All posts tagged: adapting

Bird flu may be adapting to become more infectious to humans

Bird flu may be adapting to become more infectious to humans

Published by skeptic

Bird flu has been spreading in wild animals for years but it is now adapting to humans Vuk Valcic//SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The threat of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus adapting to humans has been inching closer towards becoming a reality all year, and we may be nearing an inflection point. Three H5N1 cases in humans have happened in the very scenarios that public health officials are concerned could lead to a pandemic in people. “There is no clear evidence yet of human-to-human transmission, but I… Source link

Adapting to Motion With and Without Attention

Adapting to Motion With and Without Attention

Published by skeptic

The motion aftereffect, sometimes referred to as the “waterfall illusion,” is one of the oldest visual illusions ever discovered, dating as far back as Aristotle. When we are exposed to a continuously moving stimulus, such as a waterfall, it causes selective adaptation of motion-sensitive neurons that code for that direction. For example, observing a waterfall for 30 seconds causes our “downward motion” neurons to adapt and reduce their firing rate. Upon looking at a static (non-moving) scene, it appears to be slowly drifting in the opposite direction (in this case, upward). You can experience the motion aftereffect by watching this short video: The Ambiguous Role of Attention An important question for cognitive scientists is whether and how attention plays a role in motion aftereffects. Since motion perception starts at the earliest stages of neural processing, it is possible that motion aftereffects don’t require active, focused attention: as long as the motion stimulus is hitting our retinas, it should trigger the relevant motion detectors in the early visual cortex to adapt, and lead to motion aftereffects. …

Russia, adapting tactics, advances in Donetsk and takes more Ukrainian land

Russia, adapting tactics, advances in Donetsk and takes more Ukrainian land

Published by Sam

POKROVSK, Ukraine — Russian forces have mounted an arc of attack in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, pushing through intense summer heat in a bid to extend Moscow’s steady territorial gains and capture the city of Pokrovsk, a key transit junction. The offensive is underway as Ukraine continues to suffer from a shortage of soldiers and as election turmoil in the United States has set off new speculation that Kyiv may soon be forced to negotiate a surrender of lands. After an influx of American weapons and money helped Ukraine blunt a renewed invasion of the northeastern Kharkiv region in May, preventing a major breakthrough and dashing Moscow’s hopes of surrounding Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian commanders have refocused their attention on the Donetsk region, perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top territorial goal. The reinvasion of the Kharkiv region, while yielding limited gains, nonetheless diverted Ukrainian resources. Oleksandr, 30, a battalion commander of the 47th brigade, fighting near Ocheretyne, said that Ukrainian forces are struggling and that Putin’s prize increasingly seems within Russia’s reach. “This strategy is …

Jo Nesbo Adapting Harry Hole Novel for Netflix Series

Jo Nesbo Adapting Harry Hole Novel for Netflix Series

Published by Sam

Netflix is teaming up with Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbo, whose Harry Hole crime novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and, thanks to an awkward English-language adaptation of Nesbo’s The Snowman in 2017, launched endless online memes. On Monday, Netflix unveiled a new Nordic noir series, Harry Hole (working title), based on Nesbo’s novel The Devil’s Star, the fifth in his Harry Hole series about the obsessive, brilliant but introverted titular homicide detective. Working Title will produce the Norwegian series, with Oystein Karlsen — whose new Leonard Cohen-inspired drama So Long Marianne premieres at the SeriesMania this week — attached to direct. Working Title produced the English-language version of Nesbo’s The Snowman in 2017. Directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) and starring Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole, the movie is now best remembered for the many online parodies of its poster, which featured a hand-drawn image of a snowman and a supposedly chilling message left by a serial killer: “Mister police. You could have saved her. I gave you …

What ancient farmers can really teach us about adapting to climate change

What ancient farmers can really teach us about adapting to climate change

Published by skeptic

In dozens of archaeological discoveries around the world, from the once-successful reservoirs and canals of Angkor Wat in Cambodia to the deserted Viking colonies of Greenland, new evidence paints pictures of civilizations struggling with unforeseen climate changes and the reality that their farming practices had become unsustainable. Among these discoveries are also success stories, where ancient farming practices helped civilizations survive the hard times. Zuni farmers in the southwestern United States made it through long stretches of extremely low rainfall between A.D. 1200 and 1400 by embracing small-scale, decentralized irrigation systems. Farmers in Ghana coped with severe droughts from 1450 to 1650 by planting indigenous African grains, like drought-tolerant pearl millet. Ancient practices like these are gaining new interest today. As countries face unprecedented heat waves, storms and melting glaciers, some farmers and international development organizations are reaching deep into the agricultural archives to revive these ancient solutions. Drought-stricken farmers in Spain have reclaimed medieval Moorish irrigation technology. International companies hungry for carbon offsets have paid big money for biochar made using pre-Columbian Amazonian production …

