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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

The Namib Desert bears a scar from a meteorite impact.

"In the vastness of one of the world’s oldest deserts lies a relatively recent geologic feature: the Roter Kamm crater (“red comb” or “red crest/ridge” in German). An astronaut onboard the International Space Station photographed the crater while orbiting over the Namib Desert. It is approximately...
Source: nasa.gov

Is the UK destined to be the next life science hub?

Jason Shafrin explores the question in The Economist about the role of British science in the pandemic and the future of the UK life sciences activity. "With good data, efficient regulation, an international collection of talent, R&D funds focused on the health care, the UK could see big gains...
Source: healthcare-economist.com

Bird believed extinct for 170 years spotted in Borneo

A team of researchers from Indonesia and Singapore has found evidence of the continued existence of a bird long thought extinct. In their paper published in the journal BirdingASIA, the team describes the history of the bird, why it was thought to be extinct and how it was found in Borneo.
Source: phys.org

Ancient Northland swamp kauri solves 42,000 year old mystery

NZ Herald: Ancient Northland swamp kauri shows breakdown of Earth's magnetic field 42,000 years ago. "For the first time ever, we have been able to precisely date the timing and environmental impacts of the last magnetic pole switch," Chris Turney, a professor at UNSW Science and co-lead author of the...
Source: nzherald.co.nz

Dreadful user experience can be expensive.

"Citibank just got a $500 million lesson in the importance of UI design: Citibank was trying to make $7.8M in interest payments. It sent $900M instead." The screenshot is from court records where the judge ruled against Citibank who had wanted to get their money back. The lesson is to always include...
Source: arstechnica.com

Preventing critical failure

Can routinely collected data be repurposed to predict avoidable patient harm? A quantitative descriptive study Objectives To determine whether sharing of routinely collected health service performance data could have predicted a critical safety failure at an Australian maternity service. Design Observational...
Source: bmj.com

Nasa's Perseverance rover in 'great shape' after Mars landing

"Perseverance will now spend at least two years looking for evidence of past life on the Red Planet. The American space agency has successfully landed its Perseverance rover in a deep crater near the planet's equator called Jezero. "The good news is the spacecraft, I think, is in great shape," said Matt...
Source: bbc.com

Declining Life Expectancy in the United States

This Viewpoint reviews the social and economic drivers of declines in longevity in the US, especially among lower socioeconomic status groups, and proposes policy options for the Biden-Harris administration to mitigate the trend, including an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage. Atheendar...
Source: jamanetwork.com

No, frozen wind turbines aren't the main culprit for Texas' power outages

"Lost wind power makes up only a fraction of the reduction in power generating capacity that has brought outages to millions of Texans across the state during a major winter storm." Plenty of disinformation out there. There have been posts apparently showing a helicopter de-icing a wind turbine but it...
Source: texastribune.org

Abydos beer factory: Ancient large-scale brewery discovered in Egypt.

"The archaeological find in the Abydos burial ground is thought to date back about 5,000 years." They brewed beer in batch sizes of about 220 hectolitres and I bet they got away without paying much beer duty. Wonder if we can work out some of the recipes.
Source: bbc.com

'Concerning' rise in pre-teens self-injuring.

"The rate of hospital admissions for nine to 12-year-olds who self-injure has doubled in six years." "In 2019-20, before the coronavirus pandemic, there were 16 hospital admissions per 100,000 nine to 12-year-olds, up from eight in 2013-14. Self-injury admissions for girls in this age group were twice...
Source: bbc.com

Greeks domesticated grapes about 4000 years ago to improve wine-making

We know that the ancient Greeks made wine as early as 4300 BC, but a new analysis of preserved seeds suggests grapes were domesticated around 2000 BC
Source: newscientist.com

3D Scene Understanding with TensorFlow 3D

Posted by Alireza Fathi, Research Scientist and Rui Huang, AI Resident, Google Research "The growing ubiquity of 3D sensors (e.g., Lidar, depth sensing cameras and radar) over the last few years has created a need for scene understanding technology that can process the data these devices capture. Such...
Source: googleblog.com

Performance of China

Performance of China’s new medical licensing examination for rural general practice: To evaluate the performance of China’s new medical licensing examination (MLE) for rural general practice, which determines the number of qualified doctors who can provide primary care for China’s rural residents,...
Source: biomedcentral.com

China Chopper still active 9 years later

China Chopper still active 9 years later: A blog from the world class Intelligence Group, Talos, Cisco's Intelligence Group
Source: talosintelligence.com

How novice and expert anaesthetists understand expertise in anaesthesia: a qualitative study: The development of expertise

How novice and expert anaesthetists understand expertise in anaesthesia: a qualitative study: The development of expertise in anaesthesia requires personal contact between a mentor and a learner. Because mentors often are experienced clinicians, they may find it difficult to understand the challenges...
Source: biomedcentral.com

The new cultural norm: reasons why UK foundation doctors are choosing not to go straight into speciality training: The number

The new cultural norm: reasons why UK foundation doctors are choosing not to go straight into speciality training: The number of UK foundation doctors choosing to go straight into speciality training has fallen drastically over the last 10 years: We sought to explore and understand the reasons for...
Source: biomedcentral.com

Will we still need the term "digital transformation"?

3 ways digital businesses can enable the Great Reset: Updating business models for a digital-first world, led by purpose, is now an imperative for almost every company. "In the coming years, it is possible that no one will speak of “digital transformation” because the term will have become irrelevant:...
Source: weforum.org

What would a Google AI engineer do with 30 years of their family video?

"30 years of family videos in an AI archive: As an Applied AI Engineer, I got down to business and built an AI-powered searchable archive of my family videos." Welcome to the future of home movies. Calling up memories rather than timestamps.
Source: blog.google