When we talk about commodities,the first thing that comes to our mind is good and services of all varieties. The relation between good and services with globalization is financial trade. As we mention before,globalization is closely related to a revolution in connection and communications. The communications revolution makes transactions easy, fast, and cheap. No movements of physical goods or of people are involved. No frontiers have to be crossed. The only barriers are national regulations.

Assets and Debts market consists of securities, bank loans and deposits, titles to land and physical capital. Globalization makes nothing is involved beyond exchanging pieces of paper or making entries in electronic ledgers. The communications revolution makes transactions easy, fast, and cheap. No frontiers have to be crossed. The only barriers are national regulations.

services to help companies manage the financial aspects of their business like Go-Pay,Ovo, or Apple pay. However, while Fintech is evolving every year, it can be disruptive or turns out they can be disruptive by another firms. 

 

First of all, Fintech has been around of us ever since we didn’t realize it. Yes, it helps us a lot but still it can be disruptive, Deloitte and the WEB said that the growth of online shopping and insurances product is one of the many example that Fintech is disruptive enough. Its expanding quickly at the expense of in-person shopping, leading to the dominance of online, cashless solutions for transactions and becoming more tailored to customers who demanding coverage for specific locations, uses and timeframes. That's driving insurers to collect and analyze additional data about their clients.

But right now in the moment, banks had also become technology providers. It means Fintech will be disrupt by this situation. Just for example, Early Warning Services LLC. - a technology provider owned by Bank of America, BB & T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo - unveiled its new Zelle person-to-person payments service.

Feby

Benedictus

Rafid 

Andre

Broadly speaking, FinTech (financial technology) is anywhere technology is applied in financial services or used to help companies manage the financial aspects of their business, including new software and applications, processes and business models. When you use m-banking, t-cash, Ovo, Go-Pay, PayPal, or simply your credit card to make an online purchase, you are using FinTech. Lately, almost all transactions that we do is using fintech. So, how does fintech influence the world economy?

Firstly, FinTech is not new. It's been around in one form or another virtually as long as financial services has. Once considered more of a back-end, data center processing platform, FinTech has in recent years come to be known as the basis for end-to-end processing of transactions over the Internet via cloud services. After the global financial crisis of 2008, however, FinTech has evolved to disrupt and reshape commerce, payments, investment, asset management, insurance, clearance and settlement of securities and even money itself with cryptocurrencies  such as Bitcoin.

Turing test is developed by legendary computer scientist Alan Turing,it’s a test to prove AI in a machine. Basically when a human interacts with a computer and if the human doesn’t know they’re interacting with a computer the test is passed. Or in another word,turing test is a way to  prove whether or not AI has their own consciousness. Usually in the turing test, the machine should be hidden from the examiner. But in ex machina, they proceed turing test differently by not hiding AI from the examiner so the examiner is not just allowed to hear the AI’s voice but also see directly that it’s really a robot talking to him.

In practice,it turns out that doing the turing test alone is not as helpful as we want it to be. AI’s final turing score can also fabricated by the programmers just like the chatbot case that pretend to be a 13 year old boy and convinced 33% of judges panel it was human when in fact it’s a fraud. Or we can say that the AI is programmed to trick the judges in order to get a decent turing score. No matter an AI’s final turing test score, a script built to imitate human conversation or recognize patterns isn’t something the scientists would describe as being truly intelligent and a way to show that AI have their own consciousness. 

If Ava, who’s played by AVA, looks at you like she knows your most deeply felt desires, it’s because we’ve already told them to her – during our lunch breaks, in illicit, snatched moments while we’re supposed to be working, and by the pale blue glow of our smartphones last thing at night. Garland’s science-fiction chamber piece – his first film as director, and fifth as screenwriter, after 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go and Dredd – starts from the premise that no one knows us better than our internet browsers, then turns that queasy intimacy inside out. Ex Machina whips up the same kind of existential terror Mary Shelley harnessed almost exactly 200 years ago in frankenstein, but for a time in which the flow of information holds the same world-conquering potential that the flow of electricity once did.

