Non-IT News Thread
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Pakistan-India: Pakistan 'shoots down two Indian jets' over Kashmir
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47383634 -
Physicists set world record in tabletop plasma acceleration with laser drill
Laser pulses make like a speedboat, churning up wakes that electrons can "surf."
Particle accelerators can speed up subatomic particles almost to the speed of light. The tradeoff is that this requires miles-long tunnels, so such machines are typically enormous and very expensive to build. Physicists are keen to build a viable tabletop version capable of accelerating particles over mere centimeters. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now achieved the highest energy yet recorded using these so-called "plasma wakefield accelerators," and they describe their work in a new paper in Physical Review Letters.
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IT snafu leads to IBM asking applicants if they are “yellow” or “coloured”
IBM included Brazilian and South African racial terms in a US intern application.
IBM was forced to apologize after drop-down menus on an American recruiting site asked applicants to identify themselves with several racially insensitive terms: "yellow," "mulatto," and "coloured." Unsurprisingly, this sparked outrage on Twitter.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
IT snafu leads to IBM asking applicants if they are “yellow” or “coloured”
IBM included Brazilian and South African racial terms in a US intern application.
IBM was forced to apologize after drop-down menus on an American recruiting site asked applicants to identify themselves with several racially insensitive terms: "yellow," "mulatto," and "coloured." Unsurprisingly, this sparked outrage on Twitter.
Needing to know about race or color really gets on my nerves.
And then certain applications will give you an option like other or whether not to say. Minds well not ask in the first place.
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@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
IT snafu leads to IBM asking applicants if they are “yellow” or “coloured”
IBM included Brazilian and South African racial terms in a US intern application.
IBM was forced to apologize after drop-down menus on an American recruiting site asked applicants to identify themselves with several racially insensitive terms: "yellow," "mulatto," and "coloured." Unsurprisingly, this sparked outrage on Twitter.
Needing to know about race or color really gets on my nerves.
It is weird hiring outside of the US, because so many places allow or encourage or assume that age, race, gender are all factors in hiring.
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@black3dynamite said in Non-IT News Thread:
And then certain applications will give you an option like other or whether not to say. Minds well not ask in the first place.
Some people want to report. However that really makes it worse, not better.
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Texas lawmakers have tried to end daylight saving time for years. Can they do it this session?
State lawmakers are again trying to abolish daylight saving time in Texas, arguing it's antiquated. But supporters of the practice argue it gives Texans a crucial extra hour of light in the evenings during the summer months.
“That messes up my whole Sunday,” he told the Morning News leading up to the House vote. “I don’t want to miss church, and I don’t want to miss the Cowboys. So what am I supposed to do?”
GET A FREAKIN DVR AND RECORD THE GAME LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!!
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@NerdyDad said in Non-IT News Thread:
Texas lawmakers have tried to end daylight saving time for years. Can they do it this session?
State lawmakers are again trying to abolish daylight saving time in Texas, arguing it's antiquated. But supporters of the practice argue it gives Texans a crucial extra hour of light in the evenings during the summer months.
“That messes up my whole Sunday,” he told the Morning News leading up to the House vote. “I don’t want to miss church, and I don’t want to miss the Cowboys. So what am I supposed to do?”
GET A FREAKIN DVR AND RECORD THE GAME LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!!
I would love to get rid of it. We already get longer days in the summer time.
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@NerdyDad said in Non-IT News Thread:
Texas lawmakers have tried to end daylight saving time for years. Can they do it this session?
State lawmakers are again trying to abolish daylight saving time in Texas, arguing it's antiquated. But supporters of the practice argue it gives Texans a crucial extra hour of light in the evenings during the summer months.
“That messes up my whole Sunday,” he told the Morning News leading up to the House vote. “I don’t want to miss church, and I don’t want to miss the Cowboys. So what am I supposed to do?”
GET A FREAKIN DVR AND RECORD THE GAME LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!!
WTF - no he doesn't need a DVR - NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Really, nothing changes.
Personally I want them to adapt the daylight savings as the permanent single time - I like having that tiny touch of sunlight we'd have in the winter at the end of the day (5 PM) if we leave it there.
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Pick the best time on the worst day and leave it there, imho.
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FTC’s first case over fake paid Amazon reviews targets dodgy diet pills
Company paid $1,000 for fake reviews, admits there's no evidence for diet claims.
The maker of a supposed fat-blocking weight-loss pill that didn't help much with weight loss paid for fake Amazon reviews to push its false and misleading claims, the Federal Trade Commission said in a lawsuit announced yesterday.
It's the first time the FTC has filed a lawsuit "challenging a marketer's use of fake paid reviews on an independent retail website," the agency said. The FTC complaint was filed against Cure Encapsulations, Inc. and its owner, Naftula Jacobowitz, in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The defendants have agreed to settle the case, pay a $50,000 fine, and notify past customers that there's no scientific evidence backing up the weight-loss claims. Customers may get refunds, but it's not definite.
The FTC said its complaint "alleges that the defendants made false and unsubstantiated claims on their Amazon product page, including through the purchased reviews, that their garcinia cambogia product is a 'powerful appetite suppressant,' 'Literally BLOCKS FAT From Forming,' causes significant weight loss, including as much as twenty pounds, and causes rapid and substantial weight loss, including as much as two or more pounds per week.
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The advent of cheap, renewable hydrogen is nigh
As the price of wind turbines tumbles, the hydrogen fuel cell revolution is nigh.
Hydrogen gas has been the pipe dream fuel of clean-energy advocates for decades. Splitting electrons from H2 molecules creates electricity and a waste product: pure H2O. It has the added benefit of being storable (albeit at high pressures or low temperatures), and it can refuel a car or a generator in minutes, as opposed to batteries, which can take hours to recharge.
Unfortunately, most of the hydrogen that is mass-produced today is made by synthesizing it from natural gas (more specifically, methane, or CH4). But it's also possible to make hydrogen using electricity and water, using an electrolyzer. If that electricity is renewable electricity, hydrogen can be nearly carbon neutral in its lifecycle.
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@scottalanmiller renewable hydrogen because of wind? Maybe.
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Alphabet subsidiary trained AI to predict wind output 36 hours in advance
Intermittent power supply is a problem for the grid, and predicting it has value.
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TikTok: Record fine for video sharing app over children's data
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47396767 -
Ridley Scott’s Alien will finally be released in 4K HDR for its 40th anniversary
The new Blu-ray will include both the theatrical cut and the director's cut.
20th Century Fox and partners embarked on an effort to remaster the film in 4K last year, under supervision by Pam Dery and director Ridley Scott. Alien was originally shot on 35mm film, and the remaster was made using the original negative.
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Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
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@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
i swear that picture is an actual 3d art sculpture in Japan.
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@LilAng said in Non-IT News Thread:
@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
i swear that picture is an actual 3d art sculpture in Japan.
It is.
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@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Momo challenge: The anatomy of a hoax
Following a flurry of scare stories, some schools have warned parents about the "momo challenge" - but fact-checkers say it is a hoax.
Earlier this week, versions of the momo story went viral on social media. They attracted hundreds of thousands of shares and resulted in newspaper articles reporting the tale.
According to the false story, children are contacted on WhatsApp by an account claiming to be momo. They are supposedly encouraged to save the character as a contact and then asked to carry out challenges as well as being told not to tell other members of their family.
While the recent reporting of contact may be a hoax, then entire momo challenge thing was not. Bad article title is bad.
