Новости за 09.03.2017

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Uber will no longer use its "Greyball" tool to explicitly target authorities, according to a new statement from its Chief Security Officer, Joe Sullivan. 

"We have started a review of the different ways this technology has been used to date. In addition, we are expressly prohibiting its use to target action by local regulators going forward," Sullivan said in the statement. "Given the way our systems are configured, it will take some time to ensure this... Читать дальше...

Uber

Uber's self-driving cars will return to California's streets, though the ride-hailing company doesn't immediately plan to pick up passengers.

Uber received a permit Wednesday to test two Volvo SUVs on public roads, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said. Regulators also approved 48 people as backup drivers who must sit behind the wheel in case the prototype cars malfunction, according to agency spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez.

The permit resolves a conflict dating to December. Читать дальше...

Douglas C. Pizac/AP

A White House official says former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is President Donald Trump's choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia.

Huntsman will be nominated for the diplomatic post as senior members of Trump's administration face questions about their contacts with the Russian government.

The White House official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

Huntsman served as the ambassador to China during the Obama administration and speaks Mandarin. Читать дальше...

We Are The Mighty

How do you frustrate a CIA hacker? Show them Chinese.

In one of the 8,761 new documents released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday, which exposed the CIA’s global cyberespionage operations on an unprecedented scale, an agent on China missions lamented the language barrier.

“I do not speak Chinese,” he wrote in an internal post in 2014. The confidential documents and files released by WikiLeaks were said to have come from an isolated, high-security cyberattack facility... Читать дальше...

Getty Images/Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg

I’m very impressed with the recent gold action because it’s holding its own in the face of an impending rate hike. It’s fallen off a bit, but not dramatically. It tells you there are good fundamentals behind it, independent of the threat of a stronger dollar.

I believe the Fed is preparing to raise into weakness and will have to reverse course in April or May. What happens to gold then? It’s going to go higher again, because the Fed will cheapen the dollar... Читать дальше...

AP Photo/Eric Gay

A controversial "bathroom bill" in Texas cleared its first hurdle on Wednesday, easily passing through a legislative committee after a marathon session of testimony that started a full day earlier.

The Republican-backed bill would require transgender people to use the public bathrooms and facilities that match the sex on their birth certificates, regardless of their gender identity. 

Much like a similar law passed last year in North Carolina, the proposal... Читать дальше...

If there's one question that the top brass at Google are sick of being asked it's this: How are you going to catch up in the cloud market to Amazon and Microsoft?

Associated Press/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

More industry lobbyists, campaigners and Breitbart writers have quietly started working in important roles in the Trump administration.

ProPublica recently released a list of over 400 officials that Trump brought in to his administration since taking office in January.

Even though Trump said that he hired approximately 520 people on "beachhead teams" in January, the White House refused to comment on their identities — even after hires... Читать дальше...

Glassdoor/Uber

Gary Marcus, the much-celebrated hire that was in charge of Uber's AI Labs, is stepping down from his position at the company after a short four months. In a Facebook post, Marcus said he will now become a "special advisor" to Uber's AI efforts. 

"Great news - I am headed back to my family in New York! I've negotiated a new role with Uber as Special Advisor for AI that gives me more flexibility. So proud of the Geometric team - it has been great working with them," Marcus wrote. Читать дальше...

Alex Wong/Getty Images

A slight majority of American voters are opposed to President Trump's and Congress' efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. 

51% of voters do not think Trump should support efforts to repeal Obamacare, while 49% believe that Trump should work with Congress to repeal parts of the former president's signature healthcare law.

Meanwhile, 21% believe Obamacare should be repealed in its entirety... Читать дальше...

ChinaFotoPress/GettyImages

Most people would not consciously decide to hire candidates based on whether they remind them of themselves.

But one unconscious bias – affinity bias – may lead people to favour candidates who are like themselves, research shows.

Affinity or similarity bias is where people seek out those who share their backgrounds, group membership, or experiences.

If hiring managers and boards of directors are made up of mostly men who unconsciously engage in such bias... Читать дальше...

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

A federal judge in Hawaii will hear arguments from state lawyers next Wednesday regarding President Donald Trump's revised executive order restricting travel from six majority-Muslim countries.

The lawyers are seeking a temporary restraining order on the ban, which was signed on Monday, weeks after the original order was challenged in courtrooms across the country and ultimately blocked from reinstatement by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The revised... Читать дальше...

