Daily Archives: August 19, 2020

Physicists witness time crystals interacting for the first time ever – New Atlas

Posted: August 19, 2020 at 1:13 am

Were quickly learning more about time crystals, strange phases of matter that appear to break time-translation symmetry something that was thought impossible until recently. Now scientists have observed two time crystals interacting for the first time, which could be the first step towards using them for practical applications like quantum computing.

Regular crystals are defined by their highly-ordered atomic structures in a sense, their atoms repeat through space. But could there also be crystals that repeat through time? That was the hypothesis put forward in 2012 by Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek, and in 2016 these time crystals were created in the lab for the first time.

Time crystals have the bizarre ability to repeat patterns of motion through time, even when theres no external force driving them. The weirdness is best illustrated as a bowl of Jell-O if you tap the dessert, youd expect it to jiggle for a few seconds then stop, until you tap it again. But time crystals might take a few seconds to start jiggling, then stop, then start again on their own, repeating indefinitely. They might not make sense to our everyday experience of physics, but believe it or not they arent violating any laws of thermodynamics.

Scientists continue to investigate these weird structures, and now a team has made an important breakthrough observing two time crystals interacting. The researchers, from Yale, Lancaster and Aalto Universities, as well as Royal Holloway London, started with a superfluid form of helium-3.

Aalto University/Mikko Raskinen

The team cooled the helium-3 down to a hair above absolute zero (-273.15 C, or -459.67 F), then created two time crystals in the superfluid and let them touch. They observed the two time crystals passing particles back and forth between each other, leading their motions into an alternating pattern. This is a sign of a phenomenon called the Josephson effect.

Controlling the interaction of two time crystals is a major achievement, says Samuli Autti, lead author of the new study. Before this, nobody had observed two time crystals in the same system, let alone seen them interact. Controlled interactions are the number one item on the wish list of anyone looking to harness a time crystal for practical applications, such as quantum information processing.

Currently, the main problem with quantum computers is that its hard for the information to remain coherent, or stable, for long periods. But time crystals do so with relative ease, meaning they could help us overcome these issues. They could also lead to advances in more precise timekeeping, such as atomic clocks, and the systems that rely on them, like GPS.

The research was published in the journal Nature Materials.

Source: Lancaster University

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Californias proposal for its own CFPB is back on track – HousingWire

Posted: at 1:12 am

California is planning to strengthen its regulation of financial companies by replicating on a state level what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to be.

The state legislature has revived an idea Gov. Gavin Newsom first proposed in January to remake the California Department of Business Oversight into a beefed-up regulator of fintech companies, credit reporting agencies, debt collection forms and others firms.

The agency, which would be renamed the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, DFPI, would see its powers expanded to address abusive acts and practices, going beyond its current goal of preventing unfair and deceptive acts and practices. The new agency would be fashioned after the federal CFPB that was created as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

The proposal to create a mini-CFPB in the state was added to a pending budget bill after being dropped in June. California is the most populous state in the nation, home to 12% of the Americans. If the state was an independent nation, its economy would be the fifth-largest in the world.

The legislature likely will act on this proposal in the coming weeks, according to staff comments in an agenda for a state Senate hearing held last week.

The DFPI is designed to provide consumers greater protection from predatory practices while facilitating innovation and ensuring a level playing field for all companies operating responsibly in California, according to the description in Newsoms proposal. It seeks to cement Californias consumer protection leadership amidst a consumer-protection retreat by federal agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Enforcement actions at the federal CFPB plummeted after President Donald Trump took office in 2017, according to a story last year in the Wall Street Journal. The number of new enforcement investigations fell to 15 in fiscal 2018, from 63 in fiscal 2017 and 70 in fiscal 2016, the CFPB said in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Journal.

Beth Mills, a spokeswoman for the California Bankers Association, said in an interview with NPR that she supports the creation of the new state agency because it would mean better policing of online lenders who compete with banks but operate with looser oversight.

We would welcome greater regulation on them to make sure that were operating under the same rules, Mills said, while proposing banks that already are heavily regulated by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency be exempt from the new bill.

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KAY COLES JAMES: Why Reagans call to conservatism needs to be heard again today – SCNow

Posted: at 1:12 am

For example, he spoke of how government programs to eradicate poverty hadnt solved much of anything: If government planning and welfare had the answer and theyve had almost 30 years of it shouldnt they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help?

In recent years, weve spent about a trillion dollars a year on federal welfare programs. Divide that up among the 40 million or so Americans considered poor, and we could have given a family of four $100,000 a year. Yet, the poverty rate has stayed about the same as it was when the War on Poverty began in 1964. Tragically, most welfare programs have only been successful at creating perpetual reliance on government.

Reagan also pointed out that, despite the fact that Washington was collecting unprecedented amounts of money from taxpayers in 1964, it never seemed to be enough: Today, 37 cents of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collectors share, and yet our government continues to spend $17 million a day more than the government takes in.

Washingtons poor fiscal restraint has only gotten worse. In 2019, the government spent $2.7 billion a day more than it took in, and currently, the national debt exceeds $80,000 for every man, woman and child.

Yet today, despite years of failures, just like back then, the left continues to promote policies that usurp our freedom, harm our economy, endanger our security and create an unhealthy dependence on government.

Today, theyre proposing government-run single-payer health care and cutting our military when those who want to do us harm are increasing theirs. They want to defund the police across America, putting out the neighborhood welcome mat for criminals everywhere. Theyve proposed climate legislation that would eliminate gas-powered cars, ground all airplanes, and forbid beef consumption. Their proposals would guarantee every person in America access to free health care, free college, and even a free paycheck paid for with huge tax increases.

