TMO Background Mode Interview with Climate Scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

Dr. Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is the director of the Climate Science Center. She is also the CEO of the consulting firm ATMOS Research and Consulting. She received her undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Toronto and a masters and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We started from basics in this chat and defined how science works via observation. Then we delved into the process of climate change research, successful computer models, the significant findings of climate science and whether some changes are exponential rather than linear. Finally, Dr. Hayhoe filled us in on some great resources for further reading.

Apple Maps Conducting Pedestrain Level Surveys

Apple Maps is collecting pedestrian level data in California. On Friday, a man wearing a Lidar rig, GPS and multiple cameras as well as an Apple Maps backpack, was spotted in San Francisco, according to MacRumors. On its website, Apple said [via AppleInsider] that Pedestrian teams will be in a number of California counties. While cars conducting mapping are not such a rare site spotted in Los Angeles earlier in the week, but as MacRumors noted: “This is the first time we’ve seen someone collecting mapping data on foot.”

The New iPad Pro Bends

YouTuber JerryRigEverything has taken a rather brutal approach to Apple’s new iPad Pro. In a new video, he tested the 11-inch version’s durability and found that it “doesn’t have any of that structural integrity stuff.” He concluded: “A tablet the size of a piece paper folds like a piece of paper.” It is quite painful to watch the beautiful device just give way, but worth knowing where the weak the points are. (Spoiler alert: they’re right in the middle, by the microphone and Apple Pencil charging dock.)

Apple News puts Humans First

The Sydney Morning Herald has taken an in-depth look at how Apple News is developing.  Australia is one of only three countries in which the service is available, the others being the US and UK. The piece outlines the radically different approach Apple has taken to news compared to other tech giants. Its focus is on using human journalists, not algorithms, to curate news, not algorithms, in a bid to improve accuracy. That approach was summed up in a quote from Apple News Editor-in-Chief Lauren Kern:

“Misinformation can come out so quickly and spread so rapidly and that’s something that we take pride in not allowing to happen”  says Lauren Kern, the platform’s editor in chief, who is a former executive editor of New York magazine. “Our mantra is that it’s better to be accurate than first.”