Alibaba launches commercial internet bank

Want China Times, Lai Chao-nan and Staff Reporter, 2015-06-27

Jack Ma speaks at the opening ceremony of Mybank in Hangzhou,
Zhejiang, June 25. (File photo/CFP)

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has officially forayed into the banking industry with the establishment of an internet bank that was officially opened June 25, our sister paper Taipei's China Times reports.

The Zhejiang Internet Commerce Bank was established by six shareholders led by Alibaba's Zhejiang-based financial unit, Ant Financial. The internet bank will mainly provide loans to micro-enterprises in the initial phase, according to Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

China's banking system is dominated by large state-owned institutions that have traditionally favored lending to big, state-owned corporations. Small, privately owned companies have often struggled to obtain capital.

Alibaba can exploit its big data advantage by looking at its internal transaction data to assess risk. That will give the company an advantage in terms of finding micro-sized clients, said Jing Xiandong, chairman of the online bank.

Ant Financial's new Sesame Credit agency will evaluate customers' creditworthiness, using Alibaba's enormous database that comprises information from 300 million "real-name" users and 37 million registered firms, according to an earlier report.

Governor of the online bank Yu Shengfa said that unlike traditional banks, the internet bank can better safeguard customers' data through improved management of information, using its big data systems and state-of-the-art technology.

The debut of Sesame Credit will not only enable credit providers to make holistic and accurate decisions, but will also allow other companies to provide more credit-related services, a spokesperson for the bank said earlier.

Ma said Alibaba's next step, following the launch of its internet bank, is to establish a new financial system to serve individuals and small companies.

"THE TRIAD" - The Three parts of Human Consciousness – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, May 10, 2015

This live channelling was Given in Charlottesville, Virginia

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Sometime information is even added. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Virginina, May 10, 2015.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. The pause that always follows the greeting is given for my partner to exit. You might have noticed that there is no seeming preparation for this channelling. In an older energy there would be, where the Human Being has to prepare his mind in such a way that the very structure and the psyche would have to be altered. If you had certain kinds of measurements on his brain, you would see the preparation working. You’d see the various alpha and beta waves change, but not now. The reason is because some time ago he gave permission for a meld that would mean a continuous connection, a closer walk that would make him a more compassionate Human Being. At the same time, there would be no preparation for channel. He would have one foot in and one foot out of 3D all the time. So when it came time for 100 percent, all he did was step back. But the stepping back is the most difficult thing he does. All of this has to do with the Human brain - what is involved with it that you know about and what you don’t know about and what is evolving for you to now know about.

The channel tonight is informative and deals with things we have not discussed before in this way. I will be bringing a new concept forward, but it won’t be complex because it’s just an introduction. However, it's an introduction to a concept of an evolving humanism.

New is Often Controversial

You are moving forward into a new energy that is going to change the very fabric of your consciousness. I want to explain things that I have never explained before and some of this will be controversial. Let me comment on this: You believe a certain way because you have learned a certain way. Once you have cognized something [committed belief to it], it actually belongs to you. So what we are saying is that you have a "groove" you have been thinking within for a long time. It's no wonder some of this may hit you the wrong way. But these things can be rewritten if you re-cognize them by choice. So I say to you this: DO NOT take what follows and run with it simply because I said it in channel. I want you to discern this with your own mind and measure it for yourself for viability and common sense. Make it real. Could it be that things are now different than your original training? Did the energy change? If so, is it possible that spiritual awareness has opened more areas of discovery? If you can think out of your "learned box", it may start to actually validate some of the things that you have seen lately. What you originally learned really hasn't changed. It just got bigger and looks different.

The Human Mind is Complex

The Human mind is complex. If you had to compartmentalize it and take a look at the different kinds of thinking that Humans do, it would get even more complex. It has been studied for years, but in a 3D way, the best that you have been able to do is to look at the Human mind as a succinct operation of synapse that allows survival. According to your science, the brain gives you everything. It gives you survival, it gives you intuition and mental acuity, it gives you all of your coordinated body functions – everything. You might say that it drives the boat of life.

In addition, when you started studying it more, you discovered that the right and the left lobes do different things and are connected differently between men and women. Everything you studied pointed to the brain being the controller. That was the center of consciousness and all things Human.

