List of All Articles with Tag 'a'

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

Sea Ltd. is bringing back one of its top mobile games in India a year and a half

Users of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will be able to make video and audio

The cool, wet weather that’s predominating across northern Europe as August draws to a close will give way

A dead “vampire” star is feeding on a nearby companion and expelling cannonballs and its behaviour has left astronomers stunned. The dead star is located around 4,500 light-years away and, until now, has baffled astronomers with its unusual behaviour. It is a rapidly spinning neutron star, otherwise known as a pulsar, that has been given the name PSR J1023+0038, shortened to J1023. It emits radiation from both its poles that occasionally reach Earth and also appears to have two different “settings” of brightness. Initially, the behaviour of J1023 confused experts, but now they believe that the stark difference in brightness levels has to do with the star launching out matter over short spaces of time. Maria Cristina Baglio, leader of the research team and scientist at New York University, Abu Dhabi, said in a statement: “We have witnessed extraordinary cosmic events where enormous amounts of matter, similar to cosmic cannonballs, are launched into space within a very brief time span of tens of seconds from a small, dense celestial object rotating at incredibly high speeds.” In addition to the pulsar emitting matter, over the last 10 years, scientists have witnessed the star pulling material from its companion star. The material it is stealing forms a structure called an accretion disk that forms around the star itself. Since it began feeding, the star has been alternating between between “low” and “high” power modes. During moments of high power, the star shines brightly with a variation of X-rays, ultraviolet and visible light. During low power, it emits radio waves and appears much dimmer. In June 2021, experts witnessed a star shooting out hot, luminous matter that has been compared to a cosmic cannonball as the star continually switched modes. J1023 has fascinated experts, who have been able to explain the way the star behaves by observing it. Despite solving many of its mysteries, the scientists aren’t done with it yet. With the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in northern Chile currently under construction, it is hoped that when it is ready, scientists will once more be able to observe the pulsar. Sergio Campana, research co-author and Research Director at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics Brera Observatory, said: “The ELT will allow us to gain key insights into how the abundance, distribution, dynamics and energetics of the inflowing matter around the pulsar are affected by the mode switching behavior.” 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.

TAIPEI, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

CARY, N.C. & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

The internet is full of weird and wonderful trends and memes, but one of the strangest by far is the Skibidi Toilet meme that has taken over social media platforms. If you’ve heard of Skibidi Toilet recently, chances are it was on TikTok or X/Twitter but many people may not know that the phenomenon started on YouTube. Skibidi Toilet is a meme based on a bizarre animated YouTube series with 59 episodes all about singing and dancing disembodied heads lurking in toilets. The series shows how the Skibidi Toilets have conflict between themselves and the so-called “Cameramen” – other people with CCTV on their heads, who are killed by the Skibidi Toilets. The YouTube show was created by user “DaFuq!?Boom!” and has over 27.2 million YouTube subscribers and some Skibidi Toilet episodes have upwards of 63 million views. The show is animated by Alexey Gerasimov, an animator based in Georgia. Since posting the first episode in February this year, the series has rapidly taken off. Its popularity seems to have got Gen Zers worried that they are getting old, as Gen Alpha is coming up with its own memes that they don’t understand. Gen Alpha, those born between the early 2010s and mid-2020s, are the next generation on from Gen Z (1997 – 2012) and are now becoming tweeners that have their own interests and online identity. Some have compared Skibidi Toilet to Gen Alpha’s Slender Man – a scary character that was popular among online youth in 2009. The emergence of Skibidi Toilet has left some Gen Z-ers realising that soon they will be facing the same mocking and ridicule they dished out to Millennials. On X/Twitter, someone wrote: “I just overheard my sister talking about how Gen Z is old and stupid and how they don't get their jokes, hello I am right here I am only 15 (she was born in 2013) “Then she asked me if I knew what a Skibidi Toilet was please help me what the f**k is a Skibidi Toilet I feel old.” For those who are extreme fans of Skibidi Toilet, a new phrase called Skibidi Toilet Syndrome has been coined as the diagnosis for people who can’t stop watching and consuming content based on the animated show. 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.

VICTORIA, Seychelles--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

It's 26 years to the day since Diana, Princess of Wales, died following a car crash in Paris, France along with her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Diana was arguably the most famous woman in the world at the time and the level of devotion to her by the public will possibly never be seen again for a member of the Royal family. The outpouring of grief in the weeks that followed her death was unlike anything the UK has ever seen and the response was similar elsewhere around the world. One particular clip which sums this up is a now-viral video filmed by Alan Light who was playing cards with his friends in Iowa City, Iowa on that fateful night in 1997. Light was testing out his new camcorder and while everyone is in a good mood at the start of the video one of the friends does mention that Diana had been gravely injured because of the crash. They continue to play cards with CNN's coverage playing in the background. However, the atmosphere soon changes a few minutes into the video when CNN announces that Diana has passed away causing them to be utterly shellshocked by the news. Friends shocked to learn Princess Diana is dead (Historic 1997 video) www.youtube.com The rest of the near 7-minute video plays out with the friends quietly watching the coverage of the event on CNN. The video has been viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube alone and is considered to be one of the first ever reaction videos, even though the men involved at the time weren't aware of that. Since sharing the video in 2021, Light has been inundated with questions about why he was filming at that exact moment. He recently answered those queries in the comments section of the video. He wrote: "I recorded this home video in 1997 the night Diana died and it sat in a box for many years. Why was I recording? I was trying out a new camcorder by recording friends playing the card game UNO. When my mom called me to say that Diana was in a car crash I turned on the TV, on silent, and we kept playing the game while monitoring the text on the bottom of the TV screen. "When the screen text changed to "Diana dead" the true reality of the situation hit like a ton of bricks and we stopped playing UNO of course, and rushed over to the TV. This was recorded in America, in the state of Iowa. All of the guys in the video are still alive today (as of today, June 6, 2022). "The guy who screams when he learns Diana has died is my friend Ken who still lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is his genuine reaction to the news of Diana's death. Some people call it a "Wilhelm scream." (Apparently that's a movie term). The guy who stifles a smile after Ken's scream is Scott (his brief smile was a reaction to Ken's loud silly scream, NOT to Diana's death). "When CNN announced that Diana had died I didn't turn the camera back to the TV because my instinct was that it would be more interesting to capture my friends' reactions. Some people call this video the first of what are now called "reaction" videos, a term that didn't exist in 1997 (and neither did YouTube, which began in 2005)." Sign up to our new 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.