Category Archives: Evolution

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Controlling long-term SARS-CoV-2 infections can slow viral evolution and reduce the risk of treatment failure | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

Long before she inspired women everywhere to embrace c-c-c-curly hair as her alter ego Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker's frothy, scrunchie-cinched eighties mane launched a million perms, marking the first of many trendsetting looks during her on-screen career, which has spanned four decades. With characteristic flair, she transitioned from air-dried flaxen waves and glossy auburn ringlets in the nineties to a prescient Sex and the City bob and a series of poker-straight styles in the aughts-popularising blowouts as much as she did Manolo Blahniks along the way. These days, SJP has made a long, honey-dipped ombr with natural silver roots her signature, stoking refreshing conversations about ageing and cementing her status as what just might be fashion's best head of hair. In honour of her latest Vogue cover and the forthcoming Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That, here's a look back at her most style-defining beauty moments.

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Spotted: Carrie Bradshaw played by Sarah Jessica Parker taking New York in a Falguni Shane Peacock lehenga

Sarah Jessica Parkers complete style evolution

6 style lessons weve learned from Sarah Jessica Parker

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A look back at Sarah Jessica Parker's hair evolution over the years - Vogue India

The erstwhile Soviet Union launching the worlds first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into outer space in October 1957 was a watershed moment in human history. It marked the first shot in the space race. The Soviets followed it up with a series of firsts. The first living creature, Laika, a Siberian husky, was launched into the earths orbit in Sputnik 2. Lunik 3 was later launched to photograph the dark side of the moon.

These events occurred at the peak of the Cold War. The two superpowers were battling it out across theatres, from aerospace and nuclear capabilities to Olympic game performances.

The United States (US), which had perceived military superiority over its great rival, was stunned to suddenly find itself in a position where it had to play catch-up. But the US quickly regrouped. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) was established in October 1958.

The Soviets still stayed ahead, and won the race to put the first man in outer space. US President John F Kennedy announced the Apollo programme soon afterwards, with landing the first person on the moon by the end of that decade being the stated objective. The US succeeded and decisively surged ahead.

A few steps that were taken by man then did lead to many giant leaps for mankind. Currently, over 70 countries have their own space programmes.

Concurrently, India evolved into a space powerhouse. Soon after the initial Soviet space successes, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took the initiative to create the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). Led and guided by stalwarts such as Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Jehangir Bhabha, it counted APJ Abdul Kalam as among its early members. India launched its first rocket as early as 1963. Incredible photographs still circulate from those days, of rocket parts taken to the launch centre in Thumba, an obscure rural village in Kerala, on bicycles.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) was later formed out of INCOSPAR. ISROs Chandrayaan missions since then have landed, and even confirmed the presence of water on the moon. Indias Mars Orbiter, Mangalyaan entered the red planets orbit at a cost that was just 11% of Nasas Mars mission.

Currently, there are ongoing missions run by various nations, to explore planets as far as Pluto. There are attempts to set up research stations even on the moon. Space satellite technology has disrupted the communications and broadcasting sectors, and is now being used to deliver the internet to the remotest of places on the earths surface, wherever there is a shortage of basic infrastructure for connectivity. A few countries have even kick-started space mining projects. All these endeavours can have far-reaching positive outcomes. Meanwhile, a few tech billionaires have commenced a new race of private space flights into space. Although currently seen as a macho contest between ultra-rich moguls, progress in this sector could one day make space travel and tourism a very exciting prospect.

Overshadowing these occurrences, US intelligence sources obtained information that China recently conducted two earth-circling hypersonic nuclear weapon tests. These would make the existing air defence systems obsolete. The US issued a statement saying that it is concerned about Chinas novel nuclear-capable delivery systems.

This is hardly surprising since the burgeoning number of carriers and military bases in the Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere, meant to check expanding Chinese influence, at present has no defence against this innovation.

Pentagons top general Mark Milley described these tests as close to a Sputnik moment. India, the US, Russia, and France are among the other nations working on similar weaponry. Chinas breakthrough will definitely spur other nations on to quickly gain ground, since, unfortunate as it is, the promise of retaliation and Mutually Assured Destruction remains the lone deterrence and protection against these lethal weapons. This would also be the harbinger of another, more potent and expensive space and nuclear-arms race, making our turbulent planet an even more dangerous place to live in.

Anil K Antony is a tech entrepreneur and public policy commentator, and works on Congresss digital initiatives

The views expressed are personal

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The evolution of the space race - Hindustan Times

Jef Lewis developed an appreciation for craft beer at an early age. When he was 20 still too young to get into bars his girlfriend bought him a home brew kit, and he quickly got to work rearranging his Portland garage.

Making beer was fun and adventurous, he said. The process would take a couple of weeks. There was always the anticipation of the final product. Sometimes it would turn out horrible, but wed drink it anyway.

Lewis quickly discovered that quality home brewing equipment was hard to come by in the late 1990s. Having worked as a welder, he realized that instead of buying expensive pots at a department store, he could build his own. Eventually friends who were also home brewers began to ask him to make their pots and word of Lewis welding skills began to spread. Thats when his first big job materialized: a local brewery. From that point on, making brewery equipment became a solid side job while he continued to work full time at a Portland welding shop.

Then, the economic crash of 2008 happened. Lewis, along with 21 of his fellow employees, were all laid off in a single day.

My wife and I had a 1-month-old baby, a 2-year-old boy, and I had no job, he said. No one was hiring.

Suddenly forced to work exclusively out of his garage, Lewis tried to scrape up more welding jobs where he could. Advertising on Craigslist, hed take on any project, such as fixing an old lamp, as well as maintaining sporadic small local brewery jobs as he tried to make enough to pay the mounting bills.

