delay their system.
I believe that the system was limited (not for global use) to begin with, it was only meant to provide coverage for their part of the world (South Asia). Unfortunately this does not look good in comparison to the U.S., Russian, European and of course Chinese global systems. I have heard that the European system has also had problems, do they share the same vendor for their clocks? (I'm not sure but I heard the Indians outsourced their atomic clocks to a Swiss company?)
For those of you who read about that absolutely crazy idea to send chip-scale (or chip "mass", they may be very thin objects like a film) interstellar probes riding on gigawatt beams of laser light (that would accelerate them to.2C in a few hours!), "maybe" this helps solve a problem.
How do they communicate with Earth?
This might allow them to RECEIVE (over interstellar distances?) a very powerful signal even if they are very tiny. The only problem is, I don't see how they could SEND back data; in addition to antenna size don't you need power? (My knowledge of physics is woefully inadequate to evaluate this). Short of them carrying self-replicating nanobots that could construct a large antenna at the destination using local materials (and local power), I don't see how even having a good antenna would allow them to get a signal over trillions of kilometers with even an enormous (space-based) receiving antenna. Does anyone know how the Starshot project intended on sending a signal back?
On the other, for LOCAL communications (say for chip sized probes scattered over a wide area), this might be a key breakthrough. Imagine a carrier spacecraft with a powerful communications subsystem settling into orbit around say Titan. It spews hundreds (thousands?) of these little chips which, with a little protection/good surface/weight ratio might be able to gently break into Titan's thick atmosphere. Then, once on the "ground" (or floating in the Titan seas) they could communicate back to the orbiter which would then relay the observations back to Earth. (How to keep them powered in the low light/liquid nitrogen temperatures is an exercise left to the reader).
Or this could be great for surveillance (or spying) or wildlife cameras (or spying) or ingestible sensors/cameras (or spying)
Uh, "Average-Sized" is very different in a lot of places in the world. At one extreme is a place like where I live, in Vietnam. Most woman, while not rail thin, are not very fat. On the other hand, a place like the American Samoas, I understand people there are very overweight. Even in the U.S. whereas people in the big cities pay a bit more attention to their waistlines (and in some places like Colorado really go out of their way to stay in shape), a quick trip to the mid-west will make you realize that humans come in some pretty big sizes.
Hollywood, being a den of actors/actresses/people working in coffee shops waiting to be discovered, has an unusually high proportion of young attractive people. So if the casting director walks down the street maybe they have a skewed sense of "Average-Sized". (Or maybe they're just trying to sell tickets)
on why it won't take over the earth and why, those who believe it do are distracting themselves from other more serious problems with A.I. (and other problems in general of course).
Unfortunately, as this video of a (Ted?) talk makes clear, there are some pretty prominent individuals who think this way (Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawkins) but it makes a convincing case without being histrionic that they're wrong. The video is so compelling that although I have the greatest respect for these individuals, (and a deep fascination with A.I. and career involving technology), I have to say, in this case, I disagree with them (and wish they'd turn their brilliance towards something more useful).
Wow, it appears like we are really getting close to being able to answer the question: are we alone in the Universe?
I'm amazed that they were able to detect the "wobbles" using (relatively) inexpensive ground-based telescopes. Just a little bit of improvement and they'll be able to detect earth sized planets (although maybe 1.7x mass isn't too bad; I think the surface gravity might be just a little higher depending on the density).
Soon, a space based telescope (the James Web ST?) may, with these super-sensitive instruments, be able to take the next crucial step and determine the composition of their atmospheres. If they detect free oxygen or other products of biological (or even industrial!) by-products, we'll know that there's life elsewhere in the universe! Maybe we'll find out sooner this way than a similar positive result coming from a probe we send to Mars, Europa, Enceladus or Titan.
Of course, although I'm hoping that we'll see a biological signal, I really really doubt we'll see something that is the product of a technological civilization. Unfortunately, we still don't know the answer to Fermi's paradox. (I really wish the Chinese would take their new giant radio telescope and dedicate it to looking for signals). Until we hear from someone; we'll have to assume that maybe (intelligent) life in the Universe is rare.
I mean, you'd really have to pay me a significant premium (not saying you couldn't) to do my job (bioinformatics/genetic engineering) in a country where there is not even a pretense of privacy/access to uncensored news. Of course, (almost) everyone has a price for (almost) every job so I guess they can just keep raising the salary until someone bites, they've got the money. (I realize that there are very few people in the world who fit their qualifications but there are some and I'm sure some of them might be tempted).
The U.S. has tremendously benefited from China developing this way. If it wasn't so draconian on its suppression of (human) rights in the preservation of order (and the enrichment of party members), a lot more ethnic Chinese might be tempted to go. I personally know some Chinese-Americans who are quite prominent in their scientific field (no I didn't go to M.I.T. "Made In Taiwan" but close by!) who have no interest at all in working in Mainland China despite being actively recruited by the government there (basically every time they go to a conference there, someone will approach them). When you look at the number of scientists of (probably) Chinese descent contributing to American and European science (just look at the surnames of the authors of articles on "sciencedaily.com") you'll realize how much of our scientific dominance is due to their work.
I live in Vietnam and we've had our internet access severely crippled seven (eight, nine?) times in the last few years because the submarine cables connecting the country to the rest of the world have been mysteriously severed.
