Photo credit: Toronto Society of ArchitectsThe Toronto Society of Architects (TSA) is rolling out its popular Gingerbread City showcase for the fifth consecutive year. The TSAs Gingerbread City, which consists of both a virtual and in-person exhibit, invites architects and gingerbread lovers to celebrate architecture and city-building through whimsical and edible creations.CN Tower by The Change Bakers (Photo credit: Gingerbread City 2024)This year, the housing crisis was top of mind as bakers submitted a diverse array of housing solutions from mid-rise cooperative projects of all shapes and sizes, to New York style brownstones and single-family detached homes.There is also a thoughtful reminder of the many Torontonians experiencing homelessness and the importance of building housing for everyone.Ace Hotel by Rob Shostak (Photo credit: Gingerbread City 2024)In addition to housing related submissions, the showcase features some local landmarks including two CN Towers and the recently completed Ace Hotel.Kids Main Street, which is returning as part of this years virtual showcase, is a mixed-used streetscape featuring over 30 faades designed and built by children, ages 2 to 11, and completed during in-person workshops held earlier this month.60 Richmond Co-Op by Jol Len Danis (Photo credit: Gingerbread City 2024)The workshops were an opportunity to learn what makes a vibrant streetscape and have some family fun. The result features everything from a fire station to a costume store, cafes, restaurants, toy stores, and a myriad of ice cream shops.TSA Gingerbread Citys virtual showcase and in-person display opened on December 17, 2024, with an in-person preview happening at The Maker Bean Cafe on December 14.The in-person display will remain available until January 10, 2025, at The Maker Bean Cafe, located at 1052 Bloor Street West, Toronto.To visit the virtual showcase, click here.The post Toronto Society of Architects rolls out fifth annual Gingerbread City appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Marie Antoinette and Her Children is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist lisabeth Vige Le Brun, painted in 1787. It shows Marie Antoinette, the consort of King LouisXVI of France, wearing a red velvet gown with a sable lining. Her younger son, the future LouisXVII, sits on her lap, while her daughter Marie-Thrse leans on her arm. Marie Antoinette's elder son, Louis Joseph, at that time Dauphin of France, is near an empty cradle intended for her younger daughter Sophie, who died before the painting's completion. The work was commissioned by LouisXVI in an effort to improve the public perception of Marie Antoinette, after her reputation was tarnished by the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, by focusing on her role as a queen and a mother; she is depicted with little jewellery. The painting was first shown at the Salon in Paris, to mixed reactions, and is now displayed at the Palace of Versailles.Painting credit: lisabeth Vige Le BrunRecently featured: Papaya20232024 Sundhnkur eruptionsMauritius fodyArchiveMore featured pictures

December 20Russian and U.S. Implementation Force troops1852 Led by George Cathcart, British troops defeated Basuto and Taung forces at the Battle of Berea in present-day Lesotho, leading to an offer of peace from King MoshoeshoeI.1940 The superhero Captain America made his first published appearance in the comic book Captain America Comics#1.1980 NBC aired the American football match between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins without announcers.1995 Mandated by the Dayton Agreement that ended the Bosnian War, the NATO-led Implementation Force (troops pictured) began peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.1999 Portugal transferred the sovereignty over Macau, which it had administered since the mid16th century, to China.Ambroise Par (d.1590)Jean Jannon (d.1658)Bill O'Reilly (b.1905)Elizabeth Kekaaniau (d.1928)More anniversaries: December 19December 20December 21ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Thursday, December 19th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerPhotoshop users can now create filters in Substance 3D Designerhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Adobe has added a new set of Parametric Filters powered by Substance 3D materials in the current beta build of Photoshop, its image editing and digital painting software.As well as applying over 20 readymade image-stylization filters, users can create their own custom filters in Substance 3D Designer and import them into Photoshop.Parametric Filters let you author custom Photoshop filters in Substance 3D DesignerThe current Photoshop beta the experimental build of the software, released in parallel to the stable version features a new Parametric Filters panel with over 20 image-stylization filters.Some replicate the effects of existing filters, including halftone, pixelate and scratch effects, but provide more user controls.However, some are completely new: the video above shows filters adding rain or snow to images, and for making source images look like embroidery.If that sounds reminiscent of the filters recently added to Adobes Substance 3D tools, theres a reason for that: the new filters are built as Substance 3D .sbsar files.That makes it possible to create node graphs in Substance 3D Designer and export them in .sbsar format, to use in Photoshop as custom filters.The same control parameters exposed inside Substance 3D Designer are exposed in Photoshop.As well as providing a new way for designers to create stylized looks for images, the feature has potential applications to texturing and material-authoring workflows for 3D projects.Other features in the current Photoshop betaOther current beta features in Photoshop include the Substance 3D Viewer plugin, for importing and editing 3D models inside the software.There are also new generative AI features, including the Generative Workspace, for generating multiple variant images from a single text prompt, for quickly exploring