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"THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE — IT’S JUST NOT VERY EVENLY DISTRIBUTED" William Gibson
How the Waxwork Records workshop makes colored vinyl records of the Beetlejuice 2 soundtrack.
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China has launched the world's largest offshore solar power plant with a capacity of 1 GW. This project was implemented by the Chinese energy company CHN Energy and is located in the open sea, 8 km east of the city of Dongying in Shandong Province. The power plant covers an area of about 1,223 hectares and consists of 2,934 photovoltaic platforms mounted on pile foundations. Each platform measures 60 by 35 meters.
The power plant will produce up to 1.78 billion kWh of electricity per year, reducing coal consumption by 594,500 tons.
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President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele announced an unusual project - renting volcanoes for bitcoin mining. There are 170 volcanoes in the country, the geothermal energy of which is planned to be used to power mining farms.
The idea came after a successful experiment with mining 474 bitcoins (about $46 million) at the geothermal power plant at Tekapa volcano. Now there are 300 processors working there, consuming 1.5 MW of the 102 MW of energy produced.
To implement the project, the Salvadoran authorities are developing new legislation on geothermal energy. Recall that this country was the first in the world to legalize bitcoin as a means of payment in September 2021.
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Startup Pickle has launched a service with AI avatars for online meetings in Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. To create a digital doppelganger, you need to record a five-minute video - after 48 hours, the AI will generate an avatar with your facial expressions, wearing the same clothes and on the same background.
The virtual double synchronizes with your voice in real time and imitates lip movements in any language. At the same time, the user can be anywhere - behind the wheel or in the gym.
The service works on macOS, the Windows version will appear in December 2024. The subscription price varies from $288 to $1152 per year, depending on the number of hours of video calls and the number of avatar versions available.
By the way, Pickle prohibits the use of digital doppelgangers in TV shows, political campaigns and age-restricted product advertising.
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How you should prepare for the New Year.
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Shanghai L+Snow Indoor Skiing, the world's largest indoor ski resort, opened in Shanghai on September 6, 2024. The complex covers an area of almost 100,000 square meters and is officially recognized as a Guinness Book of World Records record holder.
The temperature inside is kept at -10°C despite the heat outside. 72 cooling machines and 33 snow generators are responsible for creating the snow cover, maintaining a snow thickness of about 70 centimeters.
The resort offers three ski slopes of varying difficulty with a total length of 1200 meters. The most difficult piste is 340 meters long with a slope of 26 degrees. The height difference is about 60 meters.
The complex has three themed hotels with almost 1000 rooms. In addition to the ski area, the complex has an aqua park and more than 20 different snow activities.
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An electric wheelchair from Honda that can be operated hands-free.
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Passengers at Queenstown Airport, a very difficult place to land, are upset because this is the third plane that has failed to land
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Glasses with camera + internet + AI
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A tiger shark in the Bahamas decided to get a taste of modern technology. During an excursion, boat captain Dave Finch accidentally dropped his iPhone into the water, and the predator was immediately interested in it.
The shark, known locally as Jitterbug and Buttface, not only swallowed the phone, but filmed the process from the inside - you can see its pulsating gills in the video.
Fortunately, the phone was in a waterproof case, and after the shark played with the gadget and spit it out, the device was retrieved. However, such a snack is not new to tiger sharks - they have found stranger things in their stomachs, from car licence plates to tyres.
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Aardman Studios has shared behind-the-scenes footage of the creation of a scene from the Wallace and Gromit project.
Aardman is known for its mastery of using plasticine to create animated films, starting with early works such as Nick Park's A Grand Day Out, Picnic on the Moon.
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The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will be the largest telescope in human history, is under construction in the Atacama Desert in Chile. This project of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is being realized on Mount Armasones, near the Paranal Observatory. The telescope will have a mirror with a diameter of 39.3 meters and is designed to operate in the optical and near-infrared bands.
Construction of the ELT began after the site was selected in 2010 and the foundation stone was laid in 2015. The design and construction is estimated to cost $1.47 billion dollars and the telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2028. This telescope will allow astronomers to study distant galaxies, exoplanets and other space objects with unprecedented detail.
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A space photography enthusiast decided to capture SpaceX's sixth Starship rocket test, which took place on November 19, 2024. For this purpose, he rented professional lenses worth $16,000. And the images turned out incredible.
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A special lens for movie cameras that keeps snow and rain from smudging the lens
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The lavender harvesting process in France
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In Chicago, when snow falls, track workers use the method of burning the rails to prevent switches from freezing. This is done to keep trains running smoothly during winter, when low temperatures can lead to icing and equipment failures. Burning the rails helps to keep them in working order, avoiding delays and accidents.
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Japan's earthquake-resistant buildings in action.
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This phonograph is the ancestor of vinyl recorders and turntables. It was invented by Thomas Edison back in 1877.
The principle of operation of this device is quite well-known: the voice inside the horn vibrates the membrane, the vibration is transmitted to the needle, which scratches the sound tracks.
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Manufacturing process of steel drums
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The European Space Agency has published the most detailed images of the Sun's surface taken by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft in March 2023 from a distance of 45 million kilometres.
Each image consists of 25 individual photographs, which took more than four hours to create. The images show the star's photosphere, its magnetic field, plasma flows and corona.
The photos show sunspots with temperatures of about 3800°C and pellets - turbulent cells of plasma measuring about 1000 kilometres each. The corona images are particularly interesting, where you can see how magnetic lines emerge from the Sun's surface.
Solar Orbiter is a joint project between ESA and NASA. In early 2025, the spacecraft will take a position from which it will be able to photograph the poles of the Sun for the first time in history.
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This is what the world's largest offshore solar power plant with a capacity of 1 GW looks like.
It was built in China, 8 kilometres off the coast of Dongying. Consisting of 2,934 panels, the plant covers an area of more than 1,223 hectares and is capable of powering almost 3 million homes annually
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The Japanese anime Sazae-san (Sazae-san) continues to break its own records. More than 7,800 episodes have already been released since it first aired in October 1969. It's not just the longest-running anime - it's the longest-running animated series in television history.
Every week the Japanese watch three new eight-minute episodes about the adventures of housewife Sazae and her family. For 55 years, the characters have not aged a day, continuing to delight viewers with cosy stories from everyday life.
In comparison, One Piece, with its 1,090 episodes, looks like a fledgling series, while Pokémon is nervously standing on the sidelines.
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Starhopper launch vehicles of 2019 and Starship of 2024
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