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NASA’s Chandra Releases Doubleheader of Blockbuster Hits
Wed, 24 Apr 2024 14:45:43 +0000
New movies of two of the most famous objects in the sky — the Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A — are being released from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each includes X-ray data collected by Chandra over about two decades. They show dramatic changes in the debris and radiation remaining after the explosion of two massive […]
Match ID: 0 Score: 50.00 source: www.nasa.gov age: 1 day
qualifiers: 30.00 new movie, 20.00 movie
The 35 Best Shows on Hulu Right Now
Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:00:00 +0000
From Shōgun to Under the Bridge, here’s everything you should be watching on Hulu this week.
Match ID: 1 Score: 35.00 source: www.wired.com age: 1 day
qualifiers: 35.00 (best|good|great) (show|movie)
High-minded, progressive and literate, Laurent Cantet made a trio of brilliant films | Peter Bradshaw
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:27:11 GMT
In Human Resources, Time Out and The Class, the Palme d’Or-winning film-maker – who has died aged 63 – addressed French and European society at all levels
Laurent Cantet was a classic product of the French cinema industry: a deeply intelligent, high-minded progressive film-maker of the same generation as Robin Campillo and Dominik Moll whose supremely literate, emotionally committed, stylish and well-acted movies aspired to address French and European society at all levels.
Cantet made films that you could imagine being discussed around a gregarious dinner table of fashionable Parisians, with glasses being avidly drained and refilled all round – in fact, you could imagine Cantet himself talking about his work at just this kind of gathering.
Continue reading...Muscular bodies dripping with sweat are all over cinema screens – and each other. But these films are very different from the sports romances of old
This spring is shaping up to be the season of the artful athletic romance in cinema. Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers both offer up their own twisted queer romances set within the world of sport. Both film-makers share a preoccupation with their athletes, lingering over their bodies in ultra-closeup. Muscles ripple and swell like the powerful pulse of the tide. Perfect, glistening orbs of sweat form then drift off the body in slow motion. In these films, ripped, toned bodies become tantalising, treacherous landscapes, and it’s on this physical terrain that we can see exactly how and why the characters’ internal desires play out.
Love Lies Bleeding opens with a pulsating montage in a grimy gym as Glass confronts us with running, cycling, lifting, pressing bodies in all of their sweating, straining vulgarity. Meanwhile, Lou (Kristen Stewart), the uninspired gym manager, is sticking her hand down the venue’s perpetually clogged toilet. However, when Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a wannabe bodybuilder, rolls through town, all this grotesquery becomes a thing of beauty. They begin a romance. Lou pumps her lover full of steroids and constantly ogles her dense muscles.
Continue reading...Court rules judge who oversaw landmark trial was mistaken in allowing women whose accusations were not part of case to testify
The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday, as prosecutors say they will retry the firestorm case.
In a 4-3 decision, the state of New York court of appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw Weinstein’s 2020 conviction prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings and was mistaken in allowing other women whose accusations were not a part of the 2020 case to testify.
Continue reading...Paola Cortellesi’s directing debut, in which she also stars, depicts gruelling domestic abuse before finding its way to startling redemption
Italian actor and singer Paola Cortellesi has been breaking hearts and box office records on her home turf with this directing debut. It’s a richly and even outrageously sentimental working-class drama of postwar Rome, a story of domestic abuse whose heroine finally escapes from misogyny and cruelty through a piece of narrative sleight-of-hand that borders on magic-neorealism, performed with shameless theatrical flair and marvellously composed in luminous monochrome. The film pays homage to early pictures by De Sica and Fellini, and Cortellesi’s own performance is consciously in the spirit of movie divas such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren and Giulietta Masina.
The scene is Rome just after the end of the second world war, when American GIs were a presence on the streets and Italian women had just been given the right to vote – though exercising it while under the baleful eye of the film’s misogynist menfolk is another matter. Cortellesi plays Delia, a woman who is being regularly beaten by her brutish husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea). He makes her slave around the house, skivvy to his cantankerous bedridden father (great stuff from veteran comic turn Giorgio Colangeli), and do odd jobs around the city, the cash payment for which she has to hand over at the end of every day. Their teenage daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), who sees how her mother is being brutalised and humiliated, is made to sleep in the same bedroom as her two brattish kid brothers, and when she receives a proposal of marriage from a well-off local boy, she, like her parents, is thrilled – at first.
