Story For Everyone

  The Tesla Cybertruck, of course. Less a vehicle, more an A-list celebrity, hounded by the public and press wherever it goes. Every move recorded, every morsel of information chewed and inflated, every quote twisted and reinterpreted until none of it makes any sense. It’s a self-fuelling frenzy because every mention sends clicks rocketing, every picture gets social media fizzing – either with anger or excitement. From the moment the Cybertruck concept was revealed to several billion gasps in 2019, with Elon Musk’s promises of production kicking off in 2021 and a $40k starting price, it’s lurched from one very public problem to another. Design Director, Franz von Holzhausen, smashing the ‘unbreakable’ windows with a metal ball on stage was just a taste of things to come. There followed multiple delays, leaked engineering reports citing woeful soundproofing and dangerous brakes, Elon’s now famous email to employees insisting the Cybertruck be “built to sub 10-micron accuracy [becaus...

In 1987, several countries agreed to ban or phase down the use of more than 100 ozone-depleting chemicals that had caused a “hole” in the layer above Antarctica. The depletion is mainly attributed to the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were common in aerosol sprays, solvents and refrigerants. That ban, agreed under the Montreal Protocol, is widely considered to have been effective in aiding the ozone layer’s recovery. But the hole, which grows over the Antarctic during spring before shrinking again in the summer, reached record sizes in 2020 to 2022, prompting scientists in New Zealand to investigate why. “This means that the hole has not only remained large in area, but it has also become deeper [i.e. has less ozone] throughout most of Antarctic spring,” said Hannah Kessenich, a PhD Student at the University of Otago and lead author of the study. “The especially long-lived ozone holes during 2020-2022 fit squarely into this picture, as the size/depth of the hole during Octo...

  The basic design of commercial airplanes hasn’t changed much in the past 60 years. Modern airliners like the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 have the same general shape as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, which were built in the late 1950s and solidified the “tube and wing” form factor that is still in use today. This is because commercial aviation prioritizes safety, favoring tried-and-tested solutions, and because other developments — in materials and engines, for example — mean the traditional design is still relevant. However, as the industry desperately looks for ways to reduce carbon emissions, it faces a somewhat tougher challenge than other sectors precisely because its core technologies have proven so hard to move away from. The time might be ripe to try something new. One proposal is the “blended wing body.” This entirely new aircraft shape looks similar to the “flying wing” design used by military aircraft such as the iconic B-2 bomber, but the blended wing has more...

Autonomous driving technology has come a long way. In recent years, the automotive tech industry has made significant enhancements to the capability and reliability of sensors, cameras, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, driving road transport toward higher levels on the autonomous driving spectrum, as defined by the SAE’s Levels of Driving Automation. This spectrum has become an internationally recognized classification for automated driving systems. Its six levels can be divided into two broad categories: driver support systems from L0 to L2 (shown in blue), and automated driving systems from L3 to L5 (shown in green). For the past several years, industry players have been working to make the jump from L2 to L3. From Level 2 to Level 3 Autonomous Driving, a Legal Matter Clearly, the leap from L2 to L3 is the most significant leap on the spectrum. Whereas L2 is considered as advanced driver support features, L3 marks the beginning of conditional autonomous driving, where d...

Comparing long-haul, low-cost carriers to other airlines that bill themselves as “full-service,” you’ll often get the same newer planes like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, sometimes with the same seats and entertainment screens. To an extent, airline food is airline food, and many folks already pack their own meals even on full-service airlines. These carriers can be a great deal if you go into them with the understanding that you’re paying low-cost fares, so you should expect a low-cost experience onboard. Overall, set your expectations low, remember how little you paid, and then you might be pleasantly surprised. By and large, long-haul, low-cost airlines focus on four specific markets: transatlantic, transpacific, southeast Asia and Australia. That’s where the flights are long enough to be long-haul, but where passengers are numerous enough for the airline to make money. This type of airline usually makes news for all the wrong reasons: did you hear about that one airline that char...

At an event livestreamed on Monday night, the company introduced its next-generation family of custom-made processors – the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max – and along with it, a handful of new computers. The event’s tagline — “scary fast” — was an apparent nod to the unveiling of the next-generation silicon chip series, as well as the Halloween holiday Tuesday. In the beginning of the pre-recorded presentation, CEO Tim Cook appeared wearing all black within a dimly lit spot inside Apple’s Cupertino, California-based headquarters, standing in front of an apparent smoke machine. Although unveiling a new processor may not sound sexy, it will serve as the backbone to Apple’s latest products, enabling faster speeds and more capabilities than ever. For example, Apple said the M3 speeds are now up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 family of chips, and its core processing performance is up to 50% faster. The chips are built with 3 nanometer technology, which can support advanced graphics and artificial...

