Federal judge rips into Montana's statewide TikTok ban
A Montana federal judge on Thursday tore into a contested state law that bans TikTok from all personal devices, saying in a hearing that the legislation appears driven by "paternalistic" views of social media users and suggesting lawmakers could have taken many steps short of an attempted ban to achieve their goals.
2023-10-13 02:51
Microsoft Outlook will soon write emails for you
Many Microsoft Outlook corporate users will soon have the option to create and send AI-written emails as the company widens its roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot, an artificial intelligence companion.
2023-10-13 00:47
Caltech ends high-stakes US patent fight with Apple and Broadcom
By Blake Brittain The California Institute of Technology has reached an agreement to end a patent lawsuit against
2023-10-13 00:45
U.S. judge questions Montana state TikTok ban
WASHINGTON A U.S. judge questioned Montana's first-of-its kind state ban on the use of short video sharing app
2023-10-13 00:15
Sam Bankman-Fried trial: scenes from Caroline Ellison's time on the stand
By Luc Cohen NEW YORK When star witness Caroline Ellison first took the stand on Tuesday at Sam
2023-10-12 23:57
EU officials warn TikTok over Israel-Hamas disinformation
EU officials warned TikTok Thursday about "illegal content and disinformation" on its platform linked to the war between Hamas and Israel, calling for CEO Shou Zi Chew to respond within 24 hours.
2023-10-12 23:23
Scientists reveal plan to use lasers to build roads on the moon
We could shoot lasers at the lunar soil to help us live on the Moon, scientists have proposed. By melting the lunar soil into a more solid, layered substance, we might be able to build paved roads and landing pads on the Moon’s surface, a new study suggests. Many space agencies including Nasa have plans to establish semi-permanent bases on the Moon, which would both allow us to better study it but also serve as a stop off on the way to Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. The Moon’s surface is a tough place t land and live, however. The dust of the soil tends to get kicked up by landers – and the low gravity means that it floats around after it is disturbed, potentially finding its way into equipment. As such, future Moon colonies may require robust roads and landing pads to allow for us to travel both to and around the Moon. But it is unlikely we would be able to transport materials to build them, given the cost of doing so, leading scientists to look at what is available there already. In the new study, scientists examined whether lunar soil could be turned into something more substantial by using lasers. And they had some success, finding that lunar dust can be melted down into a solid substance. They used a variety of different sized and types of lasers to see what they would produce. The best used a 45 millimetre diameter laser beam to make hollow triangular shapes that were about 250 millimetres in size. Those pieces could be locked together to create solid surfaces that could be placed across the Moon’s surface, they suggest, and then used as roads and landing pads. On the Moon, the same approach would require a lens of around 2.37 metres squared, which would have to be transported from Earth. That could then be used to concentrate sunlight, rather than using a laser, and so allow the material to be created with relatively small equipment. The plan is reported in a new journal article, ‘Laser melting manufacturing of large elements of lunar regolith simulant for paving on the Moon’, published in Scientific Reports. Read More Nasa opens up pieces of a distant asteroid transported back to Earth Earth hit by a huge solar storm that would devastate civilisation, trees show Incels using TikTok to spread ‘hateful beliefs’, research suggests
2023-10-12 23:21
EU to Push ‘Made in Europe’ Tag in Green Industry, Sefcovic Says
The European Union will be much more “assertive” in touting a “made in Europe” approach to ensure that
2023-10-12 23:18
Mario-Themed Switch Console Proves a Hit for Nintendo in Japan
Nintendo Co.’s Switch sales doubled in Japan on the release of a Super Mario edition of the console,
2023-10-12 22:29
Caroline Ellison faces cross-examination at Sam Bankman-Fried's trial
By Jody Godoy NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sam Bankman-Fried's confidant Caroline Ellison took the stand again at the FTX founder's trial
2023-10-12 21:59
Female frogs fake their own deaths to avoid sex with overzealous males
Some female frogs will go to the extent of faking their own deaths to avoid sex with their male counterparts, a new study has revealed. Researchers in Berlin and Finland focused on the European common frog for their investigation owing to the often alarming nature of the species' mating process. The short breeding season means that several males often cling to a single female – in a pile-on that can cause the female to drown. (So, pretty understandable that they might want to avoid this.) For the research published in the Royal Society Open Science, European common frogs were collected and divided into tanks where there were two females and one male in each. Before this research, it was thought that the females couldn't defend themselves against the aggressive amorous act. However, a number of the wily participants displayed the three avoidance behaviours. A rotation technique to escape mating was a popular option – carried out by 83 per cent of the females. While nearly half of them (48 per cent) mimicked how male frogs sound to trick them into letting them go. In 33 per cent of the females, the researchers recorded a stiffening of arms and legs for two minutes, in a convincing bid to play dead. Out of the females who got mounted by a lustful male, almost half were able to escape thanks to at least one of these avoidance behaviours. “The smaller females also showed the full repertoire of behaviours more often than the larger females," the researchers noted, and younger females were more likely to pretend they were dead. However, question marks remain on whether the frogs fake their death as a conscious choice or whether it is a stress response or even a means to test the male’s strength and endurance. “I think even if we call this species a common frog and think we know it well, there are still aspects we don’t know and perhaps haven’t thought about," Dittrich explained to The Guardian. 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.
2023-10-12 21:15
China's Xi spurs efforts in core technologies -state media
BEIJING China's President Xi Jinping has called for speeding up efforts to make breakthroughs in core technologies, state
2023-10-12 19:54