Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - SPAM: The Fed Is Evaluating Whether To Launch a Digital Currency and In What Form

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Federal Reserve is pushing ahead with its study into whether to implement its own digital currency and will be releasing a paper on the issue shortly, Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday. No decision has been made on the matter yet, he added, and said the Fed does not feel pressured to do something quickly as other nations move forward with their own projects. “I think it’s important that we get to a place where we can make an informed decision about this and do so expeditiously,” Powell said at his post-meeting news conference. “I don’t think we’re behind. I think it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast.” Powell added that the Fed is “working proactively to evaluate whether to issue a CBDC, and if so in what form.”

The Boston Fed has taken point on the project, joining with MIT in an initiative on whether the central bank should establish its own digital coin targeted at making the payments system more effective. Fed Governor Lael Brainard has been a strong advocate of the effort, though several other officials, including Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles, have cast doubts. Advocates such as Brainard say a central bank digital currency’s benefits include getting payments quickly to people in times of crisis and also providing services to the unbanked. “We think it’s really important that the central bank maintain a stable currency and payments system for the public’s benefit. That’s one of our jobs,” he said. He noted the “transformational innovation” in the area of digital payments and said the Fed is continuing to do work on the matter, including its own FedNow system expected to go online in 2023. The test for a CBDC, he said, is “are there clear and tangible benefits that outweigh any costs and risks.”

Some concerns even have been raised that if the Fed does not act more aggressively, the dollar’s position as the global reserve currency could be challenged. Powell noted the dollar’s position in the world and said the Fed is “in a good place” to make a decision on whether to implement its own digital currency. He expressed some concern about the regulatory landscape and said the Fed likely will need congressional permission should it decide to proceed. “Where the public’s money is concerned, we need to make sure that appropriate regulatory protections are in place, and today there really are not in some cases,” Powell said.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - UK publishes 10-year plan to become 'A.I. superpower', seeking to rival U.S. and (cnbc.com)

Submitted by iarlakd
iarlakd writes: The U.K. government on Wednesday released its 10-year plan to make the country a global "artificial intelligence superpower", seeking to rival the likes of the U.S. and China.

The so-called "National Artificial Intelligence Strategy" is designed to boost the use of AI among the nation's businesses, attract international investment into British AI companies and develop the next generation of homegrown tech talent.

The National AI Strategy includes a number of programs, reports and initiatives.

Among them, a new National AI Research and Innovation program will be launched as part of an effort to improve coordination and collaboration between the country's researchers.

Submission + - 'Jumping gene' may have erased tails in humans and other apes (science.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Mammals from mice to monkeys have tails. But humans and our cousins the great apes lack them. Now, researchers may have unearthed a simple genetic change that led to our abbreviated back end: an itinerant piece of DNA--in a gene known as TBTX--that leapt into a new chromosomal home and changed how great apes make a key developmental protein. The finding also suggests the genetic shift came with a less visible and more dangerous effect: a higher risk of birth defects involving the developing spinal cord.

Mice carrying both copies of the shortened gene didn’t survive, but those with one long and one short version were born with a variety of tail lengths—from none at all to nearly normal. That suggests the shorter version of the gene interferes with tail development. Because the genetically altered mice had a mix of tail lengths, other genes must be working together to eliminate all tail development in apes and humans, but the ape-specific change “was likely a critical event” about 25 million years ago as great apes diverged from other simians.

The genetically modified mice also had unusually high levels of neural tube problems, defects in the developing spinal cord. Such birth defects, which produce spina bifida, where the spinal cord doesn’t close, and anencephaly, where parts of the brain and skull are missing, are fairly common in humans, affecting as many as one in 1000 newborns.

“We apparently paid a cost for the loss of the tail, and we still feel the echoes,” says one author. “We must have had a clear benefit for losing the tail, whether it was improved locomotion or something else.”

Submission + - SPAM: A Warning Sign of a Mass Extinction Event Is on the Rise, Scientists Say

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you live near a freshwater river or lake, odds are good that you have seen warning signs about harmful algal and bacterial blooms posted on its shores. Alarmingly, a new study reports that these blooms may be early indicators of an ongoing ecological disaster, caused by humans, that eerily parallels the worst extinction event in Earth’s history. Some 251 million years ago, the end-Permian event (EPE), popularly known as the “Great Dying,” wiped out nearly 90 percent of species on Earth, making it the most severe loss of life in our planet’s history. Ominous parallels of that upheaval are now showing up on Earth, according to a team led by Chris Mays, a postdoctoral researcher and palaeobotanist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The researchers found that toxic algal and bacterial blooms during the Great Dying are similar to a recent microbial proliferation in modern lakes and rivers—a trend that has been linked to human activities such as greenhouse gas emissions (especially carbon dioxide), deforestation, and soil loss.

The repeated correlation of these blooms with mass extinction events is “a disconcerting signal for future environmental change,” report the researchers in a study published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications. Indeed, there’s a lot of evidence to suggest we are currently in the midst of yet another mass extinction event, caused by humans. Not only do microbial blooms transform freshwater habitats into “dead zones” that can both choke out other species, thereby increasing the severity of extinction events, they can also delay the recovery of ecosystems by millions of years, the team noted. Mays and his colleagues reached this troubling conclusion by analyzing fossil records near Sydney, Australia, that were laid down before, during, and after the end-Permian extinction.

Though the exact mechanisms behind the Great Dying are a matter of debate, it was driven in part by an intense bout of volcanic eruptions that sparked a dramatic uptick in global temperatures and greenhouse gases emissions. Wildfires, droughts, and other disruptions swept across the woodlands, causing a collapse of plant life and widespread deforestation. The sudden loss of forests, which act as a sink for carbon, created a noticeable “coal gap” during the end-Permian that exposes this long-term interruption in carbon sequestration. Nutrients and soils that had once been metabolized by these botanical ecosystems instead seeped into nearby freshwater habitats, bolstering microbial blooms that were already thriving as a result of higher temperature and atmospheric carbon.
Link to Original Source

Comment Why Intel? (Score 1) 271

by Mike Frett (#60781762) Attached to: 'Welcome To the PC Malaise Era'

Why does the author think only Intel can do it? Does AMD not exist?

I dislike when writers think like that. Forget about Intel and Microsoft, they may have money but they lost their focus a long time ago.

Comment Important Information (Score 1) 62

by Mike Frett (#60580346) Attached to: Dogs' Brains 'Not Hardwired' To Respond To Human Faces

It should be noted that if you have an old TV with a slower refresh rate, your Dog can't really tell what's happening. Anything 75hz or above, and with the right color palette, you should be OK. The channel DogTV uses specific colors and refresh rates for your Dog. People always assume their furry friends can see the same thing on TV, which is a myth.

I just thought it was important to point this out.

Comment Re:May he have a speedy recovery (Score 1) 279

by Mike Frett (#60567836) Attached to: Trump Goes To Hospital After Testing Positive For COVID-19

It's hard to die from something you don't have. I haven't seen any proof he has the virus, a "doctors" letter from the white house is not proof for me. He looked just fine in the video he made. I'm just the kind of person that requires proof before I accept something.

I agree, I would rather see him stand trial so the 210,000+ families can get their justice. I'm not a fan of people trying to destroy a country my ancestors fought for. Both sides of my family fought in the revolutionary war and there is no way on Earth I would allow someone to put us back in the dark ages of slavery, dictatorship and so-called royalty rule.

Just my opinion, aren't I entitled to it? =)

Slashdot Top Deals

System going down in 5 minutes.

Close