might

13Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

RECOMMENDATIONS

How The Future Of Work Might Look — Business In The 2050s

Predictions of the future are often wildly inaccurate. For example, Back To The Future promised us hoverboards, while almost everyone who saw Blade Runner couldn't wait to get their hands on a flying car. Unfortunately, neither are readily available to the general public yet, which is a crying shame. Casting an eye into the future and speculating how the world may look at that time, is never an easy task - there are simply too many variables involved. New technologies which no-one saw coming may be pulled from the aether, while existing fields which have substantial growth potential, may fail to develop as expected. A good example of this is 3D films; time and again they've been touted as the future of the film industry because production companies have thought consumers would jump at...

4Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA

Your Next Password Might Be Emojis

Would you rather unlock your smartphone with a plain four-digit PIN or with a smiley-face emoji? Would it be easier and more pleasant to remember “🐱💦🎆🎌,” for example, or “2476”? An alternate choice for unlocking a smartphone. Lydia Kraus et al., 'On the Use of Emojis in Mobile Authentication,' 2017., CC BY-ND Smartphone users commonly use emojis to express moods, emotions and nuances in emails and text messages – and even communicate entire messages only with emojis. In 2015, a British company tried using emoji passcodes in place of PINs at bank ATMs. But there had been no formal study of how easy they were to use, or how secure they were in comparison to other methods, like PINs. To learn more, in the lab and in the real world, a team of researchers from ...

Top Gun: Maverick’s Age Shouldn’t Stop Him As A Test And Fighter Pilot, But His Lifestyle Might

31May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CELEBRITY MAIN NEWS, TOP FOUR

Top Gun: Maverick’s Age Shouldn’t Stop Him As A Test And Fighter Pilot, But His Lifestyle Might

When Rolls Royce Test Pilot Phil O’Dell (POD to his friends and colleagues) broke the world electric flight airspeed record last year, nobody remarked upon his being in his late 50s. At 51, no one challenged me about my age when I recently made the first flight of the British all-electric Sherwood eKub prototype as a test pilot. And yet, in the new Top Gun film (Top Gun: Maverick), “Maverick” Pete Mitchell’s age is a key plot point. He’s one of the best pilots the US has ever seen, but he’s 57 years old. His colleagues question whether he is too old to be a test and fighter pilot. The answer is an emphatic no – 57 is not too old. I’ve met many test pilots in their 60s, and fighter pilots in their 50s. Has Maverick got what it takes? It typically costs $5-$10 million (£4-£8 million) to ...

Hearing People’s Personal Stories Might Change Your Mind About The Build Back Better Act?

21Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Hearing People’s Personal Stories Might Change Your Mind About The Build Back Better Act?

When U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that he wouldn’t support President Joe Biden’s signature Build Back Better Act, he set off a wave of breaking news alerts. It was fitting. For months, media coverage has breathlessly focused on the behind-the-scenes wrangling and hour-by-hour negotiations around the legislation. How much has been slashed from the bill today? What does it mean for the future of the Democratic and Republican parties? The roughly US$2 trillion proposal is designed to bolster what is widely seen as a frayed social safety net. But most Americans don’t think it will benefit people like them, a recent NPR/Marist poll shows. And a quarter of Americans can’t even say whether they like or dislike the legislation. It’s no wonder the nation is so indifferent about the sweep...

Cellphones Might Be A Safety Risk – Cellphone Bans In The Workplace Are Legal And More Common Among Blue-Collar Jobs

16Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

Cellphones Might Be A Safety Risk – Cellphone Bans In The Workplace Are Legal And More Common Among Blue-Collar Jobs

Cellphone bans in the workplace are legal and more common among blue-collar jobs – they also might be a safety risk. Cellphones in the workplace can be a distraction – but they could also save your life. In the aftermath of a devastating tornado ripping through an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, on Dec. 10, 2021 – killing six employees – the online retailer is reportedly reviewing its policy over mobile phone bans during working hours. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, it was common for Amazon to require its employees to leave phones at home or in vehicles before setting foot on the factory floor. The policy was relaxed during the pandemic but was due to be reintroduced in January. Amazon has indicated that a ban was not in effect at the factory at the time the tornado hit, ...

