Issue 13
FLASH NASA beams cat video using space laser
FLASH Britain’s Supreme Court: “AI cannot hold patents”
1 Award winning AI-written science fiction novel in China
2 Russia-China trade booming
3 Growing opposition to US Steel-Nippon merger
4 Palestinian death toll passes 20,000
5 Amazing new images of Uranus
1891 First basketball game played
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FLASH: NASA beams cat video from deep space using laser
Video
FLASH Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that AI cannot hold patents
1 AI-written science fiction novel wins award in China
When a professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University set out to write a science fiction novel about the metaverse and humanoid robots, he turned to artificial intelligence for inspiration. The AI ended up generating his entire book – which then took out a national science fiction award honour. The nearly 6,000-character Chinese-language novel Land of Memories, by Shen Yang, a professor at the university’s school of journalism and communication, was among the winners of the Jiangsu Youth Popular Science Science Fiction Competition. (South China Morning Post)
2 Russia-China trade booming
China is profiting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has led Russia to switch from the West to China for purchases of everything from cars to computer chips. Russia, in turn, has sold oil and natural gas to China at deep discounts. Russian chocolates, sausages and other consumer goods have become plentiful in Chinese supermarkets. Trade between Russia and China surpassed $200 billion in the first 11 months of this year, a level the countries had not expected to reach until 2024. (NYT)
3 Growing bipartisan opposition to US Steel-Nippon merger
Bipartisan opposition is growing to the proposed $14.1 billion acquisition of US Steel by Japan’s largest steelmaker, but that is unlikely to be enough to block the purchase, according to an expert in foreign investment deals. Sens. JD Vance, Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio wrote Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen a letter on Tuesday warning the US Steel deal has “dire implications for the industrial base of the United States” and “was not entered into with US national security in mind.” (CNN)
4 Palestinian death toll passes 20,000
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, the Palestinian death toll has now passed 20,000. (Economist)
5 Amazing new images of Uranus show 13 rings, 9 moons
The images were taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. (New Scientist)
This day in history
1891 First basketball game played
On December 21, 1891, 30-year-old James Naismith introduces the first game of basketball. Based on 13 rules created by Naismith, later first basketball coach at the University of Kansas, the game is tested by 18 students at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
