Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Sunday, June 14, 2020

GitHub CEO says company is working to replace the name "master" for the default version of source code repositories with a more neutral term (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
GitHub CEO says company is working to replace the name “master” for the default version of source code repositories with a more neutral term — GitHub getting on board legitimizes movement aimed at removing racially-charged language from software.

Apple is building an OS for health to become a chokepoint that all healthcare players, from providers to device makers, must integrate with to get distribution (Nathan Baschez/Divinations)

Nathan Baschez / Divinations:
Apple is building an OS for health to become a chokepoint that all healthcare players, from providers to device makers, must integrate with to get distribution — Apple is building an operating system for health — This essay was co-authored by Rob Litterst and Nathan Baschez

Neurons discovered that put mice in a hibernation-like state

Animals that hibernate experience a huge number of amazing transformations. Metabolisms drop and get completely rewired so that they operate without food intake. Body temperatures and activity drop. Despite all these changes, animals remain somewhat functional—bears manage to give birth and nurse their cubs during their hibernation.

We have very little idea about how all of those transformations take place. This week, two different groups of researchers published papers that describe the neurons that control a similar state called torpor in mice. While mice don't hibernate, these results suggest an obvious target to look at in mammals that do hibernate. And it raises the prospect that hibernation-like states might be available to all mammals—including us.

Torporific

While mice don't undergo hibernation like some other species, they have a similar state called torpor. Torpor can be triggered by a combination of low temperatures and lack of food. There's a significant overlap between it and hibernation, in that the mice's body temperature and activity drop, as do respiration and heart rate. But, unlike hibernation, the periods of torpor are relatively brief, with the mice mixing in periods of aggressively searching for food.

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https://arstechnica.com

Boycott China: Should India build apps based on its own cultural and political ethos?

These public responses and policy conversations are here to stay. At their very root is protectionism. https://ift.tt/2ULOvzA https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Research comparing curation by humans and algorithms on Apple News shows that human editors chose more diverse sources, more evenly, and less "soft news" (Grzegorz Piechota/INMA)

Grzegorz Piechota / INMA:
Research comparing curation by humans and algorithms on Apple News shows that human editors chose more diverse sources, more evenly, and less “soft news” — Two Northwestern University researchers audited two Apple News sections: one curated by editors and one by an algorithm.

Google to 'Explore' Why Churchill Photo Missing From Search List

Google said Sunday it would explore why the picture of Britain's World War II leader Winston Churchill disappeared from a top search results list of former UK prime ministers, during controversy over... https://ift.tt/2UIOlca

Deepfakes aren’t very good—nor are the tools to detect them

A comparison of an original and deepfake video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

We're lucky that deepfake videos aren’t a big problem yet. The best deepfake detector to emerge from a major Facebook-led effort to combat the altered videos would only catch about two-thirds of them.

In September, as speculation about the danger of deepfakes grew, Facebook challenged artificial intelligence wizards to develop techniques for detecting deepfake videos. In January, the company also banned deepfakes used to spread misinformation.

Facebook’s Deepfake Detection Challenge, in collaboration with Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and the Partnership on AI, was run through Kaggle, a platform for coding contests that is owned by Google. It provided a vast collection of face-swap videos: 100,000 deepfake clips, created by Facebook using paid actors, on which entrants tested their detection algorithms. The project attracted more than 2,000 participants from industry and academia, and it generated more than 35,000 deepfake detection models.

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https://arstechnica.com

Jio Platforms Gets Rs. 6,441.3 Crores Investment From TPG and L Catterton

Reliance Industries raised a total of Rs. 6,441.3 crores ($847 million) from the sale of two stakes in its digital unit Jio Platforms, the group said on Saturday. https://ift.tt/3dZcpyY

Saturday, June 13, 2020

"Neutral point of view" is a core principle of Wikipedia but racial justice protests are sparking debates among contributors on what neutrality actually means (Stephen Harrison/Slate)

Stephen Harrison / Slate:
“Neutral point of view” is a core principle of Wikipedia but racial justice protests are sparking debates among contributors on what neutrality actually means — Contributors are rethinking what Wikipedia's commitment to neutrality actually means.

Squire Technologies, an NYC-based provider of barbershop management software, raises $34M Series B led by CRV, bringing its total raised to $46.2M (FinSMEs)

FinSMEs:
Squire Technologies, an NYC-based provider of barbershop management software, raises $34M Series B led by CRV, bringing its total raised to $46.2M — Squire Technologies, a NYC-based barbershop management and point of sale system software platform, raised $34m in Series B funding.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Facebook's Giphy Deal Draws UK Competition Watchdog's Attention

Facebook's acquisition of popular GIF website Giphy is being scrutinised by the United Kingdom's competition watchdog for possibly reducing competition. https://ift.tt/3flbfxY