> It is reported that relying on tourism, the revenue of Pingtang town in the first half of the year has reached 4.6 billion yuan, an increase of 40% over the same period last year.
Obligatory "can we trust official Chinese statistics?". Gaming local numbers after a lavishly-funded project seems to have been popular for a while [1].
I mean de-noising techniques, nowadays can be definitely claimed as Machine Learning, even though they have long existed prior to even ML as a concept even being invented...
For another perspective, check out this article in Symmetry Magazine, "Neural networks meet space" [1].
> "Analyses that typically take weeks to months to complete, that require the input of experts and that are computationally demanding, can be done by neural nets within a fraction of a second, in a fully automated way and, in principle, on a cell phone’s computer chip,” says postdoctoral fellow Laurence Perreault Levasseur, a co-author of a study published today in Nature."
> "The team at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), a joint institute of SLAC and Stanford, used neural networks to analyze images of strong gravitational lensing, where the image of a faraway galaxy is multiplied and distorted into rings and arcs by the gravity of a massive object, such as a galaxy cluster, that’s closer to us. The distortions provide important clues about how mass is distributed in space and how that distribution changes over time – properties linked to invisible dark matter that makes up 85 percent of all matter in the universe and to dark energy that’s accelerating the expansion of the universe."
> "Until now this type of analysis has been a tedious process that involves comparing actual images of lenses with a large number of computer simulations of mathematical lensing models. This can take weeks to months for a single lens."
> "But with the neural networks, the researchers were able to do the same analysis in a few seconds, which they demonstrated using real images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and simulated ones."
We had a morally similar concept to "machine learning" in academia during my grad school days: "non-parametric statistic". To me they were anathema, but non-parametric statistics are shockingly common both in academia and in industry. They work well, except when they don't.
Japan's domestic tourism boom was done in by the triple combo of recession (30 years and counting), depopulation and Japanese finding it cheaper and more interesting to travel overseas. Sooner or later these will hit China too.
This isn’t the only stupid telescope. Just outside Shanghai city limits is the Tian Ma radio telescope. It’s 65m. I went there, I don’t think it’s used at all, and it was completed in 2012
A depressingly common pattern is that you can get funding for building things but not for running and maintaining things.
In the case of the Tian Ma they seem to still have money for work on it, I found a 2017 proceeding[1] about adding a new system optimised for pulsar searches.
I'm guessing they simply aren't getting very exciting results, which is normal for a non-american dish, you don't hear about Effelsberg every day either.
And here I was thinking I’d try to get in first with a Three Body Problem reference, but you beat me to it.
It’s interesting though, China does appear to have a much stronger commitment to radio astronomy than the US (at least that’s how the article characterizes it).
I wonder why that is? The article didn’t really discuss why radio astronomy is so attractive...
For a radio telescope in the USA, the Wendover Productions channel made a good video about banning radio sources - "Why Wifi is Illegal in Green Bank, West Virginia": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjCZ6k7EzjE
We can call it “most advanced” when it actually works.
The US and Europe also don’t have inferiority complexes where they feel like they have to build the tallest or biggest anymore. Look at skyscraper competitions — generally 2nd tier countries trying to outdo each other for bragging rights but for no real other reason. It’s like the Soviet Olympic team — they had to win to make the political statement trunpeting a triumph of communism. The US did the same thing once upon a time, but then we grew up (and not necessarily for the better.. it’s a lot of fun to be “first, bigger, best.”) 1990s Korea, modern China, 1950s USA, the Soviet Union — those places and eras were representative of a national need to foster patriotism to create unity against real or perceived competitors on the world stage as well as remind the proles of the power and achievements of their benevolent state.
At Arecibo radio telescope they do not allow something like a single microwave oven in a large radius.
So for something that is intended to be even more sensible … yeah
They spent about 150% the cost of the telescope in moving 9,000 people from the area around the telescope. Then they plan a city nearby for hundreds of thousands of people.
That can't be a decision of scientists involved in FAST. Only a bureaucrat would do something that stupid.
If I understand correctly they displaced people who where very near the telescope, and then created a city 10 miles away from it and behind mountains which interrupt at least some wave propagation(?). The article states that the town lies "just a few miles from the displaced villagers’ demolished houses" and also "There are a great many mountains between the telescope and the town" (the mountains may reside in those few miles).
You have to consider that most probably, the advantage of the location had savings of over 150% or possibly made the project possible in that kind of time frame to begin with.
