Translating the Entire Internet, One Language Lesson at a Time

Photo: Karen Rubado / Flickr 

Luis Von Ahn wants to translate the entire internet. It may sound crazy, but his goal is for every website in the world to be translated into multiple languages, so that we can all access the internet equally.

Of course, he isn't taking on this endeavor alone. With his company Duolingo, he's enlisting the help of anyone who wants to learn a new language. Venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Union Square Ventures are also backing him up with a $15 million investment.

On its face, Duolingo is a free site where fluent English speakers can learn French, Spanish, or German, and Spanish speakers can learn English or Portuguese. As you go through the series of exercises, you get sentences from the internet that you are asked to translate. In the beginning you'll get simple sentences such as, "Me llamo Sarah" (Spanish for "my name is Sarah"). As you move up, you'll be asked to translate more complex sentences or paragraphs. If you get stuck, Duolingo gives you suggestions for each word you're struggling with and keeps a list of difficult words that it will help you memorize later.

Yet while you plug away at your language lessons, what you're really doing is translating Creative Commons documents into a different language. Scattered throughout the lessons, Duolingo gives you one of these documents, broken down into sentences, and asks you to help translate. You can try your hand at as few or many sentences as you wish, and you earn points for each completed sentence. Duolingo will give you hints about what each individual word means, but it's up to you piece the sentence together in a way that makes grammatical sense.  And don't worry if you feel overwhelmed – your translation doesn't need to be spot-on. The community of fellow students can help edit what you've translated.

Dr. von Ahn hails from Carniege Mellon University, where in 2005 as a graduate student, he created a game to label photos to make them easily searchable. Two years later, after Google acquired his technology and turned it into the now-defunct Google Image Labeler, Von Ahn built reCAPTCHA, a tool that websites use to verify you're a real person. What many people don't realize is that as they're trying to decipher those twisted letters and numbers, they're also helping to converting scanned books into digital content. Two years later, Google bought reCAPTCHA, too.

Von Ahn's fixation on leveraging the crowd to convert large volumes of content into something useful has carried into Duolingo, which launched to the public in June. While the company only uses Creative Commons licensed text for its lessons right now, the company has plans to offer paid translation services to website owners as a way to make money.

Of course, Google Translate already translates websites into 66 languages (many more than Duolingo can), but Von Ahn is betting that humans are better than computers at the job. Google Translate also doesn't offer the kind of permanent solution Von Ahn is looking for, since it only translates a site for as long as you're on it. But given Von Ahn's success at selling companies to a certain search giant, the divide between Google and Duolingo could end up a distinction without a difference.

Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman 17 Sep, 2012

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Exclusive: See David Lloyd's Ballsy, Bullish Cover of New Occupy Comics

Comics' viral anarchist V taunts Wall Street's bull in the latest issue of Occupy Comics: Art and Stories Inspired By Occupy Wall Street.
Image: David Lloyd

As Occupy Wall Street's populist uprising enters its second year Monday, V for Vendetta artist David Lloyd gifts Occupy Comics' second issue with a ballsy cover that brings new meaning to the phrase "bulls on parade."

Take a look at Wired's sneak peek at the cover image above, and you'll probably catch our drift. The image comes courtesy of Lloyd, whose art merged with Alan Moore's lasting narrative of politics and panopticons in V for Vendetta and turned the now-ubiquitous Guy Fawkes mask into an icon of social revolution.

"It's a perfect image to capture Round Two of Occupy," said editor Matt Pizzolo, who's releasing Occupy Comics: Art and Stories Inspired by Comics with Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz and 30 Days of Night's Steve Niles through their recently launched indie publishing house, Black Mask Studios.

"While the first issue took a very intellectual approach to the movement, these stories strike at the emotional and spiritual heart of the movement," Pizzolo added. "The timing is perfect, because as year two begins there is a lot of soul searching about what the movement means and how it can evolve."

Round two is certain to be more difficult, now that the Occupy movement — as well as Anonymous and other upstarts wearing Guy Fawkes masks — have become a part of our cultural lexicon. It's getting hard to tell if NYPD posters like this are real or straight outta V for Vendetta's surveillance dystopia.

"I was massively impressed by the great camaraderie and strength of will [the Occupy movement] showed in New York last October when I went to see what they were doing, and I hope that can somehow survive all the blows they've suffered since then," said Lloyd in an e-mail to Wired, in which he wished the protesters luck. "They've got a hard job to do and it's not going to get any easier."

