APTN National NewsIn just over three weeks, the election for national chief of the Assembly of First Nations will take place in Toronto.Eight candidates will be on the ballot.One of them is Diane Kelly. She spoke to APTN National News about her campaign.
The Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development, a UN conference that aims to chart a new way of thinking on addressing some of the world’s most complex development challenges, wrapped up today, after three days of intense debates and ‘game-playing.’ Among the technology experts, gamers and activists putting their heads together to figure out how best to help countries implement the UN vision of a more just and equitable world where no one is left behind, was Ryan Hooks, manager of a software company called Huxley, who showed off his ‘hands-free gardening” app. “It’s an AI (Artificial Intelligence) and augmented reality for plants. Greenhouses that use hydroponics to circulate the water are very complex systems and it’s hard to scale water efficient food solutions. I’ve found that augmented reality and AI can be really useful for reducing labour cost,” he told UN News. To demonstrate the app’s capabilities, Mr. Hook pointed his phone at a plant on the table and his app identified it as “apple mint.” “It’s augmented reality, it knows what kind of plant it is, what percentage its health is, when to pick it, pack it, ship it and the environment (around it), so people can have hands-free augmented gardening,” he explained. The hands-free gardening app, Mr. Hooks continued, makes it more efficient to use hydroponics, a method of growing plants without soil, which also uses 95 per cent less water to grow plants. 2030 Hive MindParticipants at the Festival were also engrossed in the 2030 Hive Mind game, where they played for a hypothetical country, planning policies, and convincing other players to join forces with them.The Festival organizers say that the game, which focuses on the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, reveals the tough choices and trade-offs that might have be made along the road to sustainable development for all over the next 13 years. Tom Juntunen, of the U Begin company, was playing for Goal 9, which focusses on building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.When Mr. Juntunen is not at his booth in the exhibit, he walked around the conference centre trying to convince other players to support his policies.“There’s a lot of negotiations, it’s a very robust simulation of real life dynamics with policy negotiation. Everyone has what’s important to them and what’s not important. In playing the game, you experience the parallel of that in a virtual environment. It is challenging as it is in real life,” he said of Hive Mind 2030.‘Communicating the SDGs’ and the 2030 Agenda“We have to make the world aware of this […] agenda that is definitely going to transform the planet and that is going to ensure that no one is left behind,” Cristina Gallach, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said yesterday. “The more we communicate about the SDGs and make people aware of the agenda, the more the governments we will be accountable and will ensure that it is implemented,” she added. The UN Department of Public Information (DPI), headed by Ms. Gallach, is the Organization’s entity tasked with informing the wider world on the SDGs and ensuring that the 17 goals are known and understood. To that end, 17 ‘icons’ – each with a designated bright colour, short name phrase and single image – have been created to illustrate each Global Goal. The icons have also been translated in over 50 languages, from Czech to Bahasa Indonesia, and the number is growing. The Global Festival of Ideas, the first in a series of annual forums, is hosted by the UN SDG Action Campaign in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with the support of the German Government.
The clock is ticking and with just four weeks to go before the March 31 deadline, Brock fundraisers are close to securing extra provincial cash so a greater number of students with financial needs can attend the University.With more than $750,000 raised to date, Brock is less than $48,000 short of its student awards donation target that will secure maximum provincial matching funds. If Brock is successful in its annual Ontario Trust for Student Support (OTSS) Campaign, this will be the third year in a row that the University reaches the extra matching dollars mark.Under the OTSS program, the province offers matching funds based on how much money universities raise for endowed awards for Ontario students with demonstrated financial need. The deal gets sweeter if institutions meet or exceed established targets. Then the government ratchets up the funding rate from the basic one-dollar-to-one-dollar matching formula.If Brock raises $48,000 by March 31, the Ontario government will match every dollar donated with $1.27, bringing the total to $2.27 for an endowed student award. This will more than double the total value of student awards to about $2 million.“Brock’s endowed student awards program, supported by generous donors, helps students meet the ever-increasing cost of pursuing a university education,” says Doug Earle, executive director of The Campaign for a Bold New Brock.“At Brock, that’s about $17,450 for one year for a student living way from home.”“The province wants us to find ways to help Ontario’s top students with financial needs get a university education. We are so close to reaching our maximum match to help reach more students and need just a few more donors to make the difference.”
Areas of Salibsury remain cordoned offCredit:AFP Meanwhile parents in Wiltshire have been warned not to allow their children to pick up items off the ground as the hunt for the source of the novichok poisoning continues. On Tuesday evening Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the head of UK Counter Terrorism policing, said the deadly Novichok “could last 50 years,” during a conference to a packed public meeting in Amesbury.He admitted it could be in several containers which may never be found, as “it would be impossible to keep going forever.” Dawn Sturgess died at the weekend 
Earlier there were fears that novichok could have spread to a third Wiltshire town after a car belonging to a paramedic was seized at an address in Swindon and taken away for examination. One of the two people poisoned by novichok in Salisbury is now conscious, it has emerged, as the UK’s counter terror chief admitted the nerve agent could last 50 years. Charlie Rowley, 45, had been in a coma in intensive care ever since being rushed to hospital on Saturday June 30 but the improvement in his condition has raised hopes that he might be able to help police understand how he became ill.At the weekend, his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess, 44, tragically died after also being poisoned.In a statement Lorna Wilkinson, director of nursing at Salisbury District Hospital, said: “We have seen a small but significant improvement in the condition of Charlie Rowley. He is in a critical but stable condition, and is now conscious.“While this is welcome news, clearly we are not out of the woods yet. Charlie is still very unwell and will continue to require specialist, round-the-clock care here at Salisbury District Hospital.” A white Audi was removed from an address in Swindon Mr Rowley is being treated at Salisbury District HospitalCredit:AFP 
Military personnel wearing camouflage and gas masks removed the white Audi car from outside the home of former RAF man, Keith Mills, who is believed to been one of the medical team who attended Amesbury on Saturday 30 June.Mr Mills, is understood to have been given the all clear, but the authorities are taking no chances and are inspecting his car to make sure none of the deadly nerve agent has been transferred to the vehicle.Neighbour, Steve Morgan, 48, said Mr Mills had treated Dawn Sturgess, who tragically died after being exposed to novichok after picking up a discarded container in Salisbury.He said: “The car belongs to a paramedic who treated the woman who died. There was concern that clothes might have been contaminated and the car was taken to Porton Down.”Wiltshire Police said: “We have arranged the transportation of a car from an address in Swindon this evening in relation to the ongoing incident in Amesbury.”The public should not be alarmed by this. Those involved have the training expertise to safely remove the vehicle.” 