Kofi Outlaw

05/01/2019

Avengers: Endgame is earning crazy money at the worldwide box office - but apparently, it had to spend quite a bit of money to make that money. In a new breakdown of Avengers: Endgame by the film's directors, The Russo Bros., It was revealed that one of the biggest challenges to making both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame was actually finding the money to pay the massive cast of the films!

In talking with THR, Anthony Russo discusses the high cost of paying some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe biggest (read: most expensive) stars for the Infinity War / Endgame production - as well as the list of big stars that made cameos in either or both films:

Anthony Russo: "It was a huge financial issue on this one, and really the way it manifested for us was the fact that we shot these movies back-to-back. The primary motivation to shoot these movies back-to-back like this and to block them was so that we could condense actors' work so we were basically buying them for a little more than one movie rather than two full movies. Marvel and Disney were able to structure deals with the actors because we were economizing their time commitment by blocking the movies this way. That was the only reason to shoot these movies this way. Of course, there was a huge creative upside for Joe and I, in that we got to tell a story with all these characters and all these wonderful actors. Everything else about blocking these movies together is a downside. It was really difficult. Each of these movies was the most difficult, complex movie we've ever made individually and to do them back-to-back together was a really daunting task."

There's a lot of implication packed into that quote, once you start to unpack it. First: while the scheduling of Infinity War and Endgame's productions were seemingly done to accommodate the cast schedules, it also allowed Disney to cut the cost of actor salaries down to essentially one big film production, instead of two. Second, for all the success The Russos are enjoying in light of Endgame's release, the undertaking clearly took a lot out of them - arguably too much. The stress of directing a movie is already a massive toll on most directors - taking on two of the biggest blockbuster films of all time would be an unthinkable strain.

Still, with the work and effort now behind them, it's safe to say that Marvel fans all over the world are more than thrilled with the great sacrifice that the Russo Bros. made. It's equally true that the Russo Bros. will likely end up looking fondly on this big life struggle, as Infinity War and Endgame's respective and collective success will like buy the Russos any kind of career they want, going forward.

 

MANCHESTER, England -- Pep Guardiola has said Liverpool are one of the best two teams he has ever faced during his time as a coach.

Liverpool moved back top of the Premier League on Saturday, meaning that Manchester City must now win their final two matches, starting with Leicester City on Monday night, to be certain of retaining their Premier League title.

City would become the first side to defend the crown since Manchester United in 2008-09 and Guardiola said it would be an even more remarkable achievement to finish ahead of a side he compared to the Barcelona team that thrashed former club Bayern Munich in a Champions League semifinal in 2015.

 

"In my career as a manager I have played against incredible sides and there are two that were 'wow,'" he told a news conference. "One is Barcelona with Luis Enrique, with Neymar, Messi and Suarez up front -- the other is this Liverpool.

"I think they are the best two sides I've faced as a manager. That's why being there, with it in our hands, fighting against them until the end, being seven points behind [at one stage] and after [winning the title with] 100 points."

Liverpool suffered their own three-goal defeat at Camp Nou in midweek but bounced back with a late win over Newcastle on Saturday to keep the pressure on City.

 

With two victories required to be certain of the title, Guardiola's side would finish the season with 98 points -- the second highest total ever only behind their own 100-point season in the previous year.

"Arriving at this stage, two games left with 92 points, after 100 points, being there, that is the most satisfaction I've had as a manager," Guardiola said. "It's not easy, honestly. And they did it again.

"Now we have Monday's game, try to win the game and then go to Brighton with it in our hands, a chance to be champions there. It's the toughest league I've ever played as a manager, because of the quality from the rivals.

"No doubts. That's why being there is incredible. But, of course, only one will take the prize and the other one will be at home sad."

Kevin De Bruyne will be ruled out of the clash against Leicester and Fernandinho is a doubt despite returning to first team training.

https://flipboard.com/topic/soccer/man-city's-guardiola%3A-liverpool-one-of-two-best-teams-i-have-faced/a-k92KTmlyRhalCB44I_vR7A%3Aa%3A2840649986-86550d29e8/co.uk 

Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola said that Liverpool are one of the best two teams he has faced during his time as a coach. Having managed top clubs in his career, he mentioned that the best teams he has ever faced is Luis Enrique’s Barcelona with Messi Neymar and Suarez upfront and Juurgen Klopp’s Liverpool this season becoming real contender for City to retained their title as Premier League Champion. The title run will still be heated until the last fixture since Liverpool managed to steal a win in Newcastle last night. 

