YouTube is rolling out new rules for AI content, including requiring creators to reveal whether they’ve used generative artificial intelligence to make realistic looking videos

The New York Mets' offseason starts with their David Stearns pursuit. But after a long 2023 season, that's merely when the work begins.

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Wild boar in southeastern Germany have long contained high levels of radioactive substances, which has been attributed to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. But as radioactivity levels have fallen in other animals, they have stayed much the same among boar. Now, scientists have worked out the secret behind the so-called “wild boar paradox”. Research shows there is another culprit for the high levels of radioactivity: nuclear weapons tests from the mid-20th century. And both the weapons and the nuclear reactor meltdown continue contaminating the boar because of their diet. While the muscular boar seem healthy, the dangerous levels of radioactive caesium, the main contaminator, have prompted people to stop hunting them. In turn, there is now an overpopulation issue. “Our work reveals deeper insights into the notorious radio-cesium contamination in Bavarian wild boars beyond the total radionuclide quantification only,” radioecologist Felix Stäger from Leibniz University Hannover wrote in a paper. After a nuclear incident, radioactive materials can pose a significant threat to ecosystems. This happened after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, where there was an increase in radioactive caesium contamination. The main component of this, caesium-137, has a half-life of about 30 years, meaning it loses its radioactivity fairly quickly. However, caesium-135, which is created via nuclear fission, is far more stable. It has a half-life of more than 2m years. The ratio of cesium-135 compared to cesium-137 can help us work out where the cesium came from. A high ratio indicates nuclear weapon explosions, while a low ratio points to nuclear reactors like Chernobyl. So the researchers analysed caesium levels from 48 wild boar meat samples from 11 regions of Bavaria. It turns out that nuclear weapons testing was responsible for between 12 per cent and 68 per cent of the unsafe contamination in the samples. “All samples exhibit signatures of mixing,” wrote the researchers. “Nuclear weapons fallout and [Chernobyl] have mixed in the Bavarian soil, the release maxima of which were about 20−30 years apart.” So while Chernobyl remains the main source of caesium in wild boar, about a quarter of the samples showed enough contributions from weapons fallout to exceed safety limits even before the reactor meltdown comes into account. And because wild boar eat so many truffles, it has been exacerbated. The fungus absorbs high levels of contamination from both sources. Wild boars' diets, which include underground truffles, have absorbed varying levels of contamination from both sources, which has contributed to the animals' persistent radioactivity. “This study illustrates that strategic decisions to conduct atmospheric nuclear tests 60−80 years ago still impact remote natural environments, wildlife, and a human food source today,” the authors concluded. The study was published in Environmental Science & Technology. 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.

Mercedes have parted company with technical chief Mike Elliott following the team’s failure to win a single race this season. James Allison returned as Mercedes’ technical director just three races into the new season – with Elliott moving into the chief technical officer role. Although Mercedes said the job swap was Elliott’s decision, the announcement arrived after Lewis Hamilton and team principal Toto Wolff criticised the design philosophy of this year’s car on the eve of the curtain raiser in Bahrain on March 5. The Silver Arrows, who claimed a record eight consecutive constructors’ championships and carried Hamilton to six world titles, have won only one race in the past two years. And ahead of this weekend’s round in Brazil – with only races in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi to follow this year – Mercedes said Elliott is departing the team. “Mike has been one of the pillars of the team’s achievements over the past decade,” said Wolff. “It’s with truly mixed feelings that we say goodbye to him today. “Mike is a fiercely intelligent technical brain and a great team player. He has made a strong contribution not just to winning racing cars but also to building the culture of our team. “But on the other side, it’s clear that he’s ready for new adventures beyond Mercedes – so I know this is the right step for him to take, too. “He leaves the team today with our thanks for the effort, commitment and expertise he has brought to the team over the past 11 years and our very best wishes for the future.” Hamilton finished a distant runner-up to Verstappen in Mexico last weekend, with the Dutchman winning a record 16 of the 19 races so far in his all-conquering Red Bull machine. It is nearly two years since Hamilton, who will remain alongside George Russell at Mercedes until at least the end of 2025, won a race. Elliott, who is now set for a period of gardening leave, said: “Although the last two seasons have not seen us winning races in the manner we aspire to, they have tested us in many other ways – and forced us to question our fundamental assumptions about how we deliver performance. “During the past six months, I have enjoyed developing the technical strategy that we hope can provide the foundations of the team’s next cycle of success. “I have decided that now is the right time to make my next step beyond Mercedes – first to pause and take stock, after 23 years of working flat-out in this sport, and then to find my next challenge.” Read More Charles Leclerc secures pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix Charles Leclerc leads Ferrari front row at Mexican Grand Prix Essex boy with Italian twang – History-maker Ollie Bearman impresses in Mexico Max Verstappen sets fastest time in Mexican Grand Prix practice Max Verstappen urges fans to show him respect ahead of feisty Mexican Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton claims many more cars were illegal at United States Grand Prix

Former South African President Jacob Zuma was taken back to prison after his parole was ruled invalid, only to be released again within two hours under a new program to reduce overcrowding in jails

Australia says it will buy 20 new C-130 Hercules planes from the United States in a $6.6 billion deal that will increase by two-thirds the number of the Australian air force’s second-largest heavy transport aircraft

Scientists have been left baffled by the discovery of the wreck of a 2,000-year-old “computer” that is amazingly complex. The Antikythera mechanism – an astronomical calendar – has been dubbed “‘the first computer” and has baffled scientists for generations after it was first discovered inside a Greek shipwreck in 1901. The device is a hand-powered time-keeping instrument that used a wing-up system to track the sun, moon and planets’ celestial time. It also worked as a calendar, tracking the phases of the Moon and the timing of eclipses. Despite sounding relatively simple, the mechanism was actually ahead of its time, being more technically sophisticated than any other tool that was invented over the next 1,000 years. In its current condition, the mechanism is in 82 separate fragments with only a third of its original structure remaining, including 30 corroded bronze gearwheels. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Research into the device from experts at University College London involved 3D computer modelling and helped them solve the mystery of how the device worked, revealing a “creation of genius”. Adam Wojcik, a materials scientist at UCL said at the time: “We believe that our reconstruction fits all the evidence that scientists have gleaned from the extant remains to date.” They theorised that the device tracked the movement of the sun, moon and planets on concentric rings, as the ancient Greeks believed that the sun and planets revolved around Earth, rather than the sun. The researchers explained in Scientific Reports: “Solving this complex 3D puzzle reveals a creation of genius—combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories.” 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.

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Quentin Tarantino visited a club and requested a VIP room and the company of their best dancer