“I am not a robot. My intonation is always different.” — “Donald Trump” “I am not a robot. My intonation is always different.” —”Barack Obama” Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama never actually uttered the line, or at least those 10 words in that order. But over at the website Lyrebird.ai, you can play recordings […] (via WSJ)
American officials said Turkey had informed the United States less than an hour in advance that it intended to carry out the bombing raids in the crowded airspace over northern Syria and Iraq. American officials said that they had asked Turkey not to proceed without proper coordination, but that the request was ignored. Continue reading the main story Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said the United […]
He refused to speculate on whether the cancellation was a tit-for-tat move after the German leadership postponed a governmental exchange with Israel, originally planned for May, citing scheduling conflicts. “The whole situation has to cool down,” Mr. Gabriel said. Continue reading the main story After the meeting of the two leaders was called off, an Israeli official in Mr. Netanyahu’s office, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, […]
Last Friday, the first patient in the Netherlands received his click-on robotic arm. By means of a new technique, this robotic arm is clicked directly onto the bone. A unique characteristic of this prosthesis is that it can be controlled by the patient’s own thoughts. Worldwide, there are only a handful of patients with such a prosthesis. (via WSJ)
The Lafarge scandal, as it became known in the French media, stoked ire among critics who accused the company of seeking to improve profitability despite growing danger for its employees. The situation underscores the difficulty of doing business in war-torn regions. The company has argued that its local managers saw little recourse other than paying off armed groups to guarantee the safety of staff members and keep […]
The finalized prototype of Google self-driving car. First, it was just a dream. Then it became a quirky research project undertaken by a handful of the nerdiest engineers in the robotics industry. Now self-driving cars are on the brink of transforming transportation. The industry creating the technology for autonomous vehicles has morphed from a collaborative space of free-flowing ideas into a high-speed road race where the winners […]
Photo Steven Mnuchin, left, the secretary of the Treasury, announced sanctions on Monday in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria. “The United States is sending a strong message with this action that we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons by any actor,” he said. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on 271 employees of […]
Liam disassembles iPhones and sorts components into bins for further processing. (Image: Apple) Apple has released new details about Liam, its line of robots that disassembles the iPhone 6 so that individual components can be reused to make new gadgets in the future. Liam was first introduced last year , and now that the pilot has been successful, there are plans to expand the project. This will […]
Photo A rebel-held neighborhood in Daraa, Syria, after air strikes on Sunday. Members of a United Nations commission investigating war crimes in Syria have not been allowed to visit the country. Credit Mohamad Abazeed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The chairman of a United Nations commission investigating possible war crimes in Syria has met that country’s ambassador only once, he said. It happened during a chance encounter in […]
Of the 150 Holocaust survivors who founded the kibbutz, Ms. Sternberg — who shared her testimony with museum visitors for years — is one of the last ones alive to bear witness. As her generation fades away, the Ghetto Fighters’ House is grappling, like other institutions, with the question of how to educate future generations about the Holocaust and combat ignorance and denial. Continue reading the main […]
Many grieving relatives were incensed that the government had minimized the sacrifices of the victims, ordering officials to stay quiet or hide the extent of the fatalities, which have dribbled out over the past three days. Continue reading the main story The government is highly sensitive to the casualty count in the military and has sought to suppress information about such figures. But it is widely known […]
A model demonstrates the Welwalk WW-1000, a wearable robotic leg brace designed to help partially paralyzed people walk at the main system with treadmill and monitor, at Toyota Motor Corp.’s head office in Tokyo, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Welwalk WW-1000 system is made up of a motorized mechanical frame that fits on a person’s leg from the knee down. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Toyota is […]
Photo Members of the United Nations Security Council during a meeting about Syria on April 7. President Trump will host a lunch on Monday with 14 diplomats who are members of the Security Council. Credit Drew Angerer/Getty Images UNITED NATIONS — President Trump, who recently had Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin and Kid Rock over for a White House dinner, is planning to host 14 diplomats from around […]
Photo King Salman of Saudi Arabia at the 28th Ordinary Summit of the Arab League at the Dead Sea last month. King Salman rescinded a 20 percent cut to ministers’ salaries and promoted two of his sons. Credit Mohammad Hamed/Reuters BEIRUT, Lebanon — King Salman of Saudi Arabia rescinded salary cuts for ministers and restored financial perks for public sector workers in a series of royal decrees […]
The 5G-Safe project, which aims to reduce traffic accidents, is currently being coordinated in Europe. This involves the development of new vehicular network solutions and the local road weather and safety services they enable, in support of drivers, road operators and autonomous vehicle management systems. The new services will require no action from motorists while driving — data will be gathered and warnings will be sent to […]
A novel surgical robotic system has been developed that provides tactile feedback and is capable of single-incision and natural orifice (incision-free) robotic surgery. The system minimizes surgical trauma and is safer than currently available robotic systems. (via WSJ)
In this photograph taken on Monday, April 10, 2017, Luminar CEO Austin Russell gestures while looking at a 3D lidar map on a demonstration drive in San Francisco. Russell, now 22, was barely old enough to drive when he set out to create a safer navigation system for robot-controlled cars. His ambitions are about to be tested five years after he co-founded Luminar Technologies, a Silicon Valley […]
©AFP WASHINGTON — Thousands of scientists and people from other walks of life turned out in Washington and New York on Saturday for Earth Day events that organisers have framed as a “celebration” of science to counter a growing disregard for evidence-based knowledge. The “March for Science” festivities included “teach-ins” on the National Mall and parades in midtown Manhattan and hundreds of other cities and towns. The […]
Photo He was the only man I saw when we entered the nearly empty village in northern Iraq, which had just recently been liberated from the Islamic State. The first thing he did when he approached our car was ask my colleague for a light. That’s when I noticed the pack of cigarettes sticking out of Mohamed Ahmed Saleh’s shirt pocket. Just over a week after the […]
Data-driven analytics applications are eating the world and transforming every domain. But the world is also being eaten up in a different way by several non-sustainable practices. On Earth Day, we look at what we know about the relation between big data and the environment: how big data is used to measure sustainability and inform action, and what is the impact they have on the environment as […]
He broadened his point to argue that much of the chaos gripping the Middle East today was a result of mistrust between communities over historical wrongdoings that no one is willing to confront. “The past is not the past in the Middle East,” he said. “This is the biggest obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East.” Eric D. Weitz, a history professor at the City […]
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Will a robot take away my job? Many people ask that question, yet policymakers don’t have the kind of information they need to answer it intelligently, say the authors of a new study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). “Policymakers are flying blind into what has been called the fourth industrial revolution,” said Tom M. Mitchell, the E. Fredkin […]
There were five huge boxes sitting at the loading dock of The Poynter Institute yesterday, waiting for the FedEx truck to pick them up. They are filled with more than 125 file boxes containing the literary effects of Donald M. Murray, in my opinion the most influential writing teacher America has ever known. The precious content of those boxes — including 100 of Murray’s experimental daybooks — […]
ABU DHABI // An app that helps Syrian refugees find jobs in Turkey and a device that limits water consumption were named winners at the New York University Abu Dhabi Hackathon. Eighty students from universities across the globe participated in the seventh edition of the event. Ten teams were given 72 hours to produce technology that promotes a social good. With the Hiat application, recruiters and businesses […]
