The goats play an important role in keeping the tech giant’s headquarters tidy
There is a bizarre reason Google hired 200 goats to work at their headquarters.
And for anyone who has watched Severance, the reason isn’t quite as dark as the TV show.
The director of real estate and workplace services, Dan Hoffman, who works at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, revealed that the tech giant had employed the goats.
They came from a company called California Grazing and there is actually a very practical reason behind the bizarre hire.
It turns out that the herd of 200 goats are there as a novel way to solve the issue of grass maintenance on the property.
The goats, along with a well-trained border collie named Jen, are employed by Google in order to remove weeds and tame the scrublands around the offices.
According to Hoffman, keeping the area clear and well maintained reduces the risk of a fire.
In a Google blog, Hoffman wrote: “At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we’ve rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we’re not ‘kidding’).
“A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie.
“It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.”
Many people were surprised by the unusual Google employees after it circulated on social media.
On Instagram, one user shared in a post: “In 2009, Google hired 200 goats to maintain the grass at its Mountain View headquarters. Instead of using lawnmowers, the company has occasionally rented herds of goats to graze on the grass and weeds.”
The goats keep the weeds tamed around the Google offices (wera Rodsawang/Getty Images)
This sparked reactions from other users in the Instagram comment section where one person wrote: “Did they get paid?”
Another made the comparison to Severance, saying: “MARK S IS STILL IN THERE.”
A third joked: “Lumon is that u?”
And a fourth person added: “A goat can get a job at Google but i can’t… okay……..”
Google isn’t the only company to use this method of keeping their grass trimmed with the help of goats, Yahoo! has been employing goats since 2007.
Featured Image Credit: wera Rodsawang/Getty Images
If you’re unaware, Timelines in Google Maps allows users to save specific locations that they’ve visited or journeys that they’ve taken to look back on as ‘memories’ of sorts, and you can even link these with pictures that you’ve taken and people too.
You might want to head back to the coffee shop where you had your first date with your partner, or that amazing holiday that you vowed you’d never forget. It can even be useful for simple things like remembering a great restaurant in a place you commonly visit, so having all this information at your fingertips is extremely useful.
Google have currently been going through the process of updating the Timeline feature on all devices, and it previously sent out an email to users warning them that they had until a certain point before all of their data would be deleted.
Many users have reported that their Google Maps Timeline data has been erased entirely, losing potentially years of memories (Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Unfortunately for many, there’s a good chance that you’ve lost all your data regardless of whether you followed the email’s guidelines, as a technical error has caused Timeline data to be completely wipes for countless Google Maps users.
As reported by the Metro, one user revealed on the r/GooglePixel subreddit that they were indeed one of the unlucky people to suffer from Google’s mistake.
“Got this email now from Google Maps,” they reveal, which outlined to them that their account “may have been impacted” by the technical error.
“We understand that this can be frustrating if you use Timeline to remember places that you’ve visited, and we are taking steps to improve our systems for the future,” the message from the Timeline team explains.
Then, upon checking their Timeline memories, “lo and behold, I’ve only got the last fortnight of Timeline history. This after being asked to move Timeline to a specific device, and they mess it up further. Years of travel and places gone. Cheers Google.”
Many have cathartically shared similar experiences in the comments below, with one user illustrating that they “got the same email except everything up until yesterday is gone. Years of travel and memories.”
“This p***ed me off so much I was close to quitting Google and Pixel altogether,” one even reveals, adding that they “had timeline data as far back as 2012/13.”
Some users have outlined that it is possible to get the lost data back if you managed to activate backups, but it seems to be a bit hit and miss.
“Even though I had the deleted timeline issue, and the back up available said it was from yesterday, restoring the backup restored my timeline,” explains the top comment.
To see if you too can salvage your lost memories, all you need to do is ensure you have the latest version of Google Maps, and then head into the Timeline section. From there, select the cloud icon, and hopefully there should be a backup available for you to select and restore from.
Featured Image Credit: S3studio / Contributor / Getty
Mathematician reveals genius reason you should always say please and thank you to AI
It isn’t so that it’ll spare you when robots take over the world
A mathematician has revealed a genius reason you should always say please and thank you to AI.
While artificially intelligent chatbots might not have human emotion, there is apparently an important reason why you should still be polite when asking for their assistance.
And according to one YouTuber, it’s ‘not just so that AI will spare you when the apocalypse comes’.
Instead, Hannah Fry, who is known online as @fryrsquared, has revealed the real reason why we should all be nicer to AI assistants.
In a video, she explained: “I’m sure you’ve seen all sorts of posts telling you what prompt to use to get the most out of your language model. I think you can pretty much forget all of that because there’s only really one important thing to remember which is that the AI that we have now is really, really, really good at roleplaying.
“So you shouldn’t talk to it like it’s a Google search or like you’re trying to extract information from it, as though it’s Wikipedia.
“Instead, you should talk to it as though it’s an improvisational actor that can be any character imaginable and the reason for this is that large language models don’t store facts like it’s a database.
“They generate responses dynamically based on having read everything that humans have ever written and the prompt that you give it, and that means that AI – the stuff we have now – doesn’t have this stable identity, it doesn’t have a fixed worldview.
