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☆ Google is getting worse as it loses its fight against search engine spam
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-21 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewIt appears to be true: Search engines like Google are getting worse. They spent a year analyzing almost 7,400 of these queries on three search engines: Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Their baseline finding was that search engines have "significant problems" with affiliate links — paid-for links that refer a customer to a seller. While the number of product reviews online that contain affiliate links isn't huge, the researchers said these reviews are overrepresented in search engine results. And as content generated by AI continues to flood the internet, the researchers said search engine results are likely to get worse.

Persons: —, Bevendorff Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Leipzig University Locations: Germany

☆ Planet warming pollution made Libya flooding up to 50 times more likely, scientists find
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The World Weather Attribution initiative – a team of scientists that analyze the role of climate change in the aftermath of extreme weather events – found planet-warming pollution made the deadly rainfall in Libya up to 50 times more likely to occur and 50% worse. They also found the extreme rainfall that hit Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria was made up to 10 times more likely. Extreme rainfall has swept across large parts of the Mediterranean region since the start of the month. They found in Libya, not only did climate change make the extreme rainfall up to 50 times more likely, it also made it up to 50% more intense. The kind of extreme rainfall this region experienced is likely to happen around once every 10 years, according to the report.

Persons: Storm Daniel, Palamas, Angelos Tzortzinis, Konstantinos Tsakalidis, Zohra Bensemra, Maja Vahlberg, ” Friederike Otto, Karsten Haustein, ”, Jasper Knight Organizations: CNN, Getty, WWA, Reuters, Climate, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, Leipzig University, University of Locations: Libya, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain, Karditsa, AFP, Larissa, Derna, Germany, Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Relatives of those still missing told CNN they are terrified. Here’s what we know so far:Where did the flood hit? Morgues are stacked to capacity and dead bodies have been left on the sidewalks outside, Osama Aly, spokesperson for the Emergency and Ambulance Service in Libya, told CNN Tuesday. Analysts have said that climate forecasts gave warnings days before the storm hit Libya, but that authorities in the east did not act quickly enough. Tamer Ramadan, head of international Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Libya, told CNN Tuesday that the issue of rival governments in Libya doesn’t affect their operations.

Persons: “, Areej’s, Emad Milad, ” Milad, Osama Aly, Muammar Gaddafi, Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, Khalifa Haftar, Osama Hamad, Esam Omran, Reuters Derna, Ahmed Al, Mismari, ” Al, Al, Tamer Ramadan, ”, Jamal Alkomaty, Daniel, ” Karsten Haustein Organizations: CNN —, Authorities, United Nations ’ International Organization for Migration, CNN, Emergency, Ambulance Service, UN, of National Unity, GNU, Libyan National Army, Reuters, Arabiya, Federation of Red, Red Crescent Societies, Leipzig University, Science Media Center Locations: Derna, Libya, Tobruk, Benghazi, NATO, Tripoli, Egypt, UAE, Turkey, Italy, Algeria, Libya’s, Greece, Germany

REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File PhotoSummaryCompanies Breaks previous record set in July 2019, by 0.2CHeatwaves searing Europe, North America and ChinaEarth may not have been this hot in 120,000 years - studyJuly 27 (Reuters) - July 2023 is set to upend previous heat benchmarks, U.N. Secretary-general António Guterres said on Thursday after scientists said it was on track to be the world's hottest month on record. Short of a mini-Ice Age over the next days, July 2023 will shatter records across the board," Guterres said in New York. It is statistically robust," said Piers Forster, a climate scientist at Leeds University in Britain. July is traditionally the hottest month of the year, and the EU said it did not project August would surpass the record set this month. However, scientists expect 2023 or 2024 will end up as the hottest year in the record books, surpassing 2016.

Persons: Guglielmo Mangiapane, 0.2C, António Guterres, Guterres, Karsten Haustein, Michael Mann, Haustein, Piers Forster, Friederike Otto, El Nino, “, Gloria Dickie, Ali Withers, David Stanway, Mark Heinrich, Alison Williams Organizations: REUTERS, Meteorological Organization, WMO, Germany's Leipzig University, University of Pennsylvania, Southern, Leeds University, Grantham Institute, El Nino, El, Thomson Locations: Italy, Rome, Europe, North America, China, New York, Rhodes, U.S, Leipzig, Britain, U.S ., California, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Sicily, Florida, Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, London, Pacific, EU, London , Ontario, Copenhagen, Singapore

☆ Dangerous US heat wave pushes eastward, capping globe's record July
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Mike BlakeCHICAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - An intensifying heat wave descended on the eastern United States on Thursday, prompting warnings about the dangers presented by the sweltering heat and humidity in the final days of a record-smashing July around the world. The nation's capital was expected to see the heat index, a measure of what the temperature feels like to the human body, reach 107 degrees F (41.7 C). The heat index could reach 103 degrees F (39.4 C) on Friday in the most populous U.S. city. June 2023 was the hottest on record in the United States, dating back to 1850. It also was the 47th consecutive June and the 532nd consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average, according to the weather service.

Persons: Mike Blake CHICAGO, Muriel Bowser, Ashwin Vasan, Brendan O'Brien, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Cardiff State Beach, REUTERS, National Weather Service, Washington D.C, Washington, Twitter, Germany's Leipzig University, Union, U.S, Thomson Locations: Encinitas , California, U.S, United States, New York City, Washington, Philadelphia, York City, Greece, China, Phoenix , Arizona, Chicago

☆ What do AI art generators think a CEO looks like? Most of the time a white guy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

New research suggests that AI image generators reflect racial and gender bias in their outputs. AI tool DALL-E 2 was found to link white men with 'CEO' or 'director' 97% of the time. The study found 97% of DALL-E 2's images of positions of authority — like "CEO" or "director" — depicted white men. These biases can have real-world consequences now that image companies are launching their own generative AI tools, per the researchers. Even though AI companies have made efforts to "debias" their tools, "they have yet to be extensively tested," Luccioni said.

☆ With travel nurses making $150 an hour, hospital systems are forced to innovate
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Bertha Coombs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

She set her sights on a job at St. Peter's Health Partners hospital in Albany, New York, and landed a position in the same maternity ward where she was born. Staff shortagesThe pandemic has exacerbated nursing staff shortages and resulted in contract nursing rates surging during successive waves of Covid infections. That amounted to three times the national average for full-time staff nurses. As hospitals have become increasingly reliant on contract nurses, travel nurse expenditures have risen more than 250% since the start of the pandemic. With more than 30,000 registered nurses in its system, nearly 1 in 10 of Trinity's nurses currently work through First Choice.

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