I've looked at the map and it seems that every time, the approximate place where the cables (I believe all three of the ones that currently connect Vietnam) have been cut has been in a place that it would only affect Vietnam. For example the Asian American Gateway cable connects the U.S. with a bunch of nations here but I think it was only in the spur that connects Vietnam that was cut.
Of course it could be due to natural causes; undersea disturbances, fishermen dredging up fiber optic cables for their copper cladding (about a decade ago that was the reason!), even sharks. But since the government made damaging these cables a crime against the "national infrastructure" (which may be a capital offense) and since Vietnam, unlike some of its neighbors, is not a particularly active seismic zone, I'm not so sure. Of course one major power would have the will and ability to sever these cables without Vietnam being able to do anything (and maybe not being able to catch them doing it): China. What better way to cripple your up and coming neighbor's economy while getting away with complete deniability. (Fortunately, not all the cables were cut at the same time but that could be because it was only meant as a warning).
I believe that once, in the 50s or 60s, the then Soviet Union tried to cut some of the transatlantic cables connecting the U.S. with Europe. I understand that the U.S. quickly determined that the cables were not failing due to natural causes and since there was only one other country with the means to do so, quickly told the Soviets to stop or it would be WAR. (The U.S. was also developing means of tracking all sorts of submarine activity so maybe they didn't have to rely on deduction). Unfortunately, the Vietnamese cannot absolutely positively pin it on the Chinese (other powers may be playing some sneaky dirty games) and anyway they don't have nukes (or a decent military) to push back 1.3 billion people! (They also don't have any kind of decent underwater surveillance capabilities in contrast to the sonar/intelligence net the Chinese are intending to deploy throughout the entire South China sea.)
So, as much as I'd like to see a jobs program to try to (vainly?) employ the exploding numbers of millions (hundreds of millions? Soon billions?) of under/unemployed Africans to reduce Europe's carbon footprint, I don't think the governments involved would take the risk of being so reliant on three cables that could be instantly cut. Better would be to export the power to sub-saharan Africa to drive their economies with cheap, zero-C power.
Here's a Larry Niven novel (I haven't read it, unfortunately) in which the inhabitants are "sacrificing privacy - there are cameras (not routinely monitored) even in the private apartments - in exchange for security" (Wikipedia).
Unfortunately, due to the vast amounts of data collected on us by myriad gadgets (smartphones, Alexa, cell phone towers, public cameras, private cameras with Geo tagged data on social media, credit card machines, ATMs... perhaps even smart parking meters!), it appears as if we've already sacrificed privacy. Have we gotten more security? Honestly, maybe, aren't crime rates supposed to be down?
Yeah, while I'd willingly try a (deep!) neural implant of (somebody else's) stem cells that might require a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs in order to live substantially longer, maybe there's a better simpler cheaper faster way.
In the fine article (I know I know, who reads the articles?), they mention that at least some of the effects are due to miRNAs released by the stem cells. These circulate in the brain fluid and control gene expression throughout the brain. (For those who aren't thoroughly steeped in genetic expression; miRNA stands for micro-interfering RNA, these are short ~20bp sequences of RNA that by precisely complementing a particular DNA sequence them, can "silence" or interfere with them).
So perhaps a simple cranial injection (ouch!) of miRNAs would be all it takes. In fact, if you make the RNA sequences at home (what, you don't have a DNA/RNA synthesizer?) and a hand drill you could do it yourself! (If you don't have a DNA synthesizer yet, hopefully every school will have one within a decade).
and the robot/drones become (practically) useless or they have enough autonomy to kill on their own? (Which may be violation of some new UN rules on autonomous robots used in war).
Either way, it's not good. Is it likely that an adversary would be able to cut off communications? I'm wondering if there is a failsafe method of communicating with autonomous drones and robots outdoors with a clear line of sight to the sky directly above them. What you need is a satellite with a high powered maser (microwave laser) being able to cut through any jamming and the robot/drone having a high gain directional antennae pointed at the satellite. (If they also had masers on board then presumably could talk back.)
Of course this would only work when the satellite is viewable but if they had enough assets in space (like the GPS satellite constellation) maybe at least one satellite would be in view at a time. Bandwidth, of course, could be quite limited compared to local transmitters but as a backup system it might keep the system from becoming completely helpless (or completely deadly).
This is just speculation of course but perhaps Elon Musk's super constellation of 4000 internet satellites could carry these masers as well. Then they'd almost assuredly have a relatively un-jammable connection (and if his constellation is really going to provide internet for the entire world, they'll have plenty of bandwidth). Maybe if he cuts a deal with the U.S. military, they'll subsidize his constellation in order to put these masers on each satellite.
[I'm assuming that this system would be pretty un-jammable because, with the drone/robot's antennae pointed a a single point(s) in the sky, local jamming would be pretty ineffective. It's a twist on the idea behind the "Northpoint" communications system, but the signal you want to get would be from space not from the ground (the Northpoint system was the other way around). http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04...
Of course the enemy could knock down the satellites or use a nuke-powered EMP blast to fry all the electronics but in that case I think we would be worried about much more than some drones and robots on a battlefield.
While this batch of bacterially infected mosquitos will (hopefully) induce a short term (months? years?) drop in the population, a "technical" fix for permanently solving this problem worldwide now exists.
It is called "Gene Drive" if you haven't heard of it and what it utilizes is the powerful genetic editing technique called CRISPR. Basically you alter the genes of a male mosquitos so it carries the CRISPR gene package so that all of its children are male. Then, the included CRISPR package in the genome alters all of THEIR genes so that all of their children are male (and carries the package forward).
