03 December 2016 The Roads and Transport Authority – Majdi Abu Zaid: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai has recently signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Khalifa University and the University of Dubai calling for stepping up cooperation in the field of robots and drones. The step is part of RTA endeavours to keep pace with the latest technological trends, share expertise with the academic […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 4, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Yoga class Sign up for a Yoga Dance Body Rhythm class with Yvette Campbell at Bodytree Studio. This yoga-inspired dance class is set to the percussive rhythms and is a fun full-body […]
Every year, Brazilian venture capital firm Monashees takes entrepreneurs from its portfolio companies on an overseas discovery tour. This year, instead of Silicon Valley, the firm headed to the Yangtze Valley, in a clear sign of a new front opening for Chinese investment in Latin America. China is seeking to expand lending and investment in Brazil and elsewhere on the continent, as it shifts from its traditional […]
The planet’s technosphere now weighs some 30 trillion tons — a mass of more than 50 kilos for every square meter of the Earth’s surface, report investigators. Additionally, the numbers of technofossil ‘species’ now outnumber numbers of biotic species on planet Earth. The definition of the term technosphere includes physical human-made structures such as houses, factories, smartphones, computers and landfill. Source
Systems out of thermodynamic equilibrium are very common in nature. In recent years they have attracted constantly growing attention because of their relevance for fundamental physics as well as for modern nanotechnology. In a collaborative effort, researchers now report on detailed new physical insights of non-equilibrium atom-surface quantum friction. (via WSJ)
Apple has written a letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration telling that new companies entering the auto industry should be given the same rights as established companies. This letter hints that Apple has the rumored iCar in the works. Apple’s Letter To NHTSA Apple’s letter to the NHTSA indicates that the company still has plans of testing autonomous cars. “Apple uses machine learning to […]
The UAE and Serbia have announced moves to increase trade links, with a focus on the tourism, agriculture, construction sectors. Ways of expanding economic relations and co-operation in key sectors were at the centre of talks held on Monday by officials from the two countries in Abu Dhabi, news agency WAM reported. Abdullah Al Saleh, Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade and Industry at the UAE Ministry of Economy, […]
(Image: Liminal) Australian health insurer Medibank has launched an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience for Australian hospitals on Google Daydream View, in collaboration with a group of neuropsychologists at Melbourne-based VR developers Liminal. The “Joy” experience, which was entirely designed in 3D using Google’s Tilt Brush, provides hospital patients with a virtual experience to attempt to relieve loneliness and isolation, particularly for long-stay patients with restricted mobility. […]
After spending the past month blaming Hillary’s loss on the rampant spread of “fake news,” because choosing a failed candidate subject to numerous active federal criminal investigations and/or Obama’s failed policies couldn’t possibly be to blame, Mic is reporting that Obama is contemplating starting a propaganda machine media company of his own after leaving the White House. President Barack Obama has been discussing a post-presidential career […]
The U.S. government and the private sector must cooperate to improve the security of digital networks, a U.S. presidential commission on cyber security recommended in a wide-ranging report issued on Friday. The commission created by President Barack Obama earlier this year also recommended that the president and Congress accelerate the pace at which technology is updated in the federal sector and that the president appoint an ambassador […]
BEIJING China’s armed forces must be smaller but more capable, and if reforms are not properly carried out the military risks falling behind, affecting its ability to wage war, Chinese state media on Saturday cited President Xi Jinping as saying. Xi unexpectedly announced in September last year that he would cut troop numbers by 300,000, or some 13 percent of the world’s biggest military, currently 2.3-million strong. […]
Apple logo. Apple has revealed it is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles in a letter asking the government to make it easier to develop self-driving cars. The company is “excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation,” Apple said in a November 22 letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offering Apple’s opinion about draft regulations for the sector. “Apple looks […]
