text stringlengths 10 37.6k |
|---|
In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain's most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos. |
Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said: "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just t... |
He adds: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. |
"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. |
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." |
The book was co-written by US physicist Leonard Mlodinow and is published on 9 September. |
In his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawking appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the Universe. |
"If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we should know the mind of God," he said. |
But the Bishop of Swindon, Dr Lee Rayfield, said science "can never prove the non-existence of God, just as it can never prove the existence of God." |
He added: "Faith is a matter that's outside that. |
"But as I look at the universe, and as many people who are much more understanding of cosmology than I, and mathematics, as they look at it, through the eyes of faith, they see a universe which is still very coherent with what we believe about God and His nature." |
The Federal Reserve releases a statement at the conclusion of each of its policy-setting meetings, outlining the central bank’s economic outlook and the actions it plans to take. Much of the statement remains the same from meeting to meeting. Fed watchers closely parse changes between statements to see how the Fed’s vi... |
This tool compares the latest statement with its immediate predecessor and highlights where policy makers have updated their language. This is the June statement compared with May. |
Expectations of AR and VR have been high, perhaps too high. While the idea of creating immersive experiences for enterprise applications inspires all sorts of fascinating use cases, AR and VR have not taken off as rapidly or pervasively as some expected. Part of the problem is focusing on the possibilities without cons... |
Even the technologies themselves can be confused in conversations. AR superimposes virtual elements on real-world elements via a smart visor, helmet or glasses. The interfaces may be touch, gesture or voice controlled, although the latter two are preferable since touching glasses seems counterintuitive if not messy wit... |
Popularly-referenced use cases are architecture and interior design. For example, a home buyer intending to build a house on a vacant lot can view different house designs as applied to the space. Similarly, after the house is built, different interior designs can be applied to bare rooms. Sotheby’s now has an AR-enable... |
AR supplements what exists, VR creates a new and immersive 3D reality. |
VR’s most popular use cases are gaming and military training, although enterprises also use the technology now. For example, AR and VR agency Friends With Holograms clients include Coca-cola, Accenture, Verizon, and Unity. The agency created a virtual training program on behalf of Accenture for social workers so they’r... |
“VR allows enterprises to train people in ways they couldn’t otherwise be safely trained. For example, Verizon trains people how to climb a telephone pole and do wire repairs. You can’t just have them read a book or watch a video and send them out into the field,” said Cortney Harding, founder and CEO of Friends with H... |
Insurance companies are using VR to help adjusters handle flood-damage claims more effectively. Rather than reading a manual or watching a video about flood inspections, the adjuster can experience a virtual flooded environment first-hand. The result is fewer calls for help while out in the field and at least some pers... |
Similar benefits apply to surgery. For example, Orthopedic Surgeon Michael Ast, MD, and the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC have been evaluating the Osso VR platform for about a year. They are using the system to teach surgeons in training about surgical procedures and equipment. |
The point is to make surgical training simpler and quicker as well as safer for patients. Of course, doing virtual surgery does not feel the same as doing actual surgery, which is why VR supplements, rather than replaces, traditional practices such as dissecting a cadaver. |
“The goal for this technology is to remove the learning curve of new procedures and devices. If we can shift the learning of those aspects into the virtual world, we can allow surgeons to concentrate on the more individualized aspects of surgical care when they do perform the surgery on a patient,” said Ast. |
Friends with Hologram’s Harding said her agency sees a 75% increase in learning quality and retention with experiential learning and a 76% increase in learning recall when using virtual teaching methods over traditional methods. |
Cost is one of VR’s main drawbacks. There’s the cost of the headsets and the cost of creating the environment and characters. Harding said organizations can save money by building an environment once and then populating it with different characters over time. |
Interestingly, what enterprises might not consider is the amount of money they spend on classroom and video training, and how effective those significant investments are versus VR. In other words, the approach to ROI isn’t as comprehensive as it should be. |
VR can also cause negative physical effects. The headsets tend to be large and somewhat clunky, so they may not be comfortable to wear. Users also can become disoriented in and nauseated by the virtual environment. |
In other words, Hollywood’s portrayal of VR and the true state of VR are two different things. In addition to headset design issues, Fan said the environments themselves can be problematic because their scale is not the same as the real world. The virtual world (buildings. etc.) tend to be larger than their physical co... |
Designers may also cram so many content elements into an experience that it becomes too difficult or frustrating to keep the average user engaged. |
AR faces two problems akin to VR, which are the headset and the environment. Like VR, Fan said AR headsets are not necessarily comfortable, which is problematic for a wearable. Also, the virtual elements can get in the way of the real-world elements, cluttering the experience or even causing disorientation if the scale... |
Another issue is aesthetics. People want to look good while wearing AR glasses. Of course, the use case impacts design. Fighter pilots’ helmets need to be designed for functionality, not aesthetics. |
The interface can also be problematic. While voice and gesture interfaces are expected to dominate AR wearables, some of them use touch, which is counterintuitive. |
