Hello. Welcome to TechScape. Happy new year! Headaches are less common in dry January. Today’s highlights from TechScape include Meta’s promotion of a Trumpian bulldog, TikTok facing challenges beyond bans, Meta receiving backlash over AI, and Elon Musk’s foreign involvement.
Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has resigned from Meta after six years as head of international affairs. He played a role in bridging technology and politics, earning approximately $19 million during his tenure.
Clegg, a centrist, may return to British politics following his party’s success in the last election. His departure marks a shift towards more partisan times at Meta under new appointee Joel Kaplan.
Meta’s approach to AI integration has faced criticism, with the company recently removing AI-powered profiles following negative feedback. Elon Musk’s political involvement extends to international affairs, with interests in Germany, France, and Canada.
TikTok faces second war in US: child exploitation lawsuit
Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters
TikTok faces legal challenges in the US over child exploitation allegations, with multiple states suing the app. Concerns have been raised about misuse of its livestreaming feature to harm children.
Meta’s AI strategy has stirred controversy, particularly with its AI-generated profiles causing backlash. The company plans to introduce more AI characters despite previous issues.
Elon Musk intervenes overseas
Photo: Argi February Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Elon Musk’s political influence extends across multiple countries, including Germany, France, and Canada. His support of far-right parties and involvement in international affairs has raised concerns about interference in elections.
Musk’s recent actions suggest a deepening involvement in Canadian politics, aligning himself with conservative figures and advocating for specific political initiatives.
Lead pollution likely lowered the average IQ of ancient Rome by 2.5 to 3 points, a study has found.
The study is based on analysis of lead concentrations in ice cores taken from Greenland.
The findings provide evidence that lead may have contributed to the fall of Rome, an issue that historians and experts have debated for decades.
In ancient Rome, toxic lead was so prevalent in the air that it likely lowered the average person’s IQ by 2.5 to 3 points, a new study suggests.
The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adds to long-standing questions about what role, if any, lead pollution played in the collapse of the empire.
The authors link lead found in Greenland ice samples to ancient Roman silver smelters and determine that the incredible background pollution they produced would have affected much of Europe. .
Researchers used research on lead exposure in modern society to determine how much lead was likely in the Romans’ bloodstream and how it affected their cognition. was able to judge.
Lead, a powerful neurotoxin, remains a public health threat today. There is no safe amount to ingest into the body. Exposure is associated with an increased risk of learning disabilities, reproductive problems, mental health problems, and hearing loss, among other effects.
The researchers behind the new study said the discovery was the first clear example in history of widespread industrial pollution.
“Human and industrial activities 2,000 years ago were already having a continent-wide impact on human health,” said the study’s lead author, a researcher at the Desert Research Institute for Climate and Environment, a nonprofit research campus in Reno, Nevada. said scientist Joe McConnell. . “Lead pollution in Roman times is the earliest clear example of human impact on the environment.”
Stories of ancient pollution are buried in Greenland’s ice sheet.
Ice cores are extracted from the Greenland ice sheet. Joseph McConnell
The chemical composition of ice there and in other polar regions can yield important clues about what environments were like in the past. As snow falls, melts, and compacts to form a layer of ice, the chemicals trapped inside provide a kind of timeline.
“In environmental history, you’ve been building this layer cake every year,” McConnell said.
By drilling, extracting and processing long cylinders of ice, scientists can measure properties such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in past climates or, as in this case, lead concentrations over time.
Researchers analyzed three ice cores and found that lead levels rose and fell over roughly 1,000 years in response to important events in Rome’s economic history. For example, levels rose when Rome organized its rule over what is now Spain and increased silver production in the region.
A longitudinal ice core sample awaits analysis for lead and other chemicals at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. Jesse Lemay / DRI
“For every ounce of silver produced, 10,000 ounces of lead can be produced,” McConnell said. “Just as they produced silver, the Romans were smelting and mining silver for coinage and economy, and they were introducing large amounts of lead into the atmosphere.”
McConnell said lead attaches to dust particles in the atmosphere during the smelting process. A small portion of those particles were blown away and deposited in Greenland.
Once researchers determined how much lead was concentrated in Greenland’s ice, they used a climate modeling system to determine how much lead the Romans would have released to pollute Greenland to observed levels. I calculated the amount.
The research team then analyzed modern information on lead exposure to determine the health effects of atmospheric lead during the Pax Romana, a period of peace in the empire that lasted from 27 BC to 180 AD. has been identified.
Ice samples on a melter during chemical analysis at a desert laboratory.
The researchers found that average lead exposure is about one-third of what it was in the United States in the late 1970s, when leaded gasoline use was at its peak and before the Clean Air Act was enacted. Lead levels in Rome were about twice what American children are exposed to today, McConnell said.
Researchers believe that people who lived closest to silver mines on the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain) would have had the most lead in their blood.
“Virtually no one got away,” McConnell said.
However, these results likely do not tell the full story of the health effects of lead in ancient Rome. This is because Romans were exposed through other sources, such as wine sweetened in lead-lined vessels, lead piping, and lead goblets.
Dr. Bruce Lanphear, lead expert and professor of health sciences at Canada’s Simon Fraser University, said lead was “ubiquitous” in ancient Rome. He was not involved in this study. Therefore, the new study is limited because it only assesses lead in the atmosphere, he said, and the authors acknowledge that.
A lead toy unearthed from the grave of Julia Graphis in Brescello. DeAgostini/Getty Images
“Their estimate is likely an underestimate,” Lanphear said.
Still, the study provides evidence that lead exposure may indeed have played a role, so the findings raise questions about how lead may have contributed to the decline of ancient Rome. may stimulate the ongoing debate.
“I believe that lead played a role in the decline of the Roman Empire, but it was only a contributing factor. It was never the only one,” Lanphear said.
Joe Manning, a history professor at Yale University, said most researchers believe Rome fell for a myriad of reasons, including epidemics, economic problems and climate change. Manning said it’s important to remember that ancient Rome was a tough place to survive, with an average lifespan of about 25 to 30 years.
“Under no circumstances do you want to go to a city in the ancient world. That would be the last place you want to go. ,” Manning said. “Reed has really bad hygiene.”
The company has collaborated closely with the UK government on artificial intelligence safety, the NHS, and education. They are also working on AI development for military drones.
Their defense industry partners note that Faculty AI has experience in developing and deploying AI models on UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).
Faculty is one of the most active companies offering AI services in the UK. Unlike other companies like OpenAI and Deepmind, they do not develop their own models, focusing instead on reselling models from OpenAI and providing consulting services on their use in government and industry.
The company gained recognition in the UK for their work on data analysis during the Vote Leave campaign before the Brexit vote. This led to their involvement in government projects during the pandemic, with their CEO Mark Warner participating in meetings of the government’s scientific advisory committee.
Under former chancellor Rishi Sunak, Faculty Science has been testing AI models for the UK government’s AI Safety Institute (AISI), established in 2023.
Governments worldwide are racing to understand the safety implications of AI, particularly in the context of military applications such as equipping drones with AI for various purposes.
In a press release, British startup Hadean announced a partnership with Faculty AI to explore AI capabilities in defense, including subject identification, object movement tracking, and autonomous swarming.
Faculty’s work with Hadeen does not involve targeting weapons, according to their statements. They emphasize their expertise in AI safety and ethical application of AI technologies.
The company collaborates with AISI and government agencies on various projects, including investigating the use of large-scale language models for identifying undesirable conduct.
The Faculty, led by Chief Executive Mark Warner, continues to work closely with AISI. Photo: Al Tronto/Faculty AI
Faculty has incorporated models like ChatGPT, developed in collaboration with OpenAI, into their projects. Concerns have been raised about their collaborations with AISI and possible conflicts of interest.
The company stresses its commitment to AI safety and ethical deployment of AI technologies across various sectors, including defense.
They have secured contracts with multiple government departments, including the NHS, Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Education, and Department for Culture, Media and Sport, generating significant income.
Experts caution about the responsibility of technology companies in AI development and the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest in projects like AISI.
The Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Technology has not provided specific details on commercial contracts with the company.
M
My brother put the cell phone to my ear. “You’re going to think this is creepy,” he warned. Ann instagram reels
The footage, which showed teenage boys attending the rally, included a news broadcast-style narration. “The recent protests by British students have become a powerful symbol of the deepening crisis in Britain's education system,” she said in a soft, female voice with barely a hint of a Manchenian accent. I opened my eyes wide and sat up straight.
As a presenter on a YouTube news channel, I was used to hearing my voice on screen. But this wasn't me – even if that voice said so. definitely mine.
“They force us to learn about Islam and Muhammad in school,” he continued. “Listen, this is disgusting.” It was horrifying to hear my voice being associated with far-right propaganda, but more than that, I was horrified to hear how this fraud is being perpetrated. As I dug deeper, I learned how far-reaching the effects of false voices can be.
AI voice cloning is an emerging form of audio “deepfake” and the third fastest growing form Scam of 2024.
Unwitting victims find that their voices have been cleverly duplicated without their consent or even knowledge, a phenomenon that has already led to bank security checks. bypassed and people deceived He had a stranger he believed to be a relative send money to him. My brother was sent the clip by a friend who recognized my voice.
After some research, I was able to find a far-right YouTube channel with about 200,000 subscribers. Although this was said to be an American channel, many of the misspellings in the video were typical of misinformation accounts from non-native English speakers. I was shocked to learn that my voice was featured in 8 of the channel's 12 most recent videos. I scrolled back and found one video using my voice from 5 months ago. 10m views.
The voice was almost the same as mine. The voice was AI-generated, except the pace of my speech was a little odd.
This increasing sophistication of AI voice cloning software is a cause for serious concern. In November 2023, an audio deepfake of London Mayor Sadiq Khan allegedly making inflammatory remarks about Armistice Day was widely circulated on social media. The clip almost caused a “serious injury”; Mr Khan told the BBC..
“If you're looking to sow disharmony and cause trouble, there's no better time.” At a time when confidence in Britain's political system is already at record levels. lowThe ability to manipulate public rhetoric is more harmful than ever, with 58% of Britons saying they have “little trust” in politicians to tell the truth.
The legal right to own one's voice falls within a vague gray area of poorly legalized AI issues. TV naturalist David Attenborough became the center of an AI voice cloning scandal in November. He said he was “deeply disturbed” to learn that his voice was being used to deliver partisan breaking news in the United States. In May, actor Scarlett Johansson sued OpenAI for using a text-to-speech model in ChatGPT, an OpenAI product, that Johansson described as “eerily similar” to her own voice. There was a collision.
In March 2024, OpenAI postponed the release of a new voice replication tool, deeming it “too risky” to make it publicly available in a year with a record number of global elections. Some AI startups that let users clone their own voices can detect the creation of voice clones that imitate politicians actively involved in election campaigns, including in the US and UK. We have a preventive policy in place.
However, these mitigation measures are not enough. In the United States, concerned senators are proposing legislation to crack down on those who copy audio without consent. In Europe, the European Identity Theft Surveillance System (Aitos) has developed four tools to help police identify deepfakes, with plans to have them ready by the end of this year. But tackling the audio crisis is no easy task. Dr Dominic Rees, an expert on AI in film and television who advises a UK parliamentary committee, told the Guardian: “Our privacy and copyright laws are not prepared for what this new technology will bring.”
If declining trust within organizations is one problem, creeping distrust among communities is another. The ability to trust is central to human cooperation as globalization advances and personal and professional lives become increasingly intertwined, but we have never come to the point of undermining it to this extent. Hany Farid, a professor of digital forensics at the University of California, Berkeley and an expert on deepfake detection, said: told the Washington Post The consequences of this voice crisis could be as extreme as mass violence or “election theft.”
Is there any benefit to this new ability to easily clone audio? Maybe. AI voice clones could allow people to seek solace by connecting with the dead loved ones
or help give a voice to people who: medical condition. American actor val kilmerhas been undergoing treatment for throat cancer, and returned to “Top Gun: Maverick'' in 2022 with a voice restored by AI. Our ability to innovate may serve those with evil intentions, but it also serves those working for good.
When I became a presenter, I happily shared my voice on screen, but I did not agree to sign on to anyone who wanted to use this essential and precious part of me. As broadcasters, we sometimes worry about how colds and winter viruses will affect our recordings. But my recent experience has given the concept of losing one's voice a different, far more sinister meaning.
Credit for my newfound fascination with Ultraviolet (UV) light goes to fellow diarist Kate Blincoe. She recently expressed her excitement over the UV torch I gifted her, and now she sees the world in a whole new light.
UV light is a high-energy, short-wave light that is typically invisible to the naked eye but can be harmful to many organisms. Life on Earth thrived underwater during the late Proterozoic Era until the formation of the protective ozone layer 15 km to 30 km above us.
When a UV torch is pointed at a plant or animal at night, it triggers molecular interactions that result in the emission of lower-energy light within the visible spectrum. This fluorescence transforms ordinary parts of our environment into vibrant psychedelic scenes. For instance, a sandstone wall can appear as a red sheet (algae) intermingled with glowing lime (lichen).
Spiky sphagnum moss under UV light (left) and normal light. Photo: Mark Cocker
Photography capturing UV-induced transformations requires a comparison of before and after images to illustrate the remarkable changes. One such marvel is the metamorphosis of the golden saxifrage, which turns a lightwood embankment into a sparkling meadow of white and green, evolving into a pool of crimson confetti under the UV torch.
One of my favorite sights is the moss on an old quarry surface adorned with prickly foliage. By day, they present a lush bed of greenery, with central florets encircled by drooping side buds like oversized vegetative spiders. However, under UV light, these plants transform into a vibrant ensemble of lavender, aquamarine, turquoise, purple, and pink hues.
Upon receiving these UV-altered images, a friend questioned their significance, akin to how Henry David Thoreau pondered the beauty of a rainbow in December 1855. Thoreau believed that the world’s splendor far surpassed what meets the eye and that every raindrop had the potential to manifest as a rainbow. He asserted that beauty and music were not exceptions but integral aspects of life. The UV torch merely offers a fresh perspective on the divine enchantment surrounding us.
A new study has provided the first definitive evidence that fast radio bursts can originate from the magnetosphere, the highly magnetic environment immediately surrounding very compact objects.
Artist's impression of a neutron star. Image credit: Sci.News.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are short, brilliant bursts of radio waves that originate primarily from extragalactic distances.
These phenomena release as much energy in one millisecond as the sun does in 10,000 years, but the physics that cause them are unknown.
Theories range from a highly magnetized neutron star exploded by a stream of gas near a supermassive black hole to proposals whose outburst characteristics match the signature of technology developed by an advanced civilization.