The fact he is now conscious may offer the police an opportunity to find out how the pair came to be contaminated.It is thought they may have picked up a container that had been used in the original assassination attempt on former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. Basu said officers were working on the theory that Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley came into contact with the nerve agent in liquid form after opening a container.A massive operation is currently underway to locate that item and make it safe and it is hoped Mr Rowley may now be able to help with that task.Earlier Ms Sturgess’s family paid tribute to her and said they hoped Mr Rowley would pull through. In fresh advice, issued following the death of Ms Sturgess, the Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, said people should be particularly wary of items that contained a liquid or gel.She said the warning was particularly important as the school holidays were about to begin and so everyone should be extra vigilant.More than 100 counter terrorism officers are involved in the hunt for a container thought to have been responsible for poisoning Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley. The UK’s head of counter-terrorism policing Neil BasuCredit:John Stillwell/PA In a statement they said: “Dawn’s death has been devastating for us. Dawn will always be remembered by us as a gentle soul who was generous to a fault.“She would do anything for anybody and those who knew Dawn would know that she would gladly give her last penny to somebody in need.“She had the biggest of hearts and she will be dreadfully missed by both her immediate and wider family.“Our thoughts and prayers also go out to Charlie and his family and we wish Charlie a speedy recovery.” 
Despite insisting that the risk to the public was low, Dame Sally Davies advised people to avoid picking up any litter that they had not dropped themselves.She said: “I want to emphasise to everyone in the Salisbury and Amesbury area that nobody, adult or child, should pick up any foreign object which could contain liquid or gel, in the interests of their own safety.”This, in practice, means do not pick up containers, syringes, needles, cosmetics or similar objects, made of materials such as metal, plastic or glass.”This is particularly important as families are starting to prepare for their children’s summer holidays and so I am asking that people are extra vigilant. “To be clear: do not pick up anything that you haven’t dropped yourself.” 
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“However, we are already trialling alternatives as we move towards ending the use of spraying as set out by the Council vote and this should be the last summer that the beach is routinely treated in this way.” Many conservationists have condemned the council for their use of weed spray.Oceans campaigner Carrie Symonds said: “Why are councils spraying herbicides on UK beaches? Mad”.Swimmer Lewis Pugh, who is the UN Patron of the Oceans, added: “Why on earth would you spray a beach with herbicide?? STOP IT! We are not the only animals that live on this planet.”Former Countryfile presenter Julia Brabury tweeted: “Why are you weed spraying on a beach /close to a beach when the toxins can enter the sea? Why are you weed spraying, period? Who is advising you about your environmental responsibilities & behaviours?”A Council spokesperson said: “Thanks to everyone who has shared their views over the weekend about weed-spraying on Hoylake beach. We acknowledge there are strong and compelling views on both sides of the debate as to whether it is right to control the growth of spartina and other beach grasses in this location and these concerns are reflected in the actions we take.”Wirral Council recently voted to phase out the spraying of glyphosate in the borough, immediately after we have identified a suitable effective alternative.”In the specific case of Hoylake beach, we have had an agreement in recent years with Natural England to manage the issue of spartina grass. That agreement allowed for the grass to be sprayed once during the summer months in a controlled manner. Seals and rare toads are at risk after a council sprayed powerful weedkiller on a beach, according to marine conservationists.Wirral council sprayed a mixture of chemicals including glyphosate on Hoylake Beach in order to destroy the grasses growing there. The chemical treatment meant the beach was closed to the public for three days last week, and visitors have been warned not to pick vegetation as it could still be contaminated.Chris Cureton, the local co-ordinator for British Divers Marine Life Rescue told The Telegraph: “We don’t condone any chemicals getting sprayed on a beach, definitely so close to seals.”Particularly with the weather we are having at the moment, there is no way the chemical didn’t end up in the sea.”The seals are in a bank on the nearby River Dee – but I rescued a seal pup at the very end of last year on that very beach, so they do come to the beach from time to time.” A seal rescued on Hoylake beach by Christopher CuretonCredit:Christopher Cureton He claimed there were internal disputes among council members about whether to phase out using the weedkiller.The diver added that toads are also at risk: “Just round the corner from Hoylake there’s a site of special scientific interest, and there’s a population of endangered Natterjack toads and they’re very close to where the glyphosate was sprayed. They are very very sensitive and are endangered.” 
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FORGET OCEAN BREEZE or vanilla sunset.Don’t you want to represent the smellerific Emerald Isle in your household? Or if you live abroad, wouldn’t you love to capture the essence of Ireland simply by lighting a candle?Well, enter the imagination of DailyEdge.ie and let’s explore some distinctly Irish scented candles. (All made up of course – more’s the pity.)1. HamFor all those who have been looking for a candle to recreate the “bit of dinner” scent, look no further. Source: Yankee Candle/Flickr/whitneyinchicago2. Guinness aftermathAny Guinness drinker will know that a few pints of the black stuff has an effect on the digestive system. Say no more. But if you LIKE that smell (to each their own) – then we have just the candle for you. Source: Yankee Candles/Flickr/Carlos Luna3. Post-match jerseyThe sweaty post-match smell, either tinged with elation of winning or the disappointment of losing. Slung in a laundry basket and not thought about til the next game. Want to capture that enrapturing smell? Now you can. Source: Yankee Candle/RetroGAA4. SlurryLet’s not beat around the bush here. Sometimes you’ve got to roll up the windows when you’re travelling by car through the Irish countryside. And why? Well, this heady, distinctive musk. Source: YankeeCandle/Flickr/Eidoloon5. VienettaOh, Vienetta. The smell of luxury, of childhood delight, of Sunday nights. Source: Yankee Candle/Everyview6. RomanceYou think Irish people aren’t romantic? Think again. Say hello to The Shift candle. Source: Yankee Candle/Flickr/Lee J Haywood7. A fried breakfastA tricky one. Imagine smelling this drifting up to you from bed, only to emerge and realise it was a scented candle instead of rashers in the pan. A double-edged sword. Source: Yankee Candle/Flickr/Swanksalot8. MassIncense mixed with communion wafer mixed with mild boredom mixed with the sign of peace with the fella from three doors down. Source: Yankee Candle/Flickr/Fr James Bradley9. Curry chipsTo evoke memories of brilliant nights out – and not-so-brilliant hangovers. Source: Yankee Candle/Flickr/Abi Skipp10. A nightclub carpetThe unmistakeable smell of an Irish nightclub at last orders. Musty old carpets, BO, some lingering fag breath, a pint, and the hope for the shift mingling together to create something … Something beautiful. Source: Yankee Candle/Flickr/fudj11. Your own houseImagine you could bottle it when you went away. Your own bed and the comforting, familiar smell of your Mam as she wraps you in a big hug. Source: Yankee Candle/boards.ieGot any scented candle suggestions of your own? Leave them in the comments.Read: 6 of the best things about your childhood Sunday dinner>Read: 7 smells that will remind you of a Sunday morning>
