Moai on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter IslandAll Canada Photos / Alamy Stock Photo A newly identified drought on the Pacific island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, could have spurred islanders to invest fewer resources in building their legendary stone monuments. But some archaeologists dispute this interpretation. The island of Rapa Nui has become central to a cautionary tale of disaster caused by unsustainable use of resources. The standard narrative is that the arrival of the first Polynesians on the tiny island in the 1200s led to rapid deforestation, in part to support the…

Scientists say this is a baby colossal squid, at home in the deep sea near Antarctica. ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute 2025-04-15T20:08:15Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Scientists say they've captured the first footage of a living colossal squid in the deep sea. The colossal squid is the world's largest invertebrate, but the one in this video is a baby. The footage was captured by an underwater expedition near Antarctica. The colossal squid, a mysterious creature lurking in the Antarctic abyss, has finally made a cameo, a cohort of scientists say.You may have heard of the giant squid, which is famous from mariners' legends and for its epic battles with sperm whales.The colossal squid is even bigger and more mysterious. It's so elusive, living in the deep ocean near Antarctica, that scientists didn't even know it existed until 100 years ago.Since then, fishermen have filmed a few dying colossal squids at the ocean's surface. Scientists have found chewed-up colossal squid in whale and seabird stomachs.Nobody had confirmed a sighting in the deep sea until now.The footage below is the first to ever show a living colossal squid in its natural habitat, according to the researchers who captured it and two squid experts who verified it.This animal is the world's heaviest invertebrate, growing up to 23 feet long and 1,100 pounds. The one in this video, though, is just under one foot long. It's a baby.The video was captured on March 9 by a remotely operated subsea vehicle called SuBastian, operated by a crew aboard a research vessel called "Falkor (too)." It was at a depth of about 600 meters (1968 feet).The researchers on the vessel were conducting a 35-day expedition near the South Sandwich Islands. It was a mission of the Ocean Census, which is an international scientific collaboration to search for new marine life. The research vessel lifts the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian out of the ocean. Alex Ingle / Schmidt Ocean Institute Kat Bolstad, a squid researcher at the Auckland University of Technology, helped verify the footage. She had previously reassembled a dead colossal squid caught by a fishing vessel. "This is honestly one of the most exciting observations that we've had across the time I've been working on deep-sea cephalopods," Bolstad said in a press briefing announcing the new footage on Tuesday. The baby colossal squid was spotted nearly 2,000 feet below the ocean surface. ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute "This is a great example of the beauty of many deep-sea animals," she added.Another Antarctic expedition in 2023 captured footage of what scientists thought may have been a juvenile colossal squid, but researchers were uncertain.Bolstad and others were able to identify the baby in this video as a colossal squid because they could see hooks on the middle of its eight arms. That's a distinctive feature that differentiates colossal squids from other species in the glass squid family."We can see the animal's features in really great detail," Bolstad said.Colossal squids are unique in other ways, too. They have hooks on their two tentacles, too, and those hooks can rotate 360 degrees to grab onto prey.In the video, Bolstad said, "you can see the iridescent shine off the eyeballs." Recommended video

