Lifestyle

Hitachi reveals AI security software

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) — Japanese electronics giant Hitachi Ltd is developing software equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance security screenings at large-scale venues including shopping malls and sports stadiums. The software, displayed on three large television screens at a Hitachi research centre in Tokyo, uses artificial intelligence to identify at least 100 different characteristics of dozens of people walking in various places, including train stations and intersections. Each person is highlighted in a green […]

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German scientists create world’s largest disclosed synthetic diamond

AUGSBURG, Germany (Reuters)   —  German scientists say they have created the world’s largest disclosed synthetic diamond. Researchers at Ausgburg University have developed a process for producing synthetic diamonds through chemical vapour deposition at around one tenth of atmospheric pressure. Hydrocarbon molecules are deposited on an iridium base and the diamond “wafer” grows layer by layer. Twenty six years after the research began in 1991, the scientists in Augsburg have created a single 155 carat […]

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US may widen ban of carry-on computers on planes

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States may soon expand its ban on air passengers carrying computers on board on US-bound flights, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Wednesday. The threat of a terror group trying to blow up an aircraft mid-flight is constant, he told a Senate hearing on border security, suggesting that the current ban might not have gone far enough. “It’s real, I think it’s getting realer,” he said of the […]

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Twitter drops egg icon in battle with internet ‘trolls’

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — An egg icon that for years marked profiles of new Twitter users was gone Monday, a victim of “trolls” who often hid behind them to launch anonymous online attacks. For seven years, anyone who created a Twitter account automatically got an egg icon as their profile picture, which they were then invited to customize with images of their own. “This was a playful way to reference how eggs hatch […]

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Tired of abuse, Pakistani feminists ride bikes to claim public space

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) — Dozens of women in Pakistan took part in female-only bike races in major cities on Sunday (April 2), in an event organized to challenge male dominance of public spaces in the country. The bike race was one of many events organized in the last few years by Girls at Dhabas – the name given to roadside restaurants in Pakistan – to promote female participation in public events, fight restrictions faced by […]

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Patek Philippe’s most important watch previewed in Hong Kong

HONG KONG, China (Reuters) — The most complicated Patek Philippe watch has been previewed at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong ahead of its auction in Geneva. With 33 complications, the Calibre 89 is a leader in innovation and importance. After research began in 1980, Patek Philippe unveiled the Calibre 89 in 1989 to mark their 150th anniversary. The horological masterwork is one of the most important watches ever to be offered at auction according to Sotheby’s, […]

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Stylish dogs rule the catwalks of Shanghai’s streets

SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Poodles in pink dresses, Pekinese wearing blouses, a Pomeranian in sneakers and a raincoat — Shanghai’s sidewalks can sometimes seem like fashion catwalks gone to the dogs. Chinese adore their pet canines, often dressing them up in eye-catching outfits, and nowhere are such furry fashionistas more conspicuous than in China’s commercial hub. “Pet owners like to dress up their pets, the way they would their own children,” said a woman surnamed […]

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Twitter makes room for more characters in tweets

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Twitter on Thursday began rolling out changes to let people pack more into tweets, subtracting from the character count names of those being replied to in posts. The latest software modification at the one-to-many messaging service comes about a year after Twitter set out to relax a 140-character limit set due to mobile phone text messaging constraints in place when Twitter launched in 2006. Twitter first announced plans to […]

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Need to get into shape for summer? Eat asparagus, says German farmer

WEITERSTADT, Germany (Reuters) — Asparagus season has started in Germany, kicking off an annual frenzy in which restaurants dedicate entire menus to the vegetable and Germans rush to buy bundles of spears from the temporary stalls which appear each spring. In the state of Hesse, a burst of intense sunshine has led to the harvest beginning several weeks earlier than last year, according to local farmer Peter Lipp. He’s hoping for a bumper crop between […]

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Wall Street’s ‘Fearless Girl’ statue to stay until 2018

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The popular bronze statue of a young girl staring down a bull on Wall Street will stay in place until March 2018, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. Initially installed on March 7 for one week, the “Fearless Girl” sculpture appeared in media around the world, seen by many as a defiant symbol of women’s rights under the new administration of President Donald Trump, who has bragged […]

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Between the lines: historians put Stalin-era diaries online

by Anna MALPAS Agence France Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Tatiana Panova holds a photograph of her great-grandfather as a solemn-faced student in 1923 in the Soviet Union, around 16 years before he died in a prison camp during the Stalin purges. While Alexander Yakovlev’s death was over half a century before her birth, Panova, 25, has gained a tiny window into his thoughts and life thanks to an aged diary that her family preserved. […]

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Captain Cook 250-year-old waistcoat referred at auction for $575,000 AUD

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) — A waistcoat owned by the British explorer credited with discovering Australia has been referred at an auction for $575,000 AUD ($438,380 USD) in Sydney on Sunday (March 26), not reaching the estimate of $800,000 ($609,920 USD) to $1.1 million ($838,640 USD). The 250-year-old cream silk waistcoat apparently worn by Captain James Cook is a rare auction piece according to Julian Aalders of Aalders Auctions. “This is a once in a lifetime […]

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