By Isaac Schultz Published January 11, 2025 | Comments (0) | The Great Salt Lake in 2024. Photo: Brian Richter, president, Sustainable Waters A worrying study published last month in Environmental Challenges claims that nearly two-thirds of the Great Salt Lakes shrinkage is attributable to human use of river water that otherwise would have replenished the lake. Utahs Great Salt Lake is a relic of a once-vast lake that occupied the same site during the Ice Age. The lakes level has fluctuated since measurements of it began in 1847, but its about 75 miles (120 kilometers) long by 35 miles (56 km) wide with a maximum depth of 33 feet (10 meters). The Great Salt Lakes water levels hit a record low in 2021, which was usurped the following year. According to the recent paper, about 62% of the river water that otherwise would have refilled the lake has instead been used for anthropogenic consumption. The research team found that agricultural use cases were responsible for 71% of those human-driven depletions; furthermore, about 80% of the agricultural water is used for crops to feed just under one million cattle. The research highlights the alarming role of water consumption for feeding livestock in driving the lakes rapid depletion, said William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University and co-author of the paper, in a university release.The lake is no stranger to change; One Utah State University report indicated that the lakes water levels have been in decline since the mid-19th century. As the United States Geological Surveys Utah Water Science Center reports, the lakes bisection by a railroad causeway in 1959 significantly changed the salinity levels in the newly created halves of the lake, and because the water body has no outlet rivers or inflow, its water levels change dramatically due to evaporation or substantial rain.Abnormally large snowmelt inflow during the 1980s and 1990s served to temporarily obscure the long-term decline in lake levels, and the lake actually reached its highest level in more than a century in 1987, Ripple said. But it has been dropping by roughly 4 inches per year on average since then. The researchers proposed a goal of reducing anthropogenic river water consumption in the area by 35% to begin refilling the lake, as well as a detailed breakdown of specific reductions within livestock feed production.We find that the most potent solutions would involve a 61% reduction in alfalfa production along with fallowing of 2655% of grass hay production, the team wrote, resulting in reductions of agricultural revenues of US$97 million per year, or 0.04% of the states GDP. The team added that Utah residents could be compensated for their loss of revenue. Its an easier plan to propose on paper than sell folks on as a reality, but it is a pathway towards recovery for the Great Salt Lake.As the team added, the lake directly supports 9,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in economic productivity, primarily from mining, recreation, and fishing of brine shrimp. Exposed saline lakebeds (as the Great Salt Lakes increasingly are with its decreasing water levels) are also associated with dust that can pose health risks due to its effects on the human respiratory system. For now, the Great Salt Lakes average levels and volume continue to decrease. But the teams research has revealed a specific pain point and suggested ways to reduce the strain on the greatbut diminishingwater body.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By AJ Dellinger Published January 3, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published December 6, 2024 By Lauren Leffer Published July 6, 2022 By Molly Taft Published May 18, 2022 By Angely Mercado Published March 29, 2022 By Germain Lussier Published January 5, 2022

Lundbyskolan / D Office arkitekterSave this picture! Bert LeanderssonEducational ArchitectureTolered, SwedenArchitects: D Office arkitekterAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:15300 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Bert Leandersson Lead Architects: Ann Dalberg, Linnea Ringquist, Jacob Kodeda, Julia Kodeda More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. We have had the honor and trust of designing the new Lundby School on Hisingen for the City of Gothenburg. The school was completed and ready for occupancy in 2024 and is designed for 630 students in grades 7-9, as well as students with intellectual disabilities in compulsory school.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The building also houses a cultural school and a sports hall with associated facilities for the sports and association administration. An important starting point for the design of the school has been to create a safe and welcoming place and an environment to thrive in, both during and after school hours.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!For the exterior design of the building, it was of great importance to connect to the location and the old school (through the use of red brick and traditional material choices.), which has been partially preserved. At the same time, the building's facade was designed to reflect the modern school that it is, a building that meets the demands of contemporary society. The school's facade is characterized by large glass sections that showcase the activities of the surrounding area.Save this picture!The activities on the ground floor thus help illuminate the space to promote safe outdoor environments around the building. The interior design is characterized by natural materials such as slate and wood, combined with a subdued color scheme in dark hues, to contribute to a calm and harmonious environment where students can feel at home. The sports hall consists of an event hall with retractable bleachers for 1,000 spectators and a ceiling height of 10 meters. The hall can be divided into two full-sized halls with a curtain wall, allowing the spaces to be used in the best possible way by both the school and the community organizations.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Tolered, SwedenLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeD Office arkitekterOfficeMaterialWoodMaterials and TagsPublished on January 11, 2025Cite: "Lundbyskolan / D Office arkitekter" 11 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025573/lundbyskolan-d-office-arkitekter&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

A new mega-database of half a million mutations may flag new ways of treating genetic disease, scientists say.

