For more than 120 years the Venus Table of the Dresden Codex — an ancient Mayan book containing astronomical data — has been of great interest to scholars around the world. The accuracy of its observations, especially the calculation of a kind of ‘leap year’ in the Mayan Calendar, was deemed an impressive curiosity used primarily for astrology. But UC Santa Barbara’s Gerardo Aldana, a professor of […]
Biologists studying a small, colorful fish in the Mediterranean Sea have discovered a new way in which a female can choose the best father for her offspring. The animal kingdom is full of elaborate traits and behaviors by which females choose mates. Even in species in which the female mates with multiple males, biologists have found evidence of “cryptic female choice” involving mechanisms in the reproductive tract […]
While it already offers several ways for users to make video calls over various platforms, Google today launched a new phone-based app called Duo that’s designed for simplicity. Available for both Android and iOS smartphones, Google Duo doesn’t require anything more than a phone number to launch once the app is downloaded. Unlike Google’s Hangouts messaging, voice and video calling tool, people don’t even need Google accounts […]
KUWAIT. On Aug 12, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its ‘AA/A-1+’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Kuwait. The outlook is stable. The affirmation indicates that our ratings on Kuwait continue to be supported by the sovereign’s high levels of accumulated fiscal, external, and household wealth, despite the low oil price environment. The ratings are constrained by the concentrated nature of the economy […]
INTERNATIONAL. What would your ideal robot be like? One that can change nappies and tell bedtime stories to your child? Perhaps you’d prefer a butler that can polish silver and mix the perfect cocktail? Or maybe you’d prefer a companion that just happened to be a robot? Certainly, some see robots as a hypothetical future replacement for human carers. But a question roboticists are asking is: how […]
ABU DHABI // The rising cost of living is preventing many parents from buying school equipment for the new term as well as gifts for their children for Eid Al Adha. Parents say that because of increases in the cost of school supplies and school fees, buying Eid treats will have to be put on hold and in some cases postponed indefinitely. “This month is going to […]
While the more than 5 meter long Greenland shark is one of the world’s largest sharks, it is also one of the least understood animals on our planet. The Greenland shark’s general biology and way of life have been a mystery to biologists for many years. However, marine biologists at the University of Copenhagen have now deployed an epoch-making method to unveil one of the greatest of […]
A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) overstepped its bounds when it issued an order to preempt state rules limiting the development of municipal broadband networks in Tennessee and North Carolina. The decision was welcomed by the telecom industry, which has in some places fought against city-led efforts to expand broadband services to more people. Supporters of local broadband expressed disappointment and […]
INTERNATIONAL. The future for many young people across the Middle East and North Africa looks bleak. The World Bank records that 54% of the working age population in the Middle East and North Africa is unemployed with little prospect of any positive immediate change. An average of 28.7% of 15 to 24-year-olds in the Middle East and 30.6% of those in North Africa are unemployed according to […]
BAGHDAD — If there were one safe place in Iraq, it should be a hospital nursery, locked down for the night with dozens of babies nestled inside. But here, not even that is a given. When a fire started late Tuesday night in the maternity wing of one of Baghdad’s main hospitals, it quickly engulfed the babies’ room. And then, in another Iraqi tragedy in a horrifying […]
Normally, individual molecules of genetic material repel each other. However, when space is limited DNA molecules must be packed together more tightly. This case arises in sperm, cell nuclei and the protein shells of viruses. An international team of physicists has now succeeded in artificially recreating this so-called DNA condensation on a biochip. Recreating important biological processes in cells to better understand them currently is a major […]
The newest smartphones in Samsung’s Galaxy line come with contactless mobile payment capability. That’s good news when it comes to convenience, but it might be bad news when it comes to security. During a presentation given recently at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas, a computer science student demonstrated a variety of attacks against Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile payment service. The attacks Mendoza described were […]