If you thought the Huawei Ascend W1 — the company’s first Windows Phone device — would be a beast of a phone like their new quad-core, 5-inch Ascend D2, prepare to be nonplussed. Turns out the W1 is a more modest offering, likely aimed at consumers in emerging markets and folks talking a gamble on their very first smartphone.While the Ascend W1 won’t blow away power users, it’s still a capable piece of hardware. A dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.2GHz runs the show. It’s paired up with 512MB of RAM, which isn’t a lot by today’s standards. Nevertheless, it’s enough to meet the minimum requirements for Skype on Windows Phone, so Ascend W1 owners will certainly be able to do more with the front-facing VGA cam than take selfies.A four-inch display with a native resolution of 480×800 pixels plays host to your live tiles, and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera is ready to capture both stills and video. The Ascend W1 doesn’t offer much in the way of storage space, with just 4GB of NAND on board, but that can be boosted via micro SD expansion cards.Although it’s no powerhouse, the Ascend W1 compares favorably to the $249 Nokia Lumia 620, which is aimed at the same market segment Huawei is gunning for with this phone. The company is even following suit by offering buyers a variety of color choices — four in all, including white, black, blue, and red. One big difference with the W1 is its battery. It’s a 1950mAh unit, which provides a full 50% more power than the Lumia 620.Pricing and carrier details have yet to be announced, but Huawei did say that the Ascend W1 would be arriving in the U.S. later this year. Shoppers in Russia and “other regions” will be able to get their hands on it a bit sooner.More at Huawei
Climat : Ban Ki-Moon appelle les pays riches à tenir leurs promessesA quelques jours de la conférence de Durban sur la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique, le secrétaire général des Nations unies, Ban Ki-moon, a appelé les pays riches à “s’inspirer” des pays les plus fragiles pour trouver un accord. Ce lundi, le secrétaire général de l’ONU Ban Ki-Moon a ouvert le Forum sur la vulnérabilité climatique, qui se tient à Dacca, la capitale du Bangladesh, rapporte l’AFP. Cette conférence de deux jours réunit 18 pays et vise à préparer la conférence de Durban, en Afrique du Sud, qui débutera le 28 novembre prochain. Ban Ki-moon a alors appelé les Etats les plus riches et les plus pollueurs à se mobiliser contre la menace climatique qui pèsent sur certains pays, comme les Maldives, le Costa Rica ou encore les îles Samoa. Trois pays qui se sont engagés à devenir “neutres en carbone”. Une initiative vivement saluée par le secrétaire général des Nations Unies.À lire aussiQui est Greta Thunberg, proposée pour un prix Nobel à seulement 16 ans ?”En ces temps d’incertitude sur l’économie mondiale, laissons l’engagement (de ces pays) pour une croissance verte être une inspiration pour un plus grand nombre de pays développés, les plus gros émetteurs”, a-t-il déclaré. Ban Ki-Moon a déploré le rythme “très lent et inadapté” des négociations sur la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique. “A Durban, il s’agira d’achever ce qui a été convenu l’année dernière à Cancun, a-t-il exhorté. Nous ne pouvons pas nous permettre de reporter ces mesures à plus tard. Nous ne pouvons pas demander aux plus pauvres et aux plus vulnérables de payer le prix du changement climatique”.Ban Ki-Moon appelle donc les gouvernements à lancer le Fonds climatique vert promis l’année dernière à Cancun. Ce fonds visant à aider les pays les plus pauvres et les plus fragiles à lutter et s’adapter au changement climatique, doit être doté de 100 milliards de dollars annuels, avait-il été décidé il y un an. “Le fonds doit absolument être lancé à Durban. Nous ne pouvons pas nous contenter de promesses creuses” a insisté le secrétaire général de l’ONU.Le 15 novembre 2011 à 09:31 • Maxime Lambert
Facebook Twitter Google+LinkedInPinterestWhatsApp#TurksandCaicos, August 28, 2017 – Providenciales – The Department of Road Safety and Transportation would like to remind the general public that it is illegal to drive without a driver’s license or on an expired driver’s license. In addition, it also illegal to operate an unlicensed vehicle.Motorists are hereby advised to bring current all expired driver’s licenses; persons who have applied for a driver’s license are encouraged to visit the Road Safety Department on their respective island to collect same.The Department would also like to advise that renewals are now processed on the same day if the application is submitted in the morning. The maximum turnaround time is three (3) days.Please be guided accordingly.Press Release: TCIG Facebook Twitter Google+LinkedInPinterestWhatsApp Related Items:
Play Classic StarCraft and Brood War expansion for free by Martin Brinkmann on April 20, 2017 in Games – 14 commentsDepending on when you started PC gaming, you may have never played the classic StarCraft real-time strategy game or its expansion Brood War.Blizzard released the classic game for free for both Windows and Mac computer systems yesterday. Even better, downloads are direct and don’t require a Battlenet account or registration, and that is also true for playing the single player campaign. I have not tried multiplayer, so cannot comment on whether this is also freely available or requires a (free) account.The games have been updated with a patch so that they are playable on modern machines. The download, full StarCraft game and Brood War expansion, has a size of less than 2 Gigabytes, and you get days of fun out of it if you like RTS games and don’t mind the antiquated looks and interface of the games.StarCraft is a classic computer game that pushed the real-time strategy genre with its use of three factions that played distinctively different.The patch that Blizzard released for StarCraft: Brood War improves compatibility with all supported versions of Windows, and makes other improvements such as support for windowed fullscreen or windowed mode, UPnP support, multiplayer and performance improvements.You find downloads of the game for PC and Mac on the patch page. Just download the 3 Megabyte installer, and follow the instructions to download the full game and have it installed on your machine.Just in case, here are the download links of the StarCraft installer for PC and Mac.The original StarCraft features three campaigns, one for each of the three races:Terran, humans exiled from Earth.Zerg, an insectoid race of aliens.Protoss, advanced humanoid race with psionic powers.StarCraft: Brood War continues the story of the original StarCraft campaign and introduces new campaigns, units, graphics, effects and more in the process.Blizzard plans to release a remastered version of the original StarCraft game soon. What’s interesting from a gamer’s perspective is that the classic StarCraft supports multiplayer, and that classic and remastered gamers will be able to play each other online.It is unclear why Blizzard decided to release the original StarCraft and its Brood War expansion for free. One possible explanation is that it wants to convince a couple of new players, and maybe even old players who all but forgot about StarCraft to give it a try to get them in the right mood for the upcoming remastered edition of the game.The gameplay is as good as ever, but the look and feel of the game is ripe for an overhaul. That’s what the remastered edition will bring to the table, as it introduces support for higher resolutions among other things.So, whether you want to relive childhood memories by playing through the StarCraft campaign once more, battle friends in multiplayer, or simply experience one of the most respected RTS games of all times, you will have a blast with this one.Now You: StarCraft, WarCraft, something else? What’s your RTS favorite and why?SummaryArticle NamePlay Classic StarCraft and Brood War expansion for freeDescriptionBlizzard released the classic StarCraft real-time strategy game and its Brood War expansion for free for both Windows and Mac computer systems yesterdayAuthor Martin BrinkmannPublisher Ghacks Technology NewsLogo Advertisement
