Chinese Ghost hackers, motivated purely by money, strike across North America and the U.K. — even hospitals are on the attack radar.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for! A bite-sized version of the New York Times’ well-known crossword puzzle, The Mini is a quick and easy way to test your crossword skills daily in a lot less time (the average puzzle takes most players just over a minute to solve). While The Mini is smaller and simpler than a normal crossword, it isn’t always easy. Tripping up on one clue can be the difference between a personal best completion time and an embarrassing solve attempt. Recommended Videos Just like our Wordle hints and Connections hints, we’re here to help with The Mini today if you’re stuck and need a little help. Related Below are the answers for the NYT Mini crossword today. New York Times Across Speaking confidently but dishonestly – GLIB Traditional dance at a Jewish wedding – HORA “Scram!” – GOAWAY Hyundai electric car with a creatively spelled name – IONIQ Hoops legend with size 22 shoes – SHAQ Down Africa’s largest exporter of gold – GHANA Score that’s nowhere near Mensa-worthy – LOWIQ Baghdad’s country – IRAQ Loading area for trucks – BAY Army soldiers, for short – GIS __ and aah – OOH Editors’ Recommendations

salt of the earth Ghost forests are growing as sea levels rise As trees choked by saltwater die along low-lying coasts, marshes may move in. Jude Coleman – Apr 20, 2025 7:05 am | 3 Assateague Island National Seashore and State Park. Credit: OKRAD via Getty Assateague Island National Seashore and State Park. Credit: OKRAD via Getty Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Like giant bones planted in the earth, clusters of tree trunks, stripped clean of bark, are appearing along the Chesapeake Bay on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast. They are ghost forests: the haunting remains of what were once stands of cedar and pine. Since the late 19th century, an ever-widening swath of these trees have died along the shore. And they won’t be growing back. These arboreal graveyards are showing up in places where the land slopes gently into the ocean and where salty water increasingly encroaches. Along the United States’ East Coast, in pockets of the West Coast, and elsewhere, saltier soils have killed hundreds of thousands of acres of trees, leaving behind woody skeletons typically surrounded by marsh. What happens next? That depends. As these dead forests transition, some will become marshes that maintain vital ecosystem services, such as buffering against storms and storing carbon. Others may become home to invasive plants or support no plant life at all—and the ecosystem services will be lost. Researchers are working to understand how this growing shift toward marshes and ghost forests will, on balance, affect coastal ecosystems. Many of the ghost forests are a consequence of sea level rise, says coastal ecologist Keryn Gedan of George Washington University in Washington, DC, coauthor of an article on the salinization of coastal ecosystems in the 2025 Annual Review of Marine Science. Rising sea levels can bring more intense storm surges that flood saltwater over the top of soil. Drought and sea level rise can shift the groundwater table along the coast, allowing saltwater to journey farther inland, beneath the forest floor. Trees, deprived of fresh water, are stressed as salt accumulates. Yet the transition from living forest to marsh isn’t necessarily a tragedy, Gedan says. Marshes are important features of coastal ecosystems, too. And the shift from forest to marsh has happened throughout periods of sea level rise in the past, says Marcelo Ardón, an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “You would think of these forests and marshes kind of dancing together up and down the coast,” he says. Marshes provide many ecosystem benefits. They are habitats for birds and crustaceans, such as salt marsh sparrows, marsh wrens, crabs, and mussels. They are also a niche for native salt-tolerant plants, like rushes and certain grasses, which provide food and shelter for animals. Marshes can also store hefty amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. The plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, while mucky sediments trap other carbon sources like dead leaves and small creatures. Along coastal rivers in southern Georgia, for example, brackish and salt marshes can sequester more carbon than the tidal forests they are replacing. Salt marshes also buffer inland ecosystems from storms along the sea, taking the brunt of heavy winds and storm surges, protecting the trees beyond. Recent research suggests that wide marshes help to prevent additional ghost forests by stopping some saltwater from sweeping into the forest. But not all salt marshes can replace a forest’s aptitude for sucking up carbon. Ardón has been studying the forests of North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula. He found that these forests, which host rugged bald cypress, Atlantic white cedar, and a mix of deciduous hardwoods, stored more carbon than the wetlands that are beginning to overtake them. On North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula, a combination of sea