Tootfinder

"Tree planting can combat urban heat, but some neighborhoods are falling behind"
#Trees #Environment
https://

Tree planting can combat urban heat, but some neighborhoods are falling behind
Sydney communities may be missing out on crucial tree planting projects intended to combat urban heat, leaving western and eastern parts of Greater Sydney with less protection from extreme heat, a University of Sydney-led study has revealed. In a surprising finding, the researchers found that while Greater Sydney's total tree canopy increased by 4.2% from 1.514 billion square meters to 1.578 billion square meters between 2016 and 2022, this growth was not evenly distributed.

Oh good. TurboTax is now using a chatbot as part of their filing process, and letting it determine if your filing is accurate.
... I expect a lot more audits in the near future. *sigh*
#AI #LLM #FuckAI

Intel added $100B in market value after its stock soared 53% in nine sessions following announcements to repurchase an Ireland fab and join the Terafab project (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-13/i…

⚠️ AI can generate a feeling of intimacy that exceeds human connections
I discovered 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 for myself in my ill-fated research project of 2021!
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-generate-intimacy-exceeds-human.html

AI can generate a feeling of intimacy that exceeds human connections
People can develop emotional closeness to artificial intelligence (AI)—under certain conditions, even more so than to other people. This is shown by a new study conducted by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Markus Heinrichs and Dr. Tobias Kleinert from the Department of Psychology at the University of Freiburg and Prof. Dr. Bastian Schiller from Heidelberg University's Institute of Psychology. Participants felt a sense of closeness especially when they did not know that they were communicatin…

"We don’t really think about our future – we remember it",
said Dr Hal Hershfield, who studies how humans think about time and how that influences our emotions and behaviors.
When we daydream or envision ourselves at a later point, we essentially create a memory.
We then use these memories to construct our ideas about the future.
This process is called “episodic future thinking”;
it supports our decision-making, emotional regulation and ability to p…

Source: Anthropic is preparing to release Claude Opus 4.7, along with a new AI-powered tool for designing websites and presentations, as soon as this week (Stephanie Palazzolo/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/exclusive…

Exclusive: Anthropic Preps Opus 4.7 Model, AI Design Tool
Anthropic is preparing its next flagship model, Claude Opus 4.7, along with a new AI-powered tool for designing websites and presentations, according to a person with knowledge of the products. Those new products could be released as soon as this week, the person said. News of the upcoming AI design tool sent the share prices of Adobe, Wix and Figma down more than 2% in the house following

This looks like an interesting take on the whole “AI" (IMHO its not AI and its not leading directly to AGI).
I've only watched this preview but it looks like it covers things from many points of view. The creator of the film
The AI Documentary: Or How I Becamean APOCALOPTIMIST.
#AIHype

Google the price of oil, and you’ll most likely find two widely quoted prices for the commodity, one in the United States, the other in Europe.
These prices, which are constantly changing on electronic markets, suggest that although the war with Iran has made energy a lot more expensive, things are not nearly as bad as they were four years ago, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
But if you needed an actual tanker full of oil — and quickly — it would cost you dearly.
On Tuesday, …

Iran War Drives Deeper Oil Shock Than Prices Reveal
The war with Iran is preventing huge amounts of oil from flowing out of the Persian Gulf, but the prices that many people track don’t fully capture the scale of the disruption.

Just as they’re gearing up for planting season, U.S. farmers already stretched by high input costs and low commodity prices are watching the price of fertilizer go up.
The recent conflict in Iran, the following closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the resulting impacts to global markets are hitting farmers particularly hard right now.
The wholesale price of urea, the nitrogen input the U.S. imports the most of, had a high-low spread of $460–480 per short ton the week of Feb. 27, j…

Fertilizer Prices Jump as Strait of Hormuz Closure Hits Farmers
Fertilizer prices are rising sharply as the Strait of Hormuz closure disrupts global nitrogen supplies, squeezing farmers just weeks before peak spring application.

German quick grocery delivery startup Flink raised $100M led by Prosus, a source says at a $900M valuation; Flink was reportedly valued at $5B in May 2022 (Christina Kyriasoglou/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20