shaporama has added a photo to the pool:

Simulated wood block print from original photo I had taken in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, Japan in November 2025

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide August 1965

When Austin Bell first visited Hong Kong in 2017, he was struck by the chromatic vibrancy of its public basketball courts. Coming from the U.S., where these surfaces are often the neutral and uninteresting textures of asphalt and other materials, he was compelled to document the range of vivid color combinations, especially within the context of high-rise neighborhoods and urban infrastructure.

Bell set out to capture 2,549 outdoor basketball courts around Hong Kong—every single one there is in the region. The resulting series, SHOOTING HOOPS, not only highlights the physical courts but conveys a unique portrait of the region and the spaces where people can mingle. “To me, basketball courts are one of the most interesting subjects for aerial photography because they look so different from above than the ground,” Bell tells Colossal. “Their flatness and geometric design become an almost extraterrestrial tableau—like concrete crop
circles.”

For such a densely populated place, Bell’s images are often devoid of people, giving the colorful scenes a subtle ghostly feel. Looking closely, though, you can often see passersby out and about, illustrating the abiding popularity of these urban recreation parks. “One of the newest ones is at a playground called Chung Sing, which is so named for the sound a bell makes, so the designers stylized the surrounding area with audio waveforms,” Bell says.

Bell captured the photos in 2019, trawling Google Maps’ satellite imagery and using his drone to explore spaces between buildings and trees. Over the course of 140 days of shooting during multiple visits, he took more than 40,000 photos. He often photographed from dawn to dusk, and it wasn’t unusual for him to shoot upwards of 100 courts in a day. Once, he meticulously planned a route and captured a mind-boggling 475 courts in a single day.

“The insane became mundane,” Bell says in a statement. “I had become an obsessive completist, unable to rest until I found every court in the city. My obsession was fueled by two desires: to show an unseen perspective of Hong Kong and to fully explore a city that I feel so captivated by.”

Find more on Bell’s Instagram, and purchase the photo book from his webshop.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Austin Bell Chronicles Every Single One of Hong Kong’s 2,549 Basketball Courts appeared first on Colossal.

Nearly 300 employees caught up in intrusion at benefits provider Navia

Almost 300 HackerOne employees are caught up in a data breach, with the bug bounty biz slamming a third-party benefits provider for a weeks-long delay in notification.…

Microslop? Sorry, we meant Microsoft

Microsoft is rolling out technology to transform OneDrive photos into AI-infused masterpieces. Or top up the bucket of slop, depending on your perspective.…

i-lenticularis (NO GRAPHICS) has added a photo to the pool:

(File: Pano_7A3590-95)

Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:

Hamley Bridge railway station, now closed, is located in the town of Hamley Bridge at the junction of the Roseworthy-Peterborough railway line and the Hamley Bridge-Gladstone railway line in South Australia.
Hamley Bridge railway station opened on 3 July 1869 as part of the extension of what was then known as the Roseworthy-Forresters railway. It became a junction with the opening of the Hamley Bridge-Balaklava railway on 15 January 1880. The original station opened in 1880 and was a few hundred meters north of the original station originally called Alma. The station facilities included of a main building and four platforms. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by Lady Edith Hamley, wife of Lt.-Col. Francis Gilbert Hamley, who was then the Governor of South Australia, on 25 July 1868. In 1925 the original stone bridge was demolished and a new bridge was erected in conjunction with the works to convert the narrow gauge line to broad gauge, despite this bridge already being broad gauge. Each platform was an island platform and a signal box was constructed. Silos, cranes and a goods shed were added. There were many sidings and tracks at the rail yards with the junction to the north and sidings for storing wagons to the south. The town of Hamley Bridge was named after the railway bridge over the Light River on the south side of the station for the Peterborough line. The bridge was 91 metres long and 24 metres high, in two spans on stone abutments and a cast iron cylindrical pier 1.8 metres in diameter.
In 1978, the station and all associated infrastructure was included in the transfer of South Australian Railways to Australian National. Regular passenger services ceased in December 1986 but some special train tours used the station up until 2004. In 1997, the station and railway lines were included in the transfer of Australian National's freight assets to Australian Southern Railroad (later known as One Rail Australia.) Grain trains last used the line to Balaklava in 2004. Grain trains last used the silos at Hamley Bridge on 31 October 2005. The station remnants and railway line were included in Aurizon's purchase of One Rail Australia in 2022.
The platforms, railway tracks and the station building remain. The silos were demolished in October 2022. The station building has been converted into a private residence. The station is located in the local council of Wakefield.

Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:

Hamley Bridge railway station, now closed, is located in the town of Hamley Bridge at the junction of the Roseworthy-Peterborough railway line and the Hamley Bridge-Gladstone railway line in South Australia.
Hamley Bridge railway station opened on 3 July 1869 as part of the extension of what was then known as the Roseworthy-Forresters railway. It became a junction with the opening of the Hamley Bridge-Balaklava railway on 15 January 1880. The original station opened in 1880 and was a few hundred meters north of the original station originally called Alma. The station facilities included of a main building and four platforms. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by Lady Edith Hamley, wife of Lt.-Col. Francis Gilbert Hamley, who was then the Governor of South Australia, on 25 July 1868. In 1925 the original stone bridge was demolished and a new bridge was erected in conjunction with the works to convert the narrow gauge line to broad gauge, despite this bridge already being broad gauge. Each platform was an island platform and a signal box was constructed. Silos, cranes and a goods shed were added. There were many sidings and tracks at the rail yards with the junction to the north and sidings for storing wagons to the south. The town of Hamley Bridge was named after the railway bridge over the Light River on the south side of the station for the Peterborough line. The bridge was 91 metres long and 24 metres high, in two spans on stone abutments and a cast iron cylindrical pier 1.8 metres in diameter.
In 1978, the station and all associated infrastructure was included in the transfer of South Australian Railways to Australian National. Regular passenger services ceased in December 1986 but some special train tours used the station up until 2004. In 1997, the station and railway lines were included in the transfer of Australian National's freight assets to Australian Southern Railroad (later known as One Rail Australia.) Grain trains last used the line to Balaklava in 2004. Grain trains last used the silos at Hamley Bridge on 31 October 2005. The station remnants and railway line were included in Aurizon's purchase of One Rail Australia in 2022.
The platforms, railway tracks and the station building remain. The silos were demolished in October 2022. The station building has been converted into a private residence. The station is located in the local council of Wakefield.

Darren Schiller has added a photo to the pool:

Hamley Bridge railway station, now closed, is located in the town of Hamley Bridge at the junction of the Roseworthy-Peterborough railway line and the Hamley Bridge-Gladstone railway line in South Australia.
Hamley Bridge railway station opened on 3 July 1869 as part of the extension of what was then known as the Roseworthy-Forresters railway. It became a junction with the opening of the Hamley Bridge-Balaklava railway on 15 January 1880. The original station opened in 1880 and was a few hundred meters north of the original station originally called Alma. The station facilities included of a main building and four platforms. The foundation stone of the bridge was laid by Lady Edith Hamley, wife of Lt.-Col. Francis Gilbert Hamley, who was then the Governor of South Australia, on 25 July 1868. In 1925 the original stone bridge was demolished and a new bridge was erected in conjunction with the works to convert the narrow gauge line to broad gauge, despite this bridge already being broad gauge. Each platform was an island platform and a signal box was constructed. Silos, cranes and a goods shed were added. There were many sidings and tracks at the rail yards with the junction to the north and sidings for storing wagons to the south. The town of Hamley Bridge was named after the railway bridge over the Light River on the south side of the station for the Peterborough line. The bridge was 91 metres long and 24 metres high, in two spans on stone abutments and a cast iron cylindrical pier 1.8 metres in diameter.
In 1978, the station and all associated infrastructure was included in the transfer of South Australian Railways to Australian National. Regular passenger services ceased in December 1986 but some special train tours used the station up until 2004. In 1997, the station and railway lines were included in the transfer of Australian National's freight assets to Australian Southern Railroad (later known as One Rail Australia.) Grain trains last used the line to Balaklava in 2004. Grain trains last used the silos at Hamley Bridge on 31 October 2005. The station remnants and railway line were included in Aurizon's purchase of One Rail Australia in 2022.
The platforms, railway tracks and the station building remain. The silos were demolished in October 2022. The station building has been converted into a private residence. The station is located in the local council of Wakefield.

