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AP News (January 13)

2022/ 01/ 15 by jd in Global News

“Earth simmered to the sixth hottest year on record in 2021.” This “did not represent a cooling off of human-caused climate change” as La Nina lowered temperatures. Indeed, 2021 was the hottest La Nina year ever and “part of a long-term warming trend that shows hints of accelerating.” Data from both NASA and NOAA show “the last eight years have been the eight hottest on record.”

 

USA Today (October 20)

2021/ 10/ 21 by jd in Global News

“Scientists for decades have dreamed of xenotransplantation: using animals to solve the shortage of organs available for human transplant.” This came a step closer with a “groundbreaking operation using a pig’s kidney.” Though the successful transplant into a brain-dead human is only a first step, it may ultimately help reduce the number of deaths, roughly 6,000 annually, of those waitlisted who die before receiving a donor organ.

 

The Economist (September 4)

2021/ 09/ 06 by jd in Global News

“By the age of seven months, most children have learned that objects still exist even when they are out of sight.” Understanding object permanence “is a normal developmental milestone, as well as a basic tenet of reality. It is also something that self-driving cars do not have. And that is a problem.” Though autonomous vehicles “are getting better,” they still are unable to “understand the world in the way that a human being does. For a self-driving car, a bicycle that is momentarily hidden by a passing van is a bicycle that has ceased to exist.”

 

Inc (July/August Issue)

2018/ 07/ 29 by jd in Global News

“Artificially intelligent machines could streamline a company’s operations. Or, as the doom-and-gloomers say, one day they could supersede human founders.” The answer probably lies closer to the latter. “According to a recent article in the Washington University Law Review, algorithmic entities, or AEs, are nearly sophisticated enough to run a company–and have a particular comparative edge when it comes to ‘criminal enterprise.’”

 

Institutional Investor (August 21)

2016/ 08/ 23 by jd in Global News

Black swan events “will continue to jolt global markets. But when even the best of human forecasters struggle to predict with accuracy the outcomes of these events, how can pension plans, for example, effectively make decisions to better weather the volatility that follows.” Big data may hold the key. “Using big data to track media sentiment, volume, tone and correlation can help institutional investors understand the diffusion of ideas and outliers that can serve as clues for unexpected risk.”

 

WARC (June 8)

2016/ 06/ 10 by jd in Global News

“The first efforts of a robot creative director have been unveiled by McCann Japan, in work for Clorets Mints.” The first machine member of the agency’s creative department, AI-CD ß, designed a 30-second spot commercial which is airing “alongside work created by a human director, with the Japanese public being invited to vote for the one they prefer,” with the results to be revealed by September.

 

USA Today (June 2)

2016/ 06/ 04 by jd in Global News

“Very rarely do people face a stark human vs. animal choice, as Cincinnati zoo keepers faced…. Perhaps this outpouring for Harambe can translate into more everyday compassion for all animals.” Since Harambe was shot after a 3-year old fell into his enclosure, there has been a widespread outpouring of grief for the gorilla.

 

Washington Post (October 9)

2014/ 10/ 09 by jd in Global News

The “Ebola virus is a sobering reminder that we live in a world more connected and fluid than at any time in human history…. Viruses and bacteria do not stop at passport control.”

 

Washington Post (April 23)

2014/ 04/ 25 by jd in Global News

“Budget realities require a modest approach to human space exploration and not an Apollo-style moonshot.” NASA needs to adopt a more practical approach. “Rather than attempting to send people to Mars on the cheap, there’s a compelling argument that we could accomplish more with a less expensive strategy of unmanned exploration.”

 

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