Driverless cars to be tested on British roads |
- Driverless cars to be tested on British roads
- Of political faux pas and accountability — Lee Yew Meng
- Shoot for the stars with Nikon’s premium D810A camera
- Study: Brain damage from smoking may be reversible
- US to withdraw troops fighting Ebola in Africa
- Samsung to launch innovation lab; focus on virtual reality, robotic initiatives
| Driverless cars to be tested on British roads Posted: 10 Feb 2015 04:56 PM PST
Driverless car testing will be restricted to vehicles with a person present and able to take control should the need arise, Britain's Department for Transport (DfT) said. The DfT said today that after carrying out a review into driverless cars, it found there were no legal barriers to the technology being tested on British roads. It is now working on a code of practice for driverless cars, due to be published in the spring, with vehicles expected to be tested on roads across the country from the summer. Britain's auto industry has been growing strongly — the value of British car exports has doubled in the past 10 years — and lawmakers hope that driverless car technology could help sustain the sector in the decades to come. "I want Britain to be at the forefront of this exciting new development, to embrace a technology that could transform our roads and open up a brand new route for global investment," Transport Minister Claire Perry said in a statement. The driverless car industry globally is expected to be worth about £900 billion (RM4.91 trillion) by 2025, according to the UK government, with traditional carmakers such as Daimler vying with technology firms such as Google. The testing of driverless cars on public roads follows a government investment of £19 million in the technology in four British towns. Perry is due to be at an event later today where a driverless pod and a vehicle developed by defence company BAE Systems will be showcased. — Reuters  |
| Of political faux pas and accountability — Lee Yew Meng Posted: 10 Feb 2015 04:46 PM PST
Even sincere apologies often come together with resignations when the gaffes are considered inexcusable. There is admission and there is accountability. Honour code is serious in Japan Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yuko Obuchi (Abe administration) resigned last year over allegations that her support group used embezzled funds for supporters' vacation trips.
It is not difficult for Obuchi and Matsushima to blame their aides lower down the line. It could even be that they had no idea of the specifics involved. Maybe it is precisely because of the non-complexity involved that they took it squarely on the jaw. That it was just too silly a gaffe to have been committed — what more the complexities of government? Or maybe it was for a simpler reason — that the Abe administration has a bigger mission than to be bogged down with explaining and defending their faux pas. There is an honour principle evidently floating around. Perhaps the Japanese honour benchmark is too high for most to emulate. Remember the Seppuku, commonly known as Hara-kiri, the samurai bushido honour code of disembowelment for bringing shame? The most recently recorded acts of Hara-kiri were in 1992 when a 58-year-old company manager slashed his stomach over early retirement and in 1989, a cook took his life because of Emperor Hirohito's death. The last celebrated case of Hara-kiri was in 1970 by poet, playwright and film director Yukio Mishima, in a military camp, in protest against Japan's pacifist leaning policies. His accomplices performed the Kaishakunin (decapitation) duty, which follows the Hara-kiri ritual. When gaffes are comic relief The Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip (b 1921) would have the biggest collection of gaffes. Some classics are:
Prince Philip has been known for his gaffes for some 50 years that it is treated like his "trademark" rather than as any serious faux pas. After Italy's biggest earthquake for 30 years making 17,000 people homeless, then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said: "Of course their current lodgings are a bit temporary but they should see it like a weekend of camping." That was in April 2009 under freezing temperatures. Berlusconi once hailed US President Barack Obama as handsome, young and suntanned. In advising investors in New York to relocate to Italy, he said: "Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries … superb girls." Berlusconi's gaffes are manifestations of his boisterous personality and I suppose over time people do look forward to his next howler. In a liberated society if the state or the party is not compromised, gaffes are considered comic relief. Resignations owing to accountability David Blunkett resigned as Work and Pensions secretary of state (Blair administration) in 2005 because of a conflict of interest claim. An independent inquiry later exonerated him. South Korean prime minister Chung Hong-won resigned last year over the Sewol ferry disaster. "The right thing for me to do is to take responsibility and resign as the person in charge of the Cabinet." The disaster had no direct linkage to his work performance by any stretch. Kader Arif, a junior minister (Hollande administration) for veteran affairs resigned last year to ease the investigations by financial prosecutors over allegations of improper contract awards. I am not aware of any outcome of the investigations. There are many cases of political office resignations when allegations of improprieties arise. Invariably this happens only in developed economies, where free press exists. In summation At home, I am horribly disappointed with the official treatment of the "racist boycott" affair. We can translate the text to French, Portuguese, Italian and back, the essence will stay — Malays are majority, boycott Chinese business (red line crossed), Malays don't learn, Chinese will continue to dictate (red line crossed, read with the boycott call). Only expletives were missing. At the utmost minimum, the author must offer an unqualified recant (forget stupid explanations) and the Cabinet must censure. They chose to serve but accountability is not a choice! Talking about the coffee shop chain ownership, the Perak DAP and "anti Islam" is his prerogative. The 92 divisions in Umno can support him — that's their prerogative. His continued explanations are laughable but not funny. I just feel like the nation is being ridiculed. Pulai Umno MP Datuk Nur Jazlan, was quoted as saying: "All PM has to do is say Ismail Sabri is wrong." Looks like we've still got a few good men for sure. Can we expect the Cabinet meeting today to provide some relief? * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online. |
| Shoot for the stars with Nikon’s premium D810A camera Posted: 10 Feb 2015 04:37 PM PST
