Handstands display a mastery of one’s physical form that I have never quite felt – and they look cool. Experts share their advice for building up strength and practicing
My aspirations in life are modest: I want to write, spend time with my loved ones, and someday find a lipstick that flatters my skintone. But perhaps my greatest ambition is this: I want to be able to do a handstand.
Why? It turns the world upside down. It seems fun. It displays a mastery of one’s physical form that I have never quite felt. And it looks cool! Maybe it has to do with that one time in third grade when all my friends could do a handstand and I couldn’t, but that’s for me and my therapist to sort out later.
Continue reading...The answers to today’s puzzles
Earlier today I set four engineering puzzles. Here they are again with solutions. (Do check out the hundreds of great comments posted below the line in the original story.)
The cranberries
Continue reading...Families have asked Trump to declassify records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the 2001 attacks
Donald Trump said Sunday that he will look into requests from families of 9/11 victims to release records that could shed light on Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the attacks 25 years ago.
Several families have long alleged that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the kingdom’s government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.
Continue reading...The American rapper will no longer support Sheeran’s US leg of Loop tour after comments at MetLife Stadium show
Macklemore has been dropped from the remainder of the US leg of Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour, after the American rapper drew headlines for saying “free Palestine” on stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
In a brief speech between songs on 4 September, the Grammy-winning artist told the audience he wanted the people of Gaza and “the occupied West Bank” to know “we have not forgotten about them”, prompting a petition from the Israeli American Council demanding his removal from the tour.
Continue reading...Noel Gallagher told fans ‘this is history’ but the paper opted to review support act the Charlatans instead, as that band returned from tragedy
• News: Oasis announce 2027 tour, including return to Knebworth 30 years after historic concerts
Over two days in August 1996, Oasis played to 250,000 people at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire. Riding high on two bestselling albums, the concerts were seen as the crowning moment in their career.
The Guardian covered the weekend but Caroline Sullivan’s review concentrated on the Charlatans, one of the support acts. There was a picture of the Knebworth crowds on page 7, but the main review that day was of folk-rock band Fairport Convention’s Cropredy festival. There was also a review of the “anti-Oasis” Divine Comedy.
Continue reading...Matt Donohue and his assistant not used this weekend
Pro Ref said allowing winner was ‘error of judgment’
The video assistant referee officials who allowed Erling Haaland’s winning goal in the Manchester derby on Sunday have been stood down from their responsibilities.
Matt Donohue and his assistant, Blake Antrobus, have been told by Pro Ref they have not received appointments for the next round of Premier League fixtures, due to take place next weekend.
Continue reading...
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De FNV komt vandaag met een looneis van 5,5 procent loonsverhoging plus 80 euro per maand. Klinkt als ruim voldoende om de prijsstijgingen bij te houden. Maar wie de inflatie van 3 procent, de stijgende zorgpremie en de lastenverzwaring voor 2027 bij elkaar optelt, ontdekt dat Jan Modaal zo'n 6 tot 7 procent bruto nodig heeft om netto op nul uit te komen.
Wat eist de FNV?
Traditiegetrouw presenteert de grootste vakbond de dag voor Prinsjesdag zijn looneis. De automatische prijscompensatie maakt onderdeel uit van de 5,5 procent: die compensatie zit in de eis. De 80 euro per maand is bewust in centen gekozen. "Hiermee gaan de laagste inkomens er meer op vooruit dan de hoogste", aldus arbeidsvoorwaardencoördinator Jacqie van Stigt, meldt de NOS. Vakbond CNV kwam vrijdag al met een bandbreedte van 3 tot 5,5 procent.
Werkgeversorganisaties VNO-NCW en MKB-Nederland zijn niet van plan daarin mee te gaan. "De lasten voor bedrijven zijn enorm gestegen, de rek is eruit", zei voorzitter van MKB-Nederland Marijke Vuik bij WNL Op Zondag.
Wat levert dat Jan Modaal op?
Het CPB heeft het modale inkomen voor 2026 vastgesteld op €48.000 bruto per jaar. Netto houdt Jan Modaal daar ongeveer €3.100 per maand aan over. De FNV-eis toegepast op dat salaris: 5,5 procent van €48.000 is €2.640 bruto per jaar. Tel daar €80 per maand bij op (€960 per jaar) en het totaal is €3.600 bruto erbij.
