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16 Feb 10:14

Open oordopjes zijn een hit: Bose Ultra Open Earbuds en meer

by Gonny van der Zwaag | iCulture.nl

De afgelopen tijd kondigen meerdere fabrikanten open oordopjes aan. Ze hangen buiten je oor, zodat je muziek kunt luisteren en tegelijk nog alle omgevingsgeluiden hoort. Voorbeelden zijn de pas aangekondigde Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, de Huawei FreeClip en Baseus

Het artikel Open oordopjes zijn een hit: Bose Ultra Open Earbuds en meer verscheen voor het eerst op iCulture

09 Nov 08:33

Replicating two of history’s most iconic BattleBots with the Arduino UNO R4

by Arduino Team

When the BattleBots TV show first hit the airwaves in 2000, it felt like we were finally living in the future. Engineers and enterprising hobbyists from around the world would compete to build the most destructive robots, which then entered into televised mortal combat within an arena. The original series had many notable robots, but two of those most iconic were DeathRoll and Hydra. Max Imagination replicated those on a small scale for mini living room battles.

BattleBots competitors could win their matches by either damaging their opponents to the point where they could no longer operate, or by making them unable to move. The most popular way to achieve that second goal was by flipping over the opposing robot and that is the tactic used by both DeathRoll and Hydra. DeathRoll did so with a spinning disc that catches on its opponents body, while Hydra used a hydraulic arm like a pancake spatula to flip opponents.

Max Imagination wanted to create faithful reproductions of both bots, but at a size small enough to be 3D-printed. Because hydraulics are difficult at this scale, Hydra’s flipping arm is spring-actuated and cocked with a motor-driven gear mechanism. Otherwise, both replicas work in the same way as their bigger ancestors.

Each robot takes advantage of the new Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board for control. Max Imagination programmed those with self-hosted web interfaces, so users can pilot the bots through smartphones. The bodies were designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 to be entirely 3D-printable and Max Imagination is even selling those models for anyone who wants to construct their own fighting robots.

The post Replicating two of history’s most iconic BattleBots with the Arduino UNO R4 appeared first on Arduino Blog.

24 Sep 14:52

Herman is extreem purpose gedreven maar tevens een komodovaraan dus ja

by Alexander Brandenburg

Goed voor de business én de wereld. Dat zijn de kernwaarden van Herman, die zichzelf omschrijft als extreem purpose gedreven. 'Het verhaal' vindt hij belangrijker dan winstmaximalisatie. Continu staat hij in contact met zijn 'why'. Behalve nu, want zijn beperkte reptielenbrein is compleet in beslag genomen door het karkas van de gedode waterbuffel die voor hem ligt. Langzaam maar efficiënt schraapt de komodovaraan het rottende vlees van de beenderen van zijn prooi. Zijn ambitie om in co-creatie met de stakeholders duurzaam te valoriseren, staat als idealistisch dessert in de ijskast te wachten.

Blijf globaal op de hoogte met onze nieuwsbrief!

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08 Nov 08:47

Design for Coastal Cleanup in Colombia

by Ana Milena Trujillo Castro

Research in the Pacific coast of Colombia revealed conservation challenges that may have solutions in human-centered design. 


The journey to Bahía Málaga started in Bogotá, Colombia, carrying one bag heavy with non-perishable foods, clothes for warm weather, rain boots and my hammock. After 20 hours on the bus, I had my first view of the impressive port of Buenaventura. I knew then that I was on the Pacific Colombian coast, where humpback whales are born, luminescent plankton glow in the waves at night and still-unidentified species of crabs inhabit the mangroves. But this was not my final destination. This was where I had a boat to catch.

After 50 minutes on a boat, I arrived at the town of Juan Chaco and felt many things happening at the same time. I saw a landscape full of estuaries and felt the humidity on my skin and in my lungs. There were bustling tourists, the expectant Afro-Colombian community, trash bonfires on the beach, and mosquitoes that fed on me. But I hadn’t yet arrived at my destination, so I needed to put my rain boots on for a walk through the jungle. In some stretches along the path that passed by water springs, the mud almost reached my knees.

I finally came to the house of Pocho Vázquez, Willy Vázquez, and Rommy Schrieber; the family that has served as caretakers of the biodiversity of the area for more than a decade. In their household, they eat arepas every morning and the conversations about what was and is now the landscape are a constant and controversial theme.

From the left, Ana Trujillo, Doña Hilda, Rommy Schrieber, and Luz Dary Mosquera stand in front of the Ecopazifico recycling station. Photo courtesy of Ana Trujillo

Rommy Schrieber founded Ecopazifico NGO eight years ago with the health of the surrounding coastal waters in mind. On one of our walks in the jungle, she said to me with conviction, “Whales need and deserve to be born in clean water, we have to do something to make this happen.” during my 11 days there I came to understand the social, political, environmental and technical processes that implies.

A trash-strewn beach

Walking barefoot on the beach I got to know some of the 1167 people from the community and about how Ecopazifico has impacted their lives directly. From that community, 263 volunteers collaborate with EcoPazifico, picking up trash that washes ashore with their hands during clean-ups led by the community’s beach rangers. They collected 23,118 kg of waste from 2021 to today. (Data from Ecopazifico app). Not every time, but sometimes it is possible to find the waste already separated among the 17 recycling stations that have been installed all across the town.

The community is not the only source of the trash. Tourists are responsible for a large part of it too, since tourism is the most common source of income in a region with an unemployment rate of 11.8 percent, and the department of Valle del Cauca to which Juan Chaco belongs, has a multidimensional poverty rate of 8.6 percent according to DANE data. Ecopazifico has discovered that the majority of the trash is coming from Buenaventura, with the rest floating in from further afield, including Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica, and even trash from Asia has been found around the beach.

Bottles are the bulk of the trash. Glass bottles represent 30.68 percent, and plastic bottles are 29.7 percent. Other trash, in order of quantity, include plastic bags (16.61 percent), metal (9.67 percent), Styrofoam (6.92 percent), flip-flops (2.41 percent), cardboard (2.34 percent) and bottle caps (1.6 percent).

And what to do with all this waste? The village does not have an aqueduct, all the water they use in their homes comes from rainwater catchment systems. Waste management systems are not a priority, yet. So, the easiest solutions are to burn the trash in bonfires on the beach or throw it into the sea.

Residents and visitors to Juan Chaco take part in the research and design of solutions to the community’s trash and recycling challenges. Photo courtesy of Ana Trujillo

Two clear needs

The two clear needs the community has now are improved waste management, and better income opportunities to reduce unemployment and multidimensional poverty.

