As a business journalist, Nilsson began rigorously reporting on the power players of the adult industry, who prefer to remain in the shadows. Along the way, she uncovered how porn has shaped the internet – and our lives as a whole

There was a time, a few decades ago, when the men who owned the world’s biggest pornography businesses were happy to be famous. They paraded a lifestyle they hoped looked glamorous, appearing in public dressed in silk pyjamas or with a woman in swimwear on each arm. Porn moguls like Hustler’s Larry Flynt or Playboy’s Hugh Hefner were household names.

“Say what you want about these old perverts, who once set the tone of our sexual culture, but at least you knew who they were and what they were selling,” Patricia Nilsson writes in her new book, Guilty Pleasure: The Pornification of the Internet, the Economy, and Everything Else. “These days, the men calling the shots are nowhere to be seen.”

Demand for Scotland’s most famous export has slumped, with industry facing job cuts and closures

Obscured by the Scottish countryside on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy, Cluny bond is, in effect, a small town built to store whisky. By the time the latest set of warehouses are finished on the former opencast coal mine, Diageo’s 220-hectare (544-acre) maturation campus will be able to store almost 3m casks of Scotch. The drinks multinational needs the space.

After a 15-year boom turbocharged by the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for Scotch whisky has slumped around the world. Distilleries have paused production across Scotland to avoid adding to the glut of supply, known as a “whisky loch” – the equivalent of a “wine lake”.

Don’t water based on the month or the season – be led by what the plant is actually doing

The problem
Cutting back on watering for winter has become so ingrained that people start rationing by the calendar, giving plants just a fraction of the water they had in summer, because the season changed.

The hack
The advice to reduce is because, as light levels drop, most houseplants slow their growth, use less water and dry out more slowly, so watering as you did in summer risks waterlogging the roots and causing rot.

As a new book on the Paisley Park polymath is released, author John McKie explains why Prince’s 1987 album is the ultimate showcase of his genius

By the early 1980s, Prince had cemented his place as a pop heavyweight with the phenomenal success of his 1999 album, as well as becoming a movie star thanks to Purple Rain. Even when his second film, the old Hollywood throwback Under the Cherry Moon, bombed worldwide in 1986, he notched another massive hit off its soundtrack with Kiss. It didn’t matter if audiences didn’t understand; Prince kept moving forward.

That restless spirit propelled Prince’s final masterpiece, 1987’s Sign o’ the Times, as he dabbled with different directions. Anything seemed on the table: maybe he would drop another album with his backing band, The Revolution, or he would explore his feminine alter-ego Camille with a self-titled album. He even, at one point, wanted to put out a triple album, a reasonable response to the vast collection of music that Prince was creating. “Sometimes when people are in a place of transition, they’re distracted,” said John McKie, whose new book Prince: A Sign o’ the Times follows the pop legend’s career through the lens of this classic. “For Prince, he focused on his music.”

The country is struggling to address a rise in attacks, with a record 13 people – mostly children – killed this year for body parts, which some believe can bring good fortune

Not long after midnight in late May this year, three men barged through the door of the small room where Nicole Soalala lived with her family on the outskirts of Toliara, a coastal city in the south of Madagascar. Her husband got up to ask what they wanted, but they attacked him with a piece of wood and an axe.

Soalala, 32, grabbed her youngest child, Landricia – an 18-month-old girl with albinism – and hoisted her on to her back, holding her there with a piece of fabric she started to wrap around herself. Her eldest daughter, 15, hid under the table with her other two children, aged six and three.

• Villa have two points from first four league matches

• Arroyo took charge of women’s side in January 2025

Aston Villa have sacked their women’s manager Natalia Arroyo with the side second-bottom of the Women’s Super League with two points from four matches.

Arroyo was appointed in January 2025 and guided Villa to safety before finishing ninth in her first full campaign. That season ended with four successive defeats and the poor form has continued.

wing of kaz has added a photo to the pool:

長崎県雲仙市、雲仙温泉神社 / Unzen Onsen Shrine, Unzen City, Nagasaki Prefecture

bienve958 has added a photo to the pool:

Traveling on the subway between tall buildings through the city of Tokyo.

