Scientists have got to the bottom of a 5-year mystery after finally identifying a tiny sea creature captured on camera in 2018. It is the latest in a series of oceanic discoveries and experts recently observed “zombie worms” devour an alligator in an incredible experiment. For the tiny creature, the baffling question of its identity took a team of zoologists and parasitic worm specialists to solve after the small creature was pictured by an underwater photographer in 2018 off the coast of Okinawa in Japan. After photographer Ryo Minemizu captured the image, he shared it on social media asking the hive mind if they knew what the creature was, but everyone was left stumped. Minemizu was determined not to give up and instead went back to the area and was able to capture another ladybird-sized creature that was the same, or very similar, to the original one he had come across. The research team that was interested in identifying the sea creature approached him and Minemizu sent them the sample to research. Your browser does not support the video tag. Current Biology (2023) The team’s results were published in the Current Biology journal putting an end to the 5-year long mystery baffling experts. In a fascinating twist, the team found that the sample was not one, but two creatures that were clinging tightly to one another. Both were identified as types of cercariae parasitic larvae worms, with experts dubbing one as the “sailor” and the other as a “passenger” thanks to how they behave when they are connected. Passengers were much smaller than the sailors and when they were bonded together, they formed a flat-topped hemisphere shape. They squeeze their bodies together with heads facing the inside of the sphere, meanwhile, their tails latch onto one another. Experts believe the two individual creatures have created a colonial organism that suits both of their needs and according to the study's authors, “represents the first case of labor division in digenean larvae”. 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.

BRONX, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

Microsoft’s attempt to buy the developer of Call of Duty in the biggest tech deal ever may be pressing ahead. A judge ruled that Microsoft could go ahead with its purchase of Activision, despite objections from its rival PlayStation. The US Federal Trade Commission had attempted to block the deal amid fears that it could limit competition in gaming. But the court said that it would not stop the deal. Now the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which originally blocked the deal earlier this year, said that it would consider new proposals from Microsoft that might make the deal reach approval in the UK, too. “After today’s court decision in the US, our focus now turns back to the UK,” said Brad Smith, vice chair and president at Microsoft. “While we ultimately disagree with the CMA’s concerns, we are considering how the transaction might be modified in order to address those concerns in a way that is acceptable to the CMA. “In order to prioritize work on these proposals, Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of the litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and the parties have made a joint submission to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to this effect.” The deal would be the largest for Microsoft and the biggest in the history of the videogame business. In its arguments, the FTC has said Microsoft would be able to use the Activision games to leave rival console makers like Nintendo and market-leader Sony Group out in the cold. Microsoft President Brad Smith tweeted that the company was “grateful” for the “quick and thorough” decision. “Our merger will benefit consumers and workers. It will enable competition rather than allow entrenched market leaders to continue to dominate our rapidly growing industry,â€Â Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO, said in a statement. The FTC’s complaint had cited concerns about loss of competition in console gaming, as well as subscriptions and cloud gaming. To address the FTC’s concerns, Microsoft agreed to license “Call of Duty” to rivals, including a 10-year contract with Nintendo, contingent on the merger closing. During the five-day trial in June, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argued the company would have no incentive to shut out Sony’s PlayStation or other rivals in order to sell more Microsoft Xbox consoles. At issue in the Microsoft-Activision deal is leadership in a gaming market whose sales are expected to increase by 36% over the next four years to $321 billion, according to a PwC estimate. And while much of the testimony in the recent trial focused on “Call of Duty,” Activision produces other bestsellers like “World of Warcraft,” “Diablo” and the mobile game “Candy Crush Saga.” Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Microsoft Teams stops working in the middle of the working day Scientists invent cloak inspired by Roman god that could help us live on Mars Record-breaking sugar battery could supercharge transition to renewable energy Scientists invent cloak inspired by Roman god that could help us live on Mars Record-breaking sugar battery could supercharge transition to renewable energy Why the Battle of the Boyne has made its way into your iPhone

Focus on companies with powerful fundamentals. Microsoft offers exposure to two important themes: cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 12, 2023--

