Tech firms notch victories in battle over copyrighted text, Trump's gold phone, and online age checksHello, and welcome to TechScape. If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that's OK, because they suck and we're cool."Google's emissions up 51% as AI electricity demand derails efforts to go greenInside a plan to use AI to amplify doubts about the dangers of pollutants Continue reading...
Dracula's daughter seeks a more peaceful life making plant-based blood substitutes in this Stardew-Valley-inspired, gently creepy farming gameWhat if you were a tiny, vegan vampire? That's the question posed by Moonlight Peaks, the gen Z-coded, achingly TikTok-ready supernatural life sim. Inspired by the popularity of cosy games" such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, Moonlight Peaks drapes you in the cape of Dracula's daughter, who has fled her father's corpse-ridden home to start a new, peaceful life.Soon, she settles among werewolves and witches in the supernatural farming town of Moonlight Peaks, where she grows crops and rears animals instead of subsisting on the blood of innocents. Both cosy and creepy, the game has you creating your own plant-based blood substitutes, befriending the town's residents and fixing a whole host of problems left in daddy Dracula's wake.Moonlight Peaks is out on PC in 2026 Continue reading...
From Fable and Life Is Strange to Last of Us, Thirsty Suitors and Unpacking, five queer game developers and writers pick their sweetest, realest, most meaningful scenesLife Is Strange, as a series, is really characterised by a patented mix of earnestness and cringe for me - but you can't fault its determination to put queer characters front and centre. It has been variably successful at this - the messy relationship between shy, photography-obsessed Max and chaotic blue-haired Chloe in 2015's original Life Is Strange was left somewhat ambiguous, but Alex Chen in Life Is Strange: True Colors was openly bi and pretty laidback about it. My favourite queer moment from the series, though, came in last year's Double Exposure. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says lack of action leaves firms at risk of sleepwalking' into problemsMore than one in four UK businesses have been the victim of a cyber-attack in the last year and many more risk sleepwalking" into such disruption unless they take urgent action, according to a report.About 27% of companies said their building had suffered a cyber-attack in the last 12 months, according to a survey of facilities managers, service providers and consultancies undertaken by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) and shared with the Guardian. The figure is up from 16% a year ago. Continue reading...
Channels serving AI slop feature videos full of false claims about celebs and their involvement with Sean Diddy' Combs for quick cashThis story was reported by Indicator, a publication that investigates digital deception, and co-published with the Guardian.Dozens of YouTube channels are mixing AI-generated images and videos with false claims about Sean Diddy" Combs's blockbuster trial to pull in tens of millions of views on YouTube and cash in on misinformation. Continue reading...
Instagram-inspired gadgets to spread or spray crops are gaining traction on UK farms but require deep pocketsThe idea came from an Instagram video," says Tom Amery, looking admiringly at one of three huge drones he has bought to help grow watercress on a Hampshire farm.The drone boasts four sets of rotary blades and is able to carry up to 50kg of fertiliser, seed or feed for spreading or spraying, and is the product of several years of meticulous research by Amery, often using the unlikely corners of social media dedicated to agricultural technology. Continue reading...
by Nick Robins-Early, Dara Kerr and Johana Bhuiyan on (#6YA5V)
The company's rollout of its new driverless cars has gotten off to a wobbly start - and rival Waymo remains well aheadAfter years of promising investors that millions of Tesla robotaxis would soon fill the streets, Elon Musk debuted his driverless car service in a limited public rollout in Austin, Texas. It did not go smoothly.The 22 June launch initially appeared successful enough, with a flood of videos from pro-Tesla social media influencers praising the service and sharing footage of their rides. Musk celebrated it as a triumph, and the following day, Tesla's stock rose nearly 10%. Continue reading...
Industry figures are seeing beyond the illusion of invisibility' after series of investor kidnappingsCryptocurrency traders such as Mohammed Arsalan are prepared to watch their online assets expand and explode if they miss the right moment, making or breaking their fortunes in just minutes. All in a day's work on the internet. Offline, though, they have found themselves less equipped for the consequences of affluence. A string of kidnappings has plagued the industry over the past year and left traders across the globe paranoid, fearful and keen to invest in physical security measures.Arsalan grew up working class in Karachi, Pakistan. He hustles in any setting. At 14, he started a business exporting T-shirts overseas. By 17, the pandemic swept it all away. Inside, online and penniless, the booming world of Bitcoin beckoned him. Continue reading...
