Disney Buys Most of Fox
July 27th, 2018Via: Los Angeles Times:
Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox Inc. shareholders on Friday overwhelmingly approved Disney’s proposed $71.3-billion takeover of much of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox — a milestone in a merger that is expected to dramatically reshape the entertainment industry.
Nicaragua in ‘Undeclared State of Siege’ as Hooded Gunmen Rule the Streets
July 26th, 2018Via: McClatchy:
They ride in the back of Toyota double-cabin pickup trucks, assault rifles slung over their shoulders. No one knows their identities. They always wear black ski masks or hoods.
The gunmen — between 1,000 and 1,500 of them, according to some estimates — are part of a recently formed paramilitary force protecting the continued rule of President Daniel Ortega against a three-month-old civilian uprising. Their main tactic is terror. They conduct roundups, fire at protesters, carry out dark-of-night raids and menace the population.
The Pro-Human Rights Association of Nicaragua said Thursday that paramilitary forces have conducted 595 “kidnappings” and disappearances of citizens since the uprising began April 18. The group said it has tallied 97 killings since July 11.
“Today in Nicaragua, there exists an undeclared state of siege,” Alvaro Leiva, executive director of the rights group, said at a news conference.
Facebook Down 20%
July 26th, 2018Via: BBC:
Facebook shares opened sharply lower on Thursday, after the social media network warned investors of slowing revenue gains and increased spending.
The firm’s shares opened down nearly 20%, a drop that wiped more than $100bn (£76bn) off Facebook’s market value.
The fall also dragged down the tech-rich Nasdaq share index, which was almost 1% lower.
Facebook’s forecast came as the firm faces a backlash over its handling of fake news and user data.
The company said it expected to boost spending by 50% or more, as it tries to improve the way it monitors content, tracks advertisers and treats user data – areas where it has faced regulator scrutiny.
The firm also warned investors that revenue growth would be hurt as people make use of new options to limit advertising and less profitable overseas markets drive growth.
Liquid Water ‘Lake’ Revealed on Mars
July 25th, 2018Via: BBC:
Researchers have found evidence of an existing body of liquid water on Mars.
What they believe to be a lake sits under the planet’s south polar ice cap, and is about 20km (12 miles) across.
Previous research found possible signs of intermittent liquid water flowing on the martian surface, but this is the first sign of a persistent body of water on the planet in the present day.
Lake beds like those explored by Nasa’s Curiosity rover show water was present on the surface of Mars in the past.
However, the planet’s climate has since cooled due to its thin atmosphere, leaving most of its water locked up in ice.
The result is exciting because scientists have long searched for signs of present-day liquid water on Mars, but these have come up empty or yielded ambiguous findings. It will also interest those studying the possibilities for life beyond Earth – though it does not yet raise the stakes in the search for biology.
The discovery was made using Marsis, a radar instrument on board the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Mars Express orbiter.
Google Cars Self-Drive to Walmart Supermarket in Trial
July 25th, 2018Via: BBC:
Google’s sister-company Waymo has announced a trial in which its self-driving cars will ferry shoppers to and from a nearby Walmart store to pick up their groceries.
For now, the pilot is being restricted to 400-plus members of its early rider programme in Phoenix, Arizona.
Quantum Benchmark Finds and Suppresses Errors in Calculations Performed by Quantum Computers
July 24th, 2018Disclosure: I am long Quantum Resistant Ledger.
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Via: The Record:
A startup says it has solved a huge problem for quantum computers, unlocking the potential of these experimental machines to become the most disruptive technology of the 21st century.
Working out of a small office on Breithaupt Street in Kitchener, the team at Quantum Benchmark has developed software that finds and suppresses errors in the calculations performed by quantum computers, and tells users the likelihood of the answer being right or wrong.
“It is solving a problem that people have been asking about for two decades,” said chief executive officer Joseph Emerson.
This week, the startup took a quantum leap forward, announcing a deal with tech giant Google. Its True-Q software will be integrated into Google’s open source platform for building quantum algorithms. The platform, called Cirq, was launched this week.
…
There are many working prototypes of quantum computers at UW and other technology centres around the world. But so far, no one has produced a practical quantum computer that can be used to solve real-world problems.
Emerson said one of the main reasons for that is nobody could detect, control and correct the errors produced by quantum computers. At least until now.
“And so we have actually provided that solution, and we have provided that solution in a very robust way, and this is based on two decades of research from my team,” said Emerson.
