Current Affairs 08th December 2016 | General Awareness 08th December 2016

Giraffes, rarer than elephants, put on extinction watch list

The giraffe population has shrunk nearly 40 percent in just 30 years.

The giraffe, the tallest land animal, is now at risk of extinction, biologists say.Because the giraffe population has shrunk nearly 40 percent in just 30 years, scientists put it on the official watch list of threatened and endangered species worldwide, calling it “vulnerable.” That’s two steps up the danger ladder from its previous designation of being a species of least concern.

Endangered Species

• Ornate ground snake
• Lacepede’s ground snake

What demonetisation has done no amount of cash offers can do

Demonetisation led to a phenomenal spike in the adoption of mobile wallets.

• Due to a cash crunch following the government’s move to demonetise Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes, mobile wallets like Paytm have seen a phenomenal spike in adoption.
• Offline has become huge for them. Almost 65 per cent transactions are now offline . They have added nearly a million QR codes at point of sale during the past month.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Founder of Paytm

Jumping robot to assist in earthquake rescue efforts

An African monkey that can leap high inspired scientists

• An agile jumping robot developed by U.S. scientists who drew inspiration from one of the animal world’s best leapers could one day help in rescue efforts after earthquakes or building collapses.
• The robot can jump one metre in less than one second

Salto

The 26-cm tall robot

Five airports to go ‘tag-free’ for hand baggage

The move will cut delays on lost security tags

• If you have had to go back to security from the boarding queue of a flight because your hand baggage did not have the stamped tag, there is relief coming at five airports.
• The hand baggage tags will not be necessary as the Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered that they could be done away with, on a pilot basis, at Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore airports.

Airport to go tag-free

• Delhi
• Kolkata
• Chennai
• Hyderabad
• Bangalore

Apple opens up to collaboration in AI

The move is likely to help Apple attract new talent on board

• Apple, which has a reputation for being secretive and protective of its drawing board, appears to be making an uncharacteristic move towards transparency.
• Hints are that it plans to allow its AI researchers to publish their findings and thus engage more deeply with the academic community.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) Trendings

• Google Home
• Amazon Echo
• Facebook’s plans

When New Zealand passport robot thought Asian descent’s eyes were closed

Facial recognition software mistakenly registered his eyes as being closed

• A New Zealand man of Asian descent had his passport photograph rejected when facial recognition software mistakenly registered his eyes as being closed.
• Richard Lee’s attempt to renew his passport was blocked after he submitted the picture to an online passport photo checker run by New Zealand’s department of internal affairs.

20 per cent

Passport photos submitted online are rejected for various reasons.

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