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Canadians Want Majority Of New Cars To Be Electric, Expect It In Future, Survey Says | Electrek

March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 mdbincbi

A new poll of driving-age Canadians shows strong support for electric cars, and strong expectations that EVs will become the norm in the future. The poll, conducted by Clean Energy Canada, shows that 64 percent of Canadians would prefer electric vehicles to be the majority of vehicles sold in the future. Furthermore, 72 percent of Canadians believe EVs will become the majority of cars sold around the world. Read full story here: Canadians Want Majority Of New Cars To Be Electric, Expect It In Future, Survey Says | Electrek

Why Companies Want To Mine The Secrets In Your Voice | The Verge

March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 mdbincbi

VoicesenseVoicesense makes an intriguing promise to its clients: give us someone’s voice, and we’ll tell you what they will do. The Israeli company uses real-time voice analysis during calls to evaluate whether someone is likely to default on a bank loan, buy a more expensive product, or be the best candidate for a job. It’s one of a crop of companies looking for the personal insights contained in our speech. In recent years, researchers and startups have taken note of the rich trove of information that can be mined from…

Another Costly Federal IT Glitch Gets Resolved – Ten Years Later | CBC News

March 14, 2019March 14, 2019 mdbincbi

A computer glitch dating back to 2009 has been fixed at last, allowing the federal government to resume chasing down thousands of Canadians who owe the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) about $66 million due to erroneous overpayments. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) reinstated the collection of these old debts last November, going after 15,000 individuals or their estates after almost a decade of inaction. Read full story here: Another Costly Federal IT Glitch Gets Resolved – Ten Years Later | CBC News

House Aide: NSA Has Shut Down Phone Call Record Surveillance | Ars Technica

March 5, 2019March 5, 2019 mdbincbi

The most controversial National Security Agency surveillance program, originally exposed by documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, has apparently ended quietly, according to the National Security Advisor to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. In a discussion recorded for the Lawfare Podcast released on March 2, Luke Murry said that the NSA was no longer collecting call detail records—the metadata associated with phone calls and text messages—and that the Trump administration had not used the program for over six months. Read full story here: House Aide: NSA Has…

Facebook Won’t Let You Opt-Out Of Its Phone Number ‘Look Up’ Setting | TechCrunch

March 4, 2019March 4, 2019 mdbincbi

Users are complaining that the phone number Facebook hassled them to use to secure their account with two-factor authentication has also been associated with their user profile — which anyone can use to “look up” your profile. Worse, Facebook doesn’t give you an option to opt-out. The recent hubbub began today after a tweet by Jeremy Burge blew up, criticizing Facebook’s collection and use of phone numbers, which he likened to “a unique ID that is used to link your identity across every platform on the internet.” Read full story…

The Writing Of This AI Is So human That Its Creators Are Scared To Release It | CBC News

February 25, 2019February 25, 2019 mdbincbi

A new text generator driven by artificial intelligence is apparently so good that its creators have decided not to make it publicly available. The tool was created by OpenAI, a non-profit research firm whose backers include Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman and which was founded with the mission of “discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence.” But now OpenAI is concerned that something these well-intentioned researchers built could easily be misused, fearing that it would be dangerous in the wrong hands. Read full story here: The Writing Of This AI Is So human That Its Creators…

Petition Calls For U.S. To Sell Montana To Canada For $1 trillion To Reduce National Debt | CTV News

February 22, 2019February 22, 2019 mdbincbi

It already borders three Canadian provinces and has a diverse terrain of Rocky Mountains and Great Plains that mirror those in Alberta and Saskatchewan. After the U.S. national debt soared to more than $22 trillion earlier this month, a man named Ian Hammond launched a petition on Change.org last week to sell Montana to Canada for $1 trillion to reduce the national debt. Red full story here: Petition Calls For U.S. To Sell Montana To Canada For $1 trillion To Reduce National Debt | CTV News

Machines vs. Cashiers: Why Shoppers Are So Divided Over Self-Checkout | CBC News

February 17, 2019February 17, 2019 mdbincbi

More than a million people clicked on a CBC News story last week about some retail stores removing their self-checkout machines. Thousands of readers also left comments, many staunchly taking a stand either for or against self-checkout. The machines are now ubiquitous in many large retail stores, yet self-checkout remains a divisive issue among Canadians. “A lot of people do see self-checkout as a threat to workers,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at Halifax-based Dalhousie University specializing in food distribution and policy. Read full story here: Machines vs. Cashiers: Why Shoppers Are So Divided…

Receipts Expose Retail Workers, Consumers To ‘Worrying’ Levels Of Cancer-Linked Chemicals: Study | CTV News

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019 mdbincbi

Cashiers across Canada are being exposed to “worrying” levels of BPA and BPS — hormone disrupting industrial chemicals that have been linked to diabetes, obesity, ADHD and breast and prostate cancers — by simply handling thermal paper receipts, according to the results of a new experiment by Environmental Defence Canada. (CTV News) “These slips of paper are covertly exposing cashiers to worrying levels of hormone disrupting BPA and BPS every day,” Muhannad Malas, toxics program manager at EDC, said in the study. “But it doesn’t have to be this way.”…