Several initiatives are working now to address to meet both needs. The construction of a recycling center is a joint project carried out by several civil society and non-governmental organizations including Ecopazifico, Juan Manglar and givepower. The recycling center will operate with solar energy, and it will include technologies that transform and re-use some of the materials collected as trash in Juan Chaco. Plastic shredders and injectors are already in place. Glass bottles comprise a large part of the trash collected, and I have been involved in the design of a bottle crusher to convert the bottles into a saleable material. Research into the bottle issue has revealed opportunities for using pulverized glass as a replacement for sand in cement mixtures and sandblasters.

Human-centered R&D

I have been working with the community and other volunteers on the design of the bottle crusher. The research and development have included calculations and selection of materials, CAD modeling, fabrication drawings, structural analysis and budget. When the work is finished, we will make recommendations for the construction of the machine in the coming months.

New technology does not guarantee a solution that works for everyone, of course. For more equitable progress, I believe that community ownership of these technologies is what is really important. Solutions that work stem from a true understanding of the community’s needs. So, it is necessary, for example, to design a glass-crushing machine with members of the community so that it fits their interests.

I applied user-centered design methods to generate empathy with the future operators of the machines, improve our communication and provide them with appropriate technology. Reflecting on their past experiences was very interesting as well. The construction of a recycling center has been in the community’s plans for many years, but so far it has not materialized. The reasons for the delay are numerous. As an example, I found an unused trash compactor in the place designated as the future recycling center. It was donated six years ago by another organization, but the community was not able to install it and use it properly. They are just waiting to dismantle it to sell it as scrap.

Residents of Juan Chaco engage in a human-centered workshop, identifying the needs of the community and how to meet them. Photo: Ana Trujillo / E4C

Change is coming

Thinking about change is easy, and dreaming about it is much easier. The challenge is to understand it and then execute it with conviction. The biodiversity found in this place is unique and the community has a rich culture. The technologies needed to meet their needs already exist, so the innovation needed is in the way they are introduced and applied. I am confident that the change will be progressive. Whales will give birth in clean water, and beyond that, the community, tourists and everyone else will thrive in a clean and sustainable environment.


About the Author

Ana Milena Trujillo Castro is a mechanical engineer based in Bogotá, Colombia, and a former Fellow at Engineering for Change in 2022.

The post Design for Coastal Cleanup in Colombia appeared first on Engineering For Change.

11 Apr 19:04

Life Advice from NYC Chess Hustlers

by Jason Kottke

Anne Kadet interviewed some chess hustlers in Washington Square Park about their chess work in the park and what they’ve learned about life playing chess.

If you want a game, I say one game, five dollars, five minutes. So we play a five-minute game for five dollars. If you said you don’t want no clock, I might say I give you one game, $10, because without the clock, it’s longer. You’re wasting time.

Some people say $5 to the winner. That means, we play each other and whoever wins gets the $5. That’s tricky, because I don’t know how strong you are. You might beat me and I lose $5. I’ve wasted time AND I’ve lost money! So I’m one of those people who don’t say $5 to the winner.

I’ll give you a lesson, a half hour for $20. I have some children that come just to see me once a week and I give them a lesson — $20 for a half hour. And there’s a lot of NYU students that come by, we give them a discount for being students. One hour for 40 bucks.

Marcel A. offered this advice that applies to nearly any situation:

The one thing I tell my students is that when you get to a confrontation of any type, you have to remain calm. When you remain calm, you can see the board a lot clearer. You can see the person you’re playing or arguing with a lot more clearly, for who and what they are. So you don’t even have to entertain that shit. You understand?

Nathaniel W. shares what he’s learned about people:

They timid, they’re not willing to take a chance. See this? [He moves a pawn forward one space.] That means sometimes people don’t want to be hurt. They have a fear of losing.

And E.G.G.S. offers perhaps the wisest advice of all:

I’m stuck right now. I can’t give any life advice.

The whole thing is worth a read.

See also The Last Chess Shop in NYC. (via fave 5)

Tags: Anne Kadet   chess   interviews   NYC   working
11 Apr 19:04

This Lakers Season Was A Trainwreck — And There’s No Easy Way To Get Back On Track

by Jared Dubin and Neil Paine

NBA

This Lakers Season Was A Trainwreck — And There's No Easy Way To Get Back On Track

By Jared Dubin and Neil Paine and Jared Dubin and Neil Paine

Los Angeles Lakers v Cleveland Cavaliers
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers failed to make the playoffs after a season that fell far short of expectations.

Jason Miller / Getty Images

No NBA team was more disappointing this season than the Los Angeles Lakers. L.A. opened the season among the inner circle of favorites to win the NBA championship, joining the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks as the only teams with better than 10-to-1 title odds, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Alas, the Lakers won’t even get to participate in the play-in tournament, let alone the playoffs or the NBA Finals.

The degree to which they fell short of expectations is not quite unprecedented, but still makes this among the small handful of most disappointing seasons in recent memory. The Lakers underperformed their preseason over/under by 19.5 wins. But it wasn’t just the betting markets that thought highly of the Lakers. While there were plenty of skeptics of the Russell Westbrook trade, L.A. was nevertheless predicted to finish at or near the top of the Western Conference standings by a great many prognosticators.

Just about the only expectations the Lakers did not dramatically underperform were those of the FiveThirtyEight RAPTOR-based prediction model — but even RAPTOR did not project that they would finish below .500 and miss both the playoffs and play-in tournament entirely. Instead, we predicted a 42-40 finish. Our model did, however, pretty much nail the single-biggest reason L.A. disappointed so badly. As we wrote in our season preview:

The model does not like this version of the team. L.A. has the ninth-best projected record in the conference, which would have the Lakers once again competing in the play-in tournament. The reason behind that: RAPTOR views LeBron James and Anthony Davis as the only net-positive players on the roster during the regular season. The model is particularly low on Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony, who are projected to play sizable roles.

Navigate over to our RAPTOR leaderboard for this season, and you’ll see that among those who played at least 750 minutes this season, James and Davis are the only Lakers who rated plus-2.0 or better. That’s a dramatic drop-off from the previous two seasons, when the Lakers had five (James, Davis, Danny Green, Alex Caruso and JaVale McGee in 2019-20) and four (James, Davis, Caruso and Montrezl Harrell the following season) players rated plus-2.0 or better. Not only that, but after having four (James, Davis, Green and Dwight Howard) and three (James, Davis and Harrell) rated as positives on both offense and defense in the last two seasons, the Lakers had two (James and Austin Reaves, the latter just barely) this year.28 Westbrook, meanwhile, was worth negative-3.1 points per 100 possessions, one of five players rated negative-2.0 or worse.