The Real Brain Scenario

The concept we bring you this evening is that there is no single brain within the Human Being. Instead, there are three. In order for you to see this clearly in the brief time that we’re together, I’m going to give you the best metaphoric illustration I can for what’s going on. Under the pretense that you don’t know what you don’t know, you’ve done your best. What else could you have done? All you have to look at is the brain! Therefore, the brain is all there is. Come with me and play with this metaphor. It’s the best I can do to explain something very special and new.

A Metaphoric Journey

You’re in a room, taking a look at a table. It’s a workstation, to the modern Human, and on the workstation there is a computer. Almost everyone listening and in this room will recognize the instrument, and many have operated it. Most of you know what it does. However, an ancient would have no idea. So in this example, and for this metaphoric allegory, we will pretend that we have an ancient [older one] from only 100 years ago, coming forward to the workstation and being amazed by what he sees.

In this story, you can't communicate with him, but you can show him the computer. So without explanation, without help, and without you being able to say anything, he sees and perceives the magic of what it can do. He can read the screen, and he can interface as he tries to figure out the mouse and the operation of the device. He starts pressing buttons, and he sees things – unbelievable things! This box does things that nobody back home will believe! The future is astonishing! He marvels at the immensity of it all. He discovers Google, but he has no idea of the concept. He sees the world at his fingertips, all in a box. It's heady to think of this power of information and action. There isn't anything it doesn't know! All of the languages of the world are in the box. Any piece of information that he ever wanted to know about anything is in the box! Anything! Then he discovers that you can type a message to just about anyone, anywhere! It's also a communication device!

This is amazing beyond belief, and he eventually walks away from the experience with a solid perception of what he has seen with his own eyes! When he returns in his time machine, he can hardly wait to tell his generation of 100 years ago what he has seen – about technology and a box that does everything and communicates with everyone. It's like all the world's libraries together in a little box – all of the languages, all of the encyclopedias possible and any question you ever wanted to ask. It knows about all of the individuals known throughout history, with all the details – all that is, in the one box – and it's available to every Human Being. The perception, without any explanation, is a solid, logical one, but it's flawed.

The Hidden Connection

You know better, don’t you? You see, you know that the "box" is connected to the Internet. If you disconnect the computer from the ’net, it's simply a computational device. It computes. Oh, you may be able to write a letter on it, or you may be able to do a spreadsheet on it, but you can’t ask it anything, because it’s not connected!

What the ancient did not understand, nor could he even begin to conceive of, was the World Wide Web. He didn’t see the tiny cord that was plugged into the base of the computer, which gave it the magic ability to know everything about everything about everything. Even if he had seen the cord, it would be meaningless to his perception. To him, the box did it all. He had seen it!

Now, let me bring you back to the brain. All you had to examine all these years, as Humans, is what you think is the awesome, magic brain. You don’t know about the brain's connection to a multidimensional Internet, which is within the body. How could you?

The Human Brain

Your brain is a large and wonderful chemical, synaptic computer. Let me define this more: Synapse, as we speak of it, is the active process of electromagnetic signals going through neural matrix pathways [structured nerve pathways and bundles] within the brain. It happens from many junction areas [places] to others at lightning speed. It gives you the ability to control your survival, your body and your thoughts in 3D.

Expansive thinking, as you understand it, is brain related. You’ve looked at the brain and you’ve said, "This is the creative area. It's responsible for music, artwork, poetry, sculpture and the intellect."

You never saw the wire, did you?

The brain has nothing to do with creating those things. Instead, it facilitates them! It facilitates them, but it isn't responsible for them. Much like the box in the metaphoric room is the control station for the ’net, your brain is the control station for much, much more. These things simply look like they are coming from the box, which is your brain. But they are not.

Much of what you consider creative and/or spiritual, including channelling, is coming from the pineal connection. This includes your intuitive part, which is growing with your spiritual evolution. This is the part of your consciousness that is connected to that which you call the Higher-Self. You can call it what you want, but it's the connection from the creative source to the brain. It's there, and some use it well. Some do not. It opens wide only through free choice, and the ones who are creating incredible things are connected to the ’net – the pineal. However, you see it as happening within the brain.

The invisible wire that you cannot see, the overlay that you do not recognize within the brain, is the connection to the outside that many of you are beginning to understand and feel. The brain facilitates these attributes, but it does not create them. Intuition does not come from the brain, but it’s facilitated by the brain. The brain then activates it into what you call thought. You might see it on the graphs of thermography along with all of the things you think are synapses going on in the brain, but the brain is simply processing what it is receiving from somewhere else.

