Baby penguins at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago have taken their first steps outside. And they’ve scored fans on Facebook.
Video posted by the aquarium shows the young Magellanic penguins, which are native to South America, carefully sniffing the air before they begin exploring their surroundings.
The video then switches to the aquatic birds in front of a stingray tank in the aquarium. They look left and right, taking in their new environment.
The chicks were born in late April to late May. They had their first swim in early August, after they got their juvenile waterproof feathers. While penguins don’t get airborne, they do fly through the water, flapping with strong wings. Once their sexes are determined, the aquarium will share naming plans.
The aquarium shared the footage online and said: “Can you believe how fast Magellanic penguin chicks grow? While they have already gone on a few enrichment field trips around the aquarium, this is the first time they’ve explored Shedd’s great outdoors. On this trip, they waddled by Stingray Touch (where visitors can touch stingrays) and meet the cownose rays as they swim by.
“This video highlights several new additions to the penguin colony at Shedd. Taking the penguins out of their habitat to explore new spaces is part of our welfare program at Shedd Aquarium — engaging their senses, encouraging physical activity and adding variety to each and every day,” it explained.
“The penguin chicks have begun taking field trips of their own, including this trip to the aquarium’s outdoor Stingray Touch habitat.”
The baby Magellanic penguins, named for the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, take in their surroundings at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. (Shedd Aquarium/Zenger)
They have also begun eating fish and socializing.
Magellanic penguins are named after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who spotted the birds in 1520. They can live to 25 in the wild and 30 years in captivity.
Young ones often have a blotched pattern on their feet, but this tends to fade away as they grow up. They also mate with the same partner for life.
The baby penguins are beginning to eat fish, socialize and explore their new surroundings. (Shedd Aquarium/Zenger)
In addition to Magellanic penguins, the aquarium is home to Rockhopper penguins, the latter often being split into three different subspecies: the southern rockhopper penguin, the eastern rockhopper penguin and the northern rockhopper penguin.
Back in March, to the delight of fans, Internet footage caught Shedd Aquarium penguins on a field trip to a replica set of the hit 1990s TV show “Friends.”
When Michael Jordan returned to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 following a brief retirement, his return message was short and sweet: “I’m Back!”
Dave Mays was once looked at as the Michael Jordan of hip-hop publications, and… he’s back! As a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, he co-founded The Source magazine, which began as a monthly newsletter, eventually becoming one of the world’s longest-running rap/hip-hop magazines.
Mays had a vision to put hip-hop on the forefront of all genres and succeeded immensely turning his newsletter into a full-fledged publication. That ride ended in 2005, when he and co-founder Raymond “Benzino” Scott were forced out in a dispute with investors.
Understanding today’s needs, Mays returns with Breakbeat Podcasting network, which will host several culturally diverse podcasts with a variety of hosts. Mays also hosts his podcast, “The Dave Mays Show.”
Breakbeat will also produce docuseries, starting with the “Unsigned Hype,” a popular series in The Source magazine that introduced several hip-hop and R&B acts. He also plans a series on Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover.
During a recent conversation with Zenger, Mays opened up about mistakes he made during his time with The Source, and how he plans to not repeat those same errors with his newest venture.
Percy Crawford interviewed Dave Mays for Zenger.
Zenger: How is it going, Dave?
Mays: Going well. I’m excited. This is something I have been thinking about and trying to put together for a minute now, and it’s finally coming to life.
Zenger: Where did the concept of Breakbeat come from?
Percy Crawford interviewed Dave Mays for Zenger. (Heidi Malone/Zenger)
Mays: A few things I have been thinking about for the last few years, there’s not one platform that the hip-hop community can say represents their point of view comprehensively across the wide range of subject matters. In a way similar to what The Source did in its heyday in the ’90s and early 2000s, when we were the magazine of hip-hop music, culture and politics.
We covered everything: fashion, sports, health, news, diet and fitness. But it was all done in a style and perspective that the hip-hop community can relate to and identify with as their own. As hip-hop and the media has grown in the past 20 years, it has become fragmented into different segments. It’s everywhere, but you can find one particular thing that you like over here, a couple of things that you like over on this platform, but there’s not one platform. That’s part of the void that I was seeing.
Another part is, I feel like there has been a narrative pushed through the music industry that’s divided the older and the younger sides of the hip-hop community. This narrative that mumble rap is not real hip-hop. The other side says, you’re just mad, bitter and old. Because the music is by far the most visible, commercial aspect of the culture, the music can become prevalent.
