As AI developers harvest Wikipedia content to train their models, the resulting surge in automated traffic is driving up costs for the non-profit that runs the popular crowdsourced encyclopaedia
Category: existential risks – Page 2
Capturing precise 3D details with a single camera has long been a challenge. Traditional methods often require complex dual-camera setups or specialized lighting conditions that are impractical for real-world applications. However, a groundbreaking approach developed at Nanjing University is set to redefine 3D imaging.
In our latest research, published in Optica, we introduce a cutting-edge snapshot polarization stereo imaging system (SPSIM), as shown in Fig. 1. This innovative system integrates metasurface optics with artificial intelligence to extract highly detailed 3D shape information in real time.
Unlike conventional methods that rely on multiple polarizers or sequential exposures, SPSIM utilizes a specially engineered metasurface lens to capture full-Stokes polarization data in a single shot. With an extinction ratio of 25 dB—comparable to commercial polarizers—and an unprecedented central wavelength efficiency of 65%, our system outperforms standard polarization cameras.
Millions of years before the asteroid impact that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, mammals were already beginning to shift from tree-dwelling to ground-based lifestyles.
A groundbreaking study uncovered this evolutionary trend by analyzing tiny limb bone fragments from marsupials and placental mammals in Western North America. These subtle fossil clues reveal that mammals may have been responding to a changing world, especially the spread of flowering plants that transformed habitats on the ground. Surprisingly, this terrestrial transition appears to have played a bigger role in mammalian evolution than direct interactions with dinosaurs.
Early Ground-Dwellers Before Dinosaurs’ Demise.
Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid, research reveals
Posted in asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks | Leave a Comment on Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid, research reveals
More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research led by the University of Bristol has revealed.
The study, published in the journal Palaeontology, provides fresh evidence that many mammals were already shifting toward a more ground-based lifestyle leading up to the asteroid’s impact.
By analyzing small-fossilized bone fragments, specifically end of limb bones, from marsupial and placental mammals found in Western North America—the only place with a well-preserved terrestrial fossil record from this time—the team discovered signs that these mammals were adapting to life on the ground. End of limb bones were analyzed as they bear signatures of locomotory habit that can be statistically compared with modern mammals.
Forget WW3! A global power outage would spell THE END for humanity in a matter of minutes! Find out how bad things would really get in today’s insane new video that reveals what would happen minute by minute if all the power went out across Earth!
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At least two mass extinction events in Earth’s history were likely caused by the devastating effects of nearby supernova explosions. That’s according to a new study by researchers at Keele University in England. The researchers said these super-powerful blasts – caused by the death of a massive star – might have previously stripped our planet’s atmosphere of its ozone, sparked acid rain and exposed life to harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. They believe a supernova explosion close to Earth could be to blame for both the late Devonian and Ordovician extinction events, which occurred 372 and 445 million years ago respectively.
Many survivors of the attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult still suffer from physical aftereffects and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Japan on Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult, with the relatives of the victims striving to keep alive the memory of the worst terrorist attack on Japanese soil.
At Kasumigaseki Station in the Japanese capital, officials observed a moment of silence at around 8 a.m., the time when the deadly sarin nerve agent was released in train cars on March 20, 1995.
Shizue Takahashi, 78, who lost her husband, a deputy stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, in the attack, laid flowers at the site, and said, “It was a long 30 years. I don’t want people to forget about the incident.”
This video takes a look at how future technology could change the Fermi Paradox. Asking if humanity is looking for life in the Universe in the wrong ways, or are we looking for the wrong things. Like trying to find smoke signals, in the age of fiber optics.
While the Drake Equation estimates how many civilizations could exist in the Universe, but what is the likelihood that humanity is even capable of detecting them.
Does there need to be another calculation, say the Detection Probability Equation. Showing what’s the likelihood that humanity is able to detect alien life at a given time, and solving the Fermi Paradox.
And does this create a new paradox. Because if future technology advancements increase the number of possible cosmic civilizations, could it also decrease humanity’s ability in detecting them — leading to the detection paradox.
Other topics covered in this sci-fi documentary video include: space telescopes, dyson spheres, the movie Contact by Carl Sagan, Interstellar movie and the time dilation effects, the great silence, the great filter, and solutions and theories for the Fermi Paradox.
PATREON
The mass extinction that ended the Permian geological epoch, 252 million years ago, wiped out most animals living on Earth. Huge volcanoes erupted, releasing 100,000 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This destabilized the climate and the carbon cycle, leading to dramatic global warming, deoxygenated oceans, and mass extinction.
However, many plants survived, leaving behind fossils which scientists have used to model a dramatic 10° rise in global temperatures.
“While fossilized spores and pollen of plants from the Early Triassic do not provide strong evidence for a sudden and catastrophic biodiversity loss, both marine and terrestrial animals experienced the most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history,” explained Dr. Maura Brunetti of the University of Geneva, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Earth Science.