level rise, drought and hurricane saltwater flooding has expanded ghost forests in recent decades A large section near Manns harbor is observable from space, seen here as the brown and tan patches along the right side of the peninsula. Credit: NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY IMAGES BY MICHALA GARRISON, USING LANDSAT DATA FROM THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY And marshes don’t always develop as trees die. When forests are inundated too rapidly, mudflats develop instead, and services from both trees and marshes are lost. Sometimes, invasive plant species move in before native marsh plants can take hold. “When a lot of these forests die back, instead of being replaced with a native salt marsh ... what’s actually taking its place is a phragmites marsh,” says forest ecologist Stephanie Stotts of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, coauthor of the Annual Review of Marine Science article. One Phragmites subspecies is an invasive reed that rapidly takes over wetland habitats. Native animals aren’t adapted to eat this phragmites, so the reed’s prevalence could affect other creatures, Stotts says. Many ghost forests are expanding; estimates suggest that since 1985, 11 percent of forest in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula has been converted to marsh; around 150 square miles of forest surrounding the Chesapeake Bay area have transitioned since the mid-1800s. The only way to slow the trend down, Geden says, would be to combat sea level rise and climate change. It still remains unclear how these coastal transitions will play out and whether, as trees succumb, they will give way to healthy marshes. It takes several decades for trees to die, says Stotts, so the full impact of these forests’ becoming skeletons remains to be seen. “We’re about 50 years behind.” This story was originally published at Knowable Magazine. Jude Coleman Knowable Magazine explores the real-world significance of scholarly work through a journalistic lens. 3 Comments

We flew TAP Air Portugal and experienced multiple flight cancellations. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto 2025-04-20T12:12:02Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? My friend and I booked the Portuguese airline TAP Air Portugal to fly to and around Portugal. Months before we flew, we were notified our return flight to the US had been pushed back a full day. Later, we were bumped from an overbooked flight and another was canceled. In November,trip to Portugal.We selected our hotels and then moved on to flights.While comparing prices, we found TAP Air Portugal, the country's national airline, had the most affordable nonstop flights, both from the US to Lisbon and from Lisbon to Madeira, a Portuguese island 600 miles into the Atlantic Ocean.We each paid $565 roundtrip to fly from New York City to Lisbon, and $171 roundtrip to fly from Lisbon to Madeira.Normally, I'm wary of low-cost flights from and within the US — I believe you always pay for something, be it a less-than-stellar flight experience or hidden fees.However, TAP's flight costs seemed somewhat comparable to ones from other airlines so we didn't feel the need to research the airline too deeply. I've also flown other national airlines before — like Turkish Airlines, Air France, Icelandair — without a hitch. I assumed this would be the same.We experienced our first red flag months before we flew, and our experience only got worse from there.Our return flight changed 2 months in advanceIn January, two months before our flight, we received an email stating that our itinerary had been changed.Our return flight, from Lisbon to New York, was delayed 24 hours, with our flight now leaving on Friday, March 28, instead of Thursday, March 27.We weren't given an explanation as to why. TAP Air Portugal did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Our TAP Air Portugal flight was changed in January. Julia Pugachevsky We had planned to fly on Thursday to save money. Staying an extra day would cost us around $200 for the hotel alone, plus other expenses, like dining out for the day (probably another $100).Still, we decided to make the most of it. We accepted our new flight, budgeted for an extra day, and booked another hotel.We planned to use the extra time in Lisbon to do a quick day trip to Sintra, a resort town about an hour away by train from Lisbon.Although it wasn't the end of the world for us to stay longer, this would've been a huge inconvenience if either of us had a tighter budget or needed to be back in the States sooner. Flying to and from Madeira didn't go as planned, either Madeira's airport is one of the trickiest to land in, due to high crosswinds. Octavio Passos/Getty Images Four days after we landed and explored Lisbon, it was time for us to fly to Madeira. Our flight was set to land on Wednesday afternoon.We arrived at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport almost three hoursWe joined a crowd of about a dozen people who were at the check-in desk looking to book new flights.A TAP Air representative gave us two new seats for a flight five hours later, meaning we'd land at midnight and get only a few hours of sleep before our 5:30 a.m. hike the next