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Google  YouTube has been in the spotlight repeatedly over the past several months, but rarely for anything encouraging. Most recently, the video sharing platform was lambasted for allowing YouTube star Logan Paul to upload a vlog prominently featuring the body of someone who had allegedly committed suicide. The Google-owned property then refrained from laying down the law on Paul  until an uproar from users forced its hand days later . But as worrisome as  the Logan Paul episode  was for frequent visitors of YouTube, the actual reason that Google has to address the root of the problem is because of advertisers. They understandably don’t want to have their wares and services attached to inappropriate or controversial content. So YouTube is making some major changes. In a post  on the  Inside AdWords  blog  this week, Google VP of engineering Paul Muret discussed three ways that YouTube is going to address its biggest issues in 2018. First off, while channels previous

Russia A leaked draft of President Donald Trump's nuclear posture review seems to confirm that Russia has been building an underwater nuclear doomsday machine. Reports of the torpedo sent a chill down the spines of experts, who say it could not only destroy a city but poison the area with radiation for years to come. Russia may have intentionally let on that it was working on the doomsday device to sow fear in the US and deter attacks. President Donald Trump's nuclear posture review,  leaked to HuffPost this month , seems to show the US believes Russia is building a dangerous new undersea nuclear weapon that critics say could cause widespread death and damage. "Russia is developing and deploying new nuclear warheads and launchers," the leaked review says, adding that these systems include "a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, undersea autonomous torpedo." Printouts of plans for such a nuclear torpedo had been spotted in state TV footage of a meeting

Military  China's sole operational aircraft carrier passed through the Taiwan Strait Wednesday, the island's defence ministry said, as Beijing steps up pressure on its democratic rival. It comes weeks after Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen warned against what she called China's "military expansion" -- the increase of air and naval drills around the island since she came to power in May 2016. Beijing views the self-ruling island as part of its territory, to be reunified at some point. Cross-strait relations have become increasingly frosty as Tsai refuses to acknowledge Taiwan is part of "one China". The aircraft carrier -- a second-hand Soviet ship -- caused a stir in Taiwan when it first entered the strait in January last year, viewed as a symbolic show of strength by Beijing. The defence ministry said the Liaoning carrier and accompanying vessels entered Taiwan's air defence zone early Wednesday morning and left by noon. The fleet, which

Shipping  Early blockchain tech mover IBM and Danish shipping giant Maersk have announced a joint venture to digitize and enhance global trade efficiency and security using blockchain technology. One of the world’s oldest industries that has long been notoriously averse to adopt modern technologies is getting a blockchain revamp. In an  announcement  yesterday, IBM and A.P Moller – Maersk confirmed their intent to launch a new as-yet-unnamed company that will specifically develop blockchain technology built on open standards ‘designed for use by the entire global shipping ecosystem.’  The new company will be headquartered in New York. Supply trade chains and logistics are two particular industries ripe for disruption and are certain to instantly benefit from adopting blockchain technology. An immutable, shared ledger with multiple participants including suppliers, shippers, port operators and export/import authorities will help companies continuously track and monitor

Kodak, the  iconic photography company  first established in in the 1880s, has joined the blockchain and ICO age. Today, January 9, 2018, it announced a new blockchain-based platform with WENN Digital to empower and protect image makers, photographers and artists. The new platform, known as  KodakOne , will enable users to register their work and license it with the platform. The image rights management platform will utilize the new  KODAKCoin  cryptocurrency to provide photographers with a new revenue stream and secure platform for protecting their work. The smart contract associated with KODAKCoin will ensure that photographers receive payment immediately upon their work being licensed in addition to receiving a share of the overall platform revenue. The platform will also continually scan the web to monitor and protect the artist’s IP and assist them in dealing with illegal use of their work. “For many in the tech industry, ‘blockchain’ and ‘cryptocurrency’ are hot buzzwords,

In a previous incarnation, the gold used to make a new line of fine jewelry may have been part of a circuit board in your last phone or laptop. The gold is mined from e-waste collected in a national recycling program, turned into gold bars, and delivered to a jewelry manufacturer. “This has never been done before,” says Nikki Reed, founder of Bayou With Love, a brand that partnered with Dell to make the limited-edition line of rings, bracelets, and other jewelry, called the Circular Collection. (Reed is also an actress known for her roles in the  Twilight  movies.) [Photo: Dell]Dell, working with Goodwill, has collected electronic waste for a decade as part of a larger sustainability plan. But it’s taken time to work with a recycler to develop a process that can sustainably harvest gold from old gadgets, without the harsh chemicals that recyclers have used in the past. The company is now using its recycled gold to create a pilot line of motherboards, and will later use it

