RTFA: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_…

Click on the Image to Watch NSF Video on DI-HOPE-KD

Law enforcement agencies have been doing this type of connect-the-dots work for decades, but it often requires weeks and sometimes months of painstaking formatting and reviewing by human eyes before useful data is discovered.

By looking for higher-order links–links that connect more than two dots–DI-HOPE-KD can do the same job in minutes and sometimes even seconds, saving a great deal of time and producing more useful and accurate information than traditional searches.
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According to Pottenger, DI-HOPE-KD also allows different agencies and databases to collaborate and share information in an intuitive way without sharing all the specifics of that information. He gives the real-life example of a case where a framework like DI-HOPE-KD can tell investigators that a higher order link exists between a pseudoephedrine manufacturer in one town, a drug-dealing broker in another and an illicit meth lab in a third without revealing the details of the connection.

The investigators can then use other traditional means, including warrants and court orders, to pin down the nature of the connection and make arrests.

Pottenger believes there are far-reaching applications for this type of intuitive, yet privacy-enhancing data search, sharing and knowledge discovery technology in fields such as healthcare and retailing as well as in everyday tasks of information search and sharing.

He is also the CEO of Intuidex, a startup company working to commercialize DI-HOPE-KD, and is already collaborating with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and others to demonstrate the value of the technology in the field.

Professor and Entrepreneur Pottenger has sold his genius to evil. The NSF has been funding the development of software that will supposedly piece together disparate pieces of information to identify possible criminal activity.

The worst aspect is the double speak involved in all of this. There are two levels at which the BS spews forth:

1. There is a hard-sell of the software being “privacy enhancing.” The way it supposedly enhances privacy, according to Pottenger, is that the computer uses information that typically requires the use of a warrant to make high-order connections and then sends law enforcement one piece of the puzzle — your telephone number is the example he uses in the video — and they reconstruct what the computer found using “traditional” means (that is, constitutional ones such as warrants and court orders). There is also a fundamental assumption that the human element is the one that will respect the privacy. But, if we trusted humans so implicitly, we wouldn’t need law enforcement in the first place. The only privacy enhancing component of this software are the 5th and 6th words in its name. Otherwise, it violates privacy. That’s why law enforcement cannot be told all the information the software used to flag a citizen.
2. The idea that this process will be more accurate because it tries to make high-order connections is not the whole truth. Connections at multiple dimensions mean connections that are less concrete, more abstract. That is: (you message your friend through facebook to schedule a trip to RadioShack) + (your friend purchases a 12V battery) + (your dad the gardener purchased some fertilizer 3 months ago) + (someone makes an explosive device within 50 miles of your home) = the FBI shows up at your workplace to interrogate you. Great.

Watch the video; you’ll see what I mean. This guy clearly thinks he’s doing a wonderful thing, but if you think for yourself you’ll find he’s doing the opposite of what he promises. I’m not sure if he’s a naive optimist or what, but I’m not drinking this kool-aid. If you like your law enforcement to err on the side of false positives, then this will be great news for you. I prefer the signal detection bias to go toward misses when it comes to imprisonment, so that the lives of innocent people are not ruined. That’s why we live in America for Pete’s sake. I’m very disappointed that our tax dollars are funding this project which is borderline constitutional (see Amendment 4) AND will be used for Pottenger to make bank. “Die Hope” is the realistic way to pronounce this acronym.

RTFA: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_…

The dinosaurs died gradually from climate change caused by a series of severe volcanic eruptions in India at the end of the Cretaceous period, says Gerta Keller, professor of geosciences at Princeton University. This theory contradicts the long-held notion that the dinosaurs died due to climate change when a giant meteor hit the Yucatan region of Mexico.

Keller’s theory has not yet been adopted by the broader scientific community, but it is rapidly gaining traction as she and her colleagues, funded by the National Science Foundation, report findings from their field work in India and Mexico. The most significant finding is geologic evidence that the mass extinction and the impact of the giant meteor occurred at two different times.

“The Chicxulub impact hit the Yucatan about 300,000 years before the mass extinction that included the dinosaurs and therefore could not have caused it,” Keller says. “We know the age of impact because my team discovered a layer of tiny glass melt-rock spherules in Mexico and Texas.” The spherules formed when the rocks were vaporized by the impact and blown into the stratosphere–and then rained down over North and Central America. “This glass spherule layer marks the precise time of the impact 300,000 years ago,” she notes.

The sediments and fossils in the older sediments below the spherule layer and younger sediments above it reveal how life was affected by the impact.

“We see no change, not a single species died out, so the mass extinction 300,000 years later must have been caused by another catastrophe,” Keller says. She’s firm in her belief that the other catastrophe was a series of volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Traps, a volcanic mountain range that covers much of India today. The mountains, which today are 12,000 feet high, were much higher in prehistoric times.

“Volcanic eruptions poured out lava flows after lava flows, stacking them like a layer cake,” she says. “The total volume in cubic miles was greater than the Rockies and the Sierras combined.”

Whoa!!! Wait … oh yes: Whoa!!!!!! I bet some old school archaeologists are steaming. Now THIS is news!

The photo is pure gold too, for that matter. Photo credit goes to Zina Deretsky.