Few people cared about the issue when he started researching it 15 years ago, but that changed as more advanced prototypes were developed, he said, because quantum computers use atomic particles the technology is inherently fragile and prone to errors.
As bigger and more powerful quantum computers are built, the chance of error increases, Emerson said, potentially reaching a 50/50 chance that answers produced by the machines are correct. That’s the same probability as a coin toss.
“The best people in the field have been emphasizing this point, that there are errors and that spoil the recipe, so to speak,” said Emerson. “So you can use a near-term quantum computer or current quantum computer and it will give you the wrong answer.”
Google recognizes the significance of the issue, he said.
“Google is being very strategic and honest about the fact that we have to deal with this problem,” Emerson said. “They are not sweeping it under the rug, and they value the fact that we can provide tools that dramatically help with that problem.
More and More of What We Do Depends on Government Permission
July 24th, 2018Via: Reason:
Do you have permit for that? If you want to keep that permit, you’d better do as you’re told.
Increasingly, that’s the theme of modern America. More and more of what we do is dependent on permission from the government. That permission, unsurprisingly, is contingent on keeping government officials happy. Rub those officials the wrong way and they’ll strip you of permission to travel the roads, leave the country, or even make a living.
That’s not a recipe for a free country.
Why Some PhDs Are Quitting Academia for Unconventional Jobs
July 24th, 2018“Why did they accept so many of us into this program when there are no jobs?”
The answer is simple:
Universities profit handsomely from graduate student slave labor. It’s a similar model that of prison industries, where convicts are paid pennies per hour to manufacture a wide variety of products. Instead of goat cheese, or clothing, undergrads are the main product output from universities. And there’s a lot of work involved in churning millions of undergrads through the mill every year. Grad students help turn the gears of the machine, at very little cost.
This is not a recent development.
There was an underground newspaper at the university I attended that was distributed in various bathrooms around the campus. In one of the more memorable issues, high tuition fees, grad student conditions, the scam in the University bookstore, etc. were juxtaposed against the cost of the University President’s bathroom remodel and other insane and profligate wastes of money. For the cover of the issue, the ARBEIT MACHT FREI sign from Auschwitz had been photoshopped on to an image of one of the prominent entrances to the campus.
You get the point.
Anyway, this was almost 25 years ago.
Additionally, with regard to why “unconventional jobs” are popular with this demographic, a friend of mine, with a PhD in Cognitive Science, told me that mentioning a PhD on a CV for jobs outside academia indicates to employers that you have been, “Dipped in shit.”
In essence, it indicates that you’re older and have less practical experience than other people applying for the job. While it’s great that three out of the four people in the article below started their own businesses, if you’re trying to get a normal job and you have a PhD, you might want to leave that off your resume.
Via: CBC:
Canadian statistics from 2013 suggest that completion rates among PhD students range from only 50 per cent in the humanities to about 80 per cent in the health sciences. Students leave for many different reasons — the gruelling work, the isolation, the terrible job market.
According to 2011 figures from Statistics Canada, the most recent data available, fewer than one in five people with an earned doctorate have full-time teaching jobs.
Another 20 per cent teach part-time at universities, instruct full- or part-time at colleges, or hold contract-based jobs, according to the Conference Board of Canada.
Face Scanning at NYC Toll Plazas
July 23rd, 2018Via: New York Post:
Big Governor is watching you.
Facial-recognition cameras at bridge and tunnel toll plazas across the city are already scanning drivers’ visages and feeding them into databases to catch suspected criminals, Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed Friday.
“When it reads that license plate, it reads it for scofflaws .?.?. [but] the toll is almost the least significant contribution that this electronic equipment can actually perform,” Cuomo said at a press conference outside the Queens Midtown Tunnel.
“We are now moving to facial-recognition technology, which takes it to a whole new level, where it can see the face of the person in the car and run that technology against databases.
“Because many times a person will turn their head when they see a security camera, so they are now experimenting with technology that just identifies a person by their ear, believe it or not,” he continued.
Doctors Give Patients 11 Seconds to Explain Reason for Visit Before Interrupting
July 20th, 2018Via: StudyFinds:
Ever feel like your doctor is in a rush to get you out the door when you come in for a visit? You’re not just imagining things. A new study finds physicians give a patient an average of just 11 seconds to describe their issue before cutting them off.
Researchers from the University of Florida determined that for all the waiting we do after we arrive at a medical practitioner’s office, its the doctors who seem to have the least amount of patience. The study showed that just a third of physicians give patients adequate time to explain why they’re there.
