Tag Archives: China

A ‘Golden Era’ of Insight: Big Data’s Bright Future

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2013Technologybangalore, Beijing, big data, bing, bing directions, bing maps, bing voice search, biomedical informatics terabytes, breakthroughs, bright future, buzzwords, cambridge, capturing data, China, computational mechanisms, data analytics, data centric methods, decision-making, distinguished scientist, DNA, eric horvitz, golden era, government, hawaii, insight, labs, law, machine intelligence, machine learning, mandarin, microsoft research, networking, new england, new york city, North America, predictive modeling, predictive models, redmond, rick rashid, sensing, silicon valley, storage, tianjin, traffic free route, visualization, web

For over 20 years, Microsoft Research’s labs around the world have focused on research across a broad spectrum of topics in computer science. From the start, the organization has invested heavily in pioneering breakthroughs in machine intelligence, including efforts in machine learning and big data. In this interview, Distinguished Scientist Eric Horvitz talks about advances he sees on the horizon, the influence they will have on your daily life, and how insights from big data and developing more intelligent software and services will change the world.

REDMOND, Wash. – Feb. 15, 2013 – At Microsoft Research labs around the world, some very deep thinkers are contemplating big data.

This includes Eric Horvitz, distinguished scientist at Microsoft and co-director of Microsoft Research’s Redmond lab, who was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his work in “computational mechanisms for decision making under uncertainty and with bounded resources.” (more…)

Madeleine Albright Chats with Henry Paulson about Career, Foreign Policy

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2013Politicsafghanistan, albright capital management, albright stonebridge group, american involvement, arab leaders, best decision making, Britain, central, China, chinese embassy, co ed, conflict in bosnia, decision-making, do ability doctrine, eastern europe, economic, environmental challenges, foreign policy issues, france, global strategy firm, investment advisory firm, jon huntsman, madeleine albright, medal of freedom, multilateralism, munich agreement, native czechoslovakia, nazi germany, no fly zone, paulson institute, president barack obama, president bill clinton, presidential, robert b zoellick, secretary of state, soviet union, state department, syria, united states, university of chicago, US, us government history, us treasury secretary, world affairs, world bank, world war, years of communism

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told an audience at the University of Chicago that her worldview was shaped early in life, when she witnessed the impact the United States had during and immediately following World War II.

Albright explained how terrible things happened to her native Czechoslovakia, when Britain and France signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, allowing Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia without its consent. Only when the United States entered World War II did Czechoslovakia’s plight improve. However, after the war, when the United States and its allies allowed the Soviet Union to liberate Central and Eastern Europe, it led to 50 years of communism. (more…)

Social Network Use Reflects East-West Disparity

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2013Culture, Technologyamerica, China, chinese citizens, chinese culture, collective good mentality, computers, Facebook, human behavior, jin liang wang, linda jackson, me first culture, michigan state university, qzone, renren, social creatures, social isolation, social network sites, Social networking sites, southwest university, Technology, Twitter, united states, us citizens

The stark contrast between America’s “me-first” culture and the “collective-good” mentality in China is reflected in the two countries’ use of social networking sites, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University scholar.

U.S. citizens spend more time on the networking sites, consider them to be more important and have more “friends” on the sites, the research found. The most popular social networking site in the United States is Facebook; in China, two of the most popular sites are RenRen and Qzone. (more…)

In Conversation with: Elizabeth Bradley, College Master with a Global Reach

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2013Education, Generalbranford college, China, clinton foundation, elizabeth bradley, ethiopia, faculty at yale, ghli, global health education, global health initiative, international projects, liberia, quality improvement, South Africa, strategic mission, to do list, trip to ethiopia, united kingdom, university, yale college, yale master, Zanzibar

Elizabeth Bradley started her career on the faculty at Yale in 1996 and currently serves in a variety of roles at the University, including professor of public health, faculty director for the Global Health Initiative and the Global Health Leadership Institute, and master of Branford College.

Her research focuses on strengthening health systems and has contributed important findings about organizational change and quality of care within the hospital, nursing home, and hospice settings. She has been involved with several international projects including research in China, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Bradley spoke recently about her work on campus and around the world, and the many other items on her “to-do” list. (more…)

Brazilian Online Video Audience Reaches 43 Million Unique Viewers in December 2012

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2013Technologyadvertisers, alejandro fosk, brazil, brazilian, brazilian internet users, China, Comscore, comscore video metrix, Facebook, Google, latin america, online video activities, online video audience, online video market, publishers, russia, social networking destination, video viewing behavior, Yahoo, YouTube

Analysis of Online Video in Brazil Shows Facebook as the Fastest Growing Top 10 Online Video Destination in Past Year

Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 6, 2013 – comScore , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an analysis on online video activities in Brazil based on insights from its comScore Video Metrix service. The study found that Google Sites is the largest online video destination in Brazil, while Facebook is the fastest growing among the top ten. The study also showed that Brazil is the seventh largest online video market worldwide with a viewing audience of 43 million people in December.

