01Jul/22

Four ways to stop thinking the worst will happen when you’re stressed

Patricia Riddell, University of Reading

Imagine you have an interview for a new job tomorrow. Some people might think about what kind of questions they will be asked so that they can prepare, or imagine the interview going well. For others, the thought of an interview will cause them to toss and turn all night thinking of every worst case scenario possible – no matter how outlandish these may be. If you’re someone who has a tendency to do the latter, you are prone to catastrophising.

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01Jul/22

Death literacy: why it’s important to talk about dying

Lisa Graham-Wisener, Queen’s University Belfast

When it comes to talking about death, we have no shortage of euphemisms. This is perhaps most famously illustrated in Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch from 1971. A pet shop worker insists to a customer that his new parrot is “not dead but resting, stunned, pining for the fjords, kipping on his back, tired and shagged out after a long squawk”. The customer responds: “It is an ex-parrot, deceased, gone to the choir invisible, is pushing up the daisies, demised, passed on, is no more, has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to see its maker, is a bereft of life, late parrot that rests in peace.”

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01Jul/22

How your brainwaves could be used in criminal trials

Michel Funicelli, Teesside University

American Kevin Strickland was exonerated after spending 42 years in prison for being wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in November 2021. His 1978 conviction was based on mistaken identification of an eyewitness. The eyewitness later said that police pressured her into identifying Strickland, and attempted to have her testimony recanted but failed. She died in 2015.

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01Jul/22

AMAZFIT SENDS THE SUPER-TOUGH T-REX 2 SMARTWATCH ON A SPACE RIDE

Amazfit, a leading global smart wearables brand of Zepp Health (NYSE: ZEPP), recently sent its rugged outdoor GPS smartwatch, the Amazfit T-Rex 2, into space on a quest to prove its strength in extreme environments. The Amazfit T-Rex 2’s space ride shows the brand leading by example with the spirit of “Up Your Game”, while also fulfilling this watch’s promise to inspire users to “Evolve Your Instinct”. Amazfit believes that through the power of science and technology, there are infinite possibilities in life to be explored. Continue reading

01Jul/22

It’s alive! How belief in AI sentience is becoming a problem

OAKLAND, Calif., June 30 (Reuters) – AI chatbot company Replika, which offers customers bespoke avatars that talk and listen to them, says it receives a handful of messages almost every day from users who believe their online friend is sentient.

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01Jul/22

GoCardless to acquire open banking platform Nordigen, combining broad open banking connectivity with bank payment expertise

GoCardless, the global leader in direct bank payments, has announced its plans to acquire Nordigen, the freemium open banking data provider, as it builds on its vision to become the world’s bank payment network. GoCardless will incorporate Nordigen’s next-generation open banking connectivity — offering the widest coverage in Europe, connecting to more than 2,300 banks in 31 countries — into its account-to-account network. Continue reading

28Jun/22

BT Group Partners with Unacast to Deliver Unmatched Human Mobility Insights in UK

Unacast, a global location data and analytics firm, today announced a partnership with London-based BT Group, one of the largest multinational telecommunications firms. Through the partnership with Unacast, BT seeks to set a new gold standard for human mobility insights in the United Kingdom. Continue reading

28Jun/22

Fast Buds: German cannabis legalisation will open the door to home cultivation

In a potentially game-changing development for the cannabis industry, the German government has confirmed its plans to legalise the sale of recreational cannabis in the coming months. Continue reading

28Jun/22

Over half of social housing residents have turned to credit or buy-now-pay-later services for essential expenses, survey reveals

Over half (53%) of social housing residents surveyed say they have used credit or a buy-now-pay-later service to cover an essential household cost such as a food shop or a bill in the last 12 months, according to the latest output from the Resident Voice Index™ (RVI) initiative. The survey of over 5,200 social housing residents on the impact of the cost of living crisis also reveals that nearly seven in 10 respondents (68%) worry all or most of the time about meeting normal monthly living expenses. Continue reading