If you unplug the wire to the ’net, all the brain can do for you is to keep you breathing and give you basic survival thinking. You can run from the Bengal tiger so you won’t be eaten. You can grow your food, have children, and learn how to drive a car, but it won’t write music and it won’t create sculpture. It doesn’t naturally think of God! It does not analyze itself. But when it’s plugged in, it does all that.

The Three Parts - More to Consider Than You Think

There are three parts to the brain of the Human Being, but you are only aware of two of them. We’re going to give you the third part tonight. The second brain of the Human Being, which is processed by the synaptical part (the brain box), is the pineal. This is responsible for creative thinking, intuition and intellectual awareness. Intuition is starting to grow with humanity, and it comes from that which is your innate inside the body. It's getting smarter and is passing more to your brain to process at a greater frequency and strength as you evolve. It also is starting to give you Akashic information (past-life remembrances). You might say your pineal ’net is getting faster, and your brain is processing it. You are feeling that you are becoming more intuitively aware of things.

The bridge between Human consciousness and the smart body, the innate, is starting to mature and grow up. You are getting out of pure survival mode and many are starting to awaken to a greater truth. This is all being enhanced in the Human Being to a point where Humans will think, "The brain is doing better!" It isn’t. The brain remains the brain and will process a better intuition from the pineal. The brain remains a stellar survival organ, but intuition is going to get stronger and stronger. Again, your spiritual Internet is getting faster.

In this very 3D energy, you only see the one organ that you feel is responsible for everything you do, but there are actually three. The evolved Human Being has the potential to create light [awareness energy]. I just gave you something we can study later – information that is new. There’s a perception of spirituality being white light. It’s everywhere. You’ve seen it everywhere. There is the story of Moses and the burning bush. This was a flame that did not consume itself, but if you could really see it in reality, it was a white light. For him, it was a higher consciousness than he had ever seen before, an angelic energy coming through his pineal, projecting to him.

When you have a near-death experience, you go to the light. This is more than metaphoric. You start to create something we will call divinity and mastery. White light coming from you is the higher consciousness you. The more your DNA efficiency is increased, the whiter the light gets. This is a metaphor, but there is truth often behind all mythology, and this is one of those. Dear ones, you are becoming more angelic when you start to understand the third part.

The Third Brain

We have told you before that there is a mystery going on that involves the Human heart. The Human heart, dear ones, is the third part of the brain. Science has never understood why the heart has such a tremendous magnetic field. It is actually larger than any other organ, including the brain with all of its synaptic activity. The heart overshadows it in so many ways, yet examination of the heart in a corporeal way will give information that is seemingly very ordinary. The heart simply pumps blood in a specific rhythm as sent by signals from the brain. Yet there is far more.

When we started, we gave you instructions to connect the dots, and here is your chance. When a spinal cord is severed in an accident, the heart continues pumping. Brain signals that supposedly control timing and rhythm are disconnected. The signals are gone, yet the heart keeps pumping. Not only that, but digestion continues, liver function continues, pancreas and others continue, even reproduction continues! All without the brain.

There is a third element of consciousness that is centered within the Human heart. You have identified the heart metaphorically as the symbol of love, and you’re right. These three parts to Human consciousness go way beyond the brain as an organ. It’s the trilogy of survival. It’s also represented by the three energy [in numerology] that you see everywhere in spiritual history. It's the three horses that pulled the ascension chariot, the Merkabah of Elijah. It's the trilogy Godhead of many churches [Father, Son, Holy Spirit]. In your body, it's the pineal [creator intuition], the brain [survival] and the heart [compassion].

The masters of this planet had all three working well, but in an older energy, you have not. In an older energy, you were only in survival mode. What is happening is that you are evolving, and the innate of the body is getting stronger. DNA is starting to become more efficient, and these parts are starting to finally connect. Dear ones, what separates a Human Being in survival from a master is intuitive compassion. Compassion is generated from the heart and it’s not a metaphor. It is part of the heart-brain.