morning.He gave us $250 flight vouchers as well as meal and snack vouchers. We took them and played cards to pass the time until our next flight. One of the TAP Air flight vouchers I was given when our flight was overbooked. Julia Pugachevsky It was around 1 a.m. by the time we got to our Madeira hotel.Soon, we were surprised with another flight cancellation We changed plans and watched a sunrise over Pico Areeiro in Madeira to fit another activity in. Julia Pugachevsky The next day, around 4 p.m., we got an email notifying us that our return flight to Lisbon in two days was canceled.A few hours after receiving that message, we were notified that we had beenFrustrated, my friend booked us on an earlier Ryanair flight back to Lisbon instead, which cost $113 each. Once again, we changed plans and unexpectedly spent more money.Instead of going to Sintra, as we planned the first time our flights were altered, we looked for more things to do in Madeira because we'd be back in Lisbon later.We booked a morning sunset excursion (with a 5:15 a.m. pickup time) to still feel like we did some exploring.We didn't find TAP's website or customer service to be very helpful, eitherAfter this flight cancellation, we were eligible for a refund, according to TAP Air's terms and conditions, because our flight was more than five hours delayed and we weren't taking a replacement flight through the airline.There was just one problem: We weren't able to access the refund through the airline's website. I watched my friend input all her information, land on aWhen she tried to file an online complaint, the message wouldn't go through. Instead, she was met with: "Your request was not sent successfully!" Because my friend bought both of our Madeira tickets, I tried inputting her information on my phone, with the same results. When my friend hit the green button, she was taken back to the TAP Air entry form page. TAP Air Portugal Once we landed in Lisbon, we had about 24 hours until our flight home. We saw it as an opportunity to slow down after all the travel mishaps, spending the last few hours unwinding in our hotel.When we arrived at the Lisbon airport for our flight back to New York City, we stopped by the TAP customer-service desk.My"But the website doesn't work," my friend said."You have to use the website," the rep said.While waiting to board our flight, I Googled other reviews of the airline. Reddit users lamented the customer service in particular, some saying it could take months to hear back. (One user said it took over three years).We gave up on trying to get a refund through TAP Air. Weeks later, my friend is waiting to hear back on a credit-card chargeback she filed shortly after we landed.We'd pay more for a different airline next time We used our last few hours to explore touristy parts of Lisbon we'd otherwise miss, like Pink Street. Julia Pugachevsky Ultimately, we ended up paying way more than we budgeted for, both in money and time.All in all, we each spent $113 for the new flights, $125 for the hotel, plus a little over $100 for dinner, breakfast, and lunch combined. Nearly $400 extra.The problem wasn't that we had a canceled flight or got overbooked — it happens and is always something I'm mentally prepared for.It's that we ticked off multiple unlucky flight experiences, all in one week. Next time, I'd definitely pay the extra $100 or $200 for a flight from an airline I've had better experiences with for an international flight, like Delta or United. I'd also stick to Ryanair or easyJet for shorter flights because I've at least had decent experiences with both.Even with the free voucher, I wouldn't book TAP Air again. Or if I did, I would prepare to be disappointed and adjust my trip, over and over again. Recommended video

Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a unique framework for thinking through your moral dilemmas. To submit a question, fill out this anonymous form or email sigal.samuel@vox.com. Here’s this week’s question from a reader, condensed and edited for clarity:Lately, in order to help with my mental health, I’ve been avoiding news about the current political situation, and it’s been really helping. I haven’t totally buried my head in the sand; I still get some info from others and the stuff that leaks into my social media (which I’ve also been using less) and stuff like John Oliver, but overall, I haven’t been giving it all much thought, and focusing on my hobbies and the people around me have seriously helped. But obviously I do feel a bit guilty about it. I see people constantly talking about how everyone needs to help as much as they can, about how apathy and resulting inaction is exactly what people in power want. I guess my dilemma is that question: By choosing to take a break, am I giving them exactly what they want? Part of me knows that I probably can’t help very effectively if my mental health is terrible, but another part of me knows that the world won’t pause with me.Dear Attention Overload,I think your question is fundamentally about attention. We usually think of attention as a cognitive resource, but it’s an ethical resource, too. In fact, you could say it’s the prerequisite for all ethical action. “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity,” the 