 

Liverpool gave a real threat for City as they continue their winning run putting Guardiola amazed by his rival just as he got beaten by Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League Semi Final when he managed Bayern Munich. Liverpool showed a great mentality that surprised Guardiola because they were beaten by Barcelona in the midweek, but succeed at snatching the 3 points from St. James Park last night. 

 

With the recent things stands Liverpool are in front of City with a game in hand for City, it means City has to win the last two games to officially become the champions of England this season. Collecting 92 points with two games left, Guardiola getting used to in this situation where his City really dominating the Premier League but surprised that Liverpool managed to do so. Guardiola admitted that this is the toughest league he’s ever played as a manager, because of the quality of the rivals.

 

The challenge given by Liverpool threat City’s mission to retain the title, forcing City to fight for the title until the last game of the season. It’s obviously not an easy thing, but Guardiola’s City is ready, starting from tonight’s match when they face Brighton in Etihad. Even though some key players like De Bruyne and Fernandinho are still in doubt, but Guardiola believe City is prepared to give everything they’ve got to win this run and finally he can prove himself as the manager in England for beating his greatest rival unlike in 2015 when he defeated by his former team Barcelona.

 

 

The movie we have been waiting for, finally released, Endgame has been released since April 25 2019 turned out to be a high grossing in just several weeks, really?

Well Its been two weeks since Avengers End Game came out in the theater and its still booming everywhere in the entire planet on earth. The Box Office said that Avengers Endgame has become the second highest grossing movie all the time. 
 
Endgame brought in $146 million domestically and $282 million internationally. In total, Endgame has made $620 million domestically and $1.569 billion internationally, it’s a huge number for sure. Endgame snatch the runner up highest grossing movie from Titanic which earned $2.188 bilion and want to beat Avatar which has $2.788 bilion in the first place. 
 
As long as we know, Endgame is a very entertaining movie for everyone who watched it. So, not so surprised if Endgame is the runner up of highest grossing movie or even be the one of them all. Lets just see! 

Gulf killifish

Photo: Andrew Whitehead

A small fish somehow evolved resistance to the heavily polluted water of the Houston Ship Channel by mysteriously acquiring genes from another fish from thousands of miles away, according to a new paper.

The Houston Ship Channel’s filthy water is the result of 60 years of industrial dumping, contaminating the water out into Galveston Bay. But despite the grime, a population of Gulf killifish have managed to evolve resistance to the otherwise lethal pollution. Genetic sequences revealed that the fish have integrated a small bit of DNA from another species of fish, the Atlantic killifish. These results show the extreme luck and difficulty required for animals to adapt to environments changed quickly by humans.

In order to survive humans, “you need to be a superstar in terms of genetic diversity and need to be super lucky,” study author Andrew Whitehead, associate professor at the University of California, Davis, told Gizmodo. “That doesn’t bode well for most species we care about conserving.”

Atlantic killifish

Photo: Andrew Whitehead

The researchers captured killifish from 12 increasingly polluted sites along the Houston Shop Channel and in Galveston Bay. They had the fish spawn in a laboratory and tested how the embryos fared against a pollutant called polychlorinated biphenyl. Fish from the most polluted sites could withstand concentrations 1,000 times higher than normally harmful levels, according to the paper published in Science.

But the incredible realization of how this fish evolved its pollution resistance came from genetic testing. A pair genes from the pollutant-resistant Gulf killifish, including a segment with deleted DNA that seemed to account for the resistance, appeared to come directly from another species, the Atlantic killifish. The researchers estimated that this little bit of genetic material entered the Gulf killifish’s gene pool no more than 34 generations ago, after a Gulf killifish hybridized with an Atlantic killifish.

You might be thinking, oh, that’s not so surprising; they’re both killifish in the same ocean. But that’s not really what’s happening. “These fish are the size of your thumb and can’t swim very far,” Whitehead explained. “They’ve got a small home range and they’re not a migratory fish. A fish you catch in a marsh was probably born within a hundred meters or so.”