Lloyd is joined in Occupy Comics' second issue by Pulitzer nominee Matt Bors, Obama's terrorist pal Bill Ayers, Molly Crabapple (who was href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/molly-crabapple-arrested-writers-rally-online_b57627">arrested Monday during an Occupy protest in New York), Patrick Meaney (director of Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts) and more. Hard and virtual copies are available Monday from Black Mask Studios, and will hit comics stores in early 2013.

Riley Rossmo's arty cyborg keep its dead eye on the populist prize in the second issue of Occupy Comics.
Images courtesy Black Mask Studios

Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman 18 Sep, 2012

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Feds Hired British Security Firm to Protect Benghazi Consulate

Demonstrators in Benghazi hang the ex-dictator Moammar Gadhafi in effigy, February 2011. The State Department later hired a private security firm, Blue Mountain, to help protect the U.S. consulate in the city — before it was attacked on Sept. 11. Photo: Flickr/al-Jazeera English

The State Department signed a six-figure deal with a British firm to protect the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya just four months before a sustained attack on the compound killed four U.S. nationals inside.

Contrary to Friday's claim by State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland that "at no time did we contract with a private security firm in Libya," the department inked a contract for "security guards and patrol services" on May 3 for $387,413.68. An extension option brought the tab for protecting the consulate to $783,000. The contract lists only "foreign security awardees" as its recipient.

The State Department confirmed to Danger Room on Monday that the firm was Blue Mountain, a British company that provides "close protection; maritime security; surveillance and investigative services; and high risk static guarding and asset protection," according to its website. Blue Mountain says it has "recently operated in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, the Caribbean and across Europe" and has worked in Libya for several months since last year's war.

A representative for Blue Mountain, reached at its U.K. offices Monday, said no one was available to comment.

The State Department frequently hires security companies to protect diplomats in conflict zones. It usually is done through what's known as the Worldwide Protective Services contract, in which a handful of approved firms compete to safeguard specific diplomatic installations. In 2010, State selected eight firms for the most recent contract. Blue Mountain wasn't among them, and the State Department did not explain why the Benghazi consulate contract did not go to one of those eight firms.

It isn't known how the Blue Mountain contractors performed Tuesday when the consulate came under sustained attack by small arms fire. In an official account provided Wednesday by the Obama administration, embassy security staff — both American and Libyan — failed to break the assault. They required help from Libyan security forces, assisted by a sympathetic Libyan militia, to regain control of the consulate's main building and end a pitched battle that raged for 4.5 hours.

Nor is it clear if two former Navy SEALs killed in the assault were Blue Mountain employees. One of them, Glen Doherty, told ABC News last month that he was part of a mission sent to Libya to lock down Moammar Gadhafi's missiles to prevent them from reaching the black market. Blue Mountain's contract doesn't refer to safeguarding thousands of rockets and missiles that have gone missing in the aftermath of the 2011 war.

But the call for contract security came at an opportune moment. Shortly after the department issued the contract, extremist elements active in Libya began targeting U.S. and allied installations. On June 5, the consulate sustained a rocket attack shortly after news spread that Abu Yahya al-Libi, a  Libyan member of al-Qaida, was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan. Another rocket attack in the city attempted to kill the visiting British ambassador on June 11. (Both attacks allegedly were by the same extremist organization, the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, which may have played a role in last week's consulate assault.)

The final modification to the contract came on June 15. It is unknown when Blue Mountain contractors arrived to help secure the consulate. The State Department would not specify how many guards Blue Mountain had posted in Benghazi during last week's attack. (A department official said that Nuland misspoke about State not hiring private guards in Libya.)

Blue Mountain representatives have yet to respond to an inquiry about the contract. UPI reported in December that the firm "has been operating with Western companies in Libya for several months."

Much remains unclear about the attack on Benghazi. But the presence of private security guards in the lightly-defended compound helps explain how approximately 25 to 30 diplomatic staff held out for over four hours against a crowd of possibly hundreds armed with rifles, rockets and other small arms without massive loss of life.

Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman 18 Sep, 2012

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Feds Urge Appeals Court to Overturn 'Dangerous' Indefinite-Detention Ruling

The Obama administration on Monday demanded a federal appeals court immediately halt a ruling blocking legislation authorizing the government to indefinitely detain without trial individuals, including U.S. citizens, who are deemed to "substantially support" groups "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners."

The government called the lower court's ruling "dangerous" and a threat to national security. The court found the rule to be unconstitutional as it was so vague it could apply to U.S. citizens and journalists exercising their constitutional rights.

"The district court has entered a sweeping injunction, directly against the President and the Secretary of Defense, that strikes down as facially unconstitutional a federal statute relating to the United States' power to detain individuals as part of the conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, with implications for ongoing military operations and causing potential harm to national security," the administration said in an emergency appeal (.pdf) to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in new York.