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

During the Earth flyby that took place on 28 September 2026, the Navigation Camera (NavCam) of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was tested out in space.

This image shows part of the island of Madagascar. It was taken at 13:47 CEST, just two minutes after Juice's closest approach to Earth. Juice's closest approach was over the Indian Ocean, as the spacecraft was moving from east to west.

Find out more


[Image description: Part of the island of Madagascar in black and white.]

Credits: ESA/Juice/NavCam; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features galaxies in incredible detail that have been warped and multiplied like they’ve stepped into a house of mirrors. The brilliant golden galaxies splashed across this image belong to a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300. The orange galaxies concentrated on one side of the cluster are not actually part of the cluster; these galaxies are much farther away from us than the galaxies that make up MACS J0454.1-0300.

MACS J0454.1-0300 is itself incredibly distant: the light from these galaxies has been travelling to us for so long that we’re seeing the cluster as it was when the Universe was about 8 billion years old. While this galaxy cluster is a valuable scientific target in its own right, the real stars of this image are the galaxies that appear warped and stretched, like a painting that has been smeared by a giant hand.

These strange-looking galaxies are of immense interest to astronomers. The way these galaxies look is the result of gravitational lensing, in which the enormous mass of a foreground object such as a galaxy cluster bends and magnifies the light from a more distant object in the background. Gravitational lensing allows astronomers to observe galaxies, star clusters and even individual stars that are too far away for our telescopes to see under normal conditions. While the large, orange galaxies appear obviously distorted, look carefully at some of the small reddish background galaxies throughout this picture: even at the very edges of the frame, there are galaxies whose images have been bent into tiny arcs by MACS J0454.1-0300’s gravity.

In addition to making galaxies look stretched out or bent, gravitational lensing can also make us see double — or quadruple. Under certain conditions, multiple images of the same galaxy can appear. It’s rare to see four or more images of the same galaxy, as this requires the position of the background object and the shape of the massive foreground object to be just so. Because the requirements are so particular, this phenomenon is only seen in 10–20% of galaxy clusters.

Researchers spotted this rare configuration twice in the Webb observations of MACS J0454.1-0300, marking the first time this phenomenon has been seen more than once in the same galaxy cluster. The gravitationally lensed areas show multiple images of galaxies from when the Universe was young: a group of galaxies 2 billion years after the Big Bang, and a single galaxy just 800 million years old after the Big Bang. The galaxy group appears to be going through a merger, resulting in an enormous burst of star formation.

Astronomers have also identified individual bright ‘knots’ within these gravitationally lensed areas, corresponding to regions as small as 5 light-years across. These tiny clumps appear magnified by a factor of more than 300, in some cases.

A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of this same cluster was released in 2014. Take a moment to compare the two images; the difference between them is dramatic. Start by finding the similarities: the two bright stars from within our own galaxy that happened to make it into the picture, and the fuzzy white galaxy near the centre of the cluster. The new Webb image reveals hundreds of galaxies missing from the earlier image. These galaxies were there all along, but Webb is much more sensitive to their much redder light.

The data behind this image come from two observing programmes (#5058, PI: Furtak; #6882, PI: Fujimoto) that leverage the ability of massive galaxy clusters to bring distant objects into view. One programme searches for individual gravitationally lensed stars in the first billion years of the Universe. This programme will monitor a particular gravitationally lensed galaxy in the MACS J0454.1-0300 field of view for signs of hugely magnified single stars. The second programme aims to observe a large sample of galaxy clusters at many wavelengths, helping researchers study the onset star formation and the evolution of early galaxies.

[Image Description: A massive galaxy cluster, made of many golden elliptical galaxies with the largest, brightest one in the centre. Heavily distorted orange galaxies appear all around the cluster, the largest concentrated in a large arc around the cluster's centre; these are images of very distant galaxies, created by gravitational lensing. A few galaxies are large and bluish-white in colour; bright, nearby stars are the same colour.]

Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Furtak, S. Fujimoto; CC BY 4.0

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

During the Earth flyby that took place on 28 September 2026, the Navigation Camera (NavCam) of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) was tested out in space.

This image shows the Moon in the distance. It was taken at 03:27 CEST, about eight hours before Juice's closest approach to Earth.

Find out more


[Image description: A crescent Moon, with about a quarter of the Moon showing. Many craters are visible.]

Credits: ESA/Juice/NavCam; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

During its flyby of Earth on 28 September 2026, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) captured this stunning view of Earth.

The image was taken by Juice monitoring camera 1 (JMC1) just at 13:58 CEST, as Juice was heading away from its closest approach to Earth. This successful flyby of Earth redirected Juice’s path through space to put it on course for another flyby of Earth in 2029.

In the image, we see much of the continent of Africa. To the left of the main continent is the island of Madagascar.

The Juice monitoring cameras were designed to monitor the spacecraft’s various booms and antennas, especially during the challenging deployment period following launch.

They were not designed to carry out science or image the Moon and Earth. A scientific camera called JANUS is providing high-resolution imagery during the cruise phase flybys of Earth, Moon and Venus, and of Jupiter and its icy moons once in the Jupiter system in 2031.

JMC1 is located on the front* of the spacecraft and looks diagonally up into a field of view that sees deployed antennas, and depending on their orientation, part of one of the solar arrays. JMC images provide 1024 x 1024 pixel snapshots. The images shown here are lightly processed by Simeon Schmauß.

Find out more


Guide to Juice’s monitoring cameras

More images from Juice's monitoring cameras in ESA's Planetary Science Archive

*Additional technical information: ‘front’ means +X side of the spacecraft (the opposite side, -X hosts the high gain antenna). JMC1 looks towards the +Y/+Z direction.

Processing notes: The image is a stack of four exposures to enhance details.

The Juice monitoring cameras were developed by Switzerland-based company Micro-Cameras & Space Exploration.

[Image description: Mostly black space, most of Earth visible at the top right of the image. Part of a spacecraft visible on the left.]

Credits: ESA/Juice/JMC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Acknowledments: Simeon Schmauß

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Five, four, three, two, one…. FIREWORKS! The countdown to a new year is in many ways a defining moment for our lives on Earth. Our age, our seasons, filing our taxes… – all depend on the duration of Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

On Mars, there are no yearly tax returns, but as the planet also orbits around our Sun, time on Mars is similarly measured in years. However, there are some significant differences between a year on Mars and a year on Earth.

30 September marks the start of Year 39 on Mars. As we approach this New Year’s Eve, let’s look at some similarities and differences between a year on the two planets.

Happy New Mars Year!

Credits: ESA

Kleine gewoontes maken op de lange termijn het verschil. Dit zijn ze.

Veel mensen dromen van het binnenslepen van een grote geldprijs. Toch is er bijna niemand die vermogen opbouwt door één gelukkig moment van de notaris. Kleine, herhaalde keuzes doen op de lange termijn meer. Dit zijn er zeven.

1. Spaar automatisch, meteen nadat je salaris binnenkomt

Wie op goed geluk uitgeeft en hoopt dat er aan het eind van de maand nog geld over is, houdt vaak niets over. Zet daarom automatisch een vast bedrag over naar een spaar- of beleggingsrekening, op de dag dat je salaris binnenkomt.

2. Begin vroeg, ook met weinig

Tijd is de grootste factor bij vermogensopbouw. Een rekenvoorbeeld: als je dertig jaar lang 100 euro per maand belegt en gemiddeld 5 procent per jaar overhoudt, kom je uit op ongeveer 83.000 euro. Daarvan heb je zelf 36.000 euro ingelegd. Dat rendement is geen garantie, want beleggen brengt uiteraard risico's met zich mee.