different looks.Beta users also get the option to use a reference image to guide the output of Generative Fill and Generative Expand, the new AI-based tools added to the software last year.Pricing and system requirementsBeta builds of Photoshop are available free to current subscribers.You can find details of pricing and system requirements in this story on Photoshop 26.2, the current stable version of the software, which was released earlier this week.Read more about the new Substance-powered parametric filters in Photoshop on Adobes blogRead more about the other current beta features in Photoshop on Adobes websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsPhotoshop users can now create filters in Substance 3D DesignerCurrent beta build of the image-editing app lets users create and import custom image-stylization filters as Substance 3D .sbsar files.Thursday, December 19th, 2024Pixar releases RenderMan 26.3Check out the new features in the production renderer, including tiled denoising, and support for the new versions of Maya and Houdini.Thursday, December 19th, 2024Create game characters with CC Auto Setup for 3ds Max and V-Ray[Sponsored] Discover how Reallusion's free plugin streamlines the transfer of characters from Character Creator 4 to 3ds Max.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Leopoly releases Shapelab 2025 and Shapelab LiteCheck out the new features in the sculpting tool for VR and desktop systems, and its new lower-cost edition for Meta Quest 3 headsets.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Adobe releases Photoshop 26.2Check out the changes to font browsing in the latest workflow update to the image editing and digital painting software.Wednesday, December 18th, 2024Check out Blender's experimental anime rendering buildsNew non-photorealistic rendering branch of the open-source 3D app is being developed with input from anime firm DillonGoo Studios.Tuesday, December 17th, 2024More NewsCell Fluids 2.0 for Blender is outUnigine 2.19.1 can now import and export USD filesBoris FX releases Mocha Pro 2025Master Designing Sci-Fi Props for FilmAdobe releases Substance 3D Stager 3.1 in betaNekki releases Cascadeur Mobile 1.2ukasz Czy releases UVPackmaster 3 for MayaBlender add-on ClayPencil turns 2D animation into 3D 'claymation'Foundry releases Nuke 16.0 in betaChaos releases V-Ray 7 for SketchUpThe new V-Ray for Blender is available in betaFoundry releases Katana 8.0Older Posts

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Originally posted on 9 April 2024, and updated with details of RenderMan 26.3.Pixar has released RenderMan 26, the latest major update to its production renderer for visual effects and animation work.RenderMan 26.0 extends RenderMan XPU, the softwares GPU/CPU render engine, adding support for light linking, new light and camera properties, and adaptive sampling.In addition, the AI denoiser can now be used interactively in Blender and Katana, Stylized Looks has been updated, and the software now supports VFX Reference Platform 2023.The integration plugins for Blender, Houdini, Katana and Maya have all also been updated.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/240408_RenderMan26_AdaptiveSampling.mp4Support for adaptive sampling improves performance of RenderMan XPU.RenderMan XPU: support for light linking, more camera properties, and adaptive samplingUnlike Pixars recent major releases, RenderMan 26 doesnt add any entirely new toolsets, but it does extend several of the key features from those releases.The most significant changes are to RenderMan XPU, the hybrid GPU/CPU renderer added in RenderMan 24, which now supports a much wider range of lighting and camera features.That includes all of RenderMans analytic light types, light filters, and shadow and light linking; plus camera shutter controls, and tilt shift, lens aberration, and split diopter properties.You can see a list of the remaining features not supported in XPU here, including mesh lights, the Lama layered material system, and some less standard geometry types.Performance has also been improved, with support for adaptive sampling speeding up renders.In addition, Pixar says that interactivity in scenes with many lights is now significantly better, making XPU better suited to shot layout as well as key lighting.Progressive Pixels, XPUs interactive refinement mode, now supports fractional iterations, making it possible to tune performance still further. https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/240408_RenderMan26_StylizedLooks.mp4Stylized Looks: new Canvas layer, artistic toon mode and more line rendering controlsThe Stylized Looks non-photorealistic rendering toolset, also introduced in RenderMan 24, gets a workflow-focused update, including a new Canvas layer and better organization of AOVs.The Stylized Control system gets a new artistic toon mode which, unlike the existing toon shading, is not physically based, expanding the range of stylization available.The line rendering system gets new color remapping and filtering controls, the latter making it possible to render smoother lines.https://www.cgchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/240408_RenderMan26_Denoising.mp4AI denoiser: support for interactive denoising in Blender and KatanaIn addition, the AI-trained denoiser introduced in RenderMan 25 for RIS, RenderMans CPU-based final-quality render engine, is now available interactively in Blender and Katana.Support for interactive denoising in Maya and Houdini will follow in future releases.Pixar describes the interactive denoiser as capable of removing noise on images with very low average sample counts and as being predictive of the output of the full offline denoiser.Performance improvements, render statistics and pipeline integrationUnder the hood, performance of both RIS and XPU has been improved, particularly when working on scenes with many instances, and when reading in textures, particularly EXR textures.RenderMans statistics system has also been updated, with a new standalone stats portal application for