Oleg Zabluda's blog: July 24, 2017

Oleg Zabluda's blog

Monday, July 24, 2017

The Daily Mail Snopes Story And Fact Checking The Fact Checkers
The Daily Mail Snopes Story And Fact Checking The Fact Checkers
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/12/22/the-daily-mail-snopes-story-and-fact-checking-the-fact-checkers/#4c2f6f0c227f

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4042194/Facebook-fact-checker-arbitrate-fake-news-accused-defrauding-website-pay-prostitutes-staff-includes-escort-porn-star-Vice-Vixen-domme.html

Snopes seeks crowdfunding in ownership battle
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/24/snopes-seeks-crowdfunding-in-ownership-battle/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4042194/Facebook-fact-checker-arbitrate-fake-news-accused-defrauding-website-pay-prostitutes-staff-includes-escort-porn-star-Vice-Vixen-domme.html

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

As California’s labor shortage grows, farmers race to replace workers with robots
As California’s labor shortage grows, farmers race to replace workers with robots
"""
Vast areas of the Central Valley have switched from labor intensive crops such as grapes or vegetables to almonds, which are mechanically shaken from the tree. The high-value wine grape industry has re-engineered the bulk of its vineyards to allow machines to span the vines like a monorail and strip them of grape clusters or leaves.

Fresno’s raisin industry, however, has a tougher problem to solve on a tighter profit margin. To fully mechanize, it may have to change not just its vineyard design, but the grape variety itself, much like the tomato industry developed a tough skinned Roma to withstand mechanical harvesters.

When labor shortages and price shocks hit in the early 2000s, growers altered vineyards so that machines could shake partially withered Thompson seedless grapes onto paper trays, a method that can slash more than 80% of labor costs, according to U.C. Davis researchers.

Eliminating trays entirely, however, requires a grape that can dry slowly on the vine before September rains hit. Thompsons mature too late. The Sunpreme, developed by a retired USDA plant scientist in the Central Valley, may soon be widely available, said Matthew Fidelibus, a UC cooperative extension advisor.
[...]
Even Driscoll’s AgroBot, [...] Vertical rods slid left and right, guiding four-fingered graspers to precise coordinates set by a camera and computer. Soon, a stream of ripe berries emerged on a conveyor, mixed occasionally with green-tipped fruit.
[...]
Abundant Robotics, which hopes to duplicate the dexterity, judgment and perception of human apple pickers. Soft Robotics, based in Cambridge, Mass., boasts that its graspers can pick up a cupcake without damaging the icing.
[...]
AgroBot’s U.S. competitor for strawberry picking, Harvest Croo, based in Plant City, Fla. An early generation of robotic machine uses a band saw to mow whole rows of baby lettuce and other greens. But when produce giant Taylor Farms tried it on romaine heads, a slight height variation in the beds put the saw right across the heart of the heads, leaving nothing but shredded leaves, Maconachy said. Maconachy developed a cutter using high-speed water jets. It now cuts all the romaine heads cleanly, and can be adapted for cabbage and celery. “That machine took the work of 30 people and brought it down to about 12 people”
[...]
Ironically, plant scientists may have to reverse their cross-breeding to the original “iceberg” head, [...] The crisphead variety used to be more bulb-shaped, which would give cutters and graspers more room to work
[...]
The computer-guided See and Spray machine, developed by Silicon Valley start-up Blue River Technology, can do the work of 20 of those laborers before noon.
"""
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farm-mechanization/
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-farm-mechanization/

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

"""
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The director of Caltrans [Malcolm Dougherty] said the state's highway management system has already begun modifying roadways to accommodate the way self-driving cars navigate.

“The automated vehicles (AVs) can follow lane lines [...] They can’t follow the Botts’ Dots, so we’re actually changing our delineation standards to go away from the Botts’ Dots which we’ve been using for decades because AVs have a difficult time following those.” [...] aims to have the state's highways and interstates modified within the next two to three years. California has around 50,000 miles of roadways.

