SoylentNews

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Repetitive skills like pattern recognition, information retrieval, optimization and planning are most vulnerable to automation. On the other hand, social and cognitive skills such as creativity, problem-solving, drawing conclusions about emotional states and social interactions are least vulnerable.

The most resilient competencies (those least likely to be displaced by AI) included critical thinking, teamwork, interpersonal skills, leadership and entrepreneurship.

Yuval Harari, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, described the rise of AI as a "cascade of ever-bigger disruptions" in higher education rather than a single event that settles into a new equilibrium. The unknown paths taken by AI will make it increasingly difficult to know what to teach students.

Perhaps we can all be employed as therapists, counseling each other about our feelings of irrelevance?

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Genetically engineered phage therapy has rescued a teenager on the brink of death

Isabelle Holdaway received a lung transplant and in the process picked up an antibiotic-resistant infection.
She was sent home from the hospital underweight, with liver failure, and with skin lesions from the infection. Her survival odds were "less than 1%."

Her consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London worked with a team at the University of Pittsburgh to develop an untested phage therapy. This treatment used a cocktail of three phages: viruses that solely attack and kill bacteria. Two of the three phages, selected from a library of more more than 10,000 kept at the University of Pittsburgh, had been genetically engineered to be better at attacking the bacteria. The therapy was injected into her blood stream twice daily and applied to the lesions on her skin, according to Nature Medicine.

With this therapy, which is still ongoing, "virtually all her lesions have cleared." Her treatment team is planning to add a fourth phage to the treatment in hopes of clearing the infection completely.

The article notes this is a deeply personalized therapy approach and to be careful extrapolating from a single case study. Still, with the rise in antiobiotic resistance in bacteria in recent years, using viruses to kill superbugs has been getting attention.

Original Submission

RandomFactor writes:

Senator Josh Hawley's press team announced yesterday "The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act" which is soon to be introduced to the United States Senate.

a bill that would ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in "games played by minors," a broad label that the senator says will include both games designed for kids under 18 and games "whose developers knowingly allow minor players to engage in microtransactions."

The game 'Candy Crush' was cited as an "egregious" example of pay-to-win with things like it's $150 "Luscious Bundle".

"When a game is designed for kids, game developers shouldn't be allowed to monetize addiction," Hawley said in a press release. "And when kids play games designed for adults, they should be walled off from compulsive microtransactions. Game developers who knowingly exploit children should face legal consequences."

Likely any such legislation would have knock-on effects throughout the gaming (and mobile gaming) markets affecting the gaming experience for non-minor players as well.

The Entertainment Software Association responded quickly stating that

"Numerous countries, including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, determined that loot boxes do not constitute gambling. We look forward to sharing with the senator the tools and information the industry already provides that keeps the control of in-game spending in parents' hands. Parents already have the ability to limit or prohibit in-game purchases with easy to use parental controls."

With an acronym like PCAGA the bill may struggle to gain traction. Maybe we can come up with something better?

Previously: Belgium Moving to Ban "Loot Boxes" Throughout Europe, Hawaii Could Restrict Sale to Minors, Are Loot Boxes in Games a Violation of Gambling Laws?, Video Game Loot Boxes are now Considered Criminal Gambling in Belgium, Mobile Gaming is Dominant in the Marketplace / Blame Loot Boxes, U.S. Federal Trade Commission Will Investigate Video Game "Loot Boxes"

Original Submission

takyon writes:

"Magic: The Gathering" is officially the world's most complex game

Magic: The Gathering is a card game in which wizards cast spells, summon creatures, and exploit magic objects to defeat their opponents. In the game, two or more players each assemble a deck of 60 cards with varying powers. They choose these decks from a pool of some 20,000 cards created as the game evolved. Though similar to role-playing fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragons, it has significantly more cards and more complex rules than other card games.

And that raises an interesting question: among real-world games (those that people actually play, as opposed to the hypothetical ones game theorists usually consider), where does Magic fall in complexity?

