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Ghana kicks off coronavirus vaccination campaign with COVAX shots

"Ghana began its coronavirus vaccination drive on Tuesday with 600,000 AstraZeneca doses it received from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility aimed at providing shots to developing nations to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic." Great to see Ghana in the news and reading about the ITU nurses getting...
Source: reuters.com

UK rollout data on AstraZeneca shot should guide other countries: vaccine chief

Natural experiments can be a really useful source of data. "Data from Britain's vaccine rollout on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 shot in older people should help other countries reassess their use of it, the head of the university's vaccine research group said on Tuesday."
Source: reuters.com

The Namib Desert bears a scar from a meteorite impact.

"In the vastness of one of the world’s oldest deserts lies a relatively recent geologic feature: the Roter Kamm crater (“red comb” or “red crest/ridge” in German). An astronaut onboard the International Space Station photographed the crater while orbiting over the Namib Desert. It is approximately...
Source: nasa.gov

The Technology Behind Cinematic Photos

There has been some work by teams at Google looking at analysing images to extract their 3D features. They launched a new feature called 'cinematic photos' and this blog posted by Per Karlsson and Lucy Yu, Software Engineers, of Google Research tries to explain how it works. "Looking at photos from...
Source: googleblog.com

'How many dead bodies?' asked Myanmar protester killed on bloodiest day

Shocking news from Myanmar reported by Reuters. "The day before he was killed, internet network engineer Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing had posted on Facebook about the increasingly violent military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Myanmar." "“#How_Many_Dead_Bodies_UN_Need_To_Take_Action,” he wrote,...
Source: reuters.com

Rocket Report Cornwall

Cornwall says “LOL, no” to space tourism. "If we're being blunt about it ... One council member, John Fitter, was more explicit, saying, 'If we were to entertain this, it would be quite ridiculous and send out the wrong message to those people in Cornwall who could possibly be suffering on below...
Source: arstechnica.com

Dreadful user experience can be expensive.

"Citibank just got a $500 million lesson in the importance of UI design: Citibank was trying to make $7.8M in interest payments. It sent $900M instead." The screenshot is from court records where the judge ruled against Citibank who had wanted to get their money back. The lesson is to always include...
Source: arstechnica.com

11 TOPS photonic convolutional accelerator for optical neural networks: Convolutional neural networks, inspired by biological

11 TOPS photonic convolutional accelerator for optical neural networks: Convolutional neural networks, inspired by biological visual cortex systems, are a powerful category of artificial neural networks that can extract the hierarchical features of raw data to provide greatly reduced parametric complexity...
Source: nature.com

Photographer 'Devastated' After Her Unsplash Photo Was Used in 'Crass' UK Ad Campaign

Photographer 'Devastated' After Her Unsplash Photo Was Used in 'Crass' UK Ad Campaign: Atlanta photographer Krys Alex is speaking out after a portrait she took and posted to Unsplash was used in a controversial UK ad campaign.
Source: petapixel.com

This 3.2 gigapixel cauliflower is the largest photograph ever taken: To test the sensors in the largest digital camera ever

This 3.2 gigapixel cauliflower is the largest photograph ever taken: To test the sensors in the largest digital camera ever built, scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory focused in on a Romanesco cauliflower, producing one of the biggest digital photographs ever taken
Source: newscientist.com

Kenyans go hi-tech to save endangered Grevy’s zebra: Software analyses ’citizen scientist’ photos to automate census

Kenyans go hi-tech to save endangered Grevy’s zebra: Software analyses ’citizen scientist’ photos to automate census of rare zebra
Source: independent.co.uk

What makes fake news feel true when it isn

What makes fake news feel true when it isn’t? For one thing, hearing it over and over again: "The more often participants had heard a statement, the more likely they were to attribute it to Consumer Reports rather than the National Enquirer." Key features of effective fake news - should you want to...
Source: niemanlab.org

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine prevents SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in rhesus macaques: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine prevents SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in rhesus macaques: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 20191,2 and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic3. Vaccines are an essential countermeasure urgently needed to control the pandemic4. Here, we...
Source: nature.com

What would a Google AI engineer do with 30 years of their family video?

"30 years of family videos in an AI archive: As an Applied AI Engineer, I got down to business and built an AI-powered searchable archive of my family videos." Welcome to the future of home movies. Calling up memories rather than timestamps.
Source: blog.google

We Need to Relocate ICU Patients Out of Covid-19 Hotspots: Increasing the number of beds in a hard-hit location may actually

We Need to Relocate ICU Patients Out of Covid-19 Hotspots: Increasing the number of beds in a hard-hit location may actually result in more deaths.
Source: hbr.org

Coronavirus COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 information

A collection of information sources for COVID-19. The NHS 111 online COVID-19 service. The first point of call for someone in the UK who thinks they have symptoms or have been exposed whilst travelling. The NHS Coronavirus COVID-19 information webpage. UK Government's Coronavirus action plan. Public...

Guide To Using Reverse Image Search For Investigations

"Guide To Using Reverse Image Search For Investigations - bellingcat: Reverse image search is one of the most well-known and easiest digital investigative techniques, with two-click functionality of choosing “Search Google for image” in many web browsers. This method has also seen widespread use...
Source: bellingcat.com

Archaeologists found 143 more images among the Nazca Lines: The team used a machine-learning algorithm to search aerial

Archaeologists found 143 more images among the Nazca Lines: The team used a machine-learning algorithm to search aerial photos for geoglyphs.
Source: arstechnica.com

A Promising Solar Energy Breakthrough Just Achieved 1,000-Degree Heat From Sunlight: A new startup backed by Bill Gates

A Promising Solar Energy Breakthrough Just Achieved 1,000-Degree Heat From Sunlight: A new startup backed by Bill Gates says it has managed to harness solar energy to greater effect than ever before, generating enough heat from a field of mirrored panels to drive the production of cement, steel and glass...
Source: sciencealert.com

A kauri tree stump is kept alive by its neighbours through hydraulic coupling. Forests should be viewed as living organisms.

A kauri tree stump is kept alive by its neighbours through hydraulic coupling. Forests should be viewed as living organisms. "Trees are commonly regarded as distinct entities, but the roots of many species fuse to form natural root grafts allowing the exchange of water, carbon, mineral nutrients, and...
Source: cell.com