Here’s What Won’t Work, And What Might – Lawsuits Over Bans On Teaching Critical Race Theory Are Coming

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, VIDEO REELS

Here’s What Won’t Work, And What Might – Lawsuits Over Bans On Teaching Critical Race Theory Are Coming

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida As states and school districts started threatening teachers with disciplinary action for teaching about systemic racism, the question naturally arose: Does this violate the teachers’ First Amendment rights? The First Amendment protects free speech against government punishment, outside of something as extreme as a threat of violence. A school district is a government agency. So anyone punished by a school district for nonthreatening speech seems to have the makings of a First Amendment case. But from years of teaching and researching First Amendment case law, I know that this is where things get complicated. Public school teachers are government employees. And thanks to a much-disputed Supreme Court decision from 15 years ago, government employees, ...

Not The Groups You Might Think But Racial Groups Suffer Disparate Consequences After Unfair Police Treatment

5Apr

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Not The Groups You Might Think But Racial Groups Suffer Disparate Consequences After Unfair Police Treatment

George Floyd’s high-profile death has become synonymous with unfair police treatment. His death has sparked discussions surrounding police reform and the long-term consequences for people who experience violent contact with police. But what does research say more generally about unfair treatment by police? One of the biggest questions that researchers like my colleague and I examine is whether different groups of individuals – young people, racial and ethnic minorities and those from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds – are more likely than their respective counterparts to report police treatment that they perceive to be unfair. We focus on perceptions of police interaction because research has long contended that “citizens’ perceptions of police stops may be considered just as important...

Isolated Success Stories Suggest Community And Officer Buy-In Might Be Key To American Cities Long Struggle To Reform Their Police

30Apr

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Isolated Success Stories Suggest Community And Officer Buy-In Might Be Key To American Cities Long Struggle To Reform Their Police

The guilty verdicts delivered against Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, represented a landmark moment – but courtroom justice cannot deliver the sweeping changes most Americans feel are needed to improve policing in the U.S. As America continues to grapple with racism and police killings, federal action over police reform has stalled in Congress. But at the state level there is movement and steps toward reform are underway in many U.S. cities, including Philadelphia; Oakland, California; and Portland, Oregon. Many of these efforts are geared toward ending specific practices, such as the granting of qualified immunity, through which officers are shielded from civil lawsuits, and the use of certain police neck holds and no-knock warrants. Mayors and city councils nationwide have also pushed...

What Our ‘World After Coronavirus’ Might Look Like – I Spoke To 99 Big Thinkers – This Is What I Learned

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IMPACT, IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

What Our ‘World After Coronavirus’ Might Look Like – I Spoke To 99 Big Thinkers – This Is What I Learned

Back in March, my colleagues at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University thought that it might be useful to begin thinking about “the day after coronavirus. Adil Najam, international relations professor at Boston University, interviewed 99 experts about what the post-pandemic future will bring. Pardee Center/Boston University, CC BY-SA For a research center dedicated to longer-term thinking, it made sense to ask what our post-COVID-19 world might look like. In the months that followed, I learned many things. Most importantly, I learned there is no “going back to normal.” My season of learning The project took on a life of its own. Over 190 days, we released 103 videos. Each was around five minutes long, with one simple question: How mig...

Plants might be able to tell us about the location of dead bodies, helping families find missing people

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

Plants might be able to tell us about the location of dead bodies, helping families find missing people

The notion of plants talking to us about dead people sounds like a bad horror movie. But that’s the theme of a recent scientific paper I co-authored. Each day, over 160,000 people die in the world. Most people die with family members present or nearby; their family and friends mourn their loss, which includes having the loved-one’s body present. Sometimes people die in the wilderness, in war and under questionable circumstances. In so many of these cases the body is never recovered and loved ones don’t get closure. In cases of murder or genocide, perpetrators go unpunished without a recovered body. I didn’t usually think about this topic, until recently. I am a plant biologist who uses biotechnology and synthetic biology approaches in research. Nearly 20 years ago, I coined the word “phy...