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COVID-19 And The Presidential Election Impacting Economic Outlook – WAMC

Posted: at 1:12 am

While not the only factors, two of the major forces impacting the economy are the coronavirus and who will be sitting in the White House come January. With science and politics meeting, economist Hugh Johnson, the chairman and chief investment officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors in Albany, is predicting that the current V-shaped economic recovery will slow.

Johnson spoke with WAMC's Jim Levulis about his latest economic outlook.

Johnson: When you take a look at what happened in March and April, and of course we dug an extraordinarily deep hole in March and April, and it showed up in the second quarter gross domestic product numbers, which was a 32% decline in gross domestic product, by far the largest or steepest decline we've ever had in our history. So we dug a deep hole. And initially, there was a very strong sort of a recovery from those very deep numbers, those very poor numbers, and that we saw in May and June, particularly in the employment numbers in one month, we saw 4.8 million jobs added or recovered into payrolls. And so that was all really good news. But I think that, you know, since that time quite frankly, that everybody's been a little bit worried about a number of things. First of all, the stock market has come very far very fast, and they're a little worried about that. The second thing that most everybody is worried about is that we're going to have a sort of a replay of March and April that we're going to roll back some of the reopenings and as a result, the recovery that we had, and again, May and June being very strong with slowed down. So the recovery in May in June was very steep and V-shaped. And after we get that we get into something like July, August, the numbers we've seen so far. And it looks like there's still a recovery going on. But it's a little bit more gentle. So what does it mean? It really means good news, in the sense that we're still recovering, maybe not such good news in the sense that we're not recovering as fast as we did. And it's going to take some time. And I mean time until 2022, to get back to the levels of employment and economic growth or output that we saw at the end of 2019. So positive growth, but slow growth. And that's good news for I think the markets but maybe it's just not as exciting, shall we say as when you get something that's V-shaped.

Levulis: The S&P 500 has been hovering around its record high, which was set before the pandemic hit. Your outlook predicts S&P 500 earnings will increase nearly 30% in 2021. That's after declining 23% overall in 2020. What's pushing that index to be able to recoup its losses relatively quickly?

Well, the big thing that is pushing the index is that investors know that what's where we are doesn't count. And where we are, of course, is in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, in the middle of the kind of the bad times for the economy, and earnings are going to be down 23%, but nobody's really looking at 2020. Now we are all looking are focused on 2021 and asking the question, what are the earnings going to look like, not only in 2021, but also 2022. And, as you say, that's a positive growth of 30% in earnings for the S&P 500. That's really good news and that's very positive news. And, there's no expectation of anything that's going to get in the way of that. In other words, we're not going to see interest rates rise, the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates right around current levels, which means a supportive of current valuations in the market. So I think really what we're saying is that look, you know, the Federal Reserve interest rates will be very benign, they're not going to get in the way, this was all going to be up to earnings. And the earnings outlook is very positive for 2021. And a little less positive, but still positive for 2022. And that's what investors are focused on. And that's why they're somewhat optimistic. It looks like a new bull market. And the one thing I want everybody to remember is bull markets are not short.they last on average about 63 months. Last one we had was my gosh, was 130 months, but generally speaking around 60 to 65 months. That's a long way from here. We're only two months into this. So I think investors are saying, look, it's a reason to be upbeat about things or prospects not downbeat.

And sticking with Wall Street here, your outlook seeks to compare the current stock market with the dot.com bubble of 1999-2000. Are you seeing similarities between now and then?

Well, I'm seeing similarities in the sense that one of the things you focus on is the level of valuation. And we had, you know, we've got price earnings multiples of about 22 now. We had higher price earnings multiples at that time. But one thing we've got now that was really different from dot.com is that we've got extremely low interest rates, and we didn't have very low interest rates during the dot.com bubble. And so it was hard to justify those valuations, hard to justify those very high price earnings ratios in the dot.com bubble of 1998 through 2002. This time, you can justify the high price earnings ratios and I draw that comparison mainly just to show you to make a statement and the statement is, you know, you just shouldn't worry about this being a bubble like the dot.com bubble, you shouldn't worry about valuations now, as you should have worried in 1998 through 2002. So it really takes that big worry about valuation kind of off the board. You kind of worry about it, but you don't worry as intensely as you should have worried back in 1998. That's the reason I say it.

And from Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, we are less than three months away from the presidential election, if former Vice President Joe Biden were to win the White House, how might that impact the economy?

That's really a great question. And I think you're going to have to say, you know, the truth is regardless of who wins I'm not sure it's going to very much affect the economy. I don't think we're going to go into a tailspin as a result of it. The thing you worry about, of course, is that look, we're spending a lot of money right now on the pandemic to try to get ourselves out of this crisis. And that's going to show up in a very big increase in the deficit. It's going to go for about 4.5 percent of gross domestic product up to as much as 18% of gross domestic product, when we've seen that historically, it's ushered in a period of sort of fiscal restraint, and that means higher taxes and less spending. I think if we're talking about sort of a Democratic victory, which right now that looks like a real possibility, maybe more than just a possibility, but I think we're really saying, yeah, higher taxes, higher corporate taxes, higher taxes on the wealthy, less sort of freedom of regulation, there has been a very long period of unregulated anti-trust, anti-trust is going to be much tighter and tougher during a Democratic victory, but at the same time I think you're going to see all that offset by ongoing very strong spending, lots and lots of spending, particularly on things like infrastructure. And I think that the bottom line is that yeah, we'll get the restraint of hierarchical but we'll also get the good news, I think it's good news in the form of maybe ongoing increased spending on things like infrastructure that are very important, as well as all sorts of things like, like healthcare. So, quite frankly, I don't think it's going to have that much of an impact on the economy, but it's going to really change the way things are done in Washington. Higher taxes on the rich, higher taxes on corporations, we're going to roll back that corporate tax from 21 to 28%. It's almost a guarantee. So things will change.

