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Twitter bot analysis: Bots focus on business and tech more than politics - MSM gets just as many fake tweets as RT, Breitbart, InfoWars

Stefan Wojcik and Michael Barthel
Pew Research Center
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:03 UTC
russian bots twitter accounts
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, much attention has been focused on the role of bots in promoting political news on Twitter. But bots can play a role in spreading many other types of news and information as well.

Indeed, a new Pew Research Center analysis finds that suspected bots are far more active in sharing links to news sites focusing on nonpolitical content than to sites with a political focus. And when they do share political news on Twitter, suspected bots are more likely to link to sites with ideologically centrist audiences than to ones with staunchly liberal or conservative followings.

To conduct the analysis, researchers examined 108,552 tweeted links to 50 popular news websites sent during a six-week period in the summer of 2017. The sites all produce original content and include those associated with legacy news organizations (outlets that originated in print or broadcast) as well as digital-native sites (outlets that were "born on the web"). Researchers identified potential bot accounts by using a multistep process that is explained here.

Here are some key findings from the analysis:

1 Suspected bots share a smaller proportion of links to popular news sites compared with other kinds of websites. Suspected bots shared 59% of tweeted links to the 50 news sites in the analysis. While that figure may sound high, it is lower than the average from a previous Pew Research Center analysis, which found that suspected bots shared 66% of tweeted links to a broader set of more than 2,000 popular websites, including sites focused on commercial products, sports and other subjects.

The 50 sites in the news analysis include the digital versions of print newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as sites for television and radio broadcasting organizations such as CNN, Fox News and NPR.
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Seismograph

Experts: The "big one" will devastate even those not living in California

Isabelle Z.
Natural News
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 00:01 UTC
United States crumble earthquake big one

Californians have been buzzing about "The Big One," a huge earthquake that many experts feel is long overdue along one of the state's major fault lines. If you think this doesn't concern you because you don't live in the Golden State, you could end up paying a big price for that denial as experts outline just how far of a reach such a natural disaster would have.

After all, the U.S.'s second-biggest city, Los Angeles, sits on 100 geological faults and would be severely impacted by The Big One. This would have a significant knock-on effect that would reverberate throughout the American economy.

Writing for Market Watch, seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones warns that people who are focused on the loss of homes and infrastructure damage aren't seeing the big picture. When she worked at the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Jones was in charge of a team that was tasked with estimating what the consequences of a big earthquake would be.

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

Boys and men are disappearing from the field of psychology

Douglass Todd
Vancouver Sun
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 21:12 UTC
Males are disappearing from the field of North American psychology - both as research subjects and as psychotherapists.
man walking on beach
© menuha / Getty Images/iStockphoto
The evidence is overwhelming that psychological research is becoming heavily focused on girls' and women's issues, and that males are rapidly vanishing from psycho-therapeutic professions.

The consequences of these dual trajectories, say specialists, is that the distinct emotional struggles of boys and men are largely being sidelined and that many psychotherapists are lacking expertise in dealing effectively with males' psychological difficulties.
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Seismograph

Infrasound reveals song of Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano, and it could help predict eruptions

Carolyn Gramling
Science News
Mon, 25 Jun 2018 07:00 UTC
Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano
SINGING VOLCANO For several months after Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano erupted in August 2015, scientists recorded odd patterns of reverberating sound.
SINGING VOLCANO

For several months after Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano erupted in August 2015, scientists recorded odd patterns of reverberating sound.

Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano has a deep and distinct voice. Between late 2015 and early 2016, Cotopaxi repeated an unusual pattern of low-frequency sounds that researchers now say is linked to the unique geometry of the interior of its crater. Identifying the distinct "voiceprint" of various volcanoes could help scientists better anticipate changes within the craters, including those that foretell an eruption.

Ecuadoran scientists installed a network of specialized microphones on the volcano's flanks that can record very low frequency sounds, or infrasound. Two weeks after the volcano's August 2015 eruption, the network recorded the unusual sound pattern - a strong, clear oscillation that tapers off through time. The sound curve resembles a screw, or "tornillo" in Spanish, scientists report online June 13 in Geophysical Research Letters.

Comment: Monitoring volcano activity is becoming quite a pressing matter considering the uptick in activity these days:

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Comet 2

'Oumuamua reclassified from 'asteroid' to 'comet' (because they're essentially the same thing)

Javier Barbuzano
Sky & Telescope
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 18:55 UTC
Researchers have found that 'Oumuamua - the first confirmed object to enter the solar system from interstellar space - was a comet, releasing just enough gas to subtly change its course.
'Oumuamua
© ESA / Hubble / NASA / ESO / M. KornmesserAn artist's impression shows 'Oumuamua as a comet.
In October 2017 the robotic telescope Pan-STARRS in Hawai'i detected an unusual object entering the solar system from interstellar space. In the days after the discovery, every available telescope, including Hubble, was aimed at the interloper to collect as much information as possible before it left our system. Since then, astronomers worldwide have been reviewing the observations, trying to squeeze as much knowledge as possible about the unexpected visitor.

