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Category: futurism – Page 399

Archaeologists unearth oldest known wooden structure in the world

Archaeologists have unearthed the oldest known wooden structure, and it’s almost half a million years old.

The simple structure — found along a riverbank in Zambia — is made up of two interlocking logs, with a notch deliberately crafted into the upper piece to allow them to fit together at right angles, according to a new study of cut marks made by stone tools.

The earliest known wood artifact is a 780,000-year-old fragment of polished plank found at the site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel, while the oldest wooden tools for foraging and hunting on record — unearthed in Europe — date back about 400,000 years. It’s thought that Neanderthals made structures from bones or stalactites around 175,000 years ago.

Researchers have unearthed the oldest known wooden structure in Zambia, and it’s almost half a million years old, according to a new study.

Meta to charge users in EU for ad-free Instagram and Facebook

Meta is preparing to charge EU users a $14 monthly subscription fee to access Instagram on their phones unless they allow the company to use their personal information for targeted ads.

The US tech giant will also charge $17 for Facebook and Instagram together for use on desktop, said two people with direct knowledge of the plans, which are likely to be rolled out in coming weeks.

The move comes after discussions with regulators in the bloc who have been seeking to curb the way big tech companies profit from the data they get from their users for free, which would be a direct attack on the way groups such as Meta and Google generate their profits.

TikTok testing out advert-free monthly subscription

The BBC understands the Chinese firm is trying out the service in an English-speaking market outside the US, but has declined to comment on exactly where.

The subscription is being tested at $4.99 (£4.13).

Meanwhile, Meta is reportedly mulling ad-free subscriptions for people in the EU to navigate the bloc’s advertising rules.

The video sharing site is looking into charging a fee of around $4.99 to get rid of ads.

Huang’s Law Is The Catalyst That Drove NVDIA’s 1000x Chip Speedup In Less Than A Decade

NVIDIA “Huang’s Law” is the primary catalyst for driving chip performance and efficiency to over 1000x in less than a decade. For NVIDIA, Huang’s Law is the fundamental approach that moves beyond traditional chip speedup fundamentals such as Moore’s Law which had dominated the tech industry in the past.

Huang’s Law To Dominate The Future For NVIDIA, Chip Shrinking In No Way Defines The Increment in Performance

NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang has expressed multiple times that Moore’s Law is “slowing down,” and the concept it is backed with is starting to get outdated. The argument became heated, especially after Jensen’s GTC 2023 keynote. If we look at what Moore’s Law is, it is related to the number of transistors on a microchip and how it “should” double every year.

Possible New Human Species Found through 300,000-Year-Old Jawbone Fossil

The discovery has enabled a more detailed analysis of where the Hualongdong people fit on the human family tree. The mandible has a mixture of both modern and archaic features. For example, the bone along the jawline is thick, a feature shared with early human species, such as Homo erectus. It also lacks a true chin, the presence of which is a key feature of Homo sapiens. But the side of the mandible that attaches to the upper jaw is thinner than those of archaic hominins and more reminiscent of that of modern humans.

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