But piecing together the small jobs wasnt cutting it then I had a vision, he said. What if I started a business focusing exclusively on building brewery equipment putting all of my energy into this one thing?

Despite the fact that breweries were rapidly multiplying in Portland, Lewis knew he was a relative unknown and would have to hustle. He got in his car and began knocking on brewery doors. He knew he had the expertise he just needed a foot in the door. His efforts slowly began to pay off.

It was just me in my shop taking in small jobs, he said. Then a couple of larger welding shops gave me overflow work from larger commercial breweries and that really got the ball rolling.

Lewis and his wife, Erin, finally had a more steady income, but eventually they grew tired of the relentless rain of the Pacific Northwest. Both native Californians, they felt as if their children were spending the bulk of their lives indoors. Having spent much of his youth in Nevada County, Lewis was eager to bring his family back home.

In 2012, the couple rented a too-small home on North Bloomfield in Nevada City with one key ingredient: a 2,400-foot shop. Lewis took a temporary job with a local welding company while simultaneously getting his own new brewery business, BrewBilt Manufacturing, Inc., off the ground in an unfamiliar business territory.

I hit the road, again started knocking on doors, cold calling, hustling and picking up small jobs anything I could, he said. It was like starting all over again.

Then, he landed first large job: Ol Republic Brewery in Nevada City ordered 12 BrewBilt fermenters. It was a $150,000 job. Although the brewery is now closed, one of Ol Republics craft brews went on to win the winner-take-all Best of Show competition at the California State Fair. Their brewing process attracted the attention of other brewers. BrewBilt was off and running.

Today, BrewBilt builds equipment for high-end breweries all over the United States from its 8,000-square-foot Spring Hill Drive warehouse in Grass Valley. This year, the crew of 18 employees is building a system for a brewery in Finland, their first international job. Average orders fall between $350,000 and $500,000, but Lewis says orders can range from a $1,500 part to a million-dollar invoice.

With breweries rapidly multiplying and expanding around the country, more companies are doing what BrewBilt does. So why do high end establishments continue to seek them out? Lewis thinks it all stems from his welding skills and aesthetic (Theyre not just utilitarian parts, he says. Theyre beautiful). But it also extends to his obsession with designing and building the finest craft brewing equipment on the market. His equipment is made in the U.S., only with American-made 304 stainless steel. And the manufacturing takes place right in his home town. They also offer a six-year warranty, the longest in the business, said Lewis, who is confident equipment will last much longer.

We know from experience that realizing a brewers dream takes passion, determination, and a good partner, said Lewis. We can be with the customer every step of the way from concept to opening. Well work with bankers on financing solutions and with architects and contractors on equipment layout all the way through to scheduling, logistics and ongoing project management.

The BrewBilt crew is there when the equipment is loaded onto semi-trucks and they accompany the load to its destination, where they help with installation, working with construction crews, contractors, electricians, plumbers and of course, the brewers themselves.

We do a lot of custom work, said Lewis. These arent cookie-cutter parts. We take into consideration a customers needs, wants, location, temperature and the building itself. Once its up and running, we are also a part of ongoing maintenance.

Locally, BrewBilts equipment can be found at Three Forks Bakery & Brewing Co. in Nevada City, the Bullmastiff Brewery in Penn Valley, as well as the Grass Valley Brewing Co. and the 1849 Brewing Co., both in Grass Valley.

So if BrewBilt knows so much about beer, why arent they brewing their own? As it turns out, they are. BrewBilt Brewing Company is now in its preliminary stages, brewing test batches from its Spring Hill Drive location and filing permits for construction.

We decided it was time to do something weve always wanted to do, said Lewis. Well have our own IPA, lagers and stouts. Well do contract brewing with other breweries and beers for local hotels and restaurants that want their own private label. Its exciting.

Under the supervision of Bennett Buchanan, the companys head of sales and marketing, the brewery is expected to fire up in February, along with the hiring of new staff. And if that isnt exciting enough, plans are also in the works for the opening of their very own pub, said Lewis, who is exploring various locations and recently met with the city of Grass Valley about the expansion.

Lewis sons are now 12 and 14 so much has changed since the day he first learned he was laid off from that Portland welding shop and was unsure of his next paycheck.

Theres so much to be grateful for Ive been doing this long enough that I feel as though I have a lot of knowledge to share, said Lewis. Im extremely proud of our crew and the business culture weve built. Id rather train a good person than hire an expert whos not a good team member. I live there everyday, so we like to make it fun. We barbecue on Fridays. It feels good to be bringing in new money to our community from around the world. Working with brewers and seeing them win awards is also a high point. They tend to be very down-to-earth people. Oh, and the best part? I get a lot of free beer.

To contact Staff Writer Cory Fisher, email her at Cory@theunion.com

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Elevating their craft: BrewBilt Manufacturing's evolution in the world of craft breweries - The Union of Grass Valley

Will Smith didnt want to play Muhammad Ali. Its not that he wasnt intrigued by the rolehe just felt incapable of portraying such a monumental figure. Intellectually, I didnt feel that I possessed what it took to become Muhammad Ali, the actor told ABCs Primetime in 2001, adding that he absolutely, positively did not want to be the dude that messed up the Muhammad Ali story. It took several assurances from Ali director Michael Mann and personal requests from Ali and his family, but Smith eventually accepted the role, packing on muscle, enduring grueling boxing training, and mimicking everything from Alis form to the rhythm of his speech. Smith transformed into Ali, embodying the man he referred to as the greatest figure over the last 100 years. And he was good.

