OpenAI, Jony Ive in talks to raise $1 billion from SoftBank for AI device venture - FT
(Reuters) -ChatGPT maker OpenAI is in advanced talks with former Apple designer Jony Ive and SoftBank's Masayoshi Son to build
2023-09-28 22:24
Norway asks EU regulator to fine Facebook owner Meta over privacy breach
By Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's data regulator will refer the ongoing fine it has imposed on Meta Platforms to
2023-09-28 20:56
Horizon Forbidden West is heading to PC
'Horizon Forbidden West' is coming to PC and the 'complete edition' is heading to PS5.
2023-09-28 20:26
Leonardo's air booking system resumes after cyberattack - state company Rostec
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian state conglomerate Rostec said on Thursday it had restored normal operations at its Leonardo air booking system
2023-09-28 20:25
Sega cancels Creative Assembly shooter Hyenas
'Hyenas' was due to be released this year but has been axed due to "lower profitability of the European region".
2023-09-28 20:23
Scientists confirm that the most iconic black hole in the universe is spinning, in major new discovery
Scientists have confirmed that the first black hole to ever be captured on camera is spinning in a major new discovery. The famous doughnut-shaped M87* black hole, 6.5 billion times more massive than the sun, first drew people’s attention in 2019 for becoming the first void to be pictured. Now, it has been confirmed that the M87* black hole is spinning, but experts have yet to determine just how fast. The announcement was made on 27 September. M87* has been observed for the last two decades via a network of radio telescopes. It is located in the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, which is around 55 million light-years away from Earth in the Virgo constellation. The instruments monitoring the black hole have observed a powerful jet of radiation and particles being expelled from its poles. According to research, the relativistic jets appeared to be on a kind of pendulum that swings every 11 years, observed over decades. Experts believe this is caused by interactions between gravitational interactions between the black hole and the material making up the disk around it. They say this provides “unequivocal evidence” that the black hole is spinning. Cui Yuzhu, a researcher at Zhejiang Lab in China and the study’s lead author explained in a statement: “We are thrilled by this significant finding,” adding, “Since the misalignment between the black hole and the disk is relatively small and the precession period is around 11 years, accumulating high-resolution data tracing M87’s structure over two decades and thorough analysis are essential to obtain this achievement.” Their findings matched with computer simulations, confirming that the jets emitting from the black hole change direction by around 10 degrees every 11 years. 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.
2023-09-28 20:15
How Seeding the Oceans With Minerals Could Grab Carbon From the Atmosphere
The Hajar Mountains reach nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, tracing the coastline of Oman and the United
2023-09-28 19:25
European Insurers Are Underwriting 30% of US Coal: Study
Some of Europe’s biggest insurers are underwriting close to a third of the coal production that takes place
2023-09-28 19:16
Time-lapse that took 20 years to make shows legendary stellar explosion
Scientists have spent 20 years putting together time-lapse footage offering a stunning window into the past. Two decades of data taken from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory were used by astronomers to create a video of a stellar eruption that actually occurred 180 years ago. Observations from Chandra, taken in 1999, 2003, 2009, 2014 and 2020 were all used, in combination with data from ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft. With the combined data, experts were able to capture the stellar explosion, known as Eta Carinae. Eta Carinae is a famous star system containing two large stars, one of which is around 90 times larger than the Sun, while the other is around 30 times as large. The “Great Eruption” from Eta Carinae is believed to be the result of the merging of two stars that were originally part of a three-star system. Eta Carinae Time-Lapse, Chandra X-ray Observatory www.youtube.com It first took place in the mid-19th century and the aftermath is still continuing to be observed today. New footage shows how the explosion has expanded into space with staggering speeds of up to 4.5 million miles per hour. In a statement, NASA officials explained: “During this event, Eta Carinae ejected between 10 and 45 times the mass of the sun. This material became a dense pair of spherical clouds of gas, now called the Homunculus Nebula, on opposite sides of the two stars.” The Homunculus Nebula is the blue cloud visible in the video, while the growing bright orange ring shows how X-ray emissions have grown and expanded over time. “The new movie of Chandra, plus a deep, summed image generated by adding the data together, reveal important hints about Eta Carinae’s volatile history,” the statement read. “This includes the rapid expansion of the ring, and a previously-unknown faint shell of X-rays outside it.” 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.
