An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from a Wired article that explores the often-contentious process of nominating pages for deletion when their subjects fail to meet the encyclopedia's notability standards: What do you need to know -- need to know -- about Xavier Trudeau? The eldest son of former Canadian prime minister Justin, the teenage Trudeau has recently begun performing R&B under the mononym Xav. But, with all due respect to Xav, do those facts make him a person of note? Should you expect to be able to read about him on Wikipedia? What about Evanescence guitarist Tim McCord, or 2012 Yachtmaster of the Year Rainer Holtorff? All three have had a biography on Wikipedia; all three of those biographies were considered for deletion this year on the grounds that the subjects were not notable enough to warrant a biography at all. Every day, dozens, sometimes hundreds, of Wikipedia biographies -- of child actors turned LA realtors, retired ambassadors, soccer players who have played less than 10 minutes of professional soccer -- are purged from the world's free encyclopedia.
It's not as though Wikipedia, which hosts over 7 million articles in the English language, doesn't have the space. But Wikipedia has only so many volunteers to monitor its contents. To this day, Wikipedia editors are discovering hoaxes that have gone undetected for decades. The time it takes to verify the release dates of Xav's three singles is better spent -- the logic goes -- by asking whether the American Civil War officer Nathaniel Lyon really drank mustard during battle, as was claimed in his Wikipedia biography for 17 years. Wikipedia removed the mustard claim, not because it was proven wrong, but because there was no reliable evidence for it. "We're not really looking for what's true," Britta Gustafson, who has been editing Wikipedia since 2001, told me. "We're looking for what's verifiable." Wikipedia editors do not themselves decide that a person is not notable, only that there is a lack of reliable evidence to support the claim...
Nico Hulkenberg believes Audi must be “flawless” to capitalise on opportunities in the tightly contested midfield battle this weekend in Mexico, while team mate Gabriel Bortoleto remains confident the team can close the gap to Haas in the teams' standings.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a $6.3bn heist that, according to experts, is likely to be the work of North Korea.
This is not the first time a crypto market has been targeted by hackers, and the rogue state has a track record of this type of theft. Here we answer some key questions about what’s happened:
The opposition can’t win unless they join forces with Arab parties. Benjamin Netanyahu knows this, and will use every ruse to stay in power
It’s less an election result than a philosophical puzzle: what happens when a win contains a loss, a loss contains a win and the two collide? That’s the question posed by the confused and confusing outcome of this week’s Israeli election, one that, despite its murky uncertainty, offers clear, sharp lessons – both for that country and for those locked in combat with nationalist populists across the globe.
Start with the result that has simultaneously handed Benjamin Netanyahu a devastating defeat and a strong chance of staying on as prime minister, extending a run that has seen him lead Israel, on and off, for more than 19 of the past 30 years. The defeat is clear enough. At a stroke, his parliamentary majority was wiped out. Before Tuesday, the parties that together comprised his ruling coalition controlled 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats: that tally has now shrunk to just 53, far short of the 61 seats needed for power. That’s a loss in anybody’s language.
Voting stations across the country, and especially in states with tightly-contested Senate seats have seen a steep rise in early voting compared to the 2022 midterm elections, the Associated Press reported.
The outlet’s analysis found that more than 43 million voters have already cast their ballots. By the same time in the 2022 midterm election, 10 million fewer ballots had been cast.
Archaeologists uncover jewellery, cosmetics and coins in cabinet sealed since eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79
Fragments of personal objects, from makeup tools and a perfume bottle to coins and a child’s necklace, have been found tucked away in a wooden wardrobe sealed off for almost 2,000 years in the ruins of Pompeii.
The artifacts provide an intimate glimpse of daily life in the ancient Roman city before it was devastated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. The wardrobe was discovered in a room of a home on Via dell’Abbondanza, which was one of the most bustling streets in Pompeii.
Ghost hunting has changed in recent years due to AI chatbots, and paranormal enthusiasts are concerned
Ghost hunting is a tech-heavy pursuit. When Amy Waine and Jarrad Cutting investigate haunted locations, they’re loaded up with software of their own design, such as an app that assigns signals from a phone’s sensors to different words in a database. In the age of ChatGPT, the ghost-hunting pair is probing the world of AI. They describe one of their latest inventions, an app called GhostTube Seer, as “the world’s first AI Ghost Hunting tool”.
In the hands of paranormal investigators, scientific tools like EMF meters (used to detect electromagnetic fields) are repurposed to identify changes and anomalies that they believe indicate supernatural activity. Seer is, in many ways, simply an expansion of that practice, another way to scan an empty room and believe that something may be there. The app, which requires a paid monthly subscription, has more than 1m downloads, according to its Google Play store listing.
But for others in the ghost hunting world, AI is an unwelcome presence. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, AI-generated ghost stories and images of the supernatural have flooded online spaces, so much so that popular forums like the r/nosleep subreddit, meant for scary stories, have implemented a strict policy against AI-generated material.
European football has stretched resources but the manager insists busy schedule is not something to complain about
Twenty seconds of stoppage time remained when Enzo Le Fée picked up the ball and kissed it before taking a corner. As intended, the Frenchman’s perfect, right-footed delivery dropped into the corridor of uncertainty that leaves goalkeepers torn between leaving their line or standing firm.
It also dipped at the right moment for Dan Ballard to power a header in off the crossbar. Extra time in the 2025 Championship playoff semi-final second leg was almost over and Sunderland had secured a 1-1 draw that consigned Coventry to a 3-2 aggregate defeat.
