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ARABIAN POST SPECIAL

In Turkey’s Home of St. Nick, Far From North Pole, All Is Not Jolly

As millions of children around the world drag their parents to shopping malls to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him their wishes, hardly anyone is coming to Demre. Turkey has an abundance of problems — frequent terror attacks, a swelling population of Syrian refugees, mass arrests after a failed coup — that have driven tourists away. The only foreign visitors to Demre these days seem to [...]

Lenovo planning Chrome OS edition of its Yoga Book hybrid tablet/laptop

A version running Google's Chrome OS could join the Windows and Android editions of the Lenovo Yoga Book 2-in-1. Lenovo has a critical darling on its hands with the Yoga Book, a 2-in-1 hybrid that uses a "Create Pad" instead of a traditional laptop keyboard. That feature -- which allows the user to switch easily between typing and pen input modes (including writing directly on paper that's [...]

Ethical hacker explains to UAE summit how easy it is to take over a car, computer, CCTV camera

ABU DHABI // Before becoming Europe’s No 1 ethical hacker, Jamie Woodruff took advantage of his autism to become a computer boffin and started hacking when he was nine.In discussing with young people how challenges can be turned to opportunities, Mr Woodruff, 23, showed how he overcame autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia."I did not have access to education sectors that you would see. When I went to school it [...]

MapR: A Hadoop rebel with a cause

When it emerged from stealth in 2011, MapR was an outlier in the Hadoop community. At the time, Hadoop was defined largely by two projects adapted from Google research: MapReduce, which introduced highly linear, massively parallel processing to big data, and the HDFS file system, which could accommodate data by the petabyte. And at the time, Hadoop was defined as an Apache open source platform. MapR's message, [...]

Impasse in Minnesota Escalates Over Football Team Suspensions

Earlier in the day, Kaler said in a statement that the suspensions were the result of an “Athletics Department decision based on values” — and not a direct consequence of the 10 players’ violation of the university’s code of conduct. Continue reading the main story “A bowl game is a wonderful reward for an excellent football season,” Kaler said. “It is my hope that our eligible football [...]

Inside Amazon's clickworker platform: How half a million people are being paid pennies to train AI

Toronto worker Kristy Milland looks for data jobs that she can pick up to make ends meet. Image: Sam Santos/George Pimentel Photography This article originally appeared on TechRepublic. Each morning when she wakes up, Kristy Milland powers up her home computer in Toronto, logs into Amazon Mechanical Turk, and waits for her computer to ding.Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT), which has been around for over a decade, is [...]

Globetrotters find Dubai festival an oasis of security

DUBAI // A group of ­adventurers travelling the world by car, motorcycle and bicycle have said the UAE’s peace and security made it a popular destination for tourists.During a stop in Dubai, four travellers made camp in Mushrif park for the 5th Dubai Traveller’s Festival.Leonhard Salwey, who left his home in Germany seven months ago to explore the world on his bicycle, thought the event would be [...]

10 things to do today: Enjoy the Let It Snow event at Yas Marina, visit the Madinat Jumeirah Festive Market, and more

Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 17, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun.newslideNationwideNew movie Collateral Beauty stars Will Smith as Howard Inlet, a successful New York advertising executive, who has suffered a tragedy and retreats from life, spending his time writing letters to Love, Time and Death, hoping [...]

What the oil production cut means for all businesses

If there was a way to end the year on a bright note for as many businesses as possible, a deal to cut oil production was probably the most likely news to hit the spot. Of course, there will be some sectors not sharing in the joy – those that rely heavily on oil to fuel, such as aviation, manufacturing and agriculture, may be dreading increased costs. [...]

Rice, Baylor team sets new mark for 'deep learning'

From left, Richard Baraniuk, Tan Nguyen and Ankit Patel. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University Neuroscience and artificial intelligence experts from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have taken inspiration from the human brain in creating a new "deep learning" method that enables computers to learn about the visual world largely on their own, much as human babies do. In tests, the group's "deep rendering mixture model" largely [...]

Makkah said to be facing acute shortage of affordable homes

Makkah is facing an acute shortage of affordable housing, especially as the area around the Holy Mosque is being redeveloped to service religious tourists, according to a new report. Real estate consultants JLL said as with other major cities in Saudi, Makkah needs to address the growing issue against the need for seasonal accommodation and extreme land values. It said the Markazia - the area around the [...]

Feature: Is It Possible to Make a Less Allergenic Peanut?

Allergic reactions to peanuts cause around 500 hospitalizations and even some deaths in the United States each year. Food that contains trace amounts, because it was produced with factory equipment or kitchen tools that came into contact with peanuts, can prove fatal for allergic individuals who consume it unsuspectingly. Accidentally ingesting as little as a third of a single peanut — about 70 milligrams — can send [...]