Stepping back away from current events for a secondhistorically, why are the economic predictions for a Democratic White House worse off than say, a Republican presidency? I know you mentioned high taxes, more regulation, that sort of thing. historically has that held true, those predictions?

It really hasn't held true. It has certainly has held true that we've had the predictions that the Democrats bad for the stock market and bed for the economy. But when you take a look at the outcomes, whether it's a Republican or a Democratic presidency, really, quite frankly, the outcomes have been mixed. In other words, they've been very good for Democrats and they've been very good for Republicans. So it really depends on which Republican it is, which Democrat it is, and what their policies really are, because their policies will determine the outcome. And right now, when we look ahead towards 2021-22, you have to be a little bit worried because those deficits are so high, you have to be a little worried that that's going to usher in not only higher taxes, but less spending. But when we take a really close look at what Joe Biden has said for the Democrats, he's really talking about not lower spending, but a little bit higher spending. But in either case, I think it's really a little bit up in the air and yes, you should be worried. Yes, you should be worried about fiscal restraint, but I think it's a little bit too early to say that the economy is going to somehow go into a tailspin in 2021-2022. So I think we got to watch very carefully for what the policies are going to be the incoming administration, either the existing one continues, or the new administration comes in with new policies, you got to watch them very carefully and try to measure what the outcome might be. It really makes a difference.

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‘COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism,’ says anthropologist in Rolling Stone op-ed – MarketWatch

Posted: at 1:12 am

In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to Americas claim to supremacy in the world.

Thats Wade Davis in an op-ed titled The Unraveling of America in Rolling Stone magazine published Aug. 6 that paints a grim picture of the current state of the U.S.

Wade Davis is an anthropologist at the University of British Columbia and his post in Rolling Stone has racked up millions of page views since its publication earlier this month. For some readers it drew comparisons with an article written by Matt Taibbi in 2010 titled the The Great American Bubble Machine centered on Goldman Sachs as a vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.

In Daviss article, he suggests that the days of U.S. dominance may be undone by the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected nearly 5.5 million Americans, or more than a quarter of the 21 million global total, thus far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The critique from the U.S.s sister country to the north may be a hard pill for some to swallow, as Davis says that Americas obsession with individual rights and liberty at the expense of community has been a key point of weakness for the nation.

More than any other country, the United States in the post-war era lionized the individual at the expense of community and family, he wrote. What was gained in terms of mobility and personal freedom came at the expense of common purpose.

In a CBC article Davis said that he isnt taking cheap shots at the U.S., which is an ally and trading partner with Canada, but he believes his essay was an attempt to encourage widespread introspection.

I think of it like a family when you have to do an intervention. The first step is to hold a mirror to the face of the individual to let them know what has become of themselves. Thats the first step on the path to rehabilitation, Davis was quoted as saying by the CBC.

Davis isnt the only one questioning the outlook for the global superpower.

Earlier this summer, Stephen Roach, Yale University senior fellow and former Morgan Stanley Asia chairman, warned that the U.S. dollar DXY, +0.07% may face a challenge to its place as the reserve currency of the world.

The prominent economist told MarketWatch in an interview that the dollars decline could occur at warp speed and that the era of U.S. hegemony may be coming to an end, citing increases in the nations fiscal deficit and dwindling savings.

To be sure, the list of those who have inaccurately written about the demise of the U.S. and its leadership place in the world is lengthy.

Like Davis, Roach said that responses to his article were very visceral.

Davis says his criticism has less to do with the dominance of the U.S. currency or with the nations leadership in the White House, but he points out that growing disparities between haves and have-nots may be the nations undoing.

At the root of this transformation and decline lies an ever-widening chasm between Americans who have and those who have little or nothing, Davis wrote. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets.

Economic disparities exist in all nations, creating a tension that can be as disruptive as the inequities are unjust, he continued.

However, What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness.

His warning comes as the S&P 500 stock index carves out its first record since Feb. 19, marking an unofficial end to a bear market that gripped the benchmark SPX, +0.23% and the broader market, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.24% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.72%.

However, those new highs for the broad-market stock benchmark may only highlight the fact that the U.S. economy, and the economy for much of the developed world, remains in tatters amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Attack of the Instagram clones – We Live Security

Posted: at 1:12 am

Could your social media account be spoofed, why would anybody do it, and what can you do to avoid having a doppelgnger?

Social media has some great advantages, such as keeping in touch with loved ones and sharing experiences with friends, but like almost anything on the internet, it can be easily abused. With some creative thinking and a little luck on the side, it is possible for it to be used as a vehicle to steal money from unwitting victims.

I had heard stories of account cloning, but I always assumed people would check with the account holder via another form of communication or at least think twice before sending money to an account they only recently connected with. Sadly, people are still being caught out with this scam and I want to help reach those who may be unaware of how the con works.

As with all my ways of getting a security message across, I needed to conduct a little experiment to test this scam in the real world and see first-hand the ease with which it can work. Its easier to get your message across about the risks when theyre shown a real example of the scam working and then they want to better protect their accounts and themselves. All I needed was a volunteer who would be willing to allow me to set up a cloned account and then attempt to dupe their friends. However, wow am I quickly running out of friends to con! I looked far and wide, but no one wanted to play ball on this one.

Therefore, having failed to find someone happy for me to clone their account for the test, I decided I would have to clone my own Instagram. I follow nearly 900 accounts on Instagram and I am usually posting the same old seascape photos or pictures of me prancing around at the beach to my 1,400 followers. I decided to make a new account on my spare phone and took four screenshot copies rather than uploading the originals to make it as authentic as possible just like someone else would have done it. It was easy to duplicate these images but the only thing that could have been a difficulty is that when copying the profile picture, it would have needed to have been posted in the feed to make a quality replica.

Here is a screenshot of my real Instagram account, @jakemooreuk.

And here is my cloned Instagram account, @jakemoore_uk. Notice the change in bio to include NEW ACCOUNT AFTER LOSING ACCESS TO ORIGINAL.

