Organizers of the Great North Run have issued an apology for featuring a map of Sunderland instead of Newcastle on this year’s finishing medal. Unfortunately, this is just one in a long list of mapping errors.
Other notable mistakes include the Phantom supermarket, hazardous climbing routes, and geopolitical missteps.
Phantom Aldi
Earlier this year, the Welsh village of Siphiliog in Denbyshire faced unexpected traffic disruptions after Aldi appeared on the map.
A nearby farm, home to around 500 residents, was mistakenly labeled as a supermarket on Google Maps, leading to a surge of shoppers and milk tankers overwhelming the area.
In response, Google stated it operated “around the clock” to monitor suspicious activities and updated the listing.
Geopolitical Failure
In December, FIFA expressed regret over the omission of Crimea from Ukraine in its mapping.
While the map outlined countries unable to compete due to political tensions, it failed to acknowledge Russian-occupied regions recognized internationally as part of Ukraine since 2014.
“We fully appreciate the sensitivity surrounding this issue and though unintentional, we sincerely regret any distress it may have caused,” the organization stated in a letter to Igor Grishenko, the UAF’s general secretary.
Bennevis’ Dangerous Route
In 2021, Google Maps revised the directions for Bennevis, the UK’s tallest mountain, after warnings about potentially “fatal” paths.
The Scottish climbing charity, John Muir Trust, cautioned that the map’s directions for the nearest parking area to the summit were dangerously misleading, especially for novice climbers, leading them onto treacherous routes without alternative paths.
Google responded by clarifying that the issue pertained to driving routes, not walking directions, and updated the map to direct drivers to visitor centers instead.
At last year’s San Francisco Half Marathon, the course was mistakenly found to be short by 0.5 miles, affecting the times of thousands of runners.
Organizers claimed the route was measured accurately, but the certification map was incorrect, resulting in various discrepancies.
This was not the first instance of a mismeasured race; between 2013 and 2015, the Greater Manchester Marathon was mapped incorrectly, marking it 380 meters short. Consequently, the times of approximately 24,000 runners were deemed invalid by British athletics.
Similar issues have also arisen in past events, including the Brighton Half Marathon and the Great Scotland Run.
Taking the Wrong Steps
Google corrected a mapping error in Edinburgh after drivers were wrongly guided down a flight of steps. This route was previously accessible by vehicles, but changes in the roads had led to the installation of stairs, resulting in at least two cars getting stuck at the bottom of Calton Hill. In January, Google announced that the mapping issue had been fixed.
The 20th century was a vibrant era for future visions, yet the 21st century has not sparked the same enthusiasm. Sci-fi author William Gibson, known for his groundbreaking cyberpunk work Neuromancer, refers to this phenomenon as “Future fatigue”, suggesting we seldom mention the 22nd century.
This stagnation is partly due to the evolution of many iconic future concepts from the 20th century. For instance, plastic was once hailed as the material of the future. Although it has proven to be durable, versatile, and plentiful, its properties now pose significant environmental and health concerns.
Today’s predominant future imagery carries a legacy of historical influence. Themes such as space colonization, dystopian AI, and a yearning for an imaginary past persist, often shaped by the climate anxiety many people experience. The future begins to feel like a closed book rather than an open road.
Jean Louis Missica, former vice mayor of Paris, articulated it well in his writing: “When the future is bleak, people idealize past golden ages. Nostalgia becomes a refuge amid danger and a cocoon for anticipated decline.”
Another factor contributing to this stuck imagery is social media, which exposes users to a vast array of different time periods at once, fostering nostalgia and a continuous remixing of existing ideas.
However, new visions of the future have emerged this century. For example, the climate aspiration movement gained traction on Tumblr and blogs in the 2000s. Yet, as smartphones became our primary mode of communication, the collective imagination surrounding our vision of the future waned.
I reflect on the future of living, drawing from my experience that a cohesive vision can motivate individuals to drive change. Such visions serve as engines of inspiration and imagination. They enable us to envision the society we aspire to create and commit to working towards that future. Movements like Civil Rights have long recognized this. A unified future vision also manifests effectively in architecture, advertising, and television, with Star Trek inspiring engineers for decades.
As we transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we find ourselves in a transformative era. This period is daunting yet invigorating. Numerous hotspots of innovation are emerging, such as rooftop solar energy in Pakistan, where households and small businesses actively adopt renewable energy solutions, or the global initiatives like Transition Town, rethinking local economies and cultures.