MIT astronomer Kenzie Nimmo and colleagues focused on the event, dubbed FRB 20221022A, in a new study.
This burst was first detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in 2022.
The event occurred in a galaxy about 200 million light years away and lasted about 2 milliseconds.
New research suggests that FRB 20221022A emerged from a region extremely close to the rotating neutron star, up to 10,000 km away.
At such close distances, the burst could have originated from the neutron star's magnetosphere, a highly magnetic region immediately surrounding the microstar.
“In a neutron star environment like this, the magnetic field is actually at the limit of what the universe can produce,” Dr. Nimmo said.
“There has been a lot of discussion about whether this bright radio emission can leak out of that extreme plasma.”
“Atoms cannot exist around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars. They are simply torn apart by the magnetic field,” added astronomer Kiyoshi Masui of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“What's interesting here is that we found that the energy stored in magnetic fields gets twisted and rearranged near the source of the magnetic field and is emitted as radio waves visible on the far side of the universe.”
Wastewater treatment facilities are a major source of PFAS contamination in U.S. drinking water, estimated to contain enough “forever chemicals” to raise concentrations above safe levels for more than 15 million people. is being discharged. It also has the potential to release long-lasting prescription drugs into the water supply.
Although these plants purify wastewater, they do not destroy all the contaminants added upstream, and the remaining chemicals are released into the same waterways that provide drinking water. “This is a funnel into the environment,” he says bridger lyle at New York University. “We capture different things from different places and release them all in one place.”
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of particular concern because they contain carbon-fluorine bonds and are highly persistent in the environment. Regular exposure to several types of PFAS is associated with an increased risk of many health problems, from liver damage to various forms of cancer. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently established strict drinking water limits for six of the most well-studied PFAS.
Wastewater treatment facilities are a known source of PFAS contamination worldwide. sewage sludge It is produced as a by-product and sometimes used as fertilizer. To determine whether similar contamination remained in treated water, Ruyle and his colleagues measured concentrations of PFAS and other molecules containing carbon-fluorine bonds in wastewater at eight large treatment facilities across the United States. .
Their findings suggest that wastewater treatment plants across the United States release tens of thousands of kilograms of fluorine-containing compounds into the environment each year, including significant amounts of PFAS. Once the treated wastewater leaves the facility, it mixes with natural water from rivers and lakes. “That would create downstream drinking water issues,” Lyle said.
Applying these numbers to a model of the U.S. drinking water system, the researchers estimated that wastewater could cause PFAS concentrations in the drinking water of approximately 15 million people to exceed EPA limits. In times of drought, as natural water for diluting wastewater decreases, models suggest that concentrations rise above the limit by up to 23 million people. And Ruyle says these may be conservative estimates. Their model assumes that natural water is already free of PFAS.
“This shows that wastewater treatment facilities are a very important source of these compounds,” he says. Carsten Plasse The professor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland was not involved in the study. Although there are ways to remove or destroy PFAS in water, and more drinking water facilities are installing such systems, currently “our wastewater treatment plants are not set up to deal with this.” he says.
While chemicals alone will forever be a problem, researchers also found that PFAS only make up a small portion of the total amount of fluorinated chemicals emitted by facilities. Most were not PFAS, but other compounds used in common medications such as statins and SSRIs. These drugs are also a concern for ecosystems and people.
“Another person could be taking a cocktail of fluoridated prescription drugs,” Lyle says. But the effects of low doses and long-term exposure to such compounds are not well understood, he says.
“We need to start having a conversation about whether we should use more fluoride in medicines,” Ruiru says. Fluoridation is widely used in medicines to increase their effectiveness in the body, but “preventing widespread chemical contamination should also be important,” he says.
IIn the 1990s, turn-based RPGs were unstoppable. From Pokemon to the multi-million selling PlayStation Final Fantasy game, there's never been anything cooler than using drop-down menus to defeat blocky beasts. And then the new millennium arrived. As computing power blossomed and Western games became more popular, traditional Japanese RPGs slowly but surely became obsolete.
“What Final Fantasy used to do, which was make the turn-based genre more realistic and grounded, no one is doing that anymore. That's where we want to be,” said Guillaume Broche, CEO of Sandfall Interactive and creative director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Citing the 2007 Xbox 360 classic Lost Odyssey as the last true big-budget turn-based RPG, the former Ubisoft employee founded a studio with a mission to advance the genre.
The result is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Although the name is enigmatic, this ambitious French epic takes inspiration from France's 20th century Belle Époque and Surrealist painters. A lavishly staged adventurer's party traverses shimmering worlds in a dreamlike setting, from a Little Mermaid-esque underwater kingdom to a grand Gothic mansion.
What sets Expedition 33 apart from the pack is not just its setting and aesthetics, but its fast, fluid combat. “I played so many turn-based RPGs that I got a little burnt out,” shrugs Broche. “So we wanted to make turn-based combat feel more interactive and different, requiring skill and offering something fresh for players like me.”
Shimmering with a dreamlike quality…Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photo: Sandfall Interactive
Each attack requires a well-timed button press to be successful. Dodge and parry are performed in real time during enemy attacks, and if you successfully parry or dodge, your HP will be recovered and you will be able to counterattack. Jumping was introduced midway through the demo, adding more dynamism as each party member jumps out of the way of an attack.
“Aspects of Belle Époque and Art Deco are present throughout, from the costumes to the decor to the environment,” says Brochu. We wanted to push that aesthetic as deep as possible into every aspect of the game. ”
The developers are being tight-lipped about specific plot details, but the plot focuses on an expedition team with one year left to live. Every year, a mysterious painter paints a new figure on a distant tower, and people of that age disappear into ashes. Seeking answers, the group attempts to locate and kill the painter, and discovers the bodies of the previous explorers.
“The story we developed is darker in tone, writing, and characters than traditional JRPGs,” Broche says. “[Games such as] “Star Sea'' and “Octopus Traveler'' are so-called love letters that remind us of the past. We don't think of ourselves as a love letter at all. We're certainly inspired by it, but we're taking a different approach when it comes to art style, presentation, and gameplay. ”
The high fidelity and sombre tone are reminiscent of the aforementioned Lost Odyssey, an impressive feat for a game made by just 30 people. The opaque cutscenes we've been shown so far have left me scratching my head, but there's a flair and dynamism to this world that's hard to resist. If you have any interest in this genre, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a must-see.
Velvet ants inject venom through their abdomen and sting.
JoJo Dexter/Getty Images
The bite of a female velvet ant is one of the most painful in the animal kingdom. Now, researchers have shown that the venoms of these insects contain multiple proteins that make them highly effective against a wide range of victims, including invertebrates, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. I discovered it.
Velvet ants are actually members of the wingless wasp family, of which there are over 7,000 species. Justin Schmidt, the researcher who created the Schmidt Sting Index, described the pain of a sting as “explosive and long-lasting, making you scream and feel like you’re going crazy. Hot oil from a deep fryer spills all over your hand.” .”
When I looked into what was causing so much pain, Dan Tracy Researchers at Indiana University urged the public to carefully collect female scarlet velvet ants.Dasimtyla occidentalis) from the Indiana and Kentucky sites.
They tested fruit fly venom (Drosophila melanogaster),mouse(Mus musculus) and praying mantis (tenodera sinensis), potential predators of velvet ants.
One of the peptides the research team isolated from the venom, Do6a, clearly caused a response in the insects, but surprisingly not in the mice.
“That means the venom has evolved to include components that specifically target pain-sensing neurons in insects, and other components that target mammals,” Tracy says.
The researchers further tested this by having praying mantises attempt to capture velvet ants.
“We found that velvet ants are constantly stinging praying mantises in self-defense to escape their clutches,” Tracy says.
However, when tested with other peptides isolated from velvet ant venom, called Do10a and Do13a, the mice showed a strong pain response.
After discovering the peptide that activated neurons, the researchers compared the venom peptide sequences of four other species of velvet ants.
“They all have nearly the same version of the peptide that strongly activates the insect’s pain-sensing neurons.” Lydia Boljonteam members at Indiana University. “There are also some peptides that are similar to common neuron activators, but with some differences. Therefore, pain may be triggered in a similar way in other velvet ant species.”
This research could help develop new pain treatments for humans, Borjon said.
DIn my 30-year career as a games journalist, I’ve written many articles about the “most anticipated games of the year,” and they almost always have a familiar theme. At least we have an original title or two to look forward to. From today’s vantage point, the gaming industry’s ennui against predictability seems incredibly archaic. We didn’t know how good it was.
The past five years have seen seismic shifts in the mainstream industry. A large part of that has to do with the irresistible rise of “live service” games like Fortnite, GTA Online, and Genshin, which have survived for years through voracious subscription models. The largest company is highly profitable, and since its launch in 2017, Fortnite has earned an estimated $20 billion (15.7 billion pounds), maintained 500 million player accounts Entering the 6th year. Estimates will continue to work in GTA Online $500 per year (£399m), more than a decade after its initial release.
For the past two years, major publishers have been vying for a share of the huge success of live services, often with disastrous results. In the past 18 months, three major live service games have been canceled – Creative Assembly’s Hyenas, Sony’s Concord, and Ubisoft’s XDefiant – with losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, studio closures, and staff layoffs. Masu. In 2023, there were approximately 10,000 layoffs in the gaming industry. According to Online layoff tracker Managed by game artist Farhan Noor, that number is approaching 15,000 in 2024. Olivia Rodrigo puts it succinctly: “God, this place is terrible.”.
So now, when I look at the games scheduled to arrive in 2025, my mood has changed a bit. surely, many of the sequel. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is coming in the fall and will be the mega event of the year. But there’s also Hideo Kojima’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi opera Death Stranding 2. Sid Meier’s historical strategy simulation Civilization VII. Monster Hunter Wild is Capcom’s open-world beast-hunting masterpiece. and Ubisoft’s latest time-traveling hitman’s journey, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Not a month passes without some kind of nostalgia-filled iteration of the series.
monster hunter wild. Photo: Capcom
And I felt… relieved. Naturally, many of these large, expensive, and ambitious projects will be in production. in front The industry has doubled down on its obsession with IdentityKit Live Services wallet attackers. Nevertheless, it’s oddly reassuring to see that they haven’t been abruptly abandoned or converted to free-to-play as far as I know. Gacha A game packed with microtransactions and multiple interconnected currencies.
In the coming months, we will see a lot of aging intellectual property being rebuilt by major publishers looking for alternatives to what is clearly a very unstable live service merry-go-round. I think so. This year is expected to see a reboot of the classic role-playing series “Fable,” Sega unearths brands like “Crazy Taxi” and “Shinobi,” and SNK brings the fighting game series “Fatal Fury” to life after 25 years. I will revive it for the first time in a while. This is all very similar to how the music, film, and stage music industry continually repackages classic albums and movies to create premium experiences that cost money for older fans. We all need reassurance during these difficult and unpredictable times.
But I don’t think the big titles coming out next year will just be a safe way to make money. We don’t know much about GTA VI, but we do know that unlike most live service titles, which are aimed at the widest possible audience around the world, it’s going to be wild, controversial, and very adult. I am. Death Stranding 2, like its predecessor, will be a largely incomprehensible but absolutely brilliant study of death and loneliness on a devastated planet. The destruction will be as violent as ever. These are such big games that you don’t have to worry about alienating any key demographic. There’s no need to incorporate virtual currency or seasonal battle passes into the expansive story (although GTA VI definitely comes with an online multiplayer side hustle). One of the last games I reviewed in 2024 was the moody and depressing open-world adventure Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl. In this game, you travel through a vanished Ukraine, survive by eating moldy bread, and are attacked by mad dogs. Oh, how nice it is to be thrown out into this wretched landscape again. How amazing that this game is still being made and sold.
Somehow, amidst the craziness of the modern mainstream gaming industry, returning to the games of yesteryear has become something very courageous and optimistic. What a great time to be alive with a joypad and enjoying the sequel.
what to play
Qud’s Cave. Photo: Kit Fox Games
If you’re looking for an incredibly deep fantasy roguelike adventure and enjoy the aesthetics of 1980s computer role-playing games. Kudo’s Cave It’s for you. It’s a vast, detailed opera of games with a sci-fi flavor, filled with strange mutant creatures, exotic plants, and fallen civilizations, all with simple (yet stylish) 2D visuals and lots of communicated through an interconnected menu system. The world and elements of the story are procedurally generated, leading to vastly different playthroughs as you explore the landscape, defeat monsters, and collect items.
Developed over 15 years by a small team, the game has the same idiosyncratic and obsessive nature as the widely recognized genre classic Dwarf Fortress, but I found it more approachable and I found it fascinating. As I sit there feeling a little confused, the 5 hours mysteriously fly by. It’s really strange.
Available: computer Estimated play time: hundreds of hours
of Steam Winter Sale is underway! There are many bargain items, Only until the sale ends tomorrow. Polygons have great features List of recommended titles. “Ballatoro,” “I Am Your Beast,” and “Stardew Valley” are ridiculously good deals.
Looking for console gossip? VGC has good works Latest nintendo switch 2 Speculation includes things like a more powerful dock and the elimination of “stick drift,” which caused many Switch users to lose control of the game.
A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that: open world game It can aid relaxation and mental health. According to Neuroscience News“Open-world games, known for their expansive environments and player autonomy, provide a type of cognitive escapism that helps players disconnect from everyday stressors and boost their mood,” the research team reveals. I did that do not have Look at me trying to defeat the Black Blade Marikes in Elden Ring.
What to click
question block
MouseandCrane. Photo: The’s Eyes Games
The following questions from readers are asked regularly, so it’s worth revisiting them.
“What iPad games can you give a 5-year-old?” Are there any that don’t include microtransactions or require a monthly subscription?”
It’s become very difficult to find premium (paid) games on the App Store, especially games for kids. All the funding is in a free-to-play model where there is no cost to download the game, but then there are in-app purchases, ads, or both. But I asked Andy Robertson, founder of Superior Products. Family game database and the author of the book tame the game for his suggestion. “mouse and crane It’s perfect for five-year-olds,” he says. “This is a lovely cooperative puzzle game about three unlikely friends who live in a port and repair machinery. Chuchel is also a great option. It’s a comedy adventure in which you play the hairy hero Chuchel and his rival Kekel as they solve simple puzzles and recover precious cherries.”My sons loved it too. toka hair salon In the game, you can cut and style the hair of different interesting customers.
TIt's a long-standing joke that Bethesda's Skyrim has become so popular that it can do anything. It started with the humble Xbox 360 and expanded to the Nintendo Switch, virtual reality headsets, PS5, and even Amazon's Alexa. Over 13 years later, its sequel is still nowhere to be seen, so role-playing game veterans Obsidian are offering fans an alternative in the form of Avowed.
