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London attack at London Bridge using vehicle-ramming and at Borough Market using stabbing. 7 dead, 20 injured. Started 3 June 2017 21:08 UTC.

".youtube.com" has added a new cookie "GPS" with the value of '1'. Is this some kind of location marker scheme?

A company in Canada called Lyrebird has a new technology that can imitate any voice using a 60 second sound sample

The Montreal based startup in AI has presented a voice imitation algorithm that the team says can mimic the speech and also shift its emotional cadence — and all this with just a tiny snippet of real world audio.

So if you think fake news online is bad now, wait until there’s a tech that lets anyone generate a ‘recording’ of a person apparently incriminating themselves, trivially easily.

The company will release a online API later so that people can try the technology for themselves. Likely under some freemium model. The team has been working for more than a year on the technology at the MILA lab of the University in Montréal, and is being advised by the AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio.

CRISPR gene-editing tool causes unintended genetic mutations

CRISPR from 1987 which is a efficient and widely used DNA modification technique has been found to modify more than desired. The next mishap may very well be the one that create a superbug. Be it something like flue pandemic of 1918 etc.

In examining the entire genome from the CRISPR-treated mice, they found that the tool had successfully corrected the specific gene they were targeting, but it also potentially caused a great deal of other genetic changes. In two CRISPR-treated animals, more than 100 large gene deletions or insertions and over 1,500 single-nucleotide mutations were identified.

Researchers at U.C. Berkeley has found a birth control that is hormone free, fully natural, resulted in no known side effects so far, is harmless to eggs and sperm, could be used both in the long and short-term, and it can be used either before or after conception, from ancient Chinese folk medicine... "Because these two plant compounds block fertilization at very, very low concentrations -- about 10 times lower than levels of levonorgestrel in Plan B -- they could be a new generation of emergency contraceptive we nicknamed 'molecular condoms,'" team leader Polina Lishko.

The active compounds are pregnenolone sulfate — and the two plant-derived inhibitors pristimerin and lupeol. According to the publication.

And they work by blocking ABHD2 that signals to sperms to move faster. However these compounds hit a target that is important for many cell types in the body. So these compounds are no "magic bullet" and a better comparison is that of carpet bombing.

The chemicals they studied is supposedly extracted from mangoes and dandelion roots.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1700367114
(useful for those scientific hubs..)

BBC:
British Airways (BA) computer systems that handles tickets and vacation of gates is not working. BA has cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick until 17:00 UTC because of computer problems.

A "major IT system failure that is causing very severe disruption to our flight operations worldwide", BA said. They apologized for the "global system outage" and said it was "working to resolve the the problem".

Heathrow Airport said it was "working closely" with BA to solve the issue. The problems mean parts of BA's website are unavailable and some travellers claimed they could not check in on the mobile app.

BA aircraft landing at Heathrow are unable to park up as outbound aircraft cannot vacate the gates, which has resulted in passengers being stuck on aircraft. Heathrow advised passengers to check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.

BA staff in Heathrow's Terminal 5 were resorting to using white boards, according to passenger Gareth Wharton.

Delays have also been reported in Rome, Prague, Milan, Stockholm and Malaga due to the system failure. Philip Bloom said he had been waiting on board a Heathrow-bound flight at Belfast for two hours and added: "We haven't been told very much just that there is a worldwide computer system failure. "We were told that we couldn't even get on other flights because they are unable to see what flights we can be moved to."

The BBC's Phillip Norton is at Rome International airport, where he has been waiting to fly to London. He said BA staff were unable to say how long delays would be, telling him "all flights are grounded around the world". Alma Saffari is in Marseille waiting to get her flight back to Heathrow and said: "When we finally boarded the captain came out and told us their computer systems were down worldwide. "Eventually after sitting on the tarmac for 1 and a half hours we disembarked the plane. /../ Now we are sitting in the departure area outside the gate."

Ms Saffari, who is with her 13-month-old baby, said she had been given a voucher for food and drink.

The Sun:
There were reports of BA staff telling disgruntled passengers trying to get away for the Bank Holiday weekend that the company was under cyber attack but this has been denied by the airline. Passenger Jo Josson said: "Officials are telling us there has been a cyber attack against BA's systems. Even the tannoy is affected."

"It appears it is a cyber attack" said @British_Airways captain @Gatwick_Airport.

Londoner Terry Page, 28, was booked on a flight to Texas but was left stuck in a queue at Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport for two hours and said "I tried to use their website to get a screenshot of my boarding pass - but the website isn't working either.

britishairways.com seems to work now at 17:01 UTC.

Anybody knows what OS and software they really run for this system?

I leggings verranno messi fuorilegge: sono ‘’atti osceni’’ in luogo pubblico translation "Leggings will be outlawed: they are "obscene acts" in a public place"

Machine translation:

"Leggings will be outlawed": the female chief of clothing may soon be subject to a restrictive rule of law. The reason? They are considered obscene and comparable to 'obscene acts in a public place'. If you think that the proposal comes from some country with deep Muslim religious fundamentalism, you are wrong: the bill comes from the US state of Montana.

Republican David Moore, in fact, has proposed legislation, the Billboard House Bill 365, which would like to ban "yoga pants" - so called because used by women to do yoga or gymnastics - as "indecent" clothing not to be worn in place Public because they would put too much emphasis on the side b. If passed, the law may also affect other garments that show the breasts or other parts of the provocative body.