2023-09-28 18:52
Video showing how babies' faces form is giving people nightmares
The human body is an extraordinary thing – and now, one video is proving just that, while simultaneously giving people nightmares. Childbirth is often regarded as one of nature's most incredible events, but have you ever questioned how a baby's face develops while in the womb? Neither have we. But thanks to the BBC, people are divided about how "beautiful" the process actually is. The simulation shows how the baby's face starts with the philtrum, the area between the bottom of your nose and upper lip. During the episode of Inside the Human Body: Creation, Michael Mosley points out: "Down the centuries, biologists have wondered why every face has this particular feature. What we now know is it is the place where the puzzle that is the human face finally all comes together." The footage then recreates a baby's facial development via an animation, which begins with two holes at the top of the head. It appears as though the features then start to merge, though this is the baby's nostrils. (Fast-forward 32 seconds in to the below video to watch:) Face Development in the Womb - Inside the Human Body: Creation - BBC One www.youtube.com "We've taken data from scans of a developing embryo so we're able to show you for the very first time how our faces don't just grow, but fit together like a puzzle," Mosley continues. "The three main sections of the puzzle meet in the middle of your top lip, creating the groove that is your philtrum." He continues: "This whole amazing process, the bits coming together to produce a recognisable human face, happens in the womb between two and three months. "If it doesn't happen then, it never will." The snippet understandably garnered a mixed response, with one viewer writing: "That was so creepy yet amazing..." Another joked: "Makes me feel better that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise once looked like space aliens." And a third quipped: "Thank you for the enlightening information and the skin-curdling nightmares." 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.
2023-09-28 18:21
Volkswagen restarts production after suffering major IT outage
By Christoph Steitz FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Volkswagen said on Thursday that a major IT outage, which had caused most of its
2023-09-28 17:16
People are just learning Google's original name – and thanking god that it was changed
A world without Google would almost be akin to a world without water or air. Indeed, the internet behemoth’s power is so great that it’s even become its own verb. And sure, there are other search engines, but when have you ever heard someone say: “Let me just Bing that”? Yet, it turns out the iconic tech company could have had a very different fate had it stuck to its original name. That’s right, Google hasn’t always been Google. And at its inception back in 1996, it had a somewhat more risqué title. It was called… BackRub. Yep, BackRub. According to Standford University computer scientist David Koller, who wrote about the brand’s genesis back in 2004, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with the search engine's first name as a nod to its analysis of the web’s “back links”. However, a year after BackRub was born, Page and his officemates – including fellow graduate students Sean Anderson, Tamara Munzner, and Lucas Pereira – discussed a number of possible alternatives to the massage-evoking moniker. According to Koller, the final, fateful brainstorming session occurred one day in September of that year. “Sean and Larry were in their office, using the whiteboard, trying to think up a good name - something that related to the indexing of an immense amount of data,” he recalled. “Sean verbally suggested the word ‘googolplex,’, and Larry responded verbally with the shortened form, ‘googol’ (both words refer to specific large numbers). “ Anderson then searched the Internet domain name registry database to see if the newly suggested name was still available to use. But, since “Sean is not an infallible speller”, “he made the mistake of searching for the name spelt as ‘google.com,’ which he found to be available,” Koller continued. “Larry liked the name, and within hours he took the step of registering the name ‘google.com’ for himself and Sergey.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Sill, 25 years on from that simple domain name registration that would go on to change the world, people have shared their bewilderment that “BackRub” could have become a household name. “I could die without knowing that this was Google's old name,” one X/Twitter user commented. “What were they smoking back in 90s??” asked another. Meanwhile, a third responded with what we’re all now thinking: “Tbh I need a backrub.” At least the tech titans can now give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done with “Google”. 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.
2023-09-28 16:49