Crushed chicken egg shells have been turned into a structure that supports bone growth in the laboratory
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biotechnology ,3D printing
#3Dprinted #egg #shells #bones #regrow
Asus is launching its first gaming mini-PC with the ROG NUC. This tiny PC weighs just 2.6 kg and comes in a 2.5-liter chassis that measures 270 x 180 x 50mm. Even though it has a diminutive form factor, you won’t miss out on performance as it comes with either an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or a Core Ultra 9 185H. Both models also have a discrete GPU — an RTX 4060 for the Ultra 7 and RTX 4070 for the Ultra 9.
Intel left the mini-PC business in July 2023, licensing its NUC brand to Asus and allowing it to continue the line of tiny computers. Asus teased an ROG version of the NUC in January 2024, and after six months, it’s finally ready to release a retail version of its first gaming mini-PC.
These are the specifications of the two Asus ROG NUC models:
Model # | RNUC14SRKU7168AUI | RNUC14SRKU9189AUI |
---|---|---|
Processor | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | Intel Core Ultra 9 185H |
Graphics Card | RTX 4060 | RTX 4070 |
Memory [Upgradeable to (32GB x 2)] | (8GB x 2) DDR5-5600 | (8GB x 2) DDR5-5600 |
Storage [3x M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 slots available] | 1x 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 | 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4x4 |
Wireless | Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 | Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 |
LAN | 2.5G Intel LAN | 2.5G Intel LAN |
Audio | Realtek/ALC256 | Realtek/ALC256 |
Front I/O Ports | 1x SD Card Reader, 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack | 1x SD Card Reader, 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack |
Rear I/O Ports | 1x Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C port (with DP2.1 and 12V fast charging), 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 2x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DP1.4a port, 1x 2.5G RJ45 LAN, 1x DC in barrel jack port, 1x Kensington Lock slot | 1x Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C port (with DP2.1 and 12V fast charging), 2x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 2x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DP1.4a port, 1x 2.5G RJ45 LAN, 1x DC in barrel jack port, 1x Kensington Lock slot |
Power Supply | 330W power adapter | 330W power adapter |
Price | $1,629.00 | $2,199.00 |
Since this is also an ROG product, you get gaming-specific features, like ARGB lights on the ROG logo at the top or side panel (depending on how you orient the mini-PC). Asus even says that you have the option to create your own logo, although there’s no indication yet of how to do that.
Although the ROG NUC is a tiny computer, it can accommodate up to four 4K displays via the HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB4 ports. However, we wouldn’t recommend that configuration for gaming as an RTX 4070 might be a little bit hard-pressed to deliver that many pixels.
You can now see both devices on the Asus website, but they’re marked as ‘Temporarily Out of Stock.’ Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a tiny gaming PC, you can ask Asus to notify you when they become available. You should also prepare your wallet if you want this device with its high starting price. It does come with a discrete GPU, though, unlike other mini-PC designs, where you need an eGPU dock to enjoy high-quality graphics.
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#Asus #launches #firstever #ROG #NUC #Core #Ultra #RTX #prices #start
We were married in my parents’ living room in Boulder on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after Trump’s inauguration. This was not an accident. You might remember his “American carnage” speech, and we were worried about what would come next.
Because of my father’s illness, our wedding was a family-only affair, with my parents, my brothers, my wife’s cousin and her husband. My father threw up halfway through the ceremony. We did not talk about politics. We did not turn on the TV or see the Women’s March, although we learned about it later.
We filed our immigration paperwork that Monday.
In our first immigration interview, we stated all the embarrassing facts of our relationship under oath, mining our personal depths to prove our love. Yes, we met on Tinder. Yes, we stayed in a cheap Super 8 motel (it was dog-friendly) when we road-tripped to Las Vegas, choosing to spend our money on buffets and roller coasters. Yes, she sleeps on the right side of the bed.
The interviewer took notes. Detailed notes.
We used an interpreter for her part of the interview, not because she couldn’t speak English, but because she was so nervous that she feared she would say something wrong and be denied (or deported — that was our mind-set then). Instead, it was her interpreter who messed up, indicating through a series of miscommunications that she had willingly participated in a social-security scam. We were told she would have to come back the next day. Nerves. Sweat. Fear.
Somewhere in the records of our federal government is confirmation that my wife has never been nor attempted to be a terrorist, a communist, a human trafficker or a prostitute. She has never attempted to overthrow a government. She has never dealt in narcotics.
The government knows that she has brown hair and brown eyes, though I don’t think they know just how beautiful those eyes are. They know she is 5-foot-3, but they don’t know, and never asked, just how perfectly her body molds into mine, question-marked and curlicued in the shared bed of our home.
#Uncle #Sam #Met #Tinder
London — British voters voted Thursday in the United Kingdom’s first general election since 2019, with an exit poll projecting the Labour Party notching 410 seats for a decisive win over the Conservative Party.
Among those seen heading to their local polling stations were incumbent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whom Conservative Party voters were forecast to boot from power after 14 years running the government, and his chief rival and likely replacement, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.
Here’s what to know about the 2024 British general election.
British voters were not directly electing a new leader on Thursday. Under the United Kingdom’s parliamentary system, voters choose their local representatives for the lower house of Parliament, the House of Commons.
On Thursday, there are 650 parliamentary seats up for grabs, each of which will be occupied by one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons. For any single party to win an outright majority in the Commons, it would need to win at least 326 seats — over half of those available. Any party that does that gets to form the next government, with its leader becoming the prime minister.
