The Philippine bamboo industry has an "enormous" potential for bigger and higher-value exports to the global market, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). "The Philippines' major bamboo species, Dendrocalamus asper , is known as the giant bamboo because of its massive culms and towering heights. Compared with other bamboo species, which are superior in carbon capture and sequestration over many tree species, D. asper has a more robust carbon-fighting capability," the ADB noted in a report. As such, the Manila-based multilateral lender cited that the local variety is "highly suitable for engineered bamboo products, bamboo-based paper, textiles, and biofuels." "Realizing the potential of bamboo as a nature-based solution, government officials have proposed legislation to strengthen the Philippine Bamboo Industry Development Council, update the government’s bamboo industry development strategy, incentivize the establishment of financing facilities for bamboo forests and enterprises, and support bamboo entrepreneurs in developing high-value bamboo exports," the ADB said. While the Philippines is already the world's sixth-largest bamboo exporter, the ADB pointed out the majority of its products sold abroad consisted of merely low-value, unprocessed poles. "In 2021, investments in the local bamboo industry were estimated at only $1.6 million, with domestic sales of $2.56 million, supporting 10,898 jobs and 5,012 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. However, the potential is enormous," the lender said. "The Philippines can aspire to a greater share of the global bamboo market, which was estimated at $71.6 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $92.62 billion by 2027. With the country's huge residential and commercial construction requirements, engineered bamboo can be a tremendous source of sustainable material," it added. The ADB urged addressing constraints to Philippine bamboo industry growth, including the exclusion as a construction material under the national building code. Also, "the industry continues to be constrained by uncoordinated programs, limited financing facilities, and outdated technologies," the ADB lamented. In this regard, the ADB has extended a $570,000 technical assistance special fund to the Philippines and Nepal so these two countries can harness bamboo for climate action as well as green growth. Like the Philippines, the ADB noted that Nepal's bamboo industry is also "underdeveloped" and small at present, but shows "significant growth potential." "With more than 80 species of bamboo and about 63,000 hectares of bamboo forest, primarily in the Terai and hilly regions, [Nepal] can substantially expand its bamboo industry. However, in 2020, the export value of bamboo products was estimated at only $587,882," the ADB pointed out. To unlock bamboo's potential as a nature-based solution, the ADB urged these two developing member-countries to broaden awareness of its commercial potential; deepen appreciation of its ecological and environmental value; establish financing facilities supportive of enterprise development; incentivize adoption of new processing.technologies; and strengthen their bamboo development policy regimes. Through its technical assistance, the ADB aims to demonstrate bamboo's investment potential as a high-value product for sustainable construction and manufacturing as well as carbon markets; support national strategic plans for its supply chain and industries; as well as deliver bamboo capacity-building and knowledge activities for public institutions and private industry players in both the Philippines and Nepal by 2027.Bloomberg's Anurag Rana [left] talks with Anthropic's Michael Gerstenhaber [center] and Scale AI's Vijay Karunamurthy, during Bloomberg Intelligence's conference on "Gen AI: Can it deliver on the productivity promise?" Large language models and other forms of generative artificial intelligence are improving steadily at "self-correction," opening up the possibilities for new kinds of work they can do, including " agentic AI ," according to the vice president of Anthropic, a leading vendor of AI models. "It's getting very good at self-correction, self-reasoning," said Michael Gerstenhaber, head of API technologies at Anthropic, which makes the Claude family of LLMs that compete with OpenAI's GPT. "Every couple of months we've come out with a new model that has extended what LLMs can do," said Gerstenhaber during an interview Wednesday in New York with Bloomberg Intelligence's Anurag Rana. "The most interesting thing about this industry is that new use cases are unlocked with every model revision." Also: Anthropic's latest AI model can use a computer just like you - mistakes and all The most recent models include task planning, such as how to carry out tasks on a computer as a person would ; for example, ordering pizza online. "Planning interstitial steps is something that wasn't possible yesterday that is possible today," said Gerstenhaber of such step-by-step task completion. The discussion, which also included Vijay Karunamurthy, chief technologist of AI