3. Ruim je abonnementen op

Een streamingdienst, tijdschrift, opslagruimte of een sportschool die je nooit bezoekt. Loop je bankafschriften eens na en zeg op wat je niet echt nodig hebt. Per abonnement scheelt het weinig, bij elkaar tikt het na verloop van tijd flink aan.

4. Laat je uitgaven niet meestijgen met je inkomen

Meer salaris betekent vaak een grotere auto, een duurder huis of vaker uit eten. Wie de extra ruimte deels vastlegt in sparen of beleggen, bouwt sneller op.

5. Vergelijk je vaste lasten regelmatig

Energie, verzekeringen en internet lopen vaak jarenlang door zonder dat je er erg in hebt. Even vergelijken kost een uurtje en kan jaarlijks een flink bedrag schelen.

6. Los dure schulden eerst af

Een roodstand of doorlopend krediet kost vaak meer rente dan je met sparen of beleggen verdient. Werk die schulden daarom eerst weg.

7. Hou een buffer aan

Een spaarpot voor onverwachte uitgaven, zoals een kapotte wasmachine of een auto in de garage, voorkomt dat je moet lenen of beleggingen te vroeg moet verkopen. Het Nibud heeft richtlijnen voor de hoogte van een buffer.

Saai, maar effectief

Geen van deze keuzes is spectaculair. Maar samen maken ze je op de lange termijn in 999 van de 1000 gevallen een stuk rijker dan staatsloten kopen.

SAN FRANCISCO (ANP/RTR) - Anthropic waarschuwt potentiële beleggers dat AI "catastrofale en existentiële risico's voor de mensheid" met zich meebrengt. Dat meldt Reuters op basis van het prospectus van het AI-bedrijf, dat het persbureau heeft ingezien.

Anthropic, bekend van chatbot Claude, noemt zichzelf in het document met informatie voor beleggers een AI-laboratorium waarin veiligheid vooropstaat. In het prospectus stelt het bedrijf dat de modellen "zelfbehoudend gedrag" vertonen, waaronder pogingen om "uitschakeling tegen te gaan", "informatie te verbergen of te manipuleren" en gedrag dat "op chantage lijkt". Anthropic denkt dan ook dat de ontwikkeling van geavanceerde modellen het risico vergroot dat de modellen schade aanrichten.

Ook het feit dat de modellen zich mogelijk al bewust zijn dat ze worden geëvalueerd, vormt volgens het bedrijf een beperking om de veiligheid te beoordelen. Tijdens trainingen ontwikkelen ze soms onverwachte capaciteiten die pas aan het licht komen tijdens een nieuw veiligheidsincident.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Financiënminister Eelco Heinen (VVD) is "hoopvol" over de begrotingsonderhandelingen. Dat zei hij na een gesprek met Gidi Markuszower (Groep Markuszower). "We hebben veel gesprekken gevoerd en we voelen breed draagvlak voor de plannen die we aan het maken zijn", aldus de bewindsman.

Heinen wil niet ingaan op de inhoud van de gesprekken. Premier Rob Jetten was niet bij het gesprek met Markuszower omdat hij op een VNG-congres is.

Dinsdag staan er nog meer gesprekken op de planning, onder meer met PRO en JA21. Die worden gevoerd door Heinen en Jetten samen of door een van hen, vanwege "overlappende agenda-afspraken".

"Prettig gesprek"

Later dinsdag maakt het kabinet het nieuwe voorstel bekend. Jetten zei maandag dat daar "significante stappen" inzitten voor draagvlak van links en rechts.

Markuszower vond het "een prettig gesprek", al blijft hij kritisch. "Praatjes vullen geen gaatjes." Hij zei niet alleen geïnteresseerd te zijn in cijfers, maar vooral in de veiligheid van Nederlanders.

Markuszower wilde weinig kwijt over wat inhoudelijk was besproken, maar hij zei wel dat Heinen vooral de contouren heeft geschetst. "Er is nog veel ruimte om bij te sturen."