It’s becoming an increasingly difficult chore trying to scour the App Store for decent apps given its very saturated library. A plethora of excellent apps intermingle with shovelware, and it’s often a tall order to sort the ones worthy of downloading from the ones that aren’t. A tall order, sure, but not impossible. Here’s a chief list of the best iPhone apps for 2016. Evernote Evernote has struggled […]
Apple has for the first time publicly acknowledged its plans to develop self-driving cars, with a letter that urges the US highways regulator to promote “fair competition” between newcomers to the automotive industry and traditional manufacturers. In an unusually direct statement accompanying the letter, an Apple spokesman confirmed its work on autonomous systems that could be used to transform “the future of transportation”. Apple’s letter touts the […]
This figure compares a traditionally trained algorithm to Aarabi and Guo’s heuristically trained neural net. The left and centre columns show an aggressive and conservative image-recognition algorithm trained to recognized human hair, compared to the more precise heuristically trained algorithm at right. Credit: Courtesy: IEEE Trans NN & LS “Hey Siri, how’s my hair?” Your smartphone may soon be able to give you an honest answer, thanks […]
Submitted by Robert Parry via Strategic-Culture.org, Under the cover of battling “fake news,” the mainstream U.S. news media and officialdom are taking aim at journalistic skepticism when it is directed at the pronouncements of the U.S. government and its allies. One might have hoped that the alarm about “fake news” would remind major U.S. news outlets, such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, about […]
The Samsung Galaxy S8 seems to be the blue-eyed boy of the rumor mill and the latest buzz is that the impending flagship will not sport a dual-camera setup. Previous reports have suggested that the Galaxy S8 would pack in two rear-facing cameras – a 12-megapixel one and another with a 13-megapixel resolution (with a Sony module). The news comes courtesy of a new leak from Weibo leakster Ice […]
US technology shares faced one of their worst weeks of 2016 as investors shifted their focus to equities that will benefit from the soaring price of oil and the policies of the Trump administration. The S&P 500 technology index, a measure of large companies in the sector, has declined 3 per cent since Friday last week. The fall represents the steepest drop since late April, when Apple […]
In London last month, Arabian Business was treated to a behind-the-scenes explanation of how in March Google’s AlphaGo computer programme thrashed the world’s best player at the ancient board game Go. The match represented a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) research being undertaken by Google’s DeepMind since the start-up was acquired for a reported $400m in 2014. Go involves two contestants moving black and white stones on […]
An international team of researchers led by Gaia Novarino, a scientist at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria, discovered a new genetic cause for autism spectrum disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder In Humans About 1 percent of the population in the world is currently suffering from autism and experiences a range of debilitating symptoms including difficulties in communication and interaction with people. Novarino said that autism is caused […]
(a,b) Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo) (c) great gray owl (Strix nebulosi) and (d) snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus). Credit: Ian A.Clark, Conor A. Daly, William Devenport, W .Nathan Alexander,Nigel Peake, Justin W. Jaworski, Stewart Glegg Many species of owl are able to hunt in effective silence by suppressing their noise at sound frequencies above 1.6 kilohertz (kHz) – over the range that can be heard by humans. […]
The managed services provider (MSP) model has had a remarkably long run, considering how much IT has changed over the last 20 years or so. Written off by many as the economics of cloud bit into the MSPs’ market share, at one point many were predicting the end of the MSP, displaced by a combination of SaaS and public cloud. Not any more. So what’s changed? MSPs […]
03 December 2016 Abu Dhabi: The food production sector in the Abu Dhabi has enjoyed continued growth in recent years, due to flourishing internal markets and growing export markets. The Emirate’s ability to produce high-quality, competitive and value-added goods, accompanied by a strong logistics network and its strategic geographic location has seen it emerge as one of the most important regional food production and processing centres. As […]
Google has launched a new series of Dubai’s iconic sites on Street View, a feature by Google Maps that allows users to view and navigate 360-degree imagery of major locations across the world. As the United Arab Emirates gears to celebrate its 45th National Day on December 2, Google Maps’ one billion daily users can now explore some of Dubai’s world-renowned landmarks such as the city’s picturesque […]