I don't know. I'm pretty skeptical about its technical capabilities myself. At the moment they only have a very small sliver of bandwidth they are capable of receiving. I'm unsure on how exactly they plan to receive all of these different bands at once when they are eventually added. Also, their chosen technique of removing RFI after taking in the data (noise) from space is questionable.
[+] [-] zcbenz|7 years ago|reply
From https://www.guancha.cn/society/2017_08_25_424435.shtml :
> 据悉，平塘县依靠旅游观光，上半年的营收达46亿人民币，较去年同期增加了40％。
> It is reported that relying on tourism, the revenue of Pingtang town in the first half of the year has reached 4.6 billion yuan, an increase of 40% over the same period last year.
From http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2017/10/03/socialnews-144514.... :
> 7天80万人贵州看“大锅” 五星酒店最贵一夜4888
> In 7 days, 800,000 people went to Guizhou to see the "big pot". Most expensive room in five-star hotel has reached 4888 yuan.
[+] [-] tabtab|7 years ago|reply
Just wok right in...
[+] [-] papeda|7 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-fraud/china...
[+] [-] xevb3k|7 years ago|reply
Whenever I see “machine-learning” in the context of scientific development I just mentally replace it with “magic”.
Employing machine learning, at the data acquisition stage, is a really bad idea. It can easily introduce biases...
[+] [-] oh-kumudo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EZ-E|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qubitcoder|7 years ago|reply
> "Analyses that typically take weeks to months to complete, that require the input of experts and that are computationally demanding, can be done by neural nets within a fraction of a second, in a fully automated way and, in principle, on a cell phone’s computer chip,” says postdoctoral fellow Laurence Perreault Levasseur, a co-author of a study published today in Nature."
> "The team at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), a joint institute of SLAC and Stanford, used neural networks to analyze images of strong gravitational lensing, where the image of a faraway galaxy is multiplied and distorted into rings and arcs by the gravity of a massive object, such as a galaxy cluster, that’s closer to us. The distortions provide important clues about how mass is distributed in space and how that distribution changes over time – properties linked to invisible dark matter that makes up 85 percent of all matter in the universe and to dark energy that’s accelerating the expansion of the universe."
> "Until now this type of analysis has been a tedious process that involves comparing actual images of lenses with a large number of computer simulations of mathematical lensing models. This can take weeks to months for a single lens."
> "But with the neural networks, the researchers were able to do the same analysis in a few seconds, which they demonstrated using real images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and simulated ones."
[1] https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/neural-networks-mee...
[+] [-] jasone|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tabtab|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpatokal|7 years ago|reply
Japan's domestic tourism boom was done in by the triple combo of recession (30 years and counting), depopulation and Japanese finding it cheaper and more interesting to travel overseas. Sooner or later these will hit China too.
[+] [-] mrhappyunhappy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] batbomb|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SiempreViernes|7 years ago|reply
In the case of the Tian Ma they seem to still have money for work on it, I found a 2017 proceeding[1] about adding a new system optimised for pulsar searches.
I'm guessing they simply aren't getting very exciting results, which is normal for a non-american dish, you don't hear about Effelsberg every day either.
[1]: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8105313/
[+] [-] swaggyBoatswain|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bmc7505|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xevb3k|7 years ago|reply
It’s interesting though, China does appear to have a much stronger commitment to radio astronomy than the US (at least that’s how the article characterizes it).
I wonder why that is? The article didn’t really discuss why radio astronomy is so attractive...
[+] [-] nayuki|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Eric_WVGG|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxxxxx|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pome|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] briandear|7 years ago|reply
The US and Europe also don’t have inferiority complexes where they feel like they have to build the tallest or biggest anymore. Look at skyscraper competitions — generally 2nd tier countries trying to outdo each other for bragging rights but for no real other reason. It’s like the Soviet Olympic team — they had to win to make the political statement trunpeting a triumph of communism. The US did the same thing once upon a time, but then we grew up (and not necessarily for the better.. it’s a lot of fun to be “first, bigger, best.”) 1990s Korea, modern China, 1950s USA, the Soviet Union — those places and eras were representative of a national need to foster patriotism to create unity against real or perceived competitors on the world stage as well as remind the proles of the power and achievements of their benevolent state.
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] AlwaysRock|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acoye|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adventured|7 years ago|reply
That can't be a decision of scientists involved in FAST. Only a bureaucrat would do something that stupid.
[+] [-] natmaka|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Barrin92|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omeid2|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] idoescompooters|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
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