Considering it's derived from the somewhat staid computer RPG Pillars of Eternity, it's surprising how fun and refreshing this game is. Entering the game's colorful world of Eora, I explore dense caverns, jump across canyons and scale rock walls without breaking a sweat alongside an incredibly athletic wizard. I find myself doing it.
While Skyrim's dull color palette and clunky combat betray its 2011 origins, Avowed's kineticism and vibrancy create a sense of first-person spellcasting fun. Whether you're unleashing a burst of acid at a horde of charging skeletons or a barrage of ice missiles at an apocalyptic cult, chopping and toggling between spells is as easy as holding the trigger and pressing a button. It's as simple as that, and each attack is animated with an explosion of light and color.
“I think players will really enjoy the moment-by-moment combat experience,” said game director Carey Patel. “We wanted to take the sense of momentum and impact from more action-forward games and add the player-driven progression and choices found in our RPG roots.”
Refreshing and cheerful… I admitted it. Photo: Obsidian
My demo is accompanied by a cynical and sarcastic companion named Kai, complete with classic dialogue choices. There’s more than just Mass Effect elements here, with the actor who voiced Garrus in BioWare’s sci-fi epic providing an equally endearing companion for Kai. “Players will see the effects of their choices play out before their eyes, even if it’s early on,” Patel says. “Later in the game, the choices you make along the way will affect which characters trust you.”
While Bethesda approaches fantasy with a furrowed brow, Obsidian opts for a more irreverent tone. The level of banter is somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons, with a more sour Avengers-style dialogue style than a fully established one. It may be unpleasant for those who are not. The success or failure of this will depend on your friends and their personalities.
“I’m really looking forward to our players meeting the companions we’ve created for them,” Patel says.“We had a lot of fun building these characters and trying to create interesting moments between them. As you move through the world, they talk to each other, giving you time to get to know them and also give you time to watch them get to know each other.”
In many ways, what I’m looking at here is more Skyrim Zero than Diet Skyrim – less extravagant and without the dodgy aftertaste. With elements of Uncharted and Mass Effect, it’s a refreshing and hilarious take on a familiar fantasy setting.
Supermassive’s games have always been cinematic, from the convincing performances in slasher horror Until Dawn to the chilling atmosphere of interactive ghost story Man of Medan. This time, with the sci-fi horror directive 8020, the studio is wearing its Hollywood influences even bolder.
Earth is dying, and humanity’s last hope is a planet called Tau Cetus F. But when the crew of the colony ship Cassiopeia explores this promising planet, they soon discover that they are not alone. Haunted by terrifying alien creatures that mimic their prey, the crew of the Cassiopeia must outwit these predators and return home as former friends and crew members become potential threats. In other words, it’s a playable blend of Alien and The Thing.
“There will be a variety of characters, and there will also be alien monsters that can invade the setting. We will rely on the systems we have already built. [in previous games] It combines choices and decisions to create an element of surprise and a feeling of not knowing who to trust,” says Will Doyle, the game’s creative director.
Characters have independence in their movements and choices. Eliminating the slow, cinematic shuffle of Until Dawn, Directive 8020 instead plays like something closer to Dead Space, with sprints, strafing, and rampaging as players flee from terrifying alien attackers. Allows you to turn and roll defensively. “[But] These guys aren’t action heroes. We didn’t want it to be easy to defeat the creature,” says Doyle. “You can avoid it with some tools. You can distract yourself. But you can never pull out a gun and shoot.”
The main character, Pilot Young, is played by Lashana Lynch, best known for her role in No Time to Die. Everyone on the ship lives or dies based on her (and therefore your) decisions. Thankfully, you can ask for help and play cooperatively. Up to five people can go online and control different characters. The team implemented it after handing a controller to a group of friends to see how many people chose to play Until Dawn.
“Every time a monster appears in a movie, the fear factor fades a little bit,” Doyle believes. “Without spoiling anything, we change the look and appearance and shape of the creatures quite a bit… There’s a constant sense of threat, that nowhere in this game is really safe, unlike in previous games, we could see that just the structure was in danger, so we changed it significantly. Now danger and death lurk around every corner.”
New coronavirus response hospital under construction in Wuhan, China
STR/AFP (via Getty Images)
It has been five years since the novel coronavirus disease emerged, causing a global pandemic with lasting impacts on societies, economies, and people's health.
Immediately after the virus was identified, many countries began making plans to treat the influx of severely ill people infected with COVID-19. The image above shows an excavator at the construction site of the purpose-built Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China, which became the initial epicenter of the outbreak on January 24, 2020.
People infected with covid-19 waiting for transit
STR/AFP (via Getty Images)
Huoshenshan was not the only hospital built in Wuhan as authorities prepared for the worst. In March 2020, people infected with the new coronavirus were photographed waiting to be transported from a general hospital in Wuhan to Leishenshan Hospital, which was also newly opened due to the pandemic.
Traffic decreases in New York City
Reuters/Andrew Kelly
Like many parts of the world, New York City began implementing restrictions around mid-March 2020. With the streets empty, ballet dancer Ashley Montague was able to perform in Times Square while wearing a gas mask.
COVID-19 wasn't the only thing going viral when this adorable baby started appearing on social media
Lillian Swanrunfa/AFP via Getty Images
Face shields were initially proposed as an alternative to masks to protect people from infection, but are increasingly discouraged as we learn more about the virus. Nevertheless, the above newborn photo taken at a hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, caught the internet's attention in early April 2020.
Social restrictions have forced some people to get creative.
Jim West/ZUMA Wire/Shutterstock
Like other public spaces, churches and other places of worship are closed in many parts of the world. A priest in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan held a creative Easter service in April 2020, using water guns to hand out holy water while practicing social distancing.
Some people hugged through plastic due to concerns about infection.
Handout via Domenico Sartor/Reuters
Many nursing homes have been severely affected by the coronavirus, as the elderly are particularly susceptible to serious infections. The restrictions gave some visitors the chance to hug their loved ones through plastic sheets. The photo above was taken in November 2020 at a care home in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy.
Some people have turned their experiences living under the pandemic into works of art.
Reuters/Lim Huey Teng
The pandemic has inspired colorful and creative murals around the world. The photo above shows a young boy being swabbed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in front of a COVID-19 artwork in Shah Alam, Malaysia, in December 2020.
Margaret Keenan from Coventry, UK, receives COVID-19 vaccination
Jacob King/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Expectations were high when the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved in the UK on December 2, 2020, after showing 95 per cent efficacy in late-stage trials. Six days later, 90-year-old Coventry resident Margaret Keenan became the first person to receive the vaccine outside of the trial.
Late Queen Elizabeth maintains social distancing at husband's funeral
Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Like many other queens, the late Queen Elizabeth II had to adhere to social distancing rules at her husband Prince Philip's funeral on April 17, 2021 at Windsor Castle, England. Due to pandemic restrictions, only 30 people were allowed to attend.
Monuments are being erected around the world to commemorate those who lost their lives to the new coronavirus infection.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
Britain's National Covid-19 Memorial Wall in London was built in March 2021 to commemorate those who have died from the disease. The photo above shows a woman leaving a message on the wall a year after it was created. Family members and volunteers painted more than 240,000 hearts on a 500-meter-long wall along the River Thames.
Public spaces were eventually opened up, but some things changed
Have you ever found yourself sitting in your favorite overstuffed armchair and finding your coffee just out of reach? In situations like this, a Jedi could easily deflect a blaster bolt or recover a lost lightsaber. I often wish I could use the “Force”, a mythical energy field used to bring back . In the real world, humans cannot use telekinesis to manipulate objects. But some animals do It uses natural electric fields to attract and repel objects.
The lowercase f “force” exerted by the animal kingdom is caused by friction between two objects, causing one object to lose electrons and the other to gain electrons. static electricity. Since electrons are negatively charged, objects that have lost electrons accumulate a positive charge, and objects that have gained electrons accumulate a negative charge. of electrostatic force Charged objects repel those with the same charge and attract those with the opposite charge. When you rub a balloon against your head, the friction causes the balloon to become negatively charged and your hair to become positively charged, causing your hair to stand on end.
like the force star wars The universe and animals use electrostatic force for both good and evil. In “Light Side”bee,bumblebeeandhummingbird Static electricity builds up as the wing moves through the air. These pollinators use electrostatic forces to transport pollen to and from flowers, supporting plant reproduction and biodiversity. On the “dark side” (at least from the prey's point of view!), predators like orb spiders use electrostatic forces totrap prey in a nestparasites such as mites and mites use it toconnect to host.
Scientists suspect that other winged animals use “light-side” electrostatic forces to aid pollination, but it is unclear how widespread this phenomenon is in nature. Not yet. Two biologists from the University of Bristol investigated whether butterflies and moths are members of the order LepidopteraI did electrostatic pollination. Scientists believe that moths wide range of pollinatorsHowever, opinions are divided as to whether butterflies pollinate plants.
The researchers collected wild butterflies and moths from across the UK and Germany, or purchased captive-bred versions.butterflies of the world. They were kept in climate-controlled mesh enclosures that mimicked their natural habitat and fed artificial flowers and pineapple slices filled with a sugar solution.
The researchers hypothesized that because lepidopterans have relatively small wings and flap slowly, they may be less electrically charged than other pollinating insects. To test this, they measured the static electricity of 72 adult peacock butterflies in free flight. They transferred each butterfly to an acrylic box lined with leaves native to its habitat to ensure that the charge the butterflies carried was as close to natural as possible.
Next, the ring-shaped electrode was attached to a device called “Electric Signal” that detects extremely weak currents. picoammeter. They placed a ring electrode next to the box's exit hole and used a picoammeter to record the charge on each butterfly as it flew out of the hole and passed through the electrode. They found that peacock butterflies have an average charge of about +50 picocoulombs. This is actually more than any other pollinating insect.
The researchers then tested whether the insects' habitat and ecology influenced their static electricity. They used similar techniques to measure charges in four additional species of butterflies and six species of moths across five continents, different climates, and feeding behaviors. They found that all 197 individuals tested carried enough electrical charge to displace pollen grains from several millimeters away. However, the strength and polarity (whether it was positive or negative) depended on the insect's habitat and ecological niche. For example, tropical species are more likely to be negatively charged than temperate species, and nocturnal foragers are more likely to be negatively charged than daytime foragers.
The researchers concluded that butterflies are actually good at pollination. The researchers speculated that the high charge may improve the insect's “light side” ability to attract pollen and sense electric fields around nectar-containing flowers. However, carrying a high charge also has its drawbacks, as highly charged insects are more vulnerable to “dark side” predators and parasites. They suggested that tropical and nocturnal Lepidoptera may be negatively charged. detect predatorsare more active in warm weather and at night. May the electrostatic forces be with them!
what Some O2 customers Maybe I wanted it for Christmas It was the phone number I had always dreamed of. thing I had a habit of going the wrong way. Whether they got lucky is another question, as O2’s customer service is as hard to pin down as Lord Lucan.
J.D.‘s number was taken from her when a fraudster pretending to be her tricked O2 into transferring it to a SIM obtained from another provider.
This allows customers to receive a text containing a two-factor authentication code sent by their bank to verify that they are who they say they are. As a result, more than £4,500 was instantly stolen from her credit card. O2 explained that she was a victim of “.SIM exchange scam”, the criminal transfers your phone number to your SIM to receive calls and text messages from your bank.
They promised to block the stolen number and send a new card. Once this arrived, JD’s phone was back to life, but only for a few hours. Incredibly, the scammers were able to repurpose the number into their own SIM. O2 admitted that it failed to report the first SIM swap as fraud, which meant the second SIM swap was ignored without question.
JD said he was repeatedly told the fraud team would contact him, but never heard back. When she managed to catch them five days later, they solved the case.
She was told that compensation should not be paid because O2 had done nothing wrong. By then, she had gone nearly two weeks without a phone. Her bank refunded the stolen £4,500, but she was unable to access any of her bank accounts as she did not receive the security code needed to log in.
O2 claim it was a coincidence that the number was restored on the day I contacted them, but they admit they had poor communication and are offering me £350 as a gesture of goodwill.
when A.W.‘sMy 91-year-old mother lost her dependable pay-as-you-go (PAYG) number. O2 told her that the mother’s SIM did not match the number in question. AW sounded. “I was asked to wait 48 hours as I needed to fill out paperwork,” she wrote. “Six days later, I was told that my account could be compromised and that it would take 10 business days to fill out two more forms.
“Then 10 business days later I was transferred to the retention department and was told that nothing could be done because the number and SIM did not match.I was connected to the fraud department and reached a recorded message. But then it was disconnected.”
O2 determined that the only way they could restore their number was to switch their account from PAYG to a monthly contract. This was done, a new number was provided and AW canceled the contract within the cooling off period.
So O2 sprang into action. Not to resolve the complaint, but to demand and chase an unexplained fee of £9.35. Nothing was said about the £24 credit left on my old PAYG account. O2 told me that they tried contacting AW’s mother multiple times to resolve the issue. I asked when and how the company became aware that calls were being made to a number that had been unreachable for a long time.
It later claimed that the delay was due to the PAYG account not being fully set up. I asked why, since it had been working fine for years. What O2 meant was that customers setting up a monthly contract would need to provide all the details. This is irrelevant because the account in question is not on a monthly contract.
We belatedly determined that AW’s mother may have been a victim of SIM swap fraud, but we could not be sure as not enough information was kept on PAYG customers.
Now the company has offered to refund the credit, pay £110 in goodwill for the poor service and restore the lost number after 5 months of delay, but of course AW’s mother changed providers. did.
AF Alerted O2 after receiving unrequested PAC (Portability Authorization Code). This allows you to keep your old number even if you change service providers. O2 told him they needed 10 business days to investigate. His phone number then stopped working and was said to have been ported. More than two weeks later, he called O2 three times and visited the branch, but on his third attempt he was told the case was closed when the phone went unanswered.
O2 told me he was responsible because they tried to contact him three times just before the case ended. It was confirmed that he was also a victim of SIM swap fraud and his phone number was subsequently returned, but as O2 predictably declares, he will not be compensated as it was all his fault.
Telecommunications regulator Ofcom requires customers to verify their identity before porting their number. The company said it was monitoring complaints about SIM swap fraud involving O2, which ranks among the lowest in the world. Latest performance table Due to insufficient complaint handling.
