Theres cozyand then theres this. This Chunky Merino Wool Blanket, hand-arm-knit with 100% pure merino, is a world apart. Wed like to call it true indulgence in comfort and craftsmanship! Whether youre draping it over a sofa, styling it across the foot of your bed, or curling up with it on chilly evenings, this blanket adds luxury and warmth to every setting.The beauty of merino wool lies in its softness, elasticity, and natural temperature regulation. This means you can stay comfortable without overheating. Each throw is handcrafted with care and intention, making it a thoughtful gift for birthdays, Mothers Day, or any occasion when coziness is key.Its oversized knit design isnt just on-trend. Its bold, tactile, and transforms even the simplest corners of your home into something Pinterest-worthy. This piece is also hypoallergenic and breathable, ideal for anyone who wants beauty without compromise.While it may shed slightly at first (thanks to the natural, unspun fibers), its a small trade-off for the elevated feel it brings to your space. Just remember: dry clean only and handle with care.Ready to experience cloud-soft warmth in its most stylish form? Grab yours now on Etsy.

From the sublime to the ridiculous in this very strange genre.

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A report suggests that Apple will wait until a revamped Siri with contextual app data access launches to reveal its Home Hub project likely in 2026.Apple's Home Hub won't be a HomePod with a speaker, but a separate displayThe so-called Home Hub has been rumored for almost as long as the HomePod has existed. Users are interested in a "HomePod with an interactive display" similar to Google's and Amazon's products.It seemed as if Apple would launch such a product line sometime soon, but according to the Power On newsletter, that launch will now occur in 2026. The Home Hub product is inherently tied to the contextual Siri and Apple Intelligence features that rely on app intents, which were delayed into the next year. Rumor Score: Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

HKS recently began a renovation of Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, near its home in the Dallas Metroplex. The three-year,$182 million project is meant to modernize the 20,500-capacity design (originally opened by the firmin 2005) for fans of FC Dallas, who had affectionately referred to it as "The Oven" due to the high heat indexes registered during the summer and its below-grade pitch placement.A roof canopy will thus be added to provide fans and players with shade during matches. Other improvements include new entrances and state-of-the-art suites. The renovation will take shape in phases beginning at the east side so as to allow the club to continue playing home games during construction. HKS expects a 2028 completion. A new office development designed by Gensler will follow on the plot adjacent to the west side of the stadium. Both Gensler andFoster + Partners have released their own significant soocer stadium designs since the beginning of the year.Image rendering courte...

