Facebook Releases Latest 'Topics to Watch' Report, Examining Emerging Trends

Facebook has released the latest version of their Topics to Watch report, looking at the trends which gained momentum across The Social Network in November.

Facebook launched their Topics to Watch Reports in April this year in order to highlight subjects that are seeing significant mention increases amongst their user base - and with 1.79 billion users, those trends can be pretty indicative of wider shifts. Facebook’s research team identifies these rising trends based on a combination of volume, velocity and other related engagement metrics, with the idea being that they can highlight emerging topics before they become larger movements, enabling marketers to start incorporating them into their strategies as they rise, rather than missing the boat and seeming out of touch by tagging on too late.

Obviously, not every trend's going to be relevant to your business - maybe none of them are – but if there’s one that relates, it’s worth taking note. Facebook says that up to 80% of the topics they’ve identified in this way have gone on to become more prominent trends.

teresting to see 'Copywriting' on the list - obviously there's been a much bigger focus on content of late, and the increased discussion of copywriting would suggest that it's going to remain a focus moving into the new year. 'User experience' rates a mention too, which also shows that the discussions around improved engagement and interaction online are gaining more momentum - both topics obviously resonate very strongly with us at SMT.

Also, if you're interested in trending topics, Pinterest has also released their listing of the top emerging trends for 2017, based on what their users have shown increased interest in this year. 

Researchers prepare to wade through an ocean of data

A leading oceanographer predicts Australia is on the cusp of a dramatic increase in information on our marine environment, thanks to big data and low-cost, next-generation sensors.

Director of national research body the Integrated Marine Observing System, Roger Proctor, told iTnews new satellite data and next-generation sensors were driving an unprecedented increase in marine data.

“The emergence in oceanography of big data is only really just beginning. We also face an increase in the diversity of the data we have to handle,” Proctor said.

IMOS is the custodian of the Australian Ocean Data Network, a distributed network of open data from a range of research organisations (including Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology) that can be viewed through a single portal.

Along with satellites, some of the instruments IMOS funds to gather ocean data include gliders, autonomous underwater vehicles, listening devices, argo floats, ships, moorings and passive acoustic curtains that record the movements of tagged fish.

“In-situ sensors are getting cheaper and easier to implement, so we’ll see that scaling up. We see the increase happening over the next three to four years… We expect an increase in the frequency of data delivery as sensor networks become more powerful, and more sensors come on stream,” Proctor said.

“There are new EU Sentinel satellites that are going up that will transform surface properties for various data. The amount of data will be at least an order of magnitude more than is currently collected.

“We’re now starting to explore autonomous methods of measuring marine microbes, and that will be something that we’ll be looking at in the next 12 months.”

One example of how big data is shaping oceanography is the Australian Geoscience Data Cube project, a joint effort between Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.

“This project has assembled all the Landsat imagery for the last 40 years into a four-dimensional stack so you can drill through it using supercomputer facilities,” Proctor said.

Additionally, IMOS data is currently being fed into models used by climate scientists to help provide new insights into the impact of climate change on Australian oceans.

“We now have 10 years of oceans data, which is sufficient to start identifying the impacts of climate change, for example understanding how the ocean heat content is changing over time,” Proctor said.

“That means being able to understand how deep water temperatures are changing, not just the surface waters, and where these changes may be occurring.”

Data from IMOS is also used by the offshore energy industry to aid exploration and discovery, as well as to inform government agencies and departments in areas such as fisheries management, Proctor said.

“We’re involved in a project run by BP at the moment in the Great Australian Bight looking to identify and quantify petroleum resources – IMOS’ role is to provide information about the water movements and ecosystem in the Bight,” Proctor said.

“IMOS data is used by fisheries to identify optimal fishing locations. The biological information is used by the Department of Environment in its reporting.”

A recently released federal government research issues paper argued that maintaining Australia’s world leadership in marine science meant improved ocean observation capabilities should be a high priority.

Apple buys U.S. machine learning startup

SAN FRANCISCO —

Apple has bought U.S. machine learning startup Turi as Silicon Valley giants focus on a future rich with artificial intelligence.

Turi specializes in enabling developers to imbue software applications with artificial intelligence, so the apps learn to think more the way people do.

Apple declined to elaborate the deal for Seattle-based Turi, telling AFP that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Technology news website GeekWire cited people close to the acquisition as pegging the purchase price at $200 million.

Apple has been stepping up its artificial intelligence efforts to compete against rival services from Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Improving machine learning capabilities of its Siri virtual assistant could enable it to better understand intent behind commands or queries spoken by users.

Siri is spreading from Apple mobile devices to its Mac computer system, allowing users of the PCs to search their machines or the Internet with voice commands, according to recent announcements from the Silicon Valley based company.

The move expands the footprint for Siri, which is facing increased competition from Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Now, which also use artificial intelligence.