Maar bruto is niet netto. Bij een modaal inkomen zit je in de tweede belastingschijf van 37,56 procent. Door de afbouw van de arbeidskorting loopt de effectieve belastingdruk rond modaal op tot ruim 40 procent. Van die €3.600 bruto blijft dan zo'n €2.000 tot €2.100 netto over: ruwweg €170 per maand extra op je rekening.
Elke euro die het leven duurder wordt, betaal je volledig uit je nettoloon. Elke euro die je erbij krijgt, gaat voor meer dan veertig cent naar de fiscus.
Wat er in 2027 allemaal duurder wordt
De Nederlandse CPI-inflatie staat in augustus op 3,3 procent. Het CPB raamt de inflatie in 2026 en 2027 op ongeveer 3 procent, hoger dan eerder verwacht. Bij 3 procent heeft Jan Modaal maandelijks zo'n €93 extra nodig om dezelfde boodschappen te doen.
Daar bovenop: de zorgpremie stijgt in 2027 met zeker een tientje per maand, aldus BNR op basis van gelekte Prinsjesdagcijfers. Uit gelekte Prinsjesdagpapieren blijkt dat werkenden in 2027 in totaal zo'n 4 miljard euro extra belasting betalen. Reken je dat om per werkende (circa 9,85 miljoen), dan is dat ruim €400 per jaar, ofwel zo'n €33 per maand minder op je rekening. Hoe al die posten per huishoudtype uitpakken, rekenden we eerder voor.
Inflatie (€93), zorgpremie (€12) en hogere belasting (€33): opgeteld is een modale werknemer al gauw €138 per maand meer kwijt. Tel daar de stijgende netbeheerkosten bij op en je zit al snel boven de €150.
Waarom 5,5 procent niet genoeg is
De volledige FNV-eis (5,5 procent plus €80) levert netto zo'n €170 per maand op. Dat dekt die €150 aan extra kosten, maar met een marge van hooguit twintig euro. Stijgt de inflatie boven de 3 procent (en de augustuscijfers van het CBS wijzen die kant op), dan is zelfs de volledige eis onvoldoende.
Daar komt bij: die 80 euro per maand is precies het onderdeel dat werkgevers het hardst zullen aanvechten. Zonder die component levert 5,5 procent voor modaal €2.640 bruto op, goed voor zo'n €123 netto per maand. Dat is minder dan de extra kosten. Dan draai je verlies.
Om als modale werknemer echt quitte te draaien (€150 per maand netto erbij, €1.800 per jaar) heb je bij de huidige belastingdruk zo'n €3.200 bruto nodig. Dat is 6,7 procent van een modaal salaris. Loopt de inflatie verder op, dan schuift dat richting 7 procent.
Het CPB bevestigt het beeld
Werkenden krijgen meer arbeidskorting in 2027, maar toch gaan ze er op achteruit met 0,2 procent, zo blijkt uit gelekte koopkrachtcijfers. Dat is na een extra koopkrachtpakket van volgens ingewijden 1,7 miljard euro, dat de daling voor de meeste groepen alleen iets heeft kunnen verzachten. Zelfs met dat steunpakket weet het kabinet de koopkrachtdaling voor werkenden niet weg te werken.
De FNV-eis van 5,5 procent plus 80 euro is geen overdreven vakbondsretoriek. Het is het natte-vingerscenario. Wie in 2027 werkelijk gelijk wil draaien, heeft 6 tot 7 procent nodig. En dat is zonder rekening te houden met stijgende energiekosten of een hogere hypotheekrente.
Bronnen: NOS · Salaris Vanmorgen · Reformatorisch Dagblad · BNR · CPB via Schulinck
AMSTERDAM (ANP) - Chipbedrijven hebben maandag forse verliezen genoteerd op de Amsterdamse beurs. Dat gebeurde nadat afgelopen weekend grote AI-bedrijven zorgen hadden geuit over de risico's van AI. Anthropic-topman Dario Amodei riep op om de ontwikkelingen van AI-modellen bewust te vertragen en kreeg bijval van OpenAI-topman Sam Altman en xAI-medeoprichter Elon Musk.
Daarnaast kwam Microsoft maandag met een gedragscode voor het ontwerpen van zijn AI-modellen om de menselijke controle te houden. Beleggers nemen de zorgen over AI serieus. ASMI verloor bijna 9 procent, Besi zakte 7 procent en chipmachinemaker ASML sloot 6,1 procent lager. De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump wil overigens niets weten van de oproep van Amodei en heeft het over een 'zieke samenzwering'.