Tony Bateman: the e-retail king of Mr Porter

What brought you into the world of fashion? I always wanted to make sure I did a job that I was passionate about, and one that wouldn’t simply be a 9-5 office job, which fashion allowed me to do. I began my career on the UK High Street where I started off working on own-label brands and really learnt my trade. Following that I moved on to [...]

Researchers combat antimicrobial resistance using smartphones

A schematic shows a smartphone and the diagnostic attachment for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Credit: Aydogan Ozcan/UCLA A team of UCLA researchers has developed an automated diagnostic test reader for antimicrobial resistance using a smartphone. The technology could lead to routine testing for antimicrobial susceptibility in areas with limited resources. Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are posing a severe threat to global public health. In particular, they are becoming more common [...]

"But I Thought the Cold War Was Supposed to Have Been About Ideology"

Submitted by Eric Zuesse via Strategic-Culture.org, Was the Cold War against communism, or against Russia? Russia was our ally in World War II, and we’d have a Nazi world today if 26 million Russians hadn’t died from Hitler’s bombs and attacks while Russia fought on with courage amidst desperation, finally to crush his regime.  But Russia was communist, so the Cold War developed after that alliance (the Allies in [...]

Disrupting the business of creativity: Reda Raad, CEO of TWBARaad

What's the story behind your business? Our story is a typical start-up story. We began 15 years ago with six people, and at the time we operated out of our chairman's extra bedroom in Jumeirah. We started the agency with the philosophy of changing the rules of advertising across the region. At the time, people thought we were a bit crazy - they said everything had already [...]

Ounass luxury shopping portal opens in UAE, promising a two-hour delivery service

If you like to surround yourself with all things luxury and are the type who simply ‘needs’ the latest threads, jewellery and cosmetics, the minute you set eyes on them online, you’ll be pleased to know that UAE brand lovers now has somewhere to get them in two hours flat.Luxury delivery service Ounass.com, which is now available across the region, is UAE retail giant Al Tayer Insignia’s [...]

Amazon Go? I'll Stick With Real Stores

Everyone is gaga over the idea of frictionless grocery shopping: tap your phone on a turnstile device upon entry, retrieve food from the shelves, and walk out; your bill is charged to the credit card connected to your device. No waiting in line; no chit chat as your groceries are rung up. In other words, say hello to Amazon Go, which will be tested in Seattle [...]

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed offers condolences to family of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid bin Hamdan – in pictures

(L-R) Sheikh Tahnoon bin Mohammed, Ruler’s Representative of the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Ruler of Fujairah, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sheikh Suroor bin Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, offer condolences to Sheikh Rashid bin Hamdan Al Nahyan on the death of [...]

Arab world entering a new era with reform in store, former Egyptian minister says

ABU DHABI // The Arab world is entering a new era, involving reform and changes in its mindset, according to the former Egyptian foreign minister and secretary general of the Arab League. In an interview with The National, Amr Moussa said the region’s young citizens, who make up about 70 per cent of the population, are better educated and have aspirations for the future. "They reject what [...]

The best moments from the Dubai International Film Festival 2016

The 13th Dubai International Film Festival draws to a close on Wednesday, with the regional premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Whether you are a film buff, a casual movie fan, an industry guru or an aspiring filmmaker, it is safe to say that this year’s edition was one of the best. The number of films was up on last year, to 156, after a [...]

Hamil Harris is leaving The Washington Post

Hamil Harris, who has been a staff writer at The Washington Post for more than two decades, is leaving the newsroom. The departure was announced on Tuesday in a memo by local editor Mike Semel, who called Harris "a presence at virtually every major news event in the Washington area for the past 24 years." Harris covered the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11, anchored coverage of [...]

China targets aviation industry to spy and steal secrets

Boeing Chinese hackers are targeting aviation systems in the quest for information and intellectual property which will boost the country's competitiveness, security researchers say.Cyberattacks against the aviation industry are nothing new, but with the inclusion of Internet-capable devices at the basic level of embedded devices to in-flight Wi-Fi and connected aviation systems, there are more avenues than ever that threat actors can exploit.Successful attacks which have compromised [...]

Central London Home Prices Tumble; Biggest December Decline In Six Years

Bubbly home prices in London's most exclusive neighborhoods continue to deflate and have just recorded their largest December decline since the "great recession" in 2010.  According to Bloomberg, asking prices in London dropped 4.3% in December with inner London down 6%.  Meanwhile, the most exclusive neighborhoods, like Kensinton and Chelsea, have recorded even sharper declines at nearly 10% as home buyers have migrated to cheaper areas of [...]