President Donald Trump’s press conference with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele was, at heart, an authoritarian political performance.This was clearest in their discussion of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man that the Trump administration seized and then erroneously sent (by its own admission) to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. The two men were sneeringly dismissive of the court order requiring his return, offering an obviously absurd argument that neither country could facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States.“This rhetorical game the administration is playing, where it pretends it lacks the power to ask for Abrego Garcia to be returned while Bukele pretends he doesn’t have the power to return him, is an expression of obvious contempt for the Supreme Court — and for the rule of law,” The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explains.This is par for the course for Bukele. Though elected to El Salvador’s presidency, he’s since governed as an out-and-out dictator who suspended civil liberties indefinitely, blatantly violated the Salvadoran constitution’s limit on consecutive terms, and sent the military into the Salvadoran legislature to force them to vote the way that he wanted. Bukele doesn’t care what the Salvadoran courts or constitution says; he has enough power that he can simply do what he wants.Trump’s second-term record suggests he aspires to that kind of power. But he doesn’t have it. He’s operating in a system where law and the political opposition create real, if incomplete, constraints. If he simply ignores those constraints, he could face a collapse in support from the public, social elites, and perhaps even a critical mass of Republicans. As much as Trump wants to be Bukele, he’s ruling a country with a far more functional democracy — at least, for now.It is possible to turn a seemingly healthy democracy into an authoritarian state. Just look at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — perhaps the only elected authoritarian that the American right admires more than Bukele. But where Bukele is violent and vicious, Orbán is suave and subtle — systematically manipulating law to tear apart democracy while keeping its basic veneer intact.Trump has, at different times and in different ways, borrowed from both styles. His treatment of Abrego Garcia and other migrants is pure Bukele; his effort to bend American universities to his will is pure Orbán. But the styles are in direct tension with each other: one featuring showy displays of might, the other operating in the legal shadows to hide its true nature. Mashed together, they could end up neither being lawless enough to seize power by force nor clever enough to avoid a massive backlash.This unstable mixture, in short, could have the unintended consequence of inflaming American resistance to Trump’s policies. If that happens, then Trump’s strategic sloppiness may be one of the things that allows American democracy to outlive his presidency.Trump, between Bukele and OrbánBukele is a textbook strongman. He owes his success and popularity to an aggressive reaction to a social crisis — specifically, El Salvador’s gang problem and sky-high murder rate. Powers he claimed several years ago to address this emergency, like sending alleged gang members to the CECOT gulag with no due process, have remained long after the gang violence problem subsided. He appears in public with armed men in fatigues, developing a quasi-fascist aesthetic designed to underscore that he is a tough guy willing to do tough things.Orbán, by contrast, won power in 2010 amid the fallout of a financial crisis and a corruption scandal. He did not have a mandate to rip up Hungarian civil liberties or democracy; his job, at least in the voters’ mind, was to clean it up.His methods for consolidating power were thus invisible by design, often billed as good government reforms rather than power grabs. He didn’t arrest dissident journalists but rather manipulated funding streams to make their work impossible. He didn’t simply ignore the Hungarian constitution but amended it in subtle ways that made it harder and harder for the opposition to compete on fair terms. He wears a suit, not a uniform.Each approach made sense in its own country. When Bukele took power in 2019, El Salvador was in the midst of a crime-induced social collapse. Performing authoritarian strength was exactly what Bukele needed to sell himself to the Salvadoran public. Hungary, by contrast, was, until relatively recently, a Communist dictatorship — and no one wanted to go back. So Orbán needed to pretend to play by the democratic rules and to insist that he was democracy’s truest and best champion.Prior to Trump’s second term, one of my greatest fears was that it would resemble Orbán’s assault on democracy circa 2010. Many of his top allies, like Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, had openly suggested the United States needed to copy Hungarian policies. And indeed, some signature Trump 2 moves — like cutting off federal grant funds to universities — were straight out of the Orbán tactics.But much of Trump’s second term has been more Bukele-esque than I expected. It’s not just that he sent alleged gang members to a Salvadoran prison; it’s that he did it in such a showy and obviously unlawful way. The naked assertion that the US government has the power to grab migrants off the street and send them overseas with no due process and no hope of retrieval is far too crass for the Hungarian regime. There is no remotely defensible argument for why such a thing is compatible with the principles of a free society.This dance happens, in part, because Trump has neither Orbán nor Bukele’s core strengths.Orbán enjoys a two-thirds majority in parliament, thanks to his ability to stack the electoral deck in his favor. This supermajority allows him to do more than pass any law he wants: He actually has the votes to amend the constitution at will. Orbán’s biggest threat is the public waking up to the true nature of his regime; he thus ensures that his most dangerous moves are hidden beneath layers of opaque bureaucracy and legalese.Trump, by contrast, faces a number of formal legal checks. The GOP’s narrow congressional majority, the independent judiciary, and the federal system all put real constraints on Trump’s power. Trying to go full Orbán amidst those limitations would require a degree of patience and subtlety that Trump does not appear to possess.Bukele, for his part, enjoys significant public support because of his authoritarian politics. Many Salvadorans credit his “mano dura” (iron fist) policies with destroying the gangs who were terrorizing their communities. For these voters, democratic freedoms felt like luxuries worth sacrificing in the name of order and stability.Instinctually, Trump would like to govern like this. He has long openly admired the alleged strength of dictators, praising violent crackdowns like the Tiananmen Square massacre or the extrajudicial execution of drug dealers in the Philippines.But, despite the administration’s nonsensical claims to the contrary, there is no emergency in the United States akin to El Salvador in 2022, when the country had the highest murder rate in the Americas. In the absence of an acute social crisis, Trump can’t simply assert the powers he’s claiming in the Abrego Garcia case and expect people to get on board.The end result, then, is that the Trump administration is trying to implement two different strategies for authoritarianizing the United States: both subtle Hungarian legalism and brutal Salvadoran civil liberties crackdowns. Yet both depend on mutually exclusive theories of how to win public support — one hiding authoritarianism beneath a democratic veneer, the other requiring showy demonstrations of strongman might.It’s possible this mix ends up working for Trump. But I suspect it’ll engender a broader public backlash sooner than he thinks.See More:

