Airplanes are (now) enticing homes for Mojave rattlesnakes. Qantas engineers maintaining a fleet of superjumbo planes have gotten themselves in a strange predicament after the pandemic forced the airline to keep the large planes in storage ー deadly rattlesnakes and scorpions have called the planes’ wheels their home. Qantas has ensured the highest level of protection: the engineers stomp their feet and whack the wheels to scare off the critters, ensuring that both humans and animals stay safe during maintenance.
Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here
Merv
August 15, 2022