The population because more and more male "dominated" until there are no females left. Then poof!, after one last generation, they're gone.
While the deliberate (we're doing it all the time accidentally) elimination of a species is obviously something that shouldn't be done lightly, since THIS particular species carries Malaria, Dengue Fever, West Nile virus and Zika it would seem to b a prime target. Bill Gates, after his foundation spent several hundred million dollars trying to eradicate Malaria says he's all for it because he thinks it may be the only way to wipe out some of these terrible scourges (millions of dead children). It appears as if New Zealand will try this technique to get rid of an invasive species, a mammal(!) introduced by European settlers; the mouse. (If successful they plan to continue doing this to many other invasive species).
Of course it would be the height of irony if a mosquito managed to transfer the CRISPR gene package (from itself or a mouse) to its main host, thus getting rid of the most invasive species in Earth's history: US
Should we be worried about the "Kessler Syndrome"? That's where the density of objects in a given orbital volume gets to the point where a single collision causes a large amount of debris which in turn causes more collisions which...
The 700 new objects will be put into LEO where, in order to provide worldwide coverage they won't be in a single orbital plane (like the "Clarke belt" or geosynchronous orbit). Instead they, like GPS or Iridium will be crisscrossing with each other (no problem if properly designed) but more importantly with all the other "junk" there (like the space station!). In this most densely populated volume of space, encounters of the worst kind can/may/will happen.
Does anyone know how much this closer to the tipping point this will bring us? Is this system's effects negligible in comparison to the clouds of debris from various A-sat tests? What about Elon Musk's proposed system (which I think also got approval) which had several thousand (four thousand?) similarly LEO satellites?
Isn't PM 2.5 one of the most important indicators of air quality? I mean whenever there's a news story about how bad the air quality is in Beijing (or more recently New Delhi), they're always citing the PM 2.5 level and how you can't trust the government readings but have to access the U.S. Embassy air monitoring stations there.
(For those who don't know PM 2.5 is the reading of the 2.5 micron particulate matter, particles so small they get deep into your lungs and cause bad things to happen like maybe cancer).
Why can't Google put a PM 2.5 sensor on their cars? Are they afraid they won't be able to get an accurate reading from a moving vehicle? (Doesn't seem to stop them with their other measurements). I've got a nice little sensor on my desk (Speck) that's small and low powered enough I've that about attaching it to a long distance drone to do a transect(?) mapping of the air quality of my city!
Unfortunately, this being Ho Chi Minh City, it would likely disappear in one fashion or another in short order:(
So, would this be enough to get one person into orbit (including spacesuit)? Would it be enough to include some sort of heat shield/parachute?
I know this sounds crazy but a long long time ago I read that it might be possible to de-orbit a single astronaut be using a very large low density shield (high temperature rigid foam?!) and very gradually decelerate from orbital velocity shedding speed (and heat) slowly enough that it wouldn't incinerate the structure (or astronaut). I heard that NASA was investigating some sort of semi-inflatable shield (a ballute?) that might be the more evolved version. Anyway, would that give the astronaut at least a chance of making it past re-entry? (he would still need a parachute though).
Sounds like something that could be used by James Bond (or the American equivalent).
(By the way, I'm going to Australia soon, do they call australian astronauts, austronauts? Astronomers austronomers?:)
Ok, before we talk about colonizing Mars or any other planet with gravity not equal to earth's (and that includes zero gee), we need to see if mice, at least, can become pregnant, bring their pups to term and have them live a full healthy life on the space station. Preferably for two or more generations.
Why? Well this would be the best indication that it will be possible for humans to do the same and, IF (and this is a big if) humans respond similarly AND if partial gravity (like Mars' 1/3 G or the Moon's 1/6 G) is less harmful than the zero gee (okay "micro-gravity") in the space station, then that would be an important first step to determining whether or not humans are capable (without modification) of colonizing other worlds or space itself.
If the mice cannot conceive or do not develop normally through their entire life cycle, then a long process of finding the cut-off point from 0 to 1 G may have to begin. Then, because humans are not mice, this program may have to be repeated (someday) with (very brave) volunteer couples. So let's hope that this first test is passed successfully; it would alleviate "some" concern that these human trials may not end in tragedy.
There are plenty of other concerns about raising humans in outer space (radiation, isolation, etc.) but some of these other problems can be overcome with technology we already possess (like lots of shielding). Too low gravity? Well unless we want the colonists to be spending a large amount of time during pregnancy and potentially child rearing in big centrifuges, there is no currently known way to artificially create it (or lessen it).
Then again, there's the possibility of Humans 2.0. That's why I'm studying genetic engineering!:)
... when the Chinese take a LOT of blame (all the blame?) for North Korea.
For over 50 YEARS, CHINA has been basically the SOLE supporter of a despotic regime that, in addition to crimes and atrocities only exceeded by the Holocaust, Stalin or "The Great Leap Foward", through forced labor, prison camps and also responsible for the DEATHS of MILLIONS of its citiizens (primarily through starvation), is now threatening the security of much of the world (even Putin made some nervous remarks). That the North Koreans don't give a flying F*** about convention or Geneva protocols or whatever is obvious from their past terrorist attacks (bombing of an airliner) to using the (most) deadly chemical weapon known to man (basically all other nations have destroyed their stocks) in a densely populated city in an uninvolved country just to kill one possible dissident (and they probably smuggled it in via diplomatic pouch, hence the police apprehending N. Korean embassy workers).
