CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 5, 2023--

The AI hype cycle has birthed innumerable boosters. An unlikely member of this group is Silicon Valley billionaire

Golf Diva laned into Barbie-mania, setting internet on fire, donning an all-pink golf outfit.

We’ve all been told the story of what wiped out the dinosaurs – a giant meteor careers down from the sky, crashes into Earth and bang! The rest is history. But what if that wasn’t the whole story? A new study suggests there may have been more to it than just an asteroid – and it involves climate change. A chain of huge volcanic eruptions which eventually cooled the planet an alarming amount may have been partially to blame, according to research. The study, published in Science Advances and co-authored by Don Baker, a professor in McGill University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, suggests that this might be the case. The researchers looked into volcanic eruptions at the Deccan Traps, a huge, rugged plateau that formed when molten lava solidified and turned to rock. The plateau dates back to around 66-65m years ago, when magma from deep inside Earth erupted to the surface. That just so happens to be around the time when scientists think the dinosaurs met their demise. Baker’s team suggest that the eruptions produced a staggering 1m cubic kilometres of lava, which then turned into rock, which may have played a key role in cooling the global climate around 65m years ago. The scientists say it’s all to do with how much sulphur and fluorine was pumped into the atmosphere as a result of the eruptions. Incredibly, they found the event could have sparked a drop in temperature all around the world, dubbed a “volcanic winter”. Baker said: “Our research demonstrates that climatic conditions were almost certainly unstable, with repeated volcanic winters that could have lasted decades, prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs. “This instability would have made life difficult for all plants and animals and set the stage for the dinosaur extinction event. “Thus our work helps explain this significant extinction event that led to the rise of mammals and the evolution of our species.” The scientists worked it out using new chemical techniques developed at McGill to measure how much sulphur is in the rock formations which came about at the time, then from that, figuring out how much went into the atmosphere. The paper is titled “Recurring volcanic winters during the latest Cretaceous: Sulfur and fluorine budgets of Deccan Traps lavas.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel 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.

Stripe Inc.’s $1 billion Frontier fund has written its third round of checks to startups attempting to suck

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 25, 2023--

A white dwarf star is undergoing the process of turning into a “cosmic diamond” as it begins to crystalise. The lullaby “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” talks about stars in the sky looking like diamonds, but for one specific type of star, that observation is truer than for others. Astronomers have observed that when a specific type of dead star starts to cool, it begins to crystalise and harden. An international team of astronomers, led by Alexander Venner of the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, have explained in a new paper Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society how a white dwarf star around 104 light-years away is doing just that. They noticed that the star, composed primarily of carbon and metallic oxygen, has a temperature-mass profile that suggests its centre is hardening into a dense “cosmic diamond” made of crystallised carbon and oxygen. The study explained: "In this work we present the discovery of a new Sirius-like quadruple system at 32 parsecs distance, composed of a crystallizing white dwarf companion to the previously known triple HD 190412.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It continued: “By virtue of its association with these main sequence companions, this is the first crystallizing white dwarf whose total age can be externally constrained, a fact that we make use of by attempting to empirically measure a cooling delay caused by core crystallization in the white dwarf.” All stars eventually die out when they run out of energy. Of those that have a mass of less than around eight times that of the Sun, the vast majority will form a white dwarf star. The matter of a white dwarf star is highly compressed and as they gradually cool, they evolve into a black dwarf star when they lose heat and crystalise. Scientists’ calculations estimate the process takes around a quadrillion years (one million billion years) to complete, though the signs that the process is occurring can be identified by experts. 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.

OTTAWA The potential threat posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) means safeguards need to be

Disney is reportedly investigating footage that appears to show staff twerking while dressed in their family-friendly character uniform. In a viral video shared to a TikTok account called 'Illegal Disney,' the famed dog Pluto was spotted provocatively dancing to the popular audio that sings: "Here comes the hurricane b****". Another clip shows behind-the-scenes footage of the character heads in the dressing room. "Warning! Will ruin Disney magic. Disney backstage," the caption read. It has since been reported that Disney seniors are fuming about the clips. A source told The Sun that while it "looks silly," it is "absolutely paramount" to protect the integrity of the characters. "They’ve asked top investigators to shut down the feed and try to identify those responsible, who are in breach of their employment contracts," they continued. "They’re one of the most protective companies in the world because they know their biggest customers are young children who don’t want the illusion shattered. "Some of the clips show the characters dancing and twerking in their outfits — it’s just not on-message." @illegal.disney #disneyillegal #disney #fyp #viral It comes after a NSFW X/Twitter account posing as Disney Junior was verified earlier this year, sparking outrage on the platform. Elon Musk's blue tick subscription model meant anyone could gain verification if they paid per month. The owner of the profile was seemingly stunned by their newfound tick status. "No f**king way," they tweeted under the username @DisneyJuniorUK after spotting the gold badge – proof enough that this wasn't an account for kids. Indy100 reached out to Disney for comment. 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.

Peloton is undergoing a significant rebrand, dumping its identity as a seller only of luxury exercise bikes to a heath app for all

By Stefanno Sulaiman JAKARTA TikTok told Reuters it is in early-stage talks with regulators to obtain a payments

Hunter’s Wellington boots were the rare product that could unite Britain—from the royal family to pop stars, from