WHY GERMAN COMPANIES FAIL AT DIGITAL INNOVATION
We Germans have a huge problem. We invented the car. We have some of the best engineers and 11 of the 100 most valuable brands. We’re the economic powerhouse of the European Union. But we missed a train, an important one. And it is pulling away fast, while we are chugging along with our stuttering diesel cars. That train is digital innovation. Source: handelsblatt.com
WORLD’S LARGEST ANIMAL STUDY ON CELL TOWER RADIATION CONFIRMS CANCER LINK
The Ramazzini research results come in the wake of similar findings from the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) large-scale experimental studies on cell phone radiation. Both studies found statistically significant increases in the development of the same type of very rare and highly malignant tumor in the heart of male rats—schwannomas. Source: digitaljournal.com
SIMPLIFY ADDING AI TO YOUR APPS — CORE ML SAY HELLO TO WATSON
IBM Watson just announced the ability to run Visual Recognition models locally on iOS as Core ML models. I’m very excited. Before now, it was fairly easy to integrate a visual recognition system into your iOS app by just downloading a model from Apple. However, the models you can use are very cookie cutter and specific to a standard set of items that it can recognize (cars, people, animals, fruit, etc).But what if you wanted to have a model that could recognize items for a use case specific to you?
Read moreUSING MACHINE LEARNING TO IMPROVE STREAMING QUALITY AT NETFLIX
Network quality is difficult to characterize and predict. While the average bandwidth and round trip time supported by a network are well-known indicators of network quality, other characteristics such as stability and predictability make a big difference when it comes to video streaming. A richer characterization of network quality would prove useful for analyzing networks (for targeting/analyzing product improvements), determining initial video quality and/or adapting video quality throughout playback (more on that below).
Read moreTHE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK IT IS
A comprehensive new study by Slat’s team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets. Scientists estimate that 20 percent of the debris is from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
Read moreHUMAN DRIVER COULD HAVE AVOIDED FATAL UBER CRASH, EXPERTS SAY
Forensic crash analysts who reviewed the video said a human driver could have responded more quickly to the situation, potentially saving the life of the victim, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. Other experts said Uber’s self-driving sensors should have detected the pedestrian as she walked a bicycle across the open road at 10 p.m., despite the dark conditions. Source: bloomberg.com
INTRODUCING QALM, UBER’S QOS LOAD MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
To proactively manage our traffic loads based on the criticality of requests, we built QoS Aware Load Management (QALM), a dynamic load shedding framework for incoming requests based on criticality. When the service degrades due to traffic overload, resource exhaustion, or dependency failure, QALM prioritizes server resources for more critical requests and sheds less critical ones. Our goal with QALM is to reduce the frequency and severity of any outages or incidents, leading to more reliable user experiences across our business.
Read moreQUANTUM COMPUTERS STRIVE TO BREAK OUT OF THE LAB
Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment has come to life in a new form because quantum researchers are at the cusp of a long-sought accomplishment: creating a quantum computer that can do something notraditional computer can match. They’ve spent years battling naysayers who insisted that a quantum computer was an unachievable sci-fi fantasy, and nowthese researchers are finally beginning to indulge in some well-deserved self-congratulation.
Read moreTHE WORKPLACE IS KILLING PEOPLE AND NOBODY CARES
It’s true. He takes three points and puts them together. The first point, which is consistent with data reported by the World Economic Forum and other sources, is that an enormous percentage of the health care cost burden in the developed world, and in particular in the U.S., comes from chronic disease — things like diabetes and cardiovascular and circulatory disease. You begin with that premise: A large fraction — some estimates are 75 percent — of the disease burden in the U.S. is from chronic diseases.
Read moreFIVE NEW ANCIENT GENOMES TELL US ABOUT NEANDERTHAL TRIBES
The researchers, led by Mateja Hajdinjak at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, extracted tiny amounts of bone or tooth powder—sometimes as little as 9mg—and used a chemical process to remove modern genetic contamination. They also checked for the telltale signs of degradation found in ancient DNA. Source: arstechnica.com