An exit poll projected the Conservative Party garnered just 131 seats, with the Labour Party forecast to win 410 seats.
[Yes, King Charles III is Britain’s formal head of state. You can read here about what limited power that actually conveys.]
Parliament was formally dissolved on May 30 when Sunak called the election, as is procedure, but prior to that, Sunak’s long-ruling Conservative Party held an outright majority of 345 seats, giving it significant power to set the policy agenda.
The U.K. has what is called a first-past-the-post system, which means voters receive a ballot paper with a list of candidates from different parties and select only one of their choice. The candidate from each constituency with the most votes wins the seat — with no specific threshold required. So if, for instance, there are six candidates in a particular race, they will all be from different parties, and even if the candidate with the most votes only wins 25% of the total, they still win the seat.
If a voter believes their favorite candidate has a low chance of winning, they can choose to vote tactically and put their X next to another candidate’s name — effectively a second choice — if they feel that candidate has a better chance of winning. This tactic is generally seen as a way for a voter to help block a candidate deemed highly unfavorable, but who stands a reasonable chance of winning, from gaining the seat in a race.
In practice, this system means that a political party could win a healthy share of votes on a national level but not win a proportional share of the seats. Smaller political parties in the U.K. have long argued that the first-past-the-post electoral system has thus helped to cement the power of Britain’s two biggest parties — the incumbent, right-leaning Conservative Party, often called the Tories, and their main rivals, the more left-leaning Labour Party.
Voting begins in the U.K. general election on Thursday morning, and most constituency results are expected by early Friday morning, although this may take longer in some more rural parts of the country — particularly if the vote tally is close or subject to a recount.
There is usually an early indicator of the overall results of a U.K. general election as a joint exit poll is released by British broadcasters Sky News, ITV and CBS News’ partner network BBC News immediately after the polls close. That poll projected Labour’s victory.
The exit poll generally provides an accurate representation of the final results and can be expected by about 10 p.m. on Thursday local time (5 p.m. Eastern).
Polls and political analysts have predicted for many weeks that Labour will sweep to a landslide majority in Parliament. If the latest polling data proves accurate, Sunak’s 18-month tenure will end and Britons will wake up Friday morning to a new party in charge of the country for the first time in 14 years.
Those 14 years of Conservative rule have been marked by political and economic turmoil, with a rotating cast of five Conservative prime ministers occupying 10 Downing Street in the last eight years alone.
The latest polling by the major independent data analysis group YouGov shows Labour in the lead by a 17-point margin, with 39% of those polled saying they intend to vote for Labour versus 22% of the public who say they will cast their votes for the Conservatives.
Labour candidates are projected to win 430 seats in the House of Commons, which would be a massive 228-seat gain for the party. The Conservatives are projected to hold onto just 130 seats, which would be a seismic loss of 235 seats.
Starmer was elected by party members to lead Labour in 2020, right after the party suffered its worst general election defeat in 85 years. He immediately declared it his mission to make the party “electable” again.
Four years later Starmer, 61, is poised to take Britain’s top job.
He’s faced frequent criticism for a perceived lack of charisma, but his efforts to drag Labour back toward the center of British politics to give it broader voter appeal seems to have paid off.
Throughout his leadership of the party, Starmer has methodically frozen out elements of Labour’s far-left, socialist-leaning wing, which ran the party under previous leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Starmer’s deliberate shift from socialism to centrism has been criticized by pundits and voters who hew to the left, and Labour may lose some votes to smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party but, given the polling, it seems to have been a winning strategy overall.
The expected shift to a center-left Labour government in Britain bucks the trend in Europe, as far-right parties have been on the rise across the continent in recent years.
In the first round of voting in France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally Party moved within reach of becoming the largest political party in France. The party took a third of the votes in a first round that drew a historically high turnout.
If voters maintain that trend in the decisive second round of voting on July 7, it will mark an unprecedented shift to the right for the French.
Last month’s European parliamentary elections also saw a record number of far-right legislators win seats, with right wing candidates across Europe’s three main economies — Italy, France and Germany — making gains by campaigning on opposition to issues including immigration, support for Ukraine and green environmental policies.
While a Labour victory would be a move against those political winds on the continent, Britain has also seen a surge in support for far-right candidates in this election cycle.
Nigel Farage may be familiar to Americans as an ally of former President Donald Trump. His firebrand anti-immigrant rhetoric became hugely influential in the movement that led to Britain’s “Brexit” from the European Union.
After decades languishing on the far-right fringe of British politics, unable to win a seat in Parliament despite eight previous attempts, Farage looks set this year to finally claim the seat for his local constituency of Clacton, in southeast England.
Farage’s far-right Reform Party is only projected to pick up a total of about five seats in Parliament, including Farage’s own, but YouGov projects overall support for Reform nationally at about 15% of the electorate, and from its current position with zero seats in the House of Commons, it seems the party is heading for a significant increase in popularity.
Political analysts say Reform’s anti-immigrant messaging is largely eating into the Conservative Party’s vote share.
So while Farage won’t be taking power anytime soon, it looks like he is about to step back into the limelight of British politics and, with a sizable share of public support, he may find himself wielding an outsized influence on the politics of Britain’s Conservative Party as it tries to rebuild itself in the wake of what could be a devastating election.
