Science & Tech

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Google is adding a fact-checking tag to search results worldwide, its latest initiative to help curb the spread of misinformation and fake news, the company said on Friday. The new tags, to be used in all languages for users universally, will use third-party fact-checkers to indicate whether news items are true, false or somewhere in-between. “For the first time, when you conduct a search on Google that returns an authoritative result containing fact checks for one or more public claims, you will see that information clearly on the search results page,” Google said in a ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Facebook unleashed a new weapon in the war against ‘revenge porn’ at the leading social network as well as the messaging services Messenger and Instagram. When intimate images shared on Facebook without permission are reported, confirmed and removed, the company will use photo-matching technology to prevent copies from being shared on its platform anew. ‘Revenge porn’ refers to the sharing of sexually explicit images on the internet, without the consent of the people depicted in the pictures, in order to extort or humiliate them. The practice disproportionately affects women, who are sometimes targeted by former ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The government has not taken any final decision on blocking Facebook for around six hours after midnight, said a notification on Monday issued by the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology. “The Department of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology is firmly opposing the news. The government has taken no such final decision yet. Everyone is requested not to be baffled regarding the issue”, said the notification. It reads that the news published in different newspapers and online portals on Facebook to remain inaccessible for six hours from midnight, is not correct. Earlier, the cabinet ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: A judge in North Carolina has ordered a woman to pay $500,000 for writing a Facebook post falsely accusing her former friend of killing her son. Jacquelyn Hammond from Asheville wrote on Facebook, in 2015, of Davyne Dial: “I didn’t get drunk and kill my kid.” But Dial who claimed to have nothing to do with her son’s death sued Hammond for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Dial and Hammond’s friendship had broken down after the failed attempt to work together on the radio station. “There are no ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The first bamboo-made telecom tower was installed at the rooftop of a building at Uttara in the city on Tuesday. The technology group developed the tower in association with Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET). BTRC chairman Shahjahan Mahmood, among others, was present during the installation ceremony. Tower management company Edotco installed the tower which was developed with home grown technology in collaboration with Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet). The company is focusing on the use of alternative material instead of the traditional steel structures in telecommunications. The company intends to roll out more ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: World’s most popular web search engine Google has been celebrating Bangladesh’s 47th Independence and National Day by creating a special doodle on its homepage. The doodle, featuring a girl carrying the national flag of Bangladesh and the combination of red and green colours, which are the colours of the national flag, has been seen above the search box on the homepage of Google since early Sunday. Google for the first time in its history made a special doodle in celebration of Bangladesh’s Independence Day in 2013. However, it is a special, temporary alteration of the ...

MNA Science & Tech: Micro-blogging social media website Twitter has blocked more than six lakh terror-related accounts in last one and a half years, reported news agency. According to a report in CNET on Tuesday that quoted Twitter’s ‘Transparency Report’, the micro-blogging site has suspended a total of 636,248 terror-related accounts since August 1, 2015. In the last six months of 2016, Twitter suspended 376,890 accounts for promoting terrorism. It had announced the blocking of more than 125,000 accounts earlier in 2016 which were primarily related to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. In addition to the account suspensions, Twitter’s ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The government has taken initiatives to start 100 technical schools and college in 100 upazilas for creating skilled human resources. The cost of project implementation is estimated Tk 2281.69 crore, according to an official document Administrative approval has been given for land acquisition for the institutes in 91 upazilas while budget has been disbursed for 59. In the second phase of the project, there will be 389 technical schools and colleges across the country. It was discussed in the second pre-evaluation committee (PEC) meeting held recently in the Planning Commission. “The PEC gave directives for ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Japan successfully launched a satellite on Friday, to track land and maritime movements in North Korea and conduct surveys on the weapons program of the rogue state, reported news agency. The H-2A rocket was launched at 10.20 a.m. local time from the Tanegashima base in the southeast of Japan. The mission is cooperation between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and aerospace manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has been involved in the field since it was privatized in 2007. The launch, initially scheduled for March 15, was delayed due to poor weather conditions at the ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: A woman suffered burns to her face and hands after her headphones caught fire during a flight to Australia. The passenger was listening to music on her own battery-operated headphones as she dozed on the flight from Beijing to Melbourne on February 19 when there was a loud explosion. Flight attendants rushed to help and poured a bucket of water on the headphones, but the battery and its cover were both melted and stuck to the floor. The transport safety bureau, which did not identify which airline was involved, assessed that the lithium-ion batteries in ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Youthopia.bangla, a new youth web portal for knowledge sharing, was launched here on Monday to help build bridges between the dreams of the Bangladeshi youth and the reality of the country by facilitating access to the information required to take informed decisions. The new web portal, intended to improve networking of youth organisations and thus address main challenges, has been initiated by United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh. “This event and the new online platform are very important because they are building a network and a long-term vision, which ...