20th-century French philosopher Simone Weil wrote. She argued that it’s only by deeply paying attention to others that we can develop the capacity to understand what it’s really like to be them. That allows us to feel compassion, and compassion drives us to action.Truly paying attention is incredibly hard, Weil says, because it requires you to see a suffering person not just as “a specimen from the social category labeled ‘unfortunate,’ but as a man, exactly like us, who was one day stamped with a special mark by affliction.” In other words, you don’t get “the pleasure of feeling the distance between him and oneself” — you have to recognize that you’re a vulnerable creature, too, and tragedy could befall you just as easily as it’s befallen the suffering person in front of you.So, when you “pay attention,” you really are paying something. You pay with your own sense of invulnerability. Engaging this way costs you dearly — that’s why it’s the “purest form of generosity.” Doing this is hard enough even in the best of circumstances. But nowadays, we live in an era when our capacity for attention is under attack. Modern technology has given us a glut of information, constantly streaming in from all over the world. There’s too much to pay attention to, so we live in an exhausted state of information overload. That’s even truer at a time when politicians intentionally “flood the zone” with a ceaseless flow of new initiatives.Plus, as I’ve written before, digital tech is designed to fragment our focus, which degrades our capacity for moral attention — the capacity to notice the morally salient features of a given situation so that we can respond appropriately. Just think of all the times you’ve seen an article in your Facebook feed about anguished people desperate for help — starving children in Yemen, say — only to get distracted by a funny meme that appears right above it.Have a question for this advice column?Fill out this anonymous form or email sigal.samuel@vox.com.The problem isn’t just that our attention is limited and fragmented — it’s also that we don’t know how to manage the attention we do have. As the tech ethicist James Williams writes, “the main risk information abundance poses is not that one’s attention will be occupied or used up by information…but rather that one will lose control over one’s attentional processes.” Consider a game of Tetris, he says. The abundance of blocks raining down on your screen is not the problem — given enough time, you could figure out how to stack them. The problem is that they fall at an increasing speed. And at extreme speeds, your brain just can’t process very well. You start to panic. You lose control. It’s the same with a constant firehose of news. Being subjected to that torrent can leave you confused, disoriented, and ultimately just desperate to get away from the flood. So, more information isn’t always better. Instead of trying to take in as much info as possible, we should try to take in info in a way that serves the real goal: enhancing, or at least preserving, our capacity for moral attention. That’s why some thinkers nowadays talk about the importance of reclaiming “attentional sovereignty.” You need to be able to direct your attentional resources deliberately. If you strategically withdraw from an overwhelming information environment, that’s not necessarily a failure of civic duty. It can be an exercise of your agency that ultimately helps you engage with the news more meaningfully. But you’ve got to be intentional about how you do this. I’m all for limiting your news intake, but I’d encourage you to come up with a strategy and stick to it. Instead of a slightly haphazard approach — you mention “the stuff that leaks into my social media” — consider identifying one or two major news sites that you’ll check for ten minutes each day while having your morning coffee. You can also subscribe to a newsletter, like Vox’s The Logoff, that’s specifically designed to update you on the most important news of the day so you can tune out all the extra noise. It’s also important to consider not only how you’re going to withdraw attention from the news, but also what you’ll invest it in instead. You mention spending more time on hobbies and the people around you, which is great. But be careful not to cocoon yourself exclusively in the realm of the personal — a privilege many people don’t have. Though you shouldn’t engage with the political realm 24/7, you’re not totally exempt from it either. One valuable thing you can do is devote some time to training your moral attention. There are lots of ways to do that, from reading literature (as philosopher Martha Nussbaum recommends) to meditating (as the Buddhists recommend). I’ve personally benefited from both those techniques, but one thing I like about meditation is that you can do it in real time even while you’re reading the news. In other words, it doesn’t have to be only a thing you do instead of news consumption — it can be a practice that changes how you pay attention to the news.Even as a journalist, I find it hard to read the news because it’s painful to see stories of people suffering — I end up feeling what’s usually called “compassion fatigue.” But I’ve learned that’s actually