First AI Flight Attendant

Would you fly AI?


Qatar Airways is adding virtual flight attendants as “digital human cabin crew” to assist customers at airports and onboard planes.

Named Sama 2.0, the female faux staffer was rolled out at this week’s massive ITB Berlin trade show. The airline demonstrated that a customer can speak into one’s phone with Sama answering on a large kiosk-like screen, video shows.

The airline claims that the virtual cabin crew member — also accessible through its metaverse, called the Qverse, and the Qatar app — is the first AI-powered customer assistance of its kind.    READ MORE...

Italian Town Cannot Find Home Buyers

A national law has created a huge hurdle for offloading some historic, and very cheap, houses.

In central Italy’s medieval town of Patrica, a strategy to breathe new life into empty properties has hit a possibly insurmountable snafu.

Patrica recently adopted a plan that has seen success in other depopulated Italian areas: Selling off its deserted abodes for a single euro each — about $1.08 in today’s American currency — to those interested for a fixer-upper opportunity.

It may seem unique and unusual, but these opportunities have popped up in other parts of Italy in the past several years, all in an effort to repopulate the regions where these residences stand.     READ MORE...

Electric Cars Release Toxic Emissions

Electric vehicles release more toxic particles into the atmosphere and are worse for the environment than their gas-powered counterparts, according to a resurfaced study.

The study, published by emissions data firm Emission Analytics, was released in 2022 but has attracted a wave of attention this week after being cited in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Sunday.

It found that brakes and tires on EVs release 1,850 times more particle pollution compared to modern tailpipes, which have “efficient” exhaust filters, bringing gas-powered vehicles’ emissions to new lows.

Today, most vehicle-related pollution comes from tire wear.

As heavy cars drive on light-duty tires — most often made with synthetic rubber made from crude oil and other fillers and additives — they deteriorate and release harmful chemicals into the air, according to Emission Analytics.   READ MORE...

Husband Rented Out

He’s her husband, but can be your handyman.

A mother of three rents her hubby out to other women to do odd jobs for extra cash — and it turns out business is booming.

Laura Young’s spouse James has skills in general DIY, painting, decorating, tiling and carpet laying, so they’ve created a lucrative handyman business called “Rent My Handy Husband.”

James, 42, is currently booked up for the month of November on jobs, for which he charges $44 per hour and about $280 for a day rate. Their business has become so popular, they said, that they even had to turn down jobs.

“I never expected it to take off as much as it has,” Laura told Southwest News Service.

James works on the labor side of the job while Laura runs the social media accounts as well as their website.

James has been doing a variety of jobs so far, like putting up a TV and running up curtains.

Young said she first got the idea from a podcast that spoke about a man making a living putting furniture together for other people.  READ MORE...

Tattoos Prevent Employment

A woman claims she can’t secure a job after her tattoo “addiction” took over her body.

Covered in head-to-toe ink, Melissa Sloan, 45, from Wales has “lost count” of how many pieces of body art she has, saying she even covers up old tattoos with new ones due to a lack of bodily real estate.

“I’ve got too many tattoos now, too many to count. I’ve gone over ones I’ve already had,” she told the Mirror. “I’ll never stop, I tattooed over them because I’d ran out of space.”

Her passion for tattoos has soiled her career prospects, as many jobs “won’t have” her. While she’s cleaned toilets before, it didn’t last very long, but she would gladly “go and work” if someone offered her a position.  READ MORE...

Refusing to Remove Shipping Containers

The Grand Canyon State won’t be contained.

​Arizona is balking at a White House demand to remove shipping containers the state’s Republican governor ordered double-stacked along the Mexico border because they were not cleared for use on federal land.

The US Bureau of Reclamation informed state officials ​last week that using the containers to plug gaps in the border wall near Yuma violates federal law — the latest dispute between the Biden White House and Republican-led border states over the ongoing migration crisis.

Gov. Doug Ducey, expressing frustration at President Biden’s failure to address immigration, ordered the building of a border wall by stacking more than 100 22-feet-high shipping containers on top of one another earlier this summer.  READ MORE...

OPEC+ Turned Down Biden's Request

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration admitted Thursday it had asked Saudi Arabia to delay the OPEC+ vote to cut oil production until the cartel’s next meeting – after the midterm elections.

“We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

The Riyadh-led group of oil producers’ next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 4, according to the OPEC website.