Ali is essential to the mythology of Will Smith, the Movie Star. By the turn of the millennium, hed already experienced extreme box office success, but Aliclear Oscar bait with a Christmas Day releasewas the moment when Smith staked his claim as a serious actor. Although it failed at the box office, it was a success for Smith because hed conquered his biggest acting challenge to date. None of his previous roles had the gravitas of a real-life figure known worldwide for his exploits, in and out of the ring. It was another form of validation that the rapper turned unlikely TV star turned ultimate movie star craved and was ultimately rewarded with: Smiths performance was nominated for an Oscar, which he ultimately lost to none other than Denzel Washington.

But the two decades since Ali have been more up and down for Smith than expected, featuring miraculous highs and a period of unmoored stagnation. He holds the record for the most consecutive films to gross over $100 million at the U.S. box office, with eight between 2002 and 2008. But Smiths past decade has been defined by commercial misfires and the emergence of cracks in the Will Smith facade he worked so hard to construct. Now, 20 years after Smith took on Ali, hes grasping for Hollywood glory again by playing another polarizing sports figure. In King Richard, which hits theaters and HBO Max on November 19, Smith plays Richard Williams, the bold father of Venus and Serena Williams, who coached his daughters up to be two of the most important athletes in sports history. It zeroes in on the period Williams spent during the 1990s pushing his daughters up the mountain, which ruffled feathers in a tennis world that remains rattled by his presence and threatened by his daughters. Smith is going for it all once again, but the stakes this time are different. Instead of trying to establish himself for the sake of credibility, hes looking to rebound from a stretch when he no longer appeared invincible, at a time when celebrity is viewed much differently than it was when he first broke through.

The tale of Will Smiths ascent cant be told without exploring his run of playing various law enforcement figures. He took the suavely aspirational Black man in a position of institutional authority model that Eddie Murphy rode to success in the 80s to another level. Bad Boys, released in 1995, was his first crack at movie stardom in which the charm he brought to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was adapted to create a hero cop fantasy. Mike Lowrey is the archetypal cool guy who broke the rules, drove a Porsche 911, had women in the palm of his hand and everywhere else (to the point that infamous lothario Lil Wayne later compared himself to him), and was revered for all of the above. In 1997s Men in Black, Smith played a cop whos recruited to join a secret agency that surveils aliens. As his Agent J says during the film, he brought style to the job, making him the perfect complement to Tommy Lee Joness stoic intergalactic agent. (It also didnt hurt that Smith used his rap career to boost the films promotion by way of a multi-platinum single bearing the same title.) Smiths savoir faire had immense mass appealBad Boys, 1996s Independence Day, and Men in Black have grossed over $1.5 billion worldwideand that dynamic extended to the sequels of Men in Black and Bad Boys, which were the first two films he appeared in after Ali. He also played a cop in 2004s I, Robot and a superhero who works with them in 2008s Hancocktwo more of his eight consecutive films that topped $100 million domestically. In 2016, he played an imprisoned mercenary working as an instrument of law enforcement; a year later, he played another cop in Bright, and in 2020, he returned to the Bad Boys franchise by stepping into Mike Lowrey once again.

Smith has been open about his formula. He explained it during a 2015 appearance on The Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast, in which he recalled telling his manager, James Lassiter, that he wanted to be the biggest movie star in the world. The two devised a strategy by examining the 10 biggest box-office successes of all time. It was always special effects, there was always creatures, there was always a love story, he said. So we started looking for movies that had special effects, creatures, and a love story. He added that he didnt want to act so often that you turn people off and acknowledged that a film with too many creatures could prevent the audience from taking the acting seriously. (Apparently 2007s I Am Legend, which set a record for the largest opening for a non-Christmas film in December, had just the right amount of creatures.) This jump-started Smiths takeoff during the mid-90s and facilitated his dominance during the aughtswhen even slight deviations like 2005s Hitch and 2006s The Pursuit of Happyness were tremendously successful.

However, Smiths Midas touch began to fade during the 2010s. The same strategy that made Smith a superstar had been rendered obsolete. He stuck to the script after his break between 2008s Seven Pounds and 2012s Men in Black 3, but audiences interests and the types of movies that were green-lit and promoted had begun to change. The list of movies he and Lassiter used as the blueprint for his ascent in the 90s were no longer the most successful movies in history, having been passed up by franchise behemoths like Harry Potter, Avatar, and of course, The Avengers. It took years of trial and error for him to realize that the playing field was vastly different, leaving a trail of poorly reviewed stabs in the dark behind him. 2013s After Earth was hammered by critics and grossed over $243 million worldwide at a time when crossing a billion dollars was considered blockbuster success. It took until 2016 for Smith to get involved in the superhero industrial complex, and when he did, it was with Suicide Squad, a decent box office win, but also one of the worst-regarded superhero movies of the decade. And although 2019s live-action version of Aladdin, which featured Smith as the Genie, grossed over $1 billion globally, it still didnt feel like a triumph.

Perhaps worse than the dwindling returns, though, was the fading image of Smith as a cool, cant-miss movie star. Mr. Blockbuster was in an extended creative rut. Bad Boys for Life was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2020, but it still let Lowrey off the hook for his recklessness in a year of intense scrutiny regarding law enforcements treatment of Black people and serious questioning of whether police are necessary at all. After Earth was substandard at best. Concussion, the 2015 film in which Smith played the forensic pathologist who battled the NFLs dismissal of his CTE research, failed to cash in on award-season buzz or mounting criticism of the NFL. Smith was good in Suicide Squad (which built on the chemistry between he and Margot Robbie that radiated from the screen in 2015s Focus), but it was a narrative messas were Bright and 2019s Gemini Man, the latter of which resulted in a massive loss for Paramount. Meanwhile, Aladdin, to little surprise, paled in comparison to the animated original despite Smiths presence. A clear line between box office success and celebrity standing had been drawn, and the former had increasingly less to do with the latter as the 2010s progressed. Smith had become the movie star he always wanted to be, one big enough to coast on the laurels of his celebrity. But by the time he could gaze comfortably from the top of the blockbuster mountain, it hardly existed as he knew it.