a misnomer. It should really be called “empathy fatigue.” Compassion and empathy are not the same thing, even though we often conflate the concepts. Empathy is when you share the feelings of other people. If other people are feeling pain, you feel pain, too — literally.Not so with compassion, which is more about feeling warmth toward a suffering person and being motivated to help them. Practicing compassion both makes us happier and helps us make other people happier. In a study published in 2013 at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, researchers put volunteers in a brain scanner, showed them gruesome videos of people suffering, and asked them to empathize with the sufferers. The fMRI showed activated neural circuits centered around the insula in our cerebral cortex — exactly the circuits that get activated when we’re in pain ourselves.Compare that with what happened when the researchers took a different group of volunteers and gave them eight hours of training in compassion, then showed them the graphic videos. A totally different set of brain circuits lit up: those for love and warmth, the sort a parent feels for a child.When we feel empathy, we feel like we’re suffering, and that’s upsetting. Though empathy is useful for getting us to notice other people’s pain, it can ultimately cause us to tune out to help alleviate our own feelings of distress, and can even cause serious burnout.Amazingly, compassion — because it fosters positive feelings — actually attenuates the empathetic distress that can cause burnout, as neuroscientist Tania Singer has demonstrated in her lab. In other words, practicing compassion both makes us happier and helps us make other people happier. In fact, one fMRI study showed that in very experienced practitioners — think Tibetan yogis — compassion meditation that involves wishing for people to be free from suffering actually triggers activity in the brain’s motor centers, preparing the practitioners’ bodies to physically move in order to help whoever is suffering, even as they’re still lying in the brain scanner.So, how can you practice compassion while reading the news? A simple Tibetan Buddhist technique called Tonglen meditation trains you to be present with suffering instead of turning away from it. It’s a multistep process when done as a formal sitting meditation, but if you’re doing it after reading a news story, you can take just a few seconds to do the core practice. First, you let yourself come into contact with the pain of someone you see in the news. As you breathe in, imagine that you’re breathing in their pain. And as you breathe out, imagine that you’re sending them relief, warmth, compassion. That’s it. It doesn’t sound like much — and, on its own, it won’t help the suffering people you read about. But it’s a dress rehearsal for the mind. By doing this mental exercise, we’re training ourselves to stay present with someone’s suffering instead of resorting to “the pleasure of feeling the distance between him and oneself,” as Weil put it. And we’re training our capacity for moral attention, so that we can then help others in real life.I hope you consume the news in moderation, and that when you do consume it, you try to do so while practicing compassion. With any luck, you’ll leave feeling like those Tibetan yogis in the brain scanner: energized to help others out in the world. Bonus: What I’m readingThere’s a poem that recently gave me some relief from my own news-induced anxiety. It’s this poem by Wendell Berry, and it’s about how to “come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.”I enjoyed this piece in Psyche on “Why it’s possible to be optimistic in a world of bad news.” It explains Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s view that while ours is not a perfect world — it’s so full of suffering — it still might be the optimal world.This week’s question about news consumption prompted me to revisit the work of the 20th-century French philosophers Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard, by listening to episodes about them on the Philosophy Bites podcast. They argued that the media feeds us simulations of reality, and actually makes us more disconnected from the world because we forget that we’re getting an imitation and not the real thing. Have a listen! You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

By Margherita Bassi Published April 20, 2025 | Comments (0) | Researchers have upgraded the RoboBee with a pair of crane fly legs to stick the landing. © Harvard Imagine tiny robotic bees buzzing around fields of wildflowers, helping real bees carry out their crucial pollinating duties decades in the future. It’s a vision that Harvard’s Microrobotics Laboratory has been working on for years. The barrier? Until recently, the only landing the Harvard RoboBee had mastered was a crash landing. Harvard researchers have now armed their tiny RoboBee with four long, graceful landing appendages inspired by crane fly legs. (Crane flies are those nightmarish but harmless insects that look like flying spiders and people commonly misidentify as giant mosquitos). As detailed in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics, a soft landing brings RoboBees one step closer to