An adviser to former president Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey have called for journalists at Media Matters to be jailed over a report which sparked an antisemitism row on X. The row began after Media Matters reported that adverts from big brands including IBM, Apple, Oracle and Bravo were running next to pro-Hitler and antisemitic content on Mr Musk’s social media platform. The revelation prompted a series of major companies – including Disney, Apple and IBM – to pull advertising from X, while Mr Musk responded by threatening to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company”. X executive Joe Benarroch also pushed back, saying that the research strategy used by Media Matters to uncover the content placed next to company adverts was not representative of how regular people use its platform. The organisation had followed accounts that posted the content, then refreshed the X timeline until adverts appeared, Mr Benarroch claimed. “50 impressions served against the content in the article, out of 5.5 billion served the whole day, points to the fact of how efficiently our model avoids content for advertiser,” he said in a statement posted to X. “Data wins over allegations.” Mr Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller, whose politics have been described as far-right, has now also waded into the drama on X, claiming the report was “fraudulent” and suggesting journalists at the left-leaning non-profit group had committed crimes. “Fraud is both a civil and criminal violation,” he said. Mr Musk responded to Mr Miller’s post, chiming in: “Interesting. Both civil and criminal.” AG Bailey also joined in, saying: “My team is looking into this matter.” The Independent has reached out to Media Matters for comment. The organisation previously called Mr Musk’s lawsuit “meritless” and “an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate”. “Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified. If he does sue us, we will win,” the non-profit said. Since Mr Musk’s $44bn acquisition of X closed last year, he has relaxed moderation policies on X and cut many staff involved with safety on the platform. An X spokesperson told The Independent the company did not intentionally place the adverts next to the posts from the antisemitic accounts, which have now been demonetised, meaning advertising can no longer run on their profiles. Since taking over the company, Mr Musk has come under fire on multiple occasions over content that promotes antisemitism. On Wednesday, Mr Musk, the self-described “free-speech absolutist”, sparked outrage when he said a post which promoted an antisemitic theory was “the actual truth”. A social media user had appeared to push the “great replacement” conspiracy theory on X, claiming that Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them”. “I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s*** now about Western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realisation that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is,” the post added. Mr Musk’s responded by writing: “You have said the actual truth.” His response received praise from white nationalist Nick Fuentes – while prompting widespread backlash from dozens more online, with many accusing him of antisemtism. He later responded to the accusations of antisemitism, insisting “nothing could be further from the truth”. “This past week, there were hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he wrote. “I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all.” This came after an earlier scandal in the days after the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, where Mr Musk was forced to delete a post in which he amplified an account widely accused of antisemitism and promoted debunked videos as reliable sources of information about the attack. Last year, advocacy organisation the American Jewish Committee called on Mr Musk to apologise over a controversial post that made a satirical comparison between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Adolf Hitler. Mr Musk has previously insisted that he is “pro free speech” but against antisemitism “of any kind”. In September, he threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League – a century-old NGO that describes itself as the “leading anti-hate organisation in the world” – after the organisation accused him of antisemitism. Read More Elon Musk insists he’s not antisemitic after sharing antisemitic post DeSantis backs Elon Musk in dodgy response to antisemitic post Media watchdog hits back at ‘bully’ Elon Musk after he threatens lawsuit Homes close to new pylons to be offered £1,000 off bills a year under Hunt plans Elon Musk vows ‘thermonuclear lawsuit’ as advertisers flee X over antisemitism Disney, Apple suspend ads on Musk’s X after he agrees with antisemitic tweet

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK Investors are piling into bullish options bets on the shares of Rivian

