And, to expand that question: why is Google running such idiotic print ads in Turkey? Battlesheep? (world’s quietest “ha”) Maybe it’s a Turkish nuance that’s lost in translation? update: In the US, if you search ‘battlesheep,” you get 10,000+ hits and no alternative suggestions. Here’s two more ads in the campaign, by Grey Istanbul. Related: When Jason Binn used to Google himself, the first thing he read was: Jason Binn is a Prick: The Evidence.
Excerpt from copyranter Blog
Britain’s critical national infrastructure faces a “real and credible” threat of cyber attack, the head of the UK’s electronic spying agency warned.
In a highly unusual public speech, GCHQ Director Iain Lobban said that Britain’s future economic prosperity depended upon developing effective defences against a cyber assault.
Speaking on Tuesday night to International Institute for Strategic studies, he said that the massive growth of the internet had opened up new vulnerabilities with opportunities for attack by both hostile states and criminals.
While GCHQ is more usually associated with electronic intelligence-gathering, Mr Lobban stressed that it also had a security role, referred to as “information assurance”.
He said that they had already seen “significant disruption” to government computer systems caused by internet “worms” – both those that had been deliberately targeted and others picked up accidentally.
Each month there were more than 20,000 “malicious” emails on government networks, of which 1,000 were deliberately targeted at, while intellectual property theft was taking place on a “massive scale” – some relating to national security.
The increased use of government services online – with the prospect of over £100 billion-a-year in tax and benefits payments being processed online – only added to the security challenge.
ITN
by Gareth Morgan
Innovation is our regular column in which we highlight emerging technologies and predict where they may lead
Computer automation can take jobs away from people but, thanks to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, humans are fighting back. AMT was inspired by the 18th-century inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen, who dazzled the Roman empress Maria Theresa with a chess-playing automaton. His secret: a human chess master hid inside the machine.
In 2005, online retailer Amazon developed a version that uses a human workforce “hidden” on the internet to solve problems – for a modest price. Typically, the work undertaken is for organisations that need a little human smarts applied to bulk tasks, such as identifying objects in vast collections of images.
An echo of von Kempelen’s Turk is found in the offices of robot maker Willow Garage, in Menlo Park, California. Some of the firm’s free-roaming robots rely on humans through AMT to help them get their bearings. Whenever one gets lost within the Willow Garage offices, it sends an image to AMT with a request for nearby objects to be identified, using the answers to establish its whereabouts.
At the User Interface Software and Technology symposium in New York City this week there are signs that AMT rivals computer automation on some tasks.
Michael Bernstein at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues, have developed Soylent, an add-on for Microsoft Word that uses AMT workers to check language and grammar. In tests on text from Wikipedia entries, Word’s grammar checker picked up about a third of errors; Soylent spotted two-thirds.
Solyent’s Shortn module tasks the online workers with shortening the text – to meet a word limit, for example. The Word add-on also boasts a macro-writing module, Human Macro, which lets a writer describe how they want to manipulate text – perhaps changing it into the past tense – without the complication of having to code their own set of instructions within Word.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Bigham at the University of Rochester, New York, and colleagues, are using the image-analysis capabilities of AMT workers – predominantly based in the US and India – to help the visually impaired. They have created an iPhone app called VizWiz that gets AMT workers to interpret objects in the user’s environment – checking the small use-by date on a carton of milk, for example.
The app is able to analyse the iPhone camera’s focal length and lens distortion, and data from the built-in accelerometer, to pick out a target object in sufficient detail before sending it. After identification, the result is read aloud.
However, despite their lack of real brain power, there is one advantage that computers will continue to hold over their AMT rivals: computers don’t charge for their labour.
References: Bernstein’s Soylent research paper (pdf); Bigham’s VizWiz research paper (pdf)
, 05 October 2010
Report on Future Strategies for Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus prepared by Turkish Economy Bank was submitted to TRNC executives on Monday.
Report on Future Strategies for Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) prepared by Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) was submitted to TRNC executives on Monday.
The report, jointly prepared by TEB, Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK), and Turkish-TRNC Business Council, aims at assessing future strategies of TRNC and revealing areas of investment. The report considers TRNC with all its social and economic processes.
Halim Mete, Deputy Chairman of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), while addressing a ceremony held to submit the report, stated that, “we want TRNC to stand on its own legs with a strong economy and qualified man power source”.
“The report is related to the future of TRNC,” Mete said and referred to referendum on Annan plan dated April 24, 2004.
“Turkish Cypriot people voted in favor of the report and Greek Cypriot party refused the solution plan supported by the UN and European Union. In the end, Turkish Cypriot people supporting the solution were punished and could not get rid of economic and political blockade,” Mete said.