Archaeologists have discovered 321 silver coins still wrapped in a cloth and lead pouch from a time in English history marked by upheaval due to the coronation of a new Anglo-Saxon king.

we photoscanned his VHS camera for the head and then hand painted the rest of the textures, PSX style graphics submitted by /u/BassPro_1996 [link] [comments]

Signal Space Lab's Human Within is undoubtedly one of 2025's more unique VR releases thanks to a well-crafted blend of engaging storytelling devices. Blurring the lines between virtual reality games and interactive fiction, Human Within shifts from choose-your-own-adventure live-action cinematics to more hands-on virtual reality puzzle sequences.

Another mainline Fallout game has long been all but guaranteed. While developer Bethesda hasn't offered much in the way of its plans for the next installment of the hugely popular post-apocalyptic franchise, the discussion and speculation around the fifth Fallout entry has been ongoing ever since the most recent title, Fallout 4, dropped back in 2015. Following that nearly 10-year gap, last year's Amazon TV series put the series back into the spotlight while also introducing its world to a whole new slew of fans.

25 years ago, Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles hit the PS1, a nostalgic gauntlet of action-platforming that contains a treasure trove of relics from an older erasuch as the appearance of Mace Windu's original blue lightsaber. In 2025, Aspyr is bringing Jedi Power Battles back with a bang, rolling out a remaster with everything a fan could want.

For American audiences, at least, the movie musical Better Man is a fairly hard sell. Its an odd-sounding project a music biopic with the leading man replaced by a CG chimp, built around the career of an international superstar and former boy-band member whos never really broken through in the States. Americans dont share the rest of the worlds fascination with pop singer Robbie Williams,in spite of his 14 chart-topping albums, regular presence in U.K. tabloids, and cheeky, viral-friendly music videos. (Note: 107 million views on that video alone, and it isnt even close to his most-viewed hit, Angels.) So the idea of a biopic might not have any instant appeal for U.S. viewers, even with that ape protagonist gimmick adding some intrigue.But while the movie is drawn from Williams life, its still better to think of it as a fantasy feature. Director Michael Gracey previously turned P.T. Barnums career into the rousing, ultra-popular musical movie The Greatest Showman, while glossing over or revising most of the reality of Barnums life and work. While Better Man comes closer to the truth about Williams history, it similarly plays with image and emotion over facts, particularly when it comes to the music. Just as Gracey replaces Williams with an ape for a variety of reasons (more on that in a bit), he fictionalizes and broadens his subjects story. More significantly, though, he tells the story through fantasy sequences so bold, expressive, and visually startling that the effects dominate the movie.Actor Jonno Davies plays Williams throughout the movie for mo-cap purposes, as he grows up as a swaggering, attention-hungry showoff in a tense working-class household. He gets his first shot of national fame as a teenager, when producer Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) picks him for manufactured boy band Take That, which rockets to massive success. (Time later described the fandom around the band as the 90s version of Beatlemania.)The usual behind-the-scenes drama follows: depression, substance abuse, arrogance and alienation, a bottoming-out, a recovery and revival. But the basic beats dont matter as much as the way Gracey depicts them, through bravura sequences where Williams and his cohorts travel through a spinning, mutating fantasy version of Londons Regent Street, or with zombie-like hordes of paparazzi attacking Williams underwater, in a set-piece straight out of Aquamans Trench fight.Better Man is openly constructed more around Williams emotional experience of his life than around a sober reconstruction of its events: Presumably he never actually fought 110,000 versions of himself in a gory, over-the-top battle royale set to Let Me Entertain You. If nothing else, timeline nitpickers may break out in hives over the way music from throughout Williams career is used to represent emotional moments from entirely different parts of his history. But the full-throated fantasy approach lets Gracey escape the usual queasy questions about fidelity to truth in a biopic. When your leading man is an ape operating in a human world, how could anyone miss that the approach is more about image and sensation than about factual precision?That central conceit, of Robbie Williams as a monkey-man among humans, gives Gracey a lot of extra visual appeal, but it also serves as a potent metaphor. He and Williams have given different reasons for the approach: In the film itself, Williams just says hes always seen himself as a little less evolved than other people. In other interviews, Gracey has talked about wanting to distance the audience from reality so theyll better accept the unreality of a musical, or about simply needing a gimmick to avoid making just another samey biopic.And ahead of the movies release, Williams and Gracey released a video clip where they offer a completely different reason: Gracey says he was inspired by Williams griping about being dragged up on stage to perform like a monkey, and he decided to make that idea literal and tangible.But aside from those justifications, presenting Better Mans subject as a literal animal, a different creature from everyone around him, lets Gracey lean on the themes of Williams alienation and sense of separation. Whether the barrier is his bottomless hunger for attention, the way he struggles with drugs and alcohol while his boy-band peers seem physically and emotionally healthier, the way his fame distances him from his family and former friends, or just the way he constantly yearns for approval from a father whos busy chasing his own form of fame, Williams is set apart from the world. Framing the movie around the most self-deprecating, instinct-driven version of his self-image underlines the point in every shot, without the need for exposition.And theres a destructive, animalistic side to the ape image as well. Wt FX, the effects house behind the Planet of the Apes movies, gives Williams an expressive and believable chimp face and a detailed chimp pelt, but keeps his body language and physical form largely human. Still, theres an atavistic danger to Williams angry or fearful moments on the screen, as he beats his chest or bares his fangs. In those moments, he feels far more dangerous to those around him, and far less in control, than any human character.All of that, plus the ambitiously wild musical sequences, leaves Better Man as a spectacle movie worthy of sharing multiplexes and audiences with Wicked. Its seemingly designed more for fans of immersive, Wt-centric fantasy worlds like the Planet of the Apes or Lord of the Rings movies than its aimed at fans of pop music history or even of Williams himself. (Netflix has a four-part documentary on Williams life and career for those looking for a more factually driven approach.) By the end, viewers may be curious to learn more about Williams as a performer and personality, or to dig deeper into his discography.But the Better Man experience is more akin to watching a standout Bollywood musical or a Baz Luhrmann spectacular like Moulin Rouge! than to watching an episode of Behind the Music. Most musicals translate emotion into song. This one takes that a step further, translating emotion into a daring central gimmick. Its experimental and explosive. Even for those with no investment in Williams work or previous knowledge of his career, its worth the watch just to see how Gracey fills the screen with energy and verve, with mesmerizing staging designed to overwhelm the audiences senses and ensure that they walk out singing.Better Man is in theaters now.