It used to be such a common refrain it was nearly a cliché: if you

It's an exciting day for Apple fans: New Apple gadgets are coming. If you needed

Earlier this year, Apple launched Apple Music Classical as a standalone music app that comes included in the price of Apple Music. It was an unusual move for a streaming platform perhaps more associated with Drake and Taylor Swift. And building it was a major undertaking, given the vast complexity of classical music libraries and the difficulties in navigating them. Apple Music Classical continues to grow. In its latest move, Apple announced a new partnership between Apple and the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the release of a live recording of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust coming on 3 November. This is just one of the partners Apple Music Classical has. From day one, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was a partner. The content from that orchestra is extensive, with recordings dating back to 1929. Some of it is unique to Apple and this exclusive content alone has already been streamed millions of times. Recently, senior staffers at the app talked exclusively to The Independent. Apple Music Classical came about because Apple realised that classical artists and fans were really not being served well by streaming. As part of its mission to use its engineering knowhow to fix this, it bought Primephonic, widely recognised as the classical streaming platform that succeeded where others had failed. It took more than a year of work before Apple was happy with what it had created and its release to a highly positive response. Now, classical music lovers don’t have to clamber past Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift to get to Bach and Rachmaninoff. Classical music provides challenges other kinds of music don’t, or at least not to the same extent. Instead of playing an album, artist or track, classical lovers have favourite composers, orchestras, soloists and so on. The search parameters are mind-boggling. Apple is well-equipped, with more classical music than anywhere else on the planet, and Primephonic’s brilliant data metrics were a starting point from which Apple’s engineers and expertise transformed the experience. Want to listen to Vivaldi’s Spring from the Four Seasons? Apple has 1,243 versions for you to choose from. If that sounds overwhelming, Apple has a solution: careful navigation with sophisticated search. Just as Apple Fitness+ has a mantra that everybody is welcome, no matter their fitness level or knowledge, Apple Music Classical is designed for seasoned devotees and newcomers alike. “If you didn’t know much about the world of classical, Apple Music Classical offers a structure so you can get into it. It’s centuries of music, right, so where do you start? It gives you an opportunity to get some perspective on it, explains Mariana Pimenta, who works in operations at Apple Music Classical, saying: “We don’t expect everybody who downloads it to be a professional musician, and we want everyone to experience classical music. Our goal is to bring as many people as possible to this service.” Marina Boiko is an editor. She goes on, “The story of classical is a great place to start and we’ve made sure there’s enough beginner-friendly content, such as playlists of periods or genres.” Not all traditional classical listeners will be especially tech-savvy, but that may not be a problem, as Guy Jones, global head of classical editorial, explains. “Lots of classical fans are new not just to technology but to streaming. The whole point of this product is to bring classical to streaming. It’s the musical genre that wasn’t really being streamed because the experience was previously so bad. The technical side of things may be less of a problem, especially as Apple’s guidelines around human interface design are baked into our product, but the challenge is more in explaining that streaming opens up opportunity and accessibility. “When I was first getting into classical music, I had to buy CDs. I had to choose carefully what CD I wanted to buy each month. The ability now to just pick a random composer and ask, ‘Do I like this composer?’ That ability to let you dip your toe in the water, I think that’s the real power of something like Apple Music Classical, and not just for beginners, for the experts too.” The absence of the Primephonic app while Apple Music Classical was being developed was down to getting it right, Carlos Anez Gomez, from the metadata team, says. “It took us time, but it paid off because we needed to take care with every single point and I think we managed to do it, both in human terms and the algorithms: we made a great balance between computer work and human work. Where Primephonic had a relatively small catalogue, Apple Music Classical has a huge number of albums, for example.” Boiko adds, “No one knows everything that has ever been recorded in the history of classical music. And in that sense, we put a lot of emphasis on the discovery element, especially when it comes to the underrepresented composers.” Each work has its own place, called the work page in Apple Music Classical, where you can find all the recordings, so it’s easy to compare different versions. Primephonic’s unique data continues to be essential. “The structured metadata, that’s the uniqueness of it,” Boiko says. “It makes it easy to find things even if you don’t know what you want. That structure, it’s what classical music apps needed and didn’t have. There are many ways not to get lost because you can search by ensemble, by orchestra or even by instrument.” The work page is important, then. As Gomez says, “People discovering music can check this work page and say, ‘Aha, there is a new piece by a certain composer and I have a work page which will give me all the information that I need.’ I discover music every day going through this.” Another key element is the playlist. Boiko goes on, “Playlists are structured in different ways. So, genre playlists are the best way for you to start listening to classical music. The story of classical is a narrated cycle, that guides you through all the centuries of music. “Then there are more specific playlists. You can listen to duets and trios and quartets or quintets and then it gives you an overview of all this chamber music and maybe something that you wouldn’t necessarily find on other platforms.” Jones explains the importance of the human touch. “I don’t think it’s widely known that at Apple it’s human curators behind the playlists. The assumption is that it’s all algorithms now. But for classical that’s a particularly important point, because it’s such a huge genre. People talk about classical like it’s one block and it’s really a thousand years of music from pretty much every country in the world. Our job is breaking classical into smaller chunks, to give people the agency to discover what they like, and to go down their own rabbit holes and feel more confident exploring.” How does Apple Music Classical find a way to appeal to everyone? Jones explains, “It’s a really hard thing to do, to cover that broad spectrum. It’s a constant tightrope walk because you have very knowledgeable people with clear ideas about what they think the genre is as well as trying to please newcomers. We strike that balance in terms of our editorial strategy by being as authentic and genuine as possible and conveying our passion for classical. For those hardcore classical nerds a big part of the product is the browse and the search as much as it is the editorial, I think for the newcomers, they use the editorial a lot more if they don’t know what to search for.” As it grows, there’s a lot more for Apple to do, and the team are working on changes and improvements. Here’s a last word from each of them about why the app matters. Gomez says, “People will discover that along with any classical library that they can have their access quickly to any recording they have.” As Boiko says, “It’s a lot of music. I think there’s not one person that wouldn’t find something they would love here.” Boiko has a different take on the importance of Apple Music Classical: “Maybe the listeners will have emotional responses to it. And at the end of the day music is there to make our lives better. It definitely enriches our lives.” Finally, Jones comments, “The thing about human curation is we are ultimately making a human decision. And so, for instance, if you choose a recommended recording for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, you’re instantly upsetting everyone who has a strong opinion about their favourite. That’s what comes with the human aspect: this is our opinion, our recommendation, but you have the other recordings there to explore if you want them.” Read More Apple is about to add a host of new features to the iPhone The Apple Watch feature everyone has been waiting for has finally arrived Apple’s plans for the future of AirPods might just have been revealed Apple TV+ and other subscriptions are about to get a lot more expensive What to expect Apple’s surprise, spooky upcoming launch Apple announces surprise event: ‘Scary fast’

