We’ve experienced a radical global shift in the social perception of issues related to diversity. Studies demonstrate a clear trend towards ‘diversity awareness’ over the past decade. But has this translated into gains for STEM? As far as we can tell, the answer’s a tepid ‘sure, a little.’ We’re seeing small changes filter through in the form of corporate and academic commitments, but continuing studies demonstrate there’s a lot of work left to be done when it comes to actual recruitment and equ
After playing a cat and mouse game with Twitter’s board seat, Elon Musk declared his ambition to buy 100% of the company’s shares yesterday. Later, at TED 2022 in Vancouver, the Tesla CEO said that his intention to take over Twitter isn’t driven by economic motives. At the same time, Twitter’s board of directors is considering its options to counter Musk’s bid. A lot’s been going on in the Twitter-Musk universe in the past week, and things are moving at a frantic pace, so we’ll try to break down
German startup Volocopter has been working on its fully electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft since 2011. After a series of prototypes and “more than 1,500” test flights, the company has developed the full-size pre-production prototype of its air taxi — named VoloCity. On Wednesday, Volocopeter released footage of VoloCity’s maiden flight, which you can watch on the video above. The flight, which took place in December 2021, shows the aircraft taking off, hovering above the gro
This article was originally published on .cult by Doug Neale. .cult is a Berlin-based community platform for developers. We write about all things career-related, make original documentaries and share heaps of other untold developer stories from around the world. If you’ve ever worked on a large codebase, you’ll know that it can suck. Their highly-coupled code and increased deployment risk can slow developer productivity right down. To combat this, many have shifted away from monolithic applicat
The reality is we don’t really hear all that much about the evolution of hyperloops. The companies are like underground moles, sneakily operating in stealth mode on all matters of engineering and propulsion. Or perhaps they’re more like a duck gliding through the water, frantically paddling underneath? But enough with the animal analogies. I wrote an article a bit over six months ago where I took a look at the progress of some of the key hyperloop companies. Following the news of Virgin’s pivot
Sketchy ads, like those for miracle weight loss pills and suspicious-looking software, sometimes appear on legitimate, well-regarded websites. It turns out that most websites don’t actually decide who gets to show ads to their viewers. Instead, most sites outsource this task to a complex network of advertising tech companies that do the work of figuring out which ads are shown to each particular person. The online ad ecosystem is largely built around “programmatic advertising,” a system for plac
In January, Mercedes unveiled its Vision EQXX concept EV, touting it as “the most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built” — able to deliver a whopping 1,000 km (621 miles) range on a single charge. And as it turns out, the company held true to its word. Today, the German brand announced that its concept car successfully completed a long-range test of 1,008km (626 miles) in real-world conditions. The Vision EQXX is a sleek-looking machine. Credit: Mercedes-Benz The EV traveled across various European
If you’ve seen photos of a teapot shaped like an avocado or read a well-written article that veers off on slightly weird tangents, you may have been exposed to a new trend in artificial intelligence (AI). Machine learning systems called DALL-E, GPT and PaLM are making a splash with their incredible ability to generate creative work. These systems are known as “foundation models” and are not all hype and party tricks. So how does this new approach to AI work? And will it be the end of human creat
WhatsApp’s finally recognizing that people use the chat app as more than a personal communication tool. So the company’s introducing a new Communities feature that can merge your existing groups of similar nature under one umbrella. For instance, if you have different groups related to your living complex, they can be clubbed under one community. WhatsApp says this new feature will also bring tools like cross-group announcement messages: “We think Communities will make it easier for a school pri
Elon Musk has offered to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 a share — about $41 billion — saying the platform needs to go private to thrive and serve free speech. “My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk wrote in a letter sent to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor on April 13. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.” I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022 Musk’s bid