Some in the lagoon city are furious, others delighted, as celebrities descend for billionaire's sort-of nuptialsThe Black Death. Byron on the prowl. Rising water levels. Cruise ships the size of city blocks. Venice may have endured many tumultuous events and sinister challenges over the centuries but rarely in its long history has it had to contend with an issue quite as odd and quite as divisive as the sort-of nuptials of the world's fourth-richest person.Friday morning found the lagoon city doing what it does best: looking gorgeous and slightly unreal as it played host to thousands of tourists who posed in silver-prowed gondolas, chugged mid-morning spritzes or simply wilted in the muggy heat. Continue reading...
Increase influenced by datacentre growth, with estimated power required by 2026 equalling that of Japan'sGoogle's carbon emissions have soared by 51% since 2019 as artificial intelligence hampers the tech company's efforts to go green.While the corporation has invested in renewable energy and carbon removal technology, it has failed to curb its scope 3 emissions, which are those further down the supply chain, and are in large part influenced by a growth in datacentre capacity required to power artificial intelligence. Continue reading...
A solidly made and passably entertaining follow-up to the viral doll hit tries to swerve the franchise into summer blockbuster territory with mixed resultsAs the very first image of devil doll sequel M3gan 2.0 emerges on screen, of a desert with the words somewhere on the Turkish-Iranian border" popping up like it's a Bond movie, you'd be forgiven for double-checking if you're in the right cinema.The original, a grabby artificial intelligence (AI) riff on Child's Play and Annabelle, was a brisk, by-the-numbers domestic horror, released on the first weekend of 2023, a slot usually given to the very worst genre films. M3gan was smarter than most, often sly and frequently funny and introducing what's now become a rarity, an almost instant non-IP pop culture icon, whose virality exploded the film into a surprise smash (raking in over $180m from a $12m budget). Like the films it was inspired by, a franchise was inevitable although where we're taken in M3gan 2.0 was far less of a given. For the follow-up, writer-director Gerard Johnstone has swerved from horror to action while retaining and tweaking the comedy with a release date that's been upgraded to summer blockbuster territory. It doesn't always work - a two-hour runtime that's a little too long, world-saving stakes that are a little too big, funny lines that are a little too not funny - but it's a mostly watchable second-tier event movie that, in a world of inconsequential sequels that fail to justify their existence, will do. Continue reading...
Risk analyst Tony Cox's work has been backed by the chemical lobby, and some health experts are alarmedAn industry-backed researcher who has forged a career sowing doubt about the dangers of pollutants is attempting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to amplify his perspective.Louis Anthony Tony" Cox Jr, a Denver-based risk analyst and former Trump adviser who once reportedly claimed there is no proof that cleaning air saves lives, is developing an AI application to scan academic research for what he sees as the false conflation of correlation with causation. Continue reading...
Unrestricted AI use could add 1bn tons of planet-heating emissions in the US over the next decade, researchers sayUS Republicans are pushing to pass a major spending bill that includes provisions to prevent states from enacting regulations on artificial intelligence. Such untamed growth in AI will take a heavy toll upon the world's dangerously overheating climate, experts have warned.About 1bn tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide are set to be emitted in the US just from AI over the next decade if no restraints are placed on the industry's enormous electricity consumption, according to estimates by researchers at Harvard University and provided to the Guardian. Continue reading...
This imaginative sci-fi survival game is a work of art. But looking after the needy clones of myself I'd made to help run a space base, I was reminded all too clearly of my limitations and failingsOther than during that golden period when they were old enough to play games and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer but hadn't yet become evil teenagers, I don't think I'm very good at parenting. When my kids were babies I felt unnecessary and useless, a feeling I have been reminded of most days since. That's OK. We can't be good at everything. I can read words backwards and upside down but I can never find my house keys. I am brilliant at dancing to the Cure's The Lovecats on Dancing Stage MegaMix but terrible at DIY.Don't get me wrong: I love my children. I like hanging out with them socially as young adults because they are smart, funny and entertaining, but then they remember I am their dad, and everything is ruined as they ask me to do stuff then blame me for everything wrong in their lives. Continue reading...
by Written and read by Mark O’Connell. Produced by on (#6Y905)
He's spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive - and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast's videos simply very savvy clickbait - or acts of avant garde genius?Written and read by Mark O'Connell Continue reading...
by Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent on (#6Y8WW)
Amendment to law will strengthen protection against digital imitations of people's identities, government saysThe Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people's identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe. Continue reading...