I decided to follow 30 of my friends to see if they would follow me back and let the experiment begin. Ten were private accounts, therefore they required approval, and 20 were public accounts.

Within moments I had three private account owners accept my request and two followed me back. This was a good start. I was expecting someone to contact me via a different communication method and question this request, particularly due to my line of work and the embarrassment that I could have been subjected to, understanding that even I am susceptible to an account compromise!

But no one did. In fact, the numbers increased. Thirteen accounts followed me back on the same day and by the evening I decided to message these people and see what sort of responses I would receive.

Initially, I mentioned the account compromise and thanked them for accepting the new follow request and then went in with a request to catch up.

This received 8 replies from my 13 new followers. The goal of the test was to create a good enough back story to quickly request money without raising suspicion. This would be particularly rare if the contact had been unsolicited but when the victims believe they know who they are talking to they are far more likely to part with their cash.

One of my contacts replied with a hopeful message. She clearly felt bad for me and agreed how frustrating it would be.

Social engineering at its best requires believability, confidence and a little luck to make it all plausible and make sense. Simply asking people to wire money to a random bank account in the first message would have most likely raised the alarm bells, so I planned to divert the conversation to discuss my cashflow situation as soon as the thread allowed me.

Prior to the test, I created a new PayPal account in my name to make it seem more legitimate than a bank account number, which is similar to what a fraudster would do with a similar-sounding email address as my name in the PayPal account. I chose this as it was available jakemooreuk@xxxxxx.com.

Here is how the conversation went:

What I found most disconcerting was how quickly it all escalated and I was able to trick the target into thinking it was genuine with no extra checks required. I was even able to make her be the one to offer to help me which was a nice little twist. This is usually a clever technique used by professional social engineers reversing the psychology to avoid the request of the money.

NB: I was able to get in touch with my contact before she deposited any money into this new PayPal account, but it proved one simple thing this scam is easy to carry out when such a mass of information is offered online. All that is really needed is an account to clone and a set of contacts.

It is vital to try to reduce the amount of personal information and photos of ourselves online where possible. Although this is a huge task, it is important to teach the next generation of social media users to try to limit the amount of information that is posted online before it is out in the open forever. This scam wont work if accounts are private.

Saying that, however, many people whose accounts are private still allow people they do not necessarily know to follow them due to minimal vetting. It is extremely important to think about what you post as well as accepting only followers you dont mind knowing more about you. Being completely public has the potential of creating dangers such as this.

Users should also be reminded to never take anything at face value when money is requested. Asking for validation in another form of communication before any money is sent to a new payee is paramount. If the victim had called the real me, then scammer me would have been foiled.

Had that happened, however, I would have just abandoned that attempt and moved on to the other seven replies I received, and targeted them instead.

This scam is not solely limited to Instagram I have also seen this occur on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so make sure you keep an eye out for cloned accounts. Report these accounts and make the genuine account holder aware.

Send in the clones: Facebook cloning revisited

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Artificial Intelligence Applications within Retail in 2020 – ReadWrite

Posted: at 1:12 am

Artificial intelligence and its applications have surely revolutionized the sectors pushing them forward in a new direction. Its application isnt limited to the start of product development but continues post-launch and customer interaction.

One of the sectors that are reaping the benefits of AI integration is the retail industry. However, there are still many questions that are being thrown out there. From what AI-technology or application has proven to be the most beneficial in retail to which innovations have the potential to change the retail game?

We need to keep in mind that artificial intelligence has not been perfected and is still in the stages of experimentation. Some results have proven to be positive and progressive, while others a complete failure.

Having said this, from 2013 to 2018, AI startups have raised around $1.8 billion according to CB insights. These are impressive numbers and the credit can be given to Amazon which changes the perspective of AI integration within retail.

In a nutshell: AI in retail can be explained as a self-learning technology, that with the adequate data, only improves the processes further through smart prediction and much more.

AI solutions are still in the process of growing and progressing. However, there are certain applications within retail that have proven to be fruitful not just in terms of the value it provides as a service but the benefits businesses reap afterward.

What are the top of the line applications of AI in retail? Lets find out.

With digitization, much of the work-load has been automated and streamlined. Now, with the COVID wave placing human contact as harmful, cashier-less stores are an idea that is very much on the table. This idea of lowering the number of human employees working on a store and being replaced by AI-powered robots is not just a concept of the movies anymore.

Amazon is already on the case with Amazon AI introducing stores that are check-out free. You must have heard about Amazon Go and Just Walk Out technology where the items being placed within your trolley are being examined and kept track of, so when you simply walk out of the shop, the Amazon account takes the money. Pretty interesting, right?

AI and IoT play a great role in creating this cashier-less store experience, relieving stores from having expensive operation expenses. With technology like Amazon Go, human staff members are reduced to merely six or so, depending on the size of the store.

The rise of the chatbots was possible due to AI integration, making them capable of conversing in a human-like manner. Moreover, with their ability to understand the query posed by the visitor, they can analyze and provide adequate assistance accordingly.

Safe to say, AI chatbots have elevated customer service, searching, sending notifications, and suggesting relevant products all by themselves. These AI chatbots work wonders in retail as there are so many queries that are lined up mostly filled with product related questions. In addition, they also learn the buying behavior of the customer and suggest products that would match their search and buying intent.

Chatbots are the present and future of retail helping customers navigate through online stores and increasing the revenue of businesses in return.

Voice search is catching up with 31% of smartphone users globally using voice search at least once a week. While, in the year 2020, it is projected to grow to 50%. With Alexa and others, customers can simply ask for the desired product without having to type and visually invest in the process.

Voice search is definitely one of the demanded features in any software solution and software development companies (koderlabs dot com) would incorporate voice and text search to maximize the convenience.

