All posts tagged: Process

Alma Allen U.S. Pavilion Venice Biennale 2026 Selection Process Controversy

Alma Allen U.S. Pavilion Venice Biennale 2026 Selection Process Controversy

Published by José Betancourt

Alma Allen‘s pavilion for the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale has become a proxy fight over politics, process, and cultural authority—questions the artist himself has little interest in adjudicating. “I don’t think my work is political in respect to party politics,” Allen said as he prepared his exhibition, adding that his more immediate concern was practical: “some of the pieces barely fit in the doorway.”  A report by the New York Times has drawn fresh attention to how the US Pavilion came together, after the State Department abandoned its long-standing selection model and handed control to a newly formed nonprofit with virtually no track record of mounting exhibitions.  Related Articles For decades, the US Pavilion followed a familiar script: museums would submit proposals to a panel of experts formed by the National Endowment of the Arts, with the panel having final say over the which proposal would win. This year, that system was scrapped. The State Department instead turned to the American Arts Conservancy, led by Jenni Parido, a Florida-based founder without museum experience, working with independent curator Jeffrey …

There is something wrong with the asylum process for LGBTQ+ people – but it’s not fake claimants

There is something wrong with the asylum process for LGBTQ+ people – but it’s not fake claimants

Published by Sam Flores

An undercover investigation by BBC News has found evidence of people falsely claiming to be gay to gain asylum in the UK. The findings are concerning. But rather than assume this means all asylum applicants are lying, it’s worth asking why people might be drawn to this route. There is good reason for the UK and other countries to offer refuge to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Extensive evidence from organisations such as Human Rights Watch and UNHCR shows that LGBTQ+ people in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh face imprisonment, family and community violence, police harassment and so-called honour-based abuse. This is precisely why sexual orientation is recognised as a basis for protection in international refugee law. Sexual orientation claims make up a very small proportion of overall asylum applications. Only 2% of all asylum claims made in 2023 included sexual orientation as part of the reasoning. Proving to the Home Office that someone is LGBTQ+ isn’t an easy feat. The BBC investigation repeats an adviser’s claim that “there is no check-up”. In reality, the Home Office …

Yocha Dehe slams Vallejo Council over rushed casino deal approval process

Yocha Dehe slams Vallejo Council over rushed casino deal approval process

Published by skeptic

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has sharply rebuked Vallejo leaders after a divided City Council approved an agreement clearing the way for the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians to pursue a temporary gaming facility. Tribal leaders said the city rushed through the decision, limited public scrutiny and weakened confidence in local government. Council members voted 4-2 in favor of the Memorandum of Understanding. Councilmembers Tonia Lediju and Alexander Matias voted no, while Mayor Andrea Sorce was absent from the meeting. Under the reported deal, Scotts Valley would pay Vallejo $502,000 in each of the agreement’s three years to offset demands on police and other city services. The package also includes an additional $100,000 up front in the first year. City documents say that the annual total contains $12,698 in lieu of property tax and $27,302 for administrative support. Another $100,000 each year would go to a local nonprofit selected in coordination with the city. The proposed temporary site would sit on tribal land near the Interstate 80 and Highway 37 interchange. In a statement …

“Diplomacy is not an event, it’s a process, it takes time.” | US-Israel war on Iran

“Diplomacy is not an event, it’s a process, it takes time.” | US-Israel war on Iran

Published by Sam Flores

Toggle Play “We should recognise that diplomacy is not an event, it’s a process, it takes time.” NewsFeed Former Pakistani diplomat to the US Maleeha Lodhi says expectations from the Islamabad talks between the US and Iran should be realistic, stressing that “we should recognise that diplomacy is not an event, it’s a process, it takes time.” Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Source link

CIA To Integrate AI ‘Co-Workers’ To Process Intelligence, Catch Spies

CIA To Integrate AI ‘Co-Workers’ To Process Intelligence, Catch Spies

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com, The US Central Intelligence Agency said it will embed “AI co-workers” directly into its analytics platforms to assist analysts with detecting spies and anticipating hostile moves by foreign adversaries. “Within the next couple of years, we will have AI co-workers built into all of the agency’s analytic platforms — a kind of classified version of generative AI that will help our analysts with basic tasks,” CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis reportedly said on Thursday during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington, DC. According to Politico, Ellis said the AI co-workers would assist intelligence officers with drafting key judgments, testing analytical conclusions and identifying trends in intelligence that the agency gathers from abroad. However, he said humans would continue to make the “key decisions.” Michael Ellis (right) speaking with Anthony Pompliano (left) about Bitcoin and AI’s role in US national security in May: Source: Anthony Pompliano The CIA’s AI plans come amid a feud between the US Department of Defense and AI firm Anthropic. Despite having a $200 …

