Kyiv claims Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into Ukraine, but US officials have denied the news.
We join The London Standard’s defense editor Robert Fox on ICBMs, Moscow’s military strategy and future risks.
Will Google be forced to sell Chrome?
Plus, what is ‘sound symbolism’ and why does it matter, with Marcus Perlman, associate professor of linguistics and communication at the University of Birmingham.
- Microsoft has started to open Xbox Cloud Gaming
- The Inspector Gadget voice actor has died aged 82 after a battle with Parkinson’s
- Instagram users can try the “reset” recommendation
- A mysterious space-like creature haunting a south coast beach has been identified
Here is an automated transcript of this episode:
I’m Rachelle Abbott, and this is The Standard’s Tech and Science Daily podcast.
If you’re new here, make sure to follow along.
Come on, will Google be forced to sell Chrome?
But first, Kyiv claimed Russia had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into Ukraine, but the news was denied by US officials.
A senior US official told The New York Times that the weapon appears to be an intermediate range ballistic missile, adding, But it is a new type we have been tracking.
The Kremlin also told reporters that there was nothing wrong with the hardware used in the attack.
It is not a short-range missile or an intermediate-range missile like Storm Shadow and ATACMS, the US army’s missile, which is currently being fired in the Kursk region.
It is in response to that.
It is very important because this weapon, whatever it is, is, of course, usually used in the order of battle for nuclear war.
And this is something that would be used to launch over a thousand kilometers, over a thousand miles with a nuclear warhead.
It was the defense editor of The London Standard, Robert Fox.
Putin lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons after President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to fire US ATACMS long-range missiles at Russia.
Russia has shown that it is interested and can interfere with information supplies, underwater cables, maybe food supplies, certainly energy supplies.
Have we all forgotten about the Houthis, who are doing gangbusters with this, with Iran and behind Russian technology?
We are in a contest and need a full re-address and leveling with the public about security risks and resilience, so you can contribute by supporting public services, knowing the dangers, cyber attacks that can lead to outages.
We have had mysterious fires in Britain and the Allies.
We have Russian survey ships surveying table points in and across the Irish Sea and across the English Channel.
This is where we need to up our game.
To hear the full report, Robert Fox joins Mark Blunden on The Standard podcast from 4pm today.
US prosecutors say Google must sell its Chrome browser to restore competition in the online search market.
Google is believed to control around 90% of the online search market, with around 95% on smartphones.
The DoJ and a coalition of states want Google to end its agreements with tech companies such as Apple.
If the case is successful, the search platform will be heavily regulated for 10 years.
It is believed that Google will compare the case.
What do you think should happen?
Let us know in the comments.
Next, new research uncovers one of the strongest documented cases of sound symbolism.
It is a direct relationship between speech sound and meaning.
The standard theory in linguistics is that the relationship between the form of words, the sound of words and their meaning is arbitrary.
Any form can be associated with any meaning and there is no similarity between form and meaning.
Sound symbolism is an exception to this rule and perhaps a great exception, where speech sounds actually convey meaning in themselves, which may represent or resemble the meaning of the spoken word.
It’s Marcus Perlman, Associate Professor in Linguistics and Communication at the University of Birmingham.
He explains how the research, now published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, shows that speech sounds have texture and shape, such as the letter R, which has been described as rough.
People all over the world, no matter what language they speak, the majority of people have a strong intuition that the R sound is trilled, a sound that can be heard in Spanish or Italian, as in the Spanish word for dog, Pedro, which is trilled. R sound, sounds harsh to them.
So, if you ask them to associate the sound with a jagged line or a straight line, the majority of people associate the sound with a jagged line.
And vice versa, the sound L, the sound O, are associated with a smooth or straight line.
The researchers conducted the study through online and field experiments involving 1,030 adults who spoke a total of 28 different languages.
The study comes from a previous study published a few years ago, where we found in a different analysis that in the vocabulary, in the spoken language around the world, around the world, the word used to refer to the rough texture has a lot. greater preponderance of R sounds in words than you would expect by chance.
So the word for rough often has the sound R, and if you look at different languages, it seems to lead mainly by the trilled sound R, so it is in the natural vocabulary.
This is an experimental demonstration of what people perceive, the reason these patterns exist in spoken language and vocabulary is because people see perceptual similarities between these sounds, speech sounds, and the texture or shape of lines.
Coming to part two, Microsoft has started to open Xbox Cloud Gaming.
We’ll meet back here in just a few minutes.
Inspector Gadget voice actor Dan Hennessey has died aged 82 after a battle with Parkinson’s.
His family has been confirmed.
Hennessey is best known for playing Chief Quimby in Inspector Gadget, but also the Care Bear character Braveheart Lion.
Throughout his career, he also lent his voice to George Raccoon on the Raccoons, the X-Men animated series, and the animated spin-off Star Wars, Ewoks, among others.
The family requests that memorial donations be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.
Now, frustrated with the suggested posts on Instagram?
Yes, as part of the test, the site will allow some users to restart the app and reset it.
Users will be able to start as if they were on a new account by deleting everything that Instagram currently uses to recommend posts and other content that appears on the platform.
Parent Company Meta says the idea is to give users new ways to shape their Instagram experience.
This is due to concerns that algorithms may direct users to unhealthy or negative content.
Next, Microsoft has started to open up Xbox Cloud Gaming to its existing Xbox game library.
If you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can now stream 50 games that you already own.
That includes Final Fantasy titles.
Games are available via TV, smartphone, tablet and PC.
And finally, alien-like creatures have been spotted crawling along the coast in Sussex.
Fear not, this is not something from space.
Originally described as a sea rat by Rye Harbor Nature Reserve Conservationists.
Rye Harbor Events Officer Sarah Watson describes rats as furry creatures that are usually chunky sea worms.
The sea rat is 15 centimeters long and is rarely seen, but during the cold season, storms can break through the tide line.
Conservationists are returning these creatures to the sea.
You’re new, come back at 4pm for The Standard podcast.
For all the latest news, go to standard.co.uk.
