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Think about artificial intelligence (AI) for a second. AI may not have emotions yet, but if it did, you’d be devastated by all the bad things people say about it. All it’s going to do is take our jobs and potentially destroy the world, yet people can’t stop being mean to it.
Evidence 1: A recent dispute with the organization behind National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an annual challenge to write a manuscript in one month. In a recent statement, NaNoWriMo wrote that it does not explicitly endorse or condemn methods of writing “including the use of AI.” Furthermore, “a blanket condemnation of artificial intelligence carries classist and ableist overtones…Questions about the use of AI are linked to questions about privilege.”
Um… what is it? AI is Working class Or did someone in management create ChatGPT and use the rhetoric of social justice to encourage them to defend the technology? Accused The act of stealing from artists and writers (training yourself with their work without compensation) is now The rich are richerThis strange statement Full of anger Four members of NaNoWriMo’s writers committee resigned in protest. When she resigned, bestselling author Maureen Johnson Encouraged other writers “Be careful: your work on their platform will almost certainly be used to train an AI.”
NaNoWriMo attempts damage control. A statement was issued Last week, the group said that the original wording was unclear (not ideal for a writing group) and that the group “does not believe that people who have concerns about AI are classist or ableist.” But many writers still seem wary of both the group and AI.
That should be enough. I am by no means anti-AI. It is clearly inappropriate to categorically condemn anything (apart from things like genocide). I believe that, properly guided, AI can enhance human creativity and improve society for everyone. On the other hand, I think the future of AI is in the hands of sociopathic technocrats who put profit first. We are currently in a “choose your own adventure” scenario with AI, and now it seems we are choosing the dystopian ending.
Arwa Mahdawi is a columnist for the Guardian.
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vinegarFor the past decade or so, Brits looking to meet their soul mate online have relied on two main methods: trying their luck on dating apps, or trying to find the one by friending as many mutual acquaintances as possible on social media.
However, some people have found a third way by using services such as: Goodreads and Strava. They’re using apps to meet the partners they want to spend the rest of their lives with. These couples are turning out to be trendsetters: So-called hobby apps built around activities like running, reading, or watching movies are becoming popular, and not just for romance.
This is all part of a broader movement as people grow tired of the “digital town squares” offered by Twitter/X and other social media platforms. With many abandoning Elon Musk’s social network due to his stance on “free speech” (which some believe “amplifies hate”), competing apps like Bluesky and Threads are seeing a resurgence in user numbers.
While some users have turned to Twitter imitators, others have sought refuge in apps that promise to connect people with common interests. Running app Strava has seen its user base grow by 1.2 trillion users. Growing 20% in a year According to the digital market intelligence company: Sensor Tower. This success led them to add messaging tools to let users keep in touch as well as record their workouts. Ravelry is accessed through a number of third-party apps and has over 9 million users. Goodreads has over 150 million members.
Letterbox is a movie fan’s dream app, where you can check out the latest movies you’ve seen, review and rate them together with other movie fans and famous actors and directors. In March 2020, it had 1.8 million users worldwide, but now Over 14 million users. This summer, Sensor Tower reported that the app had grown its monthly active user base by 55% in a year.
“We think seriously about the tone and tone of everything we do, from community policy to editorial to social media. We want people to experience how we want their experience on Letterboxd to be,” says Gemma Gracewood, the app’s editor-in-chief. “We’re about movies.”
That’s refreshing in a world where politics and culture wars are imposed through algorithms. “Social media users have long turned to niche apps and spaces,” says Jess Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media at the University of Alabama. “Paradoxically, as major platforms like Twitter/X, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram push more algorithmically curated feeds, users may be less exposed to the content they want to see.”
The cozy feel of hobby apps, set up to share passions and pastimes, makes them a calmer place overall than the brusque racism you might encounter if you accidentally tap on X. “It’s a way for people to connect over shared interests,” said social media researcher Dr. Carolina Are at the Digital Citizen Center at Northumbria University. This means that apps can spend less time, effort and money on content moderation and instead focus on improving the overall experience, provided civility remains the number one priority.
“What’s unique about Letterboxd is that it doesn’t have the ‘town square’ that X has. It’s very much a single-channel conversation,” Gracewood says. Comments happen inline. Guardian and observer. This means that performatively reposting content to the main feed and encouraging mass posting is less possible. A similar situation exists on platforms like Goodreads or Strava, where you can communicate and message other users, but you can’t easily publicly denounce them.
Hobby apps are a welcoming place, so people spend a lot of time on them, and they may eventually turn into more of a service than advertised, including finding like-minded people who want to spend some romantic time together.
One reason people are starting to find love on apps that weren’t explicitly designed for that purpose could be that expectations are lowered, making them less sexual. “Dating apps are like dating supermarkets, something you have to do if you want to have any kind of connection,” Are says.
Book recommendation app Goodreads currently has more than 150 million members. Photo: goodreads.com
She points out that while dating apps are trying to shake off their reputation as shallow hookup sites, giant photos of users are still front and center to gauge compatibility. “A lot of people are becoming quite disillusioned with the fact that they’re being judged on their appearance,” she says. “In general, there’s a bit of disillusionment with the dating culture that the platforms foster, because it seems very impersonal. It’s all driven by algorithms, and that doesn’t seem to be serving people very well.”
Recent financial data from Match Group, which operates some of the best-known dating services, including Tinder and Hinge, shows that hobby apps are profiting from dating apps. Match’s stock is now trading at nearly $36 per share, down from a peak of more than $175 per share in October 2021. The company said in a statement. 6% reduction in staff . It was discontinued in July due to a decrease in paying users.
But the decline isn’t limited to the gaming giants: A report by Deutsche Bank analyzing the top 200 dating and social connection apps, “Dating: The Dating Debate – Has Saturation Level Been Reached?”, suggests that downloads worldwide are plateauing.
It also helps that hobby apps feel like a more cohesive, friendly community, and not just because the people are nice. Letterboxd has: A “zero tolerance” approach. Explicit or implicit hate speech, racism, homophobia, white supremacy, transphobia, or any other alienating attitudes.
Gracewood says Letterboxd has fewer than 10 staff members who moderate content and typically doesn’t need to step in often: “I don’t know if we’ve benefited from the shifts in culture and mission of other social media platforms, but from day one, we’ve always cared very much about what it means to build an online community and how to keep that community feeling free and welcoming and nice.”
Whether that’s a lighter approach compared to social media apps, TikTok employs 40,000 content moderators worldwide, compared to Meta is 15,000. Whether that will continue remains to be seen. “It seems like every app starts out unmoderated, and then something bad happens and they get heavily moderated,” Allais said. “So, [hobby apps] It’s going to be a similar trajectory.”
Chris Stokel Walker: The TikTok boom: China’s dynamite app and the race for social media superpowers (Camberley Press, £9.99). Guardian and observerOrder here The Guardian BookshopShipping charges may apply
Small brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) suffers from white-nose syndrome, which has devastated bat populations across the United States.
piemags/FWL / Alamy Stock Photo
A study has revealed that a decline in bat populations in the United States, caused by the spread of a fungal disease, has resulted in reduced farm incomes and an additional 1,300 deaths of infants under the age of one.
The research found that in counties affected by bat disease, farmers had to increase their use of insecticides by 31% to make up for the decreased insect predation by bats. Eyal Frank, a researcher at the University of Chicago in Illinois, estimated that farmers in these affected counties lost $27 billion between 2006 and 2017 due to reduced crop sales and higher pesticide costs.
Furthermore, the study observed an 8% increase in the number of infant deaths before the age of one in affected counties, which Frank links to the elevated pesticide usage. He expressed concerns about the inherent toxicity of pesticides, even when used within regulated levels, suggesting potential health hazards.
The white-nose syndrome, discovered in hibernating bats in a New York state cave in 2006, has since spread across North America, resulting in millions of bat deaths. This disease has raised questions about the benefits that bats provide to farmers.
By analyzing agricultural census data, Frank compared counties where white-nose disease was detected by 2017 with those where it hadn’t been identified yet. The results indicated a consistent increase in insecticide usage in affected areas each year post-detection of the disease.