Hoe ontstond het idee dat de mens boven de natuur staat – en waarom kraakt dat wereldbeeld nu onder druk van wetenschap en klimaatcrisis?

Hoe het idee van superioriteit ontstond

Prehistorische grotschilderingen tonen vooral dieren, nauwelijks mensen: de mens werd gezien als onderdeel van een levend geheel. Pas later introduceerden Griekse denkers en, vervolgens, christelijke theologie een hiërarchie waarin de mens hoger staat dan dieren dankzij verstand en ziel. In de Verlichting werd dat verder aangescherpt: rationaliteit en wetenschap moesten de natuur meetbaar, voorspelbaar en beheersbaar maken. Het geloof dat we onze lichamelijke grenzen konden overstijgen, hielp de doodsangst te temperen én rechtvaardigde intensief gebruik van dieren voor arbeid, oorlog en vermaak.

Van dieren boven staan naar mensen ontmenselijken

De scherpe scheidslijn mens–dier bleef niet beperkt tot de omgang met dieren. Wie als ‘minder menselijk’ werd neergezet, kon makkelijker worden uitgebuit of buitengesloten. Dehumanisering – groepen wegzetten als ‘beestachtig’ – normaliseerde ongelijkheid en voedde kolonialisme en imperialisme, vaak verpakt als ‘beschaving’ van de ander. Nog altijd zien we hoe taal over ‘ratten’, ‘honden’ of ‘kakkerlakken’ politieke keuzes en geweld kan legitimeren. Diezelfde logica die een koe tot product maakt, kan een mens tot probleem reduceren.

Wetenschap sloopt de kloof, de werkelijkheid haalt ons in

Ondertussen brokkelt het idee van menselijke uitzonderingspositie wetenschappelijk af. Dieren blijken gereedschap te gebruiken, herinneringen te hebben, empathie te tonen en complexe communicatie te kennen. Bioloog E.O. Wilson beschreef al in de jaren tachtig dat mensen van nature aangetrokken worden tot leven – de zogeheten biophilia-hypothese – en onderzoek bevestigt dat kinderen spontaan meer aandacht hebben voor dieren dan voor objecten. Tegelijkertijd maakt de opwarming van de aarde duidelijk hoe afhankelijk we zijn van ecosystemen: de laatste elf jaar waren wereldwijd de warmste ooit gemeten, met recordhoge oceaanwarmte en CO₂-concentraties

Een nieuw verhaal: niet erboven, maar ertussen

De grote ironie: het narratief van menselijke superioriteit ondermijnt nu onze eigen overlevingskansen. Psychologen spreken zelfs van een ‘collectief narcisme’ ten opzichte van de planeet, een gevoel van recht op onbeperkte groei ten koste van alles wat niet-menselijk is. Boeken als Animate laten zien hoe dieren ons denken, onze cultuur en ons gevoel van zingeving hebben gevormd – en dat we zonder hen niet begrijpen wie we zijn. De breuklijn mens–natuur blijkt geen natuurwet, maar een verhaal. De vraag is welk verhaal we nu durven te schrijven

• World Snooker Tour agrees long-term deal with venue

• 500 seats to be added to the theatre in major revamp

Snooker’s world championship will remain at the Crucible for at least the next two decades after the World Snooker Tour agreed a long-term arrangement with the venue to keep the sport’s most prestigious tournament in Sheffield.

The future of the event at the 980-seat venue has been in doubt for years, with Matchroom’s president, Barry Hearn, repeatedly hinting the tournament may have to leave its spiritual home in favour of a bigger venue when their previous deal expired next year. As recently as 2024, Hearn said there would need to be a new Crucible built to resist the lure of Saudi Arabia and others.

