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A French man accidentally asked Rihanna to take a picture of him instead of with her leaving her in fits of giggles.

Teenagers who start using social media at a younger age are up to six months behind at school by their GCSE years, a new study suggests.

A total of 34 candidates are fighting to represent Clacton in Parliament

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Following 404 Media's reporting that book database company ISBNdb claimed to source printed books to then sell to AI companies for AI training, the company deleted the part of its website offering the service and walked back claims that it would train AI models, and instead called it "a test of market interest." On July 30, nine days after 404 Media's reporting, ISBNdb added a note to its homepage and an update on its news page about the change. "We've seen the recent coverage about a marketing landing page on our site, and we understand the concern it raised. The facts: ISBNdb has never purchased, scanned, or sold a book -- for AI training or anything else," ISBNdb wrote. "We don't train AI models, and we never have. The page was a test of market interest; no such service was ever brought to life. We've taken the page down. Our job is helping people find books. For more than two decades, ISBNdb has been the card catalog of the book world -- the data behind how bookstores, libraries, and reading apps connect readers with titles. Data about books, not the books themselves. That hasn't changed." ISBNdb removed the landing page for "Printed Books Sourcing for Your AI LLMs Dataset Needs" on July 28. "It was part of exploring demand, and we've chosen to pivot away from that direction. Our main ISBNdb (book metadata API) services are unaffected and running as usual," the site says. According to 404 Media's previous report, ISBNdb had pitched pre-2022 printed books as premium AI training material because they contained curated human knowledge without contamination from AI-generated text or modern data-poisoning techniques. "The world's best AI training data is sitting on a shelf," the company had argued, while offering discreet bulk book acquisition under NDAs and acknowledging the potential backlash if AI firms were seen destroying millions of books for scanning.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Asraf was found by his sister with a gunshot to the chest at the cemetery in Elkana in the West Bank

In a worrying phenomenon, many parents are seeing their 20-something children forced to move straight back in after graduation.

Jonathan Ross's daughter Betty stripped down to a series of racy ensembles to mark their 35th birthday over the weekend. 

A York guest house has taken the top spot in England's B&B rankings - with just eight rooms, plenty of Victorian charm, and award-winning breakfasts.

Ryan Hammond, 39, of Chelmsford, has been banned from entering any Co-op, Tesco and M&S in Essex.

Ryan Hammond, 39, of Chelmsford, has been banned from entering any Co-op, Tesco and M&S in Essex.

Police launched an investigations after a woman was allegedly attacked in a house where there were reports of a 'serious sexual assault'.

Police were called to reports of a single vehicle collision involving a motorbike

A former X Factor finalist has denied murdering a social media influencer from Essex by running her over with a car.

A former X Factor finalist has denied murdering a social media influencer from Essex by running her over with a car.

Taiwanese silicon biz believes it can take up to 20% of $80B market with upcoming ASIC chips, but analysts are sceptical

ExfilSquad claims 135,000 contact records weeks after hitting the Department for Education

As temperatures were set to hit 35C in some areas today, the country's golf courses, usually covered in healthy grass, were left parched by low rainfall and hosepipe bans.

They appeared for a brief hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court

A High Court order has been issued to protect this year’s Clacton Airshow by preventing unauthorised camping on the seafront.

A High Court order has been issued to protect this year’s Clacton Airshow by preventing unauthorised camping on the seafront.