A robot developed by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute plays chess at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 8, 2017 A robot developed by engineers in Taiwan can pour coffee and move chess pieces on a board against an opponent, but he’s looking for a real job. The robot developed by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute, which spent the week playing games against […]
Imagine a dim light which is insufficiently bright enough to illuminate a room. An amplifier for such a light would increase the brightness by increasing the number of photons emitted. Photonics researchers have created such a high gain optical amplifier that is compact enough to be placed on a chip. The developed amplifier would help to efficiently increase the power of the transmitted light before it is […]
With a storied history that includes more than a half-century of research, a Nobel Prize, and multiple attempts at practical applications, the story of negative differential resistance — or NDR — reads like a scientific mystery, a mystery that physicists have at last succeeded in unraveling. (via WSJ)
The malware opens emails until the system crashes. Image: Malwarebytes A tech support scam is targeting Mac users with unusual malware which tries to crash the system then encourages the victim to call a phony Apple support number in order to get the system restored to normal. Victims are infected with the malware via a malicious email or by visiting a specially registered scam website. Cybersecurity researchers […]
DUBAI // A law aimed at preventing ownership, trading and breeding of dangerous, wild and exotic animals will be strengthened by education and additional welfare measures, a Government minister says. “The law aims to safeguard community members from the risks that may be caused by these animals, as well as to protect those animals from extinction,” said Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment. […]
UK taxpayers are facing a £24bn bill for decommissioning oil and gasfields in the North Sea — threatening to wipe out remaining tax revenues from an industry that has been among the Treasury’s most reliable cash cows for the past four decades. The new estimates show how the North Sea oil industry risks becoming a net drain on UK resources as it enters its sunset years and […]
The Cohort is Poynter’s bi-monthly newsletter about women kicking ass in digital media. Happy 2017, friends! I gave up on yearlong resolutions a few years back, but I still adore fresh beginnings and all the promise they hold. Instead of setting specific goals this year, I’m focusing on the kind of work I want to do, the kinds of days I want to have, the kind of purpose […]
All of the podcasts below are easily acquired by clicking ‘subscribe’ on iTunes or on Stitcher or any other podcast-delivery platform. New episodes are automatically downloaded, ready for listening Revisionist History With the tagline “because sometimes the past deserves a second chance”, author Malcolm Gladwell visits moments and episodes from history, looking at stories or ideas that might have been misunderstood or overlooked – there’s always a […]
Here are the big questions for investors ahead of the coming trading week. What impact will Donald Trump’s press conference have on markets? “I will be having a general news conference on JANUARY ELEVENTH in N.Y.C. Thank you.” That was how the president-elect last week [3] tweeted news of what is surely the first big market-moving event of the year — if it takes place. Mr Trump […]
Along with most of his Wall Street peers, BofA’s Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett flipped his outlook on risk assets shortly after the election, turning from quietly bearish to vocally bullish and forecasting a substantial rise in US equities, and even more substantial bounce for Japanese, European and UK stocks as well as oil. So far, Hartnett has been correct, and according to recent fund flows, much […]
Descriptive analytics — looking into what has happened in the past — is commoditized. Traditional BI, reports, and dashboards are well understood and used in one way or another across a wide spectrum of organizations to keep an eye on their operations. Predictive analytics — trying to predict what will happen in the future — is in the limelight. Today many organizations are scrambling to utilize predictive […]
To create prototype suction cups that are capable of glomming onto rough, wet surfaces and staying there, a research team has found inspiration in an aptly-named marine creature: the clingfish. (via WSJ)
Researchers have coaxed DNA nanotubes to assemble themselves into bridge-like structures arched between two molecular landmarks on the surface of a lab dish. (via WSJ)
A predicted collision of two stars may just give us a spectacular show in the year 2022. A thorough observation that began in 2013 led Larry Molnar, a Calvin College Professor, along with his students and his colleagues Karen Kinemuchi and Henry Kobulnicky to predict that a binary star is most likely going to collide and explode into a red nova in 2022, give or take a […]
In October 1938, the one-hour adaptation of H G Wells’s The War of the Worlds, directed by Orson Welles, was broadcast on CBS Radio in the United States. A story of aliens invading rural New Jersey rendered as news broadcasts and authentic-sounding updates, it was a little too convincing. There are legends of panic in the streets, mass hysteria and heart attacks. That may have been the […]
How’s your weekend going? Redditor, Law School Graduate, and nimble navigator William Craddick (/u/PleadingtheYiff / brand new Twitter handle @williamcraddick) has made quite the name for himself on Reddit’s “The_Donald” forum. In just three short months, Craddick has managed to rack up over 153,000 “post karma” and 48k “comment karma,” which (if you’re not familiar) is impressive. The guy is an incredibly effective dot-connector, perhaps owing it to his legal training – often posting lengthy reads that […]
08 January 2017 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – (ME NewsWire): The American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) has signed a partnership agreement with the UAE Space Agency, officially putting pen to paper in the federal institution’s head office in Abu Dhabi. A delegation from the university, consisting of Professor Hassan Hamdan Al Alkim, its president, Professor Mousa Mohsen, dean of the School of Engineering and […]
PHILADELPHIA — A movement to pressure and isolate Israel was dealt a major setback on Saturday when the Modern Language Association, the United States’ largest scholarly group, took a step toward rejecting an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. After two hours of contentious debate and procedural jockeying at its annual meeting here, the group’s delegate assembly voted 113 to 79 against a resolution endorsing a boycott, which […]
The UK’s Brexit vote shook the cocoa futures market in 2016, pushing the commodity that is priced in sterling to levels not seen in decades. Six months on, traders are feeling a new aftershock from the UK referendum following a filing for bankruptcy protection at the end of December by the US subsidiary of a top 10 cocoa processor Transmar Group. Transmar Commodity Group filed for Chapter […]
We are already witnessing the emergence of a digital divide: by 2020, every business will be either a digital predator or digital prey, according to Forrester Research. Digital disruptors are driving change everywhere, including in the Middle East, with people watching entertainment on Netflix, booking rides through Careem, and finding places to stay via Airbnb. However, according to a recent Forbes article, as many as 84 percent […]
Foresters and researchers are using sound to look inside living trees. A new study presents methods for use of sonic tomography, which measures wood decay by sending sound waves through tree trunks. The new study describes optimum placement of the sensors to avoid aberrant tomography results for the non-model tree shapes that populate the tropics and details how to analyze the tomograms to quantify areas of decayed […]
Music improvisation is all about the emotion, says one expert, but researchers have now found a way to understand the complex interactions that take place between instrumentalists and singers during a jam with the aim of using those insights to add greater emotional expression to a performance involving digital instruments. (via WSJ)
Qualcomm At CES 2017, Qualcomm has demonstrated a number of ways its technology will support the 5G future, from powering autonomous drones to connected health care. Giving weight to its investments and innovations, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf on January 6 shared new research commissioned by Qualcomm to show the impact 5G will have on the future economy. By 2035, when 5G’s full economic benefit should be realized, […]
KFH Capital Investment Co, a subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House, has announced the acquisition of an office tower in New Jersey, US for $165 million. The building is fully rented by Panasonic Corporation of North America for a period of 15 years and is a significant centre for the company in terms of marketing, sales, services, research and development throughout North America, a statement said. Abdul-Aziz Nasser […]