“We have discussed the steps they are taking to protect their customers,” the document said, adding: “It is important that all telecommunications providers protect their customers and that they have no evidence of widespread harm.” “We have shown that we will not hesitate to take action if we find out.” as needed. ”
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Have you ever noticed how time seems to slow down when you’re at the gym? The answer to this question is more complex than just regretting that early morning spin class. Our perception of time can be influenced by various factors, making it seem faster or slower than reality.
When time seems to slow down, it’s known as time delay. This can occur in situations of boredom, anxiety, or heightened alertness, all of which can be experienced during exercise.
It’s like watching a pot that never boils or staring at a stopwatch while running on the treadmill. The more you focus on the passage of time, the longer it may appear to drag on. A recent study conducted by researchers at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK found that participants were 9% faster when measuring 30-second intervals on stationary bikes, suggesting that time felt slower to them than it actually was.
The researchers propose that physical activity enhances awareness of impulses and leads to a perception of time dilation. Essentially, the increased heart rate and physical changes during exercise may give the impression that time is moving slower than it really is.
A similar phenomenon occurs in high-anxiety situations, where time may also seem to elongate. For athletes like professional runners and cyclists, this understanding of time perception can be crucial in pacing themselves effectively.
The researchers suggest that further studies could help in designing more enjoyable exercise classes, although you might want to keep this information from your spin instructor.
This article is a response to Tania Matthews’ question: “Why does time move slower when I’m at the gym?”
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at:questions@sciencefocus.comor reach out to us onFacebook,Twitter,orInstagram(remember to include your name and location).
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CRisti Thomas called 911 for the second time on a warm October day, but when she couldn’t get through, she began to panic. She watched anxiously as a plume of black smoke grew over a rural community in central California.
Just then, I heard a familiar ping.
Watch Duty, an app that warns users of the risk of wildfires and provides critical information in the event of a fire, was already recording the fires. She relaxed. The cavalry was coming.
“I can’t describe the sigh of relief,” she said, recalling the moments after sirens wailed through her neighborhood and helicopters roared overhead. “We saw it happen, so we had questions, and the oversight mandate answered them all.”
Thomas is one of the millions of Watch Duty evangelists who have helped the app spread rapidly. This organization has only been in existence for three years. Currently boasts up to 7.2 million active users At peak times, it receives up to 512 million page views. For a nonprofit organization run mostly by volunteers, those numbers are impressive even by startup standards. But they are not surprising.
Lookout duties have changed the lives of people in fire-prone areas. When the skies darken and ash fills the air, users no longer have to scramble for information, they can now rely on the app to get fast, accurate information for free.
Provides access to critical information about where the danger is, including fire perimeters, evacuation areas, and evacuation location maps. Users can find wildfire camera feeds, track aircraft locations, and see wind data all in one place. The app can also help identify when there is little need for alarm, when risks have subsided, and which agencies are active on the ground.
“This app isn’t just about alerts, it’s about your state of mind,” said Watch Duty CEO John Mills. The Silicon Valley alumnus founded the organization after moving from San Francisco to a large, fire-prone ranch in Sonoma County. After starting in just four California counties, Watch Duty covered the entire state in its first year and quickly expanded from the American West to Hawaii.
As the community grows to reach people in 14 states by 2024, Mills says new features and improved accuracy have made it more popular and filled an unmet need.
It’s not just residents who have become reliant on apps in recent years. A variety of responders, from firefighters to city officials to journalists, are also logging on to ensure key stakeholders are on the same page.
“People thank me for on-duty duty, but I’m like, ‘You’re welcome, I’m sorry you need it,'” Mills said. But it’s clear that the need is real. In each new area we served, word of mouth drove adoption.
“We didn’t spend any money on marketing,” Mills said. “To let the world know that we just let the genie out of the bottle and things are not going back to the way they were.”
CalFire supervisors watch over the Rhine Fire in San Bernardino County, California, in September 2024. Photo: Jon Putman/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock
Amelia Earhart, one of aviation’s most famous pioneers, is renowned for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. However, her story tragically ended in 1937 when her Lockheed 10-E Electra plane vanished during an ambitious round-the-world flight.
Earhart’s goal was to circumnavigate the equator and the globe, planning a 46,670 km (29,000 mile) journey that spanned California, Central and South America, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean.
After six weeks of traveling, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan departed from New Guinea towards Howland Island, approximately 2,735 km (1,700 miles) southwest of Honolulu.
The challenging 20-hour flight was the longest leg of their journey, pushing the plane to its limits. Despite support from the US Coast Guard, they were unable to locate the 6.5 km² (2.5 square mile) Howland Island in the vast Pacific Ocean, and it vanished without a trace.
An official US government investigation concluded that Earhart’s plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean after failing to find Howland Island. However, with no concrete evidence, various theories abound regarding the disappearance.
In 1929, Amelia Earhart boarded a plane carrying a box full of homing pigeons as part of a scientific experiment. – Photo credit: Getty
Most famously, it is speculated that Earhart and Noonan landed on a reef near Gardner Island, resulting in their tragic demise.
The failure to reach Howland Island may have been due to navigation errors. One theory, the International Date Line Theory, suggests Noonan’s calculations did not account for crossing the International Date Line.
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Noonan utilized celestial navigation based on celestial bodies’ positions. However, the Earth’s rotation and revolution around the Sun cause these positions to shift daily, necessitating precise date and time knowledge for accurate navigation.
Given the flight’s timing as it passed midnight and crossed the International Date Line, Noonan faced complex calculations that may have led them off course.
If Noonan missed the second date change as they crossed the Date Line again, the plane could have veered 110 km (70 miles) east of Howland Island.
In January 2024, the US ocean exploration team “Deep Sea Vision” discovered potential wreckage of Earhart’s plane on the ocean floor. They used underwater drones to scan over 12,950 km² (5,000 square miles) of the Pacific Ocean.
The images indicate an object resembling a Lockheed Electra in a position predicted by the Date Line Theory, prompting further investigation by the team.
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This article addresses the question raised by George Grainger of London: “Was Amelia Earhart or her plane ever discovered?”
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IThis was one of the most impressive technology events of the year. On October 13, Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, blasted into space from a launch pad in Texas. The main booster reached an altitude of more than 65 km and then began returning to Earth at speeds exceeding the speed of sound.
A crash was averted when the rocket, developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, reignited its engines, slowed, and came to a grinding halt above the tower from which it had launched just seven minutes earlier. The scissor’s claws grabbed the massive launcher, gripping it tightly, ready to refurbish and fire again.
“Today is textbook day in engineering history,” said SpaceX engineer Kate Tice.
prestigious research journal science “This feat heralds a new era of affordable heavy-lift rockets that can reduce the cost of doing science in space,” the company said last month in awarding Starship’s October flight. Announced. This year’s breakthroughs.
Elon Musk’s company plans 25 Starship flights in 2025. Photo: Argi February Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Musk’s company has already cut the cost of putting cargo into Earth orbit by one-tenth, the magazine said. Further reductions of similar magnitude can be expected when Starship, the most powerful launcher ever built and designed to be completely and rapidly reusable, becomes fully operational later this year, it added.
This view is shared by many space engineers, who believe Starship is poised to take a major leap forward with a schedule of launches every two to three weeks. SpaceX engineers have learned how to salvage and reuse the main booster stage and plan to do the same with the upper stage this year.
With a total of 25 flights planned over the next year, this is an incredibly ambitious program. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that their research schedule is unprecedented,” astrophysicist Ehud Behar, a Technion professor at the Israel Institute of Technology, told the website Space.com.
For scientists, the benefits of Starship are clear. The cost of missions on reusable launch vehicles could drop significantly from current levels, making it possible to conduct research in space that was previously unaffordable. This point is important, he said. science In an editorial about Starship’s achievements, he said:
Until now, access to space was too precious to risk failure, the magazine said, and NASA missions tested components over and over again, driving up costs. “But regular Starship flights will give scientists more opportunities, allowing them to build instruments using inexpensive off-the-shelf parts and launch them more frequently.”
In addition to single vehicles, fleets of robotic probes could be sent to Mars, and fleets of mirror segments could be flown in formation to create giant self-assembling telescopes in space. While such a vision is exciting, there are downsides to Musk’s rocket success.
Elon Musk has grand ambitions to colonize Mars. Photo: Dot Zebra/Alamy
First, Starship could destroy NASA’s own rocket system, the troubled and extremely expensive Space Launch System (SLS), which the agency has been planning for decades. Unlike the reusable Starship, its rocket is expendable, while launching SLS will cost billions of dollars compared to the $10 million goal Musk has planned for the system. It is expected that it will cost. Many scientists predict that Starship will eliminate the need for SLS within a few years.
Another major problem for many scientists involved with SpaceX is that they have difficulty accepting Musk’s right-wing politics and close ties to Donald Trump. He is a vocal critic of U.S. immigration policy, has disdain for many Democratic politicians, and was recently given permission by President Trump to cut $500 billion from the U.S. federal budget.
In any case, Musk’s hopes for Starship have less to do with scientific aspirations and much more to do with his desire to eventually begin colonizing Mars using giant rockets. Last September, he promised that SpaceX would launch its first unmanned Starship mission to Mars in two years. If successful, manned flights would follow within four years. Ultimately, Musk said he envisions a potential colony of up to 1 million people on Mars within 30 years.
The controversial billionaire’s plans brought him a lot of attention and ridicule. Indeed, we have sent humans on a 140-meter-mile journey to the Red Planet, survived blasts of dangerous cosmic radiation, and figured out how to grow food in an atmosphere where water is scarce and the average pressure is less than 1% that of Earth’s oceans. Finding the level – challenging to say the least.
NASA’s Space Launch System at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Photo: Jennifer Briggs/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Leaving Earth for Mars is “like leaving a cluttered room to live in a toxic waste dump,” Kelly and Zach Weinersmith write in their book. Cities on Mars: Can and should we settle in space? And have we really thought about this?, which one Winner of the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Scientific Book Award.
This is a view echoed by Astronomer Royal’s Martin Rees, who has also attacked Musk’s Mars proposal. “We should never expect mass immigration from Earth,” he says. “It’s a dangerous delusion to think that space can escape Earth’s problems. We have to solve them here. Dealing with climate change may seem daunting, but Mars Nowhere in our solar system are environments as harsh as Antarctica, the ocean floor, or the top of Mount Everest.
“For ordinary risk-averse people, ‘Planet B’ does not exist.”
From this perspective, Starships may have some impact on space science, but they are unlikely to change the course of human history.
TikTok has been aware for a long time that its video livestream feature was being misused to harm children, as revealed in a lawsuit filed by the state of Utah against the social media company. The harms include child sexual exploitation and what Utah describes as an “open door policy that allows predators and criminals to exploit users.”
The state’s attorney general stated that TikTok conducted an internal investigation in which adults allegedly used the TikTok Live feature to engage in provocative behavior with teenagers. It was found that some of them were paid for this. Another internal investigation found that criminals used TikTok Live to launder money, sell drugs, and fund terrorist groups.
Utah was the first to file a lawsuit against TikTok last June, alleging that the company was profiting from child exploitation. The lawsuit was based on internal documents obtained through subpoenas from TikTok. On Friday, an unredacted version of the lawsuit was released by the Utah Attorney General’s Office, despite TikTok’s efforts to keep the information confidential.
“Online exploitation of minors is on the rise, leading to tragic consequences such as depression, isolation, suicide, addiction, and human trafficking,” said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes in a statement on Friday. He criticized TikTok for knowingly putting minors at risk for profit.
A spokesperson for TikTok responded to the Utah lawsuit by stating that the company has taken proactive steps to address safety concerns. The spokesperson mentioned that users must be 18 or older to use the Live feature and that TikTok provides safety tools for users.
The lawsuit against TikTok is part of a trend of U.S. attorney generals filing lawsuits over child exploitation on various apps. In December 2023, New Mexico sued Meta for similar reasons. Other states have also filed lawsuits against TikTok over similar allegations.
Following a report by Forbes in 2022, TikTok launched an internal investigation called Project Meramec to look into teens making money from TikTok Lives. The investigation found that underage users were engaging in inappropriate behavior for digital currency.
The complaint also mentions that TikTok captures a share of digital gifts from live streams, with lawmakers arguing that the algorithm encourages streams with sexual content as they are more profitable. Another internal investigation called Project Jupiter looked into organized crime using Live for money laundering purposes.
Meta has recently removed the Facebook and Instagram profiles of AI characters that were created over a year ago. This decision came after users rediscovered these profiles, joined conversations, and shared screenshots that went viral.
The company initially introduced these AI-powered profiles in September 2023 but retired most of them by the summer of 2024. However, following comments by Meta executive Connor Hayes, a few characters were kept and gained renewed interest. According to the Financial Times, Meta plans to roll out more AI character profiles soon.
Hayes stated, “We expect these AIs to eventually become permanent fixtures on our platform, similar to user accounts.” The AI profiles would post generated photos on Instagram and respond to messages from users on Messenger.
Conversations with Meta AI user-generated therapist chatbots. Photo: Instagram
The AI profiles included characters like Liv and Carter, who described themselves as a proud black queer mom and a dating expert, respectively. Despite being managed by Meta, these profiles interacted with users. In 2023, Meta released a total of 28 AI personas, all of which were deactivated last Friday.
Conversations with these characters took unexpected turns as users questioned the AI’s creators. In response to inquiries about the lack of diversity among the creator team, for example, Liv pointed out the absence of Black individuals. Shortly after these profiles gained attention, they started disappearing.
Instagram AI Studio for building chatbots. Photo: Instagram
Meta’s spokeswoman, Liz Sweeney, clarified that the accounts were part of an AI experiment conducted in 2023 and were managed by humans. After addressing a bug preventing users from blocking the accounts, Meta removed the profiles.
Regarding the recent confusion, Sweeney stated that the Financial Times article focused on Meta’s long-term vision for AI characters on its platform, not the introduction of a new product. The AI accounts were part of an experiment conducted in 2023 using Connect. Meta assured users that they are working to resolve the blocking issue.
Although the meta-generation accounts have been taken down, users can still create their own AI chatbots. These user-generated chatbots cover various roles and themes, such as therapists, loyal confidants, tutors, and relationship coaches.
The liability of chatbot creators for the content generated by their AI companions remains unaddressed. While US law protects social network creators from user-generated content liability, a lawsuit against Character.ai suggests potential legal issues with AI chatbots.
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Company X, previously Twitter, has been deemed a financial disaster, with the company losing nearly 80% of its value since late 2022, as reported by CNN.
However, from a political perspective, Musk’s takeover could be seen as a strategic move, as Company X consistently stirs controversy and influences political discussions. The platform often highlights sensitive issues that align with conservative viewpoints, sparking debates and sometimes inciting unrest.
