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AI can pick out specific odours from a combination of smells

An AI can detect the presence of smells and even distinguish between scents like ammonia or carbon monoxide, which could be useful for detecting hazardous odours




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Peer into a giant, half-formed ship that can hold 18,000 containers

This image of an enormous ship under construction features in a new book and show that challenge common ideas about beauty - while the real ship may help cut carbon emissions




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AI hotel assistant persuades guests to use less water and electricity

An artificially intelligent eco-assistant can persuade hotel guests and staff to reduce their electricity use by up to a third




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Why people become strangely attached to their robot vacuum cleaners

Kate Darling researches human-robot interaction. She explains why we are prone to forming emotional connections with robots and what we can learn from our relationships with pets and other animals




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Soya protein can help make lab-grown beef with the texture of meat

Lab-grown ‘meat’ often uses gelatin produced in slaughterhouses to give artificial beef a meat-like texture – but substituting soya protein can achieve that without killing animals




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Death researcher on pandemics and our fascination with dying

Pandemics of the past can teach us about the current one, says John Troyer, who studies how we use technology to alter the experience of death




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Microrobots made from pollen help remove toxic mercury from wastewater

Pollen has a natural tendency to adsorb mercury and forms the basis of a new class of tiny robots that speed through toxic water to purify it




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Deepmind AI can understand the unusual atomic structure of glass

Glass has an unusual atomic structure that resembles a liquid frozen in place, making it hard to predict how it will behave. DeepMind has developed an AI capable of doing so, which may also be able to predict traffic jams




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Software recreates a 3D model of your face from a smartphone video

A program that combines artificial intelligence and geometrical modelling can create an accurate 3D model of your face from a single 20-second video




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Vibrating clothes could make you feel like you’re wearing clouds

Fabric with tiny vibrating motors elicits sensations associated with clouds, water and rocks on the skin and has been made into a dress that could improve emotions




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Quantum computer chips demonstrated at the highest temperatures ever

Qubits are often stabilised by being supercooled, which makes quantum computer chips hard to scale up. Now they have been operated at above -272°C for the first time




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The US Navy patented a device to make laser ‘ghost planes’ in mid-air

The US Navy is researching how to use lasers to form plasma into 2D or 3D infrared images of aeroplanes that can distract heat-seeking missiles




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AI can search satellite data to find plastic floating in the sea

AI can check satellite images of the ocean and distinguish between floating materials such as seaweed or plastics, which could help clean-up efforts




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Smart windows can let visible light through while blocking out heat

A 3D printed grate can be used to make a smart window that blocks heat from sunlight out in the summer while letting it through in the winter, conserving energy




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Robots with 3D-printed muscles are powered by the spines of rats

Robots made of 3D-printed muscle and rat spines could help us understand conditions like motor neurone disease and the technique may eventually be used to build prosthetic devices




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It's time to retreat from the tyranny of lockdown tech

People in lockdown are no longer trying to use technology to get their old lives back and that's a good thing, says Annalee Newitz




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MIDI 2.0: The code that will define the future of sound has arrived

Four decades ago, we introduced a standard way of encoding digital sound. Its first ever upgrade could lead to new genres of music and ways of experiencing sound




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Lockdown Update: लॉकडाउन का उल्लंघन तो कहीं पसरा सन्नाटा, बिना अनुमति दुकान खोलने वालों के खिलाफ चला अभियान

पश्चिमी यूपी के विभिन्न जिलों में कोरोना दोबारा अपने पांव पसार रहा है वहीं संक्रमण को लेकर लोग अभी भी संजीदा नहीं हैं -




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How to Watch the Xbox Series X First Look Stream This Afternoon

Watch everything unfold in real time, rather than reading about it later.




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Disneyland in China to Reopen 11 May With Temperature Checks and Masks Required

This could be a trial run for the rest of Disney’s parks in the US, Japan, France, and Hong Kong.




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Zoom Backgrounds Now Include a Selection From TfL - That's Not a Reference to Star Wars

TfL as in Transport for London. Greeeeeaaat.




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Sonos Finally Supports Dolby Atmos With New Arc Soundbar

Sonos has been busy these past few months.




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Make Your Own KFC at Home With This Recipe That's as Good as the Real Thing

Plus you'll know where everything's come from, so it'll be even more delicious.




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Axl Rose and the U.S. Treasury Secretary are Fighting on Twitter About the Trump Regime's Coronavirus Death Toll

Why? Because that’s our reality here in the year 2020.




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Why Temperature Screenings Alone Won't Protect People From Covid-19

While such a plan might sound appealing, it’s likely to provide a false sense of security




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Worst Co-Worker Ever Creates the Loudest, Clackiest Keyboard Imaginable

This unusual contraption recreates the sounds of an old-school mechanical typewriter on a modern keyboard.




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Dramatic Fossil Shows a Squid-Like Creature Crushing a Fish in Its Jaws

Scientists are speculating as to how the two creatures managed to become preserved in such an unusual way.




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Get Your McDonald's Big Mac Fix at Home With This Recipe

McDonald's is opening (some of) its doors next week, but if you want a bank holiday Big Mac fix, here's how.




