【推荐2】On the morning of June 3, 1944, the day Maureen Flavin Sweeney turned 21, she, as a young worker at Blacksod lighthouse, dispatched a weather report from Blacksod Bay-a bay of the Atlantic Ocean in Erris, forecasting an impending storm from the Atlantic Ocean.

Later that morning she received a phone call from an English woman asking that she “please check…please repeat” the report. Examining the barometer (气压计) again, Maureen confirmed that a storm would indeed hit the English Channel on June 5th. At the time she didn’t know this was the initial date chosen by Allied command (盟军指挥部) for the invasion of Normandy, an operation that required clear skies for air support and calm water to ensure the safety of water-based landing boats. Based on this, US General Dwight D Eisenhower postponed the D-Day landing by 24 hours.

The Sweeney family had been recording the weather every hour throughout the war. They sent their observations to the Irish Met Service in Dublin, which were then forwarded without their knowledge to the headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force in England.

This hourly reporting continued until an automatic meteorological (气象的) station was brought into operation in Belmullet in 1956. Only then, in 1956, did Maureen learn about the history-changing. event that their reports had contributed to in 1944.

On June 22, 2021, this 98-year-old Irish woman was presented with an award by the US House of Representatives. “Her skill and professionalism were crucial in ensuring Allied victory, and her spirit will live on for generations to come. While the number of people who died on D-Day was big, it could have been a lot more were it not for the report from her weather station,” wrote Congressman Jack Bergman. Her son, Vincent Sweeney, said his mom was proud of this, but primarily “happy that she got it right”.

【推荐3】Weather forecasters in the Philippines got the warning in the second week of November 2020. A forecast that went further into the future than usual warned that the islands faced fierce rains more than three weeks away. The meteorologists(气象学家) reminded local and national governments to spring into action. The governments responded by sending mobile phone messages and broadcast alarms to advise people to prepare to move away from dangerous places to other ones.

By the time the Category 4 Typhoon Kammuri struck the Philippines with heavy rains in early December, the damage was much less than it could have been. “Having so much time to prepare was key,” says Andrew Robertson, a climate scientist at Columbia University. “It’s a great example of how far we’ve come in weather forecasting. But it’s just not enough. We still need to go further,” he says.

Such efforts, known as “subseasonal(次季节的) forecasting”, aim to fill a critical gap in weather prediction. The approach fits between short-term forecasts that are good out to about 10 days in the future and seasonal forecasts that look months ahead.

A subseasonal forecast predicts average weather conditions three to four weeks away. Each day of additional warning gives emergency managers much more time to prepare for incoming heat waves, cold currents, tornadoes or other wild weather. Groups such as the Red Cross are starting to use subseasonal forecasts to strategize for weather disasters, such as figuring out where to move emergency supplies when it looks like a tropical cyclone(气旋) might hit a region. Farmers look to subseasonal forecasts to better plan when to plant and irrigate crops. And operators of dams and the power station could use the information to get ready for extra water that may be soon taxed on the systems.

Subseasonal forecasting is improving slowly but steadily, thanks to better computer models and new insights about the atmospheric and oceanic patterns that drive weather over the long term.

【推荐1】In recent years, China’s second-hand economy has been growing steadily. One second-hand book platform by the name of Duozhuayu, meaning catching more fish, has gained a lot of followers in just a few years. Here at the book store in Beijing, bookworms are filling up the space for books still in good condition and also at reduced prices. The company operates with a model of buying, repairing, sterilizing (消毒) and selling used books.

Their service has caused more young Chinese to cast away old thinking of refusing used things and to explore the value of used things. “For second-hand items, people used to think they are of low quality. But the kind of second-hand items that truly circulates (传播) well is of high-quality. Books belong to that category. Here we believe that truly valuable items are worth buying twice,” Chen Tuo, co-founder of the company said.

The company hopes for a win-win situation in the market, where buyers could deal with used books more conveniently and buyers could buy them cheaply. The sharing of books also means more choices for readers than those offered by regular bookstores. According to Chen Tuo, the bookstore also has a feature online that allows customers to put a particular book on demand, and the system will inform you if it becomes available.

The store relies heavily on data that keep records of books being accepted or refused. “From sales data in the past year, we’ve observed that books about psychology, finance and self management were among the most popular while books related to tourism didn’t sell that well. These data really help us make better decisions,” Chen said.

In a society where traditional books face competition from e-books, the bookstore hopes to popularize physical books, and to improve customer experience. Now with two offline stores in Beijing and Shanghai, the bookstore is adding more second-hand items to their lists, including kindles and clothing. The company says recycling is not just for economy, but for a lifestyle worth trying.

