Technology

Ford Looks To A Fleet Of Driverless Cars

9:46pm August 17, 2016

by Sonari Glinton

They'll be on the road by 2021, the company says, and will build on automation already available for help with parking and avoiding traffic. The vehicles could be used for ride sharing, Uber-style.

With Demand For Its Products Down, Cisco Will Cut Workforce

7:41pm August 17, 2016

by Laura Sydell

The company says it will lay off 5,500 employees and, like other Silicon Valley pioneers, move into different types of business.

Maynard Amerine, a pioneer of wine-making and professor at the University of California, Davis, collected some 5,200 wine bottle labels during his travels from the 1930s-60s.

Distilling The Story Of California Wine, One Label At A Time

5:53pm August 17, 2016

by Gabriel Rosenberg

At the world's largest wine research library — inside UC Davis — librarians are crowd-sourcing their archives to understand the forces that shaped California's wine industry into a global powerhouse.

How Gig Economy Workers Make A Living

11:10am August 14, 2016

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with economics professor Alan Krueger of Princeton University about how people participate in the gig economy — particularly as Uber drivers — to supplement their incomes.

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Verizon Transforms To Contend In Silicon Valley

9:14am August 13, 2016

After acquiring Yahoo, Verizon ranks third in digital advertising and is a major player in media and tech. It wants to play in the Silicon Valley sandbox — but don't expect a full transformation yet.

Airbnb Hikes Paris Rental Housing Market Prices

9:14am August 13, 2016

The city of Berlin just banned Airbnb because it was swallowing up long-term rentals and driving up prices. Paris is now struggling to temper the explosion of the rental site for the same reasons.

Words classified according to their gender, as the word embedding sees it. Words below the line are words that (generally) should be gendered, while words above the line are problematic if gendered.

Science

He's Brilliant, She's Lovely: Teaching Computers To Be Less Sexist

8:01am August 12, 2016

by Byrd Pinkerton

Algorithms teach computers how to process language. But because they draw on human writing, they have some biases. Researchers are trying to weed out those problematic associations.

A sign outside the camp office offers a reminder of the gadget policy.

National

Summer Camps Struggle To Enforce Bans On Screen Time

3:27am August 12, 2016

by Tovia Smith

Summer sleep-away camps say it's getting harder to enforce cell phone bans, and millennials say it's tough going cold turkey. But they all say it's more important than ever to learn how to unplug.

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Scientists with the international scientific collaboration known as the "Walk Again Project" use noninvasive brain-machine interfaces in their efforts to reawaken damaged fibers in the spinal cord.

Robot-Like Machines Helped People With Spinal Injuries Regain Function

10:48am August 11, 2016

by Richard Harris

Eight people with serious spinal injuries who practiced hours of interaction with wearable machines for months regained lost feeling and some ability to move.

Social Security Data Errors Can Turn People Into The Living Dead

5:08pm August 10, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

The government keeps track of who is alive and who is dead. But there can be errors. And when you're mistakenly ruled dead, it can be remarkably tough to convince people you're still among the living.