De AEX-index eindigde een fractie lager op 1098,35 punten. De MidKap sloot 0,3 procent lager op 1081,68 punten.
WARSCHAU (ANP/AFP) - Radosław Piesiewicz, de voorzitter van het Pools Olympisch Comité (PKOl), is ontslagen op verdenking van corruptie. Dat maakte interim-voorzitter Marian Kmita, die voorlopig de voorzitterstaken overneemt, maandag bekend.
Piesiewicz wordt ervan verdacht steekpenningen te hebben aangenomen van het inmiddels failliete cryptobedrijf Zondacrypto. Het bedrijf wordt beschuldigd van ponzifraude, een vorm van beleggingsfraude, en heeft volgens Poolse autoriteiten banden met onder meer de georganiseerde misdaad en Russische inlichtingendiensten.
Piesiewicz was verantwoordelijk voor het sluiten van een sponsorovereenkomst tussen het Olympisch Comité en het cryptobedrijf.
Kmita liet weten dat het PKOI in een "zeer moeilijke financiële situatie" verkeert en kondigde plannen aan voor een onafhankelijk onderzoek. Kmita blijft als interim-voorzitter aan tot het einde van de ambtstermijn van voormalig voorzitter Piesiewicz, in april.
Last summer, a cop with the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department used Flock’s surveillance search engine to look for a license plate across more than 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities and towns. The cop’s stated reason for the search, according to a record of Flock’s system, was “LMAO.”
The cop is one of dozens who put gibberish, jokes, or other nonsense into Flock’s “reason” box, highlighting the casualness and lack of care some cops have when searching an incredibly powerful surveillance system. This is on top of the thousands upon thousands of cops who simply wrote something like “investigation,” “test,” or left the box blank as their search “reason,” according to a new analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and shared with 404 Media.
EFF’s investigation found cops across dozens of jurisdictions writing “LMAO,” “LOL,” “Hehe,” “Haha,” “idk,” “blah,” “TBD,” and “robbery I don’t remember the case number leave me alone” in Flock’s “reason” box for searches. They found cops writing “idiot,” “fuck this new search engine,” “dickhead,” “shithead,” and “WEIRD KID” in the reason box. And they found an entire class of police button mashers, who ran searches for reasons of “asdfg,” “gyghkkghghjkghjk,” “jhjhjkhj,” “jkhhkjhjk,” “nmbvcbnm,” and so on and so forth. The searches came from police departments across the country from 2023 through late 2025, when Flock changed how the “reason” box in its search system functions.
As Flock’s automated license plate reader system comes under fire for privacy abuses, the perception of mass surveillance, and cases of police abuse, the company and police departments around the country have tried to paint those who want to limit the technology as wanting to take away a powerful tool that police use to solve very serious crimes. While Flock has been used in high profile cases, the searches published by the EFF and the cases of abuse reported by 404 Media and other news outlets around the country show that police often aren’t taking their responsibilities seriously.
“When law enforcement and tech salespeople pitch ALPRs to city councils, they stick to a familiar script. They trumpet the technology, which is often provided by private companies like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, or Axon, as an essential tool for solving high-stakes crimes, such as car jacking, kidnapping, or murder,” the EFF wrote in a blog post about its findings.
“Police are routinely searching the Flock database without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like ‘LOL,’ ‘LMAO,’ ‘sexy,’ and ‘idk’ to access sensitive ALPR location data […] With no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone’s location information. This culture of abuse has allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine, permitting the tracking of the movements of everyday citizens for low-level complaints, personal whims, and sometimes, seemingly, for the lols.”
The EFF was able to do this analysis because of the way that Flock documents police use of the system. Each time a search is performed, a record of it is saved in the Flock system, which can be obtained by the public using government records requests. These audit logs show hundreds of thousands of searches of the system; after 404 Media and other news outlets used these types of logs to show police using the Flock system to look for undocumented immigrants on behalf of ICE, a woman in Texas who had an abortion, and protesters, cops were warned by government surveillance centers to be “as vague as permissible” about the reasons for their searches. Late last year, Flock changed its system; rather than having to type in a reason, Flock now has a drop-down list of prepopulated reasons, which the EFF called “a loss for transparency.”
