Pinterest Inc. reported second-quarter revenue that exceeded analysts’ estimates, signaling that the company’s efforts in expanding its business

HIGH POINT, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 1, 2023--

Worldcoin, the crypto identity system started in part by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, is going to

Excitement about a possibly revolutionary new material has continued to grow – even without any firm proof that it exists. Last week, two new papers published by researchers in South Korea claimed that they had been able to create a room temperature, ambient pressure superconductor. Until now, all superconductors have required cold temperatures and high pressure, and their practical use has been limited as a result. Such a breakthrough would achieve one of the holy grails of engineering and physics. It would allow for vastly more efficient energy transfer and the development of products such as powerful maglev trains. But almost as soon as the paper was released, experts urged caution about its findings. The claims in it could represent a significant breakthrough – but they were still far from confirmed, and similar reports have been released in the past that were later debunked. And there is still no clear indication that the breakthrough described in the original paper is definitely real. And despite numerous attempts to replicate the study, none have yet done so convincingly. Some new work has suggested that the findings could at least be possible. In a new paper published on Monday, Sinéad Griffin from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory simulated the material and suggested that it was at least theoretically possible. She shared the paper in a tweet accompanied by a “mic drop” gif. And it immediately had what was presumably the intended effect: leading to an increase in discussion of a topic that had already generated tremendous excitement. Around the same time, new videos appeared from China that claimed to show the work of a team who had successfully replicated the material. That showed the levitation effect that happens with superconductors – but not the low resistance that is required for the claims to be verified, and the material to be useful. Work to verify whether the original paper is correct and the material is actually as claimed is ongoing. But each of those videos only served to make the claims of a new breakthrough become louder, even as there was no firm proof that it had actually happened. For a period on Tuesday, the betting markets implied that the most likely result was that the papers would be replicated. Polymarket, a prediction market that lets people bet on a wide array of events, suggested that people tended to think there was a roughly 60 per cent chance the result would be replicated – but a couple of hours later it slid back, and more bets had been placed on the outcome that the superconductor is not real.

Nasa has received a “heartbeat” signal from its Voyager 2 spacecraft – but it is still lost in space. Over the weekend, Nasa announced that it had lost contact with Voyager 2, which was launched in 1977 and is now hovering on the edge of the solar system. The space agency had inadvertently sent a message to the craft that instructed it to turn its antenna two-degrees from Earth. That in turn meant that it lost contact with the Deep Space Network, or DSN, a collection of ground-based antennas that allow for contact with distant spacecraft. Engineers feared that they would not hear from Voyager 2 until October at the earliest. Then, it will automatically adjust itself, resetting its orientation and pointing the spacecraft back towards the Earth, when the space agency hoped it would make contact. But Nasa has now heard a “carrier signal” from Voyager 2, sent back as the Deep Space Network scanned the sky. The space agency compared the signal to a “heartbeat”, in that it confirms that the probe is still safe and sending messages back down to Earth. Engineers will now try and send commands to Voyager 2, instructing it to re-orient itself and point back at Earth. If that happens then it will be able to continue on again as normal, flying out into interstellar space and providing scientists with information as it goes. The instructions might not get through, however. If that happens then engineers will be powerless to correct their mistake. That will mean they will be back to waiting until October, which will bring the point at which the spacecraft’s software will automatically tell it to reset its direction. Read More Giant space ‘umbrella’ tethered to asteroid could protect Earth from climate crisis Songs, books and films inspired by the blue moon ESA’s Euclid space telescope captures glittering galaxies and stars in first images

Uber Technologies Inc. is developing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to integrate into its app, joining the long list

Meta Platforms Inc. started its process of ending news availability in Canada over a law requiring digital platforms

Amazon's virtual clinic is now available in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., the company announced on Tuesday.

Voyager Digital Holdings Inc. may have been hacked just as it reopened its crypto platform so that customers

(Reuters) -Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it has begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss her criticism of the state’s Black history school curriculum standards after she joined widespread outrage over newly approved guidelines that diminish the impact of slavery and racist violence. “In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues. And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice,” the governor wrote in a letter on 31 July, referencing her recent remarks in the state. “So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards,” he added. The administration also has invited William B Allen, one of the members of the working group that developed the standards who has a long history of inflammatory remarks and partisan rhetoric. The Independent has requested comment from the office of Ms Harris. The vice president travelled to Orlando on Tuesday to deliver remarks at the 20th Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Quadrennial Convention. Her visit follows remarks in the state on 21 July to condemn the state’s “propaganda” and the “extremist, so-called leaders” who support it. Though she did not name him or any other Florida officials, the vice president’s speech was directly aimed at the governor, whose administration has sought to radically overhaul public education and establish a “parents’ rights” agenda that restricts honest lessons of race and racism, threatens discussion of LGBT+ people and events, targets libraries and reshapes local school boards. A new set of standards for African American history in Florida schools will teach middle schoolers how enslaved people “developed skills” that could be “applied for personal benefit”. Another guideline instructs high schoolers to be taught that a massacre led by white supremacists against Black residents in Ocoee to stop them from voting in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” Civil rights advocates, educators and lawmakers have warned that the guidelines present a distorted, revisionist picture of American history. “Adults know what slavery really was. It involved rape, it involved torture, it involved taking a baby from their mother, it involved some of the worst examples of depriving humanity of people in our world,” Ms Harris said in her remarks in Jacksonville. Members of the working group and the Florida Board of Education have defended the unanimously approved standards, assuring that they include comprehensive lessons on American history, including its darkest chapters. Mr Allen, a Black professor emeritus at Michigan State University who also sits on the national advisory board of the right-wing think tank Center for Urban Renewal and Education, has repeatedly defended the working group’s guidelines. A review of his past statements from Popular Information reveals a history of incendiary, contrarian remarks used to bolster and legitimise right-wing ideology. In 1989, he faced protests while participating in a panel titled “Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What is a Minority?” on which he claimed that special classes of protection for LGBT+ people and other minorities are a “fatal” mistake that heighten “tensions and antagonism”. Creating legal protections for minority groups “is the beginning of the evil of reducing American blacks to an equality with animals and then seducing other groups to seek the same charitable treatment,” according to prepared remarks. His speech was denounced by the US Civil Rights Commission – on which he was then serving as chair – as “disgusting” and “necessarily inflammatory”. That same year, he also was charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from a Native American reservation in Arizona while she was the subject of a custody battle between her mother and a white couple who adopted her. Mr Allen also has opposed race-conscious admissions in higher education, including leading a campaign with a group that included members of the conservative Christian Hillsdale College and right-wing interest group the Heritage Foundation. He also has criticised The 1619 Project, which is explicitly banned from Florida schools, and has rejected concepts including “systemic racism, institutional racism [and] white privilege.” Mr DeSantis has routinely accused “the left” and Democratic officials of “indoctrinating” students in the state while he promotes an agenda that bans honest discussions of race and racism, sexuality and gender. The governor’s administration also recently approved materials from right-wing political advocacy group PragerU to be included in K-12 classrooms. The founder himself has said that those lessons are explicitly designed to indoctrinate. The campaign for Mr DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has fired back at Black Republicans in Congress who have joined criticism of the African American history standards, including US Reps Byron Donalds and John James, as well as 2024 rival and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Both Mr James and Mr Donalds have endorsed Donald Trump. Read More Why Florida’s new curriculum on slavery is becoming a political headache for Ron DeSantis Most of Florida work group behind controversial new guidelines on African American history did not agree, report says The GOP primary is already decided. We’re just pretending it isn’t

Singapore has gone from a mudflat swamp with fishing villages to an island metropolis boasting one of the