Tag: Art

Best Story Wins

Morgan Housel, on the art and power of storytelling: C. R. Hallpike is a respected anthropologist who once wrote a review of a young author’s recent book on the history of humans. It states: “It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own…

Amazon Uses An App Called Mentor To Track and Discipline Delivery Drivers

Amazon has for years been using an app called “Mentor” to monitor and track delivery drivers’ behavior on the road. “The app, which Amazon bills as a tool to improve driver safety, generates a score each day that measures employees’ driving performance,” reports CNBC. From the report: Just like the AI-equipped cameras rolling out to contracted delivery companies, Mentor is framed…

The moon rock in Washington National Cathedral

A moon rock collected by Apollo astronauts during the first moon landing is enshrined in a stained-glass window – known as the Space Window – in the Washington National Cathedral. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/moon-rock-washington-national-cathedral-stained-glass-window…

How the pandemic is revolutionising art galleries and museums

What have covid-19 closures done to art galleries and museums? From virtual tours of mothballed shows to advanced tech like lidar, they are finding new, more personal ways to wow audiences Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933202-100-how-the-pandemic-is-revolutionising-art-galleries-and-museums/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

The Mandalorian review: How special effects made the Star Wars series

State-of-the-art special effects combined with a compelling story makes Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian viewing to be savoured on Disney+ Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933202-300-the-mandalorian-review-how-special-effects-made-the-star-wars-series/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

AI art critic can predict which emotions a painting will evoke

An AI can guess how a person will feel when viewing art and write a caption that passes as human-sounding 50 per cent of the time Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2266240-ai-art-critic-can-predict-which-emotions-a-painting-will-evoke/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

The Highest Resolution Photos Ever Taken of Snowflakes

Photographer and scientist Nathan Myhrvold has developed a camera that captures snowflakes at a microscopic level never seen before. Smithsonian Magazine reports: Myhrvold, who holds a PhD in theoretical mathematics and physics from Princeton University and served as the Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft for 14 years, leaned on his background as a scientist to create the camera. He also tapped…

Jamie Zawinski Calls Cinnamon Screensaver Lock-Bypass Bug ‘Unconscionable’

Legendary programmer Jamie Zawinski has worked on everything from the earliest releases of the Netscape Navigator browser to XEmacs, Mozilla, and, of course, the XScreenSaver project. Now Slashdot reader e432776 writes: JWZ continues to track issues with screensavers on Linux (since 2004!), and discusses a new bug in cinnamon-screensaver. Long-standing topics like X11, developer interaction, and code licensing all feature. Solutions…

Superconducting Microprocessors? Turns Out They’re Ultra-Efficient

Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo quotes IEEE Spectrum: Computers use a staggering amount of energy today. According to one recent estimate, data centers alone consume two percent of the world’s electricity, a figure that’s expected to climb to eight percent by the end of the decade. To buck that trend, though, perhaps the microprocessor, at the center of the computer universe, could…