There are things going on in this trilogy that you should understand. Connect the dots and start using science to find out and recognize that there are things that are not visible in any spectrum you can yet measure. But simply because you are blind to it at the moment doesn't mean it's not happening. You simply have not discovered everything yet, but the advancement in multidimensional physics will help. Listen, as new physics inventions come to you, you must involve biology, too! Don't separate the two sciences [as they are now]. You will have a far better idea of the truth of all of this when you can quantum-map emotion, thinking and Human behavior. It will show itself immediately.

The brain is responsible for facilitating [coordinating] all three of these parts, but be aware that the other two are doing a great deal of the work. Intuition and compassion will always seem to come directly from the brain, just like to the ancient when the magic came from the box. Connect yourself to a bigger picture, dear ones. The triad of Human consciousness is the beginning of the realization of mastery.

That’s all we want to tell you now. It's something for you to digest into your logic and spirituality, is it not? Think about it and ask your own intuition, "Is it true. Could it be that the Human brain is only a facilitator for something bigger?" This information starts to explain some measurements you never could explain before with conventional biological beliefs. It starts to explain why it is when a Human Being makes certain kinds of decisions, suddenly the brain seems to control the body better. Why is it that corporeal health can suddenly change, heal itself, ask for other kinds of foods, and have biological wisdom? What causes spontaneous remission? Dear ones, unless you were connected, you wouldn’t have any of this. Think: It isn't the brain that gave any of that to you. It was the brain that simply facilitated the connection from that little wire – the Creative Source, the white light.

There have been metaphors given tonight and things for you to examine, which also mean other things. It is the way that we begin the teaching of profound things. We will do it again and again, then elaborate on and on, and talk endlessly about it – all so that you will get it. It’s time you knew the grander picture of the triad, the trilogy of creation inside the Human Being.

I am Kryon, in love with humanity and for good reason.

And so it is.

KRYON

Related Articles:

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"THE INNATE REVEALED" - Nov 22, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Dutch court orders Facebook to reveal revenge porn account ownership

DutchNews.nl, June 25, 2015

Facebook has been ordered to come clean about the origins of a sex film featuring a 21-year-old Dutch woman which was placed on the social media platform.

The woman, named as Chantal, went to court to force Facebook to reveal the name of the person who opened the account and uploaded the video in January.

Facebook Nederland told the court all the information about who opened the account has been wiped from their system. 

Nevertheless, the court ruled Facebook has two weeks to gather all the information it can about who is behind the account. If it continues to insist all the information has been wiped, this must be verified by an independent third party, the court said.

Related Article:

Missing child alerts to become part of all Dutch Facebook timelines

Express rail link to boost China-Russia e-commerce

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-06-24

Vladimir Putin speaks at the St Petersburg International
 Economic Forum, June, 19. (Photo/China News)

Russia is going to launch a China-Russia express rail line for postal services to shorten the package delivery time between the two countries, reports China's state newswire Xinhua.

This new project was announced by the deputy director-general of Russian Post, Aleksey Skatin, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Skatin said China and Russia are major partners in e-commerce and that a faster rail link connecting the two countries would be desirable. Russian Post said Russians last year made 80 million online purchases, 80% of which were from China.

Dmitry Strashnov, CEO of Russian Post, suggested the creation of an online mechanism for people to report the contents of their packages instead of physically taking them to the post office, which will reduce delivery time to just 14 days. If this can happen, Strashnov said cross-border postal services will increase tenfold.

Russia has great potential for e-commerce as 70% of the public use the internet but the internet only accounts for 2%-3% of retail sales.

Some local specialists said sales in Russia will grow sharply as Chinese businesses make everything very cheap, enabling more people in the country, especially those in rural areas, to buy them.

German software giant boosts Palestinian IT sector

It’s easy to assume that nothing much goes on in the Palestinian territories other than war and violence. But the German enterprise software giant SAP has spotted an opportunity there.

Deutsche Welle, 23 June 2015

Murad Tahboub is the first to admit that the year 2000 was not a good time to start his IT services business in Palestine.

"It was just before the second intifada, so it took us a long time to get going, and it wasn't until 2005 that we started landing some serious export business," said Tahboub.

"Even now, it's a challenge overcoming the stereotypes about Palestine. But our company ASAL Technologies has been growing healthily for the last ten years. We started with 10 employees, and today it's more than 150."