startup Scale AI, was part of a daylong conference hosted by Bloomberg Intelligence to explore the topic, " Gen AI: Can it deliver on the productivity promise?" Gerstenhaber's remarks fly in the face of arguments from AI skeptics that Gen AI, and the rest of AI more broadly, is "hitting a wall," meaning that the return from each new model generation is getting less and less. AI scholar Gary Marcus warned in 2022 that simply making AI models with more and more parameters would not yield improvements equal to the increase in size. Marcus has continued to reiterate that warning . Anthropic, said Gerstenhaber, has been pushing at what can be measured by current AI benchmarks. Also: Anthropic brings Tool Use for Claude out of beta, promising sophisticated assistants "Even if it looks like it's tapering off in some ways, that's because we're enabling entirely new classes [of functionality], but we've saturated the benchmarks, and the ability to do older tasks," said Gerstenhaber. In other words, it gets harder to measure what current Gen AI models can do. Both Gerstenhaber and Scale AI's Karunamurthy made the case that "scaling" Gen AI -- making AI models bigger -- is helping to advance such self-correcting neural networks. "We are definitely seeing more and more scaling of the intelligence," said Gerstenhaber. "One of the reasons we don't necessarily think that we're hitting a wall with planning and reasoning is that we're just learning right now what are the ways in which planning and reasoning tasks need to be structured so that the models can adapt to a wide variety of new environments they haven't tried to pass." "We're very much in the early days," said Gerstenhaber. "We're learning from application developers what they're trying to do, and what it [the language model] does poorly, and we can integrate that into the LM." Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives Some of that discovery, said Gerstenhaber, has to do with the speed of fundamental research at Anthropic. However, some of it has to do with learning by hearing "what industry is telling us they need from us, and our ability to adapt to that -- we are very much learning in real time." Customers tend to start with big models and then sometimes down-size to simpler AI models to fit a purpose, said Scale AI's Karunamurthy. "It's very clear that first they think about whether or not an AI is intelligent enough to do a test well at all, then, whether it's fast enough to meet their needs in the application and then as cheap as possible." 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At a recent Surat wedding, celebs including Ranveer Singh, Nora Fatehi, Dia Mirza, and Malaika Arora, among others performed. However, netizens mock them. Dig inside for more details! New Delhi: A recent wedding in Surat, hosted by the builder named Jayantibhai Babariya, owner of the J Eklera Realty, was a star-studded affair. Several Bollywood celebs performed at the extravagant wedding of Khushi Vastarpara and Smit Babariya. The wedding took place on November 17 in Surat. The wedding captured significant attention for its grand theme, extravagant stage and celebrity performances. The wedding was a visual spectacle for the guests with a Baahubali-themed set, lavish stage and water fountains. Let’s delve into more details! Celebs perform at Surat wedding The impressive lineup of celebrities included Ranveer Singh, Nora Fatehi, Malaika Arora, and Dia Mirza who performed at the wedding. The videos of their performances even went viral on social media, attracting various kinds of reactions from netizens. Actor Ranveer Singh, who is known for his electrifying presence, was the heart of the wedding as he performed on his iconic tracks and even got family members dancing to the hook steps on the stage. Apart from them, comedians Krushna Abhishek and Bharti Singh also performed a skit at the lavish Surat wedding. A post shared by Instant Bollywood (@instantbollywood) A post shared by Kem Cho Surat (@kemchhosurat) How did netizens react? Netizens were curious how much the celebs charged to perform at the wedding while others expressed that due to no work, Ranveer Singh chose to dance at a wedding. One user wrote, “Berozagiri insaan se kya kya karwati hai.” Another commented, “How much did he charge😂😂😂.” Another quipped, “Because of this reason, you didn’t become Shaktimaan.” One more user expressed, “Guest Be like: Dulha gaya bhaad main hum to ranveer ko dekhne aaye hai😂😂😂.” Ranveer Singh’s work front Meanwhile, on the work front, Ranveer Singh was last seen in Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again alongside Ajay Devgn, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Akshay Kumar, and Tiger Shroff. He will be next seen in Aditya Dhar’s upcoming untitled film, also starring Akshay Khanna. Click for more latest Celebrity news . Also get top headlines and latest news from India and around the world at News9. An avid movie buff and a foodie, who likes to spend time with her family and close ones. Other things that give me the thrill are - travelling, gardening, and reading fiction novels. A postgraduate in Media Science, I started out in 2016 and there has been no stopping since then.