Smoke and mirrors in marketing and sales is over, Smith said during a 2016 Cannes Lions session. People are going to know really quickly and globally whether a product keeps its promises. In that same session, Smith admitted that he began prioritizing success over artistry during his rise. He also referred to himself as a marketer, said that his success was based on being able to sell his products globally, and identified what he believed to be a major shift in Hollywood: The power has gone away from the marketers. It was easier to promote bad movies in the past because there were no tools for audiences to react in real time. The advent of social media changed that, which Smith acknolwedged. Now what happens is 10 minutes into the movie, people are tweeting, This is shit, go see Vin Diesel, he said during the Cannes Lions session.

And as blockbuster films began to rely more on the selling power of their intellectual property than that of the names on their posters, an empowered public also opened the concept of celebrity up to greater scrutiny. Even though we collectively maintain an unhealthy appetite for mess (i.e., the reaction to the entanglement that Smiths wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, was revealed to be involved in), a global pandemic that has emphasized the demarcating line between the wealthy elite and literally everyone else is among the factors that has forced people to interrogate their relationships with celebrity. As a result, Smithwhose focus on positioning makes perfect sense considering that hes been so calculated about being famous for so longhas been forced to reassess his own.

No longer does Smith have to hide behind his public persona. Nor is he able to: Social media has removed the barrier between celebrities and their audiences. The public knows far more about who Smith is behind the veilthe rough patch in his marriage; his relationships with his children; his feelings about his own fatherthan ever before. But as the evolution of social media has given celebrities a different mechanism for control, the ever shrewd Smith and his family have learned how extra exposure can be leveraged to their advantage. Red Table Talk, the Facebook Watch show driven by Pinkett Smith, her and Smiths daughter, Willow, and Pinkett Smiths mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, is as much an image-control apparatus as it is a place for intergenerational dialogue. Smiths own appearance at the Red Table during the entanglement fallout emphasizes this. Meanwhile, Smith has utilized social media to rebrand himself as Gen X Influencer Dad, manufacturing authenticity for iPhone screens instead of movie screens. It completely changed how I interacted with the world and how I interacted with my creative life, he recently told GQ. Smiths evolution remains fluid. His film career still fits into this new paradigm, but the difference is that its less of the driving force behind his celebrity than it was in 2001. Its a line item in his overall portfolio.

Thats where King Richard fits in. The times have changed, the sport is different, but, similar to Ali, hes taking another big swing. Only now, his persona no longer rests solely on the success of his movies. Its taken Will Smith a decade to figure out the lay of the new land, but now that he finally has, his movies are less of a defining proposition than they were when he ruled a foregone iteration of Hollywood.

Julian Kimble has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Undefeated, GQ, Billboard, Pitchfork, The Fader, SB Nation, and many more.

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The Evolution of Will Smith - The Ringer

Artificial Intelligence is most commonly applied in manufacturing to further develop overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and first-pass yield in production. Over time, we can utilize AI to expand uptime, work on quality and consistency, which is considered better determining. To remain cutthroat, its significant producers adjust to an additional information-driven plan of action, which is possible today with the help of AI innovations. This regularly incorporates rearrangement of staff, equipment and programming updates. Artificial Intelligence can ingest a mix of information from sensors, machines, and individuals and afterward apply it to calculations intended to upgrade tasks or accomplish lights out assembling. Here are the top 10 AI innovations in manufacturing industries that have made headlines in 2021:

Top 10 AI Innovations in Manufacturing Industries:

High-Tech Plasma Cutters: Plasma cutting is a process that is most firmly connected with the Industrial Revolution, which was one of the biggest technological changes in the set of experiences. As it were, plasma cutting can be utilized similarly that a robot arm would be utilized in the manufacturing industry. This assists with eliminating the number of laborers that are expected to play out a task. It additionally makes the most common way of assembling significantly simpler, with only one individual needed to play out the work. It is one of the best AI innovations in the manufacturing field.

IoT Sensors: One of the growing AI innovations in manufacturing is the execution of internet of things (IoT) sensors. While these advancements are not a manufacturing explicit marvel, they hold significant potential in this area. Maybe their generally famous and amazing use case is prescient support.

Manufacturers can likewise utilize these sensors to assemble information focuses all through their activities. This information would then be able to uncover spaces of expected improvement, empowering continuous advancement. The more drawn-out manufacturers utilize these advancements, the more they can save through them.

Additive Manufacturing: One recent innovation that is specific to manufacturing is 3D printing, otherwise called added substance fabricating. While this innovation is most notable as a device for specialists, it started as a modern creation strategy. Late advances have made it a more practical arrangement, prompting a rebound in modern manufacturing. Additive manufacturing lets manufacturers create parts and items as a solitary pieces as opposed to gathering different more modest parts. Therefore, it is one of the top 10 AI innovations in manufacturing industries that have made headlines in 2021.

5G Connectivity: Like the IoT, 5G isnt completely a manufacturing technology, however, it has noteworthy potential for the area. 5G organizations arent far and wide enough yet to carry considerable upgrades to the buyer area, however, theyre great for assembling offices. Their higher data transmission sped up, and lower inactivity let savvy producing arrive at its full tallness. 5G organizations can hypothetically uphold dependent upon 1,000,000 gadgets for every square kilometer, multiple times 4Gs cutoff points.