But what I see is, underneath those differences, somebody that is 51 that grew up on hip-hop, might not like Young Dolph or think 21 Savage is dope, and vice versa for the younger people. But I would argue that if you dig beneath the surface there, and you think about how the 51-year-old and the 21-year-old were to look at social justice, look at the way we watch and take in sports, I think we share a unique perspective on things. When you are part of hip-hop, you tend to see things in a certain way that’s different from people who haven’t had that experience. I looked at it as an opportunity to create a platform with diversity in content, voices, talent and subject matters that will appeal to the broad hip-hop community, from 15 to 55.
Then it became a question of, how do I find the right strategy and entry point of how to get into the marketplace because the media business has been so tumultuous? Ever since the onset of the internet in the late ’90s and early 2000s, we have seen all forms of traditional media basically mowed down.
It started with the newspapers, then magazines, now we’re seeing it with television and radio. We’re at a time when technology is still evolving, business models are still being figured out. It’s s time of great opportunity. I started looking at podcasting the last few years and seeing how dynamic it is. It reminds me of underground hip-hop back in the ’80s. It’s this bubbling thing that has all this energy and talent. Things emanate out of it, TV shows and movies. Just a real dynamic space. It’s a fertile ground to introduce the type of content and voices that I was talking about.
I started to think of a podcast network as an answer that everyone in publishing has been searching for, for 20 years now. How do you make a digital magazine? Everybody has been throwing that term around for 20 years. “We’re taking our magazine digital.” It’s never worked. A podcast network in some ways is what a digital magazine could be. The same way you used to be able to flip through a magazine and see a fashion section, a sports section, a fitness section, those are all podcast topics now.
Dave Mays co-founded the groundbreaking The Source magazine in the 1990s. (Courtesy of Dave Mays)
Zenger: How instrumental was Kendrick Ashton during this process?
Mays: I had to give my business partner a lot of credit. He was very instrumental in helping come up with the name, the concept to launch as a podcast network. I met Kendrick a few years ago in D.C. We’re both D.C. natives. I got introduced to him at an event by a mutual friend. We started talking and just really hit it off. I started telling him about what I saw as this opportunity in the marketplace. We ended up partnering and here we are.
Zenger: Has it been a difficult transition from paper to digital, or just an adjustment?
Mays: I have tried to stay as abreast as I can with new technologies and things going on out here with social media. It’s still very early on. We will see how things go with Breakbeat. I’m excited and confident with what we’re doing. I think it’s going to resonate widely. Once I figured out the right approach to getting in the game and establishing a brand like Breakbeat, it wasn’t that difficult. I had to learn a lot about podcasting in the last couple of years. I have been studying and talking to lots of people just trying to understand it. I didn’t understand it at first.
Zenger: What type of shows can we expect under the Breakbeat umbrella?
Mays: The brand will come through with the authenticity of the content. Authenticity will be the key ingredient. Bringing something that’s needed because I feel like the voices out here in hip-hop… there is room for so many more voices and perspectives than what we are getting with the current media landscape.
Business guru and Breakbeat partner Kendrick Ashton. (Courtesy of Kendrick Ashton)
Zenger: Did you make mistakes or things you could have done differently with The Source Magazine that you will use as experience and not repeat with Breakbeat?
Mays: Oh absolutely! There were a lot of mistakes I made with The Source. Some that I recognized at the time, and others it took me some years after leaving The Source to understand the mistakes that I made. The last 5 years or so have been a period of reflection for me. Really thinking about everything that I went through and try to understand things better. I feel empowered going into this because I’m already doing things in a smarter way. I think Kendrick Ashton is going to prove to be an incredible partner. He fills some of the shoes that I can’t fill with his knowledge. He has a strong finance background.
One of the things that messed me up at The Source… I started The Source when I was a college student. Granted, I was at Harvard, but I wasn’t there for business or media. I was a government major, and I learned as I moved along. The Source was bootstrapped. I’d take $200 and use that to make the next $200, work up to $600, and use that to make the next newsletter.
We never had capital. I never dealt with banks, loans, investors and private equity funds. One of the biggest mistakes I made was basically betting the farm on the internet in the late ‘90s, when dot-coms first came out. Back in those days, every commercial was dot-com this and dot-com that. Wall Street was throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into dot-coms. I got caught up in the excitement. I had the vision. I saw the internet as a pathway to the hip-hop community, globally and directly. The Source was a part of bringing hip-hop to many countries in the ’90s because we had international distribution. I mortgaged the magazine business to invest in the internet.
