A mammoth tooth uncovered from the Siberian permafrost yields the oldest DNA yet discovered and provides insight into the evolution of the giant beasts. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/worlds-oldest-dna-mammoth-evolution-video…
Tag: tolerance
AI Is Being Used to Screen Job Applicants
The BBC reports on “the computers rejecting your job application,” noting that applicants are now being screened with AI-scored tests that involve counting dots in boxes and matching emotions to facial expressions: The questions, and your answers to them, are designed to evaluate several aspects of a jobseeker’s personality and intelligence, such as your risk tolerance and how quickly you respond…
The Future of Jobs is Here: 10 Courses to Take in 2021
By Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer, Coursera As the new year unfolds, many challenges from 2020 persist: the pandemic continues to affect economies around the world and unemployment rates are still high. As we prepare to take advantage of new opportunities in 2021, professional development is top of mind for many. How can I gain […]
The post The Future of Jobs…
China’s President Xi Jinping Personally Pulled Plug on Jack Ma’s Ant IPO
Chinese President Xi Jinping personally made the decision to halt the initial public offering of Ant Group, which would have been the world’s biggest, after controlling shareholder Jack Ma infuriated government leaders, WSJ reported Thursday, citing Chinese officials with knowledge of the matter. From the report: The rebuke was the culmination of years of tense relations between China’s most celebrated entrepreneur…
Starlink Beta Testers Are Impressed With Its Speed
One beta tester of SpaceX’s new Starlink satellite internet service is a Reddit user named “wandering-coder”. This week they shared their experience online, testing the equpiment in a national forest which gets no cell service from any carrier — and using it to upload this report: Works beautifully. I did a realtime video call and some tests. My power supply is…
Individualized Circadian Clocks: New Research Suggests Not Everyone Needs 8 Hours of Sleep
Time magazine reports on is a big scientific advance: “the understanding that our bodies often operate according to different clocks.” Although the federal government recommends that Americans sleep seven or more hours per night for optimal health and functioning, new research is challenging the assumption that sleep is a one-size-fits-all phenomenon. Scientists have found that our internal body clocks vary so…
Does the Internet Need a New Architecture that Puts Users First?
Two VoIP pioneers argue in a Wired opinion piece that “Treating the internet like a public utility only bolsters the platform giants,” adding “A more secure model starts with control by the people.”
As we rely on the internet more and more for work, social connections, and basic needs, it is time to talk about the future of meaningful online experiences, and…
Solving Online Events
Benedict Evans: I suspect part of the answer to this is actually that a lot of physical events will come back in some form as we emerge from lockdown. But this also makes me think that there will be new tools with much more radically new approaches, and some new behaviours and habits. Hence, it’s often struck me that networking events…
What Would The Internet Look Like If America Repeals Section 230?
“REVOKE 230!” President Trump tweeted Friday, and NPR reports that the movement to revoke its safeguards “is increasingly becoming a bipartisan consensus… But experts caution that eliminating the legal protections may have unintended consequences for Internet users that extend far beyond Facebook and Twitter.” “We don’t think about things like Wikipedia, the Internet Archive and all these other public goods that…
Will Cellphone Tracing Bring a Tolerance of Surveillance?
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post:
In a matter of months, tens of millions of people in dozens of countries have been placed under surveillance. Governments, private companies and researchers observe the health, habits and movements of citizens, often without their consent. It is a massive effort, aimed at enforcing quarantine rules or tracing the spread of the coronavirus, that has…