In light of the study findings, the potential link between bat deaths, pesticide use, and higher infant mortality rates was examined. While the results point towards a correlation, the exact mechanism through which increased pesticide use might lead to elevated infant mortality remains unclear.
Experts like Roel Vermeulen from Utrecht University in the Netherlands emphasize the need to broaden human health impact assessments to consider the indirect effects of environmental factors like bat population decline. Moving forward, efforts are required to preserve the vital role wildlife species play in maintaining human health and well-being.
I I considered leaving Twitter shortly after Elon Musk bought it in 2022 because I didn't want to be part of a community that could potentially be bought, much less by a guy like him. Soon, the nasty “long and intense” bullying of staff began. But I've had some of the most interesting conversations of my life on Twitter, randomly, hanging out, or being invited to talk. “Has anyone else been devastatingly lonely during the pandemic?” “Has anyone had a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend from middle school?” We called Twitter a place to tell the truth to strangers (Facebook is a place to lie to friends), and the breadth of it was mutual and wonderful.
After the BlueCheck fiasco, things got even more unpleasant: identity verification became something you could buy, which made you less trustworthy. So I joined a rival platform, Mastodon, but quickly realized I'd never get 70,000 followers like I did on Twitter. I wasn't looking for attention. In itself, But my peers were less diverse and less loud, and my infrequently updated social media feeds gave me the eerie, slightly depressing feeling of walking into a mall only to find that half the stores are closed and the rest are all selling the same thing.
In 2023, the network now known as X began. Sharing advertising revenue with “premium” usersthen I joined Threads (owned by Meta), where all I see are strangers confessing to petty misdemeanors. I stayed with X, where everything is darker. People get paid for engagement indirectly through ads. It's also a bit vague. It's described as “revenue sharing,” but it doesn't tell you which ad revenues were shared with you. So you can't measure revenue per impression. Is X splitting it 50/50? Or is it 10/90? Are they actually paying you to generate hate?
Elon Musk: “Infiltrated into far-right politics” Photo: Getty Images
“What we've seen is that controversial content drives engagement,” says Ed Saperia, president of the London School of Politics and Technology. “Extreme content drives engagement.” It's become possible to make a living creating harmful content. My 16-year-old son noticed this long before I did with Football X. People are going to say obviously wrong things for the clicks of hate. David Cameron Similar to Catherine the GreatBut that's nothing compared to the engagement you get when attacking, say, transgender people. High-profile tweets are surfaced directly to the top of the “for you” feed by a “black box algorithm designed to keep you scrolling,” said Rose Wang, COO of another rival, Blue Sky, which serves up a constant stream of repetitive topics designed to annoy users.
As a result of these changes, “the platform has become inundated with individuals who were previously banned from the platform, ranging from extremely niche accounts to people like Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate,” says Joe Mulhall, head of research at Hope Not Hate. We saw the impact of this reality this August when misinformation about the identity, ethnicity and religion of the killer of three girls in Southport sparked overtly racist unrest across the UK the likes of which had not been seen since the '70s. “Not only was X responsible for creating an atmosphere for rioting, it was also a central hub for the organisation and distribution of content that led to rioting,” says Mulhall.
A man named Wayne O'Rourke, a “keyboard warrior,” was convicted of inciting racial hatred on social media after the August race riots. Monthly salary of £1,400 From his activities at X. The vocal Laurence Fox last month Earn a similar amount Posted on X. O'Rourke had 90,000 followers, but Tommy Robinson has over a million followers and presumably makes a lot more money.
Meanwhile, governments have no surefire remedy, even when, as Mulhall puts it, “decisions made on the US West Coast clearly impact our communities.” In April, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sought to suspend fewer than 100 X accounts for hate speech and fake news, mainly as supporters of his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro challenged the legitimacy of his defeat. X refused, and also declined to defend itself in court. On Monday, Brazil's Supreme Court unanimously upheld the platform-wide ban, saying the platform “considers itself above the rule of law.” From a business perspective, it's surprising that Musk didn't try harder to avoid it, but there may be other things he values more than money, such as exemption from government and democratic constraints.
Tommy Robinson…Musk has rescinded the ban from X. Picture: James Manning/PA
So is it moral to remain on a platform that has done so much to help bring the politics of division and hate from our keyboards into real life? Is X worse than Facebook or TikTok or (wow!) YouTube? And is it intentionally bad? In other words, are we watching Musk's master plan unfold?
“This is not the first time that extremist content has been circulating online,” Saperia says. “There are a lot of bad platforms, and a lot of bad things are happening there.” X's problem may not be bad regulation, he points out, but bad enforcement. And it's not just X's problem. “Have you seen the UK court system these days? Cases from five years ago are being tried. Without the law, society would be impossible.”
While X may be a catalyst for inciting and rallying civil unrest, from the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol to Southport and beyond, Saperia says it's important to keep in mind that “politics is shifting rightward, but not just because of the media environment, but also for complex economic reasons: the middle-class West is getting poorer.” Donald Trump may have shocked the traditional U.S. media by speaking directly to voters with his crude and increasingly insane messages, but it's naive to think that a complacent public resting on a prosperous future would embrace his authoritarian moves. Whether social media is funding it or not, the anger is there, and “all the mainstream platforms have generally failed at hate speech,” Mulhall says. “They didn't want this content, but they were struggling to deal with it. And after Charlottesville, they made some progress.” [the white supremacist rally in 2017] Or Capitol Hill.”
Still, Hope Not Hate divides far-right online activity into three strains: mainstream platforms like X, Instagram, and Facebook that are not interested in fascism but are struggling to eradicate it and perhaps do not invest enough in moderation and regulation; hijacked platforms like Discord and Telegram that started as chat sites and messaging services and became the far-right’s favorite chat apps, probably due to their superior privacy or encryption; and bespoke platforms like Rumble (partially funded by fundamentalist libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel), Gab (which became a center of mainly anti-Semitic hate after the gunman of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting posted his manifesto there) or Parler, which was acquired by Kanye West in 2022 after he was banned from Instagram and Twitter for anti-Semitism.
Synthesis: Guardian Design; X
“Twitter is unconventional,” Mulhall says. “It's ostensibly a mainstream platform, but now it has its own moderation policies. Elon Musk himself is steeped in far-right politics, so it's behaving like it's its own platform, which is what makes it so different. And it's so much more harmful, so much worse. And it's also because, although it has terms of service, it doesn't necessarily enforce them.”
Musk's commitment to free speech is surprisingly unconvincing. He used it to veto Lula's demands in Brazil, but was happy to oblige Narendra Modi's demands in India, where he suspended hundreds of accounts linked to the Indian farmer protests in February. “Free speech is a tool, not a principle, for Musk,” Mulhall says. “He's a techno-utopian with no attachment to democracy.”
But global civil society finds it very difficult to summarily reject the free speech argument because the counterargument is so dark: that many billionaires – not just Musk, but Thiel of Rumble, Parler's original backer, Rebecca Mercer (daughter of Breitbart funder Robert Mercer), and indirectly, billionaire sovereigns like Putin – have succeeded in transforming society and destroying the trust we have in each other and in institutions. It is much more comfortable to think that they are doing it by chance, simply because they love “free speech,” than to think that they are doing it deliberately. “The key to understanding neo-reactionary and ‘dark enlightenment’ movements is that these individuals have no interest whatsoever in maintaining the status quo,” says Mulhall.
“In some jurisdictions, the actions of state rulers and billionaires are pretty much correlated,” Saperia says. We see that in Russia. “Putin is using the state to manipulate social media to create polarization. That's pretty much proven,” Mulhall says. But where tech and politics don't line up, politics doesn't often prevail. Governments seem pretty powerless in the face of these tech giants. “Racial hatred and attempted murder are being nurtured on these platforms,” Mulhall says. “And people don't even believe it's possible to get Musk to Congress.”