Kirby also alleged that other OPEC member nations “communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction.”

The White House was responding to a Wednesday night statement from the Saudi foreign ministry hitting back at Washington’s accusation that it had taken sides with Russia in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.  READ MORE...

Microsoft Faces Scrutiny

Microsoft is nearing a target to employ more than 10,000 workers in China — doubling down on a massive investment in the country despite rising political tensions with the US.

In a little-noticed, Chinese-language WeChat post last week, Microsoft revealed that it has about 9,000 employees in China and expects that number to top 10,000 over the next year. Microsoft appears to not have made the announcement in any English-language media.

“Microsoft will continue to deepen the fertile ground for scientific research, solidly promote the development of computer science and technology applications locally and globally, help to cultivate digital talents and join hands with Chinese innovation to go global,” Microsoft senior vice president Wang Yongdong wrote, according to a translated version of the post.

Microsoft’s new hires — capping three decades of expansion in the Chinese market — put the tech giant in stark contrast to rivals Google and Meta, which appear to have largely abandoned the country in recent years as tensions have soared between Washington and Beijing. US lawmakers from both parties have become increasingly wary of American tech firms doing business in China.  READ MORE...

Hanging On By Its Fingernails

Thwaites Glacier — otherwise known as the “Doomsday glacier,” due to the fact it could raise the sea level by several feet — is allegedly hanging on “by its fingernails.”

Scientists discovered that the glacier’s underwater base has been eroding due to the increase in the Earth’s temperature, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience.

“Thwaites is really holding on today by its fingernails,” said Robert Larter, a marine geophysicist who co-authored the study.

“And we should expect to see big changes over small timescales in the future — even from one year to the next — once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed.”

West Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is roughly the size of Florida and could potentially raise the sea level should it fall into the ocean, which scientists predicted could happen within the next three years. NASA said the Amundsen Sea region, which is “only a fraction of the whole West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” would “raise global sea level by about 16 feet (5 meters).”

Researchers have monitored the glacier’s recession since “as recently as the mid-20th century,” according to lead author Alastair Graham, and have recorded a disintegration rate of nearly double since the last decade.

Earlier this year, an international group of scientists attempted to study the glacier in an effort to help stop the erosion, however, the group was thwarted by a chunk of ice from the doomed glacier.  READ MORE...

China Buys North Dakota Farm

A Chinese company paid $2.6 million for 300 acres of farmland in Grand Forks, North Dakota, 

sparking concerns about espionage.

A Chinese company’s purchase of farmland in North Dakota just down the road from a US Air Force base that houses sensitive drone technology has lawmakers on Capitol Hill worried about potential espionage by Beijing, according to a report.

Fufeng Group, a Shandong, China-based company that specializes in flavor enhancers and sugar substitutes, recently purchased 300 acres of farmland near Grand Forks, North Dakota, a rural area that lies about a 90-minute drive from the Canadian border.

Grand Forks is also 40 miles away from Grafton, North Dakota, where a limited liability company believed to be controlled by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates recently paid $13 million for thousands of acres of potato farmland, causing a stir among locals.

Three North Dakotans sold the land to Fufeng Group for $2.6 million, according to CNBC.

Like the Gates-linked purchase, the sale of local farmland to a Chinese company sparked a visceral reaction, according to one of the sellers, Gary Bridgeford.

That’s because the land is just a 20-minute drive from Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is believed to be the home of some of the country’s most sophisticated military drone technology.

Bridgeford told CNBC that some locals planted signs on his front yard condemning the transaction.  READ MORE...

Fighting COVID with Superstition

Columbia University reverted their COVID-19 policy, requiring students to mask indoors.

Gabriele Holtermann

Boy, is US higher education full of idiots: Columbia University, affiliated Barnard College and Pace University, among other schools, have all started requiring masking indoors again.

Columbia-Barnard only scrapped the mandate on March 14, so students got less than a month to breathe free, and now will be muzzled through June.

And all because campus administrators deem it more important to virtue-signal than to follow the actual science. They blame an uptick in COVID cases, though COVID poses no significant risk to their fully vaccinated student bodies.

Plus, as noted above, case numbers stopped being a useful indicator of coronavirus perils at least a year ago.

And just 0.001% of 15- to 24-year-olds are at risk of dying from COVID, per data from Johns Hopkins. And masking does very little to reduce transmission risks, anyway.

