Syria
Syrian forces make sweeping gains in eastern Aleppo cnn v
Government forces and armed paramilitary groups loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began a renewed push toward eastern Aleppo on November 15, backed by airstrikes following a three-week lull.
Taking the city would mark a turning point in a civil war that has raged in Syria for more than five years.
Also see Syrian rebel forces in Aleppo suffer 'biggest defeat since 2012' theguardian
Cuba
Justin Trudeau defends tribute to Fidel Castro independent.co.uk
The Canadian Prime Minister prompted outrage for praising the former Cuban leader and revolutionary who has left behind a profoundly divided legacy. He hailed Castro, who died at the age of 90 on Friday, as a “remarkable leader” and a “legendary revolutionary and orator” and fondly remembered his late father’s friendship with Castro.
Also see Justin Trudeau defends initial remarks about 'polarizing' Fidel Castro theguardian
Anti-Semitism
Vladimir Putin spokesman's wife sparks outrage with 'Holocaust-on-ice' dance routine telegraph.co.uk
Tatiana Navka, who is married to Dmitry Peskov rt, Vladimir Putin's spokesman, wore a stripped concentration camp uniform emblazoned with a yellow star in the routine broadcast on Ice Age, a reality TV show, on Saturday evening.
Ms Navka and her dancing partner, Andrei Burkovsky, appeared to mime shooting each other during an elaborate routine set to the music of La vita รจ bella (Life is Beautiful), the Oscar-winning 1997 Italian film about the holocaust.
I don't know if this was intentionally anti-Semitic, or just a really bad idea...
Cash
India's Modi Admits Plan Shifting Nation To "Cashless Society" zerohedge
Well who could have seen this coming? Just as we noted, the slippery slope towards full government control in a cash-less society is where Indian PM Modi is heading following his chaos-creating demonetization efforts of the last two weeks. While massive opposition protests are planned tomorrow, Modi remains indignant, as Reuters reports, "we can gradually move from a less-cash society to a cashless society...this is the chance for you to enter the digital world."
Abortion
French Council Rejects Ad With Smiling Down Syndrome Children as it Might ‘Disturb’ Post-Abortive Moms christiannews.net v
The video “Dear Future Mom” has been in circulation for two years, created by the group CoorDown coordown.it and released on World Down Syndrome Day in 2014. Its purpose was to encourage mothers whose unborn babies are diagnosed with Down syndrome after the group received an email from a pregnant woman who expressed that she was fearful of what the future held for her child.
AI
Computers could soon be our best developers venturebeat
Until now, machine learning experts have tended to focus on AI applications highly tailored to specific tasks – for example, facial recognition, self-driving cars, speech recognition, even Internet search results. But what if those same algorithms were able to understand their own code structure — without human assistance, interpretation or intervention — in the same way they can recognize and process human language and images?
Automation
Meet ALVINN, the self-driving car from 1989 theverge v
Self-driving cars may seem like a very recent technological phenomenon, but researchers and engineers have been building vehicles that can drive themselves for over three decades. Research on computer controlled vehicles began at Carnegie Mellon in 1984 and production of the first vehicle, Navlab 1, began in 1986. ALVINN, which stands for Autonomous Land Vehicle In a Neural Network, was used as a test vehicle well into the 1990s.
Self-driving cars to begin testing in Boston by end of year dailyfreepress
Karl Iagnemma and Emilio Frazzoli, the founders of nuTonomy, said they conducted their research on self-driving cars at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and will test their “Renault Zoe” electric vehicle in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park in Boston’s Seaport District, according to the release.
Research
Researchers develop single-photon converter—a key component of quantum internet phys.org t
Quantum internet and hybrid quantum computers, built out of subsystems that operate by means of physical phenomena, are now more than just the stuff of imagination. In an article published in Nature Photonics, physicists from the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Physics (FUW) fuw.edu.pl and the University of Oxford report the development of a key element of such systems: an electro-optical device that enables the properties of individual photons to be modified. Unlike existing laboratory constructions, this new device works with previously unattainable efficiency and is at the same time stable, reliable and compact.
Space
Space’s Trash Collector? A Japanese Entrepreneur Wants the Job nytimes
“Let’s face it, waste management isn’t sexy enough for a space agency to convince taxpayers to allocate money,” said Mr. Okada, 43, who put Astroscale’s astroscale headquarters in start-up-friendly Singapore but is building its spacecraft in his native Japan, where he found more engineers. “My breakthrough is figuring out how to make this into a business.”
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