Latest Stories from Jamie
Abuse of Vinicius Jr renews calls to address racism in football
Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr was subject to racist abuse during a La Liga tie against Valencia on Sunday. Past and present teammates have since come out in support of the 22-year-old, along with the wider football world. The beautiful game, at times, can be extremely ugly. One of football’s most exciting starlets, Vinicius Jr, was subject to racist abuse during Real Madrid’s Spanish league tie against Valencia at the Mestalla...
Meta fined a record $1.3bn for EU data transfers to the US
Meta has been hit with a record $1.3bn fine for transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US despite security risks. Is Mark Zuckerberg’s burgeoning social media enterprise already reaching last-chance saloon territory? To summarise the current Meta situation in Gen Z terms, there’s only one phrase that springs to mind: ‘common L’. Mark Zuckerberg’s burgeoning social media enterprise is looking more like a strange social experiment by the...
Is the upcoming bodycam shooter ‘Unrecord’ too true to life?
An upcoming shooter game called Unrecord aims to accurately simulate the bodycam of a tactical officer. But has its developer’s emphasis on overtly realistic mechanics, graphics, and themes created something a little too true to life? The technology available to game developers today is allowing them to create more immersive and marvellous experiences than previously thought possible. Thanks to digital toolkits such as the Unreal Engine 5, we’re able to...
Brazil’s Amazon deforestation fell by 68% in April under Lula da Silva
Taking the reins from Jair Bolsonaro in January, Lula da Silva has thus far honoured his pledge to tackle Brazil’s astronomical deforestation problem. In April, the rate of such activity was down 68% on the previous year. In the run-up to Brazil’s elections last October, several ecological experts suggested the future of the Amazon rainforest relied solely on who would become president. Jair Bolsonaro’s contentious stint of three years had brought...
Salted crops can provide cost-effective carbon capture say researchers
Cost effective carbon capture is currently a bit of a myth. But could arguably Earth’s oldest preservative, salt, provide a solution to lock atmospheric carbon deep underground? Carbon removal is now deemed essential to stay within all theoretical pathways of 1.5C warming, says the IPCC’s AR6 Synthesis Report. Depending on how effectively we transition the most pollutant industries away from fossil fuels, we’ll need to actively sequester somewhere between 5...
Youth climate protesters are occupying their schools across Europe
22 institutions including schools and universities have been temporarily closed as part of a proposed two-month campaign from European students. Headed up by an eco-outfit called ‘End Fossil: Occupy’ the target and agenda are clear. In the fight against climate change and fossil fuel behemoths, eco-conscious students are changing tact to get their message heard. We’ve seen our fair share of mass school strikes since 2019, which happened to be...
Coca-Cola launches AI art contest using ChatGPT-4 and DALL-E 2
Coca-Cola is launching a competition prompting AI fans to create digital art using its iconic imagery. The best submissions will be showcased on billboards in Manhattan and London. The possibilities for generative AI are pretty much endless, and yet the assignment here is to create the coolest image possible… featuring a cat in a space suit. Okay, I’m being facetious. It’s more complicated than that. Coca-Cola is inviting digital artists, or just...
AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton warns of its risks and quits Google
For half a century, AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton nurtured the technology at the heart of chatbots like ChatGPT. Now, having left Google, he warns it could cause serious harm in the future. Regarded by many as a ‘godfather’ of AI technology, Geoffrey Hinton’s pioneering research paved the way for sophisticated generative systems like ChatGPT. The British-Canadian earned his chops over half a century in computer science and cognitive phycology. Now, at...
ChopValue is turning throwaway chopsticks into furniture
The Canadian-based company has just diverted its hundred-millionth chopstick away from landfill. These throwaway items are being transformed into furniture and even resturant interiors at McDonald’s. When tucking into some lunchtime ramen, we scarcely think about how our chopsticks came to be or where they will ultimately end up. Well, for an item that serves its entire life purpose in around a half hour, North America reportedly imports between 40...
Extinction Rebellion volunteers protect the London Marathon
The London Marathon coincided with four days of continuous protests from Extinction Rebellion around the capital. Aware that many were concerned about disruptions, members of the eco-outfit actively protected the event to safeguard its reputation. Extinction Rebellion members decided that showing discretion was the best course of action last weekend. In the run-up to the London Marathon, the climate group had been holding four-day demonstrations in Parliament Square leading many to believe...