Fewer Lakers made positive contributions this year

Offensive, defensive and total RAPTOR ratings for regular members* of the Los Angeles Lakers rotation by regular season since 2019-20

2019-20
PLAYER MINUTES OFF. DEF. TOT.
LeBron James 2,316 +6.3 +0.7 +7.1
Anthony Davis 2,131 +2.0 +3.7 +5.7
Alex Caruso 1,175 -0.8 +4.4 +3.5
Danny Green 1,687 +0.4 +2.3 +2.7
JaVale McGee 1,130 -0.3 +2.9 +2.6
Dwight Howard 1,306 +0.5 +0.7 +1.2
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 1,762 -0.3 -0.3 -0.6
Avery Bradley 1,186 -1.5 +0.7 -0.8
Kyle Kuzma 1,526 -1.9 -0.1 -2.0
Rajon Rondo 984 -0.8 -2.8 -3.6
Markieff Morris 1,187 -1.4 -2.2 -3.7
2020-21
PLAYER MINUTES OFF. DEF. TOT.
LeBron James 1,504 +5.3 +0.3 +5.6
Anthony Davis 1,162 +1.1 +2.9 +4.0
Montrezl Harrell 1,580 +1.5 +2.0 +3.4
Alex Caruso 1,216 -1.3 +4.4 +3.0
Marc Gasol 993 -1.8 +3.1 +1.3
Andre Drummond 1,242 -1.9 +2.4 +0.5
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 1,902 -0.3 +0.5 +0.2
Wesley Matthews 1,130 -1.8 +1.6 -0.2
Talen Horton-Tucker 1,304 -1.3 +1.1 -0.2
Dennis Schröder 1,956 +0.1 -0.2 -0.2
Markieff Morris 1,200 -2.7 -0.4 -3.0
Kyle Kuzma 1,954 -3.0 -0.1 -3.1
Ben McLemore 905 -1.2 -2.5 -3.6
2021-22
PLAYER MINUTES OFF. DEF. TOT.
LeBron James 2,084 +4.6 +0.1 +4.7
Anthony Davis 1,404 -0.4 +2.8 +2.3
Austin Reaves 1,418 +0.1 +1.6 +1.7
Malik Monk 2,139 +1.8 -1.3 +0.4
Stanley Johnson 1,094 -0.7 +0.2 -0.5
Dwight Howard 971 -0.1 -1.5 -1.7
Carmelo Anthony 1,793 +0.1 -1.8 -1.8
Wayne Ellington 810 -1.3 -0.8 -2.1
Talen Horton-Tucker 1,511 -2.4 +0.0 -2.4
Russell Westbrook 2,678 -1.2 -2.0 -3.1
Avery Bradley 1,406 -2.8 -0.9 -3.7
D.J. Augustin 883 -1.5 -5.7 -7.2

*Minimum 750 minutes played.

Source: NBA advanced stats

Beyond lacking depth and two-way contributors, the Lakers did not get the performances they might have reasonably expected out of their stars. After adding 7.1 and 5.6 points per 100 possessions to his team’s performance the past two regular seasons, James added only 4.7 this year. That’s quite good, but also outside the top 10 players leaguewide. And after Davis was worth 5.7 and 4.0 points per 100 possessions to L.A.’s scoring margin in 2019-20 and 2020-21, he was worth just 2.3 points per 100 this season, and also missed large chunks of the season due to injury. That’s not bad, but surely the Lakers expected Davis to be worth more than, say, Kevin Love. This is in part because James and Davis combined to play only 3,488 minutes, which was more than they played last year but fell far short of the 4,447 they played during the Lakers’ title season. After playing in more than 94 percent of his teams’ regular-season games through the first 15 years of his career, James had played only 74 percent of Laker games entering this season. (He played 68 percent of games this year.) Davis, meanwhile, has now missed 88 of 226 regular-season games since arriving in L.A.

It’s notable that the only two non-James-and-Davis players who rated as net positives were rookie Austin Reaves and fifth-year guard Malik Monk, two of only three rotation players on the team who were under 25 years old this season. The team L.A. built was extremely old, with a minutes-weighted age of 30.2 years old, according to Basketball-Reference.com. That made the Lakers the oldest team in the league this season by nearly a full year, as well as tied for the 36th-oldest team (out of 1,260) since the NBA-ABA merger prior to the 1976-77 season.

Building such an old roster carries risk, as evidenced by not just this team but similarly aged teams of the past. Using a metric called Wins Above Age-Derived Expectation, or WAADE,29 we can see that the 49 teams since 1976-77 with a minutes-weighted age above 30 years old have combined to underperform expectations by an average of 3.11 wins per season. This particular Lakers team underperformed by 19.82 wins, which ranks 1,202nd out of the 1,260 team seasons in the database. It’s the ninth-worst mark since the 2010-11 season — and it gives the Lakers three of the 10 worst WAADE seasons since then.

The Lakers’ age was a problem for them

NBA teams since 2010-11 with the lowest Wins Above Age-Derived Expectation, or WAADE, along with minutes-adjusted age and record

Season Team Age Wins Losses WAADE
2014-15 New York Knicks 26.9 17 65 -25.99
2015-16 Los Angeles Lakers 26.5 17 65 -24.14
2011-12 Charlotte Hornets 24.5 9 73 -23.45
2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers 26.6 19 63 -22.61
2017-18 Dallas Mavericks 27.7 24 56 -22.48
2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers 27.0 21 61 -22.45
2015-16 Brooklyn Nets 26.9 21 61 -21.99
2020-21 Houston Rockets 26.5 19 63 -21.79
2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers 30.2 33 49 -19.82
2016-17 Brooklyn Nets 26.0 20 62 -18.79

Source: Basketball-Reference.com

The worst Laker season among those included here was the 2015-16 campaign, also known as Kobe Bryant’s farewell season. That was the nadir of Lakers basketball, and the organization spent the next two seasons both stockpiling young talent and clearing cap space for a run at James.

We can use RAPTOR wins above replacement to map out the Lakers’ rise to the top and subsequent fall from grace, going back to Bryant’s final season. From the end of that 17-win debacle through the team’s 2020 title run, L.A. added an average of 10 net wins per 82 games each season, via a combination of internal improvement (5.2 extra wins per year) and savvy acquisitions outweighing departing talent (4.8 wins per year).

How the Lakers rose up — and then fell off

Net year-over-year RAPTOR wins above replacement (per 82 games) added or subtracted by various player types for the Los Angeles Lakers, 2016-22

Net WAR/82 from…
Season Prev. WAR/82 Newcomers Returnees Departures Total WAR/82
2016-17 3.8 +0.2 +5.6 +2.1 +8.0 11.8
2017-18 11.8 +15.0 +9.0 -11.0 +13.0 24.7
2018-19 24.7 +11.0 +0.1 -11.2 -0.1 24.6
2019-20 24.6 +20.1 +6.0 -6.9 +19.2 43.8
2020-21 43.8 +13.6 -10.9 -12.1 -9.4 34.4
2021-22 34.4 +7.6 -2.0 -20.6 -15.0 19.4

RAPTOR WAR is for regular season only.

