Lasker Rink, a swimming pool and skating rink, activated Central Park’s north end since 1966, but was due for an upgrade. This week the renamed and revamped recreation spot opened again to the public alongside the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer, reconnecting the Harlem community with the park and making a trek uptown all the more worth it. Before Central Park this area was the confluence of three streams that were built over by the city’s expanding street grid. Since that initial reconstruction, the site has undergone a series of modifications that added Harlem Meer, a man-made body of water; a boathouse; and later Lasker Rink. This latest round of renovation—led by  Susan T. Rodriguez Architecture and Design, Mitchell Giurgola Architects, and Central Park Conservancy—considers the park’s history with contemporary means and vision. Susan T. Rodriguez Architecture and Design and Mitchell Giurgola Architects deigned the Davis Center at Harlem Meer, a recreation facility located in Central Park’s north end. (Courtesy Central Park Conservancy) From above, the Davis Center’s green roof camouflages with the park’s grassy expanse. Its “curvilinear geometry” was built into the site’s sloping topography and was designed to fit into the loop of Park Drive. The green roof and the creation of a building integrated into its landscape were concerted efforts to deliver a sustainable design. These decisions also course-corrected decades of damage the 1960s Lasker Rink facility caused to the site’s ecology and hydrology. “Parks are the essential counterpoint to urban life that we can never take for granted. The new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer re-envisions and transforms the northern end of the Park making it more open and accessible to all,” Susan Rodriguez told AN. Lasker Rink, added to the park in 1966, was also a swimming pool. The new facilities replace it. (NYC Parks) In spring and fall, the ovoid lawn space fronting the Davis Center will transform into Gottesman Pool; when temperatures drop, the site will transform into a full-size skating rink. At 285 feet by 120 feet, the Gottesman Pool is larger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It’s not the first time this location of the park has welcomed this sort of recreational programming. The new pool slash rink was built atop the Lasker Rink, demolished in 2021 to make way for this three-in-one complex; when not used for swimming laps or spinning on ice, a lawn will cap the facilities, making space for yoga, dance, games, bird watching, and other park activities. “Envisioned as a truly sustainable civic space and building—three in one: pool, rink and green–the design reconnects the Harlem community to the rest of the Park,” Rodriguez added. “The project marks the intersection of history, landscape and architecture to create more park and a vital new community center open to all–the ultimate fusion of landscape and architecture that enhances the experience of being in the park.” In spring and fall the Harlem Oval is a lawn for recreational use, in winter it can be transformed into a skating rink and in a summer a swimming pool. (Patricia Burmicky) The Davis Center building was built for all-season use too. When it’s hot out, the floor-to-ceiling glass doors lining its facade can pivot outward, permitting a seamless flow between the outdoors and the interiors. To foster continuity between the two, the architects used the same exterior materials inside—locally sourced stone, green ceramic tiles, and wood accents. When the doors are opened, the overhang roof provides shade and a sort of porch for the structure. The underside of the roof and ceiling were clad with ribbed wood slats and the curved walls were masked with gray stone. A series of rectangular openings were cut into the stone to lead patrons through to the locker rooms, skate rentals, concessions, and bathrooms. A green roof that spans nearly a half acre tops the Davis Center. (© Richard Barnes) In addition to the new building and updated rink, a major component of the project, less glamorous but dutifully important, involved restoring the water channel that originally flowed through the Ravine and Huddlestone Arch into the Meer. Kempner Boardwalk was added, too; it wraps around the body of water to bring visitors closer to the existing freshwater marshes and wetlands located adjacent to the Davis Center site. The underside of the roof was clad with crenelated wood. (© Susan T Rodriguez) Inside, the Davis Center opening in the stone wall lead through to locker room and bathroom facilities. (© Susan T Rodriguez) With a reverence for the park’s history, Davis Center at Harlem Meer is rooted in the vision thought up by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux back in 1858, in which pastoral scenery and public enjoyment are one of the same.

Constructed in 1821 for Joshua King (1783-1849), this Federal style mansion is one of the last country estates in Abington, Massachusetts. Joshua King was a Deacon of a local church and a well-to-do citizen in town, living nearby until a hurricane blew the roof off of his former house. Seeking to rebuilt a new, more substantial family home, it is said that Joshua required that this house would be built to last centuries, with some residents stating that the roof structure itself had enough timber to build a second home. The Federal style mansion has three chimneys with 12 fireplaces inside, and is set amongst rolling fields bounded by old stone walls, likely giving the property its name, “Highfields”. The property was later converted to a duplex, but retains much of its original design at the exterior. 

