American Airlines Flights Grounded Nationwide
September 17th, 2015Via: CBS:
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that American Airlines has grounded flights nationwide due to computer issues.
American Airlines sent out a tweet responding to customers, saying it was “working to resolve technical issues.”
Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child
September 17th, 2015I would assume that every utterance from children playing with the dolls will be archived.
Check this out:
The writers marked important questions with ‘‘flags,’’ and this enabled Hello Barbie’s most unnerving power: She could remember the answers and use them for conversation starters days or weeks later. ‘‘She should always know that you have two moms and that your grandma died, so don’t bring that up, and that your favorite color is blue, and that you want to be a veterinarian when you grow up,’’ Wulfeck said.
Via: New York Times Magazine:
With the help of A.I., America’s most famous doll tries to fulfill a timeless dream — convincing little girls that she’s a real friend. What will happen if they believe her?
Deep Learning Machine Teaches Itself Chess in 72 Hours, Plays at International Master Level
September 16th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review:
In a world first, an artificial intelligence machine plays chess by evaluating the board rather than using brute force to work out every possible move.
Increased Use of Computers in Classrooms: “More Likely to be Associated with Lower Results”
September 16th, 2015Via: BBC:
Investing heavily in school computers and classroom technology does not improve pupils’ performance, says a global study from the OECD.
The think tank says frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results.
The OECD’s education director Andreas Schleicher says school technology had raised “too many false hopes”.
Tom Bennett, the government’s expert on pupil behaviour, said teachers had been “dazzled” by school computers.
The report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development examines the impact of school technology on international test results, such as the Pisa tests taken in more than 70 countries and tests measuring digital skills.
It says education systems which have invested heavily in information and communications technology have seen “no noticeable improvement” in Pisa test results for reading, mathematics or science.
Unplugged
“If you look at the best-performing education systems, such as those in East Asia, they’ve been very cautious about using technology in their classrooms,” said Mr Schleicher.
“Those students who use tablets and computers very often tend to do worse than those who use them moderately.”
…
Among the seven countries with the highest level of internet use in school, it found three experienced “significant declines” in reading performance – Australia, New Zealand and Sweden – and three more had results that had “stagnated” – Spain, Norway and Denmark.
Watch 50 Drones Controlled at Once in a Record-Breaking Swarm
September 16th, 2015Via: New Scientist:
A team at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has succeeded in launching 50 drones that were all controlled by a single person.
“To our knowledge, this is a world record for the number of UAVs under single operator control, by quite a long way,” says project lead Kevin Jones.
The team aims to develop swarming behaviours that give the benefits of having multiple drones without the need for a large number of operators.
Another Attack on Bay Area Fiber Optic Cables
September 16th, 2015Via: USA Today:
Someone deliberately severed two AT&T fiber optic cables in the Livermore, Calif., Monday night, the latest in a string of attacks against the Internet’s privately run backbone.
AT&T is offering a $250,000 reward in connection with the latest attacks. AT&T’s fiber optic network is legally considered a critical piece of the nation’s Internet infrastructure, and any attackers are subject to both state and federal prosecution. The FBI already has an open investigation into 14 similar attacks on California Internet backbones since last summer.
Low Vitamin D Linked to Mental Decline
September 15th, 2015Via: CBS:
Mental function may decline faster in older adults with low levels of vitamin D, a new study suggests.
Among more than 380 people the researchers followed for an average of five years, those with dementia had the lowest levels of vitamin D.
“It is unclear what vitamin D might be doing,” said study author Joshua Miller, chair of the department of nutritional sciences at Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in New Brunswick, N.J.
“There is good evidence that vitamin D gets into all cells of the body, including the brain,” Miller said, so it’s possible that vitamin D protects the brain from developing the plaques and tangles that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Unfortunately, “there’s a good chance that most people over 75 in the United States are vitamin D-deficient,” he noted.
Nine of the World’s Biggest Banks Form Blockchain Partnership
September 15th, 2015Via: Reuters:
Nine of the world’s biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs and Barclays, have joined forces with New York-based financial tech firm R3 to create a framework for using blockchain technology in the markets, the firm said on Tuesday.
It is the first time banks have come together to work on a shared way in which the technology that underpins bitcoin — a controversial, Web-based “cryptocurrency” — can be used in finance.
Over the past year, interest in blockchain technology has grown rapidly. It has already attracted significant investment from many major banks, which reckon it could save them money by making their operations faster, more efficient and more transparent.
Kids Who Get More Sunlight Less Likely to Need Glasses
September 15th, 2015Via: CBS:
Playing outside has a number of well-established health benefits for kids, including increasing their physical activity and decreasing their risk of obesity. But perhaps a lesser-known benefit is that it can help protect their eyesight.
Now a new study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, further supports that notion.
Researchers in China found that spending an extra 40 minutes a day outdoors for three years resulted in a reduction in the rate of myopia, or nearsightedness, in children. Myopia is a condition in which close-up objects can be seen clearly, but distant ones can’t. It’s estimated to affect about half of kids in the U.S.
“Myopia has reached epidemic levels in China and many countries in East Asia,” lead study author Dr. Mingguang He of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, told CBS News. “However, there is no effective intervention to prevent the development of myopia in children.” He said the study used a randomized trial to provide convincing evidence that this “simple intervention” could reduce the onset of myopia among children.
U.S. Training Helped Mold Top Islamic State Military Commander
September 15th, 2015Via: McClatchy:
Ethnic Chechens are thought to be one of the largest groups of foreign fighters in the Islamic State.
Now 30, Batirashvili is a key figure, reportedly a member of the group’s governing council, is said to be the Islamic State’s supreme military leader in northern Syria and Aleppo, and is perhaps the group’s most fearsome ground commander. His current status is an irony for a man once considered a Georgian soldier with a bright future.
“We trained him well, and we had lots of help from America,” said a former Georgian defense official who asked to not be identified because of the sensitivity of Batirashvili’s role in the Islamic State. “In fact, the only reason he didn’t go to Iraq to fight alongside America was that we needed his skills here in Georgia.”
