Saturday, January 12th, 2019
Mattha Busby, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Here is a mysterious story that I will closely follow to see what conclusions are reached.
The Chime radio telescope in Canada which detected 13 of the radio bursts.
Credit: Keith Vanderlinde/Dunlap Institute
Astronomers have detected mysterious, ultra-brief repeating energy bursts from deep space for only the second time in history, and some experts suggested they could be evidence of advanced alien life.
The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs), millisecond-long pulses of radio waves, is unknown, but most scientists say they are generated by powerful astrophysical phenomena emanating from billions of light years outside our galaxy, the Milky Way – such as black holes or super-dense neutron stars merging together.
Some, however, including Prof Avi Loeb, from the Harvard-Smithsonian centre for astrophysics, have posited more outlandish theories, suggesting they could be evidence of incredibly advanced alien technology.
The new discovery, made by a Canadian-led team of astronomers searching for FRBs, was published in the journal Nature following a three-week period last summer during which the group detected 13 of the flashes using a new type of radio telescope, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (Chime), in British Columbia’s […]
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Friday, January 11th, 2019
Stephan: If Kai Fu Lee is correct, and he is certainly as expert as anyone I know of, once again the timeline of a trend has collapsed, and the effects are going to be far more dramatic and substantial than most anticipate. Now add climate change. Do you think our civilization is about to go through a looking glass of transformation?
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee
Credit: Steve Jennings/Getty/TechCrunch
In as soon as 15 years, 40 percent of the world’s jobs could be done by machines, according to one of the world’s foremost experts on artificial intelligence. Kai Fu Lee, a pioneer in AI and venture capitalist based in China makes this prediction in a Scott Pelley report about AI on the next edition of 60 Minutes, Sunday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m., ET/PT on CBS.
“AI will increasingly replace repetitive jobs, not just for blue-collar work, but a lot of white-collar work,” says Lee. “Chauffeurs, truck drivers, anyone who does driving for a living– their jobs will be disrupted more in the 15-25 year time frame,” he tells Pelley. “Many jobs that seem a little bit complex, chef, waiter, a lot of things will become automated … stores … restaurants, and altogether in 15 years, that’s going to displace about 40 percent of the jobs in the world.” When pressed by Pelley about 40 percent of jobs being displaced, Lee says the jobs will […]
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Friday, January 11th, 2019
Ann Babe , - U.S. News and World Report
Stephan: Here is exhibit A for the preceding story.
Arisa
As thousands of Olympic organizers, Tokyo city administrators, and local and foreign volunteers scurry to prepare for the upcoming 2020 Summer Games, another, somewhat less anxious, worker named ARISA is getting ready, too.
Facing an influx of Olympic spectators, as well as an aging population and low birth rate that has resulted in a national labor shortage, Japan is turning to robotics to help handle the demand for workers.
ARISA, a project by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, is a 6-foot guide robot that will work in the subway stations to show passengers the way to restrooms and lockers, offer transit directions and recommend tourist attractions in the area. Developed by the Japanese tech company Aruze Gaming and Chicago-headquartered THK, she’s wide-eyed, sharply dressed and can speak in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. She’s also accompanied by a touch-screen monitor.
After completing a test run at the Ueno-Okachimachi and Tochomae subway stops at the end of December, the city is preparing for a second trial at five […]
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Friday, January 11th, 2019
Stephan: I learned a new word, kakistocracy. It means: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled amongst us.
Hurricane Maria aftermath Salinas, Puerto Rico
The Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN investigators over potential human rights violations occurring inside America, in a move that delivers a major blow to vulnerable US communities and sends a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world. (emphasis added)
Quietly and unnoticed, the state department has ceased to respond to official complaints from UN special rapporteurs, the network of independent experts who act as global watchdogs on fundamental issues such as poverty, migration, freedom of expression and justice. There has been no response to any such formal query since 7 May 2018, with at least 13 requests going unanswered.
Nor has the Trump administration extended any invitation to a UN monitor to visit the US to investigate human rights inside the country since the start of Donald Trump’s term two years ago in January 2017. Two UN experts have made official fact-finding visits under his watch – the special rapporteurs on extreme poverty and Read the Full Article
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Friday, January 11th, 2019
Stephan: It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend.
Frankfurt: A male flight attendant is serving coffee to a passenger in the economy class of a Lufthansa flight.
Credit: RUBEN RAMOS iStock Editorial / Getty
They take your order, serve up food and drinks, and come back to clean up. But should you tip your flight attendant? Frontier Airlines is encouraging it.
Flight attendants on the Denver-based airline began accepting individual tips on Jan. 1, according to the Chicago Tribune. Frontier made tipping an option three years ago but, until this year, flight attendants were required to pool tips.
“We appreciate the great work of our flight attendants and know that our customers do as well, so [the payment system] gives passengers the option to tip,” the Tribune quoted Frontier spokesman Jonathan Freed as stating.
Passengers who order refreshments get a prompt from Frontier’s payment system that they have the option to leave a tip.
JT Genter, of ThePoints Guy travel blog, shared a photo of the payment tablet displaying a message that reads, “Gratuities Are Appreciated!” It offers customers the options of 15 percent, 20 percent or 25 percent, […]
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