A teenage boy was sent to a hospital with an unusual problem - a USB cable was stuck inside his penis. The incident, which was first documented in a urology case report in Science Direct in November 2021, apparently saw the 15-year-old arrive at the hospital as he had apparently been trying to use the cable to measure the inside of his penis. However, the cable had become tangled and knotted while it was inside of him causing him to lose blood through his urine. In the report, the doctors wrote: "The two distal ports of the USB wire were found to be protruding from the external urethral meatus whilst the middle part of the knotted wire remained within the urethra. The patient was an otherwise fit and healthy adolescent with no history of mental health disorders." Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter The teenager who is from the UK had been taken to the medical facility by his mother and confessed to the medical experts when she was out of the room that he had used a cable instead of a ruler as a means of 'sexual experimentation'. An attempt to fish the cable out using a metal rod proved unsuccessful to the amount of knotting that had occurred, forcing the team to do surgery on the boy in order to retrieve the cable. They did this by cutting open the section between the genitalia and the anus so they could access the area where the cable was stuck. In the report, the doctors explain the procedure as follows: "A longitudinal peno-scrotal incision over the palpable foreign body was made and careful dissection was undertaken through deeper tissues, splitting the bulbospongiosus muscle. Both ends of the wire were pulled out successfully through the external urethral meatus." They add: "Both ends of the wire were pulled out successfully through the external urethral meatus." Thankfully the young man recovered well from the surgery and was discharged shortly afterwards. In their notes, the urology doctors admit that although cases like this are not out of the ordinary, particular cases like this are considered to be unusual. They state: "Sexual experimentation and gratification, as well as underlying mental disorders, are considered the main causes of retained foreign bodies in the urethra and bladder. Management varies depending on the shape and size of the object, and the mechanism of insertion." 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.

'Some interviews on the show were done by other staffers, with [audio of 41-year-old Meghan's] questions edited-in afterward' it was revealed

Scientists have achieved a net energy gain in nuclear fusion for the second time, marking major progress towards realising the potential of the near-limitless energy source. A team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, who first achieved the feat last December, claimed to have passed a new milestone with fusion ignition by producing even greater energy output than the original experiment. The nuclear fusion process has been described as the “holy grail” of clean energy, as it requires no fossil fuels and leaves behind no hazardous waste. Instead it mimics the natural reactions that occur within the Sun, though harnessing its potential has puzzled scientists since the 1950s. Achieving nuclear fusion ignition is a crucial step towards building commercial power stations, though the technology needs to be significantly scaled up from the current experiments for it to be a viable energy source. The first ever successful fusion energy gain experiment on 5 December, 2022, used lasers to fuse two light atoms into a single one, releasing 3.15 megajoules of energy from 2.05 megajoules of input. Researchers described the milestone as “one of the most significant scientific challenges ever undertaken by humanity” that would “enable the next steps toward clean fusion energy for the future”. Scientists that were not involved in the fusion experiments said the advance had profound implications for the future of the planet. “We are witnessing a moment in history: controlling the power source of the stars is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken,” said physicist Arthur Turrell. “This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion – at a time when we’ve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more.” A spokesperson for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said the final results of the latest experiment are still being analysed. The lab plans to present the results at upcoming scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed journals. Several companies are already investing heavily in nuclear fusion, with Microsoft making the world’s first purchase agreement earlier this year. The US tech giant made the deal with Helion Energy, which aims to set up a nuclear fusion power plant within the next five years despite the challenges remaining to make it commercially viable. Helion chief executive David Kirtley said at the time: “We still have a lot of work to do, but we are confident in our ability to deliver the world’s first fusion power facility.” Read More Superconductor breakthrough could represent ‘biggest physics discovery of a lifetime’ – but scientists urge caution Microsoft makes world first nuclear fusion energy deal Zuckerberg says he is ‘ready today’ but ‘not holding breath’ for cage fight with Musk Musk pledges to fund legal bills of X users ‘unfairly treated’ by employers for posts Scientists want to hack the planet to cool it down. The consequences could be extreme

By Savyata Mishra Most Wall Street brokerages, including J.P.Morgan and Piper Sandler, kicked off coverage on Instacart with

DETROIT & BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 18, 2023--

You can't play Super Mario Bros. Wonder until Oct. 20, but at least pre-orders are available!