The film, starring the likes of Jack Black and Jason Momoa, is setting the box office alight with its constant draw of audiences, and it is seemingly showing no sign of stoppingShowbiz14:56, 15 Apr 2025Minecraft fans have been lapping up the new Hollywood adaptation(Image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)The Minecraft movie could be about to make history as box office revenues skyrocket.The movie, starring Hollywood legends Jason Momoa and Jack Black, has set cinemas on fire - but has caused chaos during several screenings up and down the country. Several fights have broken out over the course of the film, with other cinemagoers bringing actual chickens to the screening, due to a running joke in the game's lore.‌Article continues belowBut while cinema staff might be loathing the impact of the film in theatres themselves, the box office is raking in millions in ticket sales. After only two weekends, the film has already garnered a whopping $550.6million across the world.Equating to around £416.3million, over half of the revenue for the film was generated outside of the United States, according to Deadline. It also could be about to break another major record in yet another win for actor Jack Black.The film has already broken several records as the box office continues to rake in the money(Image: AP)‌According to the latest data, the film is already ahead of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, which had racked up $508million after just nine days of being released. The film - also starring Tenacious D star Jack - would go on to gross $1.36billion by the end of its theatrical run.With an opening weekend of $157million in the US alone, the Minecraft movie smashed the record for the film adaptation of a video game, surpassing all expectations. However, the film stops short of clinching the international record for an opening weekend, earning $301million compared to Super Mario Bros' $377million.The UK is proving to be the largest market for the movie outside of the US, bringing in just shy of $40million worth in ticket sales. Rounding out the top five are China, Germany, Mexico and Australia, with values ranging from $18.5million to $20.3million.‌The star-studded film is proving to be a hit within the UK, serving as the film's second-largest market(Image: AP)The commercial success of the film comes after critics panned the movie, giving it a meagre 49% on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. But fans of the video game franchise have not been put off by dismal reviews, instead opting to enjoy the big screen experience - regardless of whether the film is good or not.Speaking to Video Games Chronicle, movie consultant David A. Gross explained: "The film is drawing like a coveted five-quadrant movie, appealing broadly to everyone — younger and older adults, as well as young teens and kids. Reviews are not good, but these pictures are made for moviegoers, not critics; when a release catches fire like this, it generates its own momentum and you can set aside all projections."‌The film has been panned by critics but analysts say cinemagoers will still go as there is something for everyone(Image: AP)The film's release has already prompted talks of a potential sequel, creating a Minecraft movie franchise. Drawing inspiration from the likes of the game's various mod features, director Jared Hess said he would be willing to make another instalment in the film's series, adding that Minecraft is "virtually endless" with opportunities.On Friday (April 11), it was reported that the sequel was now officially in the works, with Warner Bros execs saying a follow-up would be coming "imminently". However, they tried to play down anticipation for the film by adding: "The ink may not be dry on the deals just yet."Article continues belowFor more of the latest showbiz and TV news from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.‌‌‌