Nevertheless, we lack a unified vision that integrates these innovations, embedding them within a social context and building pathways from the present to the future.
In my new book, I explore four visions for the future currently taking shape: DeGrowth, which reevaluates our economic roles; SolarPunk, which revitalizes cultural innovation; the Metaverse, which immerses us in a vibrant digital universe; and movements that encourage us to rethink our relationship with nature.
Yet, the future won’t stop evolving. We must cultivate and nurture more emerging visions, allowing them to take shape as we redefine our narrative of what the future could be.
A swift left hook, a front kick to the chest, a series of cross jabs, and the crowd erupts in cheers. However, it isn’t traditional kickboxing skills that determine the outcome of the match; instead, an attempted roundhouse kick goes awry, leading to the kickboxer from a prestigious university team tumbling to the floor.
While conventional kickboxing involves risks like bloodshed, sweat, and severe head injuries, competitors in Friday’s match at Beijing’s inaugural world humanoid robot game encountered a unique set of challenges, including balance, battery life, and a deeper philosophical purpose.
The compact humanoid robot named Kickboxer, entered by a team from a leading Chinese University of Technology, is part of the Jamboree—a humanoid event showcased at China’s latest tech gatherings. This government-backed competition kicked off after an audience of 12,000 national speed skaters, training for the 2022 Winter Olympics, performed to the Chinese national anthem on Friday morning.
“I came here out of curiosity,” remarked Hong Yun, a 58-year-old retired engineer seated in the front row. He mentioned that watching a robot compete was “far more thrilling than seeing real humans doing the same.”
The robot is set to compete in five soccer matches on the event’s first day in Beijing. Photo: Tingshu Wang/Reuters
The event showcases China’s proficiency in humanoid robotics, a sector prominently featured within the country’s artificial intelligence landscape. The promotional efforts are in full swing.
Similar to kickboxing, humanoids engaged in various sports, including athletics, soccer, and dance. One robot stumbled during a 1500-meter event, losing its head mid-course. “Maintaining [the head] was our goal,” shared Wang Ziyi, a 19-year-old student from Beijing Union University who was part of the robotics team.
A troupe of humanoid dance robots took to the stage during the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, a televised celebration that captivated nearly 1.7 billion viewers online.
One robot got derailed midway through a 1500m event as its head detached. Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
These social media-friendly activities reflect more serious geopolitical dynamics, highlighting the intensifying technological rivalry between the US and China, which may reshape the AI landscape.
This technology has become a pivotal factor in relations between the two nations. Despite the US’s continued lead in frontier research, Beijing is heavily investing in practical applications like robotics, partly driven by restrictions on Washington’s advanced chip exports to China.
Several cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have created 100 billion yuan (around 1 billion pounds) funds for the robotics industry. In January, state-owned banks revealed plans to offer 1 trillion yuan in financial support for the AI sector over the next five years.
“If there’s a sector where [Beijing] has heavily invested, it’s this one,” noted Kyle Chan, a researcher at Princeton University.
The robot is seen being transported after a kickboxing match during the competition’s opening day. Photo: China News Service/Getty Images
There’s something inherently unsettling about witnessing a jerky, human-like robot with two arms and legs, being dragged out of the ring by a human operator.
In the realm of humanoids, the Chinese industry possesses many strengths. While US firms like Tesla and Boston Dynamics remain dominant overall, several Chinese companies—including Ubtech and Unitree Robotics, who provided the boxing robots for Friday’s match—are swiftly catching up.
Tesla relies on China for numerous components needed to produce its physical humanoids. According to investment bank Morgan Stanley, the China-based supply chain is projected to manufacture robots using a third of its non-Chinese suppliers. “It appears remarkably challenging to disentangle this area from China completely,” Sheng Zhong, head of Chinese Industrial Research at the bank, noted in a recent report.
The robot, developed by the Chinese firm Unitree Robotics, is seen playing traditional drums. Photo: Tingshu Wang/Reuters
Beyond just generating positive attention on social media, China envisions humanoids as potential solutions to challenges posed by its aging population and shrinking workforce. A recent article from the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, suggested that robots could provide both practical and emotional support to the elderly. “The vision for robot-assisted elderly care is not far off,” it asserted. Humanoid robots could also replace factory workers as China seeks to retrain its workforce for more advanced technological roles.
However, there remains a significant gap between humanoids that can stumble through a sports match and those capable of managing everyday tasks. Ensuring safe interactions with vulnerable populations represents another considerable challenge. “The home is likely one of the last environments where humanoid robots will be welcomed for safety reasons,” Chan stated. “Overall, I maintain a somewhat skeptical view regarding the humanoid explosion.”
