We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys. Today’s tech titans took all the wrong lessons from the science fiction of their youths and now they’re each building their version of the Torment Nexus.
(Iliad/Capitol)
On his first album in seven years, Beck keeps the quality control extremely high as he surveys mid-50s malaise in the wake of divorce
The last time Beck released an album it was 2019 and the singer-songwriter found himself in a strange and unenviable position. In some quarters, the arrival of Hyperspace was eagerly anticipated precisely because his personal life was in turmoil. Nine months before its release, his 15-year marriage to actor Marissa Ribisi had ended in divorce, an experience he understandably described as heartbreaking. Unfortunately for him, there exists a pervasive argument that Beck’s greatest work is born out of misery.
His beloved 2002 album Sea Change featured a set of disconsolate acoustic songs written in the wake of a break-up with his long-term girlfriend Leigh Limon that Beck had initially thought were too personal for public consumption. They were certainly very different from the knowing, postmodern approach with which he’d made his name, but no matter: Sea Change went on to become a huge critical and commercial success. It wasn’t entirely clear what prompted the gloomy mood of 2014’s Morning Phase, but it very much seemed to be cut from similar musical and lyrical cloth. Some critics suggested it was the best album of his career; it subsequently won three Grammys, including album of the year. Given the circumstances, there was much pre-release speculation that Hyperspace would be a companion piece.
Continue reading...St Barts is one of many UK institutions whose benefactors were involved in the trafficking of enslaved Africans
Inside the Great Hall of St Bartholomew’s North Wing, alongside stately portraits of the apostle from whom London’s oldest hospital takes its name and King Henry VIII, extravagant commemorative boards adorn the walls.
The Great Hall was a grand, formal space where governors weighed their philanthropic donations and drafted their wills, many while investing in the stock of companies built on the trafficking of enslaved Africans. Today, many of those donors are commemorated in acrylic gold paint on the boards.
Continue reading...Club want explanation after spot-kick given against them
They are likely to raise penalty not awarded at Aston Villa
Arsenal are seeking an explanation from Pro Ref over the penalty awarded to Sunderland on Saturday that Mikel Arteta described as “unacceptable at this level”.
It is understood the Premier League champions contacted Pro Ref on Monday to request a meeting after Ezri Konsa was penalised after an incident involving Dan Ballard at the Stadium of Light. David Raya made a brilliant save to deny Enzo Le Fée’s spot-kick before Arsenal went on to win 1-0 thanks to a goal from Bruno Guimarães.
Continue reading...Sebastian Stan says he pitched Marvel a mid-budget thriller starring his Winter Soldier character. Perhaps the studio should give it – and other modestly scaled vehicles – the green light
Blink a little and you might think we are back in 2019. The latest Spider-Man film, Brand New Day, has just passed $2.4bn at the global box office, to become the third-highest grossing film of all time behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile Avengers: Doomsday is reported to have already earned more than $50m in US ticket presales alone, despite the fact that it doesn’t come out until December. Clearly we are in the middle of a superhero renaissance.
And yet it doesn’t really feel like it, largely because it is something of a turnaround for Marvel, after a pretty disappointing 2025 in which all three of the studio’s releases underperformed. Captain America: Brave New World took $415m worldwide, Thunderbolts* managed $382m and even the well-reviewed The Fantastic Four: First Steps stalled at $521m, against a reported $200m budget. These are hardly Madame Web numbers but they do suggest there is still a problem about what to do with all those superheroes who cannot sustain a $300m multiversal extravaganza.
Continue reading...Prime minister had been due to speak at the TUC conference in Brighton
Andy Burnham has cancelled his engagements for Monday and Tuesday after his father, Roy, died.
Among other plans, the prime minister had been due to speak to the TUC conference in Brighton on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Despite an impressive start under Gennaro Gattuso, supporters are boycotting the Stadio Olimpico to wage war against Claudio Lotito
Gennaro Gattuso has given some memorable post-game interviews down the years. Who could forget his “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit” rant at OFI Crete, or the face of the beleaguered interpreter tasked with translating it? Last year, not long before taking charge of the Italian national team, Gattuso got into a finger-jabbing, language-swapping, almost-nose-to-nose shouting match with Josko Jelicic on Croatian television.
