All posts tagged: Created

Politics Home Article | The First Restore Britain University Societies Are Being Created

Politics Home Article | The First Restore Britain University Societies Are Being Created

Published by Sam Flores

Rupert Lowe launched his party Restore Britain earlier this year (Alamy) 5 min read48 min The University of York’s Restore Britain society is the first to be ratified at a Russell Group institution. PoliticsHome speaks to its president about how society hopes to help Rupert Lowe and why billionaire Elon Musk’s support for the party could be a “double-edged sword”. When former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe launched his own party, Restore Britain, in February after falling out with Nigel Farage, there was scepticism that it could have a meaningful electoral impact. There was a belief that there was limited space for a right-wing, fringe party to have an impact as long as Nigel Farage’s Reform continues to lead the polls. However, at this month’s local elections, there were signs that Restore Britain could prove to be a headache for Farage. Lowe’s party, which has hard-right policies like the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants and shutting down universities that “brainwash students into hating their own culture”, helped deny Reform a majority on Norfolk County Council by winning all 10 seats …

Rolling Stones: Keith Richards created the most iconic riff in rock in his sleep – and other key moments from new biography

Rolling Stones: Keith Richards created the most iconic riff in rock in his sleep – and other key moments from new biography

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This The Rolling Stones are gearing up to release their latest album Foreign Tongues, and now there’s a juicy new biography from author Bob Spitz that offers a comprehensive, unsparing and bloody history of the biggest rock band of all time. The moment Mick Jagger strutted on to the stage for the first time, their fate was set. From their earliest days as blues-obsessed kids to living in freezing squalor, to the first taste of fame and the day they landed in the US and went stratospheric – and all the grit, glamour and gore in between – the book uses Spitz’s own knowledge of the band along with archive Rolling Stones interviews and new commentary from their colleagues and friends. Of course, many of these tales have long-been cemented into rock ‘n roll lore, but with a history as colourful as the Stones’, …

Three Months Into A War, Trump Can’t Solve The Iran Uranium Problem He Himself Created

Three Months Into A War, Trump Can’t Solve The Iran Uranium Problem He Himself Created

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON — Three months into his “four to five week” war, President Donald Trump appears no closer to solving his purported goal of forcing Iran to give up its highly enriched uranium, a problem he himself created when he withdrew from the nuclear agreement negotiated by predecessor Barack Obama. “They want very much to make a deal,” Trump said again at a White House Cabinet meeting photo opportunity on Wednesday. “But their navy is gone, as I’ve said a thousand times, their navy is gone, their air force is gone, everything’s gone, and they’re negotiating on fumes. But we’ll see what happens. Maybe we have to go back and finish it.” Wednesday’s remarks came just four days after Trump claimed an agreement had been “largely negotiated” and that “final aspects and details of the deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly.” While Trump and Iranian leadership both are unreliable narrators, reporting indicated Iran would only agree to “talks” about handing over its uranium. Trump has repeatedly declared that the goal of the …

I created my own Android gesture, and it changed how I use my phone

I created my own Android gesture, and it changed how I use my phone

Published by skeptic

It’s been a few months since I got rid of 3-button navigation and started using gesture navigation, because the three-button bar felt a bit intrusive sitting on the screen all the time. The transition was slow and frustrating at times, but once it stuck, I started looking for gesture controls for everything else, too. The good news is that Android, depending on the manufacturer, supports plenty of gestures out of the box. Some are enabled by default, others you can turn on and off. The better news is that you can just as easily add your own custom gestures with the help of MacroDroid, a free task automation app. Built-in gestures are limited Most Android gestures are useful, but rigid Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOfCredit: Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOf Most Android phones ship with a handful of gestures already baked in. On my Samsung phone, I can find them under Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures. Some of my favorites here include Double-tap to turn on screen, Mute with gestures (turn the phone face down …

How ‘Forza Horizon 6’ Created the Most Realistic Open-World Japan in Gaming History

How ‘Forza Horizon 6’ Created the Most Realistic Open-World Japan in Gaming History

Published by Jenni Sidey

In the opening moments of Forza Horizon 6—the latest entry in Microsoft’s wildly popular open-world racing video game—the player’s guide, Mei, makes a promise: “Hey. I know you won’t hear this until you land… but you are going to love it here.” Playground Games—the team behind the Forza franchise—had the authority to make this claim. Previous games in the Forza Horizon series took players to locations such as Mexico, Australia, and the French and Italian Rivieras, earning the series a reliable fanbase among gamers who wanted to drive the world’s most impressive cars around the world’s most tantalizing sandboxes. But when polled, fans had repeatedly requested—if not begged—that Forza Horizon take them to Japan. The developers of the Forza Horizon franchise weren’t surprised. It wasn’t just that Japan had a robust car culture, obvious not just from industry giants like Toyota and Honda but in the long-running manga series Initial D. It was that the country also offered the diverse array of locations—massive cities, blooming fields, snow-capped mountains—that would make it a delight to speed …

