Africa
Tesla eyes hurricane-ravaged Caribbean, could shape power grids
Tesla is developing a long-haul, electric semi-truck that can drive itself and move in "platoons" that automatically follow a lead vehicle, and is getting closer to testing a prototype. Love exists, but they are not together. Reports swirled over the weekend that the entrepreneur, Elon Musk, and Amber called it quits, after publicizing their couple status in April. TheStreet's Action Alerts PLUS Portfolio Manager Jim Cramer looks at Thursday's trending stocks. Tesla had roughly 63,000 people cancel their order for the companies Model 3 car in the last year. Tesla's greatly anticipated Model 3 will finally start rolling out of the manufacturing plant. CEO, Elon Musk took to Twitter to make the announcement.
Where Are the Drones That Could Be Saving Puerto Rico?
With the crisis in Puerto Rico unfolding--and expanding--daily in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the scale of the devastation is coming into horrifying focus. It's not just that the American territory has been, by many accounts, "destroyed." "We are dying here," San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulรญn Crus said Friday. Getting food, water, and medicine to and throughout Puerto Rico is a "logistical nightmare," former FEMA boss Michael Brown told CNBC. Which brings up the question: Where are the drones that could pick up the slack?
Central Banking and Fintech--A Brave New World?
Thank you, Mark [Carney], for that kind introduction, and thank you to the Bank of England for inviting me to this wonderful event. This is a moment to celebrate 20 years of independence during which the Bank of England has been a stabilizing force for the U.K. economy, inspiring others in the world of central banking--not least because of your guidance, Mark. This is also a moment to learn from our experiences, build on the progress made so far, and look into the future--to the next 20 years--as our journey continues. This morning, I came up Fleet Street, which always feels like a journey through history. In the Middle Ages, that street was an important center of commerce, much of which has now moved online. By the 19th century, the street was home to ticker machines and reporters racing each other to make the evening papers.
How AI makes better people
This has been the life work of neuroscientist and entrepreneur Dr Vivienne Ming, who spoke at the SingularityU South Africa Summit, in Johannesburg last week. The summit focused on how exponential technologies can solve global challenges such as energy, security, prosperity and global health. Ming spoke about artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of human potential. She said while currently there is no AI that can think like a sentient human, it is not impossible that it will be created in the future. However, she noted it will not come from deep neural networks.
Flying and rolling drone will map underground mines on its own
A drone that can switch between flying and rolling could soon be exploring underground mines without the aid of a human pilot. In open air, drones can navigate autonomously using GPS, but these satellite signals don't penetrate deep underground, meaning robot spelunkers require human pilots. Ahmed AlNomany and his colleagues at Swedish company Inkonova are working on an alternative. "It's complicated because we are trying to invent another way of positioning using bits and pieces of technologies," says AlNomany. Having a view of its surroundings is the first step.
Airport check-in systems crash at worldwide airports
Airline passengers are suffering major disruption at airports around the world after a computer programme which handles passenger check in systems crashed. Queues formed at check-in desks worldwide this morning after the computer system used by more than 100 airlines crashed. Problems have been reported at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, as well as Charles de Gaulle Paris, Washington DC, Baltimore, Melbourne, Changi in Singapore, Johannesburg and Zurich. The check-in system which went down is run by Amadeus Altea, which services 64% of the Star Alliance flights, 75% of One World and 53% of the Sky Team, including BA, AirFrance, KLM and Lufthansa. The company behind the programme confirmed a'network issue' is causing the problems, but insisted'services are gradually being restored'.
Airport Computer Systems Crash Across The World, Causing Panic
EDT: In addition to the Gatwick Airport in south-east England, check-in systems at the Heathrow Airport have also gone down. A spokeswoman for the Heathrow Airport confirmed the news to the Telegraph. "A small number of airlines are currently experiencing intermittent issues with their check-in systems at airports around the world -- including at Heathrow," she said. "Passengers will still be able to check-in for their flight, although the process may take slightly longer than usual. We are working closely with our airlines to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."