"The Nikon D810A is engineered exclusively to meet the unique demands of professional and hobbyist astrophotographers," said Masahiro Horie, Director of Marketing and Planning, Nikon Inc. "The camera's distinctive feature set and powerful imaging capabilities make it an appealing option for those who are ready to discover the fantastic cosmic features that are hidden among the stars." So, while other DSLRs are capable of snapping over 10 frames a second with perfect clarity for capturing sports and action shots, the D810A takes things in the opposite direction; it shoots very slowly indeed and its shutter can be set up for a 900 second — that's 15 minutes — exposure. The D810A has a 36.3-megapixel CMOS sensor for capturing higher-resolution images but it also has an infrared cut filter modified for the hydrogen and alpha wavelength. The combination of the two, plus the ability to set up longer and longer exposure values from four seconds right up to the aforementioned 900 seconds, means that even diffuse nebulae should be captured in all their heavenly glory. But even with these neat tricks, users are going to need greater control over ISO sensitivity to avoid noise creeping into the final composition. Nikon has thought about this and the solution is an ISO range — 200-12,800 — that balances the signal to noise ration specifically for night-time photography. And, because the camera is going to be used primarily for longer exposures, impatient owners will also be able to get a live preview of how a picture will look before it's captured if the exposure setting is 30 seconds or more. Nikon is yet to announce just how much the D810A will cost astrophotographers, but considering its body is based on that of the all-purpose D810 (currently retailing for US$3,000 (RM10,753) without a lens) and that it has a very specific use case, it could be similarly sky-high. — AFP-Relaxnews |
| Study: Brain damage from smoking may be reversible Posted: 10 Feb 2015 04:35 PM PST
Brain scans of 500 Scottish septuagenarians confirmed a link between smoking and an acceleration of age-related thinning of the cortex—the outer layer of grey matter, researchers reported. But they also pointed, for the first time, to potential for recovery after quitting. The cortex of ex-smokers in the group "seems to have partially recovered for each year without smoking," the multinational research team wrote in the Nature journal Molecular Psychiatry. But they warned that: "Although partial recovery seems possible, it can be a long process." Many studies have linked cigarette smoking with cognitive decline and dementia, and some also with brain degeneration. "Evidence suggests that smokers have, on average, slightly poorer global cognitive functioning in later life, as well as lower mean scores on several cognitive domains such as cognitive flexibility and memory," said the study authors. But it has never been shown whether the effects may be reversible. For the new study, the team used people who had participated in the Scottish Mental Survey as school children in 1947, when their cognitive function was tested. The survivors underwent MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans again in 2007, and the results of 504 of them were analysed. There were 36 current smokers, 223 ex-smokers and 245 who had never smoked in the group, which had an average age of 73, said the study paper. There was no significant difference between their ages or childhood IQ, and the group was split just almost equally between men and women. Analysis of the scans showed that current smokers "had a generally thinner cortex than those who had never smoked," said the study. 'Strong motivational argument' As for the quitters, who had on average smoked about a pack a day for 30 years, "it took roughly 25 years without smoking for differences in cortical thickness to no longer be observed between ex-smokers and those that never smoked," the authors wrote. And they warned: "Heavy ex-smokers remained with a thinner cortex at age 73 years even after more than 25 years without smoking." The findings could mean that giving up smoking caused cortical thinning to decelerate to a rate slower than normal age-related thinning, to allow ex-smokers to "catch up", the study said. Or it could be that the cortex actually started to thicken and rebuild. "Smokers need to be informed that cigarettes are associated with accelerated cortical thinning, a biomarker of cognitive ageing," said the study. "Importantly, cortical thinning can persist for many years after smoking cessation. "The potential to at least partially recover from smoking-related thinning might serve as a strong motivational argument to encourage smoking cessation." — AFP-Relaxnews |
| US to withdraw troops fighting Ebola in Africa Posted: 10 Feb 2015 04:35 PM PST
It quoted US officials as saying that over the coming weeks, Washington would pull out most of the 1,300 US forces currently working in Liberia and Senegal, where officials believe the crisis has largely been contained. The White House had no immediate comment on the report. Nearly 9,000 people have died in the epidemic that began in December 2013, according to the World Health Organisation. — Reuters |
| Samsung to launch innovation lab; focus on virtual reality, robotic initiatives Posted: 10 Feb 2015 04:33 PM PST
The new research and development lab will be staffed by an autonomous and independent team whose only focus will be on exploring how technology can help people in their daily lives and therefore shape a better future. According to the Korea Times, prime technologies under examination at the lab, which will be led by Samsung's mobile chief, Shin Jong-Kyun, include 3D printing, robots, drones and unmanned vehicles. Of the new initiative, an unnamed Samsung official is quoted by the Korea Times as saying: "Given the significance of the team, members will have more authority and independence because the main purpose of the team isn't to develop single devices for any imminent results, but to develop solutions to go with Samsung's manufacturing capabilities." It is an approach that has paid dividends for a number of the company's US competitors, particularly Google. It's own semi-secretive X Labs have already spawned smart contact lenses, a prototype autonomous car, a project for using drones to automatically deliver emergency supplies and medication and, of course most famously, Google Glass. And although Samsung is seen as a fast follower rather than an innovator in areas such as the smartphone market — thanks mostly to the patent and copyright infringement war it waged with Apple over the course of 2012 and 2013 — in reality the company is a huge conglomerate at the cutting edge of a host of different technologies. The lab will help the company bring all of those strands together in the hopes of creating new products, systems and solutions. — AFP-Relaxnews |
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