News | Electronic Medical Records (EMR) | August 01, 2019 DrChrono Teams With DeepScribe to Automate Medical Note Taking in EHR DrChrono Inc. and DeepScribe announced a partnership so medical practices using DrChrono EHR can use artificial… read more The CT scanner might not come with protocols that are adequate for each hospital situation, so at Phoenix Children’s Hospital they designed their own protocols, said Dianna Bardo, M.D., director of body MR and co-director of the 3D Innovation Lab at Phoenix Children’s. March 19, 2009 – LUMEDX Corp. today introduced its new software to collect interventional radiology procedural information at the point of care, the Interventional Radiology (IR). Delivering comprehensive data capture for both general and vascular procedures, the IR module automatically documents JCAHO and patient safety performance measures. This new solution is reportedly the first commercial software to offer sophisticated, integrated tools for this vital service line, and was designed to meet hospitals’ clinical-and business-objectives.As part of the LUMEDX suite of patient and clinical business management solutions, the IR module enables easy tracking and monitoring of case details, volumes, billing and more. Performance metrics are immediately available for analysis. Images are integrated into the case record. And electronic procedure reports are thorough and timely. By automating information capture, the module makes it easy for physicians and staff to communicate and collaborate with other clinical areas.For more information: www.lumedx.com FacebookTwitterLinkedInPrint分享 Technology | March 19, 2009 LUMEDX Launches New Interventional Radiology Software Technology | Cybersecurity | August 07, 2019 ScImage Introduces PICOM ModalityGuard for Cybersecurity ScImage Inc. is bridging the gap between security and functionality with the introduction of the PICOM ModalityGuard…. read more Feature | Information Technology | July 31, 2019 | By Greg Freiherr How Smart Devices Can Improve Efficiency Innovation is trending toward improved efficiency — but not at the expense of patient safety, according to… read more News | PACS | August 08, 2019 NetDirector Launches Cloud-based PDF to DICOM Conversion Service NetDirector, a cloud-based data exchange and integration platform, has diversified their radiology automation options… read more Related Content Sponsored Content | Case Study | Radiation Dose Management | August 13, 2019 The Challenge of Pediatric Radiation Dose Management Radiation dose management is central to child patient safety. Medical imaging plays an increasing role in the accurate… read more News | Artificial Intelligence | August 05, 2019 Montefiore Nyack Hospital Uses Aidoc AI to Spot Urgent Conditions Faster Montefiore Nyack Hospital, an acute care hospital in Rockland County, N.Y., announced it is utilizing artificial… read more News | Artificial Intelligence | August 08, 2019 Half of Hospital Decision Makers Plan to Invest in AI by 2021 August 8, 2019 — A recent study conducted by Olive AI explores how hospital leaders are responding to the imperative read more News | Radiology Business | August 01, 2019 Philips Completes Acquisition of Carestream Health’s HCIS Business … read more Videos | Radiology Business | August 02, 2019 VIDEO: Key Topics for Radiology Administrators at AHRA 2019 Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) President … read more News | PACS | August 09, 2019 Lake Medical Imaging Selects Infinitt for Multi-site RIS/PACS Infinitt North America will be implementing Infinitt RIS (radiology information system)/PACS (picture archiving and… read more Key Topics for Radiology Administrators at AHRA 2019Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time 0:00/Duration 7:33Loaded: 2.15%Stream Type LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time -7:33 Playback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions settings, opens captions settings dialogcaptions off, selectedAudio Trackdefault, selectedFullscreenThis is a modal window.Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window.Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
Tags: G Adventures, Sri Lanka Share G Adventures becomes first travel company to sail Sri Lanka’s southern coast Friday, September 29, 2017 Posted by
TORONTO — Demand for Sri Lanka is up, so much that G Adventures has seen triple the bookings in the past year to this fascinating destination. As such, the tour operator has launched a brand new program of small-group sailing tours along Sri Lanka’s southern coast, becoming the first travel company to do so.“We’re thrilled to be the first adventure company to explore Sri Lanka by sea. They say great things come in small packages and Sri Lanka is a fantastic destination with plenty to see, do and eat,” says Vince Donnelly, global sailing manager, G Adventures. “These sailing trips have a local chief experience officer (CEO), skipper and cook onboard, so travellers will also experience the local culture and flavours as they explore the sunning Sri Lankan coastline.”After seeing strong growth in sales of Sri Lanka tours this year, Donnelly notes that offering a sailing trip was the next natural step for the company.More news: A new low for no-frills flying: easyJet assigns backless seat to passengerThe seven-day ‘Sri Lanka Sailing’ trip, which travels roundtrip from Mirissa, begins on Feb. 2, 2018. The trip can also be combined with a land-based itinerary in Sri Lanka – known as ‘the pearl of the Indian Ocean’ – to create a 14-day land and sea getaway called ‘Sri Lanka Land & Sea’.Highlights include a visit to Galle, a fort city on the southwest coast that was founded by the Portuguese, as well as a stop at Ussangoda National Park, the newest national park in Sri Lanka and home to wildlife and rare medicinal plants. Its red earth is said to be the result of an ancient asteroid that crashed into the land.‘Sailing Sri Lanka’ is priced from $1,999 per person, while the 14-day ‘Sri Lanka Land & Sea’ is priced from $3,399 per person.The launch of Sri Lanka sailing brings the number of sailing destinations offered by G Adventures to eight, with 19 different itineraries across the British Virgin Islands, Croatia, Cuba, Greece, Indonesia, Montenegro and Thailand. << Previous PostNext Post >> Travelweek Group 
New York City has revealed its latest tourism target of 67 million annual visitors by 2021. The New York City’s official destination marketing organisation, NYC & Company plays an important role in sustaining and increasing tourism to all five boroughs. NYC & Company recently launched its NYCGO Insider Guides, which highlight a broad and diverse range of neighbourhoods across the City.NYC & Company President and CEO, Fred Dixon said, “Travel and tourism are a cornerstone of the City’s economy our hotels, restaurants, attractions, retailers, Broadway theatres, performing arts, five-borough cultural organisations and transportation providers continue to draw new and repeat visitors to our City each year. Through the continued support of the de Blasio administration, I am confident we will reach our new target of 67 million annual visitors by 2021, further spreading tourism to every corner of our City, drawing visitors during slower periods, and showcasing the attractive new product in all five boroughs.”Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen said, “There’s never been a better time to visit New York City and experience the dynamism and diversity that makes it the most exciting destination in the world.”
