Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: August 2, 2014

Vision Correcting Displays for Dashboard GPS and E-Books

Larry Hardesty | MIT News Office – Technology could lead to e-readers, smartphones, and displays that let users dispense with glasses.

“Researchers at the MIT Media Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a new display technology that automatically corrects for vision defects — no glasses (or contact lenses) required. The technique could lead to dashboard-mounted GPS displays that farsighted drivers can consult without putting their glasses on, or electronic readers that eliminate the need for reading glasses, among other applications.

“The first spectacles were invented in the 13th century,” says Gordon Wetzstein, a research scientist at the Media Lab and one of the display’s co-creators. “Today, of course, we have contact lenses and surgery, but it’s all invasive in the sense that you either have to put something in your eye, wear something on your head, or undergo surgery. We have a different solution that basically puts the glasses on the display, rather than on your head. It will not be able to help you see the rest of the world more sharply, but today, we spend a huge portion of our time interacting with the digital world.”

Bob Woodward reviews ‘The Nixon Defense,’ by John W. Dean

Bob Woodward – Washington Post – “President Richard Nixon’s decision to install a secret recording system — and then to retain the tapes — perhaps ranks as the most consequential self-inflicted political wound of 20th-century America. The criminality, abuse of power, obsession with real and perceived enemies, rage, self-focus, and small-mindedness revealed on those tapes left him… Continue Reading

UN – Impacts of Drug Use on Users and Their Families in Afghanistan

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, April 2014 “Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer and cultivator of opium poppies; it produces almost three quarters of the world’s illicit opium. While a significant amount of the opium produced in Afghanistan is trafficked out of the country, in 2009 it was estimated that almost 10 per… Continue Reading

Policy bubbles: What factors drive their birth, maturity and death?

“A policy bubble is a policy overreaction that is reinforced by positive feedback over a relatively long period of time. Policy bubbles impose social costs without producing offsetting benefits. Moshe Maor explores this phenomenon and explains how it may mature as a result of over-optimism and overconfidence among policymakers and the general public, or as a result of human herding and emotional contagion. Policy scholars and practitioners claim that the Eurozone has been, and still… Continue Reading

Preventing Bank Runs

Andolfatto, David and Nosal, Ed and Sultanum, Bruno, Preventing Bank Runs (July 31, 2014). FRB of St. Louis Working Paper No. 2014-021A. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2474839 “Diamond and Dybvig (1983) is commonly understood as providing a formal rationale for the existence of bank-run equilibria. It has never been clear, however, whether bank-run equilibria in… Continue Reading

HP Study Reveals 70 Percent of Internet of Things Devices Vulnerable to Attack

“HP Fortify on Demand is pleased to announce the release of its Internet of Things State of the Union Study, revealing 70 percent of the most commonly used Internet of Things (IoT) devices contain serious vulnerabilities. Why we did the study – Late last year, we were hearing a lot about Internet of Things, and a bit about IoT security,… Continue Reading

US-CERT: Backoff Point-of-Sale Malware

Systems Affected – Point-of-Sale Systems – Alert (TA14-212A) “This advisory was prepared in collaboration with the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), United States Secret Service (USSS), Financial Sector Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), and Trustwave Spiderlabs, a trusted partner under contract with the USSS.  The purpose of this release is to provide relevant and… Continue Reading

EPIC Sues FBI for Missing Privacy Reports

“EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain details about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance programs. The agency is required to conduct privacy impact assessments when it collects and uses personal data. However, the Bureau has failed to publicly release privacy impact assessments for many of its programs, including facial recognition, drones, and license plate… Continue Reading