Entertainment news

New Emojis Approved, Including Lime, Phoenix, Mushroom and Nodding – CNET

What do a lime, mushroom, phoenix, nodding heads and a broken chain all have in common? They’re part of the newest emojis approved by Unicode, the global messaging standard. The announcement last week finalizes the list of new emojis approved.

There will be 118 new emojis released in the 15.1 update. Many of the new emojis will be different variations of existing emojis, either in different skin tones or facing different directions.

The new emojis also include expansions of existing emojis that now face different directions, including: walking people, running people, kneeling people, people using wheelchairs and people using white canes. The new emojis also include four new gender-neutral family units.

You won’t be able to find these new emojis on your keyboard just yet, though. While version 15.1.0 of the Unicode was approved on Sept. 12 (you can read all of it here), there will be a lag between the approval and its release. Emojipedia estimates that the new emojis could be available by the end of this year or early 2024.

It’s also likely that each emoji’s appearance will be slightly different depending on whether you have an Apple or Google smartphone.

The last new emoji release included the long-awaited pink heart, a turquoise heart, a jellyfish, a moose, a different shaking head emoji and more.

For more on phones, check out everything announced at Apple’s Wonderlust event, our hands-on expert review of the iPhone 15 and of Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.

Entertainment news

Gwanda imposes US$20 littering fine – NewsDay

In a notice to residents, Gwanda town clerk Priscilla Nkala advised residents and stakeholders of the new penalties.

GWANDA Municipality has imposed a US$20 fine on residents who dispose of litter at undesignated points.

In a notice to residents, Gwanda town clerk Priscilla Nkala advised residents and stakeholders of the new penalties.

“The Municipality of Gwanda strives to guarantee every citizen the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and wellbeing. Residents and stakeholders are hereby advised that any person found littering will be liable to a fine of not less than US$20. Please be advised that refuse collection in the residential areas is conducted once a week and four times a week in the central business district or commercial areas,” the notice read.

The local authority last year launched a blitz to force vendors to abide by its by-laws and to ensure that those trading in edibles acquire medical certificates.

Vendors, especially those dealing in edibles in the country’s various towns and cities, have been blamed for the increase in littering of streets, general environmental pollution and spread of diseases such as cholera.

Entertainment news

Zec late payment riles vehicle owners – NewsDay

Zec chief elections officer Utloile Silaigwana told NewsDay that they were working on settling the debts.

PRIVATE vehicle owners have accused the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) of failing to pay them after hiring their vehicles in the recent election.

The vehicles were hired through the government’s Central Mechanical and Equipment Department (CMED) at a rate of US$152 per day.

One of the vehicle owners who refused to be named said they are disgruntled over the late payment.

“Our vehicles were hired by Zec to carry voting material including ballot papers to distribute in all polling stations. Zec is not appreciating the work we did. The commission promised to pay us once the voting exercise was complete, but to date no payment has been made. We were told to ask CMED and it claims that it has not yet been paid,” said the vehicle owner.

CMED general manager Stephen Mavhura said they were still compiling information on the number of cars used during the exercise.

“We are still raising bills which have to go to Zec so that we are paid. There is reconciliation that is to be done and we reached an agreement. There is a bit of work that has to be done before payment is done, paperwork starts from the district and provincial offices then we bring it to the head office before payments are done,” he said.

Zec chief elections officer Utloile Silaigwana told NewsDay that they were working on settling the debts.

“Treasury has allocated adequate funds to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for the payment of goods and services that facilitated conduct of the 23 August 2023 harmonised elections and the commission hopes to settle all its debts in this regard soon,” said Silaigwana.

Entertainment news

New pathway of diatom-mediated calcification and its impact on the biological pump – EurekAlert

This study is led by associate professor Yiwen Pan (Institute of Ocean College, Zhejiang University). The team found that the photosynthesis of Skeletonema costatum (S. costatum), a common diatom species, can induce substantial aragonite precipitation from artificial/natural seawater under significantly lower supersaturation levels required for the precipitation of inorganic CaCO₃.

Researchers have discovered that during the growth process of S. costatum, there is a significant decrease in total alkalinity (TA) and [Ca2+] in the bulk medium. The precipitated white particles were confirmed to be aragonite crystals through X-ray diffraction. Scanning electron microscope images revealed that the diatom cells were enveloped by spherical crystals with diameters ranging from 40 to 70 μm, forming aggregates of S. costatum and aragonite. Further investigations found that this extracellular calcification process is primarily driven by the combined effect of elevated extracellular CO₃^2- concentration and the adsorption and aggregation of Ca²⁺ during photosynthesis. This enables S. costatum to induce substantial aragonite precipitation at significantly lower supersaturation levels than those required for inorganic CaCO₃ precipitation. The team also observed TA deviation from the conservative mixing during S. costatum blooms in the East China Sea. This further supports the possibility of a new diatom-mediated calcification pathway occurring in the ocean.

This breakthrough finding has profound implications for our understanding of oceanic carbon cycling. Diatoms are the most important primary producers and organic carbon transporters in the ocean. The newly discovered diatom-mediated extracellular calcification pathway may establish a novel connection between the particle inorganic carbon pump and the organic carbon pump. On one hand, the release of CO₂ during the extracellular calcification process is considered as “counter carbonate pump.” However, in the diatom-mediated extracellular calcification process, due to the maintenance of high pH in the water, the released CO₂ may be more readily absorbed by algae, rather than being released into the atmosphere. On the other hand, the calcification, through the formation of aggregates of diatoms and aragonite, enhances the efficiency of organic carbon sinking and increases the transport capacity of the biological carbon pump.

This study not only changes our understanding of carbon cycling in marine ecosystems but also provides new perspectives for the ocean carbon cycle research.

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