By Ed Cara Published April 15, 2025 | Comments (0) | A sixth employee working at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital's maternity unit has been identified this week with a recent but benign brain tumor. © sfam_photo via Shutterstock Something strange could be happening at a Massachusetts hospital. At least six employees working on the same floor of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital have recently developed benign brain tumors. The latest brain tumor case was disclosed this week by the Department of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) at Mass General Brigham, the parent system of Newton-Wellesley. The affected employees are nurses who have worked on the fifth floor maternity unit. The hospital says its investigation has not yet identified any “environmental risk” linking the cases, though the Massachusetts Nurses Association is still looking into the matter. The potential tumor cluster was first reported by local media outlet WBZ in early April, while the hospital’s investigation had begun in December. Prior to this week, five employees at Newton-Wellesley were known to have developed brain tumors. On Monday, the Boston Herald reported that the OHS sent a letter to patients and families revealing a sixth case. “To date, through their employee interview process, OHS has identified six staff members who have worked for varying durations on the fifth floor and report developing benign (non-cancerous) brain tumors,” Ellen Moloney, president and COO of Mass General Brigham/Newton-Wellesley Hospital, wrote in the letter, according to the Herald. Cancer or tumor clusters are sometimes caused by environmental contaminants, such as carcinogenic toxins that end up in the same drinking water. But the OHS says it has yet to find any potential shared cause at the hospital for these cases. “While the OHS investigation is ongoing, we have found no evidence that these medical conditions were caused by the work environment,” Moloney said in the letter. The employees themselves aren’t convinced, however. And at least some believe that other recent illnesses among their staff could be connected to the workplace. “We want reassurance, because this has not been a reassuring past few months for a lot of the staff members,” one nurse diagnosed with a tumor, who was granted anonymity, told WBZ. “We want to feel safe, the same way we want to make our patients feel safe.” The Massachusetts Nurse Association, a union representing nurses at MGH, is also conducting its own investigation. The Association previously told the Herald in early April that the hospital’s investigation was “not comprehensive.” And for now, it’s still not closing the book on something being wrong at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. “We are glad to see the hospital is continuing to look into this situation,” a Massachusetts Nurses Association spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald. “Our investigation is ongoing, and we will share the results when our health and safety division completes its review of the diagnoses reported to the MNA.” The union’s findings are expected to be released to the public by the end of the month. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Ed Cara Published April 14, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 21, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 11, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 8, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 5, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published February 28, 2025

House of the Glade / Ignacio CorreaSave this picture!© Arieh KornfeldHouses•Lago Rupanco, Chile Architects: Ignacio Correa Area Area of this architecture project Area:  200 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2023 Photographs Photographs:Arieh Kornfeld Lead Architect: Ignacio Correa More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. For the Casa del Claro, the project is defined by the design of a second home located on the northern shore of Lake Rupanco, in the Lakes Region of southern Chile. In this case, the site is a high hillside of glacial origin that extends in the predominant direction of the lake, from east to west. On this platform, there is a small but significant grove of Hazel trees that, as one moves towards the southern side of the land, opens up some partial views of Lake Rupanco itself.Save this picture!Save this picture!The definition of the site for the construction begins with the mapping of each of these trees that make up the ensemble, regarding their position and size. The purpose of this work is to visualize the location where the construction of the project is possible and appropriate, meaning that it does not interfere with the landscape but rather enhances it.Save this picture!Save this picture!This is how the house is spread out longitudinally along the southern edge of the land, contrasting its horizontality with the height of the forest and relating each of the interior spaces to their view of the lake.Save this picture!The program is organized from a covered terrace that separates the living spaces from the bedrooms, which simultaneously opens up to a small clearing that overlooks the river's mouth and the mountain landscape. The house also acknowledges its two fronts from the roof that rises towards the north to capture sunlight for the rooms and descends towards the south, above the plane of the lake.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less About this officeIgnacio CorreaOffice••• Published on April 15, 2025Cite: "House of the Glade / Ignacio Correa" [Casa del Claro / Ignacio Correa] 15 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029036/house-of-the-glade-ignacio-correa&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 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

Dynamic Inflating Balloons in Cinema 4D⭐Tutorial + Project File 👉 https://cgshortcuts.com/dynamic-inflating-balloons-in-cinema-4d Using dynamics we’ll create a cluster of simulated balloons in Cinema 4D – C4D Tutorial and project file. #Cinema4D #C4D #Redshift #CGShortcuts

