Doris: A Watercolor Serenade to the Courage of Authenticity and the Art of Connection

“There is no insurmountable solitude,” Pablo Neruda asserted in his stirring Nobel Prize acceptance speech. “All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And …

Continued here

How female Fauvists were some of history's most audacious painters

She almost always wore black, but in Woman with a Hat (1905) so many colours swirl around the canvas that Amélie Matisse's dress is an indeterminate shade. She was a brunette, but her hair is a streak of fiery red paint, and her nose and forehead are green.Putting the wind up the snooty Paris art scene at the Salon d'Automne of 1905, works such as this one with their noisy, unnaturalistic colours and childish flattened forms were dubbed "Fauves" (wild beasts) by a critic − and the name stuck.

Continued here

Humility is the foundation to a virtuous life

The default psychological setting for human beings is an unavoidable self-centeredness. We each stand at the center of our own thoughts, feelings and needs, and thus experience them in a way that we cannot experience the thoughts, feelings and needs of others.“ … Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence … it’s pretty much the same for all of us.”

Continued here

"I had big 'why not' energy": The workers sliding into recruiters' DMs

Before copywriter and creative director Sarah Jenkins went freelance, she spent three years at a small advertising agency – one she courted via "a combo of DM-slide and cold email".After admiring the agency's work from afar, she messaged the creative director, a casual acquaintance, on Facebook. After the director responded positively, 40-year-old Jenkins, based in Missouri, US, emailed the founder and CEO the same day.

Continued here

You Might Like

Why are women less likely to ask questions in public?

Over the years I've presented dozens of radio shows and chaired hundreds of public events in front of live audiences. The Q&A at the end is an important part of the session and so I want everyone to feel comfortable enough to ask their burning question. But however much I try to make people feel relaxed, as the hands go up, there are always more men than women ready to ask a question and often those first hands all belong to men.It's possible of course that women have fewer questions they want to ask, which is fair enough. But countless times, in the queue for the ladies loos afterwards, women from the audience have told me the question they had wanted to ask, but didn't. Invariably it's an excellent question.

Continued here

China's AI boom depends on an army of exploited student interns

In March 2021, during her third year at a vocational school in Shandong province, Lucy worked as an intern at a data annotation center. For four months, she spent eight hours a day sitting in her office, sorting through audio files, tagging images of children on surveillance camera footage, and differentiating trees from pedestrians in videos used to develop automated driving systems. She stayed at a four-person dorm provided by the company, and earned over 1,000 yuan ($137) a month — about 80% of the local minimum wage — which was just enough to cover her daily expenses.When Lucy enrolled in the school’s computer science program, she thought she would learn to code and become a programmer. But in reality, her work was no different from an assembly line job. “It was very boring. We didn’t learn anything,” Lucy told Rest of World, speaking under a pseudonym to avoid being identified. But the school demanded that the whole class complete the internship, or else they would not be allowed to graduate.

Continued here

India's child care workers say government tracking app makes their job harder

One day in 2021, Poonam, a government-appointed child care worker in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, received an abrupt warning: Start using the government’s newly launched Poshan Tracker app to track your daily work, or face legal action.Poonam had worked at her job for 16 years at that point, and used notebooks to track her daily tasks. She was willing to move her work to the app, but did not own a smartphone. “Initially, the government said we will be given phones after we purchased SIM cards,” she told Rest of World, requesting to be identified by a pseudonym as she feared government backlash. But the smartphone was never provided, and in March this year, Poonam spent 12,000 rupees ($145) of her own money to buy one so she wouldn’t lose her job.

Continued here

High-Tech Cars Might Be More Trouble Than They're Worth

Drivers may sacrifice safety and privacy in exchange for the advanced tech features in their “smart” carsModern cars are often described as “computers on wheels.” They come with automated driver assistance systems, large display screens, Internet connections and a multitude of ways to sync with smartphones.

Continued here

Decarceration and Crime Do Not Go Hand in Hand

The pandemic provided a natural experiment, one that suggests fewer people in jail does not lead to more crimeCOVID fundamentally altered how states administer justice. Arrests dropped, and prisons nationwide released inmates on an expedited basis.

Continued here

Nearby Worlds May Tell Us How Life Might Look in Our Galaxy

TRAPPIST-1 could make or break the extended push to make red dwarfs an astrobiological priorityIn the constellation Aquarius, invisible to the naked eye, lies a star that might change history. Home to seven mysterious planets—each around the size of our own Earth—the TRAPPIST-1 system is regarded by some as the crown jewel of astronomy’s efforts to find life in the Milky Way. With not one, but three worlds orbiting in the so-called habitable zone, where water can flow and life can thrive, TRAPPIST-1 is one of humanity’s best and brightest opportunities to chase the discovery of a lifetime.

