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How to Exploit Russia’s Addiction to Western Technology

How to Exploit Russia’s Addiction to Western Technology

After the Soviet Union collapsed, in 1991, Russia became almost entirely reliant on Western technologies. Western technology vendors—including Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Nokia—were initially eager to operate in the Russian market, which brought them billions of dollars in annual profits. For decades, these companies tried to remain neutral, ignoring Russia’s transformation into a militaristic dictatorship, in order to maintain their business. The Kremlin was happy to cooperate with Western vendors as long as they stayed out of politics and continued to reliably supply the required technologies.

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, the landscape has shifted dramatically. “Business as usual” was no longer feasible, and under pressure from Western governments and public opinion, many Western vendors exited the Russian market. Left with few options, Moscow turned to its geopolitical ally, China, for technologies.

But Russia’s attempt to switch from Western to Chinese businesses revealed the impossibility of such

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Deaths and injuries lead to calls for technology to reduce speeding : NPR

Deaths and injuries lead to calls for technology to reduce speeding : NPR

A photo released by the North Las Vegas Police Department shows the Dodge Challenger that was travelling more than 100 miles an hour before a fatal crash in January 2022.

AP


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A photo released by the North Las Vegas Police Department shows the Dodge Challenger that was travelling more than 100 miles an hour before a fatal crash in January 2022.

AP

Tiffani May never saw it coming.

She was just a few minutes from home in North Las Vegas when a car came flying into an intersection at more than 100 miles an hour and crashed into hers.

“I remember getting hit, the sound of broken glass,” May said. “I remember seeing fire. And thinking, if I didn’t get out, my dog and I were gonna die right then.”

Nine people were killed in the Nevada crash in January of last year. Seven were

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Ancient Herculaneum scrolls are now readable due to AI technology, scientists say

Ancient Herculaneum scrolls are now readable due to AI technology, scientists say

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At first glance, the Herculaneum scrolls look unremarkable, like pieces of coal. After surviving the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the nearly 2,000-year-old documents would crumble if anyone attempted to unroll them, and surviving pieces with writing were considered to be nearly illegible to the human eye — until now.

After two millennia, the first full word from one of the unopened ancient papyri has been decoded with the help of computer technology and advanced artificial intelligence, according to an announcement made by a team of researchers who launched the “Vesuvius Challenge,” a competition designed to accelerate the discoveries made on the scrolls.

The word, “πορφυρας” or “porphyras,” which is the Greek word for purple, was found first by University of Nebraska computer science

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Sony Shows Off Next-Gen TV Technology

Sony Shows Off Next-Gen TV Technology

Almost exactly six years ago, I was lucky enough to witness what remains to this day arguably the greatest ‘TV’ demo I’ve ever seen. Sony had come out of nowhere at the 2018 CES to reveal an 8K LCD TV capable of pumping out an astonishing 10,000 nits of brightness while still producing HDR pictures that looked natural and realistic, with controlled colours and excellent black levels. So dazzled was I by this experience that I wrote an article for Forbes about it, which you can read here.

Since then Sony has continued to show more interest in brightness as a key component of modern TV performance than many of its peers. It always tends to favor aggressive light output with its LCD TVs, and was quick to adopt new Quantum Dot OLED technology, with its relative brightness advantage over standard WRGB OLED. If a new prototype Sony LED display

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Neta, LK Technology to jointly develop ‘world’s largest’ die-casting machine

Neta, LK Technology to jointly develop ‘world’s largest’ die-casting machine

Neta and LK Technology will jointly develop a die-casting machine in the 20,000-ton class, which is expected to reduce the manufacturing time of vehicle chassis from 1-2 hours to 1-2 minutes.

(A large die-casting machine displayed on LK Technology’s website.)

The arms race in China’s electric vehicle (EV) industry is spilling over into large-scale die-casting machines.

Neta, a brand of Hozon Auto, announced today that it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Hong Kong-listed integrated die-casting machine maker LK Technology on December 15 to jointly develop die-casting equipment in the 20,000-ton class.

The equipment will be the most powerful in the field globally, surpassing the 12,000-ton die-casting machine currently used by Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV), the 9,000-ton die-casting machine used by Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Aito, and the 7,200-ton die casting machine used by Zeekr, Neta said.

With the help of this equipment, the integrated die-casting technology will be used for

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