Al Jazeera – 17 Aug 2023 Russia’s Luna-25 space probe enters lunar orbit in first Russian mission to the moon in almost 50 years. Russia’s lunar spacecraft has entered the moon’s orbit, a major step for the first Russian moon mission in almost 50 years and Moscow’s ambition to be the first to land on the moon’s south pole in the search of frozen water. The Luna-25, which launched from Earth on August 10, entered the moon’s orbit at 12:03pm (09:03 GMT) local time in Russia on Wednesday, Russia’s space corporate Roskosmos said. “For the first time in Russia’s contemporary…
Author: LMD International
Arabian Business – 17 Aug 2023 This move will help enable broader access for passengers to domestic points within the Philippine Airlines network Emirates and Philippine Airlines (PAL) have announced an expansion of their interline agreement. This move will help enable broader access for passengers to domestic points within the Philippine Airlines network. Moreover, this expansion builds upon the initial partnership, which had enabled interline connections via Manila. The collaboration now includes seamless travel through Cebu and Clark, in addition to the existing Manila gateway. Passengers will now be able to reach various destinations in the Philippines using a single…
A global leader in protective handwear Imprinting consistent quality and tireless product innovation into its DNA has catapulted Dipped Products (DPL) to being a global leader in protective handwear, serving more than 70 markets worldwide. With a strong foothold in the natural and synthetic latex-based household and industrial gloves sector, the company lays claim to an impressive 12 percent share of the world market. DPL operates five manufacturing facilities in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand, serving an international clientele through its Sri Lankan headquarters, and wholly owned marketing subsidiaries in Italy, France and Poland. As part of its ongoing…
Benzinga – August 16, 2023 Harvard researcher has reportedly cloned a supercomputer using Alphabet Inc’s Google’s cloud platform for a groundbreaking heart disease study. The step is taken to address the lack of robust computing capabilities and accelerate their projects. The research modeled a treatment designed to break down blood clots and tumor cells in the human circulatory system. This demanded a vast computational capacity usually provided by supercomputers, stated Harvard’s Professor Petros Koumoutsakos. “The big problem that we had (was) we could run one simulation using a full-scale supercomputer,” Reuters reported citing Koumoutsakos, adding that refining or optimizing the…
Al Jazeera – August 14, 2023 Kim Jong Un inspected key factories producing tactical missiles, mobile launch platforms, armoured vehicles and artillery shells. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected key munitions factories, including a tactical missile production plant, and ordered a “drastic” boost in the manufacturing of missiles, rocket-launcher shells and other weapons, according to state media. The inspections, reported on Monday, are the latest in a string of visits by Kim to defence facilities, where he has emphasised the mass production of weapons. It comes as South Korea and the United States prepare for annual military drills…
Reuters – August 15, 2023 New Zealand’s government will lift all remaining COVID-19 requirements from midnight Tuesday, bringing an end to some of the toughest COVID-19 pandemic rules in the world more than three years after they were put in place. Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said in a statement on Monday that from Tuesday people will no longer have to wear a face mask in health care facilities or isolate for seven days after contracting the virus. “While our case numbers will continue to fluctuate, we have not seen the dramatic peaks that characterised COVID-19 rates last year. This,…
Piedmont’s fresh young red is now often aged for spicier flavours, says Ben McCormack WORD ON THE VINE BARBERA THE GRAPE Native to Italy, late-ripening barbera is the most widely planted red grape in Piedmont, in the north-west. Producing medium- to deep-coloured wines with low to medium tannins and high acidity, the most famous examples come from the DOCG of Barbera d’Asti, but look out for Barbera d’Alba and Barbera del Monferrato too. THE TASTE Fresh and fruity, violet-scented barbera has traditionally been drunk young and lightly chilled like Beaujolais; the best wines display a taut balance between tart cherry…
Reuters – August 14, 2023 The Indian rupee on Monday declined below 83 to the U.S. dollar for the first time since October 2022, prompting the Reserve Bank of India to intervene, three traders told Reuters. The rupee was at 82.9650 to the dollar by 09:32 a.m. IST, down from 82.8450 on Friday. The currency had earlier dropped to 83.0725. “The price action on the D2 (the interbank order matching system) and the names we are hearing on the offer (on USD/INR) suggests that the RBI is intervening,” a dealer said. “It’s obviously not a surprise that the RBI is…
Yahoo Finance – August 8, 2023 In a recent story in the Associated Press, artificial intelligence researchers and industry leaders interrogated generative A.I.’s “hallucination” problem, wherein tools like ChatGPT make up information and write it as fact. The problem stems from the very way that ChatGPT and other generative A.I. tools function—they aren’t really “thinking,” but rather use patterns to predict the next word in a sequence. ChatGPT writes according to what makes sense in a pattern, not according to what’s true. “This isn’t fixable,” Emily Bender, a linguistics professor and director of the University of Washington’s Computational Linguistics Laboratory,…
Business Insider – August 09, 2023 In a second successful experiment, US scientists say they produced a nuclear fusion reaction that yields more energy than they put into it. After decades of trying, this is only the second time in history scientists have achieved such a feat, and it could usher in a future age of cleaner, sustainable energy, unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Why nuclear fusion is so important for global energy needs We see the colossal power of nuclear fusion in action every day — the sun. At the sun’s core, immense heat and gravity cause the fusion…