Continued here

To Get Kids Interested in Science, We Have to Let Them Do Science

A pilot program for high schoolers offers a blueprint in getting students involved in cutting-edge particle physics researchIn 10 years the U.S. will turn on a brand-new particle accelerator that stands to unlock new secrets about the fundamental structure of matter. This machine, called the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), will be built at the Brookhaven National Laboratory facility in Upton, N.Y.

Continued here

Moon Landing Denial Fired an Early Antiscience Conspiracy Theory Shot

Apollo moon landing conspiracy theories were early hints of the dangerous anti-vax, antiscience beliefs backed by politicians todayI was recently in the attic of my house, going through old possessions in preparation to move across the country. Covered in dust and starting to get cranky from the effort, I found a sealed box labeled “VHS tapes.” I brought the box down to my office, grabbed a box knife, and opened it.

Continued here

How Antisemitism and Professional Betrayal Marred Lise Meitner's Scientific Legacy

Letters between Lise Meitner and the chemist Otto Hahn reveal how she struggled with Hahn's failure to credit her work and condemn the Nazi atrocitiesWe continue the story of Jewish physicist Lise Meitner, the first person to understand that the atom had been split. This is the second in a two-part series featuring new letters from and to Lise Meitner translated by author Marissa Moss, author of The Woman who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner (2022). The letters show the fraught and complex relationship between Otto Hahn and Meitner, and the role that antisemitism played in the decision to give the Nobel Prize in 1944 to Hahn and not to Meitner.

Continued here

'The Moose' and Other Military Planes May Have to Cut Cargo as Planet Warms

The C-17 Globemaster III—which transports troops and tanks—may have to shed weight as rising temperatures driven by climate change affect flying conditionsCLIMATEWIRE | One of the Air Force's largest airplanes may have to fly with smaller cargo loads due to climate change, according to new research published by the agency.

Continued here

Some Patients Who 'Died' but Survived Report Lucid 'Near-Death Experiences,' a New Study Shows

In some cardiac arrest patients, a flurry of brain activity during life-saving CPR may be a sign of a "near-death experience"What happens when we actually die—when our heart stops and all electrical activity “flatlines” in our brain?

Continued here

NASA Wants to Make UFO Studies a Real Science

NASA has appointed a director of unidentified anomalous phenomena research to advance that area of scientific investigationPurported sightings of space aliens have long been relegated to pseudoscience, but NASA is ready to bring them into the scientific realm.

Continued here

Newfound Stem Cell Might Explain How Breast Cancer Spreads to the Spine

New research in mice suggests that a stem cell involved in backbone development might help tumors from other parts of the body move to the spineScientists have discovered a new type of stem cell that gives rise to the backbone — and that helps to drive the frequent metastasis of breast tumours and other cancers to the spine.

Continued here

Can the US and China take on climate change together?

Climate change doesn't care about ideological divides, says policy analyst and China expert Changhua Wu. Here's what she says the US can learn from the progress China has made on the clean energy revolution -- and why collaboration instead of competition is the key to avoiding climate catastrophe.

Continued here

Natalie Cargill: How to solve the world's biggest problems

Sometimes the world's biggest issues can seem so intractable that meaningful change feels impossible. But what if the answer has been right in front of us all along? What if the answer is actually throwing money at the problems? In this thought-provoking talk, philanthropic advisor Natalie Cargill shares what might happen if we came together to spend 3.5 trillion dollars on fixing the world. And, yes, she also has a plan for where to get the money from. (Followed by a Q&A with Anna Verghese, executive director of The Audacious Project.)

Continued here

Apple Changes Everything (Again)

It's September, which means Apple has announced yet another round of new iPhones. During a typically bombastic media event at the company’s headquarters on Tuesday, September 12, Apple showed off regular and Pro versions of the iPhone 15, as well as a couple of new Apple Watch models and a smattering of software enhancements that aim to make moving around with your devices easier. The big news—though something Apple quickly glossed over in its presentation—is that the company has finally eschewed its proprietary Lightning connector in favor of the ubiquitous (and European Union–mandated) USB-C standard. It's a big change, but one that Apple doesn't exactly seem happy to have been forced into making.This week on Gadget Lab, we dive into all the details about everything Apple announced this week, from the hardware to the software to the services.

Continued here

The Best Video Doorbell Cameras

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDAs people who receive a lot of packages, we in the Gadget Lab have a foolproof way of making sure an important delivery shows up: Just step into the shower. If you’re sitting at your desk with your shoes on, waiting and ready, I guarantee that every knock or ring will be from someone trying to convert you to an obscure and weirdly expensive religion.