Tahboub's business is not an isolated example. Despite periodic outbreaks of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians (the most recent being Israel's offensive against Gaza last year) there is a flourishing IT software industry in Palestine, and its universities turn out more than 2,000 graduates in IT-related subjects every year.

Strong startup scene

The industry's strengths lie in software development in all areas, and there's a lively startup sector of small businesses with bright ideas looking for investors to take them to the next stage of growth.

So although a recent initiative by SAP may have raised eyebrows elsewhere, in Palestine it's seen as due recognition for their growing IT muscle. In 2005, information and communications technology (ICT) was worth $112 million (98.6 million euros) in added value to the economy; by 2013, it was $453 million at constant prices, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. ICT accounts for about six per cent of GDP.

The SAP deal is this: in the last few weeks, eight Palestinian universities have joined SAP's University Alliances program to develop graduates with critical IT skills. Palestinian graduates will also be recruited into SAP's Young Professional Program, where they'll receive training in SAP solutions and tools.

Although there is no guarantee of jobs with SAP, the graduates will effectively be part of the software giant's push into the whole of the Middle East. It has around 1,350 customers there already and the region is one of SAP's fastest-growing markets.

Unknown to many, Palestine's economy is more than just vegetable growing

So it was a hard-headed business decision, but Senior Vice President for Strategic Investments Marita Mitschein prefers to emphasise the social benefits. "SAP believes in the importance of IT to shape people's lives in the Middle East and we are proud to play a part in doing that in Palestine," she said.

On the ground in Palestine, they don't disguise their pleasure at SAP's move. "It's significant for the training of our graduates, but the connections that SAP partners will make with each other are more important," said Yahya Al-Salqan, chairman of the 150-strong Palestinian IT Association.

"It will be a network that will help us build a strong industry in the region, and we need that to hold on to our brightest graduates. They often have to go abroad to get a job. We have lots of bright people, a reputation for quality and great value because our costs are about half the costs in Europe and the US."

Outside help

SAP and Palestinian IT didn't just fall into each other's arms. The marriage broker was the Office of the Quartet Representative (OQR), which has a brief to promote economic development. Tony Blair is currently the Representative and the Quartet was set up by the EU, the UN, the USA and Russia. The OQR brought in David Dick, an IT industry executive, to attract the world's big IT players to the region – the likes of Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft and SAP.

"I've had a whole career in IT, so I've been engaging with senior IT execs to persuade them about the opportunities in Palestine. SAP were quick to offer their support and they put me in touch with their Middle East business and their worldwide university training team," said David Dick.

"The key to drawing in the big global businesses is to get Palestine onto their radar. They already place much of their support work in low-cost locations anyway, so it's not difficult for them to add Palestine to the mix. SAP is just the first, and we hope to make another announcement soon."

Back in Ramallah, Murad Tahboub is brimming with optimism. "The SAP initiative is a wakeup call to all multinationals to take a look at the valuable resource we have here. Things are looking rosy for the IT sector here, and despite all the obstacles, I believe that the generation of jobs is the key element for peace and prosperity in the region."

Missing child alerts to become part of all Dutch Facebook timelines

DutchNews.nl, June 19, 2015

Photo: Amber Alert

Amber Alerts for missing children will be automatically placed on all Facebook pages in the Netherlands, thanks to a new agreement between the social media platform, police and the hotline organisation, the Telegraaf reports on Friday. 

Amber Alerts are currently shown in the timelines of people who have ‘liked’ the warning system, but that is now set to change, the paper says. 

The Amber Alert will be placed at the top of every Facebook user’s timeline for 12 hours when they log in for the first time. The aim, the paper says, is to ensure missing children are found more quickly. 

Facebook has been working with the Amber Alert operations in the US since the beginning of this year. This is the first European agreement. 

Amber Alerts are issued three to four times a year in the Netherlands and are also spread via mobile phone apps, text messages, emails and motorway information boards. 

They are only used for the most urgent cases, the organisation says.

Robot to 3D-print steel canal bridge in Amsterdam

Yahoo – AFP, 16 June 2015

An artist’s visualisation of the 3D bridge which a Dutch company is planning
to print across an Amsterdam canal (AFP Photo/Joris Laarman)

The Hague (AFP) - A Dutch startup has unveiled plans to build the world's first 3D-printed bridge across an Amsterdam canal, a technique that could become standard on future construction sites.