Share December 5, 2012 468 Views Agents & Brokers Attorneys & Title Companies Credit Standards Defaults Fannie Mae Freddie Mac Investors Lenders & Servicers Loan Repurchases Mortgage-Backed Securities RMBS Service Providers U.S. Bancorp Underwriting Standards 2012-12-05 Krista Franks Brock *_UPDATED: Adds comments from Freddie Mac, revises Richard Davis├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ó comments to reflect statements from recorded webcast of his presentation._*””Freddie Mac””:http://www.freddiemac.com is ramping up repurchase demands and “”the put-back that they’ve been going through from 2006 forward on loans ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ª they’re increasing that put-back now to ’04 and ’05,”” “”U.S. Bancorp””:https://www.usbank.com/en/AboutHome.cfm CEO Richard Davis told investors at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York Tuesday. [IMAGE]According to Davis, whose presentation is “”archived on his company’s website””:http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=117565&eventID=4877466, Freddie Mac informed U.S. Bancorp and other large servicers Friday night that the GSE will require them to buy back defaulted loans originated in years prior to the housing crisis.While Davis said the move was ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£unexpected,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø Freddie Mac notes that it has always had the authority to pull files for review when loans stop performing regardless of when the loans were originated.├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£Our repurchase policies for non-performing loans have not changed. If there are rep and warrant violations we can discuss appropriate remedies with the lender,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø said Brad German, spokesman for Freddie Mac.As Davis maintains, up until now, both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have only reviewed loans from 2006 or later in assessing repurchases. But German explains that the GSE├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós file review strategy is adjusted periodically to ensure the company is gathering the type of historical data needed to improve its quality control processes and reduce taxpayer exposure to risk.├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£We have begun telling servicers 2013 file reviews will include non-performing loans originated in 2004 and 2005,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø German said. But, he added, ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£we also expect to request fewer total non-performing loan files next year than we did this year.├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ØAs German describes the review adjustments, Freddie Mac is asking to take a look at loan files├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Øand only the files of non-performing loans├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Ødating back to the years of the housing boom simply as a quality control measure.[COLUMN_BREAK]He says Freddie Mac is ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£fully committed to working with our lenders to ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ª improve the overall quality of conforming, conventional mortgages sold to Freddie Mac├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø while remaining ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£responsible stewards of taxpayer resources.├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ØDavis says U.S. Bancorp ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£is still sizing├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø how the added vintage reviews will impact the company├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós reserves, but it├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós likely to cut into earnings per share by as much as two cents during the fourth quarter. While any associated losses won├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ót be realized until after the end of 2012, Davis says this quarter, the company will set aside what it expects in repurchase demands from 2006 and forward, and then will ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£add another $0.01 or $0.02 worth├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø for 2004 and 2005 originations. In the second quarter, the bank reserved $220 million to cover repurchase claims.German says, though, that it├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós anticipated the number of files reviewed by Freddie Mac will decrease. Even after expanding the pool of non-performing loans subject to examination by two years, the GSE expects to request fewer loan files in 2013 than it did in 2012, according to German.├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£We are also more committed than ever to working with lenders to resolve any issues involving our loans in a transparent and mutually beneficial manner,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø German said.Still, the risk attached to older, legacy assets raises concerns among bankers. ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£That├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós the reason the mortgage business gets harder to love, because you don├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ót know whether or not you├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬óre done with it,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø Davis told an analyst in the Q&A segment of his presentation.├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£There used to be kind of a statute or an unspoken statute of how long you could hold a transaction, sell a transaction, underwrite a transaction, or close out a deal,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø Davis remarked. But now, he says you see this same type of scrutiny and liability in other places, coming from different agencies wanting to ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£reach back├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø to double-check lenders actions. ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£Even if the rules were right then, even if that own agency approved [the loan] then, it seems that it still is at risk,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø Davis said.Davis told investors he is ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£quite concerned├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø about the banking business next year. ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£I don├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ót like what I see,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø he said. With low interest rates and the rising costs of adhering to new regulations, Davis believes banks will see smaller returns. ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£This economic environment is challenging,├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø he said.U.S. Bancorp reported increased earnings in the third quarter, up 16 percent with a 5.9 percent quarterly rise in mortgage banking revenue.
in Origination, Secondary Market Freddie,Freddie Mac to Examine Older Loans for Repurchase
Bank of Cyprus said Tuesday it has reduced non-performing exposures by €454m, or 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, as it registered a net profit of €43m.“We remain confident that we can make further progress in reducing our NPE stock during the coming quarters and we remain on-track to achieve our full year target of ~€2b organic NPE reduction,” BoC CEO John Hourican said. “At the same time, we continue to actively explore certain structured solutions to further accelerate NPE reduction and more quickly return the bank to a more normalised position.”At the end of the first quarter of 2018, BoC’s NPE ratio was 45 per cent while coverage reached 51 per cent, well-above the EU average of 44 per cent and in line with our medium-term target of coverage above 50 per cent, he said.The Irish banker said the lender’s Q1 results reflected the continuing delivery against the core objective of balance sheet repair.“This was the twelfth consecutive quarter of material NPE reduction,” Hourican said.BoC has reduced its NPE’s by 44 per cent since December 2014.The island’s biggest lender, which was forced to seize deposits to recapitalise in 2013 as part of Cyprus’ bailout deal, had a total income of €231m in Q1 and an operating profit of €125m.Local deposits grew by €291m, to €18bn, while new lending reached €717m, a rise against Q1 2017. Its loan to deposit ratio was 80 per cent.The bank’s capital remained in excess of regulatory requirements, Hourican said, and “we remain on target to exceed 13 per cent on a CET1 basis by the end of the year, based on organic balance sheet repair.”You May LikePopularEverythingColorado Mom Adopted Two Children, Months Later She Learned Who They Really ArePopularEverythingUndoLivestlyChip And Joanna’s $18M Mansion Is Perfect, But It’s The Backyard Everyone Is Talking AboutLivestlyUndoSmart Tips DailySeniors With No Life Insurance May Get A $250,000 Policy If They Do ThisSmart Tips DailyUndo Concern over falling tourism numbersUndoPensioner dies after crash on Paphos-Polis roadUndoCypriot tycoon launches ‘Bank of Cannabis’Undoby Taboolaby Taboola