CBS News’ Frank Andrews contributed to this report.
Nigel Farage, Rishi Sunak, Conservative Party, Britain, Keir Starmer, Election, European Union, United Kingdom, Labour Party
#U.K #election #set #overhaul #British #politics #Heres #Labour #projected #win
Matt Burton has sent Michael Maguire a timely reminder of his brilliance on the big stage, kicking a field goal in extra time to ice Canterbury’s 13-12 defeat of the wounded Warriors.
On the same day Latrell Mitchell went down with a foot injury that is likely to rule him out of Blues’ contention for the State of Origin decider, Burton flexed his muscles by sealing a second golden-point win in as many Bulldogs games.
The would-be NSW centre made good on his fourth attempt at a one-pointer, piloting the ball over from 24 metres out in the 87th minute of Saturday’s game at Accor Stadium.
Having lost captain Tohu Harris (wrist) 24 hours out, the Warriors’ entire back three of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Marcelo Montoya all went down injured on Saturday.
With only one fit player left on the bench, veteran second-rower Kurt Capewell spent part of his 150th NRL game on the left wing, while Leka Halasima played out of position at right centre on debut.
Even then, the Warriors twice came within inches of snatching the game – Chanel Harris-Tavita’s two attempts at a field goal were waved to the left of the posts as the gutsiest of wins slipped away.
Burton, who sank Cronulla with a one-pointer a week ago, missed his first three attempts, the first ricocheting off the post, the second pulling up short and the third charged down by Jackson Ford.
But at the death, the 24-year-old came up clutch again to keep his side undefeated through eight games at home this season.
The resurgent Bulldogs are closing in on the NRL’s top four, set to finish the weekend in fifth place on the ladder.
Burton had already pushed his case for an Origin recall when he picked off Te Maire Martin’s pass and dashed 60 metres to set up Bronson Xerri for the game’s first try after 19 minutes.
But the Warriors controlled the rest of the first half, with Watene-Zelezniak and Montoya helping their side to a 12-6 lead at the break.
Nicoll-Klokstad (calf) left the field shortly after making a try-saving tackle on Josh Curran late in the first half, having copped a knock in the opening 15 minutes but played on.
Watene-Zelezniak followed him to the sideline just after halftime when he failed a head injury assessment, before Montoya exited in the final 15 minutes.
The personnel crisis left the Warriors to tire, with Viliame Kikau helping the Bulldogs level the scores by beating Adam Pompey to Toby Sexton’s cross-field kick in the 54th minute.
But it was Sexton’s halves partner Burton who came up with the most important kick of all.
The Bulldogs lost second-rower Jaeman Salmon to an apparent facial injury in the final 10 minutes of regulation time.
Sport,Rugby League
#Burton #clutch #eve #NSW #team #selection
Caitlin Clark, the University of Iowa basketball player who has dazzled crowds with her deep shooting range and preternatural scoring ability, is one of the biggest draws in sports.
Tickets to her games this season were nearly 200 percent more expensive than they were last year, according to Vivid Seats, a ticket exchange and resale company. Fans routinely traveled hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of her, lining up for hours before tipoff and boosting local economies.
Nearly 10 million people, a record, watched her play in last year’s championship game, a loss to Louisiana State. More than three million tuned in this year when she set the career record for points scored by a Division I college basketball player.
Now, as Ms. Clark prepares for her final N.C.A.A. tournament — No. 1-seeded Iowa plays its first game on Saturday — excitement has reached a fever pitch. It has some wondering if Ms. Clark’s effect on the popularity of women’s sports, and their economics, will linger after her career at Iowa ends.
Viewership, juiced by media rights deals, and corporate sponsorships are the key drivers of revenue for college and professional sports. In women’s sports, those have long lagged behind what men’s sports receive. In 2019, for instance, women’s sports programming accounted for less than 6 percent of coverage on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” according to a study.
But in recent years, women’s sports have had significant growth. A November report from Deloitte projected that women’s sports would generate more than $1 billion in global revenue this year, up roughly 300 percent from the company’s estimate in 2021. Globally, the number of sponsorships in women’s professional leagues increased 22 percent in 2023, compared with a 24 percent increase in men’s sports, according to SponsorUnited, which tracks company sponsorships and deals.
“You do need women like Caitlin Clark who are so great that you can’t miss them,” said Michael Pachter, a tech analyst for Wedbush Securities.
Stars do make sports. The men’s national title game in 1979 between Magic Johnson’s Michigan State and Larry Bird’s Indiana State remains the most-watched college basketball game of all time. Both stars then entered the National Basketball Association, making the league more popular than it had ever been.
Before the Johnson-Bird N.B.A. era, the league’s finals were broadcast on tape delay. Today, the N.B.A. earns billions of dollars from its television deals, and star players make more than $60 million per season.
And as TV networks have tried to give viewers reasons to tune in during the streaming era, the rights to broadcast popular men’s sports, like football, hockey and basketball, have become expensive. That has spurred networks to lock in deals to broadcast sports, like women’s basketball, that don’t cost as much and whose viewership is projected to grow.
“The networks have run into an economic problem where they’re paying too much for the sports that they need to fill up their network space,” said Andrew Barrett, a managing director of STS Capital Partners who works in sports management. “You start to look at female sports because people will watch those.”