That the Chinese were willing to put an entire nation of people IN HELL for five decades just so that they could possibly keep the Americans from being on their doorstep shows how little regard they have for HUMAN RIGHTS or even LIFE. (They probably could've gotten the Americans to have agreed to leave S. Korea if N. Korea was unified. From what I can tell, they never tried). But even if you were ignorant of the North Korean situation, you could probably have guessed their (lack of) morals from the way they treated Tibet and their own ethnic minorities.
That is why I have so little regard for the Chinese (government) and long ago stopped making direct investments in China. As for their citizens, I'd like to believe that they are the classic example of why a people blindfolded by censorship can be lead to do the worst imaginable things. A person can easily be convinced to murder (and a country to genocide) if he is lied to.
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For a second I thought, OMG they're arming (as in giving weapons) to their supercomputers! I had no idea that Chinese A.I. was so advanced, maybe Elon Musk (and Putin?) are right! (Elon Musk is afraid of the Roboapocalypse and Putin said whoever controls A.I. will control the world).
Anyway, does anyone have an idea how well these systems perform with the native (home grown in China) processors? Are they using the ARM chips as a backup plan or have they even given up on their own efforts? (doubtful). By the way, is China still restricted from access to U.S. Supercomputer technology (seems hardly worth it now) and perhaps that category should be extended to include A.I.?
Finally, does the fact that everyone(?) seems to have settled on this sort of large exa-scale clusters of Von-Neumann processors mean that the debate over which architecture is completely over? A long long time ago, there were some efforts I remember to more closely couple memory and CPU, like in Thinking Machines systems. Are those efforts dead? Is it due to the difficulty in writing software for fundamentally different execution sequences/memory sharing?
or quantum encryption or photographic evidence or eye-witnesses testifying under oath.
People will still believe that Obama wasn't born in America.
Perhaps only if it was in the Bible (and in BOTH testaments and inscribed on the Ten Commandments and the Dead Sea scrolls) would they be willing put aside their prejudices (by the way, that word is derived from PRE JUDGMENT) to face reality. Why? Because these people, and I'll call a spade a spade here, are RACIST. (And I'm not even Black!) No amount of technology can conquer bigotry. :( So don't get your hopes up to high that blockchain will solve all your verification needs.
America (and the World?) has got a long long way to go before racism is eliminated. I'm not holding my breath for it :(
If North Korea is building up a bitcoin stash, then maybe there would be some way for the NSA to cripple the bitcoin currency and wipe out North Korea's savings. (Of course all other bitcoin holders would be bankrupted, sorry!) Either they could find some vulnerability in the blockchain protocols or, through hacking, infiltrate and damage (okay steal) enough digital wallets as to undermine people's confidence in the currency.
Remember that bitcoin, like all money, is only as good as the TRUST people put in it as a store of value. If people can't rely on it, or if it's too easily stolen then that trust goes out the window and the value of the bitcoins will crash.
Of course this assumes that the NSA has the ability to do these things. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But when we see the power of just (presumably) some of their stolen tools, who knows what else they have? I've heard they've got the largest number of mathematicians employed in the world. Hmm... could Bitcoin even be an NSA invention? Perhaps this is a long term trap? (I doubt it though, way too much foresight involved).
Questions:
Would a working quantum computer be able to do bitcoin (or other blockchain algorithms) calculations at speeds far greater than conventional or even specialized CPUs? In which case will the first organization to have such a machine be able to profit immensely (before destroying the entire market)?
Is the recent run up of bitcoin prices perhaps due to the North Koreans buying/stealing bitcoins because otherwise they'll have no other way of obtaining hard currency? (It would be ironic if so; they'd be going from "hard" currencies to something that is completely abstract).
I would LOVE to get a copy of this program and, not only try it out on myself and my friends, (I think we're relatively secure in our sexuality) but try it on famous people.
Specifically: Republican lawmakers and perhaps even Christian preachers! (How about Mr. Macho himself, Putin?)
I really, really know I'm going to be down-modded for this but please hear me out. Haven't you wondered why those people who are so against homosexuality often turn out to be gay themselves? (Dennis Hastert and that lawmaker caught in the men's restroom soliciting a cop come to mind). Maybe it's because they are so ashamed that the only way they can bury their feelings is to actively suppress it. That's fine if you don't want to face the truth but the problem is being lawmakers, representatives of God, they infringe on many, many other peoples lives. So let's drag them out of the closet and into the photo booth! (Actually I don't think that'll be necessary, from what little I've read about this algorithm it doesn't require any particular lighting or "orientation" (ha ha) for the photo so many of the pictures of these famous people should be just fine.)
On a more serious note: This is just the latest in a trend of events which a friend of mine has said is "the end of privacy". With technologies like these (soon I'm sure they'll be able to analyze videos to see, by looking at imperceptible* subtle face color flushing and breathing patterns, who is attracted to whom), social media and the hack of personal databases like Equifax, NOTHING will be able to be kept secret. I wouldn't doubt that the CIA is already using some of this stuff to determine, remotely, if someone is lying on camera when they say something. It will be hard to legislature laws to keep it out of business and impossible to keep out of statecraft.
*imperceptible to humans
Oops sorry, you're right it should be "Kudos". (I've got a bad cold and am not thinking straight)
Just wondering, now that they have an 11 story (I think) tall empty, lightweight booster sitting on the pad, will they be able to get in indoors before Irma comes and literally blows it away?
Even if they do, are the structures strong enough to take a direct hit? (I guess so, they've been around since the space age).
