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…
Author: LMD International
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…
Carne Diem Grill by Dharshan Symphony of flavours A premium steakhouse by Sri Lanka’s renowned chef and restaurateur Dharshan Munidasa – the brains behind some of Asia’s best restaurants including Ministry of Crab and Nihonbashi – Carne Diem Grill was launched in 2020. This restaurant is housed in a hacienda style villa with a wine library and located at CROSSROADS, which is said to be the Maldives’ largest multi-island integrated leisure and entertainment destination. The Trinity of Fire is at the heart of the method at Carne Diem. Drawing on his dual Sri Lankan and Japanese heritage, Munidasa was inspired…
Reuters – August 9, 2023 China again asked the Philippines to tow away a grounded warship – a World War Two-era vessel now used as a military outpost – from a disputed shoal on Tuesday, after Manila rejected Beijing’s earlier demand. Tensions have soared between the two neighbours over the South China Sea under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, with Manila pivoting back to the United States, which supports the Southeast Asian nation in its maritime disputes with China. China’s embassy in Manila criticised Washington for “gathering” its allies to continue “hyping up” the South China Sea issue and the…
Space.com – Aug 7, 2023 SpaceX launched 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites tonight (Aug. 6) and landed the returning rocket on a ship at sea. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight at 10:41 p.m. EDT (0241 GMT on Aug. 7). The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth as planned, landing about 8.5 minutes after liftoff on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the fourth launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. The first stage of…
Shani Diluka Music is a universal language Q: Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music? A: I’d say my inspirations were destiny and Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco. My first contact with music was in kindergarten when I and 14 other children chosen to attend classes for exceptionally talented children, created by the late Princess Grace. At 10, I was on French national television, portrayed as a child prodigy. Then I was encouraged to apply to the renowned National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris (CNSMDP). It is highly competitive and open to musicians worldwide…
Financial Times – July 21, 2023 Headline inflation in Japan rose to 3.3 per cent in June, outpacing the US figure for the first time in eight years and underscoring how Asia’s most advanced economy is no longer an outlier in global inflation. Price pressures in Japan, which has battled deflation for most of the past three decades, have proven to be broader and stickier than expected. This increases the pressure on the Bank of Japan, which meets next week and faces calls from investors to unwind its ultra-loose monetary policy. Japan remains the world’s only central bank with negative…
Financial Times – July 26, 2023 Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI team up to establish best practices but critics argue they want to avoid regulation Four of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence companies have formed a group to research increasingly powerful AI and establish best practices for controlling it, as public anxiety and regulatory scrutiny over the impact of the technology increases. On Wednesday, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI launched the Frontier Model Forum, with the aim of “ensuring the safe and responsible development of frontier AI models”. In recent months, the US companies have rolled out increasingly powerful…
The Guardian – 25 July, 2023 A collapse would bring catastrophic climate impacts but scientists disagree over the new analysis The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate impacts. Amoc was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years owing to global heating and researchers spotted warning signs of a tipping point in 2021. The new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095, with a central…