Military
Arms Control Groups Urge Human Control of Robot Weaponry nytimes
The report, which came from Human Rights Watch and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic at the opening of a weeklong United Nations meeting on autonomous weapons in Geneva, potentially challenges an emerging United States military strategy that will count on technology advantages and increasingly depend on weapons systems that blend humans and machines.
The report from Human Rights Watch. Yes, that Human Rights Group. While I'm not keen on the idea of autonomous weapons roming the streets/skies, the argument in this report is a humanistic one with a loose appeal to the 'h'oly See for some moral guidance.
Drone
Festo's flying sphere makes the creepiest drone deliveries engadget
...it can...grab an object using using the company's tongue-like FlexShapeGripper and absorb it into the body of the balloon. From there, it seeks the intended recipient and gently delivers the object by oozing it back out.
Society
Appeals court rejects 'Sister Wives' challenge to polygamy ban in Utah usatoday
A federal appeals court rejected a challenge to Utah’s polygamy ban, dismissing on Monday a case brought by the family featured in the TLC reality show “Sister Wives,” which chronicles the life of a man with four spouses.
Since Utah officials have declared they don’t prosecute polygamists in absence of any other crimes, the whole matter is “moot,” and should be dismissed entirely, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said.
Bible
Hebrew biblical texts were written before destruction of First Temple in Jerusalem ibtimes.co.uk
Literacy was widespread in the Kingdom of Judah before Nebuchadnezzar II's destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC, analysis of inscriptions on ancient ceramic shards has revealed. This discovery points to key Hebrew biblical texts being written before this time, as an "educational infrastructure" of this kind is considered an important condition for the creation of such texts.
Of course we believe the Bible was written by the authors it says wrote it, but one of the arguments liberal scolars have used to justify undermining the truth of Scripture is to say that the people who wrote it couldn't have written it because of presumed illiteracy (or, more specifically, no proof of literacy). This find is not going to help their argument out...See also New Evidence on When Bible Was Written: Ancient Shopping Lists
Israel
‘Saudi-Egypt agreement threatens long-term Israeli interests’ jpost
Recently signed agreements between Saudi Arabia and Egypt...transfer sovereignty over two small islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia...[and]...would also allow for a bridge connection between the two countries.
See also Egypt hands over disputed Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia
As Palestinians head back to the UN, cause for concern in Israel timesofisrael
...the key to fending off the latest Palestinian attempt to get Israel condemned at the UN’s most important body lies with US President Barack Obama. He will be in the awkward position of having to either veto a resolution despite agreeing with its content, or to abstain, thus further alienating America’s staunchest ally in the Middle East and allowing political opponents at home to portray his party as anti-Israel.
Medical AI
IBM Watson enlists in the war on cancer mashable
[American Cancer Society is] finally taking that data, some 14,000 pages on 70 different cancer topics, as well as risks, treatments and prevention and pouring it into one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence engines: IBM Watson.
Space
Top 5 wacky NASA missions that might just happen newscientist
Since 2011, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme has selected long-shot space exploration ideas that it thinks are worth exploring. This year’s crop, announced on 8 April, features 13 proposals, each of which NASA will award $100,000 for nine more months of research.
See NASA's site for Full list of projects
Global Governance
Robots are coming for our jobs — but the best solution is already being tested in Europe businessinsider
We need to begin preparing for this inevitability and reimagine a society where most people cannot 'work for a living,” but instead can be liberated to pursue their own vision of a meaningful life. Several prominent AI researchers including Andrew Ng and Jeremy Howard have added their voices to those advocating for a Universal Basic Income, a monthly payment to every citizen independent of employment and with no means testing.
Tech
UW undergraduate team wins $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for gloves that translate sign language washington.edu
Their invention, “SignAloud,” is a pair of gloves that can recognize hand gestures that correspond to words and phrases in American Sign Language. Each glove contains sensors that record hand position and movement and send data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a central computer. The computer looks at the gesture data through various sequential statistical regressions, similar to a neural network. If the data match a gesture, then the associated word or phrase is spoken through a speaker.
BIG-i robot looks like a trash can but is a lot more helpful mashable
To make BIG-i respond to specific commands and perform actions, you’ll have to teach it yourself. You can make it look at the couch and say, “This is ‘couch.’” Then you can tell it to perform an action when you sit down on the couch, like turn on the TV. It may take some time to set up and teach BIG-i what everything is, but once you do it’ll have a big range of actions it can perform for you.
See also: Introducing BIG-i, the World’s Most Versatile Personal Robot and marvel at the idea of "a single large rotating eye" watching, well, everything you do.
Odd
Ice chunk falls from sky, crashes into parked car at dealership in Cumberland County fox43
This was just interesting (2 1/2 weeks old). Here's a follow up news story from a couple days later, when they were still looking into a cause: Ice chunk that smashed car could be an act of [God]. Also a definition for Megacryometeor, which was a new word to me :)
Animals
There's a massive 'crab swarm' off the coast of Panama mashable
"There was this turbid layer," he added, in remarks provided by WHOI, "and you couldn't see a thing beyond it. We just saw this cloud but had no idea what was causing it."
Society
North Carolina governor backs down -- a bit -- on state's controversial LGBT law latimes
North Carolina governor backs down -- a bit -- on state's controversial LGBT law
Other...
Leonardo Da Vinci's Living Relatives Found news.discovery
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