practical applications that today would seem straight out of a sci-fi movie, such as environmental monitoring, disaster surveillance, artificial pollination, or even the manipulation of delicate organisms. “Previously, if we were to go in for a landing, we’d turn off the vehicle a little bit above the ground and just drop it, and pray that it will land upright and safely,” Christian Chan, a PhD student at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and co-author of the study, explained in a Harvard statement. A penny, an older version of the RoboBee, the current RoboBee, and a crane fly. © Harvard Led by Robert Wood, a Harvard professor of engineering and applied sciences, Chan and his colleagues looked for inspiration for a new landing design within the university’s Museum of Comparative Zoology database. They ultimately chose the crane fly’s morphology, outfitting the RoboBee with four long, jointed legs for a softer landing. The update also included an improved controller (the robot’s brain) to decelerate the tiny robot’s landing approach. The combination now results in a “gentle plop-down,” as described in the statement. Earlier versions of the RoboBee struggled to make a controlled landing because the air vortices generated from its flapping wings created instability close to the ground. It’s a problem appropriately called “ground effect” that helicopters also experience. Except it’s potentially more challenging for the RoboBee as it weighs 0.004 ounces (1/10th of a gram), and its wingspan measures just 1.2 inches (3 centimeters). “The successful landing of any flying vehicle relies on minimizing the velocity as it approaches the surface before impact and dissipating energy quickly after the impact,” explained Nak-seung Patrick Hyun, a former Harvard postdoctoral fellow and now an assistant professor at Purdue University’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Even with the tiny wing flaps of RoboBee, the ground effect is non-negligible when flying close to the surface, and things can get worse after the impact as it bounces and tumbles.” Hyun led the RoboBee’s landing tests on both solid surfaces and a leaf, just like a real insect. Researchers tested the RoboBee’s ability to land on a leaf. © Harvard The crane fly legs and updated controller also protect the RoboBee’s fragile piezoelectric actuators—the tiny robot’s equivalent of an insect’s muscles. “The primary drawbacks of piezoelectric actuators for microrobots are their fragility and low fracture toughness,” the researchers explained in the study. “Compliant legs aid in protecting the delicate piezoelectric actuators from collision-induced fractures during crash landings.” Moving forward, the team aims to give the RoboBee sensor, power, and control autonomy—what the statement calls “a three-pronged holy grail” that will bring its seemingly elusive practical applications that much closer to reality. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Ed Cara Published March 27, 2025 By Thomas Maxwell Published March 12, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published February 14, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published February 13, 2025 By Kyle Barr Published February 7, 2025 By Ed Cara Published January 16, 2025

From Common Sight to Cultural Symbol: The Rise and Decline of Bamboo Scaffolding in Hong KongSave this picture!Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre wrapped with Bamboo Scaffolding. Image © flickr user stevemarvell. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0The bamboo scaffolding building typology—temporary, agile, and deeply rooted in tradition—particularly, the bamboo shed theatre building technique, is recognized as an item of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Hong Kong. As one walks through the city, especially in busy urban districts, it's nearly impossible not to encounter a bamboo scaffold within a five-minute radius. Bamboo scaffolding is arguably the most iconic construction material in Hong Kong, valued for its abundance, sustainability, flexibility, adaptability, and—most importantly—scalability. These qualities have contributed to its widespread use in temporary construction, from building maintenance and renovations to festival stages and sporting events.However, this once-ubiquitous feature of the urban landscape may be slowly fading from view. A dwindling pool of skilled, younger workers—combined with evolving construction regulations—has contributed to its decline. On March 17, the Development Bureau announced plans to "drive a wider adoption of metal scaffolds in public building works." In practice, this means the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) will soon require at least 50% of its capital works projects to utilize metal scaffolding. While not a formal ban, the policy signals what many see as the beginning of a gradual phase-out of bamboo scaffolding in public-sector construction.The government cited safety as the main concern—since 2018, bamboo scaffolding has been linked to 23 fatalities. However, many in the community point to other factors behind the decision. One concern is the aging workforce: with few younger workers entering the trade, a generational skills gap is