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Tired of long waiting times in Starbucks? How about a Robot Barista?

Helena Kudiabor

May 12, 2021 |

Roar News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

To reduce long wait times and exposure to health concerns amid the latest global pandemic, some coffee shops are experimenting with robot baristas. The robot barrista at Café X, in San Francisco, can make about 120 cups of coffee an hour using a robotic arm created by Mitsubishi. While the robot only performs predefined actions, like picking up a cup, pouring milk, and placing the cup in front of the customer, a barista robot at a Singapore café also plays games with customers waiting in line and a Japanese company created a “friendly” robot barista that greets customers with different facial expressions.

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Meet the Activist Archivists Saving the Internet From the Digital Dustbin

Mark Hill

May 12, 2021 |

Discover Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

The Internet Archive is a digital library of around 544 billion archived web pages, most of which are found using a bot that crawls the web and saves snapshots. However, a self-described loose collective of volunteer activist archivists, known as the Archive Team,' individually monitors and preserves websites at risk of being abruptly taken down. Using donated bandwidth and hard drive space on the archiving application “Warrior,” they systematically download sites they fear will be deleted. The downloads are saved within the Internet Archive database, which is available to the public.

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Amid pandemic, uninsured patients benefiting from emergence of telemedicine

Nate Morabito

May 08, 2021 |

WCNC-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, North Carolina

As COVID-19 forced some low cost and free clinics to use telemedicine to treat patients it became clear that it was an efficient and convenient way to reduce unnecessary trips to the emergency room and meet the immediate health needs of people with chronic health problems. The clinics can treat more patients and no-show rates decline substantially. While internet and smartphone access are long-term barriers that need to be overcome, 46 charitable clinics across the state are using telemedicine platforms to deliver care to uninsured patients.

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Markham, Ont., vaccine initiative shows what happens when tech and faith team up

Diane Peters

May 07, 2021 |

Broadview Magazine |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Canada, Markham, Ontario

A community effort spearheaded by a local church and a software company is helping senior citizens in Markham, Ontario secure Covid vaccine appointments. Ahead of the vaccine rollout, a reverend and a parishioner began collecting senior's information via an online form, which allowed them to streamline the signup process. The effort's success has attracted surrounding communities who are now working with the duo to reach their seniors as well.

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Africa's Solar Street Lights Offer Glimmer of Potential

Marianne Dhenin

May 04, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Uganda, Jinja City

Solar-powered street lights have replaced the shoddy conventional lighting in Jinja City, Uganda. Solar-powered panels and batteries power lighting that is not only cheaper but is also more reliable and has resulted in social and economic benefits too. Safer streets, higher business revenue for businesses that can operate at night, and a boost in the tourism industry are just a few of the positive outcomes.

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The forest sound detectives

Nick Holland

May 04, 2021 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Papua New Guinea

After remote Indigenous communities in Papau New Guinea set aside some of their land as conservation areas, they wanted to know if it was working. With the help from scientists and The Nature Conservancy, they were able to use bioacoustics or audio recordings of the rainforests to map out the biodiversity. Using 34 recording devices, they were able to record the forest, listen to them, analyze the sounds, and determine that these areas had a healthy biodiversity.

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To Solve 3 Cold Cases, This Small County Got a DNA Crash Course

Virginia Hughes

May 03, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kentland, Indiana

Genetic genealogy's use in criminal cases has gone mainstream. As the cases of three murder victims in Indiana illustrate, the science of DNA evidence combined with genealogical research and detective work is rapidly ramping up, from a hobby to a curiosity and now to a major commercial and criminal-justice opportunity. Hundreds of missing persons have been identified from decades-old remains, or murder suspects identified from old biological evidence in cold cases. By creating a family tree of the victim or suspect, investigators can zero in on an identity more quickly and inexpensively than ever.

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Meet the influencers who are fighting the spread of online conspiracy theories

Christianna Silva

April 28, 2021 |

Mashable |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Social media influencers are using “pre-bunking” -- the practice of exposing people to misinformation and offering expert-backed explanations of why it isn’t true before they see the misinformation in the wild – as a tool to fight its spread and increase media literacy. Hundreds of thousands of people follow accounts on TikTok and Instagram run by influencers whose goals are not to change the minds of staunch conspiracy theorists, but rather to provide tools for those who are either on the fence or want to learn to communicate with people in their lives who subscribe to false information.

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Indians are crowdsourcing aid as covid surges

Varsha Bansal

April 28, 2021 |

MIT Technology Review |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India

In India, citizen-led small-scale digital efforts are helping to connect Covid-19 patients with the resources, supplies, and medical equipment they need to survive. The citizen groups are largely using online platforms to crowdsource what they need, with some matching buyers and sellers and others "debunking inaccurate leads."

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How Kenya turned the tide against ivory poachers

Andres Schipani

April 27, 2021 |

Financial Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Kenya, Nanyuki

More and more park rangers, judges, prosecutors, and wildlife investigators are working together to stop poaching in Kenya. Through training and a new app that allows all parties to track wild animals in a protected conservation area, the number of poaching cases has decreased from 449 creatures killed illegally in 2021 to 93 in 2018. The number of court cases have also decreased in recent years.

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