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☆ How TikTok Changed Us
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Sapna Maheshwari | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

In the coming days, Congress may advance a bill to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American company. A few schools have removed bathroom mirrors because so many students were leaving class to film TikTok videos there. For 14 percent of American adults, TikTok is a regular news source, up from 3 percent in 2020. People who don’t have traditional backgrounds in journalism, akin to bloggers for the TikTok era, aggregate and share information in snappy videos. Organizations including The New York Times are also making short-form videos in which reporters talk to the camera about their stories, the TikTok way.

Persons: who’ve, It’s, ”, Brooks Barnes, Natasha Singer, Becky Hughes, TikTok, Taylor, mocktails, you’ve Organizations: Sony, Hollywood, The New York Times Locations: American, United States, Hollywood

☆ A ‘thirsty’ generative AI boom poses a growing problem for Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-06 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside, published a study in April investigating the resources needed to run buzzy generative AI models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Hundreds of millions of monthly users all submitting questions on the popular chatbot quickly illustrates just how "thirsty" AI models can be. The study's authors warned that if the growing water footprint of AI models is not sufficiently addressed, the issue could become a major roadblock to the socially responsible and sustainable use of AI in the future. For Google, meanwhile, total water consumption at its data centers and offices came in at 5.6 billion gallons in 2022, a 21% increase on the year before. watch nowIt's notable, however, that their latest water consumption figures were disclosed before the launch of their own respective ChatGPT competitors.

Persons: Shaolei Ren, Ren, Eitan Abramovich, OpenAI, Somya Joshi, Microsoft's Bing, Bard, Joshi, Paul Hanna Organizations: UNITED, EMIRATES, Tech, Microsoft, Google, University of California, Uruguay's Central Union, CNT, Afp, Getty, CNBC, Big Tech, Meta, SEI, U.S ., Stockholm Environment Institute, United, Inc, Talavera de la Reina, Bloomberg Locations: Dubai, Riverside, Montevideo, U.S, Stockholm, United Arab Emirates, Talavera de, Spain

As the players idled by the chain-link fence at the side of the field, taking great gulps of air and water and conducting an immediate autopsy of the game that had just finished, they focused their attention on three outstanding bones of contention. The first considered whether a penalty that had not been awarded absolutely should have been, as an aggrieved plaintiff was claiming. The second investigated if a particularly egregious foul was premeditated (yes) and/or warranted (also yes). Each player had to dig into wallets or pockets to find five pounds — just over $6 — to pay their share for the use of the field. As they strolled stiffly to the parking lot, the squabbling gave way to discussion of plans for the rest of the evening, and for next week.

Persons: stiffly

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure. To keep it cool on hot days, data centers need to pump in water — often to a cooling tower outside its warehouse-sized buildings. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity. It was also thirsty in Iowa, drawing more potable water to its Council Bluffs data centers than anywhere else. Its fourth and fifth data centers are due to open there later this year.

Persons: “, OpenAI, ”, Shaolei Ren, ChatGPT, ” Ren, you’re, Ren, Steve Gaer, Gaer, Brad Smith, ” Smith, —, O'Brien Organizations: DES, Microsoft, Google, University of California, Las, Associated Press, workloads, supercomputing, West, West Des Moines Water Works Locations: DES MOINES, Iowa, Des Moines, Riverside, Oregon, Las Vegas, San Francisco, West Des Moines , Iowa, California, West Des Moines, Arizona, West Des, Providence , Rhode Island

☆ Virgin Galactic’s first space tourists had a ‘surreal experience’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Billionaire Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, and it built up a backlog of 800 paying passengers. Andres Leighton/APVirgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane carried its first group of tourists on a brief trip Thursday. Entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers were the first space travelers from Antigua. The skull’s lower jaw has particularly confounded scientists because it combines features of Homo sapiens and another ancient human relative — the mysterious Denisovans. ConsequencesA close-up shot reveals the details of the ancient moss Takakia growing on the Tibetan Plateau.

Persons: Richard Branson, Jon Goodwin, Anastatia Mayers, Keisha Schahaff, Andres Leighton, Mayers, Goodwin, Xuedong Li, Hupehsuchus nanchangensis, Shu, Long Cheng, James Webb, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, AP Virgin Galactic’s, International Whaling Commission, Wuhan Center, China Geological Survey, University of Bristol, James Webb Space, CNN Space, Science Locations: Antigua, Russia, India, China, Tibetan, Wuhan, Egypt, Thailand, Switzerland

☆ New fossils reveal specialized eating technique of unusual ancient marine reptile
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —An unusual ancient marine reptile may have gulped down tons of shrimplike prey using a feeding technique similar to one used by some modern whales. Fang et al/Courtesy University of BristolBut there hasn’t been much evidence in the fossil record for ancient reptiles using filter feeding, until now. These structures are similar to what’s seen in baleen whales, which have strips of keratin instead of teeth. “Baleen whales have grooves along the jaws to support curtains of baleen, long thin strips of keratin, the protein that makes hair, feathers and fingernails. It’s possible that the marine reptile didn’t start out with this ability.

