Month: November 2017

Enlarge (credit: Norwich University)

In a world where accusations of "fake news" are thrown around essentially at random, critical thinking would seem to be a must. But this is also a world where the Moon landings are viewed as a conspiracy and people voice serious doubts about the Earth's roundness. Critical thinking appears to be in short supply at a time we desperately need it.

One of the proposed solutions to this issue is to incorporate more critical thinking into our education system. But critical thinking is more than just a skill set; you have to recognize when to apply it, do so effectively, and then know how to respond to the results. Understanding what makes a person effective at analyzing fake news and conspiracy theories has to take all of this into account. A small step toward that understanding comes from a recently released paper, which looks at how analytical thinking and motivated skepticism interact to make someone an effective critical thinker.

Valuing rationality

The work comes courtesy of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Tomas Ståhl and Jan-Willem van Prooijen at VU Amsterdam. This isn't the first time we've heard from Ståhl; last year, he published a paper on what he termed "moralizing epistemic rationality." In it, he looked at people's thoughts on the place critical thinking should occupy in their lives. The research identified two classes of individuals: those who valued their own engagement with critical thinking, and those who viewed it as a moral imperative that everyone engage in this sort of analysis.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Andrew Brookes)

The broadband industry is stepping up its attack on states that dare to impose privacy or net neutrality rules on Internet service providers.

Mobile industry lobby group CTIA urged the Federal Communications Commission to preempt state laws on privacy and net neutrality in a recent meeting and filing. Comcast and Verizon had already asked the FCC to preempt such laws; CTIA represents AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile USA, Sprint, and other mobile companies.

Carriers are urging the FCC to preempt states in the same regulatory proceeding that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai started in order to overturn the commission's net neutrality rules. Pai's proposal to eliminate net neutrality rules could be passed as soon as next month—if carriers get their way, that same order will prevent states from imposing their own laws.

Enlarge / The new $100 Amazon Echo. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

It has been a while coming. Amazon launched its Alexa virtual assistant and smart device platform in Canada today. In tandem with Alexa, Amazon is now shipping three devices there—the Echo Dot, the Echo, and the Echo Plus.

Amazon expects 10,000 skills to be available to Canadian users this year, "including skills from Air Canada, TD Bank, TELUS, CBC, The Weather Network, Bank of Montreal, Manulife, Aviva, Yellow Pages, and more." Amazon Prime Music has launched for Canadian users as well. It will compete with Spotify and Apple Music in the Canadian market with one million songs—and yes, that includes songs by The Tragically Hip.

The rollout is part of a wave of expansion to new countries; Japan just got a similar rollout last week. With a platform like Alexa, localization is both critical and complex. Even between the United States and Canada, there are linguistic differences that could trip up Alexa's functionality if not accounted for. To address that, Amazon has implemented local knowledge and local skills put together by Canadian developers.

Enlarge / Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong didn't have a good year, and that may soon help inspire a new TV series. (credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Sleepy Hollow showrunner Albert Kim will work on an untitled family drama for NBC featuring a cast almost entirely of Asian actors, The Hollywood Reporter reported today. Even though no pilot order has been made yet, the announcement carries significance given recent studies about the lack of Asian-American representation on TV (Masters of None, Dr. Ken, and Fresh Off the Boat represented the first three Asian-American-led shows since 1994, Deadline noted).

The new project, however, caught attention for an additional reason—its subject matter. According to THR, the project loosely draws inspiration from real-world drama familiar to any tech industry watchers.

"The untitled drama revolves around a family-owned Korean electronics corporation that is rocked when its CEO dies on the eve of launching their American subsidiary, with his will revealing the existence of a previously unknown heir," the site wrote. "Kim based the original concept on Korean chaebols, multinational business conglomerates like Samsung that are run by single ruling families that often go through succession drama."

Eliot Higgins / Twitter

In now-deleted social media images, the Russian Ministry of Defense used what is almost certainly a screenshot from a mobile game as part of its supposed evidence that the United States military was supporting ISIS troops in Syria.

The posts, which went up on Facebook and Twitter Tuesday morning, included pictures that the text described as "irrefutable evidence" of "direct cooperation and support provided by the US-led coalition to the ISIS terrorists." But as Kings College research associate Elliot Higgins noted on Twitter one of those pictures matches precisely with images found in an online trailer for AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron, a little-known mobile game from Byte Conveyor Studios. A warning from that trailer that the video was "Development footage / This is a work in progress / All content subject to change" was only partially cropped out of the Ministry of Defense posts, helping highlight the original source.

Enlarge / The 2018 Kia Stinger GT. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Every year there will be one or two new cars that generate a whole lot of buzz. Cars that generate hype. Cars that people who post on Internet forums salivate over. I'm not talking hand-built exotica with 600 horsepower and six-digit price tags; that kind of unobtanium might make for good desktop wallpaper or bedroom posters but few of us will ever be lucky enough to meet that kind of four-wheeled superstar. No, the kind of machine I'm talking about needs to be within reach of your average working stiff, but still far enough from the default to quicken the pulse. A car like the new Kia Stinger.

We first saw the Kia Stinger at this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. Since then it has been a regular on the auto show circuit, as well as popping up at various other events—and a whole load of Kia dealerships—but we've had to wait until now to get behind the wheel. In the meantime, it's built up quite a degree of hype. It's Kia's foray into the performance domain, the Korean OEM having concentrated until now on things like build quality and value for money. Those attributes will certainly win sales, but Kia wanted something with a little more passion, a halo car to get people excited. As you'll find out shortly, it was worth the wait.

Sportbacks are in now

The Stinger first began back in 2011 as the GT Concept, a four-door gran turismo inspired by vintage metal like the Maserati Ghibli, the sort of four-wheeled conveyance that could carry four adults and their luggage across a continent. It's a four-door sportback (my favorite!) design, styled by Gregory Guillaume at Kia's German design studio. As the man himself described it, "a true gran turismo, a car for spirited long-distance driving, is not about outright power, hard-edged dynamics and brutal styling, all at the expense of luxury, comfort and grace.” It's something of a golden age for the performance sportback, what with Audi's S5 and Buick's Regal GS also available for similar money. I'm not quite sure why this design convergence has happened, but I hope it continues.