COVID is now endemic, not pandemic — meaning we’ll have to learn to live with the background risks it poses, just like the flu. It’ll help that learning process when the supposedly smartest folks in America stop relying on superstition to “fight” it.

Spce Laser Beaming at US

Galaxy Arp 220 as imaged by the Wide Field Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope.NASA, ESA,

 A powerful space laser emitted from a distant galaxy has been discovered by astronomers.

The beam of radio waves is what scientists call a “megamaser” and this one is the most distant yet, emerging 5 billion light-years from Earth.

It was detected by an international team of scientists using South Africa’s “MeerKAT,” a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas.

Megamasers are naturally occurring, radio-wavelength lasers that can help shed light on galaxy collisions.

“Megamasers act like bright lights that say: Here is a collision of galaxies that is making new stars and feeding massive black holes,” said study co-author Jeremy Darling, of the University of Colorado.

When galaxies merge, the gas they contain becomes extremely dense, producing a specific radio signal known as a maser.

Megamasers are powerful masers produced in huge galaxy collisions, like beams from cosmic lighthouses.

The unearthing of the most distant megamaser to date was described by Darling and colleagues in a research paper published last week.

To reflect its status as a record-breaker, the team named the space laser Nkalakatha — an isiZulu word meaning “big boss.”

“Nkalakatha is one of the most powerful OH megamasers known, and it’s the most distant megamaser of its kind ever discovered, so it is truly a ‘big boss,’” said study co-author and Rutgers University astronomer Professor Andrew Baker.

“We expect it is only the first of many OH [hydroxyl] megamasers that will be discovered as the project continues.”  READ MORE...

Living to 150

Humans could live until the ripe old age of 150 years according to recent research – and scientists are racing to work out how.

Harvard geniuses, biohackers and internet billionaires are all looking for ways that humans can crack the code on aging.

WaitButWhy blogger Tim Urban writes “the human body seems programmed to shut itself down somewhere around the century mark, if it hasn’t already”.

And Urban is right! There are no verified cases of a person living to be older than 122, though the oldest living person is on their way at age 119.

Researchers at GERO.AI concluded the “absolute limit” of the human lifespan to be between 100 and 150 – they came to this conclusion by analyzing 70,000 participants up to age 85 based on their ability to fight disease, risk of heart conditions and cognitive impairment.

The Conversation reported that not a single participant showed the biological resiliency to live to 150 – but notes the study is limited by today’s medical standards.

Will improvements in medicine, environment and technology to drastically lengthen the average lifespan and make 150 a reality?

Humans could live until the age of 150, according to a new study.  Shutterstock  Brutal biology

The human body is made up of about 30 trillion cells. Cells are constantly dying and being replaced by replicants.

Within the cell body there are chromosomes – these are DNA strands with the code written for humans within them.

At the end of a DNA strand is a microscopic bundle of non-crucial DNA, so that none of the important stuff gets snipped off when the cell divides.

A cell can divide itself about 50 times before it’s lost its ability to replicate.

As more and more cells become ineffective and die, the signs of aging start to show in gray hair, weaker bones and vision loss.

Some theorize this process can be stopped or reversed.  READ MORE...

The Hunter Biden Scandal

Attacks from the mainstream media and an investigative DOJ probe comprise the latest chatter surrounding Hunter Biden's email scandal, but as former deniers arrive at the consensus that Biden's dealings with China warrant skepticism, Fox Nation digs deeper.

A new live episode from Fox Nation hosted by Fox News commentator and legal analyst Gregg Jarrett succeeds the four-part "Who is Hunter Biden?" series which shaped the backstory and the scandals plaguing President Biden's son.

This time, Jarrett dives into the latest bombshell developments surrounding Hunter Biden and hosts a discussion surrounding the potential ethical violations associated with his dealings with China – violations the mainstream media, for months, labeled as "Russian disinformation."

"Why has The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN now reluctantly, begrudgingly and belatedly – 16, 17 months later – come out and said ‘oops, the laptop’s real, it's authentic, yes, there are incriminating emails contained therein?'" Jarrett asked during the episode's panel segment.

Jarrett theorized two possible reasons mainstream outlets elected to ignore the steaming Hunter Biden scandal until it reached an overboil.  READ MORE...