Today we get an answer thanks to the work of Alex Churchill, an independent researcher and board game designer in Cambridge, UK; Stella Biderman at the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Austin Herrick at the University of Pennsylvania.

His team has measured the computational complexity of the game for the first time by encoding it in a way that can be played by a computer or Turing machine. "This construction establishes that Magic: The Gathering is the most computationally complex real-world game known in the literature," they say.

Magic: The Gathering is Turing Complete (arXiv:1904.09828)

Related: How Magic the Gathering Began, and Where it Goes Next

Original Submission

SemperOSS writes:

BBC:

Britain has gone a week without burning any coal to make electricity - the first coal-free week since [...] the Industrial Revolution. [...] The world's first coal-fired power station was opened in London in 1882.

According to data, no coal has been used by power stations in Britain since around 1pm on 1 May. Instead, other sources of power have taken over, such as wind turbines, gas and nuclear power.

"We believe that, by 2025, we will be able to fully operate Great Britain's electricity system with zero carbon," said a spokesperson for the National Grid.

Time for British Prime Minister Theresa May to celebrate with more flights to Brussels?

Also at: Financial Times (Paywalled), Bloomberg, Ars Technica, and Fox News.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

After exiting Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods will launch meatless products this summer

After exiting Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods said that it will roll out its own plant-based meat substitutes beginning this summer.

The Jimmy Dean owner sold its stake in Beyond before the company went public, citing its desire to produce vegetarian meat substitutes under its own umbrella of brands. CEO Noel White told analysts on the quarterly conference call Monday that the plant-based product will launch this summer on a limited basis, with a wider rollout in October and November.

[...] Beyond made the strongest market debut so far this year on Thursday, surging 163%. The stock has a market value of $3.97 billion, dwarfed by Tyson's own market value of $22.66 billion. Tyson shares gained more than 2% Monday.

Despite the difference in market value, Beyond and other makers of plant-based meat alternatives — such as Impossible Foods — pose a threat to Tyson. Beyond Meat's CEO, Ethan Brown, told CNBC that the company is trying to capture the meat industry's customers. Its gluten- and soy-free products are meant to more closely resemble and taste like meat than previous iterations of veggie burgers.

Also at CNN.

See also: Beyond Meat goes public with a bang: 5 things to know about the plant-based meat maker
Competitors Sink Their Teeth Into The Meatless-Meat Industry

Original Submission

takyon writes:

GM's self-driving division Cruise raises another $1.15 billion

Cruise Automation, the self-driving division of General Motors, announced on Tuesday that it has secured a $1.15 billion investment, raising its post-money valuation to an eye-popping $19 billion.

The money was raised from a "group comprising institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and existing partners General Motors, SoftBank Vision Fund and Honda," Cruise said in a statement.

It's another enormous boost for GM's Cruise. Last May, it announced a $2.25 billion investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund, a major venture investment effort that was started by the Japanese tech giant in 2016. Then, in October, GM said it would team up with Honda to design a purpose-built self-driving car. The Japanese automaker said it would devote $2 billion to the effort over 12 years, including a $750 million equity investment in Cruise.

GM bought Cruise in 2016 for $1 billion to jump-start its self-driving efforts. The company has said it plans to deploy its fully driverless cars, without steering wheel or pedals, for commercial ride-hailing use as early as 2019.

Also at Reuters, CNBC, and TechCrunch.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Denver votes to become first U.S. city to decriminalize 'magic mushrooms'

Denver will become the first city in the United States to decriminalize magic mushrooms, based on final unofficial results on Wednesday of a ballot initiative about the hallucinogenic drug.

The initiative called for Colorado's capital to end the imposition of criminal penalties for individuals at least 21 years of age for using or possessing psilocybin, widely known as magic mushrooms.

The Denver Elections Divisions will certify results on May 16, but the final count on its website on Wednesday was 50.56 percent of voters in favor and 49.44 percent against.

If the initiative is approved, psilocybin would still remain illegal under both Colorado and federal law. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classifies the drug as a Schedule 1 substance, meaning the agency has deemed that it has a high potential for abuse with no accepted medical application.