Also, I wanted to maintain ownership. That’s something I took a lot of pride in with The Source. I built the company from the ground up and never gave up anything to any outside companies, until I got into the problems with the dot-coms. I took out a big loan. I had people that would have partnered with me, but I was like, I can get this loan and own everything 100 percent.
So, I gambled on myself and the internet, and obviously it was a bad gamble. That’s one of the biggest mistakes, but also one of the ways I’m doing things differently. If I would have had Kendrick Ashton around back then, I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have made those mistakes with the bank loans and the private equity deals that all contributed to the demise of The Source in those last few years.
Zenger: Good luck with Breakbeat. I’m sure you will make it a force to be reckoned with, and I can’t wait to see the finished product. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Mays: I have my “Unsigned Hype’s” of Breakbeat. I have “Don’t Call Me White Girl.” She’s a superstar. She is so funny and so smart. She’s got a strong fan base already. I think she will be a big star. We are going to do the “Funny Marco” podcast. I think he is another incredible talent who has built up a name for himself on social media. We are bringing him into the podcasting world with his own show. These are the younger emerging talents who we are discovering. Then I have the more veteran voices like my show, “The Dave Mays Show,” and Kierna Mayo show, “Culturati,” which is incredible. It’s going to be very different from the other podcast that are out there now.
Then we have these documentary series that we’re doing. They are going to be huge. We’re doing the “Unsigned Hype,” story. It’s an eight-part podcast series. Telling the whole backstory of that column, from Biggie, DMX, Common to Mobb Deep, to Eminem — all the people we discovered. I’m also doing the Larry Hoover story. That will be a 10-part series. His is an amazing story. We have his exclusive rights to tell that through podcast. He and his family have never participated in the telling of the story before. It’s a very relevant story in today’s world and a story that expands generations.
Is the new “Dune” a cinematic marvel or a repeat of past mistakes?
Believe it or not, this is not Hollywood’s first attempt at selling the story of “Dune” to mainstream audiences.
Most moviegoers have probably never heard of the original film “Dune” that was released in 1984 based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel of the same title.
The 1984 film was a box office bomb despite heavy promotion, direction by David Lynch, strong casting (Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Stewart and Sting) and even getting the popular ’80s band “Toto” to perform its soundtrack.
At the end of the day, the film could not overcome its poor storytelling, bloated runtime and overall lack of direction. In 2021, filmmaker Denis Villeneuve is the man behind Warner Bros.’ latest attempt at reviving the sci-fi epic, and he has every tool in his favor.
A big-name cast full of heavy hitters, a cinematic score led by the legendary Hans Zimmer, and a marketing machine pushing the film as “too big for the small screen.”
Despite that arsenal, the 2021 film feels like it made the same mistakes it did in 1984.
The Story: Set In the year 10,191 on the hostile desert planet Arrakis, known as Dune, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) accepts stewardship of the dangerous planet. Dune is the source of the universe’s most valuable substance, called “Malange spice.”
That spice is a drug that extends human life, provides superhuman levels of thought and makes faster-than-light travel practical. Leto takes control of the spice mining operation with his son Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his concubine Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson).
For 80 years, Arrakis has been presided over by the Harkonnen, who controlled the means of production with an iron fist. But now that they have been forced to leave, rival forces see the change in the regime as an opportunity to take over amidst the chaos. Sworn enemy of the Atreides, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) plans to reclaim the planet even at the cost of wiping out House Atreides.
The cast of the latest “Dune” includes Josh Brolin and Oscar Isaac. (Warner Bros.)
Bright Spots: A lot of money was put into the making of “Dune,” and it shows. The world-building is on a level that rivals your average “Star Wars” film. Villeneuve has created some visually stunning sci-fi films, including “Blade Runner 2049” and “Arrival.”
In “Dune,” Villeneuve’s large-scale eye for detail creates cinematic backdrops that suck you into a world of massive ships, giant monsters, geo-politics and impressive-looking planets that are made for an IMAX format.
The movie also presents a rogue cast of solid actors whose presence is notable every time they appear on screen. Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa play military men who help train our protagonist Paul for the upcoming war. Stellan Skarsgård is unrecognizable as the villainous Baron Harkonnen. Zendaya, despite her limited screen time, plays the role of Chani, whose people are native to Arrakis and caught between the battling families. She later becomes the love interest of Paul.
