Category: World News

Jane Bradley: Handwriting has all but disappeared

On this day 141 years ago, an article published in the Portobello Advertiser revealed the writer’s consternation at a new-fangled invention which had recently made its way into the consciousness of citizens of the United Kingdom. “If the use of the machine becomes general, handwriting will be as completely superseded as handsewing and the value of our present elementary teaching will be much modified,” the columnist warned.

Sandford Fleming: 5 facts you need to know about him

Hailed as the ‘Father of Standard Time’, Canadian engineer and inventor Sanford Fleming, is remembered for the invention of present system of time zones, which is still being followed all around the globe. Born on January 7, 1827 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Fleming emigrated to Canada in 1847.

Google Doodle honours inventor of worldwide standard time

New Delhi, Jan 7 – Google has honoured Sandford Fleming, a Canadian inventor and engineer of Scottish birth known for his invention of worldwide standard time, with a Doodle. Today’s Doodle reflects Fleming’s legacy on this, the 190th anniversary of his birth, Google said in a statement on Saturday.

EnWave Receives Purchase Order from Eregli Agrosan for 100kW REV(TM)…

E4U ) today reports that it has received a purchase order from Eregli Agrosan for a 100kW Radiant Energy Vacuum machine to expand their processing capacity of their AgroREV fruit, vegetable and cheese products. EnWave and Eregli have also signed a non-exclusive Marketing Cooperation Agreement to help facilitate sales growth of AgroREV products in North America.

Apple app developers, many from India, earned $20 bn in 2016 ead)

New York/New Delhi, Jan 6 – Apple on Friday announced that its app developers earned over $20 billion in 2016 — up over 40 per cent from 2015 and several of those talented minds are from India — stating that New Year’s Day was the highest single day ever for the App Store with nearly $240 million in purchases. Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers have earned over $60 billion, creating amazing app experiences for App Store customers across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac, Cupertino-headquartered tech giant announced on Friday.

As Sun Sets on Canada Energy, Grafton Eyes Renewables

Grafton Asset Management Inc., a firm that has brought foreign investment into Canada’s oil and gas industry, is looking to add alternative energy to its portfolio for the first time as it positions itself for the decline of fossil fuels. “I’m worried about the future of the industry in general,” Geeta Sankappanavar, president and chief operating officer of the Calgary-based investment firm, said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Digital push: Demonetisation propels ramping up cyber safety

With every new digital product and service introduced into the market, newer vulnerabilities are discovered, leaving scope for malicious actions. The rising proliferation of digital payments in India – with cumulative growth of electronic transactions among various instruments ranging between 95 per cent and 4,025 per cent from November 8 till December 27 – the concomitant dangers on the cybersecurity front have potentially opened up.

Taiwan’s $2M ATM Theft Linked to Europe’s ATM Heist: Cyber Security Firm

The group that orchestrated the theft of over $2 million from cash machines at Taiwan’s First Commercial Bank in July was also behind an ATM hacking spree in more than a dozen European nations last year, according to cyber security firm Group-IB. The methods that the so-called Cobalt group used in Europe matched those used in Taiwan, Group-IB said in its latest client report.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Launches Science-as-a-Service and…

This has enabled the Institute to offer and more effectively manage scientific computing at scale, or “Science-as-a-Service,” to their own researchers and to biosciences start-ups co-located at a newly-opened research facility on the Wellcome Genome Campus. Based in Cambridge, England, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is a global center of excellence for genomic discovery, and collaborates with start-ups, pharmaceutical enterprises, governments and other research centers.

Libya’s Oil Revival Gathers Pace to Highlight Risks on OPEC Deal

Libya, the holder of Africa’s biggest crude reserves, is ramping up output from its biggest oil field again after two years of internal conflict, the latest reminder of just how vulnerable OPEC’s quest to clear a global crude glut might be. The Sharara deposit in the Libya’s south west will ship almost 1.9 million barrels this month from its Zawiya port near Tripoli, according to a loading program obtained by Bloomberg.

First China-U.K. Freight Train Departs as Xi Seeks to Lift Trade

China initiated a rail-freight service to Britain as part of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to strengthen trade ties with Europe. The first train departed Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang province on Jan. 1 and will cover more than 12,000 kilometers in about 18 days before reaching London, China Railway Corp. said in a statement Monday.

Designer insists massive Method-2 robot is real

DECEMBER 27: Testing South Korea’s manned walking robot “Method-2” projects by Korea Future Technology on December 27, 2016 in Gunpo, South Korea. Seoul-based robotics company Korea Future Technology has built a robot named Method-2, which can be controlled by a human pilot by using arm gestures.