And yet there was something more affecting about the soft way he spoke this Saturday, in Calabrian-accented Italian. Without anger, but with an air of melancholy. “For me, football without fans is shit,” he said. “What do you think? I’d say it’s better to stay home. Better to go for a walk with the dogs.”
Continue reading...ROTTERDAM (ANP) - De Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid (OVV) gaat geen nader onderzoek doen naar de trambotsing op de Erasmusbrug in Rotterdam. Op woensdag 22 juli reed een tram daar tegen een stilstaande tram die stond te wachten omdat de brug open was. De raad heeft vertrouwen in het onderzoek dat het openbaarvervoerbedrijf, de RET, van Rotterdam laat doen.
Bij de botsing raakten vijftien mensen gewond, van wie één ernstig. De RET meldde eind juli dat het onderzoek nog wel enige tijd kon gaan duren.
Twee onderzoekers van de OVV hebben die dag wel een verkennend onderzoek uitgevoerd. Dat doet de raad vaker. In enkele gevallen volgt daar een nader onderzoek uit. Bij bepaalde voorvallen in de luchtvaart, scheepvaart, industrie en railsector is de Onderzoeksraad volgens de wet verplicht om onderzoek te doen. In andere gevallen beslist de raad zelf of zo'n nader onderzoek er komt.
Microsoft has confirmed that its latest security updates can disrupt Remote Desktop Services, silence some USB audio devices, and break pasting in Excel. September's Windows patches hardly support Microsoft's insistence that it is sorting out quality. The known issues list suggests there's still work to do. Reports of problems with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) began circulating on social media shortly after the update, and Microsoft has now acknowledged that, for some users, RDS has indeed been broken across multiple Windows versions, including Windows 11 26H1 and Windows Server 2012. The latter is due to drop out of the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program on October 13, 2026, so perhaps administrators might consider this a going-away present from Microsoft? Connections might fail after a few minutes, servers might hang at "Please wait for the Remote Desktop Configuration," and so on. "Related tools, including Microsoft Management Console (MMC), RDS Licensing Diagnoser, and File Explorer might also become unresponsive," Microsoft admitted. "Additionally, the Windows Update page might stop responding and continuously display a loading indicator." If a virtual machine becomes inaccessible through RDP, stopping (deallocating) and restarting it might temporarily restore connectivity. Microsoft is working on a fix. Microsoft also confirmed issues with support for some USB Audio Class 1.0 devices on Windows 11 26H1, 25H2, and 24H2. The standard dates back to the previous century, but affected users might find themselves with no audio, broken sound settings and volume controls, or problems with multichannel audio. Some customers have restored audio by switching to two-channel mode, Microsoft says. The company is working on a fix but has not provided a timeline. Users of Microsoft's productivity applications were not left out. either A fix for Excel remote code execution and information disclosure vulnerabilities has broken a basic spreadsheet function. "The paste operation might fail silently," according to Microsoft. Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024 are affected. Microsoft said: "Although users try to paste content, the source remains selected and the destination is unmodified. When this issue occurs, users receive no indication of the failure, such as a beep or error message." The bad news for users with automatic updating turned on is that this update could have already been downloaded and installed automatically. Microsoft has not published a workaround, and one forum user reported resolving the issue by uninstalling and reinstalling Office, while others reported success using commands to uninstall the security update. Removing the update also removes its security fixes. ®
Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
date stamped on slide, March 1970, handwritten on slide, "Restaurant El Camino Dinah's"
President Vladimir Putin ordered the icon to be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church in 2023.
richtebw has added a photo to the pool:
Caladenia arenicola, commonly known as the carousel spider orchid, is a plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has a single erect, hairy leaf and up to three red, white and green flowers on a flowering stem up to 60 cm high.
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