This week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced it is scaling back its fact-checking program in favor of "Community Notes" and either strengthening free speech on the platforms (if you ask Mark Zuckerberg) or loosening protections against hate speech (if you're someone who doesn't think it should be OK to suggest being a member of the LGBTQ community is a mental illness). Instagram and Threads will also soon be tossing more political content into your feeds whether you want it or not, a change that is not going over well with some users. Whether you're troubled by these policy changes, or you're just trying to live up to your New Years resolution to stay off Isocial media, there are a few ways to make a break from Meta's offerings. The most obvious is the nuclear option: account deletion. If that sounds too permanent to you, you can also simply deactivate your account, giving you the option to return to it later. Here is what to consider before making the choice, as well as instructions for each option.Before you delete or deactivate your Instagram, download your dataBefore I get into how to deactivate or delete an Instagram, heres some free advice: Download your Instagram data before you do either. You can do this by going to your profile and hitting the three-line menu in the top right (on mobile) or bottom left (on desktop). From there, choose Your activity, scroll all the way to the bottom, and select Download your information. On the next pages, you'll be prompted to select exactly what Meta accounts you want to download from. If you have Facebook or Threads in addition to Instagram, for example, you'll see all of those options. Credit: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham On the next screen, you can choose to download "All available information" (all of your images, comments, etc., but not pictures on other accounts in which you have been tagged), or choose "Some of your information," which will allow you to check off a list of items you want to save. Credit: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham On the next screen, you can choose a date range for your download. (If you want everything, select "All time.") Select "Notify" to choose where you'll receive a download link when your information is ready (you'll have to choose from the addresses previously associated with your account). You can also choose the "Format" for your dataHTML, which will let you view your pictures, posts, etc. offline as they appear on the web version of Instagram; or JSON, which will make it easier to upload the data to a different site.Even if you're just deactivating, it's always good to have a copy of your data, just in case something goes wrong with your accountplus you might want to look back on it while your account is offline (or especially if you delete it). How to deactivate InstagramNow, onto the deactivation. From that same three-line menu you tapped before, choose Accounts Center. Next, youll hit Personal details, then Account ownership and control. Youll see a button for Deactivation or deletion. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson/Meta Depending how many other accounts you have linked under your main one, you may see a few options here, just as you did when downloading your data. I, for instance, see my personal Facebook, one of my anon Instagram accounts, and my primary Instagram account. Select the one you want to deactivate. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson/Meta Deactivating means that your profile will basically disappear from public view. I know people who do this all the time, only to reinstate their accounts when theyre ready to reengage. When you deactivate, everyone who follows you will have their following count go down by one, but no one will be directly notified that you're the one who deactivated. Once deactivated, your account will no longer be searchable. To everyone else, it will be like you dont existbut you'll be able to log back in at any time and reinstate your account, along with all of your previous posts. If you just want a little break from the app or youre not really sure you want to delete it, this is your best option.How to delete your Instagram accountThe steps for deletion are the same as the steps for deactivation. From that same three-line menu you tapped to download your data, choose Accounts Center. Next, youll hit Personal details, then Account ownership and control. Youll see a button for Deactivation or deletion. It looks like this: Credit: Lindsey Ellefson/Meta Only select "Delete account" from this screen if you are sure you want to zero out the whole account forever. Once you've deleted your account, you can't recover it. Your username will be freed up for someone else to use. Your photos, videos, DMs, saved posts, archived posts, and highlights will all be wiped. There's no coming back. Adios. Farewell. Goodbye to all that, and best wishes for improved mental health (or at least more free time) going forward.