List of All Articles with Tag 'science and tech'

Forget pizza pie…this is pizza AI! Domino’s reveals national dish-inspired pizza toppings for countries competing in the Eurovision final. But they have all been made with artificial intelligence. As the stand-in host nation for war-torn Ukraine, the UK - with Mae Muller singing for glory - has been given a Beef roast dinner speciality pizza. It comes with potatoes on a bed of gravy, covered in horseradish sauce. France has Coq au Vin braised chicken, with diced potatoes and rosemary garnish. Germany’s toppings are Bratwurst sausage loaded over chips, drizzled with ketchup and mayonnaise. There is Carbonara pasta, bordered with pepperoni slices, on a pizza for Italy. Paella with clams and prawns – finished with a sprinkle of spring onions, is dedicated to Spain. Sweden has a fish with sliced tomatoes, chopped radishes and onions topping. Ukraine has a trademark Chicken Kyiv, dressed in lemon and dill. Meanwhile Australia - in Eurovision since 2015 - has Fairy Bread, an old-fashioned Aussie snack made from white bread, butter and ‘hundreds and thousands’ sprinkles. A Domino’s spokesperson said: “With Eurovision being one of the busiest nights of the year for Domino’s, the nation’s favourite pizza brand, has cooked up a treat for the senses. “By challenging AI to imagine what a limited-edition pizza for all the favourite competing countries would look like. “Domino’s set AI system MidJourney to work, curating completely unedited Eurovision-inspired pizza toppings for The Big Five countries and a few other nations. “Passing the reins to AI, pizzas generated varied from a somewhat delicious looking Roast Dinner to Carbonara and a clam and prawn loaded Paella pizza. “Signature dishes were also generated for host nation Ukraine in the form of Chicken Kyiv pizza. “And Australia, to see what the country that has competed in the competition since 2015 – to everyone’s bewilderment – would serve up. “And it’s Fairy Bread pizza. “A country and party staple of bread spread with margarine and covered in hundreds and thousands.” Sam Wilson, AI mastermind at Domino’s said: “Pizza brings everyone together, just like Eurovision. “So we challenged AI to generate the perfect pizza for each nation. It’s no surprise the classic Sunday Roast was Britain’s pizza of choice, but we didn’t expect Fairy Bread for Australia. “We’re rooting for Mae Muller this weekend and look forward to seeing her waving the flag for the UK. “But we won’t be giving AI a role in our kitchen just yet.” The Eurovision contest saw over 161 million people worldwide tune in last year. With an estimated 8.93 million people in the UK watching the finale ceremony in 2022. 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.

One unfortunate patient found out the hard way why you shouldn’t wear metal during an MRI after a butt plug they were using shot through their body. A post on Twitter that appeared to show a scan of a butt plug that caused “major injuries” lodged high up in someone’s body as a result of an MRI scan has gone viral, undoubtedly making many people clench in the process. In the post by Twitter user @BradiusZero, he explained why you should “Never wear a butt plug to your MRI appointment” and shared an image of a scan that appeared to show a butt plug lodged in a person's chest cavity. Alonside the image, a separate text message read: “Greatest personal injury case I've ever heard. An estimated Valley attorney, has picked up a client who is suing a sex toy company. Said client purchased a butt plug that was advertised as ‘100 percent silicone’. Client wears butt plug to MRI appointment. “Much to client's dismay, butt plug in fact has a metallic core. Butt plug is accelerated at the speed of sound…into client's chest cavity. Described in memo as an ‘anal rail gun’. Client survived with major injuries.” The post has been viewed 10.8 million times with many speculating on what was going on there. One person tweeted: “I’m glad they’re alive but I can’t help but think that the patient was trying to intentionally shock the doctors upon doing the MRI scan as a joke and it went horribly wrong.” Wearing metal in an MRI can be dangerous due to the magnetic force that is created by the machines which is approximately 1,000 times stronger than a typical fridge magnet. 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.

The actor Jared Gilman, best known for his role in Wes Anderson's 2012 film Moonrise Kingdom has branded a new AI trend surrounding the director as "bulls**t." If you aren't aware, a YouTube channel called Curious Refuge has been using artificial intelligence to create trailers for famous movies but reimagining them as if they were directed by Anderson in his typical whimsical aesthetic. Earlier this month a version of Star Wars directed by Wes Anderson went viral and immediately caused some division with many fans wishing it was a real movie while others felt that the trailer missed the point of what makes Star Wars and Anderson movies great. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now Curious Refuge have used AI to imagine what a Wes Anderson Lord of the Rings film would be like. The trailer called 'The Whimsical Fellowship' features all your favourite Tolkien characters but this time they are played by the likes of Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Owen Wilson to name a few. Lord of the Rings by Wes Anderson Trailer | The Whimsical Fellowship www.youtube.com While the clip has already gone viral again, 24-year-old Gilman, who has also starred in the Jim Jarmusch film Paterson wasn't as enthusiastic about it. He tweeted a version of the Return of the King title and instead changed it to read 'Return of the Wes Anderson AI bulls**t.' Gilman's tweet also went viral and one person asked him: "I'm assuming he texts you every time one of these comes out asking 'have u seen this?'" The actor replied: "Lmao I hope he never sees any of them." Meanwhile, Anderson's next real film Asteroid City is set for release on June 23rd and stars Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke and Jason Schwartzman. 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.