TOBB Deputy Chairman said, “TRNC has an extremely well-trained human resource and an tourism potential. We have the opportunity to turn north of Cyprus into an education center for East Mediterranean and the Middle East. There are people eager to invest in TRNC in case the conditions become appropriate. A series of studies may take place to boost competitive capacity of TRNC and to provide appropriate conditions for those who want to make investment.”
TEB Director General Varol Civil, speaking at the ceremony, stated that a Conference was organized last May to assess potential of TRNC.
“The report justified the confidence we felt in potential of TRNC that it would become a university island with its high education level, geographical position, beauties and appropriate climate conditions,” Civil said.
Mustafa Fehmi Gurbuz, chairman of Turkey-TRNC Business Council, said the report was based on the statements of people who experienced expectations and the problems the most in Cyprus business world.
Kaya Turkmen, Turkey’s Ambassador to Lefkosa, said an economic atmosphere focusing on private sector and which has high competitive capacity was targeted for economy of TRNC to reach a stable structure in the future.
“When we make a general evaluation, economic activities in TRNC intensify on service sectors like tourism and education. Turkey will extend any necessary contributions,” Turkmen said and stated that Turkish-TRNC Business Council should assess well the problems hindering improvement of bilateral trade relations and wanted them to disclose the public the problems and their proposals.
Cyprus Turk Chamber of Trade President Gunay Cerkez said, “the report was a study assessing the strong and weak aspects of the TRNC, as well as the opportunities and threats. TRNC passes through a difficult and important period both in economic and political sense. However, we believe that this period may be overcome with planned measures and decisive stances. Problems and difficulties caused by blockage should not be a hinderance for us.”
Cyprus Turk Chamber of Industry Chairman Ali Cirali said political uncertainties caused wrong economic, social and bureaucratic structuring in TRNC. “Today, TRNC is at crossroads. There are two alternatives in front of TRNC. Either we will get reorganized with all its institutions and organizations, or we will be the ‘poor region’ of TRNC after the solution.”
“We are aware of the face that we should take bitter medicine in restructuring period,” he said.
TRNC Economy & Energy Ministry Undersecretary Omer Koseoglu said the report was very important for them noting that the government aimed an economy focusing on private sector.
, 04 October 2010
By The Istanbulian — Global Blogger
By JOE PARKINSON And ART PATNAUDEISTANBUL—Moody’s Investors Service Inc., citing an “unexpectedly robust recovery,” lifted into positive territory Turkey’s sovereign outlook and raised its growth expectations for the economy, but the ratings agency cautioned that an upgrade would depend on the strengthening of fiscal fundamentals in the run-up to national elections due next year.
Economists, many of whom argue that Turkey’s credit rating is artificially low compared with market pricing of risk, welcomed the move, but were critical. “The increase in the outlook to positive from stable is still a half-hearted move, especially as CDS levels have been pricing in an investment grade for some time now,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, head of emerging-market strategy at Credit Agricole Cheuvreux SA in Vienna. “Nevertheless, any move from ratings agencies ahead of next year’s elections should be taken well by markets.”
The news sent Turkish share prices to a record high, while bonds rose and the lira hit its highest level in more than a year.
Moody’s said Tuesday the outlook change to positive on Turkey’s Baa2 ratings was prompted by “improvements in the country’s economic and fiscal resilience,” and raised Turkey’s economic growth forecast to 6.5% for 2010 and 5% for 2011.
The ratings agency noted, however, that Turkey’s deficit and debt levels have surpassed targets the government set in its plan for 2010-2012, and cautioned that the economy faces significant external vulnerabilities, including its large current-account deficit and its reliance on portfolio investment flows rather than on foreign direct investment for revenue. The country’s current-account deficit, a persistent weak-spot in times of domestic demand-fueled growth, widened on the year to $3.44 billion in July, according to latest official data.
“The challenge now is for Turkey to once again register larger primary surpluses and continue to reduce its debt levels in order to further bolster its resilience to external shocks,” said Moody’s analyst Sarah Carlson.
Turkey suffers from a burgeoning current-account deficit the government forecasts to hit 5% of gross domestic product this year, and from a massive underground economy that makes it difficult for the government to raise revenues to fund the gap, the ratings firms and some economists say. Turkey is vulnerable to a hard landing, they add, should the global economy hit another bump in the road, causing external financing to dry up.
Turkish policy makers have long complained that their country’s sovereign rating is too low. Even after Tuesday’s move the rating is two notches below investment grade by Moody’s and by Standard and Poor’s Corp., and one notch below by Fitch Ratings.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek last month declared that “now is the time” for an upgrade, following data that showed Turkey’s economy grew 10.3% in the second quarter: level with China as the strongest expansion in the G-20 group of leading economies.
Moody’s last rating move on Turkey was Jan. 8, when it upgraded it to Ba2 from Ba3.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703726404575533380861803538, OCTOBER 5, 2010