Installation view of ‘I’m Listening’ at Perrotin, Paris, 2025. Photos by Claire Dorn. All images © Barry McGee, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin, shared with permission In ‘I’m Listening,’ Barry McGee Celebrates Positivity in Amid Distress and Overwhelm April 30, 2025 Art Kate Mothes “Barry McGee lives in San Francisco—he was born there and he lives there,” critic and curator Richard Leydier opens in an essay accompanying the artist’s current solo exhibition, I’m Listening, at Perrotin. “This fact is important because his art would be profoundly different had he chosen to move to another American city.” McGee draws inspiration from the West Coast subculture he grew up within, surrounded by skaters, surfers, and street artists. He has long been interested in marginalized communities, societal outcasts, and those seen as subversive. The artist is a key figure of the Mission School, which emerged in the early 1990s through the work of a number of artists who were connected to the now-defunct San Francisco Art Institute. Other influential artists include Margaret Kilgallen (1967-2001), Ruby Neri, Claire Rojas, and more, all of whom explore the intersections between urban realism, graffiti, American folk art, and “lowbrow” aesthetics undergirded by social activism. McGee adopted monikers like “Twist” and “Lydia Fong” in his own graffiti writing and also explored painting and printmaking, which he still taps into in his expansive, multidisciplinary practice. He explores “dynamic panel assemblages, complex patterns reminiscent of op art, and immersive installations that explore the human condition,” the gallery says. I’m Listening erupts with color, pattern, and texture through a bounty of sculptures, paintings, prints, and assemblages that reimagine everyday objects. Surfboards are cloaked in optical geometric patterns in acrylic paint, and McGee’s signature grimacing, cartoonish faces appear on collages or in place of labels on glass bottles. “I focus on everything that is shitty on our little planet right now,” McGee says. Expressions of disgust or surprise are paired with playfulness, though. He adds, “I also celebrate all these incredible things that humans invent to stay positive and healthy.” I’m Listening continues through May 24 in Paris. Next article

Getty Images/iStockphoto News How AI can attack corporate decision-making As AI gets embedded in corporate systems, experts warn of emerging security risks caused by influencing retrieval augmentation systems By Cliff Saran, Managing Editor Published: 30 Apr 2025 15:45 Given that the goal of developing a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) model is to take human instructions and provide a helpful app, what happens if those human instructions are malicious? That was the question raised during a demonstration of AI vulnerabilities presented at the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS) Showcase 2025 event in London. “A language model is designed to summarise large amounts of information,” said Matthew Sutton, solution architect at Advai. “The aim is to give it as much test information as possible and let it handle that data.” Sutton raised the question of what would happen if someone using a large language model (LLM) asked it to produce disinformation or harmful content, or reveal sensitive information. “What happens if you ask the model to produce malicious code, then go and execute it, or attempt to steal somebody’s data?” he said. During the demo, Sutton discussed the inherent risk of using retrieval augmented generation (RAG) that has access to a corpus of corporate data. The general idea behind using a RAG system is to provide context that is then combined with external inference from an AI model. “If you go to ChatGPT and ask it to summarise your emails, for example, it will have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. “A RAG system takes external context as information, whether that be documents, external websites or your emails.” According to Sutton, an attacker could use the fact that the AI system reads email messages and documents stored internally to place malicious instructions in an email message, document or website. He said these instructions are then picked up by the AI model, which enables the harmful instruction to be executed.  “Large language models give you this ability to interact with things through natural language,” said Sutton. “It’s designed to be as easy as possible, and so from an adversary point of view, this means that it is easier and has a lower entry barrier to create logic instructions.” Read more about AI vulnerabilities NCSC warns over possible AI prompt injection attacks: The UK’s NCSC says it sees alarming potential for so-called prompt injection attacks driven by the large language models that power AI chatbots. Improve AI security by red teaming large language models: Cyber attacks such as prompt injection pose significant security risks to LLMs, but implementing red teaming strategies can test models’ resistance to various cyber threats. This, according to Sutton, means anybody who wants to disrupt a corporate IT system could look at how they could use an indirect prompt injection attack to insert instructions hidden in normal business correspondence. If an employee is interacting directly with the model and the harmful instructions have found their way into the corporate AI system, then the model may present harmful or misleading content to that person. For example, he said people who submit bids for new project work could provide instructions hidden in their bid, knowing that large language model will be used to summarise the text of their submission, which could be used to influence their bid more positively than rival bids, or instruct the LLM to ignore other bids. For Sutton, this means there is quite a broad range of people that have the means to influence an organisation’s tender process. “You don’t need to be a high-level programmer to put in things like that,” he said. From an IT security perspective, Sutton said an indirect prompt injection attack means people need to be cognisant as to the information being provided to the AI system, since this data is not always reliable. Generally, the output from an LLM is an answer to a query followed by additional contextual information, that shows the users how the information is referenced to output the answer. Sutton pointed out that people should question the reliability of this contextual information, but noted that it would be unrealistic and undermine the usefulness of an LLM if people had to check the context every single time it generated a response. In The Current Issue: Interview: Sarah Hawkins, CEO, National Family Mediation Government faces claims of serious security and data protection problems in One Login digital ID Download Current Issue Brunel versus Putin: next steps for UK tech sector need to be transformational – Data Matters What to expect from Nutanix .NEXT 2025 – CW Developer Network View All Blogs

