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Tech Giants Play Too Big a Role in US Indo-Pacific Trade Talks, Critics Say
Technology giants are drawing protests as they aggressively try to shape a new US trade deal with Australia,
2023-07-11 01:26
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Fertilizer company OCI bets big on climate-friendly ammonia
By Rod Nickel and Victoria Klesty Without a single sales contract in hand, Dutch fertilizer company OCI is
2023-07-10 19:22
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Threads ‘666’ logo conspiracy theory can be undermined by one simple historical fact
Since Instagram’s text-based alternative to Twitter, Threads, rolled out last week, a handful of memes and conspiracy theories have surfaced around the app’s unusual ‘at symbol’-like logo – from the inaccurate suggestion it was predicted by The Simpsons (it wasn’t), and now, to claims it’s actually linked to the devil (it isn’t). The baseless theory - seemingly backed by Twitter owner Elon Musk himself, if his public tweet likes are anything to go by – suggests the swirly icon secretly contains the number ‘666’, often referred to as “the number of the beast” and considered a link to the Antichrist. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Claiming they “can’t stop seeing it”, one Twitter user asked: “Does anyone else think the Threads logo just looks like 666? The first 6 is forward and white, then the second one is smaller and backwards, and the third one is the black space inside.” “How to put 666 ‘the number of the beast’ into a logo,” wrote another, in a tweet liked by Musk. Several other accounts have branded Threads “satanic” over the supposed link. In fact, the baseless claim became so popular that Instagram boss Adam Mosseri shared a thread on Friday explaining the real meaning behind the logo. “The Threads logo, in Instagram Sans, is inspired by the @ sign, which stands for someone’s username, the individual, and voice. “It’s a single unbroken line, inspired by the loop seen in the app when a thread is started,” he wrote. When one user commented that it “would have been entertaining” if Mosseri jokingly confirmed the conspiracy to be true, the exec replied: “It was tempting, but I feel like that kind of sass would just blow up in my face.” Sensible. Of course, this is just one fact which dispels this conspiracy theory as nonsense and baseless, but one lesser-known bit of historical trivia also exposes just how outlandish the claim is. All the way back in 2005, it was reported that a newly discovered fragment of the oldest version of the New Testament – the second part of the Bible – from the third century gave a different number entirely for the number of the beast. Found in historic dumps near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, the text from the Book of Revelation indicates it’s not 666 which is the fiendish number we should all be fearing, but the far less aesthetically pleasing 616. Professor David Parker, Professor of New Testament Textual Criticism and Paleography at the University of Birmingham, said: “This is an example of gematria, where numbers are based on the numerical values of letters in people’s names. “Early Christians would use numbers to hide the identity of people who they were attacking: 616 refers to the Emperor Caligula.” This is in contrast to the far more popular 666, which is understood to have referred to Emperor Nero. 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.
2023-07-10 17:54
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Instagram Threads hits 100 million users, becoming easily the fastest growing app ever
Instagram’s Threads app has reached 100 million users, making it easily the fastest growing app ever. The site reached the number early on Monday morning, according to a tracker that looks at the numbers that are made public on each Threads account.
2023-07-10 15:52
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Ocado launches first robotic warehouse in Asia with Aeon
LONDON British online supermarket and technology group Ocado said on Monday its first robotic warehouse in Asia, built
2023-07-10 15:51
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TSMC Sales Ride AI Demand Boost to Beat Estimates
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported better-than-expected sales on a boom in artificial intelligence applications demanding more of the
2023-07-10 13:58
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Mark Zuckerberg concealed his kids' faces on Instagram. Should you?
When Mark Zuckerberg shared a photo on Instagram of his family on July 4, two things stuck out: the billionaire CEO wore a striped souvenir cowboy hat, and the faces of his children were replaced with happy face emojis.
2023-07-09 17:23
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Elon Musk is the gift that keeps on giving to Mark Zuckerberg
At the start of last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in the hot seat.
2023-07-09 00:59
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Rivian's stock rallies to highest in 2023 after posting strong deliveries
By Chibuike Oguh NEW YORK (Reuters) -Shares of Rivian Automotive surged more than 18% on Friday as it continued to
2023-07-08 02:27
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AI4Bharat researchers set to raise $12 million funding from Peak XV, Lightspeed - sources
(Corrects headline, paragraph 1 to say "researchers at AI4Bharat" are raising the fund, not "AI4Bharat" itself; Removes paragraph 4 to
2023-07-08 01:58
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Tesla wants EPA to finalize tougher vehicle emissions rules
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Tesla wants the Biden administration to finalize more stringent vehicle emissions limits than those proposed
2023-07-08 01:56
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Meta could become even more dominant in social media with Threads
In the first 24 hours after Threads launched, Meta's Twitter rival has surpassed 50 million sign-ups, upended the social media landscape and appears to have rattled Twitter enough that it is now threatening legal action against Meta.
2023-07-07 23:59