Machine Vision Error Detection: AI has many use cases in manufacturing, but one of its most alluring is machine vision. Machine vision frameworks let makers computerize quality control processes at both the front and back finish of creation lines. This computerization, thusly, works on the productivity and precision of their blunder recognition. Machine vision mistake location allows makers to expand creation while keeping up with a similar degree of value.

AI Cameras: Many manufacturing organizations battle to adjust the expenses and need for live security groups against ensuring organization resources and workers. Most do without customary actual security, leaving their offices and workers wellbeing in danger. With the assistance of AI cameras organizations would now be able to bear to carry out security arrangements that recognize normal security situations, for example, visitor or conveyance vehicle appearance, burglary, or dynamic shooter. AI Cameras are one of the best 10 AI innovations in manufacturing industries.

Automated Visual Inspection Tool: Some flaws in products are too small to be noticed by the naked eye, even if the inspector is very experienced. However, machines can be equipped with cameras many times more sensitive than human eyes and thanks to that, detect even the smallest defects. An automated visual inspection tool is used to find microscopic flaws in products. The system recognizes defects, marks them, and sends alerts.

e-Tail Logistics: Due to the imposed challenges and restrictions on logistics and procurement network since the pandemic hit, there have been several changes in the process and also the supply-chain risk management, the emergence of the new e-tail supply chain model, and the increasing use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) as well as the automation at warehousing and procurement facilities.

AI-Controlled Software Powering Robots: AI should not just be used as a means of optimizing processes that have long been automated. The real potential is to do something completely new with the technology. Tasks that were previously done by humans or physical machines can now be done by AI-controlled software powering robots. This increases flexibility and traceability for the robots, and in many cases, reliability, and enables a more successful operation on the market.

Inventory Management Tools: Inefficiency in inventory management can result in significant cost overheads for the manufacturing company. Using inventory management AI tools allows manufacturers to manage their order records and add or delete new inventories. Machine Learning plays an integral role here to manage inventories based on demand and supply.

The Future of AI in Manufacturing

The developments that have taken place in the industry over the last 10 years have created a great deal of excitement and confidence among manufacturers. This has solid ramifications for economies that depend on exchange and commodity, just as the individuals who depend on administrations. Innovative advances are additionally seen as essential as far as the development of the economy. Later on, organizations will want to be more effective, making an excess of merchandise and greater accessibility of items worldwide.

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AI Evolution: 10 AI Innovations in Manufacturing Business - Analytics Insight

Nov 21, 2021(Nanowerk News) And, get ready for 4D printing, a morphing tech that sounds impossible much like 3D printing once didSome may have heard of 3D printing in the 1980s and 1990s, but the majority probably never heard the term until after the turn of the millennium. And even after it was on the radar, most people probably didn't expect much out of it.Perhaps you saw some of the early attempts at extruding plastic 3D items and if so, you likely didn't think that these unappealing globs would one day evolve into an industry making high-tech products used by aerospace firms or NASA.It wasn't until roughly 2014 that most hobbyists begin to even be somewhat able to afford a 3D printer, which at that time still cost over US$2,000. In the short time since 2014, the technology has grown, as exponential growth does, exponentially.In the 2020s, 3D printers have reached a level of price and quality that allows pretty much anyone to begin using 3D printers for almost anything. You can now buy a relatively good quality 3D printer for less than US$200. These are, of course, entry-level machines but still, the leaps in technology have been astounding.It probably no longer surprises you to hear that NASA contractors are planning on using 3D printing to create housing modules that may one day be used on the moon or perhaps even on Mars. But it may be somewhat surprising to hear that people are printing meat - both meat from cultured cells, as well as new vegan meat substitutes.From vegan burgers to plant based steak, new meat is being created with 3D printers. The results look set to change diets around the world and possibly be a significant contributor to reducing the effects of climate change by reducing the number of animals raised for food.Cultured meat is grown in a lab from cells (humanely) taken from real animals, and after the cultured cells grow into a large enough quantity, its put into a 3D printer and extruded into a shape that resembles for example a chicken nugget. In the case of vegan meat, the latest technology related to flavor and texture is used to print layer after layer of individually unique types of faux, or alternative meat.This means that with 3D printing, youre able to have the texture of say, beef, and some parts of a printed slab of this meat substitute contain alternative fat or alternative muscle areas in it.This vegan, so-called new meat, is the closest science has ever come to recreating meat and the degree to which it has been successful is surprising. People tasting this new meat in Israel have walked away shaking their heads finding it hard to believe it's not the real deal.Apparently, there's nothing you can't make with a 3D printer. There are developments related to the technology in almost every area, from shoes uniquely tailored to individual feet, to bespoke bicycle frames, to solutions for life on Mars. This is a technology that literally comes out of a science fiction book.Murray Leinsters 1945 short story Things Pass By contains what became a prediction. In the story, Leinster writes, But this constructor is both efficient and flexible. I feed magnetronic plastics the stuff they make houses and ships of nowadays into this moving arm. It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells. But plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens as it comes.Sound familiar? Another science fiction description of 3D printing was offered by Raymond F Jones in 1950, but just 21 years later, in 1971 a U.S. patent was granted to Johannes F Gottwald for his Liquid Metal Recorder, a forerunner of modern 3D printers.By the 1980s, inventors in Japan were fabricating three-dimensional plastic models with thermoset polymer. And both American entrepreneurs and French inventors toyed with 3D printing in that decade as well. It wasn't, however, until the first decade of the new century that 3D printing of metal materials became a truly viable option.And today the tech is in use as anything from a childs toy to a device used in the aviation industry to create highly complex shapes that wouldn't be feasible with traditional manufacturing methods. 3D printing, which now includes the printing of meat, is science fiction come to life and it's only a matter of time before 4D printing also likewise comes off the page and into the workspace. 4D printing, also known as 4D-bioprinting, would involve the 3D shape being able to morph into different forms and respond to various stimuli. And if that sounds complicated, well, it is. We aren't close to 4D printing as a viable common-use technology at this point. But, remember, that's what they said about 3D printing just a few decades ago.