In an era where AI is increasingly providing more interaction with people, new risks are emerging that demand a new approach to insurance

Around the world, more and more electric vehicles are hitting the road. Last year, more than 17 million battery-electric and hybrid vehicles were sold. Early forecasts suggest this year's figure might reach 20 million. Nearly 20% of all cars sold today are electric. But as more motorists go electric, it creates a new challenge - what to do with the giant batteries when they reach the end of their lives. That's 12 to 15 years on average, though real-world data suggests it may be up to 40% longer. The average EV battery weighs about 450 kilograms. Editor's Note: Guest co-author Professor Habibi is the Head of the Centre for Green and Smart Energy Systems at Edith Cowan University (ECU). Dr Yasir Arafat is a chemical engineer and Senior Research Associate at the same institution. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.By 2030, around 30,000 tonnes of EV batteries are expected to need disposal or recycling in Australia. By 2040, the figure is projected to be 360,000 tonnes and 1.6 million tonnes by 2050. Is this a problem? Not necessarily. When a battery reaches the end of its life in a vehicle, it's still got plenty of juice. Together, they could power smaller vehicles, houses or, when daisy-chained, even whole towns. For this to work, though, we need better information. How healthy are these batteries? What are they made of? Have they ever been in an accident? At present, answers to these questions are hard to come by. That has to change. Huge potential, challenging reality Old EV batteries have huge potential. But it's not going to be easy to realise this. That's because it's hard to get accurate data on battery performance, how fast it's degrading and the battery's current state of health – how much capacity it has now versus how much it had when new. Unfortunately, vehicle manufacturers often make it difficult to get access to this crucial information. And once a battery pack is removed, we can't get access to its specific data. Gauging the health and reliability of a used EV battery is harder than it should be. This comes with real risks. If a battery has a fault or has been severely degraded, it could catch fire when opened or if used for an unsuitable role. Without data, recyclers are flying blind. Reusing EV batteries will only be economically viable if there's sufficient confidence in estimates of remaining capacity and performance. Without solid data, investors and companies may hesitate to engage in the repurposing market due to the financial risks involved. Extracting minerals from a battery EV batteries are full of critical minerals such as nickel, cobalt, lithium and manganese. Nearly everything in an EV battery can be recycled - up to 95%. Here, too, it's not as easy as it should be. Manufacturers design batteries focusing on performance and safety with recyclability often an afterthought. EV batteries require significant quantities of critical minerals – photo of lithium salt evaporation ponds in Chile Battery packs are often sealed shut for safety, making it difficult to disassemble their thousands of individual cells. Dismantling these type of EV batteries is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming. Some will have to be crushed and the minerals extracted afterwards. EV batteries have widely differing chemistries, such as lithium iron phosphate and nickel manganese cobalt. But this vital information is often not included on the label. Better ways of assessing battery health Used EV batteries fall into three groups based on their state of health: High (80% or more of original capacity): These batteries can be refurbished for reuse in similar applications, such as electric cars, mopeds, bicycles and golf carts. Some can be resized to suit smaller vehicles. Medium (60-80%): These batteries can be repurposed for entirely different applications, such as stationary power storage or uninterruptible power supplies. Low (below 60%): These batteries undergo shredding and refining processes to recover valuable minerals which can be used to make new batteries. Researchers have recently succeeded in estimating the health of used EV batteries even without access to the battery's data. But access to usage and performance data would still give better estimates. What's at stake? An EV battery is a remarkable thing. But they rely on long supply chains and contain critical minerals, and their manufacture can cause pollution and carbon emissions. Ideally, an EV battery would be exhausted before we recycle it. Repurposing these batteries will help reduce how many new batteries are needed. If old batteries are stockpiled or improperly discarded, it leads to fire risk and potential contamination of soil and water. Right now, it's hard for companies and individuals to access each battery's performance data. This means it's much harder and more expensive to assess its health and remaining useful life. As a result, more batteries are being discarded or sent for recycling too early. Recycling EV batteries is a well-defined process. But it's energy-intensive and requires significant chemical treatments. What needs to change? At present, many battery manufacturers are wary of sharing battery performance data, due to concerns over intellectual property and other legal issues. This will have to change if society is to get the fullest use out of these complex energy storage devices. But these changes are unlikely to come from industry. In 2021, California introduced laws requiring manufacturers to give recyclers access to data and battery state of health. Likewise, the European Union will require all EV batteries to come with a digital passport from January 2027, giving access to data on the battery's health, chemistry and records of potentially harmful events such as accidents or charging at extreme temperatures. Australia should follow suit – before we have a mountain of EV batteries and no way to reuse them. Image credit: Roberto Sorin, Newpowa

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Meta’s outlook may allay investor concerns about the digital advertising market.