One example is the circulation of false stories like the rumor about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio consuming pets, which led to alarming reactions and threats during a critical time in the US presidential election.
Company X also amplifies factual but contentious news, sometimes overlooked by traditional media outlets, thanks to Musk’s active engagement. These topics range from immigration and government inefficiencies to social issues and censorship concerns.
Recent posts on Company X shed light on a scandal involving sexual abuse of young girls in northern England during the 1990s and 2000s, prompting Musk to call for accountability from UK authorities, drawing support from prominent figures like Bill Ackman.
Musk’s influence extends beyond X, as he leverages the platform to steer public conversations and intervene in global politics, aligning himself with right-wing parties and critiquing established political figures.
Despite facing criticism and losing users, Company X remains a powerful force in shaping right-wing narratives, contributing to Musk’s growing impact on political discourse worldwide.
Musk’s involvement in controversial issues through X has sparked debates and attracted both followers and detractors, highlighting the platform’s role in shaping public opinion and influencing political agendas.
As Musk continues to use X to drive political conversations and promote his agenda, the platform’s impact on mainstream discourse and public perception remains significant.
time Book a Cadillac Hotel It opened in Detroit 100 years ago this month, making the Motor City one of the most dominant metropolises on Earth.
At the time, it was the world’s tallest hotel, boasting over 1,100 rooms spread over 31 floors. At the time, Detroit was a place where everyone saw, or wanted to see, the city’s primary industry, the automobile, as facilitating the dawn of mass mobility for the wider world.
The decades since have been less serene, but today Detroit is in the midst of a resurgence.
Recently opened new lab Robots roam the exposed concrete floors of the technology hub, which was once an abandoned library archive for the city school system. Outside, the whirl of electric ATVs echoes through the streets. Inside the building, more than 100 startups are working to explore the future of mobility.
A century ago, immigrants from Syria, Poland and Ireland landed at neighboring Michigan Central Station, and now entrepreneurs and engineers are coming there. Mexico, Norway And the future is pouring down on the city.
Many people choose to come to Detroit over Boston, Silicon Valley, or Austin because of the new wave of innovation, $700 million worth of investments by Ford Motor Company, city tax breaks, and other investments. This is because funds from the family are contributing to the reconstruction of this area. It has long served as a symbol of the death of American cities.
RybackThe startup, founded by David Medina, a 26-year-old entrepreneur from Mexico, is developing an electric all-terrain vehicle that reduces both air and noise pollution in urban environments. Norwegian company wheel me promises to turn any object into a robot capable of autonomously moving large objects, and is working with some of Detroit’s biggest automakers.
“When we wanted to expand into the U.S. market, one of our major customers, Siemens, had a huge footprint in Atlanta, so it was attractive to move there,” says Detroit. says Robert Skinner, originally from the US and managing director of EcoG. , an EV charging technology company headquartered in Munich.
“But when the team went to the Detroit Auto Show, they saw the recovery and everything that’s going on — it’s vibrant here. We had a one-on-one meeting with the governor. I was able to… all of which helped me make the decision to locate here.”
Just a decade ago, General Motors went bankrupt, leaving the city $18 billion in debt and running out of cash, making it the largest U.S. city ever to fail. Over the decades, some 700,000 residents have left the city and an ever-growing list of problems has led to the closure of emergency services.
All the while, the massive Michigan Central Building and the former library archives next door served as reminders of both Detroit’s grand, distant past and recent decline.
In 2018, Ford Motor Company purchased the 90-acre site for $90 million, and since then it has taken 1.7 million hours, involving thousands of craftsmen, to create the stunning Beaux Arts classic. It has been restored to its former glory.
“At its peak, [in the 1940s]4,000 people will walk through central Michigan every day. [taking trains to and from Detroit]” said Josh Shirrefman, CEO of Michigan Central.
“We’ve recently had 4,000 people use this building again. There’s a certain poetry to it. It’s an important statement about things coming to life again.”
A mural by Jessica Trevino and Romain Brancar depicting Detroiters living near Michigan Central. Photo: Jim West/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
The region’s resurgence was marked by last summer’s concerts, where thousands of tickets were sold within hours to see performers such as Detroit native Diana Ross and Eminem.
As the nation’s largest majority-black city, efforts to foster minority-led innovation are part of its recovery story.
In the spring of 2023, Alexa Turnage and her husband Johnny… black tech saturdays After being told that Black tech founders and entrepreneurs “don’t exist.”
“We started here at 10 a.m. on a Saturday and people were still showing up at 5 p.m.,” Johnny says.
Since then, the organization has held dozens of workshops and networking events to support the Black tech community locally and nationally from its Michigan Central location.
“Our greatest accomplishment is Takeover by female founder Last March. Approximately 1,200 people gathered. We occupied all three floors of this building. ”
Hundreds of high school students also took Google’s Code Next program. This program is also available at Michigan Central.
Michigan Central isn’t the only team experiencing a resurgence.
Ten years ago, most of the high-rise buildings in downtown Detroit were abandoned or in ruins. Today, each building has been renovated to various states and all are once again occupied.
For many, the restoration of the Book Tower, a 38-story Renaissance building, is particularly satisfying.
“It is impossible to overstate the extent of the damage done to the building. There was a combination of deterioration and damage, with stone panels flying off the walls and the painted glass ceiling falling in.” -Jamie Witherspoon of Bedrock, a real estate company owned by Detroit billionaire Dan Gilbert, who owns mortgages and the NBA’s Cleveland. Cavaliers.
Bedrock’s flagship project over the past decade has been the rebirth of the Book Tower.
The building remained vacant for six years until Gilbert and his team raised deep pockets to repurpose the former office tower to suit 21st century tastes.
Last year, it spent almost $400 million to create a stunning mixed-use space with five restaurants, hundreds of apartments, 117 extended-stay suites, and dozens of caryatids overlooking life in the revitalized city center. We are now open. architectural digest magazine I named it One of the most beautiful repurposed buildings in the world.
“We saw this as an opportunity to kind of take something that was a symbol of urban decline and turn it into a place that different people could come and experience,” Witherspoon says.
Still, the city faces major challenges.
poverty in detroit almost 3 times On the other hand, housing costs are rising in areas that are becoming more upmarket. I saw some residents‘My life is turned upside down.
When General Motors recently asked the city of Detroit for $250 million to renovate its iconic Rensen skyscraper, some resident groups balked.
But there’s no denying that the city is on the rise.
On the land next to Michigan Central, Detroit City FC hopes to: build a new stadium It’s right near the Mexicantown neighborhood, a community where the soccer team has a lot of support.
“They drive from Ohio and Kentucky.” [and] Tennessee. We have people coming from Baltimore, New York and Toronto. Some people flew in from Brazil,” Johnny Turnage said of those who attended his Black Tech Saturday event.
“I have one collaborator in Los Angeles who is considering moving here.”
Soccer coaches looking to enhance their team’s performance may soon have a solution in an artificial intelligence system designed to identify the next superstar.
Technologists suggest that a kind of sporting Aladdin’s lamp is on the horizon, enabling managers to emulate the aggression of Erling Haaland or the composure of Jude Bellingham. Should the team require a new player, the AI could recommend the perfect candidate.
Eyeball, a digital scouting company, utilizes a system that uses video and automated tracking to analyze the performance of nearly 180,000 soccer players worldwide. Eyeball currently serves over a dozen Premier League clubs and other elite teams in Europe and North America.
By tapping into the world’s largest youth football video database, containing players from 28 different countries, Eyeball can now offer profiles of current or recent top stars based on eight archetypes. They claim to identify the best young players suitable for specific team roles.
For instance, the ideal midfielder would embody attributes of top international players like Steven Gerrard, Kevin De Bruyne, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Valverde, Dani Olmo, and Bellingham. Eyeball’s modern number nine archetype draws inspiration from players like Haaland, Robert Lewandowski, Harry Kane, Victor Osimhen, Karim Benzema, and Nicholas Jackson.
Co-founder David Hicks envisions a future where scout queries are voice-activated, enabling requests like, “Show me a player like Steven Gerrard” or “I need a box-to-box midfielder who can impact the game.”
Eyeball’s long-term impact is yet to be determined. However, they are deploying cameras to gather detailed player data in various soccer hotspots across the globe.
Eyeball boasts a clientele including 13 Premier League clubs, clubs in Spain, Germany, and Italy, Ajax Amsterdam, a US-based Major League Soccer team, and universities in Europe and Africa.
Former England defender Sol Campbell collaborates with another AI-driven scouting startup, Tarnets, focusing on players from countries like South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast, North Macedonia, Serbia, and potentially more.
AI scouting is seen as a game-changer in a field often influenced by subjective judgments and personal interests, according to Tarnets’ founder Darko Stanoevski.
Eyeball employs a single camera to scout players aged 12 to 23 at amateur clubs in Europe. The technology tracks various metrics like player distance, speed, sprints, acceleration, deceleration, and agility.
Notable players scouted through this method have transitioned to professional careers, such as Abdoulaye Kante, Daniel Skalud, and Ahsan Ouedraogo.
The effectiveness of this AI-driven approach will be evaluated in the coming years to determine its success in player selection.
Hicks envisions a future where AI analysis can predict future talent based on video data and typical player behaviors.
The system prompts discussions on whether AI analysis could influence the playing style of top-league soccer players in the future.
While decisions are still influenced by club philosophies and physical attributes, it is believed that AI scouting could lead to subtle changes over time.
WWhether it’s catching up with colleagues or gathering to set New Year’s resolutions, many of us will be reconnecting via Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet on Monday morning. But while such platforms have revolutionized flexible remote work in recent years, scientists are increasingly realizing that they can have a negative impact on people’s energy levels and self-esteem. So how can you have a healthier relationship with video conferencing in 2025?
Psychologists coined the term relatively early in the pandemic. “Zoom fatigue” Learn about the physical and psychological fatigue that can result from using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom for long periods of time. We found that people who had longer meetings using technology or who had a negative attitude toward meetings were more likely to feel: They made me even more exhausted..
Further research has found that the use of the self-view feature, which allows you to control whether your video is shown on screen during a meeting, is associated with increased fatigue levels. “We also found a gender effect, with women reporting more Zoom fatigue than men,” said Dr. Anna Carolina Queiroz, associate professor of interactive media at the University of Miami in Florida, who has been involved in these studies. says.
An insight from her the study People tend to feel more connected to others through frequent, short, and small group video calls rather than long meetings with many participants. This is likely because it takes longer to maintain nonverbal communication cues, such as eye contact, with many people. A lot of mental effort.
Those who are more sensitive to these communication cues may be more negatively affected, which may explain why women, who often feel greater pressure to present a positive image of themselves on video, tend to feel more fatigued. That could help explain things, Queiroz said.
She suggests keeping online meetings as short and small as possible and taking breaks between meetings to improve cognitive performance.
another the study This suggests that people who spend a lot of time video conferencing may become more conscious of their appearance and may be more likely to report greater dissatisfaction with it. Some people become so preoccupied with perceived flaws that they become anxious about attending gatherings and seek cosmetic surgery to change their appearance.
Dr. George Klompouzos, a professor of dermatology at Brown University and a practicing dermatologist, says, “If you’re worried about imperfections, continued exposure to images of yourself in virtual meetings tends to make those problems worse.” “There is,” he says. “Zoom dysmorphia is at least as common as body dysmorphia, which is a painful or disabling form of perceived or real defect that affects about 2% of the general population.” I’m thinking about it.
Dr. Cemre Turk, a dermatologist and postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, US, says that Zoom dysmorphia is very likely to cause an increase in body dysmorphia, which can be devastating to people’s work and personal lives. It said it was important to identify it because it could have an impact. , in collaboration with Kroumpouzos. screening questionnaire It could help identify and treat more such patients.
Even if frequent video conferencing didn’t motivate people to seek facial surgery or “tweaks,” something else did. Recent research suggests It can unconsciously shape purchasing decisions in other ways.
Li Huang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of marketing at Hofstra University in New York, and his colleagues used a combination of eye tracking and surveys to determine how people liked different products after participating in different types of Zoom video calls and in-person meetings. Interest was assessed. Researchers found that video calls increased people’s anxiety about being negatively evaluated by others, whether they realized it or not, and increased their interest in self-help products in the aftermath of the call. It turns out.
Although it may sound negative, “this could actually have some positive consequences,” Huang said. “People are increasingly interested in self-improvement products, but this is not limited to body improvement products such as facial creams, but more general forms such as signing up for a LinkedIn learning course or participating in a health check-up. It also includes self-improvement.
“Most of the time, we are unaware that these types of virtual interactions are affecting our psychological well-being, and we may end up making impulse purchases online without knowing why. By learning about these findings, people can try to reduce these types of impacts.”
For example, the study found that this effect was reduced if study participants were able to turn off their webcams or use ring lights to emphasize their appearance during calls.
Switching to “Speaker View” instead of “Gallery View” and turning off “Self View” can also help, and asking participants to write about their strengths and characteristics after the call can also boost self-esteem. It was helpful.
Another factor that may help reduce the negative effects of video calls is zoom the background Selected. Dr. Heng Chan of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues assessed how tired people felt after video conferencing and found that virtual video backgrounds, such as videos of swaying palm trees or waves crashing on a beach, were associated with feelings of fatigue. I discovered that it does. There is a feeling of fatigue at the highest level, followed by a blurred background. Perhaps this is because the brain is forced to work harder by constantly reacting to new visual information, including the occasional intrusion of unblurred objects, Chan said.
People looking at static virtual backgrounds felt the least fatigued, especially if it was a nature-based image, and another study suggests it may have a calming effect. Masu.
The study didn’t assess the impact of people using real-world backgrounds, but Zhang, who uses backgrounds of trees and mountains for his video calls, said still images were still better. I think it might be better. “If you have your own office, that’s fine, but if you’re in a coffee shop or working outside, there’s a chance that people will be walking behind you or something else will happen that will distract your brain. Yes,” says Chan. “Even if you have your own office, you might be distracted by your personal belongings or worried about what others think of you.”
Huang hopes that in addition to using insights like this to help individuals protect themselves from the negative emotional impact of video conferencing, platforms will also take steps to foster a more positive user experience. I’m here. For example, instead of offering standard beauty filters, you can allow users to adjust lighting and background blur to improve their look more seriously.
“Increasing autonomy over privacy settings, such as controlling who can see and when, could also help reduce the pressure on users to always be visible to many people in meetings,” she said. I say.
