The latest Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) report for the month of December has indicated an encouraging 10% increase to a new score of 212.0 after Novembers revised reading of 192.3. Over the month, commercial planning increased by 14.2% while institutional planning improved by 2.5%."Commercial activity rebounded strongly in December, thanks to a re-acceleration in data center and warehouse planning activity," states Sarah Martin, the associate director of forecasting for the Dodge Construction Network. "Overall, the strong performance of the Momentum Index this past year is expected to support nonresidential construction spending throughout 2025."Data center projects once again propelled growth on the commercial side, while strong healthcare and education activity helped support the institutional portion.Decembers DMI was up 19% when compared to year-ago levels. The commercial segment was up 30% from December 2023, while the institutional segment was flat over the same period.T...

Portrait of a Jester looking through his fingers, circa 1548 The Phoebus FoundationWhile the fool is often associated with the Middle Ages, the figures role evolved a great deal in the centuries that followed. Now, an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris is celebrating the complex character, following the fools dance through art history.Titled Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics, the show features eight sections that examine the fool in different contextssuch as In the Beginning: The Fool and God, The Fool and Love, The Fool at Court and Fools in the Cityto teach visitors how the character changed with the times.La Collation, circa 1520 GrandPalaisRmn / Michel UrtadoThe figure of the fool walked off the margins of medieval manuscripts into the unholy courts of the Renaissance, then returned to the page as Hamlets Yorick, writes theWall Street Journals Dominic Green. Later, in the age of reason and democracy, the parodist of royal dignity became a mirror of the universal condition: Dostoevskys holy fool and Picassos grubby clowns; Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.Museumgoers can peruse more than 300 pieces of art from 90 European and American institutions. These items follow the fool across hundreds of years, beginning in the Middle Ages and ending in the 19th century.Such characters appear in architectural adornments, frescoes, tapestries, etchings, ceramics and ivory or carved-wood miniatures, or in chess sets as an alternative to the bishop, writesArtforums Charlotte Kent. Fools came from all social strata. One drawing has them falling from trees; an anonymous Netherlandish oil on panel shows fools hatching from eggs beneath an enormous chicken.Aristotle and Phyllis, Aquamanile, circa 1380 The Metropolitan Museum of ArtLater depictions often portray the fool as someone to relate to rather than someone to mock. As the Louvre explains on the exhibition website, the character became a figure with which artists identified, wondering: What if I were the fool?Many of the fools in the exhibition wear bright, colorful outfits and evoke a sense of levity. But many others dont fit this stereotype, appearing morose or burdened.In Jan Matejkos 1862 depiction ofStaczyk, a famous Polish court jester, the figure sits slumped over in a chair, having just discoveredpresumably indicated by papers on the tablethat the Polish city of Smolensk has been lost (1514) during war with Moscow, per Encyclopedia Britannica. Behind him, the rest of the court enjoys a ball.Staczyk, Jan Matejko, 1862 Varsovie, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie / Piotr LigierThe fool allows for a figurative representation of questions troubling society, Elisabeth Antoine-Knig, one of the exhibitions curators, tellsArtnetsThese days, most of us dont want to be called a fool. Still, the exhibitions curators think modern audiences have a lot to learn from the character. I feel that the figure of the fool, as it existed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, is lacking today, in helping us face the crises we are experiencing, Antoine-Knig adds.Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics is on view at the Louvre in Paris through February 3, 2025.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Exhibitions, Exhibits, France, History, Medieval Ages, Painters, Painting, Renaissance, Sculpture

Though small, the snail darter has played an outsize role in American law, conservation and biology. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters via FlickrSenator Howard Baker of Tennessee described an awful beast in 1979. That beastwhich he also called the bane of my existence, the nemesis of my golden years, the bold perverter of the Endangered Species Actwas none other than the snail darter, a fish no more than 3.5 inches in length. Still, the tiny creature had plagued the politics of Tennessee throughout the decade.Since its discovery in the 1970s and protection under the Endangered Species Act, the snail darter has cast a long shadow over American law, conservation and biology. Against Bakers wishes, a Supreme Court ruling about the endangered status of the little fish upended progress on a controversial dam in Tennessee for years.But now, a new study published last week in Current Biology suggests the snail darter isnt a genetically distinct species at alland that it was therefore never endangered in the first place.There is, technically, no snail darter, Thomas Near, an ichthyologist at Yale University and a senior author of the study, tells Jason Nark of the New York Times.Instead, Near and his co-authors argue, the tiny fish known as Percina tanasi that embodied a David and Goliath battle against the Tellico Dam is an eastern population of the stargazing darternot a distinct or endangered species. The Tellico Dam in Tennessee, where the fish known as the snail darter held up construction for several years. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters via FlickrThe controversy began in 1967, when the Tennessee Valley Authority initiated construction on a dam on the Little Tennessee River, some 20 miles southwest of Knoxville. Environmentalists, local farmers and the Cherokee, whose land and ancestral sites were to be flooded, opposed the project, per the New York Times. They sought a way to halt the dam, and, in 1973, a zoologist at the University of Tennessee named David Etnier found that solution.Etnier was snorkeling with a group of students in Coytee Spring, not far from the dam site, when he discovered a previously unseen fish darting across the riverbed. He called it the snail darter, because of its feeding habits, and it received endangered species protection in 1975.Heres a little fish that might save your farm, Etnier reportedly told a local, according to The Snail Darter and the Damby Zygmunt Plater.Plater, an environmental lawyer, represented the snail darter in front of the Supreme Court after its endangered status went challenged by the TVA. He was initially victorious in protecting the fish: In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that the Endangered Species Act prohibits impoundment of the Little Tennessee River by the Tellico Dam because of the presence of the endangered snail darters.The ruling in Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill gave teeth to the new Endangered Species Act and helped to shape environmental law for decades to come, according to a statement from Yale.But lawmakers like Baker were still eager to see the dam completed and derided the decision as environmental overreach, seeing little reason to delay a major project for a seemingly minor fish. Representative John Duncan Sr., a fellow Tennessee Republican, called the snail darter a worthless, unsightly, minute, inedible minnow, according to the New York Times.The anti-fish brigade ultimately triumphed in 1979, however, by adding a rider that exempted the Tellico Dam from the Endangered Species Act to a spending bill. Jimmy Carter signed the whole bill into law, and the dam opened just a few months later.In the meantime, conservationists scrambled to save the small fish by moving it to other waterways, as David Kindy wrote for Smithsonian magazine in 2021. Their efforts resulted in a resurgence of the snail darter population that led to its removal from the endangered species list in 2022.U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland called its recovery a remarkable conservation milestone that tells a story about how controversy and polarization can evolve into cooperation and a big conservation success, according to the Associated Press.But Nears new study casts this entire history into doubt. A historical range map for the snail darter (Percina tanasi) in the Tennessee River watershed is shown in red, and the stargazing darter's (Percina uranidea) historical range is shown in blue. Ghezelayagh et al., Current Biology, 2024. Photographs courtesy of Uland Thomas and Jon Michael MollishJeffrey Simmons, a co-author of the study and former biologist with the TVA, was wading through the creeks near the Mississippi-Alabama border in 2015, when he thought he saw a snail darter far from where it was known to dwell. This apparent discovery prompted a team of scientists led by Ava Ghezelayagh, then an ecologist at Yale, to undertake anatomical and genetic research of the fish.Our approach combines analyses of the physical characteristics and the genetics, which scientists werent doing in the 1970s, Near says in the statement.Despite its legacy, the snail darter is not a distinct species, the authors of the study conclude.But the disputed fish has not left its controversy behind quite yet.Plater, the lawyer who defended the fish in court, takes issue with the study, calling the researchers lumpers instead of splitters, according to the New York Times. That means they tend toward reducing species with their research rather than expanding them.Whether he intends it or not, lumping is a great way to cut back on the Endangered Species Act, Plater says of Near to the New York Times.Near, for his part, argues that, while were losing the snail darter as a biological conservation icon, our findings demonstrate the capability of genomics, in addition to studying an organisms observable features, to accurately delimit species, he says in the statement. And, in other genetic and anatomical research, his teams have uncovered new species.Were discovering species that are truly imperiled, which helps us better understand where to devote resources to protect biodiversity, he adds.This is still a success story, Simmons says to the New York Times. Its listing under the Endangered Species Act worked, regardless of what you call this fish.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Biology, Congress, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Fish, Law, Water