interacting with the data it generates.For pipeline integration, RenderMan 26 now follows the CY2023 spec for VFX Reference Platform, and support for Python 2 has now been deprecated. Pixar also plans to remove its old deep texture format in the next release in favor of DeepEXR.An image from Toy Story 4, used by Pixar on social media to promote RenderMan 26.3.Updated 26 April 2024: Pixar has released RenderMan 26.1.Its primarily a bugfix update, but it adds support for OpenVDB caching in RIS, speeding up renders of volumetric effects where the same VDB grid is used many times.Updated 24 August 2024: Pixar has released RenderMan 26.2.Again, its primarily a bugfix update, but it does include a new advanced configuration for the denoiser, which lets users read and write to/from multiple files and set up custom passes.The denoiser also automatically supports OpenEXR input files with data windows and single channels.OpenEXR exports now include metadata indicating which variant of RenderMan was used to render the image.For Linux users, the update introduces new EL9 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux) builds of the software, alongside the existing RHEL7 builds.Updated 19 December 2024: Pixar has released RenderMan 26.3.Its another bugfix update, but there are workflow improvements to denoising, including the option to denoise images in tiles, reducing memory usage on large images.The update also adds support for the current versions of host DCC applications, including Maya 2025, Katana 8.0 and the latest production build of Houdini 20.5.Price and system requirementsRenderMan 26.3 is available for Windows 10+, RHEL7/EL9 Linux and macOS 12.0+. The plugins are compatible with Blender 3.0+, Houdini 19.5+, Katana 5.0+ and Maya 2022+.RenderMan XPU is supported on Windows and Linux. It requires a NVIDIA Pascal GPU or newer.New node-locked or floating licences cost $595. There is also a free non-commercial edition of RenderMan, which has also been updated to version 26.3.Read a full list of new features in RenderMan 26 in the online release notesRead an overview of the new features in RenderMan 26 on the product websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

It happened on Medium in 2024A roundup of the stories and milestones our readers and staff found most meaningful in 2024Published inThe Medium Blog12 min read3 hours ago--Image created by Jason Combs, featuring images from the stories in this roundup.Showing up. Showing up with your whole self, showing up with your values and beliefs, showing up with what makes you unique, but above all showing up with consistency.That is one of the most highlighted lines across all of Medium in 2024, from tech and politics writer JA Westenberg. Its a story about how, in a world of infinite variables that determine how well you do in life, theres just one thing you can control: showing up.Humans tend to aim for big, flashy, goals think of the classic New Years resolutions like Ill finally get into shape, or Ill write that novel. The problem is that those goals, without consistently showing up, dont amount to much. Your gym membership goes unused and your novel draft stays in the drawer.This year, Mediums biggest resolution was to try to build a better internet. Thats a huge goal. Its daring. Its lofty. And, like every other goal, it would have fizzled into nothingness without being backed up by people willing to show up and do the work.Im not only talking about Medium employees (although the 70-odd of us were dedicated and committed to that!). Its the writers who share their best work with us. Its the readers who leave thoughtful responses, no matter if they agree or disagree with the writer. Its the publication editors who write the clearest, cleanest guidelines to help readers and writers know what to expect from their community. Its the Medium power users who send us detailed feedback on what we can do better.We employees, readers, writers, editors put in the work, consistently, to try to build a better internet. Its a big goal, but were tackling it one ladder rung at a time, together.In this post, youll get a few different looks into what happened on Medium in 2024 that help illustrate how we all showed up to help build a better internet.First, well have a look at the numbers what stories were the most popular, how many responses you left, and other quantitative metrics. But numbers cant tell the whole story, so well also dive into a more vibes-based look. Youll find a collection of notable stories as well as some great new publications that found their home on Medium. Finally, well include a few Medium-specific updates, like features we launched and milestones we achieved.Heads up this is on the longer side, so settle in for a nice, long read. Zulie @ MediumMedium by the numbersLets start at the top with a few headline stats. In 2024, writers and readers on Medium:Started close to 8 million draftsResponded over 11 million timesCreated 11k new publicationsCurated 46k ListsCame to Medium over 100,000,000 times through recommendations in the Daily or Weekly Digest emailsMost read, responded-to, and clapped-for storiesThese were the stories that our readers found most valuable this year, getting the most reads, responses, and claps.My Statement on President Bidens Announcement by Former President Barack ObamaCommon side effects of not drinking by cultural anthropologist Karolina Kozmana50 Completely True Things by Palestinian-American creative mo husseiniThe secret life of people with high self-control (its easier than you think) by user researcher Riikka IivanainenWeve added 77 countries to the Medium Partner Program by Medium Senior Operations Associate Elvina Fan in The Medium Blogthe art of disappearing by writer remi ;How an empty S3 bucket can make your AWS bill explode by Senior Software Engineer at Semantive Maciej PocwierzThis must be the place by writer Jennifer PahlkaThe Dramatic Shift of the 2024 Paris Olympic Pictograms by game designer and programmer Elijah CobbWhy I Put Pronouns on my Email Signature (and LinkedIn