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☆ Voiceitt’s AI-powered tech could help people with speech impairments to work remotely
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-23 | by ( Nadia Leigh-Hewitson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

For people with non-standard speech, it can happen in nearly every interaction with this kind of technology — Israeli company Voiceitt aims to change that. By using personalized voice models, its AI-powered speech recognition system helps people with speech impairments, caused by conditions like cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s, Down Syndrome or stroke, communicate more effectively with both people and digital devices. For Voiceitt co-founder Sara Smolley, facilitating speech recognition for non-standard speech patterns is a personal mission. “By the time I was born, she had lost most of her motor capabilities, and her speech was impacted.”Voiceitt was launched as an app in 2021 and operated as a simple vocal translator, converting non-standard speech to audio. Voiceitt has developed integrations with WebEx and ChatGPT, along with a Google Chrome extension, which convert non-standard speech to captions shown on the screen.

Persons: CNN — You’ve, Sara Smolley, “, ”, Voiceitt, Smolley, ” Smolley, Colin Hughes, Hughes, ” Hughes, it’s anonymized Organizations: CNN, Microsoft, University of Illinois ’ Beckman Institute, Advanced Science, Technology, Apple, Union

☆ Teacher Shortages in America Are Holding Gen Z Students Like Me Back
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Vaishnavi Kumbala | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

AdvertisementWhile teachers, students, and parents have all tried their best to make it work, many students still end up with huge learning gaps. Teacher shortages tend to be framed as a workplace problem: We just need to incentivize and support teachers better. AdvertisementWhen teacher shortages compound, some students just stop showing up. Even before COVID, students struggled to remember concepts they learned in a previous course — but the teacher shortages have exacerbated the problem. If America doesn't address its teacher shortages today, it will be left with a worse, less educated tomorrow.

Persons: STAFF04201, I've, bode, Sarah, Richard Ingersoll, Ingersoll Organizations: Kansas State University, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Progress, Organization, Economic Cooperation, Development, US, America, Harvard University Center for Education Policy Research, Stanford University, Brookings Institution, National Center for Education Statistics, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Vogue, The New York Times, The New Orleans Times Locations: New Orleans, —, Spanish, Rome, Orleans, Louisiana

☆ Opinion: Three ways to help millennials overcome the cost of living crisis
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Opinion Jill Filipovic | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

It’s a decline not seen around the rest of the developed world, where higher education is expanding. Provide universal low-cost child careFrom my vantage point, the single highest barrier to Millennial economic stability is child care. The reasons behind that are complex, but cost is certainly among them: The United States has some of the highest child care costs in the world. Affordable, high-quality, universal child care helps mothers, and particularly low-income mothers, to stay in the workforce, which pays dividends for their families. Child care programs help to prepare kids for school and may keep them more active and socially engaged.

Persons: Jill Filipovic, CNN —, haven’t, We’ve, ’, Z, Gen Zers, isn’t, Millennials, — Organizations: Twitter, CNN, Boomers, American Boomers, Ivy League, OECD Locations: New York, Europe, States, tony

☆ Scientists made tiny living 'robots' from human cells that may one day help treat diseases
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Polly Thompson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Scientists from Tufts and Harvard created microscopic robots from human cells. AdvertisementScientists have created tiny biological "robots" from lung cells that they hope could one day travel around our bodies, regenerating damaged tissues and treating disease. Their research, published Thursday in the journal Advanced Science, raises new questions about how human cells assemble and work together. The same research team had previously created similar tiny robots, or xenobots, from cells sourced from embryos of the African clawed frog. AdvertisementAlhough they're created from human cells, Levin said the anthrobots didn't have a full life cycle and so aren't considered as fully-fledged organisms.

Persons: —, TuftsNow, Michael Levin, they're, Levin Organizations: Tufts, Harvard, Service, CNN, US Food and Drug Administration

☆ Scientists create tiny living robots from human cells
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Scientists have created tiny living robots from human cells that can move around in a lab dish and may one day be able to help heal wounds or damaged tissue, according to a new study. The scientists used adult human cells from the trachea, or windpipe, from anonymous donors of different ages and sexes. Earlier studies had also shown that the cells can form organoids — clumps of cells widely used for research. “Nothing happened on day one, day two, day four or five, but as biology usually does, around day seven, there was a rapid transition,” she said. They are not made from human embryos, research that is tightly restricted, or genetically modified in any way, he said.

Persons: Harvard University’s, ”, Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush, “, Levin, Gizem Gumuskaya, Gumuskaya, Falk Tauber, Tufts University Tauber Organizations: CNN —, Tufts University, Harvard, Harvard University’s Wyss, Tufts ’ School of Arts & Sciences, Tufts, Freiburg Center, Interactive Materials, Bioinspired Technologies, University of Freiburg Locations: “, Germany, —

☆ North Korea's Kim vows to 'faithfully' fulfil agreements made with Russia's Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny ?osmodrome in the Amur Oblast of the Far East Region, Russia, September 13, 2023 in this image released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency. Kim took a rare trip to Russia last month during which he invited Putin to Pyongyang and discussed military cooperation, including over North Korea's satellite programme, and the war in Ukraine. He was referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 'FIRST TARGET OF DESTRUCTION'Russia and North Korea have been seeking to forge closer ties in the face of what they see as a hostile and aggressive U.S.-led Western camp. Those assets would be "the first targets of destruction" if signs of any attack on North Korea were detected, it said, adding the country has already enacted "the policy of nuclear force which allowed the necessary procedures of action."