“All of our lane lines are going to get thicker. Today our lane lines are only four inches thick. Now every lane line we lie down going forward is going to be six inches thick.”
"""
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/07/18/caltrans-self-driving-cars.html
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2017/07/18/caltrans-self-driving-cars.html

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Лоза Дмитрий Федорович "Танкист на иномарке (2005)
Лоза Дмитрий Федорович "Танкист на иномарке (2005)
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Большинство боевой техники, поставлявшейся в СССР по ленд-лизу, шло в страну морскими караванами, которые разгружались в портах Мурманска или Архангельска, откуда ее по железной дороге перевозили в места назначения. Получаемые нами «Шермана» были тщательно оклеены плотной темной, пропитанной влагостойким составом бумагой, отсутствовавшей только на люке механика-водителя — ее уже удалили для доступа в отделение управления, так как от порта до станции погрузки на платформы танки шли своим ходом.
[...]
Несколько минут молча понаблюдал, как экипажи стараются снять эту «черную рубашку» «Шерманов», не повредив окраску корпуса и башни. Поскольку нам это удавалось, Миша был доволен результатами нашего нелегкого труда... Затем он поинтересовался: целы ли в танках небольшие продуктовые подарки от рабочих фирм? Оказалось, что и на этот раз они где-то затерялись на длинном пути от порта разгрузки до экипажей. Миша очень огорчился.
[...]
При расконсервации «Шермана» много, можно сказать, ювелирного труда требовалось от командира орудия. Пушка и спаренный с пушкой и курсовой пулемет были обильно покрыты густой смазкой. Ствол орудия с дульной и казенной части были залиты пушечным салом. Для удаления этих 25–30 сантиметровых пробок требовались немалые усилия. [...] На одном из «Шерманов» роты Якушкина очистка ствола пушки подходила к концу, когда неожиданно произошло настоящее чрезвычайное происшествие — вместе с двумя вытолкнутыми пробками казенника на пол боевого отделения упала и разбилась бутылка виски, высыпались полиэтиленовые пакеты. Вот это сюрприз! Командир танка Виктор Акулов чуть не заплакал, увидев такую потерю. Через секунду с конца в конец улицы разнеслось тревожно-радостное: «Стой! Стой! Прекратить чистку пушек!»
[...]
Молодцы американцы! Хитро упаковали подарки так, чтобы не гуляли по канату ствола и сохранились в целости. Этот секрет мы берегли до конца войны. На второй день в батальон примчался сияющий от радости Миша: «Фирмы хороши! Я давно сообщать о неполучении танкисты подарки. Фирмы нашли куда надежно прятати презенты!» [60]
"""
http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/loza_df/04.html
http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/loza_df/04.html

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam' [by KPFA a listener-funded progressive talk...
Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam' [by KPFA a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, U.S., broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area.]
"""
Dawkin [...] had listened to KPFA “almost every day” when he lived in Berkeley for two years, he said, and had previously been grateful for its “objective reporting and humane commentary”. [...] Dawkins said [...] that while he has called Islamism “vile”, Islamism is not the same as Islam. “I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women,” wrote the author in his response. “I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?”
[...]
KPFA said it had been contacted by activists who had described Dawkins as “a very well-known Islamophobe” who had vilified Muslims. The radio station cited tweets from Dawkins including one that read: “I think Islam is the greatest force for evil in the world today” and [...] Dawkins was quoted as saying that “if you look at the actual impact that different religions have on the world it’s quite apparent that at present the most evil religion in the world has to be Islam [...] It’s terribly important to modify that because of course that doesn’t mean all Muslims are evil, very far from it. Individual Muslims suffer more from Islam than anyone else.
”"""
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/24/richard-dawkins-event-cancelled-over-his-abusive-speech-against-islam
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/24/richard-dawkins-event-cancelled-over-his-abusive-speech-against-islam

Labels: Oleg Zabluda

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