This is Biden’s seven-point plan for tackling the pandemic

What Musk's $100 million carbon capture prize could mean

Sponsored by Siemens Digital Industries Software The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology A man with a plan 01.22.21 Good morning! Today: how Biden plans to tackle the pandemic, Musk pledges $100 million for carbon capture technology, and why Israel's vaccine program isn't a total success story. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. We wish you a restful, relaxing weekend. This is Biden’s seven-point plan for tackling the pandemic   The news: President Biden has said it will take a "wartime effort" to tackle the covid-19 pandemic as he unveiled a seven-point plan on his first full day in the job. The plan is a distillation of a 200-page strategy document which sets out his intentions, some of which have already started to be put into action through executive orders. Thousands of Americans are currently dying of covid-19 every day, and the US death toll is just weeks away from reaching half a million, so the task could not be more urgent.  What’s the plan: Mask mandates, access to free testing for all, fixing persistent problems with personal protective equipment, and speeding up vaccinations are just some of the items on the list. (You can read them all for yourself.) Now comes the action: Biden has already put some of this into practice, signing 10 executive orders yesterday. But he still faces significant political obstacles, with uncertainty over whether Republicans in Congress will agree to pass a $1.9 trillion relief package to pay for the measures. Read the full story. What Musk’s $100 million carbon capture prize could mean What’s happened: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, now the world's richest person with a net worth north of $180 billion, announced on Twitter that he plans to give away $100 million of it as a prize for the "best carbon capture technology." He says he’ll provide more details next week. What is carbon capture? It can refer to methods that prevent greenhouse gas pollution escaping from power plants and factories, or various ways of pulling it out of the atmosphere. Some startups are developing so-called direct-air capture machines that pluck carbon dioxide molecules from the air. Other groups are exploring ways of using minerals, trees, plants and soil to pull down the greenhouse gas. A catch: Neither on-site carbon capture or air removal are happening on large scales today, however, principally because they're highly expensive and there's limited value for the captured gas right now. Money aside, one thing Musk has a particular knack for is generating attention. And this is a space in need of it. Read the full story. —James Temple “Everyone is impressed by Israeli vaccination, but I don’t think we’re a success story” Israel was originally praised for its approach to covid-19 vaccine distribution, and was hailed as a model for how to get things done. But the picture that has emerged since is a lot more complicated. Covid-19 infections have reached record highs, and a new lockdown has been extended until the end of January. Meanwhile, there is inequality and political turmoil behind the headlines, with the UN among those criticizing Israel for refusing to share its vaccines with some 4.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  We spoke with Hadas Ziv, the head of policy and ethics at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, about that country’s successes and setbacks. She was part of the expert team that presented covid-19 vaccine policy recommendations to the Israeli government. Read the full interview.  —Mia Sato What are you doing on February 10-11? If you’re free, why not join me (virtually) when I’ll be talking to Chris Bedi, the chief information officer of ServiceNow, and Lakshmi Hanspal, Box’s global chief security officer, about how they have navigated this unpredictable, unstable year. Come along to our Future Compute, our virtual event all about the future of technology, and learn the lessons for yourself. Hit this link and you’ll get 10% off—so join me! We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Do not put a pancake on your cat's face. Just trust me. Or play your cat J-Lo. DO enjoy a cat massage ASMR video.    + If you live in Ottawa, good news: some diligent person has compiled all the backyard skating rinks you can visit.   + Krispie treats but… taken to a whole other level (thanks America! And more specifically, thank you Tanya!)   + Obviously someone has combined Bernie and a sea shanty. I had to see this, so you do too.    + How to meet new people after a year of isolation.   + Any exercise is better than none, even if you only have 11 minutes. (NYT $) Sponsor Message With trust in AI, manufacturers can build better Some people might not associate the word “trust” with artificial intelligence (AI).   Stefan Jockusch, Vice President of Strategy at Siemens Digital Industries Software, is not one of them. AI can improve production speed, take away tedious tasks from creative engineers, and make products customers want, explains Jockusch. He gives the example of Apple’s iPhones and its facial recognition software—technology that has been tested “millions and millions of times” and produced just a few failures.    Listen to the podcast here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The US is joining a global vaccine scheme COVAX aims to deliver covid-19 vaccines to poorer nations. (CNBC)   + How quickly can vaccines turn things around? (The Economist $)   + Watch out for vaccine scams. (CNET)   + Pfizer is delivering half the vaccines it promised to some European countries. (Reuters)   + What role could China's vaccine play? (The Economist $)  2 AI could make healthcare fairer—by helping us believe what patients say Training deep-learning models on patient outcomes could help reveal gaps in existing medical knowledge. (TR)   + The limitations of AI therapy. (New Statesman)  3 Facebook has referred its decision to ban Trump to its oversight board It's the board's first major case, and exactly the sort of decision it should be looking at. (WP $)   + Facebook is telling its employees to place more priority on privacy. (OneZero $)  4 The mystery of the pandemic's impact on North Korea An already paranoid and secretive regime has only become even more so. (Wired UK)   5 Alphabet is shutting down its internet balloon company 🎈 It always sounded like loonacy to me. (The Verge)   + Google is threatening to pull out of Australia if proposed legislation for it to pay publishers goes ahead. (The Guardian)   + But... it's agreed to do roughly the same thing in France. (Ars Technica)   6 Biden's peloton bike presents a security problem 🚲  It'll be very different to a standard issue one when the Secret Service is done with it. (NYT $)   7 Among Us is struggling to cope with its sudden popularity If an online service can be misused, it will be. (OneZero $)   8 Augmented reality helped with knee surgery in a US first "Knee surgery, but make it FUN." (WSJ $)   9 The guy who made the Bernie meme site has regrets There genuinely is such a thing as "too successful." (Wired $)   10 The White House website has a secret message for coders Your country needs YOU. (CNET) Defensive AI is your best shot at being prepared for unpredictable supercharged attack campaigns. Join Darktrace's Director of Strategic Threat and Director of Threat Hunting for free webcast on 1/25 to discover what successful threat prevention looks like. Register today. Quote of the day “What we’re inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined." —Jeff Zients, the new White House Covid-19 response coordinator, tells reporters he is going to have to essentially start from scratch. Top image credit: Associated Press Please send Krispie treats to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Intelligent computing Join us virtually | February 10-11, 2021   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142   Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list.  Subscription Information This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog   *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally