Aug62023 by TechmanNo Comments

Musk Says Fight with Zuckerberg Will be Live-Streamed on X

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Elon Musk said in a social media post that his proposed cage fight with Meta (META.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be live-streamed on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.  The social media moguls have been egging each other into a mixed martial arts cage match in Las Vegas since June. "Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans," Musk said in a post on X early on Sunday morning, without giving any further details. Earlier on Sunday, Musk had said on X that he was "lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight", adding that he did not have time to work out so brings the weights to work. When a user on X asked Musk the point…


Aug62023 by TechmanNo Comments

AI Anxiety: Workers Fret Over Uncertain Future

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The tidal wave of artificial intelligence (AI) barrelling toward many professions has generated deep anxiety among workers fearful that their jobs will be swept away -- and the mental health impact is rising. The launch in November 2022 of ChatGPT, the generative AI platform capable of handling complex tasks on command, marked a tech landmark as AI started to transform the workplace. "Anything new and unknown is anxiety-producing," Clare Gustavsson, a New York therapist whose patients have shared concerns about AI, told AFP. "The technology is growing so fast, it is hard to gain sure footing." Legal assistants, programmers, accountants and financial advisors are among those professions feeling threatened by generative AI that can quickly create human-like prose, computer code, articles or expert insight. Goldman Sachs analysts see generative AI…


Aug62023 by DmediaNo Comments

Sweltering Europeans Give Air Conditioning a Skeptical Embrace

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During Europe's heat wave last month, Floriana Peroni's vintage clothing store had to close for a week. A truck of rented generators blocked her door as they fed power to the central Roman neighborhood hit by a blackout as temperatures surged. The main culprit: air conditioning.  The period — in which temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) — coincided with peak electricity use that came close to Italy's all-time high, hitting a peak load of more than 59 gigawatts on July 19. That neared a July 2015 record.  Intensive electricity use knocked out the network not only near the central Campo de Fiori neighborhood, where Peroni operates her shop, but elsewhere in the Italian capital. Demand in that second July week surged 30%, correlating to a heat wave…


Aug62023 by DmediaNo Comments

Indian Lunar Landing Mission Enters Moon’s Orbit

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India's latest space mission entered the moon's orbit on Saturday ahead of the country's second attempted lunar landing, as its space program seeks to reach new heights. The world's most populous nation has a comparatively low-budget aerospace program that is rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global space powers. Only Russia, the United States and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface. The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed that Chandrayaan-3, which means moon craft in Sanskrit, had been "successfully inserted into the lunar orbit," more than three weeks after its launch. If the rest of the current mission goes to plan, the mission will safely touch down near the moon's little-explored south pole between Aug. 23 and 24. India's last attempt to do so…


Aug62023 by DmediaNo Comments

How Can Quantum Science Help Society?  

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The blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer” focuses on the work of American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in the development of the atomic bomb. To prepare for the film, director Christopher Nolan reportedly did some heavy research into quantum physics, a study whose revolutionary benefits expanded into many fields after World War II, researchers say. Quantum physics “is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level,” as described in an article on the California Institute of Technology’s website. “It aims to uncover the properties and behaviors of the very building blocks of nature.” Different laws “When you get down to the smallest particles and energy scales, the laws of physics seem to be different than the ones we are familiar with,” said Olivia Lanes, the global lead of education…


Aug52023 by DmediaNo Comments

Somalia Reopens National Blood Bank to Address Critical Shortage

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Somalia reopened the National Blood Bank Saturday for the first time in more than 30 years, in a significant move to address the shortage of blood supplies and save lives. Somalia Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, who inaugurated the fresh start for the center in Mogadishu, said it’s a crucial achievement for his nation, which has been grappling with frequent disasters and violent incidents that require adequate blood supplies. The country’s health minister, Dr. Ali Haji Adam, told VOA the revival of the center signifies a turning point in the country's health care system. "With the reopening of the national blood bank, we can now adequately address the overwhelming demand for blood in emergency situations and enhance the chances of saving precious lives." Adam said. The minister said the center…


Aug52023 by DmediaNo Comments

World Bank to Help Fund 1,000 Mini Solar Power Grids in Nigeria

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The World Bank is aiming to help fund construction of 1,000 mini solar power grids in Africa's biggest economy Nigeria in partnership with the government and private sector, the lender's president Ajay Banga said Saturday. Nigeria, with a population of more than 200 million people, has installed power generation capacity of 12,500 megawatts, or MW, but it produces a fraction of that, leaving millions of households and businesses reliant on petrol and diesel generators. Mini grids, made up of small-scale electricity generating units, typically range in size from a few kilowatts to up to 10 MW, enough to power about 200 households. Speaking during a visit to a mini grid site on the outskirts of the capital Abuja, Banga told reporters that nearly 150 mini grids had been built, partly…