Teenage brains process mechanical and academic skills differently across the sexes

Teenage brains process mechanical and academic skills differently across the sexes

Published by José Betancourt

Adolescent boys and girls begin to develop different cognitive strengths as they progress through high school, with boys increasingly favored in mechanical reasoning and girls leaning toward math and verbal skills. These varied cognitive profiles seem to shift as teenagers age, guided by underlying changes in mental processing speed. The findings were recently published in Intelligence & Cognitive Abilities. The concept of cognitive tilt describes a specific pattern of mental strengths and weaknesses. It means an individual’s cognitive profile leans heavily toward one area of strength when paired against a relative weakness. Someone with an academic tilt might excel at reading and basic math but struggle with fixing a broken appliance. Conversely, someone with a mechanical tilt might instinctively understand how a car engine works but face challenges passing a traditional chemistry exam. Thomas Coyle, a researcher at the University of Texas at San Antonio, conducted the study to expand upon earlier investigations of cognitive ability. Coyle wanted to track how mechanical and spatial forms of tilt evolve over the teenage years. He also aimed …

Enabling agent-first process redesign | MIT Technology Review

Enabling agent-first process redesign | MIT Technology Review

Published by skeptic

In an agent-first enterprise, AI systems operate processes while humans set goals, define policy constraints, and handle exceptions. “You need to shift the operating model to humans as governors and agents as operators,” says Scott Rodgers, global chief architect and U.S. CTO of the Deloitte Microsoft Technology Practice. The agent-first imperative With technology budgets for AI expected to increase more than 70% over the next two years, AI agents, powered by generative AI, are poised to fundamentally transform organizations and achieve results beyond traditional automation. These initiatives have the potential to produce significant performance gains, while shifting humans toward higher value work. AI is advancing so quickly that static approaches to task automation will likely only produce incremental gains. Because legacy processes aren’t built for autonomous systems, AI agents require machine-readable process definitions, explicit policy constraints, and structured data flows, according to Rodgers. Further complicating matters, many organizations don’t understand the full economic drivers of their business, such as cost to serve and per-transaction costs. As a result, they have trouble prioritizing agents that can …

Chemical recycling process transforms acrylic plastics recovery

Chemical recycling process transforms acrylic plastics recovery

Published by skeptic

A research team in the UK has unveiled a new chemical recycling technique that could significantly improve how acrylic plastics are recovered and reused, addressing long-standing efficiency and quality challenges in plastic waste management. Scientists at the University of Bath report that their method enables the breakdown of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) – commonly used in products such as transparent panels, automotive parts and construction materials – into its original chemical building blocks under comparatively mild conditions. The findings, published in Nature Communications, point to a potentially scalable route for producing high-quality recycled plastics without the degradation typically associated with existing methods. Moving beyond mechanical recycling limitations Conventional recycling of acrylic plastics has relied heavily on mechanical processes, where materials are shredded or melted and reformed. While widely used, this approach has inherent drawbacks. Repeated processing tends to degrade the material, leading to discolouration and reduced clarity. As a result, recycled PMMA is often unsuitable for applications requiring optical transparency, such as screens or lenses. Chemical recycling has been explored as an alternative, particularly through pyrolysis. …

How COBRA is puttering around with 3D printing to push forward the club production process

How COBRA is puttering around with 3D printing to push forward the club production process

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sign Up For Goods 🛍️ Product news, reviews, and must-have deals. Walk onto the green with a COBRA LIMIT3D flat stick in hand and, unless the person next to you reads putts like they’ve got access to the tournament setup sheet, you could well get a double-take. There are stranger silhouettes you can crouch over waiting for the line to whisper its secrets, but the 3D-printed COBRA PISTA blade and ENZO mallet putters have enough stealth-fighter energy to pull some attention away from trying to outthink a slope.  Released in early 2025, these boutique clubs have a dark finish and disciplined lines, so they come across less science project and more project that happens to be made with science. But they don’t really reveal all their secrets outside of the lab, because that’s where you can truly see how these heads are not simply CNC milled from one-piece blocks or cast in molds. There’s less carving, less compromise, no chunky concessions. Just tight tolerances and precise internal dimensionality that you can’t achieve with a bit. …