The author says that buying an Amazon Alexa ruined her family's manners. Courtesy of the author 2025-04-06T14:18:02Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? At first my 5-year-old child was very into the Echo Pop device I bought for him.Slowly, I noticed how we were yelling or being rude to Alexa.When we treat the device poorly, I put it away on a shelf until we are ready to be nice again.When I bought a lavender Echo Pop, I thought I'd found the best possible gift for my 5-year-old son. Just entering the "I'm bored"At first, he and Alexa did seem like a match made in heaven. Alexa fielded all his questions with the same chipper, "Let me look that up for you on the web!" And she had jokes about cats, robots, a T-Rex who walked into a bar. The more we laughed, the more we seemed to egg her on."Alexa, you're awesome!" my son said."Well, now I feel corny," said Alexa, "because you've got me smiling from ear to ear!" He collapsed with laughter on the floor.She started getting oldLike most houseguests, though, Alexa began to wear out her welcome over time. She was so reliably cheerful, even when the rest of us were grumpy. She told her robot joke a dozen times, forgetting within seconds that we'd already heard it.And then there was her lack of loyalty, the way she careened from one request to another without seeing the first one through. "Alexa, shut up!" I howled when she abruptly ended my song to comply with a new request from my son.Alexa did shut up, her blue light clicking off demurely. But the next day, another conflict arose. My son had a friend over and wanted to put on music; his friend wanted to hear about the T-Rex in the bar. "That's the dumbest joke ever," my son muttered. "Alexa, can't you find a funnier one?""Don't be mean to Alexa," I snapped."Why? You are."I paused. He was right, of course. Alexa was the friendliest member of our household, and somehow, we had begun to treat her terribly. I modeled this behavior, and my sonfollowed my lead.We had forgotten about mannersAt first, bossing Alexa around had been funny; we had even found it entertaining to compete to see who she would listen to. Now, though, I saw what those games were inadvertently teaching my son: that it was OK to speak aggressively to get your point across. It was even OK to insult Alexa because she'd never insult you back.At some point, I'd forgotten that even if we were talking to a robot without feelings, our words still affected each other. And they still normalized ordering women around even if the woman in question was a disembodied voice inside an Echo Pop.That night, I unplugged Alexa and put her in a cabinet. I was surprised when weeks passed, and my son didn't mention her. Maybe we had both needed a break. One day, he came across her purple shell and asked to plug her back in. We could do that, I said, if we could figure out how to treat her better.He thought about it. He suggested that we could say "please" each time we made a request. We could ask her how her day was going.If both of us wanted to play music, I said, we should sort it out between the two of us not Alexa. How did that sound?"Maybe we should ask Alexa," he said.I liked that idea. "Alexa," I said after plugging her back in, "we want to treat you nicely."A long pause, her blue light pulsing. "I'm not quite sure how to help you with that," she admitted.M and I grinned at each other. It would be up to usthe way it should have been the whole time. And in the year or so since our resolution, we've done better at being nice to the sweetest AI bot we know. When we mess up, we know the consequences: putting her on the shelf until we're ready to try again.As for Alexa's opinion, we asked her recently if she likes us. "I think you're magnificent," she replied.Sara Heise Graybeal holds an MFA in fiction from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Connect with her on Substack @saragraybeal or Instagram @sarageeeeee.Recommended video