Source: NBA advanced stats

Unsurprisingly, acquiring James for the 2018-19 season made a significant impact. He was worth +8.3 net wins per 82, and the additions of Davis (+10.8) and Green (+5.5) further bolstered the roster for 2019-20, to go with James’s own bounce back from injury (worth +5.1 net wins of internal improvement). As they built to a championship, the Lakers’ returning players always improved year-over-year, and the value of their new acquisitions almost always ran up a big margin over the cost of their departing talent. That formula is how you go from 3.8 WAR per 82 to 43.8 WAR per 82 in the span of just four seasons.

But the years since have not been as kind in this accounting. Between 2019-20 and 2020-21, L.A.’s returning talent got worse by nearly 11 net wins per 82 games, causing the team to fall off by nearly 10 WAR overall despite its newcomers continuing to outproduce its departures in terms of production. (Injuries to James and Davis explained essentially all of this drop-off.) And the bottom completely fell out this season, with another dip for returning players and a massive deficit of more than 13 wins per 82 for newcomers relative to departures. (Hello, Westbrook; goodbye, Harrell, Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, among others.)

Amazingly, the Lakers’ decline to 19.4 WAR per 82 games this season leaves them worse off now than they were at the end of the 2017-18 season (24.7 WAR per 82), the year before they added James. In essence, all of the gains Los Angeles made in WAR during the immediate lead-up to its 2020 championship have since been lost — and then some.

The question, then, is how do the Lakers get themselves out of this mess? The answer is … well, there might not be one. L.A. has only five players under contract for next season — James, Davis, Westbrook (assuming he picks up his $47 million player option), Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn — but those five combine to put the Lakers well over the projected salary cap, and they carry enough of a cap hit that merely signing minimum contracts to fill out the roster would bring the team’s total salary over the luxury tax line.

Is there a Westbrook trade out there similar to the one the Lakers themselves made last offseason? It seems unlikely that anyone will be lining up to take on his gigantic salary commitment — let alone giving up assets to do so, as the Lakers did. They might instead have to attach first-round picks to Westbrook to get another team to take on his money (and likely negotiate a buyout). The problem is that the Lakers already owe their 2022 pick to either the Pelicans (if it falls between No. 1 and 10) or Grizzlies (between No. 11 and 30), while the Pelicans also own swap rights to L.A.’s top 2023 pick and the 2024 pick outright.

Once the 2022 draft passes, the Lakers gain an extra first-rounder they can throw into trade offers. But with James under contract only through next season, they may want to hang onto those assets so they have something in the chamber to build around Davis, should James decide to leave after next year so he can eventually go play his final season with his son, Bronny. James is extension-eligible this offseason, but it’s hard to see him wanting to commit to additional years with the Lakers, given the state of the roster.

And there’s also the question of whether the Lakers should even want to commit to James beyond next year. He is now regularly missing games, his performance is beginning to drop off from “best player in the world” to “one of the best players in the world” levels, and he’s unlikely to get better as he approaches 40 years old. But if James is not the foundation of the team’s next few years, who is? Davis can’t be counted on to stay healthy, either, and the young players who performed well this season are not under contract beyond this year.

Davis has already had to address potential trade speculation, and it’s possible that a Davis deal could be the Lakers’ best way out of this mess. But even sending him elsewhere for a package of players and picks would almost certainly not make the Lakers a better team next season, and it’s hard to imagine such a deal netting them a long-term commitment from LeBron. It also wouldn’t solve the Westbrook issue, nor would it deliver an answer regarding the best coach for this team going forward, with L.A. parting ways with Frank Vogel. Then there’s the overarching question of whether the front office is even capable of building a winner. After all, the Lakers landed James in free agency in 2018 largely because of their location in Southern California, not their shrewd management.

Barring a similar stroke of fortune, the Lakers will have to do the hard work of rebuilding their roster — and do it without the kind of assets teams often need to build winners. It’s an unenviable task made all the more difficult by the organization’s unfamiliarity with its current circumstances. The franchise has almost always been one that is smiled upon by the Basketball Gods, with stars seemingly lining up to play in Forum blue and gold for decades. But the Forum is long gone, these Lakers are not those Lakers, and it’s unlikely that there’s a savior on the horizon. There’s no easy way out of this predicament, and thus no clear path back to contention.

Check out our latest NBA predictions.

17 Mar 17:49

Hospitals Bombed and Apartments Destroyed: Mapping Incidents of Civilian Harm in Ukraine

by Bellingcat Investigation Team
In the central Ukrainian city of Uman, a bloodied body lies lifeless in the street. It’s February 24, and Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has just begun. Debris is strewn across the road and the windows of nearby cars have been shattered. CCTV footage from a nearby shop shows a huge explosion took place here at just after 7am local time. A crater, clearly visible in social media video, appears to confirm a rocket was the cause of the explosion, taking the life of the individual lying motionless nearby.

Two days later in Melitopol, a camera is pointed at the front of a hospital in the centre of the city. The rapid patter of gunfire can be heard as the shaky footage focuses on what is described as the hospital’s oncology department. A number of unidentified munitions strike the building leading to several small explosions. The camera pans around and a giant red cross that adorns the hospital entrance is visible. This menacing and chaotic scene is captured by an individual standing outside residential apartment blocks that look on to the facility.

Bellingcat has been documenting and logging incidents such as these – which have been posted to social media channels – and others that appear to depict incidents of civilian impact or harm since the beginning of the conflict. 

Rescuers carry a wounded person on the stretcher as they respond to shelling in central Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, on March 1, 2022. (Photo by Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Ukrinform/NurPhoto)

Some detail incidents of extreme violence as they take place while others appear to show the aftermath of missile strikes or shootings. 

With more videos and images coming to light each day, Bellingcat and members of its Global Authentication Project have begun to log and map these incidents on an interactive TimeMap.

You can explore the interactive TimeMap below or click here to see it in its original (full screen) format.

The Global Authentication Project consists of a community of open source researchers assisting in Bellingcat research through structured tasks and feedback. For this dataset, we are working with many individuals who have Ukrainian language skills and others with local contextual knowledge of the events and places seen on the map. Other participants include individuals skilled in geolocation and chronolocation, with all contributions being vetted by Bellingcat researchers. 

The aim of this project is to detail incidents where there is open source evidence of potential civilian harm in Ukraine, as well as attempting to clarify where and when such events took place. Documenting these incidents is important given claims by the Russian government in particular that it is not seeking to attack civilians and avoid impacting civilian infrastructure

Readers are invited to explore the map by date and location. It must be noted that only events that have been pictured, captured on video or posted to social media are included in Bellingcat’s dataset. It is likely that there will be many other instances of civilian harm that are not documented on video or on social media and therefore not included in the TimeMap. 

