Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer   System uses machine learning to offer new way to screen for hard-to-detect cancers Nicola Davis Mon 30 Mar 2020  19.01 EDT Last modified on Tue 31 Mar 2020  04.19 EDT ·         A new blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer has been revealed by researchers in the  latest  study to offer hope for early detection. The test is based on DNA that is shed by tumours and found circulating in the blood. More specifically, it focuses on chemical changes to this DNA, known as methylation patterns. Researchers say the test can not only tell whether someone has cancer, but can also shed light on the type of cancer they have. Dr Geoffrey Oxnard of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, part of Harvard Medical School, said the test was now being explored in clinical trials. “You need to use a test like this in an independent group at risk of cancer to ac...

Mind-reading AI turns thoughts into words using a brain implant By  Jason Arunn Murugesu   30 March 2020 An artificial intelligence can  accurately translate thoughts into sentences , at least for a limited vocabulary of 250 words. The system may bring us a step closer to restoring speech to people who have lost the ability because of paralysis. Joseph Makin at the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues used deep learning algorithms to study the brain signals of four women as they spoke. The women, who all have epilepsy, already had electrodes attached to their brains to monitor seizures. Each woman was asked to read aloud from a set of sentences as the team measured brain activity. The largest group of sentences contained 250 unique words. The team fed this brain activity to a neural network algorithm, training it to identify regularly occurring patterns that could be linked to repeated aspects of speech, such as ...

CAN THE NEWS INDUSTRY SURVIVE CORONAVIRUS? The economic fallout of the pandemic is crippling the advertising business, as Gannett furloughs staff, BuzzFeed cuts pay, and the  Tampa Bay Times  reduces printing. Coronavirus has led to a surge in readership—and an existential threat. BY CHARLOTTE KLE I N   March 30, 2020 As Americans are  turning  in large numbers to media outlets for coronavirus coverage, the industry itself is struggling to stay afloat. “The Coronavirus Is Killing Local News,”  read  an  Atlantic  headline last week, while BuzzFeed  dubbed  the pandemic a “media extinction event.” Alternative weeklies, local dailies, and digital-only newsrooms are struggling with the current advertising free fall, compounding the long-running issue of advertising revenue migrating to big tech platforms like Facebook and Google. BuzzFeed  announced  last week it would cut pay for its employees through May in an ...

47 Million Americans Work in Jobs at High Risk of Layoffs, Federal Reserve Analysis Says   in   Business ,  News   March 30, 2020 United States Federal Reserve analysts said the unemployment rate may soar past 32 percent and the coronavirus freeze on the economy could cost 47 million Americans their jobs. Economists at the Federal Reserve’s St. Louis district estimated Monday that the coronavirus impact on the economy may lead to 47 million jobs lost, pushing the nationwide total to 52.8 million people when the estimated 5 million already without work are included. This would push the U.S. unemployment rate to 32.1 percent, which is significantly higher than the 24.9 percent rate of unemployment last marked during the worst stretch of the 1930s Great Depression,  Forbes   noted . Last week, a record number of Americans filed for unemployment benefits, 3.28 million – more than quadruple the previous record of 695,000 set in 1982. But the Fed analys...

Is The COVID-19 Outbreak A Trojan Horse To Increase Smartphone Surveillance? by  Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2020 - 22:55 Authored by Aaron Kesel via ActivistPost.com, The coronavirus outbreak is proving to be the Trojan horse that justifies increased digital surveillance via our smartphones. All over the world, starting with China  – the suspected origin of the COVID-19 outbreak –  governments are increasing surveillance of citizens  using their smartphones. The trend is taking off like wildfire; in China citizens now require a smartphone application’s permission to travel around the country and internationally. The application is AliPay by Ant Financial, the finance affiliate controlled by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma, and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat. Citizens now require a green health code to travel,  Yahoo News  reported. China isn’t the only country looking towards smartphones to monitor their citizens;  Israel an...

Government Tracking How People Move Around in Coronavirus Pandemic Goal is to get location data in up to 500 U.S. cities to help plan response; privacy concerns call for “strong legal safeguards,” activist says The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has started to get data through one project, dubbed the Covid-19 Mobility Data Network. By   Byron Tau Updated March 28, 2020 6:50 pm ET WASHINGTON—Government officials across the U.S. are using location data from millions of cellphones in a bid to better understand the movements of Americans during  the coronavirus pandemic  and how they may be affecting the spread of the disease. The federal government, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local governments have started to receive analyses about the presence and movement of people in certain areas of geographic interest drawn from cellphone data, people familiar with the matter said. The data comes from the mobile advertis...

Asia deploys innovative, if invasive, tech to curb virus Jerome Taylor and AFP reporters • March 19, 2020 Hong Kong is using tech to track the coronavirus Electronic bracelets and phones that report your whereabouts, text messages if you stray too far from quarantine and digital detectives tracking where you've been -- Asian countries have embraced innovative, if somewhat invasive, tech to counter the coronavirus pandemic. When Hong Kong stylist Declan Chan flew home from Zurich earlier this week he was greeted by officials who placed an electronic device on his arm. The wristband was connected to an app that he had to install on his phone as he headed into two weeks of compulsory self-quarantine at home. It allows authorities to check his location as Hong Kong tries to halt fresh infections from people returning from overseas after two months of making impressive headway against its own outbreak. Speaking to AFP by phone from home Chan, 36, said he was get...

Google Just Confirmed A Powerful Chrome COVID-19 Security Move That Will Impact All Users Kate O'Flaherty Senior Contributor  Cybersecurity Mar 19, 2020,  05:32am EDT Amid the growing COVID-19 crisis and growing security risk, Google has made a powerful move to pause all Chrome releases until further notice.  It is hoping that by pulling back on new releases, it will allow Google’s reduced and remote workforce to focus on the most important aspect to protect users–security. In an  update  on March 18, Google said: “Due to adjusted work schedules at this time, we are pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases. Our primary objectives are to ensure they continue to be stable, secure, and work reliably for anyone who depends on them.” Google confirmed that it will “continue to prioritize any updates related to security,” which will be included in Chrome 80.  You should follow its blog (or my page) for further updates. The move comes as...