By Aditya Soni Sam Altman's return as OpenAI's chief executive will strengthen his grip on the startup and

More than half of all Americans have experienced online hate or harassment within their lifetimes, while reports of online abuse among teenagers and LGBT+ people have surged within the last year, according to an annual survey from a leading civil rights group. The Anti-Defamation League’s fifth annual survey charts a dramatic increase in reports of online hate and harassment among several groups over the last year, including 51 per cent of teenagers between ages 13 and 17 – an increase of 15 per cent from the same point last year. Forty-seven per cent of LGBT+ people, 38 per cent of Black people, and 38 per cent of Muslims have reported online hate and harassment over the last 12 months, according to the report, which calls on Congress, the White House and social media companies to implement stronger protections against online abuse. “We’re confronted with record levels of hate across the internet, hate that too often turns into real violence and danger in our communities,” according to a statement from ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “The time for talking, and for planning, is long over. It’s time to execute on the priorities set out by the White House and other policymakers, and it’s time for big tech companies to deliver on their promises to reduce hate online.” Reports of online abuse are particularly acute among transgender people; 76 per cent of trans respondents said they have been harassed online within their lifetimes, and more than half experienced such abuse within the previous 12 months – the most among any demographic included in the survey. “Due to the recent proliferation of extreme anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric, ADL sampled transgender individuals separately this year,” according to the report. By the end of May, state lawmakers had introduced more than 500 bills impacting LGBT+ people in 2023, including 220 bills specifically targeting trans and nonbinary Americans, according to an analysis from the Human Rights Campaign. In remarks at the White House earlier this month, President Joe Biden condemned the “totally, thoroughly unjustified and ugly” wave of legislation impacting LGBT+ Americans. A separate report from the ADL and GLAAD discovered more than 350 targeted threats against LGBT+ people within the last year, including online harassment as well as armed protests at drag performances, bomb scares against hospitals that provide gender-affirming healthcare, and other acts of violence, including a mass shooting inside a Colorado Springs LGBT+ nightclub. Incidents targeting drag performers and the people and venues that host them have accelerated across the US, with similar threats surfacing in the UK, according to a separate recent report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The group collected 203 on- and offline threatening incidents within the last year. The ADL’s latest survey of 2,139 people was performed online with the ADL and YouGov from 7 March through 24 March. Read More More than 200 anti-drag attacks documented across US as nation leads global threats to LGBT+ events Ritchie Torres, the only openly gay Black man in Congress, on how he fights GOP ‘bullying’ of LGBT+ people Elon Musk promotes transphobic content as hate speech surges on his far-right platform White House rejects Lauren Boebert’s claim that antisemitism plan will be used ‘go after conservatives’

OTTAWA The Royal Bank of Canada is working to resolve a technical issue that is preventing transactions displaying

Try as you might, the moon is famously difficult to photograph. Smartphone images inevitably turn out blurred, or with the light all wrong. With Monday’s full moon set to be a supermoon, then, how can people try to ensure that they actually get a decent shot of it? A supermoon is an occasional coincidence that happens when the moon is at its closest point to the Earth in its orbit. When this happens, the Moon is usually brighter and appears larger in the sky than at other times. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The best time to catch it is just after sunset, when the Moon is just on the rise. The colour of the sky, and sometimes the clouds, should make it easier to get the right exposure, because the difference between the sky and the Moon’s colour is not so extreme. If you have a newer smartphone, you may also have settings which let you alter the focal length, exposure, ISO (the sensitivity of the camera) and shutter speed. “Make sure not to use flash, and switch on HDR (high dynamic range), if your phone has it. HDR, simply put, means that there will be a high contrast between the darkest and lightest parts of an image,” Mark Lord, founder and owner of Mark Lord Photography, told IFLScience. “This typically makes images more striking. Many modern smartphones feature HDR. Using flash, meanwhile, has ruined many a night sky capture.” Meanwhile, think about the focus too. Tempting as it may be to zoom in on the moon and try to get as much of it as you can is usually not going to work. “Even newer smartphones lack the capacity for zoom. Trying to zoom in on an object, particularly one as far away as the moon, may compromise the resolution and quality of an image” Lord added. “Instead, I recommend creating a more interesting shot by taking a landscape-style photo, adding depth and variety by making use of objects and landmarks in the foreground. A full moon captured through tree branches, for example, can make for a very spooky and atmospheric image.” So it’s time to get ready, and get snapping. 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.

British chip designing giant Arm has launched the process for a public stock listing in New York, in what could be the biggest...