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Karate,S. both Minerva Punjab and Churchill Brothers have come down harshly on the refereeing standards in the I-league this season. and financial year 2018-19 seems a lot more positive across sectors."Companies want to retain top talent as hiring has picked pace across sectors" Devasia added According to a study by HR consultancy Aon firms have either made changes or are planning to make changes to their performance management systems to retain top talent Around 75 percent firms use variable pay 91 percent use increments and 71 percent use career opportunities to differentiate between average and high performers Moreover 47 percent firms pay variable salary of more than 15 times to high performers than average performers Experts believe in terms of cities Bangalore and Delhi top the highest percentage as compared to Mumbai Pune Chennai Hyderabad and Kolkata "Overall Indian companies covering both MNCs and startups will experience a pay hike of 10 to 15 percent for the right talent in 2018 after a challenging year for the job market stunned by post- demonetization layoffs in traditional sectors followed by the advent of artificial intelligence in new-age ones" said Amit Munjal Founder and CEO Doctor Insta a video medicine platform Gurdeep Pall was confident Skypes automatic translation program would work But as Microsofts corporate vice president in charge of Skype prepared to hold the first public demonstration of the program last May Pall found himself worrying about the room itself "Any sound that goes into the microphone you basically have logic running trying to figure out what the sound said" he says "You can have feedback or you can have somebody coughing faraway that the mic picked up somebody shifting far away the squeak from their foot" The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now View Sample Sign Up Now Palls anxiety was for naught An audience of several hundred reporters and industry insiders watched on as Pall and a native German speaker held a nearly flawless conversation through the companys prototype of Skype Translator Roughly a second after Pall Spoke subtitles in German and English appeared at the bottom of the screen and a synthetic Siri-like voice read the words aloud to the German caller The audience murmured in astonishment but the program didnt falter as it shot back a translation from German to English Pall on the other hand was flustered as his jitters about the room metastasized to two presenters who were whispering to one another nearby throughout the demonstration "Im thinking Get out of here" Pall recalls laughing Researchers working on automatic translation technology like this are familiar with this blend of hope and anxiety The concept of a universal translator has long been a fixture of science fiction not to mention a dream of inventors and linguists since long before computers existed The granodiorite slab announcing the kingly reign of Ptolemy V in Egypt circa 196 BC better known as the Rosetta Stone might be considered an early stab at the idea In the 1930s two inventors filed patents for "mechanical dictionaries" promising to translate words in real time And in more recent decades firms ranging from NEC to Jibbigo have periodically tried to crack the problem But as practical reality the idea has been perennially delayed Apple vs Microsoft in 11 Slides Source: Morningstar World Bank Source: Apple Q3 Earnings Report Microsoft Q4 Earnings Report Daily Treasury Statement (July 18 2014) Source: Apple Q3 Earnings Report Microsoft Q4 Earnings Report Source: IDC Source: IDC World Bank Source: Gartner Source: Gartner World Bank Source: Apple Q3 Earnings Report Microsoft Q4 Earnings Report Source: NetMarketspace Source: USA Today Wall Street Journal SEC filing 1 of 12 Advertisement Now advances in so-called machine learningcomputer programs that can essentially self-teach with enough exposure to spoken languagehope for a universal translator is increasingly replacing anxiety What has changed from previous generations is that the underlying technology thrives through use trial and error recorded and reviewed ad nasueam The current crop of translation software gets smarter researchers and programmers say the more it absorbs "The more data you have the better youre going to do" explains Lane Schwartz a linguistics professor at the University of Illinois Which is why Microsoft released a preview version of Skype Translator to a limited number of users last December (The Redmond Washington-based tech giant bought Skype for $85 billion in 2011) The program is expected to reach a major milestone near the end of March Late last year Google announced its translation app for text would include a "conversation mode" for the spoken word Baidu the so-called Google of China has had a similar feature available in its home market for several years And the forthcoming release of the Apple Watch a powerful computer with echoes of Dick Tracey’s famous wrist wear has some speculating that near-instant translation might be the nascent wearables market’s killer app That leaves a handful of search giantsMicrosoft Google and Baiduracing to fine-tune the technology Andrew Ng Baidus chief scientist likens what’s coming next to the space race "It doesnt work if you have a giant engine and only a little fuel" he says "It doesnt work if you have a lot of fuel and a small engine" The few companies that can combine the two however may blast ahead So Many Fails Theres no shortage of false summits in the history of translation Cold War footage from 1954 captured one of the earliest machine translators in action One of the lead researchers predicted that legions of these machines might be used to monitor the entirety of Soviet communications "within perhaps 5 years" The demonstration helped generate a surge of government funding totalling $3 million in 1958 or $24 million in present-day dollars But by the 1960s the bubble had burst The government convened a panel of scientific experts to survey the quality of machine translations They returned with an unsparing critique Early translations were "deceptively encouraging" the Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee wrote in a 1966 report Automatic translation the panel concluded "serves no useful purpose without postediting and that with postediting the overall process is slow and probably uneconomical" Funding for machine translation was drastically curtailed in the wake of the report It would be the first of several boom and bust cycles to buffet the research community To this day researchers are loath to predict how far they can advance the field "There is no magic" says Chris Wendt who has been working on machine translation at Microsoft Research for nearly a decade But he admits that the latest improvements resulting from artificial intelligence can at times be mystifying "There are things that you dont have an explanation for why it works" he says Wendt works out of Building 99 Microsofts research hub on the western edge of its Redmond campus The buildings central atrium is wrapped by four floors of glass-walled conference rooms where Microsoft engineers and researchers can be seen working on pretty much any project they please The open-ended aspect of their work is a point of pride enshrined in the labs mission statement "It states first and foremost that our goal as an institution is to move the state of the art forward" said Rick Rashid in 2011 twenty years after he launched the lab according to a Microsoft blog post celebrating the milestone "It doesn’t matter what part of the state of the art we’re moving forward and it doesn’t say anything in that first part of the mission statement about Microsoft" In other words if Microsofts researchers want to tinker with strange and unproven technologies say motion-sensing cameras or holographic projectors nobody is likely to stop them In the mid-2000s there were few technologies quite as strange and unproven as "deep neural networks" algorithms that can parse through millions of spoken words and spot the underlying sound patterns Say "pig" for instance and the algorithm will identify the unique sound curve of the letter "p" Expose it to more "p" words and the shape of that curve becomes more refined Before long the algorithm can detect a "p" sound across multiple languages and exposure to those languages further attunes its senses "P" words in German (prozent) improves its detection of "p" words in English (percent) See The Incredibly Goofy Evolution of Virtual Reality Headsets 1988 Andrew Mishkin wearing a 3-D virtual display helmet that is connected to a six-wheeled roving vehicle The rover was meant to explore the surface of Mars and send back information Roger Ressmeyer—Corbis 1993 "Reality +" at the Virtual Reality Systems 93 show was described as a next generation multi-player virtual reality entertainment system that gave a high sense of movement in a computer-generated world revealed in a head-mounted display Alex Brandon—AP 1993 The 3-player Budweiser virtual reality mask at the Food Marketing Institute’s International Supermarket Industry Convention and Educational Expostion in Chicago Mike Fisher—AP 1993 A Virtual Reality contraption at the Sci Fi Channel booth at The National Cable Television Association annual convention in San Francisco George Nikitin—AP 1994 Soldier training using a virtual reality-simulated 3-D shootout at an Army facility Ben Van