profile) and You Should Too by trans non-fiction writer Max Masure (they/them)The Beauty of Trying by writer thekidultwriter10 Seconds That Ended My 20 Year Marriage by former military wife UnbecomingWords and Phrases that Make it Obvious You Used ChatGPT by Business and Analytics Masters candidate Margaret Efron in Learning DataMost highlighted linesWhen I looked at the most highlighted lines across Medium in 2024 those words that most resonated and stood out to our readers they grouped into a few common themes: self-improvement, understanding others, and understanding yourself. Here are the ideas and words our readers found most worth highlighting this year.Self-improvementPeople with high levels of trait self-control are good at avoiding temptation not resisting it. user researcher Riikka Iivanainen in her story, The secret life of people with high self-control (its easier than you think)Theres a fine line between taking on a worthwhile challenge, and taking on unnecessary stress. brand builder John Gorman in his story Stop Wasting Your TimeThe problem with good habits, in other words, is that they sacrifice intentionality for efficiency. engineer and philosophy student Stephan Joppich, in Pragmatic Wisdom, in his story, Goodbye, Atomic HabitsShowing up. Showing up with your whole self, showing up with your values and beliefs, showing up with what makes you unique, but above all showing up with consistency. writer JA Westenberg in Westenberg, in her story, Just Show Up.Understanding othersIf a persons behavior doesnt make sense to you, it is because you are missing a part of their context. Devon Price, social psychologist, in Human Parts, in his story Laziness Does Not Exist. (This story was published in 2018, but continues to find its readers even now, six years later!)The value of research doesnt come from elevating people who are already shouting. It comes from finding the people who are not being heard, and adding their voices to the conversation. problem designer at AWS Pavel Samsonov in UX Collective, in his story Nikes $25B blunder shows us the limits of data-drivenHonesty is direct, whereas dishonesty tends to be indirect. former detective Joshua Mason in Curated Newsletters, in his story, Im an (Actual) Detective: Here are 7 Signs That Someone Is Lying to YouWe throw our children to the wolves by pretending they will not drink or have sex, which means they have to figure it all out for themselves. former newspaper editor Michelle Teheux in Minds Without Borders, in her story, We Could Learn a Lot About Sex From the DutchUnderstanding yourselfWe are the dark secrets we conceal and the mistakes that we make. We are the love left unexpressed and the unnoticed kindness. writer pahal writes in her story, who are you when nobody is watching?Always remember, whatever flows, flows. What goes away, let go. What comes, comes. Whats lost, let go. And what happens, accept. Better things come when you wait for whats truly meant for you. Accepting things is better than forcing them. Never lose yourself trying to fit into someone elses life. lynwrites in her story, if its meant to be, it will beTheres the risk of true vulnerability: uncertainty. True vulnerability requires that you dont know. You dont know how your share will be received; you dont know how others will perceive you for sharing it; you dont know if theres a happy ending yet. executive coach Ally Sprague in Session Notes, in her story, Fake Vulnerability is Keeping You StuckMost shared across the internetWhen you read a great story, its not enough to keep it to yourself. In 2024, these were the stories that made you think that someone else needed to hear these words, too.The Beauty of Trying by writer thekidultwriterHow to *really* know youre in love by writer Kris Gage (another older story that continues to find readers today!)How I Am Using a Lifetime 100% Free Server by full-stack web developer Harendrathe art of disappearing by writer remi ;Life Lessons I Know at 40 (That I Wish I Knew at 20) by New York Times bestseller Mark MansonThe Art of Not Making a Decision by writer EmilieUltimate Python Cheat Sheet: Practical Python For Everyday Tasks by software engineer Jason Roell in StackademicSuicide is About Wanting to Live by mental health writer odawni in Speaking BipolarUnderstanding LLMs from Scratch Using Middle School Math by Data Science Director and GenAI at Meta Rohit Patel in Towards Data ScienceMedium beyond the numbersBeyond specific most lists, I also wanted to highlight a few stories we were especially proud to be home to in 2024. Heres a look at those, including ones from current events and some more timeless stories:When Crowdstrike went down in July, cybersecurity professional and CrowdStrike customer Kevin Beaumont unpacked the market forces that drove the outage.There are too many incredible stories about generative AI to count, but one of my favorites was professor Mary Roses discussion of how she discovered a third of her online college students were actually AI-powered spambots.In a similar vein, award-winning writer and poet Sierra Elman tried to figure out how well AI could write poetry, recruiting AI experts and English professors to weigh in.Successful, talented, 31-year-old screenwriter David Mandell moved back home with his parents and wrote a beautiful essay about how that move helped him stop putting on a show about who he was to himself and the people he loved.Asheville resident and author Doug Brown wrote about how he handled the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Former President Barack Obama shared his annual summer reading and music lists, as well as his statement on President Bidens decision to step down as Democratic nominee.Photographer William Sidnam went to the Paris 2024 Olympics and shared deep, immersive photographs of what was happening in Paris outside the games.When the Supreme Court decided to grant President-elect Donald Trump immunity for official acts, law professor Lessig dived deep to explain that decision in the context of one of the footnotes.Across