Getty

Larry Page's mysterious startup, Zee Aero, is expanding its fleet of unusual aircraft as it races to create flying cars that could revolutionize transportation.

Zee Aero registered two new aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration on January 18, according to filings seen by Business Insider. The aircraft type for both filings is listed as rotorcraft, which means they use rotary wings to fly like a helicopter.

Both of the aircraft use electric engines, according... Читать дальше...

REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is weighing a deployment of up to 1,000 American soldiers to Kuwait to serve as a reserve force in the fight against Islamic State as U.S.-backed fighters accelerate the offensive in Syria and Iraq, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Proponents of the option, which has not been previously reported, said it would provide U.S. commanders on the ground greater flexibility to quickly respond to unforeseen... Читать дальше...

Nabil al-Jurani/AP

Three years of drastic cuts to upstream spending because of the meltdown in oil prices could result in a shortage of oil supply in a few years, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

When oil prices collapsed in 2014, oil producers quickly took an ax to their spending. Global oil and gas investment dropped by a quarter in 2015 and by an additional 26 percent last year, the IEA estimates. A long list of projects, particularly very large ones, were put on ice. Читать дальше...

Thomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is weighing a deployment of up to 1,000 American soldiers to Kuwait to serve as a reserve force in the fight against Islamic State as U.S.-backed fighters accelerate the offensive in Syria and Iraq, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Proponents of the option, which has not been previously reported, said it would provide U.S. commanders on the ground greater flexibility to quickly respond to unforeseen opportunities and challenges on the battlefield. Читать дальше...

Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban pitched his own plan to fix the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, amid the House Republican effort to unravel the law.

He detailed the idea on his blog, Blog Maverick. It amounted to single payer coverage for chronic physical and mental illnesses and life-threatening injuries, and standard insurance for all other healthcare. 

The owner of the Dallas Mavericks and star of ABC's "Shark Tank" encouraged readers to "shoot holes" in the plan. Читать дальше...

Getty Images/Pool

President Donald Trump's administration, its media boosters, and its critics are playing a game of nickname hot potato with the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Much like Republicans shifted the conversation to dub Democrats' healthcare overhaul "Obamacare," opponents of the American Health Care Act are trying to pin the bill on a single politician.

The only difference with the AHCA is that there are now two alternatives being thrown out: "Trumpcare"... Читать дальше...

Sgt. Donald Holbert/US Marine Corps

A Marine detachment from an amphibious task force has left its ships to deploy to Syria near Raqqa, defense officials told The Washington Post.

While special-operations advisers have been on the ground in the country for some time, the move shifts more conventional personnel into the country and represents a new escalation of the US's involvement there.

Two officials, speaking anonymously, told The Post that the troops were part of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit out of San Diego. Читать дальше...

David Goldman/Getty

I’ve been doom-and-gloom on brick-and-mortar retail. But I haven’t been nearly doom-and-gloom enough, given the events of the past seven days.

Brick-and-mortar retailers, many of them subject to leveraged buyouts during the LBO boom before the Financial Crisis and now burdened with way too much debt, are keeling over one after the other, in a dense wave of debt restructurings and bankruptcies. And creditors are getting skinned.

The crash of brick-and-mortar retail is due to structural causes ... Читать дальше...

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Rather unusually, Republicans in the House of Representatives are intent on moving their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare through committees before they even have estimates of how much the plan will cost, how many people it will cover, or what it will do to insurance premiums.

The Congressional Budget Office will likely come out with those estimates next week. If Republicans succeed in rushing the "markups" of the Obamacare bills, they will already have... Читать дальше...

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Cleaning expert and author of "Clean My Space" Melissa Maker breaks down how to clean your mattress. You're going to need some baking soda, a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment, and some time. This technique will free your mattress of odor, dead skin cells, oils, and dust mites.

Nintendo’s latest gaming machine seems to be off to a good start. According to Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime — as told to The New York Times — the new Nintendo Switch had a better first two days of sales in North America than any Nintendo console before it.

Nest

Home security cameras, like the Nest Cam, are supposed to catch when a burglar is breaking into your house, or other useful video.

But they also capture some of life's funniest moments, too, like when someone falls down or a pet does something absolutely adorable.

Nest, an Alphabet company, shared on Wednesday what it calls "The Nesties," some of the most compelling home camera videos its users have shared with the Google cousin. Nest has added background music. 

Some of the videos are laugh-out-loud funny. Читать дальше...