AI That Fights Fires?

 

What's up sunshine I'm Coy Wire.  Welcome to CNN 10, I'm excited to be here kicking off another week of growth and opportunity with all of you.

Did you know that April 14th is look up at the sky day. So be sure to take a moment to slow down take a deep breath or smell the flowers cool the soup.

Calm all the noise maybe do some cloud gazing and just be grateful for all those simple things in life we sometimes might take for granted. For now let's get you your news.

We start with an historic launch by the private space flight company Blue Origin planning to launch the first all female crew in over 60 years to the edge of space and back from its launch site in Texas.

Among the six-person crew are notable names like journalist Gayle King, singer Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez pilot, journalist and vice chair of the Bezo’s Earth Fund. She's engaged to Amazon founder Jeff  Bezos.

Joining them are film producer Kerianne Flynn former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen. The suborbital space tourism mission will be fully autonomous with no pilots on board and it'll last about 10 minutes.
 

bioastronautics [͵baɪo͵æstrəˋnɔtɪks] n.（用作单数）太空医学

The crew will travel just past the Karman line a widely recognized demarcation of where space begins. It is at 100 kilometers or 62 miles above sea level. That's where the crew will experience a few minutes of microgravity not to mention tremendous views of Earth before returning home.
 

demarcation  [͵dimɑrˋkeʃən] n. 划界；区别

Our Isabelle Rosales has more on this historic 31st flight of the New Shepard rocket.

Lift off. For the first time in more than 60 years an all female crew is set to blast off into space. Blue Origin star-studded NS-31 mission is scheduled to launch from West Texas on April 14th.
 

star-studded [ˋstɑrˋstʌdɪd] adj. 明星云集的

On board the New Shepard vehicle. Among the six-person crew are singer Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez pilot, and fiance of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. The crew is set to travel just past the Karman line, the point widely recognized as where outer space begins and will experience a few minutes of microgravity before descending back to Earth.

Crew member and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe spoke to CNN about her hope that this landmark voyage will inspire more women to shoot for the stars.

 

To see six women who are all incredibly unique who are very inspiring in their own right come together and globally on a campaign. I think what you're going to see is not only more women but more people know that they can too become one of us and that they also can reach and work in these fields.

This will mark the first all female space mission since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission back in 1963. But the historic mission has also faced criticism including from actress Olivia Munn. While co-hosting on NBC's Today Show with Jenna Bush Hager. Munn questioned the purpose of the mission and its cost.

What are they doing. Like why? You know what I mean. Like, I'm just saying this. Okay I know this is probably not the cool thing to say, but, like there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now. Like, what like, this it's not--they aren't asked. I mean there's one astronaut. one astronaut. but like what are you guys going to do up in space? What are you doing up there.

One crew member researcher and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, will conduct experiments about women's health during the 11-minute flight. Nguyen will make history becoming the first woman of Vietnamese or Southeast Asian descent in space.

 

descent [dɪˋsɛnt] n. 世系，血统

 

Since their first successful crewedspace flight in 2021. Blue Origin has had 10 crewed missions, bringing more than 50 people to the edge of space including Star Trek actor William Shatner who was brought to tears by the experience.

I hope I never recover from this.

Pop quiz hot shot. What famous mascot received so much fan mail that the post office assigned him his own zip code in 1964?

 

Michelin Man

Smokey Bear

Tony the Tiger

Pillsbury Doughboy

 

If you said smoky bear, smoking. In 1950 a bear cub rescued from a forest fire in New Mexico took over for Bambi as a symbol of forest fire prevention.

And you can still send mail at Smokey Bear Washington DC 20252. Smokey Bear has historically used his bear charm to inspire generations to help prevent fires. And now researchers are using artificial intelligence to help predict fires and stop them before they start.

The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is now using an AI powered model to boost the accuracy of fire forecasts incorporating data like fire patterns, potential fuel sources, and human activity into machine learning programs to improve on traditional weather models.

Our Derek Van Dam shows us how scientists hope this technology will save lives and homes from wildfires in the future.

Researchers in Europe are using the power of AI to predict where wildfires will break out before the first ember even ignites.

 

ember [ˋɛmbɚ] n.（木柴的）余火，余烬

 

Using machine learning, the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts has developed a new model that takes into account a variety of factors to determine areas at risk of wildfires.

So historically for fire forecasting, we use what's called the fire weather index. And this is a simple physics-based model where we use four weather variables – temperature, wind, precipitation and humidity to forecast the chance that if a fire does occur, how intense it will be.

So what we know from that is that it doesn't account for a lot of things. It doesn't account for fuel. It doesn't account for ignition sources and things like that. So what we try to do here is we try to incorporate more data into a machine learning framework.

For example in the recent LA wildfires unusual wet weather conditions leading up to the fires caused ample vegetation growth that was then made flammable by exceptionally dry weather in winter. So you see this new model would be able to take those factors into account and find the specific areas most at risk.

 

ample [ˋæmp!] adj. 大量的，豐富的

This new method the probability of fire having the memory of the fuel abundance in their formulation allow to really identifies those region that could be much more affected compared to simpler method they only consider weather and this is why our prediction in this case was much more precise and pinpointed exact location when very close to Los Angeles where fire really occurred.

The danger wildfires pose is growing. Just last year wildfires forced the displacement of 800,000 people, the highest numbers since records began back in 2008. Researchers hope the model can be used by fire officials to identify areas at the most risk of fires and prevent them before they start saving lives and homes in the process.

 

pose [poz] n. （为拍照、画像等摆出的）样子，姿势

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. A mother-daughter duo going viral for one small act of kindness. They had an enormous impact. Taylor Dinelli and her four-year-old daughter were shopping at a Barnes & Noble. They saw a first-time author set up with his stack of books hoping to sign some for people. Only problem was nobody came up to him. He was sitting there all alone.

Like I always say you are more powerful than you know. Take a look at how one powerful moment had an impact greater than they could have ever imagined. Taylor Denelli was shopping at a Barnes & Noble with her four-year-old daughter when they saw an author sitting alone at a book signing event.

We were there for probably half an hour and I didn't really see anybody else going over to his table or anything like that. And I thought "Yeah that would be really nice You know I'm sure he would really appreciate if we went over and talked to him as well.".

This amazing four-year-old girl came marching up to me and she bravely said "I want to be an author when I grow up.".

And I just created my first book. And in that moment it was such a special moment. She touched my heart. Denelli posted The Encounters to Tik Tok where it eventually got nearly 80 million views.

Now Stanley's book is listed as one of Amazon's best sellers. You know I explained to her as much as you can explain to a four-year-old that what we did really will change Mr Stanley's life and make his life a lot better.

And her first like without a second thought she's like "Mommy we could help everybody Like we should keep helping people.".

The video made an impact because she came into the moment with kindness and empathy. And it’s shown the world that kindness matters. It can change someone's life. It changed mine.

Make someone smile today y'all you never know when you never know how but you may just be the spark of joy that someone needs today. We are sending our shout out today to the Warriors at Tantasqua Regional Junior High School in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

Thank you for making us part of your day.  And thanks to all of you who've been commenting on our CNN 10 YouTube channel for your shoutout requests.  We are at 996,000 subscribers. So so close to hitting a million. Thank you to all who have already joined the fam. Rise up everyone and make it a great start to the week I'm Coy Wire. We are

 

fam= family

 

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