Over the years, internet users have increasingly become tired of solving CAPTCHAs just to get

Meta’s new Twitter rival Threads has racked up over five million signups within the first four hours of its launch, the tech giant’s chief Mark Zuckerberg said. Threads arrives at a particularly difficult time for Elon Musk’s Twitter. The site has faced a range of technical issues in recent days, which it has blamed on AI services scraping its site. “Threads, an Instagram app” is already listed on the App Store. It aims to take on the app with a range of features that are similar to those offered by Twitter, according to its App Store listing. “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it reads. “Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favourite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.” It is the latest in a long line of apps to try and take over from the increasingly troubled Twitter in offering text-based updates. Read More Meta responds to Elon Musk’s lawsuit threat as Threads becomes most rapidly downloaded app Mark Zuckerberg trolls Elon Musk by posting Spider-Man meme on Twitter after launching rival Threads People cannot leave Instagram’s Threads app without deleting their whole account, rules warn I tried Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter rival, Threads – I’m not impressed

For many of us, the mere words “Pythagoras’s theorem” are enough to revive pencil-smudged exercise books and desperate attempts to copy classmates’ work. And yet, it turns out the name that has struck dread in countless school kids over the centuries is about as accurate as this writer’s attempts at geometry. Because although it is assumed that the legendary Greek philosopher Pythagoras himself was to thank for the equation a2 + b2 = c2, it turns out it was being used some 1,000 years before his time. Archaeologists have found the equation on a Babylonian tablet which was used for teaching back in 1770 BCE – centuries before Pythagoras’s birth in around 570 BC, as IFL Science notes. Another earlier tablet, from between 1800 and 1600 BC, even features a square with labelled triangles inside. Translations of the markings, which followed the base 60 counting system used by ancient Babylonians, prove that these mathematicians were familiar with Pythagorean theorem (although, obviously, they didn’t call it that) as well as other advanced mathematical principles. In a paper dedicated to the discovery, data scientist Bruce Ratner wrote: "The conclusion is inescapable. The Babylonians knew the relation between the length of the diagonal of a square and its side: d=square root of 2. "This was probably the first number known to be irrational. However, this in turn means that they were familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem – or, at the very least, with its special case for the diagonal of a square [...] more than a thousand years before the great sage for whom it was named." And yet, one key problem remains unsolved: why did the equation become equated with the famous Greek? Well, most likely because Pythagoras wanted it to be. In his paper, Ratner points out that although the Ionian icon is widely considered the first bonafide mathematician, little is known about his specific mathematical achievements. Unlike his successors, he didn’t write any books that we know of, so there’s no written evidence of his work. However, we do have proof that he founded a semi-religious school called the Semicircle of Pythagoras, which followed a strict code of secrecy. As Ratner explained: “Pythagorean knowledge was passed on from one generation to the next by word of mouth, as writing material was scarce. Moreover, out of respect for their leader, many of the discoveries made by the Pythagoreans were attributed to Pythagoras himself. “Consequently, of Pythagoras’ actual work nothing is known. On the other hand, his school practiced collectivism, making it hard to distinguish between the work of Pythagoras and that of his followers. “Therefore, the true discovery of a particular Pythagorean result may never be known.” Still, he stressed, even though Pythagoras wasn’t the brains behind the most famous formula in maths, he does deserve a little credit for putting it on the map. 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.

Listen to The Big Take podcast on iHeart, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Terminal. In what’s being hailed as a

The US and China, the world’s biggest polluters, vowed to step up joint action to tackle climate change

Nearly 20,000 people have fled from an erupting volcano in the Philippines and are sheltering in schools, disrupting the education of thousands of students

By Hyunjoo Jin SAN FRANCISCO Tesla Inc has doubled discounts on some already made new Model 3 electric

Sign up for the Green Daily newsletter for comprehensive coverage of the climate summit right in your inbox.

The European Union took a major step Wednesday toward setting rules — the first in the world — on how companies can use artificial intelligence.

Here, we present the top 3 most-watched clips from 2023, each garnering hundreds of thousands of views:

A lawsuit filed Monday in Oklahoma is seeking to block the state's support for the nation's first publicly funded religious charter school.

TL;DR: A lifetime license to MacX DVD Ripper Pro is on sale for £23.33, saving