Aug52023 by DmediaNo Comments

Stress Prompting More US Teachers of Color to Quit

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Rhonda Hicks could have kept working into her 60s. She loved teaching and loved her students in Philadelphia's public schools. As a Black woman, she took pride in being a role model for many children of color. But other aspects of the job deteriorated, such as growing demands from administrators over what and how to teach. And when she retires in a few weeks, she will join a disproportionately high number of Black and Hispanic teachers in her state who are leaving the profession. "I enjoy actually teaching, that part I've always enjoyed," said Hicks, 59. "Sometimes it's a little stressful. Sometimes the kids can be difficult. But it's the higher-ups: 'Do it this way or don't do it at all.'" Teachers are leaving jobs in growing numbers, state reports…


Aug52023 by DmediaNo Comments

US Approves First Pill to Treat Postpartum Depression

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Federal health officials have approved the first pill specifically intended to treat severe depression after childbirth, a condition that affects thousands of new mothers in the U.S. each year. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted approval of the drug, Zurzuvae, for adults experiencing severe depression related to childbirth or pregnancy. The pill is taken once a day for 14 days. "Having access to an oral medication will be a beneficial option for many of these women coping with extreme, and sometimes life-threatening, feelings," said Dr. Tiffany Farchione, FDA's director of psychiatric drugs, in a statement. Postpartum depression affects an estimated 400,000 people a year, and while it often ends on its own within a couple weeks, it can continue for months or even years. Standard treatment includes counseling…


Aug52023 by TechmanNo Comments

NASA Back in Touch With Voyager 2 After ‘Interstellar Shout’

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NASA has succeeded in reestablishing full contact with Voyager 2 by using its highest-power transmitter to send an "interstellar shout" that righted the distant probe's antenna orientation, the space agency said Friday. Launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets and serve as a beacon of humanity to the wider universe, it is currently more than 19.9 billion kilometers from our planet — well beyond the solar system.  A series of planned commands sent to the spaceship on July 21 mistakenly caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth, compromising its ability to send and receive signals and endangering its mission. The situation was not expected to be resolved until at least Oct. 15 when Voyager 2 was scheduled to carry out an automated realignment maneuver. But Tuesday,…


Aug52023 by DmediaNo Comments

World’s Oceans Set Surface Temperature Record, EU Monitor Says 

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The world's oceans set a temperature record this week, raising concerns about the effects that could have on the planet's climate, marine life and coastal communities.  The temperature of the oceans' surface rose to 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 30, according to European Union climate observatory data.   The previous record was 20.95 C in March 2016, a spokeswoman for the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service told AFP on Friday.  The samples tested excluded polar regions.  The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which uses a different database, has also recorded a similar trend in recent months.  It said the average sea surface temperature record was reached on April 4 this year at 21.06 C, overtaking the previous high of 21.01 C in March 2016. On August…


Aug42023 by DmediaNo Comments

Pioneering Mothers Break Down Barriers to Breastfeeding in Olympic Sports

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When Clarisse Agbégnénou won her sixth world judo title, confirming the reigning Olympic champion as one of the athletes to watch at next year's Paris Games, the French star's smallest but greatest fan was less wild about her mother's newest gold medal than she was about her breast milk. After a peckish day of few feeds — because Mom had been busy putting opponents through the wringer — 10-month-old Athéna made amends that night. "She didn't let my boobs out of her mouth," Agbégnénou said. "I was like, 'Wow, OK.' I think it was really something for her." Breastfeeding and high-performance sports were long an almost impossible combination for top female athletes, torn for decades between careers or motherhood, because having both was so tough. But that's becoming less true…


Aug42023 by DmediaNo Comments

Cyberattack Disrupts Hospitals, Health Care in Several States

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A cyberattack disrupted hospital computer systems in several states, forcing some emergency rooms to close and ambulances to be diverted. Many primary care services remained closed Friday as security experts worked to determine the extent of the problem and resolve it. The "data security incident" began Thursday at facilities operated by Prospect Medical Holdings, which is based in California and has hospitals and clinics there and in Texas, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. "Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists," the company said in a statement Friday. "While our investigation continues, we are focused on addressing the pressing needs of our patients as we work diligently to return to normal operations as quickly as…


