The South African airline Airlink is defending its dramatic flyover of two full sized passenger jets that passed just yards above a packed stadium in Cape Town. Footage of the ambitious stunt consumed social media, with multiple angles showing how closely the aircraft — two Embraer SA passenger jets — passed within the rooftop of…
When Nvidia unveiled its new DLSS 5 feature, which uses AI to overhaul the visuals of video games, gamers knew what they were getting into. The official demos Nvidia had shared previously looked uncanny, disjointed from the game’s original aesthetic, and worst of all, bore that unmistakable AI sheen. Gamers reviled it as “slop tracing”…
Toronto-based deep technology startup Meissner wants to find and develop the next generation of superconducting materials. Meissner announced $2.6 million USD ($3.6 million CAD) in pre-seed financing on Tuesday to build what it describes as “the discovery engine” for superconductors, using a combination of machine learning (ML), computation, and experimental validation. Superconductors are “definitely the…
Right now, in Ottawa, there’s a vehicle sitting in a garage that can make the trip from Vancouver to Halifax and still have gas to spare. That vehicle could be many things: an ambulance, a personnel transport, perhaps a delivery truck. And, once Victoria-based InDro Robotics is finished working on it, it will be able…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Balloons have always been made from natural latex, a material derived from rubber tree sap. Natural latex is biodegradable. The rubber tree has been producing it since before the first balloon was invented in 1824. On its own, it breaks down. The problem is what manufacturers do to it…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most to-do lists have two kinds of items on them: the real work you’re managing, and the small things that keep getting moved to tomorrow. Reply to that email. File that paper. RSVP to that thing. None of them take long, yet none of them seem to get done….
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For 16 weeks, an AI-generated variation of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” sat in Australia’s top 20 singles chart. At its peak, it hit number two. Listeners streamed it, and the chart counted it. And then the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) decided that probably shouldn’t keep happening. Starting today,…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM September is a transition month for the sky. The Milky Way‘s core is still visible in the Northern Hemisphere, but not for much longer. The nights are getting longer, Venus is at its most radiant all year, the Harvest Moon is coming, and the autumn equinox opens aurora season….
The Federal Bureau of Investigation looks almost unrecognizable under director Kash Patel’s leadership. The agency’s head has been embroiled in a seemingly endless list of controversies, from allegations of excessive drinking to buying up location data on everyday American citizens to furthering of harebrained conspiracies. Patel lacked virtually any degree of relevant working experience for…
Two are dead and over 25 buildings damaged after a cataclysmic explosion at a cannabis facility in Sand Springs, Oklahoma last week. According to initial reporting by KTUL, the blast happened at 1:30am, and literally blew the roof off the building, sending out shockwaves that could be felt up to 30 to 40 miles away….