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — DJ Lagway threw two touchdown passes, Montrell Johnson ran for 127 yards and a score, and Florida upset No. 9 Mississippi 24-17 on Saturday to knock the Rebels out of College Football Playoff contention. The Gators (6-5, 4-4 Southeastern Conference), who topped LSU last week, beat ranked teams in consecutive weeks for the first time since 2008 and became bowl eligible. The late-season spurt provided another vote of confidence for coach Billy Napier, who is expected back for a fourth season. Ole Miss (8-3, 4-3), which entered the day as a 10-point favorite, lost for the first time in four games and surely will drop out of the 12-team playoff picture. The Rebels ranked ninth in the latest CFP and needed only to avoid stumbling down the stretch against Florida and lowly Mississippi State to clinch a spot in the playoff field. But coach Lane Kiffin’s team failed to score in three trips inside the red zone and dropped countless passes in perfect weather. No. 2 OHIO ST. 38, No. 5 INDIANA 15 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Will Howard passed for two touchdowns and rushed for another, TreVeyon Henderson ran for a score and No. 2 Ohio State beat previously undefeated No. 5 Indiana. All Ohio State (10-1, 7-1 Big Ten, CFP No. 2) has to do now is beat Michigan at home next Saturday and it will earn a return to the Big Ten championship game for the first time since 2020 and get a rematch with No. 1 Oregon. The Ducks beat Ohio State 32-31 in a wild one back on Oct. 12. The Hoosiers (10-1, 7-1, No. 5 CFP) had their best chance to beat the Buckeyes for the first time since 1988 but were hurt by special teams mistakes and disrupted by an Ohio State defense that sacked quarterback Kurtis Rourke five times. Howard finished 22 for 26 for 201 yards. Emeka Egbuka had seven catches for 80 yards and a TD. No. 8 GEORGIA 59, UMass 21 ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Carson Beck threw four touchdown passes, Nate Frazier ran for 136 yards with three scores and No. 8 Georgia overwhelmed Massachusetts as the Bulldogs tried to protect their College Football Playoff hopes. Georgia (9-2, No. 10 CFP) needed the big offense from Beck and Frazier to rescue a defense that gave up 226 rushing yards. UMass (2-9) played its first game under interim coach Shane Montgomery, the offensive coordinator who retained his play-calling duties after replacing fired coach Don Brown on Monday. Jalen John led the Minutemen with 107 rushing yards and a touchdown. Georgia extended its streak of consecutive home wins to 30, the longest active streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision. No. 10 TENNESSEE 56, UTEP 0 KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nico Iamaleava threw for 209 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 10 Tennessee to a victory over UTEP. The Volunteers (9-2) overcame a sluggish start to roll up the impressive win. Both teams were scoreless in the first quarter, but Tennessee found its rhythm. Grad student receiver Bru McCoy, who hadn’t caught a touchdown pass this season, had two. Peyton Lewis also ran for two scores. Tennessee’s defensive line, which had no sacks in last week’s loss to Georgia, had three against the Miners. UTEP (2-9) struggled with two missed field goals and three turnovers. Tennessee’s offense came alive with 28 points in the second quarter. In the final four drives of the quarter, Iamaleava completed 11 of 12 passes for 146 yards and touchdowns to Squirrel White, Ethan Davis and McCoy. No. 11 MIAMI 42, WAKE FOREST 14 MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Cam Ward passed for 280 yards and threw two touchdowns to Jacolby George on another record-breaking day, Mishael Powell ran an interception back 76 yards for a touchdown and No. 11 Miami pulled away late to beat Wake Forest. The Hurricanes (10-1, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference, No. 8 College Football Playoff) can clinch a berth in the ACC title game with a win at Syracuse next weekend. Ward completed 27 of 38 passes, plus ran for a score. He broke two more single-season Miami records, both of which had been held for 40 years by Bernie Kosar — most passing yards in a season and most completions in a season. Ward now has 3,774 yards on 268 completions this season. Kosar threw for 3,642 yards on 262 completions in 1984. Demond Claiborne had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown for Wake Forest (4-7, 2-5). Claiborne also rushed for 62 yards for the Demon Deacons, and starting quarterback Hank Bachmeier was 8 of 14 passing for 86 yards and a touchdown. No. 13 SMU 33, VIRGINIA 7 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Kevin Jennings threw for a career-high 323 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another, and No. 13 SMU clinched a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game by routing Virginia. Isaiah Smith and Jared Harrison-Hunte each had two sacks to help the Mustangs (10-1, 