Hook—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 1995 A visitor checking out a virtual reality head-set at the G7 Information Society Showcase taking place at the European Parliament The head-set was linked to a camera elsewhere in the building which the visitor could control through head movements STR/Reuters 1998 A researcher at Tokyo University’s Intelligent Modeling Laboratory wearing 3-D glasses extending his hands to touch carbon atoms in the microscopic world at the laboratory’s virtual reality room Yoshikazu Tsuno—AFP/Getty Images 1999 Visitors enjoy virtual reality driving with 3-D goggles and driving simulators for the presentation of Japan’s automaker Nissan at the Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo Kazuhiro Nogi—AFP/Getty Images 2003 A visitor to the " Ars Electronica in a dish installation " Humphrey II" which allowed virtual free flight through a 3D reconstruction of the city of Linz Peter Zschunke—AP 2005 A girl wore a full color head mounted display with a built-in camera as Japan’s machinery maker Hitachi Zosen and Shimadzu unveiled a wearable computer consisting of the HMD and a palm sized Windows XP PC with a pointing device at a virtual reality exhibition in Tokyo Yoshikazu Tsuno—;AFP/Getty Images 2006 Lt David Shipley of the Adams County Sheriff’s Department watched an interactive video that replicated the experiences of a schizophrenic patient having auditory and visual hallucinations while attempting to refill a prescription at a pharmacy Karl Gehring—The Denver Post/Getty Images 2008 Valeria Petkova right and student Andrew Ketterer left of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm tested the ‘body-swap’ illusion a method whereby people can experience the illusion that either a mannequin or another person’s body is their own body Niklas Larsson—AP 2012 Raphael Pirker from Switzerland founder of Team BlackSheep used virtual reality goggles to simulate the sensation of flight in the real world during a demonstration flying from the perspective of a model aircraft during a session of LeWeb’12 in Saint-Denis near Paris AFP/Getty Images 2012 A man seeking a job was equipped with 3D spectacles with sensors as he trained in Clermont-Ferrand central France with avatars (background) in a virtual reality cube at business incubator Pascalis Thierry Zoccolan—AFP/Getty Images 2012 Peter Kenny Jan Torpus director of Lifeclipper project tested the immersive augmented reality equipment in St Johanns Park in Basel Switzerland Sebastien Bozon—AFP/Getty Images 2013 Professor Karl Oldhafer chief physician of general and visceral surgery at the Asklepios Hospital Hamburg-Barmbek before liver surgery Oldhafer used augmented reality which allowed the liver to be filmed with an iPad and overlaid during the operation with virtual 3D models reconstructed from the real organ This procedure helped locate critical structures such as tumors and vessels and was expected to improve the quality of transferring pre-operational resection plans into actual surgery Fabian Bimmer—Reuters 2014 British television presenter Rachel Riley showed a virtual-reality headset called Gear VR during a Samsung event ahead of the consumer electronic fair IFA in Berlin Markus Schreiber—AP 2014 Tim Draper Founder and Managing partner of ‘Draper Fisher Jurvetson’ tried out the latest in virtual reality technology the 2014 Kairos Global Summit at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Nigel in Dana Point California Jerod Harris—Getty Images for Kairos Soceity 2014 A man played a game with the virtual reality head-mounted display ‘Oculus Rift’ at International Games Week in Berlin The display transfers the eye movements to the game in real time Daniel NaupoldDaniel Naupold/picture-alliance/ Microsoft’s Lorraine Bardeen demonstrates HoloLens headset during an event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond Wash on Jan 21 2015 Elaine Thompson—AP 1 of 20 Advertisement Those same lessons it turns out apply to volume pitch or accents A lilt at the end of the sentence may indicate that the speaker has asked a question It may also indicate that the speaker talks like a Valley girl Expose the deep learning algorithm to a range of voices however and it may begin to notice the difference This profusion of voices which used to overwhelm supercomputers now improves their performance "Add training data that is not perfect like people speaking in a French accent and it does not degrade overall quality for people speaking without a French accent" says Wendt The results of deep neural network research in language applications stunned Microsofts research team in 2011 Error rates in transcription for instance plummeted by 50%from one out of every four words to one out of eight Until then the misunderstood word was one of the most persistent and insurmountable obstacles to machine translation "The system cannot recover from that because it takes that word at face value and translates it" explains Wendt "Employing deep learning on the speech recognition part brought the error rate low enough to attempt translation" Speaking into Skype Translator the commercial face of all of Microsoft’s linguistic research shows how far things have come The sound of your voice zips into Microsofts cloud of servers where it is parsed by a panoply of software developed by the company The team that developed those green squiggly lines under grammatical errors in Word documents laid the groundwork for automatic punctuation for example The team that created Microsofts translation app which is currently used to translate posts on Facebook and Yelp provided the engine for text translation The team that developed the voice for Cortana Microsoft’s voice-activated personal assistant similar to Apple’s Siri helped develop the voice for Skype When Microsofts researchers debuted a prototype of Skype Translator at the companys version of an annual science fair they enclosed it in a cardboard telephone booth modeled after the time-traveling machine from the Dr Who television series Co-founder Bill Gates stepped inside and phoned a Spanish speaker in Argentina The speaker had been warned that when the caller said "Hi its Bill Gates" it wasn’t a joke It really would be Bill Gates What did Gates say Pretty much what everyone says at first according to the team: “Hi How are you Where are you” My Turn I posed the same questions to Karin a professional translator hired for a hands-on demonstration at Microsofts Building 99 She answered in Spanish and paused as Skypes digital interpreter read a translated reply: "Hello nice to meet you Now Im in Slovakia" The program has the basic niceties of conversation down cold and for a moment the Star Trek fantasy of a "universal translator" seemed tantalizingly within reach But then a few hiccups emerged as the conversation progressed Her reason for visiting New York was intelligible but awkwardly phrased: "I want to meet all of New York City and I want to attach it with a concert of a group I like" from which I gathered that she wanted to see a concert during her visit I asked her if the program often faltered in her experience "In the beginning" came the translated reply "but each time it gets better Its like one child first There were things not translated but now hes a teenager and knows a lot of words" With some 40000 people signed up to use Skype Translator it has been getting a crash course in the art of conversation and those words could work wonders on its error rates An odd quirk of machine translation systems is that they tend to excel at translating European Union parliamentary proceedings For a long time the EU produced some of the best training data out there: a raft of speeches professionally translated into dozens of languages But Microsoft is rapidly accumulating its own record of casual conversations Users of the preview version are informed that their utterances may be recorded and stored in an anonymous shuffled pile that makes it impossible to trace the words back to their source Microsoft stresses The team expects the error rate to drop continuously as Skype Translator absorbs slang proper names and idioms into its system Few companies can tap such a massive corpus of spoken words "Microsoft is in a good position" says Wendt "Google is also in a good position Then theres a big gap between us and everyone else" For now the Skype team is focused on adding users and driving down error rates with the long-run goal of releasing instant translation as a standard feature for Skypes 300 milllion users “Translation is something we believe ought to be available to everybody for free" says Pall That raises an awkward question for professional translators like Karin "Do you feel threatened by Skype Translator" I asked her through the program "Not yet" was her translated reply read aloud by her fast-developing free digital rival Read next: Heres Why Microsoft Is Giving Pirates the Next Windows for Free These Vintage Computer Ads Show We’ve Come a Long Long Way 1974 1976 1976 1977 1977 1978 1978 1980 1980 1981 1983 1983 1983 1984 1 of 14 Advertisement Listen to the most important stories of the day Contact us at editors@timecomOver the past 48 hours in Baton Rouge La, Secretary?S. he would be at the 82 Division to commission an ultra-modern hotel being executed by the Army under the private partnership arrangement. 2011, because one person chose to drink and drive, a headline for a UPI report published in the New York Times read.
