All posts tagged: Pressing

A global research partner for Europe’s most pressing challenges

A global research partner for Europe’s most pressing challenges

Published by skeptic

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is tackling global challenges to health, climate change, and environmental resilience through collaborative and innovative approaches that leverage advanced technology and partnerships. The University of Western Australia is a research-intensive university with a distinctive global outlook, shaped by its location at the crossroads between Europe, the Indo Pacific and the Indian Ocean region. Our research is driven by the belief that the world’s most complex challenges – climate change, health inequity, environmental degradation, social transformation and technological disruption – require collaborative and international responses. UWA brings together disciplinary excellence, shared research infrastructure, and strong partnerships to move knowledge from discovery through to translation and societal impact. Our research strengths align strongly with the ambitions of Horizon Europe, particularly in addressing global challenges, strengthening innovation ecosystems and industry competitiveness, and delivering tangible benefits for society. We combine frontier research with advanced digital and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled methods, a strong commitment to co-design, and effective uptake through policy, industry, and community partners. Our research community works across disciplines and borders, partnering …

5 Pressing Questions For Starmer As Mandelson's Vetting Ignites Fresh Row

5 Pressing Questions For Starmer As Mandelson's Vetting Ignites Fresh Row

Published by Sam Flores

Keir Starmer and Peter Mandelson The Peter Mandelson scandal has returned to haunt Keir Starmer once again after fresh details about the ex-ambassador’s security vetting were revealed. It appears security officials advised against appointing the former Labour peer to be the UK’s attache to Washington. But, according to the government, the Foreign Office overrode those concerns and granted Mandelson vetted status anyway. This has caused a fresh row over how much the prime minister knew – and when. He has since fired the top Foreign Office official in a bid to get ahead of the row. Still, his political opponents have accused him of misleading the Commons by vowing “due process” was followed in appointing Mandelson. Critics claim this strengthens the argument for Starmer to step down – even as the May elections approach. But first, let’s recap… Why Is Peter Mandelson’s Appointment Such A Big Deal? Mandelson, a former minister under New Labour and later spin doctor, was announced as Starmer’s pick to be the UK’s ambassador to the US in late 2024. Government …

World’s biggest astronomy camera seeks to answer pressing questions about the universe

World’s biggest astronomy camera seeks to answer pressing questions about the universe

Published by skeptic

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has started releasing its first discoveries: including supernovae, variable stars and asteroids, which will from now on be discovered at an astonishing rate as it begins its Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a ten-year survey probing the deepest reaches of the universe. During the course of this survey, astronomers around the globe will seek to answer some of the most pressing questions about the nature of our world. To the naked eye, the night sky seems like a static and unchanging firmament, with the occasional planet or comet or shooting star visible. But with a larger, more sophisticated telescope or camera we are able to discover hundreds of new phenomena every night, from dying stars to near-Earth asteroids. The camera that allows this exploration – attached to a telescope over eight metres wide atop Cerro Pachón in Chile – is the largest in the world, weighing almost three tonnes and built over ten years. The Rubin Observatory’s giant camera can probe the faintest reaches of our existence, capturing light …

US pressing Ukraine and Russia to end war by June, Zelenskyy says

US pressing Ukraine and Russia to end war by June, Zelenskyy says

Published by Sam Flores

“FREE ECONOMIC ZONE” Zelenskyy has repeatedly expressed frustration that his country is being asked to make disproportionate compromises compared to Russia. Ukraine has proposed freezing the conflict along the current front lines. But Russia has rejected this, and Washington has pushed for Kyiv to convert the land it currently controls in the Donetsk region into a “free economic zone” where neither side has military control. “Even if we come to the creation of a free economic zone, we will need fair and reliable rules,” Zelenskyy said. The two sides have also failed to reach a “common understanding” on the issue of control over the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Zelenskyy said. Russian forces seized the plant, the largest in Europe, at the start of the conflict and have held onto it since. Ukraine will not tolerate Russia and the United States making deals about Ukraine behind its back, Zelenskyy added. Source link

Moral Witness in Pressing Times

Moral Witness in Pressing Times

Published by Sam Flores

 It’s not a zero-sum game. This week on The State of Belief, interfaith organizer Maggie Siddiqi makes clear that coming together to counter antisemitism and Islamophobia is an essential part of the effort to protect American democracy. And doing that requires countering the narrative that somehow supporting one of these communities is harming the other. Maggie and host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush discuss some of the concrete ways these communities are, in fact, coming together, but also the very real risks that doing so brings, and the courage needed to persevere in the face of challenges that can include divisions and mistrust within diverse communities themselves. The result can be profoundly inspiring: Paul and Maggie talk in-depth about a major Capitol Hill briefing last December convened by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), in partnership with Interfaith Alliance and Union Theological Seminary. In addition to MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati and JCPA CEO Amy Spitalnick, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, a Muslim, and Congressman Jamie Raskin, who is Jewish, addressed …

Intelligence Demands More than Pressing a Lever to Obtain Water

Intelligence Demands More than Pressing a Lever to Obtain Water

Published by Jenni Sidey

An AI researcher recently called my attention to an article in Springer Nature that argued that large language models (LLMs) have intelligence comparable to human intelligence if we take a behaviorist approach to human intelligence: Image Credit: Africa Studio – Adobe Stock During the training phase, the connections of the artificial neural networks are modulated via mechanisms that take up the principles of associative learning from the behaviorist psychology of the first half of the twentieth century. Associative learning (or conditioning) creates functional links between stimuli, responses, and consequences; for example, when a rat presses a lever and obtains water, the association between the lever and the pressing response is reinforced; similarly, when a LLM in the training phase produces the expected word in response to a text passage, it receives a “reward” signal, which reinforces the association between this textual context and the production of this word…. AI does not copy human intelligence, cognition, or whatever you want to call it. What is being copied are the processes from which it emerges…. [T]he more …