Six of demonstrators were arrested at protest against the company's work for Ice to help deport people from the USSix protestors who demonstrated in front of the New York City offices of Palantir Technologies were arrested on Thursday morning. The demonstrators had gathered to bring attention to the controversial firm and the work it does to power the deportation of immigrants from the US.The protestors stood in front of the Palantir offices on Manhattan's Avenue of the Americas, linking arms to block entrance into the building and forcing several people attempting to enter to shove past them. At one point, several demonstrators entered the lobby of the building holding up signs that read Palantir powers ICE", referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Continue reading...
Writers alleged that company used nearly 200,000 pirated books to train its Megatron artificial intelligenceA group of authors has accused Microsoft of using nearly 200,000 pirated books to create an artificial intelligence model, the latest allegation in the long legal fight over copyrighted works between creative professionals and technology companies.Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its Megatron AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training. Continue reading...
A subreddit tracking apocalyptic news in a calm, logical way comforts users who believe the end times are nowThe threat of nuclear war, genocide in Gaza, ChatGPT reducing human cognitive ability, another summer of record heat. Every day brings a torrent of unimaginable horror. It used to be weeks between disasters, now we're lucky to get hours.For many, the only sane solution is to stop reading the news altogether - advice often shared by therapists, self-help books and even newspaper articles. Continue reading...
Wayfinding technology is intended to help partially sighted and disabled fans to better access live sportsIn 19ft turn slightly left," said a robotic voice from the iPhone in Moshfique Ahmed's hand as he tried to find a seat at Lord's cricket ground in London.Take the stairs," it said as Ahmed, an England visually impaired cricketer, tapped his white cane on his way towards the Edrich stand without any other assistance. There is one landing. Turn to nine o'clock at the bottom of the stairs. You have arrived at row five." Continue reading...
Generative AI is causing new and unusual problems for developers as players become more sensitive to the use of artificially generated slop' imagesIn April, game developer Stamina Zero achieved what should have been a marketing slam-dunk: the launch trailer for the studio's game Little Droid was published on PlayStation's official YouTube channel. The response was a surprise for the developer. The game looks interesting, people wrote in the comments, but was ruined" by AI art. But the game's cover art, used as the thumbnail for the YouTube video, was in fact made by a real person, according to developer Lana Ro. We know the artist, we've seen her work, so such a negative reaction was unexpected for us, and at first we didn't know how to respond or how to feel," Ro said. We were confused."It's not wrong for people to be worried about AI use in video games - in fact, it's good to be sceptical, and ensure that the media you support aligns with your values. Common arguments against generative AI relate to environmental impact, art theft and just general quality, and video game developers are grappling with how generative AI will impact their jobs. But the unexpected problem is that the backlash against generative AI is now hurting even those who don't use it. I would rather people be overly cautious than not," veteran game developer and Chessplus digital director Josh Caratelli said. But being collateral damage does suck." Continue reading...
Writers accused Facebook owner of breach over its use of books without permission to train its AI systemMark Zuckerberg's Meta has won the backing of a judge in a copyright lawsuit brought by a group of authors, in the second legal victory for the US artificial intelligence industry this week.The writers, who included Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, had argued that the Facebook owner had breached copyright law by using their books without permission to train its AI system. Continue reading...
The video platform previously had a carve out in the November draft legislation but the online safety regulator has recommended it be included in the ban
Longtime Zuckerberg lieutenant Andrew Bosworth calls donning fatigues with Palantir and OpenAI brass great honor'Meta's chief technology officer has called it the great honor of my life" to be enlisted in a new US army corps that defence chiefs set up to better integrate military and tech industry expertise, including senior figures from top tech firms that also include Palantir and OpenAI.Andrew Bosworth, a long-term lieutenant to Mark Zuckerberg known widely as Boz", is one of several senior Silicon Valley executives commissioned to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the corps, called Detachment 201, which the US army says will fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation". Continue reading...