Using robotic printers "that can 'draw' steel structures in 3D, we will print a (pedestrian) bridge over water in the centre of Amsterdam," engineering startup company MX3D said in a statement, hoping to kick off the project by September.

The plan involves robotic arm printers 'walking' across the canal as it slides along the bridge's edges, essentially printing its own support structure out of thin air as it moves along.

Specially-designed robotic arms heat the metal to a searing 1,500 degrees Celsius (around 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit) to painstakingly weld the structure drop-by-drop, using a computer programme to plot the sophisticated design.

"The underlying principle is very simple. We have connected an advanced welding machine to an industrial robot arm," said the bridge's designer Joris Laarman.

"We now use our own intelligent software to operate these machines so they can print very complex metal shapes which can differ each time," Laarman said of the project also involving the Heijmans construction company and Autodesk software.

So far, the robotic arm has been used to print smaller metal structures, but the bridge will be the first ever large-scale deployment of the technology, MX3D spokeswoman Eva James told AFP.

It is hoped that the bridge will be a first step towards seeing the technique used on construction sites, especially those involving dangerous tasks such as on high buildings, she said.

The technique also removes the need for scaffolding as the robot arms use the very structure they print as support.

The designers are now in talks with the Amsterdam city council to find a site for the project which they hope will be completed by mid-2017.

"I strongly believe in the future of digital manufacturing and local production," said Laarman. "It's a new form of craftsmanship."

"This bridge can show how 3D printing has finally entered the world of large-scale functional objects and sustainable materials," he said.

Amsterdam city council spokeswoman Charlene Verweij told AFP the Dutch capital was supporting the project.

"We are still in negotiations as to where exactly the bridge will be built," she said.

How a robot ended up teaching exercise classes in a Dutch retirement home

The Washington Post, Matt McFarland, May 27, 2015 

Residents follow Zora’s instructions during a physical therapy class.
(Regy van den Brand)

They aren’t on Snapchat. They aren’t livestreaming their adventures on Periscope and Meerkat. And they definitely won’t be recording 360 videos from drones.

Yet for residents of Vughterstede — average age 87 — technology isn’t just the bastion of the young. When they gather for a physical therapy class, the senior citizens follow instructions from a 22-inch humanoid robot that can move, speak and dance.

The robot is positioned on a table and demonstrates different exercises, which the residents then try to mimic. A human instructor is present too, and provides individual instruction to anyone needing extra attention.

The chief executive of the nursing home, Tinie Kardol, happens to also be a professor of gerontology at the Free University Brussels. One of his students tipped him off to Zora the robot. Kardol saw an opportunity to improve his own operation and introduced it a year ago.

By then the Belgian makers of Zora had been tinkering on the robot for three years. The QBMT software developers first bought a Nao robot from Aldebaran, a French company, imagining they’d configure it to work as a hotel clerk. Instead they have found a market in health care. First a Belgian hospital inquired about using a robot to demonstrate exercises to children rehabilitating from surgeries.

A Vughterstede resident holds Zora the

robot. Chief executive Tinie Kardol says

he’s been surprised at how his residents

have embraced Zora. (Regy van den

Brand)

Kardol says now over 6,000 elderly people are in direct contact with a humanoid robot in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. One program lets Belgian children at school chat with the elderly by typing on computers in their classrooms. The robot, located in nursing homes miles away, speaks the text. Its eyes light up green as a cue that it’s the senior citizens’ turn to talk.

The Zora robot is also being used in hospitals and one psychiatric institution.

“A lot of elderly people are actually feeling alone. Solitude is something which is horrible for the moment for a lot of elderly people,” said Fabrice Goffin, one of Zora’s creators. “People don’t have all the time to visit their families and they can find some kind of relationship with the robot and that is a nice thing to do.” 

At Kardol’s nursing home, the robot spends most of its time in a common area. It reads out weather forecasts and news articles. It’s programmed so that a staff member can type instructions for what to say on a computer.

In some cases, the robot has been able to accomplish what humans can’t. Kardol told me of one resident who hadn’t spoken in four months. One day late last year she was sitting in the common area next to her son. The staff used the robot to address her by name and ask how she was doing.

“I’m well,” she blurted out, surprising everyone in attendance. They then carried on a brief conversation. Interactions like that have motivated Kardol as a researcher to investigate why the robot can trigger positive reactions from those who struggle to communicate.

