Tag Archives: Technology

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – Nov. 22, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (November 21, 2024): The new issue features ‘The crisis in the Church of England’…

Existentialist crises might more commonly be associated with some who seek out religion, rather than with those religions themselves, but that’s where the Church of England has found itself in recent days.

The resignation of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, followed a damning report into the church’s shameful failures over the serial child abuser John Smyth, which detailed even more disturbing details of cover-ups by some senior clergy.

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Spotlight | Trump’s shock-and-awe team
A flurry of controversial and extremist picks for Trump’s administration has provoked criticism and made heads spin. David Smith reports from Washington

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Science | The inverse link between cancer and dementia
Scientists have long been aware of a curious connection between these common and feared diseases. At last, a clearer picture is emerging, writes Theres Lüthi

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Feature | Kernels of hope
During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection, the first of its kind, had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin

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Opinion | Seven lessons from a long-serving economics editor
From Thatcher to Trump and Brexit, the Guardian’s outgoing economics editor, Larry Elliott, reflects on his 28 years in the role.

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Culture | Faking history
Film and TV have a slippery relationship with the truth when it comes to historical epics. Simon Usborne meets the experts whose advice goes unheeded

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.17.24)

Ai gaping maw with teeth and two clawed hands swallows artworks which tiny artists have put poison symbols on the reverse side. One carries a flag with Ben Zhao's face
Ben Zhao remembers well the moment he officially jumped into the fight between artists and generative AI: when one artist asked for AI bananas. 

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 17, 2024): This week’s round up includes Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment; The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI; Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through and Europa’s icy shell.

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

The tools Glaze and Nightshade are giving artists hope that they can fight back against AI that hoovers internet data to train. Are they enough?

Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment

A new system could help train robots entirely in generated worlds.

Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

Rapid advances in applying artificial intelligence to simulations in physics and chemistry have some people questioning whether we will even need quantum computers at all.

AI search could break the web

Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa’s icy shell

Researchers are working on technology that could follow NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and hunt for life in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 16, 2024

World Economic Forum (November 16, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 AI robot zaps weeds while saving crops – It’s called Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting or CLAWS for short. CLAWS uses AI-powered image processing to identify the crops, then targets weeds around the crop with blasts of concentrated light. This gets rid of unwanted intruders without damaging either crops or soil.

1:52 5 ways bioeconomy affects daily living – The bioeconomy uses renewable resources from land or sea to produce food, energy, and other resources. It focuses on leveraging nature’s processes and products to create sustainable economic outputs. The bioeconomy is already a part of our daily lives, influencing various sectors and industries.

6:08 Iceland sees benefit of a 4-day work week – The Nordic nation of 380,000 is rolling out a new way of working. Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of Iceland’s workers accepted an offer of shorter hours, such as a 4-day week for no loss of pay. The shift has had a positive impact on work-life balance and personal stress, new research shows.

8:17 Restored Amazon ecosystems beat logging – Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance is fighting to safeguard 35 million hectares of rainforest through a collaboration between 30 Indigenous nations of the Amazon basin. There’s an economic case for protecting the Amazon, says Atossa Soltani, Director of Global Strategy, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance.

#WorldEconomicForum

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – Nov. 15, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (November 14, 2024): The new issue features ‘Trump Unbound’ – What the US Election outcome means for America and the World…

In a special edition of the Guardian Weekly, our Washington bureau chief David Smith and diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reflect on how Trump 2.0 is likely to play out for the US and for the rest of the world.

We look at the role played by the president-elect’s key supporter, Elon Musk, and ask what the world’s richest man can now expect back in return. We also trace the rise of the vice-president elect JD Vance, who is now just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

And senior US political reporter Joan E Greve considers the Democrats – bereft, broken and facing an internal civil war after a campaign that ended in disaster.

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Spotlight | Odour of oil and return of Trump hang heavy over Cop29
As the annual UN climate summit got under way in Azerbaijan this week, Fiona Harvey sizes up the hopes for progressThe video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard

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Science | Unravelling the paradoxes of plankton
Scientists are sequencing the DNA of microscopic marine life – to help us learn more about ourselves, reports Brianna Randall

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Feature | When adult children cut the cord
Grownups who cut of f contact with their family are often trying to break away after a traumatic childhood. But sometimes the estrangement can be totally unexpected for parents. By Gaby Hinsliff

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Opinion | Trump unleashed will be even worse than last time’s dress reherarsal
From a public health crisis to the end of Nato, the threats are clear, writes Jonathan Freedland

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Culture | Sportswriters and arts critics swap jobs
How does the English National Opera compare to the Premier League … or the NFL to a West End musical? Our sports and culture experts found out

The Economist Magazine – November 16, 2024 Preview

What’s about to hit the world economy?

