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Verizon Satellite Messaging, a Retro Console, and Velotric's Ebike—Here’s Your Gear News of the Week
Sat, 22 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000
Plus: Analogue delays its Nintendo 64 console, Fujifilm unveils a medium format camera, and Microsoft's Adaptive Joystick game controller goes on sale.
Match ID: 0 Score: 35.00 source: www.wired.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 35.00 fitness
The best Mother’s Day gifts: 68 thoughtful ideas for £50 and under they’ll love
Thu, 20 Mar 2025 17:00:36 GMT
From a reading light to a gardening knife, a meditation cushion to a birthstone ring, these fun, and often useful, gifts tick every box
• The best flower delivery: seven favourites, freshly picked
Whether you’re 16 or 60, shopping for your own mum or someone else’s, Mother’s Day gifts needn’t be formulaic. In fact, we’d argue that they should be thoughtful, fun or useful (but possibly not too useful), or provide a moment of escape. There’s no worse gift than one bought out of obligation, unconsidered and, therefore, underused.
We hope this carefully curated guide of 68 presents will spark some ideas for the mothers in your life. Whether she’s in the first frazzle of parenthood, sitting on an empty nest, or anything in between, we’ve got Mother’s Day covered.
Continue reading...The broadcaster and Olympic gold medallist on her favourite dessert, batch cooking with her mum and how to make the perfect gin and tonic
I was a naughty athlete. Ask Daley [Thompson] and Linford [Christie]: they didn’t drink, and they still don’t drink. Not a drop passes their lips. Those are the consummate athletes. I was a mischievous athlete. You know the little miniature bottles of Drambuie? My roommates would notice at the end of a competition that Lewis would have a little Drambuie. Delicious! But when I won the gold medal [at the 2000 Olympics] I actually had a bottle of bubbly for that. My roomies must have thought it was going to happen, so they had a little bottle for me.
My early memories are of food associated with my heritage and my mum: a lot of big flavours, a lot of curry chicken. One dish I can actually taste in my mouth now is snapper, which is a very popular fish in the Caribbean. Especially on Good Friday – we only had fish, so she would prepare whole snapper in a pan, with onions, peppers, a lot of black pepper and fish seasoning. It was just heaven. Whether you ate it hot or cold, that snapper would just be exquisite.
Continue reading...I asked some well-known names for their thoughts on the ultimate existential question. Their answers were fascinating, funny – and could help us frame our days on Earth
In September 2015, I was unemployed, heartbroken and living alone in my dead grandad’s caravan, wondering what the meaning of life was. Where was I going to find happiness, or purpose, or meaning? What was the point to all of this?
Like any millennial, I turned to Google for the answers. I trawled through essays, newspaper articles, countless YouTube videos, various dictionary definitions and numerous references to the number 42, before I discovered an intriguing project carried out by the philosopher Will Durant during the 1930s. Durant had written to Ivy League presidents, Nobel prize winners, psychologists, novelists, professors, poets, scientists, artists and athletes to ask for their take on the meaning of life. His findings were collated in the book On the Meaning of Life, published in 1932.
Continue reading...Europe’s human spaceflight ambitions are reaching new heights, and ESA’s Astronaut Reserve is a key part of this journey. Selected in 2022, these talented individuals are undergoing Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) to ensure they are ready for future missions.
Among these remarkable women from across Europe are Meganne Christian, a materials scientist from the UK, Anthea Comellini, an aerospace engineer from Italy, and Carmen Possnig, a medical doctor from Austria, who recently completed their first ART training block at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany.
Their diverse scientific backgrounds reflect the wide-ranging expertise needed for human spaceflight, whether as part of ESA’s astronaut class, mission planners, or scientists shaping the future of space exploration. Beyond their work with ESA, they are also driving innovation, advancing research, and strengthening the broader space sector. Women play key roles across ESA and beyond, contributing as leaders and experts in these areas.
Meganne, Anthea and Carmen recently completed their first ART training block at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. In this image, they are pictured inside a mockup of the Columbus module, Europe’s permanent laboratory on the International Space Station.
The training covered key areas such as human behaviour and performance to develop teamwork and decision-making skills in high-pressure environments. They also received physical fitness training, scuba certification in ESA’s Neutral Buoyancy Facility, and media training to effectively communicate the importance of space exploration to the public.
In addition to technical and operational skills, they explored fundamental science, including biology experiments conducted on the International Space Station. Their training also includes insights into space policy, mission operations, and the latest advancements in space technology.