emerging. Others point to fire hazards—such as a 2023 blaze that spread rapidly at a high-rise construction site where bamboo scaffolding contributed to the fire's severity. Still others cite the predictability and standardized strength of steel, which makes it more attractive for engineering, sourcing, and compliance. This article reflects on the cultural significance of bamboo scaffolding, revisits key incidents, and considers its evolving role in Hong Kong's construction identity. Related Article The Architectural Language of Scaffoldings in Cityscapes: Exploring the Impact of These Temporary Structures Save this picture!Ephemeral Icons: How Temporary Bamboo Structures Shape Lasting TraditionsAs mentioned earlier, temporary bamboo structures—particularly those built using the shed theatre building technique—are highly celebrated in Hong Kong. A fully functional, festive theatre stage can often appear seemingly overnight, complete with dazzling signage, vibrant decorations, and an unmistakable sense of cultural occasion. These mesmerizing transformations are beautifully captured in Bamboo Theatre, a 76-minute documentary directed by Cheung Cheuk. But beyond the theatre, bamboo's versatility also finds expression in other cultural festivities—most notably, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, held annually on Cheung Chau Island. The centerpiece of this festival is a trio of towering "Bun Mountains": 60-foot-high bamboo structures covered with thousands of edible buns. Historically, bamboo was the ideal material for constructing these towers for several pragmatic reasons—it was lightweight and easy to transport to the island, adaptable and reusable, and readily available as the primary scaffolding material in Hong Kong. Its affordability and temporary nature also made it ideal for seasonal festivals. The image of loose bamboo poles, skillfully bound and rising into a vertical tower, has long been both a technical marvel and a powerful cultural symbol.Save this picture!During the festival's signature competition, young participants would race up the towers to collect buns—the higher the bun, the better the fortune it was believed to bring to their families.However, in 1978, tragedy struck. The towers collapsed mid-race, injuring over 100 people. The government suspended the bun-snatching ritual immediately. Despite the ban, the tradition's significance remained deeply rooted in local sentiment. For many Cheung Chau residents, the festival is more than a celebration—it's a core part of their identity and a living expression of Hong Kong's cultural heritage.Save this picture!After prolonged public calls for revival, the competition was reinstated in 2005 under stricter safety regulations. Key changes included pre-screening trained athletes, reducing the number of towers from three to one, and—most notably—replacing the bamboo frame with steel. While this may not have been the first time bamboo had been substituted with metal, but it carried particular symbolic weight. The shift marked a cultural turning point: steel was now seen as safer, more reliable, and ultimately more acceptable than bamboo for large-scale public events.Though the bamboo scaffold was lost, the ritual remained intact—and the community was largely satisfied. The tradition lives on, celebrated annually with great fanfare. Yet the shift to steel scaffolding leaves an open question: if bamboo could be replaced in something as culturally significant as the Bun Mountains, could the same fate await the bamboo theatre typology? The answer may not be immediate, and only time will tell.Save this picture!Light, Strong, and Everywhere - Bamboo's Role in Building Hong KongBamboo scaffolding has long been integral to the construction landscape in Hong Kong. Whether for completing new buildings, conducting routine maintenance, or installing everyday household equipment like air conditioners, bamboo has been the go-to scaffolding material. Its application spans an incredibly wide range—from low-cost public housing estates to some of the most iconic and expensive buildings in the world. Even Norman Foster's HSBC Headquarters, once the most expensive building of its time, made use of bamboo scaffolding during its construction. It's no exaggeration to say that the Hong Kong skyline as we know it today was built quite literally on a framework of bamboo.Save this picture!Its ubiquity is not without reason. Bamboo is both reusable and sustainable, and its physical properties make it uniquely suited to the dense urban conditions of the city. It can be cut and assembled on site with minimal tools, handled easily by one or two workers, and carried without the need for heavy machinery. Its high strength-to-weight ratio makes it especially adaptable, allowing the same material to be used across a range of scales—from the simple installation of window-mounted air conditioning units in high-rise flats to the structural needs of tower construction or estate-wide renovation projects.Save this picture!Over the decades, bamboo scaffolding has evolved into a refined construction system with its own logic, craft knowledge, and efficiencies. It's supported by a highly skilled labor force and a clear set of expectations for how