A general view of a Wal-Mart store in Mexico City, April 24, 2012. Reuters/Edgard Garrido/Files Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), vying to better challenge Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), will pay about $3 billion for internet retailer Jet.com and its innovative pricing software in the largest-ever deal for an e-commerce startup. The deal disclosed on Monday follows a five-year e-commerce acquisition spree in which Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest traditional retailer, […]
TOKYO Nick Johnson, who claims to be the first person to capture all 145 creatures now available in the “Pokemon Go” mobile gaming phenomenon, says he is not ready to put away his smartphone just yet and hopes for new features. The 28-year-old tech employee from Brooklyn, New York, who refers to himself as the “world-first Pokemon Go master” on his Twitter account, announced last week he […]
The Chicago Beach Hotel, Hard Rock Café and Jumeirah TV Tower are famous Dubai landmarks that disappeared years ago. Next to be added to the list: the Ramada Dubai. The hotel is another link to an old Dubai receding into memory at a rapid rate. When the four-star Ramada opened in Bur Dubai in 1983, it was mostly surrounded by desert. Today, more than three decades on, […]
BREMEN, Germany — Believing he was answering a holy call, Harry Sarfo left his home in the working-class city of Bremen last year and drove for four straight days to reach the territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria. He barely had time to settle in before members of the Islamic State’s secret service, wearing masks over their faces, came to inform him and his German […]
INTERNATIONAL. New research from Long Finance, sponsored by PwC and conducted by Z/Yen, shows the wholesale insurance* market is enthusiastic about implementing blockchain solutions**. The report is based on interviews with brokers, insurers, reinsurers, regulators and trade bodies from across the global wholesale insurance market. As well as cost reduction and improved efficiency, blockchain could be a transformative technology changing the way the industry operates, enabling revenue […]
HUSAN, West Bank — The Sabateen clan recognized the dewy-eyed boy in the World Vision sponsorship card from his birth date and the striped collar of his cardigan. His mother used to make him wear that sweater on special occasions. It was their Othman, who turned 18 on Monday but at the time was 5. None of his relatives recalled signing him up for the World Vision […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Dubai’s private developer engaged in developing shopping malls, hotels and mixed use communities says Dubai is well on the way to a strong market recovery. Robert Welanetz, Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim – Properties, believes Dubai’s position as a world-class business and investment hub will drive the real estate revival. “We expect the ‘soft’ retail market will continue through the end […]
DUBAI // Two Russians kidnapped a Ukrainian tourist after offering her a lift home before assaulting her and stealing her passport. The men, aged 30 and 34, were convicted of kidnap, physical assault and robbery by Dubai Criminal Court and jailed for two years each. On January 13 this year one of the men approached the woman in Bur Dubai and asked if she knew any good […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| First Gulf Bank reported a lower Group net profit for the first half of this year, recording AED 2.64 billion for the six-month period ended 30 June 2016, compared to AED 2.87 billion for the first half of 2015 FGB, one of the leading banks in the UAE, reported second quarter 2016 Group revenue growth of 3%, while Q2’2016 net profits were recorded at AED […]
Solar Impulse 2 has taken off for the final time, but its crossing of the Saudi desert – managing no-fly zones, wind and heat – could make its last flight the most difficult. Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard, who took off from Cairo on Sunday and is expected to land in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, will be navigating a region riven by tensions and conflicts that prevented him […]
ABU DHABI // They may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but driverless cars could be key to reducing the number of accidents in the UAE, experts say. More than 90 per cent of accidents involve driver error and machines have been proven to drive more reliably than humans, said Lee Woodcock, global product director for intelligent mobility at the engineering consultancy Atkins. “The potential is […]
A worker climbs outside an Apple store in Hong Kong April 10, 2013. Reuters/Bobby Yip/File Photo HONG KONG Apple Inc found itself on the receiving end of a small, short-lived anti-U.S. protest this week in China, the tech firm’s biggest overseas market and a country where foreign firms have suffered damaging boycotts following international spats. A handful of unofficial Apple stores were picketed and social media users […]