For several months, archaeologists carried fragments of the shipwreck to the surface. Jose Antonio MoyaArchaeologists have raised a 2,600-year-old shipwreck from the waters near southeastern Spain.Divers initially located the vessel in 1994, according to CBS News Emily Mae Czachor. The 27-foot-long wreck, which had been carrying a load of lead ingots when it sank, was discovered near the town of Mazarrn.Known as the Mazarrn II, the ship was located just six feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean, roughly 200 feet away from a beach called Playa de la Isla. It was covered in sand, which helped keep it hidden for centuries.Comena l'extracci del Mazarrn 2: un projecte pioner d'arqueologia subaqutica, liderat per la UVWatch on More recently, changes along the coastlineincluding coastal construction and shifting sea currentsmade the wreck site more vulnerable.The wreckage can no longer remain where it is because its sand protection is now disappearing, said Carlos de Juan, an archaeologist at the University of Valencia who led the excavation project, in a July 2024 statement. The wreckage has survived for centuries, but now it is time to roll up our sleeves and ensure that we can continue to enjoy this asset of cultural interest.For many years, the wreck had been covered by a protective metal box. But a group of experts who studied the wreck site between 2017 and 2019 found that the metal box was sinking and threatened to crush the shipwreck.In the summer of 2023, archaeologists began to formulate a plan to raise the shipwreck from the seafloor. They spent 560 hours diving at the wreck site to make detailed diagrams of its many cracks and fissures. The wreck will be conserved, protected and eventually reassembled. Jose Antonio MoyaIt is more reasonable to rescue the ship, treat it and exhibit it in a museum for people to enjoy it, rather than worrying every time a big storm arrives, de Juan toldReuters Emma Pinedo in June 2023.Between September and November 2024, a team of 14 divers carefully brought the wooden shipwreck to the surface, piece by piece. Now, those fragments are going to a labat the Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Cartagena for conservation and reconstruction. That work is expected to take at least four years, reportsEl Pas Virginia Vadillo.To preserve the ship, experts will start by removing the salt from each of the pieces, per El Pas. Next, they will apply resins to help fill in some of the places where the wood has rotted away. They will then freeze-dry the pieces before reassembling the ship.Conclou l'extracci del derelicte fenici Mazarrn IIWatch on Archaeologists think the ship belonged to thePhoenicians, a group of maritime traders and merchants who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean coast from around 1500 to 300 B.C.E.Mazarrn II is one of the few Phoenician-era shipwrecks thats still largely intact, and it could offer new insights into Phoenician shipbuilding techniques and culture, the archaeologists say.It will tell us what types of wood were used to build the boat, where it was built, what navigation was like at the time, the degradation processes of the wood, the contamination that may have occurred in shallow waters, saidAgustn Dez, a historian at the University of Valencia who also worked on the project, in the statement.Another shipwreck, called theMazarrn I, was discovered in the same area off the coast of southeastern Spain in 1993. Archaeologists raised it from the water two years later. After many years of conservation work, the ship went on display at the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology in 2005.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Adobe and HKUST researchers unveil TransPixar, a breakthrough AI system that creates transparent visual effects from text prompts.Read More

Atelico's new AI Engine doesn't require "prohibitively expensive cloud solutions"Founders say "we've built something different"Image credit: Studio Atelico News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 8, 2025 Gaming Startup Studio Atelico has announced a new AI Engine to "allow game developers to deliver game experiences powered by GenAI that run on-device without requiring prohibitively expensive cloud solutions."The team said the Atelico AI Engine "significantly reduces costs for developers while also providing full control and flexibility thanks to its modular design."To showcase the engine, the team has built a tech demo called Generative Agents Realtime Playground (GARP) that "runs locally in real-time on a Nvidia RTX 3090 without incurring any additional costs." Its developers say it is "easy to embed in game engines" and is "a tool for harnessing AI to craft expansive worlds that respond to players in ways never thought possible."The revolution is upon us. GenAI is enabling new interactive experiences that have never been possible before," said CEO Piero Molino."However, the current, large-model approach that Cloud AI providers are taking is fundamentally flawed for video games. Game developers currently implementing GenAI in their games are struggling due to the high costs and the lack of fine-grained control needed in video game development."We've built something different - an AI Engine for video games that solves these problems by running on the players device and giving the developer a modular toolset to integrate in Unreal, Unity, and Godot. Our Atelico AI Engine finally makes GenAI possible for every game developer."

