'Only I could get canceled for giving people a place to live': MrBeast responds after receiving flak for buying entire neighborhood for staff
The purchase was made as a way for MrBeast's staff to enjoy a stress-free apartment on a budget while supposedly increasing productivity by lowering commuting time
2023-05-12 14:28
University presidents elevate free speech under new partnership
The presidents of 13 universities are elevating free speech on their campuses this academic year, as part of a new nonprofit initiative announced Tuesday
2023-08-15 22:17
Apple removes Andrew Tate's 'Real World Portal' from app store after being slammed by toxic influencer's victims
Apple removed Andrew Tate's Real World Portal app due to allegations of operating as a pyramid scheme and promoting misogyny
2023-09-23 13:50
Apple is set to unveil the iPhone 15
Apple is expected to debut its iPhone 15 lineup at the company's annual September keynote event on Tuesday, and it could introduce the biggest change to the phone's design in 11 years.
2023-09-12 18:17
Scientists warn humanity has a '1 in 6' change of dying out this century
In 2020, philosopher Toby Ord published The Precipice, a book on the risk of human extinction. The chances of "existential catastrophe" for humanity in the next century according to Ord? One in six. It was a shocking number that alarmed many. After years of being flooded with warnings over climate change, rogue AI, nuclear weapons and pandemics, it's hard to disagree that humans face worrying chances. In his book, Ord discusses a number of potential extinction events, some of which can be examined through history. His research involved looking at the number of space rocks that have hit the moon over its history to figure out the likelihood than an extinction-sized asteroid hitting Earth. This was, in fact, looked at in 2022 by French scientists Jean-Marc Salotti, he calculated the odds of an extinction-level hit in the next century to be roughly one in 300 million. By contrast, Ord estimated the risk to be one in a million, although he does point out a considerable degree of uncertainty. Probabilities can be hard to understand in this context. Traditional probability, for example, relies on observations and a collection of repeated events, but human extinction would be a one-off. But there is another way to think if, called Bayesianism, after the English statistician Thomas Bayes. It sees probabilities as a ranking system of sorts. Specific number predictions shouldn't be taken so literally, but rather compared to other probabilities to understand the likelihood of each outcome. Ord's book contains a table of potential causes of extinctions, accompanied by his personal estimates of their probability. From a Bayesian perspective, we can view these as relative ranks. Ord thinks extinction from an asteroid strike (one in a million) is much less likely than extinction from climate change (one in a thousand). However, even using Bayesianism traditionally requires the incorporation of observational evidence. So, what do we make of Ord's "one in six"? Well it's better to take it less literally but to think of it as a warning, to jump start action on issues such as climate change to hopefully reduce the risk of human extinction in the next century. 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.
2023-10-09 22:58
7 of the Most Valuable Board Games From the ‘80s and ‘90s
Discover some of the most valuable board games from the ‘80s and ‘90s, including “HeroQuest,” “Dream Phone,” and others.
2023-09-20 02:25
Woman says she was forced to change her name after Apple's latest system update
A new update has meant that Apple users can now say just "Siri" instead of "Hey Siri", but this modification has proven troublesome for one woman who has had to change her name as a result. Siri Price, a 26-year-old personal trainer from Edinburgh is used to having the same name as Apple's voice-activated digital assistant. While Apple's Siri stands for “Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface," the name Siri is also Old Norse and apparently means “beautiful woman who leads you to victory". Since sharing the same name, the old version of the voice assistant would be triggered by saying the words "Hey Siri". “I work in a gym with a lot of people around so everyone learned quite quickly not to say ‘Hey’ when they greet me or there would be a lot of bleeping going on," she told The Sun. “It was annoying but manageable." But now this command is just "Siri," for the voice to be activated so it means people cannot say Siri's name without causing the voice feature to activate on their phones. As you can imagine, Siri is pretty annoyed with this new update. "Now people can’t even say my name. I’m absolutely fuming," she said. "My workmates had to sit down and think of a workaround because people’s phones have been going off non-stop." Consequently, it means Siri has had to come up with a different name for herself - Siz. “I’m sure Apple could have picked something else instead — there’s plenty of people called Siri and their lives have become just unbearable because of this," Siz added. Although Siz is not alone as those with the name Alexa possibly have similar feelings as their name is also the name of Amazon's virtual assistant. When this happened, it resulted in the name dramatically declining in popularity - perhaps due to parents releasing their child may have the same problem as Siri's. Something for tech companies to keep in mind when they're naming their voice assistants... 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.
2023-10-06 21:22
Is Tucker Carlson launching new media company? Former Fox News host could partner with Elon Musk
Twitter is also bringing some high-profile content creators to post on its site, to bring media personalities to switch to the platform
2023-07-15 03:22
Internet Startup VNG Files to Become First Vietnam Tech Firm to Go Public in US
Internet startup VNG Ltd. filed for an initial public offering in the US, making it the first Vietnamese
2023-08-24 07:58
Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 901 Review
If you name your company "Be Quiet," your PC cases had better be extra hushed-up.
2023-09-05 02:58
Tesla Road Trip Part 2. Tesla Versus Kia 6 and the Benefit of an Integrated Network.
Summer driving season is here so it's time to evaluate EV progress. Barron's has taken and talked with EV drivers about long-distance trips with all-electric vehicles.
2023-07-10 02:57
Save 10% on all Squarespace subscriptions with this voucher code
SAVE 10%: Use code MASHABLE10UK to save 10% on all Squarespace website building subscriptions. Are
2023-06-07 12:22
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