Today is #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay. Here's "Two Owls", a 1921 print by Dutch artist Julie de Graag.
Buy as a print here: https://publicdomainreview.org/product/two-owls
And more on the good work of owl conservation here: https://www.owls.org/
That Church and imperium were in cahoots was the source of Joyce's political fury from start to finish. Yet most of the country freed itself from British rule not long after he gave the place up in frustration. Joyce was a product of European Christendom: if his sensibility was deeply shaped by Dante and Aquinas, it was because he came from Dublin rather than London or New York. [LRB; ungated]
Individual time trial – updates from 13.34 BST/14.34 CET
Wildfires could force re-route of Mont Ventoux stage
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Monday saw that amazing breakaway victory.
Haugset’s spectacular solo effort surprised the peloton’s leading teams and on the eve of the 21km individual time trial, from Gevrey‑Chambertin to Dijon, she leads by 2min 2sec from Kim Le Court.
“I was thinking about all my teammates and everyone cheering from home, so I had to give it my all,” she said. “All done in the Norwegian champion’s jersey, too – it’s fantastic.
1 S Haugset Ytterhus (Nor) Uno-X Mobility 11h 17:56s
2 K Le Court (Fra) AG Insurance-Soudal Team +2m 02s
3 D Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-SUEZ +2:06
4 N Ruegg (Swi) EF Education-Oatly +2:10
5 M Vos (Ned) Team Visma | Lease a Bike at same time<
Continue reading...Senior Fifa duo pile pressure on under-fire president
Wenger reveals he knew nothing about investment plan
Gianni Infantino’s authority was dealt a further blow after his No 2, the Fifa secretary general Mattias Grafström, called the failed World Cup private investment plan a “sad and reproachable series of events”.
In further evidence that senior Fifa personnel continue to distance themselves from Infantino and his botched scheme, Arsène Wenger issued a statement on Tuesday morning saying the project’s withdrawal was “absolutely necessary and beyond question”. The former Arsenal manager is Fifa’s chief of global development and had publicly been silent about the crisis unfolding in world football.
Continue reading...SÃO PAULO (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - In Brazilië werken meer dan tweehonderd onderzoekers aan de ontwikkeling van 'groene' vliegtuigbrandstof uit de olierijke vruchten van een palmsoort. Biotechnologen, agronomen en automatiseringsexperts staan aan de basis van het project van 3 miljard dollar. Daarbij wordt de vrij onbekende macaúba-palm aangeplant op een uitgestrekt gebied in de Braziliaanse deelstaat Minas Gerais, ten noorden van São Paulo.
De vruchten van deze palm worden geoogst voor de productie van vliegtuigbrandstof, ook wel bekend als SAF. Naar verwachting beginnen de eerste aangeplante bomen in 2030 vruchten te dragen. De olie hieruit wil het bedrijf Acelen Renováveis verwerken in een nieuw te bouwen bioraffinaderij.
Het bedrijf wil met de industriële teelt van de exotische macaúba-vrucht de positie van Brazilië als een van 's werelds grootste producenten van biobrandstoffen en als toonaangevende leverancier van duurzame vliegtuigbrandstof versterken. De raffinaderij moet dagelijks 20.000 vaten SAF gaan produceren.
MADRID (ANP) - Onder de tienduizenden mensen die vorige week de Spaanse exclave Ceuta binnendrongen, waren ook enkele personen die eerder door Spanje het land uit waren gezet, meldt de nieuwssite El Español. De Spaanse politie zou zeker tien mensen hebben gedetecteerd die in Spanje zijn veroordeeld in een terrorisme-onderzoek.
Het is niet duidelijk of zij de exclave ook weer hebben verlaten of dat zij zich nu nog in Ceuta bevinden.
Antiterreureenheden kijken nu samen met de immigratiedienst naar camerabeelden van de circa 50.000 mensen die donderdag en vrijdag de exclave binnenkwamen vanuit Marokko. De overgrote meerderheid vertrok na enkele uren alweer, maar mogelijk zijn er nog enkele duizenden achtergebleven.
In andere Europese landen ontstond onrust na de aankomst van de migranten in Ceuta. Die Spaanse exclave ligt op Afrikaans grondgebied, waardoor mensen niet zomaar kunnen doorreizen naar het Spaanse vasteland of andere Europese landen. Voor vertrek moeten ze eerst langs een paspoortcontrole.
CAF Bank has told customers its online banking service is back after being shuttered for more than ten days following what it described as "attempted fraud." In an email update seen by The Reg, the bank warned that access could remain intermittent, and it might "need to limit the amount of traffic to the website" at certain times. It admitted: "There are likely to be periods where online banking is not available. We will try to keep this to outside business hours." The bank also gave customers a timeline of the incident, saying it first noticed "attempted fraudulent activity" on July 21 "on a small number of accounts." It then called in "external specialists" and temporarily withdrew access to the online service on Wednesday, July 22, and Friday, July 24, "while we investigated." Then, on Saturday, July 25, the bank detected "related malicious activity of a different kind," which the email to customers said was "aimed at removing a small number of individual online user logins, making those logins unavailable." It added: "Again, we caught this quickly and removed access to the online service. Our investigation identified a previously unknown vulnerability in how some third-party software connects to the online banking portal." The bank was at pains to reiterate that the "core bank" was not affected, "which means that money is safe and secure in accounts." The Charities Aid Foundation-owned bank came under fire last year after customers were unable to log in or make transactions following its long-running migration to a new platform based on Temenos Transact, formerly T24. In an open letter regarding the latest outage, charities described the new online banking platform as "significantly more time-consuming to use, placing an unnecessary administrative burden on already stretched small charities" and "often unreliable." They also expressed concern they would not be able to pay staff and suppliers, with Kevan Hodges, chief exec at Kent-based Down's syndrome charity 21 Together telling the BBC: "People are concerned that wages won't get paid because of this, and that's just stressful when they have bills to pay." The bank earlier said that “due to the disruption, as a small thank you for your patience, we will be waiving our monthly customer account charge for all customers for August and September 2026.” The Reg can confirm those charges are £5 a month. Alison Taylor, CAF Bank CEO said in a statement: “We have completed the essential work with our technology partners and our online banking service is now available." She added: "I very much appreciate that this has been a frustrating experience for our customers, and I am particularly sorry for the long delays to speak to us on the phone. Our thorough investigation into the incident will continue so that we, our partners and our industry can learn from it.” ®
peaceful-jp-scenery has added a photo to the pool:
Oigawa river fireworks display
大井川大花火大会
The fireworks started at 7:00 PM, but it was still light out, so it was a bit too early.
19:00開始の花火はまだ明るくて、ちょっと早かったです。
Kanaya-cho, Shizuoka pref, Japan
peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:
Oigawa river fireworks display
大井川大花火大会
The fireworks started at 7:00 PM, but it was still light out, so it was a bit too early.
19:00開始の花火はまだ明るくて、ちょっと早かったです。
Kanaya-cho, Shizuoka pref, Japan