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Runaway1956 writes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/06/23/the-worlds-biggest-employers-infographic/

Given the size of their populations, many people generally assume that the world's largest employers are Chinese or Indian. However, according to research published by the World Economic Forum, the US Department of Defense boasts a workforce of 3.2 million people, making it the largest global employer. The Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army, is in second position with a force of 2.3 million.

Walmart and McDonald's come third and fourth with 2.1 and 1.9 million employees respectively (the number for McDonald's includes franchises). England's National Health Service (NHS) makes a surprising appearance in fifth place with a 1.7 million strong workforce - more than Indian Railways or the Indian armed forces.

The claim seems to be verified by wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers Their page also lists the top 11 non-governmental employers

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	Employees
Employer	2015	2010	Headquarters
United States Department of Defense	3.2 million		United States
People's Liberation Army	2.3 million		China
Walmart	2.1 million		United States
McDonald's	1.9 million	1.7 million	United States
National Health Service	1.7 million	1.4 million	United Kingdom
China National Petroleum Corporation	1.5 million	1.7 million	China
State Grid Corporation of China	1.5 million	1.6 million	China
Indian Railways	1.4 million	1.3 million	India
Indian Armed Forces	1.3 million		India
Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn)	1.2 million	0.8 million	Taiwan

Private and semipublic companies with the most employees in the world
Rank	Employer	Country	Employees
1	Walmart	United States	2,300,000
2	China National Petroleum	China	1,512,048
3	Post Group China	China	941,211
4	State Grid	China	926,067
5	Hon Hai Precision Industry	Taiwan	726,772
6	Sinopec Group	China	713,288
7	Tata Group	India	695,000
8	Volkswagen	Germany	626,715
9	United States Postal Service	United States	574,349
10	Compass Group	GBR	527,180
11	Agricultural Bank of China	China	501,368

No story seems to be complete without the BBC's angle on things https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786

The National Health Service (NHS) in England is at the centre of a big political row about its reform. It's often said to be the third biggest employer in the world, after the Chinese army and Indian Railways. But is that really true?

It's an incredible claim, given how much smaller the UK is than China or India.

And indeed, it is not true.

Sizing up the world's biggest employers and compiling a list of the top 10, the NHS is revealed to be the fifth largest, with 1.7 million workers across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Apple closes its $400M Shazam acquisition and says the music recognition app will soon become ad free

Last year, [TechCrunch] broke the news that Apple was buying the music recognition startup and app Shazam for about $400 million, and nearly one year later, the deal has finally closed. Today, Apple announced that it has completed the acquisition, and that it would soon be making the service ad free to use for everyone, removing the app's ad-supported free tier.

[...] It's not clear how Apple longer term will integrate Shazam's core product into its service — a pretty clever piece of technology that can identify a song by hearing a fragment of it. The two main directions appear to be to let it continue to remain a standalone app longer term, or to subsume part or all of it into a bigger Apple Music offering. (The two are not mutually exclusive.)

At $400 million — a figure confirmed to us by several sources when we were first reporting on the deal — Shazam is one of Apple's biggest acquisitions both in music and overall, and it underscores the amount of investment that the iPhone maker is willing to put into expanding its role as a force not just in hardware, but in the services that run on that hardware.

Also at The Verge.

Previously: Apple Buys Music Recognition Service Shazam for $400 Million

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

It looks like Netflix could be adding an animated "Diablo" series to its original programming lineup.

Boom! Studios founder Andrew "Andy" Cosby tweeted on Wednesday that he's in "final talks" to write and show-run the upcoming series from Activision and Netflix. "It's very exciting and I hope to the High Heavens it all works out," he said.

[...] There's no information currently on what the "Diablo" series might entail, but Cosby will be bringing his pedigree as the writer behind the new "Hellboy" film reboot to the project, which should make for the kind of gory and violent expectations fans have for any series that could be based on the "Diablo" series.

My inner geek and child both say "yay!" but my inner cynic says "oh no...".

Source: https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/animated-diablo-series-netflix-1202952386/

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takyon writes:

Russia throws doubt on joint lunar space station with U.S.: RIA

Moscow may abandon a project to build a space station in lunar orbit in partnership with U.S. space agency NASA because it does not want a "second fiddle role," a Russian official said on Saturday.

[...] [The] head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said Russia might exit the joint program and instead propose its own lunar orbit space station project.

[...] A spokesman for Roscosmos said later that Russia had no immediate plans to leave the project. "Russia has not refused to take part in the project of the lunar orbit station with the USA," Vladimir Ustimenko was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

FLOP-G?

Also at ABC (Associated Press).

