🦉legen-dairy facial recognition software

Your weekly source for stories *not* making headlines.

Happy Wednesday, muggles. It's been almost a year since we started this newsletter, so we're feeling particularly grateful. If it weren't for the many journalists covering the stories we dig up out of the trenches of news sites, Below the Fold wouldn't be possible. Join us in celebrating the over 225 reporters who powered our first 50 editions here.  FOOD Your Thanksgiving meal might be coming from a ghost kitchen Sun Nov 15   Never heard of that restaurant you're getting delivery from before the pandemic? It could be a ghost kitchen making your meal — and they're estimated to be a $1 trillion industry by 2030.   What is a ghost kitchen? A few types of configurations fall under what we now call a "ghost kitchen." Most ghost kitchen restaurants have no shop front. Unlike a takeaway restaurant, which have long existed, these kitchens only serve online orders — no chairs, tables, waitstaff, or even a pickup counter. Other options piggyback off an already existing restaurant, using their kitchens to offer different food that's available exclusively for delivery.  For example, a French dinner restaurant offering a delivery-only sandwich brand. But even with the growth, ghost kitchens are also disappearing as quickly as they came. The restaurant industry remains difficult to navigate. One report found that operators need to make at least $650,000 in annual sales just to break even in cities like Los Angeles.   SOURCES: Los Angeles Times, Eater, Wall Street Journal SCIENCE Selling junk science in China Mon Nov 9   Don't believe everything you read on the internet, or maybe even in scientific journals? In what has traditionally been seen as a trusted source, there's now a growing concern over Chinese 'paper mills' publishing fake research in peer-reviewed medical journals.    How is fake research getting published in esteemed journals? China publishes 305,000 papers a year on average, which is the most in the world. The nation wants to become the world leader in scientific research, and therefore compensates and rewards researchers based on publication achievements. The medical sector is also highly competitive, which means being a published doctor not only advances one's career, but could also result in more material awards — even an apartment or car. These incentives have led to the emergence of more paper mills that offer money to publish low-ranking papers. For the many underpaid researchers in China, the reward may justify the cost and risk.   Is anything being done to stop this? There has been official denouncement of the practice, but it seems a team of informal international volunteers are the only ones trying to actively uncover junk studies. They've already found hundreds, and worry there could be a lot more. Meanwhile scientists are worried that these fake papers could take over for more important, but seemingly boring research. In fact, one scientist said he saw fake papers claiming cancer was already solved. SOURCES: Coda Story, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes TECHNOLOGY Identifying bears and cows using facial recognition Mon Nov 23   From tagging photos to unlocking your iPhone, facial recognition technology is everywhere, and now it's even being used to track cows and bears. The software itself detects small physical differences, such as scars and scratches, to identify the animal's faces.    Why would we want to track these animals?  The hope is that tracking bears will help with the conservation of the species and determine which ones are getting into trouble or into trash cans. Meanwhile cattle are being tracked to make investigations in animal-based disease easier.   What are the pros and cons? Proponents say using facial recognition is less invasive and cheaper than other tracking methods such as collars or tags. While the hope is that this approach protects the animals, others worry it could be used by wildlife poachers to hunt them. SOURCES: CNN, Kansas State University, CNET That's all for today. Have a magical week.✨ acciyo, Inc., 8605 SANTA MONICA BLVD, #78200, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90069, United States, 6176820435 Unsubscribe Manage preferences