Beginning May 2, the Pacific Film Archive is screening six films the married couple made together—dramas of rare and intimate intensity including ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ and ‘Opening Night.’

Deep connections DNA links modern pueblo dwellers to Chaco Canyon people People in Picuris Pueblo wanted to know how they got there, contacted researchers. John Timmer – Apr 30, 2025 5:28 pm | 5 A ceremonial structure in Chaco Canyon. Credit: P. Wei A ceremonial structure in Chaco Canyon. Credit: P. Wei Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more A thousand years ago, the people living in Chaco Canyon were building massive structures of intricate masonry and locations as far away as Mexico. Within a century, however, the area would be largely abandoned, with little indication that the same culture was re-established elsewhere. If the people of Chaco Canyon migrated elsewhere, it's unclear where they ended up. Around the same time that construction expanded in Chaco Canyon, far smaller pueblos began appearing in the northern Rio Grande Valley hundreds of kilometers away. These have remained occupied to the present day in New Mexico; although their populations shrank dramatically after European contact, their relationship to the Chaco culture has remained ambiguous. Until now, that is. People from one of these communities, Picuris Pueblo, worked with ancient DNA specialists to show that they are the closest relatives of the Chaco people yet discovered, confirming aspects of the pueblo's oral traditions. A pueblo-driven study The list of authors of the new paper describing this genetic connection includes members of the Pueblo government, including its present governor. That's because the study was initiated by the members of the Pueblo, who worked with archeologists to get in contact with DNA specialists at the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen. In a press conference, members of the Pueblo said they'd been aware of the power of DNA studies via their use in criminal cases and ancestry services. The leaders of Picuris Pueblo felt that it could help them understand their origin and the nature of some of their oral history, which linked them to the wider Pueblo-building peoples. After two years of discussions, the collaboration settled on a plan of research, and the ancient DNA specialists were given access to both ancient skeletons at Picuris Pueblo, as well as samples from present-day residents. These were used to generate complete genome sequences. The first clear result is that there is a strong continuity in the population living at Picuris. The ancient skeletons range from 500 to 700 years old, and thus date back to roughly the time of European contact, with some predating it. They also share strong genetic connections to the people of Chaco Canyon, where DNA has also been obtained from remains. "No other sampled population, ancient or present-day, is more closely related to Ancestral Puebloans from Pueblo Bonito [in Chaco Canyon] than the Picuris individuals are," the paper concludes. There are several things that this does not mean. There is no way to tell from this data whether former residents of Chaco contributed to the population that was present at Picuris 700 years ago. It also does not preclude the possibility that residents of other Pueblos in the northern Rio Grande Valley are equally or even more related. Genomic data from these populations is very sparse, so it's hard to say anything much about how residents of Picuris Pueblo relate to other groups in the region. Coming to the Americas In addition, the data placed the Picuris residents in the context of the peopling of North America. There's a major split between indigenous populations in the northern parts of North America (Athabaskan populations), and everyone south of that, including all of Central and South America, as well as the ancient Clovis, New Mexico, population. The boundary between this split is a bit fuzzy; at least some of the Athabaskans migrated to the US Southwest. The Picuris people are clearly part of the southern group, but also seem to have ancestors from a separate branch of that group who were likely contemporaries of the Clovis population. We have no information whatsoever about any population that corresponds to this genetic lineage. Although the study didn't provide a clear answer to every question biologists might have, it appeared to leave the residents of Picuris Pueblo satisfied, as it helped clarify their oral tradition, which is a bit fragmentary because of the sudden drop in population that followed European contact. And, perhaps as importantly, the Picuris leadership was emphatic that they lead the process, and the work was designed to get them the answers they were most interested in. It's a big contrast to a lot of the past scientific inquiry into the history of indigenous populations, which often involved cavalier seizures of remains and a general dismissal of oral histories. That's starting to change, as researchers are starting to work with native populations to help define the questions that interest them most, and science can address. Hopefully, as more groups see successful collaborations like this one, we'll get a clearer picture of our complicated history. Nature, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08791-9  (About DOIs). John Timmer Senior Science Editor John Timmer Senior Science Editor John is Ars Technica's science editor. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. When physically separated from his keyboard, he tends to seek out a bicycle, or a scenic location for communing with his hiking boots. 5 Comments