Previously:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

NASA Suspends Collaboration with Russia
Russia to Build New Space Station with NASA after ISS
NASA and Roscosmos Sign Joint Statement on the Development of a Lunar Space Station
Russia Assembles Engineering Group for Lunar Activities and the Deep Space Gateway
China Will Focus on a Lunar Surface Station Rather than a Lunar Orbiting Station
NASA and Roscosmos Release Joint Statement on ISS Leak Amid Rumors

Related:

*SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

NASA and International Partners Planning Orbital Lunar Outpost
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
This Week in Space Pessimism: SLS, Mars, and Lunar Gateway
NASA Administrator Ponders the Fate of SLS in Interview
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway

Original Submission

chromas (from IRC) writes:

This Ivy League food scientist was a media darling. He just submitted his resignation, the school says.

A Cornell professor whose buzzy and accessible food studies made him a media darling has submitted his resignation, the school said Thursday, a dramatic fall for a scholar whose work increasingly came under question in recent years. The university said in a statement that a year-long review found that Brian Wansink "committed academic misconduct in his research and scholarship, including misreporting of research data, problematic statistical techniques, failure to properly document and preserve research results, and inappropriate authorship."

Wansink, a marketing professor at Cornell's business college who was the director of the university's Food and Brand Lab, will retire at the end of the academic year, the school said. The move follows the recent retraction of six of Wansink's papers by the American Medical Association's JAMA Network, including those about how serving bowl size affected food consumption, how fasting changed people's food preferences and how action-packed television programs increased food intake.

Wansink emailed The Washington Post on Thursday a news release of his retirement, which included statements attributed to a university trustee saying that "Cornell and Professor Wansink mutually have decided that Professor Wansink's research approach and goals differ from the academic expectations of Cornell University, and they have decided to part ways accordingly." Wansink said he is leaving his position June 30, 2019.

For years, Wansink enjoyed a level of prominence that many academics would strive for, his work spawning countless news stories. He published a study showing that people who ate from "bottomless" bowls of soup continue to eat as their bowls are refilled, as a parable about the potential health effects of large portion sizes. Another, with the title "Bad popcorn in big buckets," similarly warned about the perils of presenting food in big quantities, according to Vox.

Also at Science Magazine, Ars Technica, CNN, and Retraction Watch.

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Countries across the continent are experimenting with this 21st century technology as a way to leapfrog decades of neglect of 20th century infrastructure.

Over the last two years, San Francisco-based startup Zipline launched a national UAV delivery program in East Africa; South Africa passed commercial drone legislation to train and license pilots; and Malawi even opened a Drone Test Corridor to African and its global partners.

In Rwanda, the country's government became one of the first adopters of performance-based regulations for all drones earlier this year. The country's progressive UAV programs drew special attention from the White House and two U.S. Secretaries of Transportation.

[...] After several test rounds, Zipline went live with the program in October, becoming the world's first national drone delivery program at scale.

"We've since completed over 6000 deliveries and logged 500,000 flight kilometers," Zipline co-founder Keenan Wyrobek told TechCrunch. "We're planning to go live in Tanzania soon and talking to some other African countries."

[...] In a non-delivery commercial use case, South Africa's Rocketmine has built out a UAV survey business in 5 countries. The company looks to book $2 million in revenue in 2018 for its "aerial data solutions" services in mining, agriculture, forestry, and civil engineering.

[...] The continent's test programs — and Rwanda's performance-based drone regulations in particular — could advance beyond visual line of sight UAV technology at a quicker pace. This could set the stage for faster development of automated drone fleets for remote internet access, commercial and medical delivery, and even give Africa a lead in testing flying autonomous taxis.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/16/african-experiments-with-drone-technologies-could-leapfrog-decades-of-infrastructure-neglect/

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Spotify has been accused of turning a blind eye to sexism in its workplace. Former sales executive Hong Perez has sued the streaming service over allegations that male execs have perpetuated systemic gender discrimination. The global head of sales reportedly provided higher compensation (including equity) to men, while multiple male executives received little punishment (and in one case, a promotion) despite sexual harassment claims.

On top of this, Perez described an overall hostile work culture, particularly from US sales head (and her boss) Brian Berner. He allegedly chose only men for drug-addled "boys' trips" to the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and 2017, excluding women who were better-qualified for the ostensibly work-oriented visits. He also purportedly scapegoated Perez after getting in trouble over a buyer deal and taking free Madison Square Garden tickets, getting her fired for conduct violations that were really his.

Pereze added that she'd raised concerns over the lack of anti-harassment action with Spotify's human resources team before she left.

In a statement, Spotify claimed it doesn't tolerate discrimination "at any level" but simultaneously insisted Perez's lawsuit was "without merit."

