What happened when a 'wildly irrational' algorithm made crucial healthcare decisions
Advocates say having computer programs decide how much help vulnerable people can get is often arbitrary - and in some cases downright cruel
Source: theguardian.com
'Laws of Nature Turned up to 11': Astronomers Spot Two Neutron Stars Being Swallowed by Black Holes
In two separate observations, just ten days apart, astronomers discover a neutron star circling a black hole before being gobbled up.
Source: singularityhub.com
How Beijing humbled Britain's mighty HSBC
The bank got in trouble over a high-stakes U.S.-China legal clash. In the past two years, Chinese state-owned firms have ended or cut back business with HSBC.
Source: reuters.com
Tailored messaging increases understanding of climate change in Republicans
A team of researchers at Yale University's Yale Program on Climate Change Communication has found that the use of tailored advertising can increase awareness among Republicans of the dangers posed by climate change. In their paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the group describes field...
Source: phys.org
Outgoing U.N. aid chief slams G7 for failing on vaccine plan
Outgoing U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock slammed the Group of Seven wealthy nations on Monday for failing to come up with a plan to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, describing the G7 pledge to provide 1 billion doses over the next year as a "small step."
Source: reuters.com
Reuters, New York Times win Pulitzers for coverage of racial injustice, COVID-19
Reuters and the Minneapolis Star Tribune each won a Pulitzer Prize on Friday for journalism about racial inequities in U.S. policing, while the New York Times and the Atlantic were honored for chronicling the COVID-19 pandemic, the two topics that dominated last year's headlines.
Source: reuters.com
How an informant and a messaging app led to huge global crime sting
It took $100,000 plus expenses, and the opportunity for a reduced prison sentence, for the smartphone developer to collaborate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2018 and kick-start Operation Trojan Shield, according to a court document.
Source: reuters.com
Bill Gates' next generation nuclear reactor to be built in Wyoming
Billionaire Bill Gates' advanced nuclear reactor company TerraPower LLC and PacifiCorp (PPWLO.PK) have selected Wyomingto launch the first Natrium reactor project on the site of a retiring coal plant, the state's governor said on Wednesday.
Source: reuters.com
'Big risk': California farmers hit by drought change planting plans
Joe Del Bosque is leaving a third of his 2,000-acre farm near Firebaugh, California, unseeded this year due to extreme drought. Yet, he hopes to access enough water to produce a marketable melon crop.
Source: reuters.com
Tracking SARS-CoV-2 variants
All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, change over time. Most changes have little to no impact on the virus’ properties. However, some changes may affect the virus’s properties, such as how easily it spreads, the associated disease severity, or the performance...
Source: who.int
Covid-19 news: England sees rise in cases for first time in 5 weeks
The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic
Source: newscientist.com
Greta Thunberg aims to change how food is produced
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has set her sights on changing how the world produces and consumes food in order to counteract a trio of threats: carbon emissions, disease outbreaks and animal suffering.
Source: reuters.com
Watch a Jet Suit Pilot Fly Onto a Ship to Trial the Tech for Fighting Pirates
The jet suit is made by UK-based Gravity Industries, whose founder Richard Browning was himself in the Royal Marine Reserves for a time.
Source: singularityhub.com
Apple AirTags, Now Jailbroken, Could Become Even Bigger Privacy Nightmare - ExtremeTech
The new Apple AirTag is not the first smart tracker, but it's so good at what it does that it could actually be a privacy nightmare, an even greater concern after a security researcher has shown it's possible to "jailbreak" one.
Source: extremetech.com
Why Did It Take So Long to Accept the Facts About Covid?
"The importance of airborne transmission in the pandemic was clear long before the World Health Organization finally began to acknowledge it." "If the importance of aerosol transmission had been accepted early, we would have been told from the beginning that it was much safer outdoors, where these small...
Source: nytimes.com
Founded Upon an Error
A recent post on Reddit asks, “Why was Bayes’ Theory not accepted/popular historically until the late 20th century?” Great question! As always, there are many answers to a questio…
Source: allendowney.com
Flat Pasta That Turns Into 3-D Shapes - Just Add Boiling Water
The engineers are in the kitchen, again.
Source: nytimes.com
No Evidence That Associations Between Adolescents' Digital Technology Engagement and Mental Health Problems Have Increased
Digital technology is ubiquitous in modern adolescence, and researchers are concerned that it has negative impacts on mental health that, furthermore, increase over time. To investigate whether technology is becoming more harmful, we examined changes in associations between technology engagement and...
Source: sagepub.com
Bank of England predicts rebound in the economy
"The Bank of England said Britain's economy would grow by the most since World War Two this year and slowed the pace of its trillion dollar bond-purchasing programme, but stressed it was not reversing its stimulus." Strong indications finally of a bounce back in the economy highlight the devastating...
Source: reuters.com
Why a U.S. hospital and oil company turned to facial recognition
Deployments of facial recognition from Israeli startup AnyVision show how the surveillance software has gained adoption across the United States even as regulatory and ethical debates about it rage.
Source: reuters.com
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