The European Union is targeting Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance under new digital rules aimed at reining in the market power of online companies

Fanfiction is nothing new, but the rise of AI has the potential to take it

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Frankenstein’s monsters aren’t just for Halloween, as a team of US scientists have recently discovered. The experts at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) were tasked with analysing the remains of a supposed mummified “mermaid”, and what they found was pretty gruesome. The mummy was brought to America from Japan more than 100 years ago after being donated it to the Clark County Historical Society in Springfield, Ohio. It arrived at the society in 1906 but documents supplied alongside the strange specimen suggest it dates back to the mid-1800s. This means that for some 170 years, the true identity of the wisened, 29-cm-long creature remained a mystery. However, thanks to modern technology, the team at NKU has finally worked out that the sinister-looking “siren” is, in fact, a ghoulish hybrid of monkey, fish and lizard. Joseph Cress, who led the project, told Live Science that he and his colleagues used X-ray and CT scans to investigate the creepy cadaver. "This allowed us to see [the mummy] in almost every dimension in the hopes to see what was inside it," he explained. They determined that that the “mermaid” consists of the head and torso of a monkey sewed onto the body of a fish, and its “hands” are the clawed legs of a lizard – most likely a Komodo dragon. The scans also revealed a pair of wooden stakes hidden inside the chimeric corpse – one running from head to tail and another across the shoulder blades — which were presumably inserted to keep the monster in one piece. Cress and his colleagues are currently trying to reconstruct a more detailed model of the mermaid and its individual components, according to Live Science. Once these models are complete, they plan to send them to zoos and aquariums to help confirm the different parts on a species level. However, jaw-dropping this specimen may be, it's not the only “mermaid” to be debunked in recent times. In March 2022, researchers analysed a similar example that was found in a hidden box in a Japanese temple. They also expected the creature, which was 30.5 cm long and dated back to the mid-1700s, to be a monkey-fish hybrid. However, tests conducted in February this year revealed that it was, in fact, predominantly made of cloth, paper and cotton. It had been painted with sand and charcoal and held together by metal pins, while various animal parts, including fish skin and mammal hair, had been stuck to it. Experts believe that the two “mermaids” were made to resemble "ningyo" — hideous fish-like creatures with human heads and sharp claws from Japanese mythology. According to legend, a nun named Yaobikuni lived for 800 years and retained the youthful appearance of a young woman, after eating a ningyo. Her immortality made the creatures a symbol of longevity, so it’s likely that fraudsters tried to recreate the mermaids to sell them to wealthy seekers of immortality. Still, at least the owners of these two examples didn’t make the mistake of trying to eat them. 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

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Walmart is well-positioned for the holiday season, according to an analyst, as Black Friday kicks off, and a report says Nvidia is delaying the launch of a new artificial-intelligence chip.

By Bruno Kelly MANAUS, Brazil Clouds of dense gray smoke from dozens of wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon,

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Eugenia Cooney received a horrifying response after she shared new pictures and a video of her emaciated body on Instagram

IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 6, 2023--

Netflix is launching its long-threatened password sharing crackdown in the UK. The company is writing to members who are sharing Netflix accounts and telling them that they will no longer be permitted to do so. Instead, they will be encouraged to “transfer a profile” so that users can have their own standalone accounts, or “buy an extra member”, which will let people who don’t live in a household be added for £4.99 a month. “Your Netflix account is for you and the people you live with – your household,” the email sent to problem accounts reads. The message will only be sent to those suspected of currently sharing their accounts. Netflix has not revealed exactly how it is tracking those it believes to be sharing passwords with people outside their households. But it says that it is watching for telling “account activity”, based on IP addresses and devices IDs, which might for instance indicate that an account is being used in two very different places at once. It stressed that the crackdown will not apply to those who are using their account for travelling. “You can easily watch Netflix on the go and when you travel – either on your personal devices or a TV at a hotel or holiday home,” the email reads. Users who are affected are encouraged to go to Netflix’s help centre. But the email also offers a variety of ways to deal with the problems. First, users are encouraged to “control how your account is used” by checking who is currently accessing their account. Netflix has a web page that will show what devices are currently logged into an account, and that same page can be used to kick them out of an account – after which the company encourages changing the password so that any old devices cannot log back in. If those people sharing an account are doing so with permission, however, Netflix is offering a variety of options. The transfer a profile tool will mean that users can set up a new, separate account but keep their watch history and other details, or the “buy an extra member” tool essentially lets someone outside the home have permission to share an account for less than the price of a full membership. Netflix has been gradually rolling out its password sharing crackdown across the world, beginning in Latin America and since expanding to other regions including Spain and Portugal. It has not said how it is deciding which countries are chosen to be hit by the new crackdown. The move is one of a range of changes from Netflix as it attempts to deal with slowing rates of subscriber growth that have led it to look for new ways to boost profitability. It has said that it believes some 100 million people around the world are using other people’s Netflix accounts – and that encouraging at least some of those to sign up could deal with those falling rates of signups. In its results call in April, Netflix said that early tests had shown that the crackdown was successful in encouraging people to sign up for their own accounts. While customers initially cancelled their accounts in response to the news, membership and revenue then rose after that as people started paying for their own logins, said co-chief executive Greg Peters. He also noted then that testing had revealed some problems with the crackdowns, including users complaining that they were being targeted when they were using the app on the go or while on holiday. Netflix had updated the technology underpinning the new rules in response to those complaints, he said – and it was those improvements that had given it confidence to launch the crackdown more broadly. Read More Netflix begins crackdown on password sharing in the UK and US Netflix begins sending emails to UK customers about account sharing Who is David Sacks: the controversial entrepreneur hosting DeSantis 2024 event Who is David Sacks: the controversial entrepreneur hosting DeSantis 2024 event Male characters in role-playing video games ‘speak twice as much as females’ Peloton undergoes huge rebrand

The introduction of robots into businesses actually slows – at least at first, according to a new study. Researchers found that the introduction of robots bring down profit margins. But as they technology becomes better integrated, it will start to rise again, the study found. Researchers believe that U-shaped curve comes about because of reduced costs, new processes and innovative products. When companies first adopt robots with the aim of reducing costs, competitors are able to do the same, and so profit margins do not initially grow. The real profits come, however, when the robots are properly adopted and integrated into the company’s processes, and they can use that new innovation to develop new products, the researchers suggest. Those are the findings from a new study from the University of Cambridge and published in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. While robots are known to increase productivity when looking at a whole industry or country, it is less clear whether it helps with profit margins. The researchers set out to answer that question and see whether companies were using robots to improve processes within companies. And they were also looking to understand whether it had followed the same perhaps unexpected trajectory as when computers were first introduced into businesses. “If you look at how the introduction of computers affected productivity, you actually see a slowdown in productivity growth in the 1970s and early 1980s, before productivity starts to rise again, which it did until the financial crisis of 2008,” said co-author Professor Chander Velu from Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing. “It’s interesting that a tool meant to increase productivity had the opposite effect, at least at first. We wanted to know whether there is a similar pattern with robotics.” To find out, researchers gathered data for 25 European countries that showed industry-level trends between 1995 and 2017. That data did not include specific companies but did allow them to see whole sectors. They then gathered robotics data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). By setting the two against each other, they were able to see how the adoption of robotics changed profit margins. There they found that U-shaped curve: that the adoption of robotics drove down profits, initially, even if it came back eventually. “Initially, firms are adopting robots to create a competitive advantage by lowering costs,” said Velu. “But process innovation is cheap to copy, and competitors will also adopt robots if it helps them make their products more cheaply. This then starts to squeeze margins and reduce profit margin.” Read More Apple planning new version of AirTags – but not for some time Algorithm finds 600-foot, ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid near Earth Reddit closes Place after obscene protests Apple planning new version of AirTags – but not for some time Algorithm finds 600-foot, ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid near Earth Reddit closes Place after obscene protests