In January, the N.C.A.A. signed a deal with ESPN that valued the annual rights to broadcast the women’s basketball tournament at more than $60 million, more than 10 times what the network paid in the previous deal, in 2011.
The network pays $25 million to $33 million per year to broadcast some Women’s National Basketball Association games, while Scripps reportedly pays $13 million per year. The W.N.B.A.’s previous deal, solely with ESPN, was signed in 2013 for $12 million per year, according to Sports Business Journal. Annual revenue nearly doubled from $100 million in 2019 to around $200 million in 2023, according to Bloomberg.
“We’re not a charity,” Cathy Engelbert, the W.N.B.A. commissioner, said during a recent panel discussion with the law firm Kramer Levin. “We’re a real sports media and entertainment property.”
When Ms. Clark said she would forgo her final year of college eligibility to enter this spring’s W.N.B.A. draft, it had an immediate effect. The Indiana Fever, who are expected to select her with the No. 1 overall pick in April, saw a more than 200 percent increase in the average listed price of their season opener, according to Vivid Seats.
Ms. Clark’s success follows decades of progress for women in sports, dating to the 1972 passage of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational settings and led to skyrocketing funding of — and participation in — women’s sports. The World Cup that the U.S. women’s soccer team won in 1999 spurred interest and investment at the youth level. Serena Williams changed the audience for tennis, and athletes like the racecar driver Danica Patrick and the fighter Ronda Rousey brought new viewers to their sports.
Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College, said Ms. Clark’s success was “another event in a long line of events” that had boosted the acceptance of all women’s sports.
“There’s been a positive evolution since Title IX was passed in 1972,” Mr. Zimbalist said.
Unlike previous generations, Ms. Clark has been able to immediately reap the rewards of her fame because of an N.C.A.A. rule change in 2021 that allows college athletes to profit off their own name, image and likeness, including through product endorsements and sponsorship deals. Ms. Clark’s sponsorship deals — valued at $3 million, according to On3, a site that tracks N.I.L. deals — means she earns more than most W.N.B.A. players. (Her projected base salary for her rookie season is $76,000.)
Ms. Clark is hardly the first female basketball star to generate intense interest. The W.N.B.A. was founded in large part because of the popularity of women’s college basketball. Storied programs like the University of Tennessee and University of Connecticut collected multiple championships and featured stars like Tamika Catchings, Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker, Rebecca Lobo, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.
But the progress has come in fits and starts. In 1997, the W.N.B.A.’s inaugural season, average attendance was around 10,000. Three years later, the league expanded to 16 teams. In 2023, there were only 12 teams, and average attendance was less than 7,000. The 2023 finals averaged 728,000 viewers, an improvement from 2022 but fewer than the 2003 finals, which were watched by an average of 848,000.
Mr. Pachter said he didn’t think the audience for women’s basketball would reach hundreds of millions overnight. But he sees interest continuing to steadily grow, and can envision a future where a streaming service may try to own the exclusive rights to a league like the W.N.B.A. For that to happen, other stars need to step up to Ms. Clark’s level.
“You need three or four more, but they’re coming,” Mr. Pachter said. “They’re going to emerge because now we’re paying attention.”
#Womens #Basketball #Caitlin #Clarks #Lasting #Impact #Economic
A grand tour of Rome’s iconic sculptures often includes a few staples: the Vatican Museums’ writhing Laocoön; the Capitoline Museums’ Dying Gaul, taking his last breath; and Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Rape of Proserpina, with those indelible fingerprints left on the goddess’s leg.
But some statues that dot the Italian capital are lesser known. They may not offer much to look at, but they always have a lot to say. Six sculptures in particular, each with its own personality and name, were installed in Rome’s center around the time of the Renaissance and quickly became sites to express political discontent. Locals tacked disgruntled but clever verses onto the busts, writing satires that bemoaned the pope, the city’s bourgeoisie and the corrupt nature of those who held power. As a group, Abate Luigi, Pasquino, Il Facchino, Madama Lucrezia, Marforio and Il Babuino earned the nickname of Rome’s statue parlanti, or talking statues, not because they actually spoke, but because they gave the people a physical way to have an anonymous voice.
Of the six, it is Pasquino, the alleged head and torso of a Greek hero—likely the Mycenaean king Menelaus, carrying the body of fallen warrior Patroclus—that rose to the forefront. Mounted just steps away from the Piazza Navona, the statue stands near the Via Papalis, a papal processional route that was once “one of the most desirable and prestigious [Roman] streets on which to live or to have a business,” says Valeria Cafà, a former conservator at the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.
It was in this area that Cardinal Oliviero Carafa decided to build his estate, Palazzo Orsini, around the turn of the 16th century. During construction of this opulent structure, workers found the “turbaned or helmeted head and muscular upper torso and forelegs” of a sculpture, as well as “merely a slice of torso from below the breast to the upper edge of the pubic hair,” writes Leonard Barkan in Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture.
“The malformed and badly damaged figure was immediately recognized as a marble Hellenistic statue,” wrote scholar Christopher Gilbert in a 2015 paper on Pasquino’s rhetorical role. “Carafa had the statue installed in the Piazza Navona during celebrations for [the Feast of Saint Mark] and instituted a ceremonial routine of adorning it in mythic garb so that each year it assumed an ancient guise.” At the annual feast, workers dressed up and restored the torso and head, often in rudimentary ways, with stucco or papier-mâché.