7-0, No. 13 CFP) extend their winning streak to eight. They would earn an automatic bid into the expanded College Football Playoff by beating 11th-ranked Miami or 17th-ranked Clemson in the ACC title game on Dec. 7 in Charlotte, North Carolina. SMU had to get there first, and Jennings led the way again, bouncing back from an interception and a fumble to complete 25 of 33 passes to six different receivers, including TD tosses to Jordan Hudson and Matthew Hibner. Brashard Smith provided a little balance on offense, running for 63 yards and his 13th touchdown of the season. SMU’s defense overwhelmed UVa’s offensive line, sacking Anthony Colandrea nine times and allowing the Cavaliers (5-6, 3-4) just 173 yards. Special teams contributed, too, with Roderick Daniels Jr. returning a punt 48 yards and Collin Rogers making two field goals. No. 24 ILLINOIS 38, RUTGERS 31 PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Luke Altmyer found Pat Bryant for a catch-and-run, 40-yard touchdown pass with 4 seconds left, sending No. 24 Illinois to a wild victory over Rutgers. Illinois (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) was down 31-30 when it sent long kicker Ethan Moczulski out for a desperation 58-yard field goal with 14 seconds to go. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano then called for a timeout right before Moczulski’s attempt was wide left and about 15 yards short. After the missed field goal was waved off by the timeout, Illinois coach Bret Bielema sent his offense back on the field. Altmyer hit Bryant on an in cut on the left side at the 22, and he continued across the field and scored untouched in a game that featured three lead changes in the final 3:07. Rutgers (6-5, 3-5) gave up a safety on the final kickoff return, throwing a ball out of bounds in the end zone as players passed it around hoping for a miracle touchdown. Altmyer was 12-of-26 passing for 249 yards and two touchdowns. 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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves delayed their game against the San Antonio Spurs by one hour on Sunday night due to an issue with the court at Target Center. The Timberwolves announced the decision about three hours before the originally scheduled tipoff time. The Spurs discovered the problem during their morning shootaround, Timberwolves spokesman Patrick Rees said. The team decided to delay the game so arena staff had enough time to install the replacement court that had to be delivered from elsewhere. The Timberwolves have played at Target Center since 1990. AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Virginian-Pilot: As Trump enacts his agenda, weather services must be protectedBARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Celta Vigo gave 10-man Barcelona a shock by scoring two late goals and snatching a 2-2 draw at home in the Spanish league on Saturday. Barcelona was minutes away from a win to pad its league lead after Raphinha and Lewandowski had put Barcelona in control. But the game dramatically swung after Barcelona defensive midfielder Marc Casadó was sent off with a second booking in the 81st. Moments later Jules Koundé’s poor control of a ball in his area allowed Alfon González to pick his pocket and give the hosts hope in the 84th minute. Celta poured forward at Balaidos Stadium and Hugo Álvarez rifled in the 86th-minute equalizer with Barcelona unable to mark the extra man. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerBTL EPC Ltd. Announces Strategic Acquisition Of MBE-CMT To Strengthen Product Business
Sex in space 'dolphin-style' is the new frontier as scientists call for snuggies, straddling and Velcro READ MORE: Human couples could soon give birth to babies in SPACE By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 17:58, 28 December 2024 | Updated: 17:58, 28 December 2024 e-mail View comments More than 675 people have traveled to space, but according to NASA , none of them have had sex in the final frontier. Experts believe this will soon change as more civilians pay commercial spaceflight companies, such as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson 's Virgin Galactic , to venture into space—albeit for a hefty price. With this new era of spaceflight, physician, astronaut, and 'space sexology' expert Dr. Shawna Pandya has revealed specific 'moves' and technologies designed to provide an out-of-this-world experience. She suggested trying 'dolphin-style' to overcome the challenges of low gravity . 'Dolphins are kind of in a neutral buoyancy environment,' Dr. Pandya explained on Scientific American's Science Quickly podcast. 