Islamic State's deadly drone operation is faltering, but U.S. commanders see broader danger ahead
U.S. airstrikes across eastern Syria have hobbled Islamic State's deadly drone program, U.S. officials say, but commanders warn that proliferation of the inexpensive technology may allow terrorist groups to launch other aerial attacks around the globe. U.S.-backed fighters have reported small drones flown by the militants seven times this month in Iraq and Syria as Islamic State struggles to maintain the crumbling borders of its self-declared caliphate, according to the U.S. military task force in Baghdad. That's down from more than 60 drone sightings earlier this year, especially during the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was liberated in early July. Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded by 40-millimeter grenades and light explosives dropped from remote-controlled devices that one U.S. commander likened to killer bees. The use of camera-equipped quadcopters and model-plane-sized drones, sometimes flying in swarms, had become a signature tactic of Islamic State, much as the growing U.S. fleet of large missile firing Predator and Reaper drones have changed the face of modern warfare.
Careers in the age of Machine Learning, or What do I tell my 15 year old?
In the age of machine learning and robotics, it is not only the future of work that is in the balance. The very meaning of a career must be reimagined. I have been amazed by the number and variety of people concerned with this issue. Old friends discuss it over dinner, it's one of the first topics broached with strangers on planes, and executives raise it in the context of both their workforce and their family. Two groups feel most affected: those in the middle of their career whose work will be made redundant and for whom retraining and finding new work will be difficult.
The evolution of video game cyberpunk: 'Ruiner' and 'Tacoma'
What does it even mean, cyberpunk?" It's a strange question coming from Magdalena Tomkowicz, the narrative designer of Ruiner, a top-down action game that takes place in an anime-inspired, cyberpunk world. It just landed on Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this week from Polish studio Reikon Games, but fans of gritty sci-fi shooters have been looking forward to this one for months. The thing is, Tomkowicz and creative director Benedykt Szneider never intended to create a cyberpunk game. They're simply products of the 1980s, pulling inspiration from their favorite childhood stories -- Alien, Die Hard, Ghost in the Shell -- to create something of their own. Tomkowicz is also a former journalist covering emerging technology and consumer trends, and her professional curiosity informed Ruiner's aesthetic far more than any desire to re-create the world of, say, Blade Runner. Besides, the traditional Blade Runner version of cyberpunk -- dense, dark city streets coated in smog and grime, eerily illuminated by walls of neon -- is out of touch with today's reality, according to Szneider and Tomkowicz. This aesthetic made sense in the '80s, but sci-fi is all about extrapolating on current technological and social trends, not clinging to 35-year-old ideas about the future. Blade Runner completely missed the advent of cell phones, after all. "It's like it's actually a retro-futuristic genre and something that is locked in its bubble," Tomkowicz says. Reikon isn't the only video game studio playing with the definition of cyberpunk, pressing against its boundaries and forcing it to expand. On the other side of the cyberpunk spectrum sits Tacoma, Fullbright's follow-up to the critically acclaimed exploration game Gone Home. Tacoma doesn't scream cyberpunk in the same way Ruiner does -- it's brighter, filled with soft light and believable depictions of life on a space station in the year 2088. But, it tells a dark tale of corporate-driven inhumanity and greed, much like traditional cyberpunk stories. Some players have taken to calling Tacoma "soft cyberpunk," Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor says. "If somebody were to make the argument, I could see something like Tacoma legitimately being 2017 cyberpunk," he says. "It doesn't come from the '80s and it's not trying to reach back and look like Blade Runner or something, but I feel like we're in that realm of talking about the underlying issues that led to that movement that established the term." Visually, Tacoma and Ruiner are opposites, but they both take a contemporary approach to cyberpunk -- one that isn't restricted to blue and pink neon. Their developers share similar philosophies about the evolution of cyberpunk and its place as a storytelling tool in the modern gaming world. "It's not very fun to make a game or a story about technology," Szneider says. "We tried to focus on the people.