AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 21, 2023--

Conspiracy theorists have been turning their attention to Antarctica more than you’d expect over recent years. First, there was the case of the “bleeding waterfalls”, which remains one of the strangest natural phenomena you're likely to see, and there’s also the mystery of a so-called “pyramid” which has been found on the continent. Only, it’s not a pyramid at all – in fact, it’s a mountain. The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain range in Antarctica and stretch 400km and the mountain in question was discovered by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913 Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It was called “The Pyramid” to keep the true nature of the discovery hidden from others at the time. Over the last hundred years, however, people have been speculating about the true nature of the location (even though it’s very much a mountain, poking up out of the ice) and now a second interesting geographical feature has bee discovered and got them talking all over again. The location in question is found at the coordinates 79°58’39.25?S 81°57’32.21?W, which has been a much-searched spot on Google Earth. Speaking to IFL Science, geologist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Dr Mitch Darcy, said: “The pyramid-shaped structures are located in the Ellsworth Mountains, which is a range more than 400 km long, so it’s no surprise there are rocky peaks cropping out above the ice. The peaks are clearly composed of rock, and it’s a coincidence that this particular peak has that shape. “It’s not a complicated shape, so it’s not a special coincidence either. By definition, it is a nunatak, which is simply a peak of rock sticking out above a glacier or an ice sheet. This one has the shape of a pyramid, but that doesn’t make it a human construction.” So, the new location is just that – a mountain poking out the top of the ice in Antarctica, and not a mysterious pyramid at all. Antarctica has been the subject of more than its fair share of speculation recently, after conspiracy theorist Eric Hecker described the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station by the south pole as an “air traffic control” hub for aliens earlier this year. Hecker claimed that in 2010 Raytheon, the US aerospace and defence conglomerate chose him to be a contractor on the research centre operated by the United States National Science Foundation. There was “much more” to the station that first met the eye, according to Hecker. 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.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Wednesday’s ruling by Germany’s top court curbing the use of off-budget special funds

Netflix Inc. is bringing its crackdown on account sharing to the US. The service on Tuesday outlined procedures

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2023--

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 6, 2023--

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 21, 2023--

Scientists have discovered a way to store the Sun’s energy in rocks and convert the heat into electricity. Using an approach called concentrated solar power, a team of researchers from Tanzania found that certain granite and soapstones could store solar heat at a sufficiently high density to serve as a primitive form of battery. Thermal energy storage has been touted as a low-cost way of storing and harvesting energy from the Sun, even when it’s no longer shining. Last year, scientists from Sweden and China came up with a way to store solar energy for nearly two decades using an ultra-thin chip, which serves as a thermoelectric generator. The innovative system could technically be integrated into electronics, however it remains too costly to implement at scale. By contrast, the granite and soapstone samples offer a low cost and readily available method of storing solar energy, the researchers said. “Using rocks as a storage medium offers the potential of affordability due to the abundance and low cost of rocks,” the researchers noted in a paper outlining their findings. “An air-rock bed has low investment cost, high reliability and efficiency, is environmentally friendly, and does not require the use of heat exchangers.” The rock bed captures and collects solar thermal energy up to 600 °C, which is then used to boil liquid into steam that powers a generator turbine to produce electricity. The results were detailed in a study, titled ‘Experimental Investigation of Soapstone and Granite Rocks as Energy-Storage Materials for Concentrated Solar Power Generation and Solar Drying Technology’, published by the American Chemical Society. Other thermal energy storage systems have focussed on salt and water, with researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology unveiling a heat battery last year that they claim could work at scale. Rather than capturing heat from the Sun, the system instead collects industrial residual heat. “While the potential is great, we have also seen many great potential technologies that have not made it,” the scientists said at the time. “So we’re going to keep our feet on the ground and take this one step at a time.” Read More Scientists break world record for solar power window material Scientists smash world record for solar power window material Nasa holds urgent meeting about sightings of UFOs Opinion: The real reason companies are warning that AI is as bad as nuclear war

A resurfaced clip of the makers of the first GTA game creating the fight scenes is going viral as it shows just how far the franchise has come since 1997. DMA Design Ltd, a Scottish company who created the first game were interviewed by the BBC, and the clip shows one of their employees punching the air while wearing pads to map it out for the animators. When describing how the game would look, they told cameras: "It's a mission-based driving game, where basically you're driving around the city, stealing cars, running over pedestrians... " Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday sued cryptocurrency firms Gemini, Genesis Global and Digital Currency Group

U.S. officials say the FBI and its partners in Europe infiltrated and seized control of a major malware network that was used for more than 15 years to commit a gamut of online crimes including crippling ransomware attacks

Apple has provided a software update for its iPhone 12 to French regulators following concerns about radiation levels of the smartphone. France suspended sales of iPhone 12 handsets last week after claiming it failed to pass tests relating to electromagnetic radiation exposure limits. The US tech giant risked a product recall if a fix was not found, while other European countries warned they may follow France’s initiative. French authorities received a software update from Apple for its iPhone 12 on Tuesday, a source at the French digital ministry told Reuters. Apple had earlier contested the French findings, saying the iPhone 12 was certified by multiple international bodies as compliant with global standards. A spokesperson for Apple told The Independent that it was engaging with regulators in an effort to prove that its iPhone 12 is compliant. The US tech giant said it has provided France’s National Frequency Agency (ANFR) with independent third-party lab results proving the iPhone 12’s compliance, and met SAR regulations. Apple then said on 15 September it would issue a software update to accommodate the testing methods used in France. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. The move by Paris to suspend sales of the iPhone 12 handsets had prompted concerns in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Belgium also reportedly requested the software update but it was limited to France, Belgian industry regulator said in an emailed statement. The Belgian regulator also said it expected more steps at a European level after the French authorities inform their peers about the fix and the fact that is not available widely in the European Union. French regulator Agence Nationale des Frequences did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Dutch digital watchdog also did not respond to a request for comment. Italian authorities will wait for French deliberations over the Apple update before taking any decision, an Italian government source said. Researchers have conducted multiple studies over the last two decades to assess the health risks of mobile phones. According to the World Health Organisation, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by them. The radiation warning in France was based on results of tests that differ from those carried out in other countries. Industry experts said there were no safety risks as regulatory limits, based on the risk of burns or heatstroke from the phone’s radiation, were set well below levels where scientists have found evidence of harm. Apple launched the iPhone 15 earlier this month and the iPhone 12 is not available to buy from Apple directly. It can, however, be bought from third parties that have inventory, or trade old phones. Apple routinely provides software updates for its phones and computers, mostly to fix a security issue. They can be focused on a particular model or a region, and sometimes Apple issues several updates in a month. The iPhone 12 update is set to be similar to any of these regular software fixes. Apple pings iPhones for eligible software updates and users install them. It is not clear if or when the update will be available for users. Additional reporting from agencies Read More Apple iPhone 15 and 15 Plus review: Quiet colours, impressively fast Google Pixel 8 camera will include ‘creepy’ face-changing AI iPhone 15: Apple workers strike in France ahead of biggest launch of the year You need to update your Apple devices right now iPhone 15 goes on sale – but you might struggle to actually get one iPhone 15: Apple workers strike in France ahead of biggest launch of the year