Author: Rahul M

NEW DELHI: A 40-year-old Russian woman found living in a forest cave with her two young children near Gokarna, Karnataka, has said her life was peaceful, artistic and self-reliant.Nina Kutina and her daughters, Preya (6) and Ama (4), were rescued on July 11 from a secluded cave in the Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk in Uttara Kannada district, where they had spent nearly two weeks in isolation.Kutina told news agency PTI that her life in the cave was harmonious and far from the way it was portrayed in news coverage.“We woke up with the sun, swam in rivers, and lived…

THE BJP finds itself on the wrong foot again over Maratha politics as the row over attack on the Sambhaji Brigade’s state president by one of its party leaders blows up.While the accused BJP leader, Deepak Kate, who has been arrested, is a Maratha too, the attack on Pravin Gaikwad has rekindled suspicions of Maratha outfits regarding the BJP’s “commitment” to the Maratha cause, many of whom have rallied behind Gaikwad. A day after the attack on Gaikwad, around half-a-dozen organisations which have been fighting for Maratha reservation held a closed-door meeting in Pune. The BJP initially appeared to be…

Bengaluru: Bengaluru is warming up — and not just because of global climate change. A new scientific study has found that the city itself is becoming a heat trap because of the way its land is being used.This is called Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where temperatures inside the city are significantly higher than in nearby rural or forested areas. The reason? Concrete and asphalt surfaces absorb and store heat, while the loss of green spaces and waterbodies removes natural cooling systems.The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) study is one of the first to provide micro-level data, showing exactly how…

An anime girl in a black corset dress sways back and forth on my screen. Its name is Ani, and it cost me $300.Elon Musk’s xAI dropped the new visual chatbot feature on Monday in the Grok iOS app. The top-tier subscription unlocks access to xAI’s best-performing model, Grok 4 Heavy, and special settings for interacting with two custom characters designed for flirting or chatting. A third character, which looks a bit like a sexy boyfriend, is listed as “coming soon.” It’s not xAI’s first dip into adult content, either: Back in February 2024, the company rolled out a chatbot…

Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence company founded by top researchers who fled OpenAI, has raised a record $2 billion seed round that values the fledgling firm at $12 billion.The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included Nvidia, Accel, Cisco, and AMD—among others. The mammoth investment reflects the ultracompetitive race to build advanced AI systems, as well as the premium placed on top AI talent. It is the largest seed funding round in history.Thinking Machines is led by CEO Mira Murati, who stepped down as OpenAI’s chief technology officer last September. Her cofounders are John Schulman, a computer…

Static Media We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. Science fiction is a type of speculative fiction (other genres under this umbrella might include horror or fantasy) that depicts some kind of science and/or technology that is, however improbably, ultimately based on humanity’s existing understanding of the universe’s basic laws and scientific fact. Usually this takes the form of stories related to space or time travel, artificial intelligence, advanced weaponry, alien life, or any other mechanical or technological element. The most important defining aspect of true science…

Bengaluru: Imagine burning 3 litres of petrol just to travel 1.5 kilometres. That’s the grim reality for techies navigating the choked stretch near Ecospace on Bellandur’s Sarjapur Road-Outer Ring Road (ORR) corridor. Frustrated commuters Tuesday took to social media, sharing dashboard screenshots that revealed shocking levels of fuel consumption and barely moving traffic.In one case, a commuter reported using 3.2 litres of fuel to cover just 3.3km in 45 minutes. Another said his car guzzled 3 litres over a 1.5km crawl that took 22 minutes. Typically, cars offer mileage between 8 and 15 kmpl, but in these gridlocked conditions, it…

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Prince Harry visited the African nation of Angola on Tuesday with a land mine clearing charity, repeating a famous trip his mother made in 1997.Harry, the Duke of Sussex, met with Angolan President João Lourenço on Tuesday at the start of his trip, according to a statement from the Halo Trust, an organization that works to clear land mines from old warzones.Princess Diana visited Angola with the Halo Trust in January 1997, just seven months before she was killed in a Paris car crash. Diana was famously photographed on that trip wearing protective equipment and…

The fourth edition of the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 auction saw Devdutt Padikkal lead the charts as he became the most expensive player of the day after getting picked up by the Hubli Tigers for 13.20 lakh.  Abhinav Manohar and Manish Pandey followed closely behind, attracting bids of Rs 12.20 lakh each from the Hubli Tigers and Mysuru Warriors respectively. Among the bowlers, Shivamogga Lions went big for pacer Vidwath Kaverappa at Rs 10.80 lakh while Bengaluru Blasters shelled out Rs 8.30 lakh for strike bowler Vidyadhar Patil, underlining the premium on wicket-takers this season. Mysuru Warriors placed a strong…