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From science fiction to printing meat - the evolution of 3D Printing continues to astound - Nanowerk

For years, vendors have dictated innovations in networking. They developed and manufactured their own chips, appliances and network designs, and enterprises consumed what they produced.

Because of this traditional vendor-driven process, many enterprises got stuck with networks that were difficult to adapt and modernize, said Dinesh Dutt, engineer, book author and co-founder of Stardust Systems, a network observability company with a focus on open source software.

Recent networking innovations have battled the vendor-heavy model, pushing for open networking and scalability. While most of the prevalent developments have emerged in software, Dutt said the industry is also seeing an evolution in network hardware.

The major network hardware trends target changes in the following areas:

Some of the battles have already been won -- such as the rise of merchant silicon -- but Dutt said the outcomes of others haven't played out yet.

The use of merchant silicon for packet forwarding has largely become an industry standard, emerging from what was once a small trend.

Not long ago, networking vendors made their own chips and ran them on proprietary hardware. But those same vendors now often rely on merchant silicon in the form of commodity switching chips from companies like Broadcom and Marvell.

Arista, for example, built its business on a merchant silicon model, instead of "designing and building its own switching chip," Dutt said. Companies like Arrcus, DriveNets and Volta Networks have also based their business models around merchant silicon and white box networking.

Some networking vendors have even introduced their own merchant silicon. In 2019, Cisco announced its Silicon One chip that supports white box switches, in addition to its own hardware.

Dutt compared the rise of merchant silicon to the evolution of watches from Rolexes to commodity watches. At one time, a person had to buy an expensive Rolex watch in order to have a working watch. But, now, anybody can buy a cheap watch that tells the time accurately.

In the same way, he said, less expensive commodity chips have replaced traditional packet forwarding hardware, such as application-specific integrated circuits and processors. These chips are not only cheaper, but offer enterprises a broader range of options and flexibility in their network designs.

A related trend to merchant silicon is the development of smart network interface cards (NICs), functional accelerator cards (FACs) and data processing units (DPUs). These chips take on additional functions -- such as computing, routing, storage and firewalling -- to negate some of the processing load on servers.

Cloud providers have primarily led the charge with smartNIC adoption, benefiting from the opportunity to optimize computing and bandwidth costs on such a massive scale, Dutt said. Enterprises, however, usually don't have the same level of scale and wouldn't benefit as much from smartNIC adoption.

"SmartNICs are great at offloading," Dutt said. "The question becomes at what scale, at what performance and at what cost?"

That said, some analysts expect enterprises to find value in smartNICs, FACs and DPUs as more use cases emerge. In its 2020 "Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking," Gartner listed FACs at the beginning of the cycle, likely to reach the "plateau of productivity" in five to 10 years. Gartner said it expected enterprise adoption to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 115% by 2024.

Most networking vendors have an appliance-driven ecosystem. As a result, enterprises have based their network designs and management around the appliances they've deployed and the specific configurations for them, rather than on their business requirements, Dutt said.

"Enterprise network operators not only learned how to type a command on a box, but they also learned network design from those same vendors," Dutt said. "This meant that the certifications issued were all structured around the strengths of a box rather than general network principles."

Instead, he added, vendors should move away from appliance models and focus more on providing a platform.

White box switches could help introduce a more platform-driven strategy. With white box switching, enterprises can buy commodity appliances that don't have pre-loaded OSes, enabling them to choose the network OS they prefer. Network teams could better customize their network designs for the applications they need to support and reduce Capex.

But white box adoption has lagged among enterprises, largely due to integration complexity and familiarity with legacy vendors. In some ways, the customization that white boxes offer acts as a deterrent because some enterprises don't know which OS to deploy or instead prefer brand names they recognize.

Another networking appliance trend Dutt mentioned is the move away from large, chassis-based switches to fixed form factor switches. Sometimes called pizza boxes because of their shape, these switches are small, flat and stackable. They are also easier to troubleshoot in the event of failure.

"Those fixed form factor switches have much simpler failures and are cheaper to buy and replace than the single monolithic software that was chassis," Dutt said. Because of their smaller size, fixed form factor switches can help reduce an organization's footprint, overhead and power consumption.

White box switching can't be successful without the ability for enterprises to choose which OS they want to manage their network hardware. OSes have experienced changes of their own, due in part to an industry push for interoperability and open networking.

Consider network design independent of vendors. Consider a network design that is specific to your applications. Dinesh DuttEngineer, author and co-founder of Stardust Systems

Over the past few years, many organizations have worked to develop open source network OSes (NOSes) that can help reduce dependence on proprietary hardware. One example Dutt cited was the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud project, originally from Microsoft. Some networking vendors and startups have also tried to popularize open source NOSes, he said.

Despite the industry's move to support more NOS options, open source OSes face similar battles that white box switching has encountered, such as complexity and lack of support. And the fates of white boxes and open OSes are tied together.

"The lack of a NOS for white boxes hobbles the ability to consume a white box," Dutt said. For both to gain traction, Dutt said they require the same design shift from an appliance model to a platform model.

Ultimately, network appliances and OSes won't work if they aren't connected. Wireless and cellular connectivity have seen the development of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G, and enterprises have started deploying both in their LANs and WANs.

But data centers can't use wireless for connectivity, instead they need network cables. While network cabling has remained relatively quiet in terms of emerging trends, some changes have occurred, Dutt said.