Andrew Tait leaves court in Bucharest. Photo: Alexandre Dobre/AP
In Paris, Telegram founder Pavel Durov is under formal investigation over allegations that the app is linked to organized crime, and Musk is named as a defendant in a cyberbullying lawsuit brought by gold medallist Imane Kheriff. The boxer, who was born female and has never identified as transgender or intersex, has faced defamatory claims about her gender with an X from a number of public figures, including British politician J.K. Rowling and Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Andrew Tait has Charged by Romanian authorities He writes about human trafficking and rape, but his online The fantasy of misogyny The policy, which has far-reaching implications around the world, of treating women as a slave class has not received the same condemnation as YouTube, Insta, TikTok and Facebook's bans from their platforms, while the freedom to operate freely on X has lessened the impact of these bans and led to them being reversed. The EU has at least been more successful than the US in holding social media giants to the same corporate responsibility as, say, pharmaceutical or oil companies, but regulations are still scrambling to keep up with a changing reality where the sector is moving from the virtual to the real world at an ever-increasing rate.
But governments don't need to step in and tell us to stop using X. We can do it ourselves. Brazilians who don't use Twitter are migrating to Bluesky, which Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey founded in 2019. “We've had a tumultuous four days alone. As of this morning, we've added nearly 2 million new users,” Bluesky's Wang said Monday. If we all did that (I did!), would the power of X disappear? Or will it just be divided into good and bad places?
Bluesky serves a similar purpose to X, but is designed quite differently. Wang explains: “No one organization controls the platform. All the code is open source, and anyone can copy and paste the entire code. We don't own your data; you can take it wherever you want. We have to acquire your users through performance, or you'll go away. It's a lot like how search engines work: if you make them attractive by putting ads everywhere, people will go to another search engine.”
Venus is often called Earth's twin, but its current surface conditions are very different from Earth's and are not suitable for life to exist: not only cannot liquid water exist due to the extreme temperatures and pressures beneath the thick cloud layer, but more importantly, there is almost no water in Venus' atmosphere. Solar Occultation Observatory in Infrared (SOIR) On ESA's Venus Express spacecraftPlanetary researchers have discovered an unexpected increase in the abundance of two variants of the water molecule.2O and HDO, and their ratio HDO/H2O in Venus' mesosphere. This phenomenon calls into question our understanding of Venus' water history and its possible past habitability.
Venus in true colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.
Currently, the temperature on Venus is about 460 degrees Celsius and the pressure is almost 100 times that of Earth.
The atmosphere is extremely dry, covered with thick clouds of sulfuric acid and water droplets, and most of the water resides beneath and within these cloud layers.
However, it is possible that Venus once contained as much water as Earth does.
“Venus is often called Earth's twin planet because its size is similar to Earth's,” says Dr. Hiroki Kario of Tohoku University.
“Despite the similarities between the two planets, their evolutionary processes are different. Unlike Earth, the surface conditions on Venus are extreme.”
Survey of H abundance2O and its deuterated isotope HDO (isotope) reveal insights into the history of water on Venus.
It is generally accepted that Venus and Earth originally had similar HDO/H2O ratio.
However, the ratio observed in Venus' entire atmosphere (below altitude 70 km) was 120 times higher, indicating a significant increase in deuterium over time.
This enrichment occurs primarily when solar radiation breaks down isotopes of water in the upper atmosphere, producing hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D) atoms.
Hydrogen atoms have a small mass and are therefore prone to escaping into space, so HDO/H2The O ratio gradually increases.
To understand how much hydrogen and deuterium has been released into space, it is important to measure the amount of isotopes in water at altitudes where hydrogen and deuterium are broken down by sunlight (above the clouds at altitudes of 70 km or more).
Dr. Caryu et al.2O and HDO increase between 70 and 110 km altitude, and HDO/H2In this range, the O ratio increases by an order of magnitude, reaching levels more than 1,500 times higher than in Earth's oceans.
“The proposed mechanism to explain these findings is the reaction of hydrated sulfuric acid (H2So4) aerosols,” the researchers said.
“These aerosols form just above the clouds, where temperatures drop below the dew point of sulfuric acid water, leading to the formation of deuterium-rich aerosols.”
“These particles rise to high altitudes and evaporate due to rising temperatures, releasing a much higher proportion of HDO compared to non-HDO.2“oh.”
“The steam is then conveyed downwards and the cycle begins again.”
“This study highlights two important points,” they added.
“First, altitude changes play an important role in pinpointing the location of deuterium and hydrogen reservoirs.”
“Second, the increase in HDO/H2The O ratio ultimately increases the release of deuterium, influencing the long-term change in the D/H ratio.”
“These findings encourage us to incorporate highly dependent processes into models to make accurate predictions about the evolution of D/H.”
“Understanding the evolution of Venus' habitability and water history can help us understand what makes a planet habitable and inform how to ensure Earth doesn't follow in its twin's footsteps.”
of result Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Arnaud Mahieu others2024. Unexpected increase in deuterium to hydrogen ratio in the Venus mesosphere. PNAS 121 (34): e2401638121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2401638121
Sergio Pitamitz/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Uplifting the land beneath the Antarctic ice sheet could help slow ice loss and limit sea level rise over the coming centuries, but if emissions continue to rise, it could cause more sea levels to rise than the ice melt alone.
The findings come from models that simulate Earth’s mantle, the layer beneath the crust, in greater detail than ever before. When Antarctica loses its weight as ice melts, the elastic mantle beneath it bounces back, causing the land above it to rise. When ice melts and the continents lose their weight, Earth’s elastic mantle bounces back, causing the land above it to rise. The bounced back land can slow the flow of ice sheets where they meet the ocean. This “sea-level feedback” occurs primarily because the uplifted land changes the shape of the ocean floor, limiting the thickness of the ice sheet’s edges. Thinner ice there reduces the overall inflow of ice into the ocean.
Researchers have long suspected that this effect plays a role in slowing ice loss, but it was unclear when this effect begins or how it varies in different parts of the ice sheet.
Natalia Gomez Gomes and his colleagues at McGill University in Canada modeled the relationship between the melting ice and the rebounding land, and also simulated the mantle, capturing the different viscosities beneath the continents: East Antarctica sits on a more viscous mantle and thicker crust, while West Antarctica’s rapidly melting glaciers sit on a less viscous mantle and thinner crust. This more detailed picture of Earth’s interior is based on precise measurements of ice sheet elevation changes over decades, as well as data about the mantle beneath Antarctica from seismic waves generated by earthquakes. “This is hard-earned,” Gomes says.
The researchers found that under a very low emissions scenario, compared to a model that considered the ground beneath the ice solid, land uplift would reduce Antarctica’s contribution to global mean sea level rise by more than 50 centimeters by 2500. This effect was less pronounced under a moderate emissions scenario, but still led to a large reduction in sea level rise, with effects starting to be felt as early as 2100.
But in a very high emissions scenario, the team found that land uplift in Antarctica would raise sea levels by an additional 0.8 meters by 2500. This happened because the ice sheet retreated faster than land uplift, and the rising sea floor pushed more water into the rest of the ocean.
“From a modeling perspective, this is a huge step forward.” Alexander Bradley The British Antarctic Survey’s Bradley says it’s always been thought that land uplift would limit sea-level rise, but this high-resolution modeling shows that the effect depends on emissions. “The changes that occur in the 21st and 22nd centuries will depend very much on what we do now,” he says.
Alexander Lovell Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta call it a “very good simulation,” but the scenario in which land uplift drives sea level rise is based on worst-case assumptions about emissions and the rate at which ice sheets are retreating.
Struggle to wake up in the morning? Feel more alert as the day goes on? Have more energy in the evenings? You might be an “evening” chronotype, meaning your body clock is most active later in the day.
Scientists have linked being a night owl to negative outcomes like higher chances of depression and displaying Dark Triad personality traits. However, a new British study shows that evening chronotypes may have superior cognitive function compared to morning types.
Respecting your natural body clock, managing light exposure, prioritizing sleep, and using naps wisely can help night owls thrive in a world that often favors early risers.
Honor your chronotype
It’s essential to honor your evening tendencies as they reflect your biological characteristics. Certain genetic factors and age play a role in determining your sleep preferences.
