B.A TECH

Finest Purchase has revealed a curious method to money in on worldwide shortages and transport delays: subscriptions. This week, the corporate introduced a $200-a-year program that guarantees shoppers decrease costs and unique entry to hard-to-find gadgets. Whereas the brand new membership additionally contains 24/7 tech assist and free transport, the thought of assured product availability could be notably interesting to consumers fearful that their orders gained’t arrive in time for the vacations.

The brand new Finest Purchase service is a stark reminder that retailers don’t anticipate that provide chain points, together with the worldwide semiconductor chip scarcity, are going away anytime quickly. In reality, it seems like they’re getting worse. A provide crunch for petrochemicals, that are utilized in all the things from paint to plastics, has raised the costs on all types of merchandise. In the meantime, an rising vitality crunch in China has led to energy cuts which

In her testimony, Haugen additionally repeatedly emphasised how these phenomena are far worse in areas that don’t converse English due to Fb’s uneven protection of various languages.

“Within the case of Ethiopia there are 100 million individuals and 6 languages. Fb solely helps two of these languages for integrity techniques,” she stated. “This technique of specializing in language-specific, content-specific techniques for AI to save lots of us is doomed to fail.”

She continued: “So investing in non-content-based methods to gradual the platform down not solely protects our freedom of speech, it protects individuals’s lives.”

I discover this extra in a distinct article from earlier this yr on the constraints of huge language fashions, or LLMs:

Regardless of LLMs having these linguistic deficiencies, Fb depends closely on them to automate its content material moderation globally. When the conflict in Tigray[, Ethiopia] first broke out in November, [AI ethics researcher Timnit] Gebru

On Sunday night, a former Fb worker who has beforehand revealed damning inner paperwork concerning the firm got here ahead on 60 Minutes to disclose her id.

Frances Haugen, a former product supervisor on Fb’s civic integrity workforce, shared paperwork that had been the premise of an explosive collection of articles within the Wall Avenue Journal. The studies revealed that the corporate knew its merchandise could cause significant hurt — together with negatively impacting the psychological well being of teenagers — however it nonetheless has not made main modifications to repair such issues.

“There have been conflicts of curiosity between what was good for the general public and what was good for Fb. And Fb, time and again, selected to optimize for its personal pursuits, like making more cash,” mentioned Haugen within the 60 Minutes interview on Sunday.

The worker additionally shared new allegations — not beforehand coated within the

We’re protecting monitor of the covid vaccine apps rolling out within the US and a number of the methods folks can now show they’re vaccinated. However there’s loads of conflicting and complicated data, and loads of builders are vying to offer the go-to resolution. Right here, we’ve gathered solutions to some frequent questions.

The fundamentals

What’s a digital vaccine credential? Is it the identical as a vaccine passport? 

Digital vaccine credentials are a solution to present you’ve been vaccinated towards covid by utilizing an app in your telephone (as a substitute of a paper document). States have all kinds of insurance policies and plans associated to those sorts of credentials, that are additionally typically generally known as vaccine passports.

Some states have their very own apps for instances that vaccine proof is required, similar to New York’s Excelsior Move, New Jersey’s Docket, and myColorado. Louisiana’s LA Pockets app, which additionally

For the handfuls of survivors who got here ahead, the R. Kelly verdict was three a long time within the making: After a six-week trial, the R&B singer was discovered responsible on 9 counts of intercourse trafficking and racketeering on Monday. The 54-year-old musician, lengthy accused of disturbing allegations of sexual abuse and harassment, was being held accountable.

“Thank God they acquired it proper this time,” Stephanie Edwards, who tried for 20 years to persuade the world that R. Kelly raped her niece, instructed The Reduce.

It took the jury simply 9 hours to deliberate after prosecutors, with the assistance of 45 witnesses, untangled an online of abuse that focused Black ladies and women as younger as 13 and teenage boys. The harrowing tales of those survivors — and their bravery to share them — helped result in the R&B celebrity’s conviction after years of evasion.

One lady testified that

“There’s most likely nothing we might do this has a much bigger impact on shaving peak temperatures over the subsequent few many years than eradicating methane,” says Rob Jackson, a researcher at Stanford and a coauthor of each research.

Methane is comparatively scarce: carbon dioxide is about 200 instances extra concentrated within the environment. Nonetheless, it has contributed round 30% of complete world warming to this point, or about 0.5 ˚C, based on a latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change. Although its lifetime within the environment is just about 10 years, over brief time frames it’s about 86 instances as highly effective a greenhouse gasoline as carbon dioxide.

“Methane goes to go away, however within the meantime, it’s going to trigger issues,” says Vaishali Naik, an atmospheric scientist for the US Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Due to its brief lifetime, if methane emissions