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/19/spotify-sued-over-gender-discrimination/

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Stiff microbial films often coat medical devices, household items and infrastructure such as the inside of water supply pipes, and can lead to dangerous infections. Researchers have developed a system that harnesses the power of bubbles to propel tiny particles through the surfaces of these tough films and deliver an antiseptic deathblow to the microbes living inside.

Biofilms are slimy colonies of microbes held together by internal scaffolds, clinging to anything they touch. About 80 percent of all medical infections originate from biofilms that invade the inner workings of hospital devices and implants inside patients. Eradication is difficult because traditional disinfectants and antibiotics cannot effectively penetrate a biofilm's tough surface, the researchers said.

In the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, a team led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign describes how they used diatoms -- the tiny skeletons of algae -- loaded with an oxygen-generating chemical to destroy microbes.

"Most of us get those black or yellow spots in our showers at home," said co-author Hyunjoon Kong, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and a Carle Illinois College of Medicine affiliate. "Those spots are biofilms and most of us know it takes a lot of energy to scrub them away. Imagine trying to do this inside the confined space of the tubing of a medical device or implant. It would be very difficult."

Looking to nature and basic mechanics for a solution, the researchers developed a system that uses naturally abundant diatoms along with hydrogen peroxide and tiny oxygen-generating sheets of the compound manganese oxide.

Video of the microbubblers in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjK4QguW0wA

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Comcast beats Fox in Sky auction with $39B bid:

After three rounds of secret bidding on Friday and Saturday, Comcast offered the higher price of 17.28 pounds ($22.58) per share for Sky, the equivalent of nearly 30 billion pounds ($39 billion). Rival 21st Century Fox offered 15.67 ($20.47) per share.

In a statement, Sky recommended that shareholders accept Comcast's offer and sell their shares immediately. Comcast said it hoped to complete the takeover by the end of October.

[...] Britain's regulator, the Takeover Panel, set up the auction to reduce uncertainty for Sky after months of offers and counteroffers from the American media giants. Sky is Europe's largest pay-television operator, with 22.5 million customers in seven countries and popular programming including English Premier League soccer and "Game of Thrones."

Fox owns 39 percent of Sky. It now must decide whether to sell its stake or remain a minority shareholder.

[...] A bidding war emerged last December, when Comcast made an offer for Fox's entertainment assets, which Walt Disney Co. is in the process of buying for about $71 billion (54 billion pounds). Comcast eventually dropped out of that contest to focus on its acquisition of Sky.

Its winning bid came at a steep price. Comcast initially made a $31 billion (23.7 billion pound) bid for Sky last February, then raised that bid to $34 billion (26 billion pounds) in July.

[...] The last time such an auction took place was in 2007, when Tata beat out CSN to buy Britain's Corus, creating what at the time was one of the world's top five steelmakers.

How is Comcast going to pay for the acquisition? Even higher monthly rates for cable TV and internet service? SpaceX's Starlink Internet cannot come any too soon.

Original Submission

chromas (from IRC) writes:

Einstein's general theory of relativity passed first test at what is now an Australian lawn bowls club toilet:

Einstein's general theory of relativity is one of humankind's greatest achievements, and the theory passed its first test in what is now part of Broome's lawn bowls club in far north-west Australia.

Historian Robyn Wells was delighted to realise her local bowling club had played a fundamental part in such a significant historical moment.

"This building still exists," Ms Wells said.

"It was the radio station and now is the Broome Bowling Club. And is actually the ladies' and gentlemen's toilets."

A major scientific expedition had been mounted in 1922 to photograph an eclipse of the sun at Wallal, 350 kilometres south of Broome.

The photographic plates were brought back to Broome and developed in the radio station building, where they provided conclusive proof that the sun caused space to curve, passing the first test in verifying Einstein's theory.

Going over historical documents from the time, Ms Wells realised the place where observational evidence of general relativity was first gathered is now the Broome Bowling Club.

"I did more research and just made absolutely sure this is the building, and it is."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Newly identified bridge forms could enable significantly longer bridge spans to be achieved in the future, potentially making a crossing over the Strait of Gibraltar, from the Iberian Peninsula to Morocco, feasible.

[...] A bridge's span is the distance of suspended roadway between towers, with the current world record standing at just under 2km. The most popular form for long spans is the suspension bridge form, as used for the Humber Bridge, though the cable-stayed bridge form, where cables directly connect the tower to the roadway -- such as used in the recently constructed Queensferry Crossing in Scotland -- is becoming increasingly popular.