Even accounting for that caveat, the number of incidents detailed in our dataset and TimeMap at time of initial publication is already significant.

We will continue to update our dataset and the TimeMap as the conflict progresses. The map will also remain online after the conflict ends.

How Does the TimeMap Work?

Each dot on the map represents an incident of civilian damage or harm and the location where that incident took place. By clicking on a dot, readers will be presented with information about an incident, often including one or more embedded links to footage or images depicting what happened.

A screen grab of the TimeMap showing a selected incident.

As the footage within selected events has been embedded from social media posts, any views that may be contained within them are not those of Bellingcat or our partners. It is also important to note that any claims within the posts have not necessarily been confirmed or verified by Bellingcat. This is particularly the case in relation to posts that state which party may have been responsible for the incidents detailed. The accompanying description simply details the elements that are objectively observable in the footage. 

As described in the methodology section that follows, if a user removes the embedded footage from social media it will no longer be visible in the TimeMap format. However, the incident and its description will remain on the TimeMap. A copy of each post will also be archived should they be relevant for any justice and accountability process that may arise in the future (again, these archived posts will not be displayed publicly).

A screen grab of the TimeMap where a post has been deleted.

Users can configure the timeline at the bottom of the map to hone in on incidents that took place on particular dates. By clicking on a specific day, a list of the incidents that are logged for that 24-hour-period will appear on the right hand side of the screen.

A screen grab of the TimeMap focussing in on incidents that took place on a single day.

In some instances, where video or images could potentially reveal the identity or personal location of a content creator, we have taken steps to protect their privacy while still including information about the type of incident that took place.

A screen grab of the TimeMap where a source has been protected.

Users can also view incidents by week, two-week, one-month and three-month periods by clicking on those options to the right of the timeline feature at the bottom of the map.

If users are interested in locating incidents in specific cities, zooming in on the target location is recommended. This provides a far more localised overview than viewing the map from the default perspective that shows the entire country of Ukraine.

A screen grab of the TimeMap focussed in on incidents that have been documented in the city of Kyiv.

Filters on the left side of the screen also allow users to search the TimeMap by specific types of incident. For example, filters allow for incidents that impacted residential, industrial, healthcare facilities, and more, to be selected. These will then appear on the map with other results filtered out.

Filters are depicted on the left hand side of the TimeMap.

If the type of munition or weapon that caused civilian harm or damage can be ascertained with a degree of confidence, this will also be listed in the incident profile. Users can use filters to search for particular types of weapons systems that may have been deployed such as cluster munitions, cruise missiles or even small arms.

More filters are depicted on the left hand side of the TimeMap.

The TimeMap Methodology

Scope of Research 

This database, organised on Forensic Architecture’s TimeMap platform and customised for this project, is focused on incidents in Ukraine that have resulted in potential civilian harm. These include: incidents where rockets or missiles struck civilian areas, where attacks have resulted in the destruction of civilian infrastructure, where the presence of civilian injuries are visible and/or the presence of immobile civilian bodies. This database began collection on February 24, 2022 and intends to be a living document that will continue to be updated as long as the conflict persists. While we are attempting to collect as many incidents as possible, we cannot possibly guarantee to collect them all nor will we be able to corroborate the locations of all the incidents we collect. Those we do not corroborate the originality or exact location of will not be shown on the map. Therefore, this map is not an exhaustive list of civilian harm in Ukraine but rather a representation of all incidents which we have been able to collect and of which we have been able to determine the exact locations. 

Open Source Footage 

The links in this map are all open source, meaning they are connected to an open link posted online. These sources were collected by Bellingcat researchers and placed in a database from where they are also being archived locally. After collection, our Global Authentication Project members have determined the location of each of these events (you can read more about the Global Authentication Project and its makeup below). Bellingcat staff then cross-referenced these coordinates to ensure their accuracy. The resolution of these geolocations is within 150 metres of where the incident occurred but the public coordinates viewable on the map have been slightly obscured in order to protect the identity of the creators. Because this footage is open source, the users who uploaded the content are not directly affiliated to Bellingcat or our partners. Any opinions that may be contained within the posts are therefore not those of Bellingcat or our partners. Any claims contained within the posts have also not necessarily been confirmed or verified by Bellingcat, particularly in relation to which party may have been responsible for the incidents detailed.

Verification Level

The data being collected is checked for originality, basic manipulation, and location by Bellingcat investigators. This level of verification is intended to indicate where incidents took place, when and where there are reasonable visual indications of civilian harm. Our investigation plan for the collection of this material and its uses are informed by the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations. These incidents are also being collected and archived at a forensic level for potential evidentiary use in the future. That level of in-depth analysis and verification will take many months and our goal with this map is to transparently report on the current situation in Ukraine, as it is happening, for public interest. To be clear, these two processes will be separate.

Descriptions 

Each incident is accompanied with source links, the exact location determined by our Global Authentication Project and Bellingcat researchers, as well as a brief description of the incident based on what is visually present. The descriptions indicate what is clearly visible but do not attempt to make assumptions about the exact number of casualties or which party to the conflict is responsible due to those factors being difficult to fully determine from short, visual imagery alone. 

Filters

On the left hand side of the map, a user can toggle between different kinds of areas impacted. We are characterising the areas as residential, industrial, administrative, healthcare, school/childcare, military, commercial, religious, or undefined. Decisions on these classifications are  based on  visual evidence in the footage and what the area is reportedly used as. We cannot fully exclude or exhaustively search for the potential of military use in some of these areas.

Source Links/Embedding 

We have chosen to embed the social media links directly onto the platform.  Should any be deleted by the uploader, they will still be visible on the map, but data on the post, user and footage will no longer be presented publicly. Where sensitive footage posted by individuals might allow them or their location to be identified, we have sought to preemptively take steps to anonymise these users.

Privacy concerns and respect for the dead 

This footage is graphic and contains distressing scenes of war and conflict. Many of the areas represented are, at time of writing, also under attack both physically and through online attempts to discredit or harm users posting this content. For these reasons, we have chosen not to share certain posts that might indicate the direct identity of any of the persons filming. We have also filtered out posts that contain images where an immobile body is closely filmed and their identity might be ascertained out of respect for them and their close ones. 

