Research: DNA pinpoints region in northern Botswana as humanity’s birthplace

Where was the evolutionary birthplace of modern humans? The East African Great Rift Valley has long been the favored contender – until today. Our new research has used DNA to trace humanity’s earliest footsteps to a prehistoric wetland called Makgadikgadi-Okavango, south of the Great Zambezi River. Our analysis, published in Nature today, shows that the earliest population of modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) arose 200,000 years ago in an area that covers parts of modern-day Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Today it is a dry and dusty land with scattered salt pans, and it is hard to believe that modern humans…

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TNW Podcast: Boris comes over to co-host; Slack’s Cal Henderson talks European tech

Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s episode, Andrii is joined by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, co-founder, member of the board, and former CEO of TNW. The topics discussed include the jobs created by Dutch startups, giant state funding for energy projects, translations of the word ‘computer’, and a bunch of other things in between. In the interview section, we’re featuring a conversation with Cal Henderson, co-founder and… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/jUgcNFD

NotJordanPeterson lets you generate uncannily realistic Jordan Peterson sound bites

Love him or hate him, Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has undeniably captivated the interest of supporters and critics alike, earning a reputation as a “rock star” academic – similarly to his colleague and debate rival Slavoj Zizek. Now he’s being replicated, by AI. While you can easily find hours of footage with Peterson, none of what you hear in this piece comes from his mouth. Instead, it’s been produced by a neural network – called NotJordanPeterson – which has been trained to mimic the voice of the psychologist. And the resemblance is… absolutely uncanny. Check out these examples we generated… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/306hAGA

A massive cache of stolen OnlyFans videos have been dumped online

Someone has leaked terabytes of content stolen from OnlyFans, a subscription site popular among influencers, sex workers, and pornographic actors. Photos and videos of specific users and performers is now out from behind the site’s paywall, meaning content creators are no longer able to profit from their work. And it doesn’t seem like there’s anything they can do. If you’re unfamiliar with OnlyFans (be honest with me now), it’s a site where viewers can pay a fee to view photos and videos put up by content creators. Ostensibly it would allow the latter to profit from their work, but it’s… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/2PvNCIG

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