http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/rewriting-the-code-of-life
Archive for the '–' Category
Rewriting the Code of Life – The New Yorker
January 30, 2017The Heroism of Incremental Care – The New Yorker
January 30, 2017Can Technology Make Football Safer? – The New Yorker
January 30, 2017The Demon Voice That Can Control Your Smartphone
January 30, 2017The Demon Voice That Can Control Your…phone
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/the-demon-voice-that-can-talk-to-your-smartphone/513743 Verbal malware: Yell into a crowd, “Hey #Siri, text mom, I’m pregnant”
QT:{{”
“Here’s a fun experiment: Next time you’re on a crowded bus, loudly announce, “Hey Siri! Text mom, ‘I’m pregnant.’” Chances are you’ll get some horrified looks as your voice awakens iPhones in nearby commuters’ pockets and bags. They’ll dive for their phones to cancel your command.
But what if there was a way to talk to phones with sounds other than words? Unless the phones’ owners were prompted for confirmation—and realized what was going on in time to intervene—they’d have no idea that”
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How statistics lost their power – and why we should fear what comes next | William Davies | Politics | Th e Guardian
January 30, 2017How stats lost their power via @alexvespi
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/19/crisis-of-statistics-big-data-democracy Death of #DataScience in a “post-truth” world; anecdotes v elitist numbers
Neanderthals Were People, Too – NYTimes.com
January 30, 2017Neanderthals were people, too
http://www.NYTimes.com/2017/01/11/magazine/neanderthals-were-people-too.htm QT: Geneticists are much more powerful…& incomparably better funded than anyone else
QT:{{”
“It was staggering; even Paabo couldn’t bring himself to believe it at first. But the results were the results, and they carried a sort of empirical magnetism that archaeological evidence lacks. “Geneticists are much more powerful, numerous and incomparably better funded than anyone else dealing with this stuff,” Zilhão said. He joked: “Their aura is kind of miraculous. It’s a bit like receiving the Ten Commandments from God.” Paabo’s work, and a continuing wave of genomic research, has provided clarity but also complexity, recasting our oppositional, zero-sum relationship into something more communal and collaborative — and perhaps not just on the genetic level. The extent of the interbreeding supported previous speculation, by a minority of paleoanthropologists, that there might have been cases of Neanderthals and modern humans living alongside each other, intermeshed, for centuries, and that generations of their offspring had found places in those communities, too. Then again, it’s also possible that some of the interbreeding was forced.”
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The Demon Voice That Can Control Your Smartphone
January 30, 2017The Demon Voice That Can Control Your…phone
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/01/the-demon-voice-that-can-talk-to-your-smartphone/513743 Verbal malware: Yell into a crowd, “Hey #Siri, text mom, I’m pregnant”
QT:{{”
“Here’s a fun experiment: Next time you’re on a crowded bus, loudly announce, “Hey Siri! Text mom, ‘I’m pregnant.’” Chances are you’ll get some horrified looks as your voice awakens iPhones in nearby commuters’ pockets and bags. They’ll dive for their phones to cancel your command.
But what if there was a way to talk to phones with sounds other than words? Unless the phones’ owners were prompted for confirmation—and realized what was going on in time to intervene—they’d have no idea that”
“}}
