List of All Articles with Tag 'science'

Microwave popcorn bags are often covered in words—here’s why you should pay attention to “This Side Up.”

Opossums have a bad reputation, but they’re smarter and more beneficial to people than other woodland denizens. Discover more about these unique marsupials here.

As per Elon Musk's latest announcement, Twitter has started limiting the number of tweets a person can read. The tech mogul, who took over the platform in October in a $44 billion (£35 billion) sale, revealed on Sunday (2 July) that verified accounts can read up to 6,000 posts a day. Meanwhile, unverified users are limited to 600 a day, with newer Twitter accounts restricted to reading 300. "Rate limits increasing soon to 8,000 for verified, 800 for unverified & 400 for new unverified," he added later. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said Twitter had imposed the "temporary limit" to "address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation." The decision sparked a furious backlash from many users, with one writing: "Sooo what’s everyone’s Instagram? Where we movin’ to cause this Twitter limit is dumb AF." Another added: "Seriously fed up with twitter now. This ‘rate limit’ thing is ridiculous. You can’t read a thread or see replies. What is the point? Why is Elon doing this… and why didn’t he warn people weeks ago if he was going to change rules?" Musk did not say when the limits will increase, or how long the restrictions will be in place for. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Inevitably, many more Twitter users hit back at the move in the most Twitter way possible: Memes. To add salt to the wound, thousands of people complained of problems accessing the site on Saturday (1 July). #Twitterdown and RIP Twitter began trending as frustrated users were faced with a message saying "Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a few moments then try again." Last week, people trying to access Twitter were told they would need to log in to an account to view tweets, in what Musk called a "temporary emergency measure." It comes after another outage in February, when many users were not able to tweet, follow accounts or access their direct messages as the platform was plagued by widespread technical problems. 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.

Many people report fearing clusters of holes. If you're one of them, this post is for you. But don't say we didn't warn you.

Public interest in the deep ocean went into a frenzy this week as the search for the doomed Titan submarine played out – and Oscar-winning film director has made no secret of the fact that he is obsessed with the subject. Since it emerged on 22 June that the Titan was destroyed in what US authorities called a “catastrophic implosion”, Cameron has been telling media outlets that he knew what the five-man crew’s fate was since Monday, four days earlier. After calling up his “contacts in the deep submersible community” Cameron said he had already ascertained that the vessel had been destroyed in an implosion. “I felt in my bones what had happened.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter But why does Cameron know so much about the ocean depths? Titanic, Avatar and The Abyss First of all, Cameron has made a lot of films about the bottom of the sea. His 1997 film, Titanic, won 11 Oscars and was the first movie to earn more than $1bn worldwide, and Cameron went deep on his research – literally. The filmmaker has visited the real-life wreck of the Titanic 33 times, making his first trip in 1995 to shoot footage for the film. One of those dives even involved getting trapped with the wreck for 16 hours, with currents of water holding the director’s submarine at the bottom of the ocean. He has even written a book about his experiences, Exploring The Deep, which includes details of his dive journey, photos and maps from his own explorations of the wreck. He told ABC News: “I actually calculated [that] I've spent more time on the ship than the captain did back in the day.” Long before Titanic, Cameron directed The Abyss in 1989. The premise of the film is that an American submarine sinks in the Caribbean – sound familiar? That prompts a search and recovery team to race against Soviet vessels to recover the boat. Meanwhile, the last movie in Cameron’s famous Avatar franchise, The Way of Water, is set on the aquatic ecosystems of a world 25 trillion miles from Earth. "Some people think of me as a Hollywood guy … (but) I make 'Avatar' to make money to do explorations," Cameron told The Telegraph. Going even deeper In 2012, Cameron went a step further, plunging nearly 11km down to the deepest place in the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. The filmmaker made the solo descent in a submarine called the Deepsea Challenger, and it took more than two hours to reach the bottom. The submarine he used was years in the making, designed by Cameron himself with a team of engineers. The trip was only the second manned expedition to the Mariana Trench. The first was in 1960, when US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard descended to the ocean floor. “It was absolutely the most remote, isolated place on the planet,” Cameron said in a later interview. “I really feel like in one day I've been to another planet and come back.” He was even underwater when 9/11 happened His obsession with the ocean goes back to age 17, he told the New York Times, when he learned to scuba dive, when he said he felt like he had discovered the "keys to another world”. And between making Titanic in 1997 and Avatar in 2009 Cameron didn’t make a feature film. But he did make documentaries about sea exploration. One of those, 2003’s Ghosts of the Abyss, showed Cameron's travels to the Titanic, while the other, 2005’s Aliens of the Deep, saw Cameron team up with NASA scientists to explore the sea creatures of mid-ocean ridges. Cameron’s fascination even meant he was inside a submersible vessel exploring the Titanic on 11 September 2001, when terrorists flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Centre. It was only after the now-68-year-old director and his crew finished their expedition and returned to the main ship that Cameron learned what had happened. “What is this thing that’s going on?” Cameron asked the late actor Bill Paxton, who played treasure hunter Brock Lovett in the film. “The worst terrorist attack in history, Jim,” Paxton said. Cameron realised he “was presumably the last man in the Western Hemisphere to learn about what had happened,” he told Spiegel in 2012. 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.

The baby croc was the product of a mother who has spent her entire life in captivity.

The chemistry behind the vibrant colors of fireworks is another reason to “ooh” and “aah” at the sky this Fourth of July.

There’s a reason nobody’s referring to the missing ‘Titanic’ submersible as a submarine.

An overview of the media in the United States, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.

By now we've seen what AI is capable of especially when its dealing with beloved cultural figures but a new take on The Simpsons might have gone too far according to some fans. Previously, AI has shown us what the likes of The Simpsons and The Avengers would have looked like if they were sitcoms in the 1980s. Well, thanks to Midjourney and one Reddit user we now know what the various Simpsons characters could look like if they were real people living in 2023. Over on the Midjourney subreddit @Crows_HeadIC shared what happened when they asked the AI image generator to reimagine the Simpsons as modern-day characters. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The post has 20 different images and features all the main Simpsons family as well as other favourites such as Ned Flanders, Mr Burns, Patty and Selma, Apu, Smithers, Principal Skinner, Moe, Lenny and Carl. My take on the real life Simpsons by u/Crows_HeadIC in midjourney One of the biggest talking points on the thread was about the recreation of Marge who now has tattoos and a long blue hair, instead of a tall vertical bonnet. One person said: "Marge is the only one that doesn’t work. Everyone else is great." Another wrote: "I struggled a lot with Marge. But why not give her a modern edge." However, another person disagreed adding: "Marge is hot AF." Consensus was split on the other characters too with some loving the redesigns and others not being convinced. One user wrote: "Homer doesn't resemble anything like him except the baldness." Another said: "Flanders and Comic Book Guy are bang on." A third added: "Damn, Lenny Carl and Skinner got mad glow ups." 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.

This dairy lovers’ dream job requires tasting up to 24 cheeses and a dozen pizzas per week.

Paul McCartney has revealed a 'final' song by The Beatles is set for release, all thanks to help from artificial intelligence. The tech has managed to replicate the voice of John Lennon, and although currently unnamed, it's like to be a 1978 song by the late artist, called 'Now And Then'. The group had previously attempted to finish the song without Lennon, and vowed it would be completed one day. "We just finished it up and it'll be released this year," McCartney said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, much to the excitement of fans. Click here to sign up for our newsletters