How ski resorts are adapting to climate change

How ski resorts are adapting to climate change

Published by skeptic

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Trudging across the top of Bromley Mountain Ski Resort on a sunny afternoon in January, Matt Folts checks his smartwatch and smiles: 14 degrees Fahrenheit. That is very nearly his favorite temperature for making snow. It’s cold enough for water to quickly crystallize, but not so cold that his hourslong shifts on the mountain are miserable. Folts is the head snowmaker at Bromley, a small ski area on the southern end of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The burly 35-year-old sports a handlebar mustache, an orange safety jacket, and thick winter boots that crunch in the snow as he walks. A blue hammer swings from his belt. It is nearing the end of the day for skiers, but not for Folts. He’ll work well into the evening preparing the mountain for tomorrow’s crowd. Cutting across the entrances to Sunder and Corkscrew, he heads toward a stubby snow gun used to blanket Blue Ribbon, an experts-only trail named in honor of Bromley’s founder, Fred Pabst Jr. …

Wes Anderson on Adapting Roald Dahl

Wes Anderson on Adapting Roald Dahl

Published by Sam

Director Wes Anderson “wasn’t quite sure for some time” how to go about adapting Roald Dahl’s short story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” he explains in a long voicemail message. But then he came upon a realization: If he wasn’t directly adhering to the original text, he didn’t really want to turn the piece into a film at all.  “I realized that it was Roald Dahl’s words that made the stories particularly interesting, that without his language I was not really as interested in adapting them,” he tells THR. “But I found a way to do them where we kept his language at the center of them.”  That strategy involved having his actors narrate the story in direct address to camera, and hiring his The Grand Budapest Hotel star Ralph Fiennes to play Dahl himself. And while Anderson ended up making four shorts out of Dahl’s stories, all of which are out on Netflix, the marquee title, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is now nominated for an Oscar for best live-action short.  In …

Happy, faithful and tied to nature: life adapting to the climate crisis – photo essay | Fiji

Published by Sam

When Poiongo Lisati returned to her home of Kioa after decades away, she welcomed the shift in the pace of life. The 58-year-old left the busyness of Fiji’s capital Suva for the island of about 400 people, who live off the land they are deeply connected to. But some changes she noticed were stark. “When I left the island, a good part of the beach was there,” Lisati says. “But when I came back after 40 years … around six metres or more had been washed away.” Lisati saw other changes: king tides now swept to the flats of the island and the water reached closer to the villages. Coconut and pandanus plants, relied on for food and medicine, no longer grew on the beachfront. Months that were once hot and dry had become colder and windier. Above: Kioa island, Fiji, at sunrise.Below: A resident of Kioa strips the thorny edges from the fronds of pandanus palms. It is one of many steps in the process of preparing the fronds to be woven into traditional …

Adapting to the climate crisis with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics

Adapting to the climate crisis with Jonas Torland from 7Analytics

Published by skeptic

Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week Becca and Dom talk about the seemingly endless slate of rainy Saturdays here on the east coast. Thankfully, this episode’s guest Jonas Torland of 7Analytics is helping us feeling a little less gloomy about the current effects of climate change. Bergen, Norway-based 7Analytics built a data platform that powers tools and products for sustainable risk management. Their models can predict flooding or landslides which help construction companies adapt to climate change. Torland also talked about: How 7Analytics balances responsibilities between four founders The difference between mitigation and adaptation startups and why it’s harder to raise in the adaptation space The challenges and opportunities of a Norwegian company expanding to the U.S. The important role startups are playing in fighting and adapting to climate change Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On Twitter On Instagram Via email: [email protected] Source link

Adapting to a world with higher interest rates — a guide for startups

Adapting to a world with higher interest rates — a guide for startups

Published by skeptic

Mohit Agarwal Contributor Mohit Agarwal is a leader at a global management consulting firm based in New York, where he drives large business transformations. Startups have more things to worry about than they have time — product-market fit, whether to invest in performance marketing or not, how much inventory is too much inventory, whether to hire that staff engineer from Google, just to name a few from a list that usually runs longer than the most well-funded startup’s runway. One thing that rarely makes this list is thinking about the balance sheet. After all, no great company was founded on the bedrock of capital efficiency. And CFOs have better things to think about (see monthly burn and runway). Does it really matter if working capital is efficient? If the startup is running a positive cash conversion cycle? If it’s capturing market yields? For a young, pre-product-market-fit company, the answer has always been, and remains, no. Focus on product-market fit. Make customers want what you have to sell. Make them rip if off the shelves. Once …