Your Android phone likely includes records of everywhere you go alongside most, if not all, of your digital communication and internet search history. Although it’s impossible to have perfect privacy on any smartphone, there are plenty of settings you can adjust to minimize the amount of data that companies collect about you. Being privacy aware on an operating system run by Google—a company that makes money in part by mining data about its users—might seem like a silly endeavor, but the Android OS provides you with tools to control some of your data. Although you’ll never be totally off the grid from your cell provider, and it’s nearly impossible to block everything that tracks you across every platform, it is possible to at least approach your smartphone’s privacy settings practically. Some of these settings come at the cost of convenience, so consider the trade-offs before you disable (or enable) the items we detail below. (These settings will vary depending on which version of Andr...

Technology is easily separated into several subcategories. But it’s also essential to keep an eye on the border picture. More generalized tech blogs take a larger-scale view of the industry. And the following selections are the best tech blogs in 2023 with that generalized industry view. The Verge The Verge was created in 2011 to provide the public with a broad view of the growing technological landscape. It began in response to the fact that digital technology was moving from a fringe subject to essential to the average person’s lifestyle. Today The Verge is carrying out that mission by covering everything related to technology. This ranges from satellite launches to games and science. Wired Wired was one of the best tech blogs before blogging even existed. It was initially started as a print magazine in 1993. Wired quickly became one of the most authoritative sources of information about new technologies. It even coined terms like crowdsourcing. Today wired continues that tradition o...

AI software is a type of computer software that enables the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to process large amounts of data to solve tasks that otherwise require human intelligence. Such tasks include image recognition, video analytics, voice recognition, text recognition, and NLP. The strategic importance of AI technology is growing exponentially across industries. Many businesses are exploring and investing in AI solutions to stay competitive. Late movers are at risk of falling behind their competitors in terms of technological adoption and innovation. This is because AI has the ability to automate tasks and processes that would otherwise not be possible or carried out by humans. As a result, businesses that don’t adopt AI will lose out on cost efficiencies, productivity advantages, and product or service quality. The Top AI Software in 2023 Software  1: Viso Suite Platform Software  2: ChatGPT Software Software  3: Jupyter Notebooks Software  4: Google C...

Every teacher’s classroom practice is unique, so here are 7 effective teaching strategies you can use for inspiration to give your students a fulfilling learning experience. 1. Visualization Visualization is, very simply put, the ability to create mental images based on the words we hear or the text that we read.  This strategy, if used well, can drastically help students focus on the concept or subject matter at hand. It brings concepts to life and encourages students to make connections to the real world.  Some of the methods of implementing this strategy in the classroom include: Use of audio-visual aids like photos, videos, audio clips, songs, etc Diagrams, charts, and mind maps Modeling as you teach for the visual learners who might need to see a visual representation to understand as opposed to hearing the concept being explained. 2. Cooperative Learning Virtual learning has led educators to understand the importance of a key part of the learning process – cooperation. C...

The billionaire is hardly ever out of the headlines just now, especially given the goings-on at his latest acquisition X (formerly Twitter). But the main reason he came to our attention in the first place was by putting electric vehicles (EVs) back on the map with his company Tesla. Sales of EVs in Europe reached an all-time high in 2022 with 3.1 million units sold, an increase of 58 per cent compared to the previous year.  What’s under the hood? There are, of course, differences between a traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicle and an EV, and most of them are under the hood. The first major difference is the car's motor. In a petrol vehicle, there is an internal combustion engine (ICE) that works on the principle when a mixture of fuel and air is compressed and ignited, an explosion is created. In a very simplistic way, the energy from this explosion is then used to power the engine and move the vehicle forward. In an electric car, on the other hand, the motor is electric and work...

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning AI, has already received a lot of buzz in the past decade, but it continues to be one of the new technology trends because of its notable effects on how we live, work and play are only in the early stages. AI is already known for its superiority in image and speech recognition, navigation apps, smartphone personal assistants, ride-sharing apps and so much more. Other than that AI will be used further to analyze interactions to determine underlying connections and insights, to help predict demand for services like hospitals enabling authorities to make better decisions about resource utilization, and to detect the changing patterns of customer behaviour by analyzing data in near real-time, driving revenues and enhancing personalized experiences. The AI market will grow to a $190 billion industry by 2025 with global spending on cognitive and AI systems reaching over $57 billion in 2023.  With AI spreading its wings across secto...