Thursday, July 13, 2023
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Milan Kundera dead at 94.
When I was a little boy in short pants, I dreamed about a miraculous ointment that would make me invisible. Then I became an adult, began to write, and wanted to be successful. Now I’m successful and would like to have the ointment that would make me invisible.
How harvesting electricity from humid air could one day power our devices
North Korea fires ballistic missile towards Japan
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary said the missile came down about 250km west of Okushiri island in Japan’s northernmost Hokkaido prefecture, after a flight taking 74 minutes that reached an altitude of more than 6,000km.
Process of mass producing pencils.
Japan-based project Process X (previously) goes behind the scenes of major manufacturing companies and specialty production studios to discover how simple materials are transformed into ubiquitous objects we rely on all of the time, from pencils to billiard cues to galvanized pails to manhole covers.
The team also introduces practices with deep roots in Japanese culture, like the meticulous process of carving Noh masks.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Ellie, an 11-year-old Goffin’s cockatoo, video chats with a friend.
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Matthew Modoono / Northeastern University
When humans are feeling lonely, we can call or video chat with friends and family who live far away. But, scientists asked, what about pet parrots?
New Extinct Species of ‘Ridiculously Cute,’ Tiny Penguins Discovered in New Zealand
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Scientists recently discovered the extinct, diminutive penguin species, which they’ve named Wilson’s little penguin (Eudyptula wilsonae), and described it in a paper published last month in the Journal of Paleontology.
Midwest Cowboy
This is worrying news for the planet.
It is the latest in a series of records halfway through a year that has seen a drought in Spain and fierce heatwaves in China as well as the US.
“The world just had the hottest week on record, according to preliminary data,” the WMO said in a statement, adding that temperatures were breaking records on land and in the oceans, with “potentially devastating impacts on ecosystems and the environment”.
“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024,” said Christopher Hewitt, WMO director of climate services.
Pure magic
Monday, July 10, 2023
Tesla Day
Nikola Tesla, one of the world's greatest scientists and inventors of the 19th and 20th century, was born on 10 July 1856th in the village of Smiljan .
By the decision of the Croatian Parliament, July 10 has been declared a National day of Nikola Tesla, the day of science, technology and innovation.
Their aim is clear: they don’t just want to make abortion inaccessible. They want to make it unspeakable.
This act alone – Bernard’s gesture of compassion and respect to an abused child, one that spared the young girl the danger and torture of an underage, rape-produced pregnancy and helped to end the suffering and indignity that followed her assault, is itself a solemn kind of service. Bernard’s work brought her into the darkest realities of what men do to women – raping and impregnating them as children, making laws that will keep them pregnant against their will, as children, unless they can flee – and to face that darkness with integrity and courage. Few of us would have the capacity to do what Bernard did in treating that child; few of us would be able to face that truth about our world.
Fewer still would survive what came next: Bernard became the target of a large-scale, coordinated campaign of hate, intimidation and professional harassment, coordinated by Republican officials in her state government, in retaliation for her pro-choice speech.
Sunday, July 9, 2023
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Paths of Desperate Hope, Federico Ríos Escobar
Run For Your Life
Friday, July 7, 2023
Scream as Loud as You Can
The Cut recently filmed 100 folks as they shout with all their might, capturing an array of emotions as they let it all out.
Last Man Standing
Springsteen is in remarkable shape: fit, toned and bursting with vitality. He can still toss a guitar in the air; he can still rip open his shirt to reveal a bare chest, though now the gesture comes with a wink of self-deprecation at the absurdity of it. But he does not look like a man desperate to recapture his glory days. He is not, as Manzoor – whose boyhood devotion to Springsteen was depicted in the movie Blinded By the Light – says of Jagger, “perpetually stuck in his 20s”.On the contrary, this new show of Springsteen’s looks ageing and death in the eye.His bandmates are his contemporaries and don’t hide it: the giant monitors show closeups of gnarled, veined hands on guitar strings. His own performance is astonishing, but it never looks effortless.He speaks only once at any length, and that is to introduce a 2020 song about the band he played in with schoolmates when he was 15. He is, he tells the crowd, the only one left. “Death is like you’re standing on the railroad tracks with an oncoming train bearing down upon you,” he says.“But it brings a certain clarity of thought.” It pushes you to “seize the day”, to savour, with urgency, the time and the people you have left. And then he plays Last Man Standing, a song about the passions of youth, the time in your life when “it’s all hellos”, before they are outnumbered by “hard goodbyes”.The result is that you hear the rest of the songs through fresh ears. Now it doesn’t sound absurd to hear a septuagenarian singing of childhood best friends running on the Backstreets, or of young sweethearts Born to Run, itching to break free of their small town. Now the joy and exuberance of those classic songs carries the extra poignancy of reminiscence and loss. And the two sets of emotions don’t fight each other. Instead, they make each other stronger – the Glory Days only more glorious because we know they are fleeting.
Jonathan Freedland, read more.
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