In addition, AR, like VR, can be overdesigned to the point where the user is overwhelmed by the amount of information. |
Fan sees the demand for AR building in the sports industry for swimmers, cyclists, runners and others who want hands-free, up-to-the-minute performance information. For now, AR is being used in factories, and more medical use cases are emerging. Physical security is also a viable use case because smart glasses can use ... |
AR and VR are sometimes approached as solutions looking for a problem, when the ROI depends on the outcome. Enterprises should start with the outcome in mind and then decide what technology or technologies will likely deliver the greatest amount of value versus other options. It may be that AR or VR is a supplement to,... |
Also consider the fact that the interface may suggest use cases. For example, Harding said police departments want to use voice-activated VR to train officers while lawyers want to prepare clients for depositions. |
The opportunities for AR and VR are virtually endless, but their ultimate success requires a confluence of enabling technologies, compelling product designs and results that prove the technology is a good investment. For now, enterprises are wise to learn the capabilities and limitations of AR and VR so they can better... |
Recently resolved vulnerabilities in SecurEnvoy's encrypted email transfer SecurMail created a way for encrypted emails in users' inboxes to be read, overwritten and deleted by others. |
The flaws – uncovered by Austrian security firm SEC Consult during a crash test – included cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, and missing authentication flaws. In order to send encrypted emails, a client did not need to authenticate on the SecurEnvoy server, according to SEC Consult. This opened the door... |
Separate insecure direct object reference and path traversal vulnerabilities both created means for a "legitimate recipient to read mails sent to other users in plain text". |
"As we have identified several critical vulnerabilities within a very short time frame we expect numerous other vulnerabilities to be present," SEC Consult's Johannes Greil told The Register. "As other SecurEnvoy products (besides the analysed SecurMail) appear to be highly integrated (all products are installed with a... |
In response to queries from El Reg, SecurEnvoy confirmed that it had patched SecurMail, adding that "this issue does not affect any other SecurEnvoy products". |
SEC Consult first notified SecurEnvoy about problems in SecurMail version 9.1.501 in late November. SecurEnvoy released a patch at the start of the month, clearing the way for SEC Consult to go public with an advisory. |
War is a terrible thing. It's the feast of death. |
Many years ago, the Duke of Wellington said, "Take my word for it, if you had seen but one day of war, you would pray to Almighty God that you might never see such a thing again." |
War is horrific, yet sometimes necessary to defend something more precious than life itself. |
"[F]rom these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." |
Recently I was reading an interesting book, titled The Fightin' Preacher. It's the story of Colonel Logan E. Weston, U.S. Army (retired), a veteran of three wars: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Weston was a chaplain who also led his men in combat, which earned him a larger-than-life reputation and zealous devotion f... |
"As we went for the final mop-up of Myitkynia, we were exhausted. In our outfit alone, one hundred and eighty-six cases of typhus fever broke out, sixty of which were fatal. Malaria, dysentery, stomach trouble, and malnutrition left us in a very poor condition, to say nothing of the weather, the leeches that sucked our... |
"For years afterward, I reflected on the occasion where Lieutenants Smith and Hogan took over command of my platoon. [Smith and Hogan died on the same day after taking over for Weston.] I recall the dud grenade being lobbed right at me. I remember the close calls and enemy ambushes. I know that I had been saved only by... |
"I also realized that Christ had taken my place on the cross. It should have been me, for I had earned that place on Calvary by sinning against God, but Christ stepped in, paid my bill, and took care of my obligation. He who has the power to forgive also has the power to sustain. The Lord provides not only deliverance ... |
"In addition, many of us are here because people, just plain people, have stepped in as our replacements at the expense of their own lives that we might continue to enjoy the privileges of life in a democratic society. It's so easy to get caught up in the trivial aspects of our day-to-day routines that we forget that f... |
"May God help us to make this life more simple for those who are confused by it; sweeter for those who might have contempt for it; happier for those who have tasted the bitterness of it; safer for those who are feeling the peril of it; friendlier for those who are feeling the loneliness of it; and holier for those whos... |
Weston also alludes to something else in his book, which I believe, is the answer to ending all war. He says that after one skirmish an enemy soldier was shot out of a tree. He was a sharpshooter who had set up his sniper's nest in hopes of taking out an American officer. While being interrogated, the prisoner noticed ... |
"He said he pulled me into very short range, got a good sight picture on my head, and began to squeeze the trigger. Just then, the sun burst through a rift in the thick jungle canopy overhead. It hit the silver chaplain's cross on my Bible, and the cross zoomed out like a neon light, temporary blinding him. When he saw... |
What bridges the great divide between men and makes them brothers? It is the Gospel of Christ. |
This is a time for remembering. Remember the ones who served and gave their lives to secure our liberty. Remember the One who suffered and gave his life on the cross to make us free internally. Remember the promise that a day is coming when the Lord will make all wrongs right, and mankind "shall beat their swords into ... |
PITTSTON, Pa. -- People stopped by a brewery in Luzerne County on Sunday to check out some holiday train displays. |
Susquehanna Brewing Company got into the holiday spirit with train displays and holiday brews. |
The event, sponsored by the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society, featured multiple operating model train displays. |
Donations are set to benefit the restoration of locomotive Boston and Maine #3713 at Steamtown National Historic Site. |
On July 4, 1999, President Clinton sent the following letter to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate, declaring a "national emergency," effective at 12:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on July 6, 1999, in response to the "unusual and extraordinary threat" posed by the Taliban-dominat... |