The statue’s name is inspired by a historical figure who might have been “a schoolmaster, a teacher, a cobbler, a barber or some other vocation entirely,” according to Gilbert. Many chroniclers maintained that the real Pasquino was a tailor to the Roman court, someone who had access to the affairs of elite Romans and could serve as what Gilbert called “a folk messenger of sorts.”
Pasquino’s sculpted namesake occupied an “ambiguous role from the very beginning” of its Renaissance rediscovery, says Maddalena Spagnolo, an art historian at the University of Naples Federico II and the author of Pasquino in the Square: A Statue in Rome Between Art and Vituperation. Rome’s residents used the statue to both “support the pope and at the same time criticize the pope and his inner circle,” Spagnolo adds.
Despite never serving as pope himself, Carafa was one of the most powerful players in 15th- and 16th-century Rome. Born in Naples in 1430, he was elected cardinal in September 1467 and was known for his “erudition, as well as the integrity and piety of his life,” wrote scholar Anne Reynolds in a 1985 paper. “Although a serious candidate for the papacy on several occasions, Carafa never attained that position. His prestige and authority, however, were unquestionable.”
Pasquino’s mounting in the piazza can be dated to no later than 1501 by literary sources. But Spagnolo speculates that Carafa may have chosen to display Pasquino even earlier, around the time of Pope Alexander VI’s possesso in 1492, when the Christian spiritual leader officially assumed his duties in the city of Rome. On that day, the Borgia pope used the Via Papalis as a ceremonial route, similar to how the ancient Romans conducted their military triumphs through the Campus Martius.
“Everyone who had a house on the Via Papalis was supposed to show joy and agreement for the new pope,” Spagnolo says. Carafa’s installation of Pasquino paid homage to Alexander while simultaneously displaying the cardinal’s “power with this beautiful, huge palace” and accompanying ancient statue.
It didn’t take long for Pasquino to give voice to discontent instead of ceremonial joy. On August 13, 1501, the statue spoke his first words, as recorded in the Latin diary of Johann Burchard, master of ceremonies at the papal court. The lines referenced the Borgia family’s coat of arms (which features an ox), as well as the crest (featuring a wheel) of Cardinal Jorge da Costa, who was thought to be a potential successor to Alexander:
I predicted that you, an ox, would be pope.
And now I say that you will die if you leave this place.
The wheel, keeping pace with the herdsman, will follow.
The same message was then posted throughout different parts of the city, where it certainly had the intended effect.
“The pope was impressed by what he read on the paper on Pasquino, and he was very superstitious,” Spagnolo says. “He read this, and he decided to never leave Rome again.”
The problem with Pasquino has always been to what extent scholars can say that pasquinades, as the messages left near the statue are called, represented the feelings of the people rather than warring political factions. One fact is certain, according to Spagnolo: All of the political invectives against the pope that were tacked onto the talking statues and later published by scholars were “not written by poor people, but by people who were very much [involved in the] papal court.”
Famed satirist and self-described “Scourge of Princes” Pietro Aretino even “claimed Pasquino’s voice as his own,” wrote scholar Laurie Shepard in a 2016 journal article. This dispels the notion of the statue as the true spokesperson of the Roman populace, as he represented only a small segment of those already in the know. In fact, his messages may have been planted to further the aims of the powerful few. As Spagnolo points out, the initial pasquinade that kept Alexander in Rome for the rest of his life was planned by allies inside the Vatican.
Prominent pasquinades often skewered powerful families and the current pope, who was criticized for whatever his preferred method of corruption was. Under Urban VIII, who served as pope from 1623 to 1644 and was a member of the prominent Barberini family, Pasquino offered a succinct bon mot: “What the barbarians did not do, the Barberinis did.” This comment was likely a reaction to Urban’s choice to strip bronze from the Pantheon, “the only ancient Roman building that had survived more or less intact” into the 17th century, as Oxford Reference notes. The pope used the metal to build fortifications at Castel Sant’Angelo, arguing that it “was more important to defend the Holy See than to keep the rain out of the Pantheon porch.”
Laurie Nussdorfer, an emeritus historian at Wesleyan University, says the pasquinade was “a really wonderful comment from … people in the city that these antiquities are theirs. It’s not okay for the pope to just come in there and do things with them.”
Yet the perennial tension of where these messages originated persists. Spagnolo attributes the confusion in part to dissimulation, which was the papal court’s modus operandi. In many ways, she explains, the pasquinades were “the product of a cultivated milieu that imitated the language of the mob but expressed the views of one faction … or another and did not aim to attack the authority of the papacy.”
Wherever the satires came from, it was inevitably the common people who faced punishment if they were discovered with a pasquinade in hand. The authors were “impossible to find,” Spagnolo says, but even those who kept the notes in their pocket, repeated them to others or copied them could be found guilty of a crime. As Nussdorfer wrote in a 1987 journal article, in 1636, an aristocrat “lost his head in Rome merely for possessing a manuscript of pasquinades that made fun of Urban VIII’s government.” Proximity to Pasquino and his rhetoric carried inherent danger—but just how much danger depended on the level of power one had.
“It struck me in looking at the history of graffiti that there is a very deep culture of humor in Rome in particular and a deep culture of scratching the surface of public buildings and public statuary,” Gilbert tells Smithsonian magazine. “In the Renaissance itself, which was a moment of revival of art and architecture in an attempt to restore the glory of Rome, … you get a tradition of defacing all of that architecture.”