the pond, the United Kingdom elected the first Labour majority government in over a decade. Retired trade union and pensions campaigner Nigel Stanley analyzed how it happened.Writer and designer Erin Anne spent five months job-hunting and wrote about the 11 things she wished shed known.When President-elect Trump was on trial for charges he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal while serving as president, New Yorker artist Liza Donnelly entertained us with her artistic depictions of the trial.In Baltimore, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being struck by a container ship, causing the deaths of six construction workers. Baltimore resident Ryan Fan wrote a reflection and a tribute to those six men, all immigrants.Jennifer Pahlkas home was broken into by a repeat offender at least, thats one way to see the story. She explores a range of different narratives of the same situation a failure of the police? an indictment of mental health services? crime run wild in Oakland? all of them true.In a beautiful ode to libraries, creative writer Steph Lawson spent 100 days in the library and wrote one hundred Medium stories about her experiences. Heres the first, and heres the last.America enjoyed its first total solar eclipse since 2017. Astronomy science writer Rebecca Jean T. wrote an explainer to everything eclipse enthusiasts needed to know for the big event.The World Wide Web turned 35, and its creator Tim Berners-Lee wrote a retrospective on the origins of the Web, an explanation as to how it had deviated from those original goals, and a call to action to reform and improve it.Smash tournament organizer pidgezero_one read every single one of @drils 10k+ tweets and weighed in on the theory that he sold his accountIn 1989, photographer Tom Zimberoff picked up the phone, called Skywalker Ranch, and asked George Lucas if he could photograph him. Lucas said yes. In 2024, Zimberoff wrote about it.There were so, so many more stories we loved on Medium this year. If you finish this list and are hungry for more amazing stories, take a scroll down our Staff Picks list.New publication spotlightThis year, we became the home of over 11,000 new publications. There are so many standout ones I loved (and check out previous iterations of It Happened on Medium to see a few!). Here are three that resonated particularly with our readers:The Quantastic Journal, a publication about humanity, science, and technology. My personal favorite story: What is a Particle, Really? by Selena RoutleyThe Parenting Portal, a publication about what else? being a parent. One particularly moving story was pedeatrician Aynes Pregnancy Feels Different With GriefIberospherical, a publication that focuses on stories of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking lands and culture. One to recommend: writer Mario Lpez-Goicoecheas My Name, My Home.It happened at MediumMedium is a huge platform filled with literally millions of stories told by thousands of writers and read by hundreds of millions of readers.But Medium is also a company of around 70 folks who work hard to make Medium (and the internet) a better place. Here are some of the highlights were most proud of.Medium milestonesLike the stories on our platform, its possible to break down notable Medium highlights both by numbers and by vibes. Heres the numbers portion first:Opened the Partner Program to 77 new countries means were able to pay writers from those countries for their storiesReached 2.2 million subscribers on The Medium Newsletter its primary writer, Harris Sockel, picked this issue as his favorite: A better way of thinking about attentionPaid 34% more writers than we did last year through our Partner ProgramRemoved 1.8 million users for violating the Medium Rules, including spam, fraud, plagiarism, and more.Became profitable for the first time in our 12-year historyReached one million Medium membersRan our second annual Medium Day 2024Ran our first Pub Crawl 2024Those milestones couldnt have happened without you, our readers, writers, editors, and members.A peek behind the Median curtain:And now the vibes portion. This year at Medium, we celebrated the following:Our two offsites, one in Portland, Oregon, and one in Scotland.New babies born to Medium employees one of which was my own!Bringing home many new pets.Medians published Medium stories about doing photography with old equipment (Eduardo), buying a treadmill (Sophie Aguado), making haste, but slowly (Scott Lamb), the intersection of programming and parenting (Zouhair Mahieddine), how a journalism background taught her how to a great engineering leader (Melissa DePuydt), the performance of corporate cosplay (Amy Widdowson) and many, many more. Just like our writers, we were also proud to get our stories accepted by our favorite publications and even sometimes Boosted!All in all, it was a year of all of us doing our best to show up with consistency, both at our jobs here at Medium and in our personal lives, too.Photos from our year at MediumWhats coming up in 2025?In December, we shipped eleven projects, all of which get us ready for a big 2025:Continuing to fight spam: Youve seen it, weve seen it, and we all want it gone. More than a third of this months projects were dedicated to getting rid of inauthentic accounts, making it harder to sign up unless youre a real person, and identifying and reducing spammy content on Medium.Prioritizing community: reader responses now appear at the bottom of story pages; editors can Feature stories to share them more widely with their publications followers.Focusing on membership: We ran our holiday gift campaign, emailed old members about coming back to Medium, and set up abandoned cart campaigns.All of these projects, big and small, aim to build a better internet and a Medium thats going to be around tomorrow. In December, we worked hard to make Medium the best home for readers, writers, and publication editors as it can be and 2025 will bring more of the same.Happy 2024! And may 2025 bring even more stories you find meaningful.

