Snip!t channels - Alan Dix

The strength of practice-based design research, like RtD, lies in its suitability for addressing challenges that cannot be formulated as research hypotheses [Redström, 2020]. It helps designers to ask questions instead of solving problems ...

In The Shape of Things Unseen, neurologist Adam Zeman attempts to explain how and why this is. It is a wide-ranging survey – too wide, offering a mass of fascinating information about creativity, mental imagery and child development blo...

Examining the relationship between parental income and that of their offspring in their mid-30s, the study confirms the obvious: richer parents beget richer kids.
More interesting is how economic outcomes of those from low-, middle- and top...

Is it possible there are modes of attention that a younger generation is developing that might be difficult for those of us who are older to value, but which bring new types of benefit? What of the rapid, quick-fire, written exchanges of in...

In this report, we argue that there is a realistic possibility that some AI systems will be conscious and/or robustly agentic in the near future.

Gifts were the biggest contributor to the total, accounting for more than 93% of emissions, according to ClimatePartner, which carried out the analysis on behalf of the Guardian, using market research provided by Finder.
It found the averag...

Anthropic has hired its first full-time employee focused on the welfare of artificial intelligence systems, Transformer has learned. It’s the clearest sign yet that AI companies are beginning to grapple with questions about whether future...

Reading frequency is also at a historic low, with 20.5% of eight- to 18-year-olds reporting reading daily in their free time, compared with 28% last year.
The gender gap in reading enjoyment has widened, with 28.2% of boys aged eight to 18 ...

Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers “stuffed with trackers” are among examples of smart devices engaged in “excessive” surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?

When Google announced it was integrating AI-generated summaries into its search engine earlier this year, it brandished a bold slogan: “Let Google do the searching for you.” It’s an appealing idea that plays on our fondness for conven...

It is a distinct language that has survived against the odds for centuries in a tiny pocket of central Sweden, where just 2,500 people speak it today. And yet, despite bearing little resemblance to Swedish, Elfdalian is considered to be onl...

A “standard-free” definition for the meter was actually proposed back in the 17th century. The Dutch mechanic, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and inventor Christiaan Huygens suggested using a simple pendulum for this purpose. You...

UPDATE: Musk said at his rally that one had to be a petition signer to be eligible for the $1 million prize. (“So– we really want to try to get as many people as possible to sign this petition. So. I have a surprise for you [crowd chee...

Each participant was presented with a three-word starting sentence that flashed up for 300ms, followed by a second sentence that was either identical or differed by one word. Participants were asked to indicate whether the sentences matched...

The UK is being urged by Europe’s leading human rights organisation to push ahead with strategies to promote the use of Irish and Ulster Scots languages in Northern Ireland despite continued tensions over the issue.
The Council of Europe ...

Governments and private companies should contribute to a global artificial intelligence fund that will allow developing nations to benefit from advances in the technology, according to a UN report.
The fund would help provide models, comput...

Empathy is the feeling relationship in which the physician understands the patient’s plight as if the physician were the patient. The physician identifies with the patient and at the same time maintains a distance. Empathetic communicatio...

Nuclear is costly, risky and slow, Ramana says. Why then, he asks in his new book, do governments still champion it?

AI's solution to the 'cocktail party problem' used in court

Inspired by Ed Hawkins’ climate stripes, the new air quality stripes show air pollution from 1850 to today. Each year is a separate vertical bar that is coloured according to the amount of particle pollution. Air that meets World Health O...

Google's dominance in search, which a federal court recently ruled as an illegal monopoly, has positioned the company as a powerful player in the emerging AI industry.
This has led to accusations of unfair competition, especially as the AI ...

Scientists show it is possible to control a virtual car and switch on real-world kettle from inside a lucid dream

The other striking story from this year’s results is the huge and growing popularity of maths, which becomes the first A-level to exceed 100,000 entries, while 17,000 pupils took further maths, making it the subject with the biggest year-...

However, this new technology has not yet fully delivered on this productivity promise: Nearly half (47%) of employees using AI say they have no idea how to achieve the productivity gains their employers expect, and 77% say these tools have ...

A recent survey of people using GenAI tools at work found that 77% said that AI had added to their workload rather than increased their productivity in the way envisioned by their bosses.  

BBC: Pepper X: Eating world's hottest pepper was euphoric, says creator

At one point during the interview with the BBC, a PuckerButt Pepper Company employee, Tom, chimes in on the phone to talk about what it is like to work with his boss.
...

Howard's school attendance had dropped below 50% after he started intensive weekly chemotherapy in January, following his diagnosis of a rare kind of arm cancer in December.
But since then, the 12-year-old, who attends a school in Twickenha...

The Ifaluk of Micronesia consider emotions transactions between people. To them, anger is not a feeling of rage, a scowl, a pounding fist, or a loud yelling voice, all within the skin of one person, but a situation in which two people are e...

Owen Sayers, who made the FoI request, said, "the statements from Microsoft make clear that they 100% cannot comply with UK data protection law...
"They've confirmed for the first time that a guarantee of sovereignty for data at rest (which...

Young people from the wealthiest families across England are 11 times more likely to enter a university requiring high entry grades, the most academically selective, than those from the most disadvantaged.

So when anyone says too many youn...