Topic: POLITIK - on July 7, 2016 at 5:42:00 PM CEST
Russia’s State Duma just approved some of the most repressive laws in post-Soviet history
On Friday, June 24, Russia's State Duma approved a final draft of several anti-terrorist laws spearheaded by deputy Irina Yarovaya. Though lawmakers removed many of the legislation's most odious amendments at the last minute (which, in part, would have made it possible to revoke convicts' Russian citizenship and their right to travel abroad), the bill still revises dozens of existing laws in ways that could have profound consequences for people living in Russia. For “Yarovaya's legislation” to become law, the Federation Council must next approve the legislation, and then President Putin needs to sign it. There is no doubt that this will happen. Meduza offers a brief summary of what the State Duma just set into motion.
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Topic: Drone - on July 7, 2016 at 5:33:00 PM CEST
Initiative to legalize marijuana heading for Arizona vote
PHOENIX - Advocates for legalizing marijuana in Arizona filed 260,000 petition signatures Thursday with the secretary of state. That total is at least 100,000 more than is needed to qualify for a statewide vote in November.
The Arizona marijuana initiative -- officially known as the "Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act" -- would treat pot much the same way as alcohol.
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Topic: FUN - on July 7, 2016 at 5:08:00 PM CEST
Erstes Ergebnis steht
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Topic: COMPUTER - on July 7, 2016 at 5:00:00 PM CEST
Analysing NLP publication patterns
Recently, I got curious about finding out how much different institutions publish in my area. Does Google publish more than Microsoft? Which university has the strongest publication record in NLP? And are there any interesting trends that can be seen in the recent years? Quantity does not necessarily equal quality, but the number of publications is still a reasonable indicator of general activity in the field, how big the research group is, and how outward-facing are the research projects. My approach was to crawl papers from the 6 biggest conferences that are relevant to my research: ACL, EACL, NAACL, EMNLP, NIPS, ICML. The first 4 focus on NLP applications regardless of methods, and the latter 2 on machine learning algorithms regardless of tasks. The time window was restricted to 2012-2016, as I’m more interested in current publications.
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Topic: Religion - on July 7, 2016 at 4:53:00 PM CEST
The Mesmerizing Architecture of Mosques
When we walk into a beautiful, ornate cathedral or mosque our necks reflexively whip upward. The body senses the eerieness of a vast indoor space, and the eyes are rewarded with intricate and gorgeous architecture. But our gaze can only see part of the artwork at a time, and the blood rushing from our heads limits our ability to stare. Iranian photographer Mohammad Reza Domiri gives us an opportunity to see the entirety of these incredible spaces all at once. His fully panoramic, expansive photographs of centuries-old mosques reveal the genius of their geometries and complexity. The effect is dizzying in a different way, like some kind of fractalized religious hallucination.
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Topic: POLICE REPORT - on July 7, 2016 at 4:37:00 PM CEST
Girlfriend Records Aftermath of Fatal Police Shooting of Minn. Man During Traffic Stop
Philando Castile, 32, died after being shot by St. Anthony, Minn., police officers while his girlfriend, Lavisha Reynolds, and her 4-year-old daughter, Diamond, were in the car. Another black man has been fatally shot by police, this time during a traffic stop Wednesday night in Falcon Heights, Minn., WCCO reports. The mother of Philando Castile, the victim, confirmed that he died at Hennepin County Medical Center after 11 p.m. Wednesday. Castile’s girlfriend, Lavisha Reynolds, who at the time was in the vehicle with Castile and her 4-year-old daughter, Diamond, streamed the aftermath of the shooting on Facebook Live, where it was circulated widely before being pulled from the site.
theroot.com Viral Facebook Live Video of Philando Castile’s Death Sends Shockwaves Across Social Media “No One Can Breathe in This Atmosphere”
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Topic: MUSIK - on July 7, 2016 at 4:10:00 PM CEST
The New Prince Online Museum Archives 16 of Prince’s Official Web Sites, Spanning 20 Years
In March of 2015, The Guardian published a piece on Prince’s vault, begun by his former sound engineer Susan Rogers before his Purple Rain superstardom: “It’s an actual bank vault, with a thick door,” she said, “in the basement of Paisley Park. When I left in 87, it was nearly full.” That was 30 years ago. Composer and Prince orchestrator Brent Fischer speculated that “over 70% of the music we’ve worked on for Prince is yet to come out.” Already able to release “in a decade what most musicians couldn’t put out in a lifetime,” Prince stored in his vaults enough to reveal him as thrice the prolific genius we knew in life.
Prince’s fantastic, groovetastic ‘Sign o’ the Times’ tour rehearsals
The career of Prince, whose life was sadly cut short at the age of 57 earlier this year in April, increasingly appears to be simply a series of breathtaking highlights. His 1987 album Sign o’ the Times, however, deserves to be singled out as something special—it’s arguably the most ambitious, diverse, coherent, and funkalicous statement of his entire career. Sign o’ the Times won best album in the 1987 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics’ poll—the only time Prince ever won that particular honor—and the title track from the album also won best single in the same poll.
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Topic: NASA - on July 7, 2016 at 4:08:00 PM CEST
Original Apollo 11 guidance computer (AGC) source code
Original Apollo 11 guidance computer (AGC) source code, in assembly, for Command Module (Comanche054) and Lunar Module (Luminary099).
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Topic: SECURITY - on July 7, 2016 at 4:04:00 PM CEST
Here are the creeps who sell ATM skimmers on Alibaba
Last week I posted about a guy who came across a well-made skimmer at an ATM in Vienna. I wondered who made such a fine looking piece of sociopathic hardware. Turns out this company sells such devices in bulk via Alibaba.
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Topic: weiss nicht - on July 7, 2016 at 4:02:00 PM CEST
Deutsche Bank: World's most dangerous bank?
Deutsche Bank shares hit a new record low today. Its value has halved since the beginning of the year. So is it now the most dangerous bank in the world? According to the International Monetary Fund - yes. Last week, the IMF said that, of the banks big enough to bring the financial system crashing down, Deutsche Bank was the riskiest. Not only that, Deutsche Bank's US unit was one of only two of 33 big banks to fail tests of financial strength set by the US central bank earlier this year. It's not hard to get scared when you look at a few numbers. Bear with me.
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Topic: Space - on July 7, 2016 at 3:59:00 PM CEST
Great Britain’s vote to exit the EU sends Europe’s space sector scrambling for answers
Even more surprising than Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union was the fact that so few people, in Britain or elsewhere, had seriously considered the consequences of a pro-Brexit vote. Polls had consistently predicted the decision could land either way. But U.S. and European stock markets had nonetheless risen on the assumption that the stolid British, after flirting with an exit, would elect to remain married to the EU. Starting at dawn June 24, that all collapsed in a collective sky-is-falling dread that Britain would be exiting all European space programs, forcing the remaining nations to react.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 7, 2016 at 3:57:00 PM CEST
After Medical Marijuana Legalized, Medicare Prescriptions Drop For Many Drugs
Prescription drug prices continue to climb, putting the pinch on consumers. Some older Americans appear to be seeking an alternative to mainstream medicines that has become easier to get legally in many parts of the country. Just ask Cheech and Chong. Research published Wednesday found that states that legalized medical marijuana — which is sometimes recommended for symptoms like chronic pain, anxiety or depression — saw declines in the number of Medicare prescriptions for drugs used to treat those conditions and a dip in spending by Medicare Part D, which covers the cost on prescription medications.
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