In het verlengde van de ongemakkelijke conclusie rond Israël en het World Happiness Report, dringt zich een tweede vraag op. Minder comfortabel, omdat die dichter bij huis komt. Het blijft ook voor ons namelijk verleidelijk om naar internationale ranglijsten te kijken en onszelf een schouderklopje te geven: Nederland hoog in het World Happiness Report, opnieuw.

Alleen komt dat comfort nergens uit het niets.

Welvaart heeft een geschiedenis, en die geschiedenis is zelden neutraal. De Nederlandse positie in de wereld is mede gevormd door eeuwen van handel die zelden gelijkwaardig was, door koloniale extractie waarbij grondstoffen en arbeid elders werden onttrokken en hier werden verzilverd. Dat verleden is geen afgesloten hoofdstuk, maar werkt door in hedendaagse verhoudingen.

Ook in het heden is geluk geen gesloten systeem. De mondiale economie waar Nederland in opereert, is gebaseerd op ketens waarin kosten structureel worden verschoven. Productie vindt plaats waar arbeid goedkoper is, waar milieuregels minder streng zijn, waar de prijs van grondstoffen lager kan worden gehouden. Het resultaat is een vorm van welvaart die lokaal zichtbaar is, en elders wordt gedragen.

Dat maakt de vraag naar geluk minder onschuldig dan ze lijkt. Want als geluk wordt gemeten binnen nationale grenzen, verdwijnen de externe effecten uit beeld. De uitstoot, de uitputting, de arbeidsomstandigheden elders die onze welvaart en daarmee geluk dragen: ze tellen niet mee in de tevredenheidsscore van de consument die profiteert.

Het verschil met meer expliciete vormen van onderdrukking is evident. Er is geen directe militaire controle, geen formeel systeem van ongelijkheid binnen de eigen staatsgrenzen, zoals in Israël. Toch blijft de afhankelijkheid bestaan, zij het diffuser georganiseerd en minder zichtbaar.

Misschien is dat de werkelijke beperking van dit soort rapporten. Ze meten hoe goed het leven voelt binnen een afgebakend kader, en laten buiten beschouwing wat dat kader mogelijk maakt. Geluk wordt zo een bijna nietszeggende interne variabele, losgekoppeld van de wereld die eraan ten grondslag ligt.

WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into AI-generated podcasts for profit. In some cases, people only found out that their Zoom calls were recorded once WebinarTV reached out to them directly to say their call was turned into a podcast in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services. 

WebinarTV claims to host more than 200,000 webinars. It’s not clear how it’s recording so many Zoom calls without permission, but in some cases the stolen videos posted to WebinarTV can put call participants at risk. 

Tom Rademacher, a teacher and editor, told me he organized a Zoom call for educators and education advocates in the months after Donald Trump was elected to discuss keeping kids safe from ICE.

“I very intentionally did not record the webinar since we'd be talking politics and there were some local electeds and district leaders that were on,” Rademacher told me. “There were definitely people on there who it would have been bad politically and professionally to be, especially at the time, linked to being anti-Trump in an education space.”

Rademacher received an email on October 7, 2025, from WebinarTV VP of communications Sarah Blair, whose profile image appears to be AI-generated and who has no online presence. 

“Your webinar is featured on the Phil & Amy Show,” Blair said in her email. “They talk about the highlights from your webinar - without giving away too much - to entice viewers. To listen to the show, click Highlights tab on the OnDemand page or click here.”

The link sent Rademacher to a page on WebinarTV.us which featured a full recording of the Zoom recording, an AI-generated video summary of the meeting, “chapters” that sent the viewers to different parts of the meeting, and an AI-generated episode of the “Phil & Amy Show,” in which two AI-generated personalities discuss the content of the call, including quips and rapport between Phil and Amy. 

“By suddenly having the whole meeting be public so you could see what [participants] were saying, after all the talk about safe spaces, it just felt super gross,” Rademacher told me.

Rademacher asked Blair how she got the recording of the meeting and asked that WebinarTV take it down, which it did. 