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Animal Crossing Is the Breath of the Wild Postgame I Always Dreamed Of

Strange as it may sound, Animal Crossing: New Horizons feels like where Breath of the Wild should have ended up gameplay-wise.




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Warburtons Open-Sources its Crumpet Recipe for Home Baking Approximation

No going out to buy ingredients you don't already have, though. Crumpets are treats.




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BA Owner Thinks Heathrow's Third Runway is "Impossible" Now

It does make several enormous assumptions about the future that now seem perilously flaky.




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Google Authenticator Update Makes it Way Easier to Transfer Accounts to a New Device

Anything that encourages more people to enable two-step verification can only be a good thing.




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Calculator Hacked for Cheating Includes a Secret OLED Screen, Wifi, and Even a Chat Function

But can you still write "BOOBS" on it?




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Teenager Ran Away to Be With Boy She Met on Dating Site. A Week Later She Was Dead.

Moorcraft Police Department/Meade County Sheriff’s Office

A South Dakota teenager has admitted to slaying a 16-year-old girl who “ran away” from home to live with him after they met on an online dating website, authorities said.

Michael Campbell, 17, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Thursday for the death of Shayna Ritthaler, a 16-year-old from Moorcroft, Wyoming, who was reported missing from a local coffee shop on Oct. 3. Less than a week later, her body was found in the basement bedroom of Campbell’s home.

“We got into an argument and then I shot her,” Campbell said during a change-of-plea hearing on Thursday, before referring to the teenager as his girlfriend, according to the Associated Press. “I shot her in the head.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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QAnon Nuts Euphoric Over Latest Turn in Michael Flynn’s Legal Case

Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty

Roy “Captain Roy D” Davis has devoted much of the last three years to the QAnon conspiracy theory, writing books pitching the concept to new fans and getting his car repainted with an enormous “Q” on the hood. Through it all, he’s been utterly convinced that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn—a central figure to much of the Q community—was the victim of an anti-Trump cabal orchestrated by the leaders of the deep state. He corresponded with other Flynn supporters following his legal case, and donated proceeds from one of his books to Flynn’s legal fund. 

So when Davis saw on Thursday that the Justice Department would drop its charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI, Davis was euphoric.

“He’s a hero of mine,” Davis said. “I wouldn’t do all of these things just out of the blue.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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One Family’s Frantic Search to Get the Drugs to Combat COVID-19

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Marissa Guale is like all too many Americans right now. Her husband and father of her two children, Raul, is on a ventilator in a hospital on Long Island, fighting for his life while sick with COVID-19. Raul, a 34-year-old nurse, likely caught the disease while working in a nursing home. When the National Institutes of Health announced an emergency use authorization for the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir, Marissa scrambled friends and family on Facebook to figure out how to get access for Raul, emailing hospital administrators, senators, and doctors. They pressed the Guale family’s case for a potentially lifesaving treatment on social media to anyone who would listen.

Her confusion about where and how to get access to the drug isn’t unique. All over the country, families, doctors, and hospitals are wondering how to get the drug and on what basis it’s being distributed. The Trump administration, which is in charge of allocation, hasn’t published any guidance on how it’s making decisions about the scarce supplies of the drug.

So who decides which hospitals get remdesivir? And what’s the most ethical way to prioritize access?

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Meth, Murder, and Madness: The System That Buried Ahmaud Arbery

Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty

SAVANNAH, Georgia—Allegations Friday that a Georgia district attorney blocked police officers from arresting the killers of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery were just the latest blow to a local law enforcement apparatus that has been rocked by a series of troubling and deadly scandals.

Brunswick DA Jackie Johnson’s office allegedly prevented the Glynn County Police Department from arresting Travis and Gregory McMichael in connection with the shooting death of Arbery, an unarmed black man, in late February, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Johnson has recused herself from that case. But one Glynn County commissioner suggested she personally intervened in early plans to make arrests “to protect her friend” Gregory McMichael. McMichael was a former cop and investigator in the Brunswick DA’s office for 25 years who had reportedly investigated Arbery in the past. 

It is far from the first time the office—and local law enforcement more generally—had come under scathing scrutiny. 

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Prepare for Sex and Dating to Get Even More Complicated Once the Lockdown Lifts

Mario Tama/Getty

For the past two months, Katie Holliday has been cooped up alone in her Brooklyn apartment thinking longingly about an unlikely erogenous zone: the lower half of a stranger’s face. 

“I remember joking to my friend before all of this started, ‘Imagine if someone’s face becomes their most coveted body part?’” Holliday, who is 31, told The Daily Beast. “‘When someone removes their mask, is it a sign of trust? Is it like letting someone see you naked?’ I was kidding back then, but now it’s reality.”

Holliday doesn’t know exactly when it will be safe to start seeing people like she did before the pandemic began, but she’ll return to a singles scene unlike any other in history. “I’m picturing walking into a bar where everyone’s wearing masks,” she said. “I’ll meet someone whose face is covered. Are they cute or not? I don’t know!” 

Read more at The Daily Beast.