Exposure to light can change your body clock
Getting sunlight in the morning and avoiding it later in the day can help align your body clock. Blue light exposure should also be limited, especially at night, to support healthy sleep patterns.
Make sure you get enough sleep
Respecting your chronotype is crucial for overall health and well-being. Lack of sleep, stress, and a misaligned body clock can lead to various health problems in the long term.
Use naps wisely
Short naps taken in the late morning or early afternoon can improve performance later in the day. The coffee-nap trick, where you drink a cup of coffee before a short nap, can help you wake up feeling refreshed and alert.
By following these strategies, night owls can thrive in a world that often prioritizes morning routines and early risers.
About our experts
Professor Russell Foster is a Director at the Nuffield Institute of Ophthalmology and the Institute of Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
Professor Martha Mellow is a researcher in molecular chronobiology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.
a A man in a strange, animalistic mask sits slumped in an armchair in a dingy motel room and watches you click a hand-held tally counter. He offers you $14,000 if you keep clicking until the number resets to 10,000, so you do. Occasionally he makes polite but suggestive requests: go faster, go slower, stop and try again, but he remains motionless, except for the occasional flexion of his hand.
Clicking the left mouse button, you wander around the room, admiring the paintings on the walls, the out-of-sync TV, the thermostat, etc. But as you approach the final scene, the man slowly begins to reveal bits and pieces of his life, and the atmosphere of an already dark world grows darker by the minute. This is what the game is all about.
Clickolding has been getting a lot of attention since its release on July 17th, receiving widespread coverage in the gaming press and nearly 500 reviews on PC game store Steam, most of which have been very positive. But what is it about this strange piece of interactive art that’s only 40 minutes long that has captured the hearts of critics and players alike?
That’s partly because Clickolding is a pretty obvious allegory about voyeurism and the sex trade. The man in the chair indirectly enjoys someone else’s use of his precious counter, which he describes as a lover he can no longer satisfy (“We’ve been together a long time, but I just can’t click like you do.”). The relationship between the two people in the room is deliberately left ambiguous, but we know this is no hostage situation; players are free to leave the room when they want, and opening the hotel room door ends the game. And yet, the threat hangs over the room, like a bad smell.
The player character must perform certain physical acts that clearly arouse the seated man, though not overtly explicit (“You’re clicking steadily. That’s good.”). But there’s also emotional labor, as the man reveals aspects of his tattered private life. Power dynamics shift subtly: at various times you’re a servant, a caretaker, a partner, a stranger, all with barely any dialogue.
One of Strange Scaffold’s other creations, an alien airport now run by dogs. Photo: Strange scaffolding
The game also captures a universal aspect of the experience of being confined to a hotel room for an extended period of time. While you’re there, it becomes a strange temporary home. It feels intimate (you undress there, you sleep there) yet alien and oddly fascinating. Who picked that floral wallpaper, that kitschy bedside lamp, that particular painting and why? How does the thermostat work? What’s outside the window? Visually, the room feels natural and detailed; it feels like a room from the latest Resident Evil or Call of Duty.
The clicker was born as an exploration of design principles: At this year’s San Francisco Game Developers Conference, members of studio Aggro Crab bought a clicker at a nearby thrift store, sat down with industry peers in a hotel lobby, and built a game to play with it. One of those peers was Xalavier Nelson Jr, creative director at the experimental indie studio. Strange Scaffoldingis responsible for such unique titles as Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator and An Airport for Aliens Now Run By Dogs. An evening of oral history at WiredNelson was intrigued by the clicker’s hyper-repetitive appeal and began thinking about how he could use it in a new gaming project.
Clickolding continues the tradition of parody games like Cow Clicker and Cookie Clicker, which were designed to critique first-generation social media games like FarmVille, in which players perform endlessly repetitive tasks to accumulate resources and level up their characters. But by adopting mainstream game design elements—realistic visuals and a first-person camera—Clickolding extends the parody to all games driven by fast clicking, such as shooters and real-time strategy simulations. Here, the man in the chair becomes a metaphor for compelling game mechanics, enticing the player to get faster, better, and more accurate.
As you approach 10,000 clicks it starts to get boring, but you feel compelled, even obligated, to carry on while the man in the chair gives you a glimpse into his fractured life. It’s strange and mundane, uncomfortable and oddly comforting all at the same time. Perhaps the reason this game has attracted so much attention is that the monotony of clicking buttons in a boring motel allows your own thoughts, feelings and experiences to creep into your and the masked man’s room. Rarely have games given you so much room to be scared.
What to Play
Arranger: A role-solving puzzle adventure. Photo: Furniture and mattresses
in Arranger: Role Playing Puzzle Adventureis a cutesy RPG-like game in which you play a young social misfit setting out on his first journey outside the town he grew up in. Except the entire world is a grid of sliding tiles, and as you move, rows of tiles move with you. This turns combat into a sliding-block puzzle where you have to carry your sword to monsters to defeat them, and turns the regular towns, forests, and graveyards into giant game boards. It took me a while to get to grips with it, but the unique mix of story and puzzles is far more interesting than a match-3 puzzle. You may recognize the artist from his groundbreaking 2010 indie game Braid.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5 Estimated play time: 6 hr
If you’ve ever stumbled across a misogynistic video by an influencer online, you know how harmful this content can be, but did you know that more than two-thirds of boys ages 11 to 14 are exposed to this kind of harmful and damaging “manosphere” content? 70% of teachers have noticed an increase in sexist language Will it be used in classrooms in the 12 months leading up to February 2024?
The study was published earlier this year: The rise of aggroismIt depicts a boy’s gradual slide into a misogynistic mindset, which leaves him feeling lonely and sad, and negative towards his female teachers and even his own sister.
The film, produced by Vodafone and the charity Global Action Plan, depicts the impact that harmful AI-powered algorithms are having on pre-teen boys. It reflects growing concern among parents, with one in five noticing a gradual change in the language their sons use to talk about women and girls. Experts are now urging families to talk to their sons about what may be on their phones and how it’s reaching them.
Psychologist Dr Ellie Hanson says: “Social media is designed to keep you online as long as possible, so they target your emotions. They exploit emotions such as shock, fear, anxiety, paranoia, superiority, indignation and sexuality. These emotions have been found to be captivating.”
Worryingly, many boys come across this content while searching for something unrelated, such as fitness or gaming videos. Hanson says explaining how social media algorithms are designed is important because it invites kids and teens into the conversation, which is much more effective than telling them not to look.
Teenage boys often come across harmful content while searching for something else: photos with models posing. Photo: Carol Yepes/Getty Images
“Questioning things is a normal part of being a teenager,” she says, “so let’s use that tendency to encourage them to question the tools being used to manipulate them online.”
Hanson says that simply explaining that these platforms directly benefit from your engagement with their content is a strong first step. The content that attracts the most attention is often controversial and conspiratorial. This has resulted in a plethora of influencers who promote a distorted view of masculinity that is sexist, offensive and offensive. This leads to negative and disrespectful behavior towards women and girls, and also damages boys’ mental health and ability to form relationships. Two-thirds of boys They said seeing harmful and negative content online left them feeling anxious, sad and scared.
Kate Edwards, deputy director of online child safety at the NSPCC, says parents need to be aware of how quickly their children’s phones and tablets can become inundated with harmful content. “Social media is currently made up mainly of short form content – videos streamed quickly one after the other. Once you watch something in full, react to it, like or comment, the app will serve you more and more similar content. It can quickly pull you down a rabbit hole,” Edwards said.
“There are steps you can take to teach the algorithm that you don’t want to see it anymore. Look for a ‘hide’ button or a ‘I didn’t like that’ option. Explore the different settings in the app, by yourself and with your child.”
Vodafone co-designed Digital Parenting Toolkit We’ve teamed up with the NSPCC to help parents get ahead of potential risks. It’s full of conversation starters, activities and tips to help young people stay safe while using the internet, as well as advice on what to do if they come across something inappropriate.