As bridge spans become longer, a rapidly growing proportion of the structure is needed just to carry the bridge's own weight, rather than the traffic crossing it. This can create a vicious cycle: a relatively small increase in span requires use of significantly more material, leading to a heavier structure that requires yet more material to support it. This also sets a limit on how long a bridge span can be; beyond this limit a bridge simply cannot carry its own weight.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the only governmental really allowed to drive cars into walls on a regular basis, has beaten the crap out of a few Tesla Model 3s and decided that hey, this thing is pretty good at smashing into things. As a result, they've awarded the car the highest possible score, five stars. Not bad for a car built in tents!

So far, every car Tesla has built has earned a five-star safety rating, an impressive achievement. The automaker has a strong history of building cars that ace these crash tests with flying colors and bits of bodywork.

Source: https://jalopnik.com/tesla-model-3-gets-five-star-crash-safety-rating-from-n-1829196052

Also: Tesla Model 3 crushes NHTSA's crash testing with a 5-star rating at c|net.

Original Submission

exaeta writes:

The GDPR "right to be forgotten" is now being used to remove court cases from the internet. Seems the "right to be forgotten" is on a collision course with free speech and open government.

The complaint against Bujaldon is fairly damning, and while Bujaldon tried to get the case dismissed, the court was not at all impressed. The current docket suggests that the parties are attempting to work out a settlement, but having yourself be a defendant accused of real estate and securities fraud can't be good for the old reputation.

Never fear, however, for the GDPR has a Right to be Forgotten in it, and Bujaldon is apparently using it to delete his own name from the dockets for which he is a defendant

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180920/17133740682/gdpr-being-used-to-try-to-disappear-public-us-court-docket.shtml

Original Submission

Bytram (from IRC) writes:

Preventing a dengue outbreak at the 2020 Summer Olympics:

In 2014, a dengue outbreak unexpectedly occurred in Tokyo. What does that mean for the 2020 summer Olympics and Paralympics being held in the city? Researchers report this week in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases that new controls and frameworks are recommended to detect dengue and other infectious diseases and help prevent their spread during the summer games.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that, in rare severe cases, can cause mortality if left untreated. Although the disease is mostly endemic in tropical and subtropical areas, it has recently been observed expanding to more temperate areas, including Japan. International sporting events such as the Olympics put spectators at particular risk of acquiring locally endemic diseases.

In the new work, Naoki Yanagisawa, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA, and colleagues used a failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to test the vulnerability and resiliency of Japan's current preparedness plans and design ways to strengthen those plans. Publicly available national resources were used to input data on protocols and trends related to Japan's tourism, public health, and infectious diseases.

The team identified 20 critical points for detection of disease, assessment of disease, and patient communication. Overall, they described the current controls for dengue detection -- which include guidelines and services to update both physicians and travelers on infections -- as robust. However, there were gaps related to missed cases at accommodations, failure to diagnose dengue cases in some situations, and communication failures. Suggested action plans to close these gaps, such as formal training seminars about dengue, were outlined in the new paper.

Naoki Yanagisawa, Koji Wada, John D. Spengler, Ramon Sanchez-Pina. Health preparedness plan for dengue detection during the 2020 summer Olympic and Paralympic games in Tokyo. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2018; 12 (9): e0006755 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006755

Original Submission

Bytram (from IRC) writes:

Your gut is directly connected to your brain, by a newly discovered neuron circuit:

The human gut is lined with more than 100 million nerve cells—it's practically a brain unto itself. And indeed, the gut actually talks to the brain, releasing hormones into the bloodstream that, over the course of about 10 minutes, tell us how hungry it is, or that we shouldn't have eaten an entire pizza. But a new study reveals the gut has a much more direct connection to the brain through a neural circuit that allows it to transmit signals in mere seconds. The findings could lead to new treatments for obesity, eating disorders, and even depression and autism—all of which have been linked to a malfunctioning gut.

The study reveals "a new set of pathways that use gut cells to rapidly communicate with ... the brain stem," says Daniel Drucker, a clinician-scientist who studies gut disorders at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, who was not involved with the work. Although many questions remain before the clinical implications become clear, he says, "This is a cool new piece of the puzzle."

[...] Additional clues about how gut sensory cells benefit us today lie in a separate study, published today in Cell. Researchers used lasers to stimulate the sensory neurons that innervate the gut in mice, which produced rewarding sensations the rodents worked hard to repeat. The laser stimulation also increased levels of a mood-boosting neurotransmitter called dopamine in the rodents' brains, the researchers found.

Combined, the two papers help explain why stimulating the vagus nerve with electrical current can treat severe depression in people, says Ivan de Araujo, a neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, who led the Cell study. The results may also explain why, on a basic level, eating makes us feel good. "Even though these neurons are outside the brain, they perfectly fit the definition of reward neurons" that drive motivation and increase pleasure, he says.

Original Submission