Along with solid special effects, Villeneuve’s creative visual ambition gives “Dune” a lot to be impressed with and his intentions as a fan of the source material are noble. Despite his best efforts, he can’t avoid the same potholes in storytelling that plagued director Lynch in the 1984 version.
Weak Spots: “Dune” has problems aplenty, but the central issue is the film doesn’t give you a full story. Pulling a page out of the modern superhero genre, 2021’s “Dune” becomes a massive trailer for a future movie.
Because this is only part one of a larger narrative, the massive gallery of characters is given no depth. Except for Duke Leto and Paul Atreides, characters often drop out of the film for extended periods. Audiences never get a good feel for any of the characters, turning this epic into a soulless journey.
Zendaya plays Chani, who becomes the love interest of Paul (Timothée Chalamet). (Warner Bros.)
One of the biggest knocks against the 1984 film is that the source material is impossible to portray on the big screen because there is no way to condense a story of this scale into the runtime of a motion picture. The 2021 film is no different, as there is too much material to cover for one movie, and you can’t make sense out of half a story.
The film is an exposition-ridden prologue, a dull cinematic adventure for a movie that has all the makings of an intergalactic space war. “Dune” distracts audiences with massive CGI spaceships, explosions and impressive IMAX visuals, hoping they don’t realize how uneventful the last two and a half hours have been.
“Dune” banks on creating interest for a sequel that may never get made if Warner Bros. suffers massive losses from this endeavor. The film is half a puzzle but with only half a picture, there is no way to be satisfied by Villeneuve’s vision.
The Takeaway: “Dune” is a visual distraction from the reality that despite its overwhelming 155-minute runtime, very little happens story-wise. “This is only the beginning,” according to the film, but you are better off saving time and money sitting this one out, unless you are desperate for visual vomit on an IMAX screen.
See or Skip: “Dune” is a typical Hollywood film that spends more of its time selling the second movie before giving you a reason to care about the first.
Colorado rangers have removed a tire from around an elk’s neck.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife officers Scott Murdoch and Dawson Swanson tranquilized the bull elk near Pine Junction on Oct. 9 to free the long-suffering animal, which endured the albatross for two years.
The agency said it was the fourth time wildlife officials had tried to tranquilize the elk in the last week.
Swanson said: “I was able to quickly respond to a report from a local resident regarding a recent sighting of this bull elk in their neighborhood. I was able to locate the bull in question along with a herd of about 40 other elk.”
Wildlife officials said the elk was 4 and a half years old, weighed around 600 pounds and had five points on each of its antlers.
The tire removal was tricky.
“We had to move it just right to get it off because we weren’t able to cut the steel in the bead of the tire. Fortunately, the bull’s neck still had a little room to move,” said Murdoch.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer Dawson Swanson cut the tire, which was loaded with 10 pounds of debris, from the elk’s neck on Oct. 9. (Pat Hemstreet/Zenger)
“We would have preferred to cut the tire and leave the antlers for his rutting activity, but the situation was dynamic. We just had to get the tire off in any way possible.”
After cutting off the animal’s antlers and removing the impediment, the ranger said they were surprised by the condition of its neck.
“The hair was rubbed off a bit, there was one small open wound maybe the size of a nickel or quarter, but other than that, it looked good,” he said.
Swanson, who was able to successfully tranquilize the bull elk, said: “Tranquilizer equipment is a relatively short-range tool and given the number of other elk moving together along with other environmental factors, you need to have things go in your favor to have a shot or opportunity pan out.
“I was able to get within range a few times that evening, however, other elk or branches blocked any opportunities. It was not until shortly before dark that everything came together, and I was able to hit the bull with the dart. Once the bull was hit with the dart, the entire herd headed back into the thick timber. This is where I was able to find the bull.”
The first sighting of the bull with the tire around its neck was from Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer Jared Lamb during a survey for bighorn sheep and mountain goats in July 2019. (CPW, Jared Lamb/Zenger)
The two rangers estimate the elk probably lost around 35 pounds of weight after the antlers, tire and debris were removed.
“The pine needles, dirt and other debris basically filled the entire bottom half of the tire. There was probably 10 pounds of debris in the tire,” Murdoch said.
Finding the elk was a challenge. Wildlife officials said he would disappear for long periods of time, particularly in winter.
Wildlife officials first became aware of the elk in July 2019, while carrying out a survey for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and mountain goats in the Mount Evans Wilderness.
Police in Ohio have released full bodycam video of officers forcibly removing a disabled man from his car after he repeatedly refused to comply so that a K-9 could search the car.
