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Google says it has made a major artificial intelligence breakthrough that could dramatically reduce the climate impact from flying. The company partnered with an airline and data provider to build a new artificially intelligent system that looks to reduce the amount of contrails produced by planes. Contrails are the long, white lines that appear behind planes, and can sometimes make the sky appear cloudy. They are formed as soot from planes’ exhausts turn into ice – and when they merge together, they trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the Earth. Those contrails account for more than a third of the global warming impact of flying, according to the UN. If planes are able to avoid flying through areas that create contrails, however, then they will reduce the amount of warming. If the human-made clouds can be stopped, then their warming effects can be reduced. In an attempt to do so, Google researchers gathered satellite imagery, weather and flight path data and fed it into an AI system. That was then used to try and generate routes for pilots that avoided creating those contrails. Pilots at American then flew some 70 test flights over a period of six months, Google said, following those AI-generated routes. The researchers then examined satellite imagery and found that the contrails produced were reduced by 54 per cent. “This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact,” Google said. The company did also note that the flights burned 2 per cent additional fuel, though Google suggested that the flights could be selectively chosen. Google said it would be “working across the aviation industry to use AI to make contrail avoidance a reality over the coming years” in its announcement. It said it has the “potential to be a cost-effective, scalable solution to reduce the climate impact of flying”. Airlines are currently not charged for their climate impact, however, and there is therefore no indication that they would opt to use the routes that help reduce global warming. Read More Google will now alert you if people are talking about you Google Assistant will be ‘supercharged’ with AI like ChatGPT and Bard Google warns Gmail users they could be about to lose their account

Legal & General Investment Management is expanding the universe of assets it blacklists due to climate concerns, as

A study of 150 stones dating back 1.4m years shows early humans were deliberately crafting spherical shapes – but nobody knows why. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem made findings after analysing the limestone balls which were unearthed in Ubeidiya, a dig site in Israel’s Jordan Rift Valley. Scientists have previously speculated that the stones, which were discovered in the 1960s and serve no discernable purpose, became round after being used as hammers. But the university’s team reconstructed the steps required to create the so-called spheroids and found they were part of a “preconceived goal to make a sphere”. The researchers used 3D analysis to retrace how they were made based on the markings and geometry of the spheroids. They concluded that the objects were intentionally “knapped”, the technique used to shape stone by hitting it with other objects. Antoine Muller, a researcher at the university’s Institute of Archaeology, said: “The main significance of the findings is that these spheroids from ‘Ubeidiya appear to be intentionally made, with the goal of achieving a sphere. “This suggests an appreciation of geometry and symmetry by hominins 1.4 million years ago.” Early humans clearly had some reason for making the balls, but what exactly that is remains a mystery. He said: “We still can’t be confident about what they were used for. A lot of work needs to be done to narrow down their functionality.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Months after Apple unveiled a privacy change that threatened Facebook's core advertising business, the social networking company rebranded as Meta and shifted its focus to virtual reality.