Secondhand Marijuana Smoke

Secondhand cannabis smoke from a bong is more dangerous than cigarette smoking, according to researchers.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, authors from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health wrote that bong smoking “is not safe.”

“Decades ago, many people thought [secondhand tobacco smoke (SHTS)] presented no health risk to nonsmokers. Scientific research since then changed this perception and led to smoke-free environments. Incorrect beliefs about [secondhand cannabis smoke (SHCS)] safety promote indoor cannabis smoking,” they said.

“Nonsmokers are exposed to even higher concentrations of SHCS materials during ‘hot-boxing,’ the popular practice in which cannabis smokers produce high volumes of smoke in an enclosed environment. This study’s findings suggest SHCS in the home is not safe and that public perceptions of SHCS safety must be addressed.”

The group found that concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) generated in a home during social cannabis bong smoking to which a nonsmoking resident might be exposed were greatly increased compared with background levels, and that PM2.5 decayed only gradually after smoking ceased.

Following 15 minutes of smoking, average PM2.5 was more than twice the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hazardous air quality threshold.

“If one assumes the exposure concentrations were at the mean levels observed, a single home smoking session with no other exposures would generate an estimated mean daily concentration that greatly exceeds the average in cigarette-smoking homes, nonsmoking homes and the U.S. EPA daily standard,” the researchers said.

In order to reach these conclusions, the Environmental Health Sciences Division members’ levels of PM2.5 were measured before, during and after eight cannabis social-smoking sessions in a household living room.

An aerosol monitor was placed where a nonsmoker might sit to record the levels.

Home cannabis bong smoking significantly increased PM2.5 from background levels by at least 100-fold to 1,000-fold for six of eight sessions. The other two sessions had high background levels and significantly increased PM2.5 more than 20-fold.  READ MORE...

Egypt's Pyramids of Giza

An ultra-powerful scan of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza could help identify two mysterious spaces that potentially house the legendary tomb of the pharaoh. The watershed study was published last month in arXiv by University of Cornell archaeologists.

“We plan to field a telescope system that has upwards of 100 times the sensitivity of the equipment that has recently been used at the Great Pyramid,” wrote the researchers of the proposed scan, which is titled “The Exploring the Great Pyramid Mission.” They use advanced cosmic ray technology to map the internal structure of the Great Pyramid, which is Egypt’s largest pyramid and the last surviving wonder from antiquity.

The team’s research is based on a study by Scan Pyramid group, which conducted a series of scans between 2015 and 2017 that analyzed muons — cosmic particles that regularly fall on Earth — to detect any voids, Live Science reported. Muons react differently to air and stone and are therefore ideal for mapping air pockets in stone structures such as pyramids.

The scientists found two spaces, the larger of which measures 98 feet long and 20 feet high and sits above the grand gallery. Meanwhile, the smaller void is located near the citadel’s north face.

And while neither void’s function is clear, scientists speculate that the large one could lead to the secret burial chamber of the pharaoh Khufu (reign circa 2551 B.C. to 2528 B.C.), for whom the Great Pyramid was originally constructed in the 26th century B.C.

In order to peer inside the void, researchers plan to scan the area with supercharged cosmic ray muons, which are 100 times more powerful than the ones used in the prior scan.

Utilizing them will allow researchers to “image muons from nearly all angles and will, for the first time, produce a true tomographic image [three-dimensional internal images created by analyzing waves of energy] of such a large structure,” per the study.  READ MORE...

Meyers Briggs and AI

Say you’re a job-seeker who’s got a pretty good idea of what employers want to hear. Like many companies these days, your potential new workplace will give you a personality test as part of the hiring process. You plan to give answers that show you’re enthusiastic, a hard worker and a real people person.

Then they put you on camera while you take the test verbally, and you frown slightly during one of your answers, and their facial-analysis program decides you’re “difficult.”

Sorry, next please!

This is just one of many problems with the increasing use of artificial intelligence in hiring, contends the new documentary “Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests,” premiering Thursday on HBO Max.

The film, from director Tim Travers Hawkins, begins with the origins of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test. The mid-20th century brainchild of a mother-daughter team, it sorts people based on four factors: introversion/extraversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving. The quiz, which has an astrology-like cult following for its 16 four-lettered “types,” has evolved into a hiring tool used throughout corporate America, along with successors such as the “Big Five,” which measures five major personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.  SOURCE:  NYPOST.com               TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE, Click Here...