The First Atomic Bomb Test in 1945 Created an Entirely New Material

The First Atomic Bomb Test in 1945 Created an Entirely New Material

Published by skeptic

During the Trinity nuclear test on July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert—the world’s very first test of an atomic bomb—a new material spontaneously formed. It was discovered only recently, by an international research team coordinated by geologist Luca Bindi at the University of Florence, which identified the novel clathrate based on calcium, copper, and silicon. It’s a material never before observed either in nature or as an artificial compound created in the laboratory. What Are Clathrates? The term “clathrates” denotes materials characterized by a “cage-like” structure that traps other atoms and molecules inside, giving them unique properties. Of great technological interest, these materials are being studied for various applications ranging from energy conversion (as thermoelectric materials capable of transforming heat into electricity) to the development of new semiconductors, to gas storage and hydrogen for future energy technologies. The New Material To discover the new material, researchers focused on trinitite, a silicate glass containing rare metallic phases. Using some techniques like x-ray diffraction, the team was able to identify a type I clathrate based …

The Tarot Card Deck Created by Salvador Dalí

The Tarot Card Deck Created by Salvador Dalí

Published by José Betancourt

The Tarot has long been a tool of char­la­tans. But it has also long been embraced by bril­liant, uncon­ven­tion­al thinkers, many of whom them­selves have a touch of the char­la­tan about them (and who would just as like­ly admit it with a smile). William But­ler Yeats was a fan, as is vision­ary Chilean film­mak­er, artist, writer, and psy­cho­naut Ale­jan­dro Jodor­owsky, who has record­ed his own Youtube series explain­ing his take on this clas­sic mode of div­ina­tion. With its arche­typ­al sym­bol­ism, the Tarot’s appeal to artists should be obvi­ous. Most of them, like Jodor­owsky, find far more inter­est­ing uses for it than for­tune-telling. “You must not talk about the future,” Jodor­owsky tells us in his series, “the future is a con. The tarot is a lan­guage that talks about the present.” What might anoth­er vision­ary artist, Sal­vador Dalí, think of Jodorowsky’s Tarot inter­pre­ta­tions? We’ll nev­er know, but I sus­pect he would find them enchant­i­ng. Not only do the two seem like kin­dred spir­its, but Dalí devot­ed some part of his life to the Tarot, design­ing his own …

‘I want to be free’ truck created by L.A. artist Edgar Ramirez

‘I want to be free’ truck created by L.A. artist Edgar Ramirez

Published by Sam Flores

Today is May Day — also known as International Workers’ Day — a date that commemorates the struggles and gains of workers and labor movements around the world. In Los Angeles, the day has long been a key event for a protest mash-up of political causes, notably worker and immigrant rights. This year should be no different as it is the first May Day since the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids ramped up across L.A. last summer, terrorizing Latino workers throughout the city. Labor unions, immigrant advocacy groups and community organizers have been vocal about aiming for an economic blackout in observance of the occasion, mimicking the “National Shutdown” protests that took place in January after ICE agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. RAISING THEIR BANNERS: Immigrants and supporters gathered at Olympic Boulevard and Broadway in one of two Los Angeles marches that attracted hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in 2006. (Brian Van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Today also marks the 20th anniversary of the “Day Without Immigrants” march in which …

Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce

Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce

Published by skeptic

In a recent experiment, Anthropic created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money. The company admitted this test — which it called Project Deal — was only “a pilot experiment with a self-selected participant pool” of 69 Anthropic employees who were given a budget of $100 (paid out via gift cards) to buy stuff from their coworkers. Nonetheless, Anthropic said it was “struck by how well Project Deal worked,” with 186 deals made, totaling more than $4,000 in value. The company said it actually ran four separate marketplaces with different models — one that was “real” (where everyone was represented by the company’s most-advanced model, and with deals actually honored after the experiment) and another three for study.  Apparently, when users are represented by more advanced models, they get “objectively better outcomes,” Anthropic said. But users didn’t seem to notice the disparity, raising the possibility of “‘agent quality’ gaps” where “people on the losing end might not realize they’re worse off.” Also, …

Politics Home | No 10 Has Created A Very Bad Relationship With Civil Service, Says Former Cabinet Secretary

Politics Home | No 10 Has Created A Very Bad Relationship With Civil Service, Says Former Cabinet Secretary

Published by Sam Flores

The sacking of Olly Robbins has deepened the row between Downing Street and the civil service (Alamy) 3 min read2 hr Downing Street has created a “very bad relationship” with Whitehall, which is making government “dysfunctional”, according to a former cabinet secretary. Lord Butler, who led the civil service for a decade until 1998, said the row between No 10 and Olly Robbins over the security vetting of Lord Mandelson had made him “very sad” about the state of the relationship between politicians and civil servants.  Last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer sacked Robbins as the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, arguing that Robbins should have told him that UK Security Vetting (UKSV) had raised issues with Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US. Appearing before MPs earlier this week, Robbins confirmed that UKSV considered the case “borderline”, but stressed that Mandelson did not fail vetting. He went on to say that the Foreign Office faced “constant pressure” from No 10 to formalise Mandelson’s appointment quickly, and accused Downing Street …