The Obama administration said Tuesday they plan to review the privacy implications of facial recognition technology ahead of reported plans to implement the system nationwide in the next two years.
A Commerce Department spokesman said they recognize the concerns of privacy advocates and tech groups and will be working with them to specifically identify the problems with the technology.
“Facial recognition technology has the potential to improve services for consumers, support innovation by businesses, and affect identification and authentication online and offline,” Larry Strickling, the administrator of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration told The Hill. “However, the technology poses distinct consumer privacy challenges … and the importance of securing faceprints and ensuring consumers’ appropriate control over their data is clear.”
Concerns about the technology first arose when Facebook began cataloging user profile pictures into a system that allowed them to auto-tag photos of people. Several Democratic senators applauded the Commerce Department decision to further investigate the situation.
“Clear policies that support consumer privacy are crucial as facial recognition technology is developed and deployed,” Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said.
A groundbreaking study has shown that the brains of men and women actually do operate differently.
The study from the University of Pennsylvania shows that men’s brains typically have connections that run from the front of the brain to the back on the same sides of the brain, where women’s brains have connections that run from side to side. The difference in the way the brain is “hardwired” occurs during adolescence.
The researchers say the physical differences in the brain could explain why men are generally better at tasks involving muscle control while women are better at verbal tasks such as remembering conversations.
“These maps show us a stark difference – and complementarity – in the architecture of the human brain that helps to provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others,” Radiology professor Ragini Verma said in a statement. “What we’ve identified is that, when looked at in groups, there are connections in the brain that are hardwired differently in men and women. Functional tests have already shown that when they carry out certain tasks, men and women engage different parts of the brain.”
A separate study last month found that genes in the brain also showed significant genetic differences between the sexes.
Scientists are concerned that something is very wrong with the sun.
The sun is supposed to be at the peak of an 11-year solar cycle, or what is called the “solar maximum.” This is when the sun’s magnetic poles usually reverse and cause such intense waves of magnetic force that it disrupts satellite communications and could even damage Earth’s electrical systems.
However, one NASA scientist said the current peak is “a total punk.”
A second NASA physicist called it “the weakest in 200 years.”
Andres Munzo-Jaramillo of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told the Wall Street Journal there is no scientist alive who has been a solar cycle as weak as the current one.
Another puzzling factor for scientists is the lack of a flip in the sun’s two magnetic poles. The sun’s north pole reversed its polarity a year ago but the south pole has stayed the same resulting in the sun being out of sync. They expect the south pole to correct itself within the next month.
Some scientists say this weakened maximum could lead to a longer state of depressed solar activity or even a decrease in the sun’s luminosity.
A report in the journal Nature shows that monkeys can be cleared of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) through the use of a new vaccine.
The vaccine cleared the virus from 9 of 16 inoculated monkeys. The scientists say the process now provides a blueprint for testing a vaccine for HIV in humans. Continue reading →
In a surprising rebuke to those predicting an “ice-free Arctic in 2013” the level of Arctic sea ice has increased 60% from 2012 levels.
The Arctic sea ice averaged 2.35 million miles in August 2013 compared to a low point of 1.32 million in September 2012. The total ice cover within standard deviation of the 30-year average. Continue reading →
Researchers have made a huge breakthrough in microwave emitting laser technology allowing them to maintain a beam at room temperature for the first time. Previously, all versions of microwave emitting lasers, or a “maser,” required high magnetic fields and technically challenging cooling systems.
The report published in the journal “Nature” shows that masers can be created using a crystalline material without any cooling units or magnets. Continue reading →