A Note on Bellingcat’s Global Authentication Project

The Global Authentication Project consists of a wide community of open source researchers assisting in Bellingcat research through structured tasks and feedback. Our aim is to authenticate events taking place around the world and fill in the gaps of knowledge that exist, particularly in situations where there are vast quantities of data. In creating a community for those interested in open source research, we are fostering Bellingcat’s original aim of solving problems together, to diversify our investigations and promote the use of these skills. For this dataset, we are working with many individuals who have Ukrainian language skills and others with local contextual knowledge of the events and places seen on the map. Other participants include individuals skilled in geolocation and chronolocation, with all contributions being vetted by Bellingcat researchers. As we expand the Global Authentication Project in the coming months, more information will be available on our website and Twitter. 

Feedback 

This map will continue to change and be updated for the duration of this conflict. We welcome feedback on our methodology,  data collection and take transparency seriously. Should you have any direct feedback about the platform, please indicate it on this form


TimeMap Methodology: Charlotte Godart & Nick Waters
TimeMap Visualisation: Miguel Ramalho & Lachlan Kermode (Forensic Architecture)
Additional Incident Research: Giancarlo Fiorella, Foeke Postma, Narine Khachatryan, Aiganysh Aidarbekova, Annique Moussou, Hannah Bagdasar, Maxim Edwards, Eoghan Macguire, Michael Colborne, Carlos Gonzales, Johanna Wild and members of our Global Authentication Project

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Twitter here.

The post Hospitals Bombed and Apartments Destroyed: Mapping Incidents of Civilian Harm in Ukraine appeared first on bellingcat.

09 Jan 15:45

Communicatieadviseur - Rijksoverheid, Den Haag, #vacature

Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid, Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum Functieomschrijving Onze wetenschappelijke rapporten in de spotlight zetten. Jij doet het als communicatieadviseur…
13 Apr 10:31

Verlaten bieb

by HB

Het leek nog zo mooi, de open dag voor geïnteresseerden en pers, kort voor de opening. We kunnen ons goed voorstellen dat vele Utrechters snel een bezoek gebracht zouden hebben aan Post Utrecht om al dat moois te bewonderen. Daarom deze reportage, door Rob gemaakt, die we hier alsnog willen delen. Geen reden tot wanhoop. Straks, ooit, mogen we er in, op anderhalve meter-wijze.
Op de 9000 vierkante meter in het reusachtige gebouw vind je heel veel boeken: ruim 163 duizend. Verdeeld over drie verdiepingen tref je onder andere een filmzaal, theater, voorleeskamer, atelier en ruim achthonderd lees- en studieplekken. Voor de innerlijke mens zijn er Stadscafé Meneer Potter op de begane grond en brasserie Noda op de tweede verdieping. De begane grond biedt naast de landen en reizenafdeling plek aan een laboratorium waar jong en oud kennis kunnen maken met onder andere 21e eeuwse vaardigheden, technologie, machines en robotica.
De hal  – voor velen van ons de enige plek die we ooit zagen, je herinnert je vast het postkantoor nog – is in zijn oude glorie te bewonderen. Wat meteen opvalt is de verlichting: grote indrukwekkende aureolen, die zelfs zonlicht kunnen nabootsen, zetten de hal in een prachtig licht. Op elke verdieping duidt de verlichting daarnaast met haar vorm de verschillende ruimtes aan en wekt door de hoogte de indruk van een verlaagd plafond.
Alle ruimtes vloeien naadloos in elkaar over, met de publiekshal steeds als centraal oriëntatiepunt. Grote ramen verbinden het pand met de stad, van buiten is te zien wat zich binnen in de bibliotheek afspeelt.

28 Mar 15:46

EGEB: Offshore wind’s $70 billion opportunity, Sri Lanka floating solar, and more

by Phil Dzikiy

In today’s EGEB:

  • The offshore wind industry may be looking at a $70 billion opportunity.
  • Sri Lanka approves 100 MW in floating solar projects.
  • BYD and Pireos Capital announce the deployment of 100MWh ESS in Mexico.
  • Toronto City Council could sue Big Oil for climate change costs.

more…


Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and the podcast

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVp0Cr2Pg4g

The post EGEB: Offshore wind’s $70 billion opportunity, Sri Lanka floating solar, and more appeared first on Electrek.

13 Feb 10:12

Research Team Close to Finding Antarctica’s Most Famous Shipwreck

by Nancy Bilyeau

It was one of the most harrowing news stories of its day. Endurance, a ship that was carefully built to withstand rigorous polar conditions, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, a celebrated explorer in the golden age of modern discovery, became hopelessly trapped in ice and finally sank, stranding its crew on ice floes and lifeboats for a number of torturous months.

The expedition, which set off from Buenos Aires in October 1914 on its way to Antarctica, captured the attention of the British public, even as the first world war ignited.

Ernest Shackleton before 1909.

Although Shackleton’s team did not fulfill its goal in Antarctica, the men’s survival was a testament to resilience, ingenuity, and leadership.

Now a new expedition is underway, more than a century later — and in another feat of exploration, is successfully closing in on the Antarctica wreck of Endurance, one of the most intriguing lost ships in history.

The group’s work pushes on through the harshest climate on the planet Earth. While the vista can be strikingly beautiful, it is also intimidating. An iceberg the size of Delaware recently separated from the continent. Antarctica is the only continent on Earth without an indigenous human population.

“Because the wreck site of the Endurance, under sea ice in the Weddell Sea, is such a difficult place to access, no survey has ever been done before,” Julian Dowdeswell, director of the university’s Scott Polar Research Institute and the leader of the planned expedition, told NBC News last year.

The Endurance stuck in Antarctic ice.

Antarctica is not only frigid cold — the high temperature at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on February 12, 2019, was -16 Fahrenheit — but windy, in parts mountainous, and quite vast. Antarctica is roughly the size of the United States and Mexico combined and is almost completely covered by a layer of ice that averages more than one mile in thickness.

Since this is actually summertime at the South Pole, the expedition to discover Endeavour set out in January. News has been released that the Weddell Sea Expedition icebreaker, S.A. Agulhas II, broke through heavy pack ice to reach Endurance’s last recorded position on February 10, 2019.

‘Endurance’ final sinking in Antarctica

“We are the first people here since Shackleton and his men!” said Exploration Director and Expedition Archaeologist Mensun Bound, according to a tweet sent by the team.

Researchers will use Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to locate the remains of Endurance, which was crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea and sank in November 1915.

Showing part of the ‘Endurance’, 1915

Using robotic submersibles, the researchers will reportedly search the ocean floor 9,000 feet below. The expedition is not expected to retrieve artifacts from the wreck but map the area for some 45 hours, take photos, and create a 3D model of the site.

Endurance did not sink quickly.

On its way to conveying the men to the point where they would disembark and cross the continent, Endurance became trapped in an ice floe on January 24, 1915. No human efforts could free the ship, and so, incredibly, the crew spent the next ten months on the boat, hoping the following “summer” would melt the ice enough for it to be freed.

