NEW DELHI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 20, 2023--

Hundreds of crocodiles in Australia were recently sent into a sex frenzy when a low-flying Chinook helicopter passed overhead. Ranchers from the Koorana Crocodile Farm in Queensland, which houses more than 3,000 crocodiles, said many of their residents became aroused after the flyby. John Lever, owner of the farm, said pilots use it as a marker point in their flights. When a pilot flew low so their passengers could take a picture of the crocodiles, the reptiles were whipped up into a frenzy. He said: “All of the big males got up and roared and bellowed up at the sky, and then after the helicopters left they mated like mad. “There's something about the sonic waves that really gets them stirred up.” As it turns out, thunderstorms regularly act as an aphrodisiac to crocodiles. If the reptiles mate during storm season, their babies are more likely to hatch in a non-thunderstorm season, meaning they don’t drown in flood water. “The crocodiles start vocalising to each other [when a storm is coming],” Lever said. “They don't have a very sophisticated voice box, but they vibrate their windpipes to send messages through the water.” That may explain why the helicopter caused such an aroused response – they thought it was a megastorm. Herpetologist Mark O'Shea from the University of Wolverhampton told LiveScience: “Chinooks may artificially recreate the sound of the start of a thunderstorm.” Another possible explanation is that the movements in the water or downward wind caused by the choppers could trick them into thinking there is a change of atmospheric pressure, like when a storm is approaching. “I imagine that the downdraft from a large, heavy helicopter would create a change in pressure that the [sensory organs] on crocodile skin can detect. “Dropping barometric pressure from a downdraft may resemble the change in pressure from a storm.” 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.

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There is no clear link between mobile phones and the internet and a negative impact on mental wellbeing, the authors of a major new study have found. Researchers took data on two million people aged between 15 and 89, from 168 countries. While they found that negative and positive experiences had both increased, they found little evidence that was the result of the prevalence of the internet. The results from the major study, led by the Oxford Internet Institute, contradict widespread speculation that the internet – and especially its widespread availability through mobile devices – has damaged mental wellbeing. The researchers said that if the link between internet use and poor health were as universal and robust as many think, they would have found it. However, the study did not look at social media use, and although the data included some young people, the researchers did not analyse how long people spent online. Professor Andrew Przybylski, of the Oxford Internet Institute and Assistant Professor Matti Vuorre, Tilburg University and Research Associate, Oxford Internet Institute, carried out the research into home and mobile broadband use. Prof Przybylski, said: “We looked very hard for a ‘smoking gun’ linking technology and wellbeing and we didn’t find it.” He added: “The popular idea that the internet and mobile phones have a blanket negative effect on wellbeing and mental health is not likely to be accurate. “It is indeed possible that there are smaller and more important things going on, but any sweeping claims about the negative impact of the internet globally should be treated with a very high level of scepticism.” Looking at the results by age group and gender did not reveal any specific patterns among internet users, including women and young girls. Instead, the study, which looked at data for the past two decades, found that for the average country, life satisfaction increased more for females over the period. Data from the United Kingdom was included in the study, but the researchers say there was nothing distinctive about the UK compared with other countries. Although the study included a lot of information, the researchers say technology companies need to provide more data, if there is to be conclusive evidence of the impacts of internetuse. They explain: “Research on the effects of internet technologies is stalled because the data most urgently needed are collected and held behind closed doors by technology companies and online platforms. “It is crucial to study, in more detail and with more transparency from all stakeholders, data on individual adoption of and engagement with internet-based technologies. “These data exist and are continuously analysed by global technology firms for marketing and product improvement but unfortunately are not accessible for independent research.” For the study, published in the Clinical Psychological Science journal, the researchers looked at data on wellbeing and mental health against a country’s internet users and mobile broadband subscriptions and use, to see if internet adoption predicted psychological wellbeing. In the second study they used data on rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm from 2000-2019 in some 200 countries. Wellbeing was assessed using data from face-to-face and phone surveys by local interviewers, and mental health was assessed using statistical estimates of depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and self-harm in some 200 countries from 2000 to 2019. Read More Software firm Cloudsmith announces £8.8m investment No ‘smoking gun’ linking mental health harm and the internet – study Young people the biggest users of generative AI, Ofcom study shows Software firm Cloudsmith announces £8.8m investment No ‘smoking gun’ linking mental health harm and the internet – study Young people the biggest users of generative AI, Ofcom study shows

MrBeast has surpassed the 2 million followers milestone on Threads remarkably quickly

Elon Musk, the owner of X – the company formerly known as Twitter – said on Saturday that the social media platform “may fail” as a new glitch wiped out most pictures tweeted before December 2014. “The sad truth is that there are no great ‘social networks’ right now. We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one,” Mr Musk posted on X. Since his take-over of the company for $44bn, the multibillionaire has tried to shake things up, introducing radical new changes to the platform, from laying off over three-fourths of Twitter’s workforce to his latest statement that the platform’s feature to block other user profiles would be removed. The platform, being rebranded as X, has also suffered blackouts and glitches in recent times with the latest one appearing to affect tweets with pictures and links published prior to December 2014. X appeared to have problems displaying old posts that came with attached images or hyperlinks converted using Twitter’s built-in web link shortener. Among the images initially lost was the famous “most retweeted” selfie from the 2014 Oscars by the event’s host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. This image has since been restored, but most old tweets before December 2014 have broken short links instead of the actual media or links. “More vandalism from Elon Musk. Twitter has now removed all media posted before 2014. That’s - so far - almost a decade of pictures and videos from the early 2000s removed from the service,” Brazilian YouTuber Tom Coates posted on Twitter. The glitch comes after Mr Musk’s X intentionally slowed down access to the sites of rival social media platforms such as Threads, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as those of news organisations like New York Times last week. X seemed to add a delay of about five seconds when people clicked on links to go elsewhere on the web. There are speculations that the latest glitch preventing access to old images could be due to X trying to recover more server space, but this might also not be an intentional move carried out for cost-cutting purposes. Some people also appear to be able to view their old images back again, but it remains unclear why the glitch occurred in the first place. Read More Musk vows to remove blocking function from X/Twitter as new logo debuted Elon Musk says ability to block other X accounts may be removed in future Elon Musk’s X now sorts posts on accounts based on number of likes, not by chronology Musk vows to remove blocking function from X/Twitter as new logo debuted X now sorts posts on accounts based on number of likes, not by chronology Musk’s Twitter takeover sparks mass exodus of climate experts

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By Fedja Grulovic RHODES, Greece (Reuters) -More than 2,000 holidaymakers were flown home on Monday, tour operators cancelled upcoming trips,

The Biden administration on Monday announced a goal to produce 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen fuel by 2050 -- an ambitious roadmap that, if successful, would cut around 10% of the country's planet-warming pollution by the same date.