To others, the appearance of robots in nursing homes might be a sad commentary on how we treat the elderly. Will we all one day let our loved ones be entertained by machines, while we go about our busy lives? And will robots ever replace the humans in nursing homes, once they can do the job at a lower price?

Kardol is adamant that Zora isn’t replacing the role of human contact, or humans’ jobs at his retirement home. But as robots inevitably become more capable, and more retirement homes consider using them, it remains to be seen exactly what role robots will play.

Related: Why you should root for a robot to take your doctor’s job

Facebook in dock over sex film: account holder details wiped

DutchNews.nl, June 11, 2015

A Dutch court is being asked to force social media platform Facebook to reveal the maker of a fake account used to spread a sex film featuring a 21-year-old Dutch woman. 

The girl, named as Chantal, has also made a formal complaint to the police who are carrying out their own investigation, broadcaster Nos reports. 

However, that investigation is taking too long, say Chantal and her lawyer, and they now want the Dutch courts to force Facebook to come clean. 

Facebook Nederland says all the information about who opened the account has been wiped from their system. This always happens after two weeks, lawyers for Facebook told the court. 

A spokeswoman for Facebook told Nos the social media group always cooperates with the police when asked for information in connection with a criminal investigation. 

Chantal’s ex-boyfriend, who also features in the film, says he has no idea who put the video online and that he feels extremely sorry for the girl.

Ireland

During Thursday’s hearing, lawyers for Facebook Nederland told the judge that Facebook Ireland is responsible for collecting information about users outside the US. 

Asked why it had not been known before that the information had been wiped, the lawyer said ‘apparently, nobody checked earlier’, Nos reports via Twitter.

3D printing helps separate conjoined twins in Shanghai

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-06-10

The twins after the procedure to separate them, June 9. (Photo/Xinhua)

With the help of 3D printing technology, doctors in Shanghai on Tuesday successfully separated three-month-old twin sisters who were conjoined at the hip.

The twins, born in Ganzhou in Jiangxi province, were connected by soft tissues at the hip and lower spine. They had mostly separate digestive systems but shared one lower bowel.

After a five-hour operation at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, the twins were separated and both underwent reconstruction work on the anus, perineum and muscle surrounding the rectum.

Chief surgeon Zheng Shan said the medical team used 3D printing to build two models to represent the structure of the babies' connected parts, which helped them better understand the anatomical structure and carry out simulated surgery when making plans for the procedure.

Since 2000, the hospital has successfully separated seven pairs of conjoined twins.

KPN launches start-up fund for ICT firms

DutchNews.nl, June 8, 2015

Dutch telecom company KPN has set up a €35m start-up fund to stimulate innovation in the IT and communications sector. 

The fund, named KPN Ventures, is part of a trend among international companies to get involved in start-ups.

 ‘It is more important than ever to partner with agile and innovative players and be part of new developments,’ chief finance officer Jan Kees de Jager said in a statement. 

Potential partners will also be offered access to KPN’s networks and expertise, the statement said.

WNMC trains spotlight on the future of news

As 60 percent of young Americans get their news off Facebook, there is a growing realization in the media world that news formats have to be smartphone-compatible if the industry is to keep up with the latest trends.

Deutsche Welle, 4 June 2015

"You are all talking about the trends of my generation, but none of you are my age!" This complaint, made by one of the spectators at the World News Media Congress (WNMC) currently running in the US capital, was met by enthusiastic applause from the audience. At the annual summit of the world's press mainly white and grey-haired media people fill the room. This is where the chief executives of the major media companies worldwide are presenting their latest strategies.

One of their main aims is to try to reach and understand the so-called "Millennials" - people currently aged between 19 and 34, who grew up with the Internet. They are the present and the future of news and media consumption.

According to a new study by the Pew Research Center more than half of this group in the US gets their political news mainly on Facebook. By contrast, the "baby boomers" - those aged around 50 today - still get just as much of their political news via the television.

"It is very interesting that 24 percent of Millenials say that even half or more of their content on Facebook relates to politics," says Amy Mitchell, Director of Journalism Research at Pew.

In fact, it is a mistake to think young people have no interest in news or politics, says Robert Picard, a former Director of Research at the Reuters Institute. "They just perceive the world in a very different way and often they find very little about themselves and their own issues and concerns in the news."

