Facebook Lifts Political Ad Ban

Facebook will lift its ban on political ads on Thursday, ending a self-imposed prohibition that began immediately after the November 2020 general election and remained active for months. Politico reports: Facebook informed top political advertisers of its decision by phone and email on Wednesday, according to sources with knowledge of the announcement. The social media giant banned political and social issue-related…

AI Ethics Research Conference Suspends Google Sponsorship

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…

Asteroid dust in Chicxulub crater seals deal on dino extinction

Scientists examined rock cores taken from the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, site of the asteroid impact that triggered dinosaur extinction, and found iridium, a telltale sign of asteroids. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/asteroid-dust-iridium-chicxulub-crater-dinosaur-extinction…

Reddit CEO Says Platform Doesn’t Plan To Ban Pornography

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in an interview that the company supports pornography on its platform, as long as it’s not exploitative. From a report: “You can look at [porn] as exploitative. And, indeed, much of it is. And that’s not the content that we want on Reddit,” Huffman told Axios. “But there’s another aspect that’s empowering. And these are people…

US Says Saudi Prince Approved Journalist Khashoggi Killing

A US intelligence report has found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of exiled journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. BBC: The declassified report released by the Biden administration says the prince approved a plan to either capture or kill the US-based Saudi exile. It is the first time America has publicly named the crown prince, who denies…

Motor industry lobbied for a loophole in UK fossil fuel car ban

The UK government plan announced in 2020 is to ban new petrol and diesel model cars by 2030, but some fossil-fuelled cars are to be exempt. Now it has emerged that the concession came after lobbying by the UK car-makers’ trade body Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269011-motor-industry-lobbied-for-a-loophole-in-uk-fossil-fuel-car-ban/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Launching Academies: Accelerate Digital Transformation with Job-Based Learning

Over 100 SkillSets help employees develop exact skills needed for their role By Shwetabh Mittal, Senior Director, Product Management This past year, as the pandemic forced companies to move online, digital transformation that may have required years took mere months. According to the World Economic Forum, the double disruption caused by automation and the pandemic […]
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Apple Has Bought Over 100 Companies Over the Past Six Years, Tim Cook Tells Investors

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook fielded questions on mergers and acquisitions, the impact of Covid-19, and the company’s supply chain during a virtual shareholder meeting on Tuesday. From a report: Narrating a slide show, Cook summarized many of the company’s new products and initiatives announced over the past year. He spoke about the latest iPhones and the growing potential of…

Vaccines Adapted for Variants Will Not Need Lengthy Testing, FDA Says

The Food and Drug Administration said this week that vaccine developers would not need to conduct lengthy randomized controlled trials for vaccines that have been adapted to protect against concerning coronavirus variants. From a report: The recommendations, which call for small trials more like those required for annual flu vaccines, would greatly accelerate the review process at a time when scientists…