The comedian wants you to know he does not have social media. So this is a list of things he watches on his TV through YouTube in the middle of the night
Desperate for news and contact during a 13-day shutdown, Iranians searched for proxy links outside the country Middle East crisis - live updatesAmir* hasn't slept much in days. From his apartment in northern Tehran, the 23-year-old has spent his nights searching for proxy links, fragile digital lifelines that briefly break through the internet blackout.For 13 days Iran was under a near-total internet shutdown, severely limiting access to information, from the beginning of the Israeli strikes until later on Wednesday. A group of young Iranians are, however, worked non-stop to ensure their voices reach the outside world. Continue reading...
In Kojima's latest epic, the Australian outback becomes a shifting, spectral landscape that you can get lost inAs a teenager in the late 1980s, I became obsessed with Australian new wave cinema, thanks partly to the Mad Max trilogy, and partly to an English teacher at my high school, who rolled out the TV trolley one afternoon and showed us Nicolas Roeg's masterpiece Walkabout. We were mesmerised. Forty years later, I am playing Death Stranding 2, Hideo Kojima's sprawling apocalyptic adventure, and there are times I feel as if I'm back in that classroom. Most of the game takes place in a ruined Australia, the cities gone, the landscape as stark, beautiful and foreboding as it was in Roeg's film.I've been playing for 45 hours and have barely made an impact on the story. Instead, I have wandered the wilderness, delivering packages to the game's isolated communities. The game is set after a catastrophic event has decimated humanity and scarred the landscape with supernatural explosions. Now you pass through vast ochre deserts and on toward the coast, watching the sun set behind glowing mountains, the tide rolling in on empty bays. Usually in open-world games, the landscape is permanent and unchanging, apart from day/night cycles and seasonal rotations. But the Australia of Death Stranding 2 is mysterious and amorphous. Earthquakes bring rocks tumbling down hillsides, vast dust storms blow up and avalanches bury you in snow. As you go, you are able to build roads, electricity generators and even jump-ramps for cars. These can be found and used by other players, so each time you visit a place you may find new ways to traverse. Nothing is ever really still. Continue reading...
A conference in Cambridge this week will explore a raft of geoengineering ideas to cool the region down - and attempt to address the fears of those who argue the risks outweigh the benefitsWhen the glaciologist John Moore began studying the Arctic in the 1980s there was an abundance of suitable sites for him to carry out his climate research. The region's relentless warming means many of those no longer exist. With the Arctic heating up four times faster than the global average, they have simply melted away.Forty years on, Moore's research network, the University of the Arctic, has identified 61 potential interventions to slow, stop and reverse the effects of the changing climate in the region. These concepts are constantly being updated and some will be assessed at a conference in Cambridge this week, where scientists and engineers will meet to consider if radical, technological solutions can buy time and stem the loss of polar ice caps. Continue reading...
If you were born after 2000, or know someone who is, the chances are you've come across this ludicrous AI-generated meme. If not, be reassured that its chaotic, nonsensical banality is the pointWhen one of Tim's year 8 pupils asked him about his favourite Italian brain rot animal", he thought he'd misheard. My hearing is not great at the best of times - I had to ask her to repeat this probably four or five times," he says.Tim (not his real name) was familiar with the term brain rot", used to describe the sense of mental decline after too much time spent mindlessly scrolling online (and voted Oxford University Press's word of the year for 2024). But what was this about it being Italian? Continue reading...
US academics say computer code systematically raised fares at expense of drivers and passengersA second major academic institution has accused Uber of using opaque computer code to dramatically increase its profits at the expense of the ride-hailing app's drivers and passengers.Research by academics at New York's Columbia Business School concluded that the Silicon Valley company had implemented algorithmic price discrimination" that had raised rider fares and cut driver pay on billions of ... trips, systematically, selectively, and opaquely". Continue reading...