This defacement ruined Pasquino’s chances of one day being displayed in a museum, where the statue could perhaps be restored to its former glory. In the early 19th century, rampant debate over whether the statue should be moved to a museum ensued. Due to fear of backlash and never-ending pasquinades, and in recognition of the sculpture’s popular status (a descriptor derived from the Latin word populus, or the people), officials decided Pasquino was meant to stay in the piazza.
Pasquino’s fate differs from that of Marforio, the second-most famous of the talking statues and the only one housed in a museum: namely, Rome’s Capitoline Museums. A first-century reclining statue of a male god, likely the personification of the ocean or a river, the statue was discovered in the Forum of Augustus in the 16th century. It was first placed near the Piazza Venezia before being moved to its current home on the Capitoline Hill in the late 1500s. The hulking Marforio had a teasing, almost antagonistic relationship with Pasquino. The pair often sparred with each other in note form. In 1589, when the Tiber River flooded, Pasquino supposedly prayed to be placed up with Marforio in a protected spot. But the verdict was that the Roman people would not allow it. After all, says Spagnolo, Pasquino had a “sad and smelly tongue.”
The talking statues began to seep their way into the quotidian culture of Rome, of note even to foreign visitors. In 1667, Austrian lawyer Joahann Theodor Sprenger wrote about a trio of the sculptures, delineating their various audiences:
Pasquino has two rivals, one the Facchino on Via Lata,
the other Marforio on the Capitoline.
Pasquino is addressed to the aristocrats,
Marforio to the middle class,
Facchino to the peasants.
Much like Pasquino, each artwork carried its own folkloric connotation. Il Facchino portrayed a traditional Renaissance-era worker who toted fresh water from home to home. The sculpture’s origin is unknown, though observers once claimed that Michelangelo himself sculpted the humble water-bearer.
Madama Lucrezia, located by the Palazzo Venezia, is a colossal Roman bust that stands nearly ten feet tall. The statue depicts either the Empress Faustina or, more likely, the Egyptian goddess Isis. She takes her name from Lucrezia d’Alagno, a favorite of Alfonso V of Aragon. When Alfonso died in 1458, d’Alagno came to Rome, settling near the statue’s current home.
In typically gendered fashion, Madama Lucrezia, as the only female talking statue, is occasionally referred to as Pasquino’s paramour, Spagnolo says. But she also held an important political role in the eyes of the people. When French troops established the Roman Republic in 1798 and forced the pope into exile, Madama Lucrezia was toppled off her pedestal and plastered with the words “I can’t stand anymore.”
Abate Luigi, perhaps the most surprising candidate for talking statue status given his lack of a head, may have depicted a magistrate when he was created in the late imperial period. An inscription on the sculpture’s base does some of the talking for him:
I was once a citizen of ancient Rome,
and now everyone calls me Abbot Luigi.
I achieved eternal fame with Marforio and Pasquino with the urban satires.
I was insulted, disgraced and buried,
but here, I have a new life that is finally secure.
The last of the six talking statues is Il Babuino, or the baboon. Part of a fountain, the reclining sculpture of the faun Silenus was commissioned by merchant Alessandro Grandi around 1576. It soon took on a life and reputation of its own, leading locals to rename the street on which it stood from Via Clementina (an homage to Pope Clement VI) to Via del Babuino.
What makes Rome’s talking statues so remarkable is how much history they contain. Each sculpture carries the stories of the pasquinades affixed to its surface, as well as its own creation centuries or even millennia ago. It is a testament to Rome’s ever-present vitality that these statues remain in use today. As Google Arts & Culture notes, “Pasquino’s base is still covered in anti-government poems, snarky asides about enemies and complaints about community affairs.”
While scholars can’t confirm that Pasquino was always a site of genuine political protest, he endures as a beacon of hope, a physical space that offers power, however imagined, to the disenfranchised. In one prescient and touching pasquinade, Pasquino addressed his own role of serving as a voice of the people for as long as possible:
Xerxes’ army had not nearly as much wealth
As I have papers: I will soon become a bookseller.
No man in Rome is better than me. I ask for nothing from anyone else;
I am not wordy. I sit here and I’m silent.
You who wish to hang a song on this filled-up wall:
Be quick—I will be naked in a short time.
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If you’re an Elder Scrolls fan who has already played Skyrim a dozen times on a bunch of different platforms, perhaps it’s time to drop the controller and pick up the dice. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Adventure Game, a tabletop RPG adaptation of the iconic Bethesda game, is on sale for $92 (down from $140) at Amazon. This just about matches the best price ever for the tabletop RPG, as it was on sale for $91 for a brief period in late October last year.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Adventure Game is a cooperative game that lets you and a few friends explore Tamriel as members of the Blades. It’ll be up to you and your team to stop a new threat from swallowing up the world. You’ll earn treasure, accrue experience, and fight Daedra, Dragons, and Draugr along the way. Modiphius built the game with six chapters of two replayable campaigns, which span 25 years of Tamriel’s history and should give you plenty of reasons to dive back in for another playthrough.
Matches typically run between one and two hours and can be enjoyed by up to four players.
If you want to make the board game more visually appealing, you can snag the Miniatures Upgrade Set. This gets you dozens of updated mini-figures for your journey, including new sculpts for your playable characters. The set is currently on sale for $72 (down from $110).
