All posts tagged: spaces

Best home exercise equipment for small spaces

Best home exercise equipment for small spaces

Published by Sam Flores

Latex bands have their place, but the fabric version is the one you’ll reach for on leg day. The woven construction means no rolling, no pinching, and no slow slide down your thighs mid-squat – problems that plague cheaper rubber alternatives. Mirafit’s set comes in three resistance levels (light, medium, heavy), all clearly colour-coded, so you can progress without guesswork. They’re compact enough to live in a drawer and tough enough for daily use. If you’re doing hip thrusts, lateral walks or glute bridges at home, these are the ones to have. Source link

The Best Shows to See in New York This Month Are at Nonprofit Spaces

The Best Shows to See in New York This Month Are at Nonprofit Spaces

Published by Jenni Sidey

The bell tolls frequently these days for New York galleries of all sizes, suggesting that something in our art ecosystem is seriously broken. (Josh Kline has a diagnosis for that, as you may have heard.) Amid yet another wave of gallery closures, there is much to mourn. But there is also a ray of hope in the form of nonprofits that have sprung up across New York in the past few years, organizing shows that commercial galleries will not—and perhaps cannot—stage. Perhaps more so than other major art hubs in the US and Europe, New York has a rich tradition of alternative spaces that dates to the 1970s, which saw the formation of gritty organizations like the Kitchen, Artists Space, and White Columns, all of which continue to be vital to the city’s ecosystem. Each still runs against the grain in its own way, albeit with much more money than it had half a century ago. These organizations all started out scruffy. Most of the new ones today, however, come out of the gate spiffed-up …

Promoting Civic Friendship: The Transformative Power of Public Spaces

Promoting Civic Friendship: The Transformative Power of Public Spaces

Published by Jenni Sidey

The neighborhood in Lisbon where I spend a lot of my time is densely populated. It has undergone many changes, with new cafes and restaurants catering to youngsters as well as a significant influx of immigrants. Increased population and tourism put pressure on infrastructure, and local branches of government have been slow to respond. The bus I take is overcrowded. Garbage collection is falling behind. The local hospital is understaffed and underqualified: almost no one can address those seeking care in English. Immigrants are often met with hostility and frustration. The result is a chaotic neighborhood that feels vibrant and diverse, but also exasperating and hostile. It’s a striking contrast with the recent history of some areas surrounding this neighborhood, which were part of an innovative project: the SAAL—Serviço de Apoio Ambulatório Local, which was meant to “support, through the municipal council, initiatives by poorly housed populations to collaborate in transforming their own neighbourhoods” (my translation). When it was abruptly terminated in 1976, SAAL counted 41,665 families involved, 2,259 homes that had started to be …

Wildlife abounds – even in our cities: readers’ favourite UK nature reserves and national parks | Parks and green spaces

Wildlife abounds – even in our cities: readers’ favourite UK nature reserves and national parks | Parks and green spaces

Published by Sam Flores

Winning tip: Whitebeams and roe deer in Bristol I always take friends on an afternoon walk when they visit Bristol, to experience the swift changes in scenery: starting at the tobacco warehouses of Cumberland Basin before ascending from the muddy banks of the River Avon up into Leigh Woods, a national nature reserve. As well as possible animal sightings like peregrine falcons and roe deer, the woods are an important site for whitebeam trees, with several species only growing here. It’s easy to spend a full afternoon crisscrossing the trails before walking over Brunel’s famous suspension bridge for a well-deserved coffee at the Primrose Café in Clifton village.Tor Hands Profile Readers’ tips: send a tip for a chance to win a £200 voucher for a Coolstays break Show Guardian Travel readers’ tips Every week we ask our readers for recommendations from their travels. A selection of tips will be featured online and may appear in print. To enter the latest competition visit the readers’ tips homepage – Thank you for your feedback. A seal colony …

‘Toxic online spaces’ turning teenagers into cyber criminals, sex offenders and terrorists, NCA chief warns | UK News

‘Toxic online spaces’ turning teenagers into cyber criminals, sex offenders and terrorists, NCA chief warns | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

Teenagers are being radicalised to become cyber criminals, sex offenders and terrorists by the same algorithms in “toxic online spaces”, the head of the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned. Director General Graeme Biggar said technology is no longer “merely enabling”, but “driving” serious and organised crime. In a speech at the NCA’s headquarters in east London, he said “something fundamental has changed”, adding that how authorities protect the public is at a “turning point”. “Technology is no longer simply a tool that criminals use. It is reshaping crime itself: accelerating it, globalising it, and making it more harmful,” he said. “Teenagers are being radicalised – to become cyber criminals, sexual offenders or terrorists – within the same toxic online spaces, by the same algorithms.” Image: A sign outside the National Crime Agency headquarters in London. Pic: Reuters In its annual National Strategic Assessment, the NCA found the threat from serious and organised crime increased last year, with drugs remaining the biggest driver in the UK. Mr Biggar said synthetic opioids pose the biggest risk, …