One YouTuber says it’s important to be polite to chatbots (Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images)
“It doesn’t have personal beliefs and so if you prompt it in a particular way, it will respond in kind. “If you try and prompt it as though it’s a Shakespearean bard then it will give you a flowery response. If you try and prompt it as though it is an extremely effective and smart scientist, it will give you the relevant response.
“But if you prompt it as though it’s an encyclopedia, it’s going to try and sound like one but it’s still just performing a role and you’ve effectively just restricted what it can do.”
Many viewers took to the YouTube comment section to share their reactions to the clip.
One user wrote: “The reason is actually very simple. The polite words shifts the string matching slightly and increases the likelihood of getting a more polite answer.”
And another added: “Wow, finally, someone explained AI prompting in a way that just clicked! I’ve been trying to figure out how to make those chatbots actually useful, and this ‘improv actor’ idea makes so much sense. I’m excited to try this out and see if I can actually get some good results now.”
Featured Image Credit: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images
Controversial reason Snapchat CEO sets new employees up to fail on their first day on the job
The co-founder of Snapchat puts new hires to the test
There is a controversial reason why the Snapchat CEO sets new employees up to fail on their first day on the job.
The social media app’s co-founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel, lifted the lid on his bizarre training tactic for new hires.
People who join Snapchat are put to the test on their first day by being asked to pull together a presentation.
And while that might sound like anyone’s worst nightmare on the first day on the job, there’s apparently a good reason behind it.
Making an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast with host Steven Bartlett, Spiegel explained why he likes to put new recruits on the spot.
He said: “When you have no context for what the company is working on, no idea what’s going on, how on earth are you supposed to come up with a great idea? I mean, it’s almost impossible.”
However, he isn’t trying to get usable ideas from the new hires when asking them to put together a proposal, instead it’s about ripping off the bandaid of failure.
The CEO continued: “99% of ideas are not good—but 1% is. We really abide by the concept that the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
Spiegel also went on to explain the three values that he’s looking for in a potential new employee during the hiring process.
He wants his workforce to be kind, smart and creative.
Evan Spiegel puts new hires to the test on their first day (YouTube/@TheDiaryOfACEO)
Spiegel continued: “We learned over time that actually, wow, kindness is the essential ingredient if you want to have a creative culture.”
And he believes that when a worker is struggling, it’s even more important to be kind.
He added: “The nice thing to do is maybe just make them feel good about it: ‘oh don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be okay’.
“The kind thing to do is really help them succeed.”
Many viewers took to the YouTube comment section to share their reactions to the interview.
One inspired user said: “This is good stuff. Kindness fosters creativity. I will remember that.”
Another shared a similar sentiment, adding: “Brilliant I love the way the conversation went about creative ideas and bringing the best out in people. One of the best interviews.”
However, not everyone was convinced, with one person commenting: “Not Evan trying to convince the world that snap chat is different and he isn’t a capitalist billionaire.”
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/@TheDiaryOfACEO
‘Hawk Tuah Girl’ makes dramatic return to internet with surprise announcement
Hailey Welch has finally made her return to social media
Hailey Welch, who has become better known as ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’, turned into a viral sensation after she appeared in an on-the-street interview.
Welch made the most of her viral moment at the time by quickly starting her own podcast called Talk Tuah.
However, things came to a halt after controversy was stirred up following Welch’s announcement of her own cryptocurrency called $HAWK.
Welch was accused by fans of performing a rug pull after the crypto’s value plummeted within an hour of the coin being released.
At the time, Welch and her team denied the claims and Welch has been pretty quiet on social media since.
But now, she has made a surprise return to Instagram, revealing in a new post that she will be the subject of an upcoming documentary.
The doc is being developed by Emmy-winning production company Bungalow Media + Entertainment.
In a description for the documentary, it read: “The documentary will chronicle how Welch, a young woman from a small-town with no active social media presence, unknowingly created a viral moment that gave way into a global phenomenon.
“On June 11, 2024, Welch became the most famous person online, amassing over 40 million impressions in a matter of days. The film explores her unexpected rise to fame, the scrutiny that followed, and exposes the incredible power social media has to crown and crucify its internet darlings.”
Hawk Tuah Girl will appear in a new documentary (Instagram/@hay_welch)
In a statement, Bob Friedman, producer and CEO at Bungalow Media + Entertainment, said: “With only a single sentence, Haliey Welch went from an unknown young woman having a night out on the town to ‘enjoying’ 15 minutes of fame to global phenomenon who cemented her status in the pop culture lexicon.
“There are very few people who know what it is like to achieve this level of fame and live under the 24/7 microscope known as social media.
“This documentary will serve as both an inspiring and entertaining story of Haliey’s journey, and a lens into what it means to navigate the risks and rewards that come with living in the public’s eye.”
A release of the project explains: “Initially avoiding the spotlight due to embarrassment and shame, Welch eventually leaned into her newfound celebrity, proving she was more than a fleeting meme.
“With sharp wit and undeniable charisma, she turned virality into opportunity—launching a top-charting podcast (second only to Joe Rogan Experience), a successful merchandise line, a dating app, a music venture and her own charity, Paws Across America… Most recently, Welch faced and navigated a bizarre crypto-related controversy, adding yet another unexpected chapter to her story.”
A date for the documentary release is yet to be confirmed.