Kudo's as always to Space X and their flabbergastingly awesome repeat landings of their booster stages! No matter how cheap the competition (China?) makes their expendable boosters, you can't beat reusing them. I understand that the Falcon Heavy has passed its engine tests (a cluster of three Falcon 9s). Good luck for their November launch! Please, please make getting to orbit 10x then 100x cheaper! (Unrealistic maybe but I can dream).
Too bad that the X-37Bs don't have enough delta-V to get themselves to orbit without using a second stage (with external fuel tanks?). Then we'd have an (almost) completely reusable launch system!
I don't know what level of critical thinking goes into people's objections to Obamacare versus how much they deny Evolution (maybe none). All I'm saying is that there's a very clear correlation (not causation) between people (some conservatives) who for the last seven years have been trying to repeal Obamacare (because, and let me call a spade a spade here, they're RACIST) and those who don't believe in Evolution. (Now that they actually have the opportunity to overturn it, they realize that without the black man behind it, it's not so bad.)
http://bigthink.com/neurobonke...
Of course what this article brings up is that these "beliefs", and yes they are beliefs because they are not coming from facts (hence the flip-flop on Obamacare) are based on IDENTITY POLITICS. So the same person who believes that Obama was a muslim, wasn't born in the U.S., is part of a worldwide Jihad, etc. is likely to not believe in Evolution, Climate Change or that Obamacare was a carefully thought out negotiated plan with over 100 public hearings (and still far from perfect but short of completely changing the entire "free-market" medical industry, the best they could do). Of course, beliefs (like religion) Trumps all so when a person has these beliefs they'll bend whatever facts there are to fit them, hence the more certainty against climate change amongst better educated Republicans.
I do hope that perhaps there is a point where facts will overwhelm one's misguided "beliefs" like the assertion that "this storm season isn't anything special" in the face of the fact of possibly TWO 500 year storms happening in a few weeks of each other. (The probability of that occurring in a single year let alone a few weeks is 0.002 x 0.002 or 0.000004. That's four chances in a Million! Do you play the lottery? Do you EXPECT to win?).
That's why misguided beliefs can ruin a nation and one's own finances. If you think otherwise, you should buy waterfront property in Texas or Florida, it'll be cheap and the next storm this big won't be back for another 500 years. The only good thing about the accelerated pace of Climate Change is that, when I started following it more than a decade ago, I didn't think it's effects would be locally obvious while I was still alive (and it was only a problem for our unfortunate children). Now only the most die-hard denialist would think about investing in these properties. Will you? Then give my regards to Bankruptcy court!
Are you willing to go on the PERMANENT record (thanks to the never forgetting Internet) so that people you care about (friends, spouses, children, grandchildren) know that you:
Denied the overwhelming scientific consensus on Climate Change?
Thought Obamacare was a disaster?
Refused to believe in Evolution? (This is my particular interest, I am a genetic engineer. Now that we can see Evolution happening right down to the molecular level, disputing it is laughable. Not to mention "Nothing in Biology makes sense without it").
Or for that matter:
Think the Federal Government was planning to take over Texas in 2015 (The "Jade" something or other exercise)?
Believe that there is a Pizza parlor in Washington D.C. that was a front for Democratic pedophiles?
Think that because Trump criticized Clinton on Goldman Sachs he wouldn't end up in their pocket?
I could go on but you get the picture. How many times do you have to be proven WRONG and been a victim of FAKE NEWS before you learn some critical thinking? Not only are you hurting the republic by voting for idiots (Bush) or frauds (Trump) but you are really hurting yourselves by believing that these leaders will help you (the working class) instead of just making them and their super rich friends richer, and by making stupid decisions like buying waterfront property in places like Texas and Florida.
Anyway, if thinking won't get you to reflect on your positions; maybe shame will. How about you tell the ones you care about the social media accounts like slashdot where you post things? Assuming you at least have the balls to not post Anonymously, tell them your username. Let them see what you really think. (I have, in fact I'm proud to show them).
Of course if Climate Change really is a hoax, and the Republicans come up with a much better replacement to Obamacare and God LITERALLY created the animals in one go (and forever fixed their attributes), then your friends and children and grandchildren will see you as the genius you are!
another failing satellite. Evidently some of the atomic clocks on the Indian equivalent to the U.S.'s GPS system are failing thus preventing their system from becoming functional. This will probably seriously further delay their system.
I believe that the system was limited (not for global use) to begin with, it was only meant to provide coverage for their part of the world (South Asia). Unfortunately this does not look good in comparison to the U.S., Russian, European and of course Chinese global systems. I have heard that the European system has also had problems, do they share the same vendor for their clocks? (I'm not sure but I heard the Indians outsourced their atomic clocks to a Swiss company?)
For those of you who read about that absolutely crazy idea to send chip-scale (or chip "mass", they may be very thin objects like a film) interstellar probes riding on gigawatt beams of laser light (that would accelerate them to .2C in a few hours!), "maybe" this helps solve a problem.
How do they communicate with Earth?
This might allow them to RECEIVE (over interstellar distances?) a very powerful signal even if they are very tiny. The only problem is, I don't see how they could SEND back data; in addition to antenna size don't you need power? (My knowledge of physics is woefully inadequate to evaluate this). Short of them carrying self-replicating nanobots that could construct a large antenna at the destination using local materials (and local power), I don't see how even having a good antenna would allow them to get a signal over trillions of kilometers with even an enormous (space-based) receiving antenna. Does anyone know how the Starshot project intended on sending a signal back?