While members of the Astronaut Reserve are not yet assigned to specific missions, their training ensures that they are prepared for potential future opportunities through commercial spaceflight
The journey continues in the second half of 2025, when the members of ESA’s Astronaut Reserve will return to EAC for the next phase of ART, further building on the skills and knowledge they have gained.
Beans, herbs and peppers add a tasty twist to the classic combination our parents cooked for us
• Read Yotam on ditching fad diets
Cooked slowly in the chicken juices, the butter beans are creamy and rich on the bottom and satisfyingly crispy on top. You can easily swap them with chickpeas or other legumes. Look online for a quick guide on how to spatchcock a chicken. It really is very simple and it makes the chicken cook evenly. All you need is a pair of heavy-duty scissors or standard garden secateurs.
Continue reading...The Jamaican-born author on exploring nature and black identity in his nonfiction debut, his chaotic writing habits, and how the TS Eliot prize changed his life
Jason Allen-Paisant, born in Jamaica in 1980, is a poet, writer and academic. Currently a professor of critical theory and creative writing at Manchester University, he released his debut poetry collection, Thinking With Trees, in 2021. His second collection, Self-Portrait as Othello, (2023) won the TS Eliot and the Forward prize. Through time spent in the north of England and Jamaica’s rural Coffee Grove district, his debut in nonfiction, The Possibility of Tenderness (Penguin), intimately explores ideas around class, leisure, economics and self-discovery, looking closely at the life of his farmer grandmother, as well as the plants and people that shaped who he is today. Allen-Paisant lives in Leeds with his wife and two children.
The Possibility of Tenderness is a departure from your work in poetry. How did you go about writing it?
I started with a mix of poetry and prose. Then I thought to write a series of essays [and] hammer out some of these big questions around leisure and class within nature but I remember thinking: “All of the ideas that I’m talking about in a theoretical way, I can bring them all out if I just tell a story.” My grandma, “Mama”, she’s the protagonist outside myself. I can use the story of her life to talk about planting, food independence, food sovereignty, living with plants, plants as medicine, globalisation and its effects and kinship with the land.
There are times when a bowl of cornflakes is more enticing than dragging ourselves out for dinner. And avocados? Forget it
At a party not so long ago, a friend told me that she was about to leave. “I’m hungry,” she said, her eyes sliding towards the coats. “I’m going home for a bowl of Weetabix.” I greeted this with some surprise, if not outright derision. Wouldn’t she prefer a pizza with me? But already she was entering an ecstatic state. “Weetabix is lovely,” she went on. “Sugar, cold milk … ” Half a century of eating the stuff had taught her the optimum point at which to devour it, a fleeting moment she could judge by sight. Its biscuit-dryness had to be gone, but it needed to be soft rather than soggy. Her eyes half closed, she wantonly mimed pushing a spoon into this late-night ambrosia.
I thought of this the other day, when Alan Titchmarsh, TV gardener and aspirant steamy novelist, informed the nation it should stop eating avocados on the grounds of their environmental impact (to summarise: many of those sold in the UK are grown on land that was formerly rainforest; their cultivation involves huge amounts of water in places where it’s scarce; they must be shipped 5,000 miles or more to reach us). “There’s a lot to be said for cornflakes, Weetabix and Shreddies,” he announced, deploying the homely tartness that made him such a hit on Pebble Mill and Ground Force to deal with the 21st-century hipster breakfast of choice. Ha! Next time my friend refused a dinner date on the grounds that she would rather commune with a bowl of cereal, I would have no choice but to mention him. Several times. In my best (native) Yorkshire accent.
Continue reading...Former heavyweight champion was always more complex and interesting than his contrasting personae suggested
Boxing seems a smaller and darker world now. George Foreman has gone and, with his death, he takes a little more of the fading light and lost glory of the ring with him. My own life in boxing, which stretches across 55 years, can be divided into stages and all of them carry markers Foreman left in the dirt and dust of the fight game.
From the malevolent force he personified when he became heavyweight champion of the world to the lovable old grandad making hundreds of millions as the face of a food grill business, Foreman could be easily caricatured. But he was always more complex and interesting than his contrasting personae suggested.
Continue reading...The broadcaster and Olympic gold medallist on her favourite dessert, batch cooking with her mum and how to make the perfect gin and tonic
I was a naughty athlete. Ask Daley [Thompson] and Linford [Christie]: they didn’t drink, and they still don’t drink. Not a drop passes their lips. Those are the consummate athletes. I was a mischievous athlete. You know the little miniature bottles of Drambuie? My roommates would notice at the end of a competition that Lewis would have a little Drambuie. Delicious! But when I won the gold medal [at the 2000 Olympics] I actually had a bottle of bubbly for that. My roomies must have thought it was going to happen, so they had a little bottle for me.
