Sunday, 17 November, 2019

Day: September 1, 2018

Fixing Our Privacy Settings

Fixing Our Privacy Settings

Posted on Saturday, 1 September, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

Alexa is my saviour. The digital voice assistant from Amazon hears me shoulder my way into the back kitchen door, arms loaded with bags and keys jangling from a pinkie. “Alexa, turn on the lights!” I command with a little desperation. Thanks, Alexa, I think as the lights blink on

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Great Basin National Park

Great Basin National Park

Posted on Saturday, 1 September, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

An Ice Age landscape of glacier-carved peaks rises more than a mile from the desert floor. The park takes its name from the vast region that extends east from California’s Sierra Nevada to Utah’s Wasatch Range, and from southern Oregon to southern Nevada, encompassing most of Nevada and western Utah.

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The Deadly Consequences Of Unpredictable Code As a child, mathematics was Cathy O’Neil’s passion: “math provided a neat refuge from the messiness of the real world.” After a stint in academia she began working for a hedge fund (“the smuggest of the players on Wall Street”) just before the 2008 crash. That’s when she recognised the danger posed by mathematical models or, as she neatly terms them in this fascinating book, Weapons of Math Destruction. Her main point is that predictive models are never neutral but reflect the goals and ideology of those who create them. They also tend to load the dice against poor people, reinforcing inequality in society. From calculating university rankings or credit ratings and processing job applications, to deciding what advertising you see online or what stories appear in your Facebook news feed, algorithms play an increasingly important role in our lives. Even the police use big data to help them predict where crimes may occur. The problem, as O’Neil so eloquently demonstrates, is that these algorithms are often incapable of reflecting the real world: “mathematical models should be our tools, not our masters.” Credit: P.D. Smith for The Guardian, 5 July 2017. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy is published by Penguin. Read Article Here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/29/coding-algorithms-frankenalgos-program-danger

The Deadly Consequences Of Unpredictable Code

Posted on Saturday, 1 September, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

As a child, mathematics was Cathy O’Neil’s passion: “math provided a neat refuge from the messiness of the real world.” After a stint in academia, she began working for a hedge fund (“the smuggest of the players on Wall Street”) just before the 2008 crash. That’s when she recognised the

Continue reading

Trade Of Coastal Sand Damaging Wildlife Of Poorer Nations

Trade Of Coastal Sand Damaging Wildlife Of Poorer Nations

Posted on Saturday, 1 September, 2018 by Zheluo Cai

The secretive trade of coastal sand to wealthy countries such as China is seriously damaging the wildlife of poorer nations whose resources are being plundered, according to a new study. Sand and gravel are the most extracted groups of materials worldwide after water, with sand used in the concrete and asphalt

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Watch - Dengue in Asia and the Pacific Islands Wednesday, 30 October, 2019
Dengue is a risk in many parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands. Some countries are reporting increased numbers of cases of the disease. Travelers to Asia and the Pacific Islands can protect themselves by preventing mosquito bites.
Alert - Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo Tuesday, 29 October, 2019
There is an outbreak of Ebola in the North Kivu (Kivu Nord) and Ituri provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Hong Kong - Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution Thursday, 14 November, 2019
Exercise increased caution in Hong Kong due to civil unrest. Country Summary: Since June 2019, large scale and smaller political demonstrations have taken place in various areas of Hong Kong, including MTR stations, shopping malls, universities, and at Hong Kong International airport. While many demonstrations have been peaceful, some have resulted in violent confrontations between protesters […]
Tajikistan - Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution Wednesday, 13 November, 2019
Exercise increased caution in Tajikistan due to terrorism. Country Summary: In 2018, two U.S. citizens were killed in a terrorist attack in Danghara province. Terrorists may target various places, such as residential areas, clubs and restaurants, places of worship, hotels, schools, outdoor recreation events, and other venues, although Government of Tajikistan facilities remain the […]

THE FLAG OF TAJIKISTAN: It is adopted in November 1992. The red represents the unity of the nation, as well as victory and sunrise. The white, purity, morality, the snow and ice of the mountains, and cotton. The green, the bountiful generosity of nature, fertile valleys, the religion of Islam, and the celebration of Novruz. The crown represents the Tajik people. The seven stars due to the significance of the number seven in Tajik traditional legends: he heavens feature seven mountains and seven orchard gardens with a star shining above each mountain.