Dilemmas

48% of Americans aged 13 to 17 say that social media has a mostly negative effect on people of their age, up from just 32% two years earlier, according to a survey of U.S. teens conducted by the Pew Research Center in autumn 2024. Only 11% of teenagers in the U.S. described the impact of social media as mostly positive, ...

A major roadblock to wider use of driverless cars is safety which led to the suspension of the driverless testing permits for General Motors’ AV subsidiary Cruise in San Francisco in 2023 after an accident with a pedestrian. The safety of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is also, in part, reflected in their crash/collision rate compared to all motor vehicles. In 2023, ...

Tesla’s Robotaxi  launch in Austin could be more a sign of technological weakness than a demonstration of technological prowess.. Analysts say that 60% of Tesla’s stock market valuation derives from its expertise in autonomous driving. But whereas Waymo has 1500 vehicles in five cities offering paid-for robotaxi trips in fully autonomous vehicles without a safety driver, Tesla has 24 cars ...

I expect you know by now that generative AI search engines come up with loads of bollox in their answers to questions about current affairs. It’s good to have your own experience validated by research and the Columbia Journalism Review quotes a study by the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism which has found a substantial proportion of inaccuracies in answers ...

Due to its large reserves and strategic position,  Iran plays a significant role in the global oil market, giving the country a valuable bargaining chip in international negotiations. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iran produced roughly 4,700 million barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids per day in 2024, making it the world’s sixth largest oil producer. ...

The Dreamliner in the Indian plane crash was 12 years old which is older than the average age of Air India’s fleet which is 8.1 years, according to Planespotters.net 8.1 years is relatively young in comparison to other major airlines around the world – an average age of 12 is not uncommon with major carriers. United Airlines, Lufthansa and Air ...

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy has released a new report outlining how Europe could replace U.S. support for Ukraine both financially and militarily. The organization has calculated that European governments as a whole will need to nearly double their aid flow from the current €44 billion per year to €82 billion per year, which equates to an increase ...

The American public does not approve of any bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites according to a survey by The Economist and YouGov . Only 16% of respondents were in favour and only 19% of those who voted for Trump in the presidential election were in favour.. Republicans in general showed still-low support of 23%. A significant part of respondents also said ...

This week the Vatican is holding a two day conference on AI in the Apostolic Palace. Attendees include execs from Google, Meta, Palantir, IBM, Anthropic and Cohere. The new Pope, Leo XIV, took his name from Leo XIII who, in the 1890s, challenged the robber baron tycoons who dominated an age of rapid technological change which exploited workers. In 1891, Leo ...

2023 saw the hottest year ever recorded for the Mediterranean, when the annual anomaly surpassed 0.5 degrees Celsius above the average temperature observed between 1991 and 2020. “It is expected that 2024 will also follow this trend”, says Statista’s report ‘State of the Mediterranean Sea‘. On August 15, 2024 the Mediterranean reported its hottest day since records began. “Although regular ...