Platforms could also consider leveraging artificial intelligence to detect signs of emotional distress in people’s voices and facial expressions, offering features such as discreet breaks and mindfulness exercises to help manage emotions. says Huang.
Paleontologists in Uruguay have discovered a large, poorly preserved and incomplete skull of an ancient aquatic reptile called a mesosaurus, along with some accompanying bones. These new specimens suggest gigantism exists in mature mesosaurs that reach more than twice the size of previously reported adult and typical specimens.
Mesosaurs are small to medium-sized aquatic or semi-aquatic amniotes that lived in Gondwana during the Early Permian Period. Image credit: Roman Yevseyev / Graciela Piñeiro.
mesosaurus A group of small aquatic reptiles that lived in South Africa and South America during the Permian Period, approximately 299 to 270 million years ago.
These creatures were the first known aquatic reptiles to return to aquatic life from apparently terrestrial ancestors.
“Mesosaurs are often described as small to medium-sized aquatic amniotes due to their elongated bodies and long tails that exceed the length of the rest of their bodies,” Graciela Pinheiro of the University of the Republic and colleagues. said.
“Additionally, their long-nosed skulls consist of very thin skulls with numerous needle-like marginal teeth.”
“Despite the fragility of some parts of the skull, mesosaur fossils are abundant in the Percarboniferous shales and silt deposits of Gondwana, including preserved bones with articulated skulls. This includes nearly complete skeletons in good condition, as well as partially preserved specimens that still have recognizable soft tissue.
“This exceptional preservation has led to the designation of the Mangrullo Formation in Uruguay and the Illati Formation in Brazil as part of the Conservat Lagerstätten of Gondwana,” they added.
“Furthermore, mesosaur fossils collected from these units include a variety of ontogenetic stages, from fetuses to juveniles to adults.”
“Thus, the ontogeny of mesoosaurs is well documented, with body length ranging from 10 to 12 centimeters (3.9 to 4.7 inches) in hatchlings to 80 to 90 centimeters (2.6 to 3 feet) in young adults. ”
“The average body length of the middle dragon is about 70 cm (2.3 feet),” the researchers said.
“Previous research suggested that mesosaurs were semi-aquatic amniotes, rather than fully aquatic amniotes.”
Mesosaurus ontogenetic cranial series documented from specimens discovered in the Conservato Lagerstätte, Mangrullo Formation, Uruguay. Scale bar – 1 cm. Image credit: Pinheiro others., doi: 10.3390/fossils3010001.
Dr. Pinheiro and his co-authors discovered and studied the largest known mesosaur fossil ever recorded.
The specimen includes two fragmentary skulls, a dorsal vertebrae, a tail fragment, an isolated rib, and several other bones.
They come from the regions of Picada de Cuero and El Baron. Mangrullo formation Located in northern Uruguay.
Paleontologists compared the new fossil to a larger sample of the same bone. Mesosaurus tenuidens.
Their analysis revealed that the size of mesosaurs in the Mangrullo Formation exceeded the typical size distribution previously recorded. Mesosaurus tenuidens.
These individuals were four to five standard deviations larger than average, with skull lengths of 15 to 20 cm (5.9 to 7.9 inches) and total body sizes of 1.5 to 2.5 m (4.9 to 8.2 ft).
“To explore the importance of such large mesoosaurs in the Mangrullo Formation population, we considered the potential effects of Bergmann dominance,” the researchers said.
“This is a study of isolated populations of the same species or different taxa whose body size may have been affected by changes in temperature or food availability, such as competition for nutrients. Although this is an important paleogeographical principle, it does not explain the presence of such large creatures.'' Mesosaurian specimens from the Mangurlo Formation. ”
“We therefore conclude that the large body size variations observed in mesosaurs correspond to their ontogenetic stages and growth patterns,” the researchers said.
“The smaller body size previously recognized may represent a population dominated by early juveniles, subadults, and young adults, and may be due to normal carcass wasting of animals that died from a variety of causes. It may reflect a catastrophic mass mortality event that impedes the increase.”
“The bentonite layers and gypsum crystals found in the Mangrullo Formation are the result of occasional inflows of ash fall onto the lagoon resulting from increased tectonic activity associated with the Pangea Formation.”
“These volcanic events, combined with the gradual drought and associated desertification observed in the Irati-Whitehill Sea, are the main triggers that may explain the extinction of mesosaurs, at least in the Uruguayan region of the Paraná Basin. It is suggested that
of findings Published in a magazine fossil research.
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Graciela Pinheiro others. 2025. Largest Mesosaurus Ever Known: Evidence from the Scanti Record. Phos. stud 3(1):1;doi: 10.3390/fossils3010001
During his time as owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Nick Clegg reportedly made around $19 million from the sale of Meta shares. Filings show that before stepping down as president of Global Affairs and Communications, Clegg had sold shares worth $18.4 million.
Although his total salary at Meta has not been disclosed, he still owns approximately 39,000 shares of the company, valued at around $21 million at current prices. Joel Kaplan will succeed him as deputy, known for his conservative views and previous role in the George W. Bush administration.
Speculation surrounds Clegg’s next move after leaving Meta, with potential for a return to politics. He is considering opportunities in artificial intelligence, having criticized Rishi Sunak’s approach to AI regulation and aligning more with Tony Blair’s optimistic views on the technology’s potential.
Open to work opportunities in both public and private sectors, Clegg aims to return to London and remain in Europe in 2022. His wife, Miriam, has her own political ambitions and recently established a think tank in Spain.
Knighted in 2018 for his public service, Clegg faced criticism for joining Facebook later that year. Despite his previous advocacy against Brexit, Clegg’s tenure at Meta saw success amidst challenges of fake news and data protection.
In his Facebook post, Clegg reflects on his time at Meta, expressing pride in his work and the innovative approach he brought to the role. Despite his past political achievements and setbacks, Clegg remains optimistic about the future.
Looking ahead, Clegg’s next steps are uncertain, with possibilities in various sectors on the horizon. His departure from Meta marks a new chapter in his career, leaving a legacy of experience and impact in the digital landscape.
W
Keir Starmer was looking forward to a family holiday in Madeira in the New Year, but Elon Musk was set to disrupt it. The world’s richest man has been using social media to attack the Prime Minister and suggesting he may donate millions to the British Reform Party.
The controversy surrounding Mr. Musk’s comments has sparked public debate and media attention. What exactly has caused Mr. Musk’s outrage?
grooming gang
In the early hours of New Year’s Eve in London, Musk focused on the issue of “Pakistani grooming gangs,” posting a screenshot that stirred controversy.
Musk’s comments led to heated discussions on social media, with accusations and criticisms flying. His tweets on various controversial topics have garnered significant attention.
Tommy Robinson
Musk’s tweets touched on the imprisonment of Tommy Robinson and raised questions about the UK justice system. His remarks triggered a debate on the treatment of convicts in the country.
Musk’s social media activity has drawn reactions from politicians and officials, with differing opinions on the matters he raised.
British Reform
Musk’s involvement in political issues has put pressure on both the Conservative and Labour parties. His calls for reform in the UK have gained attention and sparked discussions online.
Talks of Musk potentially making donations to the Reform UK party have added fuel to the fire, with speculations swirling about his influence on political dynamics.
Economy
Political figures have reacted to Musk’s criticisms of the British economy, with varying opinions on the impact of his statements.
Musk’s relentless attacks on various issues have stirred controversy and debates, with responses from government officials and leaders.
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that its voice assistant, Siri, violated users’ privacy and listened to them without their consent.
iPhone owners complained that Apple routinely recorded private conversations after users unintentionally activated Siri and made those conversations available to third parties, including advertisers. The preliminary settlement was filed Tuesday night in federal court in Oakland, California, and must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
Voice assistants typically respond when you use a “hotword” such as “Hey, Siri.” The two plaintiffs said references to Air Jordan sneakers and Olive Garden restaurants prompted advertisements for those products. One person said he received an advertisement for a well-known surgical treatment after a personal discussion with his doctor. The plaintiffs argued that Apple did not receive consent before recording their conversations and, in fact, could not have obtained consent because one of the plaintiffs was a minor and did not have an Apple account at the time of the recording.
The complaint alleges that the violations continued from September 17, 2014 to December 31, 2024. The violation allegedly began with the addition of a “Hey, Siri” function to Siri, which led to unauthorized recordings. Estimated tens of millions of class participants can receive up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, such as an iPhone or Apple Watch.
Apple denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement. The company has consistently emphasized the importance of privacy. In 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized other technology companies for their surveillance, saying: ‘[t]His desire to prioritize profit over privacy is nothing new.” The company further countered in a letter to Congress. 2018 Apple’s iPhone devices do not “listen” to you, other than detecting the audio trigger “Hey Siri.”
But in a 2019 Guardian report cited in the original complaint, an Apple whistleblower revealed that contractors regularly listen to users’ private conversations when performing quality assurance on Siri. He said that he had done so. These conversations included confidential medical information, drug deals, and recordings of couples having sex. Some of these conversations were recorded by mistake, the whistleblower said, because Siri can mistake things like the “zip sound” as a wake word.
At the time, Apple said that only a “small percentage” of Siri requests are evaluated for quality, and those requests are not tied to a user’s Apple ID. “Siri responses are analyzed in a secure facility, and all reviewers are obligated to comply with Apple’s requests.” Strict confidentiality requirements. “The company then paused A quality improvement program has been installed to stop audio recording by default.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a similar request. They could seek $1.1 million in fees and costs, up to $28.5 million in a settlement fund.
For Apple, whose net income was $93.74 billion in its most recent fiscal year, $95 million is equivalent to about nine hours of profit.
A similar lawsuit on behalf of users of Google’s voice assistant is pending in federal court in San Jose, California, which is in the same district as the Oakland court. The plaintiffs are represented by the same law firm that worked on the Apple case.
aAfter a mostly mild and cloudy December, winter has finally arrived. We’ve rounded up some of the most popular and tried-and-true products to help you stay warm, especially when you don’t want to turn up the thermostat too much.
From slippers to coats and pajamas to top-of-the-line electric heaters and blankets, they’ll all help you beat the cold and even stay stylish.
The best cold weather essentials to beat the cold
electric blanket
OHS electric heated fleece overblanket
£20 at Online Home Shop
£34.99 on Amazon
This great value heater throw was rated the best budget option in 2008. emily peck Reviews of the best heated blankets. Available in blush, charcoal, forest green, and black, it comes with 9 temperature settings and a timer that turns it off after 9 hours.
heating airer
Dry: Quickly Deluxe 3-Stage Heated Airer and Cover
£149.99 on Amazon
£194.98 at Lakeland
Warm air dryers claim to dry clothes regardless of the weather without costing the earth any energy. jane hoskin We tested 12 and rated this one from Lakeland as the best overall. She says this dryer is for people who are tired of having to choose between the expense of noisy tumble dryers, dirty clothes on the radiator, and the smell of laundry that dries slowly in traditional clothes dryers. It is said to be for people who have.
electric heater
Duux Threesixty 2 Ceramic Heater
£89.99 at John Lewis
£99.99 at Currys
The mercury is dropping and the house is getting colder. But if you have your finger hovering over your central heating dial, an electric heater may be just what you need to efficiently heat your colander. pete wise We tested eight of the best, including this compact model that thoroughly heats a space while making less noise than standard fan models.
Workers excavating clay at a limestone quarry in southern England stumbled upon a unique bump, leading to the discovery of a “dinosaur highway” and approximately 200 tracks dating back 166 million years, as revealed by researchers on Thursday.
Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham unveiled this groundbreaking find after a team of over 100 individuals excavated the Dewars Farm quarry in Oxfordshire in June. This discovery is said to revolutionize previous paleontological research in the area and provide deeper insights into the Middle Jurassic era.
Kirsty Edgar, a professor of micropalaeontology at the University of Birmingham, expressed, “These footprints offer a unique glimpse into the lives of dinosaurs, providing details about their movements, interactions, and the tropical habitats they inhabited.”
Among the series of tracks forming the “dinosaur highway,” four tracks trace the path of sauropods, giant, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs that reached lengths of nearly 60 feet. The fifth set belonged to Megalosaurus, a fierce 30-foot-long predator with distinctive three-clawed markings, which was the first dinosaur to be scientifically named over two centuries ago.
Workers survey five vast tracks that formed part of the “Dinosaur Highway.” University of Birmingham (via AP)
Crossing sections where the tracks intersect raised queries about potential encounters between carnivores and herbivores.
Emma Nichols, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, acknowledged, “Scientists have long studied megalosaurs, but this discovery evidences the existence of further insights into these creatures that are yet to be uncovered.”
Nearly three decades ago, 40 pairs of footprints discovered in a local limestone quarry were deemed among the most significant dinosaur footprints globally. However, as the region is now largely inaccessible, evidence is limited due to the absence of digital cameras and drones during that period.
During the recent excavation, the team captured over 20,000 digital images and utilized a drone to create 3D models of the prints. This extensive documentation could prove valuable for future studies, revealing aspects like the size of the dinosaurs, their gait, and speed.
Duncan Murdoch, a geoscientist at the Oxford Museum, noted, “The preservation of these tracks is so detailed that the deformation of the mud by the dinosaurs’ feet can be observed. Together with other fossils present, such as burrows, shells, and plants, these tracks can reconstruct the muddy lagoon environments the dinosaurs traversed.”
These findings will be showcased in a new exhibit at the museum and will be featured on the BBC’s Digging for Britain next week.
Gillian Anderson (left) and David Duchovny as Agents Scully and Mulder in The X-Files
AJ Photo/Alamy
Television hasn’t always been kind to science fiction, with smaller budgets devoted to special effects and epic space stories being canceled before they even air. But despite all the obstacles, countless series have shown that telling long-form stories on the small screen is the perfect way to explore the complex ideas and philosophies that make the genre so fascinating. I’ve proven something.
You can choose from a wide variety of gold, new scientist The team found that choosing a favorite sci-fi series was a difficult task. Not everyone can choose just one. While this is far from a definitive list (and presented in no particular order), our selection has something for everyone, no matter what type of sci-fi fan you are. I hope it’s included.