IS claims New Yeara s attack on Istanbul nightclub

The Islamic State group on Monday claimed responsibility for the New Year’s attack at a popular Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people and wounded scores of others. Turkish police meanwhile detained eight people in connection with the attack but were still hunting for the gunman who disappeared amid the chaos of the attack.

Tibaldo: My Story on Getting Past the Seasons

I WAS in my mother’s womb when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was sent to explore outer space in early1961 with his Vostoc spacecraft. Baguio City was at its all-time record low of 6.3 degrees in January of that year when my mother was two months pregnant with me.

Why Philippe Starck is the – Robin Hood’ of design

As the newest restaurant he’s designed, for Hong Kong’s DFS, opens in Venice, the Frenchman talks mega yachts, Steve Jobs, why he stays away from fashion, and designing for Xiaomi despite not owning a mobile phone or computer Philippe Starck is removing the large cardboard sleeve of a Taschen book on Venice that’s on a coffee table in front of him. He looks at the sleeve intently, examining the folds that allow it to envelope the hardback, but also curiously allow the sleeve to stand up by virtue of another fold.

Website for Brazil’s President Temer hacked

A website for the Brazilian president has been hacked, plastered with messages calling for the death penalty for legislators in a country where many are frustrated with public corruption. FILE – In this Dec. 7, 2016 file photo, Brazil’s President Michel Temer arrives to take part in a ceremony at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil.

China Central Bank Adviser Calls for 6%-7% Growth Target Range

China should set a more flexible 2017 economic growth target to give policy makers more room to enact reform, according to Huang Yiping, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China. He proposed a range of 6 percent to 7 percent for this year, compared with the 6.5 percent to 7 percent objective in 2016, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

French Supermarket Expands Chinese E-commerce Offerings

Carrefour’s Hubei regional office announced the launch of its Carrefour online store, which is the latest online-to-offline business of this French retailer in China. This marks Carrefour’s latest O2O e-commerce market development in China, following similar moves in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kunming, Wuxi, and Jiangsu.

In 1967, the birth of modern Canada

We like to believe it was a series of political decisions, parliamentary votes, royal commissions and court rulings that remade Canada in its centennial. However, Doug Saunders writes, in its 100 year, the country was officially reflecting realities, ideas and notions of identity that had been brewing beneath the surface for two decades Each month this year, Globe writers will tell their tale of Canada: what its history, geography, peoples and culture mean in their lives.

iPhone Manufacturer Foxconn Will Replace All Human Workers With Robots

Manufacturing jobs are increasingly being taken over by robots as automating factories and production lines turns out to be more cost-effective for companies. Foxconn, a China-based manufacturer that has long produced iPhones for Apple , has laid out a three-phase plan in which it’s going to replace almost all of its human workers with robots.

Billionaire’s new project: Easing India’s poverty

Ronnie Screwvala sat crossed-legged on the floor of a three-room schoolhouse in early November in Nate, a village about 100 miles from Mumbai, formerly Bombay, the city of his birt,where he built a billion-dollar media conglomerate. Watching a group of children playing with colorful educational games, Screwvala, a boyish-looking 54-year-old, appeared as wide-eyed and engaged as the students.

China looks to build up underwater defences

China’s seizure of an American underwater drone in the South China Sea this month was a reflection of Beijing’s concerns about the growing use of such vehicles in the contested waters and would spur efforts to build up its own military capabilities beneath the waves, military experts say. Beijing played down the seizure of the unmanned underwater vehicle, which the United States said was operating lawfully in international waters about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines when it was taken by a Chinese navy ship on December 15, and returned the drone five days later to a US navy ship close to where it had been seized.

N. Korea’s leader hints of long-range missile test launch

South Koreans watch a TV news program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s speech, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017. North Korea’s development of banned long-range missiles is in “final stages,” the country’s leader Kim was quoted as saying in his New Year’s message.

At least 35 killed in New Year’s attack on Istanbul nightclub

An assailant believed to have been dressed in a Santa Claus costume opened fire at a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year’s celebrations, killing at least 35 people and wounding some 40 others, according to the governor of Istanbul and Turkish media reports. Private NTV television said that more than one assailant may have been involved in the attack, which targeted the popular Reina nightclub in Istanbul’s Ortakoy district.

Museum getting a massive geodesic dome with 61 glass eyes

This computer illustration provided by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on Dec. 28, 2016, shows a rendering of how inventor Buckminster Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome will look when installed on museum grounds in Bentonville, Ark. The museum recently told its patrons it intends to construct the futuristic dome in the summer of 2017.