Honda set up an off-road proving ground in Puerto Rico for its new Passport TrailSport.   Image: Honda Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Puerto Rico is a stunningly beautiful island dotted with rain forests and rich biodiversity. A little more than an hour southeast of the capital city of San Juan, hundreds of acres of land sprawl toward the coastline near El Yunque National Forest. A pair of brothers, natives of the island, own the property and they have a big dream for it: to launch a retreat where kids with cancer could relax with their families.  Honda connected with the Benjamin and Francisco Casado as the automaker was searching for a spot to test the new off-road-focused trim for its Passport Trailsport SUV. The brothers expressed their passion for education and shared their plans for cabins and nature trails for families to enjoy. Honda’s team folded those wishes into its plan to build an off-road course that could be used for a single week, and then turned back over to the family.  How does one build a dirt course through a tropical jungle and skirt the edges of the waves on an island in the middle of the ocean? With a lot of passionate engineers and a shared goal. And, of course, several dirt-moving machines that would make any truck-loving toddler’s highlight reel.  The off-road course was just a temporary home for Honda; now it has been turned back over to its owners and will become nature trails. Image: Kristin Shaw/Popular Science Big views, turtles on the brink, and an important crop Now with more ground clearance than its predecessor at 8.3 inches, the 2026 Passport Trailsport also has an improved approach angle to navigate dips and hills more effectively. Protective steel skid plates shield the underbelly, including the oil pan, transmission, and gas tank. It’s more ready now than it was in the past to go beyond the pavement. With Americans flocking to overlanding and off-roading over the last several years, it’s great timing for the Japan-based SUV, car, and truck manufacturer.  Through its event company, the Apex Agency, Honda narrowed its search for an off-road testing ground and found the Casado family in Buena Vista (a fitting name for its sweeping views). The Casados are passionate about land conservation and sustainability along with protecting the wildlife on Puerto Rico. Giant iguanas (up to seven feet long, including the tail) skitter across the dirt roads, musically-inclined toads fill up the evenings with sound, and turtles under threat of endangerment all reside on the property. Honda and the Casados hatched a plan to zone off certain areas to protect the turtles while gently working with the land to shape the already-existing hills and valleys into a temporary off-road course and then a permanent trail.  “The trails that Honda helped create for this event will transform into nature trails, hiking trails, and ATV trails for little kids to tour the island, visit these spots, see those endangered turtles and other different wildlife in the area, and really enjoy the property,” says Honda vehicle dynamics project lead Scott Stouffer. Alongside off-road project leader Pete Lang, Stouffer and a team of engineers and enthusiasts brought the dream to life.  The brothers’ other big vision for the property, Stouffer explains, stems from a tough time the family went through when their father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The elder Casado was treated with traditional Western medicine to banish the cancer. In the process, neighbors recommended drinking the juice of a soursop fruit for some homeopathic relief; soursop is a native Puerto Rican tree that produces a fruit that is juiced into a tasty elixir. It proved to provide some comfort to the Casado patriarch in his cancer journey, and the family decided to use some of their property to plant groves of soursop trees to help others who might be in the same situation.  Owned by native Puerto Rican brothers, hundreds of acres near Buena Vista are earmarked for a retreat for kids with cancer and their families. Image: Kristin Shaw/Popular Science Making improvements to the land  To plot the course that would later become relaxing, meandering trails, Lang and Stouffer started studying the terrain to determine how to best use existing natural features. The Casados had begun some excavation a few years back, and the Honda team took up the mantle.  “We looked at the core bones of the area and then worked the terrain around to create terrain elements that would emphasize specific features and the characteristics [for off-roading],” Lang says. “There were also opportunities for us to help improve upon the property, not only the Casado property, but the public road as well.”  While surveying the acreage, Lang says they found a broken culvert that had been in place for what appeared to be a very long time. The culvert caused a large sinkhole in the public road going toward the beach, making it impassable by any vehicle. Honda’s engineers designed a V ditch obstacle in that space for the off-road testing, and then put a brand-new culvert in place to improve the experience for future visitors.  Speaking of improvements, the beach needed help; it was swimming in garbage.  “When we first looked at the property, we were amazed; it was so beautiful,” Lang says. “But then when we got down to the public part of the beach we saw so much trash. We led a big effort to clean up all the trash in that area. It deserves to be taken care of, and we ended up pulling out eight pickup truckloads of trash and disposing of it.”  Meanwhile, the team worked with a local third-generation excavator named Picasso to do the heavy dirt work. Apex then swept in to smooth out the edges of the course and refine some of the discrete skill areas.  After Honda finished its testing run in Puerto Rico, the brand team and agency team removed all of its signage, cleaned up any errant refuse, and turned the course back to its owners.  “This is the Casados’ land,” Lang emphasizes. “We were just caretakers for a short time.”

Nature, Published online: 15 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01125-9A Nature analysis reveals the 25 highest-cited papers published this century and explores why they are breaking records.

Scientists thought they saw a distant star swallow a planet for the first time ever. But new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest something very different, but equally rare, may have happened instead.