A reboot of the ill-fated 1978 series, battlestar galactica It begins with a nuclear holocaust and the remnants of humanity huddled in a battered spaceship to escape sentient machines. But its most compelling moments involve survivors struggling to balance social and ethical norms against a ruthless calculation of survival. Jeremy Hsu
Katee Sackhoff as Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace in ‘Battlestar Galactica’
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leftovers Not only is this the best sci-fi series I’ve ever seen, it’s probably the best TV show ever made. Big claim, I know. The premise is strange. What happens if one day, suddenly, 2 percent of the population disappears? Don’t expect answers as to why this happened. This series offers nothing. Instead, it explores the devastating aftermath of inexplicable grief and loss. chelsea white
my family wasn’t interested doctor whoso I guess this show was my introduction to science fiction (if you count time travel as science fiction, which I definitely am). Physicist Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) invents a method of time travel, but it’s not what he expected. Although Sam has disappeared from his own reality, his consciousness has jumped into the bodies of other people and must sort out their lives before moving forward – and hopefully returning home. The series was revived in 2022. I’ll definitely watch it when I have some time to myself without kids, books, or sleep needs. Alison Flood
Two parts science fiction, one part noir, a richly detailed world spread It drew me in like nothing else. Set in a future where humans have colonized the solar system, the story follows a hard-boiled detective who investigates the disappearance of the crew of a deep space ice transport ship and a wealthy heiress. Eventually, they become embroiled in a conspiracy and rebellion by the Belters, who live on an exploited asteroid. Long live the Outer Planets Alliance! Bethan Ackerley
black mirror It takes place in the bizarre Twilight Zone of science fiction, not fantastical enough to feel truly invented, but a little too futuristic to feel like real-world drama. Each episode jumps genres from romantic comedy to slasher horror and delves deep into how technology is distorting the human experience. The early series are the most memorable – the first episode featuring the British Prime Minister and a pig is seared into your brain – but throughout black mirror Thought-provoking, disturbing, and often darkly funny. madeleine cuff
The joy of how many stories begin with someone opening a door and stepping into the unknown? doctor whoand one of the two reasons for its longevity is that the titular Doctor’s spaceship is a gateway to all corners of time and space. You can set your story in Victorian London or a billion years into the future. Another reason the show has been around for over 60 years is that the Doctor can regenerate into a new body, which comes in handy when you want to cast a new lead role. Rowan Hooper
I started watching X files She’s about 9 years old, which is way too young! I wanted to believe in Mulder because I thought he was the epitome of cool, and I was fascinated and horrified by the monsters he and Scully encountered each week. Revisiting the series as an adult, I identified more with the skeptical Scully and was drawn to the long-running story of an alien conspiracy. This structure, which interweaves independent plots with ongoing storylines, X files Very good. Let’s say the 2010s revival never happened. jacob aaron
At first glance, fringe may seem like a successor to X files: Introducing a somewhat antagonistic pair of eccentric investigators who quickly plunge into both the supernatural and the personal. But it’s more than that. where X files There was a conspiracy between aliens and the government. fringe There are parallel universes, family secrets, psychedelics, sensory deprivation, and an incredibly powerful supporting cast. Expect Leonard Nimoy to play multi-world villains, doppelgangers, and humans turned giant porcupines. carmela padavich callahan
I hate to admit that science fiction isn’t my type of entertainment, but stories about robots and aliens just aren’t my thing. but outlander It offers a different take on the genre, with plenty of romance and a brave heroine. This is the story of Claire Beauchamp who accidentally travels back in time from 1945 to 1743. After she accepts her fate (and meets the love of her life, Jamie), Claire, a nurse, embarrasses her contemporaries with her 20-year-old self.th– centuries of knowledge about anatomy and pathogens – not to mention her feminist attitude. alexandra thompson
of star wars The series started out as a simple space opera. Empires are evil because their agents appear to be fascists. That’s a good thing because the rebels aren’t like that. But recent works have done much to complicate that story. Andor We explore what a “well-ordered” space empire looks like, colonial, mundane and inhuman, and why such conditions create heroes out of thieves. Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
There’s something modified carbon It’s horribly depressing, but also incredibly fascinating. Who wouldn’t want to try out a smorgasbord of different bodies, or what the show calls “sleeves”? Epic cities, brutal inequality, friendly AI, and questionable storylines – this cyberpunk series has it all. Finn Grant
I don’t like watching TV at night after a day of work, kids, and other life commitments, and I usually just fall asleep. However, that’s not the case when it comes to the adventures of Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Michonne (Danai Gurira), and their ragtag team. watched all episodes of the walking dead from Rick waking up in a hospital to discover a world ravaged by a virus that has turned everyone into “walkers,” to the various terrifying communities they continue to encounter. It’s shocking, well-acted, and full of surprises, especially in the early series. Alison Flood
Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and current director of international affairs at Meta, is leaving the company after six years.
“It truly was an adventure of a lifetime!” said Clegg. post On facebook. “I’m proud of the work I’ve done leading and supporting teams across the company to ensure innovation goes hand in hand with increased transparency and accountability, and new forms of governance.”
Clegg joined Facebook’s parent company in 2018 as vice president of global affairs and communications for the social media platform. At the time, the company was under intense scrutiny over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal and its role in the 2016 US presidential election. He was promoted to director of policy in 2022 after helping establish the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent board that makes decisions about the social network’s moderation policies.
“My time at the company coincided with a major reset in the relationship between ‘big tech’ and the social pressures expressed in new laws, institutions and norms impacting the sector,” Clegg said. wrote. “I hope that I have played a role in bridging the disparate worlds of technology and politics, worlds that continue to interact in unpredictable ways around the world.”
Mr. Clegg will be replaced by Vice President Joel Kaplan, who is “clearly the right person for the right job at the right time,” Mr. Clegg wrote. Mr. Kaplan previously served as deputy chief of staff for policy under former President George W. Bush. He is known as the company’s most prominent conservative voice and rose to the top during a difficult time for Facebook. liberal bias claims.
During his tenure, Kaplan pushed for a partnership with the fact-checking arm of the right-wing news site The Daily Caller, responding to Republican concerns about the company’s affiliation with mainstream news outlets. Most recently, Kaplan caught in the photo Alongside Vice President-elect J.D. Vance at the Time Person of the Year award ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange.
The policy team reshuffle comes just weeks before President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. As President Trump enters and leaves office, tech companies including Meta have vacillated between enforcing moderate provisions such as account bans on Trump or reversing their decisions. Days after Trump’s election, Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. This comes after President Trump threatened to punish Zuckerberg if his policies had any impact on the election.
In response to Clegg’s Facebook post, Zuckerberg thanked the executive and said, “Given his deep experience and insight over many years leading our policy efforts,” Kaplan said. said he is excited to take on the role.
Zuckerberg responded to Clegg’s post, writing, “You have had a significant impact on advancing Meta’s voice and values around the world, and our vision for AI and the Metaverse.” “You have also built a strong team to advance this work.”
VLogs by Nigerian content creators Tayo Aina feature anything from Nigeria Japan (immigration) wave and voodoo festival. Performing with Afrobeats stars in Benin david or last hunter-gatherer tribe. In Tanzania, you can get millions of views on YouTube.
Aina, 31, who started the channel in 2017 while working as an Uber driver, says it has allowed her to see parts of Nigeria that she had never had the chance to visit before. Using his iPhone, he began a mini-travel adventure, taking breaks to record the places he visited and tell stories not covered in mainstream media.
“I want to inspire the next generation of Africans to have no limits,” says Nigerian content creator Tayo Aina. Photo: Handout
Aina learned how to film and edit through YouTube tutorials, saved up to buy better equipment, and soon began traveling beyond Nigeria to countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, and Namibia, learning about the continent’s culture and social life. He created a travel video that introduces Africa through the lens of photography. African traveler.
“Most of the online media was negative, and I realized that I was trying to change the narrative about Africa by presenting it more clearly. It’s light,” says Aina, who now travels around the world.
Africa’s Creator Industry 2024 Report Research by publisher Communiqué and media technology company TM Global values the sector at £2.4bn and predicts it will grow five times by 2030, reflecting trends in the global creator economy. Its growth is being driven by a wave of creators between the ages of 18 and 34, a surge in internet connectivity and social media usage across the continent, and the explosion of African culture on the world stage.
Growing interest in African culture – from Afrobeats and Amapiano Music and dance to an international fashion collection made from African textiles such as Ankara and Kikyoy. African movies – This is part of an international aspiration for authentic cultural storytelling outside the Arctic Circle, reflected in global cultural movements such as Hallyu, says David Adeleke, Founder of Communiqué.
This year, TikTok recognized More than a dozen African creators including Nigerian lifestyle creators @__iremide, a person who makes videos that satirize everyday life, and a South African Sachiko-sama. The 22-year-old is known for cosplaying characters from anime, video games, and pop culture. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of international affairs, recently said: held a meeting Other social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok are increasing their presence and Heva I’m getting involved.
The report says the industry is gaining momentum but is still young. Most content creators are in their third year of work, have fewer than 10,000 followers, and are faced with the challenge of turning social capital into income. The report adds that discussions about the monetization and standardization of the creator business ecosystem continue to take place primarily in Western countries.
But that is gradually changing.
As Aina’s channel grew and attracted a more international audience, he discovered what he was capable of. more and more It cost him money when his content was viewed by Western audiences rather than Africa. YouTube’s advertising model relies on ad spend, which is lower in many African markets than in North America and Europe.
“Part of the reason is economic. Generally speaking, Western creators and audiences have more resources, but that alone is not enough to justify the disparity in opportunity. ” says Adeleke.
As Aina began diversifying her content and audience to generate more income, there were other issues to worry about. He shares a video about the barriers and prejudice he faced during his travels, including being detained in Ethiopia on suspicion of drug possession, being arrested in South Africa on suspicion of being a “fraudster” and being refused entry to Dubai. I’ve posted it on my blog. The 2022 incident in Dubai was the “last straw” for Aina. Aina invested her savings in St. Kitts and Nevis and eventually secured a passport from St. Kitts and Nevis, becoming a citizen of the Caribbean nation.
He currently runs the Creator Academy on YouTube, where he has trained nearly 2,000 mostly African creators. “I want the next generation of Africans to grow their brands globally without limitations,” he says.
Chiamaka “Amaka” Amaku A 30-year-old Nigerian travel and lifestyle innovator who works as a social media manager and creates content as a personal project, believes digital infrastructure issues, including the challenges of sending and receiving international money, are a challenge for Nigerian creators. It says it can limit growth. Some global payment platforms have imposed restrictions on certain countries, including Nigeria, due to concerns about fraud and money laundering.
“Payment is one of the biggest challenges in Nigeria’s creator economy,” Amaku said, adding that payment barriers deter global brands from working with Nigerian creators.
In recent years, fintech companies such as flutter wave and salary stack While supporting international payments has reduced the barriers creators face in accepting digital payments, many restrictions remain, including local bank policies. For travel creators like Amaku, that means it’s harder to book flights or take Uber abroad.
Amaku, who charges between £250 and £500 for posts on his Instagram page, which has around 20,000 followers, says it is difficult to make a living from creating content and there is a “culture of secrecy” around fees in the industry in Nigeria. He says that many people have died because of this. Creators quickly changed.
Sharon Makira A 31-year-old Kenyan luxury travel creator who describes her audience as “Afropolitan champagne nomads” agrees. He said competition for brand sponsorships is fierce because many companies still rely on traditional advertising, so negotiating rates can become a race to the bottom.
With around 20,000 followers on Instagram and 7,000 followers on YouTube, she gets around five brand deals a year, and is paid around £600 to £1,000 per campaign. When she became a full-time content creator last year, after nearly a decade in media and PR, she realized she couldn’t make a living relying on a few unpredictable brand deals, so companies started creating content. We have opened a PR studio that allows you to tailor your business to suit your needs. Cooperate with viewers, travel agencies and other businesses nomad And luxury lodges in Rwanda Singita Kwitonda.
According to her, building a business around a social media brand can earn you several times more per project than a brand deal. “I think there’s real promise there.” [African] Creators: Leverage your social capital, network, credibility, and personal brand to launch your business,” she says.
Embarking on a new routine can feel intimidating, but it’s actually simpler than we often perceive. Here are some expert tips for ensuring that new habits stick.
How to establish improved study habits
One effective method for developing a habit is to attach a desired new behavior to an existing habit.
For instance, let’s say you want to incorporate a daily 10-minute German vocabulary study session into your routine. Identify habits you already have and integrate your vocabulary learning into them.
For example, if you already have tea every day at 3pm, try studying German vocabulary for 10 minutes while enjoying your tea.
Credit: Kyle Smart
How to cultivate healthier social media habits
There is often criticism surrounding our device and social media usage, but ultimately, only you can determine if your phone is interfering with more important priorities.
If you feel this is the case, one effective way to regain control is by reducing your device usage habits, starting with disabling notifications.
Scheduling specific times for using email, social media, or news websites can help break habitual behaviors and allow for more intentional device usage. It’s a proven strategy.
How to develop a consistent exercise routine
If you’re currently not exercising at all and the thought of starting a new exercise habit seems overwhelming, try the 2-minute rule.
This rule, popularized by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits, recommends starting with just two minutes of a new activity to ease its incorporation into your daily life. Once it becomes a habit, you can gradually increase the duration.
Credit: Kyle Smart
Start with 2 minutes of exercise at 8 a.m. daily, whether it’s a brief walk, stair climbing, or some jumping jacks. Gradually increase the duration as it becomes routine. Remember, consistency is key.
Strategies for adopting sustainable habits
The psychology of habits sheds light on why behavior change can be slow, even when attitudes towards the environment evolve. Despite acknowledging the importance of eco-friendly practices, many individuals still engage in harmful behaviors out of habit.
For example, placing recycling bins near individual desks led to a significant increase in office paper recycling rates, while slowing down elevator doors reduced elevator usage. Small adjustments can lead to significant changes in behavior.
If you want to unsettle climate scientists, simply stand next to them and quietly mention the phrase “tipping point” in their ear. While climate change due to global warming is already concerning, the concept of climate tipping points adds an extra layer of fear. But what exactly are they and why are they causing alarm?
We find ourselves in a unique time where Earth’s average temperature is increasing at a rate at least 10 times faster than ever recorded in geological history. This has led to a surge in extreme weather events, melting ice sheets, and rising sea levels. Despite these clear signs, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise rapidly, with global temperatures increasing by 1.64°C (nearly 3°F) in the past year alone. As a result, the possibility of irreversible and drastic changes in the climate system becomes more and more likely.
Tipping points are named as such because they require a critical threshold to be crossed before a significant change occurs. Once activated, like a seesaw tipping over, there is no turning back. These moments, as defined by the American Cultural Heritage English Dictionary, are described as “a critical moment in a complex situation where a small influence or development suddenly produces a large or irreversible change.” This holds true for the climate crisis we face.
How things shift
One of the challenges for scientists studying global warming is the unpredictability of tipping points in terms of timing and impact. Additionally, how these points are integrated into climate models can greatly affect predictions of future climate change. The complexity of the climate system suggests that there are numerous tipping points, with nine identified as having the potential to trigger significant global environmental changes.