The man was pulled over around 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 after police were alerted to a suspected drug house in the area which they were monitoring for Narcotics Bureau detectives, according to a community incident briefing released on YouTube on Oct. 8 by the Dayton Police Department.
Police stopped a white Audi seen leaving the house and asked the driver for his license and registration. After running the tags, they learned that the driver, Clifford Owensby, had a felony drug and weapon history. Since the car was seen leaving the alleged drug house, officers calls for a narcotics K-9 dog for a “free-air” sniff of the vehicle.
When approached again by the officer, Owensby refused to get out of the car, saying repeatedly that he is paraplegic, the bodycam video shows. An officer offers to help him get out, but Owensby refuses and eventually calls someone on his phone and tells them to “bring a camera.”
“I will put you in a lawsuit if you put your hands on me,” Owensby tells the officer.
“You can cooperate,” the officer says. “You can get out of the car, or I will drag you out of the car.”
Owensby holds on to the steering wheels and refuses to comply, repeating that he is paraplegic long after the officer has explained the reason why he needs to exit the vehicle, offering to help, and explaining his options.
As the officer forcibly removes Owesnsby, he repeatedly yells “I’m a paraplegic.”
The officer tells him: “Stop! You’re making this worse than it has to be.”
Owensby is then handcuffed and dragged a few yards to the police vehicle, where officers struggle to put him in the back seat.
Before Owensby was removed from his car, police asked about a young child in the back seat who was not in a car seat.
Owensby said the child is 3 years old. Police called for assistance for the unrestrained child in Owensby’s car.
Police reported finding a large bag containing $22,450 in cash, which the K-9 “alerted on.” Police said that means the bag/money was in the vicinity of drugs at some point.
Owensby was taken to a hospital, where he was examined and released, police said.
Owensby was not charged in the incident.
“A Professional Standards Bureau investigation was started on Oct. 1,” police said in the YouTube post. “Detectives have interviewed Owensby and are gathering all relevant evidence for a complete and thorough investigation, to include the review of policy, procedures and training.
“We will share the results of this investigation once it is completed.”
The briefing also said: “Since June 2020, the city of Dayton and the Dayton Police Department have been engaged in an extensive process in the interest of improving community and police relations.
“Dozens of members of [the department], along with 100+ community members established 142 recommendations. The majority of these recommendations are completed or in progress.”
The image of the rugged Israeli farmer tending to the fields, shaking trees by hand to force olives and apples and grapes to drop, is both iconic and romantic.
It’s also entirely outdated.
Most farms in the Western world — including Israel — are more akin to mechanized outdoor factories than to the manual labor-intensive kibbutz fields of yore.
All that technology represented an opportunity for Boaz Bachar and Iftach Birger, the CEO and COO, respectively, of Fieldin, an Israeli startup that aims to digitize agriculture.
“Commercial farming runs based on operational capabilities, not agronomical insights,” Bachar said. “It’s just like manufacturing but instead of making a car, we produce a nut or a grape. We felt, let’s digitize the entire growing process, the day-to-day of the farm.”
Fieldin founders CEO Boaz Bachar, left, and COO Iftach Birger (Courtesy of Fieldin)
Fieldin does this primarily by attaching sensors to the equipment on a farm — the tractors, plows, harvesters and pesticide sprayers. Those sensors then wirelessly transmit data about what’s happening in the fields.
Did you miss a row when spraying?
How many seconds does it take to harvest each tree and what can be done to improve efficacy?
Are your employees mowing and edging to the best of their abilities?
How much water is being used?
How egregious are the carbon emissions?
This information is then shared with the appropriate farm staff. The Fieldin system can be customized to send messages as needed.
Crew managers might want an update every few hours when they take a break from their work in the fields. A farm’s owner might only need a summary once or twice a week.
“The first thing we do is create benchmarks, something growers never had before,” Bachar said.
“What is a good productivity rate in terms of acres per hour? No one knew before Fieldin. Everyone had their own tribal and cultural practices. When we look at the broader picture, we can run analyses. That’s how farms improve their efficiency. Within a month of benchmarking, they will start to see success.”
An almond orchard in Israel. (Nicky Blackburn)
Fieldin addresses three main areas of farming:
Smart harvesting — everything about picking fruit and vegetables in the most efficient manner;
Smart spraying — pesticides are unfortunately a necessary evil for modern farming. When do you spray, what are you spraying with, and how much are you using (waste is bad for the bottom line and for the health of consumers)?