Who needs the Louvre in Paris or The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City when you've got Bovington Tank Museum? That's the opinion that YouTube have at least after the quaint military museum in Dorset became an unlikely hit on the video site, racking up more than 100 million views, more the the two aforementioned art institutes. The museum, simply known as 'The Tank Museum' currently has more than 500,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel. At the time of writing the channel has more than 400 videos with some of the most popular being short documentaries on the history of such tanks as 'The War Horse' and 'King Tiger' which both have more than 2 million views each. As per the New York Times, the channel is the first ever museum to achieve more than 550,000 subscribers on YouTube and the first to have more than 100 million views. The museum was founded in 1923 but much of its success in the digital age has come via viewers in the United States and Canada who have become entranced by series on the channel such as top 5 lists and 'Tank Chat.' Top 5 Tanks | Chris Copson | The Tank Museum www.youtube.com One of the stars of the channel is the museum's education officer and full-time presenter Chris Copson who told the BBC that he would never have dreamed "in a million years" that he would become an online celebrity and says that he has even been recognised in the street. Nik Wyness, the museum’s head of marketing, admitted to NY Times that the YouTube phenomenon has helped the museum financially and generated a third of their revenue last year, which helped boost merchandise sales on their online store. It's not just YouTube where things are thriving for the Tank Museum. Their TikTok account is also growing with an impressive 320,000 followers so far. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A TikTok trend has received a mixed response online for depicting unrealistic beauty standards. The 'tanning' filter is exactly that. It alters users' complexion with a sunkissed glow, and many have taken to the platform to share the noticeable difference. In one clip that racked up over 50,000 likes, one user wrote: "My biggest red flag is that I'd rather look like an oompa loompa than be pale. This. Is. Concerning." The self-recorded footage showed the woman stunned by her newfound tan achieved by the filter. One person questioned: "Why does everyone hate on their pale skin, like, what’s the issue?" Another added, "felt this heavy," to which the TikToker responded: "The hard reality of our tanning addictions." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter In a separate clip that racked up 5.6 million views, TikToker Em (@orig_faygo) compared her before and after shots. "Proof everyone looks better with tan," she wrote as the on-screen text. @orig_faygo i finally got to tan again, the filter was my before ? [NOT A FAKE TAN] #trending #audios #real #relatable #tan #fyp #fy It comes after yet another problematic filter, the Bold Glamour makeup. The TikTok filter applies an incredibly realistic full face of makeup to users, with many suggesting it's more damaging than it's worth. Generally, filters glitch and sometimes slip away from the face. In this case, it doesn't. The filter is so advanced that if TikTok didn't disclaim it was being used in videos, viewers wouldn't know any different. In a viral video viewed over 4 million times, TikToker Joanna (@joannajkenny) urges people to not use the filter. "I don't want to say this about myself but I actually look ugly when I take this filter off," she said, adding: "I've done a lot of work to unlearn that I owe prettiness to anyone." She continued: "Here's a reminder for anyone who needs it, filtered skin is not a skin type." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The last parts of the old Twitter branding are seemingly being removed from Elon Musk’s “X” site. In recent weeks, Mr Musk has announced that he would be rebranding the company he bought last year as “X”, as part of a plan to turn the product into an “everything app”. Mr Musk has had an interest in the letter for much of his career, and has used it across his other companies. That rebrand appeared to have been launched rapidly and initially faltered. When Mr Musk attempted to install an “X” on top of the company’s San Francisco offices, for instance, local authorities objected and it was later removed. Mr Musk now appears to be making progress with that plan, however, removing the Twitter branding from many of the central parts of the website. The logo that appears in the corner of the site had already been swapped from the Twitter bird into the “X” glyph that Mr Musk chose in an online contest, for instance. And in recent days, the company has swapped the “tweet” button that a user presses to make a new post for the more traditional “post” option. Now, Twitter appears to changing the URL of posts from Twitter.com into X.com. For now, that appears to be only happening in limited instances – sharing a post from the Twitter app for iOS generates the new addresses, but doing so on the web still shows the old one – but it is likely that the company will switch to the new branding across sites eventually. Users can also open up any profile by typing it as “X.com” rather than the old branding, though it does for now redirect to the Twitter version of that profile. Still, much of Twitter’s documentation has not been changed at all. The “help” sites on Twitter’s pages still include entirely Twitter branding: the “How to Tweet” article, for instance, has been changed to include some references to “X” but uses the word “tweet”, and “Twitter” liberally. Read More Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Elon Musk reveals more dramatic details of fight against Mark Zuckerberg UFC boss in talks to stage Musk vs Zuckerberg at Roman Colosseum

Despite wins against the US Securities and Exchange Commission and new Bitcoin ETF filings, investors withdrew nearly half

The government of Singapore has defended its commitment to climate action following a decision by Van Lanschot Kempen

ZURICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 10, 2023--