The appeal by President Barack Obama attacks a ruling by lower court judge Katherine B. Forrest of New York, who in June and last week struck down the key terror-fighting feature of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act.

"The district court's overbroad worldwide injunction is erroneous as a matter of law and threatens tangible and dangerous consequences in the conduct of an active military conflict," the administration told the appeals court. "The order should be stayed immediately and remain stayed until final resolution of the appeal."

Ruling in a case brought by journalists and political activists who include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Christopher Hedges and WikiLeaks activist Brigitta Jonsdottir, the Obama-appointee ruled the law was too vague and did not provide clear guidance (.pdf) on whom the government could indefinitely detain.

The plaintiffs maintain the law has chilled their speech and fear their activities could subject them to military detention.

Those subject to indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act include:

A person who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.

The plaintiffs argued that the law was so vague that simply having contact with and reporting on organizations labeled as "terroristic" by the government would be grounds for indefinite detention by the government. The government refused to tell the court whether the journalists' activities would be grounds for detention, but argued the court should stay out of it.

As Judge Forrest summarized:

At the March hearing, the Court asked whether Hedges'  activities could subject him to detention under § 1021; the Government stated that it was not prepared to address that question. Id. at 245. When asked a similar question at the  August hearing, five months later, the Government remained unwilling to state whether any of plaintiffs' (including Hedges's) protected First Amendment future activities could  subject him or her to detention under § 1021.

The act is a broad package of legislation that also includes both authorizations for military spending as well as additional, non-spending legislation. In his December 31 signing statement, President Barack Obama said that "my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens."

Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman 18 Sep, 2012

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Microsoft News: Windows 8 Event and Hints on Surface Pricing

The Windows 8 launch is close approaching. Image: Microsoft

Microsoft sent out invitations on Monday for a Windows 8 launch event to take place Oct. 25 in New York City. The invite simply states, "You're invited to celebrate. Windows 8."

The Redmond company didn't include many details — there's no venue location, time or discussion plans. But Microsoft had previously announced that Windows 8 will officially ship on Oct. 26, so this event is more than likely a coming-out party for the new operating system.

Since Microsoft has also confirmed that Surface will be available the same day as Windows 8, you can expect the company to spend time detailing its tablet at the event. One unknown spec that Microsoft will likely confirm is Surface pricing.

Some reports have suggested that Surface will cost only $200, making it competitive with smaller, 7-inch tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. But in a recent interview with The Seattle Times, Ballmer hinted at a more mid- to high-range price, possibly in line with iPad pricing. "I think most people would tell you that the iPad is not a superexpensive device…. (When) people offer cheaper, they do less. They look less good, they're chintzier, they're cheaper," Balmer said, adding, "If you look at the bulk of the PC market, it would run between, say, probably $300 to about $700 or $800. That's the sweet spot."

Alexandra Chang 18 Sep, 2012

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Gadget Lab Show: Bright Lights, Big iPhone

On this week's Gadget Lab Show, the gang talks about Apple's new iPhone 5 and the redesigned EarPods that come bundled with the latest smartphone.

First up, staff writer Christina Bonnington and reviews editor Michael Calore talk iPhone 5. Apple announced its sixth-generation iPhone at a San Francisco event on Sept. 12, revealing a longer and lighter device. Instead of a full glass back, the iPhone 5 features a brushed aluminum backing that makes it weigh noticeably less. The iPhone 5 also sports a larger 4-inch display and a new A6 dual-core processor. It's an iterative design that makes it less exciting, but that doesn't mean that the device won't be successful. The numbers actually indicate quite the opposite: Apple received 2 million iPhone 5 pre-orders in the first 24 hours.

Next up, staff writer Nathan Olivarez-Giles joins Michael to talk about the new EarPods that Apple is including with the iPhone 5. (They are also available to purchase separately for $29.) The EarPods replace the decade-old earbuds that Apple has bundled with its devices since the launch of its first iPod. And according to Nathan's ears-on experience, the EarPods sound significantly better.

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes. Or, if you don't want to be distracted by our awe-inspiring on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds.