Dad who parked in all 108 spaces at Sainsbury’s admits ‘I was bored’ | UK | News

Dad who parked in all 108 spaces at Sainsbury’s admits ‘I was bored’ | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

A dad has finally completed a five-year mission to park in every bay at his local Sainsbury’s – after spending six years doing the same thing at another branch. Gareth Wild previously spent six years charting every spot in his local supermarket in London, finishing the task in 2021. After relocating to Devizes, Wiltshire, in 2024, the 44-year-old decided it was time to restart the challenge. He plotted all 108 spaces on a satellite image of the car park, recording every time he parked in one, excluding only the disabled and motorcycle spaces. Last weekend, he finally finished the task, taking him a total of one year, seven months and two days, using his weekly shopping trips and the occasional resupply stops. Gareth said: “Boredom was probably the starting point. I have to do the weekly shop, so it keeps me amused doing little things like this. It was a little bit sad to see it end because it is part of your routine for so long that when it does finally end you have …

We’ve Lost the Spaces That Foster Friendship

We’ve Lost the Spaces That Foster Friendship

Published by Jenni Sidey

Every time someone says we’re in a loneliness epidemic, the advice sounds suspiciously individual: join a gym, download a friend app, go to therapy, try harder. But what if loneliness isn’t a personal failure at all? The U.S. Surgeon General has declared it a public health crisis. Research has shown that chronic loneliness is associated with depression, cardiovascular disease, and even increased mortality risk. Headlines warn that Americans have fewer friends than ever before and give us advice on how to make more friends, as though the issue is simply our unwillingness or our lack of know-how. We debate whether smartphones ruined us, whether remote work isolated us, whether dating apps replaced real intimacy. But what if we are asking the wrong question? Instead of asking why individuals feel lonely, maybe we should be asking where the infrastructure for belonging went. For decades, sociologist Ray Oldenburg argued that healthy societies depend on “third places,” informal public gathering spaces outside home and work where people interact regularly and build relationships. (Think: neighborhood bars, bowling leagues, churches, …

The Thin Spaces of Our Lives Where Strange Things Do Happen

The Thin Spaces of Our Lives Where Strange Things Do Happen

Published by Jenni Sidey

At ID the Future, Andrew McDiarmid has been interviewing psychologist Alexander Batthyány and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor on terminal lucidity (TL) — the sudden lucidity often experienced by people who will shortly die — even people with dementia. Here’s the video at YouTube. Batthyány wrote a book on TL, Threshold (2023), based on a study he had conducted. Egnor’s recent book The Immortal Mind: (2025) also looks at the mind’s mysterious au revoir. But how to understand it? Batthyány and Egnor agreed that terminal lucidity is a similar phenomenon to near-death experiences, where a patient is clinically dead but can be revived — and has a gripping story to tell. That’s the subject of Egnor’s forthcoming book (2027). Egnor pointed out that four characteristics of near-death experiences that we must come to understand better are: ● their clarity (when the mind should be in a fog); ● their veridicity (the experiencer often learns things that can be corroborated later), ● their selectivity (generally, the experiencer only sees and communicates with people who are dead – but …

A local’s guide to Milan: the city’s best restaurants, culture and green spaces | Milan holidays

A local’s guide to Milan: the city’s best restaurants, culture and green spaces | Milan holidays

Published by Sam Flores

Born in Milan in 2000, Paralympic swimmer Simone Barlaam is a 23-time world champion who won three golds and a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He’s a torchbearer and ambassador for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, which run from 6-22 February (the Paralympic Games run from 6-15 March) at sites across Lombardy and north-east Italy (with events such as speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey in the city). He also worked as a graphic designer for the games. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Barlaam grew up in Milan and lives in NoLo (North of Loreto), a vibrant, artistic neighbourhood. “I’ve lived all over the place, so I can take you around the city and the places that belong to my heart,” he says. Here, he chooses his favourite spots, beyond obvious sights such as the Duomo, La Scala opera house and the glossy Quadrilatero della Moda fashion district. A view over Parco Sempione and Sforza Castle in …

from hi-tech hacker spaces to crypto coworking

from hi-tech hacker spaces to crypto coworking

Published by skeptic

One of the first modern coworking spaces, C-Base in Berlin, was launched 30 years ago by a group of computer engineers as a “hacker space” in which to share their tech and techniques. Similarly, many of the people we first encountered in our anthropological research into the emerging world of digital nomadism in the mid-2010s were hackers and computer coders. Nearly a decade later, we returned to Chiang Mai to see what had happened to these pioneers of the borderless, desk-free life. We wondered if they had been put off by the throngs of travellers who have followed in their sandal-clad footsteps, attracted by glamorous – if often inaccurate – images of the digital nomad lifestyle. One of the city’s nomad hotspots is Yellow Coworking, which launched in 2020 as a blockchain-oriented, collaborative escape zone from the COVID pandemic. The later stages of the pandemic were an interesting time to be in Chiang Mai: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was followed by mass layoffs in Silicon Valley when Twitter, Meta, Coinbase and …