Smart “cultural practices” — this is a catchall for the way farmhands handle mechanized tasks other than spraying or harvesting. Fieldin can even track employees when they scan their ID tags at the beginning or end of the day.
Fieldin’s software helps farmers avoid equipment failure, improve their harvest activities, track the length of processes, and determine the best times to spray (generally at night when the wind is calm).
Almonds, olives, grapes
Fieldin has focused on high-value crops — mainly almonds, olives and grapes, although one big client is Taylor Farms, which harvests a third of all the lettuce consumed in the United States.
Birger was born into a farming family. “We are one of the biggest growers of almonds and olives in Israel,” Birger said. His father was chairman of Israel’s almond board for nearly 20 years.
Bachar also married into the farming life — his kibbutz-born wife’s family grew avocados.
When Bachar and Birger met (“It’s a small country, everyone knows everyone; we had a lot of mutual circles,” Bachar says), it was clear that improving agriculture was their calling.
The duo established Fieldin in 2013. By 2018, they had already reached 50 percent of the relevant growers in Israel and decided to branch out. Fieldin established an office in Silicon Valley and Bachar and Birger moved to Sunnyvale.
Today, the company has 60 (mostly engineering) employees in Yokne’am, Israel; another 46 in California; and four in Australia (where one of their California clients manages a large almond farm).
Fieldin now has some 200 clients around the world, including five of the 10 largest farms in California. Among its clients are Olam (almonds), California Olive Ranch and Carmel Wines in Israel. Fieldin software supports more than 20 percent of global production of almonds.
Game changer for commercial farmers
Having raised $55 million in investments, Fieldin is working toward enabling farms to become fully autonomous with mechanized pickers and sprayers.
“Our AgOS [agricultural operating system] easily interfaces with digital equipment and can both manage and disseminate the data produced by the coming wave of autonomous farm technologies,” Bachar said.
“This is a game changer for commercial farmers who want to thrive amid the complexities of the coming agricultural era.”
Fieldin claims that its software (the sensors are customized from off-the-shelf hardware) can improve productivity by 25 percent as measured by the number of acres covered per shift. Across its growing client base, Fieldin has monitored 2.7 million tractor hours and 10 million acres.
By optimizing how gasoline-powered farming equipment is used, carbon emissions can be reduced, as can pesticide use.
“This is how we try to make farming more sustainable,” Birger said, although he’s quick to add that “it’s not just about climate change. It’s about better farming.”
Adapting to the pandemic
Bachar and Birger found themselves trying to grow their company in the midst of a once-in-a-century global pandemic. It was a challenge at first.
With the number of hotel stays and flights dramatically reduced at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, demand for fruits and vegetables used by food services dropped. That was a problem for farms, which must plant their fields months in advance based on sales forecasts.
Then, by the end of 2020, just as growers were starting to adapt to their new reality, demand bounced back, leading to supply-chain problems. By the first quarter of 2021, the situation had returned to pre-COVID levels.
The need to restrict human interaction when a pandemic is raging has only accelerated the industry’s desire to automate. That was one of the reasons Fieldin raised a $30 million Series B round this September, led by Fortissimo Capital, in September.
Some of these funds will help beef up its grower success team. Each farm is assigned a Fieldin team member who works with the farmers to install the sensors and set up the notification interface and centralized dashboard. “They accompany growers throughout the journey,” Bachar said.
Fieldin is not without competition, but other companies in the space mainly are after specific slices of the farming pie such as irrigation or budgeting, rather than digitizing an entire farm and all its equipment.
It’s a huge opportunity.
Bachar estimates the worldwide value of high-value crops at $1.2 billion. “We believe we can capture 5 percent of that,” he says.
California’s agricultural industry alone is worth $30 billion, he adds.
The ultimate goal is to bring a high-tech sensibility to an industry that has been typically slow to embrace the technological revolution.
If that results in higher quality food at competitive prices, with greater profit for the farmers, it will be a win-win for everyone in the field.
Searching — again! — for your car keys that you casually tossed on top of a pile of papers, books and other materials after a night out? Perhaps you need the help of a newly designed robot that can find objects through the mess by sensing what you and other humans can’t see.
Using a camera alongside an extra sensor, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a robot that can sense where an object is even if it is hidden under other objects.
“One of the really great parts about the system is it can see through items. It can find items it can’t necessarily find with a camera,” researcher Isaac Perper told Zenger.