Its not (always) insomnia, its segmented sleepPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter3 min read7 hours ago-- Its Thursday, and weve got just 3.46% of the year left to go!Issue #232: a muster of peacocks + starting smallI dont get enough sleep. I bet you dont either. The NIH helpfully reminds us that lack of sleep is a problem, causing high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, lack of productivity and an increased likelihood of death. If you tend to jolt awake in the middle of the night (like I often do), thinking about these facts doesnt exactly help you chill out. I was therefore thrilled to learn that there might be something off with the current prescription for seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.As historian Robert Ekirch writes, sleeping for one uninterrupted interval is simply a function of artificial light and the industrial revolution. Before electricity and factories, segmented sleep sleeping in two intervals was all the rage. Benjamin Franklin was a fan: Between first sleep and second sleep he would get naked, throw open the windows and take cold air baths. The French called the period between the two sleeps dorveille, while the English called it the watch. Both terms sound ancient and spooky in a cool way, which made me search for other people who embrace this period of sleeplessness. On Medium, Ron Geraci describes this state as an odd, placid form of being awakemore aware but less alerta ripe sentience that allowed clear but limited thought and wanted stillness.Reading this helped me reframe what I previously defined as insomnia. Now, when I wake up in the middle of the night, instead of stressing out about NIH factoids, I remind myself I might be conscious in a way that is only available to me in that moment. I allow my mind to wander, to think in a way that still feels sort of like a dream. This has paid off: I have an army of Monarch butterflies in my garden because one night I decided the next day I was going to plant milkweed everywhere (just one example of my more recent dream-like decisions).There doesnt seem to be a scientific consensus about whether biphasic sleep is a good thing, but thats okay. For me, the knowledge that there is more than one way of looking at periods of sleeplessness has made the NIHs dire warnings less scary, and makes me want to give a shout out to the true sleep rebels, our beloved night owls. While they dont necessarily have two sleeps, they do find themselves hyper-focused in the middle of the night. A self-described night owl, Stefanie Morejon, writes on Medium that her behavior is perhaps evolutionary, essential for human survival. Somebody, she writes, had to stay awake to keep the fires burning, to protect the community and keep the night creatures at bay. Elsewhere on MediumA watch of nightingales. A muster of peacocks. A murder of crows. These delightfully unexpected collective nouns, or terms of venery, date back to a 1486 book about hunting. Most people dont realize English contains collective nouns for groups of humans, too, e.g. a promise of bartenders and a hastiness of cooks (!). We really need to start coining more of these. A draft of Medium writers? Thats not great. Someone should fix that. If you have ideas, let me know. (Jack Shepherd) Worth rememberingTo tell a good story, start super small. (Katie E. Lawrence)

These 500-Year-Old Cannons May Help Unravel the Mysteries of the Coronado ExpeditionThe 16th-century artifacts were found during excavations in Arizona. Researchers say they may be the oldest firearms ever discovered in the continental United States During asystematic metal detector survey in southern Arizona, Deni Seymour unearthed a 16th-century cannon likely left behind by Spanish conquistadors. Deni SeymourIn 1541, Spanish explorers established a settlement called San Geronimo III in present-day southern Arizona. Led byFrancisco Vzquez de Coronado, the conquistadors were exploring what is now the American Southwest in hopes of finding riches and gold.But not long after setting up San Geronimo III near the Santa Cruz River, the Spanish explorers encountered an Indigenous community known as theSobaipuri Oodham. The two groups engaged in battle, with the Sobaipuri Oodham ultimately prevailing. The Spanish conquistadors fled, leaving behind some of their weapons and belongings as they made a speedy getaway.Now, archaeologists have unearthed two of the defeated groups 16th-century cannons. They may be the oldest firearms ever discovered in the continental United States.Researchers discovered the first cannon in the fall of 2020 during a systematic metal detector survey of the San Geronimo III site, according to a paper published last month in theInternational Journal of Historical Archaeology.They did not find any evidence of gunpowder residue on the 40-pound weapon, which is in pristine condition and made of bronze, the researchers write in the paper. Archaeologists think the battle may have started so quickly that the Spanish conquistadors didnt have time to fire the 3.5-foot-long cannon.This cannon and the battle that occurred around it are significant in that they represent the earliest successful Native American uprising in the continental U.S. since the Spaniards did not come back for 150 years, says study co-authorDeni Seymour, an independent archaeologist who leads the excavations at San Geronimo III, toGizmodos Isaac Schultz.Archaeologists found a second cannon in March 2024, reportsLive Sciences Owen Jarus. Theyre still investigating the find, but they can already see that the cannons barrel was blown off.It was fired in the battle, which is when and why the barrel blew out, Seymour