Traditionally, when enterprises bought hardware from certain vendors, they also had to buy matching cables from the same vendor. But, just as network appliances and OSes have seen a shift toward openness and vendor-agnostic options, it's increasingly possible for enterprises to buy cabling from other providers.

"Originally, if you bought hardware from Cisco, you had to buy cabling that only Cisco provided," he said. "Now, it's not hard for you to find hardware from Cisco but cabling from Finisar directly."

With various changes in networking, enterprises might find it difficult to know which upgrades to make or how to design a new network.

Dutt advised enterprises to prioritize the following steps when considering network hardware changes:

Ultimately, Dutt encouraged enterprises to start simple.

"Go back to the basic principles," Dutt said. "Consider network design independent of vendors. Consider a network design that is specific to your applications. And work with the server team rather than sitting across the table from them."

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4 trends spurring the evolution of network hardware - TechTarget

Donna Tartt, a subject of my new podcast, Once Upon a Time at Bennington College, attended Bennington from the fall of 1982 to the spring of 1986. (Sweating in the spotlight alongside her, shielding their eyes from the glare, are Bret Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem, also novelists, also class of 86.) It was at Bennington that she first lived a version of and then began a draft of the book thats defined the undergraduate experience for several generations of readers: The Secret History, a modern classic and our countrys Brideshead Revisited.

The Secret History, however, was not Tartts sole literary creation during her Bennington years, or even necessarily her most impressive. Theres also her literary self-creation, i.e., her persona, every bit as deliberate, every bit as theatrical, every bit as polished, every bit as ingenious as her fiction. In fact, Brideshead Revisited, written by Evelyn Waugh, an acknowledged influence on Tartt, about privileged (male) youths being passed at Oxford University just after World War I, was perhaps the model there, too. With her sleek bob, vivid ties and cravats, nattily tailored mens suits that emphasize the narrowness of her hips, the flatness of her chest, Tartt seems to have designed herself according to the specifications of a character in Waughs novel: Sebastian Flyte but without the British accent; a Bright Young Thing only with dark hair.

They dont make celebrity writers anymore, and yet Donna Tartt is one. She seized our attention back in 1992, when The Secret History was published, and hasnt loosened her grip since. (A public figure who ventures out in it sparingly, she may have misgivings about fame, but she sure is good at being famousadroit, you might say, expert even.) Donna Tartt is a literary icon, obviously and without doubt. She is also, though, an icon of style and glamour, of sexual sophistication and gender ambiguity. Dont forget, in 2014, the year she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, she was named to Vanity Fairs International Best-Dressed List, the first twofer of its kind.

But Donna Tartt didnt start out as Donna Tartt, or, rather, as Donna Tartt, personage.

Before she remade herself as a starched and ruffled dandy from 1920s London, she was a shy-eyed bookworm from 1970s Mississippi. This is the oral and auralthe voices of the Bennington people are so full of intelligence and freshness and urgency and juice that I feel you ought to hear them as well as see themhistory of her evolution: from Donna Tartt to Donna Tartt.

LILI ANOLIK

Before we begin, though, I should, in the spirit of full disclosure, tell you that when, in the opening paragraph, I called Tartt my subject, I left out a key modifier: reluctant. She is my reluctant subject. (See this Page Six item if you want to know how reluctant.)

Donna Tartt was born on December 23, 1963 in Greenwood, Mississippi; raised in Grenada, Mississippi, a hill town in the north central part of the state. Her mother, Taylor, was a secretary. Her father, Don, ran a Southland Service Station before switching to local politics. Tartt was educated at a segregation academy, that is, a school founded in response to the integration of public schools, called Kirk.

Jan Gray Walton, a childhood friend and classmate of Tartts, recalls how Kirk kids got their kicks:

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In other words, its a small-town Deep South world that Tartt was coming of age in, and provincial in the extreme. The closest big cities were Jackson and Memphis, both two-and-a-half hours away by car. And yet her schoolmates, like teenagers everywhere, cared passionately about clothes and fashion. Jan Gray Walton recalls how Kirk kids dressed to impress:

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Youd think that Donna Tartt in the halls of Kirk Academy would be as incongruous as Oscar Wilde on the set of The Dukes of Hazard. Only youd think wrong. In the 1981 Kirk Academy yearbook, Tartt looks nothing like a Victorian-era fop-aristocrat; instead looks every inch the pert Southern Miss, a suburban Scarlett OHara, same as all the other girls in her class.

Tartt applied to and was accepted at the University of Mississippi, better known as Ole Miss, where she spent her freshman year: fall of 1981 to spring of 1982. Playwright C.C. Henley, a few classes ahead of Tartt, recalls sorority life as the only life worth living at Ole Miss:

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Surely Tartt dismissed such a scene as hopelessly cornfed and cornball, wouldnt have gone near it if you paid her. Turns out, though, you didnt have to pay her. She went willingly. Was a Kappa Kappa Gamma, as a matter of fact. Ben Herring, day manager of the Daily Mississippian, the student paper for which Tartt occasionally wrote, and Tartts on-again-off-again boyfriend at Ole Miss, recalls her look and mindset during this period:

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ULF ANDERSENGETTY IMAGES

Tartt transferred to Bennington in the fall of 1982 on the advice of writer Willie Morris, her Ole Miss mentor. Technically she entered as a sophomore, but shed stay at Bennington for four years, graduate the same year as her friend Easton Ellis and her ex-friend Lethem (well, the year Lethem wouldve graduated had he not dropped out). Lethem, who would write about Bennington, fictionalized as Camden, in his 2003 novel The Fortress of Solitude, describes it thusly: One part experimental arts college, founded in the 1920s by passionate Red-leaning patrons and one part lunatic preserve for wayward children of privilege, those too familiar with psych counseling and rehab to follow older sibling to Harvard or Yale, and which recapitulated in junior form the tribal rituals of Mediterranean resorts and East Hampton summers and the VIP room of Studio 54.