  • Arts and Culture

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The New Trump App Is a Death Star of Fake News—and It Reaches More People Than Daytime Cable News

Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

Campaigns and consultants have spent the last four years worrying about the Trump campaign’s digital operation. Even before COVID-19 upended the election and forced candidates online, the Trump campaign was geofencing campaign rallies, micro-targeting digital ads, and amplifying deepfake videos.

And now, as both the crisis and the general election enter their third month, panic is beginning to set in about the startling digital gap between the two parties, amplified by the recent Trump campaign announcement of both a new app experience and the start of a $10 million digital push against Joe Biden

President Trump’s campaign manager has called what he’s built a “juggernaut” and is likening his digital infrastructure to a Death Star. In reality, what he's built is a trap.  

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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COVID Bailout Cash Goes to Big Players That Have Paid Millions To Settle Allegations Of Wrongdoing

Getty

By Rachana Pradhan and Fred Schulte | Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-related bailouts to health care providers with checkered histories, including a Florida-based cancer center that agreed to pay a $100 million criminal penalty as part of a federal antitrust investigation.

At least half of the top 10 recipients, part of a group that received $20 billion in emergency funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, have paid millions in recent years either in criminal penalties or to settle allegations related to improper billing and other practices, a Kaiser Health News review of government records shows.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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What It Truly Means to ‘Believe Survivors’

Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty

Two years ago, the voices of survivors of sexual harassment and assault launched an unprecedented movement the world over, using Tarana Burke’s MeToo framework. That one moment was a spark into the unknown, but the movement itself was no happy accident. It was built to fuel a reclamation of power for those who had been silenced for too long, a laborious undertaking by activists, advocates, and organizations including mine—the National Women’s Law Center, which also houses and administers the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund.

Since then, the #MeToo movement has enabled considerable progress, including making space for more and more people who have claims of sexual misconduct to come forward. People like Tara Reade.

But despite this dramatic cultural awakening, our institutions and systems are just beginning to stir. The lack of necessary legal and policy changes both in our government and in our workplaces, schools, houses of worship, and otherwise have created a world that very imperfectly serves the needs of survivors. Every domestic worker who is entirely unprotected by our federal and most state civil rights statutes, and every person who is classified as an independent contractor and left out of civil rights protections, have proven that our work must take on the reform and re-envisioning of the very systems that excluded them in the first place. 

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Little Richard’s Raw Sexiness Inspired the Beatles, David Bowie and Prince

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

It’s not going out on much of a limb to say that the single greatest line in any rock and roll song—shall we double down and say all music ever?—is “A-wop-bom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom!!”

Surely that says it all.

As with any truly oracular pronouncement, it inspires consternation in the first-time listener, and the second-time listener, and the third, the fourth, and on and on. The mystery never diminishes.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Telco You've Never Heard Of Is Flogging 103GB Data For $38 A Month With No Contract

Circles.Life is a little-known telco with a questionable name choice. But it also happens to have a real hectic SIM-only plan deal right now. For $38 a month you get a whopping 103GB data -- also per month. And you don't even need to sign a contract. More »
    




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How To Watch The Community Reunion Table Read In Australia

The cast of Community is reuniting for a virtual table read to raise money for coronavirus relief. Almost all of main cast will be back for the online event, including Donald Glover who left the show in season 5. It will also include a Q&A where fans can submit questions via social media. This is how you can watch it live. More »
    




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Best SIM Only Phone Plans From Telcos That Aren't Telstra, Optus Or Vodafone

While considering a new phone plan your first instinct may be to compare the big three - Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone. But over the past few years smaller telcos have come in swinging with plans that have high data allowances and smaller monthly fees. By looking a little deeper you can grab a great bargain. Here are five of our favourite deals these telcos are packing right now. More »
    




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Australian Scientists Discover 'Virgin' Bees That Don't Have Sex And Only Give Birth To Females

Researchers at a Sydney university have discovered how some female bees have managed to reproduce despite never doing the deed with another. More »
    




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How Mobile Data Sharing Works

There are a lot of big steps you can take in a relationship. Dropping the 'L bomb', moving in together, combined finances, getting engaged. All these pale in comparison to sharing mobile data. Sharing your precious data with a significant other is big. You have to trust that your partner won't burn through it all while bingeing Netflix on the bus. You have to respect your partner's share. And you have to forgive when someone inevitably goes over the cap anyway. But how exactly does data sharing work? More »
    




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Lockdown warning: Tory MP Baker 'gravely concerned' at coronavirus economic damage



THE CORONAVIRUS lockdown is now causing serious damage to the UK's economy, Tory MP Steve Baker has warned - stressing he was now "gravely concerned" at the situation




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Over 50% of people plan not to reinstate direct debits post lockdown – expert gives advice



CORONAVIRUS has forced people to re-evaluate their finances as income takes a hit and budgets are stretched. One of the first port of calls for change has been direct debits and new research reveals that some people may find themselves with more cash available once this all ends.




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State pension age changed this week – this is when the next rise will occur



STATE pension age is continually being reviewed and altered by the government. The latest change occurred earlier this week.