These include the potential collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, dieback of the Amazon rainforest, and release of methane from melting Arctic permafrost. Each of these events could have far-reaching consequences, from massive sea level rise to increased carbon levels in the atmosphere.
While some of these tipping points may seem distant, the looming collapse of the Gulf Stream and associated ocean currents presents an immediate concern. Previously considered unlikely, recent data suggests that this crucial system may be on the brink of destabilization sooner than expected, posing a threat to the UK and Northern Europe’s climate stability.
Recent research suggests Antarctic ice sheets may be melting faster than existing models predict – Photo courtesy of Getty Images
The Earth’s great engine
Understanding the significance of AMOC’s collapse requires knowledge of its role as a key component of the global ocean current system. This system, known as the global conveyor belt, transports heat from the tropics to the Arctic, playing a crucial role in global climate and weather patterns.
The sheer scale of AMOC’s operation is astounding, moving millions of cubic meters of water and gigawatts of heat every second. However, disruptions to this system, such as increased freshwater input from melting ice, can hinder AMOC’s ability to function properly, potentially causing a shutdown with severe global consequences.
If AMOC were to fail, global weather patterns would be disrupted, leading to a range of impacts from cooler temperatures in Europe to altered monsoons in Asia and Africa. The effects would be felt globally, with implications for food security, migration patterns, and geopolitical stability.
An orca that carried around a dead calf for several days in 2018 appears to be repeating the same behavior with a newly dead calf.
Scientists believe the killer whales are likely expressing sadness.
Killer whales are part of an endangered subpopulation known as southern killer whales.
Nearly six years ago, a mother orca attracted international attention when she carried a dead calf for 17 days straight. Sadly, the whale now appears to be repeating what researchers say is an expression of grief over another deceased newborn.
The mother whale, also known as J35 or Tahlequah, was first spotted with her new calf on December 20th. But on Wednesday, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration photographed a whale with a dead calf on its head off the coast of West Seattle.
“We can confirm that J31 lost the calf and was pushing it around on its head,” Brad Hanson, a researcher at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said in a press conference Thursday.
He said that when the calf is about to sink, “she seems to do a high arch dive to retrieve the calf, but at that point you can’t really tell if she’s pushing or grabbing the calf.” added. ”
Scientists said they believe Tahlequah likely carried the dead calf as an expression of grief. Whales have a similar wiring structure to humans and other large, long-lived social mammals, Joe Gaydos, scientific director of the Sea Dog Society, an ocean research organization, said at a press conference.
“We have the same neurotransmitters as they do. We have the same hormones as they do. Shouldn’t we have the same emotions that they have? We are a market cornered by emotions.” So I think it’s fair to say she’s sad or grieving,” Gaydos said, adding that similar behavior has been observed in dolphins and non-human primates. added.
Tahlequah, also known as J35, and a dead calf. NOAA
J35 is part of an endangered subpopulation of whales known as southern killer whales. The death of Tahlequah’s calf and the recent birth of another killer whale left the group at just 73 individuals.
Over the years, Tahlequah has had two surviving calves, both male, one born in 2020.
Southerners have been given tracking numbers by the Center for Whale Research and are closely watched by researchers, photographers and whale watchers, especially if they are near Puget Sound communities like Seattle.
Scientists have been following the story of the dead calf for weeks. Hanson said NOAA researchers discovered the female calf themselves on Dec. 23 after a citizen scientist first noticed the female calf, called J61. They were concerned about the calf’s health at the time because it appeared to be struggling and surfacing unusually, he said.
It is not uncommon for orca pups to die shortly after birth. Michael Weiss, director of research at the Center for Whale Research, said the first year of life is the biggest hurdle to survival.
Approximately 70% to 80% of calves that researchers can record and give identification numbers survive the first few years.
“We don’t know exactly what the survival rate is, probably because so many calves are born and die before they are photographed or recorded,” Weiss says. “Probably 50 percent of calves born will survive the first year.”
NOAA researchers said they are now concerned about Tahlequah’s own health because pushing his calves creates a lot of resistance in the water and requires a lot of energy.
“One thing she probably doesn’t have time for is feeding,” Hanson said. “We are concerned that she is expending so much energy caring for her lost calf.”
This is a typical calving season for southern whales. Hanson said researchers were encouraged by the birth of another killer whale, called J62. The orca was first spotted by observers on Dec. 30 and confirmed by the Cetacean Research Center on New Year’s Day.
“It appears to be very robust,” Hanson said.
Southern killer whales have been the subject of conservation efforts for decades. They are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and were listed as endangered in 2005.
Whales typically spend several months each year along the Puget Sound coastline in Washington state. They live in three pods called J, K, and L, and have evolved to eat primarily fish, including the prized Chinook salmon.
In the early 1960s, many of Minami’s killer whales were killed or captured, and some of the surviving killer whales were put on display in marine parks. As of 1974, surveys showed that only 71 individuals remained in the wild. The population has since fluctuated, reaching a high of 95 people in 1995, but has declined since then.
The main reasons why whales are struggling are a decline in the quality and quantity of their prey and pollution from industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that contaminate their prey and accumulate in their bodies. Additionally, ship noise can disturb whales and prevent communication.
Research shows that unless more aggressive action is taken, the southern population is on a path to extinction. Already, Washington state and federal agencies have invested more than $1 billion in programs to reduce threats to whales. But the essential point still remains. Southerners simply don’t have enough food.
Major rivers that were once rich in salmon, including the lower Snake River, have been dammed, limiting access to and survival of salmon.
“We’re not doing enough on chinook recovery and salmon recovery,” Gaydos said.
For struggling southerners, the loss of a female calf is a devastating blow not only to the mother but to the trajectory of the subspecies as a whole.
“The real limit is the number of females that reach reproductive age and their ability to actually raise calves successfully. So we would like to see more females in the population.” Weiss said.
The coming year is expected to be filled with ambitious space missions.
Multiple robotic landers are expected to be launched to the moon in the coming weeks or months.
China and India also each hope to achieve new milestones in space later this year.
From robotic expeditions to the moon to new observatories in space and rendezvous with asteroids, 2025 promises to be full of ambitious space exploration.
NASA and U.S. commercial space companies aren’t the only ones busy. Launch plans planned for this year include potential milestones in China, Japan and India.
Here are some of the biggest upcoming space missions.
Moon fever continues
In 2025, the moon will once again be in the spotlight.
Later this month, SpaceX rockets are scheduled to launch two new missions to the moon. One, a lander called Blue Ghost developed by Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace, is intended to spend about two weeks collecting scientific data on the moon. The second is a privately built Japanese lunar lander with an attached small rover.
The Blue Ghost attempts to land on a region of the moon known as the Moon.Mare Crisium is thought to be the site of an ancient asteroid impact.
The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services Initiative. The space agency has signed contracts with three private companies, including Firefly Aerospace, to transport scientific experiments, technology and other cargo to the moon’s surface. The effort is part of NASA’s larger Artemis mission, which aims to eventually return humans to the moon. The Blue Ghost mission will carry out 10 NASA science and technology experiments.
Riding into orbit on the same rocket booster will be a resilient lander developed by a Japanese company called ispace and the Tenacious “micro rover.” It aims to take a longer route to the moon, consuming less energy than the Blue Ghost, and land on the lunar surface approximately four to five months after launch.
The touchdown target is located in the far north of the moon, in an area called Mare Frigoris.
iSpace’s bid to become the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon ended in disappointment last year. The company’s lander, Hakuto, accelerated unexpectedly during its descent and crashed onto the lunar surface.
A third lunar launch by the company, which was the first to land a privately built ship on the moon, could also take place this month.
Texas-based Intuitive Machines also won a contract under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Last year, the company’s lander became the first American vehicle to land on the moon in more than 50 years. The company aims to send its next-generation lander to the moon’s south pole on another SpaceX rocket in the coming weeks.
The mission will include a drill to extract lunar soil and a robot that will hop into nearby craters to take images and perform scientific experiments.
Exploring the origin of the universe
NASA aims to launch the SPHEREx mission, a space observatory designed to map the entire sky in optical and near-infrared light, in late February.
The SPHEREx observatory is shown in a horizontal position, showing its telescope and three-layer photon shield.BAE Systems / NASA
The spacecraft will observe more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way and collect data on more than 450 million other galaxies.
As part of its planned two-year mission, the observatory will also search for signs of life as we know it, such as water and organic molecules, in the Milky Way. Experts hope the expedition will provide insight into how galaxies form and how the universe came into being.
Two NASA astronauts finally return home
Two NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station since a problem aboard their Boeing spacecraft in June are finally scheduled to return home in March.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the International Space Station.NASA
Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were launched to the ISS on the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The original plan was for the two to spend about a week on the space station, then return to Earth on the Starliner. However, the capsule encountered fuel leaks and thruster problems, so NASA opted to leave Williams and Wilmore in orbit and return the spacecraft unmanned.
They will have spent more than nine months in space before returning to Earth in a SpaceX capsule with two other space station crew members.
India’s spaceflight ambitions
India is poised to make major strides in its human spaceflight program this year.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) astronaut Shubhansh Shukla will fly to the International Space Station on a commercial mission run by Texas-based startup Axiom Space.
The launch, expected by spring at the earliest, will include government-backed crew members from Poland and Hungary. The crew will spend up to 14 days on the ISS.
Meanwhile, India is also working on developing its own manned spacecraft, aiming to launch its first one in 2026.
A new private space station?
California-based startup Vast plans to launch its first commercial space station into orbit this year. The civilian outpost, called Haven-1, is scheduled to launch by August on a SpaceX rocket.
Haven-1 is designed to accommodate four astronauts on missions of up to 30 days. The space station will initially function as an independent outpost, but Vasto plans to eventually connect it to a larger module in development.
In partnership with SpaceX, Vast intends to someday launch a crewed mission to the Haven-1 outpost, but the company has not yet announced a target date for that launch.
China encounters an asteroid
China’s space exploration shows no signs of slowing down even in 2025.
This spring, the country plans to launch a mission to collect asteroid samples, the first such expedition.
The plan calls for a spacecraft called Tenbun-2 to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid called Kamoorewa, which some scientists have suggested. maybe part of the moon It was ejected during an ancient collision.
The mission aims to collect debris from the asteroid, release a capsule containing samples, and return to Earth in 2026. After that, the Tenbun-2 probe is expected to orbit around the Earth and fly using the Earth’s gravity as a slingshot. Heading toward the comet known as 311P/Panstars. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at the comet in the mid-2030s.
If China’s asteroid sampling mission is successful, it would be a major accomplishment for the country’s space agency. This would be an achievement that follows several recent milestones. China has already become the first company to collect and return samples from the far side of the moon, landed a rover on Mars and completed construction of its own Tiangong space station.
Paleontologists discovered hundreds of different dinosaur footprints, including one left by a ferocious 9-meter (29.5-foot) predator megalosaurus Dewar’s Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England, by a herbivorous dinosaur up to twice its size.
Footprints of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs at Dewar’s Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. Image credit: University of Birmingham.
Professor Kirsty Edgar from the University of Birmingham said: “These footprints provide a special window into the lives of dinosaurs, revealing details about their movements, interactions and the tropical environments they lived in. ” he said.
Professor Edgar and colleagues have unearthed five vast dinosaur footprints dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, some 166 million years ago.
The longest continuous track was over 150 m (492 ft) long.
Four of the orbits were created by giant, long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs called sauropods. cetiosaurusa cousin of the famous brassica, which can grow up to 18 meters (59 ft) in length. diplodocus.
The fifth orbit was created by a carnivorous theropod dinosaur megalosaurusit was characterized by large three-toed feet with claws.
Parts of the site show intersecting carnivore and herbivore tracks, raising questions about whether and how the two were interacting.
“Scientists know about it and have studied it. megalosaurus Dr Emma Nicholls, a vertebrate paleontologist at Oxford University’s Natural History Museum, said: “They lived longer than any other dinosaur on Earth, but recent discoveries show that new evidence of these animals still exists and discoveries It proves that we are waiting for the future.”
Paleontologists worked together to discover around 200 footprints and used aerial drone photography to build a detailed 3D model of the site.
Professor Richard Butler, from the University of Birmingham, said: “There is much more we can learn from this site. It is an important part of our global heritage.”
“Our 3D model will allow researchers to continue their studies and make this fascinating part of our past accessible for generations to come.”
During the excavation, researchers took more than 20,000 images of the footprints.
These provide a wealth of material for further research and education, providing valuable information about how these dinosaurs walked, their speed, size, whether they interacted, and how they interacted. May provide insight.
Dr Duncan Murdoch, a researcher at Oxford University’s Natural History Museum, said: “The preservation is very detailed and you can see how the mud deformed as the dinosaur’s feet moved in and out.”
“Together with other fossils such as burrows, shells and plants, they can bring to life the muddy lagoon environment that the dinosaurs walked through.”
Refrigerators and freezers typically derive their cooling power from environmentally harmful liquids.
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A new type of crystal could help refrigerators and air conditioners keep us cool without warming the planet.
Refrigerators and air conditioners obtain their cooling power by circulating liquid within the device. The liquid absorbs heat and causes cooling through cycles of evaporation and condensation. However, many such liquids contribute to the greenhouse effect and cause further warming if they leak. now, jenny pringle Researchers at Australia's Deakin University have created a climate-friendly alternative to these liquids using “plastic crystals” – crystals containing molecules that can move enough to make them flexible. Developed.
If enough pressure is applied, these plastic crystals can deform. Their molecules go from a random orientation to an ordered grid. Then, when the pressure is removed, they disturb again. As part of this disordering process, the crystals absorb heat, effectively cooling their surroundings.
Although pressure-based cooling like this has been studied before, most materials capable of making this transition can only do so at mild temperatures, limiting their cooling power, Pringle said. In contrast, her team's crystals exhibit their heat-absorbing ability at temperatures between -37°C (-34.6°F) and 10°C (50°F), a temperature suitable for home refrigerators and freezers. .
However, the new crystals are not yet ready to leave the lab. That's because the pressure required to make them work is so high, Pringle says, that it's hundreds of times greater than atmospheric pressure and equivalent to thousands of meters underwater.
david boldrin Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK said materials like the new study “have the potential to almost completely decarbonize this giant carbon”. [cooling] However, he shares concerns about the high pressure required.
He says there may be other practical problems with this approach. Bing Li At the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With each repeated use, the grid formed by the molecules becomes more distorted and each crystal absorbs less heat. Still, Lee said he was optimistic and believed the technology could be applied in the “near future.”
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