【推荐1】Recently, more than 1,000 researchers and executives signed an open letter calling for a pause in research on artificial intelligence. The letter warns that AI may threaten jobs, spread propaganda (宣传), and even lead to the “loss of control of our civilization”.

Many of the signatories (签署者) are thoughtful and experienced AI practitioners. Their concerns should be taken seriously. On balance, though, their approach is likely to evolve into an opposition to progress.

Consider the broader worldview expressed in this document. It said, “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and risks manageable. ” This is a formula for complete stop, as no one can ever be so confident. The history of innovation is one of trial and error, risk and reward. One reason why the US leads the world in digital technology is that it did not constrain the industry with well-meaning but doubtful regulation. Slowing AI progress, moreover, carries risks all its own. Don’t forget that this technology is likely to make the world richer, healthier, smarter and more productive for decades to come. By 2030, it might be contributing more than $15 trillion to the global economy. Advances in medicine, biology, climate science, education, manufacturing, transportation and much more are on the horizon. Any new rules must be balanced against the vast potential of these efforts.

Nor is AI research advancing into a void (空白领域). The industry already operates within legal parameters (范畴) in response to potential harms. Companies have ensured their products are safe. Trade associations are developing codes of conduct and ethical frameworks. Far from the “out-of-control race”, the AI business is constrained by law and politics and consumer sentiment.

It’s natural to worry about new technologies. But the wealth and abundance of American society is due in no small part to risks taken in the past, in a spirit of openness and optimism. The AI revolution deserves no less.

【推荐2】An amazing human-like robot that had been programmed to socially interact with human companions tricked people into thinking that the machine had independent ideas of its own, according to a new study. The robot named “iCub” is a child-size human-like robot created by the Italian Institute of Technology to study social interactions between humans and robots. Standing 3.6 feet tall, iCub with camera eyes can complete complex tasks and imitate (模仿) human behaviors.

In the new study, researchers programmed iCub to interact with human participants as they watched a series of short videos. The participants were divided into two groups. In one trial, involving Group 1, iCub was programmed to behave in a human-like manner, greeting participants as they entered the room, and reacting to videos with sounds of joy, surprise, etc. In the other trial, involving Group 2, iCub’s programming directed it to behave more like a machine, ignoring nearby humans and merely making typical robotic beeping sounds.

The researchers found that people who were exposed to the more human-like version of iCub were more likely to view it with a perspective (视角) known as “the intentional stance”, meaning they believed that the robot had its own thoughts and desires, while those who were exposed to the less human-like version of iCub viewed it as just a programmed robot. The researchers had expected that this would happen but were “very surprised” by how well it worked. “The iCub robot does have a limited capacity to “learn” like a neural (神经的) network, but it is far from being self-aware”, the researchers said.

“These findings show that humans can form social connections with robots. This could have implications for the use of robots in healthcare, especially for elderly patients”, the researchers said. “However, there is still much to learn about human-robot interactions and social bonding. The research in this field requires thousands of experiments and social recognition, so there is a long way to go”, Professor Ann Williams warned.

【推荐3】Theo works day and night in the tulip (郁金香) fields in the Netherlands and never complains of sore muscles. How is this possible?

Theo is an artificial intelligence, or AI, robot that looks for diseased flowers each spring. The work prevents viruses from spreading among the valuable plants. The robot looks for troubled tulip bulbs and des troys them if necessary. They are removed from the healthy ones in a processing center after the harvest.

There are 45 robots like Theo working in the tulip fields of the Netherlands. Their work becomes important as the winter turns to spring and peak season nears. People come from around the world to see the colorful flowers.

Allan Visser’s family has been growing tulips for three generations. This is the second season that he has used a robot. He said it is very expensive—the same as a sports car—about $200,000. In the past, knowledgeable farmers would walk the fields looking for tulips that showed signs of sickness.

“I prefer to have the robot because a sports car doesn’t take out the sick tulips from our field,” he said, “Yeah, it is expensive, but there are less and less people who can really see the sick tulips.”

The robot has been trained to detect the sick plants. Red stripes show up on the leaves of infected plants. Rolling slowly through the fields at about one kilometer per hour, the robots search for sick tulips. Visser explained that the robot has cameras and takes thousands of photos of the tulips. And then, the AI software considers the photos and decides which tulips need to be killed.

H2L Robotics is the company that makes the robots. Erik de Jong is the managing director. He said all of the knowledge they use in the computer program that informs the robot comes from tulip farmers like Theo van der Voort. He is the farmer that the robot is named after.

Van der Voort retired after 52 years of looking for sick flowers in his fields. “It’s fantastic,” he said, “It sees just as much as I see.”