Who needs microphones when you have cameras?
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
Article from 2014
The team’s processing algorithm lets them take a new tack: a completely passive recovery of the sound. By recording objects’ movements on high-frame-rate video, in ambient lighting—no laser needed—they are able to translate the vibrations caused by speech and music back to sound waves, with only a little bit of noise.
I happened to be reading this book both before and after Ursula Le Guin’s death, which converted the review into something of a tribute to an author I’ve long appreciated.
Via Isaac Kuo. Basically, fewer than half of the total shares of the 25 most-shared articles on climate change in 2017 were of articles with high or very high quality.
The piece also points out that they only looked at direct shares of the sources, not other articles or posts which were based on them and then also widely shared (something probably more common with low-quality information, I would suspect, since people who value high-quality information tend to cite sources).
Originally shared by Bill Smith
Many stories were written about climate science in 2017, but were the ones that “went viral” scientifically accurate? #ClimateChange
While bulk crops like wheat, rice, and soy will still need to be grown on large areas of land, growing 80% of America’s carrots in one sometimes drought-stricken county in California and shipping them for days in trucks is obviously not optimal. Growing vegetables close to consumers has all kinds of benefits.
Originally shared by Greg Batmarx
The urban farms sprouting up and across cities around the world aren’t just feeding mouths, they are “critical to survival” and a “necessary adaptation” for developing regions and a changing climate, according to a new study.
Urban farms, which include plain ol’ allotments, indoor vertical farms and rooftop gardens nestled amongst busy streets and skyscrapers, have become increasingly popular and important as the world’s population grows and more and more people move to cities.
The United Nations predicts that by 2030, two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities, with the urban population in developing countries doubling. That’s a lot of mouths to feed.
The new paper, published in the journal Earth’s Future and led by the Arizona State University and Google, finds that this expected urban population boom will benefit from urban farming in multiple ways.
As the Thomson Reuters Foundation explained from the study Urban farms could supply almost the entire recommended consumption of vegetables for city dwellers, while cutting food waste and reducing emissions from the transportation of agricultural products.
According to the study, urban agriculture can help solve a host of urban environmental problems, from increasing vegetation cover (thus contributing to a decrease in the urban heat island intensity), improving the livability of cities, and providing enhanced food security to more than half of Earth’s population.
After analyzing multiple datasets in Google Earth Engine, the researchers calculated that the existing vegetation on urban farms around the world already provides some $33 billion annually in services from biocontrol, pollination, climate regulation and soil formation.
The future of urban agriculture has even more potential, the researchers found.
We project potential annual food production of 100–180 million tonnes, energy savings ranging from 14 to 15 billion kilowatt hours, nitrogen sequestration between 100,000 and 170,000 tonnes, and avoided storm water runoff between 45 and 57 billion cubic meters annually the authors wrote.
In addition, we estimate that food production, nitrogen fixation, energy savings, pollination, climate regulation, soil formation and biological control of pests could be worth as much as $80–160 billion annually in a scenario of intense [urban agriculture] implementation.
Others have praised urban farming for its many benefits.
Urban agriculture won’t resolve all food production and distribution problems, but it could help take pressure off rural land while providing other advantages wrote environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki.
He cited an example of how one patch of Detroit land, where 12 vacant houses were removed to grow food, has supplied almost 200,000 kilograms of produce for 2,000 local families, provided volunteer experience to 8,000 residents and brought the area new investment and increased safety.
Local and urban agriculture can also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recycle nutrient-rich food scraps, plant debris and other ‘wastes’ Suzuki continued.
Because maintaining lawns for little more than aesthetic value requires lots of water, energy for upkeep and often pesticides and fertilizers, converting them to food gardens makes sense.
Writer and former Vancouver city councillor Peter Ladner also wrote in The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities
When urban agriculture flourishes, our children are healthier and smarter about what they eat, fewer people are hungry, more local jobs are created, local economies are stronger, our neighborhoods are greener and safer, and our communities are more inclusive.
https://www.ecowatch.com/urban-farming-suzuki-2524555512.html
I disagree on using an apostrophe with numbers (“the 90s” is unambiguous, and perfectly logical and grammatical). But the rest of this chart is useful, assuming you already know what part of speech something is.
For a non-chart version that is, in my opinion, simpler, try my explanation at: http://csidemedia.com/wellpresentedms.
Originally shared by Writers Write
According to this article, the business case for asteroid mining is not to bring asteroid materials to Earth, but to build a space-based industrial infrastructure that makes it much cheaper to bring energy and data to Earth.
Attn: Brand Gamblin.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Want Faster Data and a Cleaner Planet? Start Mining Asteroids http://suhub.co/2mPQTTY
Spice up your fantasy setting with a completely ridiculous medical theory!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/sham-medicine-orificial-surgery-edwin-pratt-vagina-phrenology
How close are we to “real” artificial intelligence, and how fast are we progressing?
Unsurprisingly, the answer is complicated.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
How Fast Is AI Progressing? Stanford’s New Report Card for Artificial Intelligence http://suhub.co/2DNrJxA
You can’t think about your biases all the time; you’d end up unable to decide on anything. But there are times when it’s important to think about them, like when you’re hiring someone.
This team has exposed their fake news detector (which is actually a real news detector, because that’s easier) on a website, so if you’re dubious about an article, you can have their machine check it.
Via Walter Roberson.
Originally shared by Hagenbuch Loop