Bitcoin  Tokyo-based  bitFlyer  has become the fourth digital currency exchange to receive approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a  “BitLicense”  to operate as a virtual currency exchange in New York. This brings the total number of states in which bitFlyer is licensed up to  40 . The bitFlyer platform has over 30 percent of the worldwide bitcoin exchange volume and more than $100 million in virtual currency traded in 2017, all without access to the U.S. market. This latest expansion is providing access and technology to institutional investors in the United States, a largely untapped market. “Our expansion and upcoming cross-border trading addresses a huge unmet need in the U.S. by institutional traders looking to access large amounts of liquidity across multiple virtual currency markets,” said bitFlyer USA’s chief operating officer, Bartek Ringwelski, in a statement. “Through our web interface or API, approved professional traders can be up

Cryptocurrency  Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged 1-to-1 to the U.S. dollar, was allegedly hacked this week to the tune of $31 million. Tether functions to convert U.S. dollars to a type of cryptocurrency. The project’s token (USDT) is pegged to the dollar and is used in exchange trading. The idea behind Tether is that instead of having to sell your bitcoin or other token for a fiat currency, you can convert it to USDT, and either hold it in USDT or else transfer your USDT to another exchange and use it to purchase tokens there. As for the exchanges, USDT allows them to trade in something akin to dollars, without requiring them to have a bank account. Tether operates on the “Omni Layer Protocol,” which itself operates on top of the Bitcoin network, and uses Bitcoin addresses. According to a  blog post  on the project’s website, $31 million worth of USDT was sent to an unauthorized Bitcoin address on November 19, 2017. In the blog post, Tether also noted it released a new version of

Blockstream  Blockstream is  introducing Simplicity , a new programming language for blockchain-based smart contracts, intended for inclusion in Blockstream’s sidechains and eventually in Bitcoin. The new language was presented by its creator, Russell O'Connor, Infrastructure Tech Developer at Blockstream, at the ACM SIGSAC Workshop on Programming Languages and Analysis for Security ( PLAS 2017 ). "Simplicity is a blockchain programming language that is so simple, it fits on a t-shirt,” O'Connor told  Bitcoin Magazine . “It is critical that smart contracts behave in ways that all participants expect, and applying formal verification to Simplicity allows us to achieve that.” Simplicity is still a Blockstream Research & Development project, but there’s potential for its use in Blockstream products in the future, according to the company’s announcement. “Simplicity is flexible enough that I anticipate many new, domain-specific, languages will generate Simplicity, and

So you want in on bitcoin? Guide for Noobs Simple and Not A Lot of Money setup an account on coinbase.com, buy your coins, walk away until next year or later, fees are ~1.5% which is $1.5 USD for a $100 USD of coinnote coinbase does have an option to buy via credit card instead of a bank account, fees are ~4% when you do that, your credit card company may charge more if it considers it a cash transfer Guide for Not Noobs Less Simple -setup an account on coinbase.com, move dollars into your account, setup an account on gdax.com (same company, same login), move your cash from coinbase to gdax, buy your coins on GDAX at Market, fees are cheaper 0.25% versus 1.5% -consider buying alternative coins supported by coinbase No Fees -all of the above but use GDAX's Limit/Buy, zero fees, but you have to wait for the market to dip below your buy price More Money Available -setup several Limit/Buy orders at different price points to capture dips when you are away More Control but M

Smartphone device  Image Source:  EverythingApplePro, YouTube Apple’s hot new iPhone X has it all. From design and display quality to features and performance, the tenth-anniversary iPhone is a class-leading smartphone through and through. The design in particular has been praised to no end. In fact, even some of the iPhone X’s harshest critics ( myself included ) have come around to love the controversial “notch” design with the phone’s display. Of course, the sleek design and gorgeous display are only half of the equation here. The software side of the user experience is even more important, and the iPhone X delivers there as well. Benchmark test scores are off the charts, and we’ve seen time and time again what the iPhone X’s A11 Bionic processor is capable of. But savvy Apple fans know that despite how impressive the iPhone X’s performance is compared to most devices out there, there’s something that has been holding the phone back. Now, that issue has caused the iPhone X to lo

Android device  You thought you were completely disconnected from any location tracking by  Google  and your phone when you went into your phone’s location services and toggled them off, right? You’d be wrong! Hah…ha…haaa…ugh. According to a report from  Quartz , Google has been doing a bit of location tracking on Android phones even if you told them not to by turning off your phone’s location services. And we’re talking about any of the modern Android phones you might own, so yes, you are included in this conversation. Quartz  found that Google has essentially been pinging nearby cellular towers and retrieving that info through the Firebase Cloud Messaging service that manages push notifications and messages. Again, this is all still happening even if you have turned off location services on your phone. This collection of location via cell tower can happen over both WiFi and cellular data connection too, by the way. The data collected is encrypted, but the information still likely