Also at NYT:

"It's surreal," said Travis Tyler Fluck, a field organizer for the campaign to pass the measure, suggesting that Denver had a sizable population of "psychedelic constituents." "People just don't see it as a threat," he added. "Compared to the 'sinister' LSD, magic mushrooms are tame."

Oof. 🚲 🍄

Previously: Denver, Colorado Will Vote on Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative on May 7

Related: Study Suggests Psilocybin "Resets" the Brains of Depressed People
Shrooms Safest, Comparatively Speaking

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

CNet:

The new models incorporate second-generation Ryzen Pro processors -- up to the Ryzen 7 Pro 3700U -- which incorporate the company's AMD graphics.

Though they use the same chassis and screens as their Intel counterparts, the Ryzen Pro U chipset doesn't yet support Thunderbolt 3 or alt-mode on USB-C, so the AMD models are bolstered with a more modern version of HDMI for monitor connections -- 2.0 vs. 1.4 -- two USB-A and a single USB-C, in contrast to the single USB-A and a second Thunderbolt-supporting USB-C connection on the Intel models.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Four months ago, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) revoked a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) award that was to be presented to Lora DiCarlo for the company's "blended orgasm" micro-robotic sex toy. Now, the CTA has reversed course:

The group behind the Consumer Electronics Show is returning an award it revoked from a women's sex toy company earlier this year, which ignited a controversy around the industry's inclusion of women and acceptance of sex tech. But for now, the show's operator isn't announcing broader changes that would actually allow sex toys to be exhibited and win awards in the future.

A CES Innovation Award was initially presented to Lora DiCarlo for its Osé Robotic Massager ahead of the conference in January, honoring the device in the show's robotics and drones category. But the show's operator later revoked the award, saying that sex toys weren't allowed. Lora DiCarlo's ability to even exhibit at the show was revoked as well.

Now, the show's operator, the Consumer Technology Association, is returning the Innovation Award to Lora DiCarlo. The CTA says it "did not handle this award properly," leading to some "important conversations" about the show's policies around sex tech.

Also at BBC.

Previously: CES Announces $10 Million Diversity Fund, Revokes Award From Female-Founded Sex Tech Company

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Endlessly recyclable plastic (Javascript required.)

By separating plastic monomers from chemical additives, researchers may have created fully recyclable plastics.

Molecular scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed a new type of plastic: polydiketoenamine, or PDK. When immersed in an acidic solution, PDK monomers were broken down and were freed from the additive compounds used in plastic production.

Berkeley Lab staff scientist Brett Helms said: "With PDKs, the immutable bonds of conventional plastics are replaced with reversible bonds that allow the plastic to be recycled more effectively."

Commercial plastics generally contain additives such as dyes or fillers to make them hard, stretchy, coloured or clear. The problem is these additives have different chemical compositions and are hard to separate from the monomers.

Also at Berkeley Lab.

See also: Researchers develop plastic that they are calling the 'Holy Grail' of recycling
This infinitely-recyclable plastic might help us finally clean up landfills and oceans

Closed-loop recycling of plastics enabled by dynamic covalent diketoenamine bonds (DOI: 10.1038/s41557-019-0249-2) (DX)

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

A team of researchers from Osaka University and Kirin Holdings Company, Limited demonstrated that the texture formation in a pint glass of Guinness beer is induced by flow of a bubble-free fluid film flowing down along the wall of the glass, a world first. This phenomenon is found to be analogous to roll waves commonly observed in water sliding downhill on a rainy day. Their research results were published in Scientific Reports.

Guinness beer, a dark stout beer, is pressurized with nitrogen gas. When it is poured into a pint glass, small-diameter bubbles (only 1/10 the size of those in carbonated drinks such as soda and carbonated water) disperse throughout the entire glass and the texture motion of the bubble swarm moves downward.