Venus is a horrid hellscape now, but it may have been livable for eons

For billions of years our planet didn't even exist, and after Earth finally came on the scene, it was still a lifeless hellscape for over a half billion years. Now, new findings from NASA scientists suggest Venus -- one of the least desirable destinations in today's solar system -- may have been habitable for billions of years in the past.

The Venus we know is just plain awful. Its thick, carbon dioxide atmosphere topped with clouds of sulfuric acid has a crushing pressure over 90 times more than that of Earth. Did I mention that the place has an average temperature of 462 degrees Celsius (863 degrees Fahrenheit)?

The atmosphere of Venus is so thick, it was once presumed that it had something to do with the planet's very slow rotation rate -- a day on Venus is equal to 117 Earth days. However, newer research has shown that a planet with a thinner atmosphere like ours could also have a very slow rotation rate.

According to NASA, this also means that ancient Venus could have had the same rotation period it has now, but with a thin atmosphere like Earth's.

A new supercomputer from China has topped the latest list of the world's most powerful machines.

The 93 petaflop Sunway TaihuLight is installed at the National Supercomputing Centre in Wuxi.

At its peak, the computer can perform around 93,000 trillion calculations per second.

It is twice as fast and three times as efficient as the previous leader Tianhe-2, also from China, said Top500 which released the new list on Monday.

Its main applications include advanced manufacturing, weather forecasting and big data analytics, wrote Jack Dongarra in a paper about the new machine.

It has more than 10.5 million locally-made processing cores and 40,960 nodes and runs on a Linux-based operating system.

For the first time since the list began, China has overtaken the US with 167 computers in the top 500 while the US has 165.

"Considering that just 10 years ago, China claimed a mere 28 systems on the list, with none ranked in the top 30, the nation has come further and faster than any other country in the history of supercomputing," said Top500.

The US has four supercomputers in the top 10 of the Top500 list, while China has two which currently occupy the top two places.

The other positions in the top 10, published twice a year, are occupied by machines from Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

"As a computer scientist it's difficult writing software that can take advantage of and control large numbers of computer cores," said Professor Les Carr from the University of Southampton.

"This is why supercomputers are restricted to specialised applications - you need very specialised computing needs to take advantage of them.

"They are like extremely high-spec Grand Prix racing cars - they are fantastic for racing on circuits but they're not great for travelling from London to Edinburgh."

A rare dinosaur fossil is found in N China

A rare well-preserved hadrosaur fossil has been unearthed in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and is expected to be of huge value for research into how the species evolved, Chinese archaeologists said.

More than 90 percent of the bones of the animal were intact, including the head, cervical vertebrae, limbs and a complete tail-bone. It is the most complete dinosaur fossil unearthed in Inner Mongolia in 20 years.

The fossil was first dis-covered in 2012 in Urad Back Banner, in the north-west part of the region. Excavation started in June 2013.

More than 300 fossil bone fragments were excavated at the site, weighing 1 metric ton altogether, said Tan Lin, an engineer at the Longhao Geological Institute of Paleontology in Inner Mongolia.

Chinese researchers said the fossil structure of the hadrosaur was about 8 meters long, 1 meter wide and 5 meters tall. It was a mature dinosaur that lived 80 million years ago.

Ten workers are restoring the fossil in a storehouse in Chengguan town, Bayannur city. The work began in May this year and is expect-ed to end in October.

Such a complete dinosaur fossil is a very rare find, said Xu Xing, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It will greatly inform research into the evolution of the hadrosaur species and biology in the Rehe area, he said.

Archaeologists also found fossils of other plants and living organisms in the Rehe area, which will prove invaluable in future research.

New satellite keeps eye on sea interests

High-tech radar will also improve nation's ability to forecast, warn of natural disasters, experts say

China is putting its nearby waters under more effective surveillance with its newly operational high-tech satellite.

Launched on Wednesday morning, the Gaofen 3 high-resolution Earth observation satellite will help the nation beef up its capabilities to safeguard its maritime interests and to help forecast and warn of natural disasters, space program officials said.

The satellite was delivered by a Long March 4C rocket that blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province.

It is equipped with a radar system that captures images from space with a resolution down to 1 meter, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, which oversees China's space programs.

The Gaofen 3, which was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing, is capable of generating radar images in all weather conditions and can work around the clock.

The satellite will play an important role in monitoring the marine environment, islands and reefs, and ships and oil rigs, said Xu Fuxiang, head of the Gaofen 3 project at the academy.

He said that considering China has a total of 32,000 km of coastline, 380,000 square kilometers of territorial seas and more than 6,500 islands that have an area of at least 500 square meters, satellites like the Gaofen 3 will be very useful in safeguarding the country's maritime rights and interests.

The Gaofen 3 will also help in disaster forecasting, assessment and relief, which now heavily rely on imported satellite data, Xu added.

Gaofen 1 was sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in April 2013. Four other Gaofen satellites were launched in 2014 and last year.

The Gaofen 5, 6 and 7 will be optical remote sensing satellites and are under development, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.