Thousands of Reddit forums are going dark Monday in one of the largest user-driven protests ever to hit the social media platform.

Salesforce Inc. is elevating new generative artificial intelligence features in its products and doubling its investment in AI

One small step for an intrepid crew of 24th century space explorers could be a giant leap — or flop — for Microsoft when the Xbox-maker launches its long-awaited video game Starfield

Twitter is refusing to stand by a $1 billion contract with Google to use its cloud hosting services, according to reports. Elon Musk’s company is in the process of moving away from Google Cloud before the contract expires on 30 June, Platformer reported, leaving the social media firm’s trust and safety teams in peril. The move appears to be part of radical cost-cutting measures that have been underway since Mr Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 2022, which has already seen thousands of employees laid off and a reduction in infrastructure spending. The deal with Google Cloud relates to hosting services, which include protecting accounts and fighting spam on Twitter. The effort to move to a different platform is reportedly “running behind schedule”, which could potentially impact Twitter’s ability to detect and remove spam and child sexual abuse material. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment – the company’s PR team was effectively eliminated during the lay-offs – while Google is also yet to respond. A separate report from The Information last month claimed that Twitter also delayed payments to Amazon Web Services. The latest issues come after internal documents revealed that Twitter’s advertising revenue is down by more than half since Mr Musk’s takeover. The company’s main revenue stream was initially hit by advertisers withdrawing over concerns related to the direction of the platform and its leadership, though Mr Musk claimed in April that “almost all advertisers have come back or said they are going to come back”. Twitter’s valuation since Mr Musk bought the company for $44 billion has dropped to around $15 billion, according to estimates from investment firm Fidelity. Newly-appointed Twitter chief executive Linda Yaccarino, who took over from Mr Musk last week, has been tasked with improving relationships with advertisers, while Mr Musk focuses on “overseeing product, software and sysops as the firm’s chief technology officer. Read More Twitter ad sales down by more than half since Elon Musk takeover, report claims

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BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are set to approve with conditions U.S. chipmaker Broadcom's $61 billion proposed acquisition of

Many of us look to the stars for answers to life’s most complex questions. But actually, some of the greatest mysteries lie beneath our very feet. One might think we’d know the Earth pretty well by now but, in fact, our planet’s core remains shrouded in enigma. Indeed, there are two gigantic blobs located beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean that occupy around six per cent of the world’s entire volume. And yet, we’re still not entirely sure what they’re made of or where they came from. There are a number of hypotheses, including that they are piles of oceanic crust that have accumulated over billions of years. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But a more interesting theory is that they are huge chunks of an ancient planet that hit the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. To give an indication of just how massive these things are, the structure under Africa – an area known as Tuzo – is thought to be around 800km (497 miles) tall – the equivalent of some 90 Mount Everests stacked on top of one another, as IFLScience notes. The problem with determining the origin of these monster formations is that there are no direct ways of observing the Earth’s core. The deepest hole humans have ever dug – branded the "entrance to hell" – reached a pretty staggering 12,263m (40,230ft), but that doesn’t even come close to breaking through the crust to the layers beneath. Our most effective tool for analysing what lies beneath the ground is a technique called seismic tomography, which looks at how waves of energy travel when earthquakes occur. Since rocks and liquids have different densities, the waves move through them at different speeds. By measuring the tremors from different points on the surface, geologists can determine what kind of material the waves are travelling through and, in so doing, map out the Earth’s interior. It was by using this technique that the two unusual structures – known as large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) – were found. Waves travel more slowly in these areas – fondly known as “blobs” – than through the surrounding lower mantle, indicating that they’re made of something different. We can’t tell what this material is based on seismic tomography data alone, but some scientists like to believe that they are the remnants of an ancient planet called Theia – an idea known as the “giant impact hypothesis”. According to this hypothesis, around 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object collided with the Earth. This impact not only created the planet we call home today, but also threw off enough rock to form the moon that lights up our night skies. Some scientists suggest that some of Theia’s leftovers also sunk to the bottom of the planet, probably settling somewhere above the core – thereby forming at least one of the two LLSVPs. More Updates About Strange Blob Structures Inside Planet Earth youtu.be Experts have been investigating the area for decades but there’s still no way of knowing for sure just what these two giant blobs are. Still, studies into Theia have offered important insights into how the possible collision might have kickstarted key plate tectonic and mantle motion inside our planet – crucial processes for establishing the world on which we live. It’s also a useful reminder that we still have so much to learn about our planet and where we came from. 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.

It feels like there have been staggering science stories emerging every other day recently, all of which have blown our tiny little minds. First, there was the discovery of a terrifying black hole pointing right at us, then there was a huge hole found in the sun and a missing continent found after going missing for 375 years. Now, people are only just realising that there’s a massive ocean hidden under the Earth’s crust. It turns out there’s a huge supply of water 400 miles underground stored in rock known as 'ringwoodite'. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Scientists previously discovered that water is stored inside mantle rock in a sponge-like state, which isn’t a liquid, solid or a gas, but instead a fourth state. The scientific paper titled ‘Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle’ was published in 2014 and laid out the findings. "The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water, there is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water," said geophysicist Steve Jacobsen at the time. "This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle,” added Jacobsen, who was part of the team behind the discovery. He added: "I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades." Scientists made the findings at the time after studying earthquakes and discovering that seismometers were picking up shockwaves under the surface of the Earth. From that, they were able to establish that the water was being held in the rock known as ringwoodite. If the rock contained just 1 per cent water, it would mean that there is three times more water under the surface of the Earth than there is in the oceans on the surface. 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.