Sir Peter Wanless (right): “This toolkit encourages families to have open conversations about their children’s mobile phone use.” Composition: Getty Images, Adrian James White
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, says he is particularly proud of the partnership with Vodafone because it helps navigate an online world that can be overwhelming and confusing for parents as well as children. He says: “The toolkit encourages families to have open conversations about their children’s mobile use, for example discussing situations that might arise online. It also covers safety features available on phones and setting boundaries, such as enforcing screen time limits.”
But screen time rules and parental controls are only one piece of the puzzle: while parents can help stem the flow of harmful content, there is a growing belief that to break the cycle, tech companies themselves need to take action.
To appeal this, Global Action Plan has filed a petition It calls for regulators such as Ofcom to require platforms to take control away from AI-powered algorithms and enforce “safety by design”, which was a key element of the 2023 policy. Online Safety ActBut there are growing concerns that the app may get away with only having bare-bones functionality.
“Despite parents’ best efforts, children are still vulnerable to manipulative algorithms. We should do our best, but the most power lies with the tech companies and regulators,” Hanson said.
Find out more about Vodafone’s pledge to help four million people and businesses bridge the digital divide. here
The Moon, Earth’s loyal companion that remains steadfast in its orbit around our planet, has been a topic of fascination and exploration ever since the early days of space travel. Missions have been planned, rovers have traversed its surface, and even a flag has been planted on its barren landscape.
But what is the appeal of the Moon? Situated about 400,000 km away from Earth, it poses numerous challenges for human habitation, such as high levels of solar radiation. However, the Moon offers a unique opportunity for planetary research, scientific experiments, and potentially lucrative mining ventures due to its untapped resources.
With the allure of untapped resources comes a race to be the first to claim ownership of the Moon. This begs the question: Who does the Moon truly belong to? Philosopher and author AC Grayling explores this complex issue in his latest book, Who owns the moon?
SF: Why the interest in the Moon, and will we ever reach it?
ACG: The Moon holds vast potential for mining operations as it is rich in resources, presenting a more feasible option compared to Earth. Despite logistical challenges, rapid technological advancements and substantial investments indicate that lunar exploration is imminent.
Some argue that a robotic base alone may not suffice for the extraction of valuable resources like Helium-3, crucial for clean nuclear fusion. The lure of economic gains raises concerns about potential conflicts over lunar territory.
SF: So, who lays claim to the Moon?
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, ratified by the United Nations, prohibits militarization and territorial ownership of the Moon, declaring it a common heritage of mankind. This ambiguity has spurred competition among nations to pioneer lunar technologies.
Efforts to establish guidelines were made in 1979, yet the absence of binding agreements leaves room for potential disputes over lunar resources, particularly valuable elements like Helium-3. The lack of a regulatory framework raises concerns about future conflicts, extending beyond Earth.
Credit: Gremlin
What’s next, and will legal frameworks evolve?
The need for stringent regulations is apparent, given the burgeoning interest in lunar exploration by various space agencies. Proposals for lunar space stations and the Artemis Accords, a collaborative effort among nations for responsible space conduct, hint at evolving norms to govern lunar activities.
Historically, the 1961 Antarctic Treaty provides a model for international cooperation in preserving a common resource. However, challenges arise as countries like China and Russia seek to assert territorial claims in Antarctica, signaling potential conflicts over resource exploitation.
The Moon’s status as a shared resource prompts calls for inclusive lunar laws and international treaties to ensure equitable benefits. Efforts to establish regulatory frameworks face obstacles, mirroring past struggles in maritime law and resource management.
Is there a case for leaving the Moon untouched?
The Moon’s vast expanse and desolate nature diminish concerns over environmental impact, distinguishing it from Earth. Despite existing space debris, the Moon’s remote location offers ample space for exploration and development.
What lies beyond the Moon?
Envisioning a future where lunar infrastructure facilitates Mars exploration through water extraction for fuel production, heralds a new era of space colonization. Echoing historical precedents, colonies in space may strive for autonomy, shaping interplanetary relations akin to terrestrial geopolitics.
As humanity embarks on extraterrestrial endeavors, adherence to ethical principles and equitable resource-sharing remains pivotal for a sustainable cosmic future.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
About our expert, A.C. Grayling
AC Grayling, a distinguished philosopher and author, sheds light on lunar ownership in his book “Whose Moon is It?” He is also the founder of the New College of the Humanities, recognized for his contributions to literary criticism and philosophical discourse.
“This is a landmark day in Autonomy’s history,” Mike Lynch declared in a press release on August 18, 2011, as he announced the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.
June 6, 2024, will be an even more significant date for Lynch.
After nearly 13 tumultuous years and a drawn-out trial in the heart of Silicon Valley, Lynch, once known as the “British Bill Gates,” has been cleared of fraud charges. The verdict marks a stunning reversal of fortune for the entrepreneur.
Lynch said Thursday he was “overjoyed” at his acquittal. “The truth has finally prevailed,” his lawyers declared.
He is now due to return to Britain, but the fight to clear his name continues. HP nearly won a civil lawsuit against Lynch and another Autonomy head, Sushoban Hussain, in London two years ago. The company is seeking $4 billion in damages. Lynch had previously said he would appeal the decision.
By all accounts, the acquisition was a disaster. Just five weeks after it was announced, HP’s CEO, who had signed the deal, was fired. Lynch left Autonomy less than a year later. The lucrative acquisition briefly cemented Lynch’s reputation as Britain’s most successful tech mogul. Its real legacy was more than a decade of bitter legal battles.
In November 2012, HP’s new management wrote down the value of Autonomy by $8.8 billion, alleging “significant” accounting irregularities, disclosure deficiencies, and “plain misrepresentations” prior to the acquisition. After years of investigations and legal proceedings on both sides of the Atlantic, a US federal grand jury indicted Lynch on criminal charges in November 2018. After the civil proceedings were concluded, the UK agreed to Lynch’s extradition.
His legal troubles grew last year. Having nearly lost a British civil lawsuit, Lynch also lost an appeal against his extradition in the UK High Court. A few weeks later, he was on a plane to California.
The trial in San Francisco has been a tough test for Lynch, who has been fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. to face more than a dozen fraud charges. Federal prosecutors have a horrific record of convictions, forcing Lynch’s defense team to adjust their defense ahead of the trial.
From the start of the saga, Lynch has maintained that Autonomy’s collapse was the result of mismanagement of valuable HP assets, not fraud, but rather the failure of HP to provide evidence to support that claim, but U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who presided over the case, has barred Lynch’s lawyers from presenting evidence to support that claim.
Failing to focus on the post-acquisition situation, Lynch’s defense was based on three main arguments: first, that running a company like Autonomy is much more complicated than the prosecution would have the jury believe, second, that Lynch is a very different person to the person he has been portrayed to be, and third, that HP rushed to conduct its due diligence and close the deal.
One of Lynch’s lawyers, Reid Weingarten, declared on the first day of the trial that the government’s case was “black and white,” “and this trial is going to show that that’s not how the world works. The world works in shades of gray. The world is complicated.”
Life is “delicate and messy”, Lynch told the court, suggesting that his trial is effectively “like peering through the door to watch sausages being made. The thing you have to bear in mind is that if you take a microscope to a clean kitchen, you’re going to find germs. And I think Autonomy is no exception.”
Prosecutors tried to portray Lynch as an intimidating, ruthless businessman responsible for every aspect of the Autonomy empire. Jurors heard about the piranha tank in the atrium of the company’s headquarters and conference rooms named after James Bond villains.
Lynch said he found it “surreal” to hear government witnesses testify about many discussions and decisions he was unaware of. He said he delegated work that was outside his expertise and spent “about 30 percent” of his time at Autonomy in his later years spending time with his family and pursuing other hobbies.
“I believe the more you know about him, the better it is for us,” Weingarten told jurors before Lynch’s testimony.
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Prosecutors said Mr Lynch had “half a billion reasons” to commit the fraud – one for every pound he claimed to have made from HP’s acquisition of Autonomy – but Mr Lynch said the company wanted to remain independent.
Autonomy is one of the stars of London’s FTSE 100 stock index and is still in the process of acquiring itself. Lynch says he only started considering the idea after meeting with HP executives at a luxury home in the English countryside. It was the 64% premium on Autonomy’s shares that ultimately convinced the company to accept the deal.
