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Royal Mail trials drone delivery to Isles of Scilly

The drones could be used to fly post to some of the most remote communities in the UK.
Source: bbc.co.uk

The volunteers using 'honeypot' groups to fight anti-vax propaganda

Volunteers are busting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories with decoy Facebook groups.
Source: bbc.com

US passes emergency waiver over fuel pipeline cyber-attack

The US acts to keep fuel flowing after its largest pipeline was hit by a ransomware cyber-attack. "Cyber-security firm Digital Shadows says the Colonial attack has come about due to the pandemic - with more engineers remotely accessing control systems for the pipeline from home. James Chappell, co-founder...
Source: bbc.com

Taking an invention from idea to the marketplace

Lockdown spurred many people to invent new products, but how did they get to market?
Source: bbc.com

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) clinic to close

Hundreds of patients with a rare but debilitating syndrome are concerned for a clinic's future in Derriford.
Source: bbc.com

Covid-19: Project offers support to overwhelmed Indian doctors

Prof Parag Singhal from Somerset is among those offering online advice to help relieve pressure.
Source: bbc.com

AI unlocks ancient Dead Sea Scrolls mystery

"Cutting edge technology" reveals how scribes foiled modern scholars with one of the Biblical texts.
Source: bbc.com

World's wealthiest (and 'business as usual') 'at heart of climate problem'

"These [polluter elite] are people who fly most, drive the biggest cars most and live in the biggest homes which they can easily afford to heat, so they tend not to worry if they’re well insulated or not. … They’re also the sort of people who could really afford good insulation and solar panels...
Source: bbc.com

Sewage discharged into rivers 400,000 times in 2020

Waterways in England had sewage discharged into them for three million hours
Source: bbc.com

5 failures of political leaders during a public health crisis

“There are five traps political leaders can fall into when it comes to a public health emergency: 1. delay and downplay; 2. fudge the science; 3. isolation from the international community; 4. absence; and 5. double standards.” Sophie Harman Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University...
Source: qmul.ac.uk

Using GPT-2 to generate Tweets

blog post image Last summer I blogged about using a Deep Neural Network to generate tweets but only used 3200 of my tweets. Since then I've used Twitter's archive mechanism to retrieve ALL my tweets (just over 30,000) to train a network. Not any old network - the GPT-2 model from OpenAI. This 'finetuning' of an existing...

Live music is back... behind a shop window

Musicians have been able to serenade New Yorkers from the inside of empty shops.
Source: bbc.co.uk

Scientists unlock mysteries of world's oldest 'computer'

The 2,000-year-old mechanism has baffled experts since it was discovered on a shipwreck in 1901.
Source: bbc.com

Cornwall: Home care issues for people in rural areas

More than 80 people in Cornwall currently have no council-funded care despite being eligible.
Source: bbc.com

Government has no climate change plan - MPs

Two reports from MPs cast doubt on the government's approach to meeting its climate change goals.
Source: bbc.com

UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews

Consumer group Which? staged a sting operation to investigate fake Google reviews in the UK.
Source: bbc.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

Volvo Cars to go fully electric by 2030

"The Swedish firm is to phase out all models with internal combustion engines over the next few years."
Source: bbc.com

'Undiscovered Titian painting' found in Ledbury church

"An art historian claims to have found the Renaissance master's signature during restoration work." Fascinating story especially the then - plague - and now - pandemic angle. Enormous dedication from the historian and team who have been working on it - over 11,000 hours of work. Can't remember seeing...
Source: bbc.com