Pursuant to section 204(b) of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1703(b) and section 301 of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1631, I hereby report that I have exercised my statutory authority to declare a National emergency with respect to the threat to the United States posed by the acti... |
The actions and policies of the Afghan Taliban pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. The Taliban continues to provide safe haven to Usama bin Ladin allowing him and the Al-Qaida organization to operate from Taliban-controlled territory a network of te... |
Usama bin Ladin and the Al-Qaida organization have been involved in at least two separate attacks against the United States. On August 7, 1998, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were attacked using powerful explosive truck bombs. The following people have been indicted for criminal a... |
Since at least 1998 and up to the date of the Executive order, the Taliban has continued to provide bin Ladin with safe haven and security, allowing him the necessary freedom to operate. Repeated efforts by the United States to persuade the Taliban to expel bin Ladin to a third country where he can be brought to justic... |
prohibits the importation into the United States of any goods, software, technology, or services owned or controlled by the Taliban or from the territory of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban. |
The measures taken in this order will immediately demonstrate to the Taliban the seriousness of our concern over its support for terrorists and terrorist networks, and increase the international isolation of the Taliban. The blocking of the Taliban's property and the other prohibitions imposed under this executive orde... |
Related Topics: Central Asia, Radical Islam, US policy | September 1999 MEQ receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publicat... |
Canada is among the worst globally in wasting food, according to a recent report on the state of food loss and waste in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. |
Canada wastes so much food that a researcher likens it to tossing a quarter of your groceries away when you leave the supermarket. |
In fact, Canada is among the worst globally in wasting food, according to a recent report on the state of food loss and waste in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. |
The report released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation — an environmental agency set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement — found when including all stages of the food supply chain, 396 kilograms of food per capita is wasted in Canada every year. |
That's compared with 415 kilograms in the United States and 249 kilograms in Mexico. |
"That's not just what we throw out from the science experiments in the back of the fridge; that encompasses the food supply chain from the farm all the way through processing, distribution, and food service, retail — the whole food supply chain," Tamara Shulman, one of the authors involved in the report, told The Curre... |
The amount of food loss and waste in North America has a significant environmental and socio-economic impact on North America as well, Shulman told Tremonti. |
"As it relates to greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the life cycle of wasted food, we're talking about 193 million tonnes of greenhouse gas — that's the equivalent of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by 41 million cars driven on the road continuously for a year." |
Food gets automatically tossed, in part, due to overproduction and surplus as well as damaged products and grading specifications, Shulman said. |
But there are ways to expand value-added processing by taking a blemished tomato that doesn't make it to market and having a restaurant use it for a sauce, for example, Shulman said. |
Recycling food waste in this manner is one of the recommendations of the report where imperfect produce is offered at a discount. |
Shulman suggested consumers can have influence by purchasing imperfect produce that is perfectly edible. |
"We can support the businesses that have some of those best practices in place and vote with our dollar." |
Other suggestions in the report to prevent food waste are reducing portion sizes in restaurants and creating quick-fix items to add in buffets to avoid over producing, as well as standardized expiry labels. |
"You can make a really strong business case for action," David Donaldson of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation told the Canadian Press. |
Companies can improve how they do business by making changes in their practices, he said. |
Many businesses already have ways to reduce surplus, including donating to food banks, but Shulman said there are always opportunities to find a secondary market. |
It's not just supermarkets and restaurants that are culprits to food waste, humans play a significant role too, Shulman said. |
According to the report, the average Canadian consumer throws out an estimated 170 kilograms of food a year. |
"When you walk out of a grocery store, if you've got four bags of groceries you may as well just drop one in the parking lot — consumers waste up to 40 per cent," Shulman said. |
Last month, a grocery store in the Netherlands started selling a range of products made out of food that would have otherwise been destined for the garbage. |
The initiative — roughly translated as "Waste is Delicious" — helps startups and entrepreneurs make and sell products, like soup, soap and even beer, out of food waste. |
The soap incorporates coffee grinds combined with citrus peels; apple cider is made with C-grade fruits and the stale bread makes the beer. |
Pieter Goudswaard, one of the project's coordinators, told Tremonti about a grocery store experiment in which straight cucumbers were swapped with "wonky shaped ones." |
"They sell as well as the straight ones, which kind of takes away one of the prejudices that you can't sell curved cucumbers — yes, you can," he said. |
Testing people's tolerance for "unusual" food; food that isn't standard for consumers is just one of the awareness opportunities the project hopes to continue, Goudswaard said. |
"We try to be the positive example on how things can be done different." |
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this page, which includes research by Monica Labarge on how to reduce food waste from a consumer level. |
This segment was produced by The Current's Geoff Turner and Alison Masemann. |
ROBIN VAN PERSIE will spearhead Manchester United's attack in tonight's Premier League Under-21 clash at Fulham. |
The Dutchman is fighting his way back to full fitness after an ankle injury sustained in mid-February. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.