There’s no doubt many of us avoid giving feedback. It can feel awkward to tell somebody they have something in their teeth, or elsewhere. In a recent pilot study, less than 3% of people told a researcher they had a mark, such as chocolate or a lipstick smudge, on their face. Beyond issues relating to a person’s appearance, feedback more generally is vital for learning and growth. Students need feedback so they can improve their marks....

These extremes of life were tested utilizing the International Space Station to examine how microbes might live in the extreme conditions of space. These bacteria are really fly… [Read: Astronomers think our Sun may have a long lost twin] This hardiness suggested to researchers that these tough bacteria might be able to sustain the rigors of space. Back home, researchers rehydrated the bacteria, and tested the samples. The thinnest layers of bacteria had been utterly destroyed by the experience, having their genetic material completely fried by ultraviolet radiation....

The only exception is ZoomInfo, the Massachusetts data software and marketing startup that raised nearly $1 billion with its stock offering last week. As of Friday’s market close, ZoomInfo stock was up a tongue-swelling 85% on its initial offer price, making it the most profitable US listing for a tech company so far this year. Still, that’s nothing compared to Schrodinger, a pharma-fused simulation software firm that counts Bill Gates as an investor....

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 18, 2020 Cuomo confirmed via Twitter that the affianced will be able to obtain licenses and have a clerk perform the ceremony. CBS New York reports that this order suspends a legal requirement for those wishing to obtain licenses to make an in-person office visit, and confirmed that many marriage bureaus are closed thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read: Coronavirus means no new emoji in 2021 According to The Verge, Cuomo namedropped Zoom specifically when speaking about this new rule: “There is now no excuse when the question comes up for marriage… You can do it by Zoom....

The Japanese company says the new device – which is oddly reminiscent of the Wii U – will launch on September 20 with a suggested retail price of $199. It’ll also be available in three different color variations: yellow, gray, and turquoise. In contrast to the standard version, the Switch Lite has a more compact body factor and sports “integrated controls.” It also comes without a kickstand and support for video output to television sets… which pretty much means that you can no longer “switch” between handheld and dock mode....

3.29 million units were shipped in the last quarter. Total sales of each model: Switch OG = 49.57mSwitch Lite = 6.19m pic.twitter.com/OlF5IHlaQs — Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 7, 2020 In total, the Switch’s lifetime sales are now over 55 million units. There are more Switches in the world than there are people in South Korea. Within the last quarter alone, Nintendo sold almost 3.3 million units. I know that, by this point, I should no longer be surprised by such a simple fact as “The Switch sells well....

This became clear recently when a study showed that pulse oximeters — which measure the amount of oxygen in the blood and have been an essential tool for clinical management of COVID-19 — are less accurate on people with darker skin than lighter skin. The findings resulted in a sweeping racial bias review now underway, in an attempt to create international standards for testing medical devices. There are examples in health care, business, government and everyday life where biased algorithms have led to problems, like sexist searches and racist predictions of an offender’s likelihood of re-offending....

Today, Oros is launching a Kickstarter campaign updating the Orion Parka with a new and improved look, while also introducing two new designs that will arrive next fall: the Astra pullover and Atmos hoodie. As a recap, aerogel is one of the lightest man-made materials and greatest insulators in the world. If you’ve never held a piece of aerogel, it’s a surreal experience: it’s rigid and looks like frosted glass, but feels almost completely weightless....

As with other forms of direct donation, using Airbnb to channel aid to Ukraine has been problematic. The company was relatively quick to waive the 20% commission it usually charges on transactions. But stopping scammers from setting up fake accounts to collect money from well-meaning donors has proven more difficult. It’s a story that illustrates both the potential and limitations of the so-called sharing economy. Idealistic visionaries once imagined the internet would connect individual buyers and sellers, peer to peer (or P2P), without the need for intermediaries and their commissions....

This new Android app is as elegant as it is simple. Just jot down a task, and Pinnit will turn it into a persistent notification that will remain visible for all eternity. Okay, that’s not true. You can actually dismiss it from within the app; you can even dismiss it from the notification itself, but the button is cleverly hidden until you expand the notification. Unlike other apps’ notifications that are designed to be dealt with when they pop up, Pinnit works great for tasks that aren’t time-sensitive, and just need doing at some point in the day — such as writing that email to my accountant or calling my brother....