For the sensor to find out-of-sight objects, it needs a tag that sends radio signals to the robot to help it determine where the object might be even if it is hidden under other items.
“The [radio frequency] perception module was able to localize the tagged items,” lead author of the research paper Tara Boroushaki told Zenger.
The researchers’ application of the radio signals was built on decades of previous research in the field of radio-frequency technology. Primarily, radio identification tags have been used to send signals to receivers that are capable of tracking where the tag is located, as reported by Ron Weinstein in his 2005 paper outlining radio frequency tags and their uses. The MIT researchers applied this technology to help the robot find the general locations of objects. By including a camera, they were able to improve the robot’s ability to grab items.
The researchers then created a simulated environment needed to teach the robot to quickly find items using both the camera and the radio signals.
“There are a lot of factors that are really hard to modulate and optimize. So what we did was create a simulation environment and make a simulation robot in it,” Boroushaki said.
In the simulation, the robot was rewarded for finding objects, and it was punished for making mistakes such as hitting other objects or going to incorrect places.
The robot, pictured here with study co-author Tara Boroushaki, was rewarded for finding objects, and it was punished for making mistakes such as hitting other objects or going to incorrect places. (Fadel Adib, Tara Boroushaki, et. al.)
“Over time it learns what actions are good … and what actions are bad,” Boroushaki said. “This is also how our brain learns. We get rewarded from our teachers, from our parents, from a computer game, etc. The same thing happens in reinforcement learning.
“We did it in the simulation because it takes thousands, or sometimes millions of trials, for [the robot] to learn. It’s really hard to do it in the actual world because you have to make sure it doesn’t hit anyone or break itself, but you can do it easily in simulation.”
While the robot is still being developed, the researchers predict it will eventually have real-world applications.
“One application is in a warehouse,” Boroushaki said. “A robot could go and find the objects that you requested, put them in your package and then double-check if it put the right item and send it out to you.”
With industrial applications, the robot could improve the efficiency of many companies. However, it also could have a role in households.
“If you’re sick, a robot can take care of your family and clean for you. When it’s time for you to take your medication, it can go and get your medication for you and make sure that you take your medication,” Boroushaki said.
Perper raised the image of a crowded shelf. If there is something on the shelf blocking the medication you are seeking from sight, the robot would still be able to find and grab it by tracking the medication with its sensor.
“It can do these things that cameras alone are incapable of,” Perper said.
“Right now, you can think of this as a Roomba on steroids, but in the near term, this could have a lot of applications in manufacturing and warehouse environments,” said senior study author Fadel Adib, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab.
The researchers said the project will be presented at the 2021 Association for Computing Machinery SenSys Conference in Portugal in November.
In the meantime, the MIT researchers will continue to improve their robot’s efficiency and speed.
“Those are all things that we have to figure out over the next few months,” Perper said.
ABC has released the first music video for “Queens,” the upcoming drama series co-starring Nadine Velazquez. The show premieres on Oct. 19.
“Queens” executive producer Tim Story directs “Nasty Girl.” The video features Velazquez and co-stars Eve, Naturi Naughton and Brandy performing in 1990s hip-hop style.
“Nasty Girl” came out hours after the release of the single by Def Jam Recordings, the official label partner for the show’s original music. Swizz Beatz is the executive music producer for the series’ original music.
Story has directed music videos for NSYNC, Tyrese Gibson, Sonique, India Arie, Beenie Man, Avant and Pete Rock. His film credits include comedy/drama “Barbershop” and the superhero “Fantastic Four” franchise.
The new single and video is the first taste that audiences are getting of “Queens.” The show revolves around four ex-members of a defunct 1990s hip-hop female band who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger.
About three decades ago, they were legendary in the music business as Nasty Bitches, but now the 40-something-year-old women are out of touch.
Chicago-born Velazquez is best known as Catalina Aruca on the Primetime Emmy-winning comedy series “My Name Is Earl” and as Sofia Ruxin on “The League.” The first series won the actress, of Puerto Rican descent, a nomination to the Alma Awards in the Best Supporting Actress category. Her credits also include the TV series “Six” and the feature films “Flight”, opposite two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington and “Snitch,” opposite Dwayne Johnson.
In “Queens” Velazquez plays Valeria, a.k.a. Butter Pecan. The cast also features Eve as Brianna, a.k.a. Professor Sex, Naturi Naughton as Jill, a.k.a. Da Thrill, and Brandy as Naomi, a.k.a. Xplicit Lyrics. Additional cast members include Taylor Sele as Eric Jones and Pepi Sonuga as Lil Muffin.