Aug42023 by DmediaNo Comments

Greek Zoo Serves Animals Frozen Meals to Help Them Beat the Heat

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At first sight, Tiembe studies his frozen breakfast with hesitation: Chunks of red meat and bone packed in a foot-long block of ice.  The 15-year-old Angolan lion eventually licks the ice before gnawing free pieces of meat.  Animals at the Attica Zoological Park outside the Greek capital were being fed frozen meals Friday as temperatures around the country reached 40 C (107.5 F) and were set to rise further, in the fourth heat wave in less than a month.  The extreme temperatures and wildfires — a growing concern for biodiversity in southern Europe — have had an impact on Greek wildlife.  A fire on the island of Rhodes burned for 11 successive days, triggering the evacuation of 20,000 people, mostly tourists.  The island's animals were less fortunate.  As the fire…


Aug42023 by DmediaNo Comments

Endangered Species Act’s Future in Doubt

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Biologist Ashley Wilson carefully disentangled a bat from netting above a tree-lined river and examined the wriggling, furry mammal in her headlamp's glow. "Another big brown," she said with a sigh. It was a common type, one of many Wilson and colleagues had snagged on summer nights in the southern Michigan countryside. They were looking for increasingly scarce Indiana and northern long-eared bats, which historically migrated there for birthing season, sheltering behind peeling bark of dead trees. The scientists had yet to spot either species this year as they embarked on a netting mission. "It's a bad suggestion if we do not catch one. It doesn't look good," said Allen Kurta, an Eastern Michigan University professor who has studied bats for more than 40 years. The two bat varieties are…


Aug32023 by DmediaNo Comments

Ancient Flamingo Egg Found in Mexico During Airport Construction

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MEXICO CITY — An ancient flamingo fossil egg between 8,000 and 12,000 years old was uncovered at a busy construction site for a new airport in Mexico, officials from the Latin American country said Wednesday. The remarkably preserved egg from the Pleistocene period is incredibly rare. It is the first discovery of its kind from the Phoenicopteridae flamingo family in the Americas and only the second in the world, according to Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH. The Pleistocene geological epoch, the most recent Ice Age, began 2.6 million years ago and ended around 11,700 years ago. The flamingo egg fossil was found at a depth of 31 centimeters (12.2 inches) amid clay and shale during construction at the new Felipe Angeles airport in the state of…


Aug32023 by DmediaNo Comments

108 Treated for Heat-Related Illnesses at World Scout Jamboree in South Korea

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At least 108 people were treated for heat-related illnesses at the World Scout Jamboree being held in South Korea, which is having one of its hottest summers in years. Most of them have recovered but at least two remain in treatment at an on-site hospital as of Thursday morning, said Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the Jamboree's organizing committee. The committee, which plans to proceed with the event while adding dozens more medical staff to prepare for further emergencies, did not confirm the ages and other personal details of those who were injured. Wednesday night's opening ceremony of the Jamboree brought more than 40,000 scouts, mostly teens, to a campsite built on land reclaimed from the sea in the southwestern town of Buan. The temperature there reached 35 degrees Celsius Wednesday.…


Aug32023 by DmediaNo Comments

Heaviest Animal Ever May be Ancient Whale Found in Peruvian Desert

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There could be a new contender for heaviest animal to ever live. While today's blue whale has long held the title, scientists have dug up fossils from an ancient giant that could tip the scales. Researchers described the new species — named Perucetus colossus, or "the colossal whale from Peru" — in the journal Nature on Wednesday. Each vertebra weighs more than 100 kilograms, and its ribs measure nearly 1.4 meters long. "It's just exciting to see such a giant animal that's so different from anything we know," said Hans Thewissen, a paleontologist at Northeast Ohio Medical University who had no role in the research. The bones were first discovered more than a decade ago by Mario Urbina from the University of San Marcos' Natural History Museum in Lima. An…


Aug32023 by DmediaNo Comments

Climate Change Made July Hotter for 4 of 5 Humans on Earth, Scientists Find

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Human-caused global warming made July hotter for four out of five people on Earth, with more than 2 billion people feeling climate change-boosted warmth daily, according to a flash study. More than 6.5 billion people, or 81% of the world's population, sweated through at least one day where climate change had a significant effect on the average daily temperature, according to a new report issued Wednesday by Climate Central, a science nonprofit that has figured a way to calculate how much climate change has affected daily weather. "We really are experiencing climate change just about everywhere," said Climate Central Vice President for Science Andrew Pershing. Researchers looked at 4,711 cities and found climate change fingerprints in 4,019 of them for July, which other scientists said is the hottest month on…


Aug22023 by DmediaNo Comments

Global AIDS Program Targeted in US Abortion Battle Moved to State Department

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The State Department launched a new bureau Tuesday aimed at making the battle against global outbreaks a lasting priority of U.S. foreign policy, even as one of its key elements – a widely acclaimed HIV program – has become caught up in the political battle over abortion. The bureau is to include the 20-year-old initiative known as the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. The program is relatively unknown to Americans but has succeeded beyond most early expectations in addressing the AIDS crisis and is credited with saving up to 25 million lives worldwide. The bureau will be led by a public health official integral to PEPFAR, John Nkengasong. Born in Cameroon, Nkengasong was a founder of U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention operations in Africa. He…