Persons: Hupehsuchus nanchangensis, ”, Long Cheng, et, Li Tian, Hupehsuchus, Zichen Fang, Michael Benton, It’s Organizations: CNN, BMC, Wuhan Center, China Geological Survey, University of Bristol, China University of Geosciences, University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences Locations: China, Hubei province, China University of Geosciences Wuhan

All-inclusive packages can be an easier way to travel, and road trips are a great budget option. These higher costs are leaving everyone wondering what kind of travel they can actually afford over this year's summer vacation season — and rightfully so. Travel in late summer if you canScott Keyes of Going says that summer flights for 2023 are expensive in general, but not equally expensive over the full summer travel season. Consider a summer road tripTravel expert Anu Agarwal of Destination CheckOff says that summer 2023 is a great time to consider a new type of trip if you're trying to keep costs down: summer road trips. "Flights in the 2023 summer travel season are expensive, plus airlines have hefty change or cancellation fees for flights," he says.

Persons: —, Sharael Kolberg, Kolberg, Kaitlyn Rosati, Scott Keyes, Greg Johnson, Johnson, Linda Orceo, Gulps, Arceo, you'll, Jacob Wade, Wade, Anu Agarwal, Agarwal, Ray Aberman, Brett Keller, Keller Organizations: Service, Family Travel, Travel Locations: Ipsos, Anguilla

☆ Opinion | When One Almond Gulps 3.2 Gallons of Water
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

RIO VERDE FOOTHILLS, Ariz. When interviewing people in their homes here, I didn’t have the heart to ask them if I could use the bathroom. All this is because water has become scarce here this year, after the city of Scottsdale cut off this area from water it had supplied; it said it needed to conserve water for its own residents. The resulting crisis in these foothills outside Phoenix offers a glimpse of what more Americans may face unless we reconfigure how we manage water. This is a crisis across the West, for the West was built on cheap water that is now running out from underpricing and overuse just as climate change is amplifying droughts.

☆ ‘I Live in Hell’: The Psychic Wounds of Ukraine’s Soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Photographs Antoine D Agata | Text Ellen Barry | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +15 min

The soldier’s ward is a quiet place, high-ceilinged, with chess boards and a Ping-Pong table; you could mistake it for a rest home, except that the door handles have been removed. Tap Click to read their stories Oleksandr, 21 Occupation: Soldier, former student “I finished school and joined the army in 2021. Now I’m mostly sad; I’m better off alone.” Yulia, 47 Occupation: Soldier; combat medic, independent forensic expert I’m a combat medic. Stanislav, 29 Occupation: Soldier, former cook “I didn’t plan to end up here. I adjust to each person in this way.” Serhii, 42 Occupation: Soldier, former employee at a shipping company On April 28 2022, I joined the air assault forces.

☆ Videos show Ohio politicians gingerly sipping tap water near chemical train crash, hoping to convince locals to start drinking it again
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Videos show several Ohio politicians gingerly sipping on tap water near a toxic train derailment. "I'll tell you, we believe in science, so we don't feel like we're being your guinea pig," Regan told Carolyn Brown, whose house they were in. "But we don't mind proving to you that we believe the water is safe," Regan continued. "That's pretty good water," Regan said after drinking from a red plastic cup. "You just saw us all drink a glass of water, our municipal water system here in East Palestine is safe.

Two-year Treasury yields hit their highest in three months at 4.65%, now on par with the current Fed policy rate. Morgan Stanley's Matthew Hornbach described the payrolls as a "mood changing" print that's seen markets chase rates higher as if gripped by a sort of reverse FOMO - fear of missing out. Reports circulated last week of swaps and options market activity on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that bet on market rates touching 6%, or at least hedging against that possibility. If that's true, the battle over the terminal rate may now be overtaken by how long the Fed can keep rates higher to achieve its goals. BofA chart on peak rates from fund manager surveyInflationThe opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

☆ 7-Eleven is quietly testing self-driving robots to deliver Slurpees and Big Bite Hot Dogs in Los Angeles. Here's how it works.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

7-Eleven is testing autonomous robot deliveries in the Los Angeles area. 7-Eleven has been testing self-driving robots to deliver some of the convenience store chain's most iconic foods and snacks – from Slurpees to Big Bite Hot Dogs. Uber Eats is testing Serve's robots in Los Angeles. The robot deliveries for 7-Eleven can only be made through the 7-Eleven delivery app, dubbed 7Now. Serve Robotics launched in 2017 as a division of Postmates and has been testing its autonomous delivery robots since 2018.

☆ Why convenience stores aren't rushing to replace gas pumps with EV chargers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Washington, DC CNN —Gas stations with convenience stores seem like an obvious location for electric vehicle chargers. The bipartisan infrastructure bill is providing $7.5 billion to help pay for electric vehicle chargers that could help gradually replace gas pumps. Convenience stores with fuel pumps account for 80% of fuel purchased in the US, according to the industry trade group. Customers charging electric vehicles must stick around longer, so they may be more likely to buy food and other goods. That way the convenience stores aren’t pulling a huge amount of power from the grid at once.

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