Zahir McGhee and Sabrina Wind, along with Story, are the series’ executive producers. ABC Signature, a part of Disney Television Studios, is the producing company behind “Queens.”
In June 2021, Disney said the series would premiere in select countries on its streamer Disney+, via the streaming hub Star.
Media entrepreneur Bel Hernandez has joined the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s (HFPA) Credentials Committee. The committee selects new members of the HFPA, the group that presents the Golden Globe Awards.
Hernandez is one of several prominent media professionals recruited recently to help diversify the HFPA. The association describes the appointments as “one of the most important steps of their comprehensive reform plan announced in May,” when the nonprofit organization put out proposed changes to correct its failures.
Those shortcomings were the subject of a Los Angeles Times exposé last February, which triggered widespread criticism of the 78-year-old group about its inner workings and lack of diversity.
After the reporting, a few actors returned their Golden Globes, NBC canceled the broadcast of the awards ceremony, and some HFPA members resigned.
The association hopes to turn the page on this year’s controversies with the Credential Committee namings and other recent changes.
“We are so grateful that these five highly respected journalism professionals — each with diverse backgrounds and extensive experience in their fields — are devoting their time and energy to ensure an inclusive makeup of our association,” said recently installed HFPA Board President Helen Hoehne.
Hernandez is now an accomplished businesswoman, but she began her Hollywood journey as an actress. She then became a journalist specializing in Latinos in the film industry, a group often neglected by trade and mainstream media.
She is president and CEO of Latin Heat Media, a multimedia company creating content by and about Latinos for universal audiences through platforms such as Latin Heat Entertainment and TheTRENDTalk Show.
Latin Heat has covered Latinos in Hollywood since 1992. The outlet features entertainment news coverage, breaking industry news, and profiles of TV and film talent working in front of and behind the camera.
For her work focused on Latinos in the film industry, “Moviemaker Magazine” dubbed Hernandez “The Godmother of Latino Hollywood.”
Hernandez’s work and leadership led her to serve as a juror on the George Foster Peabody Awards board, where she was the first Latina to serve as chair.
“I am beyond honored to be part of the HFPA Credentialing Committee, which is tasked with the important work of helping diversify the makeup of their members to be as inclusive as possible,” said Hernandez. “I know first hand about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
A four-foot-tall humanoid robot called Robin cheers up hospitalized children by talking and playing games with them, a study found.
Specialists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Mattel Children’s Hospital’s Chase Child Life Program carried out visits to young patients with the robot between October 2020 and April 2021.
In the study, other children were given just a tablet to interact with.
“Ninety percent of parents who had a visit with Robin indicated they were ‘extremely likely’ to request another visit, compared to 60 percent of parents whose children interacted with the tablet,” the study found.
“Children reported a 29 percent increase in positive effect — described as the tendency to experience the world in a positive way, including emotions, interactions with others and with life’s challenges — after a visit with Robin and a 33 percent decrease in negative effect.”
Children who had a tablet visit reported a 43 percent decrease in positive affect and a 33 percent decrease in negative effect.
When Robot Robin interacted with child patients at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital, as seen here, he had a positive emotional effect on them, researchers found. (UCLA/Zenger)
“Our team has demonstrated that a social companion robot can go beyond video chats on a tablet to give us a more imaginative and profound way to make the hospital less stressful,” Justin Wagner, M.D., a pediatric surgeon at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and senior author of the study, said.
Child life specialists said that interactions with Robin resulted in a greater display of intimacy and interactivity between children during playtime and helped them build new friendships.
Justin Wagner, a pediatric surgeon at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, said research showed that interactions with a robot made a hospital stay less stressful for children. (UCLA/Zenger)
“As the pandemic continues, our patients are still feeling anxious and vulnerable in a variety of ways, so it’s critical that we be as creative as possible to make their experiences easier when they need our help,” Wagner said.
“We saw the positive effect in children, their families and healthcare workers.”
“This is another tool in our toolbox to provide developmental and coping support for our young patients,” said Kelli Carroll, director of the Chase Child Life Program. “While our traditional interventions are on pause during the pandemic, the need remains to prepare, educate and provide behavioral distraction for children. Robin will help our specialists do that.”
Robin not only benefited the children and their parents but also the hospital staff as it increased staff engagement in social care while helping them maintain infection control practices, the study found.
The research was presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference on Oct. 11.