Named 'Oumuamua ("first scout" or "first visitor" in Hawaiian), this envoy from the stars appeared to have the form of an elongated cigar - or a flattened pancake, depending whom you ask - 800 meters (0.5 mile) long and 10 times thinner. It came tumbling into the solar system from above the plane of the planets, only to have its path changed by the by the Sun's gravitational pull before leaving out system again, never to return.

Comment: How these numpties still don't get it is beyond us.

Asteroids and comets ARE THE SAME THINGS. The former just 'become' the latter when they discharge electrically due to relative electric potential difference as they pass through space.

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Brain

Russian scientists improve neural network's ability to 'deep learn'


Sputnik
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 13:05 UTC
mind
© CC BY-SA 2.0 / A Health Blog / Exercise Plays Vital Role Maintaining Brain Health
Researchers from the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI's Institute of Cyber Intelligence Systems have recently developed a new learning model for the restricted Boltzmann machine (a neural network) which helps optimize the processes of semantic encoding, visualization and data recognition.

Today, deep neural networks with different architectures, such as convolutional, recurrent and autoencoder networks, are becoming an increasingly popular area of research. A number of high-tech companies, including Microsoft and Google, are using deep neural networks to design various intelligent systems. Together with deep neural networks, the term "deep" learning has gained currency.

In deep learning systems, the processes of feature selection and configuration are automated, which means that the networks can choose between the most effective algorithms for hierarchal feature extraction on their own. Deep learning is characterized by learning with the help of large samples using a single optimization algorithm. Typical optimization algorithms configure the parameters of all operations simultaneously and effectively estimate every neural network parameter's effect on error with the help of the so-called backpropagation method.

"The neural networks' ability to learn on their own is one of their most intriguing properties," explained Vladimir Golovko, Professor at the MEPhI Institute of Cyber Intelligence Systems. "Just like biological systems, neural networks can model themselves, seeking to develop the best possible model of behavior."

Comment: See also:

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Horse

A memory for emotion: Horses can make facial expressions just like humans


CBS Philly
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 23:48 UTC
happy horse
© smkybear/Flickr
Over time, we've learned how to read the body language of horses - from understanding whether the movement of its ears, head, legs and tail mean its relaxed, anxious, angry or alert.

But it turns out horses are capable of pulling faces just like humans, too - which may shed more light on what they're feeling.

In fact, horses can make 17 facial movements - which is at least three more than our relatives, the chimpanzees, and just 10 less than humans.

In order to try and identify whether horses can pull more than just a long face, researchers at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom created the Equine Facial Action Coding System (EquiFACS) to determine any discrete expressions made by horses.

By dissecting a horse's head and identifying its facial musculature, in addition to watching 15 hours of horse behavior in 86 horses ranging in breed and age, they were able to log any possible faces that the animals can make.

Comment: Horses talk with their ears and communicate with subtle body language

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Galaxy

The echos of space-time that suggest a new theory of reality

Daniel Cossins
New Scientist
Wed, 20 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
wave pool
© Andrea Ucini
The discovery of gravitational waves was the crowning glory of Einstein's relativity. They might now have provided the first hint of something to scupper it

A LONG time ago, in a galaxy far away, two black holes collided. We know this because more than a billion years later, on the morning of 14 September 2015, we felt it: in the world's most exquisitely sensitive measuring device, laser beams shifted ever so slightly as ripples in space-time washed over Earth.

This first detection of gravitational waves was the culmination of an epic scientific quest, and a stunning endorsement of general relativity, Einstein's landmark theory of gravity. Since then, our detectors have seen them five more times. But this is just the start - and although everything we have learned from the first waves is consistent with Einstein's masterpiece, the coming deluge of sightings could tear it apart.
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Fire

Super volcano surprise! Geologists find a giant blob of magma under Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts


news.com.au
Mon, 25 Jun 2018 18:30 UTC
Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts
A Google Earth view showing Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, under which an unexpected large blob of molten magma has been detected.
Something unexpected has been gradually making itself known to geologists in the United States. A huge mass of molten rock is creeping upwards beneath the nation's north eastern states.

"The upwelling we detected is like a hot-air balloon, and we infer that something is rising up through the deeper part of our planet under New England," says Rutgers University geophysicist Professor Vadim Levin.

Traces of the brooding mass only became evident through a large-scale new seismic study.

The idea that there may be a super volcano brewing under Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire is something of a surprise.
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Broom

ISS launches spacecraft intended to clean up alarming quantities of space junk orbiting Earth


RT
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 17:10 UTC
earth
© NASA’s Johnson Space Center / YouTube
A new spacecraft dedicated to cleaning up some of the alarming quantities of space junk - including old satellites and defunct spacecraft - encircling Earth has been launched from the ISS.

There are more than 22,000 pieces of man-made debris larger than 4 inches (10cm) currently being tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network. The RemoveDEBRIS spacecraft will test methods to clean up litter orbiting the Earth - litter which threatens to damage or destroy satellites and manned space missions.

In 2016, a window on the International Space Station (ISS) cracked after being struck with just a tiny fleck of debris.

The (220lb) 100kg RemoveDEBRIS craft is equipped with a big net and harpoon to carry out its clean-up, and also contains a Vision Based Navigation (VBN) system which will use 2D cameras and 3D LIDAR technology to track debris.
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