All posts tagged: Searing

‘Mind-bogglingly crazy’: climate experts alarmed by deadly spring heatwaves searing Europe | Extreme heat

‘Mind-bogglingly crazy’: climate experts alarmed by deadly spring heatwaves searing Europe | Extreme heat

Malcolm Mistry knew it was going to get “very warm, very quickly” on Monday morning but a slow start out of bed delayed his plans for an early game of cricket with his son. It was already 10am by the time the pair arrived at the sun-soaked nets of their local club in south-west London, and to the embarrassment of the 48-year-old scientist, who played cricket in his youth, his body was struggling after just half an hour of bowling. Had he continued for another hour, Mistry reckons he would have probably suffered from heatstroke. Had he and his son stayed until noon, they would have found themselves straining their bodies in direct sunlight while a nearby weather station logged the UK’s hottest May temperature since records began. “I could feel I was panting a bit more heavily,” said Mistry, a leading climate and health researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “That’s when I said to myself: ‘I need to stop here right now, immediately, before something happens.’” The dark side …

Top Medical Journal Publishes Searing Article Warning Against Medical AI

Top Medical Journal Publishes Searing Article Warning Against Medical AI

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech A recent survey found that millions of Americans are asking AI chatbots for medical advice, often instead of consulting human doctors. That’s despite researchers continuing to find severe flaws plaguing large language model-based tools that can purportedly offer summaries of medical records and dole out health advice based on simple text prompts. For one, hallucinations remain a massive unsolved problem, from AI models generating detailed clinical findings based on images they were never provided to falling for fake diseases that were invented by researchers in order to trick them. In short, it’s no wonder scientists are questioning whether patients, health providers, or health systems should adopt AI at all, especially given the frequently lacking evidence for any real-world benefits. A scathing editorial published on Tuesday by the premier medical journal Nature Medicine makes the case that “evidence that AI tools create value for patients, providers or health systems remains scarce.” “Nonetheless, in publications, and in product materials, claims …

Lukas Prize Finalists Spotlight Baldwin Biography and a Searing Look at Ukraine’s War

Lukas Prize Finalists Spotlight Baldwin Biography and a Searing Look at Ukraine’s War

NEW YORK (AP) — A biography of James Baldwin, a deep and personal probe into the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a revelatory history of the American West inspired by a 19th century photograph are among this year’s finalists for prizes established in honor of the late investigative journalist J. Anthony Lukas. The finalists in three categories were announced Thursday by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, which oversee the Lukas Prize Project. Danielle Leavitt’s “By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine” is a nominee for the $10,000 Lukas Book Prize, given for works that exemplify “literary grace, commitment to serious research and original reporting.” Others cited are Bench Ansfield’s “Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City,” Rich Benjamin’s “Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History,” Mariah Blake’s “They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals” and Jeff Hobbs’ “Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, …

Spanish Oranges, review – Searing study of a celebrity marriage upended by scandal is mightily enjoyable

Spanish Oranges, review – Searing study of a celebrity marriage upended by scandal is mightily enjoyable

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Fame and infamy are toxic bedfellows in this gripping psychodrama which explores a famous male actor’s cancellation in a sex scandal, and the subsequent fallout for his family. Spanish Oranges, the debut play by Alba Arikha, the novelist and goddaughter of Samuel Beckett, explores how decent women suffer and perpetuate bad relationships with astonishing patience until the truth is so bad that they snap. Fiona, a novelist on the cusp of fame for her new book, threatens to overshadow her husband as his thespian ego and career crumple and his reputation worsens. She is doing her best to cope as Peter, the “famous actor”, is cancelled for inappropriate behaviour, including threatening her. The tension is palpable as we witness her submit to a newspaper interview with a critic from The Times. This becomes a battleground between secrecy and candour, ego and …