For an Elder Scrolls board game that isn’t quite as expensive, check out Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms Core Box RPG. Call to Arms is designed for solo or two-player adventures, making it a great option for a nerdy date night or if you can’t round up the whole crew to play the Skyrim Adventure Game.
Here’s a quick look at the best Elder Scroll board game deals at Amazon. For even more Skyrim, check out The Skyrim Library box set, a gorgeous collection of three hardcover books that’s on sale for $56 (was $110) at Amazon. Elder Scrolls Online players should take a look at the two-volume box set centered on the lore of the MMO. It’s on sale for $40, down from $70.
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A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has bridged a knowledge gap in atomic-scale heat motion. This new understanding holds promise for enhancing materials to advance an emerging technology called solid-state cooling. The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.
An environmentally friendly innovation, solid-state cooling could efficiently chill many things in daily life, from food to vehicles to electronics—without traditional refrigerant liquids and gases or moving parts. The system would operate via a quiet, compact and lightweight system that allows precise temperature control.
Although the discovery of improved materials and the invention of higher-quality devices are already helping to promote the growth of the new cooling method, a deeper understanding of material enhancements is essential. The research team used a suite of neutron-scattering instruments to examine at the atomic scale a material that scientists consider to be an optimal candidate for use in solid-state cooling.
The material, a nickel-cobalt-manganese-indium magnetic shape-memory alloy, can be deformed and then returned to its original shape by driving it through a phase transition either by increasing temperature or by applying a magnetic field. When subjected to a magnetic field, the material undergoes a magnetic and structural phase transition, during which it absorbs and releases heat, a behavior known as the magnetocaloric effect.
In solid-state cooling applications, the effect is harnessed to provide refrigeration. A key characteristic of the material is its nearness to disordered conditions known as ferroic glassy states, because they present a way to enhance the material’s ability to store and release heat.
Magnons, also known as spin waves, and phonons, or vibrations, couple in a synchronized dance in small regions distributed across the disordered arrangement of atoms that comprise the material. The researchers found that patterns of behavior in these small regions, referred to as localized hybrid magnon-phonon modes in the team’s paper detailing the research, have important implications for the thermal properties of the material.
The scientists revealed that the modes cause the phonons to be significantly altered or shifted by the presence of a magnetic field. The modes also modify the material’s phase stability. These changes can result in fundamental alterations in the material’s properties and behavior that can be tuned and tailored.
“Neutron scattering shows that the cooling capacity of the magnetic shape-memory alloy is tripled by the heat contained within these local magnon-phonon hybrid modes that form because of the disorder in the system,” said ORNL’s Michael Manley, the leader of the study. “This finding reveals a path to make better materials for solid-state cooling applications for societal needs.”
The magnetic shape-memory alloy that the team studied is in a phase that has nearly formed disordered conditions known as spin glass and strain glass—not the familiar glass used in windows and elsewhere but rather unconventional phases of matter that lack order. The magnetic moments, or tiny magnets, associated with the atoms in the spin glass phase are randomly oriented rather than pointing in the same direction.
Comparatively, in the strain glass phase, the lattice of atoms is strained at the nanometer scale in a messy and irregular pattern. Spin glass and strain glass are referred to as frustrated conditions in a material because they arise from competing interactions or constraints that prevent the material from achieving a stable ordered state.
“As the material approaches this frustrated state, the amount of heat being stored increases,” Manley said. “Long- and short-range interactions manifest as localized vibrations and spin waves, which means they’re getting trapped in small regions. This is important because these extra localized vibrational states store heat. Changing the magnetic field triggers another phase transition in which this heat is released.”
Controlling the functions of the magnetic shape-memory alloy so that it can be used as a heat sponge could be one way to allow for efficient solid-state cooling without the need for traditional refrigerants or mechanical components.
More information:
Michael E. Manley et al, Hybrid magnon-phonon localization enhances function near ferroic glassy states, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn2840
Citation:
Scientists probe chilling behavior of promising solid-state cooling material (2024, July 1)
retrieved 6 July 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-scientists-probe-chilling-behavior-solid.html
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More than 100,000 travellers have seen their flight plans thrown into disarray as WestJet works to restore service from the long weekend strike, but the airline is warning that disruptions could stretch on for days.
The Calgary-based air carrier confirmed in a release Tuesday that a total of 1,137 flights have so far been cancelled before, during or after the long weekend strike that saw WestJet maintenance engineers take to the picket line.
A deal was reached between the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and the Calgary-based airliner on Sunday night, ending the 48-hour strike.
WestJet strike still impacting travellers at Vancouver airport
Despite intervention from the federal government to impose binding arbitration between the parties ahead of the July long weekend, the Canada Industrial Relations Board had allowed the strike to go ahead. The deal was reached without need for binding arbitration, said Ian Evershed, a spokesperson with AMFA, in a statement to Global News on Tuesday.
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The strike saw chaos at Canadian airports for thousands of passengers who had airfare booked with WestJet over the weekend, the start of the busy summer travel season.
Deal reached in WestJet mechanics strike, passengers still stranded
The airline said it had cancelled 1,054 flights scheduled between Thursday and Monday. Some 75 flights were cancelled as of noon Eastern time on Tuesday, with eight trips already scratched for Wednesday.
With some 680 maintenance workers on strike over the weekend, the airline said it grounded 130 jets at 13 airports over the weekend. As of Tuesday, 125 aircraft out of WestJet’s 180-jet fleet were active.
