It was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804. But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population, especially in the West.
As higher standards of living and better health care are reaching more parts of the world, the rates of fertility — and population growth — have started to slow down, though the population will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
U.N. forecasts suggest the world population could hit a peak of 10.1 billion by 2100 before beginning to decline. But exact numbers are hard to come by — just small variations in fertility rates could mean a population of 15 billion by the end of the century.
Bill Gates says he’s cool with Steve Jobs bashing him in his authorized biography. I think he was very gracious about some of the craptastic stuff Jobs said about him but, then again, what could Gates say now that Jobs is dead?
In the biography “Steve Jobs,” author Walter Isaacson quotes Jobs saying of Gates: “Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology. He just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.”
A 36-year-old Texas man has pleaded not guilty to battery charges after allegedly attacking his estranged wife for failing to “Like” a status update he posted to Facebook.
Benito Apolinar had posted an update to his Facebook page about the anniversary of his mother’s death. Angry that the post had elicited no response from his wife of 15 years, he confronted her after dropping off their children at her home in Carlsbad, New Mexico on Tuesday.
“That’s amazing everyone ‘Likes’ my status but you, you’re my wife. You should be the first one to ‘Like’ my status,” he allegedly told her before punching her in the cheek and pulling her hair.
1 The Hangover Part II
2 Captain America: The First Avenger
3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
4 Cars 2
5 Crazy Stupid Love
6 Transformers 3
7 Wrong Turn 4
8 Green Lantern
9 Horrible Bosses
10 Kung Fung Panda 2
Research suggests this preference starts as early as the womb, Nass said. He cites a study in which fetuses were found to react to the sound of their mother’s voice but not to other female voices. The fetuses showed no distinct reaction to their father’s voice, however.
Another answer lies in history. According to some sources, the use of female voices in navigation devices dates back to World War II, when women’s voices were employed in airplane cockpits because they stood out among the male pilots. And telephone operators have traditionally been female, making people accustomed to getting assistance from a disembodied woman’s voice.
However, Google co-founder Sergey Brin has announced that the company wants to increase the distance the autonomous cars can travel truly on their own by three full orders of magnitude to 1,000,000 miles. No timetable was given for the goal, nor was it specified where the miles would be accrued.
The company’s self-driving cars are Toyota Prius models outfitted with cameras, lasers, radar and GPS to help them understand their surroundings and navigate safely. Each car’s sensory information works in conjunction with data stored on Google’s servers, which provides advanced knowledge concerning things like lane counts and configurations, signage, and the location of traffic signals.
