DUBAI // UAE leaders hailed the beginning of a new year promising progress as hundreds of thousands of Emiratis and people from around the world celebrated the arrival of 2017 in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and across the country. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid expressed pride for challenges that were overcome and achievements accomplished last year. The Vice President and Ruler of Dubai said he looked forward to the […]
It has been a bad year for numbers. At the start of 2016, Howard Wainer, a much revered Princeton-educated statistician, eulogised that “prediction models combined with exit polls let us go to sleep early with little doubt about election outcomes”. By the end of a year in which data — in the shape of facts, polls and forecasts — struggled to deal with an uncertain world, Mr […]
Globalization, the path that the world economy has largely followed for decades, took some hefty blows in 2016. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and Britain’s decision to leave the European Union have raised questions over the future of tariff-free trade and companies’ freedom to move production to lower-cost countries. Borders are back in vogue. Economic nationalism is paying political dividends. “We […]
One contentious subject crops up regularly on Cashmere, the debut album by Swet Shop Boys, a collaboration between rappers Riz Ahmed and Heems: airport aggravation. The opening track is T5, a reference to London Heathrow’s Terminal Five, where the transatlantic duo are often subjected to overzealous security checks. In one memorable Ahmed lyric, a guard apologises for the intrusive search, then asks if he’s “off that film”. […]
It is not just habit. All of Karanka’s peers in the Premier League go into this much detail, too. Survival in England’s top flight is more than a battle of wits, or even money; it is a war of information. Losing is, often, not simply about playing worse; it is about knowing less. As Karanka sees it, his job is to make sure his players know “at […]
TAIPEI Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday that Taiwan will be “calm” when facing issues to do with China, but uncertainties next year will test the self-ruled island and its national security team, even as she recommitted to maintaining peace. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a […]
China’s government this week waded into a feud between the film industry and review websites that have panned some of the country’s biggest budget movies, censuring critiques and saying the sites are “malicious and irresponsible”. Topping off a year of lacklustre films and slow ticket sales, the intervention was meant to bolster confidence in China’s ability to generate blockbusters. China’s goal is to catch up to the […]
Getty Images/iStockphoto With 2016 drawing to a close, here is a look at some of the things — tech, as well as a number of industry metrics — that you should be keeping an eye on over the coming year. CES thoughts Before I begin, I want to mention the first big tech shindig of 2017, which will be CES. I pay very little attention to CES […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 31, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Film screenings Catch two film screenings as part of the Cinema Space series. The family-friendly 1970 French musical Donkey Skin (Peau d’Âne), pictured, tells the story of a princess (Catherine Deneuve) who […]
Here’s something you don’t hear enough: Journalists, you’re doing a good job. Chances are good that you learned a new skill this year and put it into action. Maybe 2016 was the year you started using Snapchat to tell global stories. Perhaps you figured out how to use GIFs, or augmented your reporting with data. It’s also possible that you unleashed some bots upon the world. In […]
There are two stories we can tell about US higher education. In the first, public two- and four-year colleges face increasing student service costs, 20 percent less state support than they received before the recession, and a shortfall they pass onto students, who now graduate with an average of $30,000 of debt. In the second story, those institutions have contained costs, keeping tuition increases at inflationary levels, […]
Even if a trip is only a few blocks, human drivers need to make hundreds of calculations in order to reach their destination safely, and we do it without much thought. For example, is it raining, sunny, clear, or foggy? Is it early morning when kids are walking to school or later in the day? For computers to safely drive cars, they must also take […]
Vladimir Putin said Russia will not expel any US diplomats in response to sanctions imposed by Washington, in an extraordinary move aimed at limiting the fallout from the Kremlin’s clash with the Obama administration over the hacking of this year’s US presidential election. The Russian president made his announcement on Friday despite foreign ministry proposals for the expulsion of 35 US diplomats. Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister, said […]
This has already changed the course of the Syrian war. Turkey grudgingly accepted the fall of Aleppo in return for a de facto recognition of its zone of influence along the Syrian-Turkish border. Instead of supporting rebel groups fighting in Aleppo or pressuring the Assad forces besieging the city, Turkey raced to capture territory from the Islamic State before the Kurds did. The Kremlin is now not […]
Microsoft’s Surface Studio offers a new angle on the desktop PC Image: Microsoft Microsoft’s high-priced Surface Studio may be selling better than expected, if we can believe a recent report from Digitimes. The Taiwanese company – which publishes a Chinese daily newspaper on IT and high-tech supply chains – reports that “Microsoft has ordered 30,000 units to be shipped in the first quarter of 2017, according to […]
Chinese netizens are mourning the demise of a popular online talk show that dared to tackle social and political topics in a media landscape dominated by vapid soap operas, staid costume dramas and webcam girls. The final episode of “Xiaosong-pedia“, hosted by songwriter, music producer and film director Gao Xiaosong, was aired on Friday on iQiyi, the online video platform owned by internet search group Baidu. The show received […]
“I just think for us, we’re not afraid of the name on the jersey,” Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. “And that’s three-fourths of the battle.” Continue reading the main story The idea was more than just wishful thinking. Unlike last season, when Connecticut stood well ahead of the pack in both offensive and defensive points per possession, the Huskies trailed the Terrapins on both counts entering the […]
This year, I visited six newsrooms. Some had low-ceilinged cubicle mazes with coffee-stained carpets and newsprint towers. Some had quote-covered glass meeting spaces and slick, quiet rooms. At all of them, I found local legacy newsrooms, or “old media” as they’re often called, doing the work of digital journalism. In one case, the print product was an afterthought. In another, it had been rethought. At all of […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 30, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Dubai Farmers’ market Shop for fresh organic produce at The Farmers’ Market at Bay Avenue Retail Promenade. Buy farm-fresh seasonal goods directly from farmers and enjoy a host of family-friendly activities including live cooking […]
How do big data people go about making end-of-year reviews and predictions? Using data is the obvious answer, but there’s a few issues with that approach: there is no synthesis in data alone — you have to find the story behind data, pick an angle and seek meaning. In addition, that approach does not account for subtle hints, industry knowledge, and big ideas. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| There is a greater national focus on achieving operational efficiency across sectors in the Middle East – and one notable area that stands to benefit immensely from embracing digitally-enabled solutions is utilities, Booz Allen Hamilton says in its energy trend forecasts for 2017. Change continues to be the defining feature of the global energy sector in 2017. In the oil and gas industry, […]
Chinese technology giant Tencent, along with Beijing-based mapping company NavInfo and Singapore state-owned investment firm GIC, announced this week the trio intended to jointly take up a 10 percent share of mapping company Here, with current owners Audi, BMW, and Daimler reducing their indirect holding by the same amount. As well as the share purchase, the companies announced the creation of a 50/50 joint venture between Here […]
If there is one thing that unites Middle Eastern leaders these days, it is concern over what Donald Trump might do in 2017. A true political outsider, Trump will arrive in the White House next month with no track record and no political markers that might give an indication. The list of policy problems is certainly long, yet his list of policy ideas, as mooted during his […]
The way the Huskies’ schedule shapes up after Maryland, the Terrapins might be last in line with a serious chance to prevent a shattering of the record that even Auriemma did not believe to be achievable after Connecticut lost three players to the top three selections in last spring’s W.N.B.A. draft. Continue reading the main story But here they are, 11-0 through a formidable schedule that included […]
