Tootfinder

"Listening to birdsong in a forest lowered a person’s stress during experiment"
#Forests #Nature #Environment

Listening to birdsong in a forest lowered a person’s stress during experiment
Sitting in a small, restored forest while listening to birdsong lowered people’s stress and lifted their mood in the moment, according to a recent study published in the journal Environmental Conservation. Researchers asked 106 students at North Carolina State University in the U.S. to sit outdoors in noise-canceling headphones at two spots on campus: A […]

The Trump administration is trying to break the Forest Service,
to pave the way to privatizing
or even selling off
the 193 million acres of land it oversees
https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2026-04-30/forest-service-reor…

Why a major reorganization at the Forest Service has people concerned
A common refrain emerged among the sources I spoke with: The Trump administration is trying to break the Forest Service, they claimed, to pave the way to privatizing or even selling off the 193 million acres of land it oversees.

Google plans to open its first physical Google Store outside of the US, in Tokyo's Omotesando district "this summer", marking Google's 11th physical store (Damien Wilde/9to5Google)
https://9to5google.com/2026/06/01/goog

Google Store Tokyo to be first physical store outside US, opens this summer
After being exclusive to the United States, the first physical Google Store outside of the region is coming to Tokyo, Japan, this summer.

Unverhofft Jugend-forscht-Preisträger: KI "Jacob" für Leichte Sprache
Ein Abiturient aus Brandenburg hat ein Sprachmodell trainiert, das komplexe Inhalte in Leichte Sprache übersetzt. Für "Jacob" erhielt er einen KI-Sonderpreis.

Unverhofft Jugend-forscht-Preisträger: KI "Jacob" für Leichte Sprache
Ein Abiturient aus Brandenburg hat ein Sprachmodell trainiert, das komplexe Inhalte in Leichte Sprache übersetzt. Für "Jacob" erhielt er einen KI-Sonderpreis.

China has approved the world's first invasive brain-computer chip - here's what's next https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/01/1138133/china-world-first-brain-chip/ (archived at

China has approved the world’s first invasive brain-computer chip—here’s what’s next
The country wants to become a global leader in brain implants. Strong government support is expected to help accelerate that process.

"Italy’s Forest Cover is Larger Than Agriculture Land for the First Time Since the Middle Ages"
#Italy #Nature #Environment

Italy's Forests Larger Than Agriculture Land for the First Time Since the Middle Ages
For locally endangered species like bears and wolves, more woods in mountain areas will go a long way toward supporting their populations. 

Foundational Industries, which aims to build AI-run factories for physical products, starting with custom data center rack enclosures, raised a $25M seed (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/07/30/forget-

Forget robots on assembly lines. Foundational Industries wants AI to run the entire factory
The startup says software-native factories can leapfrog China’s highly automated manufacturing base rather than trying to replicate it.

Intel unveils six Xeon 6 data center CPU SKUs, says the 6990E has 30% better single-thread performance and up to 30% more energy efficiency than AMD Epyc 9965 (Jake Roach/Tom's Hardware)

Intel Xeon 6+ ‘Clearwater Forest’ puts 18A in the data center with up to 288 cores, 576 MB of L3 cache — new Xeon 6990E+ is 30% faster per thread than 192-core AMD Epyc 9965, says Intel
Intel’s dense Xeon 6+ design marks the first time 18A is being deployed in the data center.

"São Tomé declares first two of eight planned marine protected areas"
#SaoTome #Turtles #Animals

São Tomé declares first two of eight planned marine protected areas
The West African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe has formally designated its first two coastal marine protected areas.