MNA Culture & Science Desk: State minister for posts and telecommunications Tarana Halim on Saturday told parliament that the Facebook authorities have so far blocked 87 Facebook accounts, pages and links of Bangladesh at the request of the government. The government of Bangladesh requested Facebook authorities in the last 18 months to block a total of 196 account, pages and links for having “contents of violence, religious instigations and other objectionable matters”, she said. “Of these, the Facebook authorities blocked 87 accounts, pages and links responding to our requests within 48 hours,” said Tarana. Tarana also said a project titled ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Search engine giant Google on Wednesday dedicated the International Women’s Day in a creative manner through its doodle. Women’s Day is celebrated across the world on 8 March. With eight slide shows, the doodle reminded of the female pioneers and their vast contributions in multiple fields – from arts to science. Instead of bedtime lullabies and fairy-tale stories, Google this time brought a change in the art of story-telling through the doodle. The doodle began with a grandmother narrating to her granddaughter the tales of real-life women who stood apart for their courage, made an ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Internet service provider BRACNet will take affordable internet services to 64 upazilas this year. The company has already begun its work to provide internet services at the grassroots, reported news agency. The initiative was formally inaugurated on Saturday at a local school at Bhadeswar union of Golapganj upazila in Sylhet. Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid attended the programme as the chief guest. BRACNet began its grassroots operation with an ‘unlimited package’, which will give clients 24-hour internet access at affordable prices, said a press release. The company is Bangladesh’s ISO certified premier Internet Service Provider ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The number of mobile phone users globally will surpass five billion by the middle of this year, according to a study released Monday by GSMA, the association of mobile operators. With populations in Asia, and notably India, on the rise, the number, which stood at 4.8bn a year ago, should mushroom to 5.7 billion, or three quarters of the world’s population, by 2020. Asia will account for around half total growth, according to GSMA’s ‘Mobile Economy’ report with India alone adding some 310 million new subscribers in the coming three years. The study also showed ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: Finnish brand Nokia on Sunday launched three new Android smartphones and unveiled a revamped version of its iconic 3310 model more than a decade after it was phased out. Unlike the original, which was known for its sturdiness, the new Nokia 3310 will allow web browsing. The new version will bring back its predecessor’s popular ‘Snake’ game and distinctive ringtones, said Arto Nummela, the head of Finnish start-up HMD Global which will produce the phone under a licensing agreement with Nokia. Launched in 2000, Nokia’s original 3310 sold nearly 120 million units worldwide before it ...

MNA Science & Technology Desk: An annular solar eclipse of sun will occur on February 26, said an ISPR press release today. It will start at 18 hours 10 minutes 54 seconds (BST) and will end at 23 hours 36 minutes 00 seconds. The central eclipse will start at 19 hours 16 minutes 48 seconds and will end at 22 hours 30 minutes 54 seconds. The greatest eclipse will occur at 20 hours 53 minutes 24 seconds, the release said. So what’s an annular solar eclipse? When the Moon covers the Sun’s center, leaving the Sun’s visible outer edges to ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Grameenphone in partnership with WhatsApp is offering its customers special pricing for simple, reliable and secure messaging through WhatsApp. The messaging data pack includes Whats-App with a Bangla option at an affordable rate, said a press release of Grameenphone on Tuesday. A customer can avail WhatsApp messaging — 20MB at Tk 2 with 1 day validity — by dialing *121*3063#. To enjoy Whats-App in Bangla, customers just need to select Bangla in the language settings right in the app. “Together with Grameenphone, we are making messaging more affordable and convenient in Bangladesh,” said Mubarik Imam, ...

