List of All Articles with Tag 'tec'

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's users and rivals whether Bing should comply

Metro Bank Holdings Plc’s riskiest bonds gained the most on record on Monday after the bank announced a

With the increasing number of self-service checkout machines popping up in stores for convenience, there is one simple feature that is used to put off potential shoplifters - mirrors. There's a good chance that you've looked at your reflection in the screens fitted to these machines, and the purpose of it is for potential shoplifters to catch themselves in the mirror in the hopes of making them feel guilty. This pang of a guilty conscience is hoped to prevent them from committing any crime (it's not just there for vanity purposes like most of us use it for). Research also backs up the theory that people who see themselves in a mirror are less likely to do something bad. A 1976 study from Letters of Evolutionary Behavioural Science found that when people are around mirrors, they "behave in accordance with social desirability". "Mirrors influence impulsivity, a feature that is closely related to decision-making in both social and non-social situations." When participants in the experiment were looking at mirrors, their "private self-awareness was activated" by them and as a result influenced "decision-making as a non-social cues". Similarly, Psychology Today notes how a mirror allows "people to literally watch over themselves" and this "dramatically boosts our self-awareness". Meanwhile, the issue of self-service checkouts and shoplifting was highlighted in a report by Mashed last year which it appeared to confirm that Walmart's attempt at combatting this problem was a psychological method with the addition of mirrors (though Walmart, alongside other supermarkets, has never confirmed the purpose of their mirrors at their self-service checkout services). 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.

A pair of shoes thought to be the oldest ever found in Europe are now estimated to be even older than scientists had previously thought. About 20 pairs of sandals found in southern Spain are at least 6,200 years old, while other woven objects found in the cave date back 9,500 years, according to a new study. The scientists used carbon-dating on 76 objects found in the Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol, near Granada, which were originally discovered by miners in the 19th century. The objects are particularly valuable to science because they represent the first direct evidence of certain hunter-gatherer skills, such as weaving, in southern Europe. They are made of wood, reed and esparto grass. The shoes measured about eight inches in length. The study was published in the journal Science Advances by a team from the Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Francisco Martínez Sevilla, a researcher at the Prehistory Department of UAH, said: “These are the earliest and widest-ranging assemblage of prehistoric footwear, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in Europe, unparalleled at other latitudes. “The new dating of the esparto baskets from the Cueva de los Murciélagos of Albuñol opens a window of opportunity to understanding the last hunter-gatherer societies of the early Holocene. “The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in Southern Europe.” He said the project placed the cave as “a unique site in Europe to study the organic materials of prehistoric populations”. Cueva de los Murciélagos, or “Cave of the Bats,” is located on the coast of Granada, to the south of the Sierra Nevada. The finds are thought to have been so well-preserved because of low humidity levels in the area. Study co-author María Herrero Otal added: “The esparto grass objects from Cueva de los Murciélagos are the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fibre materials in Southern Europe so far known. “The technological diversity and the treatment of the raw material documented demonstrates the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship, at least since 9,500 years ago, in the Mesolithic period. “Only one type of technique related to hunter-gatherers has been identified, while the typological, technological and treatment range of esparto grass was extended during the Neolithic from 7,200 to 6,200 years before the present.” 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.

Archaeologists have found a rare cold bath below the 18th-century Bath Assembly Rooms. The rooms, completed in 1771, were fashionable places of entertainment, conversation, dancing and gambling and cold baths were seen as good for people's health. The cold bath is in the centre of a suite of three rooms beneath one end of the ballroom. It has dressing rooms on either side. The excavation involved removing a later floor that had been installed over the cold bath and removing tonnes of rubble to reveal steps down into it. Bruce Eaton, of Wessex Archaeology, which oversaw the excavation, told the Guardian: “Although historical records indicated that there was a cold bath buried beneath the Bath Assembly Rooms, we had no idea what preservation of the bath would be like. “The building suffered damage at the hands of the Luftwaffe and the rooms were remodelled in the late 20th century but, after carefully excavating tonnes of concrete and rubble, we saw the original structure emerge in its entirety. “It’s tremendous to be able to piece together this rare archaeological evidence of an 18th-century cold bath with social historical accounts from the time.” Tatjana LeBoff, a project curator at the National Trust, said: “The cold bath at the assembly rooms is highly unusual. It is a rare, if not unique, surviving example, and possibly it was the only one ever built in an assembly room.” The trust was researching records, letters, diaries and other documents to discover more about the cold bath, she said. 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.

At first glance, the Simurgh resembles the Batmobile. Black, low-slung with flared wheel arches, the supercar looks built

Activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management has accumulated a stake worth more than $2.5 billion and is

Metro Bank Holdings Plc has agreed to a £925 million ($1.1 billion) financing package, a deal that will

Sarah Sunny made history after she became India's first deaf lawyer in the Supreme Court.

Everybody hurts sometimes – even the most basic worms in the animal kingdom which have no eyes, spine or brain. That’s what scientists have found out about nematode species Caenorhabditis elegans, which possesses basic emotions such as fear. Researchers zapped the worms to see if they would display negative reactions, and the worms continued to “flee” at high speeds for minutes after. The scientists at Nagoya City University in Japan and Northeastern University in the US said the response shows a brain state which is comparable to fear in humans. "These properties have been recently regarded as essential features of emotion, suggesting that C. elegans response to electric shock may reflect a form of emotion, akin to fear," the researchers wrote. The findings are the most recent in a debate over which animals can experience primitive versions of our own emotions. Crayfish and bumblebees have all shown animals can have lasting positive and negative mental states. C. elegans is one of the most basic worms in the animal kingdom. At about 1mm in length it is also tiny and transparent, with no brain, sight or smell. Nonetheless, worms which sensed an electric current for 45 seconds “ran away” for more than two minutes. During this state, they ignored food which was placed nearby, instead scurrying at high speeds. This suggests that the emotional response could be triggered by different stimuli and that one stimulus could inhibit responses to others. When the shock was just five seconds long, the worms fled for a minute and a half before calming down. And when the researchers repeated the experiments with worms that were not to produce neuropeptides – which are the equivalent to human hormones – the worms stayed in a state of fear for longer. "Because the requirement of neuropeptide signaling [in worms] is reminiscent of neuropeptide regulation of fear in mammals including humans, the fear-like brain state may be regulated by evolutionarily conserved molecular mechanisms," the authors of the study wrote. 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.

Deepfakes are becoming an increasing concern online with many celebrities and influencers' faces fronting fake scams – and in more sinister cases, NSFW material. For the blissfully unaware, a deepfake is a digitally altered piece of content, often without concern. They're often used with malicious intent for financial gain or to spread false information. The surge in deepfakes has prompted many high profilers to come forward and speak out including MrBeast and Tom Hanks: Martin Lewis The nation's favourite money-saving expert issued a warning over a "disgraceful" scam that could lead vulnerable people to lose money. Lewis said people are using the technology to "pervert and destroy" his reputation to scam people. An advert, which circulated online earlier this year, appeared to show Lewis endorsing an Elon Musk-backed investment scheme. "Musk’s new project opens up new opportunities for British citizens. No project has ever given such opportunities to residents of the country," the AI version of Lewis says in the footage. The real Lewis later told the BBC "it's pretty frightening." He continued: "These people are trying to pervert and destroy my reputation in order to steal money off vulnerable people, and frankly, it is disgraceful, and people are going to lose money and people’s mental health are going to be affected." MrBeast The popular YouTuber took to X/Twitter to address a deepfake video that went viral online. "Lots of people are getting this deepfake scam ad of me… are social media platforms ready to handle the rise of AI deepfakes? This is a serious problem," he posted to the platform. MrBeast included a clip that has been circulating online, that shows an AI version of him saying he's giving away iPhones. "You’re one of the 10,000 lucky people who will get an iPhone 15 pro for just $2," the deceiving clip said. "I’m MrBeast and I am doing the world’s largest iPhone 15 giveaway." Tom Hanks Hanks was forced to issue a warning over a deepfake advert promoting a dental plan using his presence. In a post to Instagram, Hank shared a screenshot of the ad, with overlaid text reading: "BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it." Nicki Minaj In a much lighter incident, the rapper was featured in ITV's Deep Fake Neighbour Wars. The programme showed an AI version of Minaj and her 'husband,' Tom Holland. Upon arriving home from their honeymoon, they found an intruder in their living room, Mark Zuckerberg. It plays on an internet rumour that joked Minaj and Holland were dating and expecting a baby in 2019. At the time, the actor joked to Esquire: "This actually really stressed me out... and then I realised I've never met Nicki Minaj. So that was a big relief for me because I'm not ready to have kids." She wrote: "HELP!!! What in the AI shapeshifting cloning conspiracy theory is this?!?!! I hope the whole internet get deleted!!!" Streamer Sweet Anita Meanwhile, popular streamer Sweet Anita was horrified to learn she was targeted by deepfake porn without her consent. "It has all the same consequences of revenge porn, and so now I will be living those consequences for a choice I never made," Sweet Anita told ITV. The streamer said the situation has made her "tired" and heightened her security fears. Sign up for 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.

Miami was stunned with an upset loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday night and head coach Mario Cristobal earned the ire of fans for his late-game blunder.