Aug22023 by DmediaNo Comments

Mass-Produced Clothing Causes Serious Air, Water Pollution Worldwide

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A customer goes into a store in the United States that is popular for trendy and cheap clothes — known as “fast fashion” — for an impulsive wardrobe addition. The person buying those clothes may be planning to keep them for only a short time, and then throwing them out when a new fashion trend arrives. Fast fashion refers to the mass-produced and low-cost clothing items that manufacturers churn out by the millions each day, especially in China, but also in countries such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Turkey. But what most people don’t realize is that most of the clothes are made from materials that are bad for the environment and end up in landfills. “Fast fashion has huge implications for the environment,” said Eliot Metzger, director of…


Aug22023 by TechmanNo Comments

Australian Lawmakers Highlight Social Media’s Threat to National Security

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A parliamentary committee investigating foreign interference in Australia has found that Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat could present major security risks. In April, Australia said it would ban TikTok on government devices because of security fears.  Lawmakers in Australia have sounded the alarm about the nefarious rise of social media and its power to spread disinformation and undermine trust.  The Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media said that foreign interference was Australia's most pressing national security threat. The parliamentary inquiry in Canberra found that the increased use of social media, including Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat, could “corrupt our decision-making, political discourse and societal norms.”    The report stated that “the Chinese government can require these social media companies to secretly cooperate with Chinese intelligence agencies.”  Committee makes…


Aug12023 by TechmanNo Comments

Amazon Adds US-Wide Video Telemedicine Visits to Its Virtual Clinic

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Amazon is adding video telemedicine visits in all 50 states to a virtual clinic it launched last fall, as the e-commerce giant pushes deeper into care delivery. Amazon said Tuesday that customers can visit its virtual clinic around the clock through Amazon’s website or app. There, they can compare prices and response times before picking a telemedicine provider from several options. The clinic, which doesn’t accept insurance, launched last fall with a focus on text message-based consultations. Those remain available in 34 states. Virtual care, or telemedicine, exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has remained popular as a convenient way to check in with a doctor or deal with relatively minor health issues like pink eye. Amazon says its clinic offers care for more than 30 common health…


Aug12023 by TechmanNo Comments

Meta to Ask EU Users’ Consent to Share Data for Targeted Ads

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Social media giant Meta on Tuesday said it intends to ask European Union-based users to give their consent before allowing targeted advertising on its networks including Facebook, bowing to pressure from European regulators. It said the changes were to address "evolving and emerging regulatory requirements" amid a bruising tussle with the Irish Data Protection Commission that oversees EU data rules in Ireland, out of which Meta runs its European operations. European regulators in January had dismissed the previous legal basis — "legitimate interest" — Meta had used to justify gathering users' personal data for targeted advertising. Currently, users joining Facebook and Instagram by default have that permission turned on, feeding their data to Meta so it can generate billions of dollars from such ads. "Today, we are announcing our intention…


Aug12023 by DmediaNo Comments

Brazil’s Endangered Golden Monkeys Recover Following Big Population Drop From Yellow Fever

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There are now more golden lion tamarins bounding between branches in the Brazilian rainforest than at any time since efforts to save the species started in the 1970s, a new survey reveals. Once on the brink of extinction, with only about 200 animals in the wild, the population has rebounded to around 4,800, according to a study released Tuesday by the Brazilian science and conservation nonprofit Golden Lion Tamarin Association. "We are celebrating, but always keeping one eye on other threats, because life's not easy," said the nonprofit's president, Luís Paulo Ferraz. Golden lion tamarins are small monkeys with long tails and copper-colored fur that live in family groups led by a mated pair. Usually, they give birth annually to twins, which all family members help to raise by bringing…


Aug12023 by TechmanNo Comments

Flashing ‘X’ Sign Removed From Former Twitter’s Headquarters

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A brightly flashing "X" sign has been removed from the San Francisco headquarters of the company formerly known as Twitter just days after it was installed.  The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection said Monday it received 24 complaints about the unpermitted structure over the weekend. Complaints included concerns about its structural safety and illumination.  The Elon Musk-owned company, which has been rebranded as X, had removed the Twitter sign and iconic blue bird logo from the building last week. That work was temporarily paused because the company did not have the necessary permits. For a time, the "er" at the end of "Twitter" remained up due to the abrupt halt of the sign takedown.  The city of San Francisco had opened a complaint and launched an investigation into the…