Visual search is a term or technology not too familiar as of yet. However, this AI-powered system enables customers to upload images and find products similar to certain aspects of those uploaded images; like based on color, shapes, and even patterns.

AI coupled with image recognition technology is marvelous and can help significantly in the realm of retail. Imagine wanting a similar dress and just uploading its picture, you get suggestions of places either selling the same or something similar. You then can compare the price difference and go for the one that suits your best.

AI can detect the mood of your customers and provide you with valuable feedback that will allow your representatives to give assistance just in time. Take Walmart as an example. The retail giant has cameras installed at each checkout lane that detects their mood.

If a customer seems annoyed, they would immediately approach and try to help. So, with AI and facial recognition technology, stores can build strong relationships with their customers and ensure their satisfaction.

AI in the retail supply chain can help retailers dodge poor execution and management that leads to major losses. With AI, calculating the demand for a particular product through analyzing the data that includes the history of sales, promotions, location, trends, and various other metrics allow retail stores to make a better future decision.

AI can predict the demand for that certain product and allow you to order just the right amount without having to deal with leftovers or shortage of it.

Since we are currently facing COVID that has placed the necessity of an online-smart-world, AI can predict through the data received from either the websites or mobile apps. Either way, the supply chain is effectively managed and processed systematically.

With the usage of machine learning, the retail industry can easily classify millions of items from various sellers with the right category. For instance, sellers can upload the picture of their product, and machine learning will identify it and classify it accordingly.

Clasification helps automate the mundane and time-consuming task and can be done in a few minutes with the help of AI.

What more is that with such smart classification, customers are able to find the right products under the categories of their choosing.

The retail executives survey conducted by Capgemini at AI in Retail Conference entails that the AI application of technology in retail could potentially save up to $340 billion each year for the industry till 2020. In addition, nearly 80% of these savings will come from supply chain management and return as AI will improve these processes by a large margin.

The global market for AI in retail is projected to grow over $5 million by the year 2022.

Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning-powered software solutions can really change the game for retail, especially amid the pandemic. Not only AI facilitates automation but provides a better insight into businesses by predictive analysis and reporting.

On the customer front, AI-powered chatbots and cashier-less stores provides convenience and futuristic shopping experience with improved customer service.

Although the pandemic has slowed down much of the progress; still, we can see considerable growth in AI-powered solutions geared to improve the retail industry and prep it for the times ahead.

Zubair is a digital enthusiast who loves to write on various trends, including Tech, Software Development, AI, and Personal Development. He is a passionate blogger and loves to read and write. He currently works at Unique Software Development, a custom software development company in Dallas that offers top-notch software development services to clients across the globe.

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Making a list and checking it twice – Las Cruces Sun-News

Posted: at 1:12 am

Cassie McClure, My So-Called Millennial Life Published 2:03 a.m. MT Aug. 16, 2020

Cassie McClure(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News, )

Of all the things I haven't expected in my life, I didn't expect that I'd need to retake second grade. But, thanks to COVID-19, here we are. Here are many of us, back to thinking we escaped worksheets and algebra, only to be pulled back in like an old and tired Michael Corleone in his kitchen.

I remember my first go-around with the second grade, almost 30 years ago. I remember friends. I remember first crushes. I remember being exasperated with the amount of busy work that we did, culminating in a refusal to partake in making a hand-shaped cardboard turkey. The thought still peeves me.

In March, when the bottom dropped out of schooling for my daughter, we made do with her morning Zoom calls. She used my home office, seeing her familiar classmates in small little rectangles on a screen, and came out looking a little dejected. Fall will be better, I assured her. I suspected in May that wouldn't be the case and stopped saying that.

Honestly, I had been slightly ignoring the start date of school creeping up, but about three weeks ago, I received a phone call that I let go to voicemail as I worked. It turned out there was a spot open in a school to which we applied for our daughter during the Before Times. The school had held a lottery back in March. Did we still want her to attend?

I quickly consulted with my husband. Yes, we did. "Great, they said; we're in our second week of classes, so let me send you the teacher email, her new logins, and you'll get codes for getting online." OK, then. Suddenly, all the schooling was in our laps.

Yet, there wasn't just one online system. It wasn't just Zoom and uploading shots of worksheets to a mobile app previously used for reminding me about the monthly school calendar. It was two completely different systems used congruently, one for assignment management and one for doing the assignments sometimes. I think. I still haven't figured that out completely.

With my work, there was a combination of slowly digging out of the quarantine depression and someone else's retirement that hefted more responsibility on my shoulders. I started making a dedicated to-do list to wrap my mind around everything.

On the same day, I got another call offering my son a spot in pre-K. Did we want it? Both schools had already extended their in-person start dates and assured us that if we didn't feel comfortable and we wanted to stay in remote learning for a while longer, our kids wouldn't lose their spots. Deep breaths for me. Yes, we can figure this all out; I can figure this all out. If quarantine toxic positivity Instagram posts tell me anything, it's all about to-do lists. Maybe color-coded ones would be needed.

The following week, after a few emails back and forth with my daughter's new second-grade teacher in which we promised we'd catch up and set up a learning area complete with U.S. and state flags, I received very polite emails from another teacher, her coach. My daughter had missing assignments. Were we registered with her online class system?

It might have been the 30 years I don't know. But in a flood of horror, I did more scrolling. She didn't just have one second-grade teacher; she had an art teacher, a music teacher and a coach. All with worksheets or activities. All of whom skipped between online programs where we uploaded material, watched videos and uploaded work. And the Zoom links and groups kept coming, none of which my kiddo can do alone.

I came out of my office and put my head down on the kitchen table for a few minutes. More deep breathing. More pushing away the word anxiety mantra of how this was "unsustainable."