tells Live Science. [The Spanish explorers] probably put too much powder in trying to repel an onslaught of attackers who were overrunning them.The two cannons are also known as hook guns or hackbuts. These were lightweight weapons that were relatively easy to transport on the backs of horses, mules or humans. When used in battle, they were typically placed on large, wooden tripods and probably fired by two men.The cannons likely fired buckshot, a type of ammunition that consisted of 86 small pellets. Researchers likened this style of ammunition to a swarm of hornets, they write in the paper.Even a single pellet, depending on where it hits, can put an aggressor out of action, they write. The cannon weighs roughly 40 pounds and measures 3.5 feet long. Deni SeymourSeymour and her colleagues also found other artifacts at the site, including crossbow bolts, lead bullets, swords, daggers, chain mail and plate armor. They also unearthed European pottery, pieces of olive jars and arowel spur.The discovery of the weapons in Arizona shows that the Spanish conquest, like the English and Dutch ones that came later, were precisely that: conquest and violence first; discovery second,Sharonah Fredrick, a scholar of Hispanic studies at the College of Charleston who was not involved with the project, tells Live Science.With her research in Arizona, Seymour hopes to learn more about Coronados expedition. Coronado had been serving as the governor of a province in Mexicothen calledNew Spainwhen he first learned about the fabledSeven Cities of Cbola. Lured by the promise of vast treasures, he launched an expedition to these mysterious destinations to the north.Coronados crew of 300 Spaniards and more than 1,000 Native Americans headed north in February 1540. They never found the riches theyd been promised, but they did explore present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. In 1542, the group returned to Mexico.Many aspects of the Coronado expedition remain a mystery to historians. But the recent excavations in Arizona may help fill out some of the missing details, says Matthew Schmader, an archaeologist at the University of New Mexico who is not involved with the project, to theWashington Posts Kyle Melnick.That particular area, that portion of the expeditionary route, is really pretty unknown, he adds.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American History, Archaeology, Artifacts, Colonialism, Explorers, History, Indigenous Peoples, Mexico, New Research, Spain, Weapons

A recently excavated mastodon tooth found in a backyard, still embedded in the jaw New York State MuseumWhile mowing the lawn back in September, a homeowner in Orange County, New York, spotted strange objects poking through the plants. At first, the resident thought they were baseballs. But after picking them up, it became clear they were something much rarer: giant fossil teeth.The homeownerwho, according to the Associated Press, wishes to remain anonymousalerted the appropriate experts, leading researchers from the state museum and SUNY Orange to descend upon the backyard and begin an excavation. As they unearthed the remains, they revealed a complete mastodon jaw.The prehistoric finding, which is the first of its kind uncovered in New York in more than 11 years, was announced in a New York State Educational Department statement on Tuesday.Mastodons were large, tusked, elephant-like mammals distantly related to woolly mammoths and modern elephants. Slightly smaller than mammoths, they existed around the world from the early Miocene (2.6 million to 23 million years ago) through the Pleistocene (11,700 to 2.6 million years ago). In North America, however, the enormous mammals likely survived even longer, meaning their presence likelyoverlapped with the arrival of humans on the continent. Like mammoths, mastodons disappeared toward the end of the last ice age, when a series of factors, including climate change and human hunting, drove many large animals to extinction, as Jess Thomson reports for Newsweek. The excavated mastodon teeth New York State Educational DepartmentThis discovery is a testament to the rich paleontological history of New York and the ongoing efforts to understand its past, Robert Feranec, the New York State Museums director of research and collections, says in the statement. This mastodon jaw provides a unique opportunity to study the ecology of this magnificent species, which will enhance our understanding of the Ice Age ecosystems from this region.Fossils are resources that provide remarkable snapshots of the past, allowing us to not only reconstruct ancient ecosystems but also provide us with better context and understanding of the current world around us, he adds.In addition to the well-preserved jaw, the researchers also uncovered a part of a rib and toe bone. They plan on further analyzing the jaw and bone fragments, including through carbon dating, to better understand the animals age, diet and prehistoric habitat, according to the statement. For now, the researchers have identified the remains as belonging to an adult mastodon.The magnitude of the find surprised even the museum experts. Initially I just thought we would kind of poke around and grab the other tooth and pull it out of the ground, and that would be it, Feranec says to ABCs Eyewitness News. But as we poked around that other tooth, it wasnt moving, and we kind of poked around a little more and realized that it was stuck in something. The recently excavated mastodon toe (bottom) compared with a toe from the Temple Hill Mastodon (top), which was previously uncovered in Orange County, New York New York State MuseumIm thrilled that our property has yielded