Plaion CEO steps down 31 years after co-founding Koch MediaDeputy CEO Phil Rogers will assume leadership News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 8, 2025 Plaion CEO Klemens Kundratitz is stepping down 31 years after he co-founded the company then known as Koch Media.From April 2025, Kundratitz will move into a strategic advisory role for Embracer as he "moves away from day-to-day operations" to "take a step back and spend more time with his family."Deputy CEO Phil Rogers will assume leadership."I'm delighted to be handing over my CEO duties to Phil," Kundratitz said. "I know he will do an outstanding job, as he has the perfect leadership and vision to build out Middle-earth & Friends, continuing Plaion's excellent momentum."It has been an absolute pleasure to build this company, and I am honored and thankful to have worked with our fantastic teams worldwide," he added. "I could not have asked for a more exciting and rewarding role in the entertainment industry and I am proud of what we have achieved together."Phil Rogers said: "Klemens has dedicated so much of his life to Plaion and has built an incredible legacy, a cornerstone of the European entertainment industry. I am excited to begin working closely with Plaions leadership team as we create our new business unit Middle-earth & Friends."Kundratitz and co-founder Franz Koch founded Koch Media as a software distributor in Germany, Austria and the UK in 1994 and is responsible for franchises like Metro, Dead Island, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It now employs over 2000 people in 15 countries after it was acquired by Embracer Group in 2018.

Bluetti has two new flagship energy storage kits for the home and beyondBluetti has two new flagship energy storage kits for the home and beyond / The Apex 300 is a portable DIY solution, while the EnergyPro 6K requires professional installation.By Thomas Ricker, a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. Hes been a tech journalist for almost 20 years. Jan 8, 2025, 8:00 PM UTCShare this storyTwo Apex 300 units with several expansion batteries. Image: BluettiBluetti just took the wraps off its EnergyPro 6K and Apex 300 energy storage systems. The EnergyPro 6K is a fixed whole-home backup solution, while the modular Apex 300 is designed to provide portable power when at home, at an off-grid cabin, at a job site, or during an RV trip. Both systems can scale in capacity and power to support your individual needs.The launch is all part of Bluettis rebranding around three series of power solutions: EnergyPro products that require professional installation, Apex systems for advanced energy demands, and the smaller Elite lineup of portable power stations and solar generators for more casual use.The Apex 300 features 3840W of max AC output and 3072Wh of LFP battery storage. It can be combined with the companys B300K, B300, and B300S batteries, including future expansion batteries yet to be announced. The Apex 300 has an idle power draw of 20W, according to Bluetti, which is pretty efficient for such a large inverter that can simultaneously support both 120V and 240V loads.The Bluetti Apex 300. Image: BluettiMultiple Apex 300 units can be linked in parallel to increase the maximum output to 11.52kW enough to power just about any home device or EV. Storage capacity can be expanded to 58kWh with three units and 18 battery packs to keep an entire home running for a few days in the event of a blackout, or much longer if youre only powering critical devices like the fridge, HVAC systems, and water pumps. It supports up to 30,720W of solar input and is expected to be available in April in the US.Two worry-free owners of a pair of EnergyPro 6K units connected to an AT1 Smart Distribution Box. Image: BluettiBluetti bills the EnergyPro 6K as a reliable, affordable and cost-effective home energy solution ideal for small to medium-sized homes. It can be configured with 5.8kW to 29kW of power output and between 7.68kWh and 38.4kWh of LFP battery storage. Its designed to integrate seamlessly into existing rooftop solar systems. It can be paired with a Bluetti AT1 Smart Distribution Box to provide whole-home backup to critical circuits and automatic cutover to a standby generator when needed. Bluetti is also teasing an EnergyPro 13K system, offering 13.2kW to 39.6kW of output and between 9.6kWh and 57.6kWh of storage capacity.The company says that the EnergyPro 6K is expected to be released in Q2 of 2025.No prices were given as part of todays announcement, but you can expect both systems to start in the low thousands, or even tens of thousands if youre looking at a fully specced installation.Most PopularMost Popular

One of the biggest announcements in Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangs CES keynote was the small Project Digits AI supercomputer, and if you want to get an idea of just how tiny the $3,000 machine is in real life, we snapped a couple photos of the device under glass today at the show.Take a look: weve captured the front of a Digits computer in the photo at the top of this post, and below this paragraph is a photo of the back featuring the computers ports. I really like the textured design. Photo by Sean Hollister / The VergeThe Digits computers will come with Nvidias GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which offers a petaflop of AI computing performance for prototyping, fine-tuning and running large AI models, according to Nvidias press release. It also includes a GPU built with Nvidias Blackwell architecture, 128GB of unified memory, and up to 4TB of NVMe SSD storage.This isnt a computer for most people; Nvidia says that Project Digits is intended to provide AI researchers, data scientists and students worldwide with access to the power of the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform. It definitely isnt something I will ever buy.But it is impressively tiny given its capabilities small computers have been on a tear lately!