On the other, for LOCAL communications (say for chip sized probes scattered over a wide area), this might be a key breakthrough. Imagine a carrier spacecraft with a powerful communications subsystem settling into orbit around say Titan. It spews hundreds (thousands?) of these little chips which, with a little protection/good surface/weight ratio might be able to gently break into Titan's thick atmosphere. Then, once on the "ground" (or floating in the Titan seas) they could communicate back to the orbiter which would then relay the observations back to Earth. (How to keep them powered in the low light/liquid nitrogen temperatures is an exercise left to the reader).
Or this could be great for surveillance (or spying) or wildlife cameras (or spying) or ingestible sensors/cameras (or spying)
Come on, it's a joke, Right?
Uh, "Average-Sized" is very different in a lot of places in the world. At one extreme is a place like where I live, in Vietnam. Most woman, while not rail thin, are not very fat. On the other hand, a place like the American Samoas, I understand people there are very overweight. Even in the U.S. whereas people in the big cities pay a bit more attention to their waistlines (and in some places like Colorado really go out of their way to stay in shape), a quick trip to the mid-west will make you realize that humans come in some pretty big sizes.
Hollywood, being a den of actors/actresses/people working in coffee shops waiting to be discovered, has an unusually high proportion of young attractive people. So if the casting director walks down the street maybe they have a skewed sense of "Average-Sized". (Or maybe they're just trying to sell tickets)
on why it won't take over the earth and why, those who believe it do are distracting themselves from other more serious problems with A.I. (and other problems in general of course).
Unfortunately, as this video of a (Ted?) talk makes clear, there are some pretty prominent individuals who think this way (Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawkins) but it makes a convincing case without being histrionic that they're wrong. The video is so compelling that although I have the greatest respect for these individuals, (and a deep fascination with A.I. and career involving technology), I have to say, in this case, I disagree with them (and wish they'd turn their brilliance towards something more useful).
https://youtu.be/kErHiET5YPw
Wow, it appears like we are really getting close to being able to answer the question: are we alone in the Universe?
I'm amazed that they were able to detect the "wobbles" using (relatively) inexpensive ground-based telescopes. Just a little bit of improvement and they'll be able to detect earth sized planets (although maybe 1.7x mass isn't too bad; I think the surface gravity might be just a little higher depending on the density).
Soon, a space based telescope (the James Web ST?) may, with these super-sensitive instruments, be able to take the next crucial step and determine the composition of their atmospheres. If they detect free oxygen or other products of biological (or even industrial!) by-products, we'll know that there's life elsewhere in the universe! Maybe we'll find out sooner this way than a similar positive result coming from a probe we send to Mars, Europa, Enceladus or Titan.
Of course, although I'm hoping that we'll see a biological signal, I really really doubt we'll see something that is the product of a technological civilization. Unfortunately, we still don't know the answer to Fermi's paradox. (I really wish the Chinese would take their new giant radio telescope and dedicate it to looking for signals). Until we hear from someone; we'll have to assume that maybe (intelligent) life in the Universe is rare.
I hope it's not because intelligent life usually kills itself off (like we seem to be doing: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...
Full disclosure: in my partially misspent youth I worked on S.E.T.I. :)
get any (foreign experts) to run their gigantic brand new telescope
https://science.slashdot.org/s...
I mean, you'd really have to pay me a significant premium (not saying you couldn't) to do my job (bioinformatics/genetic engineering) in a country where there is not even a pretense of privacy/access to uncensored news. Of course, (almost) everyone has a price for (almost) every job so I guess they can just keep raising the salary until someone bites, they've got the money. (I realize that there are very few people in the world who fit their qualifications but there are some and I'm sure some of them might be tempted).
The U.S. has tremendously benefited from China developing this way. If it wasn't so draconian on its suppression of (human) rights in the preservation of order (and the enrichment of party members), a lot more ethnic Chinese might be tempted to go. I personally know some Chinese-Americans who are quite prominent in their scientific field (no I didn't go to M.I.T. "Made In Taiwan" but close by!) who have no interest at all in working in Mainland China despite being actively recruited by the government there (basically every time they go to a conference there, someone will approach them). When you look at the number of scientists of (probably) Chinese descent contributing to American and European science (just look at the surnames of the authors of articles on "sciencedaily.com") you'll realize how much of our scientific dominance is due to their work.
Of course Trump may flip this around
I live in Vietnam and we've had our internet access severely crippled seven (eight, nine?) times in the last few years because the submarine cables connecting the country to the rest of the world have been mysteriously severed.
I've looked at the map and it seems that every time, the approximate place where the cables (I believe all three of the ones that currently connect Vietnam) have been cut has been in a place that it would only affect Vietnam. For example the Asian American Gateway cable connects the U.S. with a bunch of nations here but I think it was only in the spur that connects Vietnam that was cut.
Of course it could be due to natural causes; undersea disturbances, fishermen dredging up fiber optic cables for their copper cladding (about a decade ago that was the reason!), even sharks. But since the government made damaging these cables a crime against the "national infrastructure" (which may be a capital offense) and since Vietnam, unlike some of its neighbors, is not a particularly active seismic zone, I'm not so sure. Of course one major power would have the will and ability to sever these cables without Vietnam being able to do anything (and maybe not being able to catch them doing it): China. What better way to cripple your up and coming neighbor's economy while getting away with complete deniability. (Fortunately, not all the cables were cut at the same time but that could be because it was only meant as a warning).