Or listen to the audio below:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #171

Alexandra Chang 18 Sep, 2012

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You Won't Need a Driver's License by 2040

Photo: U.S. DOT

The timeline for autonomous cars hitting the road en masse keeps getting closer. GM's Cadillac division expects to produce partially autonomous cars at a large scale by 2015, and the automaker also predicts it will have fully autonomous cars available by the end of the decade. Audi and BMW have also shown self-driving car concepts, with the former working with Stanford to pilot a modified TT up Pikes Peak. Meanwhile, Google is ripping along at its own rapid pace with a fleet of fully autonomous Toyota Prius hybrids that have logged over 300,000 miles. And the company has pushed through legislation that legalizes self-driving cars in Nevada. California is close behind, and Google has also been busy lobbying joyriding lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

But while we know that robo-cars are coming, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently released predictions that autonomous cars will account for up to 75 percent of vehicles on the road by the year 2040. The organization went even further, forecasting how infrastructure, society and attitudes could change when self-driving cars become the norm around the middle of the century.

IEEE envisions an absence of traffic signs and lights since highly evolved, self-driving cars won't need them, and it believes that full deployment could even eliminate the need for driver's licenses.

While this all sounds sci-fi, we're already starting to see separate threads of this autonomous-car future being weaved in current real-world tests.

It's been assumed that the largest hurdle for autonomous cars is building the infrastructure. Not so, says Dr. Alberto Broggi, IEEE senior member and professor of computer engineering at the University of Parma in Italy. Broggi, the director of a 2010 project that successfully piloted two driverless cars on an 8,000-mile road trip from Parma to Shanghai, points out that two current types of self-driving cars will need less infrastructure, not more.

"The Google cars are based on very precise maps and they have sensing primarily based on a LIDAR technology," he told Wired. "The cars that we tested on the route from Parma to Shanghai had no maps, and had sensing primarily based on cameras. In both cases, the cars have no help from the infrastructure."

When reached for comment, a Google spokesman declined to make a statement on this story and IEEE's predictions on autonomous cars.

But Broggi also delineates between what he sees as different levels of self-driving technology as the features mature, and adds that infrastructure in the form of centralized communication once large numbers of autonomous cars are on the road will be crucial – and have the greatest impact. This could lead to traffic lights, speed limits and even driver licensing disappearing. "Autonomous cars alone will bring limited benefits," he says. "They would be able to locate obstacles, avoid them and follow the road. But efficient autonomous operations would also require that vehicles coordinate with each other."

A nascent form of vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) is currently being tested in a NHTSA field trial in Ann Arbor, allowing cars to share situational data to avoid crashing into each other. Meanwhile, Volvo is testing the concept of using "road trains" in Europe to allow for more efficient driving. "A train of vehicles moving very close to each other would reach a higher throughput – the number of cars per road unit – and have lower fuel consumption due to aerodynamic drift," says Broggi.

Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication would also allow vehicles to share their position, destination and intended route with a central station, Broggi continues, that could coordinate and dispatch information about traffic and route vehicles accordingly. "Suppose all cars are connected and a central station knows precisely their position and destination," Broggi says. "The central station can send speed adjustment commands to the vehicles that enter an intersection in such a way that they do not collide and they occupy the intersection area one at a time, optimizing their movements. In this case, traffic lights will not be required since coordination is reached at a higher level." We're already seeing a basic form of this in testing going on in Europe that combines V2V and V2I communication, collectively known as V2X.

IEEE also foresees autonomous vehicles accelerating car sharing and helping make it more widespread, especially for people within a wider range of ages and physical abilities. And driverless cars may even eliminate the need for driver's licenses. "People do not need a license to sit on a train or a bus," said Azim Eskandarian, director of the IEEE's Center for Intelligent Systems Research, in a statement. "In a full-autonomy case in which no driver intervention will be allowed, the car will be operating. So there will not be any special requirements for drivers or occupants to use the vehicle as a form of transportation."

IEEE also predicts that the biggest barrier to pervasive adoption of driverless cars may have nothing to do with technology, but will be general public acceptance. While the average driver may grasp the basic benefits of autonomous cars – increased fuel efficiency and safety, along with a reduction in traffic – it may not be enough to get them to let go of the steering wheel. Jeffrey Miller, IEEE member and associate professor of computer systems engineering at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, believes that baby steps in the form of driver assist systems may help. "As more vehicular controls begin being automated, such as parallel parking and automatic braking, people will become more accepting of autonomous technologies," Miller told Wired. "So by 2040, driverless vehicles will be widely accepted and possibly be the dominant vehicles on the road."

Doug Newcomb 18 Sep, 2012

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Google Drops Support for IE 8, Windows XP

Image: Webmonkey

Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 10 web browser is set to arrive Oct. 26. Shortly thereafter, on Nov. 15, Google Apps will no longer support IE 8. The move will make Google one of the first major companies to drop support for Microsoft's 3-year-old browser.