There’s a “runaway” black hole which has been speeding through the universe and mystifying the scientific community – or so we thought. Now, a possible explanation has been found that could explain the unusual, long star structures which have been observed over recent weeks. Last month, scientists thought they’d discovered something very unusual, with a trail of stars observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Some believed then that they were the result of a black hole creating eye-catching formations. Yale University researchers also posited the theory that the formation after two galaxies merged together millions of years ago. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, a new possible explanation from scientists at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) suggests that it is in fact just a flat or thin galaxy. “The motions, the size, and the quantity of stars fits what has been seen in galaxies within the local universe,” said Jorge Sanchez Almeida, an IAC researcher who is the first author of the article, in a statement. “It’s a relief to have found the solution to this mystery, the new proposed scenario is much simpler. In one sense it is also a pity, because the existence of fleeing black holes is expected, and this could have been the first one to be observed.” The team published its findings in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics under the title “Supermassive black hole wake or bulgeless edge-on galaxy?”. They compared the unusual feature to a galaxy IC5249 and found it to be similar. They found that it was surprisingly similar. The stars were moving in similar ways to those found in closer, comparative galaxies, researchers said. “We also looked at the relation between the mass of the assumed galaxy and its maximum velocity of rotation, and discovered that indeed it is a galaxy which behaves like a galaxy,” said Ignacio Trujillo, an IAC researcher who worked on the study. “It is an interesting object, because it is quite a large galaxy at a very large distance from Earth, where the majority of the galaxies are smaller.” 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.

Space is full of mysteries which we will never likely solve but, generally, we at least know a thing or two about craft we send out into the cosmos. Not so, when it comes to one probe which has just touched back down on Earth after 276 days in orbit. The experimental spacecraft was launched by China’s space agency, ostensibly to test the nation’s reusable space technologies. According to state media agency Xinhua News, the mission’s aim was to help with the development of “more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future”. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter That all sounds pretty similar to what SpaceX and NASA are up to, except that the Chinese spacecraft and its journey have been shrouded in secrecy. No information has been released on the altitude it reached or the systems it tested. We don’t even know where it went or, indeed, what kind of spacecraft it was – not a single image has been released to the public. Commentators on Chinese social media have speculated that Beijing has been developing a spacecraft like the UAir Force's X-37B, an autonomous spaceplane that can remain in orbit for years. However, no one knows how well this is going nor, indeed, if it’s going at all. All we do know about China’s latest unidentified flying object is that it was launched from the Jiquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on August 5, 2022 and returned to the same site on 8 May, 2023. It follows an earlier mission, carried out in July last year, which saw a Chinese spacecraft fly to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere and back on the same day. The country’s main space contractor, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), hailed the success of the craft’s brief celestial jaunt at the time. It gushed: "The development of reusable space transportation technology is an important symbol of China's transition from a 'big' space-faring nation to a 'powerful' space-faring one.” 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.

The Eurovision song contest takes place this weekend in Liverpool after Ukraine won last year. Kalush Orchestra came out on top in 2022 with a huge show of support for their song 'Stefania' - and have since handed over hosting duties to the UK because of the ongoing war with Russia. Speaking of the UK, Mae Muller has been selected to represent the country and will perform her song 'I Wrote A Song' at the final. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter With glory and hosting duties to play for, then, choosing a good song is very important. So who (or what) better to turn to than ChatGPT, everyone's favourite controversial AI system, to write a song for us? That is exactly what we did and here's what the software came up with: Verse 1: Under the bright lights, We stand here tonight, In this moment we unite, With hearts open wide. Chorus: We dance to the beat of our own drum, We sing with passion until the night is done, We are the stars that light up the sky, We are the ones who never say die. Verse 2: We come from every corner, From the north to the south, We share the same desire, To let our voices out. Chorus: We dance to the beat of our own drum, We sing with passion until the night is done, We are the stars that light up the sky, We are the ones who never say die. Bridge: Let's forget about the past, Let's live in the moment that will last, Together we'll make history, And show the world what we can be. Chorus: We dance to the beat of our own drum, We sing with passion until the night is done, We are the stars that light up the sky, We are the ones who never say die. Outro: So let's keep dancing, And keep singing our song, We'll show the world who we are, And prove that we belong. So there you have it - ChatGPT could become the next best singer. After all, we reckon this song is probably better than half the actual entries we will endure this weekend. 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.

A plan by Elon Musk to delete inactive Twitter accounts has sparked a huge backlash - including from Andrew Tate. Musk has announced he will delete accounts that have not been used in a while, warning people that this will see them lose followers. But while that isn't the end of the world, some have expressed concern that the accounts of deceased family members will go too - cutting people off from seeing a history of their loved one's 140-character thoughts. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Controversial commentator Tate, who is now under house arrest following months of detainment in a Romanian prison on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and organised criminal activity, had an issue with the plan for instance. He tweeted: And others weighed in with their views: According to Twitter's policy, users should log in to their accounts at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity. But there is a way to save tweets. To export an archive, go to your account settings by clicking the "more" icon in the navigation bar and selecting your account from the menu. Then click on download an archive of your data. Nevertheless, it seems that Twitter's new regime is continuing to give people a headache. 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.