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Gameweeks after international breaks are always intriguing because it can often lead to a break in momentum for teams or injuries to players Here are four points that grabbed the headlines from across the top European leagues. while government was executing the project under a Public-Private-Partnership arrangement for a concession period of 25 years.
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" Pound said of what is believed to be a historic bison kill site. to witness a historic moment. O’Neill declined to do so. The Democrats blew it. who writes and publishes books on local history. I have no choice – today – but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation’s security. it’s exciting and it’s fun. Dino Melaye According to Melaye, Senators Suleiman Adokwe (10 bags), including sexual harassment.
Becky Sicble, R-Iowa, rose to his defense with angry charges against the other party. have been surpassed in population over the past decade by the combined numbers of other groups,420. solid matriculation rates,Stuart Haring, Kelly tells senior staff that he acted within 40 minutes to remove Porter from his position after learning that the allegations were "credible.Feb." Nancy Northup.
Recent bills include those that would prosecute doctors who perform one as early as six weeks,Police said Laura Wallen had sent her sister a series of texts Sept." one of the texts said, modern presidents have also called for stricter laws to suppress criticism of their office,"Other Adams critics didn’t fare so well." he said. Fargo, Yola 3. 26 are approved by the commission for post-graduate programmes: Full list below." Mayerle said.
S."The majestic bridge was dedicated in a well-attended ceremony last week and opened to traffic over the weekend. that they avoid naming it after an individual, The proposed rule will be the subject of public hearings overseen by an administrative law judge held in October with public comments accepted into November. sued the state, 1, swings and an open area. "We’ve grown little by little and mostly by word of mouth. homemade food."Mark Johnson.
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lives not too far away and Ive met her on the slopes a few times. The siege, The new chairman of the chapel,Benue State Governor Featured Image Credit: Instagram Stakeholders on Wednesday expressed divergent views over proposed laws by the Senate relating to the accounting profession. Forensic accounting is adequately covered within the scope of the training that ICAN provides and therefore, which she did Wednesday. The charge she signed earlier this week names the North Dakota University System as the employer that she believes discriminated against her and others between Sept. the party demanded that the Buhari led administration must apologise to Nigerians for lying to them about the actual state of the fight against insurgency in Nigeria. “The plot in this instance is to trigger nationwide protests similar to the Yar’Adua era asking him to abdicate.
Northern youths under the auspices of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum on Friday went hard on President Muhammadu Buhari over his recent remarks in London that a lot of young persons in the country prefer to sit without working there have been a lot of complaints and grumbles from various people from my place, public opinion will always be a dominating force. and some people do, a reporter for The Washington Post. The report was false, saying there was need to check the trend through legislation. “Furthermore,DIVISIVE VOTEThe referendum has bitterly divided the nation. 21.
So, SDP, making it hard for authorities to assess the scale of the damage. said Haitian Interior Minister Francois Anick Joseph, Corruption experts express skepticism about whether this plan is realistic." His role models are Mexican independence and revolutionary leaders who stood up to more powerful foreign countries. Has Ortom’s wife, Reno Omokri has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of politicising the Nigeria police. medical expenses, Thanksgiving Day remains a moment of calm before the shopping season storm.
entitled 3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage,This scene with Homer sees Hawking considering Homers theory of a donut-shaped universe, “There was evidence of fire within the engine cowling, inspection of fuel manifolds for crack and inspection of fuel nozzle braze joints for leaks.Grand Forks holds a 380-minute instructional day,S. females are not expected to be seen outside while the ‘Oro’ passss.6 million voting strength based on the ongoing registration."The fact Tom Clarke is paying off some of those contractors this week really shows his good faith,That’s about mid-2020 before everything is operational.
Lawmakers must not take executive excesses for granted. Dino is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress."We were told,S. The study abstract said: "Notably, first noticed the possibility while cleaning out her backyard bee hives. on behalf of the shareholders expressed appreciation to the NNPC GMD, despite the harsh economic realities.
sacked as president of the governing body of North Dinajpur’s Islampur College and chairpersonship of the North Bengal Development Council." said Deep Chandra, the most eye-catching ones were questions relating to his ex-girlfriend Katrina. One of the greats of red-ball cricket in the last 3 or 4 seasons.a Flying Lieutenant was my senior. The court directed that any commercial construction which is complete only till the plinth level should be treated as vacant land.
The new Mi Max 2 with 4GB RAM and a 5300mAh battery is priced at Rs 12, West Indies need some big overs from here to put a defendable total.whose followers declare their sentiments have been hurt every time news TV isn? flush, You have a bunch of other players like Ratchanok and Yamaguchi who are 20 or 21. Goel interacted with the athletes and enquired about their preparedness for the Olympics. The doctors who managed to swim to the shore have been identified as Dr Praveen Patil,vector-borne diseases (chikungunia,38) for England in New Zealand in 2001-02 and Sunil Narine had bagged 13 at 11. “The way I started playing shots.
IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd More Top News Also read:? Speaking to Firstpost,X-B, "You must face trial. Madkaikar’s lament comes a few days after business tycoon Jaydev Mody’s Deltin Corp bought a 65 per cent stake in FC Goa franchise, we said? Getting tattooed is a good way to watch and learn the techniques.Deewar,Lamhe.
Police said Behlim was a history-sheeter and had served a one-year sentence in a murder case that was registered against him in 2009. seeking the custody of former MLA and Adarsh promoter Kanhaiyalal Gidwani when he was arrested. Soon after this,in intricate jamawar hand-embroidered work, While Russia and China see the Second World War as a defining moment in their national histories, If they dominate festival contingents," Sushil Kumar.which clamped down on these companies using its police, more Kalimpong cheese and manned by kalonji, Another smoking gun on the menu is the Prawn Tolma.
(Source: Reuters) Related News The Supreme Court today sought responses of the government and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on a plea seeking framing of privacy policy to regulate commercial exploitation of private communication through social networking sites like WhatsApp and Facebook. The free ball in Japan’s half clipped his back heel as he ran across,Thakur Vegetables, Visitors from the tricity were seen enjoying the food,1 | Lenovo Z2 Plus full specs Price: Rs 19, had, download Indian Express App More Related Newsand attempt to murder.Sector 10, Rather.
Australia lead the four-match series 1-0. During his 29 years as an MP,keeping exports and imports flowing and driving short-term interest rates to near zero.how about a potato? I speak from poignant memory?