MNA Science & Tech: In a bid to give users more options as to how and where they can watch videos, social media giant Facebook on Thursday announced a new app for TV, reported news agency. The app will be rolled out soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV, with more platforms to come, said Facebook in a blog post. With the app, you can watch videos shared by friends or Pages you follow, top live videos from around the world, and recommended videos based on your interests. “Users can also catch up ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Facebook announced a suite of new changes to its video platform today, including a new setting that will auto play videos with the sound turned on by default. This change means that, if your phone is not set to silent and you haven’t disabled the feature in Facebook’s mobile settings panel, every video in the News Feed will have audio fading in as you scroll past it. In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook said that as people had begun watching more video on phones, they expected sound when the volume on their devices was ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: NASA is set to open discussions about a study that has proposed a system capable of landing on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in search for life beyond Earth, reported news agency. The study that NASA commissioned last year to assess the science value and engineering design of a future lander mission submitted its report this week. The report listed three science goals for the mission – the primary being search for evidence of life on Europa, the US space agency said. The other goals are to assess the habitability of Europa by directly analyzing material ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Under the supervision of LICT project of the ICT division, e-CAB in association with the University of Dhaka, an ‘e-Commerce Entrepreneurship Training Program’ was arranged. Speakers in the certificate giving ceremony on February 9, 2017 expressed their views saying that, “Accelerating growth and reducing poverty, income inequality and regional disparity are the overarching goals of the current development paradigm in Bangladesh. If we want to achieve our vision 2021, we must concentrate on developing skills and capacity of the entrepreneurs”. Honorable state minister for ICT division Mr. Zunaid Ahmed Palak were present as the chief ...

MNA Science & Tech: China will double the number of AIDS patients it treats with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), officials have said, part of a broader push to increase the use of the ancient practice in the country’s medical system. The promotion of TCM is part of a five-year plan from the State Council, China’s cabinet, to tackle HIV/AIDS. “The number of people living with AIDS who are treated with traditional Chinese medicine should be twice what it was in 2015,” the State Council said on its website Sunday. The plan outlined collaboration between traditional Chinese medicine departments and national ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: The biggest fair and jubilant display of software, ‘BASIS Soft Expo – 2017’ is closing in the capital today (Saturday). This fair was arranged by country’s largest information technology related organization – Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Service (BASIS). The fair upheld the slogan – ‘Future In Motion’. This four day long display took place at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre at Agargaon. It was divided into four zones – Business Software Zone, ITES & BPO Zone, Mobile Innovation Zone and E-Commerce Zone. More than hundred institutions participated in this fair. IT experts from ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Apple is to start making iPhones in India this year, a local government official said Friday, as the company seeks to tap into a booming middle class while sales in China slow. Karnataka’s IT minister said Apple had agreed to assemble its hugely popular phones in the southern state, whose capital Bangalore is India’s technology hub. Apple, which has not commented on the minister’s statement, remains a relatively small player in India, where sales of its smartphones lag those of rival Samsung. But chief executive Tim Cook said this week it would “invest significantly” in ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: NASA scientists in an unprecedented study have found that space travel may alter gene expression. The study involved astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year in space and his identical twin Mark who stayed on Earth. From the lengths of the twins’ chromosomes to the microbiomes in their guts, “almost everyone is reporting that we see differences”, Christopher Mason, a geneticist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, was quoted as saying to scientificamerican.com. The changes that are likely attributable to Scott’s time in orbit include alterations to gene expression, DNA methylation — ...

MNA Science & Tech Desk: Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia has created a customized digital assistant ‘MIKA’ that will improve telecom operators’ efficiency by providing engineers faster access to critical information. MIKA that stands for ‘Multi-purpose Intuitive Knowledge Assistant’ — is the first digital assistant trained specifically for the telecom industry, designed to provide automated assistance that saves time and frees highly skilled workers to focus on critical tasks. ‘MIKA taps into the power of the Nokia AVA platform to provide quick and accurate answers, avoiding time wasted on fruitless searches. It is customised to support the specific needs of telecoms, ...