Continued here

No, This Is Not an Alien. Here's Why

It was like an alien unboxingâbut they were just Nazca mummies from Peru. Toward the end of a public hearing in the Green Room of the Chamber of Deputies Congress of Mexico, Jaime Maussan, ufologist, journalist and host of the Mexican television program Tercer Milenio, announced a surprise. The well-known researcher had the audience's attention at this historic session focused on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs)âbetter known as UFOs.Before the hearing began, Sergio GutiÃ©rrez Luna, the deputy of Morena, Mexico's governing party, asked the participants to stand up and swear to tell the truth. Among the audience were Ryan Graves, a retired US Navy pilot lieutenant who had earlier testified in the US Congress regarding his experience with unidentified objects, and Abraham "Avi" Loeb, an astrophysicist, director of the Harvard Astronomy Department, and leading proponent of a theory that an alien spaceship has already landed on Earth. When it was Maussan's turn to speak, he gave a signal to open two tiny sarcophagi containing the bodies of two "nonhuman beings."

Continued here

NASA Didn't Find Aliens--but if You See Any UFOs, Holler

Seventy-six years after the infamous Roswell incident, when a high-altitude balloonâor somethingâcrashed in southeastern New Mexico, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has now officially weighed in on UFO sightings. Don't get too excited: They haven't proven, or disproven, the existence of aliens. Instead, the report released today by the agency's independent study team describes how NASA should assess new reports of "unidentified anomalous phenomena" (UAP), a term that federal agencies use in place of UFOs (unidentified flying objects). It stresses that the agency should make use of machine learning and artificial intelligence as analytical tools, but that first it needs higher quality data to analyze."NASA searches for the unknown in space. It's in our DNA," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, speaking at a press conference this morning. "The top takeaway from the study is that there is a lot more to learn. The NASA study did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don't know what these UAP are." Nelson described the team's project as part of a broader effort "to shift the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science," to reduce the stigma associated with making UAP reports, and "to make sure that information is shared transparently around the world."

Continued here

Don't Count on Tesla's Dojo Supercomputer to Jump-Start an AI Revolution

You’d have to be pretty brave to bet against the idea that applying more computing power and data to machine learning—a recipe that birthed ChatGPT—won’t lead to further advances of some kind in artificial intelligence. Even so, you’d be braver still to bet that combo will produce specific advances or breakthroughs on a specific timeline, no matter how desirable.A report issued last weekend by the investment bank Morgan Stanley predicts that a supercomputer called Dojo, which Tesla is building to boost its work on autonomous driving, could add $500 billion to the company’s value by providing a huge advantage in carmaking, robotaxis, and selling software to other businesses.

Continued here

Libya's Deadly Floods Show the Growing Threat of Medicanes

Storm Daniel, which has killed at least 5,000 people in Libya, with 10,000 more missing, was no normal weather. This rare, destructive, subtropical monster was supersized by unusually warm Mediterranean waters. When it slammed into the Libyan coast, it did so with such force that it caused two dams inland to collapse, releasing a tsunamic wall of water down the Wadi Derna river that destroyed much of the eastern city of Derna. This kind of stormâknown as a "Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone," or medicaneâis rare. The climate crisis, counterintuitively, will make these storms rarer. But, when they do hit, they could be bigger than ever before.Medicanes are the smaller siblings of the hurricanes and typhoons that barrage coastal locations around the world. As Hurricane Lee has shown over the Atlantic Ocean, warm water and humidity can quickly turn major storm systems into life-threatening monsters. And as the planet warms, more storms will get super big, super quick.

Continued here

The Hyundai Kona Electric Isn't a Rolls, but It Charges Like One

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDHyundai’s first-generation Kona Electric was something of a darling. It was efficient, looked good, and made electric motoring a little more accessible for those without Tesla money to play with. Now 2023’s new Kona Electric (2024 for US punters) aims to keep the good times rolling with a new look, fresh tech, and more luxury than you’d expect from a B-segment crossover.

Continued here

Inside the Senate's Private AI Meeting With Tech's Billionaire Elites

US senators are proving slow studies when it comes to the generative artificial intelligence tools that are poised to upend life as we know it. But they'll be tested soonâand the rest of us through themâif their new private tutors are to be trusted.In a historic first, yesterday upwards of 60 senators sat like school childrenânot allowed to speak or even raise their handsâin a private briefing where some 20 Silicon Valley CEOs, ethicists, academics, and consumer advocates prophesied about AI's potential to upend, heal, or even erase life as we knew it.

Continued here

Which iPhone 15 Model Should You Buy?

The iPhone 15 is here and it comes with quite a few drastic changes. The 11-year-old Lightning charging port has been replaced by USB-C, the notorious notch at the top of the screen has disappeared to make way for the Dynamic Island, and on the iPhone 15 Pro models, the long-lived mute switch has been phased out for a programmable Action Button. It's a lot! But which iPhone 15 model is best for you? And does any model have enough enhancements to make an upgrade worth the money? If you've been mulling these questions ever since Apple debuted the new handsets, don't worry—I'm here to help. Below, I break down the differences between all four iPhone 15 models, which one is right for you, and whether you should upgrade at all. Check out our Best MagSafe Accessories, Best Apple 3-in-1 Chargers, and Best MagSafe Power Banks for more Apple recommendations. We'll be testing the devices and iPhone 15 cases soon.