The Economist Magazine (November 14, 2024): The latest issue features What’s about to hit the world economy?

Middle-class and minimum-wage – The strange politics of wage compression in Britain

Paying the climate bill – The energy transition will be much cheaper than you think

What to make of Trump’s picks – Loyalty, competence and an appetite for disruption are among the traits he is filtering for

Investing in Africa – Poor data and small capital markets make it hard to gauge risks and returns

Read full edition

Commentary Magazine – December 2024 Preview

December 2024 – Commentary Magazine

Commentary Magazine (November 14, 2024) The latest issue features ‘After the Trumpquake’ – The New Republican Majority and The New Democratic Minority..

The New Republican Majority

by Matthew Continetti

The New Democratic Minority

by John Podhoretz

They’re Hunting Us Down

by John Podhoretz

The Suicide of the Mainstream Media

by Christine Rosen

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Nov. 14, 2024

Volume 635 Issue 8038

Nature Magazine – November 13, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Head Start’ – Well preserved fossil skull offers insight into archaic bird brains…

Don’t blame search engines for sending users to unreliable sites

Analysis of billions of pages of results from searches using the Bing algorithm suggests that reliable sites appear in search results 19 to 45 times more often than do sites with low-quality content.

China’s thriving forests are stockpiling vast amounts of carbon

Satellite observations validate national reports on forest coverage and carbon storage.

No hearing aids needed: bats’ ears stay keen well into old age

Elderly big brown bats showed little sign of age-related degradation in the inner ear.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 9, 2024

World Economic Forum (November 9, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 Finfluencer financial advice revolution – A finfluencer is a content creator on social media who shares information on budgeting, saving and financial investments, among other topics. Finfluencers use blogs, podcasts or videos to get their message out. They help widen financial access to groups who didn’t have it before.

3:49 These vegetables grow in-store without soil – Instead of soil, they use plugs of rockwool, irrigated with nutrient-rich water in a method called hydroponics. They come in different sizes producing from 2,000 to 15,000 plants monthly. These farms have a tiny environmental footprint. The largest models can grow as much as a 3-hectare farm.

5:44 Telehealth platform empowers millions – Altibbi offers 24/7 access to online doctors along with accessible, up-to-date medical information. It offers a cheaper, more accessible alternative to in-person consultations but it also aims to ‘change the narrative’ around the patient-doctor relationship.

8:43 ‘Underwater tractors’ replant seagrass – They were created by Reefgen, an UpLink Top Innovator. The robot scoots over the seabed, steadily and carefully restoring the ecosystem. Reefgen’s technology aims to aid conservation efforts by augmenting the efforts of human restorers.

#WorldEconomicForum

The Economist Magazine – November 9, 2024 Preview

Welcome to Trump’s world

The Economist Magazine (November 9, 2024): The latest issue features: Welcome to Trump’s world

Donald Trump’s victory was resounding. His second term will be, too

Congress is not likely to be much of a constraint on him

Losers from Labour’s budget

Businesses and farmers will be hit with more tax

Germany’s political mess

Olaf Scholz finally runs out of patience with Christian Lindner

In praise of open-source AI

Their critics dwell on the dangers and underestimate the benefits

The best TV of 2024

The small screen claims some riveting shows this year, both new and returning

Read full edition

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Nov. 7, 2024

Volume 635 Issue 8037

Nature Magazine – November 6, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Outside Influence’ – Exploring the contribution extrachromosomal DNA makes to cancer….

Naked mole rats vanquish genetic ghosts — and achieve long life

Comparison of the hairless animals’ genomes with those of several other mammals shows low activity of certain sequences.

The midlife crisis is not universal

Study of thousands of people in rural communities shows that many do not experience a slump in well-being during their forties and fifties.

The seas are on the rise — and that surge is accelerating

Sea-surface data show that the average sea-level rise in 2023 was more than double that in 1993.

Hidden wonders: laser data reveal a dense network of ancient Maya settlements

Survey pinpoints pyramids, rural settlements and a large city in an unstudied stretch of Mexico.