By many accounts, linguistics is one of the most complicated functions of the human mind. Likewise, natural language processing (NLP) is one of the most complicated subfields of artificial intelligence. Most books on AI, including educational books on machine learning, provide an introduction to natural language processing. But the field of NLP is so vast that covering all its aspects would require several separate books. When I picked up Practical Natural Language Processing: A Comprehensive Guide to Building Real-World NLP Systems, what I expected was a book that covered Python machine learning for NLP in depth....

You’ll find all the latest numbers in the SlideShare embed below (or click here), but read on below to get richer context and insights into this quarter’s top headlines. Big jump in internet user numbers The number of internet users around the world is now 400 million higher than it was this time last year, representing annual growth of 10 percent. However, these figures have been significantly influenced by new data published by the ITU, and our understanding is that much of the ‘growth’ is likely due to more accurate and timely reporting, rather than because of a sudden increase in the number of internet users over the past three months....

With Windows 10, Microsoft introduced native integrations for spatial audio, allowing anyone to listen to simulated surround sound with even a cheap pair of headphones. Microsoft offers its own free solution called Windows Sonic, but you can also pay to download Dolby Atmos and DTS Sound Sound Unbound. THX Spatial Audio joins this fairly crowded space through its own app, but (unsurprisingly) claims to offer a more immersive experience than the existing options....

Career pivots are nothing new in our COVID-impacted world. With so many industries scrambling, jobs changing and workers desperately trying to hang on, many individuals are deciding to scrap their old lives and plunge headlong into an entirely new career. And if you’re going to start over, doesn’t it make sense to go where the money is? Right now, life as an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is looking pretty sweet....

But there’s something that can help this transition, that can bridge the divide between the autonomous believers and self-driving sceptics: remote-controlled vehicles. And no, we’re not talking about toy cars, these are real, adult-sized, remotely-driven automobiles. In this piece, I’m going to explain how they work, the commercial and technological implications, and if they can help ease us into an autonomous future. What are remote-controlled cars? Fundamentally, a remote-controlled car is a vehicle that can be operated by someone who’s not physically sitting inside it....

Still, we do know the iPhone 12 is still on the way this year, and a variety of rumors have coalesced around one date: October 13. According to MacRumors, “an employee at a UK cellular carrier” shared the date with the publication, claiming Apple would launch pre-orders at the conclusion of the event and that the phones would be available October 16. MacRumors notes that the source might’ve confused pre-order and launch date timelines, as such timing would be unusual....

What’s a black box? Black box AI isn’t as complex as some experts make it out to be. Imagine you have 1,000,000 different spices and 1,000,000 different herbs and you only have a couple of hours to crack Kentucky Fried Chicken’s secret recipe. You’re pretty sure you have all the ingredients but you’re not sure which eleven herbs and spices you should use. You don’t have time to guess, and it would take billions of years or more to manually try every combination....

The 10.1-inch Hipad LTE is a ‘phablet’ — an unlocked smartphone with a big screen. It feels like Chuwi’s ambition was to sell this to travelers, but I’m not sure it’ll hold up to the needs of frequent flyers or other commuters who work on the go. There’s a few problems holding it back that I’ll get into later. Credit: Nicole Gray First, the good: this is the perfect tablet for me....

The Pixel 5 is, fortunately, not an exception to that rule, but it feels like it should be. Usually, at least a processor upgrade is expected from generation to generation, but the Snapdragon 765G in the Pixel 5 is not only weaker than the 855 in the Pixel 4, it’s closer to the Snapdragon 845 before it. The Pixel 5 also still has just two rear cameras, it omits the fancy facial detection and radar gestures, and Google even got rid of the ‘squeeze for the assistant’ function....

In the last email that Stallman addressed to ‘The MIT community’ and published on his site, he noted he was “doing this due to pressure on MIT and me over a series of misunderstandings and mischaracterizations.” In the incendiary email thread that landed him in hot soup, Stallman essentially expressed his opinion that one of Epstein’s victims – a 17-year-old woman who was “directed to have sex” with late AI researcher Marvin Minsky – most likely “presented herself to (Minsky) as entirely willing....