Lynch argued that HP was determined to rapidly transform itself from a hardware maker into a software giant. press release It was only when it was released that the company announced it was buying his company, a process he recalled on the stand as “total chaos.”
Prosecutors argued that HP’s handling of the proceedings was irrelevant: They alleged that Lynch orchestrated a massive fraud over years and that Autonomy used a variety of accounting tricks to inflate sales growth.
But Lynch stressed that HP was “not at all” misled about Autonomy’s value. A California jury believed Lynch and dismissed the case, which the U.S. government had detailed, calling more than 30 witnesses.
Six years ago, a jury in the same court came to a different conclusion about one of Lynch’s closest business partners. Hussain, who served as Autonomy’s chief financial officer, was convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud in connection with the deal in 2018. He was released from a U.S. prison in January after serving a five-year sentence.
Lynch, who was awarded an OBE at the height of his career and served as an adviser to the British prime minister, spent much of the year before his trial under effective house arrest, guarded around the clock by two armed guards, and the threat of more than 20 years in prison loomed large if convicted.
The businessman left court a free man on Thursday. “I look forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most – my family and innovating in my field,” he said.
After the earnings release, Tesla stock plummeted by 10% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. This was despite missing Q1 2024 sales, having sharply lower profits, and recalling the recently launched $100,000 Cybertruck, which had seen a recent rise.
The electric vehicle maker’s revenue stood at $21.3 billion, slightly below expectations of $21.48 billion and down by 9% from a year ago, marking the largest decline since 2012. Profits were reported at $1.1 billion, a 55% drop from the first quarter of 2023, the company announced.
Despite the disappointing figures, the report also included upbeat news for investors. This included a preview of a ride-hailing app set to be integrated into Tesla products. The company revealed plans to bring new vehicle models to the market sooner than anticipated, citing the development of its robotaxi network.
Over the past three months, Tesla has doubled its AI computing capacity (smart software complexity) and invested $1 billion in AI infrastructure during the same period.
Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at the company, mentioned that Tuesday’s report and Tesla’s plans to accelerate the development of more affordable vehicles helped alleviate some concerns among investors. “This announcement suggests that Elon [Musk] may refocus on the EV giant, which is positive news for shareholders,” he stated.
The earnings report was Tesla’s second since the launch of the Cybertruck, its long-awaited electric pickup truck. It was also the first report after the vehicle’s recent recall. The company faced challenges with the futuristic steel car, including a voluntary recall due to reports of a loose accelerator pedal potentially causing vehicles to become stuck when driving at full speed. Despite this, the company did not directly address the recall in its earnings release.
Even without the Cybertruck issues, Tesla has a tough year ahead as it announced a 10% reduction in its global workforce, affecting approximately 14,000 jobs. The company also slashed prices globally over the weekend. The entry of Chinese electric car manufacturers into the market has added to Tesla’s struggles in recent quarters.
Tesla reported a decrease in car deliveries for the first time in four years in the last quarter. The company warned that the growth rate in car sales could be considerably lower compared to 2023.
Addressing concerns about his workload, Elon Musk stated during the earnings conference, “Tesla consumes the majority of my work time. I work every day. I will ensure that Tesla prospers.”
Sweden’s most listened to artist on Spotify is a “secret” composer who has released music under hundreds of different names, surpassing Britney Spears and Abba in plays.
Stockholm-based musician Johan Rohr has been identified as the mastermind behind over 650 artists, accumulating 15 billion plays on the streaming platform, making him the most played artist in Sweden.
Under aliases like “Maya Åström”, “Minik Knudsen”, “Mingmei Hsueh”, and “Csizmazia”, Lehr has released more than 2,700 songs on Spotify, including a song titled “Ether”.
His success has placed him in the top 100 most streamed artists globally on Spotify, ahead of music legends like Michael Jackson, Metallica, and Mariah Carey.
Rohr owes much of his success to being featured on over 100 official instrumental playlists curated by Spotify, such as “Peaceful Piano” and “Stress Relief”, which are popular among users for background music.
Spotify celebrated paying a record SEK 90 billion (£6.7 billion) to the music industry last year, supporting new artists to make a living from their music.
Swedish group Abba has strong competition with Rohr, supporting over 650 artists on Spotify. Photo: Ole Lindeborg/TT News Agency/AFP/Getty Images
Critics argue that the success of anonymous artists like Rohr goes against Spotify’s promise to support small, independent musicians, record companies, and composers.
Rohr, who has worked as a conductor for pop stars, has kept quiet about his earnings from Spotify, but his private company reportedly earned a record 32.7 million kronor (about 240 million yen) in 2022.
Overtone Studios, the record company behind Rohr’s music, acknowledged his use of multiple names and described him as a “pioneer of the mood music genre”.
Niklas Brantberg of Overtone Studios emphasized the importance of artists being able to publish music under different names to reach their full creative potential.
Spotify allows artists to use pseudonyms, catering to the growing demand for functional music like relaxation and concentration playlists.
The platform licenses music from rights holders and pays royalties as per agreements with distributors, without restrictions on artist names or pseudonyms.
Kneeling in the snow outside the King’s house with a man named Harald and an electric car, imitating a heartthrob from the 1980s is quite an unconventional situation that definitely needs some explanation.
The King of Norway is also named Harald, but the man with me outside the monarch’s mansion in Stavanger is not a king. I’m here to explore Norway’s prominence in adopting electric cars as a solution to combat CO2 emissions from transportation. Norway has emerged as a global leader in this field with a significant percentage of electric cars being sold in recent years.
On the other hand, the UK has extended its ban on new petrol and diesel cars, while the situation in the EU regarding electric car sales remains below par. Stavanger, Norway’s third-largest city, stands out as an oil hub that has made significant strides towards zero-emission transport through initiatives like electric buses and vehicles.
The man accompanying me, Harald Nils Rostvik, an architect and urban planning professor, has been a driving force behind Norway’s electric vehicle revolution for decades. His pioneering efforts date back to the introduction of one of Norway’s first electric cars in 1989, marking the beginning of a journey towards sustainable transportation.
IIn 1983, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland spearheaded the Brundtland Commission, which laid the foundation for sustainable development and environmental awareness. Rostvik’s advocacy for electric vehicles and civil disobedience campaigns with environmental activists like Morten Halkett and Mags Furholmen, members of the iconic pop group a-ha, reshaped the narrative around electric cars in Norway.
Their efforts, including importing one of the country’s first electric cars, paved the way for a shift towards greener transportation methods. Despite facing challenges and fines for their activism, their perseverance and innovative spirit contributed to Norway’s evolving landscape of electric mobility.
(from left) Morten Halkett, Harald Nils Rostvik, Frederik Hauge, Mags Furholmen.
The legacy of their early advocacy continues to shape Norway’s EV landscape, with ambitious goals of achieving 100% electric car sales by next year. The collaborative efforts of individuals like Rostvik and prominent figures like Halkett have been instrumental in driving Norway towards a sustainable future of zero-emission transport.
Number of people under 50 diagnosed with colorectal cancer has been increasing for 30 years
Mohammed Elamin Aliwi/Alamy
One of the most alarming trends regarding cancer is the increasing incidence of several types of tumors in people under the age of 50, especially colorectal cancer.
A £20m, five-year research project aimed at discovering the causes of the rising number of bowel cancers has been given the green light. The study will use blood, urine and stool samples from millions of people held in about 17 biobanks in Europe, North America and India.
The goal is to determine whether this increase is related to changes in food, drink, medicines, air pollutants, and other environmental chemicals by measuring everything people are exposed to (known as the “exposome”). It’s about understanding what’s going on.
“Exposomes are all the elements of the outside world that influence our health,” he says. Andrew Chan co-leader of the project at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston;
The number of people under the age of 50 diagnosed with colorectal cancer has been increasing for 30 years. In the UK, for example, these tumors have increased by about 50 per cent in people aged 25 to 49 over this period, and similar trends are seen in the US, Canada, Australia and some European countries.