“If you ever decide to expand your webinar audience and take advantage of valuable automated features—such as translation into eleven languages, chapter creation, preview clips, and searchable content within your webinar—we’d be happy to support you,” Blair told Rademacher. 

“Search, browsing and playback are all free for viewers,” a page on WebinarTV’s site says. “There is no cost for a webinar to be included in WebinarTV. There are additional optional marketing opportunities available for hosts who want additional interest and attendees for their webinar.”

Searching for WebinarTV and Sarah Blair shows that other people online had very similar experiences to Rademacher. On Reddit and Linkedin, people say they found out that Zoom meetings they thought were private were uploaded to WebinarTV once they got a similar pitch from Blair. I searched for 404 Media on WebinarTV and found that they had recorded a Zoom call Joseph did with the Freedom of the Press Foundation last year. Freedom of the Press told me that it didn’t give WebinarTV permission to record the call but that it “concluded that it is more of a nuisance than a threat and probably inevitable given that our events are public.”

I clicked on a random Zoom call hosted on WebinarTV’s site about “AI, Equity & Access to Justice” hosted by the Ontario Association of Black Paralegals.

“This is really odd/unsettling to learn about,” Dayna Cornwall, a project manager at the National Self-Represented Litigants Project, who hosted the Zoom call, told me when I asked her if she knew it was recorded and uploaded to WebinarTV. “We were not aware that our webinar was being recorded by Webinar.TV, and have never heard of it before.”

“We are aware of reports involving independent third-party services such as WebinarTV.us / MeetingTV.us that appear to capture and redistribute content from online meetings,” a Zoom spokesperson told me in an email. “These services are not affiliated with Zoom, and the activity described is not the result of a vulnerability or security issue within Zoom’s platform.”

Zoom said that based on its review WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions using browser extension or “other tools.” 

“Because these recordings occur on the participant’s device and outside of Zoom’s environment, no platform—including Zoom—has the technical ability to fully prevent third-party screen recording,” the spokesperson said. 

All the people I talked to who found their Zoom meetings on WebinarTV did not use strict privacy settings, and shared links to the meeting because they invited a large number of people to attend. 

People who complained about WebinarTV on Linkedin also speculated that WebinarTV was finding the meetings by scraping the web for Zoom links. Freedom of the Press Foundation speculated that WebinarTV is using a Zoom API to scrape for public webinars, but noted that this would probably violate Zoom’s terms of service, which doesn’t allow people to use the API “To scrape, build databases, or otherwise create copies of any data accessed or obtained using the Zoom APIs by your Application.”

CyberAlberta, an organization dedicated to improving cybersecurity in the Canadian province, published a report about WebinarTV when it noticed that it was stealing its Zoom calls. 

“CyberAlberta’s investigation found that WebinarTV primarily gains initial access to Zoom webinars via third-party browser extensions. These extensions can access webinar links when a user either inadvertently grants calendar permissions—exposing meeting invitations—or willfully submits meeting details into the WebinarTV platform,” the report said. “WebinarTV is believed to leverage a range of browser extensions that provide functionalities such as AI powered transcription and note-taking tools, or tools to automate the joining of online meetings. The platform mostly relies on the widespread use of these tools by end users, rather than operating them directly. However, at least one of the known extensions is listed on the Chrome Web Store as developed by WebinarTV.”

We’re not naming the plugins because we were unable to independently verify that they were actually serving WebinarTV’s scraping of Zoom calls. None of the companies that produce these plugins responded to requests for comment. 

WebinarTV did not respond to a request for comment, but its FAQ page states that: “WebinarTV is a DMCA compliant service and a good internet citizen. We only want to promote webinars that want more viewers. If a copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf requests content to be removed, then WebinarTV will promptly remove it. Send requests to remove@webinartv.us Please be sure and include the URL to the content in question and an admission that you are the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.”

The Zoom spokesperson said that users who want to keep their calls private should avoid publicly posting meeting links when possible, require registration and manually approve registrants to carefully vet participants, and enable available deterrence features such as watermarking.