A student who prefers not to be namedStudent X, I dub her, class of 82recalls how the campus broke down by social groups:

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Tartt was one of the khaki-wearing regular kids. Paula Powers, class of 86, recalls an encounter with Tartt that took place shortly after orientation week:

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There was a group not listed by Student X, perhaps because it was so small it barely qualified as a group. It was made up of three students, all young men, all class of 83. They were Claudes Boys, as Matt Jacobsen, Todd ONeal and Paul McGloin were known informally on campus since they studied Ancient Greek with Literature and Classics professor Claude Fredericks. Student X recalls the groups mysterious ways:

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Claudes Boys made an impression just with their manners, but also with their clothes. Nancy Morowitz, class of 86, recalls seeing them for the first time:

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Jacobsen, one of Claudes Boys, recalls his and his cohorts taste in matters sartorial:

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It was when Tartt became romantically involved with another one of Claudes Boys, McGloin, that she had her moment of aesthetic revelation. Finally shed found her style, her look: it was their style, their look. ONeal, the third Claudes Boy, recalls Tartts transformation, which occurred sometime during her second semester, the spring of 1983:

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What shed been becoming, she now was: Donna Tartt, at last, was Donna Tartt. Morowitz recalls the day she noticed the change:

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Androgyny was, you could argue, essential to Donna Tartt at a personal level (in Episode 6 of the podcast, Donna Lou, I get deeply into the my lad aspect of her relationship with McGloin); but its at an artistic level that androgyny was truly indispensable, her sine qua non. Also: her viewpoint. As Easton Ellis notes:

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Including The Secret History, which Tartt would start writing the following semester, in the fall of 1983, using Claude and Claudes Boys as her main cast of characters: Fredericks serving as the basis for the charismatic yet possibly sinister Classics professor, Julian Morrow; Matt Jacobsen as the murder-ee with the voice like W.C. Fields with a bad case of Long Island lockjaw, Bunny Corcoran; Todd ONeal as the hero/anti-hero, Mr. Sangfroid, Henry Winter.

And then there is Tartt herself, the fourth Claudes Boy, asor so I contend in my podcastthe protagonist, the outsider who longs to be an insider, Richard Papen. Its as if the work could only be attempted once the persona was established, a necessary prerequisite.

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Donna Tartt couldnt write The Secret History. Donna Tartt, though, couldand did so brilliantly.

New episodes of Once Upon a Time at Bennington College, a C13Originals production, drop every Wednesday.

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Donna Tartt's Style Evolution, From Ole Miss to Bennington to Today - TownandCountrymag.com

Meeting customer expectations has always been a crucial element to the success of any organisation. In the digital age, this has become even more critical as competition in the business landscape increase and customer preferences evolve.

Today, consumer behaviours are driven by information, which influences their choices, decisions and loyalty. One of the most effective ways businesses can provide customers with relevant information is via loyalty programmes. So, what makes a good loyalty programme?

Modern consumers expect a relationship with the brands that they interact with. This means that they want a brand that knows them and provides personalised experiences. They also expect immediacy with real-time offers and instant communication. Additionally, they want to feel empowered with their choices and be able to share good experiences on platforms such as social media.

WEBINAR ALERT Comarch: Customer Loyalty Market Overview

This being said, a good loyalty programme does not only efficiently analyse customer data to provide enhanced experiences but also constantly evolves with market shifts to better connect with customers. An ideal programme is not just about the incentives, discounts or rewards. Its focused on forming a connection between customers and brands across every interaction and touch-point of a certain service or transaction. According to a KPMG report, The Truth About Customer Loyalty, one in five consumers in the UAE saw personalisation, be it in terms of service, communication, or promotions and offers, as a leading benefit of loyalty programmes.

Furthermore, a good loyalty programme focuses on innovation. Over the last few years, we have seen various organisations leverage tools such as gamification to boost customer engagements. Additionally, the global pandemic has spurred customers need for contactless services, driving brands to ramp up investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning tools such as chatbots and virtual assistants. The KPMG report also revealed that 94% of UAE consumers would prefer if organisations explored new ways to compensate repeat shoppers. Therefore, the emergence of advanced technologies such as AI and ML present tremendous opportunities for brands to deliver unique experiences to their customers.

To help organisations gain deeper insights into the biggest market trends, latest technological innovations and upcoming policies and regulations that are driving customer engagement and loyalty,global software firm Comarch is hosting an exclusive webinaron 25th November 2021 at 9:00 AM GST.

The virtual event will feature exclusive content from the companys top executives including Bartosz Demczuk, Managing Director, Comarch Middle East. Demczuk will discuss how social media platforms build their own loyalty programmes and how marketplaces and aggregators can change the customers perception.

Other speakers include Comarchs Head of Data Science Team, Maciej Tyczyski; CRM & Loyalty Consultant, Marlena Polrola; and Senior Business Consultant, Wojciech Kempny.

It will also feature a high-level panel comprised of Suryaveer Singh, Head of Loyalty, ENOC; and Dharmesh Bhana, Head of Loyalty and Rewards Nedbank; and Widyantoko Utomo

Key Account Manager, XL Axiata Indonesia. The panel discussion titled, Customer Loyalty in the Post-Covid Reality, will delve into the current state of the customer loyalty market and how the principles of consumer behaviour have changed during the pandemic.

Customers have always been at the core of any successful business strategy. In an ever-evolving business landscape, brands need to always listen to their customers and constantly reinvent their loyalty programmes to differentiate themselves.

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Customer is always king: The evolution of loyalty - ITP.net