Xbox is putting a lot behind its new space action-RPG sequel - which will be the first $80/70 video game from Microsoft. Does it earn its price tag? We asked the developer what went into itThe Outer Worlds 2, from RPG makers Obsidian, will be the first first-party Xbox game to cost $80 (70). Given that Nintendo Switch 2 games are already priced at least that high, and Sony's own PlayStation 5 games have been pushing towards it for a while, you might not expect this development to ignite a pricing debate among gamers - but it did. The increased cost of video games is a hotly contested topic, given the unsustainably ballooning budgets that most blockbuster games are working with these days. But I can say that The Outer Worlds 2 is a much larger, more in-depth game than the 2019 comedy sci-fi original. If we're going to talk about value, it can certainly be argued that its higher price point is justified.I loved The Outer Worlds, which was jam-packed with the kind of wry, sardonic humour you'd expect from an Obsidian RPG (this is the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas, after all). Its super-saturated space world, populated by colourful flora, bumbling corporations and strange zealots, was a joy to live in for 20 or so hours, though its combat left much to be desired. Continue reading...
Iran, clearly fearful of an online Israeli incursion, imposed a near-total internet blackout early last weekThe war between Israel and Iran, though largely a fight of fighter planes, drones and bombs, is erupting in the digital realm as well. Both countries have long histories with digital warfare. The particular focus of the current conflict, Iran's nuclear program, was the target of one of the first cyberweapons meant to cause physical destruction, the sophisticated worm Stuxnet.Iran, clearly fearful of an online Israeli incursion, imposed a near-total internet blackout early last week. My colleague Johana Bhuiyan reports: Continue reading...
The award-winning composer of soundtracks to video games including Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is composing again for the first time since a traumatic pandemicFor the fortunate among us, the Covid lockdowns have, years later, become a memory - if not distant, then certainly ever-so-slightly faded. We have had a few years now, to get out there, to rebuild careers and relationships, to travel, to live in the world again. That's not the case for everyone. Award-winning composer Jessica Curry, who crafted the beguiling, elegiac soundtracks to games such as Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, has only just emerged. Diagnosed with a degenerative disease in her mid-20s and seriously immunocompromised as a result of her condition, she began isolating at the start of the pandemic, and for the next five years barely left her home. While there, unable to work or write, her world began to collapse.Like many people I had an extraordinarily painful and difficult pandemic," she says. I watched my dad die on Zoom, and then my auntie and more family members. Then they found a tumour in my ovary, and I had major abdominal surgery, but the operation had gone wrong, so I nearly died in 2022. While I was recovering from the third operation, the roof of our house fell in. It felt like a metaphor for everything. If a novelist had written this, no one would believe the story. And things just kept going wrong. So I wasn't writing music, I wasn't even listening to music. All of a sudden, I couldn't bear it. I'm still trying to work out what that rejection was about - I was just in too much of a mental crisis. I wasn't even feeding or dressing myself." Continue reading...
The Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, is about to descend on Venice with his fiancee, some ex-Marines and his limitless credit card. We meet the Italian activists who are saying: enough
Low-cost and quickly discarded products are playing a key role in world's fastest-growing waste problem - electronicsIt is cheap, often poorly made, and usually ends up in the bin or buried among the other knick-knacks, takeaway menus and birthday candles in the kitchen drawer.Known as fast-tech", these low-cost electronics are increasingly common - from mini-fans and electric toothbrushes, to portable chargers and LED toilet seats, often bought for just a few pounds online. Continue reading...
Memo says cybersecurity office deemed WhatsApp a high risk due to lack of transparency in how it protects user data'The WhatsApp messaging service has been banned on all US House of Representatives devices, according to a memo sent to House staff on Monday.The notice to all House staff said that the Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use." Continue reading...
Julie Inman Grant has urged the Albanese government to rethink its decision to carve out the video sharing platform from new rules which apply to other apps
ChatGPT developer forced to act after receiving legal complaint from earbud maker iyOOpenAI has taken down online content related to its recent deal with Sir Jony Ive's hardware startup, io, after a trademark complaint.The artificial intelligence company has removed promotional materials including a video where Ive - the former Apple designer behind the iPhone - and OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman, discuss the $6.4bn (4.8bn) transaction. However, the nine-minute film can still be viewed on YouTube. Continue reading...
