The ACM Conference for Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT) has decided to suspend its sponsorship relationship with Google, conference sponsorship co-chair and Boise State University assistant professor Michael Ekstrand confirmed today. From a report: The organizers of the AI ethics research conference came to this decision a little over a week after Google fired Ethical AI lead Margaret Mitchell and three…
Tag: little
Closest Mars-Pleiades conjunction until 2038
This year – on March 3, 2021 – the red planet Mars and the Pleiades star cluster – also known as the Seven Sisters – stage their closest conjunction on the sky’s dome until February 4, 2038. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/closest-mars-pleiades-conjunction-until-2038…
Gulf Stream at its weakest in over 1,000 years
A new study suggests that the Gulf Stream – an Atlantic Ocean current that plays a large role in shaping Earth’s weather patterns – is weaker now than at any point in the last 1,000 years. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/gulf-stream-atlantic-weakest-in-over-1000-years…
‘Little Foot’ hominin was either ill or very hungry in her childhood
An Australopithecus woman who lived 3.67 million years ago has defects in her teeth enamel that suggest she was either deprived of food or seriously ill as a youngster Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269662-little-foot-hominin-was-either-ill-or-very-hungry-in-her-childhood/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Did ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Bot Accounts Hype GameStop’s Stock and Dogecoin?
Reuters reports: Bots on major social media platforms have been hyping up GameStop Corp and other “meme” stocks, according to an analysis by Massachusetts-based cyber security company PiiQ Media, suggesting organized economic or foreign actors may have played a role in the Reddit-driven trading frenzy… it is unclear how influential they were in the overall saga… PiiQ said it identified very…
Vast Energy Use of Bitcoin Criticized
The University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance has calculated that Bitcoin’s total energy consumption is somewhere between 40 and 445 terawatt hours (TWh) a year, with a central estimate of about 130 terawatt hours, reports the BBC: The UK’s electricity consumption is a little over 300 TWh a year, while Argentina uses around the same amount of power as the…
Quantum Computer Solves Decades-Old Problem Three Million Times Faster Than a Classical Computer
ZDNet reports: Scientists from quantum computing company D-Wave have demonstrated that, using a method called quantum annealing, they could simulate some materials up to three million times faster than it would take with corresponding classical methods. Together with researchers from Google, the scientists set out to measure the speed of simulation in one of D-Wave’s quantum annealing processors, and found that…
Did you find the message hidden in Perseverance’s parachute?
The striped pattern on the parachute used by the Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a hidden message. Internet sleuths were able to figure it out within a few hours. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/perseverance-secret-message-dare-mighty-things…
What’s the coldest Earth has ever been?
Our planet’s history includes episodes of cold so extreme that glaciers reached sea level in equatorial regions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/whats-coldest-earth-has-ever-been…
People sleep less before a full moon
Researchers find that whether you live in a rural or urban environment, your sleep patterns are affected by the full moon. On the nights leading up to full moon, people fall asleep later and sleep less overall. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/people-sleep-less-before-full-moon…