Continued here

Could dark matter be made of gravitons?

One of the most puzzling observations about the Universe is that there isn’t enough matter — at least, matter that we know of — to explain how we see things are gravitating. On Solar System scales, General Relativity and the masses we observe do the job just fine. But on larger scales, the internal motions of individual galaxies indicate the presence of more mass than we observe. Galaxies in clusters move around too quickly, while X-rays reveal an insufficient amount of normal matter. Even on cosmic scales, extra mass has to be present to explain gravitational lensing, the cosmic web, and the imperfections in the Big Bang’s leftover glow.While we typically invoke a new particle of some type, one intriguing idea is purely gravitational: could dark matter be made of gravitons alone? After all, the other known forces in the Universe — the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force — are all inherently quantum in nature, and those forces are mediated by particles that we’ve detected. Although we aren’t sure whether gravitation truly is inherently quantum, and we’ve never directly detected the hypothetical graviton, perhaps it would make sense if the force-carrying particle of gravitation, itself, were responsible for what we perceive as dark matter.

Continued here

We must learn from science that "intelligent failure" is the key to success

Although most of us are familiar with the concept of DNA — the nucleic acids that determine so much of who we are — few of us have tried to manipulate these tiny naturally occurring chemicals to enhance their application in lifesaving therapeutics or game-changing nanotechnologies. That is what Dr. Jennifer Heemstra, working with the other members of her thriving research laboratory at Emory University, does for a living. On the frontier in any scientific field, a thoughtful hypothesis not supported by data is the right kind of wrong. Scientists don’t last long in their fields if they can’t stand to fail. They intuit the value intelligent failure brings. It would be a lie to claim these failures aren’t disappointing. They are. Like Olympic bronze medalists, however, scientists and inventors learn healthy ways to think about failure.

Continued here

The U.S. may have the largest known lithium deposit in the world

Straddling the border of Oregon and Nevada rests McDermitt Caldera. Barren and desolate, the crater-like depression pockmarked with crags and scars might seem bland and lifeless to the layperson’s eye, but the real treasure is what lies just below ground. The 616-square-mile region could be home to the world’s largest known lithium deposit.Lithium, the soft, light, silvery metal is increasingly ubiquitous these days. That’s because it is integral to the batteries used in laptops, smartphones, electric vehicles, grid storage, and pretty much every portable electronic device. Demand for the element, which these days is often called “white gold,” is forecast to rise to 1.5 million metric tons per year by 2028, a 66% increase over what humanity uses today. From there, it’s likely to rise even further and faster.

Continued here

How to recycle plastic with enzymes

On an overcast spring morning in 2012, Federica Bertocchini was tending to her honeybees close to where she lived in Santander, on Spain’s picturesque northern coast. One of the honeycombs “was plagued with worms,” says the amateur apiarist, referring to the pesky larvae of wax moths that have a voracious — and destructive — appetite.Bertocchini picked out the worms, placed them in a plastic bag, and carried on with her beekeeping chores. When she retrieved the bag a few hours later, she noticed something strange: It was full of tiny holes.

Continued here

James Webb Space Telescope finds promising life chemistry on a strange world

That Earth is unique we all know. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here asking questions about other worlds. But nature never ceases to amaze, and recently the James Webb Space Telescope just confirmed once again that reality is stranger than fiction.We now know that most stars have planets orbiting around them. As of today, we have confirmed the existence of 5,514 exoplanets in 4,107 planetary systems, with 928 systems having more than one planet. So roughly, 25% of stars host planetary systems containing 2+ planets and, quite possibly, with moons going around them.

Continued here

Autopsy of a star reveals what was eviscerated by a monster black hole

Even huge stars are not always safe out there. When the orbit of a star three times as massive as our own took the star too close to a hefty black hole, the black hole’s gravity ripped the star’s guts out and scattered them across a cosmic crime scene.

Continued here

More countries are concerned about the iPhone 12's EMF radiation profile

For many people, the iPhone 12 effectively disappeared from the market on Tuesday, when Apple introduced iPhone 15 models and stopped selling the 12, first released in October 2020. In Europe, however, the iPhone 12 remains a notable device, as a number of countries are following France's lead in looking into the device's electromagnetic profile.

Continued here

X agrees to negotiate with laid-off employees after 2,000 arbitration demands

Elon Musk's X Corp. has reportedly agreed to settlement talks on arbitration claims from about 2,000 employees laid off after Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022.

Continued here