01Nov/22

From QAnon to The Sandman: how demons found a place in popular culture

Zohar Hadromi Allouche, Trinity College Dublin and S. Jonathon O’Donnell, Queen’s University Belfast

In western culture today, demons exist as something of a paradox. Religious belief in them is often presented as marginal. Many mainstream Christian denominations are silent or give them little prominence.

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01Nov/22

Online Holiday Shopping Frenzy: Study Shows 1 in 3 Americans Tend to Take More Risks When Shopping Online During Holiday Season

A global study from Norton, a consumer Cyber Safety brand1 of NortonLifeLock (NASDAQ: NLOK), sheds new light on the risks consumers will take this holiday shopping this season. According to the 2022 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report: Special Release – Holiday, conducted online in August 2022 among 1,000 U.S. adults 18+ by The Harris Poll, one in three American adults (34%) admit to taking more risks when online shopping during holiday season compared to other times of the year. Continue reading

01Nov/22

70 years of data suggest the Conservatives will suffer a big defeat at the next election – here’s how I worked it out

Paul Whiteley, University of Essex

With the UK’s new prime minister in office, it looks like the political turmoil of the last few months is likely to ease, at least for the time being. Rishi Sunak and his fellow MPs must put their political differences aside to focus on stabilising the economy and calming financial markets. But Sunak will of course have one eye on the next election, which he must call before January 2025.

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31Oct/22

AVATR, Your Emotional Intelligent Companion

AVATR Technology has launched its first product, AVATR 11, and revealed a co-branded limited-edition model, AVATR 011. Configurations and customer benefits of the whole series were announced. Meanwhile, the first batch of Experience Centers and Experience Spaces in 10 cities are ready to welcome all customers. Continue reading

31Oct/22

Enabling Rapid Creation of Social VR Experiences With No-Code Interface and Automation


Zoe Immersive, an award-winning metaverse software company with a mission to democratize content creation has been working with Meta for almost a year on the launch of the Zoe platform. Zoe enables anyone, regardless of their technical know-how, to create immersive virtual environments for collaboration, entertainment, learning and more. Launching on Meta Quest 2 and compatible with Meta Quest Pro headsets today, the Zoe app empowers a new generation of builders to create and innovate using immersive technologies. The app is currently available as a free download in the Meta Quest Store and will come later to mobile devices. Paid subscriptions are also now available for Pre-order with a 30% discount until November 10th. Continue reading

30Oct/22

Quasi-experimental analysis of new mining developments as a driver of deforestation in Zambia

Author: Jonathan Morley et al
Publication: Scientific Reports
Publisher: Springer Nature
Date: Oct 29, 2022

Abstract

Mining is a vital part of the global, and many national, economies. Mining also has the potential to drive extensive land cover change, including deforestation, with impacts reaching far from the mine itself. Understanding the amount of deforestation associated with mining is important for conservationists, governments, mining companies, and consumers, yet accurate quantification is rare. We applied statistical matching, a quasi-experimental methodology, along with Bayesian hierarchical generalized linear models to assess the impact on deforestation of new mining developments in Zambia from 2000 to present. Zambia is a globally significant producer of minerals and mining contributes ~ 10% of its gross domestic product and ~ 77% of its exports. Despite extensive deforestation in mining impacted land, we found no evidence that any of the 22 mines we analysed increased deforestation compared with matched control sites. The extent forest lost was therefore no different than would likely have happened without the mines being present due to other drivers of deforestation in Zambia. This suggests previous assessments based on correlative methodologies may overestimate the deforestation impact of mining. However, mining can have a range of impacts on society, biodiversity, and the local environment that are not captured by our analysis.

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29Oct/22

Elon Musk takes Twitter private – here’s what that means for the company and its chances of success

Elon Musk has said he intends to complete his purchase of Twitter after earlier trying to wriggle out of the deal.
Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP

Erik Gordon, University of Michigan

Elon Musk has finally completed his US$44 billion deal to acquire Twitter and take it private.

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29Oct/22

Are butter boards bad for you? An expert view on the latest food trend

Duane Mellor, Aston University

In an unexpected twist, butter seems to be back on the menu. After years of being a maligned ingredient that many people shied away from, butter has now become the latest food trend on social media, thanks to the recent popularity of “butter boards”.

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28Oct/22

30 Giga-Watt Hours of Electric Vehicle Markets Beyond Cars, Reports IDTechEx

Electric vehicle markets are growing globally – in total IDTechEx’s latest master electric vehicle report “Electric Vehicles: Land, Sea & Air 2022-2042” finds 35.7 million electric vehicles (EV) were sold in 2021 and predicts this will rise to over 74 million by 2030. Continue reading