A technician works on humanoid robots in the vicinity of the game. Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Two significant obstacles to deploying technology that is useful beyond PR stunts are the complexity of human environments and the dexterity required to navigate them.
While other forms of AI, like large language models, can be trained using vast amounts of digital data, there are far fewer datasets available to train algorithms for walking through crowded restaurants or maneuvering stairs. China’s initiatives to integrate robots into everyday settings might assist businesses in gathering more data, yet that remains a major bottleneck, according to Chang.
Dr. Jonathan Aitken, a robotics lecturer at the University of Sheffield, echoed this sentiment. “The current AI state is not yet prepared for humanoids operating in uncontrolled environments,” he asserted.
While impressive displays, such as a robot jumping or kicking, showcase remarkable capabilities, executing mundane tasks—like using a knife or folding laundry—demands a level of finesse. Human hands possess approximately 27 “degrees of freedom,” enabling independent movements. In contrast, one of the most advanced models available, Tesla’s Optimus Humanoid, has only 22.
Nevertheless, China has defied the odds before with rapid advancements. Just a decade ago, the nation exported fewer than 375,000 cars annually. Today, China stands as the world’s largest automotive supplier, shipping nearly 6 million vehicles each year. In response, the European Union has raised tariffs on electric vehicles produced in China to curb this trend.
In China, both the government and the populace are firmly behind the push for humanoids. Zhan Guangtao attended the Humanoid Games alongside her two daughters on Friday. “It’s essential to expose my kids to advanced robotics from around the world,” Zhan remarked. “Such exposure broadens their perspectives.”
There may be genetic explanations for why some women consistently give birth to boys or girls. This is the reasoning behind it.
According to a new study, women who have multiple children of the same sex are more likely to have another child of the same sex.
Factors such as maternal age and genetics can create bias in the “coin toss” of gender determination, rather than following a pure 50/50 chance for each child.
The gender of a child at conception hinges on the sperm’s X or Y chromosomes, suggesting that the metaphorical coin flip for determining a child’s gender isn’t entirely random.
However, doctoral researcher Xiwen Wang from Harvard pointed out that this might not be the complete picture.
“The project started from a casual chat among co-authors and friends about a family with only boys or only girls,” Wang noted in an interview with BBC Science Focus.
“It happened so frequently that we began to wonder: Is that really a possibility?
Wang and her team analyzed data from over 58,007 women who had more than two children.
They found that if a couple has three boys, they have a 61% chance of having another boy. Likewise, after three girls, there’s a 58% chance of having another girl.
This research identified various factors that might tip the scales towards families of exclusively girls or boys.
“Women who have their first child after the age of 28 are about 10% more likely to have only boys or only girls than those who start before 23,” Wang explained. “While this isn’t a huge difference, it is statistically significant.”
Though the study did not delve into the reasons for this association, Wang offered some theories.
“As women age, they go through physiological changes like a shorter follicular phase and lower vaginal pH,” she elaborated.
The follicular phase is the initial stage of the menstrual cycle, which generally favors Y chromosome sperm, while a lower vaginal pH is conducive to X chromosome sperm.
“These effects can vary among individuals; thus, depending on their specific biology, aging might shift the balance toward one gender,” Wang said.
Families with only daughters or only sons are more common than random chance alone would suggest – Credit: Getty Images/Pixdeluxe
Wang also proposed another potential connection.
“The age of pregnant mothers often correlates with that of older fathers. Unfortunately, we lacked father data for this study,” Wang mentioned.
Researchers also explored genetic markers for the 7,530 women involved in the study, discovering two SNPs: NSUN6 associated with all-female offspring and TSHZ1 correlated with all-male offspring.
The study examined whether behavioral factors, such as couples continuing to have children until a daughter is born following a series of sons, could account for patterns of same-sex offspring.
“We conducted an analysis that excluded the last child for each family, which is likely influenced by parents stopping once they have both genders. Even after this adjustment, we still observed a strong clustering of same-sex siblings,” Wang stated.
About our experts
Siwen Wang is a doctoral student specializing in nutritional epidemiology at Harvard University School of Public Health. Her research investigates how nutrition, lifestyle, and psychosocial elements affect the health of mothers and children.
