Like it or not, Twitter on Tuesday retired its star button that users click to “favorite” a post and replaced it with a heart. The messaging platform said the new system of “likes,” which is also used by Facebook, offers a better way for users to express their views. But it quickly sparked an outcry…
WASHINGTON: Scientists are developing new technologies that will allow computers to recognise non-verbal commands such as gestures, body language and facial expressions. For most people, using a computer is limited to clicking, typing, searching, and, thanks to Siri and similar software, verbal commands. “Compare that with how humans interact with each other, face to face…
BERLIN: A World War II bomb was destroyed in a controlled explosion on Monday at the main international airport in the western German city of Duesseldorf, briefly halting air traffic. Flights at the hub, Germany’s third busiest in terms of passengers, were interrupted for an hour in the morning while the 125-kilogramme bomb was neutralized,…
SANA’A/CAIRO—The numbers vary, but the story they tell is clear: The cyclone in Yemen has destroyed almost everything in its path. And some residents say between the ongoing war and the abject poverty that dominates the nation, they are growing terrified of the future. “All people here are very scared because the situation was already…
Alphabet, parent company of tech giant Google, has announced tie-ups with three major Indonesian telecom operators to expand web connectivity in the country’s remote areas using hundreds of net-beaming balloons. The initiative is part of Project Loon by Google X, Alphabet’s research division, which works on ambitious ideas, including self-driven cars, EFE news reported. …
SHANGHAI: More than 40% of goods sold online in China last year were either counterfeits or of bad quality, the official Xinhua news agency said, illustrating the extent of a problem that has bogged down the fast-growing online sector. According to the report, which was delivered to China’s top lawmakers on Monday, just under 59…
Chennai: Chennai’s K Prithika Yashini is all set to become India’s first transgender Sub Inspector of Police after winning a legal battle at the Madras High Court yesterday. In a landmark decision, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint Yashini – a transgender – as Sub…
A team of Australian scientists has discovered a gene in a “magical” plant that will open the door for space-based food production, especially during deeper human missions, including to Mars. Professor Peter Waterhouse, a plant geneticist at the Queensland University of Technology, discovered the gene in the ancient Australian native tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana —…
Boosting the government’s ambitious ‘Digital India’ drive, social media giant Facebook has come forward to facilitate state-run BSNL in setting up 100 Wi-Fi sites in rural areas of western and southern India. Facebook will spend Rs. 5 crores per annum for sponsoring these 100 Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. “Facebook has partnered with us to…
Stating that India has “one of the largest nuclear power programmes” among developing nations, a US-based think-tank on Monday said by the end of 2014 India had enough weapon-grade plutonium to possess an estimated stock of atomic weapons in the range of 75-125. “An estimate of India’s nuclear arsenal can be derived by considering its…