Check on your friends with Zoom-age kids. They're not going to be OK soon. They're starting to be knee-deep in an unsustainable lifestyle, complete with one or more eye-rolling mini coworkers stealing their computer and snacks. There are no water coolers for gossip. There are no happy hours. There will, however, be plenty of to-do lists with the hope that we can pull it off as we are pulled back in.

Cassie McClure is a writer, wife/mama/daughter, fan of the Oxford comma, and drinker of tequila. Some of those things relate. She can be contacted at cassie@mcclurepublications.com. To find out more about Cassie McClure and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at http://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/FyzBC4xv1RfJx3PlRtxB0VF?domain=creators.com.

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What working from home means for CISOs – Information Age

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Bharat Mistry, principal security strategist at Trend Micro, discusses what working from home means for CISOs

Does your cyber security policy need a rethink?

When history comes to be written about the current decade, the past few months may well mark a turning point. Exactly how remains to be seen, but one thing has become abundantly clear: the way organisations work may never be the same again. This matters a great deal for CISOs, because if you were worried about insider threats before, the same risks could be many times greater among workforce working from home.

This is where user awareness training comes in. But simply putting a blanket scheme in place may not work some employees dont break the rules out of ignorance but because theyve made a conscious decision to do so.

With the risks less related to education and more to psychology, its time for organisations to take a more nuanced approach to employee security training.

A recent global study of 13,200 remote workers in 27 countries found that although awareness of cyber-related risks is high, many employees choose not to conform anyway. A majority (85%) say they take instructions from their IT team seriously, agree that cyber security is partly their responsibility (81%) and even claim they have become more conscious of security policies since lockdown. A majority (64%) also recognise that using non-work applications on a corporate device is a security risk.

Steve Bennett, enterprise solutions architect at OGL Computer, discusses the role of IT in ensuring business continuity in todays new normal. Read here

Yet over half admit to doing just that, even uploading corporate data to these apps. Other security issues respondents admitted to include using work devices for personal web browsing, accessing corporate data from a personal device, and even accessing adult content and dark web sites on work devices.

Its easy to understand why employees do what they do. CISOs have always had trouble convincing them that productivity and protection are not mutually exclusive that users can do their jobs just as effectively by following policies, accepting security controls and using pre-approved apps and devices, and especially while working from home, the shift to productivity at all costs has threatened to disrupt this delicate balance.

It comes as cyber criminals look to capitalise on distracted home workers, unprotected endpoints, overwhelmed VPNs, and distributed security teams who may be forced to focus on more pressing operational IT tasks. Google is blocking as many as 18 million Covid-themed malicious and phishing emails every day. It takes just one to get through and convince a remote worker to click, and the organisation may be confronted with the prospect of a debilitating ransomware outage, BEC-related financial loss, or damaging data breach.

With many organisations struggling financially in the wake of government-mandated lockdowns, few will welcome the costs associated with a serious security incident.

Research from Specops has found that four in five computer and IT firms (78%) have seen an increase in cyber threats while working from home. Read here

Best practice cyber security requires a combination of people, process and technology. However, the people part has historically been neglected, which is one of the reasons why phishing attacks are today the most popular cyber crime threat vector. Training programmes are too often one-way, one-off affairs, which may raise awareness for a short time, but do little to actually change behaviours in the long-term.

Part of the reason for this failure is that they assume all staff members are basically the same. Of course, they are not. According to Edge Hill University Cyberpsychology Academic, Dr Linda Kaye, there are four key employee personas based on their cyber security behaviours.

Fearful employees are nervous about wrongdoing that might expose their organisation to cyber risk. Theyre highly accountable for their own behaviour, even if they dont know what the risks actually are and how to manage them.

Conscientious types are probably the CISOs dream: they understand cyber-risk and act on advice, not just avoiding risk but taking steps to proactively manage it.

On the other hand, ignorant users are a major risk because they combine a lack of cyber awareness with minimal personal accountability for their own actions. Their risky behaviour, however, is rooted in their lack of understanding.

More dangerous still are daredevil employees who break rules not because of their ignorance, but because of perceived superiority. Others should be accountable, but not them, they believe.

So what can CISOs do with this information as employees continue working from home? Certainly, different strategies may work best with different character types. Fearful staff members may react well to real-world simulation exercises, which allow them to try and experience things that they wouldnt normally. They may also benefit from being mentored by conscientious personas, who can be used as security champions in the organisation.

Don Randall MBE, former Bank of England CISO and advisory board member at METCloud, discusses cloud security, his new role and what to expect from a CISO. Read here

Ignorant users need training and practical advice on how to mitigate risks. To keep them engaged, it may be necessary to use gamification techniques, or again those phishing simulation exercises, which can be updated each time to reflect current scams. Its also important to recognise that these personas may require additional intervention to help them understand the consequences of risky behaviour. Daredevils are perhaps the most challenging as they dont respond well to authority. However, even here, CISOs can achieve promising results, perhaps by using reward schemes to change behaviour.

Ultimately, no two organisations are the same. CISOs will need to approach this task according to their risk appetite and the type of tasks staff working from home undertake. The most important thing to bear in mind with user training is to keep lessons short and regular, and act on the feedback you receive to continuously improve courses. These should never be a chore for employees. With a more considered, personalised approach, CISOs can change user behaviours and build both an effective first line of threat defence and a security-aware corporate culture.

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Meet the choreographers behind some of TikTok’s most viral dances – Wired.co.uk

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There is, and seemingly always has been, a dance for every letter of the alphabet. From the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance of the Middle Ages (in which residents of the Staffordshire village run around with reindeer antlers) to the traditional Greek Zonaradiko (whereby dancers hold on to one anothers belts), we have always loved a good routine. Yet while you could peer into an 1870s debutante ball or a 1970s disco and see people following a set of steps, our modern era seems altogether less structured. In the 90s and early 2000s, only the occasional Macarena inspired a school dance hall to move in sync. Then, in 2017, along came TikTok.

