Photojournalist SL Shanth Kumar of TOI captures the essence of Maha Kumbh Mela through his experience of navigating the confluence of faith and tradition at the world’s largest spiritual congregationAs a photojournalist, crowds fascinate me. And here I was, a speck in the middle of Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of humanity on Earth….
The nation’s largest association of psychologists this month warned federal regulators that A.I. chatbots “masquerading” as therapists, but programmed to reinforce, rather than to challenge, a user’s thinking, could drive vulnerable people to harm themselves or others. In a presentation to a Federal Trade Commission panel, Arthur C. Evans Jr., the chief executive of the…
SAN FRANCISCO — There’s a shared skill among former NBA stars who played from 1991 to 2009. Many of them can do a solid imitation of the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag. After all, they saw the original up close. Vernon Maxwell, a longtime guard, does a particularly strong version by adding the subtle trash talk…
Punjab Police constituted on Friday a four-member special investigation team (SIT) to conduct “a comprehensive and effective investigation” into illegal human trafficking/illegal migration. The move comes after the deportation from the US of Indians residing illegally there.In Haryana, state police have decided to probe the complaints made by the deportees or their kin.There were 33…
By a campfire on the shore of Lake Geneva in 1816, five friends take up the challenge of telling the scariest story. Mary Shelley is clearly the winner, with her cautionary tale (soon to be a novel) of an obsessed doctor whose electrified monster achieves sentience, then runs wild. So freaked out is her pal…
The State Department has fired about 60 contractors who work for its democracy, human rights and labor bureau, a division whose programs have often been criticized by authoritarian leaders, according to two U.S. officials and two former officials. The dismissals deal a severe blow to the bureau, because the contractors were mostly technical or area…
A new analysis of ancient fossils from China has sparked a keen debate over the very roots of humanity, CNN has reported. Fossils found in the 1970s, including skulls, teeth and jaw fragments, have long puzzled scientists. Now, researchers suggest they could belong to an entirely new species of early humans. The newly proposed species…
BENGALURU: Isro, which began working on the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) project on mission mode in 2017, much before the announcement of Gaganyaan, chose the mission’s parameters carefully to complement future human spaceflight missions while avoiding populated areas during potential abort scenarios.“The 475-km orbit sits slightly above the typical human presence orbit of 370 km…
Chimpanzees live only in African rainforests and woodlands. Orangutans live only in the jungles of Indonesia. But humans live pretty much everywhere. Our species has spread across frozen tundras, settled on mountaintops and called other extreme environments home. Scientists have historically seen this adaptability as one of the hallmarks of modern humans and a sign…
War has always been synonymous with tragedy, but a revelation from the Ukrainian battlefield sheds new light on just how inhumane the conflict in Eastern Europe has become. A diary recovered by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces unveils a chilling tactic used by Russian forces in collaboration with North Korean troops. North Korean troops as human…