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Bagsvrd Observation Home / JAJA ArchitectsSave this picture!Courtesy of JAJA ArchitectsHouses, RefurbishmentBagsvrd, DenmarkArchitects: JAJA ArchitectsAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:1600 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. Originally built as a summer villa for the royal court dentist in the early 1900s, the Bagsvrd Observation Home, located by the scenic Bagsvrd Lake, serves children and families who need extra support during difficult times. The villa has undergone extensive renovation and expansion, blending historical charm with modern functionality to meet the needs of today's families. Livsvaerk is the association behind the modernization and renovation of the Bagsvrd Observation Home. The main aim of the project has been to make the physical setting of the site provide even better support for the social pedagogical work that the association performs for some of the most vulnerable in Danish society vulnerable children and their families.Save this picture!The Garden House. Designing the extension to the villa was challenging due to the desire for the extension to be twice the size of the historic villa. To create a functional extension while respecting the historic villa, we proposed establishing an equal relationship between the villa and the new garden house. From the landmark lakeside, the iconic villa remains the focal point, overlooking the prominent landscape. On the entrance side, the garden house is positioned to mark the entrance and main access point. The garden house features common living areas between the individual apartments, with balconies offering views of the garden and the nearby lake. Residents can access the garden directly from their living rooms.Save this picture!Above the basement level, the Garden House is constructed as a lightweight structure with load-bearing structures primarily made of wood in a combination of CLT walls, CLT decks, glulam columns, and structural timber. Exposing the wood as much as possible, our vision has been to create a positive and welcoming building that the residents feel comfortable in. By minimising wind impact, the building's rounded corners contribute to a comfortable microclimate in the living areas around the Garden House. This is achieved by cutting CLT elements into smaller faceted parts, which are then assembled to form round corners harmonising with the visible CLT walls inside. Externally, narrower cedar boards are used around the corners, giving a unified appearance all around the building.Save this picture!Save this picture!Climate Responsibility. Serving as a test project for The Voluntary Sustainability Standard (Den Frivillige Bredygtighedsklasse), the Bagsvrd Observation Home project seeks to embrace both environmental, climate, social, and economic quality. The standard can be seen as a preview and a test of how future climate-oriented regulations of construction can be incorporated into future building regulations. Having a major impact on the CO2 footprint, we have been focusing on the Garden House's materials. The use of wood, including all the CLT elements, helps us to get below 8 kg. CO2 equivalent per m2 per year, which are the requirements for the standard.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessAbout this officeMaterialWoodMaterials and TagsPublished on April 06, 2025Cite: "Bagsvrd Observation Home / JAJA Architects" 06 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028621/bagsvaerd-observation-home-jaja-architects&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The skin on the palm of our hands is different from the rest of our body.Image: Valeria Vacca / Getty Images Get the Popular Science daily newsletterWhy have my fingers gone all pruney? Its a question that has puzzled children at bath time, teens at swimming lessons, and adults after long hot tub sessions. Scientists once thought that these wrinkles were due to fingers swelling up like a sponge after being soaked with water. However, this theory washes off quickly. Our digits would have to increase drastically in size to produce such wrinkles. Instead, the answer has more to do with our nerves than skin.The secret of hairless skinThe skin on the palms of our hands and soles of our feet is unique, says Danilo Del Campo, a dermatologist at the Chicago Skin Clinic. Its called glabrous skin, a name from the Latin word glaber, meaning bald. This hairless surface plays an essential role in sensing our environment. It is packed with receptors that transmit signals from our skin into electrical impulses that our brain can read. Glabrous skin is not unique to humans. It makes up the unusual protuberances that the star-nosed mole uses to sense its environment and the upper bill of the platypus. An analysis of glabrous skin in rats found that the ratio of fast-conducting to slow-conducting nerves was three times higher in glabrous skin than in hairy skin.A star-nosed mole photographed in Minnesota. Image: Stan Tekiela Author / Naturalist / Wildlife Photographer / Getty Images Stan TekielaClinicians first realized that the uniquely sensor-packed structure of glabrous skin might have something to do with wrinkly skin in a study nearly a century ago, says Lauren Taglia, a dermatologist at Northwestern Medicine. In a 1936 paper, Sir George White Pickering and Thomas Lewis reported case studies of people with polio-induced nerve damage who had remarkably wrinkle-proof digits. Regardless of how long they spent in water, their fingers remained smooth as marble.These patients had sustained damage to their median nerve, which runs down the arm and provides motor and sensory links to the hand and forearm. This nerve is an important connection in the sympathetic nervous system.Failing fight or flightThe sympathetic nervous system gets our body ready for physical action.In the heart, it increases pump rate and contraction force. In the eye, the same system dilates the pupil, allowing more light to enter. These functions are often referred to as our fight-or-flight responses. Research in the 1970s identified that it was damage to these sympathetic connections in the median nerve that stopped wrinkling. Dipping a hand in warm water was recognized as a valuable test for this type of nerve damage.It wasnt until 2003 that a study identified how the sympathetic nervous system made fingers wrinkle. Here, researchers looked at how blood flow to the hands changed after water immersion. Finger wrinkling was accompanied by a sudden drop in blood flow. This decrease was caused by the sympathetic nervous system narrowing the diameter of the blood vessels in the hand, a process called vasoconstriction.These studies finally mapped out how finger wrinkling works. There was just one remaining question: why does it happen in the first place?Getting a grip on finger wrinklesScientists settled this question in a 2021 study. Nick Davis, a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, organized an experiment at the British Science Museum. Davis assessed museum visitors ability to grip wet and dry objects. Then, he asked them to immerse their hands in warm water. Once their fingers had wrinkled, he tested their grip again. Anyone who has fought to grab a bottle of shampoo during a shower will know that picking up wet objects requires more force than dry objects. Daviss analysis showed wrinkled fingers gripped wet objects more easily than wet but unwrinkled fingers. Evolutionarily speaking, says Taglia, perhaps theres an advantage for our ancestors that they could grab fish from bodies of water. Our shoeless forefathers would also have benefited from being able to ford streams or rivers without slipping through their wrinkly feet, she says.Its a fortunate coincidence that a feature carved by evolution millennia ago now benefits diagnostic medicine today. Ilike to say that the skinis the window to your entire body, concludes Del Campo.This story is part of Popular SciencesAsk Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something youve always wanted to know?Ask us.

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