Nine out of 10 tumors occur in older people, so the increase in deaths among people under age 50 has not yet had a significant impact on the total number of cancer deaths. But this trend is worrying to doctors, especially since tumors in younger people tend to be more aggressive and diagnosed at a later stage.
Speculation abounds as to the cause, but various aspects of modern diets, including increased consumption of processed foods and red meat, and a lack of fiber, as well as antibiotic use and exposure to pollutants, are likely to be contributing factors. It is believed that this is the main cause.
In a new research projectChan and his team have attempted to identify and measure all the chemicals in medical samples obtained in previous studies, and plan to investigate further.
They will use mass spectrometry to identify the chemical signatures that disrupted the levels of novel compounds and natural biochemicals that entered the body.
One of the biobanks being used is Nurses’ Health Study 3, a large-scale project in the United States that charts the health and lifestyles of hundreds of thousands of nurses. Some participants have provided not only blood samples but also stool samples, which will allow the team to analyze gut bacteria as well.
Another important cohort is the Danish Newborn Screening Biobank. The biobank contains dried blood spots from almost every baby born in Denmark since 1982, representing approximately 2 million samples. This will allow researchers to see whether what we are exposed to in the womb is associated with an increased risk of colon cancer.
If, as expected, a correlation is found between certain biochemicals in the blood and the risk of colon cancer, the researchers will investigate whether blood tests can identify people who are more vulnerable. says Mr. Chan. “That could be a group of people who would be targeted for more intensive colon cancer testing,” he says.
Another part of the project will test whether reversing blood characteristics associated with colorectal cancer reduces people’s risk of developing the tumor. Jordana Bell Professor at King’s College London and one of Chan’s collaborators. “We seek to apply the insights we generate early by identifying putative causal factors, understanding potential mechanisms, and designing intervention trials,” she says.
Ian Fawkes from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) said: “In the United States, recent data show that people born in the 1990s have a 2.4 times higher risk of colon cancer than people born in the 1950s. Most cancer cases occur in people over age 50. “This development is an important issue for us to address. The key is to understand why the rise in early-onset cancers is occurring in the first place.”
CRUK is funding the research along with Maryland’s National Cancer Institute, France’s National Cancer Institute and the UK’s Gut Babe Foundation.
Lyft performed well in the fourth quarter, exceeding profit expectations due to increased rides to stadiums and airports and significant cost savings.
However, the company’s stock price initially rose over 60% in after-hours trading, but most of those gains were erased after Lyft’s chief financial officer corrected a major error in its earnings report. The company had initially predicted growth of 500 basis points (5%) in 2024, but later announced that the actual growth rate was lower at 50 basis points (0.5%). In 2023, the stock price had risen by about 36%.
Lyft CEO David Risher acknowledged the mistake, saying in an interview the following day: bloomberg“Bad. This was a terrible error, but there was one zero.”
Lyft reported that stadium attendance increased over 35% from 2022, driven primarily by popular tours and sporting events. The company also highlighted improvements to airport transportation as contributing to its growth.
Under new leadership, Lyft implemented an aggressive restructuring plan last year, including staff cuts and the removal of management to pursue profitability. The company laid off 1,200 employees in April and reduced overall costs by 12%.
“We’re going to put more money into the bottom line because we can scale even further and keep costs flat,” Risher said.
Lyft also announced a new policy to pay drivers the difference if their income, after outside fees, is less than 70% of what a passenger pays. In addition, Lyft and Uber agreed to pay $328 million to a New York rideshare driver accused of withholding pay and benefits.
There are growing concerns about safety, job security, and the general fear of artificial intelligence with regard to self-driving cars. Lyft is addressing this by partnering with Motional to provide more than 100,000 self-driving rides across the United States.
Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was $1.22 billion, in line with analyst expectations. The company expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to be between $50 million and $55 million for the quarter, exceeding expectations of $46.3 million. Lyft’s fourth-quarter adjusted core profit was $66.6 million, also beating expectations of $56.2 million.
Do you have any smart devices or home appliances that can be controlled remotely in your house? These devices have become a common feature in modern homes over the past decade, offering convenience but also raising concerns about privacy. These smart devices collect, share, aggregate, and analyze data, posing potential risks to personal information. According to Katherine Kemp, an expert in law and data privacy, privacy laws in Australia are not up to date, which is a global concern. The information collected by smart devices can be used for targeted advertising, and it’s unclear where this data ends up.
While smart devices offer benefits such as environmental friendliness, Kemp believes that their main purpose is to collect and sell more information rather than promoting environmental sustainability. There’s a concern that companies use this data for targeted advertising and other commercial purposes, potentially creating detailed profiles of individuals.
Concerns about privacy and consent models have been raised by Sam Floreani, the policy director at Digital Rights Watch. The collection and use of data depend on underlying incentives, and it’s essential for individuals to fully understand the implications of sharing their data. He also mentioned the need for improving consent laws and rights around personal data.
Australia’s current privacy laws require consent, but customers are not always given the right information to make informed choices. The government is planning an overhaul of the law to bring it into the “digital age” and strengthen enforcement powers for privacy watchdogs.
Convenience and privacy
Some argue that sacrificing privacy for convenience is worth it, especially if it improves accessibility. For the visually impaired community, smart devices play an important role in reducing social isolation. However, concerns remain about the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
“That’s too tempting.”
Early concepts of smart homes focused on collecting data solely for the occupants’ purposes. However, the potential for lucrative behavioral advertising services led to a shift in the use of this data. Changes in privacy laws are needed to establish stricter standards for how companies behave regarding smart devices.
Devastating wildfires break out in Chile following January's heat wave and drought
Javier Torres/AFP via Getty Images
Temperature records continue. According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Agency, January this year was the hottest on record, with temperatures 1.7 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.
This means there were 12 months in which the Earth's average surface temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the average between 1850 and 1900, the pre-industrial reference point.
“2024 begins with another record month,” Samantha Burgess of the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in a statement. She said: “Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures from rising.”
At the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, countries pledged to work to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Climate scientists will not consider this limit to have been breached until the Earth's long-term average temperature exceeds this level for many years.
The long-term average is now 1.25°C warmer than before the industrial revolution. Richard Betts At the Met Office, the UK's National Weather Service. However, carbon emissions are still increasing, and by this standard it seems certain that the 1.5°C limit will be breached soon, perhaps around 2030.
Long-term global averages are rising in line with climate model predictions. However, the extremely rapid warming over the past year or two has far exceeded expectations. Among other records, in 2023 he recorded for the first time a day warmer by 2 degrees Celsius than the average from 1850 to 1900.
It remains unclear why there has been such rapid warming over the past year or so, and how long it will continue. Factors that may have accelerated warming include the 2022 eruption of Tonga Volcano, which pumped large amounts of water into the stratosphere, and reduced aerosol pollution from ships.
For practical reasons, climate scientists have defined pre-industrial temperatures as the average from 1850 to 1900, since there are few records of temperatures before then. However, using this as a baseline could mean that the level of warming due to fossil fuel emissions is being underestimated.
One 2017 survey This indicates an error of approximately 0.2°C. Another announcement this week put the difference at 0.5°C, based on analysis of sponges, meaning we have already breached the 1.5°C limit, but other climate scientists They are not satisfied with this.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Wednesday that it is working with the FBI to investigate fake messages posted to the X social media account.
On Tuesday, hackers posted false news about an incident. A widely anticipated announcement SEC expected to announce on Bitcoin, leading the crypto world soaring prices and wary observers. An SEC spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian in a statement that the fraudulent posts to the @SECGov account were “not initiated or created by the SEC.”
“The SEC continues to investigate this matter and is coordinating with appropriate law enforcement agencies, including the SEC Office of Inspector General and the FBI,” the spokesperson said. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
X confirmed late Tuesday, following a preliminary investigation, that the SEC's account was compromised when an unidentified person gained control through a third party and via a phone number associated with the account.
An erroneous post on @SECGov said securities regulators had approved holding Bitcoin in exchange-traded funds. The widely anticipated move was expected to bring Bitcoin more mainstream integration and encourage investment – and the initial SEC tweet sent Bitcoin's price soaring nearly $48,000.