such an important find for the scientific community, the homeowner says in the statement.Orange County is well-known for its mastodon fossilsin fact, about a third of the 150 mastodon fossils unearthed in New York state were discovered in Orange County.This might be due to the fact that retreating Ice Age glaciers left behind a kind of Ice Age lake with biologically rich land that attracted animals to the region, Cory Harris, chair of SUNY Oranges behavioral sciences department, tells the Times Unions Lana Bellamy and Phillip Pantuso. He adds that modern human activities in the area, like land development, also increase the chance of finding fossils.However, even though Orange County has a lot of mastodons relative to the rest of the state and, really, the rest of the country, as Harris tells ABC, that still doesnt mean you find it every day.The recent mastodon discovery will be included in public programming next year, according to the statement, and the researchers hope to continue exploring the area around the fateful Orange County backyard for future excavations.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Bones, Cool Finds, Elephants, Fossils, Mammals, Paleontology, Teeth

Sombrero ground lizards (Pholidoscelis corvinus) are endemic to Sombrero Island, north of Anguilla, which means they're found nowhere else on the planet. Jenny Daltry / Re:wild / Fauna & FloraA cheeky and charismatic lizard found only on a small Caribbean island has bounced back from the brink of extinction, according to a new survey.Biologists are celebrating the recovery of the Sombrero ground lizard (Pholidoscelis corvinus), a critically endangered reptile thats endemic to Sombrero Islandmeaning it cant be found anywhere else on Earth. And, just years ago, the creature had been nearly wiped out from its home.The species population had dwindled to fewer than 100 individuals in 2018. But, thanks to targeted conservation efforts, more than 1,600 of the scaly, black-blue reptiles are now scampering across the arid, limestone island. The nonprofit conservation group Flora & Fauna announced the latest numbers this week, in partnership with the Anguilla National Trust and Re:wild.We were absolutely ecstatic when we analyzed the results of our population surveys and found this enormous increase in their numbers, says Farah Mukhida, the executive director of Anguilla National Trust, to Popular Sciences Laura Baisas. Conservationists are working to rebuild the soil and plant life on Sombrero Island. Flora & FaunaSombrero Island is a rocky, uninhabited outpost located roughly 34 miles northwest of Anguilla. The 94-acre island is situated within the Anegada Passage, a channel between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Its home to the remains of an old lighthouse, as well as a newer lighthouse that was automated in 2001, reports National Park Travelers Jennifer Bain.Despite its diminutive size, the island provides habitat for many creaturesincluding brown boobies, the Sombrero Island bee, a pygmy gecko and the Sombrero Island wind scorpion. Migratory birds stop at the island in the spring and fall, and several species breed there, including sooty terns and laughing gulls. The waters surrounding the island also support coral reefs, sargassum and seaweed; endangered green sea turtles often visit to forage.Starting in the 1800s, however, American and British miners began flocking to Sombrero Island to take advantage of its abundant seabird guano, which can be used as fertilizer. In the process, they introduced invasive mice and ravaged the ecosystem. The island was once covered in trees and even had its own endemic giant tortoise speciesbut it was pillaged to the point of being nothing more than a barren moonscape, wrote the Guardians Patrick Greenfield in 2022.Sombrero Island has been so degraded by human activity that it no longer looks like a hat to approaching sailors, per the Guardian.More recently, devastating hurricanes have further damaged Sombrero Island, and such storms in 2018 ledthe ground lizards population to crash. The whole island was on the verge of ecological collapse, according to a statement from Flora & Fauna.But since 2021, conservation groups have been working to reintroduce native plants and remove the invasive mice. The past three years have seen painstaking restoration activity, Mukhida says in the statement. That type of work is not an easy feat on such a remote and rocky island.Now, their efforts are paying off: The island is considered pest-free and is brimming with green plants like sea bean, seagrape and prickly pear. And as for the Sombrero ground lizards, their numbers have ballooned by 16 times in six years.The island isnt the lush, tree-covered landscape it once wasthat will likely take years. But conservationists are hopeful that within the next decade or so, theyll be able to build the soil back up enough to support trees and bushes, per the Guardian.Conservationists say their work is important not only to protect the islands animals now, but also into the future. Sombrero Island, which has a maximum elevation of 39 feet, is susceptible to new threats with climate change, including sea-level rise, higher temperatures, more intense storms and longer droughtsand so are Sombrero ground lizards.Already there are reports that the island has been completely inundated by storm surges from major hurricanes, and modelling indicates that the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the Caribbean will continue to increase, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Caribbean, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Good News, Hurricanes, Lizards, Plants, Reptiles, Water, wildlife