"It's part of our research into a total ubiquitous technology society, and activity recognition is an important part of that, " said Hiroyuki Yokoyama, head of web data research at KKDI's research labs in Tokyo.

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Victory in court over his former junior partner Roman Abramovich last year would have meant for Berezovsky not just money that ran out within 10 years of opposition activity, but a recognition of being a contributor to the system that provided Russian oligarchs with football clubs, yachts and billions of dollars.

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Now, with activity streams, we harvest the recognition of important events from a variety of sources and spread them around to see if they hit home to create value.

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Recognition was given to the fact that human activity had driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth-system processes and the living fabric of ecosystems are now dominated by human activities.

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