Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant can set a timer, play a song, or check the weather with ease, but for a real conversation you may as well try talking to the toaster. Speaking as naturally as a person requires common-sense understanding of the world, knowledge of facts and current events, […]
U.S. pending home sales fall sharply in March
Economic Indicators14 hours ago (Apr 29, 2020 10:15AM ET) WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Contracts to purchase previously owned homes declined sharply in March as the coronavirus outbreak kept would-be buyers away, National Association of Realtors data showed on Wednesday. The NAR’s pending home sales index fell to a reading of 88.2, […]
U.S. Economy Shrunk by 4.8% in Q1, Worst Since 2008
Sign In/Free Sign Up 0 Economic Indicators15 hours ago (Apr 29, 2020 09:02AM ET) (C) Reuters. By Geoffrey Smith Investing.com — The U.S. economy shrunk by an annualized 4.8% in the first quarter of the year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Wednesday, posting the […]
Even under best outlook, World Bank sees Western Balkans economies shrinking up to 5.6%
Economic Indicators16 hours ago (Apr 29, 2020 08:00AM ET) By Daria Sito-Sucic SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Economies in the Western Balkans region will contract by up to 5.6% under the best scenario of how the coronavirus pandemic unfolds in Europe, the World Bank said on Wednesday. According to that “baseline scenario”, […]
Physicists Clear the Air With a Sweet Frickin’ Laser Beam
In the first two months of 2019, Malte Schroder spent several weeks on a suburban Maryland college campus directing a dramatic scene that was set entirely inside a small styrofoam box. First, he set the stage by filling the box with thick fog, a thousand times denser than a cumulus […]
The US Supreme Court Rules That Laws Can’t Be Paywalled
A narrowly divided US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right to freely share the official law code of Georgia. The state claimed to own the copyright for the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and sued a nonprofit called Public.Resource.Org for publishing it online. Monday’s ruling is not only a […]
Minority businesses worry they are locked out of payroll lending program
(C) Reuters. The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York By Jonnelle Marte (Reuters) – As the government issues a second round of aid for small business owners, some U.S. senators, community banking groups and minority-owned banks said they are worried businesses owned by people of color may […]
Britain extends deadline for Libor loan switch due to pandemic
Economic Indicators17 hours ago (Apr 29, 2020 07:40AM ET) (C) Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Financial Conduct Authority is seen at the agency’s headquarters in the Canary Wharf business district of London By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s markets watchdog has extended the deadline for ending the […]
Microbe Mappers Are Tracking Covid-19’s Invisible Traces
During the second week of March, as the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, a team of latex-gloved scientists from Cornell Weill Medical School fanned out across Penn Station armed with packs of sterile, long-armed swabs and a tripod-mounted instrument for capturing air samples. In New York City, […]
Stewart Brand Is 81–and He Doesn’t Want to Go on a Ventilator
Wachter, meanwhile, told me about his own experiences at UCSF. Though admittedly a very small, nonscientific sample, Wachter says that during this crisis, he’s seen about half or more of the ventilated patients breathe on their own again. Still, he acknowledges Brand’s point that the process can be harrowing. “Being […]