it's assembled and disassembled. Compared to more industrialized methods—such as steel scaffold systems—bamboo remains significantly more cost-effective, further cementing its place in everyday construction across the city.Living Structures, Modern Standards: Bamboo Scaffolding at a CrossroadsHowever, the system is not without its challenges. Chief among them is standardization. Unlike dimensional lumber, which undergoes industrial processing to ensure uniformity, raw bamboo varies significantly in wall thickness, tensile strength, and structural performance—even within a single culm. Although international efforts have been made to develop strength grading and certification systems for bamboo, such frameworks have yet to gain traction in Hong Kong. Compounding the issue is the approval process: bamboo scaffolding is typically inspected and signed off by licensed scaffolders only after construction, with minimal prior documentation or structural calculations. This retrospective approach can pose difficulties for building code compliance and safety oversight.Save this picture!Moreover, bamboo scaffolding is often treated as a living structure—subject to ongoing retying, retightening, and on-site adaptations throughout its use. This evolving, craft-based process is one of its most captivating qualities, blurring the line between construction and maintenance. Yet, it stands in tension with contemporary regulatory demands that favor predictability, pre-approved design, and standardized execution.Save this picture!Save this picture!Another concern is its flammability. Bamboo is a combustible material, and while it is rarely the cause of fires, its presence on construction sites can accelerate the spread of flames. This vulnerability was brought into sharp focus during a major fire in 2023, when a high-rise under construction in Hong Kong caught fire. With active fire suppression systems not yet 100% performing and bamboo scaffolding encasing the building, the blaze raged for over nine hours, spreading to at least three adjacent buildings. Though bamboo was not to blame for the fire's outbreak, its involvement in the incident raised serious questions about fire safety and the potential consequences in future emergencies. As regulations evolve and public scrutiny increases, Hong Kong faces a critical moment: how to balance the deep-rooted tradition and proven utility of bamboo scaffolding with the demands of modern safety and standards. The future of bamboo in construction may depend not only on its performance, but on the city's willingness to reimagine how tradition and technology can coexist. Image gallerySee allShow less About this authorJonathan YeungAuthor••• Cite: Jonathan Yeung. "From Common Sight to Cultural Symbol: The Rise and Decline of Bamboo Scaffolding in Hong Kong" 20 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029052/from-common-sight-to-cultural-symbol-the-rise-and-decline-of-bamboo-scaffolding-in-hong-kong&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

Not every laptop needs to be a powerhouse. Sometimes, you just need something simple, reliable, and light enough to toss in your bag without a second thought. Whether you’re heading to class, knocking out some work on the go, or just catching up on Netflix, a lightweight laptop with strong battery life can go a long way, and a Microsoft Surface SE is up for the job.  And it’s only $189.99 (reg. $378).  Great Ex-spec-tations This computer’s compact frame houses an Intel Celeron N4120 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of eMMC storage, plenty for writing papers, video calls, streaming, and everyday multitasking. The 1366×768 display may not be cinematic, but it’s crisp and bright enough for focused work, and the 16:9 aspect ratio is ideal for documents and videos. Where the Surface SE really shines is its battery life. With up to 16 hours on a single charge, this laptop was clearly built for all-day use without a charger tethered to your backpack. Whether you’re bouncing between classes, meetings, or coffee shops, it’s designed to keep up. Weighing in at just 2.4 pounds and less than an inch thick, it’s also light enough to carry around without noticing. And with Windows 11 SE, the interface stays simple and secure.  Ports are limited but practical: a USB-A, USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a barrel charging port give you enough flexibility to connect essential accessories.  So why the low price? This is an open-box item, meaning it might have been excess inventory. All that means is the box might have a few extra stickers, or it may come in different packaging. The computer itself is still in brand-new condition, and it even comes with a 1-year warranty.  Get a Microsoft Surface SE while they’re on sale for $189.99.  StackSocial prices subject to change.  Microsoft Surface SE 11.6″ Laptop (2022) Celeron N4120 8GB RAM 128GB SSD Win11 SE (Open Box) – $189.99 See Deal

Nature, Published online: 16 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08649-0Natively expressed AcrIII-1 does not function as an anti-CRISPR protein

Early on April 24, Venus will be at its brightest in the morning sky — just 67 days after it was at its brightest in the evening sky. Here's why.