The ‘Endurance’ at full sail

But the coming of spring wrought not deliverance but havoc, as the mounting pressure in the ice cracked the hull of the boat. With water coming in, in late November, Endurance had to be abandoned. The masts collapsed, the hull crumbled, and the men watched helplessly from the ice as their boat sank.

Shackleton’s crew had no choice but to drag lifeboats across the ice floe, struggling to reach the open water but all the time aware that the ice below them could crack and they wouldn’t have time to jump into the lifeboats.

Moreover, the 28 members of the crew must have been all too aware of the previous lives lost in the human quest to master Antarctica.

Shackleton looking overboard at Endurance being crushed by the ice

In 1895 the Geographic Congress declared that Antarctica was the last great frontier for exploration. The goal to “discover” the South Pole soon became a matter of national pride. In 1911 teams from five nations were making preparations and racing to be first: Australia, Japan, England, Germany, and Norway.

It was the Norwegian team, led by Roald Amundsen, that first reached the southernmost point of the planet, through use of sled dogs, skis, and meticulous planning. News of his achievement was broadcast on March 7, 1912, on Amundsen’s return to Hobart, Australia.

Roald Amundsen

The English team, led by Robert Falcon Scott, were en route, and had no idea that Amundsen had already won the honor as they made the grueling journey across the vast expanse of Antarctica. When they reached their goal, they were devastated to find Norway had claimed it.

On the return trip, Scott’s entire team of five men perished. Their deaths followed great suffering, particularly from frostbite. One of the men, realizing that he could no longer walk, decided to sacrifice himself so that the others could continue. He said to them, “I am just going outside and may be some time,” and then stumbled outside the tent, never to return. But his suicide did not save the lives of the others, who were weakened as well.

Their bodies, and their journals and belongings, were found about eight months later.

Amundsen in clothing used by the Inuits

Sir Ernest Shackleton, an Irish polar explorer, had joined forces with Scott on earlier expeditions (they were in fact rivals), and he knew the cruel risks of such undertakings.

Nonetheless, Shackleton decided to try to traverse the entire continent with a group and placed the following advertisement: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, and Edward Wilson before their march south during the Discovery Expedition, on  Nov 2,  1902

Even with such fair warning, the ordeal of Endurance‘s crew is considered extreme in the annals of exploration.

After abandoning Endurance, the crew’s struggle across the frozen floes on foot and by lifeboats would take three months. They managed to reach Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean, 152 miles from Antarctica and covered in ice, mountainous, and uninhabited.

Launch of the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island

Shackleton and a smaller group pushed on in a single lifeboat to reach an island they knew to be inhabited by whalers, South Georgia, hundreds of miles away. They needed to use the sun to navigate, but the sun rarely emerged as the open boat was drenched in high waves for more more than two weeks.

Once they reached South Georgia, the group still needed to rescue the the men left behind. It took three months to reach the rest of the crew on Elephant Island. They were near death from starvation but all alive when rescued in August 1916.

Map of the sea routes of Endurance

Shackleton and his crew were hailed as heroes on their return to England and some were given medals. They returned to a world plunged deep into war, and in fact one of the men of Endurance reported to the front to serve as a soldier, and was killed.

Incredibly, Shackleton recruited men for another expedition after World War I ended as he’d reportedly grown tired of the lecture circuit.

Read another story from us: Unbelievable Endurance – The Crew that Survived an Antarctic Shipwreck

Poised to explore Antarctica one more time, Sir Ernest Shackleton died of a massive heart attack on South Georgia Island on January 5, 1922. He was 47 years old.


Nancy Bilyeau, a former staff editor at Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, and InStyle, has written a trilogy of historical thrillers for Touchstone Books. Her new book, The Blue, is a spy story set in the 18th-century porcelain world. For more information, go to www.nancybilyeau.com

15 Sep 09:08

Burberry krijgt eigen muziekkanaal in Apple Music

by Benjamin Kuijten

BurberryDat Apple de laatste tijd steeds meer als modemerk gezien wordt is niet zo vreemd. Na de focus op stijl met de Apple Watch Edition en de nieuwe aangekondigde Hermès-bandjes, is Apple nu een samenwerking aangegaan met modemerk Burberry. Burberry heeft vanaf nu een eigen pagina in Apple Music waar je onder andere nieuwe Britse artiesten kunt ontdekken en het merk kan volgen via Connect.
(...) Lees de rest van dit bericht op iCulture.nl: Burberry krijgt eigen muziekkanaal in Apple Music


2 reacties | Stuur door via e-mail

28 Dec 08:01

Spirituele Alzheimer

by Bas Heijne

Verzoening, tederheid, vrijheid, verantwoordelijkheid, gemeenschapszin, begrip voor de ander – ik zeg ja! Mooie woorden horen bij de Kerst, net als het fossiele Home Alone, de sleetse André Rieu en de overdaad aan interviews waarin wordt teruggekeken op groot verdriet („Ik liep de helft van de week te janken”). Gerieflijk omdat het zo voorspelbaar is, een koesterende oproep aan je betere ik, dat diep in jezelf begraven ligt, maar in de laatste dagen van het jaar plotseling ruim baan krijgt. Driehonderd dagen per jaar gaat het over jezelf, de laatste dagen van het jaar zijn voor de Ander.

Juist daarom was de jaarlijkse „kerstgroet” van de paus aan de Romeinse curie een vlammende verrassing: een verzengende aanklacht tegen de al te wereldse, al te menselijke aanvechtingen van de kardinalen die in het Vaticaan de dienst uitmaken. Zonder pardon somde Franciscus de zonden van zijn gehoor op, in vijftien schrijnende punten – men voelde zich onsterfelijk, immuun of onvervangbaar, men werkte excessief hard, raakte geestelijk „versteend”, plande te veel, werkte slecht samen, zag de ander vooral als rivaal, er werd teveel gekletst en geroddeld, men keek te slaafs op naar meerderen, te weinig om naar anderen, men liep rond met een begrafenisgezicht, bewoog zich het liefst in een klein, besloten kringetje, wilde van alles steeds maar meer, en er heerste een grote hang naar winst en exhibitionisme.

En dan was er nog de spirituele Alzheimer – ik neem aan dat de Paus het niet bedoelde als belediging van Alzheimerpatiënten, maar als een diep tragische toestand: je belijdt nog altijd met de mond je geloof, maar je weet allang niet meer waarom.

Op de toespraak, las ik, volgde slechts een bescheiden applaus. Het hoeft niet te betekenen dat men zich niet aangesproken voelde – het staat wat raar om te juichen voor iemand die je net je tekortkomingen onder je neus heeft gewreven. Maar wellicht speelt Franciscus met vuur. De laatste paus die in het Vaticaan de dingen bij de naam wilde noemen, Johannes Paulus I, werd na amper een maand in functie dood in zijn bed aangetroffen. Onderzoek wees uit de man waarschijnlijk niet vermoord was, maar wel het doelwit vormde van een ongegeneerde haatcampagne.