That doesn't mean that Google Apps sites will suddenly stop working in IE 8 — users will see a message suggesting they upgrade to a newer release — but don't expect things to keep working in the long run.

The end of IE 8 support isn't a change from the normal Google Apps browser policy — which is to support the two most recent versions of each browser — but unlike dumping support for IE 6 and 7, dumping IE 8 effectively means Google Apps no longer supports Internet Explorer on Windows XP.

The problem for XP users — which, according to NetMarketShare still comprise roughly 39 percent of Windows users worldwide — is that upgrading to IE 9 also requires upgrading to a newer OS release.

Microsoft never released a version of IE 9 for Windows XP, so the only real upgrade path for those that want to stick with Windows XP (and continue using Google Apps) is either to install a different web browser or use Google Chrome Frame.

The Google Apps admin page has been updated to suggest that IE 6, 7 and 8 do just that: "Organizations that depend on Internet Explorer may want to consider using Google Chrome Frame, which seamlessly brings Google Chrome's open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8." Recent Chrome Frame releases no longer require admin privileges to install, making it somewhat easier to install even in corporate environments.

There is of course one other option — dump Google Apps. Google, however, doesn't seem worried that Windows XP users are going to abandon Google Apps in droves.

Doug Newcomb 17 Sep, 2012

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Arctic Sea Ice Melt May Trigger Extreme European Winter

By Stephen Leahy, the Guardian

The record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer may mean a cold winter for the UK and northern Europe. The region has been prone to bad winters after summers with very low sea ice, such as 2011 and 2007, said Jennifer Francis, a researcher at Rutgers University.

"We can't make predictions yet … [but] I wouldn't be surprised to see wild extremes this winter," Francis told the Guardian.

This year's ice melt has broken the 2007 record by an an area larger than the state of Texas.

Polar ice experts "thought that it would be many years until we again saw anything like we saw in 2007″, said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

The unprecedented expanse of ice-free Arctic Ocean has been absorbing the 24-hour sun over the short polar summer. The heat in the water must be released into the atmosphere if the ice is to re-form this autumn. "This is like a new energy source for the atmosphere," said Francis.

This heat and water vapour will affect the all-important jet stream – the west-to-east winds that are the boundary between cold Arctic and the warm mid-latitudes. Others researchers have already shown that the jet stream has been shifting northwards in recent years. Francis and colleagues have recently documented that the jet stream is also slowing down.

"The jet stream is clearly weaker," said Francis. That means weather systems, be it rain or dry conditions, are slow to move on and last longer. Ultimately this can result in "blocking" events, such as the conditions that produced the terrible heatwave in western Russia during the summer of 2010, she said.

This summer, Greenland experienced a similar blocking anti-cyclone, resulting in a record surface melting of its ice sheet. It is not possible to directly connect that block to the prolonged US heatwave and drought this summer, Francis said. However "blocks act like a traffic jam, slowing down weather patterns elsewhere".

These changes are happening much earlier than scientists thought, said James Overland, an oceanographer and researcher at the University of Washington.

"We've only had a little bit of global warming so far," Overland said.

As the sea ice continues to decline, the jet stream will likely continue to slow more, and shift further north "bringing wild temperature swings and greater numbers of extreme events" in the future he said. "We're in uncharted territory."

Source: The Guardian

Climate Desk 18 Sep, 2012

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UK Report Says Thorium Nuke Power Potential 'Overstated'

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

A report into the much-touted nuclear fuel alternative thorium has concluded that many of its supposed benefits are "overstated."

The report, which was compiled for the Department for Energy and Climate Change by the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory, notes that thorium has "theoretical advantages" in the fields of sustainability, reduced radiotoxicity and lower proliferation risk, but adds: "While there is some justification for these benefits, they are often overstated."

Proponents of thorium as a nuclear fuel point to its widespread availability, efficiency in running, reduction in hazardous waste and the impossibility of building a nuclear bomb from spent fuel. However, further research is needed to commercialise the fuel and make it competitive with existing nuclear reactors.

Britain built an experimental thorium-fuelled reactor in the '60s and '70s in Winfrith, but it's now partially decommissioned. Elsewhere, however, research has continued — China is developing several different types of thorium reactor, and India is expected to start construction of a thorium plant in four years.

"It is important to recognise that worldwide there remains interest in thorium fuel cycles and this is not likely to diminish in the near future," the report says. "It may therefore be judicious for the UK to maintain a low level of engagement in thorium fuel cycle research and development by involvement in international collaborative research activities."

Source: Wired.co.uk

Christina Bonnington 17 Sep, 2012

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