TODAY, An hour agoLauren FeinerMark Zuckerberg is in Threads replies defending his content moderation changes.The Meta CEO is pushing back on critics who say the company is only making its content policy changes because its too hard for people to leave. Zuckerberg shot back that hes counting on these changes actually making our platform better, and while some may leave for virtue signaling, most users will enjoy the changes.TODAY, An hour agoLauren FeinerMetas third-party fact checking contracts will reportedly end in March.The ten fact-checking organizations will continue to receive payments until August, and those who havent signed 2025 contracts could get severance, Business Insider reports. Meta told members of the International Fact-Checking Network that their partnerships were ending just 45 minutes before it publicly announced sweeping changes to its content moderation and fact checking policies.Meta fact-checkers called an emergency meeting. We got inside. Here's what happened.[Business Insider]Here are some of the horrible things that you can now say on Instagram and Facebook Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesMeta overhauled its approach to US moderation on Tuesday, ditching fact-checking, announcing a plan to move its trust and safety teams, and perhaps most impactfully, updating its Hateful Conduct policy. As reported by Wired, a lot of text has been updated, added, or removed, but here are some of the changes that jumped out at us.These two sections outlining speech (written or visual) are new additions:Read Article >Meta is leaving its users to wade through hate and disinformation Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty ImageExperts warn that Metas decision toend its third-party fact-checking programcould allow disinformation and hate to fester online and permeate the real world.The company announced today that its phasing out a program launched in 2016 where it partners with independent fact-checkers around the world to identify and review misinformation across its social media platforms. Meta is replacing the program with a crowdsourced approach to content moderation similar to Xs Community Notes.Read Article >Mark, Meta welcome to the party.X CEO Linda Yaccarino commended Mark Zuckerbergs move to ditch third-party fact-checking in favor of a Community Notes-style moderation (inspired by X) onstage at CES. It couldnt be more validating, Yaccarino said. Mark and Meta realized that its the most effective, fastest fact checking, without bias.Mark, Meta welcome to the party, she added.Trump says his threats probably made Meta change its policies.Poor Mark Zuckerberg. Imagine calling the 2024 election a cultural tipping point for prioritizing speech and then the guy who got elected starts bragging about how he threatened you into self-censorship. At least Trump wont throw him in jail?Jan 7Jay PetersZuckerberg says hes moving Meta moderators to Texas because California seems too biased Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty ImagesAs part of Metas sweeping changes to content moderation announced today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the company will also be moving its content moderation teams from California to Texas to help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content, he wrote on Threads.Were going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas, Zuckerberg says in a video about the changes. As we work to promote free expression, I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where theres less concern about the bias of our teams.Read Article >Oversight Board to Meta: hey, remember us?The Meta Oversight Board a semi-independent body that interprets Metas rules and suggests changes has responded to the recent dissolution of the companys third-party fact-checking system. Its statement contains a series of gently worded reminders to Meta that it exists and would very much like to continue existing in the future, pretty please.Oversight Board to Engage with Meta on its Fact-Checking Replacement | Oversight Board[The Oversight Board]Metas fact-checking changes are just what Trumps FCC head asked for Image: Cath Virginia / The VergeI have to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his new policy chief Joel Kaplan on their timing. Its not hugely surprising that, as the pair announced early today, Meta is giving up on professional third-party fact-checking. The operator of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads has been backing off moderation recently, and fact-checking has always been contentious. But its probably smart to do it two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office and nominates a Federal Communications Commission head whos threatened the company over it.Trumps FCC chairman pick (and current FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is a self-identified free speech defender with a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, as part of a flurry of lightly menacing missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter to Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attacking the companies fact-checking programs.Read Article >Jan 7Jess WeatherbedMeta abandons fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram in favor of Community Notes Laura Normand / The VergeFacebook, Instagram, and Threads are ditching third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes program inspired by X, according to an announcement penned by Metas new Trump-friendly policy chief Joel Kaplan. Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas.Weve seen this approach work on X where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see. Meta said. We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what theyre seeing and one thats less prone to bias.Read Article >