With pine-fringed beaches, crystal waters and affordable seafood restaurants, L’Étang de Thau is a hidden gem worth visiting at any time of year

When I asked Nordine Nid Hsain, the owner of my favourite Parisian bistro, why he sold up and left the capital to join the arty diaspora living in the Mediterranean port of Sète, he said: “What really drew me here was not Sète itself, but the natural paradise of the adjoining Thau lagoon. I love cycling and, after 10 years here, I am still excited to go out every day to explore the bike paths that run around the lagoon.”

He added: “There’s always something new to discover – beaches; wetland landscapes; enjoying a plate of freshly harvested oysters at the water’s edge; riding through the vineyards then tasting the wine in the vigneron’s cellar.”

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With sensors that cool the air as it nears your head, this high-end tool promises gentler styling for sensitive scalps

• The best hair dryers for smooth, speedy styling at home

Tell most hair-care enthusiasts you want to upgrade your hair dryer, and I’d bet good money you’ll be asked, “Will you buy a Dyson?” That would have been a ludicrous question more than a decade ago when the brand specialised in vacuum cleaners, but not since it took the luxury hair-care market by storm in 2016 with its Supersonic hair dryer.

The Supersonic ripped up the hair-dryer rulebook, with its distinctive design, lightweight feel and quiet operation. Eight years after the original, Dyson launched the Supersonic Nural: an upgraded version with new tricks up its sleeve.

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Dolls that look like real babies – complete with tiny veins and folds of skin – can be endearing yet deeply unsettling. In the Netherlands, however, there are tens of thousands of ‘reborn’ doll enthusiasts

“It’s a doll,” Ineke Schmelter, 71, often says as she walks down the street with a pram and someone peers fondly under the hood, asking: “How old is the baby?” Then she pulls back the blanket and reveals the doll. She points out the craftsmanship – the little veins, the creases in the skin – and explains that it can take as many as 20 layers of paint to achieve such a lifelike finish. Sometimes, though, she can’t be bothered with the long version – the explanations, the strange looks. “As if I’m not quite right in the head.” Then she just says: “Two months,” and keeps walking.

Ineke Schmelter in the kitchen with her reborn baby Ronin

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Democrats accuse DHS of ‘kneecapping’ programs that help speed registered travelers through security lines

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a partial government shutdown continues.

The programs are designed to help speed registered travelers through security lines. Suspending them could cause headaches for passengers.

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How much time does it take to even begin booting, asks long-time Slashdot reader BrendaEM. Say you want separate Windows and Linux boot processes, and "You have Windows on one SSD/NVMe, and Linux on another. How long do you have to wait for a chance to choose a boot drive?"

And more importantly, why is it all taking so long?
In a world of 4-5 GHz CPU's that are thousands of times faster than they were, has hardware become thousands of times more complicated, to warrant the longer start time? Is this a symptom of a larger UEFI bloat problem? Now with memory characterization on some modern motherboards... how long do you have to wait to find out if your RAM is incompatible, or your system is dead on arrival?

Share your own experiences (and system specs) in the comments. How long is it taking you to choose a boot drive?

And what's your boot time?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on negative sleeve, "Fall Season, El Dorado Nature Center, Nov 1987"

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Komende week krijgen we alvast een voorproefje van het lenteweer met op woensdag temperaturen rond de 18 graden. In een voorlopige weersvoorspelling van Weeronline zet die trend voor maart door met hogere temperaturen dan gebruikelijk.

De temperatuur stijgt in maart van 9 naar 12 graden en vooral later in de maand kan de temperatuur makkelijk stijgen naar 15 graden en meer, aldus de weerdienst. Wel zijn er af en toe nog koude dagen met nachtvorst. Daarnaast zal er naar verwachting een gebruikelijke hoeveelheid neerslag vallen in de maand maart.

Ook in de daaropvolgende maanden april en mei laten de weermodellen zien dat er een grote kans is op warmer weer dan normaal. Begin april worden er gemiddelde temperaturen gemeten van rond de 13 graden en het kwik stijgt daarna geleidelijk naar 20 graden eind mei. Volgens Weeronline zullen de temperaturen daar dit jaar boven zitten en kunnen we in mei al zomerse dagen verwachten.

In veel sectoren klinkt paniek sinds de Belastingdienst aankondigde vanaf januari 2026 schijnzelfstandigheid te gaan beboeten. Zzp’ers krijgen van hun opdrachtgevers te horen dat hun werkt stopt, of dat ze in loondienst moeten.

prbimages has added a photo to the pool:

Night street scene in Matsumoto, Japan.

Sony A7C / ILCE-7C
Sony FE 40mm F2.5 G
40mm; 1/40 sec; f/5.6; ISO 2500