Group items tagged

- By 2050 nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss and at least 700 will require hearing rehabilitation. - Over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. - An annual additional investment of less than US$ 1.40 per person is needed to scale up ear and hearing care services globally. - Over a 10-year period, this promises a return of nearly US$ 16 for every US dollar invested.

Facebook is working on a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based system that can analyse your lives through first-person videos, recording what they see, do, and hear to assist you with daily tasks. The system is hoping to solve research challenges in 'egocentric perception' (the perception of direction or position of oneself based on visual information). Facebook AI has developed five benchmark challenges centred on first-person visual experience - episodic memory, forecasting, hand and object manipulation, audio-visual "diarization," and social interaction. On the upside, a robotic assistant could be introduced to a person via a series of videos and be able to provide a personalized presence. I would assume that if the robot could have constant access to first-person videos it could continue to learn. On the downside, even more data mining.

Six crypto leaders appeared at a House Financial Services Committee hearing that "explored how the government should oversee and improve regulation of the industry." The "general sentiment of the hearing was positive towards the cryptocurrency industry, a dramatic shift from past years. This disposition surprised some, but it reflects an evolving view of the benefits of cryptocurrency technology and the fear that the US is falling behind other countries such as China that have made noticeable progress towards launching a sovereign digital currency." The piece notes that the Senate Banking "has a hearing on stablecoins next Tuesday and it will likely be more skeptical towards this emerging asset class." The witnesses include Alexis Goldstein, Director of Financial Policy, Open Markets Institute; and Professor Hilary J. Allen, American University Washington College of Law.

Most of what we hear about greenhouse gases is associated with carbon dioxide. This research focused on removal of methane, which would have a higher payback if a deployable solution can be identified. "...removing about three years-worth of human-caused emissions of the potent greenhouse gas would reduce global surface temperatures by approximately 0.21 degrees Celsius while reducing ozone levels enough to prevent roughly 50,000 premature deaths annually." The case for funding this technology is strong - "Removing methane from the atmosphere could reduce temperatures even faster than carbon dioxide removal alone because methane is 81 times more potent in terms of warming the climate over the first 20 years after its release, and about 27 times more potent over a century. Methane removal also improves air quality by decreasing the concentration of tropospheric ozone, exposure to which causes an estimated one million premature deaths annually worldwide due to respiratory illnesses."

The size of a dust mite, many we don't need be chipped, we will be injected.

I have been hearing about injectable robots the size of a dust mite that repair your cells but I can't remember where. Very interesting!

"The public hearings showed sharp differences of opinion about SpaceX's plans to conduct orbital launches from Boca Chica. Many attendees were strong advocates for the company and the proposed launch site, calling it critical to the nation's future in space. They also played down the environmental impact, often comparing it to the launch sites at Cape Canaveral in Florida, which are embedded within a wildlife refuge." This hit resonates because it hits on lots of areas - environmental, political, technological, geopolitical, demography... There will always be people for and people against. I feels like Space X did a nice job of stacking the room in their favor.

Yea this isn't a scan hit I need to post but an amazing find. Short article but includes a video demo and link to the website. Called the Pilot, one company has created a tiny wireless earbud that fits in your ear and translates the language you hear into the language you understand. The earphones work in conjunction with an app, but it works offline as well. People have been bound by language for centuries, and it looks like those barriers will soon be broken down by this tiny little device.

You know that universal sign we give truckers, hoping they'll sound their air horns? Well, you're gonna be hearing a lot less honking in the future. And with good reason. The absence of an actual driver in the cab. We may focus on the self-driving car, but autonomous trucking is not an if, it's a when. And the when is coming sooner than you might expect. As we first reported last year, companies have been quietly testing their prototypes on public roads