The mystery, now, is how the fish managed to make it from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico. “We can only speculate,” said Whitehead. “It was almost certainly human assisted. These fish aren’t capable of swimming around the straits of Florida.” Perhaps an Atlantic killifish was scooped up in a ship’s ballast water and dumped into Galveston Bay.

Embryo from a non-pollutant-resistant (left) versus pollutant-resistant (right) population, after exposure to pollution. The embryo on the right is faring better.

Other researchers were impressed by the paper. “This was really solid,” Michi Tobler, associate professor at Kansas State University, told Gizmodo. “This story builds on some decades worth of research. They really capitalized that, and very explicitly tested a hypothesis. I thought that was really neat. They sequenced a lot of genomes.” 

Tobler, too, was “flabbergasted” about how this could actually happen. While the ballast water explanation made sense, he wanted to see how common this sort of evolution via hybridization event is in polluted waters around the world.

Don’t get the idea that hybridization is always beneficial, though. It can also threaten some species with extinction, Karin Pfennig wrote in a commentary for Science.

Does Asking Alexa Actually Save Time? An Investigation

Thursday 2:35PM

Your takeaway might be the old “life finds away,” or even “evolution is the solution to pollution.” But this isn’t really what’s going on here, explained Whitehead. Without an unlikely stroke of luck, Gulf killifish might have been completely killed out of the Houston Ship Channel. And far more species are dying out than getting lucky.

“Many of the species we care about are in big trouble when it comes to the pace and severity of environmental change and climate change,” Whitehead said. It’s unrealistic to rely on luck or even genetic engineering to maintain the species that humans care about, and other species more generally. “What’s feasible is to change our behavior as a species.”


This Fish Has Evolved to Thrive in Intensely Polluted Water

Water pollution occurs when harmful substances often chemicals or microorganisms contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment. A small fish somehow evolved resistance to the heavily polluted water of the Houston Ship Channel by mysteriously acquiring genes from another fish from thousands of miles away. The researchers wanted to see how common this sort of evolution via hybridization event is in polluted waters around the world. Unfortunately hybridization is quite dangerous.

Genetic sequences revealed that the fish have integrated a small bit of DNA from another species of fish, the Atlantic killifish. These results show the extreme luck and difficulty required for animals to adapt to environments changed quickly by humans. The researchers captured killifish from 12 increasingly polluted sites along the Houston Shop Channel and in Galveston Bay. They had the fish spawn in a laboratory and tested how the embryos fared against a pollutant called polychlorinated biphenyl. Fish from the most polluted sites could withstand concentrations 1,000 times higher than normally harmful levels. And then, the researchers estimated that this little bit of genetic material entered the Gulf killifish’s gene pool no more than 34 generations ago, after a Gulf killifish hybridized with an Atlantic killifish.

This phenomenon makes researchers interested in conducting research through hybridization events. Hybridization is the interbreeding between animals or plants of different species that results in a novel offspring. Though infrequent, hybridization is a powerful driver of evolution. DNA–DNA hybridization generally refers to a molecular biology technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between pools of DNA sequences. It is usually used to determine the genetic distance between two organisms and the DNA hybridization technique is commonly used to determine the relatedness between species and their evolutionary relationships. Although hybridization has benefits in conducting research, this still has the consequence that hybridization between different populations or species is an increasing problem because anthropogenic disturbances continue to increase the likelihood of mixing between previously isolated groups of genes that can result in the extinction of several species.

The researchers can use hybridization techniques to conduct their research, but this is not an effective way to do it often and researchers are expected to use other techniques that are safer for the species. In addition, to preserve the environment, all people must maintain their behavior towards nature.            

By Terrence Doyle

Filed under Soccer

Liverpool needed to do it all against Barcelona in the second leg of the Champions League semifinal on Tuesday. Despite creating chances, the Reds had failed to score in the first leg at Camp Nou last week, which meant they faced a 3-0 deficit going into Tuesday’s second leg at home against Lionel Messi’s squad. To advance to the final, Liverpool needed to score four times and prevent Barcelona — a team that possesses the best player in the world and one of the most potent attacks in Europe — from scoring what would likely be a decisive away goal.

The Reds managed to do both — and now they can sit back and wait for their opponent in the final on June 1 in Madrid.