[...] Because the opaque and dark-colored Guinness beer obstructs physical observation in a glass, and computation using supercomputers is necessary to conduct numerical simulation of flows including a vast number of small bubbles in the beer, the team of researchers led by Tomoaki Watamura produced transparent "pseudo-Guinness fluid" by using light particles and tap water. They filmed the movement of liquid with a high-speed video camera, using laser-induced-fluorescence in order to accurately measure the movement of fluid. In addition, using molecular tags, they visualized the irregular movement of the fluid.

Beer is already proof God loves us and wants to be happy.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for AzumaHazuki

Radical Desalination Approach May Disrupt the Water Industry

Hypersaline brines—water that contains high concentrations of dissolved salts and whose saline levels are higher than ocean water—are a growing environmental concern around the world. Very challenging and costly to treat, they result from water produced during oil and gas production, inland desalination concentrate, landfill leachate (a major problem for municipal solid waste landfills), flue gas desulfurization in fossil-fuel power plants, and effluent from industrial processes.

If hypersaline brines are improperly managed, they can pollute both surface and groundwater resources. But if there were a simple, inexpensive way to desalinate the brines, vast quantities of water would be available for all kinds of uses, from agriculture to industrial applications, and possibly even for human consumption.

A Columbia Engineering team led by Ngai Yin Yip, assistant professor of earth and environmental engineering, reports today that they have developed a radically different desalination approach—“temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE)”—for hypersaline brines. The study, published online in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, demonstrates that TSSE can desalinate very high-salinity brines, up to seven times the concentration of seawater. This is a good deal more than reverse osmosis, the gold-standard for seawater desalination, and can handle approximately twice the seawater salt concentrations.

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Bloomberg:

This year is shaping up to be the biggest by far for defaults in China’s $13 trillion bond market, highlighting the widening fallout from the government’s campaign to rein in leverage.

Companies defaulted on 39.2 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) of domestic bonds in the first four months of the year, some 3.4 times the total for the same period of 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The pace is also more than triple that of 2016, when defaults were more concentrated in the first half of the year, unlike 2018. The trend is clear: unless something changes, 2019 will be the new high.

China continues to press banks to extend credit to the private sector, and small and medium-sized companies especially. The latest move came Monday, when the central bank loosened some reserve-requirement rules for lenders. But President Xi Jinping’s team has also focused on shrinking the shadow-banking system, where credit decisions were made with less regulatory oversight and where it was easier to build up unsustainable leverage.

Beijing often uses such measures to quell domestic political opposition in the party. Is there something bigger afoot?

Original Submission

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Tenants at a property in New York City just struck a deal in what is both a wildly reasonable ask but also a crucial precedent at a time of increasing surveillance—their landlord has to give them physical keys to their building.

Five tenants in Hell’s Kitchen sued their landlord in March after the owners installed a Latch smart lock on the building last year. It is unlocked with a smartphone, and reportedly granted tenants access to the lobby, elevator, and mail room. But the group that sued their landlords saw this keyless entry as harassment, an invasion of privacy, and simply inconvenient.

“We are relieved that something as simple as entering our home is not controlled by an internet surveillance system and that because we will now have a mechanical key they will not be tracking our friends and our family,” 67-year-old tenant Charlotte Pfahl, who has lived in the building for 45 years, told the New York Post.

Source: After Smart Lock Allegedly Traps Senior in Apartment, Tenants Sue for Physical Keys and Win

Original Submission

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

If you're a student looking for the most advanced learning machine available, give laptops a pass—and pick up an age-old notebook.

You'll absorb and retain more information if you take notes by hand, according to a study by UCLA, giving you an edge on your tests.

That spiral-bound stack of paper has other advantages, too: You can't zone out on Facebook and Instagram during a lecture, so you are more likely to stay focused.

Putting pen to paper requires a different kind of mental processing than typing does. Sure, typing on a laptop gives you the power to record a lecture nearly word for word—but transcribing verbatim is associated with what's called "shallow cognitive processing." The words may be captured on your screen, but they basically went in one ear and out the other.

Also, your notebook doesn't run Fortnite.

Original Submission