Bitcoin  In October 2017, LendEDU, a marketplace for financing loans, credit cards and other financial products, polled 1,000 Americans asking a series of questions related to Ethereum, Ripple and initial coin offerings (ICOs). They did this to gain insight into the average American’s perception of cryptocurrency.  The poll  was conducted by online polling company OnePoll, which acted as a third party and was able to provide an age and gender breakdown of respondents. The poll was answered by 1,000 Americans ages 18 and up over two days, from October 27 to 30. Ethereum : At the time of writing, with a market capitalization of $28.49 billion, Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency, about one-fourth the market capitalization of Bitcoin. Since the start of 2017, the price of ether has grown from $7.98 to $298. 31.60 percent of Americans have heard of Ethereum and 18.20 percent of Americans are planning to invest in ether (ETH) The survey showed that American awareness of Ethe

Bitcoin  Bitcoin blockchain mining infrastructure provider  BitFury  has announced it has made a strategic investment in the universal African Bitcoin exchange   BitPesa . Founded in 2013, BitPesa sees itself as an easy way for businesses and individuals worldwide to buy and sell local African currencies through Bitcoin to Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania with the monetary settlement taking place directly with African banks and mobile money accounts. BitPesa is also one of the few Bitcoin organizations in Africa that provide bank deposits and withdrawals, which allows senders and receivers to take advantage of cheap, efficient and quick payments using Bitcoin to exchange African and international currencies. This removes the dependence on other currencies such as the U.S. dollar that have high international conversion rates. BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov told  Bitcoin Magazine  there has been a serious lack of investment in financial infrastructure across Sub-Saharan Africa. “Thi

 Blockchain  Ogoniland, situated off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in southeastern Nigeria, is considered the most polluted region along the Niger Delta and among the worst in the world. Even though the Niger Delta is rich in resources, poverty, pollution and unemployment are rife. One of its primary resources is oil, and consequently, many companies take advantage of the region. According to the  United Nations Environment Programme  (UNEP), the oil industry has been a key factor in Nigeria’s economy for 50 years. As a result of oil drilling and spills by Shell and other companies, however, the land has been devastated, the vegetation decimated, fish numbers depleted, and surrounding mangroves, swamps and creeks contaminated. Consequently, the livelihoods of many fishermen and farmers have been destroyed. In 2011, the UNEP said that it could take up to 30 years for full environmental restoration to be achieved in Ogoniland; but a lack of accountability appears to have stalled pr

Bitcoin  According to a  Reuters  report, Sergei Shvetsov – first deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has stated today that Russia will block access to websites belonging to exchanges and trading platforms offering cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The central bank official was speaking at a financial markets conference today when he pointed to the “dubious” nature of bitcoin – as an investment instrument for retail investors. He stated: We cannot stand apart. We cannot give direct and easy access to such dubious instruments for retail (investors). The central bank deputy governor’s comments are in contrast to those offered by Russia’s finance minister Anton Siluanov last month. Speaking at a financial forum in Moscow at the time, Siluanov called for the Russian government to accept the reality cryptocurrencies permeating into society. “There is no sense in banning them, there is a need to regulate them,” stated Russia’s finance minister less than a month ago. Ho

BTC Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, is considering whether the country should introduce a purely digital form of government-backed money, perhaps using distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) similar to the blockchain technology underlying Bitcoin. This move is part of a recent trend: around the world, nations are considering cryptocurrencies issued by central banks; and recently, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave a speech hinting at its interest in the concept. A September 2017 report titled “ The Riksbank’s e-krona project ” outlines a proposal for a digital complement to cash, dubbed e-krona, which would be guaranteed by the state. “This is as revolutionary as the paper note 300 years ago,” Cecilia Skingsley, deputy governor at the Riksbank, told the Financial Times  in November 2016. “What does it mean for monetary policy and financial stability? How do we design this: a rechargeable card, an app or another way?” Skingsley added that the typ

Bitcoin  Here's what you can do with your BCH now that the first blocks are being mined. Please note: Everything in this article is just advice, based on our best understanding of the current situation. Everything is still very uncertain and subject to change: Be extremely careful! Bitcoin Cash (sometimes referred to as Bcash, and mostly using the tickers BCH or BCC) launched today. Anyone who held bitcoin at 12:20 p.m. UTC should have an equivalent amount of BCH attributed to their Bitcoin private keys. In our  beginner’s guide to surviving the BIP 148 split , which was subsequently updated to also cover the Bitcoin Cash launch, we explained how to secure your private keys so you could be sure to access your BCH. At the time of writing that article, much was still uncertain about how this event would play out. Much is still uncertain, but to the extent that the situation can be understood at present, this article explains how you can claim — and potentially use — your BCH.