The EFF contacted departments whose cops performed these “joke” searches, and found that many of them did not do anything about cops who button mashed or put jokes. Cops who wrote “hehe” and “idk” were “counseled,” they were told. A cop who wrote “idiot” got away with it because by the time the department learned about it, it had passed a 90-day time period in which the cop’s union contract allowed for internal investigations. Several other police departments said they would investigate the behavior. The Fishers Police Department in Indiana said that a detective who searched Flock for reasons of “blah” only did so “when he has issues with the technology,” or when “the technology is not moving fast enough for him.” A police department said it investigated a cop who wrote “driving around being weird” in the reason field but found it was for “legitimate public safety purposes.”
“The fact that these searches were not only missed by the agency supervising the officer, but by the often thousands of other agencies whose systems were searched, demonstrates how agencies cannot be trusted to oversee themselves,” the EFF wrote. “Mass surveillance is incompatible with a free society, and especially so when the people with access to this data are treating it like a joke.”
Welcome to Part 2 of our Admin Resource Hub series, helping you build and run a great Flickr group. This time around we’re talking about creating your dream team of mods and co-admins to help keep your group momentum going.
Running a group solo works fine, right until it doesn’t. If you suddenly see a boost in membership, photos submitted to the queue come pouring in and you think, I could use another set of hands, it might be time. Bringing on a co-admin or moderator isn’t an admission that you can’t handle things, it’s how groups outlast any one person’s bandwidth and carryon to flourish and thrive.
Knowing when it’s time
There are a few signs that it’s time to ask for help:
- The photo queue is piling up faster than you can clear it.
- Questions in the discussion threads are going unanswered. Remember, when you’re the only admin, you’re the only one who can respond when something goes wrong.
- There’s been an influx of membership and you stop recognizing everyone who is regularly contributing.
A backlog, whether it’s a mounting photo or unanswered discussions, doesn’t just slow things down, it can make the group feel unattended and members new and old will notice. Remember, Flickr members check in from all over the world and there are whole groups of members who are never online the same time you are. Knowing when it’s getting to be time to line up some help (before you’re drowning) is important. Bringing someone on early before the group is in catchup mode while things are still manageable gives you room to properly introduce them to the group and show them the way you’d love the group to work, all while giving them time to get settled in.
What to look for in a moderator
The best moderators are often your most consistent community members. Look for people who:
- Post and comment regularly so they already know the group’s rhythm and regulars
- Have a track record of constructive, kind feedback, especially to newer or less experienced members
- Are around during hours you’re not, so coverage actually improves rather than just doubling up on the same ‘shift’
- It’s also worth asking directly rather than waiting for someone to volunteer. Many of your best potential mods won’t nominate themselves. Start a discussion thread and get a feel for who is interested.
Admin vs Moderator: Knowing the difference before you promote
Not every extra set of hands needs the same level of access. Flickr offers two roles to promote members to and that difference matters.
- Moderators can help manage the pending queue and handle day-to-day content and member issues.
- Admins have full control of the group, including access to the Administration tab. All the things like: settings, privacy, appearance and member management. That’s a meaningful amount of trust to hand over so it’s worth being deliberate when choosing who you should give that access to.
Ready to make it official?
To promote someone, head to the Administration tab in your group. Click manage your members, and select Promote next to their name. From there choose Admin or Moderator and save your changes.
For most groups, starting someone as a moderator is the lower-risk move. This will get you real help without permanently handing over the keys. Reserve the admin role for someone you’d trust to run the group in your absence.
Moderator onboarding checklist
A team that communicates well can make a group feel more consistent to members and this will result in members putting in that extra level of care and effort back into the community. As group admins, you are at the heart of this community and your work is important. So make sure to ask for some help, you deserve it!
This is the second post in our Admin Resource Hub series. Missed the first? Check out Setting Up Your Group. Next up: growing and engaging your members. Have a topic you want covered? Let us know.
Not a Flickr member yet? Sign up today to join our community of photographers and find your inspiration.
From Deep Down History, an entertaining hour-long explainer video on the Bayeux Tapestry.
This video tells the Tapestry’s story in full, using Charles Stothard’s early colour reproduction, presented here as a seamless scroll for the first time. We follow Harold Godwinson’s fateful journey from Edward the Confessor’s court to Normandy, his later seizure of the Crown, and William the Conqueror’s invasion. Beyond its political messaging, the Tapestry is also bursting with medieval history, including jokes, fascinating technical details, and a warning for those who break their promises…
Completed within a decade or two of the events which it depicts, the tapestry is back in the news & public consciousness because it’s back in England for the first time since it was made and on display at the British Museum.
Tags: Bayeux Tapestry · video