I believe that once, in the 50s or 60s, the then Soviet Union tried to cut some of the transatlantic cables connecting the U.S. with Europe. I understand that the U.S. quickly determined that the cables were not failing due to natural causes and since there was only one other country with the means to do so, quickly told the Soviets to stop or it would be WAR. (The U.S. was also developing means of tracking all sorts of submarine activity so maybe they didn't have to rely on deduction). Unfortunately, the Vietnamese cannot absolutely positively pin it on the Chinese (other powers may be playing some sneaky dirty games) and anyway they don't have nukes (or a decent military) to push back 1.3 billion people! (They also don't have any kind of decent underwater surveillance capabilities in contrast to the sonar/intelligence net the Chinese are intending to deploy throughout the entire South China sea.)
So, as much as I'd like to see a jobs program to try to (vainly?) employ the exploding numbers of millions (hundreds of millions? Soon billions?) of under/unemployed Africans to reduce Europe's carbon footprint, I don't think the governments involved would take the risk of being so reliant on three cables that could be instantly cut. Better would be to export the power to sub-saharan Africa to drive their economies with cheap, zero-C power.
Here's a Larry Niven novel (I haven't read it, unfortunately) in which the inhabitants are "sacrificing privacy - there are cameras (not routinely monitored) even in the private apartments - in exchange for security" (Wikipedia).
Unfortunately, due to the vast amounts of data collected on us by myriad gadgets (smartphones, Alexa, cell phone towers, public cameras, private cameras with Geo tagged data on social media, credit card machines, ATMs... perhaps even smart parking meters!), it appears as if we've already sacrificed privacy. Have we gotten more security? Honestly, maybe, aren't crime rates supposed to be down?
Yeah, while I'd willingly try a (deep!) neural implant of (somebody else's) stem cells that might require a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs in order to live substantially longer, maybe there's a better simpler cheaper faster way.
In the fine article (I know I know, who reads the articles?), they mention that at least some of the effects are due to miRNAs released by the stem cells. These circulate in the brain fluid and control gene expression throughout the brain. (For those who aren't thoroughly steeped in genetic expression; miRNA stands for micro-interfering RNA, these are short ~20bp sequences of RNA that by precisely complementing a particular DNA sequence them, can "silence" or interfere with them).
So perhaps a simple cranial injection (ouch!) of miRNAs would be all it takes. In fact, if you make the RNA sequences at home (what, you don't have a DNA/RNA synthesizer?) and a hand drill you could do it yourself! (If you don't have a DNA synthesizer yet, hopefully every school will have one within a decade).
and the robot/drones become (practically) useless or they have enough autonomy to kill on their own? (Which may be violation of some new UN rules on autonomous robots used in war).
Either way, it's not good. Is it likely that an adversary would be able to cut off communications? I'm wondering if there is a failsafe method of communicating with autonomous drones and robots outdoors with a clear line of sight to the sky directly above them. What you need is a satellite with a high powered maser (microwave laser) being able to cut through any jamming and the robot/drone having a high gain directional antennae pointed at the satellite. (If they also had masers on board then presumably could talk back.)
Of course this would only work when the satellite is viewable but if they had enough assets in space (like the GPS satellite constellation) maybe at least one satellite would be in view at a time. Bandwidth, of course, could be quite limited compared to local transmitters but as a backup system it might keep the system from becoming completely helpless (or completely deadly).
This is just speculation of course but perhaps Elon Musk's super constellation of 4000 internet satellites could carry these masers as well. Then they'd almost assuredly have a relatively un-jammable connection (and if his constellation is really going to provide internet for the entire world, they'll have plenty of bandwidth). Maybe if he cuts a deal with the U.S. military, they'll subsidize his constellation in order to put these masers on each satellite.
[I'm assuming that this system would be pretty un-jammable because, with the drone/robot's antennae pointed a a single point(s) in the sky, local jamming would be pretty ineffective. It's a twist on the idea behind the "Northpoint" communications system, but the signal you want to get would be from space not from the ground (the Northpoint system was the other way around). http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04...
Of course the enemy could knock down the satellites or use a nuke-powered EMP blast to fry all the electronics but in that case I think we would be worried about much more than some drones and robots on a battlefield.
While this batch of bacterially infected mosquitos will (hopefully) induce a short term (months? years?) drop in the population, a "technical" fix for permanently solving this problem worldwide now exists.
It is called "Gene Drive" if you haven't heard of it and what it utilizes is the powerful genetic editing technique called CRISPR. Basically you alter the genes of a male mosquitos so it carries the CRISPR gene package so that all of its children are male. Then, the included CRISPR package in the genome alters all of THEIR genes so that all of their children are male (and carries the package forward).
The population because more and more male "dominated" until there are no females left. Then poof!, after one last generation, they're gone.
While the deliberate (we're doing it all the time accidentally) elimination of a species is obviously something that shouldn't be done lightly, since THIS particular species carries Malaria, Dengue Fever, West Nile virus and Zika it would seem to b a prime target. Bill Gates, after his foundation spent several hundred million dollars trying to eradicate Malaria says he's all for it because he thinks it may be the only way to wipe out some of these terrible scourges (millions of dead children). It appears as if New Zealand will try this technique to get rid of an invasive species, a mammal(!) introduced by European settlers; the mouse. (If successful they plan to continue doing this to many other invasive species).
https://www.technologyreview.c...
