Technology

In what may be the latest crackdown on "fake news", but is likely just China stifling even more contrarian voices, overnight Apple removed the New York Times English- and Chinese-language news apps from its iTunes store in China as a result of a "request" from the local authorities, the companies said separately on Thursday. The apps, which the newspaper said were removed on Dec. 23, are the latest Western services to fall foul of Chinese authorities, whose other scalps include Apple's own iBooks and iTunes Movies stores which have been blocked since April.

IBM in conjunction with Rice University have created a robot that is designed to keep an eye on grandpa and help keep him safe. The robotic assistant can work around-the-clock, monitoring and helping senior citizens who live on their own. Rice University’s Aging in Place lab in Austin, Texas is working with tech giant IBM to create a robot to take care of your grandma.

Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Manufacturing jobs have already been decimated by robots. White collar workers are next in line.

Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance in Japan is about to replace claim adjusters with a software robot from IBM. 

Scientists have discovered a “new organ” that has been hiding in plain sight inside the human body — just don’t ask them to tell you what purpose it serves. Known as the mesentery, it was previously thought to be just a few fragmented structures. But scientists have now realized it is in fact one, continuous organ. Although its function is still unclear, the discovery opens up “a whole new area of science,” according to J Calvin Coffey, a researcher at the University Hospital Limerick, who first discovered it.

Researchers in Russia have been left baffled after discovering a microchip device that they say appears to date back 250 million years.  According to lab tests, the artefact is between 225 and 250 millions years old. Ancient-code.com reports: The million dollar question is, who and what used a microchip that dates back 250 million years? Is there a possibility that this is in fact the remains of ancient technology? Technology that belonged to a highly advanced civilization that inhabited Earth millions of years ago?