In just three years, the video-sharing app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been downloaded over a billion times, making it the seventh most downloaded app of the decade. Immensely popular with Generation Z, TikTok hosts short clips ranging from three to 60 seconds in which people lip-sync, perform skits, or take on challenges. Yet it is dancing that TikTok is best known for. Every week, a different dance craze goes viral, prompting living rooms around the globe to shake as viewers join in the fun.

In the six months spanning September 2019 to February 2020, various renditions of the Renegade a routine set to the hip-hop song Lottery by K CAMP were viewed over 1.6 billion times on the app. The dance was shared by everyone from Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown to former FLOTUS Michelle Obama, and was covered everywhere from the New York Times to The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I love seeing people come together and have fun, says the routines original choreographer, 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon.

Moves like dabbing, flossing, and hitting the woah (making a circular movement with the fists before freezing on the beat) have spread far and wide thanks to online video and Fortnites emote actions. Yet TikTok is different. The app has not given rise just to one-off moves, but has birthed a number of complete and complex routines.

Despite its reputation as an app for bored teens in their bedrooms, many of TikToks most popular dances are created by professional choreographers. Social media and TikTok changed everything in our industry, says Greg Chapkis, a choreographer who created a dance to Daddy Yankees song Con Calma that blew up in February 2019. I was getting tagged in not just hundreds but thousands of videos with my choreography Its crazy that so many dancers and people that dont dance got moved by it.

Some popular TikTok routines take days to invent, others are created in five minutes; some are designed with internet fame in mind, others take off organically. TikTok virality has wide-reaching ramifications: the app has launched songs such as Lil Nas Xs Old Town Road and Roddy Ricchs The Box to number one spots on the US Billboard charts, and has given a new lease of life to old songs, such as when the 1956 hit Tonight You Belong To Me, by sister act Patience and Prudence, became popular in summer 2019. Though musicians dont directly make money from their songs being used on TikTok, many have recognised it as a powerful marketing tool, and some artists and labels pay famous TikTokers to dance to their music.

Yet despite the power TikTok choreographers have, it isnt always easy to determine the original creator of a dance. Dance challenges can explode so quickly on the app that it can be difficult to trace their origins, especially as many TikTokers like to put their own spin on routines. In practice, this means that already-famous TikTokers can often steal the limelight from lesser-known dancers. This has been particularly troubling for black creators, like Harmon, who have frequently seen white TikTokers get credit for their routines. Reporting on Harmon's Renegade in February 2020, New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz argued that mainstream influencers "co-opt" the "cutting-edge dance community online". Since the beginning of the year, many TikTok stars have begun tagging original creators in their captions.

Its no wonder choreographers want credit a successful TikTok account can bring in money from brands who pay influencers to post sponsored content and adverts on their profiles. My whole life revolves around TikTok, says 20-year-old influencer Michael Le, who frequently posts three videos a day to the app. Le now earns 80 per cent of his income from TikTok; he has more than 23 million followers, and labels have paid him to promote their music. Earlier this year, Harmon posted her first piece of sponsored content (for Warner Bros new Scooby-Doo movie) and also launched her own merchandise range; hoodies sell for $45 (36) on her official site. Still, other TikTokers struggle to earn money. The app has no in-built revenue-making mechanism like YouTubes AdSense, and so for many TikTokers tons of views dont equate to tons of money.

Despite TikToks Chinese origins, seven of the top ten most-followed TikTokers in the world are American. This is partly because the Chinese version of the app Douyin is run separately due to government restrictions. Though nearly four times as many people had downloaded TikTok in India than in the US (before India banned the app in July), TikToks 2019 round-up of its most popular videos demonstrated that Americans dominate the app, possibly because of the popularity of the English language and American music (this could change in the future as the US moves to restrict TikTok). Elsewhere, keen TikTokers often translate hit songs into their own languages in order to add their own spin to dance crazes.

Many of the dance routines that take off on TikTok are set to hip-hop songs. Erik Saradpon, a choreographer who has won honours at the World Hip-Hop Championship, puts this down to the genres universal appeal. Hip-hop and pop music are the most mainstream music to young people. Its the same reason why you see so much hip-hop in commercials, he says. Saradpon says that TikTok has now influenced particular movements and phrasing in hip-hop choreography, and says the app is definitely sparking creativity in people of all ages.

How does this creativity strike? Here, TikTok creators explain how they came up with their dances and demonstrate how you can give them a go.

Song: Lottery (Renegade) by K CAMP

The Renegade has 21 steps and should take between 15 and 20 seconds to perform. The dance is made up of moves involving the arm and upper body, making it easier than routines with tricky footwork. Start with a woah, followed by extending your arms into a downwards clap, then swing and wave your arms before snapping your fingers. Harmon explains the dance is a medley of already popular moves learn those and youll find it easier to master the routine.

Harmon takes hip-hop, ballet and jazz classes, and invented the dance after school in her Atlanta bedroom in September 2019. Im really proud to be a dancer right now because its a cool talent, she says. The Renegades huge success had multiple ramifications, from K CAMP retitling his song to include the name of the dance to the teens appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I think its really cool when I see celebrities doing my dance, says Harmon, who now has over 2.3 million followers on TikTok and her own agent. For people my age, when youre a good dancer, youre popular, and a lot of people respect and admire you.

Song: The Git Up by Blanco Brown

Ajani Huff and Davonte House

Half-brothers Ajani Huff and Davonte House popularised The Git Up on TikTok off the back of country rapper Blanco Browns song of the same name. Brown uploaded an Instagram video of himself line dancing to the song in April 2019; Huff and House filmed their spin on the routine in a gazebo by a New York lake in May. Another teen TikToker, UK-based Harvey Bass, helped their routine go viral in June, and the brothers later collaborated with him, filming other dances together for the app.