To be clear, beating Messi and Barcelona by any margin in any game is a difficult task — ask any player in La Liga how it usually goes — but doing so in a Champions League semifinal, and without the help of injured forwards Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, seemed damn near impossible.

Before the game began, the FiveThirtyEight Soccer Power Indexagreed, giving Liverpool just a 7 percent chance to advance to the final. The model gave Barcelona a 93 percent chance to advance and a 61 percent chance to grab Europe’s top silverware. The odds to win the final have now swung precipitously in Liverpool’s favor: It has a 72 percent chance to take home the trophy if it plays Tottenham Hotspur and a 68 percent chance if it plays the Dutch club Ajax. The Reds’ only complaint now is that they can’t play the final at Anfield.

Despite the lopsided scoreline during the first leg between Liverpool and Barcelona, there was evidence that there wasn’t a significant gulf in class between them. The Reds took more total shots, made more passes inside the attacking third, made more passes inside their opponent’s penalty area, completed more total passes, whipped more crosses into the box and completed more tackles than Messi’s men. While a historic comeback was unlikely, Liverpool had certainly shown it was capable of hanging with Barca.

If the soccer gods were against Liverpool in the first leg — that Salah strike that rattled off the post late into the match suggested they might be — they were very much chugging pints on Merseyside on Tuesday. Liverpool got off to a quick start as Divock Origi scored off a rebound in the seventh minute. The early goal was crucial: Instead of marauding in search of an away goal that would have essentially ended the semifinal dead in its tracks, Barcelona looked shaken. They managed to get to halftime without conceding a second — and indeed almost got a much-coveted away goal deep into stoppage time — but it was clear the occasion was getting to them. Barcelona’s impotence allowed Liverpool to do the very, very unlikely and get three goals in the second half — two from substitute Georginio Wijnaldum and another from Origi.

Barcelona had more of the ball in the second leg, but the Blaugrana weren’t able to cash in when they got into dangerous spaces. They created just two big chances to Liverpool’s five, and aside from a couple of half-chances, Messi was uncharacteristically quiet. He took five shots, with just two of them on target, while never really troubling Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker. While an act of Messi magic changed the equation at the Camp Nou last week, the only magic on display by Barcelona at Anfield was a disappearing act.

Messi, soccer’s GOAT, has to endure yet another setback in a career that’s been defined as much by heartbreak as it has been by brilliance. And Liverpool will move on — no matter how miraculously — to play in a second-consecutive Champions League final.
 ___________________________________________________

Liverpool must exert all its capabilities in the second uefa champions league semifinal meeting against Barcelona FC. 3-0 defeat of the Reds, Liverpool's nickname, in the first meeting caused the Reds need at least four goals without reply. this is not something easy because Barcelona FC has Lionel Messi, one of the world's best players, and is the most dangerous team on the attack side. 

Liverpool are not considered, judged to only have a 7% chance of qualifying for the final match by one of the football observers playing confidently and pressing from the start. As a result, the Reds were able to create a goal through Orgi's divock which made use of the rebound ball in the 7th minute. The quick goal created by Liverpool made the players of FC Barcelona mentally depressed. In the second half, Liverpool included his midfielder, Gregory Wijnaldum to increase attack power. As a result, Liverpool were able to add 2 goals through Wijnaldum in the first 12 minutes of the second half. Liverpool, who continued to press FC Barcelona, were finally able to turn things around in the 78th minute through origi divock. Liverpool became the first team to qualify from the semifinals with a three-goal deficit in the first game.

in this match, Liverpool played well and the discipline was inversely proportional to FC Barcelona. Liverpool is almost superior to every statistic that exists. liverpool shot more, put more pressure on the opponent's area, made more passes in the opponent's penalty box, made more successful passes, and carried out more tackles. while Lionel messi and his troops were only able to win possession without being able to carry out dangerous attacks. they were only able to make 2 shots towards the goal. Different from the first game, magic from messi is not seen at anfield stadium, livepool's home. 

Messi, the world's best player, again suffered a big blow in his football career. whereas Liverpool who is able to play nicely and discipline, is finally able to step into the UEFA Champions League final in an extraordinary way.