- 26 Nov 2018 17:31
#14966831
"The substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse marked a very gloomy milestone in the progress of mankind," -Winston Churchill.
Cyber Monday 2018 is forecast to be the biggest online shopping day in US history
Cyber Monday is expected to generate $7.8 billion in sales, up nearly 18% on last year, according to a new report from Adobe Analytics.
The lofty expectation comes even as shoppers increasingly spread their online holiday shopping over several days.
Black Friday pulled in $6.22 billion in online sales, Adobe Analytics said, according to CNBC, up 23.6% from a year ago. Thanksgiving Day itself has become a big shopping day too, attracting an estimated $3.7 billion in sales.
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Black Friday saw a record of more than $2 billion in sales done through smartphones alone, the Adobe report said, per CNBC.
But even if it does have the US shopping calendar sewn up, Cyber Monday is still second string to the biggest online shopping day in the world.
Cyber Monday is eclipsed by Singles Day, a Chinese shopping event that attracts almost four times the sales volume.
With $30.8 billion made in sales over 24 hours this month from a single company — the e-commerce platform Alibaba — Singles Day celebration is easily the biggest shopping event on earth.
https://www.businessinsider.com/cyber-m ... ry-2018-11
New Studies Show Just How Bad Social Media Is For Mental Health
Some people may be starting to come to grips with the fact that social media isn’t so great for mental health. Others may think that getting on it will give them a boost—but especially depending on how you spend your time on it, you may well feel worse after using. Plenty of studies have found correlations between higher social media use and poorer mental health, including depression, anxiety, feelings of loneliness and isolation, lower self-esteem, and even suicidality.
But two new studies underline this reality by showing not just correlation, but causation—in other words, that tweaking your time on social media actually has measurable effects on mental health
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalt ... a5ccc7af44
FDA Hides Clear Evidence of Cancer Risk & DNA Damage From Wireless Radiation - US Brain Tumor Association.com
NTP Study Provides Enough Evidence for Class 1 Human Carcinogen-Scientists Demand 5G Moratorium
"The $25 million US National Toxicology Program Study has proven again what other studies have shown us that wireless radiation is a Class 1 Human Carcinogen like cigarette smoke and asbestos and should be treated as such. The NTP study proved wireless radiation can cause cancer and it can damage our DNA which can lead to a host of serious diseases. We must warn people and minimize exposure. I along with more than 200 of my colleagues who are expert in the field have called for a moratorium on the roll out of 5G which promises to maximize our exposure to harmful wireless radiation (5Gappeal.eu). Action must be taken to set new safety standards and protect our public's health." Professor Emeritus Anthony Miller MD, FRCP, FRCP(C),FFPH, former Director, National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group and former member World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel on Cancer 2005-2015 (Professor Miller was also former Director Epidemiology Unit National Cancer Institute of Canada; former Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Evaluation of Screening for Cancer; former Chairman Scientific Advisory Committee, Occupational Cancer Research Centre 2009-2017).
Read more: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-release ... 43087.html
Trump Administration’s Strategy on Climate: Try to Bury Its Own Scientific Report
The Trump White House, which has defined itself by a willingness to dismiss scientific findings and propose its own facts, on Friday issued a scientific report that directly contradicts its own climate-change policies.
That sets the stage for a remarkable split-screen political reality in coming years. The administration is widely expected to discount or ignore the report’s detailed findings of the economic strain caused by climate change, even as it continues to cut environmental regulations, while opponents use it to mount legal attacks against the very administration that issued the report.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/clim ... eport.html
Super-smart designer babies could be on offer soon. But is that ethical?
In his new book Blueprint, the psychologist Robert Plomin explains that it is now possible from our individual genome data to make a meaningful prediction about our IQ. When I discussed the topic with Plomin last month, we agreed on the need for urgent discussion of the implications, before genetic selection of embryos for intelligence hits the market. We’re too late. A company called Genomic Prediction, based in New Jersey, has announced that it will offer that service. New Scientist reports that it has already begun talks with American IVF clinics to find customers. They won’t be in short supply.
Before we start imagining a Gattaca-style future of genetic elites and underclasses, there’s some context needed. The company says it is only offering such testing to spot embryos with an IQ low enough to be classed as a disability, and won’t conduct analyses for high IQ. But the technology the company is using will permit that in principle, and co-founder Stephen Hsu, who has long advocated for the prediction of traits from genes, is quoted as saying: “If we don’t do it, some other company will.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... telligence
Samsung is building software to control your TV with your brain
The tech is aimed at people with physical disabilities. Testing is set to start in Swiss hospitals early next year.
Samsung has created smart TV software you can control with your brainwaves.
Read more: https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-is-ma ... onference/
We need to be mindful as we develop thought-reading tech
Mass thought control may not be on the cards just yet, but mind-reading tech is developing fast. We need to be prepared
HOWEVER much technology knows about you – and you would be surprised how much it does (see “I exposed how firms and politicians can manipulate us online”) – there is one firewall that it can’t penetrate: your skull. Unless you choose to share your thoughts, they remain private.
But for how much longer? Increasingly, a combination of brain scanning and artificial intelligence is opening the black box, gathering signals from deep inside the mind and reverse-engineering them to recreate thoughts. For now, the technology is limited to vision – working out what somebody is looking at from their brain activity (see “Mind-reading AI uses brain scans to guess what you’re looking at”) – but in principle there appears no reason why the entire contents of our minds couldn’t be revealed.
This line of research inevitably raises fears about the ultimate invasion of privacy: mind reading. It is not difficult to imagine some sort of device that can simply be pointed at somebody’s head to extract their thoughts.
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg ... ding-tech/
Close encounters with ∞Infinity∞
"So much joy I cry, so much pain I laugh."
The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.
Remember, you need more than one note to make beautiful music.
Love is the missing link!
"So much joy I cry, so much pain I laugh."
The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.
Remember, you need more than one note to make beautiful music.
Love is the missing link!