My early memories are of food associated with my heritage and my mum: a lot of big flavours, a lot of curry chicken. One dish I can actually taste in my mouth now is snapper, which is a very popular fish in the Caribbean. Especially on Good Friday – we only had fish, so she would prepare whole snapper in a pan, with onions, peppers, a lot of black pepper and fish seasoning. It was just heaven. Whether you ate it hot or cold, that snapper would just be exquisite.
Continue reading...Vandals accuse Dusty Knuckle of gentrification in Haringey despite its work with at-risk young people
An east London bakery – as famous for its long-fermented breads as the work it does with at-risk young people – has been targeted by vandals accusing it of destroying their local community.
Ashley Walters, Jamie Oliver and Yotam Ottolenghi are among fans of the Dusty Knuckle’s menu, from its £11.50, two-hander, pilpelchuma celeriac sandwich to its £7.60 egg, pickled green chilli and cheese focaccia.
Continue reading...Which brand makes the cheesiest cheddar alternative? And whose tastes like grout? Meera Sodha samples popular plant-based blocks
• ‘Hands down my favourite bit of kit’: 13 kitchen gadgets top chefs can’t live without
When I was asked to review plant-based cheeses, I thought twice about doing so. Although there are some companies, usually smaller operations, that make non-dairy cheese out of fermented nuts or soya beans, more often than not it’s manufactured by big companies who are adept at recreating flavours, but who use ultra-processed ingredients such as emulsifiers, stabilisers and additives to get there.
I’ve used vegan cheese only a handful of times in the eight years I’ve been writing my vegan column for the Guardian, partly because I like to know what’s going into my body (and, on reading the ingredients, I am often bamboozled), and also because it varies so wildly in terms of how it behaves: does it melt, split, grate and, most importantly, how does it taste? For a food writer, that makes it tricky to use and make sure there’s consistency in the journey between my kitchen and yours.
Continue reading...Unesco report highlights ‘unprecedented’ glacier loss driven by climate crisis, threatening ecosystems, agriculture and water sources
Retreating glaciers threaten the food and water supply of 2 billion people around the world, the UN has warned, as current “unprecedented” rates of melting will have unpredictable consequences.
Two-thirds of all irrigated agriculture in the world is likely to be affected in some way by receding glaciers and dwindling snowfall in mountain regions, driven by the climate crisis, according to a Unesco report.
Continue reading...Thousands of acres of rainforest is being cleared to produce palm oil, used in popular Nestlé and Mondelēz brands
West Papua’s Indigenous people have called for a boycott of KitKat, Smarties and Aero chocolate, Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers, and the cosmetics brands Pantene and Herbal Essences, over alleged ecocide in their territory.
All are products that contain palm oil and are made, say the campaigners, by companies that source the ingredient directly from West Papua, which has been under Indonesian control since 1963 and where thousands of acres of rainforest are being cleared for agriculture.
Continue reading...From a reading light to a gardening knife, a meditation cushion to a birthstone ring, these fun, and often useful, gifts tick every box
• The best flower delivery: seven favourites, freshly picked
Whether you’re 16 or 60, shopping for your own mum or someone else’s, Mother’s Day gifts needn’t be formulaic. In fact, we’d argue that they should be thoughtful, fun or useful (but possibly not too useful), or provide a moment of escape. There’s no worse gift than one bought out of obligation, unconsidered and, therefore, underused.
We hope this carefully curated guide of 68 presents will spark some ideas for the mothers in your life. Whether she’s in the first frazzle of parenthood, sitting on an empty nest, or anything in between, we’ve got Mother’s Day covered.
Continue reading...Long before this week’s deadly strikes, Israel failed to abide by the terms of its ceasefire deal with Hamas.
The post Israel Violated the Gaza Ceasefire From the Start. Why Won’t the Media Tell You That? appeared first on The Intercept.
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.
Continue reading...Plastics are everywhere, but their smallest fragments – nanoplastics – are making their way into the deepest parts of our bodies, including our brains and breast milk.
Scientists have now captured the first visual evidence of these particles inside human cells, raising urgent questions about their impact on our health. From the food we eat to the air we breathe, how are nanoplastics infiltrating our systems?
Neelam Tailor looks into the invisible invasion happening inside us all
Continue reading...Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
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Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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