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technology

A beautiful vintage rotary phone.

The rotary phone was ubiquitous until the late ‘80s when they were replaced by push-button telephones. Then, at the turn of the millennium, those were rendered obsolete by smartphones. So anyone born in the late 1990s may have never encountered a rotary phone, even though they were in everyone’s houses for decades.

It’s been years since most people dialed a rotary phone, but that familiar mechanical swish sound that happens when dialing a number is still etched in everyone’s memory.

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Science

People are baffled over this machine that sorts out green tomatoes in a mere second

The automated sorter technology is fascinating, as is watching it work in slow motion.

An automated green tomato sorting machine is mesmerizing in slow motion.

For thousands of years, people around the world have been honing the art of agriculture. For the vast majority of human history, people planted and harvested and sorted produce largely by hand, gradually developing tools and machines over time that would make farming more efficient.

Many crops still have to be harvested and/or sorted by hand, but thanks to a rather mind-blowing machine, tomatoes aren't one of them. A machine that harvests tomatoes saves a ton of time and labor, but as tomatoes don't all ripen at the same time, pulling up an entire tomato plant results in a good number of green ones getting into the mix.

One solution to this problem would be to have the tomatoes transported down a conveyor belt in a factory while workers spot and remove the green ones by hand. However, an automated green tomato sorter does it right in the field as the tomatoes are being harvested, and a whole lot faster than any person ever could.

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Pop Culture

AI technology helps render portraits from the Victorian era that are 'moving' in every way

The artists at Mystery Scoop breathe new life into old photographs using color restoration and facial movement.

Mystery Scoop creates all kinds of moving portraits based on historical figures.

For better or worse, AI technology has opened up a whole new genre of art. Artists who use it have been able to create some truly remarkable works—whether that’s bringing back beloved icons or bringing cartoon characters to life in a hyper-realistic way.

The creators behind Mystery Scoop have also blended some digital art wizardry and AI programs to render portraits from the late Victorian era that not only have stunning color, but lifelike movements. And the results are mesmerizing.

A video posted to their YouTube channel titled “19th Century Portraits Brought To Life” shows Victorian men and women as they undergo a full restoration, thanks to colorists Klimbim and Lorenzo Folli. But the magic doesn’t stop there. The “labor of love” also incorporates the “latest tools in AI technology" to bring facial movements to the photo. These static, black-and-white portraits quickly become breathing, blinking, smirking seemingly living beings.
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Cellphone siesta has a ring to it—we should all be taking one.

A village in India’s Maharashtra state has had enough of two of the modern world’s greatest addictions, the internet and television. It has imposed a daily digital detox to give people a break from stress-inducing screen time so they can reconnect with the real world.

According to the BBC, a siren goes off every day at 7 p.m. in Vadgaon village in Sangli district, alerting all residents to turn off their TVs and smartphones. At 8:30 p.m., the siren blares again, letting everyone know it’s now OK to reconnect.

Vadgaon has a population of around 3,000 people, mainly composed of sugar mill workers and farmers.

The decision to implement a daily detox came after the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the village’s dependence on technology, especially its kids.

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