IBM produces first 'brain chips

IBM has developed a microprocessor which it claims comes closer than ever to replicating the human brain.

The system is capable of "rewiring" its connections as it encounters new information, similar to the way biological synapses work.

Researchers believe that that by replicating that feature, the technology could start to learn.

Cognitive computers may eventually be used for understanding human behaviour as well as environmental monitoring.

Dharmendra Modha, IBM's project leader, explained that they were trying to recreate aspects of the mind such as emotion, perception, sensation and cognition by "reverse engineering the brain."

The SyNAPSE system uses two prototype "neurosynaptic computing chips". Both have 256 computational cores, which the scientists described as the electronic equivalent of neurons.

One chip has 262,144 programmable synapses, while the other contains 65,536 learning synapses.

Man machine

In humans and animals, synaptic connections between brain cells physically connect themselves depending on our experience of the world. The process of learning is essentially the forming and strengthening of connections.

A machine cannot solder and de-solder its electrical tracks. However, it can simulate such a system by "turning up the volume" on important input signals, and paying less attention to others.

IBM has not released exact details of how its SyNAPSE processor works, but Dr Richard Cooper, a reader in cognitive science at Birkbeck, University of London said that it likely replicated physical connections using a "virtual machine".

Instead of stronger and weaker links, such a system would simply remember how much "attention" to pay to each signal and alter that depending on new experiences.

"Part of the trick is the learning algorithm - how should you turn those volumes up and down," said Dr Cooper.

"There's a a whole bunch of tasks that can be done just with a relatively simple system like that such as associative memory. When we see a cat we might think of a mouse."

Some future-gazers in the cognitive computing world have speculated that the technology will reach a tipping point where machine consciousness is possible.

IBM's work on the SyNAPSE project continues and the company, along with its academic partners, has just been awarded $21m (£12.7m) by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

US charges 72 over 'nightmare' child porn network

WASHINGTON  : US officials Wednesday unveiled charges against 72 people in their largest global probe into Internet child pornography which smashed a "nightmare" online bulletin board catering to pedophiles.

The investigation launched in 2009 has led to arrests in the US and 13 other countries of participants in Dreamboard, which had a "VIP" ranking system for members trading in graphic images and videos of adults molesting children age 12 and under, often violently, the Justice Department said.

"Dreamboard's creators and members lived all over the world -- but they allegedly were united by a disturbing belief that the sexual abuse of children is proper conduct that should not be criminalized," Attorney General Eric Holder said.

"The members of this criminal network shared a demented dream to create the preeminent online community for the promotion of child sexual exploitation, but for the children they victimized, this was nothing short of a nightmare."

The ongoing probe has led to the arrest of 52 people in the US and 13 other countries -- Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Qatar, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland. more

U.S. citizen kidnapped in Pakistan: police

An American citizen was kidnapped from his residence in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Saturday, police said.

LAHORE : Western media, quoting the U.S. embassy, identified the man as Warren Weinstein who works for the consulting firm J.E. Austin Associates Inc. He was working on a development project in the lawless tribal areas, where Pakistani troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for years.

"Six to eight people broke into his house at around 3:30 a.m., when security guards on duty were making preparation for fasting," police official Tajamal Hussain told Reuters, referring to the Ramadan fast observed by Muslims.

"Two of the assailants came from the front gate while about six others used the back door. They tortured the guards and then took the American with them."

A security official familiar with the incident said the gunmen forced the man's driver to knock on his bedroom door. When the man opened it, they took him.

Hussain said the victim, in his 60s, had been living in Pakistan for five to six years. He mostly lived in Islamabad but had been traveling to Lahore.

The security official said there had been no claim of responsibility.

Kidnap for ransom is relatively common in Pakistan, although foreigners are not often targets. Militants also occasionally take foreigners hostage.

Pakistani Taliban, linked to al Qaeda, have claimed responsibility for kidnapping a Swiss couple in July in the volatile southwestern province of Baluchistan.

They said the couple could be freed in exchange for a Pakistani woman serving a jail term in the United States for shooting FBI agents and U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Eight Pakistani employees of a U.S.-based aid organization, American Refugee Committee (ARC), were kidnapped in Baluchistan last month.

Anti-U.S. sentiment runs high in Pakistan. Prickly ties between Islamabad and Washington hit a low point after the May 2 killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in an attack that Pakistan termed a breach of its sovereignty.

Deep-diving submarine ‘Triton’ introduced

NEW YORK: An American manufacturer has created a submarine which is capable of reaching the deepest point of the ocean. The Triton 36,000 is capable of descending at a rate of 500 feet per minute which allows it to reach those parts of the ocean which have never been seen by man.

The submarine is capable of reaching depths of 35,800 feet which allows adventure seekers to see something they have never experienced before.

Three men of Pakistani-origin killed in UK riots

LONDON: Three people of Pakistani origin died Wednesday after being hit by a car during riots in the central English city of Birmingham, officials said, amid reports that they died while trying to protect their community from looters.

Police said they had arrested a man and launched a murder inquiry after the incident which happened at around 1:00 am (0000 GMT) as Britain's second biggest city suffered from another night of riots.Paramedics said they found around 80 people at the scene after the men were hit by the car. Two of the men were pronounced dead at the scene and the third died later in hospital.According to reports the men who died had just come out of a mosque and were protecting their neighbourhood during the riots.Around 200 people from Birmingham's Asian community gathered outside the hospital where the victims were taken and that riot police were also stationed there.