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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
Party wants to fully nationalise train network within five years of coming to power, in ‘biggest rail reform for a generation’
Labour has made one of its most radical proposals yet in the run-up to an election campaign: to fully nationalise the train network within five years of coming to power.
The party has pledged to guarantee the cheapest fares as part of “the biggest reform of our railways for a generation”, bringing all passenger rail into national ownership under the Great British Railways (GBR) body.
Continue reading...The overcrowded city is leading the way with a tax on day trippers. Surely other great European destinations should follow suit
Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de España. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Barcelona graffiti shout, “Tourists go home, refugees welcome.” Amsterdam wants no more coach parties, nor does Rome.
The Venice payment will be complicated. It will apply at specific entry points only to day trippers to the city centre, not hotel guests. It will be a mere five euros and confined to peak times of day over the summer. This will hardly cover the cost of running it. It is a political gesture that is unlikely to stem the tourist flow round the Rialto and St Mark’s Square, let alone leave more room for Venetians to enjoy their city undisturbed by mobs.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Some residents say €5 fee aimed at curbing tourist numbers goes against principle of freedom of movement
For more than 160 years, visitors have been arriving at Venezia Santa Lucia train station and disembarking straight into the heart of one of the world’s most historic and beautiful cities. Until Thursday, however, they had never been met by a group of stewards in white and yellow bibs demanding to know if they had downloaded their QR code.
On the first day of what the mayor of Venice has hailed as a bold experiment in reducing over-tourism, day-trippers faced a €5 (£4.30) charge, which kicked in at 8.30am on Thursday and will apply on 29 peak days until 14 July as part of a trial.
Continue reading...Strict rules have led to a wild west of rentals, with visitors choosing between huge hotel bills or word-of-mouth deals
Until recently, visitors to New York basically had two options: hotel rooms or short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. But in September 2023, the city started enforcing a 2022 law that banned people from renting their homes for fewer than 30 days (unless the host stayed in the home with guests).
Now the only legit option for people visiting the city is hotel rooms – and they’re unaffordable for many. Most of the Times Square hotels don’t have rooms for less than $300 a night. A search for Thursday 2 May found the Muse at $356, Hampton Inn at $323 and the Hard Rock at $459 (although, because of dynamic pricing, these are subject to regular change). They’re getting more expensive still. Hotel rates have increased between the first quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023 at twice the rate of inflation, said Jan Freitag, an analyst at the real-estate data firm CoStar Group.
Continue reading...Beccy, 49, and Natalie, 60, became best friends after she visited Natalie’s rescue farm in Ontario, Canada. They now run events together on the farm and love travelling together
When Beccy’s cousin suggested they go to an open day at a local farm, she jumped at the chance. “We live in a small rural area called South Glengarry in Ontario. She told me about this woman who rescues animals and was raising money through a visiting day,” she says. “We got there and she had so many animals and beautiful gardens. I was impressed.”
They tried to find Natalie, the farm owner, to say hello, but she was nowhere to be found. Instead, Beccy looked up the rescue centre on Facebook to learn more. A few months later, in the autumn of 2017, she mentioned the farm visit to some friends. “They told me they knew Natalie and suggested we all get together for dinner with her and her husband.”
Continue reading...Mikel Arteta’s side are chasing the title but Ange Postecoglou wants a top-four spot and has the tools to hurt his local rivals
After Arsenal lost to Aston Villa and went out of the Champions League in the same week, there were suggestions their season was at risk of unravelling. Since then, they have secured a win at Wolves and thrashed Chelsea but they face a pivotal test of their credentials against Tottenham on Sunday.
That game is not just about a team fighting for the title travelling to one aiming to qualify for the Champions League; there is a lot more at stake in a derby – just ask Liverpool. The effect of hostility should not be underestimated in season-defining matches. Tottenham will be desperate to dent the Gunners’ chances of securing a first Premier League trophy in 20 years.
Continue reading...The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written up and made available to anyone with an internet connection.
But all of this is coming to an end. The advent of AI threatens to destroy the complex online ecosystem that allows writers, artists, and other creators to reach human audiences.
