Thinking Allowed

medical / technology / education / art / flub

showing posts for 'os'

The pandemic forced a massive remote-work experiment. Now comes the hard part

In March 2020, companies across the US abruptly shuttered their offices and instructed employees to work from home indefinitely as a result of the pandemic.
Source: cnn.com

Over 27,000 students share how colleges and universities could improve digital learning

"A Jisc survey of 27,069 higher and further education students reveals that most are pleased with their digital learning, but areas such as wellbeing, mental health and staff digital skills need more attention." Get the basics right (like college WiFi)Make learning sessions more interactive Record lessons...
Source: jisc.ac.uk

Tesla Is Secretly Building a Giant Battery in Texas - ExtremeTech

Tesla is building a secret 100MW battery storage facility in Texas, for an electricity provider with roughly 255,000 customers across the state.
Source: extremetech.com

PAIRED: A New Multi-agent Approach for Adversarial Environment Generation

This Google AI blog describes a method for machine learning using paired agents. The gap between the one that did the best and the one that did the worst is regret. That feeling of 'could have done' better is what pushes the 'unsupervised environment design' algorithm towards a better solution. "The...
Source: googleblog.com

Singapore 'bubble' business hotel welcomes first guests

Singapore has launched a travel "bubble" business hotel that allows executives to do face-to-face meetings without a risk of exposure to the coronavirus, in one of the world's first such facilities.
Source: reuters.com

Gloves that give people with tremor a helping hand | Reuters Video

One of the word's largest electronics manufacturers has invested in a UK start-up making gloves with built-in spinning gyroscopes that help people overcome the sometimes debilitating tremors that can stop them doing some simple tasks.
Source: reut.rs

Europe seeks semiconductor boost, first quantum computer

The European Union wants to produce a fifth of the global output of cutting-edge semiconductors at the end of this decade and make its first quantum computer in five years, as part of efforts to cut its dependence on non-European technologies.
Source: reuters.com

Instagram photos help Facebook AI 'teach itself'

The photos were used to help a Facebook algorithm learn to recognise images without supervision.
Source: bbc.com

'Deepfake is the future of content creation'

Deepfake, or AI-generated videos, are increasingly being used commercially.
Source: bbc.com

The Power of Asynchronous Video

"A set of seven articles discusses the benefits of asynchronous video and provides specific guidance about how to effectively incorporate these tools to improve learning. Unbounded by Time: Understanding How Asynchronous Video Can Be Critical to Learning Success Putting Your Best Self Forward: 6 Keys...
Source: educause.edu

COVID-19 has transformed education – here are the 5 innovations we should keep

"Five changes made to higher education during COVID-19 will be beneficial afterwards, according to an expert, including more creative assessment methods." Whilst this is written from the perspective of university education this authentic, rich, and active learning approach can and should be applied to...
Source: weforum.org

MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia™, deep learning technology to animate the faces in still family photos

MyHeritage have used the same AI technology behind deep fakes to analyse old photographs and link them to movements from a number of videos of other moving faces. Bring your ancestors back to life.
Source: myheritage.com

Why does Netflix’s The Dig exclude the women who photographed Sutton Hoo? - Prospect Magazine

"The filmmakers’ massaging of the facts tells us a lot about how middle-aged women are regarded by Hollywood." Great piece by Emma Hartley in Prospect Magazine about the Netflix film The Dig at Sutton Hoo.
Source: prospectmagazine.co.uk

Quantum computing and pharmaceutical research

"Theoretically, quantum computers can prove more powerful than any supercomputer. And recent moves from computer giants such as Google and pharmaceutical titans such as Roche now suggest drug discovery might prove to be quantum computing’s first killer app." In January this year Boehringer-Ingelheim...
Source: ieee.org

Data-driven humanitarianism

An article from MIT Technology Review showing how the World Food Programme uses geospatial data that is developed and made 'open' to all by people within the areas being served. "It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth, but its people are among the most vulnerable. Afghanistan’s snowy...
Source: technologyreview.com

First it was Agile software development, now Agile management is remaking the workplace | ZDNet

"The most effective managers have used the past 12 months to support new remote-working practices with Agile leadership styles. This is what two digital leaders have learnt from the experience - and here's how you can benefit."
Source: zdnet.com

New Technique Reveals Centuries of Secrets in Locked Letters

M.I.T. researchers have devised a virtual-reality technique that lets them read old letters that were mailed not in envelopes but in the writing paper itself after being folded into elaborate enclosures.
Source: nytimes.com

Simulations suggest Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere will last only another billion years

A pair of researchers from Toho University and NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System Science has found evidence, via simulation, that Earth will lose its oxygen-rich atmosphere in approximately 1 billion years. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Kazumi Ozaki and Christopher Reinhard...
Source: phys.org

How private equity squeezes cash from the dying U.S. coal industry

Private equity firms are proving there’s still plenty of profit in the U.S. coal industry despite a decade of falling demand for the fossil fuel. They are spending billions of dollars buying coal-fired plants on the cheap - and getting paid even when they are not providing...
Source: reuters.com

IEA says global CO2 emissions rising again after nearly 6% fall last year

"Global carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 5.8% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed economic activity, but they rebounded at the end of the year and are on course to rise further, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday." Whilst economic growth is sought to reduce national deficits following...
Source: reuters.com