“Online video is an important part of the internet landscape in Brazil, reaching a large number of people in an engaging context that is attractive to marketers and advertisers,” said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “comScore Video Metrix supports this growing market in Latin America by providing accurate and objective insights on online video viewing behavior that publishers, advertisers and agencies can rely on to make smarter digital investments.” (more…)

New Book Traces Black Panthers’ Evolution from Local Activists to Global Anti-Imperialists

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2013Culture, Politicsafrican american culture, african americans, algeria, american, american black power, american jazz artists, anti colonial activist, anti colonial movement, anti imperialist movement, anti war activists, assassination, black activist, black against empire, black history, black panther movement, black panther party, black panthers, black power, bobby seale, business as usual, california legislature, China, civil rights movement, civil war, communist revolutionary, criminal charges, Cuba, evolution, folk heroes, frantz fanon, free huey, global anti imperialists, history, huey newton, jim crow segregations, joshua bloom, local activists, los angeles chapter, lowndes county, malcolm x, mao zedong, marcus garvey, martin luther king, mulford act, new york chapter, non violent activism, oakland, pan africanism, panther angela, peoples republic, political asylum, political genius, political power, politics of containment, poverty, president nixon, prisoners of war, revolutionary struggles, robert hill, robin kelley, rural alabama, scot brown, sociology, stokely carmichael, tom hayden, ucla, united states, university of california, us government, viet cong, vietnam war, voluntary manslaughter, waldo e martin, zhou enlai

History has long denied the political genius of the Black Panther Party. At worst, its members have been cast as unconscionable criminals. At best, such seminal figures as party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and early supporter Stokely Carmichael have been portrayed as outlaw folk heroes who, propelled by the progressive winds of the late 1960s, dared to take on the establishment.

But a UCLA graduate student in sociology who worked alongside former Panthers a decade ago as a community organizer in Oakland, Calif., didn’t buy the conventional wisdom. (more…)

Organic Ferroelectric Molecule Shows Promise for Memory Chips, Sensors

By Guest PostFebruary 1, 2013Sciencebarium titanate, brittle materials, carbon based material, China, da wei fu, digital information, diisopropylammonium bromide, electrical field, energy storage, ferroelectric, future of hardware, gianluca giovannetti, hard, heart of computing, inorganic crystals, jiangyu li, low cost, massimo capone, memory, natural polarization, natural vibrations, negatively charged, nontoxic organic molecules, organic alternative, piezoelectric, positively charged, ren gen xiong, room temperature, seattle, sensing, silicon based semiconductors, southeast university, store energy, synthetic ferroelectrics, tiny crystals, titanium, toxicity, university of washington, yuanming liu

At the heart of computing are tiny crystals that transmit and store digital information’s ones and zeroes. Today these are hard and brittle materials. But cheap, flexible, nontoxic organic molecules may play a role in the future of hardware.

A team led by the University of Washington in Seattle and the Southeast University in China discovered a molecule that shows promise as an organic alternative to today’s silicon-based semiconductors. The findings, published this week in the journal Science, display properties that make it well suited to a wide range of applications in memory, sensing and low-cost energy storage. (more…)

Analysis of Greenland Ice Cores Adds to Historical Record and May Provide Glimpse into Climate’s Future

By Guest PostJanuary 30, 2013Environmentalpine research, Antarctica, Arctic, arctic sciences section, atmosphere, belgium, boulder, canada, change, China, climate, climate conditions, denmark, dorthe dahl-jensen, earth climate, eemian interglacial, eemian like, eemian period, france, future, future climate, Germany, global temperatures rise, greenland ice cores, greenland ice sheet, historical record, ice ages, ice sheet, Iceland, Japan, jim white, last interglacial period, national science foundation, neem, northern greenland, northern hemisphere, paleo climate models, sea-level rise, south korea, subsurface ice layers, Sweden, switzerland, the netherlands, united kingdom, united states, university of colorado, university of copenhagen, west antarctic

The International North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) project results indicate that melting of Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea level rise than melting of the Greeland ice sheet some 100,000 years ago

A new study that provides surprising details on changes in Earth’s climate from more than 100,000 years ago indicates that the last interglacial–the period between “ice ages”–was warmer than previously thought and may be a good analog for future climate, as greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere and global temperatures rise.

The research findings also indicate that melting of the massive West Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea-level rise at that time than melting of the Greenland ice sheet. (more…)