To understand why, you must understand publishing. Its core task is to connect writers to an audience. Publishers work as gatekeepers, filtering candidates and then amplifying the chosen ones. Hoping to be selected, writers shape their work in various ways. This article might be written very differently in an academic publication, for example, and publishing it here entailed pitching an editor, revising multiple drafts for style and focus, and so on...
As Taylor Swift tops $1bn in tour revenue, musicians playing smaller venues are facing pitiful fees and frequent losses. Should the state step in to save our live music scene?
When you see a band playing to thousands of fans in a sun-drenched festival field, signing a record deal with a major label or playing endlessly from the airwaves, it’s easy to conjure an image of success that comes with some serious cash to boot – particularly when Taylor Swift has broken $1bn in revenue for her current Eras tour. But looks can be deceiving. “I don’t blame the public for seeing a band playing to 2,000 people and thinking they’re minted,” says artist manager Dan Potts. “But the reality is quite different.”
Post-Covid there has been significant focus on grassroots music venues as they struggle to stay open. There’s been less focus on the actual ability of artists to tour these venues. David Martin, chief executive officer of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), says we’re in a “cost-of-touring crisis”. Pretty much every cost attached to touring – van hire, crew, travel, accommodation, food and drink – has gone up, while fees and audiences often have not. “[Playing] live is becoming financially unsustainable for many artists,” he says. “Artists are seeing [playing] live as a loss leader now. That’s if they can even afford to make it work in the first place.”
Continue reading...We would like to hear about your favourite, most useful everyday utensil
What’s your favourite, most useful everyday gadget? It could be a much-used kitchen gizmo, a tool for your daily beauty routine that you can’t live without, or a piece of kit that makes your day-to-day life easier: anything small, genuinely useful, and inexpensive to buy (nothing over £20).
Continue reading...Cruising is booming – 2023 ticket sales have surpassed historic levels and 2024 has seen the launch of the largest cruise ship ever built. But as cruise tourism's popularity has increased, so have the pollution problems it brings. To customers, it may not be evident that any problems exist, since some cruise line companies claim to be becoming more climate-friendly. But the truth can be quite different. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates what impact the world's biggest ships are having on the planet
‘Biggest, baddest’ – but is it the cleanest? World’s largest cruise ship sets sail
‘A good cruise is one that doesn’t come’: Europe’s ports bear brunt of ship pollution
Shipping’s dirty secret: how ‘scrubbers’ clean the air – while contaminating the sea
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...Muscular bodies dripping with sweat are all over cinema screens – and each other. But these films are very different from the sports romances of old
This spring is shaping up to be the season of the artful athletic romance in cinema. Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers both offer up their own twisted queer romances set within the world of sport. Both film-makers share a preoccupation with their athletes, lingering over their bodies in ultra-closeup. Muscles ripple and swell like the powerful pulse of the tide. Perfect, glistening orbs of sweat form then drift off the body in slow motion. In these films, ripped, toned bodies become tantalising, treacherous landscapes, and it’s on this physical terrain that we can see exactly how and why the characters’ internal desires play out.
Love Lies Bleeding opens with a pulsating montage in a grimy gym as Glass confronts us with running, cycling, lifting, pressing bodies in all of their sweating, straining vulgarity. Meanwhile, Lou (Kristen Stewart), the uninspired gym manager, is sticking her hand down the venue’s perpetually clogged toilet. However, when Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a wannabe bodybuilder, rolls through town, all this grotesquery becomes a thing of beauty. They begin a romance. Lou pumps her lover full of steroids and constantly ogles her dense muscles.
Continue reading...Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack for an exclusive interview with Fifpro representatives Sarah Gregorius and Alex Culvin, plus Dutch International player, Merel van Dongen, to discuss how the number of games elite athletes are playing is impacting them on and off the pitch. Also, Sophie Downey joins to round up all the weekend’s action in the Champion’s League and WSL
From our sister pod today; the panel brings you an exclusive interview with representatives from the global players’ union – Fifpro – who, alongside Netherlands defender Merel van Dongen, share their views on how the number of games elite athletes are playing is impacting them on and off the pitch.
The panel also discusses Chelsea’s inspired Champions League win, Manchester City retaking the lead in the WSL, Arsenal securing European football, Palace on the brink of lifting the Championship and Lewes’s relegation …
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