Eric Porth, director of the California Water Resources Institute, mentioned that having more water tanks in the Palisades area could have been beneficial. However, he noted that municipal water systems, like the one in place, are primarily used for extinguishing residential fires and not typically designed for larger scale emergencies. He emphasized that the current situation has resulted in a significant burn scar that is overwhelming the existing water resources.
Los Angeles officials have advised residents to reduce their water consumption in light of the ongoing fire situation. Quiñones, from the water department, highlighted the need for water conservation to ensure that fire departments have enough resources to combat fires effectively.
Furthermore, a 48-hour boil water notice was issued for a specific zip code that includes the Palisades area and neighboring communities due to declining water quality caused by the fire and ash particles in the system.
Ajami expressed concerns about potential water contamination due to the drop in water pressure during the fire. She pointed out that the compromised pipeline infrastructure could allow external contaminants to enter the system.
Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, emphasized the impact of climate change on the frequency and intensity of fires. He underscored the need to reassess infrastructure in order to better cope with such disasters.
President-elect Donald Trump has criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom for the wildfires in Los Angeles, attributing the situation to a policy dispute regarding water allocation in the state.
In response to Trump’s accusations, Governor Newsom’s communications director clarified that there is no such document as a Water Restoration Proclamation and emphasized Newsom’s commitment to prioritizing public safety and supporting firefighters.
Gold, formerly associated with the Newsom administration, identified infrastructure issues and environmental factors as key contributors to the water resource challenges in Southern California.
I Located in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, the Lemonade Games team lived in a rented house sandwiched between two vintage shops. With former antiques professionals and years of game-making experience joining the team, the idea for the studio’s esoteric adventure game began to come together. “We spent a week conceptualizing, making art, taking photos, watching films, and prototyping,” says Creative Director Ally MacLean-Hennessy. “It was a very organic way of shaping the game, and the spirit of that week continues into the way we work together today.”
In “Mystique: Haunted Antiques,” Its creators Described as “a game about a struggling antiques store run by four of the worst women I’ve ever met,” players slip on the platform sneakers of Jem, a fashionista and business owner struggling to run her struggling antiques curation business. Using her recently acquired, professionally useful psychic abilities, Jem will pierce the veil between life and death to track down troves of high-quality goods. “Players will travel to jobs such as the homes and estates of the recently deceased to search for cursed items and use information gained from communicating with spirits to find the most valuable items to take home and sell,” says MacLean Hennessy. From string-bound gaming magazines and lava lamps to cursed vases, players will examine and inventory all kinds of mysterious antiques as they progress through the game.
Jem is joined by a cast of lovable, problematic prima donnas. “The women of Mystique are partly inspired by the wave of con artists, con artists, and divas of the late 2010s and early 2020s, including Anna Delvey, Caroline Calloway, and Elizabeth Holmes,” Allie points out. “I can’t help but be drawn to them, in part because there’s a morbid thrill in watching people behave badly, but also in a way that I feel a genuine affection for them. There’s something so liberating about mentally stepping out of the psychodrama of modern womanhood and existing as someone who can commit incredibly selfish, self-centered, extravagant acts and still consider herself the moral high ground. Maybe they’re on to something.”
Among the antiques is a cursed vase… Mystique: Haunted antiques. Photo: Lemonade Games
Mystiques: Haunted Antiques takes its paranormal cues from Tulpamancy, a phenomenon that originated in Tibetan Buddhism and has inspired other strange and eerie media, such as David Lynch’s cult TV series Twin Peaks. “Tulpamancy currently exists primarily as a subreddit for people interested in the boundary between ‘reality’ and ‘imagination,'” says MacLean Hennessy. “There are lots of people who believe they can manifest entities through faith and will. We’re interested in them in the same way we’re interested in the female con artists of our current cultural moment. These are people who can construct the reality they want to exist for themselves. Who are we to tell them what is real?”
MacLean Hennessy are clear that Mystique: Haunted Antiques, which took inspiration from Italian horror classics like Suspiria and self-consciously girlcore movies like Jennifer’s Body, is not a cozy game in the modern sense of the word. “We were exploring stories of spiritual affliction, and these filmmakers knew how to bring it to life in a glamorous, stylish, extravagant way, which is what we really love and are inspired by,” they say. This strange and fresh blend of influences also extends to the soundtrack (which follows the brief: what if a 1970s detective thriller had a hyper-pop soundtrack?) and the game’s fashion, which is influenced by playfully eccentric brands like Schiaparelli and Moschino.