The Guardian in UK reports of a serious incident at the Manchester Arena during a concert by Ariana Grande that occurred sometime around 2017-05-22 21:40 UTC. The Manchester Victoria railway station's services is blocked.

Fatalities have occurred. a huge bang is reported.

NBC News writes that there is 20 dead.

Evacuation chaos
Sound of the "bang" (sounds like a bomb)

British police says to Sky News that there is 19 fatalities and 50 injured. As people have shrapnel injuries, it's likely a bomb of that type.

US Officials says to Sky News that they suspect it's was a suicide bomber.

The explosion occurred in a public area outside the arena.
Ariana Grande is ok.

2017-05-23 06:30 UTC Sky News, reports 22 dead and 59 injured.

I'm sure there are uncertainties in the reporting and that all facts will not be clear for some time.

TD;LR: 2017-05-22 21:40 UTC, Manchester Arena in Britain, Suicide bomber with a nail (shrapnel) bomb explodes it right at the end of the concert in a public area next to the Arena. Results in 19 dead and 50 injured. Ariana Grande is ok.

2017-05-16 15:11 UTC
Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau Introduces New Passenger Bill Of Rights

"We have all heard recent news reports of shoddy treatment of air passengers," Garneau said at a news conference. "Such incidents will not be tolerated in Canada. When Canadians buy an airline ticket, they expect the airline to keep its part of the deal."

2017-05-17 00:21 UTC
And here we go again..
Air Canada Abruptly Cancels Tickets, Costing N.L. Couple $6,000 (Canadian dollars?)

While Air Canada apologized to Earle for the "inconvenience,'' it said the suspension of their tickets was "a necessary fraud prevention technique to protect our passengers, credit card holders and Air Canada.''

IBM has over a few years built up a remote work program for its 380 000 employees. Now they are "quietly dismantling" this option, and has told its employees this week that they either need to work in the office or resign (alternative source). From the report: IBM is giving thousands of its remote workers in the U.S. a choice this week: Abandon your home workspaces and relocate to a regional office -- or leave the company. The 105-year-old technology giant is quietly dismantling its popular decades-old remote work program to bring employees back into offices, a move it says will improve collaboration and accelerate the pace of work. The changes comes as IBM copes with 20 consecutive quarters of falling revenue and rising shareholder ire over Chief Executive Ginni Rometty's pay package. The company won't say how many of its 380 000 employees are affected by the policy change, which so far has been rolled out to its Watson division, software development, digital marketing, and design -- divisions that employ tens of thousands of workers. The shift is particularly surprising since the Armonk, N.Y., company has been among the business world's staunchest boosters of remote work, both for itself and its customers. IBM markets software and services for what it calls "the anytime, anywhere workforce," and its researchers have published numerous studies on the merits of remote work.

This is despite that teams may not even be in the same town so it's effectively a telecommute at work anyway. And sometimes there's isn't even a desk assigned to the employee anyway. Instead employees get a locker room type closet with a trolley suitcase like thingy to stash all their junk that people used to leave on their desks. IBM employees are not allowed to leave any items on the desk, since it is not their desk. Every morning it's the "musical chairs" and everyone will try to grab a desk in a good location. What's a good location might however be different for a programmer needing concentration in silence . . . . and a salesperson next to you doing "Lines Of Calls" (LOC) instead of "Lines Of Code".. LOC like you . . . . well, that just ruined the day for you.

Managers at IBM know that this is a stupid idea, but the goal was to save money, which trumps everything. So they tried to sweeten the deal a bit by letting people work at home. Basically, they have outsourced their office space building services to their employees. But if you can't at least put a picture of your wife and kids on your desk there won't be any attachment to the "place of work". Neither will there be any attachment to the company either so turnover rates goes high.

Adding to the dismal situation is that these IBM e-places are as pleasant to visit as a trip to concentration camp with very loud, greying chipped concrete colored paint, rickety desks and chairs that make IKEA furniture look like luxury items.

Maybe IBM just have become a simple maintainer of large amounts of software they primarily had already or purchased from others and then branding it IBM. SPSS was bought but hasn't changed since they purchased it yet they still want thousands of dollars in licensing every year. At least their net promoter score (NPS) has gone to 27 compared to say Tesla at 97. Out of a range -100 to +100.

Some companies have started using the strategy to move office often and far enough to get rid of employees as the housing market punish them. Without having to pay out for firing them.

Already a year ago IBM have begun the usual India replacement, but the people getting that treatment didn't have any work at home policy. The key thing to understand about this company is that it's like a small city. They have more than 300 000 employees world wide. And just like cities there are good and bad parts of town. Working at Watson, that's upscale. Working for IBM Global Services as a NOC engineer, sysadmin or Java developer is the slum. Workers at IBM "true blue" probably let you have an easier time to opt for work at home in the past than a red-headed stepchild working at IBM Global Services. The clients in IBM Global Services are the table pounding types and mostly in financial industries. They'd just have to complain to the sales representative that they heard a dog in the background of a conference call and the work at home ends for everyone. Incidents like that has been observed to occur at IBM. But you can also bet your ass that the Ph.D researchers at Watson who have any work at home privileges are keeping them. The company was always scared shitless to upset that apple cart. People doing security scans at IBM, always had to give those guys a pass, no matter what. Bottom line is that it's where you are inside IBM that will ultimately matter.

TD;LR: IBM treats everybody who isn't a Ph.D like shit and won't let them work from home. The hauling back of employees to offices is just an excuse to get rid of employees. and yes their offices suck. As an investor, it might be advisable to reconsider being that in IBM as they seems to live on their name more than substance.