TL;DR: As of July 10, get The WonderCube Pro All-In-One Mobile Keyring for just $43.99

In the week that it was announced that Rishi Sunak will be granting new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, new commitments to renewable energy are being made elsewhere in the world. The China Three Gorges Corporation just turned on a mega wind turbine with blades twice the size of a football pitch in the Taiwan Strait. The state-owned energy firm has activated the biggest wind turbine on the planet offshore in a move which could produce up to 16 megawatts of energy, and it’s now been connected and hooked up to the energy grid. The MySE 16-260 turbine stands at an incredible 500ft (152m) tall and it could power thousands of homes every year. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter In fact, it’s thought that around 36,000 homes will be served by electricity from the turbine. It’s not surprising given that each blade weighs around 54 tons and covers nearly 540,000 square feet when they rotate. Mingyang Smart Energy is the company that designed the turbine, and they released a message on LinkedIn making clear just how much wind the structure could deal with – stating that it can withstand “extreme wind speeds of 79.8 [meters per second]”. It’s a staggering feat of engineering and it’s thought that the turbine could save around 54,000 tons of carbon dioxide compared to coal power plants. More structures like one are being planned, too. Executive Director Lei Lei Zengjuan told the media: “In the next step, the 16 [megawatt] unit will be applied in batches in the second phase of the Zhangpu Liuao Offshore Wind Farm Project constructed by China Three Gorges Corporation.” It comes a few weeks after work was stopped on one of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms after its developer said that the cost of the project had soared by so much that it no longer made financial sense to push forward. Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, one of Europe’s biggest wind producers, shut down work on the development of the Norfolk Boreas site. 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.