'When two dolphins are trying to mate, a third dolphin comes in, takes one for the team, and holds a partner in place so the two dolphins can successfully mate.' Other experts in the field have also proposed Velcro suits to keep couples from drifting apart or even a specially designed suit that fits two people. Dr Pandya said there is good reason for researchers to get serious about testing some of these strategies and investigating others. ' More people are going to want to go to space for fun , for leisure and for pleasure... We need to think about how we approach sexuality, sexual health, reproduction in space in a way that is very considered, mindful, inclusive and ethical,' she said While NASA insists that 'no humans have had sex in space', that could change very soon with the arrival of space tourism (stock image) While NASA doesn't explicitly ban sex in space, its astronaut code of conduct calls for 'relationships of trust' and 'professional standards' to be maintained at all times. The space agency has also banned any married couples from going into space together – although this is mostly due to group dynamics, rather than worries of them having sex. But the issue to why astronauts are not copulating could be low gravity inside the International Space Station (ISS). 'So we need to think about Newton's third law of physics,' Dr Pandya explained during the podcast . 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, including thrust, right? You need to figure out the mechanics of how you're going to stay entwined in order to, to be able to actually, successfully, copulate. 'There's people who thought about that,' she added. One such person is the late Vanna Bonta, an American actress and inventor who designed the '2Suit' in 2006. 'It's like a snuggie for two people, but they get to bind together,' Dr Pandya explained . From Star Trek to Passengers (pictured), sex in space has been depicted in science fiction blockbusters for years The 2suit is a flight suit with a large front flap that can be opened and attached to another 2suit using Velcro strips. It can also fasten to a stable surface. Paul Root Wolpe, a former NASA Bioethicist, previously told DW.com : 'Everything on the walls of the space station is covered in Velcro, so you could take advantage of that by velcroing one partner to the wall.' The roominess of the suit can be adjusted from within, and it is lined with inner harnesses that can be used to adjust the alignment of the wearers' bodies. It is even equipped with a 'quick-disrobe' function that removes the garments. In 2008, the History Channel manufactured and tested the first 2Suit, calling it 'one small step for humankind colonizing the universe.' But these futuristic sex suits have yet to be produced or utilized on a larger scale. Another forward-thinking space sexologist was German astronaut Ulrich Walter. In the 1980s, he suggested that humans should look to the animal kingdom for inspiration on how to achieve sex in space. 'So then his suggestion is: Why doesn't an astronaut take one for the team so they can all do it dolphin-style in the name of the greater good, so we can copulate in space,' Dr Pandya said. Read More Can you have sex in space? How astronauts stuck on board the ISS could join the '220-mile-high club' (although NASA insists that no humans have done it before!) But it's not just low gravity that stands in the way. Dr Adam Watkins, associate professor in reproductive and developmental physiology, at the University of Nottingham previously told DailyMail.com that lack of privacy on space stations poses another challenge, as well as difficulty getting and maintaining an erection due to the blood pressure changes that occur while in space. What's more, having sex in space could come with serious consequences. If a non-civilian astronaut get pregnant in space, it would raise a lot of questions that experts are not currently sure how to answer. 'Can we mandate a termination of mission? Can we mandate a termination of that pregnancy if they're on Mars due to the health risks involved? There are so many ethical threads to pull on here,' Dr Pandya asked. And those health risks could be life threatening to both the astronaut mother and her baby. 'DNA damage from the high levels of cosmic radiation is a real concern. Astronauts who spend six months in space are exposed to roughly the same amount of radiation as 1,000 chest X-rays,' Dr Watkins previously said. 'A pregnant woman, and her developing fetus, would also be exposed to that cosmic radiation while in space. This could be harmful to the embryos and the fetus.' A recent study conducted on the ISS found that mice embryos developed for four days on the ISS showed no signs of damage. But an earlier study published in 2020 conversely found that mouse embryos developed in space 'contain severe DNA damage.' Likewise, since only a few people have gone to space we don't have enough data to really know what the effects would be on an unborn child. 'Until recently, reproduction in space has not been a major priority for the different space agencies,' Dr Watkins said. 'Now that there are plans to colonize the moon and even Mars, how we would populate other worlds has become more of a focus and will need to be addressed if we are to establish, maintain and grow human colonies off Earth.' Jeff Bezos Nasa Virgin Galactic Blue Origin Share or comment on this article: Sex in space 'dolphin-style' is the new frontier as scientists call for snuggies, straddling and Velcro e-mail Add commentNone
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