In the second half of the 17th century, when early American colonists were well into producing their own furniture, makers drew upon the motifs and techniques common in England. Chests and cabinets were chunky, and chairs and tables often incorporated spool-like legs. In Boston, a particular interpretation of the high-backed Windsor chair emerged, inspiring furniture-maker and artist Aspen Golann to create uniquely sculptural, contemporary iterations as a nod to this heritage.
“Meeting Bench,” made in collaboration with chairmaker Peter Galbert, and “Union Settee” pay tribute to the unique early style while also celebrating furniture’s role in how we convene. Golann has long been interested in the relationships between form and function, in addition to the connections between people and the objects they use, which she also continues to explore through a series of imaginitive brushes and brooms.
“Meeting Bench”
Golann’s interest in early American furniture led to another centuries-old craft tradition: embroidery. Her research into early needlework, an activity pursued almost exclusively by women, inspired an ongoing series of wooden vessels she began making as part of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vacheron Constantin Artisan Residency. The program runs for 18 months and emphasizes the preservation and reinterpretation of traditional craft techniques. Golann was also joined by ceramicist Ibrahim Said and jeweler Joy Harvey.
Utilitarian at their most essential, vessels are also often displayed for strictly decorative purposes, and the artist has been increasingly interested in nudging the boundary between functionality and aesthetic appeal. Pieces like “Pouring Vessel” interpret needlework motifs onto solid wood using a strapworking technique. Even the pancaked “Strap-Carved Vessel” is hollow, so it doesn’t forego its fundamental condition. Its whimsical flatness draws our attention instead to its ornate design, which is the point.
Historically, the sewn compositions made by young girls haven’t gotten a lot of attention, at least not within the context of major art institutions. “[The embroidery] is under-researched and under-displayed, and it’s fragile, rare, and stowable,” Golann says. “I wanted to make some version of this thing that couldn’t be put away.”
Completed during residency, “Crewel Cabinet” stands five feet, four inches tall—about the average height of an American woman. The artist composed the cabinet with 37 staves, or thin strips of wood that connect edge-to-edge to create a rounded form, and each stave is meticulously built from 14 colored layers. From these layers, Golann has carved plants, rabbits, dogs, and more, where the changing colors evoke the vibrant threads within colonial-era crewel embroidery.
“Crewel Cabinet”
“These embroideries were often dowry objects, made within restrictive expectations for women’s lives,” Golann says. She adds:
Their compositions and themes could be quite consistent, but they are also material evidence of the girls’ internal lives and creative expression. They’re full of sensitivity, affection, and interest in the natural world, but they’re also bizarre, strange, and imaginative. I’ve been trying to tune my sensitivity to the frequency of their imaginations and lived experience, then splash that over a much larger, more expressive canvas.
Golann’s next project will be for the U.S. Treasury, which commissions a piece of furniture for its collection every 50 years. “I’m using different tones of precious metals, applied in a paint-by-numbers way, to create an abstracted, bizarre landscape inspired by early American embroidery,” the artist says. The work will incorporate reflective surfaces so that viewers will see themselves mirrored in the scene. She’s also currently working toward a solo exhibition, slated to open next November, at the Fuller Craft Museum.
“Crewel Cabinet” will be on view as part of the group exhibition Pattern Recognition: Superhouse at Five, opening November 6 and continuing through December 19 at Superhouse in New York City. See more on Golann’s Instagram.
“Union Settee”Detail of “Union Settee”“Pouring Vessel”Detail of “Pouring Vessel”Side view of “Strap Carved Vessel”Detail of “Crewel Cabinet”Detail of “Crewel Cabinet”“Crewel Cabinet”“Couple Broom”
Net als andere AI-bedrijven zet Alphabet, het moederbedrijf van Google, volop in op verdere ontwikkeling en toepassing van kunstmatige intelligentie. Maar daarmee schaadt het een belangrijk deel van zijn verdienmodel.
Om onafhankelijker te worden moet Europa veel investeren. Volgens banken is het daarom een goed moment ze vrijer te laten. Economen vinden het juist een slecht moment, nu de risico’s toenemen. Marike Stellinga is met de economen.
Binnen enkele weken heeft het jonge AI-bedrijf zijn notering aan de beurs. Voor rivalen in Silicon Valley en andere bigtechbedrijven staat daarbij veel op het spel door de grote verwevenheid aan financiële belangen.
UTRECHT (ANP) - Vakbonden FNV en CNV zijn zeer teleurgesteld over het eindbod dat werkgevers in het streekvervoer vrijdag hebben neergelegd. De bonden gaan het eindbod voorleggen aan hun leden, maar verwachten niet dat die akkoord gaan. FNV noemt de gesprekken "zonde van de tijd". Beide vakbonden verwachten dat er opnieuw stakingen in het streekvervoer zullen volgen. Die waren opgeschort omdat er weer onderhandeld werd over een nieuwe cao.
WENEN (ANP) - Daniil Medvedev heeft zich verzekerd van deelname aan de ATP Finals, het eindejaarstoernooi waarin de beste tennissers van het seizoen het tegen elkaar opnemen. De Rus versloeg in de kwartfinale van het ATP-toernooi van Wenen de Fransman Adrian Mannarino met 6-2 6-3.
Medvedev is na de Duitser Alexander Zverev, de Spanjaard Carlos Alcaraz en de Amerikaan Ben Shelton de vierde tennisser die zeker is van de ATP Finals. Tien spelers maken nog kans op een van de vier resterende deelnamebewijzen. Medvedev miste het eindejaarstoernooi sinds 2019 slechts één keer. Dat was vorig jaar, toen hij op de wereldranglijst op de dertiende plaats stond.