It’s going to take time to get back up to full operations, WestJet warned in a statement Monday.
“Given the significant impact to WestJet’s network over the past few days, returning to business-as-usual flying will take time and further disruptions over the coming week are to be anticipated as the airline gets aircraft and crew back into position,” the airline said.
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Evershed said in an email Tuesday that AMFA members are not the cause for the hold-up. All maintenance engineers have reported back to work and are “doing everything they can to safely get the airline up and running,” he said.
John Gradek, an aviation management professor at McGill University, tells Global News that it’s “no trivial task” for an airline to ramp up operations after a stoppage like this. In addition to calling back maintenance workers, flight attendants and pilots, he explains that parked aircraft in hangars spread across the country need to go through a full mechanical inspection before they can get back in the air.
Even when WestJet is able to run its typical schedule again, it now has the additional task of having to reschedule travel for tens of thousands of disrupted passengers from the weekend. Gradek says that many of WestJet’s existing flights this week are likely already booked up, and the carrier might have to book customers on competitors’ flights to get travellers to their final destinations.
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Gradek says he expects it could take up to a week and a half before the issues are resolved.
“It’s going to be one, a long process, and two, an expensive process, for WestJet,” he said.
WestJet flights resume
Some passengers who were left stranded over the weekend may have limited recourse.
Speaking to Global News last week before the strike began, Sylvie de Bellefeuille, director of legal services at Montreal-based consumer rights group Option consommateurs, said a labour dispute is usually considered out of a carrier’s control under Canada’s Airline Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR).
An airline must offer to rebook a traveller within the next 48 hours on the next available flight, she said, and a passenger is entitled to reimbursement if the flight can’t be rebooked within that period. WestJet confirmed Tuesday that it would offer refunds to customers who couldn’t be rebooked within the 48-hour window.
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But unlike disruptions during the labour stoppage, Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group, told the Canadian Press that WestJet is to blame for the travel woes Tuesday. He said it’s reasonable for the airline to take up to 24 hours to ramp back up, but not much longer.
“That grace period has long passed. WestJet now has to deliver. If they’re not able to deliver, that’s fully within WestJet’s control and it is not a safety issue. It’s just not managing their business well.”
For flights cancelled post-strike, Lukacs said WestJet is responsible for providing meals and accommodation, up to $1,000 in compensation, plus rebooking a flight that departs within nine hours of the original departure time on the carrier’s network or that of its competitors.
“If they don’t do it, the passenger can go out, buy a ticket for themselves, and then they can get a judge to order WestJet to pay up,” he said.
Martin Firestone, president of Travel Secure Inc., told Global News last week that travel insurance may cover trip cancellation or interruption due to the strike, but only if it was purchased before the threat of the work stoppage was a “known cause.” Anything coverage purchased on short notice in the lead-up to the strike is unlikely to recoup much in a claim, he said.
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WestJet might have a number of fuming customers seeking compensation for car rentals and hotel stays during the strike period, Gradek says. Beyond its APPR obligations, he suggests the airline may have to offer additional recourse to keep its reputation from taking a nosedive.
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“Depending how it handles all of these claims for compensation and for refunds and all kinds of stuff, that’ll be fairly telling in terms of damage control that WestJet has to undertake.”
Global News reached out to WestJet for comment on how it plans to compensate customers for the strike disruptions but has yet to receive a response.
In a statement announcing the end of the strike, the AMFA thanked Canadians for their patience over the weekend.
“We believe this outcome would not have been possible without the strike, but we do regret the disruption and inconvenience it has caused the traveling public over the Canada Day holiday period. The timing was coincidental as the negotiation process did not follow a predictable timeline,” the statement read.
Gradek says that WestJet played a bit of “Russian roulette” by letting the threat of a strike linger until the long weekend. The airline might’ve been hoping that federal government intervention would skirt a strike, but the CIRB’s decision to uphold the strike mandate “backfired” on the carrier, he says.
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“It was a calculated risk on the part of WestJet. They lost,” Gradek says.
The union had also previously accused the airline of “brinkmanship” as negotiations stalled in the lead-up to the Canada Day long weekend.
Cancellations continue despite WestJet strike ending
Global News also asked WestJet whether it was counting on federal government intervention to avert a long weekend strike but has yet to receive comment.
The airline had said previously in a statement Sunday that the strike served “no purpose other than to inflict maximum damage to our airline and the country.” It added that it was looking for the federal government to weigh in on whether binding arbitration and a strike could exist simultaneously.
WestJet added in its statement on Monday that a “lack of clarity from the government and the decisions taken by the CIRB allowed for a strike to occur amidst binding arbitration.
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“With no path forward to resolution, both parties made essential movements to find common ground and achieve an agreement,” the airline said.
Global News reached out to Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan Jr. to ask for his response to WestJet’s claims. A spokesperson for his office responded to say that the minister would have “more to say in the coming days” about the resolution and any action he might take but could not provide further comment or a timeline for the response.
O’Regan had previously expressed frustration Monday in a post on X that the strike had worn Canadians’ patience “too thin.”
“Collective bargaining is the responsibility of the parties. The responsibility of the government is to facilitate and mediate that bargaining. The parties finally did their jobs,” he wrote.
WestJet issues persist for Alberta travellers
— with files from Global News’ Uday Rana and Aaron Sousa and The Canadian Press
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