Picard says it is also hard to figure out who exactly watches, listens or reads content, for how long they do it, or under which circumstances. "We are living in a time in which audiences are becoming individual content users with unique consumption patterns and that’s why we are all concerned about big data, about being able to understand those patterns."

Mobile first

One issue, however, is becoming very clear. News has to be produced differently for different devices. For the moment, that means getting things right for the smartphone, because news is increasingly being read "on the go."

"We produce things first for mobile consumers," explains Tom Miller, Director of Marketing at newspaper "USA Today."

"Then, when we have more information, it becomes a desktop article and at the end of the day it might be summed up in a print version. But we're thinking mobile first when a story breaks."

Just a few weeks ago, two of Germany's biggest online news sites "Bild.de" and "Spiegel Online" announced their plans to publish complete stories directly on the Facebook app. In the future, messages and multimedia stories will appear on the users' newsfeed, without them having to click on a link that redirects them to the publisher's website. In return, the companies involved provide Facebook with advertising revenue and user data.

With the Newzulu app, UGC can be uploaded in real time

With just a three second delay

"That's how breaking news will appear online in the future," says Andy Crosby, Senior Vice President Live at Newzulu, a new application that allows User Generated Content (UGC) to go online while it is still being recorded.

"If you look at things like Charlie Hebdo, that was just before all this live streaming technology came in," Crosby says. "So the next time something like that happens we will see live streams coming in from around the world or from that specific spot."

Newzulu's app provides media companies and news agencies with software that allows them to broadcast video footage from correspondents and reporters on their websites "while things are still happening."

"At some point companies might not need broadcast vans anymore," says Crosby.

The first app to provide this technology was Periscope, launched earlier this year. Sensing a trend, Twitter bought the company for $100 million (88.65 million euros) in March.

Newzulu works similarly to Periscope but content is sorted into a news, celebrity and a sports channel. There’s also a three second delay between filming and streaming, to allow time to censor out any profanity or nudity.

With over a billion smartphones around the world and the ever-increasing speed of mobile data networks, Crosby believes this sort of streaming is "the future of reporting and news and essentially a great tool for every journalist."

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  Government

Let us speak of government. We're not speaking of your government, but of any government - the way it works, how it survives, how it has survived, the way it campaigns, and how it elects leaders. It's going to change.

Years ago, I told you, "When everybody can talk to everybody, there can be no secrets." Up to this point on this planet, government has counted on one thing - that the people can't easily talk to each other on a global scale. They have to get their information through government or official channels. Even mass media isn't always free enough, for it reports that which the government reports. Even a free society tends to bias itself according to the bias of the times. However, when you can have Human Beings talking to each other all at once, all over the planet without government control, it all changes, for there is open revelation of truth.

Democracy itself will change and you're going to see it soon. The hold-outs, the few countries I have mentioned in the past, are doomed unless they recalibrate. They're doomed to be the same as they have been and won't be able to exist as they are now with everyone changing around them.

I mentioned North Korea in the past. Give it time. Right now, the young man is under the control of his father's advisors. But when they're gone, you will see something different, should he survive. Don't judge him yet, for he is being controlled.

In government, if you're entire voting base has the ability to talk to itself without restriction and comes up with opinions by itself without restriction, it behooves a politician to be aware and listen to them. This will change what politicians will do. It will change the way things work in government. Don't be surprised when some day a whole nation can vote all at once in a very unusual way. Gone will be the old systems where you used to count on horseback riders to report in from faraway places. Some of you know what I am talking about. Government will change. The systems around you, both dark and light, will change. You're going to start seeing something else, too, so let's change the subject and turn the page. ”

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…6 - The News

Number six. I'll be brief. Watch for your news to change. It has to. When the media realizes that Human Beings are changing their watching habits, they're going to start changing what they produce for you to watch. Eventually, there's going to be something called "The Good News Channel," and it will be very attractive indeed. For it will be real and offset the drama of what is today's attraction. This is what families at night, sitting around the table, will wish to watch. They'll have something where the whole picture of a situation is shown and not just the dramatic parts. You will hear about what's happening on the planet that no one is telling you now, and when that occurs [we have no clock, dear one], it's going to compete strongly with the drama. I keep telling you this. Human nature itself is starting to be in color instead of black and white. Watch for it. And that was number six ….”