The SEC removed the post about 30 minutes after it was posted, and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said: Confirmed In a post shortly after, it said the agency's account had been compromised and the tweet was “fraudulent.” “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange products,” he said.
But on Wednesday, the S.E.C.Approving 11 Spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds. This approval is a game-changer for Bitcoin, allowing institutional and retail investors to gain exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency without directly owning Bitcoin, allowing FTX CEO Sam's massive This is a major boost for the cryptocurrency industry, which has been plagued by a series of scandals, including trials and convictions. Money laundering between Bankman Freed and cryptocurrency giant Binance.
“Retail investors seeking exposure to Bitcoin now have easier and more direct access to their assets through many top financial institutions,” said Digital Commerce, a cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy organization. said Perianne Bowling, founder and CEO of the Chamber. “This alone is a transformational event for hundreds of millions of investors and the Bitcoin community.”
According to the experts, this job in technology has the potential to generate significant income.
Artificial intelligence prompting engineers, who create questions and instructions to get sophisticated answers and images from programs like ChatGPT, are highly sought-after, high-paying positions with salaries over $300,000. Forbes reported.
“They just know how to write,” says Greg Belzer, head of technology at RBC Wealth Management, as told to ZDNET. This rapidly growing field has made many professional writers enthusiastic about this field of AI, according to a vice report.
“To help you engineer quickly, you have to put yourself in the user’s shoes. It’s more than just code,” Belzer explained. “It’s not just development. It’s more like a business technology skill set combined with creativity.”
This career advice comes as AI industry leaders warn that rapidly advancing technology could displace white-collar workers.
Artificial intelligence prompting engineers (those who create questions and instructions to get the most sophisticated answers and images from programs like ChatGPT) are highly sought-after positions. Marina – Stock.adobe.comBusiness author Bernard Marr says agile engineers need data, project management, organizational and communication skills. Kwanchaift – Stock.adobe.com
Experts say people to be concerned about include programmers, computer programmers, journalists, software engineers, data analysts, paralegals, and legal assistants.
Data Scientist, once dubbed “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century,” earns an average annual salary of $137,000 in New York, according to Built-in NYC.
“Today, a good prompting engineer is more expensive than a data scientist,” Belzer noted.
“It’s very difficult to find people with experience,” he added. “It’s hard to find people with more than five years of experience. You might get two or three years at most, but it’s hard to find.”
That doesn’t mean any old couch potato can make it to six figures. Experience is still preferred, just of a different kind.
“What we’re really looking for are people who are more likely to be on the business side with a technical bent,” Belzer reasoned. “Personally, I don’t want to bet until the tools are a little more advanced.”
This rapidly growing field has made many professional writers passionate about the field of AI. Golodenkov – Stock.adobe.com
Business author Bernard Marr says agile engineers need data, project management, organizational and communication skills.
“Just like you would give instructions and training to a human employee, you need to be able to express precisely and clearly what you want the AI to do,” Marr wrote in a May article for Forbes.
“You have to pay attention to detail. If you can dig deep into exactly what type of response or content you’re looking for, you’ll be more successful at engineering quickly.”
The career advice comes as AI industry leaders warn that rapidly advancing technology could displace white-collar workers. MT.Photostock – Stock.adobe.com
Belzer said there is a “significant need” for training in AI prompt writing, but the technology field is difficult to define to industry standards.
“Is it science? Is it art? Are we going to build more tools?” Belzer questioned, adding that this great gig might also be automated by AI.
“The good news is that once tools are in place, it may be easier to train AI models using prompts that are performed ‘systematically and programmatically,’” he concludes. I attached it.
Henry Rowley truly enjoys the recognition that goes viral more than anything else.
“I really love it,” he says. “Partly because I’m a show-off!”
The 25-year-old was an exceptional performer. This year’s Edinburgh Fringe was a prospect that not too long ago probably made him laugh more than his own jokes.
No longer just a marketing executive after gaining fame with tick tock whose ever-growing collection of comic skits and impressions, each personifying a part of pop culture and society that we can all relate to or make fun of, has over 1.3 million followers. I am.
“It was pretty cool,” he said of his first big hit video.
“The fact that so many people watched your video every time you hit a numerical milestone is so surreal.
“But I think they also kept in mind that a lot of people probably wouldn’t find it funny or even find it annoying. That’s the nature of comedy, especially online.”
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Since sharing her first video last year, Laurie has developed her own cast of characters, doing countless celebrity impressions and film parodies.
There’s Minty and Hugo, the “after music guy” and the “walking sick”, and the delicatessen, a classy girl with a husky voice.
Nothing more popular than his clips are his sometimes self-deprecating riffs on the British upper class, spoken in a tone that embarrasses even himself. jack whitehall and boris johnson.
and, this most wonderful time of the yearhe certainly won’t forgive his feelings when Love Actually is as inevitable as mince pies and turkey. Hugh Grant and keira knightley Impressions will be wasted.
“I grew up there leicester “He was one of the classiest of my friends, and he was always thinking about something a little disgusting,” he says.
“Then all of a sudden I was in it.” bristol The university was surrounded by these classy kids and the moment they heard I was from Leicester they looked at me like I was this little town urchin. Not really! So a lot of it is based on the friends I made there and sometimes myself. ”
Lowry doesn’t care about negative feedback at all. Comedians who do that probably won’t stay on the circuit for long. However, posting all of your material online definitely makes you an easier target.
Those who aren’t enthusiastic “usually just hate me from afar,” he says. “that’s OK!”
image: Love Actually’s Hugh Grant is a regular source of inspiration. Photo: Peter Mountain/Universal/DNA/tentative title/Kobal/Shutterstock
simple formula
His videos have racked up 69.1 million likes on TikTok and he has fans all over the world, and it’s safe to say he’s mostly a passionate audience.
Few things can safely be embedded in a family-friendly news story, but each clip strives to resonate in some way.
As someone who had the misfortune of watching the Twilight Saga all the way through this year, his recreation of the Twilight Saga is painfully accurate.
The discreet selfie-style framing and sharp runtime also make it a perfect fit for the platform.
When Lowry’s fans see him out and about, it’s always fun to hear how much they enjoy his work.
“It’s a great interaction when you meet someone and you know they think you’re interesting and enjoy what you’re doing,” he says.
read more: TikTok’s Tube Girl quickly rises to fame Explaining TikTok’s most popular trends in 2023 Regions where TikTok is restricted around the world
But he insists there’s no real formula for success.
Well, there’s nothing more cliche than doing what he loves. And he now makes a living from it.
“If you don’t enjoy making the video or don’t like the final product, what’s the point of doing it?” he says.
“People always say to me, ‘Why do you always laugh at your own jokes?’ And I say, ‘Because I think it’s funny. If it wasn’t, I’d laugh at my own jokes. You won’t say them.”
for many startups, qualifying for an accelerator program like Y Combinator or TechStars is like winning the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Accelerators offer a wealth of opportunities that can make the difference between a great idea that fails to reach its potential and a great idea that leads to an IPO.
We’re used to seeing accelerators work for companies that disrupt travel, payment processing, and cloud storage, but what if that model could work outside the confines of the VC factory? Artists What if you could use a little investment, a lot of mentoring and hands-on support, a ton of referrals, and a ton of faith to help you in your career?
“Y Combinator changed my life,” Inversion Art co-founder Joey Flores told TechCrunch. “I am very grateful for this program and thought it would be great to do something like that for artists.”
Mr. Flores is a Y Combinator alumnus. Music Marketing Platform EarBits It graduated from the program in 2010 and was sold in 2015. Although Flores is not a professional artist, art is a very important part of his life, and a chance comment by a VC in a 2020 conversation set him on the path to finding an artist. It’s his way of supporting artists who have the drive and passion to make art a lifelong career, but need help to achieve it. As part of his research, he connected with co-founder Jonathan Neal and together they seek to change the way artists find success and recognition.
“Artists have always relied on others, such as collectors, museums and galleries, to build their careers and define success,” Neal said. “In our opinion, we are the first organization to actually sit at the same table with artists in all of their negotiations and activities and truly help them define success for themselves.”
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