Of course it would be the height of irony if a mosquito managed to transfer the CRISPR gene package (from itself or a mouse) to its main host, thus getting rid of the most invasive species in Earth's history: US
Should we be worried about the "Kessler Syndrome"? That's where the density of objects in a given orbital volume gets to the point where a single collision causes a large amount of debris which in turn causes more collisions which ...
The 700 new objects will be put into LEO where, in order to provide worldwide coverage they won't be in a single orbital plane (like the "Clarke belt" or geosynchronous orbit). Instead they, like GPS or Iridium will be crisscrossing with each other (no problem if properly designed) but more importantly with all the other "junk" there (like the space station!). In this most densely populated volume of space, encounters of the worst kind can/may/will happen.
Does anyone know how much this closer to the tipping point this will bring us? Is this system's effects negligible in comparison to the clouds of debris from various A-sat tests? What about Elon Musk's proposed system (which I think also got approval) which had several thousand (four thousand?) similarly LEO satellites?
Isn't PM 2.5 one of the most important indicators of air quality? I mean whenever there's a news story about how bad the air quality is in Beijing (or more recently New Delhi), they're always citing the PM 2.5 level and how you can't trust the government readings but have to access the U.S. Embassy air monitoring stations there.
(For those who don't know PM 2.5 is the reading of the 2.5 micron particulate matter, particles so small they get deep into your lungs and cause bad things to happen like maybe cancer).
Why can't Google put a PM 2.5 sensor on their cars? Are they afraid they won't be able to get an accurate reading from a moving vehicle? (Doesn't seem to stop them with their other measurements). I've got a nice little sensor on my desk (Speck) that's small and low powered enough I've that about attaching it to a long distance drone to do a transect(?) mapping of the air quality of my city!
Unfortunately, this being Ho Chi Minh City, it would likely disappear in one fashion or another in short order :(
So, would this be enough to get one person into orbit (including spacesuit)? Would it be enough to include some sort of heat shield/parachute?
I know this sounds crazy but a long long time ago I read that it might be possible to de-orbit a single astronaut be using a very large low density shield (high temperature rigid foam?!) and very gradually decelerate from orbital velocity shedding speed (and heat) slowly enough that it wouldn't incinerate the structure (or astronaut). I heard that NASA was investigating some sort of semi-inflatable shield (a ballute?) that might be the more evolved version. Anyway, would that give the astronaut at least a chance of making it past re-entry? (he would still need a parachute though).
Sounds like something that could be used by James Bond (or the American equivalent).
(By the way, I'm going to Australia soon, do they call australian astronauts, austronauts? Astronomers austronomers? :)
Ok, before we talk about colonizing Mars or any other planet with gravity not equal to earth's (and that includes zero gee), we need to see if mice, at least, can become pregnant, bring their pups to term and have them live a full healthy life on the space station. Preferably for two or more generations.
Why? Well this would be the best indication that it will be possible for humans to do the same and, IF (and this is a big if) humans respond similarly AND if partial gravity (like Mars' 1/3 G or the Moon's 1/6 G) is less harmful than the zero gee (okay "micro-gravity") in the space station, then that would be an important first step to determining whether or not humans are capable (without modification) of colonizing other worlds or space itself.
If the mice cannot conceive or do not develop normally through their entire life cycle, then a long process of finding the cut-off point from 0 to 1 G may have to begin. Then, because humans are not mice, this program may have to be repeated (someday) with (very brave) volunteer couples. So let's hope that this first test is passed successfully; it would alleviate "some" concern that these human trials may not end in tragedy.
There are plenty of other concerns about raising humans in outer space (radiation, isolation, etc.) but some of these other problems can be overcome with technology we already possess (like lots of shielding). Too low gravity? Well unless we want the colonists to be spending a large amount of time during pregnancy and potentially child rearing in big centrifuges, there is no currently known way to artificially create it (or lessen it).
Then again, there's the possibility of Humans 2.0. That's why I'm studying genetic engineering! :)
... when the Chinese take a LOT of blame (all the blame?) for North Korea.
For over 50 YEARS, CHINA has been basically the SOLE supporter of a despotic regime that, in addition to crimes and atrocities only exceeded by the Holocaust, Stalin or "The Great Leap Foward", through forced labor, prison camps and also responsible for the DEATHS of MILLIONS of its citiizens (primarily through starvation), is now threatening the security of much of the world (even Putin made some nervous remarks). That the North Koreans don't give a flying F*** about convention or Geneva protocols or whatever is obvious from their past terrorist attacks (bombing of an airliner) to using the (most) deadly chemical weapon known to man (basically all other nations have destroyed their stocks) in a densely populated city in an uninvolved country just to kill one possible dissident (and they probably smuggled it in via diplomatic pouch, hence the police apprehending N. Korean embassy workers).
That the Chinese were willing to put an entire nation of people IN HELL for five decades just so that they could possibly keep the Americans from being on their doorstep shows how little regard they have for HUMAN RIGHTS or even LIFE. (They probably could've gotten the Americans to have agreed to leave S. Korea if N. Korea was unified. From what I can tell, they never tried). But even if you were ignorant of the North Korean situation, you could probably have guessed their (lack of) morals from the way they treated Tibet and their own ethnic minorities.
That is why I have so little regard for the Chinese (government) and long ago stopped making direct investments in China. As for their citizens, I'd like to believe that they are the classic example of why a people blindfolded by censorship can be lead to do the worst imaginable things. A person can easily be convinced to murder (and a country to genocide) if he is lied to.