Een historische toespraak, vond ik, niet omdat het verdorven Vaticaan door de eigen geestelijk leider op z’n nummer werd gezet, maar omdat het om een echt morele oproep ging – niet de zoveelste humanistisch-christelijke riedel over de ander diep in de ogen kijken, de pijn van de wereld willen verzachten en verder natuurlijk vrede, liefde en de verbroedering der mensheid, maar een even pijnlijk als herkenbare schets van de verre van ideale werkelijkheid. Herkenbaar, want er zijn niet veel bedrijven, politieke partijen, organisaties en instituties waar het anders toegaat. Wat voor de curie geldt, gaat ook op voor de gemiddelde kantoortuin. Slangenkuil, zonnekoning, eilandjescultuur, haantjesgedrag, een klimaat van wantrouwen – ieder rapport over een verziekte organisatie komt op hetzelfde neer.

Volgens de Amerikaans-Duitse filosofe Susan Neiman in Waarom zou je volwassen worden? beweegt iedere vorm van idealisme zich altijd tussen de wereld zoals zij is en de wereld zoals zij zou moeten zijn. Het goed voorhebben met de mensheid is geen excuus om jezelf goed te voelen, alsof je een soort wandelende kersttoespraak bent in een wereld vol ellende. Integendeel, het betekent voortdurend laveren tussen twee afgronden. De idealist moet met teleurstelling leren omgaan, iedere verbetering zal mondjesmaat zijn en gepaard gaan met desillusies. Dat is veel moeilijker dan het lijkt – geen grotere nihilist dan de teleurgestelde idealist. Idealisme zonder werkelijkheidszin is óf zelfgenoegzaam óf ronduit gevaarlijk.

Aan de andere kant wordt werkelijkheidszin zonder idealisme snel cynisme – je schouders ophalen over de wereld, dat is waar Neiman zich het meest druk over maakt en wat voor mijzelf een gevaarlijke verleiding is. Dat de mens altijd de mens zal blijven – zie de vijftien dodelijke punten van de paus – betekent niet dat hij niet kan leren zich een beetje te gedragen.

Volgens Neiman, zelf Joods, is de paus een held. Vind ik ook, maar geen gezapig christelijke, gerieflijk humanistische held voor de feestdagen. „Een curie die niet kritisch naar zichzelf kijkt en niet wil verbeteren, is ziek”, aldus Franciscus. Woorden zijn pas echt mooi als ze ook pijn doen.


Lees verder op nrc.nl…
26 Nov 10:06

Turkey Pardoning

Turkey Pardoning
John Oliver digs into the bizarre American tradition of pardoning turkeys....

Visit Devour to watch this video.
22 Oct 06:44

Thoughts on Yosemite’s Look and Feel

by Khoi
Vincent Jacobs

My thoughts exactly!

OS X Yosemite Over the weekend I installed OS X Yosemite on my MacBook Air. Its new interface, partially inspired by the dramatic aesthetic shift that its sibling made with iOS 7, will take some getting used to for me. Here are some thoughts. Yosemite’s ambitions are evident: it aims to be a much more elegant, more sophisticated,…

Advertise on Subtraction.com.

27 Aug 16:17

Sanae Orchi vertrekt bij AT5

by info@at5.nl (AT5 redactie)

Presentatrice Sanae Orchi gaat AT5 verlaten.

19 May 15:11

The best commencement speeches ever

by Jason Kottke

From NPR, a searchable sortable archive of the best commencement speeches, from 1774 to the present. What a resource. Two of my favorites, by David Foster Wallace and Steve Jobs, are represented.

Each speech is tagged by "theme or take-home message", basically a taxonomy of commencement speech messaging. The most popular themes are:

12. Be kind
11. Yolo
10. Make art
9. Balance
8. Dream
7. Remember history
6. Embrace failure
5. Work hard
4. Don't give up
3. Inner voice
2. Tips
1. Change the world

Trite stuff perhaps, but delivered in the right way and by the right person, it makes people wanna run through walls. Let's go! (via @tcarmody)

Tags: best of   lists   NPR
30 Jan 06:42

→ How I Lost My Twitter Username

Yet another reason not to use GoDaddy.

Stories like this are why I’m so hard on apps that ask for your email credentials. If someone has access to your email account, they can get access to everything else you do online pretty quickly by password resets. (In related news, I’ve enabled two-factor authentication on a lot of accounts recently, and I suggest you do the same.)

The problem, as always, is people. These hacking stories increasingly include fake calls to big web services’ support lines, begging the human agents for password resets. It doesn’t matter how many non-repeated letters, non-consecutive numbers, and unique symbols are in a password that’s new every 6 months and not similar to the previous 10 passwords if attackers have no need to crack it.

Services have always needed to allow such requests because people really are legitimately that forgetful, and their online lives really are that turbulent. People forget their website passwords and lose access to their email accounts all the time.1

Smart services are closing these doors, but it’s not easy. If there’s any way for a human to override the security mechanisms if someone on the phone is crying and sounds legitimate, attackers can get in. And if there’s not, you’re going to have a lot of legitimate customers locked out and crying.


  1. It’s not a safe assumption that people will always have access to the email account they signed up with. Often, people use school or workplace accounts that get deleted or redirected out of their control when they graduate, leave, or get fired.

    And this is assuming that they typed their own email address correctly into your registration form in the first place. 

∞ Permalink

15 May 12:42

Daughter in november naar Paradiso en Doornroosje

by Joris

Dat het Britse Daughter inmiddels perfect in staat is het eigen dynamische en glasheldere geluid live goed over te brengen, werd op Motel Mozaïque nog eens duidelijk. De band is op het podium inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een kwartet, in augustus op de festivals Lowlands en Noorderzon in Groningen te zien. Waarna er in november weer tijd is voor twee clubshows: op maandag 4 november in Doornroosje, Nijmegen en op maandag 18 november in Paradiso te Amsterdam.

Goede kans dat het indrukwekkende debuutalbum If You Leave in die koudere herfstmaanden weer vaker uit de kast zal komen. En misschien komt die cover van Daft Punk's Get Lucky rond die tijd ook nog wel voorbij. Tickets voor Nijmegen kosten 16 euro en zijn al te bestellen. De voorverkoop voor Paradiso begint op vrijdag 17 mei; kaarten kosten hier 17,50 euro exclusief lidmaatschap.

Kijk hieronder naar een 26 minuten durende sessie die Daughter speelde voor radiostation KEXP in Seattle.