VIDEO REELS – Page 5

7Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

Batteries So Many Sizes And Shapes

Why batteries come in so many sizes and shapes. If you’ve looked in your utility drawer lately, you may have noticed the various shapes, sizes and types of batteries that power your electronic devices. First, there are the round, non-rechargeable button cells for your watches and small items. There’s also the popular AA and AAA cylindrical batteries for calculators, clocks and remotes. Then you have the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in your laptops and phones. And don’t forget about the lead-acid battery in your car. Maybe you have a drawer in your house that looks like this? Peter Fiskerstrand/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA I’m a professor who studies batteries and electrochemistry. To understand why batteries come in many different sizes and shapes – and serve many purposes – look to th...

Could April’s Eclipse Interrupt Solar Power Straining Electrical Grids

5Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE, TOP FOUR, VIDEO REELS

Could April’s Eclipse Interrupt Solar Power Straining Electrical Grids

April’s eclipse will mean interruptions in solar power generation, which could strain electrical grids. During the most recent total solar eclipse visible in the U.S., on Aug. 21, 2017, the skies darkened as the Moon crossed in front of the Sun. It blocked out all sunlight – except for that from a golden ring visible around the Moon’s shape, called the corona. Not surprisingly, solar power generation across North America plummeted for several hours, from the first moment the Moon began to obscure the Sun to when the Sun’s disk was clear again. On April 8, 2024, another total solar eclipse will track across the U.S., causing perhaps an even greater loss of solar power generation. Although this will be the second total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. in under seven years, these events are...

A Closer Look At The First SEC Approved US Climate Disclosure Rules

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

A Closer Look At The First SEC Approved US Climate Disclosure Rules

SEC approves first US climate disclosure rules: Why the requirements are much weaker than planned and what they mean for companies. After two years of intense public debate, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the nation’s first national climate disclosure rules on March 6, 2024, setting out requirements for publicly listed companies to report their climate-related risks and in some cases their greenhouse gas emissions. The new rules are much weaker than those originally proposed. Significantly, the SEC dropped a controversial plan to require companies to report Scope 3 emissions – emissions generated throughout the company’s supply chain and customers’ use of its products. The rules do require larger companies to disclose Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are emissions fro...

AI Can Now Track Your Emotions — But Should It?

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

AI, TECHNOLOGY, VIDEO REELS

AI Can Now Track Your Emotions — But Should It?

Emotion-tracking AI on the job: Workers fear being watched – and misunderstood. Emotion artificial intelligence uses biological signals such as vocal tone, facial expressions and data from wearable devices as well as text and how people use their computers, promising to detect and predict how someone is feeling. It is used in contexts both mundane, like entertainment, and high stakes, like the workplace, hiring and health care. A wide range of industries already use emotion AI, including call centers, finance, banking, nursing and caregiving. Over 50% of large employers in the U.S. use emotion AI aiming to infer employees’ internal states, a practice that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, call centers monitor what their operators say and their tone of voice. Scholars hav...

A World In Which Corporations Controlled All Information — Norman Jewison’s ‘Rollerball’ — Is This Vision Becoming Reality?

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS, VIDEO REELS

A World In Which Corporations Controlled All Information — Norman Jewison’s ‘Rollerball’ — Is This Vision Becoming Reality?

Norman Jewison’s ‘Rollerball’ depicted a world in which corporations controlled all information – is this dystopian vision becoming reality? If the films of Norman Jewison, who died on Jan. 22, 2024, had a unifying theme, it was how his characters searched for meaning and questioned the rules of their worlds. No matter the genre of the scores of films he directed – from “In the Heat of the Night” to “Fiddler on the Roof” – his characters grew by confronting their own biases and preconceptions, even if it meant sacrificing things they once held dear. And as a media scholar, I see the Canadian director’s 1975 film “Rollerball” as one of his most underrated works. In it, the film’s hero, Jonathan E., is a star athlete who’s willing to risk his own life to avoid being a pawn for his corporate...

Lorne Michaels — Nearly 50 Years Of Comedy Gold

28Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CELEBRITY NEWS, TOP FOUR, VIDEO REELS

Lorne Michaels — Nearly 50 Years Of Comedy Gold

Lorne Michaels, the man behind the curtain at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ has been minting comedy gold for nearly 50 years. On April 24, 1976, Lorne Michaels, the creator and producer of the late-night NBC comedy program “Saturday Night” – it had not yet changed its name to “Saturday Night Live” – appeared on camera in hopes of luring the Beatles to reunite on the program. The Fab Four’s last concert had been eight years earlier in San Francisco, and the band had stopped recording together in 1969. Michaels addressed the band members by name – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – and then acknowledged rumors that the group might get back together. “It’s also been said that no one has yet to come up with enough money to satisfy you,” Michaels said. “Well, if it’s money ...

Media And Information Experts Explain – What Is The Metaverse?

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

Media And Information Experts Explain – What Is The Metaverse?

The metaverse is a network of always-on virtual environments in which many people can interact with one another and digital objects while operating virtual representations – or avatars – of themselves. Think of a combination of immersive virtual reality, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and the web. The metaverse is a concept from science fiction that many people in the technology industry envision as the successor to today’s internet. It’s only a vision at this point, but technology companies like Facebook are aiming to make it the setting for many online activities, including work, play, studying and shopping. Facebook is so sold on the concept that it is renaming itself Meta to highlight its push to dominate the metaverse. Metaverse is a portmanteau of meta, meaning ...

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

VIDEO REELS

The Black History Of Canada

Black Londoners of Canada: Digital mapping reveals Ontario’s Black history and challenges myths. Aurelia Jones was a prominent member of the Black community in mid-19th century London, Ontario, Canada, and the spouse of Abel Bedford Jones, a Black entrepreneur and religious and political leader. After A.B.’s death, Aurelia moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The archival traces of her life tell the story of a migration from one Black community with British and American affiliations to another with strong Caribbean influences. As research associates on the Black Londoners Project at Western University, we are finding historical clues about people like Aurelia Jones and exploring the Black history of London, Ont., by using a digital mapping approach. This methodology helps to understand the mov...

AI Voice Generated Robocalls Outlawed By FCC

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

AI, IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

AI Voice Generated Robocalls Outlawed By FCC

FCC bans robocalls using deepfake voice clones − but AI-generated disinformation still looms over elections. The Federal Communications Commission on Feb. 8, 2024, outlawed robocalls that use voices generated by artificial intelligence. The 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act bans artificial voices in robocalls. The FCC’s Feb. 8 ruling declares that AI-generated voices, including clones of real people’s voices, are artificial and therefore banned by law. The move follows on the heels of a robocall on Jan. 21, 2024, from what sounded like President Joe Biden. The call had Biden’s voice urging voters inclined to support Biden and the Democratic Party not to participate in New Hampshire’s Jan. 23 GOP primary election. The call falsely implied that a registered Democrat could vote in the...

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

The Drone Cult

Cult of the drone: At the two-year mark, UAVs have changed the face of war in Ukraine – but not outcomes. Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have been central to the war in Ukraine. Some analysts claim that drones have reshaped war, yielding not just tactical-level effects, but shaping operational and strategic outcomes as well. It’s important to distinguish between these different levels of war. The tactical level of war refers to battlefield actions, such as patrols or raids. The operational level of war characterizes a military’s synchronization of tactical actions to achieve broader military objectives, such as destroying components of an adversary’s army. The strategic level of war relates to the way these military objectives combine to secure political aims, especially ending a w...