Persons: Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Sergei Lavrov, Kim, Putin, Lavrov, KCNA, Choe Son Hui, Pyongyang's, Hyonhee Shin, Diane Craft, Sandra Maler Organizations: North, Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, REUTERS, Rights, Russian, DPRK, Democratic People's, North Korean Foreign, U.S, Thomson Locations: Amur Oblast, East Region, Russia, Rights SEOUL, Pyongyang, Ukraine, North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North, Northeast Asian, Seoul, Washington, Moscow, Japan, U.S, ' Republic of Korea, DPRK, South Korea

Counting nose hairs in cadavers, repurposing dead spiders and explaining why scientists lick rocks, are among the winning achievements in this year's Ig Nobels, the prize for humorous scientific feats, organizers announced Thursday. The 33rd annual prize ceremony was a prerecorded online event, as it has been since the coronavirus pandemic, instead of the past live ceremonies at Harvard University. Among the winners was Jan Zalasiewicz of Poland who earned the chemistry and geology prize for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks. “Licking the rock, of course, is part of the geologist’s and palaeontologist’s armoury of tried-and-much-tested techniques used to help survive in the field,” Zalasiewicz wrote in The Palaeontological Association newsletter in 2017. “Each winner (or winning team) has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK,” according to the “Annals of Improbable Research” website.

Persons: Jan Zalasiewicz, ” Zalasiewicz, ___ Rathke Organizations: Harvard University, Palaeontological Association, United States, Harvard, Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, Radcliffe Society of Physics Locations: Poland, Licking, India, China, Malaysia, Marshfield , Vermont

☆ Belmont Park: Trainer Mark A. Henning wants answers after two horses die
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The trainer of two horses that died at Belmont Park – home of the Belmont Stakes – said he has been left “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the news. In the first race at Belmont Park on Sunday, Mashnee Girl fell near the quarter pole, according to industry-owned database Equibase, before being euthanized on the track. The horse suffered an injury leaving the backstretch, was pulled up, and euthanized on the grass track, according to Equibase. I spoke to both of them and they both told me how well the horses were travelling under them, before taking a tragic bad step.”At Belmont Park, New York, four horses died while racing or training in the period from May 13 to Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. We will continue to grieve and pray over the loss of these two beautiful horses.”

Persons: –, “, ”, Mark, Hennig, Mashnee, Excursionniste, ” Hennig, Pat McKenna, Kathy Guillermo, NYRA Organizations: CNN, Belmont, Arcangelo, ” New York Racing Association, Kentucky Derby, PETA Locations: Belmont, ”, Belmont Park , New York, Churchill Downs

☆ Horses die in consecutive races at Belmont Park, following history-making event
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( David K. Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

ELMONT, NEW YORK - JUNE 10: Arcangelo with Javier Castellano up wins the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10, 2023 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)Horses died in consecutive races at Belmont Park, dealing more untimely blows to the beleaguered sport which had little time to celebrate of its most uplifting events of the year. "Two dead Thoroughbreds in two days with the same trainer on the same track means one thing: Belmont Park is failing to protect horses," PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said in a statement. Including Mashnee Girl and Excursionniste, four horses have died during races at Belmont Park's spring/summer meet, which began on May 4 and has encompassed 1,670 horses starting in 214 races, according to McKenna. Saturday's Belmont Stakes capped a tumultuous five weeks of racing that normally shines a bright light on the sport of kings.

Persons: Javier Castellano, Al Bello, Mark Hennig, Patrick McKenna, Hennig, Excursionniste, Arcangelo, Belmont, Kathy Guillermo, McKenna, Havnameltdown, Chick Lang Organizations: Belmont Park, York Racing, NBC News, Belmont, Triple, PETA, Kentucky Derby, National Treasure, Preakness Locations: Belmont, Elmont , New York, Belmont Park, New York City, Jena, Churchill Downs, Baltimore

☆ Amazon just poached a longtime Meta veteran to lead its growing adtech division
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Advertising has hired Kelly MacLean as its VP of its ad buying platform. MacLean, who joined Amazon late last month, previously spent more than 11 years at Meta. Amazon Advertising has poached a longtime Meta executive to lead a key adtech division, Insider has learned. The Amazon DSP uses automation to let advertisers buy ads on Amazon properties like Amazon.com, Twitch, and IMDb, as well as elsewhere on the web. The Amazon DSP recently underwent an overhaul that was 18 months in the making to improve its machine-learning and predictive algorithms.

☆ Japan says it has 'legal right' to destroy any foreign balloon in its airspace
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Julian Ryall | South China Morning Post | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Japan's defence minister says it would have the legal right to destroy any balloon that enters its domestic airspace. Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said on Tuesday under existing laws, Japan would have the legal right to destroy any balloon that intrudes into its domestic airspace. "Intrusions into Japan's territorial airspace constitute a violation, even if it is a balloon," the Yomiuri newspaper quoted Isozaki as saying. In the future, it may be possible to use lasers or other technology to bring a balloon to earth, he suggested. Japan uses balloons for weather observations, but the prevailing winds mean that they typically travel east, over the Pacific, rather than over mainland Asia.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department will continue to deny three U.S.-based firms' export privileges, the government announced on Thursday, saying the companies had illegally exported satellite, rocket and defense technology to China. Since June, the Commerce Department found additional U.S. companies that worked with the firms, involving the unlicensed export to China of firearm component and space technology details. The new order denies the companies' export privileges for another 180 days, and gives notice to other companies to avoid doing business with them. The department did not identify the companies who had contracted with the North Carolina firms. But, according to the department's June order, a U.S. aerospace and global defense technology company notified the department in February 2020 of a third-party supplier's unauthorized export of controlled satellite technology.

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