She made her name in Lena Dunham's landmark series, then starred in Get Out. As she returns in M3gan 2.0, the sequel to the hit horror about a murderous AI doll, she talks about parenting in an age of smartphones, Botox and her famous fatherIf you had wandered the set of the film M3gan 2.0 last year, chances are you would have stumbled into M3gan, the terrifying humanoid doll, staring lifelessly while she waited to be called for her next scene. Sometimes she would stand in the corner of the soundstage, says Allison Williams with a nervy laugh. The dilemma is: do you turn her around so she's facing the wall, or do you let her face the room? Both answers are wrong."In the sequel to the sci-fi horror M3gan, Williams resumes her role as Gemma, a roboticist who has become a crusader against rampant and reckless AI development after her creation - developed for her orphaned niece - became murderous. (She is also a producer on the second film.) Continue reading...
Readers are sharing how they write their predictions into novels, colour-code their emotional responses and even gift annotated books to friends. Is it actually fun, or just a bit like homework?There are two kinds of readers: those who would choose death before dog-ears, keeping their beloved volumes as pristine as possible, and those whose books bear the marks of a life well read, corners folded in on favourite pages and with snarky or swoony commentary scrawled in the margins. The two rarely combine in one person, and they definitely don't lend each other books. But a new generation of readers are finding a way to combine both approaches: reviving the art and romance of marginalia, by transforming their books and reading experiences into #aesthetic artifacts.I keep seeing people who have books like this," says one TikToker, their head floating over a greenscreened video of fat novels bristling with coloured sticky tabs. What are you doing? Explain yourselves! Because this looks like homework. But also ... I do like office supplies." Continue reading...
On Never Too Small, there are cabins that split in two and apartments straight out of Wes Anderson. It feels like we're all one reclaimed wood table away from complete bliss
Fraudsters are manipulating content of older adults as sadness bait' to push sales. The videos are going viralIn April of this year, Daisy Yelichek was scrolling TikTok when something unusual appeared in her feed: a video of her 84-year-old father, George Tsaftarides, who runs an account sharing sewing videos from his small tailoring business in Ohio. But the video Yelichek was seeing was not from Tsaftarides' actual page, which has nearly 41,000 followers - but instead originated from a profile of someone claiming to be a sad old man" whose cat sanctuary was at risk of shutting down.Please stay 8 seconds so I don't have to shut down my cat shelter I poured my love into," the text on the video said, adding that the sanctuary would be selling slippers to raise additional funds. The bid for sympathy worked on many viewers, garnering millions of views and tens of thousands of users leaving concerned comments. Just ordered two! Sending love to these kittens," wrote one. Another commenter said: thank you for all you do for these babies." Others even asked if there was a GoFundMe link to donate directly to the cat shelter. Continue reading...
When documentary-maker Lauren Greenfield immersed herself in the online and offline lives of 25 teenagers, she unearthed a world of sexually explicit images, rape culture, bullying and suicidal ideation. Adolescence, she says, has become like the wild westReactions to Lauren Greenfield's documentary series Social Studies tend to fall into two categories. Young people think it is validating; adults think it's a horror show. After all, the screen of a teenager's smartphone is a shiny black hole to which access is rarely granted. Our kids are right there," as Greenfield puts it, and yet we don't really know what's going on in their lives."Her five-part series, which tracks the online and offline lives of a group of teenagers and young adults - the first generation of social media natives - is being tipped for an Emmy. Under the noses of their parents, she captures teenagers climbing out of bedroom windows to spend the night with boyfriends, posting sexually explicit images, tracking their longest-ever fast (91 hours) and living out their experiences of rape, cyberbullying, whitewashing, the tyranny of Caucasian beauty standards and suicidal ideation. She makes adolescence look like the wild west. Continue reading...
An increasing number of people are experiencing motion sickness in EVs, and there is a scientific explanation as to whyWith electric cars skyrocketing in popularity around the world - in 2024, 22% of new car sales worldwide were electric vehicles, compared with 18% in 2023 - a growing body of studies and an increasing number of people have found that they feel more motion sick riding in EVs than in traditional petrol or diesel cars. Anecdotes of feeling sick in the passenger or back seat of electric cars litter social media, as do questions from wary prospective buyers.There is a scientific explanation behind why a person might feel more sick in an EV, though, according to multiple academic studies. Continue reading...
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