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Researchers at Stanford University have discovered a unique species of bioluminescent phytoplankton called Pyrocystis noctiluca that inflates to six times its original size to travel up to 200 meters from the depths to the ocean’s surface. By utilizing a gravity machine, the team found that the inflated cells are less dense than seawater, allowing them […]
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Scientific papers, known as “sleeping beauties,” often receive little attention initially, then become highly cited years later. These papers contain groundbreaking discoveries that may have been overlooked for various reasons. Examples include the work of Herbert Freundlich and William Hummers, whose papers were rediscovered decades later due to their relevance to new technologies. The concept […]
Egypt has made history by being certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) after nearly a century of efforts. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called this achievement “truly historic,” as Egypt’s battle against the disease dates back to the time of the pharaohs. The country is only the third in the Eastern Mediterranean Region […]
The IOCCC Flight Simulator was the winning entry in the 1998 International Obfuscated C Code Contest and is public domain. It’s a flight simulator in under 2 kilobytes of code, offering relatively accurate dynamics, wireframe scenery, and a small instrument panel. Use the keyboard to fly the Piper Cherokee. Loadable scenery files with options to […]
Epublifier is a unique tool that converts websites into ePub books, allowing them to be imported into eReaders. Advanced users can customize the parsing of any site by writing JavaScript code. The tool currently supports popular sites like Novel Update and Wuxia World, as well as custom sites with UL/OL elements or regex on link […]
Amateur historian Brian Cleary made a groundbreaking discovery at the National Library of Ireland – a lost short story by Bram Stoker, titled Gibbet Hill, published in 1890. This ghostly tale sheds light on Stoker’s development as an author, marking a significant point on his path to creating Dracula. The story follows a murdered sailor […]
Join over 45,000 readers of Apricitas by hitting subscribe! Microsoft’s move to reopen Three Mile Island reactor underscores the tech industry’s reliance on legacy nuclear facilities for power. The AI boom has fueled a surge in US data center construction, with over $28.6B spent annually. Companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are rapidly scaling up […]
ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, fired an intern for interfering with the training of its AI models, but downplayed the extent of the damage caused. The intern, who was part of the advertising technology team and not the AI Lab, was dismissed after disrupting an AI training system. Contrary to reports, ByteDance denied that more […]
Sampling is a powerful tool for extracting meaning from large datasets. By reducing data into representative samples using SQL, even FAANG-sized datasets become manageable. Built-in support for sampling, such as TABLESAMPLE clauses in SQL dialects, is available in some database systems. For more challenging scenarios, algorithms like A-ES allow for weighted, deterministic sampling without replacement. […]
CEO of Mosaic, Jeffrey Martin, is excited to share the release of an exceptional image dataset of Prague for non-commercial use under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. This 15.15 terapixel dataset includes 210,469 panoramas with centimeter-accurate positioning. Martin’s journey in high-resolution imaging led to the creation of Mosaic, focusing on 360-degree cameras. The Prague dataset […]