Lemonade Games is passionate about infusing its fantasy worlds with plenty of vulnerability and authenticity, drawing from a wellspring of personal experience to create a game that McLean Hennessey sees as an expression of the studio’s soul: “If the people making this game can find elements of themselves, their friendships, their experiences of the world in it, and feel a sense of relief, laughter, or catharsis from playing it, that would mean a lot to us.”
If you struggle to picture a two-ton, wingless creature hovering, you’re not alone. However, a recent study shows that hippos (or hippopotamuses, to use the full name) can reach speeds that rival flying.
Although hippos are amphibious, they are some of the largest land animals, often weighing over 2,000 kg (2.2 tonnes). Due to their aquatic lifestyle, little is known about their terrestrial movement.
In a surprising discovery, researchers found that hippos can remain airborne for short periods, representing about 15 percent of their stride cycle, or approximately 0.3 seconds. This suggests that they move differently on land than previously thought.
In this image from the researchers’ footage, all four of the hippo’s legs are off the ground, giving the appearance of floating. – Image credit: Johan Vermeulen
While some animals like horses are known to leap into the air at high speeds, it’s rare for large animals like hippos to do so. This unique movement pattern sets them apart from elephants, which never lift all four legs off the ground simultaneously.
Prior studies were inconclusive about the hippo’s gait pattern, but recent research from the Royal Veterinary College reveals that hippos predominantly trot, regardless of their speed. This uniformity in movement is uncommon among land mammals and sheds light on how hippos navigate their environment.
Studying hippos is challenging due to their dangerous nature, making them elusive subjects for scientific research. Professor John Hutchinson, lead author of a study on hippos, emphasized the difficulty in studying these creatures due to their habitat and behavior.
To overcome these obstacles, researchers analyzed video footage of hippos at Flamingo Land Resort in Yorkshire, observing their movement patterns in detail. Their findings not only contribute to our understanding of terrestrial mammals but also have potential implications for veterinary medicine.
By uncovering how hippos walk and run, this study provides valuable insights into their behavior and capabilities. Hutchinson expressed admiration for the hippos’ surprising agility on land, highlighting the incredible nature of these animals.
Mateo Greco, Research Analyst, Listed Digital Assets and FinTech Investment Business Finekia International (CSE:FNQ).
Bitcoin (BTC) ended the week at around $68,400, down just 0.8% from the previous week’s closing price of around $69,000. Throughout the week, BTC showed significant volatility, with a price range of 13.4%. The week started off strong with BTC surging to $72,000 on Monday. It then peaked above $73,000 on both Wednesday and Thursday, before reaching an all-time high of nearly $73,800 on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, BTC plummeted to $68,000 before rebounding to close around $71,400. Selling pressure continued on Friday and Saturday, with BTC falling to $64,700 before closing near $65,300 on Saturday. However, positive momentum returned on Sunday, nearly reversing weekly losses and closing at around $68,400.
Despite the volatility and price changes, the past week demonstrated continued strong momentum for the BTC Spot ETF, with net inflows recorded on every trading day. Net inflows for the week exceeded $2.5 billion, with net inflows exceeding $1 billion on Tuesday alone. Cumulative net inflows since its inception are currently approximately $12.2 billion.
BTC spot ETF trading volume is also on the rise, with total trading volume reaching $141.7 billion since inception, including around $28 billion in trades last week. This took his daily trading volume past his $5.5 billion mark last week, and his average daily trading volume has increased since its inception, now sitting at around $3.15 billion.
These numbers confirm that investment momentum from traditional finance to the digital asset space continues. Despite BTC price stabilization last week, demand is primarily coming from ETFs, while native digital asset investors are more active on the short side.
This trend is noticeable in the decline in BTC held by long-term holders, which refers to BTC that has not moved for at least 155 days. At the beginning of 2024, this supply was approximately 16.3 million BTC, but has gradually decreased and currently stands at approximately 15.1 million BTC. While this shift reflects traditional investors driving purchasing activity through ETFs, native digital asset investors who accumulated during the downtrend in 2022 and 2023 are now seeing higher profit-taking rates. The supply of long-term holders is decreasing.
Such behavior is characteristic of early bull phases, when long-term holders distribute assets to new investors. Analyzing past cycles, if the current market is trending up, this pattern is likely to continue until supply from long-term holders matches demand from new investors, which typically occurs at the peak of the cycle. coincides with the beginning of the downtrend phase.
Notably, BTC’s halving is approximately 1 month later, whereas previous cycles’ peaks have historically been 6 to 12 months later. If past patterns repeat, the peak of the current cycle could occur in late 2024 or early 2025.
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