Ken and Cameron Davidov are food scientists, that are well known in the food industry. Recently, they created the SpoonTEK as the name suggests is a spoon that stimulates your taste buds into making the food more flavourful. That means cheese is more cheesy, butter is more creamy and chocolate can be sweeter. So, how it works? There are two metal electrodes, that conduct microcurrents to intensify taste and aftertaste. This father and son duo claim that this spoon can help people on the diet, to make them enjoy their food more. Moreover, that invention may be helpful for people, who have lost their taste and smell due to COVID. The SpoonTEK works best with food that is liquid or semi-liquid like soups, sauces, yogurts, therefore such food has the best contact with the electrodes on the invention. It is worth adding that the spoon can be safely put into a dishwasher and costs $29.
One of the content moderators indirectly working for TikTok sued the company for that she developed PTSD as a result of her job. She said that she had to watch videos containing animal cruelty, torture, suicides, child abuse, murder, beheadings, and other graphic content which led her to trauma. According to her testimony, the company failed to provide proper working conditions and mental healthcare. It’s worth mentioning that content moderators have to sign non-disclosure agreements which “exacerbate the harm” caused by their work. It’s a common practice in the technology industry which was recently criticized among employee disputes. It’s not the first time when content moderator sues the company for developing mental illness. In 2018 there was a similar case with a content moderator of Facebook.
It has been 25 years since the first Tamagotchi appeared on the market. This toy has disappeared from schoolyards and has been replaced by smartphones, but many of its features have had a major impact on the video game industry.
The Tamagotchi screen was 32×16 pixels and has three small buttons, was released on November 23, 1996, in Japan by company Bandai. These buttons had different functions, such as feeding your pet, turning off the light, or cleaning the surroundings. If you didn’t care for your creation, the Tamagotchi will die. All that was left of him were the stars and what your Tamagotchi was.
It was a revolution in the video game industry, Tamagotchi was one of the first to use continuous play features. Over the following years, this feature became a key feature of popular games.
after the first Tamagotchi launched in 1996, it became not just a toy fad, but a social phenomenon, ”says Nobuhiko Momoi, managing director, and chief Tamagotchi officer at Bandai, the company behind the Tamagotchi. The company has sold over 82 million toys. Moreover, the company continues to sell newer and newer versions of Tamagotchi. The new versions look similar but have been tweaked more visually and technically. Colorful graphics, new items, and online features.
According to the company, the success of Tamagotchi is, before everything else, that people have a caring instinct. The toy gave children a sense of responsibility. The game that does not stop was not as popular before Tamagotchi’s release, however, it is now featured in games like World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online.
Tamagotchi was also special because it was mainly aimed at girls. Consoles like the Nintendo were displayed on the boys’ poles. “The Tamagotchi provided access to people who had been ignored over the last decade in the video game industry,” Adam Crowley, professor of English at Husson University says. However, it was still based on hackneyed stereotypes such as maternal instinct.
Tamagotchi was one of the first video games to blur the lines between reality and the virtual world. Virtual reality is a new drug, and Tamagotchis are the first wave. It’s not just some fad that will go away. [Tamagotchis] is an ideal example of the possible threat of a virtual world becoming, in the future, a real dependence problem needing treatment. ” – Finnish addiction specialist and sociologist Teuvo Peltoniemi. According to him, children developed a deep bond with their Tamagotchi, so much so that some would organize funerals for them.
Youtube has chosen to gradually abandon displaying the number of dislikes under the videos. It is official and confirmed information published on the YouTube creator’s channel. The decision is to prevent waves of hatred under films. According to the owners of the portal this move will protect creators from persecution and coordinated attacks.
It was met with plenty of hatred. Users fear that it will be harder to find helpful and reliable content.
The dislike button will still be visible and you can use it. However, the number of dislikes will be hidden. Only creators will be able to see statistics. YouTube testing the introduction of the change, confirmed that by hiding the dislike counter, users give less of them.
One of the programmers tries to revive this function within the browser extension. Nevertheless, on December 13, it will be turned off. The alpha version is not perfect, it only works for videos that have API returning the correct number of dislikes.
Although, despite the shortcomings, it is good that something like this is created. Somehow is a protest against a technology giant.
China, as it strives to be the advanced economy of the world, seemed to be adopting cryptocurrencies. Just two years ago after bitcoin was born in 2011, China opened up to the first bitcoin market. Now, in 2021 the digital yuan will replace some banknotes and coins ion circulation.
Currency tests – whose name is Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) was conducted in many large cities including Shenzhen, Chengdu and Suzhou.
In China where the electronic payment system is very well developed, the introduction of the digital yuan will be a matter of time.
“The use of cash is decreasing. Eventually cash will be replaced by something in digital format. That is one of the big drivers behind this,” Yan Xiao, project lead for digital trade at the World Economic Forum.
How will digital yuan work?
The central bank distributes the digital currency to consumers through 6 commercial banks, usually through a wallet application. Payments can be made by scanning QR code, wearable devices, and even physical wallets with embedded digital chips. There were about 20 million digital yuan wallets in existence by June, according to the government, and the transaction volume reached 34.5 billion yuan ($ 5.3 billion).
Is digital yuan similar to bitcoin?
However, the digital currency of China should not be equated with other cryptocurrencies. Electronic yuan will be issued by the PBOC, while e.g. bitcoin is so-called a decentralized cryptocurrency and is not controlled by any central bank.
What is designed for?
The money flow is hidden in cash transactions and even mobile payments, so government wants to get a better overview of the money flow in the country.
Through a “controlled anonymity system”, digital yuan will help maintain China’s financial stability. As a result, payments would be somewhat anonymous, but the interests of data analysis could have assisted the central bank in detecting illegal activities, including money laundering.
Competition in payment system will be increased, which are currently dominated by Alipay and WeChat.
It is intended to strengthen the position of yuan.
Negative sides of digital yuan
Nevertheless, some people call for such actions to be politically threatening because having a currency and being able to control it directly makes it easier for a government to enforce its political intentions.