To join in, start with your arms hanging out by your sides, bent at the elbows, before performing the footwork of the cowboy boogie crossing and uncrossing one leg behind the other. Grab the bottom of your shirt while thrusting, spin around, swing your knees in and out, and youve git it down.

We wanted it to blow up but we didnt expect it, says House, who explains he and his brother take between literally a minute and hours to choreograph dances for the app. The pair say the secret to TikTok success is something thats easy but hard at the same time. Like, youre capable of doing it, but it looks hard to others, House explains.

Song: Con Calma by Daddy Yankee feat. Snow

Greg Chapkis, choreographer on Daddy Yankees 2019 music video for Con Calma, didnt create the dance with social media in mind. Nonetheless, his routine took over the internet the music video has 1.8 billion YouTube views and the #ConCalma hashtag has 455 million views on TikTok.

To join in, lean backwards and tuck one leg behind the other while bringing your hands up. Turn around on the tips of your toes and slide your knee out to the side. People were asking me non-stop for a tutorial, says Chapkis, explaining that his social media profiles exploded after the dance was released. The choreographer has been teaching for 24 years his mother owns a studio in Ukraine, where he grew up before moving to San Francisco.

I feel dancers were always in the background to the artist, and now dancers are creating their own lane, he says. On YouTube, a behind-the-scenes video of one of Chapkis rehearsals for Con Calma has been viewed over 77 million times. He says virality has allowed him to teach sold-out classes across the globe, meaning it has also increased his opportunities to travel. I feel really happy and proud, he says.

Song: Savage by Megan Thee Stallion

I was scrolling through TikTok and I noticed people were basically doing the same dances over and over again, so I decided to switch it up a bit, says 19-year-old Keara Wilson, a military student from Ohio. Wilson spent an hour coming up with her routine to Megan Thee Stallions Savage in the hopes of going viral she created three or four different endings but decided on the least challenging option to help viewers.

For the main part of the dance, thrust your elbow to the side and then bring your arm over your head, shake your shoulders and bum before forming a cross with your arms, and stick out your tongue and waggle your fingers by your head in time with the acting stupid lyric.

Wilson, who hopes to make a career out of TikTok, was overwhelmed when the routine blew up in March 2020. She has been dancing for ten years and was also a cheerleader in high school. Since her routine went viral, Wilson has got an agent and launched her own merchandise though her career is just starting. In April, when Beyonc released a remix of Savage, Wilson dropped another routine which quickly accumulated just under 200,000 likes.

It made me speechless, very speechless, I was in disbelief, Wilson says of going viral the first time. I actually cried tears of joy because this is something Ive always wanted to do.

Song: 7 Rings by Ariana Grande

It was Christmas Day and Devin Santiagos best friend was feeding her newborn baby when he first came up with a routine to Ariana Grandes 7 Rings. Santiago, who is 26 and from New Jersey, took between 15 and 20 minutes to choreograph the dance while the baby ate; afterwards, he and his friend filmed the dance in his older sisters bedroom. I was so excited, its such a good feeling when you make up something and you feel so confident that its good, he says.

Santiago has been dancing for 18 years and is also in film school he says the outfits, backdrop, and theme to a TikTok video are almost as important at the dance itself.

To join in with the thousands of others whove danced his dance, swing each elbow to the side in turn before putting your hands up, palms outwards. Bring your hands down and your knees up while snapping your fingers, and then cross your arms and jump, splaying your legs, before doing your best spin.

Song: Hey Julie! by KYLE feat. Lil Yachty

TikTok dances constantly evolve: while one person may create two or three steps to a song, someone else might add two or three more that push it to go viral. Multiple people can be credited with the moves in the viral TikTok routine to KYLEs Hey Julie!, but 20-year-old Michael Le from Florida was the first to popularise a full routine on the app (and has the coveted Original tag for uploading the song). It is likely the special effects he used in the background of the video helped capture attention his video is animated with light blurs and lyrics that pop up on screen.

In this case, the lyrics prove highly instructional. Wave your hands at Hey Julie, and pull at your shirt four times when you hear drip, drip, drip, drip. Throw your arms to one side and move them in sync to the lyric wrists, wrists, wrists, wrists then youve got the gist, gist, gist, gist.

Honestly, I made that dance up in ten minutes and we recorded it immediately after, says Le, who earns all of his income posting content on TikTok and Instagram. Le is paid by both record labels and brands to promote music and products he most frequently works with an energy drinks company and a clothing brand. In May 2020, he began to rent a luxurious house (complete with indoor and outdoor pools) with his influencer earnings.

In total, Le has nine years of dance training. The dancing on TikTok obviously isnt super-duper intricate or expert, but because I have training, Im able to execute movements in a way thats different from someone who doesnt have that experience, it looks a lot more natural, he says.

Song: Out West by Jackboys & Travis Scott feat. Young Thug

When famous TikTokers performed 19-year-old PR student Nicole Bloomgardens routine at an NBA game in February 2020, she decided it was time she got credit for her dance. Bloomgarden developed the #OutWestChallenge in December 2019, a day after the song was released, making it easy to replicate in the hopes of going viral.

Bloomgarden got her wish: famous TikTokers like Charli DAmelio began doing her dance in the following months and the challenge soon spread, but Bloomgarden got no credit (like Harmon, she didnt have the Original tag on TikTok because she didnt upload the track and her video together). When celebrities including Usher began doing the dance, she spoke out on Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube, finally earning recognition for the routine.

To do the dance: hit the whoa, clap your extended hands, shimmy your shoulders forwards, cross your arms, point your elbows to the side, and extend your arms to the ceiling.

All I want to do is entertain, says Bloomgarden, who went to dance classes when she was a child but is mostly self-taught. I want to be able to put people in a better mood.

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Meet the choreographers behind some of TikTok's most viral dances - Wired.co.uk

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