2 weeks 2 days ago
Authorities in Iran have sprayed clouds with chemicals to induce rain, in an attempt to combat the country's worst drought in decades. From a report: Known as cloud-seeding, the process was conducted over the Urmia lake basin on Saturday, Iran's official news agency Irna reported. Urmia is Iran's largest lake, but has largely dried out leaving a vast salt bed. Further operations will be carried out in east and west Azerbaijan, the agency said.
Rainfall is at record lows and reservoirs are nearly empty. Last week President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that if there is not enough rainfall soon, Tehran's water supply could be rationed and people may be evacuated from the capital. Cloud seeding involves injecting chemical salts including silver or potassium iodide into clouds via aircraft or through generators on the ground. Water vapour can then condense more easily and turn into rain. The technique has been around for decades, and the UAE has used it in recent years to help address water shortages. Iran's meteorological organisation said rainfall had decreased by about 89% this year compared with the long-term average, Irna reported.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
msmash
2 weeks 2 days ago
It's news that will have been welcomed by Timothee's fans, who made no secret of the fact they disapproved of the actor dating a reality TV star.
2 weeks 2 days ago
In a forthright response to critics, Ms Mahmood described to the House of Commons how she is 'regularly called a f***ing P*** and told to go back home'.
2 weeks 2 days ago
EuroHPC's biggest iron still has more to give with Universal Cluster expansion expected to come online next year
SC25 Europe has officially entered exascale orbit. On Monday, EuroHPC's Jupiter supercomputer became the fourth such machine on the Top500 list of publicly known systems to exceed a million-trillion floating point operations a second in the time-honored High-Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark.…
Tobias Mann
2 weeks 2 days ago
For the past two years now, we have been picking apart the semi-annual rankings of supercomputers known as the Top500 is a different way, focusing on the new machines that come into each list in either June or November. …
Modest HPC Centers Drive Top500 Supercomputer Rankings This Time Around was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.
Timothy Prickett Morgan
2 weeks 2 days ago
This event was a great night for the community
Jodie Bradley
2 weeks 2 days ago
Colchester Zoo’s new Christmas advert is an inspiring behind-the-scenes look at daily life and the hidden work at the zoo.
2 weeks 2 days ago
Colchester Zoo’s new Christmas advert is an inspiring behind-the-scenes look at daily life and the hidden work at the zoo.
2 weeks 2 days ago
The Department for Transport has announced that Stansted Airport's railway station will be one of 50 across South East England to accept contactless payments from December 14
Neil Lancefield PA Transport Correspondent, Katie Green
2 weeks 2 days ago
An anonymous reader shares a report: The use of AI in the latest Call of Duty has prompted a US lawmaker to call for regulations to prevent artificial intelligence from taking jobs away from human workers. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who represents a large swathe of Silicon Valley, took aim at Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 after buyers noticed the popular shooter contains a significant amount of AI-generated icons, posters, and achievements. Gamers are criticizing it as filled with "AI slop."
On Friday, Khanna tweeted: "We need regulations that prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs to extract greater profits." He added, "Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed. They should share in the profits. And there should be a tax on mass displacement."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
msmash
2 weeks 2 days ago
Documenting code can be dull, but explaining the source code of a complex project is hard for AI to get right
Google has previewed Code Wiki, an AI project that aims to document code in a repository and keep it up to date by regenerating the content after every code change.…
Tim Anderson
2 weeks 2 days ago
Forecasters have said there is a chance parts of Essex could see snowfall later this week.
2 weeks 2 days ago
Forecasters have said there is a chance parts of Essex could see snowfall later this week.
2 weeks 2 days ago
Despite the ominous 'E' word, Sarah seems certain all is not lost; public favour, she feels, can be hers once again with her planned rebrand as a 'global empowerment leader'.
2 weeks 2 days ago
The Duke of Sussex released a defiant statement on November 5 claiming that the royal household was informed 'as a courtesy' that he was going to Toronto when his brother was in Rio.
2 weeks 2 days ago
Before falling ill, Mia Lucas was physically healthy and went horse-riding every weekend, the inquest heard.
2 weeks 2 days ago
Rachel Reeves faced a furious backlash over plans to impose a 'bed tax' on hotel stays and holiday rentals.
2 weeks 2 days ago
US scientists have designed a a free tool for adults aged between 30 and 59 to calculate their 30 year risk of developing the condition.
2 weeks 2 days ago
Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, which operates publishing labels including GTA-maker Rockstar Games and 2K, said on Monday that although gaming consoles are not going away, the industry is moving toward PCs in the next decade. From a report: "I think it's moving towards PC and business is moving towards open rather than closed," Zelnick told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"But if you define console as the property, not the system, then the notion of a very rich game that you engage in for many hours that you play on a big screen -- that's never going away." Zelnick said the current split between console and mobile is about even in the market, but mobile is growing more rapidly than consoles.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
msmash
2 weeks 2 days ago
People are worried the decision is leading to the 'industrialisation of the Essex countryside'
Piers Meyler